Chapter 13

U.C. 0094.1.25 1450 EOST

Interior of Axis, Axis, Earth Sphere.

In hindsight, it may not have been a good idea to go into the Zaku III without checking that it had power, you know? But in my defense, the cockpit hatch was open and the group would benefit if I could get the Zaku's headlights on.

I didn't account for the cockpit hatch sealing behind me and the cockpit then displaying a nice low power warning on itself, but everyone makes mistakes. The absolute hellish pain I was in thanks to the current migraine I was suffering from didn't make exactly sharpen my decision making skills either.

"Sir! We can't get to you. Is there anything you can do on your side?" Well at least I hadn't been forgotten.

"Unfortunately no. It appears the mobile suit is all out of power, despite what it seemed like." I said over the comms, still castigating myself mentally. "I'll see if there is anything I can do to get the reactor firing from my end."

"Yes sir. We'll do the same."

I disengaged the comm and floated back into the pilot's chair. What a fine mess this had suddenly turned into, but I could have sworn that what's his face was able to boot this Zaku III right up, three years from now. What had changed? Could Helium-3 go bad?

Deciding to be as proactive as possible, I began feeling my way around the controls of the unfamiliar mobile suit. Char had never piloted a Zaku III and I had only been able to examine the piles of parts that Banham said could be assembled into Zaku IIIs, so it was slow going. Despite that I soon had the basic controls and foot pedals figured out and moved onto attempting to pull up something more useful than 'low power' on the monitor.

Fucking Axis, everything took more effort here than it really should have.

If this thing had low power, whatever that meant in a multiton war machine, then how did that one test pilot, Danton I think, manage to get it to work? Tapping away at the armrest keyboard, I managed to make my way to a menu and seeing the 'diagnostic' option, moved to press it.

The machine beeped at me, and a new menu was opened on the monitor.

"Password?" I stared blankly at the scene for a second before realizing what it wanted. This headache was a real killer if I wasn't able to figure out that an unfamiliar mobile suit like this one, an apparently top secret one too, might require a password.

I rapped the side of my normal suit helmet with a closed fist before following it up with a vigorous head shake, akin to a dog shaking water off of itself, attempting to clear the hazy pain that ran rampant through my skull.

"Get your head in the game and stop wasting air." I wasted no time after chastising myself, and started doing my best to decipher...okay, guess a password.

Maybe Axis operated off the keep it simple, stupid principle?

I typed 'password' in. A red flash of incorrect was my response.

Sieg Zeon? Another red flash.

0123456789? Nope.

How about the other way? Nope.

Maybe the name of the test pilot then. Danton? Nope.

Danton Hyleg then?

Again, nope.

Okay, okay. What about 'test pilot'?

Wrong again.

I leaned back into the seat with a huff. Clearly, I did not have a future career in hacking or tech in general.

Maybe I should raise the others outside, see if there had been any progress on their end. I dismissed the option with a shake of my head. I had gotten myself into this mess and I would get myself out of this mess. Hopefully before all of our air ran out.

But then, just before I went back to the probably, most likely, futile task of guessing passwords, my headache abated and a voice rang out inside the cockpit.

"I could help you with that, if you want." A voice that was my voice, but at the same time wasn't my voice spoke next to me.

I jerked in the pilot's seat and swung my head to the left, searching to whatever the hell that just was. But I was interrupted by an index finger cloaked in white reaching through my helmet and poking me right in between my eyes.

"But let's have a talk first."

My vision twisted and twirled before I felt myself being pulled inward. Inky blackness consumed me and I had the strangest sensation of fallings, before I was spit out into a circular expanse of white. At least it looked like a circle.

I looked down at myself and saw that I was in my normal uniform, red coast, white pants and brown riding boots, instead of the normal suit I should have been dressed in. A quick check showed that my helmet had vanished as well.

Then I saw him. He was formless at first and fuzzy around the edges, more like the outline of a person rather than a person. Instead of appearing in front of me, he was approaching from a distance. Then the formlessness of him faded away and I saw a young man in a red Principality uniform, mantel and wonky helmet included, walking toward me. The young captain's upper face was hidden by his signature mask, ostensibly to protect his eyes from solar radiation, but his mouth was arranged in a cocky smirk.

