Chapter 2 U.C. 218

            The metallic city gleamed in the sunlight, a monolith in the middle of a huge crater. Few plants could grow, as there was little carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Human life, however, could exist well, and needed to. The planet was fairly cold, averaging 4 degrees Celsius. This problem was being solved; large greenhouse gassing machines were created to thicken the atmosphere, thus raising the global temperature. This time around mankind would be courteous and careful with their planet, all use of synthetic fossil fuels and the like were banned. Life was good here, but there is something happening. Political unrest had plagued the fledgling government. Though the colonist had left the war, they clung on to their beliefs, and their faction, and they still had grudges imbedded deep into them. They would never forget the One Year War, or what they had fought for…

            “Hello Jarred. I have the information you wanted,” Said a young man, sitting down in a private boot, apparently inside a bar, “Do you have my money?” An older man, sitting down opposite him nodded, “Yes, now, what mechanical plans did you manage?” The young man seemed nervous, he wiped the sweat off his forehead, “I couldn’t find much, but it should be enough.” He leaned over, speaking softly, “Complete plans on the Zaku II, everything you need to build one, weapon designs for its complete load-out. Everything you need to know about ammo storage, Minovsky physics manual, pilot training, complex plans for various types of Mobile Suit reactors, everything.” He then settled into his seat, waiting for a response, anything… Jarred smiled, “It’s not much, but Zakus are better than nothing. I’m sure that data will be very helpful. He passed him a packet, filled with credits. “We should be able to make more advanced equipment from this.” The young man sighed a sigh of relief. They shook hands, and under their breath said, “Seig Zeon” Very quickly, a data disk fell from the young man’s sleeve to Jarred’s.

            “Fina Patterson reporting for duty!” A recruit officer looked up, and stood up, shaking her hand. “Ah, so you want to join the peacekeeping forces Mam?” Fina pulled out a chair, and responded proudly, “Yes, I feel it’s my duty to serve, as my mother did for the Earth Federation.” The officer picked up a Computer Pad and taped it with a pen-like piece of plastic, “Alright, I’ll bring up your profile and ask you a few questions.” The office was quite plain, except for the standard recruitment posters. “Alright, you say your mother was a Federal soldier, what did she do exactly?” Fina, though proud of her mother, she was a bit touchy on the subject, “She was a pilot, she flew fighters early in the One Year War, then she was assigned to a GM ground-type and fought on earth up till, well, we don’t know what happened to her…” Her eyes began to water, but she quickly regained her composure, “We left on the New Beginnings before we knew about her. We don’t know if she survived the war.” Fina saw the man, he seemed sorry he asked, almost everyone had to leave someone, and she was just another story to him. “Ok, just a few more questions…” He began to read some more, but something happened. An explosion rang from the streets. “The hell?” He ran out, Fina following. He took his pistol out of his holster, but was shot in the head before he could bring it up. Fina saw, blood shot outward, covering her face. In a frantic rush, she dived, grabbed his pistol, and took cover. Apparently Zeon fanatics had destroyed a small barracks, probably the government controlled police HQ. Damn them. Thought Fina. Mother fought the Zeon, and I will too! She peaked around the corner, but she could not see the shooter. Crack, the steel structure of the recruit office was hit, barely missing her head. Sniper, no way I can deal with him… She took cover, but she heard something, what was it? Suppressed gunfire, they must’ve gotten the sniper. She got up, and dashed into the office entrance, now hanging open. Another shot. Darkness consumed her. The special police had gotten a sniper, but at another location. Her body slumped onto the ground like a lifeless doll.

