Chapter 6: Preparations.
Muruta Azrael was seated in yet another boring Earth Alliance committee reunion, the last in a large series of reunions ever since the Alaska and Panama battles. In Azrael's point of view all of these reunions where a complete waste of time, since everyone knew what had to be done, yet he seated himself as always to indulge his colleagues.
"This proposition from Orb should really be taken into account" said one of the various representatives of the Alliance.
The chatter over the Orb unions latest communication was a long and interesting one, but to Muruta Azrael it was a boring argument, he knew that the mass driver Orb would be perfect for the upcoming offensive against ZAFT, and he had already decided what was necessary to do, and he already knew how to convince his fellow colleagues "the proposal of the Orb Union is certainly very interesting, unfortunately it doesn't solve our need to take the necessary military manpower into space" said Muruta Azrael very calmly, as he studied the other people in the room.
"Yes you are right about that, however we could at least first try to convince them to lend us the mass driver for something other than civilian based operations" said one of the representatives, and the chatter started immediately after this last commentary.
Muruta Azrael looked at the conference table, in a very bored fashion, shifting to a very bored position, sitting sideways, and with his chin on his hand "But Orb won't allow military personnel in their territory, am I right?" said Muruta Azrael, and waited till he had everyone's attention "If so, then there is no way to force them into a treaty in which they would allow military personnel to get into the Orb territory" finished Muruta Azrael, and he saw that all the representatives had suddenly become very quiet.
"But the Orb Union is a neutral nation, we can't just simply go in barging weapons hot" said another of the representatives.
"But Orb is a nation of Earth, am I wrong?" said Muruta Azrael looking very amused, and almost childlike. After the commentary all the members of the council immediately started a fierce discussion, while Muruta Azrael simply stood idly watching. "Since they are a nation of the Earth, then the only choice is to make them help their world" said Muruta Azrael, as all of the committee stopped to look at him very questioningly "It would be my pleasure, and it will certainly help to have 2 mass drivers instead of just one" said finally Muruta Azrael, as he yet again stood facing everyone else in the committee.
"We do not have the resources to stage this kind of operation especially during the preparations for the attack on the mass driver of the Victoria base" yelled one of the representatives, and again the floor was reeling of discussion.
"Do not worry so much about that, I will simply take it for you, of course, for a small compensation" said Muruta Azrael, and with that, the floor was finally closed, and everyone agreed on what was to be done.
"Very well, we leave it in your hands" said finally one of the representatives, and all took their leave, leaving only Muruta Azrael, as he finally pondered his plans, and how they were unrolling themselves.
"This is a ridiculous statement" said Uzumi Nara Attha, as he read the demands of the Earth Alliance.
"I assume, that the situation is as bad as we expected" answered Relenna Darlian as she sat there listening to everything the Earth Alliance had sent as a response, and she didn't like it one single bit, it was the most ridiculous excuse for a response if she had ever heard one, and she knew what that meant exactly, and from the looks of it her companions all knew the same thing.
"It is very clear, that the Earth Alliance will be launching an invasion" said Captain Murrue Ramius, and she sat there very frustrated by the whole idea.
"So, now we know what they are going to do, what are we going to do?" said Mu La Flaga, as he studied the whole room, and saw that they where all asking the same question.
"We negotiate if we can, or we defend ourselves if we must" answered the chief representative, not really liking exactly what he was saying, but knew that it was the truth, and everyone here knew that as well as he did.
"I will talk to Heero, he has ways of helping us far better than you nay think" said Relenna, and all looked at her, but at this point they where not really surprised by that. All of them knew of the battle between Heero Yuy, and Kira Yamato, and how he had contested against the best pilot any of them knew of, but more than that, he had nearly won.
The only thing that none of them knew, and that only Relenna Knew, was that Heero Yuy had intentionally allowed a certain disadvantage in the Wing Zero, during the simulation, but none of them needed to know that. "If you'll excuse me, I will inform the ship of the situation" said Relenna, and she left.
"I'm afraid, that the situation is far worse than you imagine" said a very exhausted Uzumi Nara Attha. "Ever since the destruction of the Josh-A (Joshua), and the elimination of the forces of ZAFT, and of the Eurasian Federation, the Atlantic Federation, has been pushing all of the other neutral nations into joining the fight against the coordinators" finished Uzumi Nara Attha.
"So, what is going to happen to Orb?" asked captain Murrue Ramius.
Uzumi Nara Attha looked at the captain of the Archangel, and sighed, knowing full well, what the captain was getting at "As I said before, we will negotiate if we can, however the way that things are, it is a certain that an attack is unavoidable" finished Uzumi Nara Attha, as he looked at his audience.