When the captain was halfway to me, or whatever served as halfway in this place, he...I can only say morphed. Gone was the youthful captain and his colorful uniform. In his place was an older man, now dressed in a sleeveless black and red vest with the rank tabs of a lieutenant in the AEUG; with a pair of thick banded sunglasses covering his eyes and his blond hair having been grown out of its military style from before. This man had lost the more youthful stride of his younger self. Now the man walked with purpose, with determination practically emanating off him. This was a man who had a cause, one he wholly believed in. Underpinning the determination was a feeling of hope.

Yet all too soon, the man with determination in his stride and hope in his eyes was washed away. This wasn't the natural(ish) transition from the young officer to the man with a cause, no this was more violent. The roaring sound of fire reached my ears and the man crumbled into dust from the feet up, the ashes cast to the wind. The next form coalesced from those ashes.

The man had been cast, or perhaps reforged, into a leader now. But it was a dark reflection of the previous incarnation. The leader was bespoke in scarlet red and polished gold, with a pinned scarlet cap flaring behind him, fluttering in a wind I couldn't feel. The leader's blue gaze seemed to be determined, a natural evolution of the man from before, but that was a mere illusion. Those eyes burned with madness, with grief, with fanatic desire. Yet all the emotions that projected were aimless to a degree.

Finally, the leader and I were a few steps away from each other, two or three steps from being nose to nose. A mixture of unease and nervousness had been building up in me as the young officer, the man and the leader had been moving closer to me. And something about my stance off. Looking down, I realized that I had unconsciously moved my left foot back. Like I unconsciously feared this thing.

The only sign of my anger at my weakness was the corner of my mouth twitching upwards in an unformed snarl. I lifted my left foot up and stomped it down right next to the right foot, coming to stand in an 'at attention stance.'

Breath in, breath out.

"So what do you want?" I ask the living fragment of Char Aznable in front of me. The fragment crossed his arms and looked me up and down, judgement clear in his eyes.

"You're not exactly much, are you?" Char looked me up and down as he said that, strangely lingering on my coat.

"Were you expecting someone more insane?" I shot back.

Char's lips curled upwards in a half formed smirk. "No need to be so hostile. I am going to be helping you after all."

"Really? Because the last I checked, doing your absolute best to give someone the worst migraine of their lives as they try to navigate a derelict asteroid, in which said asteroid has no power and is filled with gaping holes that lead to the vast nothingness of open space, is the exact opposite of helping. A suspicious person would even call it an attempt at sabotage." I ground out, doing my best to keep my anger from entirely shining through. I had never had a migraine in either of my lives before this and I had discovered that it was definitely not a pleasant experience.

"I apologize for that." Char said, buffing the fingernails of one of his hands on his scarlet jacket. "You managed to put up an extremely strong set of mental barriers during our first meeting. Barriers that prevented our communication until now."

He folded his arms across his chest and raised his eyebrows. "Your mental shields were top notch, I was unable to get through them with even the smallest bit of your attention directed to maintaining them. So when I felt that there was no pushback to my efforts…" He shrugged. "Carpe Diem."

"If you wanted to talk so badly, all you needed to do was arrange an appointment with my secretary." I mirrored his shrug, doing my best to make it even more nonchalant than his shrug had been.

"Do you have a secretary?" Char asked.

I thought about it for a few seconds. "Come to think about it, no I don't have one. Thanks for bringing such a glaring issue to my attention. So if you'll mind letting me out of wherever this is, I'll get back to you when I have one and then you can make an appointment through her."

Char, the annoying bastard, opened his mouth but I cut him off.

"And mind explaining where exactly is here?"

"Of course." He replied. "This is my corner of our soul. Before you ask, this conversation is happening in the milliseconds. It'll barely feel like any time has passed when we're done."

That sounded troubling. "You appear to be under the delusion that there is a conversation to be had."

"There is always a conversation to be had between those with a common goal between them."

Wracking my head for options, I was forced to admit there was nothing I could do to stop the Will, Char, whatever the soul fragment wanted to be called, from having this conversation he seemed to want so much. To my great displeasure.

