Start 7.28.13

Act Special: Red

Episode I: Rebellion

The year was After Colony 193, and Isaac Winters was spitting up a mouthful of his own blood. Another rifle butt cracked him in the face, blasting him with a white-hot pain that left him completely senseless. He fell face-first onto the ground, the three Alliance soldiers standing over him repeatedly kicking him in his sides and stamping on his back.

One of the soldiers picked the boy up by his dark gray hair and glared into the boy's one eye which had not swollen shut. The soldier was met with a barely conscious gaze. With an air of disgust he spat into Isaac's face and tossed the boy to the ground where he laid motionless.

"Stupid rust monkey. I don't know how you got onto the base, but if we find you here again, we won't hesitate to shoot you on the spot. Now you better disappear, you piece of garbage!" The soldier and his two comrades slung their assault rifles back over their shoulders and returned to the confines of the Alliance base, leaving Isaac to lay silently on the concrete.

Rust monkey. That's what they called the Martian space colonists. Isaac knew it made no sense. None of the colonists had ever been down to the red planet, its vibrant red soils rich in iron oxide. But he hated it all the same-being called an animal that would roll around in such filth. He didn't know how many times he had been called that.

Isaac's body somehow picked itself up. He cradled his stomach which had been abused with particular prejudice. He began to walk forward, his battered body barely able to keep itself together. He may have been beaten within an inch of his life, but he found what he came for.

He crept along slowly through the colony city, using walls to support himself. The journey was agonizingly long and numbingly slow. And worst of all, it was lonely. The colony day lights shut off with a distant echoing clap, and the street lamps hummed into life, simulating night. It was near-desolate inside the colony. The Martian space colony population had been in a steady decline for more than a decade. Those who could leave did, and those who could not stayed to tough it out.

He walked through the shadow of another half-finished building. Many buildings were like this-completed bottom floors with nothing but bare support beams at the top. The city skyline was jagged and wiry because of it. They were meant to be business offices or apartments, but when the economy crashed there was not enough reason or funding to finish them.

But they made for convenient hideouts. Isaac struggled up the stairway of one of the abandoned buildings. It had no electricity, but a lazy city worker had left the water line open after the building had been abandoned. There was enough to drink but not enough pressure to bathe or clean his clothes regularly.

Isaac was an orphan. He was now about 12 years in age, and he had been on the streets for several long years. The crashing economy at Mars created many like him. When Isaac was young, his father had joined the Alliance colony militia in hopes of earning more money, but he was never heard from again. Isaac liked to think his father never contacted him because he had died as a hero to protect the Martian colonists, but Isaac knew better than that. After his father had vanished, his mother worked herself to the bone to provide for Isaac and herself, but her health declined as she toiled, and she eventually succumbed to illness.

The colony government put Isaac into several foster homes, but he was returned each time when raising a foster child proved to be too straining for an already tight household budget. Isaac had run away on his own before the government ended up cutting funding from its foster program entirely, setting whole bands of orphans loose to wander the colony. Some were orphaned by violence perpetrated by the Alliance occupation, and all were victims of poverty.

The colonists treated the Martian orphans with derision. In the colony's closed artificial environment, the street orphans did not have to fend for themselves in any sort of extreme weather, but resources and food were extremely scarce, and the colony citizens were not ones to be generous or wasteful. The street orphans had to survive with thievery, burglary, and muggings. Isaac had lived like this so long he sensed that he was becoming an animal, and any sort of feeling that stirred inside passed unnoticed by him or anyone else.

Isaac made his way up one last stairway and hobbled through a doorway, expressionless. The room was lit by a single battery-powered camping light. Several other children stirred at Isaac's arrival, gawking at his various injuries. Another boy, Richard, hurried over and supported Isaac by the arm.

"Crap, Ike. What the heck happened?" Richard set Isaac down on an old, beaten beanbag chair, the only furnishing in the entire room.

Isaac did not answer right away, his head and arms hanging limply from the beanbag chair in his exhaustion. "You know how it is, Ricky. Those Earth bastards beat the hell out of me." He felt around his mouth with his tongue, pushing around loose teeth and bloody gums. "I finally found it, though. I found the storehouse where they stash their rations."

