Editing KSGU:Volume 4 Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 4===

The base, a space colony, was built as part of the space migration plan, so obviously, it required a large number of resources. The number of resources they could extract from Earth was not enough ultimately, and cost-wise, it would not be effective to move materials from the atmosphere. Thus, the people in the old century turned their eyes on the Moon. They built a lasting resource extraction base on the Moon, and the next step was the Asteroid Belt that existed in the region between Mars and Jupiter, a field abundantly rich in resources.

It was a hive of rocks that could not come together to form a planet because of the powerful gravity of Jupiter near it. In this belt, he floating asteroids there amounted to at least hundreds of thousands based on the observations in the old century, and it was said that there were millions of them. The overall mass of these rocks were said to be 1/35 the mass of the Moon, and most of them had outstanding minerals. Of course, these asteroids were not so concentrated that they had to be explained on an encyclopedia, and they were all sporadically scattered amongst the wide space. However, it was not impossible to lock onto a single asteroid and send an excavation team from the Earth Celestial Sphere. Also, once they knew that there was an asteroid that was suitable for mining, they would install nuclear pulse engines on it and head back to Earth on their shuttle. To humanity, which had welcomed the Universal Century, this was not a tough thing to do.

Amongst them, the most famous was the small asteroid Juno that was in the Moon’s orbit during UC 0045, dubbed “Luna II”. In the year 0060, it was made a military base called Luna Two. One purpose was to act as the largest headquarters for the Federation Army, while the other was to continue the mining activities. “Palau” was one of these mining space colonies as well. This colony was so isolated that nobody other than the people involved in colony business would know of, but it had an extraordinary history. It was said that some of the smaller colonies were dragged in from the Old Century. The added condition to the mentioned part was because “Palau” was built by having many small asteroids linked to each other, which accounted for its unique bow-shape.

Simply put, a triangular block protruding out from the tip of the bow, and the bottom comprised of 3 irregularly shaped rocks connected to each other tightly. The 4 blocks that were too small to be called asteroids were connected by multiple shafts, and it would be hard to tell that they were not asteroids unless one looked from up close. This “Palau” was a mining satellite that was 30+km wide, 15km long in diameter maximum , and looked like some realistic imagery.

As with any mining satellite, the surface of the rocks had countless space gateways and monitors. The main portion, the triangular block had two round cylinders of living areas, and each embedded on 6km wide caves on the rock surfaces. There were approximately 30,000 people living in the residential area that was maintained by centrifuge force, just like a space colony. It seemed that these people lived by mining. That was Maridas’s explanation. The ship Banagher was on—the Neo Zeon’ flagship “Rewloola” entered “Palau” together with the “Garencieres” that was disguised as a trading ship.

The ships did not enter from the space gateway on the surface, but got in through a gap where the 4 blocks of rock were leaning and attached to each other. Banagher understood that the structure was the inner hollow that was dug out, creating a ‘port’ that could not be seen from the outside. However, this was all he could tell from the window of the hull. As the pressurizing rock formation and the large intertwined shafts were right in front of the windows, Banagher thought that they finally made it through, only to be taken out of the room. The moment his view expressed, he felt that he saw several ships docked in the enclosed conical-shaped space and mobile suits moving around, but Marida held onto his head, allowing him no time to check. Banagher was accosted outside, took the standard precautionary checks, and stepped onto “Palau”.

He had no chance to see the entire port. He passed through the zero gravity block, moved to a structure that looked like a terminal, and saw a chartered linear car waiting for them. This was a similar kind of transportation as the “Subway” used in the space colony, but they were really moving underground. Amongst the passengers, there were several men said to be crew of the “Garencieres” other than Marida. They obviously showed a different vibe from the crew of the “Rewloola”. Everyone were wearing glamorous looking uniforms with gold lacing, but there was the feeling that these did not fit them. In the old times, there was the saying ''Clothes makes the man '', but there seemed to be exceptions to that rule. Perhaps the vibe of not liking fancy outfits outweighed the rest here. Either way, these people had the vibe of being part of a yakuza clan.

From the conversation, it seemed that Marida was a crew member of the “Garencieres”. ''Why was she the only one on the “Rewloola” and taking care of me?'' Banagher did not have time to think as the linear car moved, while the scenery outside the window was filled with rocks. After 5 minutes, they came out of the passage, and the excavation field that was dug into “Palau” appeared right in front of him. He looked like a primary school student experiencing a field trip as he stuck his face on the wall, not moving at all.