"Before you carry on with whatever you're doing, I'd like to make one thing clear: this is my soul. Not ours, mine. You are just a...unregistered passenger along for the ride. Or like a blob of cancer."

"Is that supposed to offend me?"

"Not particularly. Cancer is highly resilient. An extremely proficient survivor some would say." I snarked.

"If it makes you feel better, call me whatever you want. But there are still some niceties that I'd like to observe." He smiled. "If that's alright with you."

A silence stretched between us as I realized that he wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"Fine, fine." I finally acquiesced. "I am Full Frontal, Supreme Commander of Neo Zeon. Known as the Red Baron and, I assume, the presumptive next leader of the wider spacenoid independence movement."

I waved a hand at Char. "And you are?"

"Char Aznable, son of Zeon Zum Deikun." He intoned. One second passed, then two, then three.

"Anything else?" I asked.

"No. I am dead as you said earlier." He rolled his shoulders and settled into a wider stance, seeming to rest his weight on the balls of his feet and crossing his arms over his chest. It looked eerily similar to a pose I took up when holding meetings with my captains back at Palau. "But being dead doesn't make the advice I'm about to give you worthless."

I rolled my eyes. "Then you have my full attention."

Char smiled like he knew something I didn't. "What you're planning to do will never work."

He was unwavering in tone or conviction as he said that, and the absolute belief behind that statement made me lock eyes with him. This may have just turned into something.

"What will never work?" I asked him, deciding not to give too much away yet.

Now he rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Reforming the AEUG, attempting to meet the Federation head on, or even coming to this place. It won't work out for you in the end."

"That's a pretty vague statement, care to elaborate?" I mirrored Char's stance.

"You think the Federation can be forced to the negotiation table if you present a large enough threat to make them hesitate to send their fleets against you. You think forming a united front of like-minded spacenoids will make the task of forming said large threat possible. And finally, you think that Axis has what you need to start forming your united front." His tone gradually got harsher and harsher as he carried on, and his face reflected the change in tone. Blond eyebrows furrowed and his mouth settled into a frown. The most unsettling part of the strange gleam his eyes started to shine with. "Your plans fail to take into account those who remain bound by gravity."

A part of myself was urging me to match his hostility with my own, but I wrestled that impulse down. I wasn't going to get into a shouting match in my own head. Or my own soul, whatever. Still the criticism Char laid out to me demanded a response.

"The Federation isn't the untouchable titan it used to be. Your actions in leading the AEUG during the Gryps War saw to that. They've been drained of the best of their mobile suit pilots along with experienced ship crews. The Dublin colony drop has to have wrecked further havoc in the political sphere, not to mention the state Earth must be after you hurled Luna V into it." An eagerness ran through me as my words shored up my determination in my path. "The Federation military has been reduced to a fragment of its former glory. If a united force can be formed and then force them out of their space strongholds, they'll have no choice but to be forced to the negotiation table. We'll control space."

Char didn't look convinced. "Those who remain in gravity's embrace have been at the top for too long to simply give their positions up. They'll never give in. They'll sabotage any attempts at peace and whip the earthnoids into frenzy, resulting in a never ending war you can't maintain."

I scoffed at his declaration. "If this really is as hopeless as you portray it to be, what's your genius solution? Genocide on a planetary scale!?" I chopped a hand through the air. "I'll never sink to those levels. You could have a gun to my head and to the heads of everyone I knew and I wouldn't do it!"

"You're so quick to cast me as the villain, as if you haven't engaged in the same acts I have! But you also know of the corruption that those leaders bound to the Earth possess! They'll never back down, never admit that they could be wrong in their actions, never admit that the people of space are their equals!" Char snarled. "I alone saw the threat that they pose to the future generations and I alone knew what had to be done. If Amuro hadn't intervened or if he had seen the truth as I had, humanity's progress to their future would already be in motion and the Earth would be beginning its long awaited renewal!"

He started pacing back and forth suddenly. "But no! People cling too strongly to the past and remain unwilling to understand the detrimental effect it has on their own children, dooming them to the same struggles they clung to. Just as you are clinging to the past. Axis is a cursed place. The last stronghold of the Zabi family, it bears the legacy of their twisted war against the Federation. A legacy that corrupts all who enter! You should not have come here."

