Sahna woke to the sound of jet engines. She felt a slight jostling as the plane hit turbulence, helping shake the sleepiness off.

She yawned and stretched, feeling sore all over from having slept more than six hours in the passenger seat of a Medea transport, which wasn't at all like the seats one would expect on an airliner. The seats themselves were uncomfortable and she had to use the over-the-shoulder restraints. Had she not learned to sleep when she could at Camp Triggerfish, she doubted she would have been able to sleep at all.

She looked out the small porthole window and saw a view of the ocean far below, broken up by scattered cotton candy clouds. She'd never seen the ocean before, and seeing how vast the seemingly endless expanse of glistening water was made her feel small. Which made her think of her sealed orders.

She sighed. Although she probably should have opened them sooner, when the pilot told her the flight would be twelve hours she thought it better to get some sleep first to let the anger and frustration burn out a little bit. The embers were still there but they were controlled.

She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out the envelope. She broke open the seal and pulled the folded order papers out.

"Top Secret" was highlighted at the top, something which, she had to admit, gave her a bit of excitement. Whatever had ripped her away from her lifelong dream was clearly important – or at least, she hoped it was.

She glanced around the cabin, making sure none of the crew were around, then began to read.

'To Second Lieutenant Sahna Starburn from Lieutenant General Audia Greenfield, Marine Department of Personnel.

Madam, you are hereby ordered to proceed to Calachoran Armed Forces Base Black Butte and report to Colonel Hass Argent for assignment to the 13th Autonomous Corps under the authority of the Combined Services Test and Research Division [CSTRD] and carry out your duties with the professionalism and decorum of an officer in the Calachoran Federation Marines.'

Sahna reread the orders again and again, allowing a bubble of excitement to well up in her. Black Butte was the infamous top secret testing facility in the southern hemisphere, on an otherwise uninhabited island. It was where the Federation tested some of its most top secret weapons. She couldn't believe she, a brand new officer, would be called to such a place.

Then again, it also seemed like the ideal place to keep someone out of the way or get rid of them somehow. The haunting of the CSF's blacklisting continued to plague her thoughts. She tried to pick apart more clues.

She had no idea who Colonel Argent or what an 'autonomous corps' was supposed to be. Autonomous in what way? What was their role?

The CSTRD though, she did know a thing or two about. It was an attempt by the government to try and circumvent inter-service politics by creating a means for all services to share or combine research and thus cut costs. For example, the Space Force and Air Force frequently collaborated on fighter development, creating craft capable of operating within the atmosphere of Terra or in space. Or, the Marines and the army might collaborate on a new type of engine.

So, is the 13th a test unit then?

She heard a noise and looked up as the loadmaster entered the passenger compartment.

"Scuse me, Ma'am, we're starting our descent. I'll need to ask you to secure yourself."

Sahna flashed green and put the papers back into the envelope before returning it to her pocket. She double checked that her duffle was still secure below her seat, then pulled the large harness back over her shoulders. Satisfied, the loadmaster left.

Still gotta' get used to being called "Ma'am."

As the aircraft descended, she saw scattered buildings appear on the landscape below, along with large craters and fields of debris. Black Butte appeared to consist of multiple different bases, or campuses.

Eventually, the plane landed on a massive runway, probably designed for large orbital shuttles, and taxied to a large apron where a number of cargo vehicles were waiting, including a machine that eerily resembled a miniaturized mobile suit, with tracked feet and forklift-like hands: a mobile worker.

Mobile suits had started out as utility machines for building space infrastructure or other miscellaneous tasks a humanoid machine would be ideal for. While the Federation had never built a mobile suit, they had made mobile workers, which ranged in size from oversized exoskeletons to larger machines like this, which were ideal for handling heavy loads in tight spaces.

Sahna undid her harness and then her seat belt as the transport finally came to a stop. She stood and stretched, trying desperately to get the kinks out of her body after such a long flight.

The cargomaster came to retrieve her and helped her with her duffle as they climbed down to the main deck and he then guided her out the passenger door.

A short distance across the tarmac, she spotted a car with a pair of Army military police standing outside it, holding assault rifles. She guessed they were waiting for her and found she was right.

