Chapter 11

U.C. 0094.1.21 0659 EOST

Arango-class Freighter 6, Space around L1, Earth Sphere

The ancient coffee machine made a low groaning sound as it's insides kicked into gear, slowly dripping instant coffee down into a plain white coffee thermos. Clark Theaton, Seaman in the Neo Zeon Space Attack Force(or whatever they were calling it these days), stifled yet another yawn behind with his left hand.

Then he heard the blessed sound of the coffee machine turning off, and his tired mind prodded him to sip the black soup of life. Clark unhooked the sealed mug and sucked a sip from the plastic straw, blindly grabbing the other mug with his left hand and then pushing himself up towards the bridge. He blearily nodded to other crew members he passed, the poor saps who had the night shift. He climbed up three levels until he slid through the entrance to the bridge. By then Clark was fully awake, the wonderful caffeine having kickstarted him into life.

"Yo Michael." He greeted his fellow navigator.

"Clark, good to see that you finally woke up." Michael said, never taking his eyes off his monitor as he tapped away at it. Clark rolled his eyes, morning people were always the worst to work with.

"Heads up." Clark said, gliding the extra mug of coffee he has made in Michael's direction before grabbing the handlebar of his own chair and sliding into it. Say what you wanted to about these old hulks, the lack of modern emminities, the rations, the fact that you had to punch just about everything a few times to get it to work properly, they had excellent chairs.

"Much appreciated." Michael mumbled around his straw.

"No problem." Clark said casually, finishing booting up his computer. "Updates?"

"We separated from the mainstream of commercial traffic out of Granada that was heading to Side 1 around midnight and are enroute to the objective. The captain ordered that we switch to military grade scanners and start mapping the zones out." Michael informed him, never slowing down in his task. Clark reckoned that was why Michael had once been scouted by some of the solar exploration companies back in the day, he was an excellent multi tasker.

"Guess I'm on mapping?" Clark guessed, setting his almost empty mug in a cup holder.

"You guessed it." Michael confirmed. "We're in zone Theta-2, heading into Theta-4. Last shift already mapped the current zone."

Clark grunted in confirmation as he accessed the relevant programs and started putting them through their paces. Minutes slipped by as the pair of navigators worked in silence, the hum of the ship and the workings of the pilot below them the only sounds.

Eventually Clark asked a question. "So what are we looking for that's all the way out here? This is basically the heart of the Federation's Space Force."

A voice from below piped up. "You kidding me Theaton? This place, the heart of Federation power? If you believe that I got a colony to sell you."

"How was he wrong Zaprowski?" Michael asked the ship's pilot.

"Well I suppose you guys wouldn't know, being Axis boys and what not, but this shoal zone was the base of operations for the fleet that performed the second colony drop on Earth. You know? The Delaz Fleet." The brown haired pilot told them as he deftly steered the ship deeper into the heart of the Loum Shoal Zone. It had been somewhat reduced over the years but was still composed the majority of the L4 point. Travel here was slow moving, and there was the occasional risk of pirate attacks. Due to those factors, most ships, be they merchant or travel liners, preferred to go first to Zahn then over to Loum if they had business there.

"Once all was said and done, the Federation basically never moved back here to make sure whatever bolt hole Delaz was established in was destroyed." Zaprowski stated. "At least that is what the rumor always been."

Clark and Michael were silent for a beat as they took in what they had been told.

"Well that's just great, we're out here chasing ghosts and rumors." Clark griped, tossing his arms up faux dramatically. "And we could've been assigned to Aesop or whatever Freighter Five got assigned to."

"Eh don't be such a downer Theaton." Zaprowski maintained an upbeat tone. "The ships on Aesop are crammed full of all the people they can possibly fit. Can't even stretch without bumping into someone. Us and Freighter Five got lighter crews and, if we find nothing, we'll be back at port sooner than them. Allowing us to enjoy the comforts of Palau."

Zaprowski made some good points, Clark accepted.

"We honestly have the better job." Michael interjected, looking over at Clark. "I heard before we were heading out that Freighter Five was pulling babysitting duty. Some VIPs are bunkered down in Zahn and the boss wants them brought back into the fold."

Clark remembered that Michael was of the Unionist persuasion. Unionists being the ones in the various Neo Zeon factions that advocated for the formation of a Third Neo Zeon movement after the failure of the Axis faction that both Clark and Michael had been part of. Apparently the name came from one of the old Principality political parties that had been around before the One Year War.

"Guess standing around doing nothing while you talked with the vippies would get boring." Clark said, giving his opinion to the other two.

