As soon as his Zaku's cockpit screen indicated he had a connection to the Falmel through the Minovsky interference, Char all but slammed the button to open the intercom. By now the adrenaline has worn off and he was angry. – "Dren, start charging the mega beam cannons!" – he barked.
"Sir, what happened? Where are the others?"
"Dead." – Char replied bluntly. He knew he sounded cold, but he also knew that he simply didn't have time to reflect on losing men. Besides, he honestly lost count how many men and women were killed under his command during his tenure at various factions, so it wasn't like three more mattered at this point.
And thinking of it would've only made him angrier. It all looked like a prime opportunity: get in there in force, tear the Federation garrison apart, score the most powerful mobile suits constructed up until this point in the war. In one move, kick the Federation in the teeth by denying them the Gundam's combat data and denying them Amuro's eventual skill and experience, while at the same time handing Zeon tools to enhance their own mobile suit development program and stalemate the war for a while longer, bleeding the Federation for a month more or even longer.
And then his entire force got their teeth kicked in by a single Gundam. And not even defeated in detail, but in a single engagement! History was repeating itself despite his preparations to the contrary. Did the universe itself enjoy mocking him?
Whether it did, it didn't matter. Because Char Aznable was done playing it safe.
"But... three Zakus? And you took that much damage yourself? What did the Federation have in there, an entire battalion?"
"No. But the ship we followed here is the only one they have; if we sink it, none of the Federation's prototypes are going anywhere until after we get reinforcements."
"Oh, I see! But we don't know where the ship is docked."
"Doesn't matter." – Char replied. If only he hadn't gotten greedy with trying to claim the prototypes and took the time to find the berth the White Base was docked in, he could've just ordered the gunners to keep shooting at that spot until every single bulkhead between them and the ship was melted into slag, followed by the ship. Without that, he was forced to be a bit more... indiscriminate. – "Target the dock in a sweeping pattern and fire! Turn the entire place into dust, if you have to."
"What about missiles, sir?"
"Don't bother. They're probably too deep inside." – And besides, they could be useful if the White Base decided to try and make a break for it.
"Understood. We'll open the hangar for you in a moment."
"Negative, just get the guns firing." – On an afterthought, he added – "And tell the crews to take the ASR out of storage."'As the saying goes, if I can't have you...'
Inside the colony, it was chaos.
Between the columns of smoke rising from the burning wrecks of destroyed Federation vehicles, civilians stampeded towards the spaceport for safety, even as whatever military personnel survived the attack were too busy tending to their own wounded to actually provide said safety. Or even to keep them out of restricted areas, for that matter. Even the sheer noise level of the agitated crowd, with people yelling at each other to hurry up and children crying in fear, couldn't drown out the screams of those whose injuries were more severe.
And for good reason: the line between "severely injured" and "in pieces randomly lying about" was thin indeed when mobile suit weapons used against people on foot were concerned. Most of those who were not dead yet when the last Zaku fell were dead by now – and those who weren't most certainly wished they were, be it because of burning oil charring one's face down to the bone, entrails spilled onto the mud by flying shrapnel or limbs being reduced into carbonized stumps by a nearby explosion. Whatever the reason, the result was enough to make most people swiftly lose the contents of their stomach, as several civilians unlucky enough to catch sight of the victims found out the hard way.
Such was war.
"Get those casualties to the ship!" – barked a Federation officer with a captain's rank insignia on his collar as he walked into the chaos. – "Any corpsmen report to the ship immediately! I don't care what the garrison commander says!"
Pausing to look over the turmoil, he singled out a group of engineers and headed straight towards them, the burly Hispanic soldier next to him handing over a radio.
"Bright, any change?"
"No, sir." – came the response. – "The sentries just called in, no movement from the Musai. It's just sitting there."
"Let me know if that changes. And call down to the infirmary to prepare for casualties."
"Yes, sir."
