"Will you look at that," a smug-looking Earth Alliance officer of Eurasian ancestry said as he watched a screen showing Archangel from multiple viewpoints. "The so-called top-secret ship has landed here, of all places."
The dark-skinned man next to him, also wearing the Earth Alliance uniform, scoffed as he looked at the passengers' manifest provided by the ship. "You really don't need to lose those tiny hairs you have left, Gerard,"
Absently, Gerard raised his cap and rubbed his bald head. "Nothing to lose, Jeremy, but more to gain."
"Do you really want to poke the hornet's nest?" Jeremy stopped scrolling through the list and frowned at him.
"Politics is slow and full of bullshit, you know that. Except for war. Fast, but still full of bullshit. And we have people like you and those bastards over the other side trying to cover the fact that it was an accident."
"It's not like we can claim that 'oops, the AF launched the wrong missile' and bid good day, can't we?" Jeremy snarked.
What Jeremy Pogba, the head of the intelligence department in the space region, said was sadly true. The biggest tragedy of the Bloody Valentine Incident which in turn brought about the equally tragic April Fool's Crisis was triggered by a mistaken launch of a single nuclear missile. A pre-Cosmic Era submarine could carry 24 nuclear missiles. Surely Rosevelt, the ship implicated in the nuclear attack, could carry that same number, if not more. And at least 10 more ships could be sent, similarly equipped, enough to force ZAFT to stand down and surrender or risk total annihilation of PLANTs.
But a mistake, no matter how stupid it was, had been made. To make matters worse, Muruta Azrael, the leader of Blue Cosmos that had clout in the Atlantic Federation had the balls to claim that the attack was done under his order. No matter how much clout he had, no businessman would have the power to control a nation's military, unless that businessman was the head of the said country. Last time Gerard checked, Muruta wasn't the Atlantic Federation's president.
Then again, perhaps the Atlantic Federation simply let him claim that so that it could have someone push the blame on in the unlikely event that the Earth Alliance lost the war. If the Earth Alliance won the war, well, numerous glory seekers would still make him the scapegoat.
"Why not? We have our own brand of screwups but this is AF's forte. Surely PLANTs would understand. It was AF who did that Starfish Prime project," Gerard said.
"That was way before AF was formed but I get your point. Not to disrespect the colonists but we were lucky most of the blast was absorbed by Junius Seven,"
No sane or even half-insane Earth Alliance commanders would entertain using nuclear weapons in space for a simple reason: the resulting fallout caused by the explosion. The so-called Starfish Prime experiment highlighted the danger of its usage. While the resulting explosion would not produce a blastwave that would be present in atmospheric detonation, the large wave of radiation it produced would travel further than it would on earth. The radiation wave would not only damage electronics on satellites, shuttles and spaceships but would endanger humans onboard those places. It wasn't just a probability as the nuclear explosion that took out Junius Seven also caused radiation poisoning among Earth Alliance personnel involved in the battle; intelligence revealed that ZAFT also suffered from the same problem.
Jeremy pointed in the general direction of PLANTs and continued, "We've already halfway pulled out of the coalition when they dropped the jammers on us, killing more people than lives lost in that nuclear attack in one week, and now we're looking at around 3 million deaths in the Eurasian Federation,"
"Actual worldwide figure is around 10 times that," Gerard said.
"More, but the death of millions is just a statistic," Jeremy spat. "And now, you want to risk your neck playing with fire, even though we're close to getting what we want."
"They wouldn't know,"
Jeremy extended a palm toward him "Put up your 25 years against mine or shut up,"
Gerard knew better than to bet as that bottle was there for a good reason and losing it to the hustler was not a good one even for a chance to get Jeremy's own stash. "Alright, we supply the ship, take a good look at the insides and kick it out of here. Happy?"
"Very much,"
A sentry announced that three officers onboard Archangel were there to meet them. The door opened and a man and two women in Atlantic Federation uniforms entered.
