EPISODE 8: WHITE WOLF
The bitter cold of Northern Siberia’s wind-swept snows lashes across a desolate landscape all but devoid of life. Few environments on planet Earth could be less receptive to the development of life, and only the hardiest of specimens can possibly take root here.
The region is remote from the conclaves of civilized humanity. No human habitation of any significant size lies within a thousand kilometers in any direction. The region is as desolate as the surface of the moon had once been before the lunar cities of Von Braun and Anman were established around a century ago.
This very remoteness, however, makes the area an ideal venue for the Earth Federation Forces to establish its Aurora Communications Base…a vital link in its satellite communications network between Earth and the various space colonies.
Against the advice of communications technology experts and plain common sense, the Earth Federation Forces have concentrated a great amount of their Earth-to-Space communications relay at this site. Even many laypeople would observe that the Federal Forces are fools to do so: all it would take is one successful strike against the base to cripple the Federal Forces’ ability to communicate with its garrisons in the space colonies. Should Aurora, built in the years immediately after the One Year War, be compromised, communication between Earth and the cosmos would effectively be slowed to a trickle for weeks…and full communications would take months to reestablish.
The Earth Federation Government reasons, however, that it would be more economic to concentrate its space communications relay in a single location rather than distribute it to stations around the globe. The latter arrangement, while making much more sense to communications planners and military experts alike, would require the more costly posting of defense forces to protect multiple targets around the world. The Federation Government, never keen to spend more of its budget on the military than it absolutely needs to, has opted for the strategically risky, but less expensive option of a concentrated communications relay station guarded by a single, fortified base.
For eighteen years, Aurora Communications Base has escaped capture or destruction by enemy forces. The forces of the First Neo Zeon Empire nearly captured the base during its invasion and occupation of Earth in U.C. 0088, but were successfully repelled from the base by a combined Federation/Karaba (the Earth-based division of A.E.U.G.) defense squad led by Captain Amuro Ray.
But a rich, fat target such as Aurora cannot hope to remain untouched forever. The gods of sensibility must surely be offended by the presence of such an unwisely planned enterprise, and must surely someday unleash their wrath upon such absurdity.
That day has come.
He was the son of a hard-drinking, failed professional boxer turned spaceship-builder in Side 3. Born in U.C. 0055 in Zum City, Shin Matsunaga came of age during the Great Spacenoid Revolution led by Zeon Zum Daikun during the U.C. 0060s. He remembers the day when, as a high school student, he and his fellow students wept in despair as they heard the news about Prime Minister Daikun’s untimely and unexpected death in U.C. 0069. He remembers the great pride and nationalism that swelled in his then-young heart as the new Prime Minister, Degin Zabi, swore solemnly that Zeon Daikun’s dream of Spacenoid independence from the corrupt Earth Federation Government would not die with the former Prime Minister. Matsunaga also remembers the awe he and his peers experienced as they saw how, under Archduke Degin Zabi (who had quickly abandoned Zeon Daikun’s republican form of government and reorganized the Zeon Republic as the Archduchy of Zeon) and Prince Giren Zabi, the Army of Zeon quickly grew from a small, limited defensive army into a mighty military juggernaut…the greatest military power ever organized by humanity.
In U.C. 0071, sixteen year old Shin Matsunaga enrolled alongside hundreds of thousands of other Zeon-born youths in the Royal Military Academy of the Archduchy of Zeon. A warrior by nature whose aggressive instincts had been fueled by frequent beatings at the hands of his alcoholic, former prizefighter father, Shin had always been tougher than unprocessed cattle hide. His combative temperaments served him well at the academy, and Matsunaga won fame at the academy as one of the deadliest, most efficient cadets ever to graduate from the academy…especially in the operation of the new, anthropomorphic war machines that were known as mobile suits.
Matsunaga graduated from the Royal Military Academy in U.C. 0074 at the top of his class. During the following year, he became a combat instructor at the academy, and among the pupils he trained in the art of piloting mobile suits into combat were Prince Garma Zabi, youngest of Archduke Degin Zabi’s four children, and Char Aznable, the man who would one day become infamous as the “Red Comet.”
