Kidou Senshi Z Gundam Vol 1 Chapter 2

Part 2: Char in Granada
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam Novel Series
Volume 1: Kamille Bidan



"Is this true?" The young officer questioned him while typing on the keyboard, not even bothering to turn around.
"Y, yes...!"
"There's no mistake. After all, this is information from Lieutenant Hank of the 36th supply corps..." The sergeant, out of breath as he had come running, spoke while indicating the memo in his hand to the officer.
“Lieutenant Hank…? He is a reliable man…” The blonde officer struck the last key on the keyboard, then stood and accepted the memo. His blue eyes were beautiful.
“The t.i.tans are in a hurry? New pilots are entering Green Oasis every day…?”
“Sweet.w.a.ter says they are at the limit of their patience.”
“Is there a flight?”
“We can do anything. This depends more on your preparation, Colonel.”
“Stop calling me a colonel. I’m a captain.” 
The computer printer let out a light sound just once, and then printed. While this was happening, the blonde officer brushed away the hair on his forehead and picked up the sungla.s.ses at the side of the keyboard.
“But the Commodore is asking that you come to Sweet.w.a.ter as quickly as you possibly can… If you are not there, Colonel Char, the Mobile Suits will not move out.”
“I told you to stop calling me colonel.”
The blonde officer took the printed paper in hand. This very man had formerly been Char Aznable, nicknamed Char the Red Comet within the Princ.i.p.aity of Zeon.
“Kignan.”
“Yes, Captain Quattro Bageena.”
Verifying that Kignan had regained the composure to answer normally, Char placed his own paperwork in the file, and spoke.
“Let’s go. Contact Abu Dabia for me. Tell him I’m going to Sweet.w.a.ter…”
“Yes, but what shall we put on the written report?”
“Telling them that I’m supervising repairs on the Mezoba should be enough. You can convince them with that, can’t you?” Without bothering to reply to Kignan’s question, Char left the room.
“We’re counting on you, Colonel Char.” Excitedly clapping his rough hands together, Sergeant Kignan turned off the light and left the room.
Char had finally decided to carry out the plan that he had considered for so long.
“I’ve waited seven whole years. I can’t expect that everything will go the way I had hoped, but it’s better than living like a widow…” 
Char Aznable’s mood had lightened. Without thinking, he kicked the floor, and flew. Char’s body glided, tracing a slight arch for a distance of more than six meters. On the moon, where the pull of gravity was only a sixth of that on Earth, this would happen. So if you mistook the direction when jumping, you ran the chance of b.u.mping your head on the ceiling.
This was Granada, the Earth Federation city on the far side of the moon. It had formerly been the frontline base for the Princ.i.p.ality of Zeon. Civilian facilities had advanced to the area around the base, urbanizing it. However, local business had not advanced to the level estimated before the war, and the population was still not even two hundred thousand. But it now functioned as a frontline base for the Earth Federation, and Char, who was stationed there, was a regular soldier in the Federation Army.
As Sergeant Kignan Ramza had just said, Char’s current name was Captain Quattro Bageena. But this name was only a false one, used so that Char could infiltrate the Earth Federation Army. Char Aznable was still entirely Char Aznable. 
If another name for Char were to exist, it would have been his real name, Casval Rem Deikun. The name Char was itself an alias. Char used an alias because he hated the idea of carrying on the name of his father, Zeon Daikun. At the same time, he had needed to hide his ident.i.ty in order to infiltrate the Princ.i.p.ality of Zeon, which had used his father’s name.

During the Common Era, the increase in human population wore out the earth. Nature was destroyed, and the filth of civilization crushed the world. As a countermeasure to this problem, mankind constructed the s.p.a.ce colonies, solving the increase in population and food supply issue. But as time went on, people of the privileged cla.s.ses began to refuse to migrate to the s.p.a.ce colonies. The Earth’s population once again returned to numbers rivaling those of the first half of the 20th century, and the Earth showed signs of restoring the balance of nature, making it easier to live on. But by the time this age arrived, movement against idea of the Earth, that singular planet of water, being used by a particular group of privileged people, arose among those living in s.p.a.ce.
And standing at the head of those making this claim was Char’s Father, Zeon Deikun. He claimed that in order to keep from polluting the Earth, all humans should migrate to the s.p.a.ce colonies. At the same time he demanded independence for the people living in the colonies. This claim aroused sympathy from the s.p.a.cenoids (the residents of the s.p.a.ce colonies,) but the person who took advantage of this sympathy to establish a dictators.h.i.+p was Degin Sodo Zabi.
