Spark Project

When Ye Qingluan received the peripheral monitoring data forwarded from East Asia, she was crouching inside an exhaust pipe on the outskirts of Dawn Society's Factory No. 5.

She glanced at the encrypted message on her wristwatch, turned off the screen, and spoke quietly to the members of Team Two behind her.

"How far along is the damage-control trigger deployment?"

"The node at Factory No. 3 is active. The Factory No. 4 node is being written. Factory No. 5 only needs one final port."

"Speed it up."

"Team leader, Factory No. 5's maintenance port is too close to the main plant. Dawn Society security patrols pass through every fifteen minutes. We only have a seven-minute operating window."

"That's enough. Once you're done, withdraw to the designated rendezvous point. Switch communications to passive reception."

"Understood."

Ye Qingluan climbed out of the pipe and stopped against the wall at the corridor corner.

Her gray work clothes were stained with grease and dust, making her indistinguishable from any low-level maintenance worker on the colony satellite.

She pulled down the brim of her cap and swept her gaze toward the main plant in the distance.

The area was brightly lit. Engineers in white lab coats streamed in and out through the factory entrance, while a short line waited before the biometric gates.

No one knew that a Nazca-class destroyer was drifting overhead.

January 29, C.E. 71, 10:33 a.m.

At Sector Seven of the Heliopolis colony satellite's outer hull, a ZAFT special operations team's miniature assault craft moved slowly along the satellite's metal plating, its thermal emissions suppressed below ambient noise by an active cooling system.

10:41 a.m.

The first explosion came from the colony satellite's outer hull.

Ye Qingluan was checking the data reception protocol one last time inside the communications vehicle when the vehicle shook violently and the artificial dome overhead let out a piercing metallic groan.

"Team leader, fighting has broken out in the direction of Dawn Society!"

"I heard it."

She pressed the communications panel. The Atlantic Federation military channel had already descended into chaos.

Call signs overlapped from every direction. Some shouted that they had encountered ZAFT Mobile Suits, some reported that the factory district had been breached, and some screamed for reinforcements.

Ye Qingluan cut the military channel and opened the damage-control monitoring feed.

The colony satellite's structural stress sensors began sounding alarms. The outer hull integrity from Sectors Seven through Nine had fallen below the warning threshold.

The damage-control protocol activated automatically.

She stared at the data streaming across the screen, waiting for the triggers she had planted in advance to respond.

Three seconds.

Five seconds.

A green icon lit up in the lower-right corner of the terminal screen.

Factory No. 3 node activated.

Then Factory No. 4.

Factory No. 5.

The three maintenance ports entered damage-control backup mode simultaneously, and engineering data from Dawn Society's internal network began automatically pushing snapshots to the nearest authorized maintenance terminal.

Ye Qingluan's terminal was that terminal.

Data flooded into the receiving drive, and the progress bar began rising from zero.

Three percent.

Seven percent.

"Team One reporting. MS-level fighting has erupted in front of Dawn Society's main plant. At least four ZAFT GINN Type Mobile Suits are breaking into the factory complex. The Atlantic Federation's Dagger Squad is resisting, but they're getting pinned down."

Ye Qingluan did not look up.

"Do not approach the combat zone. Everyone hold position and wait for the data transfer to finish."

"Understood."

Fifteen percent.

Another explosion sounded, this one much closer. Spiderweb cracks spread across the communications vehicle's bulletproof glass.

Ye Qingluan steadied herself, her gaze locked firmly on the progress bar.

Twenty-three percent.

Team One's voice came through her headset, speaking noticeably faster than before.

"Team leader, I spotted ZAFT's Red Squad. Four of them, wearing elite insignia. They're heading into the G Weapons hangar."

Four red uniforms.

Athrun Zala, Yzak Joule, Diego Elsmann, Rusty.

Ye Qingluan rapidly matched them against the intelligence briefing Lin Yuan had given her, her expression unchanged.

"Do not approach them. Continue observing."

Thirty-one percent.

She pressed the encrypted communications key.

"Director, all damage-control triggers are active. Data is coming through. ZAFT's Red Squad has entered the G Weapons hangar area. The capture operation has begun."

On the other side of Earth, Lin Yuan's voice was cold and steady.

"Progress?"

"Thirty-three percent, speed stable. At the current bandwidth, a complete backup will take around forty minutes."

"Forty minutes is enough. ZAFT's capture process will take at least an hour. The Atlantic Federation will counterattack in the meantime, and the fighting around the hangar will keep everyone's attention occupied."

"Director, I intercepted information on the military channel. Civilians are trapped near Dawn Society's main plant, including a group of students doing practical project internships."

"ZAFT will not deliberately kill civilians."

"But there could be stray shots in the crossfire."

"Ye Qingluan."

She pressed her lips together.

"Your job right now is to watch that progress bar. Everything else is not your concern."

"Understood."

Forty-seven percent.

The world outside the communications vehicle was collapsing.

The continuous roar of heavy weapons came from the distance. The thunderous sound of metal structures breaking mingled with alarms and the screams of crowds.

Ye Qingluan briefly looked away from the screen and saw people running along the distant street through a crack in the window.

A woman carrying a child fell amid shattered glass, climbed back up, and kept running.

She turned her attention back to the screen.

Fifty-four percent.

"Team leader, news from the hangar. One G Weapon has been activated. The pilot isn't with ZAFT. There's a civilian in the cockpit."

Kira Yamato.

Ye Qingluan's eyelid twitched.

So it had happened.

A boy who did not know he was the ultimate Coordinator had been pushed by war into the cockpit of the Strike Gundam.

"Ignore it," she said. "Everyone fall back toward the designated evacuation route."

Sixty-one percent.

An abnormally massive explosion erupted from the distant factory district, and the ground of the entire colony satellite trembled.

Ye Qingluan grabbed the handrail and held down the terminal with her other hand to stop it from sliding away.

Sixty-eight percent.

"Team leader, Dawn Society's main server is beginning a physical shutdown! The security system is cutting power to non-core areas. Our Factory No. 4 node has lost forty percent of its bandwidth."

Ye Qingluan's pupils contracted.

"What about Three and Five?"

"Three is still running. Five is becoming unstable."

The progress bar visibly slowed.

Seventy percent.

Seventy-one percent.

It stopped for two seconds.

Seventy-one percent.

"Director." Ye Qingluan pressed the communications key. "Dawn Society security has begun shutting down power by sector. Data transfer speed has dropped. At this rate, the time needed for a complete backup may double."

Lin Yuan gave only one reply. "Get into the server room and maintain the power supply manually."

Ye Qingluan stood, stuffing the terminal into her waist pouch.

"Team Two, come with me. Team One stays with the communications vehicle and maintains the receiving channel."

She pushed open the vehicle door, and a wave of heat and smoke rushed at her.

In the distant sky, a white-and-blue MS was locked in battle with ZAFT GINN Types. Beams from its Beam Rifle streaked across the artificial dome, leaving searing molten scars in the metal plating.

Ye Qingluan lowered her head and moved quickly along the pipeline maintenance passage.

Three minutes later, she stood before the Class C access gate of Dawn Society's core server room. Her maintenance work order passed over the card reader, and the indicator turned green.

The door opened.

Dim orange emergency lighting filled the server room. Racks of servers stood in neat rows, and most of the screens had already gone dark.

But someone stood before an operations console in the third row on the left.

A young woman in a white lab coat was bent over the keyboard, frantically copying files onto a portable storage device.

Hearing footsteps, she spun around.

The two women stared at each other in the dim server room.

Ye Qingluan saw the badge on her chest.

Dawn Society, Engineering Technology Department, Huili.