In U.C. 0075, Matsunaga became acquainted with Prince Dozle Zabi, Archduke Degin’s third son. Every bit as much a natural born warrior as Matsunaga, Prince Dozle soon found himself taking a great liking to this gifted young mobile suit pilot. The two became good friends, each admiring the other’s limitless courage and aggressiveness on the battlefield, and Prince Dozle made sure that 1Lt. Shin Matsunaga was assigned directly under his command. So impressed was Prince Dozle by Matsunaga’s prowess with a mobile suit that in U.C. 0077, Dozle appointed Matsunaga his personal bodyguard.
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Colonel Shin Matsunaga, the infamous "White Wolf" of the Archduchy of Zeon Army, at the height of his military career during the One Year War
Having gained Prince Dozle’s favor, Matsunaga lived like a prince himself during the next several heady years. Raised in poverty, Matsunaga enjoyed wealth and luxury that he had never imagined could be his. The prince ordered the construction of a luxurious manor for Matsunaga in Zum City, located not far from the Royal Gardens. A handsome man during his youth, with a rough-edged charm, Matsunaga enjoyed the company of beautiful women during these years. Many women of Zeon longed for the opportunity to be seen on the arm of one of Zeon’s most celebrated military heroes.
Neither Prince Dozle nor his siblings ever begrudged indulging Matsunaga with accolades and luxury. In their eyes, it was money well spent…for they had a loyal warrior who constantly and fervently brought terror and destruction to the Earth Federation Forces.
During the One Year War, Captain Shin Matsunaga of the Archduchy of Zeon was known to favor white mobile suits. In his Japanese heritage, white was the color of death…the color of mourning. Matsunaga wanted his enemies to know that when they laid eyes upon his white-colored mobile suit, they laid eyes upon the harbinger of death. In that year of devastating war, many, many Federal Forces mobile suit pilots died with the white armor of Matsunaga’s mobile suit filling their horror-stricken eyes. By war’s end, Matsunaga had compiled the third most kills among mobile suit pilots in the Army of the Archduchy of Zeon. Many believe that if not for a wound he sustained mid-war protecting his liege Prince Dozle from an assassination attempt by treacherous soldiers under the prince’s command - a wound that sidelined Matsunaga from the battlefield for three months - he would have been the Zeon’s top ace of the One Year War. Matsunaga lost his left eye in that battle…a wound many at the time judged would prove to be the end of Matsunaga’s career as a mobile suit pilot. Piloting mobile suits in space combat required the sharpest of senses. How could a mobile suit pilot be effective with only one eye to see?
But the many were wrong. When Matsunaga returned to the battlefield three months after his injury, his skills as a mobile suit pilot had become greater than ever before, because in the intervening months, his Newtype potential had blossomed to compensate for his missing eye. Once, Matsunaga had two eyes. Now, it was almost as if he had a dozen of them around his head. Federal Forces mobile suit pilots who had hoped they had seen the end of Matsunaga learned to their dismay that their enemy had become deadlier than ever.
Matsunaga’s style of mobile suit combat was different from that of most others. Whereas most mobile suit pilots favored using long-range weaponry such as beam rifles, machine guns, bazookas, grenade launchers, and missiles, going to close-in weaponry such as beam sabers and Heat Hawks only when there was no other option, Matsunaga favored and was a specialist in close-combat maneuvers. His favorite tactic was to use his mobile suit’s specially modified thrusters (which, under Matsunaga’s orders, were often given up to four times a standard mobile suit’s output capacity) to draw himself close alongside an enemy mobile suit, where the enemy’s long range cannon could not effectively be trained upon him. Matsunaga would then use his mobile suit’s Heat Hawk (and later in the war, after he had been assigned an MS-14S Officer’s Gelgoog to replace his MS-06S Officer’s Zaku and MS-R09S Officer’s Rick Dom, a beam naginata) to carve the enemy to shards…a brutal tactic that Matsunaga took great pleasure in.
For his brutal, deadly tactics, his cold efficiency, and for the color of his mobile suit, Matsunaga became famous (or infamous) as Haruko, the White Wolf…the Wolf of the North who descended upon his enemies as if they were so many fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered.