"Welcome to Artemis," Gerard greeted them with an exaggerated smile and gesture. "I'm Gerard Garcia, the base's commander, and this is Colonel Jeremy Pogba, of the Z6 division," He noted the man seemed familiar. The women with him were a Lieutenant and an Ensign. Where was the ship's captain? Surely there was a story to be told there.
"My name is Lieutenant Mu La Flaga and this is Lieutenant Murrue Ramius and Ensign Natarle Badriguel."
The Hawk of Endymion himself was present. So that meant the other Lieutenant was the ship's captain which was strange since she looked too young to have been commissioned to command the ship. Gerard gestured at the seats nearby which they took. "Speak freely. This is an unofficial and unrecorded debriefing. Colonel, if you may?"
"Yes, Rear Admiral," Jeremy said professionally, unlike the scathing manner he showed a few minutes prior. "Well then, we received the request to dock for the ship LCAM-01XA, Archangel and it was approved, "
Gerard noticed the shocked look on the three people in front of them. They were shocked at the fact that the ship's model number was known. Jeremy's wording also implied that Artemis seemed to have detailed information on the ship.
"Your ship's identification code has yet to be shared with us, in case you're wondering," Jeremy said. "And here's we have some problems,"
"Please tell us," the one named Murrue said.
"We accepted your ship due to a formal request we received earlier. However, since your ship isn't registered, then the Port Call Agreement doesn't apply here."
"Port Call Agreement?" Murrue asked.
Gerard became confident that she wasn't trained for the role of a captain and probably had to take charge because the captain died or was in no position to assume command. In fact, she wasn't even trained for the job.
The look that Jeremy gave him showed that he was thinking about the same thing. "Simply put, we supply you and send the bill to the Atlantic Federation," Jeremy said.
"But, we're allies!" the ensign named Natarle protested.
"Which will charge and bill each other for goods and services rendered," Gerard maintained. "Besides, as the Colonel said, the problem is the ship's code isn't registered with us. We're not obligated to give you supplies for free."
"Not for free, you said," Mu said, noticing the subtle hint.
"We want the ship's and the mobile suits' technical data as well as their OS. We also want copies of the diagnostic and combat data as well."
"But the information is classified!" Murrue said.
"How do you classify information about something that doesn't exist?" Jeremy riposted. "Besides, don't you know how much work we will have to put in to transfer supply to something that doesn't exist?"
"It's not that bad, isn't it?" Natarle questioned.
Gerard crossed his arms and leaned back on his chair. "Well, if you want, we can have you complete all the necessary bureaucratic procedures for us. Once approved, we'll supply the ship for free."
"That sounds…"
"NO!" Murrue said, interrupting Natarle in the midst of her comment. "We can't stay here that long!"
"You people from the Atlantic Federation keep telling us what to do and what not to do. You ask us to give you things, but at the same time don't want to give out anything. Not proper and the info's classified, you said. But, when we asked you to do the proper thing, you complained," Gerard said.
"It seems that we're at an impasse," Jeremy said. "But not something that couldn't be worked out. If you have another solution that benefits both parties, we're willing to listen,"
"Ah, but none of those mobile suits and mobile armour," Gerard added. "We don't want your people coming in later and requesting that we return them. The registration and deregistration will be a nightmare,"
"The data could be copied easily without us having to give up something else," Mu mused. "But at the same time, it would be difficult to falsify them in such a short time. That's what you're going for?"
Gerard smiled. "See, I know you would see the reasoning behind it. You have a good rest. We'll hear your answer tomorrow," he said while pressing a button. A sentry entered. "Show them to officers' quarters. Don't forget to show them the lounge and officer's club as well as other unrestricted areas."
Gerard and Jeremy watched their guests leave with the sentry.
"I thought that we've agreed about that part," Jeremy said, frowning.
"We did. But if I didn't ask for compensation, they would become suspicious. In that case, wouldn't it be better to make an unreasonable demand?"