Paolo Cassius sighed as he handed back the radio. He knew this was going to happen as soon as the sensor crews reported that damn Musai trailing them. Still, he hoped it would wait until at least they were out of the colony before jumping them, faint as that hope might be. After all, Zeon certainly did not hesitate at breaking out the big guns around civilians, as he found out himself the hard way at Loum when the Salamis he's been commanding for several years by that point (and was likely going to be his last posting before retirement, if it weren't for the war) was caught on the fringe of a nuclear detonation.
Spacewalking to the re-entry shuttle through the radiation due to the cruiser's hull having been crumpled inwards like tissue paper, blocking off the corridors to the shuttle airlock, were the most nerve-wracking minutes of his life up until that point. If he would've lived a century ago, he definitely would've been sent into retirement with nothing but a Purple Heart at most – but fortunately for him, the advent of widespread space colonization necessitated the development of medical advancements for treating extended exposure to cosmic radiation and solar flares before most people were willing to live in space on a permanent basis.
Not that he would prefer having to go through acute radiation sickness treatment anywhere within the next eternity or so, but it got him back on his feet. Only for him to get into yet another crisis, it would seem.
And if the urgency the figure he recognized as Lieutenant Ray was hurrying towards him with was of any indication, the crisis wasn't anywhere near over yet.
"Report." – he ordered as soon as the engineer stopped before him, bending over from the exertion of sprinting in a bulky normal suit. Colony gravity or no colony gravity, they weren't exactly designed for athletic activities.
"Sir, the Gundam...!" – Tem gasped for breath, fumbling to steady his glasses before they fell through his helmet's open faceplate. – "It fought off the Zakus, I've seen it!"
"Slow down, lieutenant. What about the cargo we're here for?" – As much as he was responsible for safely transporting the cargo in question to Jaburo, Cassius was only actually briefed on the nature of the cargo. Technical data was not part of his briefing for the simple reason that he didn't need to handle the prototypes, hence he didn't need to know and could just let the engineers take care.
At least, that's what the brass told him before sending him off.
Glasses stabilized, Tem finally stood up. – "Sir. Most of the engineering crew has been killed, Some of the prototypes are still intact, but we're yet to do a full inventory."
"Inventory can wait." – Cassius waved him off. – "Start loading everything you can onto the White Base; we'll sort it out later. The sooner we launch, the better."
"Yes, sir."
"Now, what was that you were trying to say just now?"
"Sir. That Gunda- err, one of the prototypes, engaged the Zakus. I've seen it."
That was unexpected, but it explained why there were two Zakus lying motionlessly nearby. Or why, as Cassius only noticed right now, there was a mobile suit with EFSF markings standing between the columns of smoke, likely on watch against further attacks.
"Who was it?"
"I-I don't know, sir. I only saw it when it was already in combat."
Cassius hummed to himself before he saw Tem bend down and snatch up a variable-power flashlight that rolled away from the scattered contents of the toolbox of an overturned jeep nearby. Turning it up to maximum power, the engineer pointed it at the mobile suit and began pulsing it in a rhythmic pattern Cassius recognized as the international navigation light signal for "begin approach". A few seconds later, the suit's head turned towards him and the machine began marching towards the group, visibly avoiding anyone on the ground.
"The visual processing software of the cockpit display automatically recognizes light signals and alerts the pilot, even if he's not looking that way." – Tem explained as he lowered the flashlight.
A short distance away, the mobile suit carefully lowered itself to one knee and braced against the ground before the cockpit hatch swung open. As the lone figure begun descending on a cable, Cassius immediately noticed the distinct lack of a normal suit or even a uniform. If anything, the pilot was dressed as if they were on shore leave when the attack came – but considering that the White Base arrived before the Musai and with a warning that they were tailed, the garrison commander should've had ample time to recall all personnel to full readiness.
In fact, as the pilot's feet touched the ground and Cassius squinted with his eyes, they looked rather short.
