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It is the year 80 of the universal century, the first day of which was the end of the One Year War.
Humanity had moved the majority of its population into enormous colony cylinders in space at the LaGrange points of Sol before the start of the one year war. It was the first war in space and the first use of giant man-shaped machines of war, called Mobile Suits. The war began when the colony of Side 3, known as the Principality of Zeon, declared war on the Earth Federation with the stated cause of declaring freedom for Spacenoids from the rule of the Earth Federation. But the leadership of Zeon cared only for its own people and used deadly gas attacks on colony cylinders to empty them out for use by their own population, or outright destroyed colonies, killing billions. The Earth Federation retaliated with its own weapons of mass destruction in space, causing immense collateral casualties. The final use of WMDs had been the Principality of Zeon dropping an entire colony cylinder to earth from space, destroying the city of Sydney and permanently changing the climate for much of Asia and completely ruining the habitability of Australia. Half of all humanity died before a treaty was signed banning the use of WMDs and chemical weapons, and this was all in the first few months of the one year war.
But now the one year war that resulted in the extinction of fully half of humanity is officially over. The Principality of Zeon falls with the death of its autocratic leaders, the Zabi family, at the hands of the ace Zeon pilot Char Aznable "the Red Comet", and so the Republic of Zeon takes its place. The Earth Federation and the Republic of Zeon sign an armistice and the war officially ends. But, not all the fighting has ended quite yet...
The federation war hero Amuro Ray, pilot of the legendary mobile suit the Gundam, and his fellow crewmates from the now destroyed space carrier ship the White Base cannot relax just yet. While the leadership of the Principality of Zeon is dead, many pockets of Zeon soldiers fight on in the name of the dead Zabi family. The crew of the White Base are assigned a new and improved ship, The White Base Kai, given new crew to replace their losses during the war, and the Mobile Suit Gundam is replaced, before being sent on a mission of crushing leftover pockets of Zeon resistance. Months pass of relatively uneventful combat, the new White Base Kai and the replacement Gundam more than enough to destroy the odd guerilla fighter piloting outdated Zeonic Zaku II mobile suits, when the Earth Federation gives them a new mission...
"Thats the thing, I was in uniform. He said something about how normally he shouldn't help me but since we were on neutral ground he'd make an exception. I don't remember the exact words."
"I don't think I would have done that, helped out a feddie soldier, I was much angrier when the war was in full swing. I wouldn't have broken Side 6 neutrality but I might have spat as I drove by. Didn't realize yet the war was over the second the feddies got mobile suits, you always had the massive economic and population advantage and mobile suits were the only reason we were winning."
Looks meaningfully at the federation mobile suit models Amuro had been making for the kids.
"Didn't realize it till I got shot down and had time to think at that base you grabbed me from, seeing everyone around me be much too young or green as hell. The proud Zeonic forces were no more, a whole generation thrown into the meat grinder and having nothing to show for it, and seeing the Federation filled with young folks like you made me realise that was true for both sides. No offence but kids shouldn't have to go to war."
He does all the finishing touches on his model, all the command insignia and the fiddly bits like the antenna were painted and it was as done as it could be with the skill at painting Friedrich had.
"All done, if one of you smaller kids wants it you can have it." He says to the orphan trio.
"This was right before the end, so I think he had already realized and just wasn't ready to give up once he was back on the battlefield. I'm not sure through. I was forced into the war and never really paid much attention to the reasons for it."
This is really awkward, but strangely kinda nice. Civvies don't understand, and the rest of the crew does but it would be weird to talk to them about anything Zeon without focusing on the part where they attacked their home then chased them across the system.
"I'd say the Zeonic forces wouldn't force people to join, but they started to as soon as Side 3 Surrendered and became a republic. That educated lady Jacinda wasn't given a choice for joining the forces, and honestly the fact I was surrounded by brainwashed kids and conscripts was half the reason I surrendered. The people in charge didn't deserve me going out in a blaze of glory for them, not anymore, and someone had to look after who they left behind."
