Phase-03

The Calm Before the Storm

1315 Hours

November 6, C.E. 56

Naniwa, Main Island

Orb Union

Matthew looked around the Harbor as he walked down the ship's gangway. He saw several commercial vessels docked. There was a group of dock workers unloading cargo from a nearby freighter; all of them were operating powered exoskeletons. And off in the distance he could see an Orb Union Aegis Class warship slowly heading southwest.

He stepped onto the dock unsure of what to do next. A black limo pulled up and the driver exited the vehicle. He opened the rear door and gestured for him to get in. Matthew complying climbed into the nearest back seat of the vehicle. Once he was seated the door closed and he noticed another man sitting in back.

"You must be Matthew Onasi; I am Representative Uzumi Nara Athha." He held out his to shake which Matthew promptly did. "On behalf of my father the Chief Representative of Orb I welcome you and your family to Orb."

"Thank you Representative Athha, my family is extremely grateful for being allowed into your country."

"My father apologizes for not being able to meet with you personally; he is preoccupied with urgent state matters."

"I understand it is a troubling world we live in these days. May I ask why you are here; I did not expect to meet with any high ranking Orb officials today."

"You are very perceptive Mr. Onasi; very well I will cut to the chase. Because our country refused to adopt the Torino Protocol the Orb Union is now the potential target of anti-Coordinator hostility. Many in the assembly are concerned that our nation may face imminent attack if we do not adopt the Protocol. Blue Cosmos has openly called for the destruction of our nation. We fear that the Republic of East Asia who still opposes our independence, will act upon this. And unfortunately your family immigrating to our country may be seen by some as a defection, creating even more hatred for Orb."

"It is not my family's intention to cause trouble for Orb. The situation would have been the same if we had moved anywhere else."

"We realize that Mr. Onasi and we are sympathetic to your family's plight which is why we are granting your request. But we are going to need your services."

"How so?"

"Orb as you must surely know is devoted to peace. We do not believe in war or conflict. As a result our self defense forces have fallen into poor condition. We have the proper equipment and the necessary amount of troops, but they are not properly trained. We want you to help train our forces. With your combat experience we hope to improve the quality of our defense forces so they can defend our country from any threat."

"Would I be required to join your military?"

"No you won't, we will consider you as a 'Civilian Consultant'."

"Alright then I accept your Government's proposal. When do I start?"

"As soon as you can get your family settled down."

They shook hands and the Representative had the driver open the door for Matthew. He exited the vehicle and began to walk back to the ship. There was a lot of work to do.

************

Two Years Later- C.E. 58

"Dad do I really have to go?"

"Yes you do Richard. Our entire family was invited to the celebration; it would be rude for any of our family to be missing. So please be on your best behavior."

"Yes father."

Richard was struggling to get into his dress clothes. The Onasi family had been invited to a party to celebrate Uzumi Nara Athha's inauguration to Chief Representative of the Orb Union. His father had passed away just three weeks ago.

Once his family was ready he went out to his car and pulled it up next to the door. He looked at their home. Originally they had lived their first few months in a house provided by the Athha's. But once they had settled in Matthew began construction of an estate for his family. It was a mirror image to the one back in San Diego.

After his family entered the vehicle he began to drive to the Athha estate. For the last two years Matthew had been extremely busy. Representative Athha had been right the ODF was in poor condition. Most of its soldiers were young, undisciplined, with absolutely no combat experience. Matt had called in a few favors to get some friends of his who specialized in ground combat and air combat to help train Orb's Army and its Navy fighter pilots. With their help Matthew had forged the ODF into an effective fighting force. There was however no way to truly test their abilities except in a real battle.

The other members of his family had all gotten jobs here in Orb. Alice was now the Orb Union's ambassador to the U.N., Will worked in Orb's biggest hospital located in the capital city, and Zack now worked for Morgenroete.

After driving for about twenty minutes they arrived at the Attha's estate. He pulled up to the gate and showed his invitation to the guard who was directing traffic. He got into a line of cars leading to the mansion's entrance. They waited ten minutes until they arrived at the entrance. He and his family got out of the car. Matthew gave his valet key and some money to the valet and walked inside.