After hastily being ushered into the car they drove her away from the airbase. In what direction and to where, she had no idea. The car's windows were blacked out and the MPs didn't seem the talkative types.

After arriving at their destination, she was ushered out of the car and into an administration building to be processed. Said processing was more involved than she was used to, requiring finger print and retina scanning before she was given her base ID and a list of rules and regulations she was expected to follow. They even made her read them aloud to make sure.

She heard Chaser's voice making a crack about her being in her kind of paradise, and she actually felt sorry he wasn't there to say it.

I can't believe part of me actually misses that bastard.

She was taken away yet again, but this time they simply walked her to one of the other buildings. Not wanting to risk getting scolded, she resisted the urge to look around and kept staring straight ahead.

They entered another administration building and went up to the fourth floor where her escort departed from her.

Nervously walking forward, Sahna found an open office where a number of junior NCOs were working. The drawn looks on their faces indicated they'd been working hard for some time. Sahna made a mental note not to belittle those who worked behind desks – with the proviso that they actually had to be working.

She knocked on the door frame and one of them looked up.

"Where's Colonel Argent's office?"

He answered. "Oh, right at the end, Ma'am. Just knock and he'll let you in."

"Thank you."

Colonel Argent must have been the type who preferred productivity over protocol. She took that as a good sign.

There was no sentry in front of the Colonel's door, but she supposed that it would be redundant in a facility like this. She knocked on the door and a muffled "come in" came from inside.

Sahna entered a spartan office with no windows and no chairs for guests to sit in. Colonel Argent sat behind his desk, staring at his terminal screen.

He was younger than Sahna expected, in his late thirties or early forties at the most. His eyes and mantle were both dark green and he appeared to have a very slight build, his Army uniform looking a little baggy. The discoloration around his eyes indicated he hadn't been getting any more sleep than his staff, but his expression showed little of that apparent weariness.

She came to attention and saluted. "Sir, Second-Lieutenant Starburn reporting."

It was a full heart cycle before he removed his gaze from the screen and looked up at her.

"Took you're sweet time getting here, Lieutenant."

"S-sir, I-."

"I'm joking. At ease, Lieutenant. I'd offer you a seat but I had to sacrifice them for our clerking staff. Everyone's showing up at once, you see. It's a lot of work creating a unit from scratch."

So the 13th was a brand new unit. And if Colonel Argent, an Army colonel, was her commanding officer, then it must also be a mixed service unit. That was going to make things interesting, to say the least. She didn't envy the Colonel's job in the slightest.

"I'm not going to front load you with too much information, Lieutenant, but I'll give you the basics.

"I know you were training to become a fighter pilot and I'm sorry if we derailed your career plans, but we needed your skills. What we're doing here is nothing less than working to give us a fighting chance in this war and I can guarantee you'll be making a bigger difference here than in the Fighter Academy."

A jolt of electricity shot up Sahna's back and her hearts sped up with excitement. So she was going to test new weapons? Weapons that would help them win the war? For the first time since she arrived, the resentment she'd been feeling ebbed and settled into the back of her mind.

"I'm not going to lie to you, Lieutenant, this will not be easy and the training regimen we have planned will be highly demanding on you, particularly mentally. Make sure you're prepared because we'll be starting the training tomorrow." He gave her a thoughtful smile. "But now that you're actually here, we can get the introduction over with. First, let's find you a rack and then to the mess hall for lunch. All you need to know for now is that you're a member of Team Five. Clear?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Good."

The Colonel summoned a corporal who escorted her to the barracks building and then gave her a key card for her quarters before telling her to be at the officer's mess hall in fifteen minutes for lunch. After that, she left, leaving Sahna on her own for the first time since she arrived.

But where is the officer's mess hall?

Sahna decided she'd figure that out later. She was getting tired of lugging her heavy duffle around.

Taking an elevator to the third floor she found her quarters. They were nothing fancy. A narrow room with a picture window at the far end, two desks on the right, and on the left a pair of closets and a set of bunk beds. The top bunk was occupied.

