Mobile Suit Gundam: Blood is freedoms stain

Chapter 2

Side 3, Lagrange 2

Mahal Colony

UC 0078.12.18

The peaceful city basks in sunlight reflected by the huge solar panels outside the colony wall. People here have no notion of seasons for the weather is controlled by huge generators located in the central pillar of the colony. A gentle breeze flows through the streets, creating a beautiful summery day. The terrace of the local cafe is half full with customers, mostly civilains but also few soldiers. A street musician entertains the patrons with his accordeon, playing and walking between the tables. The soldiers sit relaxed, some with rolled up sleeves enjoying their beer, others trying their chances with the ladies. Their CO sits besides them and applauds the musical talent of the accordeonist, his hair neatly combed backwards with brilliantine and a honor cross-medal around the collar of his vest. It is a good day to be a soldier for Zeon, everybody adores them and are idolized as the liberators of Side 3.

A two man patrol walks past heading towards the nearby market, weapons slung on their shoulder and in full gear including the unique Zeon helmet. Both salute the commander on the terrace before continuing.

Further is a little movie theatre, people enter and leave the building as one show just ended. Above the entrance hangs a publicity board for the latest movie called 'The Eternal Earthnoid'. A film produced by the Zeonic Ministry of Propaganda. But of course in a world dominated with constant anti-Federation feelings, no one cares about truth or lies. Besides dissidents are quickly arrested by Gihren Zabi's secret police and await a fate in one of the stalags or worse.

A couple with their child stand in front of the entrance. The soldier and his girlfriend argue to one another, their nine year old daughter looks to them expressionless.

"Come on Mina, what's wrong with this movie?" the 2ndLt asks "Afraid to see the truth?"

"Stop it! this is the only leave you got and you want to go see this? I thought we'd spend it on something more pleasant." Mina was trying to evade the need to express her views on current politics.

"You always make a fuss when I want to go to something like this."

"I don't like how the way you follow the Zeon, it's great to have ideals but now you're almost a zealot."

The honor of the soldier was hurt " How come you say that, all I want is a colony safe for our child" He puts his hand on Ivy's little head and gently strokes it. "Free from the tyranny of the Earth Federation"

She pulls her child away from his hand.

"…No Ken, you're going to far in all this, ever since they came up with the idea of spacenoid supremacy, you started to change. You come from Side 6, you'll never be a real Zeon, just a volunteer for the Cause. And I come from Earth and it is a beautiful place, it should be cherished not wiped of the face of the galaxy."

"It is a honest and peaceful cause that will make us all live free in space, you sound just like the hypocrit feddies" Ken Layzner was getting angry.

"Really? Your books, or should I say propaganda, speak a different tone" Mina remarks back.

"Which books you mean?"

" 'Our Struggle' or one of your more scientific books 'Survival of the Selected theory'. They almost propose a final solution for Earthnoids." She emotionaly whispers, her throat unable to swallow.

Ken didn't know what to say "You've really read those books?"

He had to smile on the idea of her studying scriptures she obviously detestes.

"We must take control, the people of Earth think they can boss us around here in our homecolonies? They will respect our authority as independant nations, willingy or by force."

Mina, now severely shaken up, continues to show him the error of the Zeon ways: "Violence never solves anything, if you try the political and democratic course…"

"Democracy is the downfall of Man!"

Ken yells crestfallen;

"The Federation is a necropolis filled with shadows afraid of change, only a war will bring forth a new era. An era belonging to us SPACENOÏDS!"

Violently shaking his fist in the air, passer-by's try to avoid the scene.

"Stop it, you're talking like a madman, the Zabi's are powerhungry parasites corrupting our world and you follow them like a stray dog.

"You Feddie whore…"

Spoken like a true Zeek fascist.

Before even realising, he had blurted it out. The two seconds of silence after it seemed like an eternity, out which he was awokened by her hand hitting his cheak.

Coming back to his sences, he sees her standing in front of him in tears.

"You monster…"

Then she runs off, little Ivy tightly wrapped in her arms. Ken stays behind, still numb from what just happened. A red handprint on his left cheak.

Mina, I'm sorry.

Side 1 shoal zone

UC 0079.12.24

2ndLt Layzner snaps out of his daydream and focuses back on the controls of his Zaku-II. Why did I have to think about her now? More than a year ago today, that means little Ivy's 10… He flips some switches, checks his readouts and continues to fly closely along the side of the Komusai.

I'm an idiot.

"Proximity alert, incoming bogeys on our six!" yells the pilot over the comm.

The shuttle has better scanners than a Zaku-II or the GMs, buying some time for the little Zeon force to prepare.

