April 12th, 70 CE. Mendel. L4. Luke Kavensky POV

April 12th, Year 70 of the Cosmic Era. It has been one week since the Principality of Zeon had officially revealed itself to the wider Cosmic Era. With both the Earth Alliance and ZAFT now aware of Zeon's existence, the First Contact War had come to an end with both East Asia and ZAFT agreeing to Degwin's call for an armistice. All three nations, along with the rest of the Alliance and the neutrals of the Cosmic Era, were in the process of preparing for the Heliopolis Conference on April 22nd, a meeting between the nations of the Earth sphere which would settle the recognition of Zeon's sovereignty and territorial claims so that they would integrate with the Earth sphere, along with a hope that somehow a peaceful accord could be struck between the Alliance and ZAFT before the Bloody Valentine War could escalate into greater suffering.

Out of all the nations heading to Heliopolis, no one was being more prepared than Zeon. Determined to see the conference as the foundation for the Principality's domination upon the Cosmic Era, Gihren Zabi kept the Space Force in a state of total mobilization, nukes pointed at both the PLANTs and lunar cities to protect Zeon's claims while metaphorically planting the flag of Zeon across L2, L4, and the far side of the moon.

With the L4 Cluster now firmly under the defensive nuclear umbrella of Pezun, there was only one location left to block Zeon's conquest of Lagrange 4 as their zone of influence, the Mendel colony.

While Mendel was a private space colony that was constructed by medical companies with national ties to the Atlantic Federation, a presumed outbreak of deadly viral agents such as S-1, S-2, Ebola, Coronavirus, and many more diseases under the experimentation of the colony caused it to be completely abandoned with the AF swearing all ownership of the colony, now to be regarded as derelict debris.

Despite the fact that Mendel was in heavy disrepair with no human presence in the past 15 years, its physical presence could give the Atlantic Federation leeway for influence within the Lagrange. Not wanting the superstate to impose its presence, Gihren ordered the Space Force and Marines to launch an expedition to claim the colony as property of Zeon. Such an endeavor would become the largest homestead scheme in human history.

An expedition was quickly organized and launched from Side 3 on the 7th, arriving two days later on April 9th with a team of medical personnel from the Space Force being sent in to assess the lethality of Mendel's environment.

To the complete shock of the team, not only did they find Mendel to still have a functioning biosphere, but the entire colony was clean from any viral agents from the Universal Century, those exclusive to the Cosmic Era that Zeon was made aware of through Orb, and older diseases common to both.

The situation was made more confusingly grim when within the harbor and the outskirts of the colony, the medical team found hundreds of corpses, all of which appeared to have died not by disease, but by gunshot.

With the Mendel colony presenting a fate of death by terrorist attack rather than pandemic, the medical team was ordered back for fear of lingering pirates or traps, and an exploratory mission was now lead by the Marines.

A regiment was dispatched to explore the entirety of the colony, with 20 Zakus sent into the colony to act as protection for the Marines should they unexpectedly run into heavy firepower.

'God, this place makes Chernobyl look like a vacation home.' Thought Lance Corporal Luke Kavensky, silently gliding through the air of Mendel with his platoon as they made their way towards GARM R&D, a facility which according to the old colonial records was the centerpiece of Mendel, a lab where anyone with enough money could turn their children into superhumans.

A hobby of interest for most of Luke's life was the research of ghost towns and cities on Earth. With most of humanity deported to the Sides, vast urban landscapes had been left to wither and were slowly reclaimed by the environment. Even the cities that were still populated suffered as for many entire districts would be depopulated and nothing would remain but rusts and ghosts.

Mendel was a far more disturbing sight than any of those haunted settlements as unlike the ghosts towns of Earth which were abandoned voluntarily or through force by the Federation, life in Mendel simply ceased with presumably all of its occupants dead within hours. With the frequent sight of corpses on the ground as they made their way to the colony, Mendel looked more and more like the aftermath of a battle in the Third World War despite the lack of hard damage to the colony's infrastructure.

After several minutes of travel, the platoon finally made its way to the destination, a rather odd-looking structure that appeared to be a cylinder with twelve smaller cylinders attached to the sides, three for each cardinal direction.