Before Prince Dozle Zabi went to fight what turned out to be his last battle, the Battle of Solomon, he had instructed Captain Shin Matsunaga to protect his wife, Lady Cenna Zabi and their newborn daughter, Princess Minerva Zabi, with his life. More than anything, Captain Matsunaga wanted to join his lord and best friend in battle against the Federation scum who were so close to invading their homeland of Zeon. But Matsunaga knew that should his lord fall in battle, and should the Federation penetrate Solomon, Granada, and A Bao A Qu and take Zeon itself, Princess Minerva would be the hope upon which the people of Zeon would look for their eventual day of revival. Moreover, the prince had given Matsunaga the privilege of becoming Princess Minerva’s godfather, an honor for which Matsunaga was always grateful.
Prince Dozle Zabi was killed in December, U.C. 0079 when his MA-08 Byg Zam mobile armor was destroyed by the Earth Federation Forces’ RX-78 Gundam mobile suit piloted by a young Newtype from Side 7 named 2Lt. Amuro Ray. When Matsunaga received word of Dozle’s death, he wept like a child, and swore that someday, he would carve Amuro Ray and the Gundam to pieces and drop those pieces on the leaders of the Earth Federation Government.
The One Year War came to an end before Matsunaga had that opportunity. Like most of the surviving Zeon Forces, Matsunaga fled to the safety of the Asteroid Belt, where at the asteroid fortress Axis, the Zeon would gradually rebuild their strength over the next seven years. Admiral Makajara Khan, who had become the highest ranking surviving officer of the Army of the Archduchy of Zeon upon the death of Princess/Admiral Kycilia Zabi, took primary responsibility for rebuilding the Zeon forces and caring for surviving Zeon monarch, Princess Minerva Zabi. Admiral Khan promoted Matsunaga to the rank of Colonel for his valor during the war.
During these relatively quiet years, Matsunaga was often a visitor to the Royal Palace constructed in Axis Fortress. After Lady Cenna’s death from illness two years after her husband’s death, Matsunaga often came to comfort and play with the little princess, Minerva. Princess Minerva grew quite affectionate towards her “Uncle Shin,” and Matsunaga developed great fondness for the child himself…the beautiful daughter of his former lord and best friend.
Colonel Shin Matsunaga was once again deployed to the front lines when the Army of the Axis Neo Zeon invaded Earth in U.C. 0088. Determined to make good on his vow of vengeance for Prince Dozle Zabi, Matsunaga requested and received an assignment to occupied Earth from Lady Haman Khan (who had become nominal leader of the Neo Zeon forces after her father’s death in U.C. 0085). His assignment was to further demoralize the already exhausted and besieged Earth Federation/A.E.U.G. Alliance by killing one of its greatest heroes and top mobile suit aces, Captain Amuro Ray.
The White Wolf and his squadron finally located and confronted Captain Amuro’s Karaba squadron in the skies over California on Earth. The Karaba mobile suit squadron under Captain Amuro’s command had orders from the Federation/A.E.U.G. high command to attempt to liberate California Hickory Base from Neo Zeon control. There, the White Wolf awaited them.
After a long, savage battle, Amuro in his Zeta-Plus mobile suit defeated the White Wolf, destroying the Zeon ace’s customized Officer’s Regelg mobile suit. Matsunaga survived the battle, but had suffered his first-ever (and to date, only) defeat – to the man he hated more than any other. Taken a prisoner of war by the Federation/A.E.U.G., Matsunaga became a broken, bitter man in Federal prison by the time the war ended several months later. In U.C. 0093, following negotiations between the Earth Federation Government and Matsunaga’s one-time academy pupil Char Aznable, who had become the new Neo Zeon leader, Matsunaga was released along with many other prisoners of war from Federal prison.
Without an Archduchy of Zeon to serve, Matsunaga soon found himself without a purpose. In U.C. 0093, the year of the last great Neo Zeon uprising, Matsunaga was thirty-eight years old. He had known great triumph, glory, and wealth, but what did he have to show for it now? The Archduchy of Zeon had been reduced to a rabble of squabbling fiefdoms in the Outer Solar System. Colonel Char Aznable was dead. Duchess Minerva Zabi was missing. Even Matsunaga’s great enemy, Captain Amuro Ray of the Earth Federation Forces, had perished. Even revenge had ceased to be a purpose to live.
For six months, Matsunaga drifted aimlessly on Earth…drinking heavily and reminiscing about past glories. But those whose lives are defined by war had not forgotten him. The legend of the White Wolf had endured.
