Pandora

Prologue

It was was cold on the ass end of space.

The sun was smaller this far out, and even earth looked to be an almost comical basketball to the dim star.

"Operations, this is survey team Alpha-1, over."

The sudden shock of the radio doing little to phase the operations director of the OZ 3rd Resource Group. Such sudden abrupt calls after long periods of silence was common on the fringe of humanity's reach.

"This is Operations go ahead Alpha-1, over." his voice carrying a complete lack of enthusiasm for his job. He'd signed up hoping to be in OZ special development group and work his way to star engineer; pioneering new techniques in the creation of alloy's for armor. Maybe even something that could compete with Gundanium.

But like all dreams for glory, they fell short. Testing out as 'proficient' in chemistry and exceptional in geology he soon rose to the prestigious rank of Operations Director of OZ deep space resource devision.

Miner.

That's all that amounted to. In the far off reaches of space to boot!

What god had he pissed off in another life?

The radio shocked back to life. "Operation's we're seeing some kinda blue light toward the mars belt, over."

Director Von grunted in annoyance, "Probably just a comet, that's 'no man's land' out that way anyway, over." He leaned back in his chair looking out the large window of the command deck peering once more at the image of the earth in the distance.

No man's land was a term that deep space travelers had come to adopt as territory that man had yet to venture past, the absolute edge of where man had been.

Starting to fall back into his trance like state he was a annoyed little hear the radio to once again shock to life.

"Comet's don't blink, over." Von frowned at the transmitter, "Give me coordinates of that light, over." Von typed up the remote monitor controls on to his display, normally he'd have delegated this to one of the techs but it was the late shift and running on minimal staff.

"Target is off the starboard side of the rig, lateral 95 degrees, up 20degrees, over." Von was already switched over to starboard camera's and adjusting to match direction by the time the radio cut.

Sure enough their was a blinking blue light, in no man's land. Frowning a bit at the light he zoomed the camera's lens till it could focus no more but the image only made the glowing blob of blinking light bigger.

Von may have been on the ass end of space, but that wasn't to say he was ignorant of the current state of war or about the Gundams. Every one got the bulletin about them. Even in the ass end of space.

"Alpha-1, you and your team return to the rig and secure all mining hangers, over" he flipped off the com not needing an acknowledgment, and hit the P.A. For his second lieutenants quarters. "Pier, get up, we're going to battle stations, somethings was spotted in no man's land." about all he got was a groan before he switched to another officers P.A.

* * *

Going out in a space Leo was not his idea of a great plan, but it was all the comfort he could afford seeing as it was the only thing resembling a Mobile Suite on the mining rig. He could have swore he saw the weapons master blow dust off of one of them.

He checked his radar.

It showed, but the object must have be pretty large, or his scope was malfunctioning. Von clicked the magnification on his control. It wasn't blinking in a traditional manner but more flickering, like a flame does in a light breeze or when someone walks by a candle. As to what it was, Von could only figure that something of that mass and size had to be either part of a colony or a large battle ship.

These did little to placate 'why' it was out this far in space. A long forgotten colony maybe?

Well no matter, in the hour they would be upon the source of the light, which even now as they got closer was starting to bathe their purple space Leo's in a blue light. As to why he was leading this little RECON mission? Like hell he was going to pass up the opportunity to be 'doing something' to hell with the fact he might die in the process or be piloting a Mech with inferior armor and to hell with garbage can maneuverability.

A little part of him even hoped that he'd die so he'd get out of the mind numbing career he was in.

Thu-Thump.

Von blinked.

What the hell was that?

He looked down at his scopes noting only the stander radio noise this far out. Wondering if it was his helmet he pounded on the earphone with the side of his fist to see if it would happen again.

Nothing.

Looking to the other two suites flanking him he considered asking if they had also heard the sound. He shook this idea off noting that it was just the late shift getting to him. Though a little piece of him felt a nagging that it sounded like...

Who was he kidding? Sound didn't transmit through space.

Need to switch to Decaf.

* * *

Something was spinning.

He could make it out in the blue glow that now permeated the small cluster of asteroids.

