KSGU:Volume 1 Chapter 1

Part 1

The alarm inside the ship sounded. That wailing sound gave goosebumps but caused the mind to calm down gradually. The girl went near the ship window on the wall.

Looking out from the plastic board window, it was an outer space of vacuum. Right now, neither the Earth nor the moon could be seen as only the starry spots that filled the sky lit up the silent darkness. This ship should be moving forward at a very fast speed, btu the stars outside the window weren't moving at all. It was like being locked in a still darkness.

The girl recalled how she would ask the maidservant the reason behind this phenomenon as she didn't understand them. The extremely patient Lamias would give a beaming smile and say: Princess, that's because the stars are too far away, so they didn't discover us moving...

That was the excuse the adults gave, but it wasn't without sincerity. The 17-year-old girl already knew all this. Lamias was a good maidservant, but she was already dead for almost 10 years. The girl's youth was shrouded in mystery, and the certain person who was called a princess remained in her memories—the past she bore had to be erased for a while from now on.

Thus, she didn't need a name right now. She was just a nameless person who was going to where she should be going to, to meet the person she should be meeting as she got herself stowed aboard this ship. That was all.

“Hurry up and scatter the Minovsky Particles. Get to combat levels!”

“One enemy ship. Most like a Clop-class battleship.”

“That's not an ordinary patrol. It had already planned on an ambush in this space area. There will be an enemy mobile suit attacking. Don't let your guard down.”

Through the broadcast inside the ship, the wireless communication started to reach the ears. They had already scattered Minovsky Particles that could disrupt electromagnetic waves and jam electronics like radar, but it was possible to communicate inside the ship. As the deep operating sounds of the machine rang with the people's voices, the girl heard the low grunt of the ship captain, Suberoa Zinnerman and looked out at the darkness outside the window.

Just now, she saw the pink light fly outside the window. It was the glow of the mega-particle cannon. Due to the development of Minovsky Physics, the high energy beam weapons glowed. The Earth Federation was shooting at this ship to capture it. This ship ignored the command to stop and continued to spray Minovsky particles as it accelerated. The next shot wouldn't be a warning shot. The enemy should have realized that a civilian ship couldn't be this fast.

The concentrated mega-particles that came over at lightspeed would immediately pierce through the armor n this ship if it was a direct hit. Even if it only grazed by, the high temperature of the particles that flew by may open a hole on the wall. The girl kicked herself off the wall of this dim cabin and moved her body to the cupboard in the corner of the room. In the cupboard that designated as a storage and fastened due to the zero gravity environment, there was 3 days worth of food and water she smuggled in, and also a spacesuit.

The girl then pulled the things out, and used the inertia to push her body about, using zero gravity to quickly put on the spacesuit. This cabin was hardly used, so it was used as a storeroom to put stuff inside. Once the ship gets damaged, the life support system would be cut off first. In this case, the likely situation of a vacuum occur, or the supplies that was fastened to the wall or the floor would be frozen. The girl didn't want to think of the worst case scenario where she could be sent flying out of the ship and put on the large worker spacesuit helment.

(Enemy ship's shooting high energy. 2 of them, approaching fast.)

(Its a mobile suit.)

(It seemed to have went past the 'Clogs'. Estimated time of contact, T-minus 320.)

(We'll be caught up before we enter the dark space domain...alright, hurry up and send Marida out. Let her go chase the flies away.)

Though they looked like shipping crew members, the bridge members all had combat experience and sounded very calm. Right now, they would definitely be in spacesuits and moving to the bridge where the red light is flashing. The girl remembered the bridge that was as cramped as the cockpit in a plane, remembered the thoroughly moustached face of Zinnerman as he sat on the captain's seat, and she wondered whether she should tell them that she was here. If a battle began, it would be best for her to be in the safe protected zone. If she was revealed as a stowaway, she would definitely be sent over there. If she died here without being discovered, it would really be a futile death.

No—she couldn't. If they knew that she was on board as a stowaway, Zinnerman may change the projected course and turn back to the 'Palau'. Even if he didn't, she would be locked up and watched tightly. She wouldn't be able to achieve her aim, she wouldn't be able to got out, and she wouldn't be able to meet the person she had to meet. And this outcome would cause the deaths of even more people.

This was the only chance. The girl told this to herself. She knew that this was a reckless act, but there was no other way. This was to prevent Earth from being covered in battle and causing many housands of people to die. She could only do that...

(The ‘Kshatriya’s ready for launch.)

(Target the enemy Mobile Suits. Ignore the mothership. This Garencieres’ speed is enough to shake them off.”

Once Zinnerman said with the deep coarse voice, a clear female voice (understood) could be heard. The girl remembered the face of the solidary woman, Marida Cruz, who should be of the same age as she was, and looked outside the window. The silver form of the field entered her eyes, and the numerous scale powder-like glitter entered her eyes. The shutter suddenly appeared covered the windows as the ship—the ‘Garencieres’ was entering battle mode, and all the windows had the protective shutter on.

The only image screen was on the inside part of the bridge window, and the protective shutter on the inside of the cabins didn’t have such a convenient function. The girl left the wall and hid her body in the gap between the boxes. Under the light of a weak standing lamp, she used the tape amongst her supplies to tie her hands together and gathered her consciousness onto the wireless communicator inside the helmet.

She will die when the time was right anyway. Instead of looking outside to scare herself, she might as well gather as much information as possible to deal with the current situation. She was calmly and clearly telling herself this as she tucked her knees in and hugged herself in the spacesuit.

Suddenly, she felt a chill. It was a chill that the life support of the spacesuit couldn’t adjust, a chill that entered deep inside her heart. As she often got involved with the battlefield when she was young, her body was already numb to the fear of it, and this chill seemed to be the price. The girl let herself be the instrument of silence as she closed her eyes and waited for the chill to fade.