Once the pilot was out of the machine's shadow, however, Cassius realized that no, his eyes were not playing tricks with him. The pilot was short alright, for the apparent reason that he wasn't even into adulthood yet. And the lack of uniform made it plain that the boy who appeared to be in his mid-teens was very much a civilian. Who just came out of a top secret military weapon prototype he had absolutely no business being inside of.
Cassius was distinctly feeling the beginnings of a headache forming. As if the Musai outside wasn't enough, now he had to deal with civilians poking their noses into classified materials as well. He heard a choking sound from Tem's direction but as he opened his mouth to ask the boy just what he was doing inside the prototype, he paused.
Calm. Focus. Steel. Confidence.
Those eyes weren't those of a civilian who just got out of trouble with the skin of their teeth. Nor those of a cocky teen who just pulled off something incredibly dangerous and thought they were hot shit. Nor those of an anarchist who spitefully stuck their nose where it didn't belong, purely for sticking it to the Man. If it weren't for the fact that he was an underage civilian, Cassius could've sworn the boy's eyes were those of a battle-hardened soldier. A soldier for whom two mobile suits, state-of-the-art military hardware capable of punching far above their own weight class, didn't rate high enough on the threat scale to give a damn about.
And it wasn't just the eyes. Cassius couldn't describe what it was, but the boy somehow had this... presence. He didn't look anything out of the ordinary, nor did he hold himself in an obvious way, yet there was... something.
He only shook himself out of it when the teen stopped before the adults and snapped off a perfect and impeccable military salute. – "Amuro Ray, returning the Gundam and submitting myself to disciplinary action, sir!"
By now, Cassius finally found his voice. – "What disciplinary action?"
"I took the Gundam without permission, sir."
"Why?" – Not that it really mattered. Theft of military equipment in times of war was a serious offense, even if he not only admitted it, but turned himself in.
"I have friends living here, sir, and the Zakus didn't care what they were aiming at."
Needless to say, Cassius was not convinced in the least. – "You expect me to believe that a kid like you took out two Zakus on his own?"
If the teen was offended by being called a kid to his face, he didn't show it. – "Three, sir. The third one is back over there." – He pointed a thumb behind him, towards a collapsed building. – "I got that one first."
Cassius sighed. – "You do realize this story sounds a bit too fantastic to be true, don't you?"
"Yes, sir." – came the steady reply. – "The cockpit's data recorder will confirm it."
That was quite the bold claim, Cassius decided. And now that he took a moment to think about it, what did this kid say was his name again?
Before he could've asked that, however, Tem beat him to the punch with sufficient volume to make him flinch. – "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?! DO YOU THINK THIS IS SOME KIND OF GAME?!"
"No, I don't." – came the blunt reply that seemed to confirm a degree of familiarity between those two to Cassius.
"You had no business even being in the Gundam!"
"If I wouldn't have done it, how many more people would've died?"
"You KILLED two people!"
"Three. I stabbed all three through the cockpit with the beam saber, so I know for a fact that they're dead."
"How did you even know how to use the beam saber?!" – In response, the teen merely held up what appeared to be a folder with what Cassius recognized was the insignia for Project V. – "Where did you get that?!"
"It was in the cockpit."
Yep, Cassius was definitely going to have a headache in the near future. As if the Zeon attack and a civilian fighting them off with one of the prototypes wasn't enough, apparently someone violated pretty much every regulation in the book regarding information security by leaving the goddamn instruction manual in the cockpit where any wannabe hijacker would find it.
On the other hand... a civilian being the one to find it is still preferable to the enemy finding it. And said civilian immediately turning it over to them afterwards was pretty much the best possible outcome for the situation, which was one weight off of Cassius' shoulders. He did not want to make an already horrible day even worse with a summary execution of a civilian. Much less one whom one of his subordinates was apparently personally acquainted with. It still did not excuse the fact that the boy now knew things he wasn't supposed to, but at least it gave Cassius something to work with.
