Prelude by the Author:
Heya! My name's Duo, Duo Maxwell. I may run and hide, but I never tell a lie. Most of you probably have no clue who I am – that's ok.
See, a few years ago, I took part in a war – one that shook Earth to the very core.
But, that wasn't for a while. It's not like I was bred specifically for doing war.
Anyway, it really began for me in the year 195 AC.
er...
Crap – I guess I should probably explain the current time style, eh?
Essentially, around the year 2099 AD, the governments of Earth decided that the population of the Earth was growing out of control – and that space colonization was the best bet for Humanity's future. In short, the year 2100 AD became year 1 of the AC, or After Colony, era.
Basically, humanity began to build cities – or colonies – miles across in space.
Around 50 AC, the Earth's fossil fuels went bone dry. The Middle East, the only area to avoid the colony construction was now broke. With 3 colonies half done, and several others being planned, all of Earth was now in on the space colony plan.
In the year 102 AC, the first colony was finished. Soon after, the governments of earth congealed into one nation – the United Earth Sphere Alliance. Meanwhile, the colony construction continued with no interference.
After about 30 years, the colonies that were completed wanted to become their own nation, electing a man named Heero Yuy to be their representative to the UESA.
Unfortunately, in 175 AC, Heero Yuy was gunned down while trying to attend a peace conference. Just about every colonist was pissed off. That guy was loved by many – and a lot were convinced that there was some sort of shadow organization within the UESA that sent out the assassin.
Me? Oh, I wasn't born till 180 AC. But there's still something I need to get to before I start telling you my life story. And it's this: The Mobile Suit.
Did I lose you?
Don't worry. That can happen. Remember Voltron? The Power Rangers? Those Transformer dudes? Well, the robots in those shows are a lot like Mobile Suits – human-shaped, as well as big. Only they don't split into different parts or turn into cars or planes...
...usually...
The UESA came up with this weapon of war – a 17-meter high human-shaped robot, with space for the pilot to drive the thing inside a cockpit in the torso. The first model, a big green, faceless one, was known as the Leo – but looked nothing like the lion in the zodiac that inspired it.
On with the remainder of the exposition, though. Don't worry. We're almost done.
In 180 AC, I was born... and soon dumped onto the steps of the local orphanage. Sucks, doesn't it? At about the same time, somewhere on Earth, a small country known as the Cinq Kingdom separated itself from the government, declaring itself not only neutral, but advocating 'total pacifism.' No weapons or an army of any sort.
Needless to say, when the UESA got fed up with the Cinq Kingdom and it's leader, King Peacecraft, there wasn't much fighting to be done. If I remember my history correctly, the fighting took less than a week – but more time than it took Germany to conquer France in World War II back in the AD era. This also ticked a lot of people off, both on Earth and in space.
Anyway, thanks for reading this – I wouldn't have included it, if not for my editor saying that we needed this. You can go on ahead and read the next chapter.
You know, the reason you bought this book – to read about me, Duo Maxwell.