Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance Ep. 3: Junkyard

Solari dreams of pushing her son’s baby carriage through a park on a space colony, but suddenly the area around her explodes and she sees the Gundam EX reaching its hand out. Solari wakes up from the nightmare riding in the Jeep just as the convoy pulls up to Zeon’s destroyed Romanian Mixed Mobile Brigade HQ. Arhun asks over a loudspeaker if she should keep driving the Zebu, but Solari tells her to get out and search for survivors. The group suddenly comes under fire, so Solari and the others take cover before trying to outflank the enemy. LeSean maneuvers around a young Zeon soldier and tells her to stop shooting. She collapses from exhaustion and tells Solari that a white mobile suit destroyed the base. Kasuga says the young woman needs treatment, but Solari notes that the medical facilities are probably destroyed. Heaton suggests they investigate a nearby recycling facility since it’s a low priority target and might be intact. Solari thinks it’s not a bad idea and tells Arhun to search for survivors before they move out in 20 minutes. The Zebu and Jeep hit the road and head for the recycling facility. LeSean spots it in the distance and wonders if it’s abandoned, but Solari tells him to keep his eyes open. Zeon soldiers approach with weapons drawn when they pull up at the gate, but they’re allowed through once it’s determined that they’re allies. Maj. Rolph Ronet comes out to speak with Solari, and she explains that her group is made up of survivors from different units at Cluj-Napoca. Ronet tells Solari that he has too many people to feed, so she can leave the wounded behind, but the rest of them have to move on. Solari asks where she’s supposed to go, and Ronet answers that this recycling center has already taken on more people than it can handle, so unless he’s ordered otherwise, he’s not taking in anyone else. After Ronet leaves, mechanic Alfee “Gearhead” Zydos comes out to greet Solari, who is happy to see him. Zydos sees the pocket watch around Solari’s neck, and she tells him it was Daltum’s. He offers his condolences and asks how her boy is doing. Solari answers that he’s doing well and that she thinks of him every moment of every day. Zydos also greets LeSean and asks about the rest of the team, but Solari tells him that Chubs and Kale didn’t make it because they were killed by the Gundam EX, which Zydos has heard stories about. Everyone is forced to flee for cover when several Saberfishes fly overhead on patrol. Zydos wants to find some food and drink for them, but Solari says that Ronet told her to leave. Zydos dismisses that and says they’re all Zeon, so he’ll talk to Ronet. As they sit down to eat, Heaton mentions that he’s trying to figure out how the Gundam EX’s beam rifle works. Solari asks Zydos how his talk with Ronet went, and he mentions they both yelled at each other. He says that Ronet’s not a bad guy, but he’s just looking out for his command. He did agree to take them in, and Heaton says he doesn’t even know what they’re doing down here anymore. Zydos comments that the EFF sees them as invaders coming to take Earth away from them. LeSean comments that Zydos sounds like an Earth sympathizer, but Zydos counters that he’s been in the military a long time and has seen the EFF act with impunity. Solari looks inside the watch at a small photo of herself, Daltum and their son. Zydos talks to her about their fight for independence, but she’s lost in thought. 

Solari asks Zydos what they’re doing out here, and he explains that they’re stripping old Zakus for usable parts before recycling what remains. She asks Zydos if he has enough spare parts to build two Zakus, but he answers that they mostly have junk. Solari hears a high pitched whine and runs outside and up to an observation tower. She uses binoculars to scan the area and search for the Gundam EX. Zydos comments to Heaton that things are hard for Solari since her husband Daltum was killed in an airstrike several months back. Solari comes back and tells them the Medias base was attacked and that she knows because he heard explosions and a beam saber. Zydos notes that Medias is 20 clicks away and suggests that Solari get some rest. Solari objects and says the Gundam EX is out there and has probably seen this location. She doesn’t want to lose anyone else and tells Zydos that she wants him to build her two Zakus out of their junk pile so they can defend the base. Zydos agrees to gather his mechanics in the morning, but says Solari will have to be the one to convince them. The next morning, he tells the mechanics that he wants to see how good they are at putting things back together. The mechanics object, so Solari steps in and tells them that the EFF has a mobile suit now that is taking out Zeon units and can’t be touched. She says that when the Gundam EX shows up, they’ll wish a Zaku was standing in front of them. Zydos rallies the mechanics and they begin assembling junk parts. The two Zakus begin to come together with improvised extra armor created from Magella Attack tank treads. Solari mentions that at Loum they had the idea to modify the caliber of the guns, and Arhun is surprised to hear that she was at Loum. Two soldiers tell Solari that Ronet wants to speak with her and they escort her to his office. Solari thanks Ronet for taking them in, and he mentions that she’s been issuing commands to his mechanics without his approval. He yells at her about the chain of command and she counters that she wants to defend the base. Ronet says that they’re trying to lay low, which doesn’t mean building mobile suits. She says that the Gundam EX destroys everything in its path, but he accuses her of just wanting vengeance. Solari states that she just wants to survive and get back to space to reunite with her son. Ronet yells at her to cease what she’s doing and leave the base immediately. Ronet marches over to the hangar to cancel the work himself, but he’s surprised to see that the Zakus are already assembled. Zydos congratulates his mechanics on assembling two full suits out of scrap parts, but Ronet interrupts and orders him to disassemble them. The base suddenly comes under fire both from Saberfish fighters and M61A5 Tanks. Solari and LeSean get into their Zakus and immediately launch to protect the base. They destroy some of the attackers and then spot the Gundam EX on approach, joined by a GM.