The Marines gently landed onto the ground and slowly made their way into the building. After they had safely made it through the entrance, the head of the platoon, a Lieutenant Julia Simpson, turned to address them.

"This right here is GARM R&D, the supposed pride and joy of Mendel before its sudden 'death by plague'. Since the entire colony was centered around this facility then it can be presumed that this was the terrorist main target. As such, steel yourself for a high body count going in. We are to scout every centimeter of this building until we gain a clear understanding of what the terrorists were after and if GARM is related in any way to the supposed viral outbreak. All computers are to be left untouched for the techies and any corpse you come across is to be left as intact as possible for forensics to get a clear picture of what went down. Feel free to go through any physical documents you come across, however don't spend too much time playing detective and leave all of the evidence where you found it.

All teams are to radio in their location every five minutes to myself. If I cannot be reached then all traffic is to go to Gunnery Sargent Pyle. If you come across any unusual environments, suspected traps, or signs of present human life, then you are to remain stationary and radio in for reinforcements. Am I made clear?"

"Sir, yes sir!" All of the Marines replied.

"Good, now here is how we will divide our search. Ground floor teams are as follows; Kowalski and Vasquez-"

After a few minutes of organization, the Marines split up into groups of two and set about exploring their objectives, with some walking slowly across the building while others used their jetpacks to traverse between floors.

Fortunately for Luke, he was teamed up with his close friend Private Dwayne Flowers. The two were to patrol a section of the fifth floor which was supposed to contain some of GARM's most important projects, lucky them.

Climbing to the fifth floor with their verniers, the duo slowly made their way into the facility with Luke taking point and Dwayne keeping guard on the rear. Already the signs of horror seemed to continue on this level as the hallway they made their entry in was littered with a couple of skeletons.

"You ever think that we would have to go through this shit when we signed up?" Dwayne asked.

"You mean be transported to another timeline where the Earth sphere was divided into nation states and genetics moments after Independence, going into a mini coma with visions of a weird battle on Earth, have two sides of an ongoing war open fire on us for now good reason, and then after we kick their asses proceed to investigate a colony which reeks of death and smells dirtier than the Laplace Incident? No I did not." Luke said, with Dwayne rolling his eyes in response.

"Funny guy. Still, I ain't calling you a liar or anything, but you really still calling those dreams visions? We were on the verge of war with the Federation, you probably just dreamnt the whole thing up." Dwayne said.

He looked towards his friend with a momentary scowl then proceeded to focus back on the situation at hand, "The only reason I'm saying those dreams are visions is because not only was it too vivid and accurate, especially since most of my dreams look like I'm on acid, but I felt every experience that was happening. Not only that, but doesn't the fact that dozens within our regiment had visions of the same war across the Earth sphere mean anything to you? Hell, Blonski and I fought in two of the same battles and he confirmed it!"

Dwayne raised a hand in surrender, "Alright, alright I get it. Like I said, I aint calling you a liar. It's just that, things are already batshit crazy as it is with us crossing into another dimension with supermen. But every other man and women suddenly becoming psychics? If that's a thing then where the hell do we draw the line at weirdness?"

'Or Newtypes.' Luke thought, though he kept the idea to itself. The debate on whether or not he and so many others had become Deikun's prophesied evolution had already beset several fierce arguments within the regiment. For now they had decided to safely settle on the term psychic so that there would be no more infighting on the Contolism's interpretations.

"We crossed space and time, so anything's possible at this point. Look, we're getting sidetracked, let's just focus on the mission, okay?"

"Sure. I swear to God though, if we run into motherfucking Cthullu in this lab then I'm out." Dwayne complained, earning a laugh from Luke.

As they continued their search, the topic of the visions didn't leave Luke's mind. Despite the fact that he had never physically been present, recalling the events brought about an amount of trauma. He fought in an actual war in some other time against the Earth Federation, not just any war, but a total war on a scale that surpassed the previous world wars.

