Chapter 3

After the battle, we made our way to Luna II, a moon base.

It was the first time I had seen the moon up close. Turns out, it was just a huge ball of rock in the sky, gray as ash.

It was also here that we officially joined the Earth Federation Army.

"Are these reports real, Ensign Noah?"

General Revil asked the nervous-looking Ensign after he gave a very urgent report. He called from the lunar base down to Earth just to send his reports.

Reports that had pretty significant impacts to the war.

" Sir! These reports are accurate!"

Even with the confirmation and evidence sent to him, he still couldn't believe his eyes.

An unknown, yet powerful mobile suit prototype had basically landed in their lap.

Looking at the weapon armament, he could clearly see how advanced it was for its time.

A bazooka capable of firing a specialized round packed with shrapnel.

This weapon alone made the engineers in Jaburo go insane and they started mass-producing it for Operation Odessa.

With this, they now have an artillery advantage over the Zeon forces occupying that region.

However, the true highlight of the report is this.

The Beam Magnum Rifle.

A very powerful weapon for a special mobile suit.

The test showed that it was 4 times stronger than the Gundam's beam rifle, but at the cost of higher energy consumption. It had only 15 shots in total, with each E-mag containing 5 shots.

A high-energy consumption weapon.

But the results are worth it.

Currently, the engineers are still trying to find and design a prototype of the weapon that won't kill the users.

All simulated tests show that, when fired, the weapon's recoil will kill the user immediately.

The Unicorn is truly a unique mobile suit, as it can fire without damage.

And then there's the boy.

"Keep the boy. He's currently homeless and lost, right?" Ensign Noah nodded. "Then conscript him as part of the White Base crew."

"I would give you this special mission. You must keep the mobile suit and its pilot safe. Zeon must not get their hands on it. If they capture the Unicorn, they'd be unstoppable."

" Now, I want your ship and mobile suits to join the European front in Operation Odessa. I want to see the Unicorn in action.

"But, sir! Mika is just a child. He doesn't know how to properly pilot the Unicorn yet." Bright protested. He had seen how the boy acted. Innocent and ignorant but willing to learn. Too bad it's in the middle of a war; otherwise, he would send the boy straight to a military academy.

"I know, but we don't have a choice. Your pursuer is the Red Comet, Char Aznable." General Revil told him in a grim tone.

"That man easily won the battle. If he stole the Unicorn and the Gundam, then we are done for." Bright nodded to the general's words.

He had seen the Red Comet in action himself and feared what he might do with the MS under his command.

"We will protect the unicorn and the gundam, sir!" He saluted the older gentleman.

The General saluted him back.

"Now go, we'll meet at Jaburo. Have a safe journey, soldier."

The call ended.

Luna II was a beautiful planet.

Sadly, I can't appreciate it now because of training.

Currently, Amuro and I are in our MS, helping me practice flying in space and the ins and outs of my Unicorn.

Watching over us from the observation deck is Lt. Ryu, who guided us through various maneuvers using military call signs.

It was an enlightening experience. Flying through space is liberating. It was like all of my worries were gone, and I was free.

While practicing, we are also observed by various scholars and scientists who study our MS performance.

They concluded that the Unicorn prototype was vastly different from Tem Ray's (Amuro's father) design.

Unicorn is more heavily armored than Gundam or Guncannon, with its multi-segmented armor plating. Tests show that it can withstand a lot of punishment before the plating fails.

However, due to this armor, the unicorn is significantly heavier than the Gundam. This is the reason why I'm so slow and rigid in my movements. Luckily, it was circumvented by the fact that it had multiple powerful thrusters.

In conclusion, the unicorn is a heavily armored mobile suit designed to handle and take on multiple or heavy targets and win.

Sadly, our fun activities came to an end as it was time to leave.

Upon finding out the nature of our departure, I frowned.

The Luna II couldn't take the refugees (the survivors of Amuro's home), so the White Base had to go to Jaburo, a stronghold on Earth.

I was also pulled aside by Cpt. Noah, who informed me of my enlistment in the army. This is done to protect and safeguard my MS from Zeon.

I didn't object, of course. They are currently my best bet for learning about my MS.

Amuro had taught me the history of their war, and I concluded that I prefer staying with the Federation. The Zeon Empire is just too unstable right now for me to choose between them.

Now, there remains one problem.

I don't have a last name to enlist.

In my world, peasants don't have the luxury of family names. This is a privilege reserved only for nobles and those they bless.

Cpt. Noah gave me his.

I am now Mika Noah, a proud member of the White Base crew, pilot of the Unicorn.