Before my eyes, Char flickered. The imagery of the Principality officer interposed itself on the leader of Neo Zeon before quickly fading away. A blink and you'll miss it moment.

"Who cares about the leaders of Earth?" I cried out, fully engaged in our little argument and ignoring Char's change in appearance. "The assumption that they'll deliberately take the path of hardest resistance is nonsense. They only do that if you make it the only path available!"

"It is the only path!" Char said as we squared off against each other. "To change the future of humanity for the better, the old ways must be excised, root and branch."

"The logic of an extremist." I commented disdainfully. "We'll hold all the chips in our hands. Their food, their power, their way of life, their economy. The Earthnoids will come to the negotiation table once we control those."

"It just requires you to completely destroy the navy that the Principality at its height couldn't."

"Times have changed. Things aren't what they once were. Something you never learned."

Just as it seemed Char would fire back another response, he shook his head and the tension flowed out of his body like water. "You haven't seen enough to recognize the truth in my words. You will in time."

And then, to my utter and absolute disbelief, the fucker faded out of sight. One second he was there, the next he wasn't.

A strangled 'What?' was all that I had time to get out before the same sensation of falling that had heralded my arrival in Char's little domain engulfed me. My vision blacked out and I was expecting to see the inside of an unactivated Zaku III cockpit but then the black that clouded my sight didn't go away.

I was confused for a second before realizing that my eyes were closed. Opening them, the same unactivated cockpit that I had last seen greeted me. No ghostly Char or endless planes of white were present. I was still in my normal suit and I was still stuck in a deactivated mobile suit. With a password screen flashing at me.

And the Will of Char had gotten the final word in.

"Shit!" I yelled, pounding my right fist on the armrest. "You said you'd tell me the damn password!"

Before I could launch into the truly epic tirade I felt coming on, the presence of otherness intruded into what I recognized as my soul.

"The word you're looking for is Almage." Char-the Will- whispered to me before retreating back to his-it's-corner of my soul. Its retreat was followed by me slamming the mental walls from previously back up, as strong as ever. The old walls were reinforced with a second wall right behind it. I was tempted to leave it at that but I guess the Will had done me a solid.

In recognition of that help, I left a...mental message of sorts on the first wall. 'Ring if in need.' It was a neighborly thing to do at the very most. Not that I wasn't going to get it out of my soul at the first opportunity but I was stuck with it.

On to more pressing matters, I checked my chrono and saw that a minute had passed during the span of our conversation. Another thing it was telling the truth about.

"Now the moment of truth." I muttered to myself as I typed 'Almage' on the keyboard and pressed enter.

The screen turned green before fading away. Then there was the signature sound of a mobile suit's reactor igniting and the panoramic cockpit turned on allowing me to see the rest of my team clustered around the chest of my mobile suit. They looked up as I looked down at them, the light from the mobile suit's monoeye had probably tipped them off.

I quickly keyed up the suit's external speakers, recognizing it from my own Geara Doga.

"Good news everyone, we're back in action."

Oooooh, was that an external floodlight switch I spy?

Nice.

One Day Later

"I must say sir, this has exceeded my wildest expectations." Banham commented as we watched yet another batch of mobile suits being loaded onto the Garen. The refitted cargo hauler was in the process of being stuffed to the brim with our haul from the hangers underneath Axis City. After loading was complete, the Garen was making the first trip back to Palau. Now that we had Axis's location, the total trip time had been reduced to about three days, maybe four if the captain wanted to be cautious about Federation patrols.

After I had reestablished contact with my exploration team, I had them all clamber onto the shoulders of the Zaku III and we had used our newfound mobility to explore further than we would have been able to using jetpacks. Using the Zaku's boosters to traverse what we discovered to be a multi leveled hanger, with three levels total. The Zaku III had been located in the uppermost third level. At first we found only empty berths that stretched for as far as our eyes could see in the partially illuminated expanse. But after we had eaten up a kilometer or so we struck the motherlode.