Finally Mu La Flaga looked at captain Ramius, and she looked back at him, before looking back at the ground, something she was starting to do very well, and looked back at Uzumi Nara Attha "Very well, since we are all in this, we will help in any way we can" finished captain Ramius, and looked at Mu La Flaga "Yes, it is as well that we started doing some things right", and with that both of them excused themselves, and left the room, leaving a very worried Uzumi Nara Attha to ponder on what was going to happen.
Heero Yuy stood in the cockpit of the Wing Zero, and as always he was working on his laptop, to see what could be enhanced, or fixed if it was damaged, and as incredible as it looked he was also looking at the battle simulation statistics, and pondered what kind of abilities did Kira Yamato have, however he was soon interrupted.
"Heero?" sounded Relenna's voice "Heero, where are you?" said once again Relenna as she started appearing near the entrance of the cockpit. "I knew you would be here" said Relenna matter of fatly, while Heero simply looked once at her, and was soon again working.
Relenna started pacing the cockpit, and soon was seated alongside Heero, she had talked to the crew about what was enclosed in the reply of the Earth Alliance, and the replies she got where just as she expected, the majority of the crew where overtly concerned, and off course there was also anguish. Relenna still had to hear the response of the captain, but she already had a good idea of what she must be thinking, however that was not why she was here. "Heero, what are we going to do?" asked Relenna very calmed.
"Heero Yuy kept on working, and stopped just for one moment, and looked at Relenna "We do what we can" said Heero, and resumed his work. Relenna closed behind him, knowing that she was the only one who could get so close and live to tell the tale. Relenna looked at what Heero was working on, and found, that he was linked directly to the Morgenroete mainframe, and to the Orb main battle data link, which in itself meant, that Heero was up to something, and Relenna wanted to find out.
"Heero, what are you doing?" asked Relenna, as she tried to understand exactly what it was that Heero wanted to achieve by tampering with those important systems.
Heero Yuy didn't move to look at her, and kept on working, but knew that he needed to give her an answer. "I am uploading a special version of the Zero system into their mainframe" said Heero, and Relenna looked very intently at him, if Heero didn't knew better, he could have only expected her to have a gun and aim it at him.
"Why would you put something so dangerous there, you know how dangerous that thing is, and we cannot let them know anything about our technology" said Relenna very coldly.
Heero stopped working, and closed his laptop, something which meant that he was very serious about what he was going to say "The version of the Zero system that I uploaded into the mainframes is a special one, which I prepared for just such an occasion" said Heero, and Relenna regarded him even more coldly, and Heero knew that she wanted a special explanation, so Heero continued "This special version does not interface with the users, but it does interface with enemy battle networks, and gives a very accurate picture of the battle, if everything goes as I have predicted, this system should increase their awareness of the battle field without the dangerous side-effects of the human interface" said Heero, and Relenna calmed down considerably, knowing that if Heero said something it most certainly was true.
"Very well, I just hope they do not learn of the Zero system" said Relenna, and simply sighed, thinking of the possible ramifications of that, and not to mention what was most certain to happen regarding the Orb Union.
"Do not worry about that" said Heero, and turned to continue his work "if the battle is lost, the Zero system will erase itself, for I installed that order" said Heero, and kept on working, as he looked at Relenna, who was getting closer, and soon hugged him from behind.
"I just hope that not many lives are lost" said Relenna, and with that the two of them simply stood there knowing what was going to happen.
Heero had infiltrated the Morgenroete facility with ease, since for him the security was laughable, and there where something's he needed to do to increase the chances of Orb in case of an attack, but at the same time he didn't want them to know what he knew about the OS of Mobile Suits, so this was the only way to do it.
As he went deeper into the facility he could see the Mobile Suits of the Orb Union. Heero had read all about these suits, and knew that they where only slightly better in design and efficiency, than the Leos of where he came from, but compared to the Serpent of the Mary Meia incident they where very underpowered, and clearly very under capable, but against the opponents they where going to face they where adequate.
Soon he came where he needed to get, the main computer core of the Morgenroete facility, and soon he started working on the upgrades to the Mobile Suits OS.
Heero Yuy finished the upgrades in under an hour, and started to leave, but as soon as he prepared to leave an alarm was sounded, and he knew that he had been discovered.
Heero Yuy ran to the exit, and soon found his path obstructed, so he choose another path, unknown to him, he did a turn which got him face to face with both Kira Yamato and Cagalli Yula Attha.