Most of his memories were spent on Earth (how the hell Zeon invaded the planet was beyond Luke's guess) in a region which he guessed was North America. At first the visions were those of pleasant victories, however they slowly but surely descended into hellish nightmares. Luke's last memory was of him lying bloodied on the ground, desperately firing his pistol against an approaching mobile suit. It was a black and white mobile suit shaped like a samurai whose mere image terrified Luke to the core. A Gundam.

Fortunately for Luke, his morbid thoughts were kept down for now when he and Dwayne approached an unusual sight. it was another skeleton, though this one was clothed in military apparel. His uniform wasn't just any paramilitary outfit worn by terrorists and backwards militias on Earth either, it was a genuine article that had the same level of quality as the battledress currently worn by Luke and Dwayne.

Bending down, Dwayne examined the skeleton in as much detail as he could without disturbing it. "Huh, the dress reminds me of old uniforms from NATO in WW3." He remarked.

"NATO? How the hell would you know what they wore?" Asked Luke.

"I'm sort of a nerd on the late Cold War and have a small number of books on the period. Not only that, but I visited a military museum in my colony four months ago and whatever this bastard's wearing is similar in design to an American battledress."

"Similar, not the same?" Luke questioned.

"Nah. You could probably launch an attack with WW3 era equipment, but stuff like that would be expensive and rare as hell, only museums and a few private individuals would have such pieces. It's pretty different but has the same design philosophy as America's, and they never really changed their equipement until the Unification Wars."

"That doesn't make any sense though. America became the Atlantic Federation in this timeline and this place is an Atlantic colony. Their involvement in the Reconstruction War was limited to interventions in Latin America and they haven't had any terror wars since then. Why would they attack their own colony?"

"I don't know man. Back in the Cold War the CIA used to supply shady terror groups with weapons and money if they swore to fight the good fight against Communism. Perhaps a group like that launched an attack here. Still, if there was AF involvement then it would make sense why everyone kept away from the colony and never investigates this bullshit 'viral outbreak.'" Dwayne reasoned.

The two checked the body carefully for any identifying markers, though unfortunately they found no insignia to indicate a name or organization of allegiance. They radioed in their finding to the Lieutenant, who told them of similar reports across the lab. Not wanting to waste too much time playing detective, Luke motioned for Dwayne to continue the search.

For the next eight minutes their search continued quietly with a few more bodies littering the path, and the two investigating a couple of the offices. While they did their best to look at any open documents, all the information contained was solely focused on advanced biology and genetics, and with neither Marine holding a high aptitude in science it was all meaningless words to them.

A surprise came to the duo when they reached the office of what appeared to be the boss of the facility, a Doctor Ulen Hibiki. At first they tried to turn the door, however unlike the others it appeared to be locked. With Luke keeping watch for any intruders, Dwayne kicked the door hard, opening it with a start and sending a cloud of dust into the air.

Inside the Marines found corpses, however they were in a strange state in comparison to the previous two. One skeleton laid down against a desk with dried blood splattered on the wood and the floor. Broken bits of bone were present in the chest, crotch, and skull.

A second body was lined up against a wall and also appeared to suffer from bullet fractures. The damage on this one appeared to be focused on the cranium with a large hole present and a splatter of dry blood on the wall. With a pistol on the floor centimetres from the right hand, and the type of wound present, this person appeared to have committed suicide rather than be murdered by the terrorists.

Kneeling down, Luke carefully reached for a name tag present on the labcoat of the presumed suicide victim. On the tag was a picture of a beautiful young woman of Asian descent with brown hair and amethyst eyes. Her name was Doctor Via Hibiki.

"I got a Via Hibiki here. Probably Ulen's wife or sister." Luke said.

"And this here is Ulen." Dwayne said, pointing to the other body.

Luke frowned at the scene, "This doesn't make any sense. If these two were killed by terrorists then why was the door locked with their corpses left inside while all of the other civilians were just left at the scene of the crime without care. Not only that, but this Via chick looks like she killed herself."

"Suicide?" Dwayne questioned.

Luke nodded, "Now keep in mind I'm no cop so I may be spouting bullshit, but her jaw is pretty fucked up and the only exit wound is on the back of her skull, the evidence points to self-harm with a pistol. However, it could be possible that maybe some sicko terrorist put the gun in her mouth and pulled the trigger."