"Better to be doing something rather than nothing." Zaprwoski agreed. "Okay then, we're heading towards that cluster of colonies. The ones that look mostly intact. Blücher get to work on that and be on the lookout for any colony that has something smaller inside it. Intel gave something like that the most likely way Delaz's base evaded discovery by the Feddie hunter squadrons sent after him."

Clark closed the wider map of Theta-4 and enlarged the section directly in front of the ship for a detailed mapping of debris that lay in their way. Clark guessed that even if they didn't find a semi-mythical base out here in the shoal zone, then the compiled scans and maps of their journey through the shoal zone could be useful if Neo Zeon ever launched offensive operations against Zahn. Plus a route through the shoal zone would allow their ships to bypass the Federation controlled Solomon or Konpei Island, whatever those earthnoids decided to call it.

The route probably won't be used against Loum, he thought, there wasn't really anything of military worth in the decimated Side.

Although Clark never thought he would be mapping out a shoal zone, so Loum had all the chance in the world of being a military target.

U.C. 0094.1.25.

Modified Columbus-cargo hauler Garen, Space between L4 and L3, Earth Sphere.

"..it is good to hear that your initial inroads to your old comrades in Riah have been successful Pepe, but we will have to discuss any plans regarding Riah's midterm elections until after both of us return to Palau. On a different topic, I have gifted to you, for the purposes of training, five mobile suits of the Gaza series. I know that these suits are in no way modern combat machines but the underlying controls and hardware present in these suits will allow the pilots of the Riah Restoration Movement(have you settled on an official name yet?) to have a solid foundation in mobile suit piloting. I suspect that Anaheim will be willing to open a line of credit to the RRM after my return from Axis, so there is that to look forward to.

-Your Friend, Full Frontal."

Sent.

I finished my latest correspondence with Governor Pepe and sent it away through the secure channel the two of us shared. Pepe had left to get back in touch with some of his old military friends over in Riah a day before the Garen had departed to Axis. From the two previous messages he had sent me, there was at least some crowd in Riah that were in line with our message of general spacenoid self-determination and independence; and some kind of organization was getting off the ground thanks to Pepe's trip.

On a more immediate benefit to me, his trip and consequential success in meeting his contacts gave me the perfect chance to hand off a number of mobile suits that had become outdated and useless to the Sleeves. Namely the five Gaza suits that had been stationed on one of the Musai Kais, along with the perfect opportunity to slag those fucking pink Dra-C monstrosities, after stripping them of anything that was remotely valuable of course. The freed up pilots had been going through retraining on Geara Doga simulators to get familiarized with modern Zeon controls.

Of course the pilots hadn't been thrilled to lose their machines, and neither had the captains of the Musai Kais they had been stationed on, but I had appeased them with promises of shiny new Geara Dogas straight off the assembly lines. It was a bit of a shame I'd had to depart Palau as soon as I did, the techs were making some interesting rumblings about fitting a psychoframe to the Bawoo we had come into possession of.

Ring! Ring! The phone on my desk chortled. I accepted the call.

"Report."

"This is the bridge sir. Axis has just entered visual sight. You wanted to be informed as soon as that happened."

I leaned back in my chair, idly brushing a blond lock of hair off my brow. "I did indeed. Inform the captain I will be up shortly."

The call ended with a click coming over the speaker. Since I was already fully dressed, I did a somersault, zero gravity was so neat, over the top of my desk, reaching out and closing my computer as I did so. Since I was currently holed up in the Garen's captain quarters, it was a short trip to the bridge indeed. Once I arrived, I wasted no time and got straight down to business.

"Have we made contact with the advance ships?"

"No sir." The current captain saluted me as I entered his view.

"Then follow procedures until they do." I replied, returning his salute.

I directed my attention out the window and into the black void that stretched endlessly in front of me, and I could just about make out the hulking asteroid of Axis in front of us. Although I could probably see it better than anyone on the bridge thanks to my enhanced eyesight. It was startling to look at, like it was the prow of a wooden sailing ship that had been separated from its body and left to sail forward into the abyss. Whatever Londo Bell had used to break the asteroid up during their attempt to halt its descent had left ugly and grotesque rents that shot up and away from the main break. To the left of the shattered asteroid was the distant, although it certainly didn't look distant, planet of Earth.

"How close are we to the Federation patrol routes around Earth?" I asked the captain. I didn't think he actually had the rank but if you were in charge of a ship then you were called captain.

"Far enough that any Feddie ships out here would have to be in this area for a purpose, according to my navigators." The captain said. "No chance we'd stumble into any ships of the Earth Defense Fleet by accident."

I observed the brown rock for a couple seconds before making my next call.

"Then we proceed by plan. Send out a hail over the encrypted comms." I said looking at the communications crewman.

"Should we launch our mobile suits as an advance screen sir?" The captain leaned towards me and said in a low tone.