            “Bill, I need to talk to you, privately.” Said Bill’s boss, a Chun. They walked to his office, and Bill knew something was wrong. “Bill, we got a call from the hospital, you daughter Fina has been injured badly.” Bill, now in a state of panic, asked to be excused. Chun nodded, and in a flurry, he ran out. His coworkers tried to ask him what happened, but he was running, not listening at all. Luckily, his office wasn’t far from the City Center, where the hospitals were housed. Running as fast as his middle-aged body could take him. Now out of breath, he opened the large glass door and ran to the desk. “Listen!” He tried to catch his breath, but he needed to speak quickly, “I need to see my daughter, Fina Patterson!” The desk worker took her time, obviously not caring about him or his daughter. “Damnit lady! Punch her name up!” He was visibly pissed, and the desk worker now saw it, and quickened up her pace considerably. “Yes sir, she is in room 13B on floor 3, now are you family or frei.” He cut her off and ran to the elevator. God I hate my job, she thought. The elevator ride seemed to last forever. A “Ding” chimed and the door opened. Bill ran out, 13B, 13B, 13B, there! He rushed to the door, and quickly opened it. Fina was lying in bed, doctors surrounding her, consulting. “Sir, are you the father?” Asked a doctor caringly. “Yes.” He said in a puff, now trying to catch his breath, wiping sweat off of his face. “She is very lucky. Shot in the chest by a sniper, barely missed her heart. The impact knocked her on the ground and gave her a minor concussion, caused her to pass out.” Bill grabbed her hand, father and daughter…

            Jarred Kolokev, he walked down a passageway, and stopped and entered a dark room. “Hello gentlemen,” He said, with quite a thick Russian accent, “I have the data you wanted.” At the end of the table a man stood up, “Excellent, would you care to put the disk in the computer, I would like to show our fellow members.” Apparently of a French decent, he was tall and had a pistol strapped on his side. “Yes, of course Gregory.” Jarred walked to the computer, and inserted the data disk. The projector lit up, displaying various schematics for the Zaku II components. After a bit of it was shown, Gregory stood, “Excellent. I shall send this data to our engineers, we should have a working Zaku II within the week. This shall be the rebirth of Zeon!” Making a fist, his hand shot into the air, and the others followed suit, “Seig Zeon!” Their call rang throughout the halls of the Greenhouse terraforming structure.

            “Uh, sir, we received something from the HQ. Plans for a mobile suit.” Said an engineer, “ I can’t believe they got this data!” A man in blue coveralls look at him, “Let me see that,” with that get grabbed a disk from the engineer’s hand and put it into his computer, “Heh, a Zaku, my father piloted one for a while during the One Year War, preparations have made ready, right?” The engineer looked excited, he knew how important his duty was. Within the underground factory a special subterranean hanger had been built, complemented with a complete mobile suit construction area. Using mobile suit construction techniques used by Zeon to quickly and cheaply build Zakus. All that was needed was the actual Zaku plans. “Yes sir, our men are ready to begin construction on an initial test Zaku unit, but it will be a while till we get the needed components to make the reactor, stuff for ammo, you know, the basics. Right now I’ll help our lead engineers familiarize themselves with this old tech. We can have one within two and a half weeks." The man kept looking at the data. The rebirth of Zeon, finally my father’s ideals will be realized, “Good.”

            “Mr. President, I need to speak to you,” said a young woman, “It’s about the terrorist activity, the Zeon extremist.” The older man looked up, visibly fatigued, most likely from dealing with the recent events, “Yes, what is it?” The woman placed a data disk and some papers, well, though called paper, more like a piece of plastic in which a permanent pen would be used, on his desk, “President Manchester, I have a proposal. We need to do something about these Zeon; they are far more than terrorist or extremist. There is a possibility that they have managed to smuggle mobile suit plans. Even now they could be mass producing such mobile weapons as we speak.” Paul was visibly shaken. This is impossible… The terror of mobile suit warfare in such a situation, with a global population of around 15,000 people, I could not afford to loose lives. There are only five major cities on this planet; a war could completely destroy everything. “How do you know this?!” She just looked down at the papers, and that was all that was needed. Intelligence reports. Encrypted burst transmissions from Hudson City… “We only got a little bit from it the end, but it’s more that enough to be scary. Paul, I’ll be frank, they could have a working Zaku II within days. Do you think we should consult the main computer?” With his voice shaking, Paul managed a response, “Yes, this is our only resort, send everything to the factory. Spare no expense, we must have working suits and pilots ASAP.” She looked at him, “ You do know we don’t have access to lunar titanium, we will have to use normal high tensile steel.” A nod sent her off.