Ricky and the others gasped in delight, chattering among themselves excitedly. Isaac continued, "We'll have to lay low for a while, but we can definitely get some food and supplies from there. Who's gonna come with me?"

Everyone in the room immediately grew quiet, their eyes falling to the floor. Nobody wanted to risk sneaking into the Alliance base. But Richard stepped forward, puffing up his chest. "I'll go with you, Ike!"

Of course it was Richard. He was not the smartest or the most courageous among the lot of them, but he was fiercely loyal. He was a year younger than Isaac and supported him in nearly everything he did.

"Well, you two make sure to bring back a lot and share with the rest of us!" an overconfident voice nagged. It was Suzy who was older than the rest of them.

Isaac did not like her, and they butted heads frequently. She was better off than everyone else. She took advantage of the soldiers that occupied the colony, often going home with them at night. They took care of her and showered her with gifts. She need only lay still and spread her legs, and she ate and bathed every day while everyone else struggled and fought. Every moment she bragged about how the men would drool over her beauty and claw at each other to win her affection. Suzy only came back to care after her younger sister who was gaining an attitude as well. The two of them often used their size and age to nag and beat the other orphans into submission.

Isaac shot her an icy glare. "And why exactly should I share with you?"

Suzy stuck up her nose and sang, "Because girls are delicate, and we have to be taken care of!" Her sister stuck up her nose, too, and smiled the same self-absorbed smile.

Are they honestly trying to sell that crap? Isaac did not think such privileges existed in their circumstance of being left to live on the streets like animals.

"You can't have any unless you help," Isaac said staunchly.

"Are you kidding?" Suzy retorted. "Stealing from the Alliance base is suicide. I'm not doing anything that crazy. Just look at what they did to you!" Isaac was afraid, too, but his hunger was too powerful.

"The risk comes with the reward. Come with me if you want part. Just stay here if you don't, but I'm not giving anything to you."

Suzy got nasty. "You better give us some, or I'll kick your ass, you little shit!" Isaac glared back at her. Everyone else shrunk back from the sudden spike in temper.

"Whatever." He relented hatefully. The last thing he needed was two beatings in one day.

"Don't worry, Ike! I'll have your back," Richard assured. "When are we going?"

Isaac grimaced from his injuries. "Just as soon as I'm better," he groaned. "Then we'll go."

Richard nodded excitedly, pumped to be helping his friend provide for the lot of them. "Those Earth pigs have gotten fat for long enough! We're gonna take it all back." The other children cheered them on and commended their bravery. Before long, the lights were put out and they all rested their eyes before another hard day.

The rapid cracking of assault rifles rang in the air. Richard and Isaac ran for their lives. Bullets whizzed by and made sharp thuds all around them as they struck the ground. They cradled packages and cans of food in their arms, but most of them fell loose as the pair ran. Isaac did not think the base occupants would be agitated enough to open fire on lowly food thieves.

"They're gonna kill us, Ike!" Richard cried fearfully between labored breaths.

They desperately ran through an open field to escape from the Alliance base. Richard stumbled and dropped everything he was carrying.

"Forget it!" Isaac cried back. "Just keep going!"

Just then, a scorching heat sliced through the side of Isaac's neck. He stumbled from the shock of it and fell, losing all the items in his arms. He pressed a shaking, uncertain hand to his neck which bled liberally.

Adrenaline coursed through his veins. Time slowed down. The sound of gunfire seemed so distant. He was shot, yet he could feel nothing. In slow motion, he looked up as his friend ran toward him and three bullets tore into the boy's leg and back.

Everything sped up again, and Richard hit the ground with an unnerving and unnaturally flaccid collapse. In an instant he had gone from sprinting with all his life to being face-first in the grass in complete stillness. Isaac's eyes widened when his friend did not stir.

"Ricky!? NO!" The gunfire stopped, but he could see nothing but the bloody form of his friend in the grass. Isaac crawled forward and shook Richard in desperation, finally turning him over. Isaac scanned over him fearfully, assessing the damage.

