From her seat, Eileen Carnaver watched in boredom at the people around her talking animatedly about the war. While it was important to determine the future of the colony, she wasn't interested. To fill her time waiting for it to end, Eileen went through the list of tasks she had to complete when she returned to November City. She barely nodded when Siegel Clyne chastised her inattention by giving a pointed look. Satisfied that his silent warning was acknowledged, Siegel turned his focus toward the discussion, "The Alliance went after our supplies, you say?"
Patrick Zala signalled the masked man, Rau Le Creuset, someone Eileen didn't particularly like, to signal the man to continue with the briefing.
The man pointed at multiple spots on the map. "They're targeting the supply line, especially near the staging area,"
"What is our defense doing?" Ali Kassim, the representative of the Januarius City, asked. "Sleeping on the job?"
"Unfortunately, they're unable to detect the Eurasians," Creuset said before pausing, "And even when they do, we have no way of shooting them down. The Eurasians flew so high that we could only watch them come and bomb us. There are some attempts to shoot down their munitions, but then the Eurasians start to use cluster munitions to overwhelm the defense,"
"Cluster munitions are banned weapons! Those barbarians!" Herman Gould of the October City said while slamming his fist on the table.
"Can we put in a diplomatic protest?" Patrick asked.
Creuset shook his head. "While they're cluster munitions, they're unlike those being used by Atlantic and Orb's," he said while pointing to some pictures of bomblets. "We've managed to gather a few unexploded ones, and the examinations showed that they are guided by short-range radar integrated into the main launch unit,"
While there was a treaty banning cluster munitions, that treaty was established on the premise cluster munitions posed a danger to everyone, regardless of whether they were part of the military forces or civilians. Now and then, there would be a story about people finding World Wars-era unexploded ordnance. Astonishingly, most of them were still dangerous; not a few exploded when people who found them tried to move them away.
The Eurasians could claim that their weapons didn't contravene the treaty by employing a system to guide the munitions.
"Everyone here is missing key points," Patrick Zala. "First, why did the Eurasians use this tactic now and succeed when it didn't so in the past? The second is how do we defend against such a tactic? Last but not least is how this affects our strategy to capture Victoria?"
"Can't we conduct orbital drop like before?" Siegel asked.
"We did, and as you know, without support, it would fail, just like the first one," Patrick said as he pressed some buttons and a diagram of a missile appeared. "Plus, our spies managed to find out that the Alliance has finished the development of project codenamed 'THOR' and is deploying the system around Victoria,"
"THOR?" Ali asked.
"Tactical High Orbital Rocket. Intel suggests that it will be primarily infrared guided and intended to hit a drop pod at its most vulnerable stage, reentry. At the very least, it will cause the pod to veer, of course, and in the worst-case scenario, it will destroy the pod and kill everyone inside."
While orbital drop had the advantage of bypassing the enemy defensive perimeter by dropping the attacking assets directly onto the enemy position, it wasn't without its own set of difficulties. First, while ZAFT had perfected the heat shielding for the drop pod, a minor impact or explosion was enough to compromise its structural integrity. The second problem was that because of the high precision needed for the drop, a slight deviation may cause the pod to end up hundreds of kilometers away from the intended target.
"That's a problem," Ezalia Joule from Martius City said. "That means we have to allocate more assets for the mission,"
"Indeed," Patrick said in agreement, causing conversations among the delegates.
"I'm sure Representative Carnaver have something to contribute to the conversation, don't you?" Orson White, the Sextilis City's representative, suddenly said to Eileen, causing everyone's attention to shift to her.
Eileen cursed the man silently; it was evident that he was picking on her due to her dovish position. She cleared her throat, trying to come up with something. An idea came up, and she decided to go all in. "I'm sorry, but I was thinking whether what we're doing is useful in the long run,"
"What do you mean?" Orson asked.
"I would like to point out that ZAFT is foremost a defense army, not for conquering nations," Eileen quickly held up a hand to stop forestall incoming complaints on her statement. "Data of our prior engagements support this," she said as the main computer showed some figures. "We lost more personnel and assets during offensives,"
"That's to be expected," Tad Elsman from Februarius City huffed, crossing his arms.