On Level 1, Berth 7 , we found a continuous line of mobile suits. Twenty-seven AMX-006 Gaza-D mobile suits and three AMX-008 Ga-Zowmn. It was the biggest numerical find we managed, but we did come across a damaged AMX-104 R-Jarja. But there was just one issue with the whole lot.

"It is a very impressive find Banham, although I do need one question answered." I asked the Lieutenant Commander.

"Of course sir. What is it?" He quickly responded.

"Why are all of Axis's mobile suits pink?" It was a question that had been bothering me ever since we had started transporting mobile suits up to our base. "I mean seriously, who came up with the idea of painting your multimeter tall war machines the hottest pink known to man? Don't even get me started on the cotton candy R-Jarja colorscheme."

If Banham wasn't as tan as he was, his embarrassment would have been more obvious. "As far as I'm aware sir, some eggheads cooked it up and marketed to high command as a camouflage theme that would blend in more with outer space."

It was a valiant defense but I could see that Banham's heart wasn't in it.

"Did this marketing scheme happen during a time when they were considering downsizing said egghead's department?" I asked.

"It might have sir."

"Then let's take comfort in the fact that these noble machines will soon be adorned in a far more appropriate green paint Banham."

"Yes sir."

"How are they progressing on unearthing that mobile armor that was found?"

"The one from the repair bays?" I nodded and he took a sheet of tablet paper out from his jacket. "We've put the three Ga-Zowmns-" I liked the Ga-Zowmns the best, mostly because they were painted a sensible dark blue. "-and two of the Gaza-Ds on the task of clearing the rubble, under the guidance of the engineers as you instructed."

"Is there an estimate for how long until the rubble is cleared away?"

"I haven't heard a definitive one yet sir, but the last grease monkey I talked to said two more days would be a reasonable estimate."

"Have one ot the 'grease monkeys' get an estimate to me by the end of the day cycle Banham."

"Get that as soon as possible would you."

U.C. 0094.1.28

"Sir! Sir!" Charles, my old friend from the great search of Axis City, rushed up to me, throwing out a salute as he did so. "Captain Zinnerman is on wireless for you." He handed me a blocky radio.

I put aside the numbers I had been crunching and grabbed the radio. "Full Frontal here, report Zinnerman."

Zinnerman, as blunt as ever, got right to the issue at hand. "We've opened up a route."

I stood up. "To the core?"

"That's right. Had to use some explosives but we've made a path that a mobile suit can pass through."

"Cleanly?" I asked, thinking about the nightmare of getting a stuck mobile suit unstuck. In zero gravity.

"Might be missing some paint in a few places after you're done but a mobile suit could get all the way down." Zinnerman informed me.

"Very well Zinnerman, get ready for some company." I clicked off of the radio and called for Banham. Once the officer made his way up from the loading bay, I got started.

"Zinnerman has worked his magic and got us our path to the core Banham. Which ships aren't currently breaking that shipyard out from the rock?" Due to a slowly depleting ability to supply breathable air, we were on an extremely tight schedule.

Once Banham's promised Shipyard 8 on the southern tip of Axis had been located, at least one freighter had been tasked with cutting it free. It had been extremely easy going, Axis had built their shipyards in the shape of a giant rectangle, encased in metal and all that. The techs were confident that we'd only end up having to cut the train tracks connecting the shipyard to its manufacturing blocks before hooking it up to a ship with enough engine power, which would most likely be one of the Musakas, and pulling it to Palau.

The techs also believed that the shipyard's manufacturing blocks, its foundries, assembly lines, and factories, had been built in a similar manner. Enabling us to rinse and repeat the same tactic we were using on the shipyard.

"Freighters 2 and Freighter 4 are docked now." Banham informed me.

"Would I be cutting into anyone's lunchtime?" I asked. "Is it even lunchtime Banham?"

The concise answer I received was 'No, sir'.

"Then load the freighters up and send them to Zinnerman's people. I'll head down ahead of them in the Zaku. You stay here and coordinate with the techs working on getting that mobile armor up here." I clapped Banham on the shoulder in an encouraging manner as I walked past him, happy to finally do some real work that didn't involve piloting mobile suits back and forth from Axis City.

I was in such a good mood at the prospect of new work that I elected to ignore Banham's mutinous mutterings of having been reduced to a secretary. Didn't he know that secretaries made the world go round?

