In that one moment, with that one explosion, my family was gone. My father, mother and my sister, Mayu, whom I've lived with for so many years, lied there lifeless, on the ground. This was the event that came back repeatedly to haunt me in my sleep.

My name is Shinn Asuka. I'm a coordinator who lived in Orb, on Onogoro with my family. We believed in Orb and its ideals. We trusted in the Athha house to protect us, however, we were betrayed. It was CE 71.6.15, war has inevitably reached Orb and Uzumi-sama has called for an emergency evacuation of all citizens after insisting that he could negotiate a way around war. Mayu and I were watching Uzumi-sama's address while my parents were discussing the situation with our neighbour. The next day, a stray missile struck my neighbour's house. The shrapnel tore through my own room and embedded itself in Mayu's door. The explosion also killed my best friend, who lived in that very house. A second missile struck the building across the street. A childhood friend lived on the first floor when the building came crashing down. It was as if my friends were being taken away from me, one by one.

After hearing about the death of my friends, my parents finally decided that it was no longer safe for us to live in Orb. We ran for the port to board the evacuation ship, using the mountain path. My father thought it would be safer to get as far away from military buildings as possible, and I thought so too. By our poor luck, a battle erupted in the skies directly above us. Mobile suits were exploding left and right, the smell of singed air made me sick. Despite this, we kept on running, never stopping for a second. Tripping and falling, we finally clambered over the peak of the hill and could see the evacuation ship. That was when Mayu dropped her cellphone. Being the little kid she was, she could not bear to lose the present I bought for her for her last birthday. The phone did not land far away so I hurriedly went to retrieve it. As I bent down to pick it up, a scorchingly hot explosion knocked me down from behind. I could not feel the pain because a cold feeling went through my body. I stared transfixed on the scene before me.

My family was dead.

My mother's body was burnt to black. My father's back was snapped by impacting on a boulder. My sister's body was torn apart. I couldn't move or breathe, kneeling there, rooted to the spot. I just couldn't accept it. They couldn't have died, we were so close, so close to the ship. The truth began to sink in. My sadness and shock was replaced by rage. A white mobile suit with blue wings hovered above me, its guns still glowing from firing. Before I knew it, I was being helped up by a naval officer, saying something I could not understand. The image of my family's bodies was etched into my mind.

I wanted to leave Orb forever.