"And that is what Alliance expects as well. Eventually, we will reach the tipping point soon, where we couldn't make up the loss,"
"Our factories can churn out as many mobile suits as we need," Patrick said.
"We don't have one for pilots, though," Eileen said flatly. "And remember, each country, each region, each area that we conquer, we need boots on the ground as well to maintain order,"
"We can take harsh actions against those who go against us," Jeremy Maxwell of the Quintilis City said.
"And play right into Blue Cosmos' hand? After what we did in April last year, do you still want to risk driving everyone over the edge? Do you want total war?" Eileen looked at Herman. "This is your speciality, isn't it? Statistical analysis? Can we have a mathematical model of how to subdue billions of like-minded people intent on taking revenge on us?"
"What you would suggest then," Patrick said. "Surrender?" he asked sarcastically.
"No. There is no need. We have the advantage in space. Ezalia, you have information on each mass driver, right?"
"I do," Ezalia said as she entered the information needed. A 3D model of Earth appeared on the main screen, with the mass drivers' positions marked on it.
"Include trajectories for their launch,"
Ezalia added the trajectories of launch from the said mass drivers.
"Add the Alliance's locations on the moon and earth's orbit,"
"Done," Ezalia said as a 3D model of the moon appeared and the dots denoting the location of Earth Alliance bases.
"Simulate earth and moon rotations," Eileen told the person in charge of the display. "I would like to ask everyone to look at the simulation and pay attention to how often the launch points are the closest to the bases,"
"I don't see the significance of this," Patrick said.
"When we know the timing, we can be there to intercept the launch when it's at its most vulnerable stage, the suborbital range,"
"Just like the Alliance can intercept our orbital drop!" Parnel Jesek, who represented November City, exclaimed.
"They can always launch them even when the positions don't align," Tad pointed out.
"Why is that a bad thing?" Eileen asked in return. "Letting them waste time and resources trying to get the supplies to their bases is better than forcing them to amass their forces in a large number to recapture the mass drivers."
"Or we can assign two or three ships to orbit the earth at the exit orbit," Siegel said. "Essentially maintaining a blockade,"
"Which we're better equipped with than those Naturals," Patrick said. "However, I object to this idea. Why should we cower in fear when we hold the advantage? On Earth, a single BuCUE is a match for four tanks, while at sea, our Vosgulov submarines prowled unchallenged. In the air, our DINNs are superior to anything that they field, and in space, our mobile suits reign supreme,"
That kind of comment was why Eileen didn't like the meetings anymore. It's one thing to hear jingoists beating the war drums and spewing patriotic statements but another to listen to an explicit declaration of bigotry. Even though she understood why an outstanding man like Patrick devolved into a racist, that didn't excuse his extremist behavior. Despite her dislike of the man, PLANTs and ZAFT still needed him.
"If our technology is so advanced, why did we need to steal the Gundams?" Yuri, who had been quiet throughout the session, suddenly said.
"Gundams?" Ali asked.
"It is what some of the Alliance pilots called the prototypes, based on what my son told me,"
"Of course, since your son spent some time being a POW," Patrick sneered.
"True, but at least not as long as your son,"
Patrick's eyes widened. "What do you mean?"
"Your son is under the custody of the Alliance ship, Archangel,"
The whole Council broke into murmurs. Eileen noted that the way Yuri mentioned the ship's name, it was as if he had access to information the rest weren't privy to.
"How is he?" Patrick said, slightly shaken. "They didn't do anything to him?"
Before Yuri could answer, a man suddenly entered the room.
"You're intruding while the Council is meeting," Tad admonished the man.
"I'm sorry, but I have a piece of important and urgent news! Gamow has just returned with Athrun Zala and Lacus Clyne!"
When the Gamow arrived at the port, Athrun expected that he would have the time to rest before being summoned to meet his superiors. He was proven wrong when the intelligence agency quickly took everyone for questioning. The interrogators questioning him were interested in how he ended up under the Alliance's detention and whether he had compromised any information. After being satisfied with his answer, or at least that's what it seemed, they told him to rest in the room until further announcement.