Meanwhile, Eve returned. I was once again in the black void, this time recognizing it as space as I enjoyed the glittering stars.

You have survived!!!

You can now learn and upgrade rank 1 perks.

She then gave me a list of perks.

I then found out that perks are Attributes that can affect me. Like for example, Rage; it can drastically improve my performance in battle but it had a mental drawback.

Looking through the list, I found 2 perks that I like.

Diligent and Concentration.

Diligent allows me to learn things 10% faster (which I asked Sayla what percent was) or 1/10 faster than normal.

Concentration meanwhile allowed me to easily concentrate on taking my shots, helping in live combat to get things done and allowing me to find the pin point accuracy shot.

The uniform is stuffy, but I kinda like it. It feels like I'm important.

Currently, we are cruising towards Earth with four Salamis ships as escorts.

As we slowly approach Earth, I can't help but wonder.

Is this what my world looks like from above?

If I return, I will certainly get a ship of my own and fly up to see our world from above.

Unfortunately, our journey hit a snag.

Zeon Musai ships intercepted us. There were six of them, and countless Zakus.

Me and Amuro were forced to sortie out to fight the enemy MS before they came close to the ship. We must assure the safety of our civilian cargo.

A massive firefight broke out between 6 Zeon ships and 5 Federation ships.

I followed Amuro's lead in confronting the enemy.

Unlike before, I had mastered the basics of flying and gun discipline. This fight will not be like the last one.

Before I knew it, the two of us were in the midst of a battle with the enemy MS as ships layered their covering fire against one another.

I easily scored my first kill when one of the Zaku's overconfidently tried to take me out with an axe while firing his machine gun. My shield easily blocked the machine gun fire and swiped at him with my Beam Sword, cutting him in half before exploding in gore.

I then deployed my Hyper Bazooka and fired at a group of Zaku's that tried flanking towards the White Base. Shrapnel shredded them to pieces, while the survivors were picked off by the ship's AA guns.

Meanwhile, I saw Amuro fighting the red Zaku again. This I would help him but Sayla's call stopped me.

"Mika! You need to destroy those ships. Bright gave permission to fire the Magnum Rifle!"

"But be warned, we are entering Earth's atmosphere in 2 minutes. Both of you need to be inside the ship at that time. Understand?!"

"Roger!"

Looks like Amuro is on his own this time, but it doesn't mean I can't give him a helping hand.

"Amuro!" I called out to him before throwing my Hyper Bazooka to him. It was only had a few shots left until it was empty.

"Thanks!" He caught the weapon and once again engaged the red Zaku.

Putting my thrusters on full power, I charged through the hail of laser fire from enemy ships. However, an MS interceptor forced me into a merry chase. Bullets and RPG rounds flew behind me as they tried to ward me off from their ships. I answered with my Vulcan rifles, killing one of them with a lucky headshot.

As the clock ticked down, I grew desperate as the Zaku hounded me. At the one-minute mark, I had enough.

Pulling out the Beam Magnum Rifle, I aimed and pulled the trigger at the Zaku following me.

The results are devastating.

It tore through their group, killing some unlucky soldiers caught in the line of fire. But the unluckiest ones were the few soldiers in the range of the beam particles. The super-heated particles immediately cooked them alive in their mobile suits before exploding.

With their group in tatters, I took this chance to relieve our ships. I fired three times, each one hitting key areas of the enemy ships causing them to explode immediately.

Time was up.

I immediately raced towards the Whitebase open hanger as we started our descent to earth.

Meanwhile our escorts bid us goodbye and a safe journey before leaving. The once 4 Salamis escorts who joined us left with only two ships.

I grimly nodded to the fallen.

Amuro is still outside!" Kai screams from the upper decks.

"Don't come out, Mika. We're already descending. Amuro is on his own now." Captain Bright's voice stopped me from going out to save my friend.

So I grimly waited as we listened to Amuro's voice on the radio as we entered Earth.

It was the most tense five minutes of my life.

Until Amuro started speaking, we all felt relieved. The Gundam pilot had survived. He then explained what happened once he entered the ship.

Turns out, an enemy Zaku had grabbed him pulled him down to Earth's atmosphere, intending to kill them both. Fortunately, Amuro was able to free himself but it's too late for him go back to the ship as he was being pulled by Earth's gravity (scary thing). It was a huge miracle that his dad had installed a cooling system to allow the Gundam atmospheric re-entry without killing the pilot.

And that's how I survived my first real fight against the Zeon army. We are finally safe.

Or so we thought.

In the midst of the fierce battle in space, we missed our supposed trajectory to Jaburo, South America.

