For fifteen long and agonizing years, Klaus Kimeza, the genius behind The White Ghost and the architect of the Earth Federation's first-generation Mobile Suits, had been a captive. He was held in a secret facility isolated deep within one of the Colonies' controlled asteroids, a silent prison designed to break his spirit. His mind, though isolated, remained sharp and unyielding. With every passing day, his soul was filled with regret for the war he had witnessed start, and a burning desire to see justice restored on Earth.
Klaus, once the greatest architect of Mobile Suit technology—a visionary who believed in technology's potential for the good of humanity—now realized that the only way to fight Colonian tyranny was to unleash freedom. His own freedom, and the freedom of the Mobile Suit he created, which he knew had now been misused or copied by the enemy. For years in captivity, he had planned this escape with meticulous detail, observing guard routines, noting system weaknesses, and calculating every risk.
His plan was simple in concept, but required infinite time, the patience of a monk, and flawless execution.
For the last six months, Klaus began to execute his plan. He feigned severe cognitive decline, a method known as the 'soft strategy'. He refused food, spoke in incoherent mumbles, and displayed symptoms of extreme mental exhaustion, as if his mind had been completely destroyed by isolation and regret. He deliberately let himself appear as a genius who had finally broken, crushed by psychological pressure and the loss of hope. The Colonian guards, who were used to belittling their captives and believed in their superiority, began to relax their surveillance. They noted it in their daily reports with a condescending tone: "Inmate Klaus Kimeza shows increasing signs of unresponsiveness and disorientation. No longer a threat."
Tonight was his moment. Security was at its lowest level, and only one guard was stationed at his cell. The guard, due to profound boredom and absolute belief that the captive was incapacitated, was not wearing his helmet correctly and was standing with his back to the cell door's iron slit, preoccupied with his handheld device.
Klaus, who had been lying in bed, appearing like a lifeless lump under the thin blanket, moved with lightning speed. With the strength and agility he had saved up for years, he lunged. He used simple martial arts techniques he learned in his youth in the Earth Federation—techniques that relied on speed and anatomical knowledge, not brute force. In an instant, he managed to incapacitate the guard with a strong blow aimed precisely at a vital point in the neck. The guard collapsed silently, unconscious in seconds.
Klaus had no time for self-congratulation. Every second was precious. He quickly stripped off the now unconscious guard's uniform and put it on himself. The uniform was slightly loose on his body, which was thin from isolation, but he had to make it look convincing to the distant surveillance cameras and motion recognition systems.
Klaus took the guard's helmet and mask, putting them on. The mask had a simple voice modifier that would conceal his true identity. He had now transformed into one of the many faceless guards at the facility, a shadow among shadows.
"Disguise system complete," Klaus whispered, his voice muffled by the mask, a faint smile etched on his tired face.
With quick yet controlled steps, Klaus moved through the Colonian facility corridors. He used the access card he took from the disabled guard, opening electronic doors and fooling the motion sensors. His target was not an easily intercepted escape ship, but a Mobile Suit—the only thing that could guarantee true freedom and deliver the necessary impact to ignite the resistance.
His destination: the secret Colonian Mobile Suit dock. Specifically, a Mobile Suit he believed was the result of reverse-engineering the technology he developed: a Grai Gundam. He had overheard rumors about a rival Mobile Suit being developed by the Council of Kings, a unit intended to defeat The White Ghost, from the boasts of the arrogant guards.
He found the dock, guarded by much tighter security, but still passable with the correct access card. Inside, a large, dark, and impressive Mobile Suit—clearly a high-performance unit from Project Grai—was stationed. Though the name was different and the color scheme altered, its basic shape, silhouette, and core features screamed "Kimeza technology" that had been misused.
Klaus approached. The Mobile Suit was predominantly dark in color, with striking red and yellow accents. He saw the rifle it held and the shield on its arm. Its form was strikingly similar to the White Gundam, but with a more aggressive color palette and nuance, as displayed on the monitor data in front of the unit.
"So that's it... you copied my design," Klaus muttered, touching the unit's dark armor. "But you can never copy its spirit."
Klaus had to figure out how to activate this sealed unit. He remembered the main principle of Colonian high-performance Mobile Suit design: the Pilot Brain Synchronization System, a technology he himself had pioneered for The White Ghost.
Klaus found the pilot interface in the cockpit. He connected the communication device from the guard's helmet he was wearing to the Mobile Suit's terminal. He did not use the standard Neural Link which required bio-metric registration; he reprogrammed the system to accept input from the modified helmet, hijacking the communication protocol.
In a tense few minutes, the cockpit lights flashed red and yellow, confirming his success. The Grai Mobile Suit responded, as if welcoming back its original creator.
Klaus took a deep breath. "I don't know what you've changed, but technology is a universal language. And now, this Mobile Suit will serve freedom, not tyranny," he mumbled, his hands gripping the control levers.
Without wasting a second, Klaus Kimeza—hidden behind the helmet and mask of a low-ranking guard—sped off in the newly stolen Grai Mobile Suit. The gigantic dock door opened, and he launched into the vacuum of space.
As the stolen Grai Gundam sped away from the facility, Klaus saw the infinite stars and the small planet Earth in the distance. Freedom had been achieved, but a cold and terrifying realization hit him.
Klaus Kimeza knew nothing about the outside world.
Fifteen years was a very long time. He did not know if the Earth Rebels still existed. He did not know if his wife, Airi, was still alive, or how she was doing. He knew nothing about his children—he only remembered them as infants when he was captured, faint tiny faces in his memory. He didn't even know that the Mobile Suit he stole was called Grai, or that there were other more advanced units like the Royalty Gundam or IBIS, let alone that his children, Zaki and Maki, were the pilots of The White Ghost who were now Earth's hope.
His only goal was to return to Earth and seek out the remnants of the resistance. Using the stolen Grai Gundam—a unit ironically similar to his own creation—he flew towards Earth, a newly freed father and scientist, heading toward a world completely alien to him, a world that had drastically changed beyond his knowledge.
His departure left massive chaos at the Colonian facility. The loss of their most valuable prisoner and, worse, a Project Grai prototype Mobile Suit, was an unthinkable disaster for the Colonian Council of Kings. Danger alarms roared across the sector. They would pursue Klaus by all means, unaware that he had just become the most dangerous enemy they had ever created.
To be continued....