It was in early U.C. 0094 that Matsunaga was located and contacted by an anti-Federation corporate entity that wanted a Federal Forces’ installation eliminated (most likely so that it could profit from the contract the Federation would offer to rebuild it). For the first time in six years, the White Wolf terrorized the Earth Federation Forces again…and he was as dangerous as ever. Not age, not the long period of inactivity, and not even his mounting alcoholism had dulled Matsunaga’s deadly skills. The installation and the twenty-five mobile suits that guarded it were handily destroyed within a half hour’s time. The White Wolf had returned, this time as a soldier of fortune…a fierce and deadly efficient warrior willing to kill for anyone who could afford to pay his luxuriant fees.
For the past four years, the White Wolf has continued to menace the Federal Forces’ assorted bases and installations on Earth…a constant thorn in the Federation’s side and one that the Federation seemingly cannot eliminate. Among the last veterans of the One Year War, the White Wolf is still killing Federal Forces mobile suit pilots who were not even born when Shin Matsunaga first gained fame and notoriety.
“The White Wolf of the North has come,” Matsunaga liked to announce to his enemies before he slew them, “and you are all but sheep to be slaughtered before me.”
November, U.C. 0098 would go down as one of the coldest Novembers on record, with snow reaching even the lower latitudes. Hence, the typically bitter climate of Northern Siberia is even worse than usual.
“Man,” Cpl. Lance Bowman of the Earth Federation Forces’ Aurora Base Mobile Suit Squadron 94 says, blowing his breath into his gloved hands, “I hope that my next reassignment is going to be to Hawaii Base or somewhere like that.”
Sergeant Ivan Nagayev, Bowman’s commanding NCO, chuckles, “Dream on. With your record, you ought to count your blessings that they don’t put you in front of a firing squad.”
Bowman says, “The worst thing about this place is the boredom. Nothing ever happens up here!”
Nagayev replies, “Yeah, you’re right about that. It’s too bad that I wasn’t even able to pass the preliminaries in Special Forces training. I could’ve been styling with the elites up in Garrison Noah at Side 7.”
Bowman smiles, “You mean where all the babes are?”
Nagayev says, “All the hot chicks are in the Special Forces. There’s that Athena Ibaz, and that Jolie Minh…you know, the ‘White Phoenix’?”
“Yeah,” Bowman breathes, his pulse running a little quicker at the mention of the two names, “Saw those two girls on the news reports about that action with the Moonshadow last month. They are hot, hot, hot! If they came up here, they’d probably melt all this snow!”
Nagayev says, “In your fantasies! They’re Special Forces elites. We’re grunts stuck in the boonies. We’re not worthy enough to wipe their a**es after they s**t.”
“Now that’s an image I won’t be able to get out of my head,” Bowman replies to his commander’s tasteless joke.
The two laugh. Suddenly, however, Bowman’s laughter falls silent.
Nagayev notices the sudden silence. Thinking it might be a problem with his helmet communications set, Nagayev does a test check. All channels are clear. It must be something on Bowman’s end.
Nagayev attempts to radio his other subordinates, “Private Watamba? Private McEnery? Private Zhang? Any of you guys hear me?”
Zhang replies, “Over here, Sarge.”
Nagayev asks, “Where’s the rest of the squad?”
Zhang replies, “Don’t know, sir. They’ve been dropping out of contact one-by-one during the past six minutes or so.”
Nagayev grows nervous, “It could be radio trouble. Anyway, be alert. Something strange is going on around here.”
“Yes, s…” Zhang’s reply disappears in static.
“Zhang? Wata? Mac? Bowman?” Nagayev calls into his helmet comlink, “Where the hell are you guys?
Nagayev never sees the massive form of the white Officer's Regelg that suddenly appears behind his GM-IV Cold Weather Type.
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Neo Zeon mobile suit Officer's Regelg. The "White Wolf" model favored by Colonel Shin Matsunaga is upgraded with extra thrust output and superior avionics from the standard model, and is painted white instead of the more standard green or red.
Nagayev barely glimpses the beam saber that appears from behind his mobile suit to stab straight through its cockpit, melting his body like butter in the flame of a blowtorch.
Nagayev is but a memory as the Regelg hacks what remains of his disabled mobile suit into obscenely neat piles of scrap metal.