His grilling reminded him of his conversation with the Alliance officer named Commander Fllaga onboard Archangel. He had once asked the man why he wasn't subject to a more rigorous interrogation to force him to give up classified information.
The answer he got was unexpectedly blunt to the extent of annoying him. Fllaga replied that the fact that Athrun was sent to the frontline meant that the latter was expendable. The blonde officer said they already knew Athrun was Patrick Zala's son from Kira, which was the only helpful thing they'd get. When Athrun challenged the statement about his expendability, Fllaga explained that a military would prioritize sending expendable personnel to the front. Even then, the amount of classified information available to them would be limited to ensure secrecy if they were captured.
When Athrun replied that he and the rest of his team were the best in class and thus were the best candidates to hijack the prototypes, the man chuckled and wondered out loud whether they were really the best. Athrun insisted that he beat the renowned knife-fighting instructor "Fred of the Knife". Fllaga shrugged and said that he didn't know the person Athrun claimed as famous, and Fllaga himself probably would lose fighting against Athrun. However, he questioned whether the instructor lost to Athrun because of his skill or if it was intended so that Athrun would end up at the top of his class.
Fllaga then shared an observation made by Murrue about the hijacking attempt. The Archangel's captain once mentioned that while the attackers had physical strength and capabilities, they weren't trained to fight correctly as some were making mistakes only rookies would.
Athrun didn't know why but the man got under his skin by insinuating that they weren't fit for the mission.
The door opened, breaking Athrun out of his reverie, and a person entered. Athrun had half-expected his father to come, but instead, it was Nicol who found out about his return and somehow managed to get the clearance to meet him. The two exchanged stories of what happened to each of them with a promise to catch up later.
While Athrun was glad to see Nicol was doing alright, he was worried that his friend was displaying the symptoms of "Stockholm Syndrome". By Nicol's admission, he had developed a crush on a paedophile.
Athrun had no time to consider his friend's weird fetish as he became embroiled in a political issue not long after. The censors had torn through the video clips of Junius Seven that the Silverwind crew took.
"What do you mean those parts had to be removed?" Lacus asked Nellie dissatisfiedly.
"They feel that it would affect morale," her minder answered.
Athrun could understand why the censor wanted the parts where Archangel and Strike were visible to be left out on the chopping board. Even though Archangel treated him and the Silverwind crew decently, it is a fact that the ship belonged to the opposite side. Therefore, Archangel and its complement of mobile suits and mobile armor had no place on a PLANT propaganda video except to play the role of villains. If that were going to be the case, Athrun would rather any mention of them removed altogether. "Nellie had tried her best," Athrun said, trying to placate his fiancée.
"But it's wrong," Lacus said. "We're lying to the people,"
"No, we're not," Athrun said. "The remembrance is all about honoring those who lost their lives in the tragedy,"
"The idea to release the paper flowers was by them!" Lacus said, referencing the Archangel's crew and the refugees from Heliopolis. "They made most of the flowers too! But we pretend that it's our initiatives,"
"Didn't we mention them as prayers for peace?" Athrun said.
"You clearly didn't listen to the voice-over," Lacus accused. "The way it said, we're carrying the flowers to the site,"
Athrun indeed hasn't listened to the draft of the video. But while he didn't know what was said, technically, that did happen. Athrun, Lacus and others did indeed carry the paper flowers to Junius Seven memorial site. What the voice-over probably left out was that they had Archangel and Strike's assistance. However, Athrun knew that wasn't what Lacus meant. Realizing that he needed some help, he turned toward Nellie.
The older woman said, "Lacus, remember the narrative that we're supposed to tell,"
Athrun watched in fascination as Lacus' expressions clearly showed that she was warring with herself. His fiancée gave up. "We have to give them what they expect to see, is that it?"
