EPISODE 46: SIDE 6...YESTERDAY, TODAY, TOMORROW
Side 6 (The Riah Republic), Baldur Bay Colony, December 5, U.C. 0079...
The Earth Federation Forces' space battle carrier White Base prepares to depart from the Baldur Bay Space Colony of Side 6, en rout to the Texas Colony of Side 5. As the flagship of the Federation Armada’s 13th Autonomous Corps, the White Base and its mobile suit contingent of RX-78 Gundam (2Lt. Amuro Ray), RX-77 Guncannon (2Lt. Kai Shiden and Sgt. Hayato Kobayashi), and Core Booster aerospace fighters (1Lt. Sleggar Raul and 2Lt. Sayla Mass) represent the spearhead of a diversionary attack to draw the Archduchy of Zeon Forces away from the space fortresses Solomon and Abowaku.
The White Base prepares for a quick departure, the impending arrival of a Zeon attack fleet spurring the authorities of the Riah Republic to pull the welcome mat for the Earth Federation troops. The Riah Republic wants no part of the war between the Earth Federation and the Archduchy of Zeon, which has now raged nearly a year and claimed billions of lives.
District Attorney Cameron Bloom, a firm believer in the Riah Republic’s independence, is eager to see the ship go. He has little use for those warmongers from the Federation or the Zeon alike, and in their few days of supposed shore leave at Baldur Bay, they have been enough of a nuisance. Cameron has had no peace of mind since the White Base docked at Baldur Bay, and its departure would bring much-needed relief.
But Cameron is not eager to see one member of the Federation’s warship leave – its helmswoman, 2Lt. Mirai Yashima.
He finds her leaning on a guardrail on an observation walkway in the docking bay where the White Base is being loaded with (non-military) provisions in preparation for its departure from the colony.
Cameron approaches her slowly. Less than a year ago, they had been so close…so intimate. Now, for reasons that Cameron cannot fathom, there is a barrier between them…intangible, invisible, but more impermeable than the titanium bulkheads that separate Side 6’s artificial environment from the void of space.
Leaning against the guardrail, standing so close to Mirai that he can feel her warmth across the fabric of her Federal Forces uniform, Cameron opens his mouth to speak, but it takes an awkward, agonizing half-minute before he can finally ask, softly, “You’re…really going to go?”
“I must go,” Mirai replies evenly, not looking at Cameron, then adds, “My comrades need me. I’m the ship’s helmswoman. Without me, the White Base goes nowhere.”
“You’re not fooling anyone, Mirai,” Cameron says, “Sayla Mass can helm that ship. Even that gorilla Sleggar Raul can muscle that ship. It’s not really about your duty to the Federation…I know it’s about Bright Noah.”
Mirai says nothing, looking uncomfortably at her uniform boots, her face betraying silent anguish.
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Cameron Bloom and Mirai Yashima in U.C. 0079
“Do you love him?” Cameron asks Mirai.
“I...,” Mirai answers, “I…don’t want to answer that, Cameron.”
Cameron sighs, “I always thought you were more decisive than that. I also thought you had more integrity. You made me a promise…”
“Yes,” Mirai concedes, “I did. That was a different Mirai, from a different time. The war has changed everything, Cameron. It’s changed all of us. I…I can’t keep those promises I made because they were made by a different person. Please accept that, Cameron. You don’t have to forgive me if you feel you can’t.”
Mirai leaves Cameron to return to her place on the bridge of the White Base…leaving Cameron with an emptiness that would not be filled…
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…twenty years later.
December 5, U.C. 0100
Former Prime Minister Cameron Bloom of the Riah Republic, now more commonly referred to as Prisoner # 11101979, is led in restraints by two Zeon guards within Baldur Bay’s Central Men’s Penitentiary, previously used for housing Side 6’s own criminal element, who have since been exterminated (“If they’re of no use to Side 6, then they’re of even less use to Zeon,” Archduke Miguel remarked) to make room for Zeon political prisoners – namely, those of the former Riah Republic’s government who have refused to recognize Zeon rule over Side 6. Those who have acquiesced to the Zeon have been rewarded with prestigious positions as administrators of Zeon’s rule over the formerly independent space colony; those who have resisted have either been executed or, if like Prime Minister Bloom, remain of value, been cast into the hellish environment of the men’s penitentiary, jokingly named “The Riah Resort.”
Cameron was popularly elected Prime Minister of the Riah Republic in U.C. 0096 on a campaign platform of staunch resistance to Earth Federation hegemony and administrative reform within the Riah government. Prime Minister Bloom was also known to be an outspoken supporter of the ISRLA movement (before it had adopted the name of “Shambala Republic”), providing various forms of support to the nascent Spacenoid independence movement, with whom the prime minister often reminded his fellow citizens that they shared an ideological kinship.
When the Archduchy of Zeon Forces invaded Side four months earlier, Prime Minister Bloom deployed the Side 6 Civil Defense Guard to repel the enemy. The Riah Forces fought bravely and spiritedly, but their defenses collapsed after fewer than twenty-four hours in the face of the Zeons’ superior technology and numbers. The Archduchy of Zeon Forces flattened all resistance in less than a week’s time, and while guerilla resistance forces remain scattered across Side 6, they are too small and ill-equipped to provide any meaningful resistance.
Prime Minister Bloom and his cabinet members refused to surrender to the Zeon Forces. Even when Archduke Miguel’s new Zeon military governor arrived with a legion of armed Zeon troops within the halls of the Riah Parliament, Cameron and his people resisted…some at the cost of their lives. The remaining resisters, including Cameron himself, have stubbornly refused to acquiesce even after four months of imprisonment…imprisonment that has yielded constant torture and privation.
Presently, Cameron is forced to kneel on a floor of broken glass. Deprived of his spectacles months ago, Cameron is unable to see the faces of his tormentors clearly…not that his eyeglasses would have helped him much in the darkness.
Momentarily, Cameron feels the shock of impact as a half dozen weighted batons rain down heavily upon his arms, legs, face, and body. This has been a part of Cameron’s daily routine for the past two weeks. Previously, there had also been oxygen-deprivation, electro-shock, and waterboarding “treatments,” as the Zeon officials like to call them. All very much against Antarctic Treaty agreements, which Riah never signed and which the Zeon have long disregarded.
Cameron hisses in pain as he feels the hard impact of the cold, hard steel of the batons against his flesh. Compared to some of the other things he has been subjected to during the past few months, this is relatively mild. The Zeon seem to be going soft…
From the darkness, Captain Trotter, the Zeon officer in charge of the prison facility, blows a ring of smoke from a stinking Cuban cigar and asks, “Prisoner 11101979…Mr. Prime Minister…do you have anything to say to me today?”
Cameron spits out the blood gathering in his mouth, “Go to hell, Zeon scum.”
This response is met by a flurry of renewed and more intense baton strikes, which continue until Trotter calls an end to it.
“We’ll talk again tomorrow, Mr. Prime Minister,” Trotter says, indicating to the guards to take Cameron back to his cell.
As bad as it is for me, Cameron reflects, it’s probably worse for the citizens outside the prison. Mirai…will I ever see you again?
To be continued...