Chapter 8: Setting Off on the Journey!

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Although they had been given a week to rest and reorganize, for the Red Dragon Team it amounted to only three days in practice. Vehicle maintenance alone took three days, while sorting out their personal affairs took another. And even during the three days that remained, they could neither leave the training base nor simply bury themselves in sleep. They were about to depart for the most distant group of colonial satellites between Earth and the Moon under the jurisdiction of the Earth Federation, and there was no shortage of preparations to be made beforehand.

The colonial satellites were a vast undertaking launched by Earth after entering the Federation Era, intended to address the worsening environment and overpopulation. With the strong support of the Earth Federation, chiefly composed of the G8 nations, the Colonial Republics built a series of enormous artificial space structures at Earth’s Lagrange points. These colossal cylindrical bodies became humanity’s homes in space.

Such gigantic cylindrical colonies were thirty to forty kilometers long, with diameters reaching six kilometers. Each could accommodate tens of millions of residents. The satellites could also rotate once every two minutes to generate artificial gravity, allowing the people living inside them to lead lives much like those on Earth. Lakes, rivers, and other geographical features resembling Earth’s natural environment could even be constructed within the colonies.

After its founding, the Earth Federation built a total of seven such space colonies, designated Side 1 through Side 7. Each colony consisted of dozens of cylindrical satellites. Like cities on Earth, these satellites had different functions, and together they formed self-sufficient space colonies.

Naturally, the Sides had names of their own, and even the individual satellites under each Side bore their own names. Side 3, for instance, had once been called the Republic of Munzo. Now it was known as the Principality of Zeon, whose capital was the first colonial satellite, Zum.

Building these colonies floating in space was no easy task. It consumed vast sums of money and decades of time. As construction technology evolved, colonies built in different periods had different effects on their inhabitants. Side 3, located on the far side of the Moon and farthest from Earth, was one such example.

Its satellites were not open colonies, half-transparent with external light-collecting panels gathering sunlight, their mirrors adjusted to create day and night within the colony. Instead, they were completely sealed. Although such satellites could support larger populations, everything inside had to be regulated through artificial simulation. Most importantly, the sunlight upon which human beings depended was simulated entirely by artificial lighting.

Naturally, such an environment could not compare with Earth. It could not even rival the semi-open colonies, whose cycle of day and night depended on the sun and was therefore as natural as Earth’s own. In a sealed colony, by contrast, the lights came on and went out like lamps in a room: bright one moment, dark the next. The transition was painfully abrupt and extremely difficult to adapt to.

Over time, the colonists’ resentment toward the Earth Federation government naturally grew. Once that resentment had built to its breaking point, it erupted uncontrollably.

Thus, in UC 0058—the fifty-eighth year after the first extraterrestrial colony was completed—the Side 3 colonies chose to withdraw from the Federation government’s direct administration and establish an autonomous government: the Republic of Munzo. However, under the military pressure exerted by the Federation Forces at the time, the Republic of Munzo did not declare independence. Instead, it chose to become an affiliated republic of the Earth Federation.

Even so, Zeon Zum Deikun, then the republic’s supreme leader, never abandoned his ambition of creating a truly independent nation. He adopted a series of measures to negotiate with the Federation, attempting to transform the Republic of Munzo into a genuinely sovereign state.

But in UC 0068, Zeon Deikun suddenly died under mysterious circumstances. Degwin Sodo Zabi, who had served as his deputy, became the nation’s supreme leader. Taking advantage of Deikun’s death, this close associate unleashed a bloody storm within the country and purged a vast number of opponents. At the same time, he used Deikun’s death to direct the people’s fury toward the Earth Federation, presenting himself and his family faction as the protectors of Side 3.

Then, in UC 0069, having seized complete control of the state, Degwin transformed the country in Deikun’s memory into the Principality of Zeon. He himself became its Sovereign, while his eldest son, Gihren Zabi, assumed the position of Head of State.

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That was the turbulent, treacherous extraterrestrial world to which Makarius and the others were headed.

“Everyone, finish your inspections, and don’t forget anything!”

The Director of the Armored Forces lifted the tent flap and strode into the Seventh Company’s communal quarters, surrounded by several instructors. He was dressed in a perfectly pressed military uniform. At that moment, all the company’s trainees stood in neat formation in one corner of the tent, waiting for his inspection.

“Hmm. Not bad—very good, in fact! Keep up this standard from now on! Let everyone see that our armored forces are the backbone of the Federation Forces!”

The director looked over the company’s living quarters and nodded with satisfaction. Although the trainees were not yet正式 soldiers, their bearing was already indistinguishable from that of the finest servicemen. And all of it was his achievement. A deep sense of accomplishment welled up within him.

“All right. The vehicles will be here soon. Don’t just stand around inside—come on out!”

With their individual packs on their backs and their combat bags and marching bags in hand, the entire Red Dragon Team led the way out. Their trainee uniforms had been pressed until not a wrinkle remained, and the insignia on their military caps gleamed brightly. Two orderly columns followed behind them, made up of the remaining trainees from the Seventh Company.

The academy’s convoy was already waiting on the road outside. The exercise itself was not especially large in scale, but its importance was considerable. The black executive minibuses that ordinary trainees rarely had the chance to ride had all been brought out. After all, space travel was not cheap in those days, and every academy leader who could take advantage of an official government-funded trip had come along.

The trainees and officers filled seven vehicles in all. Alongside them were three JLTVs and two Type 74 hover trucks assigned to escort duty. The resulting procession was truly imposing.

However, two-thirds of them could go no farther than the entrance to the spaceport. From there, they could only watch enviously as the remaining passengers boarded the shuttle.

When the time came to part, the instructors and trainees who could not go into space naturally had a few words of advice to offer.

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“Brat, don’t disgrace our battalion!” shouted one of the instructors.

“Remember to bring back some souvenirs!” called Company Commander Odra. He and the other Blue Team trainees were still wearing their work uniforms because the civil-engineering work at the gate had not yet been completed. After seeing the others off, they still had to return and keep digging.

“Bring me a Zeon woman…”

That came from one unfortunate youngster who, carried away by the moment, shouted without thinking. The instant the words left his mouth, everyone remembered that there was a whole crowd of officers present.

The Director of the Armored Forces, however, was something of a joker himself. He threw back his head and laughed before picking up the thread.

“That won’t do. Security won’t let her through. You’ll have to wait until you get the chance to visit Zeon yourself and bring one back!”

The unfortunate youth was about to say something else, but several senior trainees reacted with lightning speed, pinning him down amid the crowd before beginning a thorough lesson in brotherly discipline.

After the brief farewell, the Red Dragon Team, laden with bags of every description, followed the officers toward the shuttle standing in the distance above the earth. Powered by a nuclear-thermal rocket engine, the craft was capable of traveling freely between Earth and space, piercing and escaping the atmosphere at will.

Of course, flying all the way to Zeon in such a vehicle was unrealistic. The shuttle’s fuel tanks were not large enough. In fact, Makarius and the others were headed for low Earth orbit, where an orbital defense base operated by the Space Forces was stationed. There, they would board a Columbus-class transport belonging to the Space Forces and continue onward to the Principality of Zeon.

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