A yellow-topped head peaked out, and shining, bright-yellow eyes met hers.

"Hey!" A chipper voice greeted. "Are you my roomie?"

Sahna blinked. "Um… I suppose?"

"Fresh! Hope you don't mind, I took the top bunk. Locker on the left is yours."

Sahna opened the locker closest to the door and put her duffle bag inside. Her new roommate climbed down from the top bunk and landed on the floor, revealing her CSF uniform. The silver pip on her collar identified her as an ensign, the CSF and naval equivalent of her own rank.

The girl was slightly shorter than Sahna with a more petite build. Her yellow primary tentacles cut short to just over chin length, darkening to orange at their bulbous tips. Probably done to more easily accommodate helmets.

"I'm Hypori, Hypori Swiftcurrent."

"Sahna Starburn."

"Starburn? Wow, with a name like that you shoulda' joined the CSF."

Hypori laughed while Sahna's eye twitched. She couldn't blame the ensign for not knowing how her comment or even her uniform was a painful reminder of her rejection, but she still felt irritated. Hypori seemed like the kind of girl she typically avoided in school. She'd never dealt well with the energetic, preppy types.

She noted the badge over Hypori's left breast, a star with short, rectangular wings. She had her space navigation certification.

"You're a pilot?"

Hypori's mantle seemed to turn even brighter, leading Sahna to assume she was a firefly squid.

"Sure am. 33rd Ball Squadron. Or, I was before they pulled me down here, but it's cool being on Terra for the first time. Good thing I was assigned to a space station with a drum or I'd be a noodle right now."

A drum was a rotating section meant to create simulated gravity. They usually contained the habitation sections of ships and stations in space.

"Oh, speaking of noodles, we should head over to the mess hall. It's time for lunch. Come on, I'll show you the way!"

Hypori gently pushed passed her and out the door. Sighing, Sahna followed, doing her best to keep a tight reign on her patience. She had a feeling Hypori was going to test it.

The mess hall was full of officers from all the services and even different branches. She didn't know how many were part of the 13th but she did note that, like her, some of them were missing their unit patches.

Sahna grabbed a pair of hotdogs and a side of salad then Hypori sat them next to an army second-lieutenant. Although he too lacked a unit patch, his arm had the white circle badge of the Lunar Army Corps.

"Hey, Dirk! Look, my roomie came in today. A Marine! Look at us, repping three of the services. Oh, Sahna Starburn, this is Dirk Hillrunner, former infantrymen in the Lunar Army Corps."

Dirk appeared slightly older than her or Hypori, with a stocky build, a light-green mantle, and deep blue eyes. He simply flashed green in greeting, his deadpan expression unchanging, and Sahna returned it. She was glad he wasn't another talker.

"So where were did they catch you, Sahna? Since you're a marine, I'm guessing it was a nail eating contest."

Oh, Chaser would have loved you,' she thought, and found herself missing him considerably less now. Dealing with two of them would have been unbearable.

"They got me right out of OTS. I was going to go to the Fighter Training Academy."

"Oh, another rookie, eh? Interesting."

Sahna frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, you've never seen combat, I've never seen combat, and Dirk here… well, he briefly saw combat, but he hasn't seen armoured combat yet, which is what he applied for, right Dirk?"

If the inkyar was annoyed he didn't show it. Sahna couldn't help but admire his stoic patience. She listened intently as he spoke.

"Wounded on Scylla, first action. Long recuperation. Applied for armour school, got accepted, but got transferred instead."

Sahna felt her spirits lift, finding a kindred spirit. Leaning in closer, she asked. "Are you two also part of the 13th?"

Hypori answered instead. "Sure are! I got here this morning. Spent thirty hours on a little shuttle before we landed. I'm glad I slept part of the way but geez did that suck."

Not as much as it did for everyone else on the shuttle, I'm sure.

"Why would they go through so much trouble to bring us here though when we're only rookies?"

"Got me! I'd only been training with my Ball unit for a week when they shipped me here. Apparently, they chose me specifically."

Sahna held up a finger and turned her mantle red to interrupt. "What is a Ball unit?"

