THE BEGINNING, METEOR, AND OPERATION ARES

The movement known as Operation Meteor had its start in the late AC 120's when fledgling rebel groups began forming, promoting free rule for the colonies. Most of these groups never even made it into the history books, their inexperience and empty threats being easy targets for the the world government, which would in AC 133 become the military power known as the Federation. In AC 129, the remaining few rebel groups called a truce, combining their strengths in order to form a larger, more deadly force against the Federation. Calling themselves Meteor, this group went underground, spreading their network throughout all five colonies away from the public eye, hoping to convince the Federation that all the rebels had been disposed of.

In order to further their cause to the next step, Meteor began conducting underground genetic testing in AC 130, endorsed by the Black Diamond Cartel of the L1 Breaks. This testing involved taking children and teenagers and altering the DNA of their nervous systems and muscle structure in order to produce humans with quicker reflexes. The most important part of the operation involved removing selected parts of the brain and replacing those parts with computer chips to enhance mental and physical capabilities. Each experiment's mind (or what remained of it at that point) was then wiped to provide a "new beginning." The stated point of this was to produce genetic supermen which could then serve as assassins, hitmen, and drug runners for the Black Diamond Cartel. However, unbeknowest to the cartel, the scientists in charge of this experiment were Meteor members who had ties to the seedlings of the project which would come to be called Operation Meteor. The genetic supermen created with this project, if successful, were to become the soldiers who would fight for the colonies against the Earth. The project was code-named Operation Ares.

The research was dangerous and faulty, and out of 12 test cases, 6 died in the lab after the operation was complete and 5 a few weeks afterward of complications. The one success, a 19-year old male, was determined too valuable to let go and was put into stasis until further "supermen" could be acquired, at which time the scientists planned to train them. The humans operated on were taken from teenaged drug runners or assassins in the heirarchy of the cartel.

 
SHIONJI HIDEKI AND THE FALL OF THE SHIONJI CARTEL

Shionji Hideki (born AC 151) was the youngest son of Shionji Kouhito (born in AC 119), who was the younger brother of Shionji Toburo (born in AC 110), leader of the Shionji cartel. Hideki was one of only two legitimate children of Shionji Kouhito from a second wife, the other being his older sister Mina, born in AC 145.

Jealous of his brother, Shionji Kouhito decided to make a secret deal with the Black Diamond Cartel in AC 158. In order to seal the pact, he offered two of his children to the genetic alteration experiment: Hideki and his illegitimate older brother, Gatarou (born AC 137). As an illegitimate offspring, Gatarou could not hope to compete with the true heirs for his father's favor; yet as the oldest of Kouhito's children, he acted as a kind of caretaker for the rest of his siblings. A quiet and unobtrusive boy, Gatarou secretly longed to get out of the Breaks and make an honest living for himself. Because of his almost pacifistic temperament and refusal to involve himself with any of the doings of the cartel, Gatarou was not liked by most members of his family, especially his father. Hideki was chosen because of his mixed African/Japanese heritage, ensuring that a "half-breed" like him would never somehow wrestle inheritance of the business from one of his legitimate full-Japanese older half-brothers.

Gatarou and the 7 year old Hideki were awakened in the middle of the night in April AC 158 and arrested by their father's guards. Blindfolded and drugged, they were taken to the testing facility, where they were separated and drugged again. Gatarou was operated on that night. Because of a heart murmur that had been previously undiagnosed, Gatarou died halfway through the operation. Hideki was then put into stasis until operating procedures could be refined and his past medical history studied. This continued for half a year, in which the Operation Ares scientists debated on whether operating on a seven year old would be of any use, since all their experiments before him had been at least fifteen years old. They finally decided to proceed, since Hideki's young age would permit him to grow up with the "superman" traits and enable the scientists to compare the effects of operating on children versus performing the operation on adults.

Hideki was finally operated on successfully in December 158. The scientists decided to put him into stasis along with the other experiment subject until further analysis could be done. Meanwhile, Kouhito reported that Gatarou had kidnapped Hideki and both had been tracked and killed by Shionji assassins.

The Shionji cartel found out about the experiment and the scientists were killed by hired assassins in early 162. Shionji Toburo did not, however, find the whereabouts of the testing lab. Hideki and the other, nameless man remained in stasis. Shionji Kouhito pretended to know nothing about the experiments, though Toburo suspected something. However, the deal between Kouhito and the Black Diamond Cartel was done. Several assassination attempts were conducted on Toburo, but all failed.

Toburo arrested Kouhito in 169 and placed him under guard, wary of his brother's affiliations. Meanwhile, the Shionji cartel was experiencing inner turmoil due to Kouhito's supporters in its ranks, as well as the assassination attempts on Toburo and his children. Shionji Taichi, the oldest son of Toburo, led his own assassination attempt on his father in AC 171, but failed and he was executed by his father's order.