"Unfortunately, yes," Nellie answered. "We don't have to lie, but we must omit some facts. Not because we want to lie, but because the truth will hurt. Currently, we're not only in a war of might, but also a war of mind and heart,"
Athrun agreed with Nellie. Despite that, he felt that Nellie implied that lying to the people was required to wind their minds and hearts. If that was the case, where the line will be drawn? Does that mean it was okay to fool the people and manipulate them as long as PLANTs and ZAFT win the war? Will Athrun have to resort to such actions because he was a soldier and thus, had to win the war by any means possible?
In Mu's opinion, the port never looked so near but at the same time far away. He had pegged the mission to Heliopolis as a run-of-the-mill escort, but he had to jinx it. His eyes drifted at Murrue's body, appreciating how good the uniform looked on her. Imagine if she's out of it.
"You want to say something, Commander?" Murrue asked him.
Mu's self-preservation instinct went into hyperdrive to devise the line he could throw to save himself. "Just wondering that we've gone through a lot even though it's just a few weeks,"
"I know, right?" It was a good thing Murrue had misinterpreted his stare. "After we land on Copernicus, I'm just thinking about our next step,"
Murrue shifted in her seat to turn around, but Mu put a hand on her shoulder. "No need. Only Chandra's there," he said, knowing that she was trying to confirm whether or not the teenagers from Heliopolis were present.
Murrue turned her attention to the front. "We'll drop most of the civilians and wait for orders, I guess,"
"You want to keep them onboard," Mu said without any hint of accusation.
"Honestly, I don't know what to do with them. You know how it is,"
"Yeah, I imagine,"
The Allster girl had suggested that everyone had some access to Archangel and the Gundams, respectively, and Murrue herself traded part of the classified information to get assistance from Artemis Base. However, no matter how hypocritical it seemed, she was still bound to protect their secrecy.
"Dolfin's ex and that Koenig kid are clamoring to pilot Buster, so…" Mu shrugged meaningfully.
It's good that Natarle insisted on them properly registering the students as Atlantic Federation's soldiers. It was despicable, and Orb may throw some protest. But until they were discharged, all teenagers were under her command and subject to military regulation; they didn't realize it yet. But, if possible, Murrue wanted to keep them oblivious to the bitter truth as long as she could. From what Mu implied, she could suggest that Sai and Tolle undergo full combat training. With that, both would likely stay, ensuring the rest stay. By the time the order comes through, she could use it to continue keeping them on Archangel. Murrue then blinked as she noticed a statement Mu made earlier. "Wait, Sai also volunteered?"
Meanwhile, as he watched Sai operating the simulator under the supervision of Flay, Tolle was wondering about the same thing. The situation was surreal enough that what happened on the bridge seemed like a lie. Not to be mean, but Tolle had expected Flay to sabotage Sai's attempt to pilot Buster. Not only did she not block his application, Flay even helped him to get used to the simulator, providing advice when the situation called for it.
"You're making good progress with the controls," Flay observed.
"Thanks, Flay,"
"If I may suggest, try to get the lock-on first before moving. That way, the lock will be easier to maintain,"
"I will do that. Say, I'm just wondering, later, can we get…"
Flay moved away before Sai could finish his words. Tolle then approached the entrance. "You've done with the simulation?"
"Almost," Sai answered as he flipped through the controls. "Just going through the post-landing checkups and diagnostics,"
"About that, couldn't we skip them? In real situations, the checks will be done by the MO… what do you call them...?"
"MRO?"
"Yeah, the MRO people do it?" Tolle said while looking at Murdoch and the rest of the maintenance, repair, and operation technicians. "They're the experts,"
"We still have to do the pre and post-checks ourselves," Sai smiled wistfully. "She just told me that I owe it to myself to ensure my safety and not rely on them totally,"
"That's a good thing, no?"
Sai switched off the console and exited the simulator. He looked around and gestured toward Flay, who was talking animatedly to Kira while the latter nodded guiltily. From where Sai and Tolle were standing, she berated Kira about something.
"Wow, not even married, and he got whipped,"
"When we were small, I hated it when she did it to me," Sai said.
After a while, Flay finished with her tirade, and Kira said something which seemed to mollify her. It was the redhead's turn to nod. She then put her hand on his and smiled.
