Editing KSGU:Volume 10 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 12===

With the moon as the backdrop, an endless array of ships fired their cannons in unison. Tens, hundreds of ships fired beams through the space of eternal night, shooting into the opposing fleet, and rings of light of various sizes lit up like lights.

The counterattack trail of fire continued to fly through the fireballs appearing and vanishing, crossing the second wave of beam barrages as the mega particle cannons scorched space. The lights spreading above their heads were so dazzling, Banagher had the urge to cover his eyes, his still body faltering. A Zeon Principality Musai-class ship took a direct hit, and exploded, and a Federation ship got hit in the hull by missiles, engulfed in a fireball. A flare exploded from a Federation’s ship engine, crashing into its allied units, and another side, a platoon of Zakus fired their handheld bazookas, the ammunition pulling its gaseous trails as they blew up the bridge of the ship, the other combatants caught in the shockwave being more of the Zaku’s accomplishments.

There was no Federation mobile suit to be seen. Before the War, the Federation army knew that Zeon was developing these weapons called mobile suits, but they were said to have committed the cardinal sin of underestimating the enemy, resulting in their complete defeats during the preliminary stages of the One Year War. Banagher quietly noted to himself that this might have been a record of that era as he saw the battlefield projected in the cryo. The Federation ships were buried one after another, and they were headed towards an open space colony. The Musai-class ships seemed small like peanuts compared to the massive colony they surrounded, its massive cylinder appearing in the space battlefield, not fixated at its position. On its other end, there were nuclear pulse engines blaring, moving slowly along with the Musai-class ships. The three mirrors on the cylinder had been severed, the silver outer walls stained with countless scorch marks, but the cylinder 30km in length continued to accelerate.
 
It was headed towards the sphere with the blue atmosphere, Earth. It was getting close. Earth, entering the camera along with the colony, might not appear so big, but the powerful gravity was already at work, and it appeared the colony was pulled in by Earth. The attacks of the pursuing Federation fleet was useless, and the colony approaching with the Zeon fleet kept accelerating, finally entering the planet’s silhouette, becoming an arrow as it shot a long trail upon the atmosphere like a blackened stain.

“I remember when the colony fell.”

Syam noted quietly, his bed seemingly floating on Earth’s silhouette. Next to Banagher, Audrey seemingly tensed up, but he stared at Syam’s sidelong face.

“20 years passed since we heard of Zeon’s name. The nightmare we feared would happened finally happened on that day. But what I remembered clearly was neither fear nor anguish, but clear condescension. The feeling I felt when I first saw this…yes, I did see the imagery of the colony falling. Just as I did 100 years ago…the day “Laplace” was blown up.”

Earth’s reflective light showed Audrey’s astounded frowning face. The words ‘“Laplace” was blown up’ had Banagher reeling greatly, but he continued to look at Syam, who was covered by the backlight.

“I always thought it was an illusion. Even I had forgotten about the matter until I saw that scene become reality. But I did see the demon-like “Zaku” army along with the colony burned by the atmosphere. Back then, the term mobile suit did not exist…that was a scene of the future the ghosts of “Laplace” showed me. They wanted me to stop it, to use the “Laplace Box”—the true Universal Century Charter, to prevent this destructive development…”

The tip of the colony approaching Earth touched the atmosphere. Its body was scorched red and torn apart by friction, the peeling outer walls becoming an elongated tail as it sank into the atmosphere. The colony as it was could no longer be seen, the scorching tip causing it to resemble a massive arrow, covered by grey dust as it tore through the atmosphere, landing onto the earth. It formed an ugly scar upon the Earth, and became an unprecedented event of a colony crashing into the earth.

“I once had a chance to stop it. If I had opened the “Box” before the One Year War, if I had proven that the original Federation government…had a provision for space-adapting humans to join the Central government, there might have been a different future. The ‘supposed future’ sealed in the “Box”…was truly in my hands.”

The eyes were reflecting the tragedy before him, but Syam’s flickering eyes were looking at something else. At this moment, the ‘power’ to topple the Federation finally materialized in Banagher’s heart, and he looked towards the “Laplace Box”—the stone tablet with the original Charter of the Universal Century.

Zeon Zum Deikun had advocated that space-adapting humans could evolve into Newtypes, and became the hope of the people who were abandoned in space. The Federation government only knew to suppress him, but the original Federation had hopes for space-adapting humans—Newtypes, and had wished for them to coexist with the government. Result-wise the Federation personally buried the existence of this ideal along with the “Laplace Incident” till this day. If the spacenoids who believed in Zeon knew of this Truth that could have changed their futures—

“But I forgot about the illusion that day, or I might say, deliberately chose to forget. The Vist Foundation was founded for the “Box” to be entrusted to the future, but it lost its objective without knowing, just becoming bigger and bigger…I, along with the organization that should be part of identity, lost ‘my only desire’. We merely held onto the blood-stained present, and not reached our hands towards the future …”

Syam brought his withered hands before him, and behind him, the colony vanished beyond the horizon, a flash forming as it landed, bright like the morning sun as it scorched the Earth a burning color.
 
Audrey pursed her lips, turning her head aside in disgust. Banagher looked towards Syam’s hands that were lit by the light. The palms that had killed his own son, crushed the ‘promised future’ had eased down, the fingertips left with an emptiness that could not grasp anything. The light of the colony calmed soon after the flash of the colony drop, leaving behind the darkness of the stars shrouding the sultry sidelong face of the old man.