When Akira woke up he knew something big had happened. He didn't know how long he had been out, but it must have been a long time. He groaned in pain, his forehead bleeding. He crawled out of the remains of his mobile suit. He was pissed off. That thing survived the Odessa wars, only to be destroyed in one measly battle against a single platoon of GMs. He looked around astounded. The entire area was a charred plain. The lush jungle that had once been was no more. His husk of a mobile suit had only been able to save him because of one reason. It had been damaged before, and where the gaping hole that had been ripped into the back of the suit a huge sheet of lead gundanium armor had been placed over the hole, about the size of a jet pack. He was glad that he had decided to give the verniers up. That one small decision had determined his fate. It was immensely hot, The humidity making hallucinations in his head. He couldn't think right. Right away he knew that he had to get out of there.
The Burning rays of the sun beat down on him, his uniform ripped and tattered. The radiation left by the bomb was interfering with his brain functions. This was no ordinary nuclear bomb. It was an APR. Anti Personnel Radiation. It was bad. After the initial explosion, the survivors were wiped out with the surrounding radiation. The only fault to the APR was that if the person was to survive to be rescued, it could all be reversed by a use of a certain chemical. And certainly some counseling. They had all been prepared for a situation like this, and he finally understood why they had drilled it so far into his head. He went back into his destroyed Zaku 1 and grabbed a bag that he had stowed under the seat. It held some of the chemical, as well as some food and other medical tools. He had a long walk ahead of him.
Kasumi felt more tired than she had ever felt in her life. This was worse than she had ever felt in the morning after getting drunk the night before. She could barely think. She stumbled as she walked over the rubble of her GM. She began to see specks in her peripheral vision and they slowly turned to blackness. She couldn't walk any longer and decided to sit down. As she sat on the ground she passed out and fell into a mild coma.
Akira was dehydrated. He knew that he needed to find shelter, but he couldn't think of where to go. He decided slowly to enter the city and walked to the area of where his bar used to be. The building had been pretty much leveled, except for the safe where all the liquor and money was held. It had survived the blast. Too bad the door had already been damaged by what few people were still living in the city. He glanced at his watch only to find that it wasn't working. The watch had a built in transponder which told him and his superiors his vital signs and location. He swore as he realized that he was now as good as dead. Not knowing what to do he left some of his possessions in the safe and then walked out to check out the rest of the town. He knew that there should have still been a small amount of the army base still intact, because of the high level of security and the bomb shelter that was present. He sat down on a nearby piece of concrete and tried to think. It came to him that there might still be some mobile suits in a hangar of some sort in the base. He walked over to the barbed wire fence and began climbing over it.
The captain of the federation troops was still alive. Clutching his arm, he walked from GM to GM trying to find supplies and maybe survivors. He had survived a situation like this before, but he didn't know whether he had the guts to do it again. He eventually found his way over to Kasumis' GM, but could not see her. He began to believe that she had been incinerated by the explosion. He found, upon further inspection, the extra supplies were missing and suddenly he felt that he could need to search for her body, at the least.
His mind flashed back to the moment he had promised to take care of Kasumi. She had been chosen for a special unit of soldier who would be taught to use any suit possible and have many other abilities and other solutions to survive. She had not wanted to join, but since this was the military there was no choice in the matter. They were to simply do what they were told. He had promised her that no matter what he would take care of her, and if he failed to do that, at least take her remains back to her family. Her father and mother did not know where she was. They thought that she had died in an auto accident at the age of six. It would have been the least that he could have done for them. The flashback ended, and he came back into reality. He had to find that girl.
Akira walked through the halls of the seemingly deserted military base. He just couldn't find the hangar. This place was like a maze. There were no signs or maps to tell you where you were or where you wanted to go. He walked down yet another hallway and turned left. To his surprise he was met with the barrel of a sawed off shotgun. His eyes opened wide as he saw who was at the end of it.