"I understand now. It's not hatred, but indifference," Sai said forlornly.
"What did you say?"
"Nothing," Sai turned toward Buster. "Do you know why Buster and the others have a different 'head' design compared to ZAFT?"
Tolle rubbed his chin. "I was wondering about that. Depth perception, like our eyes?"
"Yes. Apart from looking more look like a human, instead of a cyclops, we, Orb had the perfected the development of smaller and better sensors,"
Sai explained that on paper, having two sensors working in sync would make certain activities such as image acquisition and subsequently targetting, became better. For example, by comparing two readouts of the same target, the system could eliminate noise such as other nearby light and radiation sources. The automated processing, in turn, would reduce the burden on the pilot who had to control the mobile suit and fight simultaneously.
"That's why they worked with us?" Tolle asked, referring to Atlantic Federation.
"Yes. At the same time, we want access to their mechatronic technology,"
"Wait. Something bothers me. Couldn't ZAFT come up with something similar?"
"The biggest problem, I think, is the integration. Orb used to have the same problem. Besides, the current implementation is effective enough for them, so I don't think it's up there on their priority,"
"You seem to know a lot about mobile suit development, huh?" Tolle observed.
"That's why I want to try my chance to become one of the Gundam's pilots so that I can convince myself that it's worth it,"
"What worth it?"
Sai didn't answer the question
From the command room of his land battleship, Lesseps, Andrew Wartfeld looked at the map of the surrounding area while chugging a mug of coffee. "Damn it," he said, almost spitting out the liquid. It was only due to his strong tenet not to waste coffee that he could control himself. No matter how bad the coffee was, even those laced with chicory, they were still coffee in his book. There was an exception, the sewage water they called instant coffee; only Blue Cosmos terrorists deserve such travesty fed to them daily.
"What's wrong?" Asha, his ever-loyal mistress, asked.
"Over brewed this batch for more than thirty seconds, and now it's crap,"
"You could have used the instants. They're actually better than what you brewed on some days,"
"Even though you're a heretic, I still love you,"
Asha rolled her eyes. "And I love you, hard head and all. So, I guess it's going to be a bad day?"
"You say it,"
"Incoming artillery barrage," Da Costa, his second in command, announced.
"Like clockwork. Shoot them down,"
"CIWS are operating, but there's too many of them,"
The whole battleship shook as few shells managed to hit it. After the attacks had stopped, Andrew gave an order, "Check up on our units,"
After a few seconds of trying, Da Costa shook his head. "We lost contact with them, except one,"
"Shit," Andrew cursed. His subordinate's answer meant that all except one GAZuOOT they had onboard and around the ship had been damaged by the Alliance's counterbattery attack. This was what he had told the higher-ups when they gave him the order to execute the current mission.
Based on intelligence from orbital reconnaissance, ZAFT had identified an Alliance forward operating base less than a hundred kilometers away. They concluded that the rapid deployment of such a base meant that the Alliance was preparing for a major operation against ZAFT and its allies. Therefore, he was instructed to launch an artillery barrage against the base in a preemptive attack.
Andrew tried to get the planners to reconsider delaying the operation a bit. In his opinion, it was better to see whether it was a staging point for a major offensive or a temporary refuelling station that would be gone in a week. He even volunteered to risk sending some of his DINNs to scout the area.
However, they told him to do it anyway to punish the Alliance for their aerial attacks. And the Alliance punished him back for it.
Ultimately, the base was not a staging area or a refueling station; it was bait.
He hated the spaceborne mission planners. They didn't consider things like gravity and earth features, for example, preferring to pretend that technology and over-engineering would solve everything. He had asked for more support to be provided, and he did get them. He wanted replacements for the transport vehicles and supplies destroyed by the Eurasians in their raids; he got more mobile suits instead.