Small flickers of light in the distance come closer towards them, revealing themselves as beamrifle shots. Barely missing the ship, David turns his

Zaku-II around and scans the point of origin.

"Holy crap, here they come!" he shouts.

Ken Layzner tries to calm him down "Relax Dave, that's just indirect fire. They couldn't hit a colony from that distance…"

The words hadn't been spoken yet as a new volley of beams travelled towards them at unbelievable speed. Geff's Rick-Dom takes a hit in the left shoulder, disabling it.

"You were saying Sir?" Geff quickly as well sarcastically comments over the radio.

"Pilot, scan the area more thoroughly! Who's behind us?" Layzner tries to order.

'Minovsky particle density is too dense' the pilot answers, as usual.

"Whatever it is, it's big. Can it be…"

"OK, we can't outrun them in the debris, hide the shuttle between big chunks of rubble. Geff, you're already damaged, stay with them and and play dead." The 2ndLt starts to set up a plan.

"Good, me and Dave will lure them away and hopefully destroy them, now act like you got a purpose guys."

The Rick-Dom flies of towards colony ruines and signals the shuttle a good spot to hide. Once the shuttle landed, Gef shut off his mobile suit in front of the hole, playing dead among the many dead colonists.

While the two Zaku's turn around and engage the enemy. Slowly their foe starts to gain shape in the cold dark void of space.

A Salamis cruiser Ken thought to himself, we're in it deep now.

"Dave, how many flares you got?"

"I got two, why?" David asks, because using them would mean the end of the element of surprise.

"Look they already know we're here, so we need everything to distract them from our shuttle. Once the flare has been shot, close in on the Salamis immediately. That way their cannons are useless and we can use the ship as a shield from enemy MS"

A last test of their systems, a last check on their radar. Maybe even a last prayer until the cruiser is in range.

Slowly the Zaku's move from their cover and float towards the enemy. Now is not the best time to use radio transmissions, so they use the red visors of their MS to send morse signals to one another.

'READY?'

'YES SIR'

'LAUNCH FLARE'

The flare lights up everything in the area, startling the bridgecrew of the cruiser into making a sharp turn to starboard. And that's the time to engage, the cannons of the Salamis turned away and no visible MS. Both fly at their maximum speed towards the side of the ship.

Ken Layzner unsheates his heat hawk and fires it up, giving the blade its warm yellow color. He turns to Dave's MS:

'DESTROY TURRETS, I TAKE BRIDGE'

Dave makes a nod with his Zaku-II to confirm. And slowly flies off towards the first reachable cannon. Layzner pilots his MS upwards and appears in front of the windows of the bridge. A gigantic Zaku-II head visible to the Federates with a glowing axe behind it ready to strike. In the following second Ken sees them on his monitor, some frozen in awe and others trying to flee towards the doors. Their captain sits still in his chair, throwing insults and threats towards the Zeek in front of him. But that matters not for the heat hawk is plowed in so deep death is unavoidable. The tower of the Salamis explodes, catapulting the Zaku-II well back into space.

Whew, didn't think that one through, rubbing his backhead which was hurt in that bumpy ride. Still woozy Layzner tries to get his bearings back and takes a look at the Salamis on his screens, the ship aimlessly floats amidst the debris only to become part of it. His proximity alarm goes off.

"Sir watch out!"

Dave thrusts his Zaku to the max and pushes his commander's MS out of the way for the incoming barrage of beams.

"More of them!" roars the 2ndLt surprised.

Out of the shadows come the EFSF reinforcements, a squadron of RGM-79G GM Commands backed up by another Salamis cruiser. The Zaku-IIs have no other option than to fly evasive manoeuvres. Zig-zaging between the rubble fighting off the GMs.

David's pretty outmatched, fighting only with the long range 180mm Dopp Cannon, the heavy kickback of the shots don't make it any easier. As he soon finds himself wrestling with one of the GM Commands. The feddie beamsabre cutting the left side of the Zaku's abdomen. Unable to reach for his heat hawk, he tries for one desperate move.

The small cannisterlauncher is filled with one last signal flare, with a clean trajectory towards the feddie suit. Better than nothing…

A bright white explosion of light erupts when the flare hits the main visor in the head of the GM. Quickly loosening it's grip and trying to flee blind.

Ken flies past aiming his 90mm machinegun and a rattling of the weapon ends the life of the helpless MS.

"Dammit, they got Willy!"

One of the enemy transmissions is heared on the radio.

"You'll pay for that, Zeek bastards!"

The leading GM charges towards Layzner, firing his machinegun wildly without aiming. Ken can easily evade the stray bullets and outflank the enemy MS, throwing a splintergrenade in it's rear. The small explosions thrust it further away, lightly damaged.