"Huh? Oh, kind of a new thing, actually. You know those space maintenance pods you see around colonies and stuff?"

Sahna flashed green. "So you were part of a maintenance or support unit?"

She grinned. "Nope. See, the CSF's fighters and bombers aren't doing too hot against the Collie's mobile suits, and they're starting to run out of 'em. Their guns only tickle 'em and they can only use their missiles at close range, and they don't always work too good. They needed something that could carry a big gun but would be cheap to build.

"The story is that some officer who used to fight a lot of pirates remembered that the used to stick rockets on cheap machines like space pods and use those to attack ships, so he thought that a militarized version of the regular space maintenance pods would work. So they strapped some armour and a big gun to the top of it, called it the RB-79 Ball, and there ya go. I was assigned to one of the first squadrons they made of 'em."

Sahna stared at Hypori in horror, even Dirk's deadpan expression broke into one of hopeless disbelief.

"They wanted you to fight mobile suits in a maintenance pod with a gun strapped to it?"

Hypori pulsed blue. "It's a really big gun, hundred-eighty millimetres."

"Suicide," Dirk muttered and Sahna agreed with him.

"No worse than the fighters," Hypori said, looking indignant. "They may be faster but we make smaller targets and our guns can actually hurt a mobile suit." She looked sideways at Dirk. "It's no worse than your tanks."

"Tanks can hide. Much harder to hide in space."

Hypori opened her mouth to retort but Sahna gripped her shoulder. "Ensign, if you spend too much time using your mouth for talking, you won't be able to eat lunch in time. Colonel Argent said he had something planned for us right after lunch."

Mercifully, Hypori took the hint and picked up one of her hot dogs, grinning. "Hey, watch this."

She lifted the hot dog up and then shoved it into her wide-open mouth, stuffing it inside. She made a slight gurgling sound before closing her mouth and swallowing the thing whole.

She thumped her chest with a closed hand and smiled proudly.

"Whatdy'a think? Pretty impressive, eh?"

Sahna and Dirk shared a look, as if saying to each other. 'Can you believe this girl?'

After lunch, Colonel Argent came personally to the mess hall to fetch them, having them all gather in formation outside before marching them to one of the massive hangars near the edge of the campus. It was the sort of hangar that typically housed HLVs or other vertical launch spacecraft, but the hangar doors were closed so she couldn't see inside.

One rank at a time they went in through the personnel door, finding almost nobody inside until they entered the hangar space itself. All of the hangar alcoves were covered by curtains, hiding what lay within. Whatever it was was probably classified anyway, but then, why bring them to this hangar?

A line of other officers stood in the middle of the hangar floor facing their direction and two of them stood out to Sahna immediately.

Callie and Marie?

It was true. The two poster girls were there, standing in line with the other officers, but wearing the standard uniforms of the CSF instead of the fetishized derivatives they wore on their posters. Were they genuine officers? More to the point, what were they doing there?

They were formed up again in front of the line of waiting officers and Colonel Argent took his place in the centre, facing the larger group.

"At ease, everyone. We have a lot to get through in a short amount of time so I'm afraid there won't be a lot of ceremony. All the same, I brought you here because I need to make it clear to everyone what it is we're facing, what we're going to do about it, and the challenges we will face in the attempt." He turned to the two alcoves behind him and his mantle flashed green. "Behold, your enemy."

They all watched as the curtains parted, and everyone flinched, some even gasped. Hypori was even rendered speechless. Standing in the two alcoves were two fully intact Zaku mobile suits.

"Impressive, aren't they? These are the only intact and operational mobile suits we have ever managed to capture, but they're the ones you'll be most familiar with. On the left is a Zaku I model, the MS-05B. The first series of mass production combat mobile suits. On the right is its successor, the MS-06C Zaku II. Fact is though, that it often doesn't matter which you're fighting, you're usually going to end up on the losing side."

He faced them again. "I won't bore you with their specifications, you've probably heard them a few times by now. The point is, on a minovsky particle battlefield, we're at a huge disadvantage and these things are built for that environment. Close combat, medium range, long range, they can do it all if they have the right equipment. And we have had no answer to it. Until now."