"No need captain, I have every confidence in the advance team's abilities. Maintain current speed and heading. That is all." I said coolly. This would be child's play to Zinnerman, I hope.

A few minutes later, my trust was proven correct.

"Encrypted message received from Axis: 'All Clear to begin docking procedures.' Then coordinates to head towards."

"Make it so captain." I told him. "And prepare a shuttle for me, I'll be going on ahead of you."

"Yes sir. I'll have a mobile suit escort awaiting your departure."

I wanted to tell him that an escort would be unnecessary but resisted the impulse. I'd had to leave my own Geara Doga back at Palau and I figured that it was one thing to let your leader go off in his own multi-ton war machine and another thing to let him head out in nothing but a rinky dink shuttle.

I changed into a normal suit as the shuttle departed, idly taking notice of the two Gelgoogs that took up flanking positions besides the shuttle. I had selected two of the Musai Kais as the Garen's escorts and divided the Gelgoogs between them, one of the Musai Kais having been the berth of the recently departed Dra-Cs.

I'd done my best to man Aesop with those who had been from Axis originally but their numbers had suffered from the end of the First Neo Zeon war and as such not everyone in Aesop had such knowledge. My shuttle pilot being one of them. So no shortcuts or deviations from the transmitted route unfortunately.

The shuttle clunked against metal as it made its landing. The pilot turned to address me.

"We've docked on a side dock above the main berth the Garen is designated to land in sir." He informed me.

"Thanks for the ride." I said jovially. "Rejoin with the Garen once it's completed its docking procedures and return to your normal duties."

"Sir." Was the parting remark I got as I left into void of space, protected by my normal suit. Silence engulfed me as the atmosphere there had been on the shuttle faded away to the nothingness of space. I chuckled to myself inside my helmet, it always felt like I was coming home when I did a space walk. I noticed three soldiers standing near a doorway and used my jetpack to fly over to them. My boots clunked against the metal as I landed, then had to take a few steadying steps to bleed off my momentum.

I motioned at the doors and the guards, probably a greeting party, got the message and pulled a red lever to the right of the door into the 'open' position. Surprisingly nobody in the Universal Century had implemented walkie talkies into their helmets, or perhaps that was common stuff and the good old Neo Zeon 'hodgepodge of tech from every type of manufacturer imaginable' was coming into play again.

I was ushered into the small chamber with the three soldiers, the door being closed behind by pulling another red lever, that I deduced to be connected to the lever on the other side of the wall, sealing us inside.

A harsh red light lit up the dark chamber, and a white 'Pressurization In Process' sign started flashing above our heads. Beyond looking up at it when the sign started flashing, the soldiers accompanying me didn't react. I decided to follow their example, only having a faint idea of what was going on.

It took a while, there was no clock in the chamber, but the red light switched to a bright green and a second sign, 'Pressurization Complete', lit up. The door that had been closed in front of us swung open, the old fashioned bulkhead wheel spinning as it was operated from the other side. I realized with a start that it might actually be a real bulkhead door. I mean, Axis was basically one big ship. It'd make sense.

The soldiers tramped through the door with me following their lead. Another soldier, the one who had opened the bulkhead, stepped past us once we had cleared the chamber to pull the door shut and reseal it. The three soldiers had already unsealed their normal suits. When I caught on, I quickly did the same with my own normal suit, which was just my pilot suit.

The lead soldier looked a little sheepish as he turned to look at me.

"Sorry about the condition of this place sir, but I can assure that it's all airtight." He must have thought I had doubts about this place's structural integrity. I mean I did.

"It is fine soldier." I waved him off. "I'm just not used to taking my helmet off in such places. Instinct, you know?"

"Yes sir." The soldier nodded. "We had to spend a whole day and night cycle fixing up the holes in this one area before it would hold atmo again and forget trying to get the rest of this place to hold air. And even then we had to plug one of the ships in to maintain the levels."

"You've done a fine job then." I praised them. "I assume Captain Zinnerman and Lieutenant Commander Banham are close by?"

"They are at the forward command post sir. We'll show you the way."

The forward command post, as the name implied, was the closest room to the end of our little pocket of air. It wasn't a big room, maybe a work office during the days when Axis had been filled with life. But it served its new purpose well.

"Zinnerman, Banham." I greeted my subordinates with a smile. "You've done well in the short amount of time you've been here."

We exchanged a bit of pleasantries before settling down to business.

"Brief me on what you've discovered so far." I looked at Zinnerman, eager to get to work. I'd felt a buzzing in me, it had started when I was walking to this room. I was eager to see the mighty Axis, the asteroid that brought the Federation to its knees, even if I would only see the faintest shadows of its glory and might.

