Chapter One: Beginnings
Current Date: Friday, January 21st C.E. 70
Warm metal, almost 82 degree weather and rock music playing in the background. It was a great atmosphere for a guy named Jason Carmichal. It was always this way when he was at the shop and he liked it that way. His and his friend's shop was called, The Fixed Metal, and worked on cars, trucks, small robots, well almost anything they would fix up and work on. He and his friends from college all joined together to create this shop, even if his friends were still in college. He didn't really like to explain the details all that much, but he still did the work anyway. It was something to do and he got paid for it. He walked over to an electricly powered car that a client brought in a few hours ago. He opened the front hood of the car, taking a peek into the vehicle's engine. It wasn't what we usually saw, because the car ran on a rechargeable battery, that you could pay a decent amount to recharge it. He continued to search through the engine and seeing the battery as well. The client told him that the car wouldn't start and the battery was fine. He kept scanning the car, getting some rust on his shirt and oil on his hands. He looked over to the battery and looked at the charge level of the battery. He saw the problem with the engine, which was from the battery, one of the wires that connected the battery to the engine was disconnected. The client wasn't very skilled in the car mechanics or was blind, so he had no clue as to what was wrong. But then he realized that the wire was not only disconnected, it was damaged beyond repair. He sighed slightly to himself as he looked at the faulty wire and tried to think if they had any spare wires.
"Robert! Do we have any spare wires?!" Jason yelled to Robert who was in his office.
Robert peeked out and replied,"No, I don't think so....I'm not the one who makes sure our stock is still in order."
Jason sighed and nodded."Alright, I'll just head to the store later and buy some...." He said to Robert, walking away from the car, towards Robert's office.
"Whatcha looking at there?" Jason asked as he walked into his office and sees him on the computer.
Robert looked to Jason and replied,"Just some news that is going on....It seems the relations between the PLANTs and the Earth Federation are becoming slim and thin.....I hope we aren't going to go into a war soon...."
Jason shakes his head as he looks at the computer screen and replies,"I don't think so...it's far from a possibility..." He said to him and then asks,"Why are you looking at the news anyway?"
"Just thinking...if the war comes then we'll probably have to draft into the Earth Federation...." Robert said to Jason.
Jason sighed and shook his head."I wouldn't worry too much about it....if it happens it happens....then draft if you feel so up to it. I may myself....I've heard many rumors about joining as a pilot of a Gundam....."
Robert laughed and said,"You wish Jason...you can't pilot anything, not even the video game simulators."
Jason frowned and replied,"I bet I could pilot it...besides those video games simulators aren't set up like the real thing..."
Robert turned off the computer and stood up from his chair."Yeah, yeah, make up excuses for the problem....." He said as he headed for the door. It was already closing time for the shop, which was 7:30 PM and Robert was ready to head home."Close the shop when your done here Jason....I'm heading home..." He grabs his things and heads for the door.
Jason nodded, watching him leave the shop and soon walked out of his office, locking the door behind him. He walked over to the car again, checking to make sure he wrote down the right size of the wire for the connection to work. When he made sure to write it down beforehand, he headed for the garage door, closing it shut and locking it. After that, He closed the front entrance for customers and locking that as well. When all doors were locked, he headed for the direction of the parking lot, which is where his car was. He walked over and opened up the driver's side door and hopped inside. Putting the key into the slot for starting it and reved up the engine, hearing the roar of it. He smiled as he heard his good old car start up. It wasn't like the old electric cars that most people had these days. It was a good old gasoline driven car, a pretty good one at that. But since gas and oil was being used in other places for military and government uses, he had to use ethenol, which was the alternative fuel that he had left.
As he was doing this, up top a building a block away from the shop, someone watches his movement as he walks to his car. A pair of binoculars carefully observes Jason as he starts his car and leaves the driveway. The person behind the binoculars pulls up a walkie talkie and says in a female voice, calm and soft,"Lancaster is moving towards home....repeat....heading for home....Should I continue to recon?"
"Yes, continue to watch him......We are going to need him soon...." The other end of the line replied.
The female nodded and replied,"Roger.....over and out..." She then took her binoculars and her walkie talkie, and got up, running to the exit.
Jason drove down the mainstreet, careful to observe traffic signals and other cars as he drove his gasoline car towards home. After a few minutes of driving down the mainstreet, he took a left turn towards a side road and then arriving a set of appartments. The appartment building was five stories tall, all red brick and new. He drove into a parking lot right below his appartment, number C12. He grabbed his things out of the trunk and walked towards his home, locking the car as he went. He walked into a small hallway towards a staircase, which led to the other levels of appartments. He climbed the steps to the third floor, which was C level. Then walked past twelve rooms where he reached his room. He walked over to the door and placed the key into the lock, turning it to unlock the door. When he did, he walked inside and closed the door behind him. He placed his things on the small dining room table and walked towards his room, wanting to get cleaned up after a day of tuning and fixing cars.
It felt nice to get good and cleaned up after a long day of fixing cars and the sort, getting grease on your face and hands, and just the heat of the day. He walked out of his bathroom with a towel around his waist and headed for his dresser drawer, to grab some clothes for bed. He grabbed himself some boxers and dropped the towel, putting on his boxers quickly.