Somewhere else Dave's trying to lay down covering fire with his Dopp Cannon. The big but slow charges are only able to hit the Salamis while the other remaining GM Commands dance around the incoming shots. Ken leaves his target to assist his comrade in fending of the cruiser.

"Sir don't you find this odd? The Salamis isn't even concerned about us, looks more if it's searching for something else."

Dave asks on observing the behaviour of the ship.

"It can't be…" Ken Layzner thinks to himself, Have they discovered the shuttle?

He turns round with his Zaku, only to spot the GM from before signaling the Salamis.

"Omega 5 has located the target"

The enemy broadcasts the message without even bothering to encode it.

"Capture the ship and crew, His Exellency wants them alive!"

Dammit, Layzner is furious, yelling in rage over all the comm-channels

"You won't break my oath to Lord Dozle Zabi!"

Locked on to the GM and ready to charge he sees a small plume of smoke heading towards his target erupting in a ball of fire. Cheering is heared on the radio followed by Geff's triumphant voice.

"Already on it chief"

In the distance the shuttle blasts off replotting it's course to Granada. From behind the remains of the colony comes Geff's Rick-Dom, following the Komusai on its six. The Salamis on the other side of this little battlefield prepares its cannons for a long range volley.

"Federate troops clear the area, the ship is about to fire"

They're gonna blow it out of the sky! Ken's confused.

The feddie captain isn't going to follow orders and gives the command. Six big yellow beams head straight towards the fleeing shuttle. Barely dodging the wave, 2ndLt Layzners Zaku-II hits a firm chunk of colony hull yelling INCOMING…

But far too late for the shuttlepilot to evade.

"Lieutena…" is the final word of Geff, his Rick-Dom explodes. Ricocheting the remaining beams away from the Komusai and scorching the upper plating of the ship. The panic inflicted under the Zeon troops give enough time for the remaining GMs to swarm around Dave's MS and take him out.

"Damn it! Regroup and retreat" orders Ken after the unfortunate loss of Geff.

"Dave? … DAVE!"

Complete silence on the comm channels.

"Feddie scum!"

Layzner goes berserk, flying in the open and unloading the full potential of his Zaku-IIs missile pods on to the Salamis. Engine damage and two destroyed turrets are the result.

The rattling of the 90mm machinegun doesn't stop, hunting down the federate GMs. The feddies close in on the lone Zaku, one of them right behind him. The proximity alert inside Ken's cockpit warn him of this and quickly turns round and buries his heat hawk deep into the GM Command.

Sadly enough he has to turn his back towards the two other feddies, who don't pass up such a golden opportunity. One of them flashes by cutting of the Zaku-IIs right hand, which carries the 90mm. The weapon still firing because the giant robitic hand is cramped on the trigger from the blow.

The other GM firmly grabs the Zaku, disabling Layzner's MS to move.

Inside the cockpit, Ken sits amazed. Why haven't they killed me yet?

The noises of the feddies are well hearable, trying to override the doorlock.

"Fat chance, you bastards! You won't capture me alive."

Going for his gun on his right upper leg, only to find an empty holster.

Crap, must have lost it at Solomon when space gate 6 was destroyed.

Last thing he remembers, is a federate pilot entering his cockpit, seeing his own reflection in the glass of the helmet. A green horseshoe marked on it. Must have been the Green Omega, ace pilot of New Antwerp…

Layzner thought to himself before being knocked out by a mean right hook.

"War's over for you, Zeek sonnuva…"

Far from there the Komusai gets out of the shoal zone of Side 1, not too long before it's picked up by the 7th Fleet. On route to assist the Zeon forces at Solomon, but way too late for it has fallen. The fleet under command of M'quve then turns back to Granada, to plan the last offensive.

Axis

UC 0087.10.12

By decree of Lady Mineva Zabi, heiress to the Zabi dynasty,

All members of the 527th MS Team 'Shadow Angels' are posthumously awarded the Neo Zeon Knights Cross. They shall join the ranks of the Knight Cross Bearers.

Ensign Dave Hawkë, KIA, receives the Neo Zeon Knights Cross

and the Honor Cross 2nd Class

Ensign Geff Eleck,KIA, receives the Neo Zeon Knights Cross

and the Neo Zeon Star of Sacrifice

1st Lt Ken Layzner, MIA, receives the Neo Zeon Knights Cross with

Oaken Foliage

and Neo Zeon Crest of the Realm

For their loyalty, bravery and sacrifice.

For going above and beyond the call of duty.

For defending the Zabi bloodline and the existence of Neo Zeon.

For that, I and as well the entire Neo Zeon Nation are forever in your debt.

Sieg Neo Zeon.