Unless, of course, he was a Zeon agent. Which would explain how he knew how to pilot a mobile suit – but then again, he did apparently kill three enemy pilots, which would get him shot for treason if he ever returned. Unless he was authorized to commit friendly fire in order to maintain his cover – but then again, Tem apparently knew him.
Which is why Cassius turned to Tem and interrupted his next tirade with – "Do you know him, lieutenant?"
"Y-yes, sir. He's my son."
That... was unexpected. And not entirely in an unwelcome way: it pretty much eliminated the possibility of the boy being a Zeon agent unless Tem was a plant himself, in which case the entire project was already compromised far too deeply for an infosec violation to matter. And also explained the sudden tails-between-legs guilty attitude Tem assumed as soon as he was addressed by a superior officer: it was a family matter. Still, Cassius decided to ask for a background check on both of them as soon as they reached Luna II, just in case.
"You understand that we'll have to take him into custody."
Tem looked ready to protest for a moment, but finally relented. – "Yes, sir."
"I'm sorry about this, but we can't let him go. He knows too much."
"I'll cooperate, sir." – the teen stated without a hint of alarm. Either he had an excellent poker face... or he truly felt like he didn't have anything to be afraid of.
"Good." – Cassius turned back to Tem. – "Lieutenant, I want you to load everything not nailed down on the White Base. Don't bother making an inventory, just concentrate on loading the cargo. The ship that followed us here is staying away for now; hopefully we've taken out their mobile suit compliment, which will buy us some time."
"What about the red one?"
"What red one?"
Tem gestured towards his son with his head. – "He was chasing a red Zaku when I saw him, but it fled once the other two were down."
A chill ran down Cassius' spine and he immediately turned to the other soldier present. – "Ryu, do you think-?"
"Bullshit." – the soldier replied immediately. – "I've seen him in action at Loum, sir, no way the kid could take him."
"Listen... Amuro, was it?" – Cassius asked, turning back to the teen. – "How many Zakus were there in total?"
"Four, sir."
"And you got three of them?"
"Yes, sir. I ambushed the first from behind, then moved into this area and took out the other two here."
A short and almost casual summary. Sounding far more casual than it should be, considering the subject matter. – "What about the fourth?"
"It was escorting the first one, but I couldn't take it out before it regrouped with the others."
Which matched up with Tem's eyewitness account. – "And you're certain it was red?"
"Yes sir, MS-06S commander type with a bazooka and leg missile pods."
"How do you know what type it was?"
"Had an antenna, sir."
"It could be just customization." – Ryu guessed.
But Amuro shook his head. – "Its performance was far higher than the others'. The pilot was better, too; once he ran out of weapons, he sacrificed one of his legs as a distraction and retreated. He can't fight inside the colony with a missing leg, but the AMBAC system can adjust to compensate, so his zero-g maneuverability will only be partially affected and he could try to ambush us when we leave the colony."
By the end of Amuro's analysis, Cassius' eyebrows were well on their way towards his hairline. This kid actually sounded like he knew what he was talking about. – "How do you know that?"
"That's what I would do in his place, sir."
Ryu began to say something but before Cassius' ears could register the sound, Amuro's head suddenly snapped to the side and he stared off into the distance for a second before yelling – "Incoming!" – and throwing himself to the ground.
A moment later, a sudden explosion nearby shook the ground, immediately prompting all three adults to follow suit and hit the deck. Well, Tem let out a startled yelp and unceremoniously belly-flopped to the ground while the soldiers beat him to the punch by half a second.
"Or he could switch to a sniper loadout to finish what he started!" – Amuro added. And Cassius was surprised to hear irritation in his voice. Not fear from being shot at like any civilian, irritation of someone who just had a fast one pulled over them.
On the other side of the colony, Char chambered the next round for his Zaku's anti-ship rifle. It was quite difficult to accurately hit something from such a distance, even without his one-legged Zaku awkwardly lying on its front. But he didn't survive two wars being a horrible shot and he only had the rotation of the colony to compensate for.