Degin a.s.sa.s.sinated Zeon Deikun, and using his name, established the Princ.i.p.ality of Zeon, setting its base on the Side 3 colony group located on the far side of the moon. Of course, the Earth Federation did not approve of this action, and there was every indication that a war could break out. Taking preemptive control, the Princ.i.p.ality of Zeon pumped poisonous gas into colonies on the Earth Federation side, killing five billion people, continuing on to drop several of those colonies on the main cities of Earth, and plunging into the “One Year War.”
Char had entered the Princ.i.p.ality of Zeon before this happened, becoming an officer in the Zeon army, and was looking for a chance to approach Degin to carry out his father’s revenge. However, Char sympathized with the theory of independence for the s.p.a.cenoids, who made up the main base the Princ.i.p.ality of Zeon’s support. These principles caused Char to continue serving as an officer in the Zeon army until the end of the war.
Char even took part in the final all-out battle of the Zeon army, fighting against the Earth Federation pilot well-known as a newtype, Amuro Rei, and his Gundam. But during that battle, the newtype Char loved, Lalah Sune, ran into Amuro Rei, and was destroyed.
A mutual understanding as newtypes had created sympathy between Lalah and Amuro that surpa.s.sed any idea of enemy or friend, which Char hated. Char understood that this hatred of his had ended up killing Lalah. But this also left deep scars in Char. Even so, Char would have likely been able to forgive this if the enemy pilot, Amuro Rei had even been a real newtype. But he only exercised his newtype abilities within that small territory defined by his own friends, refusing to become anything more than an enemy to Char.
To Char, it seemed that nothing more there than a narrow love existed there. And then Char came to the conclusion that Amuro Rei was nothing more than a war machine being used by the Earth Federation, which caused him great despair.
It was his hatred that had probably caused Char to avoid bringing matters with Amuro Rei to a close, but there were other reasons as well. Deep inside, Char hated that the country prefixed with his father’s name would fall into ruin. Mineva Zabi, who had the blood of the Princ.i.p.ality of Zeon’s Zabi Family, and her attendants, along with Char’s friend Margarethe Ring Blair and others, had escaped Zeon’s final s.p.a.ce fortress, A Baoa Qu, right after its fall, and were now hiding in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
But for them to die out while living on the run was not Char really wanted. Whether they made a return to power or not, Char’s nature would not allow them to live without knowing the situation in Earth territory. Char acquired an enlistment in the Earth Federation Army, and returned to Earth territory.
Getting the Earth Federation Army position had been easy. As the One Year War had caused ma.s.sive losses to both the colonies and to Earth, enlistment registries had disappeared from all over. Because of this fact, applications to return to enlistment were easily accepted on behalf of the residents of fully destroyed colonies and soldiers from platoons that were rumored to have been completely wiped out and such.
The loss of basic officer academy data made it impossible to trace or investigate the past history of any single soldier, and the declaration of the individual became the only proof. Of course, soldiers for which there was clear proof of partic.i.p.ation in the Zeon Army would be punished as war criminals. But when it came down to it, investigations were easily avoided as former Zeon soldiers had made their way into every department of the Earth Federation.
In the case of these sorts of investigations, data would be tacitly fabricated, and then balanced with other existing data. It was not done through consultation or conspiracy. It was just common wisdom in the lives of the ma.s.ses. Nothing more than something learned from the European precepts for living from the age when nations bordered closely on one another. Because of this, the business of data fabrication by proxy was flouris.h.i.+ng.
Char had almost the entire crew of a Mazeran-type battles.h.i.+p that had gone down at A Baoa Qu reregistered by one of these representatives. This was nothing out of the ordinary. Going down in s.p.a.ce did not mean that the battles.h.i.+p was sinking to the bottom of the ocean. Partially destroyed battles.h.i.+ps would gain momentum from the explosions and float off in strange directions, and there were examples of these s.h.i.+ps returning to Earth territory months later due to the efforts of the surviving soldiers. People would say that this was how they had survived.
The indifference of high-ranking Earth Federation officers to the s.p.a.cenoids became a reason behind the ease with which they reregistered so easily. This was because the high-ranking officers of the Earth Federation were desperately working to return Earth to the way it had been prior to the Universal Century. Because of this, discrimination towards those formerly in Zeon rarely appeared. The only sense of discrimination was based on whether one was a s.p.a.cenoid or an Earth resident, and it was this very sense that was gradually creating the next problem.
Chaos ruled the Earth territories of the Federation.
It was exactly because Char had insight into this that he had decided to live as an Earth Federation soldier. Then, when he knew that the difference in consciousness between s.p.a.cenoids and Earth residents was becoming increasingly certain, he decided that he could not sit idly by and watch; that he need to prepare.