"Heero, what are you doing here?" asked a very concerned Kira Yamato, and he kept on looking to Heero, who was as always calmed and controlled. However their reunion was cut short, as a group of soldiers rounded up the corner, and aimed at Heero Yuy.
"Halt" said one of the soldiers, and started looking around him as he found the princess, and his friend near the stranger.
For Cagalli this was a very weird situation, as he looked at both the soldiers and Heero, and was waiting to see what was going to happen, but at the same time she was very concerned for Heero, true he had taken her down, but he never did anything unless he really had to, or hadn't really thought about his actions, and here as she looked at him, she could see that he was more worried about them, than he was about himself, and then it kicked her, and she knew that she had to do something. "Stop" said Cagalli, and she knew that she was going to regret this later "He is one of the guests, I will answer for him"
"But, he is a saboteur, the security cameras confirmed it" said the soldier that had issued the warning.
"Don't contradict me, or you'll see how frail your job is" said Cagalli Yula Attha in a finalizing tone "now go, I will take care of him" finished Cagalli, and looked at the bewildered soldiers, who immediately saluted, and quickly left, not wanting to know what would be of them if they disobeyed.
After the soldiers had left, and the alarms silenced, Kira Yamato and Cagalli Yula Attha moved to look at Heero Yuy, who as always was showing no emotion at all, and simply starts walking.
"Hey, where do you think you are going?" said Cagalli, but Heero didn't stop, and kept on walking, but said as he walked "I'm going out", and at this Cagalli and Kira started to follow him.
Cagalli and Kira both wanted to find out what he was doing, and looked at each other as they walked, and soon tried to restrain him, but Heero simply moved beyond their ability to restrain him, but what was surprising, was that even Kira who was a coordinator couldn't keep up with him, and simply stumbled to the ground, while Heero simply stood there with his back to them.
However both of them quickly regained themselves, but didn't try anything, as it was clear that he could easily escape their grasp. But they weren't finished with him, and simply stood looking at him "What where you doing here?" asked Kira Yamato very coldly, and looked at Heero, who turned and looked at him.
"I was helping you" said Heero in his monotone voice, and kept on looking at Kira.
"Helping us?" said Cagalli very hysteric, almost screaming "how could you help us by sneaking in and doing who knows what, don't you have any idea what the consequences may have been?" finished Cagalli, now really very angry.
"How I am helping you I will not tell, but you will know when the time comes" said Heero in his monotone, stopped for a second, and continued "as for why I was discovered, it is obvious, that there was some security measure of which I was not aware, and I was willing to do anything necessary to secure my escape, after I retrieved whatever tapes where necessary" finished Heero, and looked at them.
"You know, that won't help you very much" said Kira Yamato, and kept on looking very coldly at Heero.
"If you must know, why I am not telling you what I am doing, is because it is better for you not to know what I have done, but in the end you will thank me" finished Heero, and then started to leave, but he knew that what he had just said would not help him very much.
Later in the Morgenroete facility Erica Simmons stood in front of two computer screens with Kira Yamato, and a group of technicians trying to find out exactly what it was that Heero Yuy had done to their systems, but so far very little had been discovered, except for the fact that he had acquired a wireless link to their systems, and kept it for long enough to upload a program, but so far little else was known.
"This is useless" said Kira Yamato, as his screen was once again blank. Heero Yuy's programs where very thorough, and very well protected, almost as if they knew they where being chased, which was ridiculous, because no program was that advanced.
The secondary concern of this operation to know what Heero Yuy had done to the Mobile Suit OS that had been developed, for all of a sudden an increase in capacity and automation had been detected during the last tests conducted on the Astray's. But more important than that was the fact that he had cleared the security of Morgenroete as if it didn't exist, and that was a cause for great concern.
"But the way he did everything, and covered his tracks is incredible" said Erica Simmons as she continued to monitor r the data she was receiving, it wasn't much, but it proved the efficacy of Heero Yuy, for no one knew exactly what he had uploaded, and that made the situation that much more complicated.
"Whatever he wanted to do he has done it" said Erica Simmons, as she continued to analyze the data "All we can do now is hope that he has helped us as he said" finished Simmons, and sighed as the computer continued to track Heero Yuy's unperceivable traces.
"Yes" said Kira Yamato finally, and continued work on his terminal, although he really knew it was useless.
Muruta Azrael stood looking at Orb, knowing what was to come, and simply smiled, as the puzzle fit into place, for soon the Earth Alliance would once again have the power to go to space, but more than that soon Orb would be gone, and no one would oppose him, and He looked as the isles of Orb got closer and closer "Yes, soon enough" and with that he laughed, laughed at what is to come.