Thus, as his next shot connected with a trailer whose cargo he recognized as the upper half of a Guntank, he smirked. It was just like Loum, except without the part where the big, fat stationary targets actually shot back with anti-air fire.
"Ryu!" – Cassius yelled over another explosion. – "Do you have any experience at flying that thing?!" – He thumbed at the prototype, still bent over on all fours where Amuro left it.
"Two simulations, sir!"
That's nowhere near enough for the situation, Cassius decided. – "What about you, Lieutenant?"
"I only designed it! I never actually flew it myself!" – Tem protested, lifting his face up from the soil just long enough to answer before another explosion startled him right back down.
"And I'm guessing correctly that you don't happen to know where any test pilots are, right?"
"No, sir!"
'That's just great' was what Cassius was in the middle of thinking when Amuro spoke up, only to be drowned out by another explosion. – "What?!"
"Permission to sortie in the Gundam?!" – the teen yelled over the background noise.
Cassius' first instinct, the instinct of a military officer with full knowledge of regulations, was to refuse outright. And yet, he only managed to open his mouth before realizing that he had no better idea. He had no one even remotely qualified in doing the job at hand, and yet here was a volunteer who had already shown he can do it.
"...oh, what the hell! Go! Go!" – he barked, gesturing towards the Gundam just in case Amuro didn't hear it.
From the way the kid sprung up to his feet and hauled ass, he definitely did. Not that it made Cassius feel better about the situation: sending a kid into life-or-death combat or no, he was fully aware that simply handing classified top-of-the-line equipment was likely going to end in a court martial. It's not like he was planning on staying in the EFSF for much longer, but a dishonorable discharge means ineligibility for veteran benefits, which likely wasn't going to make his olden days any easier.
Then again, veteran benefits meant precisely squat if he was too dead to enjoy them and Cassius wasn't quite prepared to give his life for his country just yet. Desperate as it was, an alternative was still an alternative.
"Sir!" – Ryu called out when the Gundam rose up onto its feet and immediately turned towards the colony's interior before its thrusters flared and the machine rocketed away. – "Are you sure about this?!"
"If you have a better idea, I'm listening! Lieutenant Ray, is there anything nearby we can actually use?"
Tem just stared after the Gundam.
"Lieutenant!" – Cassius barked impatiently, which finally succeeded in snapping the engineer out of his reverie.
"There... there may be a Core Fighter nearby, but finding one in these conditions is-"
"Wait one!" – Ryu interrupted, one hand raised. After a few seconds, there was an explosion in the direction the Gundam headed off to. – "I think the shooter switched attention to him."
"Get me the radio!" – Cassius ordered, only realizing belatedly that he had no way of knowing what, if any, frequency Amuro was on at the moment. Instead, he decided to use the momentary breather to reach his XO. – "Bright, any change up there?"
Just then he felt the ground tremble beneath him. – "Standby!" – came the agitated response. There was a brief silence before the man continued. – "Lookout reports the dock is under fire!"
"Mobile suits?"
"Negative, it's cannon fire from the Musai! It didn't hit us, but it wasn't far off either!"
"Get the gunnery crew to their stations and prepare for emergency launch!" – Cassius ordered. – "If they want a fight, we'll give them one."
"Sir, the equipment-!" – Tem protested.
"We'll come back for it after we've sunk that bastard!" – Cassius cut him off. – "They box the White Base into the dock, we're not going anywhere. A breakout and counterattack is our only option. Bright, can you take care of things until I get there?"
"Yes, sir."
Just then, a new voice joined the conversation. – "Gundam to White Base. CQ."
"This is White Base Actual, identify yourself."
"I'll take this one, Bright." – Cassius interrupted. – "Gundam, sitrep."
"Tally one target, ID MS-06S." – came Amuro's terse voice. – "Same one as before. In pursuit but unable to intercept; target too fast."