He stands up. "Well this was fun, I haven't really had much chance to talk soldiering or mobile suits with anyone, the guards who take turns following me around aren't very chatty, and Jacinda is a bit too much sometimes and doesn't really care about this sort of stuff, and Sofie just is always angry about Charlie dying all the time, and hates me for not trying to kill as many of you as I can. So this was enjoyable." And leaves the break room, to go back to his room/cell.
Later on Amuro will pass on the tiny amount of maybe actually relevant mobile suit info to Bright. Who will in turn include it as a low priority attachment next time the White base phones home. He'll also go ahead and ok access to civilian news sources for the prisoners.
After finishing some simulator time Sayla will find herself in front of angry girl's cell.
To start off with she won't actually say anything just look in.
She is sitting on her cot looking very miserable, all hunched over, her hair hanging over her face. She is Still in the Zeon uniform they captured her in. If Sayla has talked to anyone who guards her she would have heard that the prisoner only ever wears her uniform or the uniform Jacinda abandoned that is much too big for her, she refuses to wear civilian clothes or federation prisoner uniforms at all.
Sayla has many strengths. Staring dramatically, and flying fighters are among them.
Making actual plans and using her words kinda aren't.
"You know the entire Zabi family is dead anyway."
Strictly speaking this isn't true, but Mineva's survival isn't well known and the in-laws don't count.
The girl looks up at the barred window in the door and glares. "I knew that before I joined up you idiot! All you earthlings are degenerates that need to be controlled or wiped out whether there is a Zabi in charge or not." She spits at the door but she is not the best spitter, it doesn't go very far and part of it dribbles embarrassingly down her chin, very much ruining the intended effect. She wipes her chin and goes back to glaring.
This was a bad idea but as long as she's here.
"I was born in space and most of the crew is from side 7 even if they weren't born there."
"Federation bootlickers are practically earthlings anyway, I heard side 7 got attacked by the Red Comet and got wiped out. Once we wipe all of you out it can be filled with loyal Zeons instead of Federation dogs." At this point its fairly obvious to anyone with any level of social awareness that the girls heart isn't in it. Shes forcing herself to spit the insults out as vehemently as possible rather than actually being that angry. Just trying to hurt Sayla however she can.
There is something incredibly stupid Sayla could say about exactly where in space she was born and under what circumstances, but she won't.
"Most of it was wiped out, but the rest escaped on the first White Base. If you want to spend the rest of your life in a cell I can't stop you, but you should ask Friedrich and Jacinda how their approach is working out."
And dramatic flounce time.
"Those two are traitors and should be hanged!" The girl yells, taking off a shoe and throwing it at the barred window, impacting with a clang.
Right she is obviously doing horrible at conversations today. So might as well go talk to Amuro.
"So it's kinda interesting having Zeon prisoners on board."
She has totally ever flirted in her life. Ok so that was a lie but no time like the present.
Whyyyyy do things keep coming back to Char. Avoid the topic.
"Jacinda seems fine but talks a bit too much. Did you know" she thinks I'm hot "she was told that Federation captians have harems."
...
Is talking about harems flirting? Probably not.
"Well it sounds like Zeon does a lot of propaganda."
Well maybe just let this conversation die, unless.
"By the way we've been helping the kids build models. Its pretty fun you should check it out some time."
Later on the kids are putting together more of the models with some supervision from Fraw and Hayoto, who are practically their parents at this point. They've basically gone through all of the mobile suits, but are still have a lot of ground vehicles and some planes.
Hayato Is having fun making old type federation tanks, they have a lot of fiddly bits the kids had trouble with, simplicity of design was not a core concept of federation design teams back when these were made, gluing little machine gun turrets and little soldiers to the turret nests on the front of the tank. He thanks Fraw for the snacks with a shy smile, ever since he got injured that one time during the war they had gotten real close and he felt lucky to be around her, and it was nice to see Fraw so relaxed now everyone she cared about wasn't constantly in danger.