"Or maybe whatever the hell was happening here, she was so terrified that she thought that going out on her terms was for the best?" Dwayne reasoned. With Luke nodding sadly.

A glint on Via's jacket caught Luke's eye. Moving his fingers carefully to not heavily disturb her skeleton, Luke grabbed what looked to be a small piece of paper that was sticking out of the breast pocket on her white lab coat. As he further dragged the paper out of its place, Luke saw that it was a picture. When the image was fully revealed to him he let out a slight gasp in shock.

The photo was of Via in a yellow gown laying down on a bed. In her arms were two small babies, a girl with blond hair and a boy with brown hair, Luke presuming their genders based on the colors of the blankets wrapped around them. The image of Via holding her two children, her smiling showing warmth and joy, gave her a sort of serene beauty as the mother of these presumed newborns.

Tears welled up in Luke's eyes at the sight. Since her Lab I.D was the same image as her in the picture, then her children must have been born recently before the massacre. Unless she had her children on Earth and had them stay with some relatives, then they were probably murdered in the attack unless some terrorist had some sick sense of morality and decided to rescue them as pity, though considering the thousands of dead with confirmed numbers rising, Luke highly doubted it.

"How the hell could monsters like these exist?" Luke asked himself in a soft whisper. As if someone, or something had heard him, Luke recieved a reply.

"AIIIIEEEE!" Despite the lack of any human life in this section of GARM besides Luke and Dwayne, Luke heard what felt like dozens, if not hundreds of voices screaming right into his ears. The worst part was that the voices heavily resembled children.

"Auuughh!" Luke collapsed on the floor, rolling over in agony as the screams felt like several stabs at his heart. In desperation Luke yanked his helmet off and tried to block off the noise with his hands, but they had no effect.

"Luke! What the fuck you doing man?! What's going on?" Dwayne dropped the notes that he was reading and ran to his best friend's side. Dwayne tried to calm him down, but since Dwayne could not feel what Luke was going through it looked like the Marine was screeching like a madman for no reason.

"Shit, shit, FUCK! Lieutenant, Lance Corporal Kavensky has just collapsed on the floor and is yelling for no reason. This place may be a legit disease hole, but Kavensky's suit was not compromised at all." Dwayne spoke on the comm, his voice high pitched with an incredibly frightened tone at the display before him.

"No, it's not a disease, it's the kids. I..I have to save them!" Luke declared. While he was still tormented by the screams, a newfound resolve of determination entered his body, pumping some adrenaline for him to toughen through the pain. Luke grabbed his helmet and put it back on, then rapidly exited the office to rescue the victims.

"Luke! Wait! Shit, Lieutenant Kavensky looks half-mad, he's off on a chase to god knows where. I'm going to tail, requesting backup." Dwayne commed in, running in a desperate chase to save his friend from whatever he was about to do.

When the two Marines left the office, they missed a vital piece of the puzzle of Mendel which would have completely unraveled the mystery of its massacre, a revelation that in so many of the original timelines had gone completely unnoticed by humanity as Mendel collapsed and its tragedy remained a mystery. It was a small camcorder that was placed on a bookshelf, one which showed the crimes of the colony and whose fault the massacre rested upon.

Fueled by a need to cease the screaming and save those who he felt in pain, Luke ran the fastest that he ever had in his life. He sprinted like a mad cheetah through the hallway, desperate to reach his goal. Despite the fact that Luke had never set foot in GARM, or even this colony before an hour ago, he twisted and turned through the halls with a clear sense of direction, guided by his developing sixth sense with each turn sending him a flash that added another piece of the map.

Three minutes later, Luke had reached his goal. As the door he stood in front of slid open, Luke stood at attention with his assault rifle ready to blast anyone who dared to hurt the children.

After the door opened Luke rushed inside, "ZEON MARINES!" Luke Shouted in viscous anger, eyes scouring the room and swinging his rifle around to attack the villain that he had been expected.

To Luke's immense confusion, nobody seemed to be within the vast room except for him. The only sounds that were currently present was the smooth hum of what appeared to be water tanks, the faint buzz of computers running, and Luke's hard footsteps which echoed thanks to the metal on his suit's boots.