Richard coughed as he struggled to breathe. "S-sorry, Ike... I dropped the stuff."

Isaac was so afraid he was shaking. There was so much blood. "Don't try to talk," he ordered as he draped Richard's arm over his shoulder. "We have to get you to a doctor...!"

Painfully, Isaac lifted and secured the other boy over his back and started running. He never thought he had the strength to sprint with the weight of an entire other person on his shoulders, but he had never looked Death in the face before, either. There was a hospital on the Alliance base, but he could not go back there... Anywhere but there...

Sage Schneider turned a page of the 2-year-old magazine in his hands. Baking casseroles normally would not hold his interest, but he was stuck here for at least another 45 minutes. He was trying to figure how to adjust the proportions on the recipe. At least his brain could play with the numbers during the wait.

He wore an OZ military uniform and looked out of place in the quiet waiting room of the neighborhood clinic. Across from him was a portly woman with her fidgety 4-year-old. They sat next to a very pregnant young woman and her attentive husband. Sage admitted silently to himself that he was rather envious of them. And in the corner was an old engineer who came for medical examinations, waiting in the clinic with his son.

They all carried on in their boredom when two boys burst through the clinic doors and collapsed onto the ground. Isaac gagged and rasped, his lungs burning and raw from running miles with his friend in tow.

"Help him," Isaac choked. "He's been shot...!"

Everyone in the waiting room got up, concerned murmurs creating a din in the clinic. The old engineer's son ran to grab one of the nurses. They all gawked at the two boys, each one soaked in blood.

Isaac crawled over to his friend, still wheezing. "They're coming, Ricky. You'll be okay..." He gasped for a few more moments. "Ricky, did you hear me?"

He turned the other boy over, but Richard was limp, his eyes empty and lifeless. Isaac shook him again, feeling a deep sadness squeeze his throat and well up in his eyes. "...Ricky?"

No response. Isaac's head quietly fell onto his friend's chest, and he began to weep. He was already dead. He carried him all this way to save him, but he was already dead.

"No, Ricky. How could you die?" Isaac choked, stabbed with guilt. "Why did you have to go along? You were so stupid to go with me... You were always such an idiot...!"

The others in the room watched the scene unfold in horror. Their first instinct was to go help, but the two homeless boys were filthy, and their noses curled from the stench. So they looked on with both disgust and morbid curiosity, like watching rats drown.

Sage, the man in the OZ uniform, stepped forward and knelt down next to Isaac. He put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "It's alright, son. You did your best." His words did nothing to ease Isaac's suffering, so with a heavy heart, Sage merely let the boy cry and mourn his friend.

He stepped aside when a nurse and doctor came running into the waiting room. Sage pulled Isaac back so they could examine Richard. They confirmed that he had already died. The nurse stood up and took off her gloves.

"This boy's been shot, too," Sage informed her. "He needs to be treated."

The nurse hesitated. "I don't know how to tell you this, mister, but these boys are homeless. They can't pay for treatment." She was taken aback when the other man shot her an icy look.

"I'll pay for him," he said almost threateningly.

"...Okay." She nodded her head fearfully and led Isaac into the back of the clinic.

Isaac sat in silence on the patient bed. They had taken his dirty clothes and put him in a patient gown. A heavy bandage graced the side of his neck. His eyes were swollen and red, but he did not cry, only staring into the wall with unfocused eyes.

Sage looked on quietly from the chair in which he was sitting. He did not want to disturb those in mourning, but he was too familiar with how survivors often wasted away, forgetting themselves.

"Did you want anything to eat?" Sage asked. "I could go find something for you."

No reply. It was his hunger that had caused this tragedy. Isaac did not know if he could ever bear to eat again.

Sage let that topic pass. "The nurses told me your name is Isaac. Is that right?" No response, but no denial, either. He continued, "My name is Sage Schneider. I was just passing through here on my flight home. I was in the clinic for a checkup, since I just came home from Earth." Isaac listened, but did not answer, still staring into the wall.

