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 'Getas'. 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.
Part 2
The transport ship ‘Garencieres’ was 112m in full length, and it was cone-shaped. The maximum capacity it could bear was over 500 ton. The front end had a bridge that was shaped like the front end of a plane. The shape of the ship made it look like the designer factored in air resistance, and one could tell that it could fly in the atmosphere, and could be used as a transport vehicle between space and Earth. It was an old model that was commonly used by all the shipping companies in the past, but was hardly seen today.
As indicated by the word ‘Ribakoona Trading’ on the side, the ‘Garencieres’ was registered as a civilian transport ship, but in reality, that wasn’t the case. Right now, the shutter on the back of the ship was slowly opening, and the sliding suspension of cargo was slowly opening. What opened from the bottom of the cone was a crane that was suspended by the cone—the place that was supposed to be carrying cargo had a human-shaped giant robot fastened there.
It had 4 limbs that were somewhat thick at the end, and the bulge at the front of the waist had a mouth-shaped armor. The head looked like a rooster’s crown and also like something that was poking out, and then there was a one-eyed laser sensor. The almost 20m humanoid frame had 4 wing-like pods that was about as large as the main body on its shoulders. This dark green machine should be called a giant, and the shape was way too mysterious. However, its humanoid appearance was way too defined to be called something else. In this age, amongst mobile suits—human-shaped mobile weapons that had the power of a main weapon, this machine’s profile was somewhat strange. However, its abdomen had a cockpit like many mobile suits, and it was covered in many layers of a ball-shaped cockpit, and the pilot in the spacesuit was already over there operating it.
“Target captured. Abandoning the ‘Geta’. There’s a ‘Jegan’ that’s somewhat fast, possibly a commander type.”
Marida Cruz looked through the full screen that’s displayed on the inside wall of the cockpit, and a small window showed the specs. She said without emotion, (This means it’s not a coincidence that we met?), and Captain Zinnerman responded through the wireless communicator.
(We’ll be entering the dark space domain. Hurry up and finish it off before coming back.)
“Understood, master.”
Don’t call me master. Before these usual words came, Marida heard Zinnerman breathe in a more tense manner than before. The reason they would meet the Federation ship here was that it was rare of them to patrol around here. However, it was really abnormal for a trading ship that was on its designated course and even check for inspection. They even sent out specially equipped mobile suits. This may be because the Federation Army already knew our side’s true identity and objective and set an ambush in the space field. To Zimmerman, he had to deduce who leaked the information and wonder what to do next.
That’s right, the next step…Master, he didn’t need to bother about this. I exist for this. Ignoring all other thoughts, Marida put the hand on both left and right control sticks—the hemisphere arm tracer that could allow all 5 fingers to be gripped together.
“Marida Cruz, ‘Kshatriya’, launching.”
As the restraints on the machine were released, the abnormally shaped mobile suit—'Kshatriya' slowly descended down the hangar. It wasn't really accurate to call it 'descending' when there's no concept of up or down in outter space, but the machine that was being dangled had this feeling as it was released from the hangar of the ship at the bottom. Marida released the activation control thrusters and moved under the 'Garencieres' until she was more than 100m away from the ship, and stepped on the pedal. The four main thrusters on the pods let out white light at one go. The 'Kshatriya' got away from the inertial motion of the of the 'Garencieres', spun and soon got behind and approached its target.
In the planet-shaped cockpit that was 1.5m in diameter, there was the screen of a full 360 degrees scnery. The intense rays of the stars entered Marida's eyes, and a bystander would feel that it looked like Marida's cockpit was suddenly in the midst of stars, and that she was flying in the stars. However, the image of outer space that was depicted all around wasn't a real scene, but a computer-depicted outer space that used special effects of constellations as locators.
In one area, there were 3 of these targets after the visual was enlarged. Right now, the optical sensor merely managed to capture the distance, so it was a rough CG. But in contrast, the model number of the data RGM-89 was rather clear itself. It was the mainstream mobile suits of the Earth Federation, the 'Jegan'. Amongst the trio, the one leading the attack was a special type that had an S behind, and they continued to abandon the Geta as they scattered and closed in. 'Geta' was the common name for mobile suits' flight packs when they attack from long range, and the use was to act as a flat bed that transport the mobile suits from below and send them into space battle. It could be said to be a miniature boat that replace the mobile suits legs, but Marida didn't know the origin of the name 'Geta'.
The three mobile suits were each wielding the main weapon, the beam rifle as they closed in—Marida sensed that the enemies wanted to surround her from outside beam weaponry range and surround from 3 directions, and made the first judgment that 'the battle was difficult'. It wasn't difficult to take down 3 'Jegar', but missing one would cause the defenses of the 'Garencieres' to be unstable. Marida wasn't being confident or bold as she merely used her head to think of how to handle the situation right now, and let her mobile suit decelerate suddenly.
The 4 pods swung forward, and the main thrusters spurt flames in the opposite direction, causing the Kshatirya's speed to immediately go from meters per second to meter per minute and finally, terminal velocity. As the back bore the sudden force of slowing down, Marida endured the discomfort of the eyeballs feeling like it was going to fly out and the fingers swelling as the blood flowed back, and muttered, 'Funnel'.
The numerous exhaust lights on the inside of the pods shot out as 2 small objects came from each of the 4 pods, 8 of these 2m things altogether. They moved as per normal, and as they stopped around the 'Kshatriya', they activated their thrusters and rushed to their targets like a bullet.
The sensor cannons were like its name, funnel, as the conical shaped objects gathered together and then dispersed, striking the 'Jegars' that were still outside shooting range. This wasn't automatic control, and neither was it mechanical long-range control. In a battlefield that was full of Minovsky particles, it was impossible to use electromagnetic waves to control it, and it was impossible to use a computer to launch an attack on one spot. This weapon, the funnel, is controlled by the pilot's brainwaves.
The Psycho communicator—commonly know as psychomu, the brainwave guiding system would use the brain signals of the pilot, magnify it and send the instructions to the unit sensor cannons. The brainwaves are also called psycho waves, and it could cause the Minovsky particles to react. Thus, it didn't have the risk of being interfered with like normal electronic waves. As long as the pilot had ability, the funnels could be said to be completely invincible in the current battlefield. As the Minovsky particles would prevent all electronic devices from working, and as it was required to use a large golem like this kind of mobile suit to protect the body and engage in close range combat on the battlefield, the funnels truly became a flight equipment.
Of course, not everyone could use it. Even though it went through many improvements, the psychomu system would still bring a lot of physical and mental stress to the pilot. However, Marida could operate it better than anyone. More accurately, she was 'created' to be able to operate the funnels.