We had landed deep in enemy territory. The Zeon occupied territory in North America.

Cpt. Bright had called for help, but it was of no use. We were too deep in enemy territory for any help to come. However, they would send supply runs to our ships as often as possible, but we had to fight our way out.

What a harrowing situation!

All crew members in White Base are now fully alert. We could be attacked anytime and anywhere.

As we cruise through enemy territory, I tried to familiarize myself with my MS and this war I found myself in.

A Mobile Suit, or MS, is originally created by the Zeon Empire. They were created for the sole purpose of putting a soldier into space. It's because Zeon is in a disadvantage in ship-to-ship combat, as the Federation outnumbers them. It was proven in the battle of Loum, where Zeon's fleet was supposed to be wiped out in that battle.

Was.

In this battle, the Zaku's debuts in a blaze of glory as they single-handedly changed the tide of war before ending it by capturing General Revil of the Earth Federation. Upon his capture, a ceasefire and treaty were established before a full-blown war erupted.

This time, Mobile suits dominated the battlefield. Easy to deploy and much more powerful and maneuverable than tanks or fighters, Zeon MS became the new standard in warfare.

The Federation tried stealing a Zaku or two but Zeon's MS security protocol is tight. MS can only have one user and only they can use it unless they give authorization for a new user. If the pilot dies before a new user is validated, the MS would only allow a blood relative to operate and authorize a new user.

Due to this, Earth Federation were forced to build MS of their own from scratch.

This led to the development of the Gundam, Guncannon and Guntank, the first generation MS of the Earth Federation.

Earth Federation had cracked the code in developing MS and their unique capabilities.

One of them is the space inventory, a unique subspace where an MS can put and pull their weapons and any supplies, but with a given limit based on their overall energy capacity. This was done through a convoluted application of the Minosky particles, which is a whole can of worms in itself.

It's the main reason why my MS hasn't been depleted of ammo, but I'm getting there. It's my Hyper Bazooka that's dangerously low on ammo. Captain Bright assured me that Jaburo is currently fabricating replacements for the scattershot ammunition in my Hyper Bazooka, as they plan to mass-produce it for the war.

Now, I have something to look up after the supply run comes.

We finally hit our first snag in the journey, an entire army ambushing us.

All of us MS pilots were deployed, even Lt. Ryu joined in with the Guntank with Hayato.

It was the first and most massive fight I had experienced.

Gunfire filled the air as the huge Guntank took the front while firing its Gatling guns against flying Dopps and firing its main cannons agains tanks and Zakus with Kai who is in the Guncannon.

Meanwhile, Amuro and I took charge to break the enemy lines as we dived into their lines.

Fighting in space is vastly different from fighting on Earth.

I was significantly heavier and slower under the effects of gravity. My movements were slow and clunky. This allowed the enemy to focus on me. Fortunately for me, my armor and shield could withstand machine-gun fire and RPGs, and with Amuro and the others covering me, I'm safe.

We easily won this battle, but at the cost of Amuro's mental health, as he watched the dying soldiers.

He took it badly and locked himself in his room.

Capt. Bright gave him a wake-up slap in the process. It worked surprisingly.

Amuro then asked me why it didn't bother me.

I answered him honestly.

War and death bothered me, but I focused more on surviving than on thinking about it. As long as we lived, I was happy. Also, I needed to live in order to achieve my goals.

He thought about my answer before asking me about my goal.

I didn't tell him.

He wouldn't approve of it. No one will.

At the climax of our escape, Zeon forces had cornered us in a ruined city.

We then hid the ship in a huge stadium, with numerous Zeon Airships, Gaws, bombing the entire city.

At this time, Amuro was playing guerrilla warfare against Zaku scouts in the area while I took a position inside the ship's hull with my Beam Magnum ready.

That's when we saw the opportunity to take out our pursuers

"All weapons fire!" Cpt. Bright ordered, as the Gaws was now in position in our kill zone.

Whitebase entire weapons system fired in unison as I fired.

They were annihilated.

Amuro came back, confirming a few kills among the scouts before we left.

Our actions have consequences.

The Zeon leaders, the Zabi family, had announced the death of their youngest scion at our hands and promised revenge.

They made him a martyr, which would ignite the flames of war.

The real fight is just beginning.

Chapter end

Author notes.

MS in this fic are more like power armors or IS from Infinite Stratos. Some MS are nerfed and some get buffed like the Guntank which is now a tank size behemoth.

Mika is using Unicorn Gundam (basic version) so no I-field, Gatling Guns or Psycho Frames.