The Zaku III jolted around me as I finished anchoring its feet to the rock of Axis, making sure the feet claws were nice and deep so my ride wouldn't float off once I left it. Satisfied with the suit's grip, I popped the cockpit hatch open, affixed my jetpack attachment to my normal suit, and coasted out of the cockpit.

I'd parked the Zaku right on the doorstep of Zinnerman's tunnel and saw that he had nicely left a series of beacons to mark the way. As I traversed the path, I was pleased to see that Zinnerman had done a fine job of making the path. Where there had once been jagged spikes of metal and impassible boulders that were weighed by the tons, now there was a twenty by twenty meter wide tunnel. The spikes of metal were still present, there was simply too much of it to get rid of all of it, but those that remained had been bent out of the way, reducing the chances of someone impaling themselves on one.

After a few minutes of jetpack assisted travel, I came across Zinnerman's chosen method of transport, and Zinnerman himself, along with a small group of crewmen some of whom I recognized from the Garencieres.

"I wasn't aware we had a Shackle, where'd you get it?" I asked Zinnerman over the comms as I landed on to the top of the Shackle with a thud.

"Found it while we were inspecting Shipyard 8, figured it might be useful." Zinnerman groused in his usual gruff manner.

"Good call." I complimented him. "So does this take us further in or is it more jetpacking?"

"There's still a bit to go, this'll take us that way." He switched to a different comm channel, I'd guess one that let him talk to the Shackles pilot as the craft started gliding downward with a quick ignition of its verniers.

"The two freighters and their crews that are currently free are following me." I told Zinnerman. "Be sure to have someone tell them the details of how to get down here." A nod in response. "What have you found so far?"

The luxury of waiting for orders from on high didn't exist with our time schedule and it certainly didn't exist with the type of work ethic I was aiming to foster. Zinnerman had probably sent word he was in the core when he had guys(or gals) going into the core to search.

"Not much yet. It's mostly been making sure there aren't holes or hazards in our way. But Flaste did find something he was interested in." Zinnerman turned away to address something to one of his men. "There haven't been any major or minor obstructions since we got to the core level, just as you predicted."

"Good, good." I nodded my head. "So how's the tunnel holding up?"

Zinnerman glanced at me sideways. "Don't trust my tunnel building abilities?"

"Got a degree in architecture?"

"No, do you?"

"Afraid not, my schedule is too busy these days. Guess I'll just trust in your abilities then."

Our enlightening chat on proper building techniques was cut short by the Shackles sled coming to a halt and the appearance of a dark corridor, light only by industrial flood lights here and there, in front of us.

"Let's go." Zinnerman called out over the general comms. Then he seemed to remember that I was here and turned to look at me. I waved him off, it was his team after all.

"We're all going to the same place." I told him.

A short and fast trip later, we met up with Zinnerman's scouting party, led by Flaste.

"What do you have for us Flaste?" Zinnerman asked his second in command, at least I think Flasche is his second in command. I could be wrong.

"A fifteen meter high pair of doors we can't get open." Flaste bluntly informed his superior officer before turning to me and saluting. A salute I happily returned, I didn't think he would remember me all that well.

"Know what's inside the doors?" I broached the topic that I was really interested in.

"No sir." Flaste said respectfully. "But we've found two other doors of the exact same height further down this corridor, along with a smaller door about three meters in size on the opposite side corridor from the other three."

"Progress on opening any of these doors?"

"I've got guys working on that. Problem is most of these doors depend on there being power running through the entirety of the grid they're on, and well…" He waved a hand towards where we came from.

"And half of the grid is gone." I finished.

"That's just the big ones, pretty sure the smaller one can be forced open or cut open, it's a slider."

I pointed at two guys, one of which had a plasma cutter. "Go open that door, Flasche send someone with you to show you where it is, and report back here once you've learned what its contents are."

I turned back to Zinnerman and Flasche. "So how do we open the big ones? Unless cutting a hole works for them too?"

Flaste, showing a tick of his, scratched at his chin or where his chin would be if he wasn't wearing a normal suit. "The best those guys have been able to come up with is forcing the doors safety mechanisms to fire, they say it will probably result in the doors opening. Something about safety procedures I didn't understand.