"You have canuchromia," Sage smiled, pointing out Isaac's solid gray locks of hair. Sage himself was a normal blonde, if somewhat handsome.

Obviously, Isaac thought. It was Latin, describing a condition where people are born with hair lacking some pigments, usually ranging from white to dark gray in appearance.

"My sister has it, too," Sage continued, "though her hair's got more of a silvery glint to it. I haven't seen her in several years, so I don't know if she's decided to dye it or not." The older man thought out loud while stroking his chin, "I think you two would get along. They say it only occurs in children born in the Mars sphere, but we don't know the exact cause yet. Don't you find that fascinating?"

I'm not exactly a man of science, Isaac retorted silently. He recalled how he was teased and bullied by others for looking different, though his mother was especially protective of him and loving while she was still alive. And then there were people from Earth who called him a freak or an alien.

Isaac laid back on the patient bed, tired, and looked up at the ceiling lights. A moment passed as he rested.

"Does it hurt?" Sage asked, referring to the boy's wound. "I've been shot before, too." Isaac turned to look at Sage, the other man having captured his attention.

"Well, not me directly," Sage admitted. "It was my mobile suit. I was a pilot." Isaac sat up quietly, wanting to hear more.

"I was drawing fire away from my squad and-BLAG-one of 'em got me. I was hit by a 100mm machinegun. Do you know how big one of those bullets is?" Sage asked with a raised eyebrow. He scanned the room for what he could use as an example, but he ended just flattening one of his palms. "Like this," he showed Isaac. "The bullets were this wide. And they came at us 500 rounds a second!"

"Wow...," Isaac breathed in amazement. "So you were a mobile suit pilot on Earth?" Sage smiled a bit, finally being able to elicit a response from the patient.

"Yes, that's right. I was born on a Martian colony, but I went to Earth to become a pilot. I was tapped for the OZ Specials and made friends with some guys named Zechs and Treize, though they were WAY more ambitious than I ever was. In fact, Treize recently took command of the Specials. I could never keep up with them, so after I got shot down, I figured it was time to come home."

Isaac frowned, "Why would you want to come back to a dump like this?"

"It's precisely because of that that I decided to come back. Mars is my home, and my family is still here. I knew that if I came back I could try to turn everything around."

"You won't change a thing while those Earth pigs are still here."

"Do you mean the Alliance military?" Sage inquired.

"They keep everything for themselves and make us work like dogs. Every day they kill Martians and spit on our graves," Isaac said with clenched teeth, a hot rage welling up in his eyes.

"I understand," Sage responded knowingly. "Even if it takes a lifetime, I want to bring peace and prosperity to Mars. Even if I never succeed, it is an endeavor I need to undertake. And I know I can't do it alone."

The year was After Colony 195, and Isaac Winters was dislocating an Alliance soldier's cranial fluid onto the facility's walls with a rifle bullet. The young man ducked into another hallway for cover, reloading his automatic assault rifle. He pushed in the new magazine and pulled back the rifle's action to chamber the new round, each movement creating the satisfying sound of precise mechanisms locking perfectly into place.

He stepped out from behind the corner and squeezed the trigger, his weapon lobbing hot metal down the corridor at a staggering rate. As the Alliance soldiers ducked their heads, Isaac's teammates ran past the hallway behind him and advanced to their objective. Isaac halted his attack and followed his team, warding off any would-be pursuers with a fragmentation grenade.

It had been more than two years since Isaac last stepped foot on this colony, and the first thing he did was kick in the back door of the Alliance base and murder everyone in the room wearing its uniform.

After Richard had died, Isaac left his home colony to join Sage Schneider and form a resistance group against the Alliance military occupation of Martian space. He trained and studied under Sage during those two long years, traveling to many different colonies to find the same violence and desolation inflicted upon the Martian colonists by the Alliance. And today they had returned with another four members to make an assault against the Alliance base at Isaac's home colony, the beginning of their fight for freedom.

They all wore normal suits and were armed lightly for greater mobility. The team made its way to the elevator that would take them to the core of the base which existed in the colony's central block. The central block of every colony was a microgravity environment that housed its hangar bays. This elevator was the most exposed part of their plan, and they would not survive without countermeasures.