Another curtain parted, revealing something that looked like a super-sized version of a children's toy. A pair of large guns over its shoulders, a squat torso, and large, tank-like treads.

"Looks like a kid drew it, doesn't it," the Colonel smirked. "But that was our first real attempt at making our own mobile suit, the RX-75 Guntank. These were tested in combat but they proved something of a failure. They lacked the maneuverability and versatility of a real mobile suit. All they are, really is a worse tank. That being said, we found that, when used in the fire support role, they actually worked really well. Unlike our modern tanks these are actually built for a minovsky battlefield, so while they weren't great, they still brought down a few Zakus when properly deployed. They're even making a mass-production version now that's just starting to reach the front lines. Obviously though, it's not what we've been looking for. But after we captured these Zakus, our R&D got quite a boost, and we made these."

Two more curtains parted, revealing two large machines that looked like genuine mobile suits. One was painted almost entirely in red and sported a pair of large cannons over the shoulders, like the Guntank, but unlike the Guntank, it has two hands and legs, and a real head. The other was stark white and resembled a warrior from one of ancient Earth legends. Leaner than the first, it's head resembled a helmeted warrior with two distinct eyes. It didn't have any integrated weapons like the first and was more thinly armoured, but it did look more advanced.

"The RX-77 Guncannon and the RX-78 Gundam, the first real mobile suits we truly developed. The RX-77 has even seen combat under the command of some of the officers you see before you. It's serving as the basis for the first mass-production mobile suit, being built for the Marines to take back some of our colonies."

Sahna felt a thrill. The Marines were getting first dibs on brand new technology? That never happened! They almost always had to deal with surplus from the other services. Was she going to learn to pilot one? The very idea filled her with so much excitement she could barely contain herself.

"But the Gundam has been chosen as the basis for the Federation's General Purpose mobile suit, as selected by the Army and the CSF, at least for now. Using the remaining parts from the development program, it was decided to build a new mobile suit."

Another curtain in the alcove next to the Gundam opened, revealing another mobile suit that resembled the Gundam, especially the head, but was overall bulkier, more rugged-looking and it had equipment integrated into the left torso.

"This is the RX-79[G]. We call it the Gundam Ground-type. It's our first step towards producing a mass-production mobile suit. We have enough spares to build twenty-five of these." He turned to face them. "And you've been brought here to learn how to operate them. The 13th Autonomous Corps will be the first dedicated mobile suit unit, and we'll be the ones who have to learn all the dos and don'ts of operating a mobile suit unit on an active front, and some of what it takes to teach people to operate these things from scratch.

"I'll be honest, there isn't much time to train. The enemy is advancing on the ground every day and while the CSF and Lunar Army are holding their own for now, that will change. So we're going to push you hard and try to prepare you as much as we can for what's to come because we're going to be thrown into the deep end. The hope is that we can make a big enough difference to raise the morale of the troops and give the Collies something to worry about for a change. It might not be much, but if we can show our people and our troops that we're far from beaten, it'll allow us to hold out until we get the mass production suits rolling off the assembly lines. And if we can scare the enemy a bit while we're at it, so much the better."

Sahna swallowed. She knew the war situation wasn't great but she didn't know it was that bad. She understood the logic behind making a trial unit for mobile suits, but it seemed a bit much to expect just twenty-five machines to make a serious difference in the war when the enemy had literally hundreds of the damn things.

"Alright, enough theatre, let's get down to business. I'm going to call out a team and then a room number. When I call your team number, you'll fall out, head out the door you came in, turn right, and then enter the room with the number I tell you. Starting with…" He looked at his tablet. "Team One, room six."

One after another, teams were called and three or four people would come to attention and file out, until only three of them were left: Sahna, Hypori, and Dirk.

"Team Five, room twelve."

They came to attention and Sahna led them back the way they came and to their designated room. Nothing special, just a small, general purpose room with a projector, white board, and a few tables and chairs.

No sooner had the door shut behind them that Hypori let out an excited squeal.