There were a large number of people inside. There were members of the elected assembly, members of the noble families, wealthy businessmen, military officials, the news media, and his own family. He walked over to where his family had clustered together and began to mingle with some of them.

He saw Alice and walked over to her and greeted her. They talked for a few minutes until Representative Athha came to them and joined them. "Chief Representative good evening and congratulations."

"Thank you. I am glad you showed up." He turned to Alice and said, "Ambassador how did it go?"

"Not well I am afraid; the U.N. is refusing to do anything about the sponsor nation's forces."

Last year the AF, the EF, and the REA had established a joint military presence in the PLANTs airspace to enforce their will upon the colonies. This was unprecedented, for the first time ever the Big Three had actually agreed on something and were working together. This did not bode well for the PLANTs or for the rest of the world. Alice as the ambassador to the U.N. had been trying for the last year to have their forces pull out.

"We will have to try harder; Matthew how is the training going?"

"We are making good progress. Unfortunately I cannot tell you how well they'll fare in real combat. We will keep looking for more ways to improve the training regiment and keep a step ahead of the rest of the world. But when it boils down to it I think it will be your superior weapons technology that will give you the edge you need to win."

"I suppose you are right, but I sincerely wish we had no need for weapons."

"Well I can say from personal experience and from studying history that there will always be war and killing, Representative. Unfortunately for us humans are hardwired for this. All you can do Representative is to try to keep your people safe. Do that and I am sure that you will be able to die in peace."

The Representative seemed distracted by something. His eyes were looking around the room for something.

"Is everything all right?"

"I have been trying to find my daughter for the last ten minutes, without much success," he shrugged embarrassingly.

Matthew looked through the sea of people. Failing to find her he looked outside on the nearby balcony. "There she is," Matt pointed. But she was not alone out there. Leaning over the railing and watching the full moon was Richard.

"I don't believe I have ever met your son Matthew."

"Now is as good as any time I suppose."

Matt and Representative Athha left Alice and walked out to the balcony. Hearing their footsteps Richard turned around and faced them.

"Hi dad."

"What are you doing alone outside Richard?"

"I just needed some fresh air you know how I feel about large crowds; besides the moon is beautiful tonight. And I am not alone; I made a new friend tonight, though I still don't know her name yet."

"Richard I wanted you to meet my boss Chief Representative Athha."

The Representative held out his hand to shake which Richard grabbed and shook firmly.

"Representative Athha it is a pleasure to meet you, congratulations on your inauguration. From what I have seen you do in the news you will lead your people well."

"Well, it is good to see that today's youth are taking in interest in politics. I see you have met my daughter," gesturing to Cagalli.

"Wait a minute," said Richard as he turned to her. "You are the Representative's daughter!?"

"I could have sworn I told you," Cagalli said jokingly. "My name is Cagalli Yula Athha."

An aide walked up to them and said, "Sir it is time for you to give your speech."

"Thank you for the reminder." The speech's main point was to announce the construction of the Orb Union's proposed orbital elevator Ame-no-Mihashira. "Shall we then." With that they all walked inside.

************

Five years later-C.E. 63

The sound of gunfire filled the firing range as the last three rounds of Richard's magazine cleared the chamber of the pistol. All three shots went through the head of the electronic target at the other end of the range. Richard removed the empty clip and placed it and the pistol on the table next to him. He took off his ear and eye protection and put them on the table as well. He stepped down from the stool he was standing on and looked briefly at the nearby computer screen that gave him his shooting statistics. He had not missed any of his intended targets. He had been practicing for the last few months.

At first his parents had been against him learning how to shoot but he had talked his father into allowing it. Matthew had given the pistol as a birthday present to Richard, it was a 9mm pistol modified to fire 22 caliber rounds. Matthew had been able to get permission for Richard to fire at one of the Orb Union's training camps. Richard was allowed to come and shoot any time he wanted, provided he had ammo to use. Chores and good grades were rewarded with ammo.