"If it leaves the colony, break off and return. And stay on this channel. Understood?"
"Wilco."
Cassius then stood and dusted himself off. – "I'm heading back to the ship. Ryu, you go with the lieutenant and see if you can't find something to fly. Lieutenant, as soon as you're done with that, go to the base. Pull down a copy of every hard drive of every goddamn computer in the place that was even tangentially involved in research, then remove the drives, pile them together and go find the emergency thermite charges. We're not leaving anything behind."
"What about the equipment?" – Tem asked, straightening his glasses.
"Have your people handle that. Move everything to the dock so that once we're back in, we can load everything up ASAP and be gone before Zeon even thinks about sending in reinforcements."
"Understood."
With that, Cassius began hurrying back towards the dock, his ears still registering Ryu's voice from next to the overturned jeep. – "Doc, gimme a hand with this thing."
Outside, the stillness of space was suddenly disturbed by a red Zaku bursting out of a maintenance hatch, immediately braking to a halt and jetting off to the side before settling down on the colony's external wall, rifle trained at the hatch.
Inside, Char briefly took off his mask to wipe his forehead of sweat. Maybe it was the number of years he spent without it, but the thing was starting to feel... obtrusive. Restrictive. Yet he knew that he couldn't just stop wearing it right away. For one, it would immediately arouse attention in people who had only ever seen him in it. For another, there was always the chance someone could recognize his face. And right now, being Casval Deikun would be a death sentence.
In fact, Char had no illusions of ever being able to live with that name anymore. Even if the Zabis were to be removed, other people who bought into the propaganda would flock around him and turn him into a grotesque messiah figure. Not that he minded the doors it opened and resources it gave him access to when he stepped into the limelight as the leader of Neo-Zeon, but he honestly had better things to do than pander to the crowd. Like destroying the Federation, for one.
Even so, as he put the mask back on and focused his attention back at the hatch in anticipation of his pursuer, his mind couldn't help but wonder. He was about to return anyway due to having expended most of his rifle's ammunition when the Gundam rose up from behind a building near the carnage he had wrought; when did it get there without him noticing, he had no idea. And yet, one shot, one single shot at the white mobile suit was enough for the pilot to immediately zero in on his position nearly across the entire colony.
Was the pilot a Newtype? Did the Federation already have them among their ranks this early and his wingmen managed to kill this one by pure happenstance the first time around?
Whatever the case, Char decided not to risk it and disengaged as soon as he was certain the Gundam was headed for him. He was fairly certain the anti-ship rifle could've pierced the lunar titanium armor on a direct hit, but that wasn't a theory he was willing to test right now. Not with his mobility hampered by a missing leg. Yet even as he waited with baited breath and felt the colony shake from the Falmel's cannon fire two more times, his foe did not appear. And Char found that no matter how hard he tried to extend his senses in search of it, all he achieved was giving himself a headache.
Thus after the third time the Falmel struck the colony, he conceded that his pursuer likely lost his trail and decided not to linger around himself.
After all, he didn't want to miss the main event.
Post-it author's notes - 2019.05.29.
The anti-ship rifle Char is wielding here is the same one he used at the beginning of the first Origin OVA, shown to be capable of cutting right through a Magellan's armor and gutting it in a single shot. Contrary to popular belief, lunar titanium is not, in fact, completely immune to kinetic weapons, only highly resistant. A sufficiently powerful kinetic weapon such as the Dom's 360mm and late-war 880mm bazooka could still damage a mobile suit with lunar titanium armor and in the original MSG novelization, the Gundam itself is ultimately destroyed by a Rick Dom, rather than a beam weapon.
CQ – radio operator code for "any station listening on this frequency, please respond"
Actual – radio callsign indicating that the commanding officer is on the line, rather than the unit's radio operator
Tally – NATO brevity code for "enemy spotted"
Wilco – NATO brevity code for "received and complying" ('roger' merely indicates reception, not compliance)