"Honestly speaking, that went so well if not for the demand for data," Mu remarked as he watched Murrue sit on the bed of her assigned room. It was twice as big as the room assigned to him on Archangel. He gestured for Natarle to take the only seat in the room before he sat on the bed next to Murrue.
"You say that went well?" Natarle asked in disbelief.
"I know what you're saying," Murrue said, "but given the animosity between Atlantic and Eurasian, the reception is more than what I expected."
Only three of them were allowed off the ship while the rest were confined on the ship. That was expected, but what they didn't expect was the sentries. While the sentries were posted on board, they were mostly in the hangar and at the bridge.
"You know, right?" Mu said. "I half expected them to swarm the ship with soldiers the moment it stopped."
"Don't be an idiot!" Natarle rebuked. "We would have opened fire in the port and destroyed everything from inside."
"That's why they have us here," Mu shrugged. "So no one left that can give the order,"
Natarle got up from the chair.
"I was joking," Mu said while motioning her to sit down. "They didn't need to go in such a roundabout manner."
"But they do want the three of us off the ship for the time being," Murrue said. "For what reason?"
"It made me almost regret damaging both ZAFT ships. Otherwise, we're able to pressure them to expedite the resupplying," Mu said while putting his hands behind his head and laying down on the bed.
"Lieutenant..." Murrue said as she gave him an evil glare.
"Yup?" Mu then noticed the look on her face, "Oh, I don't mind. The bed's large enough,"
Murrue didn't have enough time to get angry with him as the doorbell chimed. "Lieutenant Ramius?"
"Yes?"
"I have something to deliver."
Murrue gave a look at Mu and Natarle who nodded. Mu quickly got up and moved opposite the bed, leaning on the wall. Once the three of them were ready, she answered, "Come in."
A Eurasian non-commissioned officer entered the room and saluted. "I'm here to give you this," he said as he handed a tablet to each one of them.
"This is?" Murrue asked.
"This is for you to communicate with your people onboard the ship, Ma'am,"
"I appreciate the Rear Admiral's thoughts," Murrue said. The Eurasians wanted to listen in to their communication so what better way to do so than by giving bugged tablets to the three of them?
"Yes, he said that you may want to tell them in advance that you'll be busy so that they wouldn't be alarmed."
"Busy?" Natarle asked.
"Yes, Ma'am. Filling the forms for us explaining the disappearance of the supplies,"
"But why do we have to do your work?" the ensign asked, clearly upset, pointing at the tablet she was holding. "Look at this list! It will take the three of us at least a whole day to finish!"
"Colonel Pogba told me to reply that the supplies would disappear into something that doesn't exist, Ma'am" the officer replied with a straight face.
"I wonder what's going on," Tolle said as he set his tray next to Kira's.
"They say that they're giving us lunch but it looks like they want everyone to be assembled here," Kuzzey said, adding his thoughts as his eyes roamed all over the room.
"Even civilians," Kira said as he looked at Flay who was sitting next to Mirriallia, eating as if unconcerned with the situation. He was smitten with her, that was a fact, but even he would admit that she was a bit air-headed at times. Still, on the positive side, she didn't seem to be too concerned about dieting, judging from the amount of food she was taking. It was somewhat a positive thing to him. Kira would feel guilty if he went out on a date with a girl who would only eat salad and a cup of noodles while he would indulge in the full course.
"They could have staggered the timing," Sai said, breaking Kira's train of thought.
The door to the cafeteria and a man paraded into the place accompanied by other Eurasian personnel, "Hello, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Gerard Garcia, the commandant of Artemis. I would like to extend my welcome to everyone onboard Archangel. Sorry to disturb your meal, but we're very interested to meet the pilots of X105 Strike and X3...," A man next to him whispered and Gerard clear his throat, "Just the X105 Strike's pilot,"
Kira was about to stand up but Murdoch gently pushed him to remain seated while shaking his head. The young man recalled Mu pulling him aside to ask for a lock to be put on Strike. Meanwhile, Arnold approached the group and asked, "Why are you asking us that question?"