Richard had been busy the last few weeks with school work and had not had a chance to shoot. But with the school year ending the amount of work had shrank giving him the chance to come today and shoot off some of the ammo that had accumulated.

He was out of ammo so he decided to go home. He put the pistol, the empty magazines, and his ear and eye protection back into a steel case and locked it. He copied his shooting data to his flash drive. He then picked up the case and left the range. The training camp was empty today, which had provided him with the perfect conditions in which to practice. He saw the car that was waiting for him. He got into the left hand back seat and politely asked the driver in Japanese to take him back home. Because both of his parents were busy with work they hired a driver to take Richard to places he wanted to go. The driver, Mr. Tanaka, could only speak Japanese. Luckily Richard and his family had learned to speak fluent Japanese and were able to communicate with him. Richard had also learned how to speak thirteen other languages; seven of them were from his homeland of the Atlantic Federation.

After about a thirty minute drive the car arrived back at his family's estate. "Mom, Dad I'm home" he called out once he was inside. "We're in the living room Richard, hurry and get in here quick." He put the case containing his gun on the floor and ran to where his parents were waiting. They were watching a large flat screen television that was mounted on the wall. The image on the screen showed a man wearing a space suit inside what looked like the control room of a space craft. The logo at the bottom left side of the screen read WNN, the World News Network. At the bottom center of the screen read the caption 'Breaking News". It was a news report, "Great just what we all need, more bad news," Richard thought to himself.

"…I am currently aboard the Atlantic Federation warship Washington. The Washington is one of over sixty vessels in the sponsor nations coalition fleet that is currently operating within the PLANTs airspace. The fleet has been mobilized in response to the PLANT Supreme Council's refusal to reestablish exports to Earth."

This was not a surprise to Richard. In C.E. 60 the PLANTs had become a major source of Earth's energy and manufactured goods. The PLANTs collected solar energy which was then sent to Earth using energy transmitters. The emitted energy transmissions were captured by energy receivers here on Earth. The energy was then sent to various energy collectors to provide power for consumption. All the Earth nations except Orb and the Kingdom of Scandinavia used energy produced from the PLANTs. This allowed the sponsor nations to become extremely wealthy by selling PLANT created energy to the world. Many nations were growing increasingly resentful over how much the sponsor nations were charging them for PLANT energy. The quotas were so high for manufactured goods and energy that the PLANTs had to use not only their solar energy but a significant portion of their nuclear power as well to meet the demands, creating a strain on relations between the PLANTs and its sponsor nations. Further straining these relations was the large amount of anti-Coordinator terrorism that surfaced in the last three years. There were many terror cells operating within the PLANTs. Two years ago they had attempted to kill Patrick Zala and failed. And just a few weeks ago the PLANTs energy production department had been destroyed by Blue Cosmos. The PLANT Supreme Council had proposed a temporary suspension of exports, but the sponsor nations had rejected that suggestion. This sent the PLANTs into a severe energy crisis. It had gotten so bad that a number of the PLANTs engineers had sabotaged the energy transmitters to stop all energy transmissions to Earth, and the PLANT Supreme Council refused to fix them. The sponsor nations were enraged by their colonies rebelliousness. This sudden stop of energy transmissions from the PLANTs the Earth nations now faced an energy crisis of their own resulting from their overdependence on PLANT energy. Well it was abundantly clear the sponsor nations would not let the PLANTs get away with this.

The image on the television screen had changed it was split in half. One half of the screen showed the reporter in the space and the other half now showed an older man probably in his late fifties sitting behind a news desk. "I just received word from our space craft that is in the area" said the older man. "They will be broadcasting to us a live video feed of the area." The image changed again, this time to a view of space. Richard could see the distinct hourglass shape of some of the PLANTs. A few seconds later an Agamemnon class carrier dominated the screen. Its linear catapults extended and twelve Mobile Armors launched away from the carrier. The image shifted and zoomed in on the Mobile Armors. They were gathering with the squadrons from the other ships, there were hundreds of them. Richard was able to see two different models of Mobile Armors, the TS-MA1 Titan and the TS-MA2 Moebius.

