The Black Gundam

Synopsis
In space, a man in a pink normal suit is sitting in the cockpit of a red mobile suit. He is glancing at his screens and appears to be scanning for something. He signals to one of his wingmen, who is in a black version of the same MS that he's using - the Rick Dias. Apparently, these are new models, so he asks his buddy how he likes it. The man in pink is addressed as Lieutenant Quattro.

The scene then jumps to a guy in karate garb, breaking a board with his foot. He is performing for a good-sized audience of other young men, who are clapping enthusiastically. From the doorway to the room, a voice pipes up. It belongs to the protagonist, Kamille Bidan. He is asking to be excused from practice and claims he is ill, but he board-breaking guy doesn't buy it. He attempts to give chase as Kamille runs away, but slips and falls on his face.

Kamille races through his high school and out the front door. However, he is stopped by the karate team captain, Mezun, who demands to know where he's going. Kamille offers a flimsy excuse, which the team captain responds to with a rather hard backhand. Kamille gets up and resumes running. He is eventually caught up to by a black-haired girl, Fa Yuiry. She runs alongside him, calling his name. He's sullen at first, but she eventually gets it out of him that he's ditching practice. He also demands that she not call him by name, as he doesn't want to have to respond to the name she is using and betray that it's his. She retorts by pointing out that everybody already knows the name is his, anyway.

The two reach a carport that contains a number of Smart-car-sized electric vehicles. Kamille approaches one and jumps in, sticking a card into the slot to activate it. Fa jumps in beside him and gripes about his destination, which is the spaceport. However, before she can carp any further, Kamille floors it and the car takes off. Their destination is the linear car station. The linear car will then take them to the spaceport. Kamille seems to be in a rush, and Fa can't figure out why. He cuts the linear car countdown short and they depart. While in transit, Kamille looks out the window and senses something unusual, but can't quite put his finger on what it is. In the distance, Quattro also senses something odd. He wonders if the funny feeling is being caused by Amuro Ray or Lalah Sune, although neither seems quite right.

The linear car arrives at the spaceport, and Kamille rushes out of it. He is temporarily thrown off by the lack of gravity, but manages to regain his equilibriun. He floats over to a bank of viewing windows and muses that he was too late to watch the shuttle down below fly in. Fa asks what the big deal is about a shuttle from Earth, and is informed that the shuttle down below is the Temptation, which is piloted by none other that Bright Noa. Kamille also reveals that he got Bright's autograph once as a kid. Fa asks if Bright is a newtype. Kamille figures he has to be, if he was the captain of White Base.

Kamille decides to go looking for Bright. He floats around a corner and emerges into an atrium, noticing a group of Titans standing at the other end. Fa trails into the room behind him and calls his name to get his attention. Her shrill voice also happens to get the attention of one of the Titans, who turns around and makes a snarky comment regarding the gender of the name's bearer. Kamille is consumed by rage and strides forward, demanding an apology. The snarker, Lt. Jerid Messa, has but a few seconds to contemplate what is going on before he is smashed in the face by a left-hook. He floats off and hits a wall as a fistfight breaks out. Eventually, a couple of MP's manage to pin Kamille to the floor. Jerid walks over to him and hooks the toe of his boot under his chin. He taunts Kamille some more, causing him to assert his manhood a second time. In response, Kamille gets kicked in the face, right between the eyes.

In space, Quattro approaches the colony and sneaks in. It turns out that he is there to do reconnisance on some new mobile suits that are under development at the colony, which is a Titans base. He launches himself into the air and floats around, taking pictures. It isn't long before one of the experimental MS's, a Gundam Mk. II, flies by him. He snaps some pictures as the Mk II notices him and attempts to give chase. However, Quattro is too small a target for the Mk II to hit. Quattro floats back to his Rick Dias and escapes from the colony, meeting up with his two wingmen. They continue to do reconnisance from outside the colony.

Elsewhere, Kamille is being interrogated by a really aggressive MP, Matosh. The MP demands to know why Kamille picked a fight with a Titan and if he's ever heard of an organization called AEUG. He then proceeds to flip through a dossier binder on his detainee, noting that he was in a Junior MS tournament and flew a Homo Avis. Kamille says nothing. The MP storms out of the room in frustration, leaving Kamille alone. As he rests his forehead on the table and stares at the floor, he feels that same weird feeling again, this time accompanied by visions of space. He blinks and rubs his eyes, wondering if his nerves are shot.

Just then, the family lawyer walks in. He walks over to Kamille and unlocks his cuffs. Kamille starts to talk, and is taunted by the MP, who is standing in the doorway. He snarks in response, and gets the dossier binder thrown at him. In a stunning display of recklessness, Kamille leaps across the table and kicks the MP in the face. The lawyer starts to reprimand him when there's a rumbling and the room partially collapses. It turns out that one of the Mk II's being tested has fallen onto the building.

Taking advantage of the ensuing chaos, Kamille runs out of the room and down the hallway. As he passes through the atrium of the building, his mother Hilda spots him and calls to him. He ignores her and continues out the front door. Frantically looking around for a further means of escape, Kamille spots a jeep sitting idle nearby with the key still in the ignition. He leaps in and floors it. His mother runs out onto the front steps of the building just in time to see him drive off in a stolen car.

Back at the broken building, the hatch to the Gundam Mk II opens and Jerid climbs out to assess the damage. He was apparently test-piloting the MS and made a misstep. He muses that this situation will require more than a written apology to smooth out. Kamille, meanwhile, is barreling down the road in his jeep and is able to get a better view of the overall scene of the accident. By this time, another Mk II has flown in to help lift the first one off of the crushed building.

Kamille notices that he's approaching a suspension bridge that traverses one of the wide glass panels built into the colony wall. The bridge will be long, and will afford no turn-offs or other avenues of escape should the soldiers now pursuing him manage to catch up to him. He realizes that he will have to abandon his jeep. Kamille lets the car decelerate slightly and then jumps from the driver's seat. He tumbles down a hill and comes to a stop, faceplanting in the grass and wondering how he was able to wreck his life so thoroughly in such a short amount of time. The car, for what it's worth, has really good suspension and continues across the bridge.

Back in space, Quattro signals the Argama to fire a laser and blow an opening in the side of the colony.

Important Events
Characters Introduced: Kamille Bidan, Fa Yuiry, Quattro Bajeena, Apolly Bay, Roberto, Jerid Messa, Kacricon Cacooler, Hilda Bidan.

Mecha Introduced: Gundam Mk. II, Rick Dias

Ships Seen For the First Time: Argama, Temptation


 * This marks the first appearance of Char Aznable under his "Quattro Bajeena" alias.