"I can't believe this! I knew we were brought here for something awesome but I didn't think it would be mobile suits!"

Sahna was excited as well but that excitement was dampened somewhat with Callie and Marie's presence.

"I think they selected me." She said it more to herself but the others heard her.

Hypori ceased bounding around the room and looked at her with a curious tilt of her head. "Who?"

"Callie and Marie. I met them not long before I graduated from OTS. They asked me a bunch of weird questions. Now I know they were talking about this. But why are they involved? Were they part of the test program?"

"Likely," Dirk said, taking a seat behind one of the tables. "Callie is related to Admiral Cuttlefish, head of Federation Special Operations Command."

"You think he pulled strings?" Sahna asked, but Dirk flashed red.

"SpecCom's standards too high. Either pass the tests or don't."

"In other words they're high profile," Hypori said thoughtfully. "Which means that, maybe, they brought 'em in to get the Admiral's support?"

Sahna's mantle turned a dark yellow. "To build our own mobile suits? I don't think they would have needed to look for much support. I'm sure everyone wanted it."

"Not the CSF. They don't like the idea of mobile suits. They still think it's only a gimmick that just works cause of the minovsky effect. They think they know a better way."

Dirk snorted. "Same CSF putting people in space pods against Zakus and warships."

"Hey, it's better than what they've been doing until now. But they can't be totally against the idea if they sent me here, and Callie and Marie are both CSF officers."

"Doesn't mean they like it."

The new voice brought the three rookies to attention as Callie and Marie came into the room.

"At ease," Marie said. "What I mean is the CSF is starting to realize that if and until they find another solution, for the time being, having their own mobile suits is the best way forward."

She stood at the front of the room, straight with hands behind her back. In that moment, Sahna couldn't help but see her as the very image of a professional officer. Her steely, confident gaze, the straight and proper posture, and the air of absolute authority she projected. It was hard to correlate that with the trendy and cutesy girl Sahna had seen on innumerable posters.

"In case you don't know, I'm Lieutenant Senior Grade, Marie Sansea. This is Lieutenant Junior Grade Calliope Cuttlefish. I shouldn't have to tell you how to address superior officers."

Hypori shyly raised a hand. "I just realized I'm the only one without 'lieutenant' in their rank. Is that going to cause confusion?"

"We'll deal with that later, Ensign. Just be aware that although you three are all of equivalent rank to each other, Hillrunner is senior, both in date of rank and experience. I advise you to follow his lead. Now take a seat, we have some things to go over."

She referenced her tablet and resumed speaking once they were all seated behind the tables. Callie casually sat on the desk at the front of the room, arms crossed, but an easy going smile on her face. It was much easier to Sahna to reconcile her with the poster image.

"We have, at most, four weeks to train you. Since you all have basic combat training we're going to focus on operating the mobile suits and building muscle memory. The last week we'll probably focus on combat, but we haven't developed any doctrines so we'll have to make them up as we go."

"Which is one of the reasons our unit exists," Callie added.

"Exactly. We're basically the Federation's mobile suit guinea pigs. The test units proved that we can build mobile suits of sound design, but now we need to develop how to deploy them in combat operations. We'll also be the first to go through any kind of formalized mobile suit training regimen in the Federation, so we'll be developing training as well, which will be helpful for the Marines as they build the first mobile suit unit of any of the services. The Army will probably follow shortly after, but they're waiting for the General Mobile Suit Project to get off the ground."

"And having multiple services involved means everyone gets at least a little experience with mobile suits before they have to deploy their own," Sahna observed.

"Correct. Ironically, the CSF actually has the most experience with mobile suits, if you don't count the Guntanks. All of the Guncannon's combat tests were launched from ships in space. We'll be the first ones to use real mobile suits in ground combat."

Callie grinned. "Exciting, isn't it?"

Hypori gaped. "Then how do we know they work?"

Marie's eyes flicked over to her. "We have to make them work, Ensign. Don't worry, we'll know whether or not they do before we are deployed. We'll be sure to train you at least that well."

Sahna tentatively raised her own hand. "Ma'am, I mean no disrespect, but I'm curious what makes you so sure you can teach us? Were you… part of the test program?"