The TS-MA1 Titan was an older model equipped with only a linear gun, two 20 mm Vulcan guns, and two missiles. It had two engines that burned a synthetic propellant. Its standard color scheme was a light gray. The new TS-MA2 Moebius was armed with a linear gun, two 40mm Vulcan guns and four wire guided missiles. Its body design was a sharp contrast to the Titan's; instead of having a single solid body the Moebius had two different rectangular sections that its engines were mounted on. They were connected to the main section were the cockpit was by two spheres. It had better armor than the Titan and while this made it heavier it compensated by utilizing four compact engines, which made it faster than the Titan. Both the Titan and the Moebius were designed by Richard's grandfather Daniel. The Azrael Conglomerate had been contracted by the Atlantic Federation to produce these Mobile Armors. After the sponsor nations had formed their coalition force to police the PLANTs the Azrael Conglomerate began to sell these Mobile Armors to Eurasia and East Asia, although they also sold them to other nations. Richard was disgusted to see how his grandfather's creations, what he had intended to be used for the defense of his country, being used as an instrument of oppression against the PLANTs.

The Mobile Armor squadrons then began to separate. The squadrons were flying only a few meters away from the PLANTs outer walls. They began to fire their linear guns. Not at the PLANTs of course, the sponsor nations would never risk damaging their precious production sites. This was purely an intimidation maneuver their only goal was to scare the PLANTs into meeting their demands. After twenty minutes of this the Mobile Armors suddenly broke off and returned to their motherships. Once they had returned the warships all began to return to their base, a large space station that the sponsor nations had constructed in the PLANTs airspace that served as the fleet's headquarters.

The screen reverted back to its original image of the reporter on the Washington. "I have just received word that the PLANT Supreme Council has agreed to resume all exports to Earth. Also they have agreed to handover the engineers responsible for sabotaging the energy transmitters to the sponsor nations for prosecution."

"You mean execution," was Richard's mental reply. While this solved the immediate crisis on Earth it would only cause more problems for the PLANTs. Cries for autonomy would grow in the PLANTs. In response Earth would tighten its imperialistic grasp, resulting in even greater cries for PLANT autonomy. Richard remembered a famous quote that he came across while he was studying twentieth century history of the A.D. era. It fit this situation perfectly. "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." Things would only get worse.

************

0100 Hours

October 12, C.E. 68

Space, L5

Aboard the cargo vessel Mandelbrot, en route to the PLANTs

Captain Ronald Steele sat silently on the bridge of the Cargo vessel Mandelbrot. His fleet comprised of the Marseille III class Mandelbrot and four Marseille II class vessels. All five cargo vessels in the fleet slowly crept back towards the PLANTs. As he sat there he reflected on the many radical changes that had occurred in the PLANTs. Siegel Clyne cofounder of the ZAFT organization had been elected as Chairman of the PLANT Supreme Council. The Council now being dominated by ZAFT members voted to make autonomy and trading independence its highest priorities. This had enraged the sponsor nations who responded with a show of armed force just as they had done during the PLANT energy crisis of '63. Only this time the PLANTs had not backed down. On Earth Blue Cosmos was growing more powerful and influential. The persecution of Coordinators had grown so bad that almost the entire Coordinator population had left Earth. The PLANTs population had exploded with all these new immigrants who came from all over globe seeking a safe refuge; unfortunately this had led to a problem. With more people the PLANTs needed more food. And unfortunately with the tension between the sponsor nations and the PLANTs less food was being sold to the PLANTs. Food supplies were being rationed but it wouldn't be enough to feed the millions of people living in the PLANTs. It was only a matter of time before people would begin to starve to death. People would start fighting over supplies and when that happened all hell would break loose.

Fortunately Chairman Clyne had been able to make secret arrangements with the United States of South America and the Oceania Union. The PLANTs would exchange shipments manufactured goods for shipments of food from these countries. And that was the whole reason he and his fleet were out here. Three days ago they had rendezvoused with a South American convoy and exchanged supplies. They then began there silent run back to the PLANTs. While this meant they had to go at a significantly slower speed they would be able to avoid detection, as long as they were not being actively searched for. It was absolutely necessary for them to avoid detection from the sponsor nations space fleets. If they were caught out here it would not only prevent the PLANTs from getting the much needed food, but it would give the sponsor nations justification for tighter control of the PLANTs.