At the other end of the elevator, a group of Alliance soldiers were lined up with machineguns trained on the elevator door, waiting for the cable car to arrive with its cargo of violent Martian rebels. They tensed up and laid more pressure on their triggers as the elevator doors opened.

Two open palms flew forward, and a panicked voice urged them, "DON'T SHOOT!"

The soldiers were aghast to find one of their commanding officers at gunpoint. They hesitated and started to lower their guns. Isaac, who had the C.O.'s arm locked behind him, immediately stuck his gun under the other man's shoulder and opened into the soldiers in front of him, walking forward with the other man as a human shield. Sage and the other team members fired their rifles, too, and mowed down the remaining soldiers in the room.

Startled but unharmed, the captured officer screamed at the team in outrage, "You rust monkey bastards will never get away with this!"

"And you don't seem very attached to your internal organs," Isaac answered coldly, pushing the muzzle of his assault rifle into the officer's back. A searing stream of lead tore into the man from behind and pushed his guts out his front. Isaac tossed the body aside morbidly and continued his advance. The bodies of the dead Alliance soldiers floated about eerily in the microgravity environment as the rest of the team followed suit.

The base grew unusually quiet as they went forward. Isaac and another man named Marcus took point. They cleared one room together and waved the team ahead. An Alliance soldier in hiding came out from cover and fired on the team. Most were able to clear the way, but Marcus had lost his footing without the aid of gravity, and he was assaulted by a hail of gunfire.

Marcus screamed and gagged in awful pain. He was left gasping for breath, choking on his own blood. More soldiers flooded into the area and pinned down the team with machinegun fire. Isaac got up to help Marcus, but Sage grabbed him by the arm and stopped him.

"The last thing we need is TWO casualties, Isaac," Sage told the younger man. Isaac resisted at first, but eventually made the hard choice to leave their friend behind. Sage lobbed two grenades toward the general direction of the gunfire as his team backed into their objective point.

Isaac entered the mobile suit hangar and lowered his assault rifle. He marveled at the row of Space Leos in front of him, seven in total. A large area of the hangar was left vacant. Behind him, Sage and the others were holding off soldiers as they tried to fight their way into the hangar. Sage looked behind him and noticed that part of the mobile suit squadron was missing.

"Isaac," Sage called out behind him, still laying down suppressive fire. "I want you to board a mobile suit and launch outside. There are Leos out on patrol, but they've likely been called back. I need you to hold them off until we can join you. If we have to fight those suits on foot, we're finished."

"But why me?" he answered back, incredulous. "I'm not the veteran pilot here. I only have simulation experience!"

"You're more than ready," Sage assured him. "Besides, we have to cover your take-off. We'll join you once the hangar is clear."

Isaac slung his rifle strap over his shoulder. "Alright. Just call me back if you need support." With that he went off and boarded the closest Space Leo.

He strapped himself in and urged the Leo forward, the titanium giant making slow and colossal strides for the hangar door. The Leo took hold of the hangar door operator and spun its closed fist around several times. Air rushed out into the vacuum of space as the bay door receded and Isaac's Leo propelled its way out by its backpack vernier jets.

Once he was clear of the hangar, Isaac immediately scanned his surroundings. "It's just as you thought," he confirmed over the radio to his team. "The patrol party is on its way back."

There were eight Leos returning from patrol, all of them the same pale blue as the one he occupied. Isaac was armed with only a Leo rifle-not exactly what he needed to even the odds. His Leo waved down the patrol suits as they came close.

"What the hell's going on here?" the patrol leader demanded. "The com line's been utter chaos since you called us back!"

"They've taken control of the hangar," Isaac answered over the radio. "One of them might have launched in a mobile suit."

The other man was taken aback. "What are you saying...?" Before his sense of alarm could fully overtake him, the patrol leader's Leo was impaled by a beam, Isaac's rifle having torn into the head and chest of the mobile suit.

Immediately the rest of the Alliance patrol unit scattered. Isaac pitched right hard to avoid the ensuing firestorm of bullets that came his way. He strafed around the enemy as he assessed their formation.