"You're disrespect..."
Before the man could react further, Gerard stopped him. "You know, it's pointless, Colonel, so let's not antagonize them further. They're Atlantic Federation elites after all. And here we are hoping just to see its general movements as a benchmark. So, I repeat my question, who's the pilot?"
"It's Commander Fllaga," Murdoch replied. "You should bring up that question with him,"
"Hey, I never thought that our allies think that we're stupid," Gerard said. "We already know that he's Zero's pilot." He sighed theatrically. "But never mind, in this case, all we need to do is spot someone who is out of place,"
Gerard walked toward Murdoch and looked him in the eyes, "You see, I know that not all of those people in the uniform here are elites." He put one hand on Kira's left shoulder and another on Tolle's right shoulder. "Some are probably volunteers. But that's not what surprised me." He leaned in to say to Kira's ear, "Do you know what surprised me?"
"No."
"There's a traitor here."
Kira gasped as the implication hit him. Gerard was suggesting that he was a traitor to his people.
"It's obvious who the traitor is," Gerard said with a soft but somewhat menacing voice. He then stood up. "Take her away for questioning," he said as he pointed at Flay.
"Huh?" Kira uttered as that wasn't what he expected.
"She is wearing civilian clothing but is among the military personnel. As a combatant not wearing a uniform, she's not bound by the convention."
Flay who was oblivious to the current exchange suddenly found herself accosted by two military sentries. "Hey! What's the meaning of this?"
"It means that we're going to interrogate you,"
"Let go of me!" Flay struggled.
Kira stood up, almost knocking down Murdoch. "That's not fair!"
"Feel free to bring up your complaint with Commander Fllaga later on," Gerard said, throwing back the statement used on him just a minute before.
"I'm the Strike's pilot!" Kira declared, hoping to shift Gerard's attention away from Flay.
Gerard looked at him and then at Flay before breaking out in laughter. "Really? A scrawny kid like you? Bet you're playing a white knight to impress the girl, huh? But unfortunately for you, I'm no longer interested in playing games with all of you elites, not when I can do better."
"You're breaking international law," Arnold said.
Gerard stopped to adjust his cap briefly before leaving the room. The whole Eurasian security personnel followed him.
"Shit!" Murdoch swore. "Never saw that coming."
"Why did they pick her up?" another one asked.
Kira contemplated going after them but Kuzzey noticed his expression and said, "Don't do that, Kira. You'll make it worse."
Tolle stood up and put a hand on Kira. He then raised an eyebrow at the sight of Sai's guilty look. He glanced at the door. "You know something about this?"
"Probably, but we'll have to go somewhere else."
The group got up and left the cafeteria, unhindered as there were no Eurasian sentries present.
"Kira," Sai said, "Can you gain access to their surveillance without being detected?"
"I can try,"
"Do you want to do it?" The question implied that the action entailed a severe risk if they were found out.
"Yes," Kira answered without hesitation.
"What are you going to do?" Kuzzey asked worriedly. "Will it be dangerous?"
"Yes," Sai replied. "You don't have to join in, you know."
"I… want to know as well,"
Finally, they reached their assigned bunks where Kira took out a computer loaned to him by Murdoch for Strike's maintenance. He began typing some commands to start the infiltration process.
"Can you do it, Kira?" Tolle asked.
"Possible," Kira replied. The ship was connected to the base, so even though there were safety measures in place, he's quite confident that he would be able to bypass them given enough time. He did practice with the computers on the college campus and found out about many things he shouldn't have. Unfortunately for him, the existence of Gundams eluded his attention; their details were probably stored in offline computers to prevent people like him from snooping around.
"You were saying, Sai?" Miriallia prompted their friends.
"How to start this," Sai hesitated before giving up, "Flay's father is the CEO of NAGI Corporation."
"NAGI? What's that?"
"You know the Universal Communication Interface, UCI that we use in our frames to connect everything? NAGI came out with that."
