The shining Shoko Toyokawa

"Um, Niina, are you really going to come with me?"

In the special passage of the spaceport, Maya's blonde girl held the handle, while the young girl grabbed the corner of her clothes, and the two of them "floated" together.

"We've only known each other for two days, right? A cute girl like you should be more cautious, or you'll get sold out."

"It's okay, I believe Miss Maya,"

Maya sighed, "Things have suddenly become a mess..."

"Captain Maya, this way, this way!"

Tao Xiang, wearing a space suit, waved to the two of them in the women's locker room next to the passage.

"Let's go, Niina."

The blonde girl took Renai's hand and floated over there.

Taoxiang led the two into the dressing room, gave them each a set of suitable cabin space suits, and helped them put them on.

"Momoka, are you hiding something from me?"

On the way to board the ship, Maya felt something was wrong.

With Taoxiang's personality, it's impossible for me to not talk to her for such a long time.

"No...no!" A trace of panic flashed in her eyes.

The blonde girl sighed in her heart and didn't ask any more questions.

"It's really quiet in this passage."

Taoxiang subconsciously explained: "Because this place was temporarily requisitioned..."

As soon as she finished speaking, she wanted to slap herself twice.

After passing through the airlock and entering the airless area, the passage soon reached the end. At the end of the passage was an extremely large warship.

"The Agama, is it finished too..."

Maya stared at the huge white ship.

"Since it's here, is Captain Jeanne here too?"

"And me, Captain Maya,"

A mature female voice came from the communication headset of the space suit.

The moment Maya heard that voice, her fists hardened.

"Momoka, you plotted against me!"

Chapter 9: April Fool's Day Tragedy

But no matter how angry he was, he couldn't beat Taoxiang so hard that she couldn't get out of bed.

The one who came was a brown-haired woman, about thirty years old, with gray eyes that looked like snowflakes from Siberia.

And beneath the snow, there are stories and sorrows one after another.

Her figure was straight, floating down from the plank road, like a sharp knife cutting through the space.

"Colonel Natasha..."

Maya, who was no longer a soldier, naturally had no obligation to salute her, but as her old friend, Maya subconsciously didn't want her to see her depressed side, so she subconsciously straightened her back.

"Why are you here?"

Maya didn't want to see her old friend here, but she couldn't turn around and run away at this point.

"I want to walk a distance with you, Captain Maya." It can be seen that this colonel should not smile often. At this moment, her smile is faint. People who are not familiar with her may think that it is just a social expression. But people who are familiar with her will probably be very surprised. That iron-blooded Natasha actually laughed.

"May I?"

Still speaking to people in such a gentle tone,

"But we may not be going the same way," Maya lowered her head and didn't look at her, but looked at the black-haired girl beside her, "Isn't that right, Renna?"

Rencai's eyes swept over the two of them. She always felt that there seemed to be a story between them.

"I don't know where to go now," Renai said, not knowing if it was appropriate for her to speak in this situation, but since Maya asked her to speak, she would say, "Maya-san, where are you going?"

Maya cursed herself for being a coward for throwing such a thing to a child, but what she was going to say and do next was even more shameful.

"I heard that the Mars Development Group in the L1 Aurora Colony is recruiting. I'm planning to go check it out."

"That's it..."

The colonel made no comment on this.

"Then we happen to be traveling the same distance. Miss Maya, could you please come with me? This is my personal request."

"I understand, Natasha."

Now that things have come to this, how can Maya refuse?

"Nina, you..."

"I'm with Maya-san," the girl said before the blonde girl finished her words.

Maya was so annoyed that she wanted to scratch her head, but she grabbed the helmet without any suspense. Now she was even more annoyed. "I'm going to Mars, do you want to come with me?!"

"Yeah, I've always been curious about whether there are aliens on Mars."

"I'm talking to you!"

Natasha and Taoxiang, looking at the two people who were having so much fun, couldn't help but feel a little complicated, but they rekindled their hope of pulling her back.

…………

……

"Byron, there are some beautiful girls coming to Kabukicho nearby. I heard they just came from Earth. Do you want to join us and have some fun?"

The young man, called Byron by his coworkers, was about 19 years old and looked a little shy. "No, let's talk about it next time."

"How many times have you said you'll definitely do it next time? Are you planning on saving it up to find a wife? Don't be a miser, you're still young! Money is something you can't bring with you when you're born, and you can earn it again when you lose it."

Byron ignored the teasing of his fellow workers and just smiled as usual.

He uses the cheapest cell phone, eats and wears the cheapest food, yet works in two shifts to build a colony satellite, a dangerous and arduous job.

The working hours are close to 12 hours a day.

Sometimes I get off work so hard that I can sweat a lot from my space suit when I get off work.

Although the salary is more than double that of the service industry in the colony, or bus drivers, the turnover rate of this job is also high.

Byron, who was only 18 years old not long ago, persevered only because of a belief that supported him.