In February AC 173, Shionji Kouhito escaped from his brother's custody and fled to the Black Diamond cartel, where he gathered a group of assassins and led another attempt on his brother's life, in which he shot his own brother in the head while Toburo slept. In the chaos that followed after the gunshot, the Black Diamond assassins saw a chance to get rid of the entire Shionji family and stabbed Kouhito, fatally wounding him.

Toburo had five children before his death, and Kouhito had six, including Gatarou and Hideki. The heirs to the cartel formed their own assassin groups, vying with each other for control. In AC 175, the Black Diamond cartel assassinated both remaining heirs to the cartel. By then, however, the Shionji cartel had already lost most of the influence and control it once had in the Breaks. The death of the last of the Shionji family gave other, smaller, groups the chance to assert control, a chance they never had while the Shionji cartel held its iron grip on Breaks society.

The genetic experimental facility remained hidden until AC 184, when it was found by one of the smaller cartels. The cartel decided to release the two humans in stasis, not knowing about the experiments. Hideki remembered little of his experience because of his young age, and even the older boy remembered only bits and pieces. Neither could remember their names or their pasts before the experimentation. The other boy took Hideki with him, revealing nothing to the cartel about the experiments.

Hideki grew up on the streets of the Breaks, knowing the boy as his brother. In 186, the other boy, now 21 years old, was killed in a street brawl and Hideki was left to fend for himself. The experimentation was clearly a success, as he was stronger, faster, quicker, and more intelligent than any other boy his age. He began working as a hired assassin, quickly becoming known as one of the best in his trade. A few years before the war began, Hideki, tired of being nameless and faceless, created a new identity for himself as "Darkflight" and gathered a few fellow assassins to form an assassin group.

In December 195, the war ended. Shionji Hideki, now known as Darkflight, professional assassin, physical age 18, would have been 44 years old.

 
THE NEW SUPERMEN AND HEERO YUY

Before the Operation Ares scientists were killed in 162 by the Shionji cartel, they had transmitted their results to the leaders of Meteor, who immediately saw potential in this project. However, because the scientific masterminds who had created this research were all dead, Meteor began to look for new researchers who were willing to continue the project. Shionji Hideki had shown that it could be done, but he was merely the prototype for a venture that Meteor believed could be taken even further. Meteor was also unaware that the experimentation lab still existed and was prepared to start afresh.

In AC 174, a group of biological researchers agreed to take on the task, providing that special conditions be met. What these conditions were remained a mystery to most top-level Meteor members until AC 175, when the biologists revealed their ties to a group of OZ scientists, who were secretly working on a prototype mobile suit code-named the "Tallgeese." The Tallgeese was, they claimed, the key to winning a war with the Federation. If more suits like the Tallgeese could be produced, the colonies would have the definite advantage. However, the scientists warned that a normal human would not be able to pilot these special mobile suits. The special condition given by the biologists to the Meteor officials were that they incorporate the advanced mobile suits into their operation and make their supermen the pilots.

Meteor was skeptical at first, but when the first "superman," a twelve year old boy, was produced in AC 178, tests showed that even at his age, he was much more adept at handling the controls of any fighting craft than a grown man. Pleased, Meteor agreed to endorse the scientists' plan and prepared to make this boy the first pilot. However, during a routine testing, the boy's nervous and muscle systems suddenly shut down and he died instantly of massive organ failure.

Obviously, adjustments had to be made to the system, and the project was placed on standby. In AC 180, Operation Meteor received another blow when the Federation OZ Special Forces discovered the treachery of the five scientists, who were beginning to design the first of the five super mobile suits, or "Gundams." The scientists were forced to split up, warning Meteor to also lay low for the time being. Meteor, afraid of a setback in their original strategy, created a second plan. This plan called for a colony to be dropped to Earth, hopefully destroying the Federation headquarters and creating general chaos, buying some time for Meteor to send out the Gundams at a later date.

However, that proved unnecessary for the time being. OZ and the Federation soon gave up their search for the five scientists, turning their attention to Eastern Europe and the Cinq Kingdom. In AC 184, the genetic engineering system was announced to be complete and the five scientists, who by this time had now begun work on five seperate Gundams, scoured their colonies for suitable subjects. Many were found between AC 184 and AC 187, but proved too weak to handle the stress placed on their minds during the engineering process. Meteor again grew skeptical of the biologists' experiments, but the biologists maintained that their system was perfect and it was the subjects themselves who were flawed. If they could not withstand the pressure of the operation, the biologists said, then they were not fit to become supermen. One of these failed experiments was a young L3 Yakuza drug runner. The boy Nanashi survived the experiment but was rejected after what the scientists deemed were below standard results on the follow-up tests.

In AC 187 a homeless boy off the streets of L1 was found by Doctor J, the maker of the Wing Gundam. He survived the operation and when tests were performed, the leaders of Meteor and the biologists themselves were astonished to see that his capabilities far exceeded their original expectations. Ecstatic with success, Meteor ordered Doctor J to take the boy in and train him to become a superhuman fighting machine. Because the boy's memory had been completely wiped and he had no recollection of his past, Doctor J renamed him Heero Yuy, after the former Federation leader and hero of the colonies.