Nagayev is but the latest…the last of a scene that has already been repeated a dozen times here today.
With no more mobile suits to descend upon and eliminate, the white Officer's Regelg extracts a high-powered grenade from its backpack storage nacelle, and tosses it at the Aurora Communication Base’s main transceiver tower.
A brilliant explosion, followed by silence across the Federation’s satellite communications network. Federal Forces communications techs around the planet and across the space colonies are thrown into sudden confusion and panic.
Aboard the Regelg, Colonel Shin Matsunaga takes a swig from his flask of whiskey, then says, “The White Wolf of the North has come hunting…and all of you are but sheep before me.”
Two hours later, Matsunaga’s Regelg is being loaded aboard a Gaw mobile suit transport aircraft. The massive carrier plane, once manufactured and deployed en masse by the Army of the Archduchy of Zeon, dates to the One Year War. Years ago, Prince Garma Zabi had met his end at the controls of a Gaw aircraft in combat against the Federal Forces’ famous White Base commanded by then Captain Bright Noah.
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Gaw Airborne Mobile Suit Carrier and Assault Bomber, first deployed by the Archduchy of Zeon Air Force during the One Year War
“It’s an honor to finally meet you, Colonel Matsunaga,” says the commander of the Gaw, “your reputation precedes you.”
The commander of the Gaw is the same shadowy individual who had supplied Hathaway Noah with the RMS-106CS Hizack Sniper Custom outside Shanghai several days earlier.
Matsunaga does not return the pleasantry. In his eyes, this tool is worth no such honor.
“Aurora Base is a smoking ruin,” Matsunaga says matter-of-factly, “I expect to be paid the remaining balance for that job in a timely manner.”
The other man nods and grins encouragingly, “Already wired into your Swiss bank account, Colonel…two million credits, directly from the ISR treasury by way of Anaheim Enterprises’ fiscal department.”
“Leave that to the bean counters to figure out,” Matsunaga says, taking another swig from his flask of whiskey, “So we’re ready to take off for Shanghai?”
The other man replies, “As soon as your mobile suit is secured, Colonel, yes. This next job is a big one you know…”
“Five million credits,” Matsunaga acknowledges, “two Feddie generals dead. Sounds like an easy way to make some serious cash fast.”
“You’ll be working in conjunction with Mafty,” the other man tells him, “With you two working together, we cannot fail.”
“That kid?” Matsunaga sneers in contempt, “I’ve eaten pilots like him for breakfast since I was in my teens, and I turned forty-three last July!”
“Congratulations, Colonel,” the other man replies with a respectful bow, “You must have the blessing of God to have been able to survive all those many battles.”
Blessing? Matsunaga contemplates, Hah! More like curse! All these victories…all these battles, one after another. What have they all meant? Are they all my life has amounted to? For nearly thirty years, the better part of my life, I’ve slaughtered men in mobile suits as if they were sheep. When will I ever find real prey whose flesh would really be worth sinking my teeth into?
Matsunaga takes another swig from his flask of whiskey, draining it.
Sighing, the aging mobile suit ace boards the Gaw along with the aircraft’s mysterious commander.
As they enter the giant transport craft’s spacious cockpit/bridge, the Gaw commander says to Matsunaga, “We’ve been studying Whampoa Base’s defenses for two years now, and we’ve found several vulnerable points that you and Mafty can exploit. What does throw some of our intelligence off, however, is the presence of Special Forces units at Whampoa that are not usually stationed there. You want to pay particular attention to the Centurion Team…”
“Centurions?” Matsunaga suddenly becomes alert at the mention of the name, “Don’t they have that girl pilot…Joey Meng, or something?”
“Jolie Minh,” the other man corrects, “called the White Phoenix. She’s been a thorn in our side during the past year…a mobile suit piloting prodigy of incredible talent.”
Matsunaga smiles, “I’ll carve her like a chicken.”
“That’s what we’re hoping, Colonel,” the other man replies, “Your job lies primarily in eliminating the White Phoenix. Mafty will take care of the rest.”
“As long as I get paid,” Matsunaga shrugs, trying to get another sip out of his whisky flask, and throwing it across the cockpit/bridge of the Gaw when he realizes it has not a drop left to give, “this might make for a good challenge.”
The Gaw flies southward. Its destination: Shanghai, China.
Episode 8 to be continued