"What?" Luke asked himself. Not only was there no sign of life, but the screaming had stopped completely when he had entered. "Hello?! My name's Luke Kavensky, I'm a Marine of the Principality of Zeon. You can come out now, I won't hurt you." Luke spoke, believing himself to be communicating with some child or children that were hiding.

"Look closely." Spoke a flurry of hushed whispers from dozens of children despite the fact that once again it appeared that Luke was the only person inside.

Shaking slightly in apprehension, Luke did as ordered and investigated the contents of the room, all the while remaining vigilant of a possible attack. For a small period of time Luke's confusion still persisted, his lack of scientific knowledge leading to multiple theories of what could possibly be hidden in this chamber.

When Luke reached the edge of the railing, and paid extremely close attention to what was inside of the tanks, his mind reeled in complete horror.

Luke collapsed on the floor, his gun falling to the side as he laid on his knees. Taking his helmet off once more, Luke's breathing was rising in near hyperventilation. With the shock increasing, his body reacted to the inhumane sight with Luke vomiting heavily on the floor.

"Luke, Luke it's me Dwayne! What the hell do you think you're doing? Marine's always stick toge-" Dwayne had finally caught up to Luke and was ready to give him a stern verbal beatdown, when his eyes drifted to the sight that had brought Luke down. "Sweet mother of God."

Due to the lack of psychic trauma that Luke had experienced, Dwayne had managed to keep his breakfast in, though just barely. For in front of the two Marines were several deformed fetuses, suspended in a state of eternal limbo as the chamber technically kept them alive, yet it was a cruel fate for they had been conceived yet they would never experience the first moments of life, a mixed blessing as any form of birth would have lead to a few moments of absolute hell before expiration.

The unborn life in these tubes were only but a small sample of the horrors of Doctor Ulen Hibiki, the Madman of Mendel who dared to play God.

A/N: Hello everyone, Kaiser Chris here in what is sure to be my fastest Gundam update. So in this chapter the Zeon Marines launched an expedition to Mendel, experiencing a greater amount of horror of the colony's abandonment that was glossed over in SEED, along with setting up a greater mystery on what really happened leading up to the day of the attack. Out of all of SEED's plotlines, the Mendel arc is a true shame of wasted potential as it showed the dark side of Coordination that was glossed over by the rest of the series, Kira and Cagali's origins and how their father was an abusive mad scientist with plenty of fridge horror in his relationship to Via, and just the sheer brutality of Blue Cosmos in that they were able to wipe out an entire colony and cover it up, with the Archangel never once attempting to reveal this to the greater public and it remaining a secret for the rest of the Cosmic Era. The truth of Mendel will come out in its entirety in my interpretation with Zeon here to stay and uncover just what happened, leading to several plotlines that dramatically change the fate of some of the main SEED characters as well as unveil the darker pasts of others.

Luke Kavensky and Dwayne Flowers are OC's of mine. If it wasn't obvious enough, Luke is a Newtype (pretty average in comparison to people like Amuro, Kamille, and Banagher) and through his Newtype awareness experienced the psychic scars of Mendel's horror in their experimentation on the unborn. The reason this didn't pop up in the anime is due to all Newtypes becoming far more sensitive in Cosmic Crusade thanks to the Event along with those present not being developed enough to truly comprehend what happened. Kira is a pretty weak Newtype and as such it didn't affect him despite his history with the colony. Mu is severely underdeveloped in his powers and as such wasn't effected like how Amuro was pretty numb to the war until he got into the Gundam. As for Rau, he was most likely powerful enough to feel it but either didn't give a damn or rejoiced in the suffering that took place. If any of those three step foot on Mendel, they'll feel the scars for sure in this story.

Next chapter will be the beginning of the Reaction Arc, leading up to the Heliopolis Peace Conference Arc that was hinted at the beginning. It'll be a time for each nation to react to the revelation of what just happened and the greater war. Next chapter specifically will focus on ZAFT as well as their allies Africa and Oceania, both of whom I am extremely excited to explore. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more!