That is, to save enough money to treat my sister's illness.

"Today is payday, and there should be a lot of people going to the office to transfer money back to Earth..."

The young man thought about it and decided not to continue lying in bed. He was afraid that something might happen to him, so he decided to go and transfer the money today.

This is not a self-scare. Due to the rush to build the colony satellite, the accident rate during the construction of the colony satellite remains high.

Two co-workers Byron knew had accidents; one lost both legs and the other lost his life.

Because every time money is sent back to Earth, a handling tax is charged.

The larger the amount of the transfer, the more cost-effective it is.

It is said that this policy is to allow cosmic capital to feed back to the Earth. Byron did not even finish high school and has no idea whether this is the case.

On the narrow streets squeezed by temporary satellites used by the construction, there were no people holding signs and trying to collect money to go back to Earth.

It is said that 30% of them are scammers, and their familiar coworkers will not transfer money back to Earth. Young people dare not take such a risk, so they deposit money for three months and then transfer it back to their homes on Earth.

Today's street parade was huge. I don't know if the sheriffs were on holiday or what, but as soon as the parade started, they would rush over to drive it away.

"Down with the Federation!"

"Take back our country!"

"We want autonomy and democracy! We don't want tyranny!"

There may be many rats living in this shabby temporary colony, but there is no rich person.

They come from different countries and have different skin colors.

But life is generally not good. In places where the Federation's "favor" cannot shine, the voices against the Federation are naturally getting louder and louder.

The young people hid far away, fearing that they would be swept up in the parade.

Although he also hated the Federation, now was the critical moment for him to raise enough money for his sister's medical expenses. If he was arrested as a reactionary, he would be doomed.

Because of the parade, Byron felt even more uneasy. He quickened his pace and ran to the Colonial Satellite Administration Office.

There were already many people like him waiting here, but the place was in chaos, no Colonial Satellite Administration staff were in sight, and the gate was tightly closed.

While they were discussing this, a young staff member came running over in panic, shouting as he ran, asking them to go to the shelter quickly.

Everyone looked at him strangely. The first question they asked was not what had happened, but: "Is there any shelter on this colony satellite?"

Byron's heart became more and more uneasy. No matter what happened, the most important thing for him was to send this life-saving money back to Earth.

He desperately squeezed towards the staff member in the crowd, but just when he was about to reach him...

"Rumble..."

A huge explosion sounded, like an earthquake, and the entire colony satellite was shaking.

The next moment, amidst the miserable wailing of the steel skeleton, the entire world fell apart under the pull of the vacuum.

Byron didn't realize what had happened until the end of his life. He was still thinking about sending the money back home...

…………

On April 1, UC0002, a brutal massacre occurred at the Earth-Moon Lagrange point L5.

The Earth Federation's Kaes Special Forces, which divided the population into two categories: the people of the Federation and the "survivors of the old times," launched a fire attack on a small temporary colony satellite at the L5 Lagrange point, a building left over from the time of the great power struggle.

In less than a minute, almost all of the 20 people in the colony died.

Caius declared that the people on this colony were all survivors of an extremely old era.

This strike was a response to an attack on Caius' forces on Nyx-13.

People called it an April Fool's Day tragedy.

…………

……

"Drip drip..."

On the Argama, Natasha, who had been catching up with Maya and whose expression had softened slightly compared to usual, suddenly turned cold after receiving a call.

"Captain Maya... No, Xia Ya, the situation is taking a turn for the worst..."

Chapter 10: I am nobody now, just an ordinary person

"The worst direction..." Maya, or Xia Ya, looked at the universe outside the porthole. The overly bright sunlight shining on the porthole interfered with the starlight, and there was no atmosphere in space to refract the light. The universe looked dark and empty, as if there was nothing.

"Did something happen?"

Maya regretted it as soon as she finished speaking. She clearly no longer wanted to care about these things...

"Those bastards from Caius just attacked a temporary colony housing construction workers at Earth-Moon L5, killing at least 20 people..."

Natasha took a deep breath and rubbed her temples with both hands. "Rather than saying they acted on impulse, it seems more like they were deliberately trying to escalate the relationship between the Federation and the survivors."

"Those with ulterior motives will definitely take advantage of this opportunity. The survivors won't remain silent any longer. The arms dealers on the moon will also take action soon. In fact, they have already taken action."

Natasha handed Maya a laptop with a photo on it.

A woman in a red military uniform and a steel mask stood in front of a half-assembled mobile suit, accompanied by a staff member whose uniform had the words "East Asia Heavy Industries" printed on it.

This is a company that was established shortly after the emergence of mobile suits. Initially, it made a living by reselling mobile suits and parts. It is said that the shareholders behind it are all big shots.

This company played an extremely important role in the multinational space competition and unified war period.

"This company also develops MS. In fact, during the Unification War, it was the largest arms supplier to North America.