Marie looked at her then her eyes turned upwards for a moment before answering. "A fair question, since we didn't take part in any of the RX-77's combat tests, but we have flown both the RX-77 and the RX-78 in testing and we have flown mobile suits in combat."

Callie giggled. "Well, we were the first ones."

Sahna's eyes went wide, the truth suddenly dawning on her. "You stole those Zakus?"

Marie sighed, as if she would have preferred Sahna had not figured it out. "Without going into detail, yes. Needless to say, the Collective wanted them back."

"That's awesome!" Hypori shouted, raising clenched fists in front of her. "So you're perfect to teach us!"

"Not perfect," Marie said. "But we're the best you rookies have. The others are all Marine and Army tankers and pilots who have a lot of combat experience. You have none of that. But that's why you've been given to us, because you're not going to be tankers or pilots who transferred to mobile suits, you're going to be the first ones trained foremost in mobile suits. You three will be paving the road for all who come after you."

Sahna's grasped the fabric of her trousers as that sunk in. She was going to be the Marine's first specifically-trained mobile suit pilot. A pioneer, a trailblazer. As daunting as it was, a part of her was thrilled!

Dirk asked the next question. "Guncannon first selected for mass production but we're taking machine based on Gundam. Why?"

Marie hesitated. "It's a little complicated. Part of it is because the RX-77 is still being used for testing before the design of the mass production machine being based on it is finalized, while the Gundam's test program is already finished, so the parts for it are no longer needed. I'm afraid further details are classified."

Hypori's mantle rippled with confusion. "I thought they were basing the other mass production suit on the Gundam."

"More deriving from it," Callie clarified. "As in the general idea of the Gundam, but they're not mass producing a design directly based on it. So, since the production of that mobile suit is further away, they'll be using the battlefield and operational data we get to inform the design of their new suit. So, our suits will be prototypes closer to the mass production unit, but hopefully, better than the Gundam was."

All three rookies sat up straighter, the obvious question on their minds. What was wrong with the Gundam?

Marie crossed her arms. "The Gundam's performance is spectacular, but only when it works. The components, being the first of their kind in many ways, are not consistently reliable. Hence why the Guncannon mass production model is further along."

The bottom corners of Hypori's mouth fell. "And they're putting those same parts into our machines?"

"With electronic governors to bring down the performance to, hopefully, improve their reliability."

Sahna winced. "Will that work?"

Marie looked her in the eye. "As I said before, our job is to make it work. Now, if there are no more questions, let's get started."

Author's Notes:

Oh yeah, I've been looking forward to posting this chapter. Lore, exposition, hopefully, interesting enough to keep you all invested.

The name "Black Butte" is an homage to Black Mesa from the Half Life series, while I based the landscape of the location of Black Butte on the Falkland Islands, just a bit bigger. Sahna's experience flying to Black Butte is also based on my experience flying in a C-130 Hercules rather than airliners.

So, we got a small peek into the development history of the mobile suits of the Federation. Something that bugged me about the Gundams is that though they tended to be prototypes, they always worked flawlessly and over extended periods, and were able to keep up with wear and tear despite an obvious lack of spare parts. In fact, 08th MS team seemed to be the only Gundam show that showed these were machines that needed maintenance, even including the fact that spare parts were limited into the story. Obviously, Gundams tend to be treated more as wunderwaffe, or "Wonder Weapons" as they were imagined worked rather than how such weapons tended to work in practice. That will not the be case in this story, so you can look forward to that going forward.

So what do you think of Sahna's new teammates? Hypori was originally a different character from the Calachoran Air Force, but as the story developed I realized that the air force wouldn't have much interest in mobile suits and it made more sense for the CSF to send a rookie than them, so Hypori was born. Dirk is important as a representative of the Lunar Army, a branch of the Army that commands ground forces on the moons orbiting Terra, and the ones, most desperate for mobile suits, and have been getting the lion's share of the Mass Production Guntanks that we saw in the previous chapter.

And when did the Federation capture those two Zakus? Oh, you already have that information. We'll have to see if you can remember. ;)