Captain Steele's fleet had pulled off two successful trips. Hopefully the third would go off without a hitch. To tell the truth he was more concerned about running into space pirates that preyed on cargo vessels coming and going from the PLANTs. As a precautionary measure all the cargo vessels had been loaded with Titan Mobile Armors for protection, three in the Mandelbrot and two in each of the other four ships. Captain Steele hadn't asked where the Council had acquired the Mobile Armors, which was probably for the best. Possession of the Mobile Armors would only add to the list of problems that the PLANTs would face if the sponsor nations found out what they were doing. This was because the PLANTs were banned from having weapons of any kind except guns for use by the PLANT domestic security forces, although that was probably about to change. He had heard a rumor that ZAFT was going to be reorganized into a military force that would defend the PLANTs from sponsor nation attack. Captain Steele thought that was laughable. It was impossible for the PLANTs to fight against Earth, to even seriously consider this was madness. The PLANTs did not have the resources to fight against the sponsor nations, they were outnumbered and outgunned. They didn't even have the means to produce their own food. It would only lead to the deaths of millions of people living in the PLANTs. No there only hope to obtain their autonomy would be to appeal the UN to have the sponsor nations release their control of the PLANTs. If it went to an assembly vote it would pass because all of the other countries supported the PLANTs move for independence.

Captain Steele's train of thought was broken when an alarm went off at one of his bridge officers consoles. "Heat source detected, multiple contacts closing from directly behind us!"

"Can you tell what they are?"

"Hang on I am getting the sensor data now. O shit they're sponsor nation warships, detecting six Drake class, four Nelson class, and a single Agamemnon class. Smaller heat sources detected, they've launched Mobile Armors."

"Signal the fleet, have them launch the Titans." There was no way that eleven obsolete Mobile Armors could win. But they would provide the needed distraction so that the fleet could escape. "Helm, engines to full speed, we need to get to the PLANTs now. Have the other ships do the same."

"Yes, sir."

Abandoning stealth, the five ships speed away from their pursuers. While their cargo vessels lacked any form of weaponry, they made up for it with their speed. The sponsor nations warships were not very fast. They could easily outrun them.

"Sir a Moebius is closing in on the Fatou." The Moebius fired two shots from its linear gun and launched one of its missiles. They hit one of the Fatou's engines. The Moebius turned around to attack the Fatou again. But before it could fire it was destroyed by the linear gun from one of the Titan's.

"The Fatou's engines are disabled, they are requesting help."

"Hold your course and speed."

"Sir?"

"Just do it!"

"Yes sir!"

They couldn't stop to help them, if they did the rest of the fleet wouldn't make back to the PLANTs. The food shipment was too important to risk. Shame began to build up in Captain Steele as a Nelson class closed in on the Fatou. But he was utterly shocked when the warship fired its beam cannons at the defenseless cargo ship. He had expected them to capture the ship and imprison the crew. But no they killed them, those ****ing naturals killed them. This was a new low for the sponsor nations. This incident would cause the already growing anti-sponsor nation sentiment to explode.

"How long until we reach the PLANTs?"

"At our current speed we should arrive within six hours," replied the helmsmen.

"Are any of the Titans still out there?"

"No sir, all Titans have been destroyed."

The sensor alarm went off again. "Incoming heat source detected!"

"Wher…" Before he could finish his sentence the Julia was hit by a beam shot and exploded. The sensors detected over thirty sponsor nation warships directly ahead of them. They must have come from the sponsor nation defense satellite that was in the PLANTs airspace. The other fleet of ships had merely been a tool to flush them out so the main fleet that was lying in wait could detect and destroy them.

They were completely surrounded; there was no escaping this time. A Nelson class filled the view outside the bridge's armored viewport. Captain Steele stood there helpless to do anything except watch as the Nelson class fired a blast from its beam cannons. The green streak of energy struck the bridge and everything went dark.

