Chapter 2 (continued) Part 1

Return back to the ship?

Its 4.02pm. As the light of the artificial sun started to weaken, Marida was talking to the receiver in the public phone. (Thats right). Zinnerman answered.

(End the search for the time being and come back before the deal begins. Same goes for Alec and Besson.)

Its been more than 2 hours since they lost her. They didnt have a way to break through the large construction area, and its true that they were just wasting time. However, they ended their search too quickly. Marida looked at the electric car that was parked beside the public phone on the road. Alec, who was in the drivers seat, was staring at the neighboring buildingthe school compound of Anaheim Electronics. Its impossible to see from here, but Besson should be behind the school watching through the same method.

Of course, nobody could guarantee that the student will come back. But after the huge commotion in the construction area, its impossible for him to stay there, and therere no other leads. Marida looked at the watch to see that theres still some time before the transactions done, and said with a somewhat anxious voice, .

We know the identity of the student who helped her escape. Most likely, it may be something related to the Foundation. Once we wait for him to come back

That Foundation contacted us already. The location of the transaction is changed to the space colony builder.

The fingers holding onto the phone trembled. The Vist Foundation that made contact with her is now requesting a change in location for the dealand in their territory too. Feeling the irritation of having the initiative snatched from them, Marida asked: (Play dumb) Zinnerman said.

(We have no idea of what their intentions are, but we can only pretend that we know anything. Go get ready just in case something happens.)

Then, shouldnt we be going to the colony builder together instead of going back to the Garencieres? Marida wanted to say instinctively, but swallowed her words. The assumption here Zinnermans thinking of isnt something that can be handled with just one or two people being on guard, but mobile suits that have to be on standby.

Itll be great if Vist Foundation, who deliberately opened their stronghold, hand her over. If not, at that timeMarida answered understood as she watched the school gate of Anaheim Electronics. It seemed that its after school, and the students that were in plainclothes were laughing and walking out from the gate to the electric car carpark.

What causes them to laugh like this? Marida saw a young woman pushing a baby cart along, walking beside them, and felt really happy. Its not because that she imagined these pedestrians getting involved in the assumed situation. Once theyre involved, its easy for their lives to vanquish easily. However, they will never dream of such a thing. They never actually thought about their deaths actively or subconsciously, and think that todays just like yesterday. Marida was really unhappy as she understood that peace was just a mistake made by this group mentality, and that it was extremely fragile.

I took in too much air outside, she thought. Even though she wanted to capture that student called Banagher and interrogate him about her whereabouts, she herself isnt suited to do this kind of work. She wanted to get rid of this tight-fitting clothing and return to the ship

(Its finally time. Lets go check out whats in that treasure box.)

Zinnerman said through the phone, perhaps reading through her thoughts. Marida wasnt looking at the strangers, but looked up at the sky of the warm space colony that made her uncomfortable.

Below Maridas feet, about 50m away from the inner walls, at the outer walls of Industrial 7 thats in direct contact with vacuum, two objects were closing in.

The larger one was more than 15m in diameter, and the two objects that were of irregular shapes look like normal pieces of rock in the shoal space region. The pilot of the that was hidden on the back of the solar panel, Savoir, saw it. Its unknown whether it was a block of dirt from the destroyed portion of the space colony, or whether theyre debris from some mineral refining satellite. Either way, its moving at the same speed as Industrial 7, and even if it touches the space colony, it will only graze the outer wall. The port managements radar should have detected it. if they decide that theres danger, they can set up countermeasures like using the colony-defense missiles to change the trajectories and so on. Savoir made this conclusion, and didnt pay attention to the enlarged visual of the CG.

If he focused attention on a certain point, the overall surveillance will be eased. He has been watching outside alone for more than 12 hours, and he had already listened to the music he took out to listen to pass the time once. He felt that his concentration was weakening. He opened the visor of the helmet and used a tissue paper to wipe away the sweat. Savoir looked at the numerous windows on the all-view monitor. The 4 miniature camera devices that were set around the machine showed their visuals over to the cockpit of the Geara Zulu. There were the lights of a civilian ship that came into the dock, the subway lights thats running on the outer wall of the space colony, and the two blocks of rock that were closing in. Savoir checked that everything was normal, and thought that it will be over in another 3, 4 hours. Once the deals done, he can return to the and stretch his limbs nicely. He, who hasnt had more than a thousand hours of flying, was treated as a rookie by the crew of the , and is finishing a days worth of recon without handing over his duties

Suddenly, the surveillance camera showed a signal, and the broadcast channel music that was playing inside the cockpit became static. Savoir hurriedly put his hand on the arm-raker, amplified the volume of the high frequency wireless radio and concentrates his consciousness on the countless conversations through the statics. The signal vanished after about 10 seconds, and Savoir heaved a sigh of relief.