His decision became concrete on the third year after the war had ended. This was the start of his contact with Commodore Brex Forra and the other members of the anti-Earth Federation faction. During the almost four years after that, concrete anti-Earth Federation parties had begun movements among the Federation’s s.p.a.ce army. This definite movement was being made by the organization AEUG, whose name was an acronym for “Anti Earth United Government.” The colonies known as Side 1 and Side 2 became bases for AEUG, definitely increasing the group’s influence among the s.p.a.cenoids, and increasing supporters even among the soldiers of the Earth Federation Army.
It was two years ago that the Earth Federation, in trying to defer this movement, made use of a particularly brutal method. They used the same poisonous gas attack that Zeon had once formerly used against a colony. It was used against Side 1’s 30th colony, which had been the stage for large-scale AEUG meetings, killing fifteen million s.p.a.cenoids in one single attack. 
Colonies are completely sealed. This attack plan was perfect.
With this action, AEUG’s presence became further defined, and at various places in the colonies and on the moon, small fights continued to break out. However, this was the Earth Federation’s plan. They had wanted to flush out the corruption all at once, and annihilate the anti-Earth Federation movement. In order to do that, the Earth Federation army took advantage of part of the movement, organizing a special corps known as the t.i.tans, and constructing a base in the former Side 7, which was now known as Green Oasis.

At the city of Granada on the surface of the moon, there was a ma.s.s driver facility used for the purpose of sending out materials. Speaking simply, it was a facility where the linear motor drive-style containers for distributing mineral resources and the rails were matched together. The facility was used to distribute mineral resources necessary in building colonies, but they were also usable to send out modules heading for the colonies.
Now, the hatch which connected to the Granada underground opened, and a module appeared, riding on the rails of the ma.s.s driver. It was small. The modules used for contact purposes between the various colonies and the moon did not use a ma.s.sive amount of thrust, as the moon had only a sixth of the gravity of the earth, and half of the necessary thrust used could be gained from the ma.s.s driver.
This module, the “Tobu,” took off, gently at first, using the thrust of the normal rockets, then along with the thrust of the ma.s.s driver, it shook off the gravity of the moon. By riding on a balanced path between the Earth and moon orbit, the Tobu headed along an efficient course towards Sweet.w.a.ter, the colony at Lagrange Point Two (a gravitationally balanced point.)
Char rode in one of the small pa.s.senger cabins.
“Tobu, huh? What a strange name…” Char called up the disc containing information about the s.h.i.+p on the monitor in front of his pa.s.senger seat.
Char was not attempting to do anything productive during the voyage. When he reached his destination, he would be busy whether he wanted to be or not. Until then, he would allow his nerves time to rest. There was nothing to do but sleep or drink his favorite brandy. Then, if there was a stewardess that he hit it off with, he could have a little chat with her, cut it off at an appropriate time and then plan on going to sleep.
As the flight this time was completely allocated to the army, there were no girls working onboard. He had no choice but to pour the brandy himself at the service counter, but this was better than wasting time talking to a girl that he didn’t care for.
“Tobu comes from the j.a.panese word meaning flight, huh…?” Now that he knew the origin of the word “Tobu” was j.a.panese, Char was satisfied. It was another language that he did not understand, like Chinese, or the language of the Eskimos.
From the s.h.i.+p’s window, he could see the full figure of the earth, but it pa.s.sed out of sight behind the s.h.i.+p rather quickly. 
It was in quiet times that unexpected ideas would come to Char, which is exactly why he liked times like these.
Char watched the army employees around him taking out their personal computers to do their desk work, and wondered why they made a point of showing themselves as being busy. This was particularly the case of the three women among the pa.s.sengers, who must have been truly diligent secretaries. Without paying any mind to the surroundings, they started typing away at their own keyboards.
Just the sound of hands tapping the keyboards was rather obnoxious.
“I’m amazed they can do that without even paying attention to the things moving around them…” The depth to which Char felt this could likely be blamed on the fact that he was still rather young.
To cut off the noise around him, Char drew the curtain. The brandy had started to take effect on him, and he began to doze off. On his forehead, half-hidden by his blonde hair, was a scar. It was a war wound he had received honorably, but had faded greatly.
The Tobu now entered into inertial navigation, taking off for Sweet.w.a.ter, the destination that still remained out of sight. Darkness swallowed up the body of the s.h.i.+p right away, showing the pa.s.sengers an all-too-silent view. This silence made one expect proximity to the G.o.ds, but the earthlight was too strong, making the s.p.a.ce before them s.h.i.+ne brightly.