While Kira was working on hacking into the communication system, Sai gave a short description of the company. NAGI's main business model was developing common interconnect architecture and supporting technologies. It then licensed them to other companies which then design their products that implement the architectures and UCI not only found in common household items such televisions and toasters but also high-tech military assets such as mobile suits and warships.
"You know, the two of us visited one of its branches during a school visit three years ago," Tolle reminded Miriallia.
"Ah! Now I remember! New Advanced Global Interface? Or was it the acronym of its first four branches, New York, Gqeberha, Ipoh… what's 'A' again?"
"Aprillius," Sai added.
"Yeah, Aprillius,"
Kira looked up from his work in confusion. "Isn't her father not very keen on working with PLANTs' residents?"
"I wouldn't go as far as to say that," Sai replied. "After all, they say that a good businessman will be flexible. Besides, there's the rumor that her mother's side…"
There was a static noise as the screen on the laptop showed multiple video screens. "We're in," Kira announced. "Just a moment, running through facial recognition," He quickly ran the software using his collection of Flay's photos stored on his memory disk. "Got it."
The video showed that Gerard Garcia and another person were seated in front of Flay. "NAGI has provided a very generous offer for our assistance and silence," Gerard said.
"And we appreciated that," the other man continued, "But we then found out about that specific project you're working on."
"We can't do that," Flay said coolly.
"Why not?" Gerard asked. "NAGI is a traitorous scumbag business willing to work with anyone, isn't it?"
"Gerard," the other man warned.
"What? You know that's true, Jeremy!" Gerard pointed at the girl, "Give her some money and she would spread her le…"
"General," Flay said quietly, agitated.
Gerard stopped and grinned. "Finally got you to show your real self."
"I wasn't acting!" Flay half-shouted before she caught hold of herself. "There was no way I can fool you in the first place,"
"I apologize on behalf of the General," Jeremy said. "He's crass but I assure you that he's a father to three daughters, so he's just pushing your buttons."
"Jeremy…"
"I'm mitigating, Gerard, so no complaint coming from you. So back to the topic, Miss Allster. We want to negotiate for the addition of the Decree."
"Colonel, we're giving access to Rosetta but not Decree because it's incomplete."
"Incomplete?"
"Yes. The system will be customised according to the data we have. That means we need access to everything,"
Jeremy raised his eyebrows. "Yes, that makes sense." He rapped fingers on the table a few times. "But don't you have any data from other mobile suits?"
"Last time I checked, Colonel, we're not selling mobile suits. And Pap… the CEO had negative reactions from Morgenroete and MMI when he proposed the system for civilian purposes. And even if we have such data, it's useless because each model is different. So, the only solution is to get us to work on yours. But then again, you're thinking that it's better to get Acteon to work on it instead rather than hand the data to the traitorous scumbag organization, right?"
"You're hung up on that, huh?" Gerard said.
"It is true, from a certain point of view."
"What if we can convince the leadership?" Jeremy asked.
Flay stared incredulously at the two grown men in front of her. "You do realize that you've been negotiating as if we're the ones making the decision, don't you?"
Kira terminated the video feed, deeming that they had seen and heard enough to see that she was safe. Prolonging it further would only lead to the hacking being discovered.
"Rosetta?" Mirrilia asked.
"It's an abstraction, automation and translation layer for machine interface, making them easier to control. Seems like it can be used for mobile suits, judging from the discussion," Sai explained.
Kira nodded. From what he knew, controlling complex machines was difficult. Take Strike for example. There were a lot of parameters that he had to calculate and take into account just to make it take a step. Having something that could reduce the mental requirement would be helpful.
"Two years ago, she told me her father's company was looking to acquire a small startup which specialized in new interconnect technology but then Morgenroete swooped in and took over the company. Recently it was found out that it was my father who told Morgenroete about it, and I'm the one who blabbed to him."
"That's why her family sent the letter," Tolle said awkwardly, realizing that the matter was more serious than he had thought earlier.