The light would hit the object as it spun, and was easily twice the glowing objects width. It seemed to roll at a lazy pace and even seemed small enough that the larger object could eclipse it. This did nothing more than underscore how small his Leo was.

Von felt his natural curiosity go from fascinated to fearfully nagging. He Knew that the object was large, even at a distance on radar. Now how ever it was big enough to black out said radar.

The light it threw was almost a second sun, but according to his thermal graph it wasn't giving off any radiation. In fact it seemed to be doing just the opposite. Whenever something radiating energy would get near the glowing mass it would suck it in almost like an amoeba or jelly fish.

For that reason alone they stopped just before the hulking strange object.

"What'd ya think Captain?" Von heard his lieutenant crackle over his radio. He chewed on his lip before responding, "I'm thinking..."

He heard a female voice cackle across the radio, "How gallant and inspiring of our commander." Von briefly wondered if the rest of the search party would turn him in if his Leo's rifle went off in to that bitch's fuel tank.

That's when he got an idea.

"Alright, Agatha..." He said in an almost parental tone, "You go see what it is."

The COM soon filled with snickers of the other pilots.

He heard the bitchy blond sigh. "Fine! What do you propose then?"

Giving his screen one last look he finally took a deep breath and exhaled tiredly. "Alright. I'll take point. We'll spread out hiding behind the asteroids and at the first sign of trouble..."

"Get back to the ship and radio for help?" Pier shouted with some enthusiasm. "No! You come drag my ass out then we get help!" He was a miner after all.

With that the handful of space Leo's blasted into different directions. Von felt some apprehension as he flew straight ahead with no cover before the dark object and is unholy flame. Keeping his mech's lights off, he soon found himself mere meters before the dark mass.

It was strange looking.

It seemed to be spread in an almost cross like pattern with a strange sphere like object at the junction of the object while the lower section forked at the bottom. The spinning object before it seemed to be a thin twisted loop that spun giving it the illusion of a self devouring figure eight. Their were open spots on the objects armor that looked suspiciously organic, or some kind of strange fibrous material.

Moving up the object more he soon was face to face with a strange looking structure. It almost looked like a face, it was hard to see with the glowing light behind it, and why did it have a horn sticking out from the front of it?

Von looked down to pick up more information on the object only to see all of his scanning gear peaked or filled with static. His eyebrows drawing down, he looked up to stare at the 'face' of the strange solar drift wood.

Th-Thump.

His vision blurred but he quickly shook it off. That's not just fatigue. He considered calling the others to confirm the strange noise but stopped when he saw something to the right of the 'face'

Propelling his Mech further down the branching mass he could see something bright green in a black hexagon on the branched section. Not sure of his own eyes he broke his own instructions and flipped on his search lamps.

Words.

He could make out words on the side of the object!

"Guys come out and turn your lights on this thing!" He said in almost panicked urgency.

"What's wrong Captain?" Pier asked.

Von ignored the question and throttled back to get a better look at the thing.

One by one the lights of the other Leo's shone upon the object revealing purple and black, with slashes of green.

"Oh, god..." He heard Agatha say.

She was followed by the cursing and befuddled voices of the other search members.

"What is it?" Pier, asked to no one in particular.

"EVA-01..." Von seemed to mumble to himself.

"What?" he heard Pier ask.

"Its shoulder, said EVA-01..." He said a bit louder, only to receive more silence.

The miners looked on in fear and amazement at the strange and enormous Mobile Suite before them. None could find the words that seemed to fit the thing and the strange red spinning object before it.

They stared at if for a full five minutes before Von snapped out of his shock.

"Pier, head back to the rig and have them do an emergency Detach; we're gonna tow this with the gravity tractor,. Agatha, I want you to get on the horn and send a priority one message about this to his Excellency."

"What should I tell him?" For once she didn't sound like a bitch.

"Just send a message saying that we need him and an armed escort out here now, not one word as to this?" The end of his statement seeming grim.

"Sir, Why not?" she asked.

Von frowned, "Cause if those Gundam pilots get one whiff of this, they're gonna come for it..."