Thats probably interference from the Minovsky Particles! Someone must have scattered the particles around this region to jam the electric waves as it expand, but the interference this time is really big. For precautions sake, Savoir did all sorts of mechanical tests, and checked the visuals of the surveillance cameras. There was nothing different from before other than the two blocks of rock moving behind the space colony and entering the blind spot of the camera.

However, Savoir didnt know that the Minovsky Particles interference for that moment was so strong that even the port radar that had shielding parts was covered. The two pieces of rock then used this moment to change directions, not being what Savoir expected.

The uneven rocky surfaces let out glows from the control boosters, and the two stone blocks were slowly approaching . During the short amount of time while the boosters let out thrust, the stone blocks attained relative velocity to the rotational speed of the space colony, and they were stuck on a part of the outer wall that had the Wheels on it. Then, the thing that looked like a stone block from the outside seemed to explode like a balloon; and what appeared inside was obviously an artificial object.

The tea-brown body that was inorganic like rock had limbs that didnt seem to have anything to do with a solid object. Also, the eye-like visor that had the function of covering the sensor on the head made it seem like its a mobile suit humanoid weapon, but theres a lot of characteristics that didnt fit it. It copied the traditional look of the Federation Army made mobile suits, but its head is so flat that it feels like it was hit, and it is only 12m tall, 2 sizes smaller than a standard mobile suit. The mechanical shoulders do not have any hands at the wrists, only wrists that were designed uniquely for this squarish unit. The advantage of this mobile suit is that its very versatile in terms of use, as its arms can be used to holster weapons. Based on this, the state right now doesnt look very efficient.

However, this is only one form of the D-50C machines. The two removed their stone exteriordummy balloons used for disguise, and got close to the space colony while being hidden in Minovskys Particles, and the machines that were obviously much smaller than mobile suits were facing the outer walls of the Wheels.

The stars in the background were moving relatively to the rotational speed of the colony, and the machines draw out the mechanical arms from under the wrists. The tip of the beam burners melt the outer wall of the Wheels. Unlike a beam saber thats a concentrated form of beam, the beam burner shoots out hi-energy mega-particles directly, causing the outer wall of the Wheels to melt like butter. Less than several seconds later, more than 10m square of the outer wall is sliced off, and both manage to successfully enter the place. One machine enters, and the second machine goes into to weld the outer wall from the inside. This is to simply weld the important parts and not spend too much time when escaping.

Theres no air filled in this outermost area of the Wheels as the metallic frames were still being built. The ceiling is less than 10m tall, and the materials that were left aside were left behind the pillar, creating a view similar to the bottom of a ship or below a jumping board. As the at the back is welding, the machine at the front sneaks into the narrow space, and ducks down as its feet touches the ground. It looks like it fell as it touched the ground because of gravity, but this is the correct operating process of this machine.

Just as its feet are about to touch the ground, the caterpillar units that are installed at the back are deployed; and the 2 set of crawlers that bore 4 wheels each bore the weight of the unit as it land. Both legs then reached forward, and the thigh-equivalent parts were extended forward. The upper arms slide back, and the two wrist are attached to the left and right side of the machine, forming a machine with limbs all over the place.

The flattened head is half-entrenched back inside the body, and the six-wheeled crawlers that are equipped behind the thighs of the land on the ground. The thats not a humanoid shape but a tank now moves its four crawlers and went forward as a tank. The behind it transforms into a tank too without waiting for its ally to move far, and men in normal suits came out from the troop transport room behind it. They then leave the machine under zero gravity and use the boosters to go all over the place before quickly starting on their designated missions.

The smart normal suits that look like theyre for pilots to use have bulletproof vests with magazine pouches worn on the outside, and the holsters of the M-92F automatic pistol are attached onto their right legs. The arms and knees have hardened plastic guards, and there are recoilless rifles slung behind the shoulders. The men are all wearing this equipment, and didnt do any unnecessary movements. The boosters that have jet fire caps to reduce the lights are moving, and the profiles of the people wearing helmets can be seen landing on the ground, not minding the gravity on their bodies as they begin to deal with the access hatches on the wall and the ground. They have to restore the alarm mechanism as the outer wall was melted, set up a mechanism for them to maintain contact with each other even with the effects of Minovsky Particles, and establish connections to control systems that manages lifelines and safety system. The assignment is completed in less than one minute, and during this time, the thats moving in front went down the split path and disappeared. In this faint passage with neither air nor sight of crowds, the rumbling of the caterpillars is slowly echoing as it moves further and further away.

