The Shoal Zone lit up with a burst of plasma as the tidal forces within the ruined sector erupted, bolts of lightning arcing across the void before striking the ruins of Side 4 and blasting off chunks of decayed metal. The desolation was beautiful in its own way, but a reminder of all the death and destruction which had been wrought over the past year due to the massive conflict between Zeon and the Earth Federation.
Supposedly, there were stories of those particularly sensitive who could see the ghosts of all those who died when Side 4 was destroyed, as well as the specters of the soldiers whose corpses still floated, uncollected and forgotten among the eddies of the shoal zone. For some, it was a perfect fit for the tragic beauty of warfare.

For Kanoko, it was wholly depressing instead. 

Her RX-78EVA was positioned on a decently-sized slab of former colony, its golden eyes gazing out into the depths of space while the high-powered camera and targeting array scanned her assigned sector, beam rifle at the ready. The Minovsky particle contamination was intense today, and it was causing her sensors to flicker in and out. The pilot made sure to run the filters to refine the data and expunge the noise, but even still, it was fairly difficult trying to get a solid reading.

"Cavalier, how's it looking out there?" The comm beacons the Federation had placed were working very well despite the interference, much to her relief. It would've sucked to be left out in the void alone.

"First dozen sector sweeps were clean, Chief. I haven't seen any unusual suits like the ones Command described yet. Weird...I can't believe something could just shrug off beam weapons like that; if I hadn't seen the cockpit footage, I would've called them a liar," Kanoko replied. She hefted the beam weapon up, her Gundam floating a little as she disengaged the anchors. A chuckle passed through the static and Kanoko groaned, engaging the boosters to find a different observation point. "Jerk."

"Hey now! I know you're pretty good and we all know how that stuff works. Just be careful out there. Some of the other units have reported strange particle emissions that don't fit any known machine from the Federation or Zeon. I'll check up on you in another couple hours." The comms went quiet.

"Roger. Moving to new recon vector. Cavalier out," Kanoko echoed, pushing her unit forward. As she anchored herself to another piece of colony a kilometer or so out from her previous position, her alarms went up, the radar beeping at her. "What's gotten into you now?"

Looking down at the screen, her eyes widened a little as she saw an aberration begin to overtake her sensor field, blanking out her readings in certain spots as they began to move closer. Not even a Gundam's Minovsky reactor could cause that much interference as she watched them appear on-screen, several spots where her sensor data simply vanished. "What the heck? That's not right-what did they say about the encounters? That they were sudden because they couldn't get any data back?" 

Her Gundam seized and brought the beam rifle to bear, her fingers on the anchor release so she could jet out if needed. Enhancing the camera zoom, Kanoko scanned her field of view fervently, trying to catch a glimpse of the intruders. They were but small figures, dancing among the ruins of giants. 

But she was small too, and unlike them, she was alone.