************

1458 Hours

May 25, C.E. 69

Orb Union Space Colony Heliopolis

L3

Leaning back in his chair Richard sat waiting for class to end. Advanced World History was one of the most boring classes he had this year. It wasn't that he didn't like the subject it was because he already knew most of this stuff, having studied the subject on his own for all his life. This week the class had gone into more recent history studying the Reconstruction War. He knew much about this having talked to his Grandfather many times about the war. He missed his grandfather, he had not seen in five years since he had moved to the PLANTs. He never understood the reason why he left the Atlantic Federation being the patriot he was. This was a continuous source of confusion and anger for his family. Many in his family believe that he defected to ZAFT, though there was no evidence to support this theory.

The bell rang announcing the end of the school day and all the students began to pack up their backpacks. "Remember this will all be on the quiz tomorrow," announced the teacher to the departing students. Richard grabbed his pack and put it on his back. He left the class room and headed to his locker. After he removed the needed books and placed them into his pack he left and headed outside. There was a park not too far from the school that he and his friends agreed to meet so they could study together.

As he walked to the park he thought about his father. Ever since the dreaded Mandelbrot Incident occurred, the threat of war with the PLANTs had been steadily increasing each day. So the Atlantic Federation and the other PLANT sponsor nations had been recruiting any one they could get their hands on into their militaries. The Atlantic Federation navy had contacted his father and offered to reinstate his commission, to promote him, and give him his own fleet. He had accepted the offer after about a week of consideration and was now a rear admiral in command of the AF's third space fleet. Not everyone in the family had approved of his decision to rejoin the military, especially his wife, causing a rift to form. Unfortunately once he had returned to the AF Blue Cosmos had tried to kill him once again. They had made several attempts, all ending in failure.

Because he believed Richard needed to experience life in space, he decided to send him to Heliopolis the Orb Union's space colony. So for the past year Richard had lived and gone to school here in the colony and planned to go to college here after graduating. At first he had kept to himself, but eventually he had made several friends at his school.

After walking for a few minutes he made it to the park. He saw a table underneath an awning where his friends Kira Yamato, Sai Argyle, Kuzzey Buskirk, Tolle Koenig, and Miriallia Haw had gathered. "Sorry I'm late guys, I had to grab my literature textbook so I can study for the test."

"It not like you to be late Rich, I thought you Coordinators were always on time," Tolle said in obvious joking manner.

Richard smiled and replied, "I knew it was a bad idea to tell you all I was a Coordinator, now you guys think I'm like superman or something." Richard pulled out his laptop and connected to Heliopolis's computer network, the network was connected to the Earth's planetary computer network through a powerful wireless connection between communication satellites. Once connected a small message appeared on his desktop. It was a news alert, Richard had set up his laptop to automatically inform him of any new news stories that involved the PLANTs relations with the sponsor nations. A few weeks ago it was revealed that the PLANTs were planning to remodel Junius seven through ten for agricultural production. This was in direct violation of the sponsor nations mandate that the PLANTs be prohibited from creating their own food.

"Hang on guys I want to see this news report." He clicked the link and it took him to the WNN's website. There was a live broadcast running right now. Richard activated the link that said 'Watch Live'. After a few seconds of loading the image of the WNN news room appeared the screen. Richard hit the full screen function on the site and the image filled the entire screen.

"For those just tuning in," reported the female newscaster, "a fleet of sponsor nation warships has begun an intimidation attack against the PLANTs. This tactic has been used several times by the sponsor nations, each time resulting in the PLANTs capitulating to the demands of the sponsor nations. But with the PLANTs refusal to cease pursing autonomy from the sponsor nations last year will they back down this time? Hang on we are now receiving video from our space craft."

The image changed, now it displayed the space around the PLANTs. There were sponsor nation warships launching Mobile Armors. "Déjà Vu." The Mobile Armors did much as they did six years ago when he had watched that newscast with his parents. After about two minutes of this Richard was getting ready to close the video when he saw a faint explosion appear in the scene. "What the heck was that? Are they firing at the PLANTs!?"

