Earth - Monday - 3:00 - London, England - Londo Bell Military Base - Prologue: Bright's New Stars ===== It was a bright day today in London with many people going back and forth doing their jobs and living their lives day to day. The year is 0095 UC two years after the attack by Char's Neo Zeon. For years now Earth had been subject to war and atrocities committed by the forces of Zeon and more recently it's own members the Titans in attempts to quell growing descent within the Earth Sphere and space. The Second Zeon War, Gryps Conflict, The One Year War, and even the attempt to drop Axis onto the planet had caused all sorts of hell. But today no one was worrying about that they were too busy with their own lives. The military forces around the base in the outskirts of the city were busy with practicing drills and or controlling the air traffic around the city. It was a hard job but the garrison kept at it in order to make sure London didn't fall to a terrorist force. There were many similar bases around the world but this one was a central hub to the space fairing people who wished to visit and leave Earth through official means. This particular base stationed many of Londo Bell's finest pilots now including a pilot by the name of Ken McCarthy whom had served with Londo Bell, and Amuro Ray during his final hours in the war and a veteran from the AEUG. Along side him were other noted soldiers. The base was spacious and held many barracks, cafeterias, hangers, as places to sit down and relax, or train depending what you wished to do. The base had a typical layout for a base of it's size including many floors below and above the ground floor and a airfield for docking and launching ships into space. The man known as 'The Grey Ghost' by his fellow Londo Bell soldiers or more privately as Quentin Richards sat down in a chair looking out the window sipping on some water and eating a snack. He had been practicing through a good portion of the day and while he was somewhat tired he had grown use to it. Over twenty years of military practice would drill into your the discipline to keep going even when you were worn out. He had been told a new Jegan unit had been made for him in replacement for his older machine which had been damaged too heavily too be repaired fully. He mourned for his machine like he would a member of his team that died. It had been with him for years now. Normally he would be in America, or in space but today Bright Noa had called him in for a new duty. He was too be placed in a squad of a commando unit and be charged with leading it. He hated leading. It never ended well for Quentin so many of his men had died under his command for all of his successes he had never been good at leading. It was because he was such a solid pilot with a lot of experience that he was even chosen to lead this group as stood. He didn't know his fellow pilots but he was given a large dossier on all of them and their non-classified histories. He skimmed through it and considered how this would all work out. In truth he really wasn't paying too much attention to the dossier. Men and women were different when you met them in public or for the first time. It was a mask everyone wore no one showed their true faces. He could only hope his new friends wouldn't leave him longing for a new team. Quentin himself knew he was a boring person but he liked to think that made him more malleable too different situations. He was a career soldier first and foremost that was the one truth about him. He had tried to get away from it before but it never happened. He took one more sip of his water and chewed down on a hamburger bought from a nearby fast food restaurant that was a short trip away from the base. He was wearing his federation attire with the coat unbuttoned for the moment revealing a white shirt underneath it. He didn't mind if it wasn't protocol he was on his off time after all. Soon enough he'd clean himself off and go and do his thing. He himself was located near the training room and had chosen his place because it was a simple area with a good view in the middle of the hallway. A cafeteria was nearby, one of two, and just down the hallway up the stairs was where the briefing room usually took place at. Down the steps on the ground floor were the entry area with the main doors leading in and out of the place, a security office, and a few other doors that led to various places mostly control rooms. He sat there silently hoping that today would be a good day.