The excavation field seemed to pass through the triangular conical star, approximately 400m in diameter and more than 10km in length. This extraordinarily large space was surrounded by multiple network-like shafts. It was said that these shafts were connected to the living quarters and the port and other places. The final point of the excavation field however had an automatic firing system—a Mass Driver. It looked like it would shoot out the minerals that were dug out. Banagher deduced this from what he saw from the window, and basically, the facilities in the mining field reminded Banagher of his old home.

The factories that were near the walls of the cave did not seem to be working, and the mining machinery placed all over showed no signs of operating. Everything was covered in rust and dust, and there was the sense of a reddish-brown color fading in with the rocks. There were a few mini mobile suits moving the rocks, flying around numbly in the work environment without gravity, but the models were so old it was scary. Half of the solar panels of the artificial Sun could not be seen, and a mere sunset-like light was shown. Only the term ‘emptiness’ could describe the current scene beside the abandoned quarry there.

“It was not like this before. About 50 years ago, when the building of colonies was rampant, the chimneys here would be giving off smoke. It was said that people could not see the other level because of the smoke that was puffing out…however, the rocks here were not of outstanding minerals. Ever since mining excavation began here, there would be some other bits of stone mixed in to add up, and they managed to somehow bluff their way through. Right now, we’ve finished digging up as much as we can, and we only dig up some spare change.”

The one sitting beside him, Gilboa Sant, looked outside the window as he said. As a crew member of the “Garencieres”, he was an earnest looking black man who looked to be approximately 30. Also, he seemed to be a citizen native to this “Palau”. At least, when he was Banagher’s age, this place was not called “Palau”. When the colony committee decided to close this place down, an investor from somewhere bought this star, and named it “Palau” after the place on Earth that was attacked. Ever since then, “Palau” was designated as a special administrative zone under Side 6, and that investor safely took the role of superintendent. In the old century terms, it was basically buying a desolated island from a country. He could call himself a superintendent, but in fact, he was like a villager. Gilboa explained to Banagher,

“In the past, the Republic of Zeon once had a space base called “Solomon”, right? It seemed that this “Palau” was named because of the place that was attacked. Both these names were names of islands on Earth, but Solomon was the name of a king in a myth, and had nothing to do with that island. Anyway, they’re just trying to being trendy.”

Simply put, everyone on “Palau” was a full-fledged Zeon supporter. He probably hoped that there would be special needs after the war as he continued to buy mining quarries that could not be run while providing these resources to Neo Zeon. The Side 6 that became a pivotal point everyone knew of during the war was said to have some secret relations with the Republic of Zeon. If the superintendent allowed, it was not impossible to hide from the Federation’s eyes at this place. This was the case after the Second Neo Zeon War, when the government actively purged the remnants of Zeon.

''We’ve now entered the phase of exterminating in this Zeonism War'' the Federation declared this, but had not done anything to the entire satellite that was filled with resources and made into a base. Banagher’s dull mind was stimulated because of this, and it seemed to let him understand that the ‘relationship’ between the Federation and Neo Zeon was not as what he imagined, but he did not have the time to think more. The bearded man who was travelling with them glanced over at Gilboa who was rattling out careless, giving a look to tell him to stop, and Banagher unwittingly looked into this bearded man’s stare.

He was the man the crew called the captain. Ever since they met, Banagher had been wondering, ''Those were the eyes alright.'' He was the man who pointed his gun at Banagher in “Industrial 7”. He met the blond guy beside before, and recalled. ''Speaking of which, that ship that ruined my job by docking in that morning was the “Garencieres”.'' 

''They were already implicated with this situation right from the beginning. The man who chased after the stowaway Audrey and sent Marida over was most likely this guy—this captain called Zinnerman.'' Banagher looked over at Zinnerman, and sat down on the seat that was slanted at the front. ''If these guys never came, “Industrial 7” would be okay.'' The rage swelled up in him as the fear that they controlled his fate exploded at the same time, causing both emotions to form a vortex within him. However, Zinnerman did not look at Banagher anymore. Gilboa shrugged as he stopped talking too, leaving only the sound of the linear car moving.

Banagher sighed as he looked at Marida, who was looking at the back of Zinnerman’s head as she sat on a seat opposite. Those sapphire blue eyes were looking like she was being loyal to her superior, oozing with an odd sense of passion. Her tense face was rather outstanding amongst the other crew members who were randomly looking around and relaxed.

''What kind of relationship do they have?''  Banagher could not find words to ask, and had no courage to ask as his eyes escaped to the window. There was a large quarry below the linear car, below the shafts on the walls—though it was a meaningless description under this zero gravity environment. They sped on, reached a fork soon after, turned towards a cave, and the car moved towards one of the many shafts.

The quarry passed his eyes, and the narrow passage again surrounded the linear car. For a moment, darkness visited the car, covering Marida’s worried looking expression