Dozens of smaller explosions followed the first. Then a bright explosion occurred within the close proximity of the camera. The image zoomed out a little to reveal the culprit. A Nelson class warship had exploded; he could see the distinct wreckage floating in the picture. The feed quickly changed back to the news room. "I am not sure what is going on but we will continue to run the video as long as possible." The screen then went back to space craft's video transmission. Explosions now filled the screen; they would appear and then disappear quickly. This appeared to be a battle, between the sponsor nations Moebius Mobile Armors and some unknown machines.

One of these unknown came into clear view. It was much larger than any known Mobile Armor in existence. "Is that a giant robot!?" Indeed it was, it had two arms, two legs, a single pink eye on its face, there was a protrusion coming out of its head at an angle, it was light gray in color, and it had a pair of what appeared to be wings.

"No way can this be real," Kuzzey said.

"This is has to be fake," Tolle said.

"I don't think it is guys," Richard replied. "The PLANTs have the most advanced technology, if anyone could create a giant robot it would be them."

The robot flew toward a Drake class. Dodging CIWS fire it pulled out a sword and stabbed it into the ship's hull. It then flew towards the rear of the ship slicing through the hull. After the machine flew away the ship exploded. Three Moebius's chased after it firing their linear guns. The robot easily dodged the shots and allowed the Moebius's to pass it. The robot then pulled out a gun and fired at the Mobile Armors causing them to explode.

Something new then appeared on the battlefield, a small fleet of light green ships. Each ship had three massive turrets located on the top of their hulls. One of these ships fired a barrage of beam blasts from its turrets. The blasts hit an Agamemnon class which vanished in an explosion. Three of these ships closed in on the sponsor nations defense satellite and fired their beam cannons at it. Richard watched as the satellite was completely destroyed. The sponsor fleet began to retreat from the PLANTs airspace.

Having seen enough Richard turned off the laptop and closed it. He put it back into his backpack and slung the pack over his shoulder. "Sorry to bail guys, but I got to get home and call my dad. I need to find out what is going to happen to him because of this."

"It's ok we'll manage without you, go call your dad," Kira said.

"Thank you, I'll see you all tomorrow." Hurrying Richard ran to a nearby transportation station. To help people move throughout the colony the Heliopolis Transit Authority had created a semi-automated transit system. Computer controlled cars would park at stations throughout the colony and wait until someone would use them. The cars could be computer controlled or manually controlled. Luckily a car was there waiting for him. Richard hopped into the driver's seat and set the car to manual control. The vehicle's computer requested to scan his driver's license to confirm he was legally able to drive manually. He quickly swiped his license through the scanner and once the computer disengaged the lock on the manual controls he drove off.

After about twenty minutes of driving he arrived at his apartment. He pulled up to the curb, reset the computer control, and got out. Once he exited, the vehicle sped off towards the nearest transportation station. He walked up to his apartment's door and unlocked it with his key. He walked inside and closed the door behind him. He dropped his pack on the dinner table. It was simple apartment having only one bedroom, one bathroom, a small kitchen and dinning area, and a small living area.

He went to his room where his computer terminal was. While there was a phone system in the colony, it could only call phones that were inside colony. To communicate with people on Earth from space you had to connect to the planetary computer network. Through the network one could communicate with anyone using a web chat room or a video/audio transmission. Richard activated the terminal and connected to the planetary network. But before he could activate the communication software and initiate a video transmission he saw that he had already received a video message. He looked at the sender he noticed that it was an Atlantic Federation military computer ID number. He knew this because he had seen them numerous times when his father had sometimes contacted him from military bases or ships. But this message was different from those because it did not identify who was sending the message, only from where it was sent from. Curious to see who sent the message, he decided to open it.

Immediately after opening the file the image of man filled the screen. The man appeared to be in his late forties and was wearing the uniform of an Atlantic Federation Navy officer. The silver oak leaf insignia on his collar indicated he was a commander. "There is a virus embedded in this message programmed to completely erase the file upon its completion," said the man, "So listen very carefully to what I am about to tell you. My name is Commander William Sutherland and I have a proposition for you."