In what was to be one of the largest orbital drops in the region, the high command sent a lot of GAZuOOT to serve as a mobile artillery platform and DINNs to bolster air defense. It was certainly impressive, and Andrew, experienced in advertising and propaganda, milked the operation to the maximum. He ensured that everyone, allies, enemies and those on the fence, would see the orbital drop as a sign that ZAFT was committed to the region. In that aspect, he was undoubtedly successful, to the extent that the shock and awe caused by the drop had convinced few local dissident groups to surrender to him.
However, after all the feel-good factor subsided, Andrew discovered the drop exacerbated his supply chain problem as he had more assets and personnel to support. The extra DINNs were helpful as they could shoot down the bombs and cruise missiles even if they couldn't directly engage the attacking aircraft. Unfortunately, the GAZuOOTs were useless.
True, one GAZuOOT could quickly destroy ten artilleries by itself. However, for a price of a single GAZuOOT, the Alliance could field the same number of the 'dumb' artillery, complete with support. And dumb as they were, any commander worth his salt would be able to utilize them to a great effect by leveraging on their strengths.
From his estimate, they were attacked by an artillery division which had 24 artillery guns available to it. It seemed like a hundred artilleries attacked them because their opponents used the Multiple Rounds Simultaneous Impact approach. The tactic involved all guns would fire multiple rounds at different elevations. The shots would then travel at different vectors but eventually converge at the same target area, maximizing the effects or overwhelming the defence in the current case.
The downside to the tactic, which was favorable to his team, was that the artillery would be silent for at least half an hour to cool down the barrels. The downtime would allow him to send out his BuCUEs to chase after them. However, he suspected that the sneaky bastards would have run away just as fast as he avoided a lousy cup of instant coffee when they arrived. "We're going to find optic cable this time as usual, do we?" Andrew wondered out loud.
"Probably," Da Costa replied.
"Those scouts don't really care we found out where they came from as long as the main battery moved after firing, do they?" Aisha asked.
"Seems that way," Andrew replied. Due to long-distance radio communication problems, the Eurasians turned to cable transmission instead. Clever bastards. "Aw, man. I wish higher-ups dropped more four or six-wheelers for us to go on joyrides like them, maybe spot a munition depot or two so we can return the favor."
"Why didn't you ask?" Aisha asked.
"I did, specifically asking them to replace what we lost recently,"
"And?"
"That's why we got those five," Andrew replied, referring to the five BuCUEs ZAFT dropped three days prior. "They were even smug about it, telling me to be grateful that my request was upgraded with better assets,"
"You have that reputation,"
"Hey, as much as I like them, even I'm not that blind to their being easily detected from far away, even in cruise mode,"
Da Costa frowned. "Incoming second barrage!" he announced.
"Where's that first counterbattery firing solution?!" Andrew barked. "It's supposed to be done by now,"
"We've just finished the calculation! The second one from the same location!"
Andrew calmed down at the announcement. "Set the CIWS radar to 50 meters envelope. Priority to engage anything inside it,"
Once again, the whole battleship shook but less violently than before.
After the barrage had stopped, Da Costa turned toward Andrew, "I believe we should send in the helicopters to prevent another barrage,"
"No. Instead, I want our scouts to be extremely cautious in their approach. It's a trap,"
"Trap?" Aisha asked.
"No artillery commander would willingly do MRSI in quick succession. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if they have shells cooked off during the second barrage," Andrew said. The Alliance knew that its artillery division couldn't get away due to the speed of ZAFT's scouts. So they decided to do the second barrage to entice him to send more scouts, especially airborne assets such as DINNs and helicopters. If his suspicion was correct, there would be air defence batteries or even infantry equipped with man-portable air-defense systems, or MANPADs, nearby, waiting to ambush them. "Those guns wouldn't be firing anymore," he concluded confidently, knowing that the barrels would be warped and unable to be used.
His suspicion was proven correct when the scouts found three anti-aircraft batteries. The counter-artillery barrage from Lesseps made quick work of them. The scouts even found the artilleries, and just as he had predicted, the Eurasians had destroyed them to prevent their capture. All in all, not a bad day's work if he may say so himself. As they said, what good for the goose was good for the gander. The Eurasians used fiber optics for communication? They couldn't complain if Andrew used such tactics as well.