"Five years of friendship down the drain just like that," Sai's face was full of regret. "Apparently, the nation's needs trump friendship."
Kira's thought strayed to his friend who was still unconscious in the infirmary, wondering whether that was true for him as well.
"With that, I end my presentation," Rau La Creusette said, drinking in the astonished expression of the PLANTs leaders assembled in the room. No, only Patrick Zala seemed stoic, but Rau knew that behind that facade is a man slowly being eaten by rage and anger at the loss of his wife, and now, his son. The masked commander didn't see why the man had grounds to be angry.
Patrick could have secured his son's safety by sending the boy to one of the laboratories in the colonies. If there was a need to get the boy involved in his revenge, there were numerous focusing on weapons development. If Rau was to be objective, Athrun was better suited in the fields of cybernetics developments, developing mobile suits instead of piloting them. Despite the exemplary marks Athrun and his team members displayed in the academy, their performance in the field was only satisfactory. A lot of good people were lost just to give the five of them the chance to steal the mobile suits prototypes, but even then only three were successful.
"What is your take on this?" Patrick asked.
In Rau's opinion, the mission would have been successful if seasoned veterans were sent. Of course, their success would have meant that there was no need to use D weapons, leading to the colony's destruction. In a way, the Council was also implicit in the whole fiasco. Unfortunately for him, Rau was sure that piece of opinion wasn't what Patrick was asking for. Instead, he had to say something that would placate the council. "I'm willing to face disciplinary action for doing what I deemed as necessary for the security of PLANTs. However, I would like to put it on record that I advised this council to do the right thing."
"Which is?" a representative named Orson White asked.
"To send a task force to destroy the ship and the remaining prototypes. If the battle data falls into the Earth Alliance, I shudder to think about the consequences." Rau looked at Siegel Clyne, the PLANTs' Chairman. The man seemed unconvinced. "Our present advantage deters them from attacking. If we lose that, it's going to be difficult to sue for peace."
"I doubt Naturals know the meaning of the word," Patrick scoffed.
Despite the derogatory nature of the man's comment, Rau couldn't help but be pleased. Whether he realized it or not, Patrick had made Rau's suggestion more palatable to the moderates. "I don't believe in an unnecessary escalation of conflict as it would eventually lead to a war of attrition. Therefore, I implore all of you to please seriously consider my suggestion."
There was a murmur among the council members and Siegel cleared his throat. "We have to discuss it,"
With that, Rau was ushered out from the council room to the side room where Dearka, Nicol, Yzak and the newly promoted Miguel were waiting for him.
"How was it?" Miguel asked.
"As expected, they are pretty concerned with the prototypes," Rau answered, deeming mentioning the discussion about the damage to the Heliopolis was unnecessary. "They're thinking about what to do next."
"I heard that Chairman's daughter went missing," Nicol said.
"Hm…" Rau said while rubbing his chin thoughtfully. That would have explained perfectly Siegel being slightly distracted during the prior session.
"And Athrun's status is unknown," Dearka, added. "Maybe they will send us out to find out what happened to him as well?"
The discussion went longer than even Rau had envisioned, but all of them soon learned of the decision made. He was given the leadership of a task force to search for the Earth Alliance ship and its prototypes and destroy them. At the same time, they were to rescue Athrun and Siegel's daughter if they found them.
1
A/N
1. I suppose if I become a revenge-obsessed leader due to the loss of my wife, I would be happy to risk my son by sending him to the battlefield, instead of sending someone else's children.
2. Nuclear explosion releases a lot of radiation. On Earth, the radiation couldn't travel far due to the presence of atmospheric presence. But in space, detonating them in order to irradiate ZAFT's defence fleet to soften it up is a heinous and valid tactic. That's why I disagree with people saying that Kira Yamato is the Space Jesus. When he and Athrun destroyed the nukes in the GS finale, they caused a lot of radiation that would have poisoned and killed a lot of people from all sides. But all of them survived as well. So, they're in the same situation as Kira.