 
LEÓN CATALONIA AND THE FEDERATION PEACE MOVEMENT

In AC 180, the Federation issued a statement to the colonies that it had reconsidered their demands for independent rule and was willing to send delegates to peace talks if the colonies would agree. Though cautious at first, the leaders of the five major colonies finally agreed to hold peace talks with representatives from the Federation, with the first of these conferences on Earth in Geneva, Switzerland, in September of AC 180. Each colony as well as many of the prominent countries sent delegates to the talks, especially Japan, the United States, and France, who had vested interests in L1, L2, and L3.

The conference lasted for more than two weeks and the delegates came to terms on many smaller issues such as military presence in the colonies and import/export taxation. However, the largest issue, the actual independence of the colonies, was left unresolved. The delegates left the conference with a promise to meet again at a later date and settle the matter once and for all. It seemed, for the next half year, that independence would finally come to the colonies without the need for violence.

This was unacceptable for the leaders of Operation Meteor. They saw these peace talks as the colonies' way of backing out on an agreement and felt betrayed, though the colonial governments had never stated their official support for Meteor. Operation Meteor leaders had wanted a revolution for two reasons. The first was to show the Earth and the Federation that they were willing to go to extremes to secure their freedom. Secondly, many of the leaders of Meteor were great believers in the ideals of the American and French revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries, and they hoped to spearhead a movement of nationalism and revolution throughout all the colonies. If these peace talks succeeded, they felt, that spirit of revolution would die out, never to be kindled again, and all their work on the Gundams and Operation Ares would be in vain. That was their greatest fear, and in June of AC 181, as the Federation and colonial leaders set the date for another conference, Meteor leaders planned to disrupt this conference to the best of their ability.

The leader of this plan was a man known as Quinze, and his target was a small group of young elite politicians who were considered the rising stars of the Federation. Much like Heero Yuy, these men and women were young but great proponents of peaceful revolution as an alternative to war. Among them were many children of wealthy families, including Meyer Khushrenada, a great favorite of many of the older Federation leaders, and León Catalonia, son of the controversial Duke Dermail, head of the Federation-supporting Romefeller Foundation. It was well known that Catalonia and his father were not on the best of terms, since Dermail did not agree with many of his son's peaceful ideals, but it was Catalonia who was the "leader" of these younger, more idealistic politicians and had succeeded in restraining many of the more extreme Federation politicians of the time. In fact, it had been through the efforts of Catalonia that the peace talks had come into being.

Quinze saw that if Catalonia were to be taken out of the picture, Dermail and other Federation leaders would seize the chance to try to take control of the colonies violently, thus forcing a revolution. The date of the conference was set for late in December of that year on L3, and through political manipulation and a few bribes, he managed to secure Catalonia's position as the head of the conference.

Catalonia and the other Federation delegates arrived on L3 on December 15, meeting representatives from all the colonies in the L3's capitol district. Quinze's plan was to assassinate Catalonia at one of the meetings during the middle of the conference and throw the delegates into confusion, but unfortunately for Meteor, the assassin was discovered by security and the plan was foiled. Disappointed, Quinze formulated a new plan, but it again was foiled by security. It seemed that peace would be made after all.

However, whether it be through luck or just the inherent hard-headedness of the colonial delegates, the plan was rejected at the last minute by the representatives from L2 and some of the smaller colonies clustered around it. The L2 delegates claimed that the plan, which allowed for colonial self-government for the next ten years before the Federation pulled out and gave complete control back to the colonial governments, was simply a ruse for the Federation to pretend to accept their demands while keeping the colonies for themselves. The last few days of the conference were mainly characterized by Catalonia trying to persuade all the delegates to come to an agreement of some sort, but the L2 representatives declared that they were tired of debating and pulled out of the talks altogether, returning to L2 early. Frustrated, Catalonia and the other Federation officials prepared to return to Earth, and Quinze saw his final chance.

This time, he did not rely on an assassin. Instead, he hand-picked several colonial resistance members who had stated they were willing to die for their cause and sent them to first rig the Earthbound shuttle with explosives and then board the shuttle as security. This plan worked. Fifteen minutes after the shuttle took off from L3, the Meteor terrorists revealed themselves, took all the passengers hostage, and sent a worldwide and colony-wide message to all the vidfeeds, declaring their dedication to colonial freedom and denouncing the Federation.

Panicked, Federation leaders frantically made demands for the release of the hostages, promising extravagant rewards, but the terrorists refused. Then, while the image was still on the screens of thousands of politicians, soldiers, and ordinary civilians, the terrorists destroyed the shuttle in mid-flight. Many of the youngest and brightest hopes for peace between the Earth and the colonies were killed aboard that shuttle. León Catalonia was among them.

The explosion of the L3 shuttle marked a sudden end to what was termed the Federation Peace Movement. Soon after his son's death, in AC 182, Duke Dermail made the move that many had been expecting for some time and convinced the Federation to launch an attack on the peaceful Cinq Kingdom.