There was none. They had simply retreated into random directions. Most of the Leos also seemed to be using 100mm machineguns which required much less accuracy than Isaac's weapon. Now he was greatly outnumbered and practically surrounded, but the enemy was headless without their party leader.

Keeping their distance, they fired on Isaac with their machineguns. Isaac's Leo spun past a stream of gunfire and closed in on one of the enemy units. Isaac was too close to one of their allies, so the other patrol Leos were reluctant to provide covering fire.

The defending pilot threw everything he had at the stolen Leo-anything to keep it off of him. At that close distance, Isaac's evasive maneuvers were hard to track, and the pilot emptied his machinegun into nothing. Isaac's rifle punched into the suit's chest and pelvis, causing it to explode.

Waves of bullets came for Isaac's Leo again. He strafed around the enemy and aimed carefully, keeping his cool. His rifle sent a bolt that decapitated one Leo. Another shot in its middle destroyed it.

Isaac was beginning to realize that many of the Alliance pilots were amateurs. None of them could shoot and maneuver at the same time. Very few outside of OZ had experience in anti-mobile suit tactics, just as Sage had told him. They were just a slack-jawed occupation force sent to the backwoods of humanity's frontier in space. Isaac felt fortunate to be trained under an experienced veteran, but also irritated to know that his life had been made miserable by a pack of reject dogs.

He closed in on another Alliance Leo, but this one retaliated with a beam saber. Isaac did not have one of his own. The Leo swung wildly with the super-heated blade until Isaac unexpectedly charged forward and blocked its saber arm with his Leo's own forearm. The enemy suit pushed forward to follow through with its swing, but Isaac pivoted to the side, causing the other suit to stumble forward off balance. Two shots into its backpack put it out of commission.

The remaining four suits from the patrol unit fell into formation and focused fire on Isaac's Leo. He did his best to avoid the assault, but his mobile suit was too slow, and the concentrated fire was beginning to trash the legs of the Leo.

From the colony, two more Leos were launched, one after the other. Isaac did now know who they were, but they soon joined the skirmish. They fired on the patrol unit and destroyed two of them. Another broke away to escape, but it was picked off by one of the newly arriving mobile suits.

The last patrol Leo tossed aside its weapon and signaled surrender. Isaac sent three bolts of murderous intent into it and destroyed it outright.

"Coward. I'm not taking any prisoners today," he scowled. The other Leos lowered their weapons and approached quietly.

"Are you alright, Isaac?" It was Sage on the radio.

"Yes. This suit's a bit damaged, but I'm unhurt," Isaac answered. "How did you know which one was me?"

"You were the one that was hard to kill," Sage replied simply.

"Makes sense, I guess."

"Let's head back."

"Yeah."

Sage connected to an open channel for the colony. "This is Sage Schneider of the Mars Liberation Group. Today we have defeated the Alliance occupation of your colony. Today is the first battle of a long fight to come, but henceforth you can consider yourselves free. May peace and prosperity come to you and all Martian people."

The team celebrated as the three stolen Leos returned to the hangar.

"I can't believe we pulled this off!" The third pilot exclaimed. "We beat those bastards into the ground, and now we have control of their base."

"Marcus would have been proud," one of the others lamented.

"Right?" Isaac chimed in. "We have everything we need to fight the Alliance now: mobile suits, supplies, and a base for the resistance. How do you like our new headquarters, everyone?"

"No, Isaac," Sage interrupted. "We can't stay here."

"What? Why not?"

"If we stay here, the Alliance knows exactly where to find us. They'll just send reinforcements from somewhere else and take the base back."

"I see," Isaac said with disappointment. "Then what do we do?"

"We have to go back into hiding, but at least we should destroy this base so the Alliance can't use it in the future." Sage issued his order: "Prep the remaining mobile suits here for transport and gather all the supplies you can. Isaac, I want you to use that Leo to destroy the base. Make sure there's nothing left."

The team took everything they could onto a pair of carriers. They had 6 Space Leos, some weapons, fuel and ammo, and other supplies. Isaac, in the seventh Leo, waited for them to clear out before taking his beam rifle into hand.