A deeper part of me, the part blocked in by mental walls and watchers, hummed in a 'it's good to be home again' way. Char had spent years in Axis. Though a bittersweet feeling it was. He had loved, raged, and lived inside this rock. A part of him, whatever bits had latched onto me, remembered what Axis had once meant to him.

Zinnerman spread out a map on a slightly warped metal table. The map was a series of grey lines and squares with circles and x's done in black ink dotting its surface.

"Since we arrived in Axis we've spent the majority of our time getting this location serviceable. The dock we're currently in was the only one that met the criteria of being able to berth the Garen and our other ships and it took a lot of work to get it that way." His gruff voice aptly emphasizing the unsaid message. Our plans to extract docks from the outside of Axis were shot.

"I take it that removing this dock from Axis is impossible?" I at least had to ask.

"From what I was told by the eggheads, the strain would cause a chain of structural failures in the internal components of the dock and we'd end up hauling two large pieces of metal instead of a dock." Zinnerman said.

Banham interjected then. "But we've only inspected the docks on the upper half of Axis, not the lower half." He pointed out a couple circles on the bottom half of Axis and it's lower spire. "There are a couple dockyards that we should be able to extract from the rock if we did some digging, and this one right here-" A circled square was tapped. "-leads straight to Shipyard 8. If the connecting channels from the dock to the shipyard are intact-"

"Then it is likely the shipyard remained intact and operational." I finished for him. "Are there any foundries or factories attached to Shipyard 8?"

Zinnerman grabbed a notepad and flipped through it. "There should be, or at least there should be rail lines that lead to a foundry or factory."

"Then direct a team to inspect that area as soon as possible." I said, drumming my fingers on the table. "What do you know about the area we are in?"

"It wasn't a military only port, so cargo ships going to and from Moussa used it according to the transit records. However this means that it had one of the most direct routes to Axis City where a third of the population lived." Banham explained, Zinnerman falling quiet.

"What's below Axis City?" I asked, remembering flashes of three mobile suits fighting in the dead city.

"A series of mobile suit hangers if I remember correctly. Possibly repair departments." Banham mused, staring at the map.

I stifled a smirk. Oh there were more than just half repaired mobile suits down there.

"I'll take the lead on that then. Finally, what progress have we made on the vaults?" I asked Zinnerman the big question.

He grimaced in response. "We know that a good deal of them are intact but haven't been able to even find an intact route down to the core of Axis that isn't filled with sharp metal and rock."

The vaults were the whole reason we had come back to Axis, they must be secured no matter the cost.

"We need the vaults." I emphasized. "If there are no constructed paths left, then we improvise. What about using the giant hole to get to the core?"

The room fell silent as they thought about it.

"It could be possible." Banham admitted. "But we'd need to get the techs opinion on it and find a viable path that could fit shuttles or mobile suits that isn't a tight fit."

"It just needs to be a path to get into the corridors that connect the vaults." I waved away the concern. "I don't care if you end up needing to send men spelunking with ropes around their waists to find a way in, if that's what it takes, do it."

"Failure here means the death of a free Neo Zeon. We'd become dependent on the goodwill of Anaheim and end up serving only their goals." I emphasized.

"How long will this place be viable?" I referred to the whole breathable air thing.

"I was told four days, give or take a couple hours." Zinnerman grumbled. "The Garancieres air scrubbers aren't meant to handle this many people, she's pushed to her limit already."

I nodded in response, still looking at the map and drumming my fingers on the table. "The Garen has additional air scrubbers and filters onboard, those will alleviate the strain on the Garancieres. But there is a limited amount. Let's say that gives us a week, ballpark estimate."

I stood straight. "Well I don't know about you gentlemen but that sounds like plenty to accomplish our mission to me."

Examining the two men closer, I could see that they were in need of a hot meal and a good cup of coffee. Luckily, I happened to have that in spades.

"The Garen will have docked by now. I'll handle the shift changes. Go get yourselves some food, it won't be restaurant cooking but it should be better than what you've been eating." I told the two. "Report back here when you're done."

"Yes sir." Banham responded, standing taller.

"Right." said Zinnerman, scratching at his beard.

As the two trundled out of the room, I studied the map closer. So I was off to explore the ruins of what was essentially a necropolis with a small band of men, in search of the largest treasure trove of wealth ever known to mankind eh?

What a shame I hadn't brought along a sable felt fedora. And what a shame you couldn't wear hats either under a normal suit or on top of one. I'd always wanted to go on an Idiana Jones style adventure as a kid. Although we were closer to conquistadors, seeking wealth to enrich ourselves, than archeologists seeking to learn knowledge about the past. Maybe I'd be closer to Cortez than Professor Jones.

Then it's El Dorado or bust.