The slight tremble echoed through the ground, causing the machine to jerk, and reach Commander Daguza Mackle in the control room. 45 seconds after the operation began, Daguza said were through, and a short (Go) went through the wireless communication, letting Daguza know that the relay device is set up.

Safety system.

(Go)

Governor.

(Go)

After a hushed exchange, the fully-armored men end their work and return to the . The last one moves through the back of the vehicle, and Daguza indicate the pilot sitting at the front to start moving. The Strategic Naval Research InstituteSNRI developed mini core reactor gives off power that wont lose to an ordinary reactor as it moves the 4 crawlers. Daguzas jerked as it does not move down the path the front unit went through, but through the narrow hatch.

The small size of the reactor allows the machine to be smaller, but the can carry quite a few people. As a transforming mobile suit, it also has to fulfill the specs of a transport carrier during special missions, so, needless to say, it holds a transport room that can hold 8 troops inside. The control room can also contain 3 people, the captain, the driver and the communication personnel, and has the function of a command vehicle once it reaches a combat zone. On the screen at the captains seat, Daguza summoned out the map of . The flatscreen image of the space colony has the link between the space colony and the Wheels as the center, and through the light spots, theyre able to tell where Team Alpha and Team Beta are at; allowing Daguza to realize how accurate the Inertia Navigation System (INS)used to grasp locations through accelerations operation and timeis.

The operation has lasted for 1 hour and 40 minutes ever since they launched from the mothership . Theres no delay in their journey, but Daguza isnt taking any risks here. Earth, colonies, asteroidsto the members of ECOAS, special forces of the Earth Federation who believe in fighting no matter where the location is, invading colonies is just something normal for that. The problem is how to finish the mission without being seen. Daguza let the screen roll and focus on the stage of this battle. Down the inner wall of the Wheels, they will reach whats basically equivalent to a dock of Industrial 7, the colony builder that has a unique shape.

Its a large facility governed as a public colony, but in fact, its the base of the Vist Foundation. That place has the target item, the . ECOAS mission is to confirm its existence, prevent them from handing it over to the third party, and if possible, reclaim it. Its not stated, but Daguza knows that attached to the stop word are the words at any costs, and reclaim has the word secretly attached to it. He knows this is a mission that the standard army cant do and a mission that ordinary people cant see, and thats why the ECOAS are recruited. However, how much do their comrades on the command side know? They investigated through the insides of the and the security system, but they have no idea of what the most important box contains. Even if they find it out, he doesnt know how to move it.

Thus, they have to confirm its existence. But with the involvement of the third party, the Sleeves, it can be said to be impossible for them to find this unidentified object. The success of this mission and the safety of the forces will all be in jeopardy unless they act at all costs. Daguza realize that theyre fighting with the savage title of manhunters, opened the visor of his helmet, pull the mask that was at his chin up to his nose before closing the visor.

Through the visor of the normal suit, what can be seen was only a cold expression. That nature of eliminating ones own identity is ECOAS overall nature. In this get up, all members give up on their identities and become machines that will do their missions effectively, closing in on their targets silently and finishing the mission. Theyll disguise the results as an accident. Every person exists, and yet doesnt, and are just a unit that form ECOAS.

They will eliminate the waste thats released from this huge organization called the Earth Federation without anyone knowing, clearing them without mercy. The way some forms of media portray them were right, but parts have no wishes, and wont have any expectations. As long as theyre individuals or organizations, therell be wastage when people live. This is something someone has to doDaguza use this philosophy he adheres to in order to shake away the doubt in his mind and turned his sights back to the screen in front of him.

The two use the short layer under the ground of the colony to quickly move through at top speed and gradually close in at the entry point of the space builder. The time now is 5.06pm, and the is about to take action. Daguza exhales as he watches the time tick by. The breath thats under the incombustible fabric mask brings about a presence of actual combat into the nose.

(All personnel, get to type-2 alert. Mobile Suits are to get ready for launch. Release the airlocks. Pilots, back down.)

The audio broadcast rang through the fleet, and the mobile suit starboard AIR red warning light was flashing. Riddhe Marcenas was checking that the two layers of his helmet were attached as he jumped into the cockpit of the 8th unit of the .

The core reactor was starting to run. Once he turned on the full-screen mode, the screens on the inner wall of the ball-shaped cockpit were being activated one by one, showing all the 20m tall that were around him. On this wide mobile suit deck, the painted with the serial number NA-J005 left the fixate and was moving towards the lift leading to the catapult. The mechanic holding the baton was floating in the air. The next machine that left the fixator was the 4th unit . The warning light