He tore the base asunder from the inside out, blasting apart walls and equipment. His fight was far from over, but he unleashed his hatred of the Alliance and of the Earth at that moment, inflicting all of his pain back on these things in full force. He had suffered so long, and here he could finally take his first steps to freeing himself and his people. Amid all the violence, Isaac could not help but think back to the day he and Sage first met.

"How did you get that wound, Isaac?" Sage asked.

Isaac put a hand over the bandage on his neck, staring vacantly away. "We hadn't eaten in days," he answered. "We were desperate, so I wanted to steal food from the Alliance base."

Sage continued to listen quietly. The gray-haired boy continued, "They told me I was crazy-that it was suicidal. Richard said he wanted to help me. So we went. We screwed up, and they saw us. We tried to run..."

Isaac could not hold back his tears any longer. He cried openly. "They killed him, Sage. Those Earth bastards killed him because he was hungry! They killed him because I wanted him to help me. It was all my fault. It was my fault he died!" He clenched his teeth and sobbed, possessed by a deep sadness and regret.

Sage looked upon the child sadly. "I won't tell you not to blame yourself. Your friend chose to follow you, and he paid the price for it. If you make a mistake, people die. That's what it means to be a leader."

Isaac became quiet and accepted this reality. Sage continued, "But you did not deserve what happened to you. No one deserves to live in such cruelty and desperation. The Alliance did this to you. It inflicts this evil on all of our families. I long for a day when we can live without fear of violence or have to go on without hope. Martians, too, deserve to stand in the sun and be proud, but this cannot happen so long as a corrupt and foreign evil controls us."

Sage was surprised when the young Isaac sat up from his patient bed, a fierce fire burning in his eyes, emanating from the embers deep in his soul.

"What are you going to do?"

Isaac's mobile suit stood among the flames of the ruined Alliance base. He took off the helmet of his normal suit, a scar visible on the side of his neck. He was no longer the same helpless child who cried for his friend. The conflagration cracked and pulsed all around him, as if bending to his will, beckoning him forward. He recalled the words he said in answer to the question Sage had asked of him that day.

"I will bring justice to this world."

Act Special, Episode I: Rebellion, End

-Seraphic

8.3.13

A man throws away a life of peace to lose himself in the horrors of war, and a new generation of pilots steps forward to face the greatest threat the Earth has ever seen. Next time on New Mobile History Gundam Wing: The Sword,

Act II, Episode I: Forging Swords

Reference Materials:

GW: The Sword, Martian Timeline (Incomplete)

AC 120- Relay stations are constructed on Deimos and Phobos, Mars' moons. Space colonies are established in orbit around Mars, populated mostly by engineers and laborers.

AC 130- Resource satellites are sent into orbit between Earth and Mars as relay stations between the two planets.

AC 133- The United Earth Sphere Alliance is formed.

AC 140- The space colonies of Earth relinquish the right to self-rule under the Alliance. The Martian colonies are conquered within a few years.

Civil unrest exists in the Earth space colonies for several decades. Martian colonies are slowly developed and populated, put to work gathering resources and "wrangling" asteroids from the nearby asteroid belt to convert to resource satellites.

AC 165- Heero Yuy is elected as representative of Earth's space colonies. His influence does not spread to Mars, and Martian citizens continue to labor under the Alliance without hope for independence.

AC 173- The Romefellar Foundation begins developing mobile suits for use in combat.

AC 175- Heero Yuy is assassinated. The Organization of the Zodiac (OZ) is formed. The scientists disappear from the MS project.

AC 182- Sanc Kingdom falls.

AC 187- The Martian Colony economy is crashing rapidly. Little to no aid is sent from Earth due to internal conflicts and limited resources.

AC 193- Treize Khushrenada takes command of OZ. Sage Schneider returns to Mars after retiring from OZ.

AC 195- The Gundams are sent to Earth.

The Alliance is destroyed on Earth, but its Martian arm still exists. It becomes desperate and isolationist.

Martian rebels fight back against the Alliance occupation.