I looked at Zinnerman.

"Sounds right to me." He said.

"Then get to it, we're wasting air."

The minutes stretched on as we waited, not actually I was being dramatic. I had some very competent technicians working for me and a stuck door hadn't given them pause previously.

So when the cry of 'We're in!' was sent over the general comms, I simply nodded and looked up as the doors started to open, anticipation racing through me.

Others around me shone their torches into the space and revealed a sight that might have seemed disappointing to others but to me, it was a sight unlike few I'd ever seen.

Stacks and stacks of shiny gray metal reached to the ceiling of the vast hanger we found ourselves at the entrance of. Said ceiling had to be at least fifty meters tall, I couldn't even guess how long the hanger was. The stacks were interspersed with slabs of some other material, maybe pallets, with the slabs having white lettering on them.

I shook myself out of my awe first and started barking out orders at a tremendous speed.

"You, you, and you! Go see what those letters are! You two, bring in some floodlights! You! Take a tech and get me an estimate on how large this is. Now! The rest of you, split up and open the other doors, help the other group if they need it. Move it! Zinnerman stay with me!"

A flurry of movement erupted around me as people raced to obey their orders. Some darted into the hanger, two headed back down the tunnel, looking for floodlights, while the majority forged deeper into the tunnel.

"Do you know what this is?" Zinnerman asked me, his black eyes darting from me to the shiny metal then back to me.

"If this is what I believe it to be." I exhaled harshly through my nose. "Then we've solved the majority of our maintenance and production problems in one fell swoop Suberoa. The Feddies are going to be in for an awful shock if they ever come knocking."

Zinnerman's eyes widened in shock at my use of his first name, which I almost never used, before turning around completely to stare at Flaste, who ran towards us.

"Captain, Supreme Commander." He addressed each of us. "It...this metal, it's, it's…"

"Well? Tell us!" Zinnerman said, his body tight with tension.

"It's Gundarium! All of it!" He shouted, disbelief written across his face.

"What type of Gundarium?" I asked him, please let it be what I think it is.

"Gamma, Gundarium Gamma sir. All with Neo Zeon production markings on them. None of this was made recently." He gestured at the hanger with a sweep of his arm. "This entire...warehouse is filled to the brim with it!"

I couldn't help myself, I started laughing in triumph.

The people I had running around inside were able to get me some hard dimensional numbers. The warehouse, as markings on the inside of it's doors identified it as, was one hundred meters long and sixty meters tall, and about twenty meters wide. And it was filled to near bursting with Gundarium Gamma.

I thought the news couldn't get better, but then it did. A runner came and told us that the second warehouse was willed with Gundarium too. Then a runner from the third group came and guess what? It too was filled with Gundarium. They weren't completely full like the first one but they were closer to being full than to being empty.

In the chaos of establishing contact with the base, cataloging what we had and trying to work out how to transport the Gundarium through the tunnel to the awaiting freighters(and figuring out if that was even possible), the return of the final and first splinter group almost went unnoticed.

Until…

"How much?" I looked at the soldier who had come up to me in confusion, sure that I had heard him wrong.

"We have discovered a cache of gold sir. More than one ton at least, likely a lot more than one ton."

This time, even Zinnerman had to join me in a chuckle.

"We might need to wait for the Garen to return before we can move all of this up to the port to be loaded. This might be too much for the Garencieres to carry herself." He commented wryly.

I laughed at that. "At this point Zinnerman, we're going to need the entire fleet to get this back to Palau."

And as it turned out, we did.

A/N: And that's the chapter folks! So I managed to wig myself out of the writing slump I found myself in for a the past couple weeks and finally got down to writing this chapter. This also wraps up the Axis portion of the story, I think it went well. Next chapter brings us back to Palau and the good folks at Anaheim. I hope you all enjoy(I also thrive on comments).

Also, I would like to thank all those who have favorited and followed this story since I posted it, including Kaiser Chris for giving AFFA a shout out in the most recent chapter of Gihren's Glory. Check him out if you haven't already. And I would like to thank those who decided to review AFFA.

See you next time!