For several weeks now Axton and the rest of the Steel Sharks mobile suit team had been positioned on the northern edge of Lake Nasser. While Axton was glad that he wasn’t constantly fighting the Federation forces, it did seem odd to him that neither side in the war were actively interested in Egypt. The last major communication that the Zeon forces gathered here south of the Nile river was when they delivered some supplies including a few new mobile suits from their United Maintenance Plan. Axton had lucked out and been assigned one of the new suits, a Zaku II Type F2, an upgrade on the old Zaku he had been using.

So Axton had been spending his days sitting in the radio tent of their small camp. On that early New Year’s morning, Axton was pretty sure that he was the only one up. The others had partied a little too hard for New Year’s Eve, drinking the cook’s homemade moon shine. Axton had not partaken as his constitution could not handle alcohol, especially the homemade stuff. Instead he just enjoyed the festivities, including blasting music popular back in the homeland.

The young mobile suit pilot relaxed in his seat as he scanned the camp with his artificial eyes. While the mobile suits were currently not on, the massive Dobday-class land cruiser was on, prepared for a Federation ambush, which probably wouldn’t happen with the several Dopp fighters patrolling the skies.

As his attention shifted, Axton was surprised to hear chatter coming from the radio equipment. Rushing over to it, Axton hoped the machine would give him some good news, like orders from command. However, he wasn’t prepared for what the comm system was saying.

“Effective today, January 1st UC 0080, the Principality of Zeon has signed a treaty with the Earth Federation. The Principality shall dissolve and become a Republic, retaining its independence. However it will cease all military productions and turn over all remaining weapons of war. Again, we are just getting word that effective today…”

While Axton knew this was an Earth based broadcast, he didn’t think it was misinformation. Despite what the officers were saying about the war going great, Axton had spent enough time near the radio to hear snippets of how the Federation had been taking the fight all the way to Side 3. As much as he hated to admit it, this meant the war was over. Zeon lost.

But that couldn’t be it, they had all fought so hard to defeat the Federation. Axton kept remembering his brother’s funeral, in which they had nothing to bury as his body had been annihilated by a nuclear weapon. How could he face his family and say that he failed, he never got vengeance. The thought infuriated Axton.

“Lieutenant Huber,” said a voice from behind Axton, “Has this been verified? Has there been a treaty?”

Axton turned around and saw Major Sone, the current head of the Steel Sharks. Even with his comically thin mustache, Axton could see that this was no laughing matter. A year’s worth of stress was evident on his face as he stared at the Second Lieutenant.

[color=#5DE62C]“It seems to be true, but we still have to confirm with official sources,”[/color] replied Axton.

As they spoke, several members of the crew were getting up and going over to the radio tent to see what was going on. Axton really hoped that Major Sone would explain things, as he didn’t want to be the one to tell his brothers in arms that they lost the war.