"Heat signatures, dead ahead." – the sensor operator above and behind Cassius reported.

"Count?"

"Six. Receiving IFF... friendlies confirmed. The Core Fighter is at the front."

"About time."

Checking his chronometer, Cassius suppressed a yawn. He barely got any sleep when that bastard Red Comet decided to surprise them and with Bright still out in the infirmary, he didn't have anyone to hand the conn over to. That and the paperwork he had to do as soon as they arrived was a guarantee that he wasn't going to sleep for several more hours. It was looking increasingly more likely that he was going to have to resort to chemical means of staying awake, like pretty much every combat personnel since the invention of the airplane nearly three centuries ago. Of course, one thing that was in his favor compared to the people living in those early days that at least the EFSF's standard-issue stimulants were synthetically engineered to be non-addictive – but then again, prolonged sleep deprivation was still something no chemist had ever been able to solve.

But as the flight of Saberfish fighters zipped past the White Base and formed up around them as escort, Cassius knew that they were just that much closer to safety. He could see just about everyone else on the bridge being near the limits of their own endurance, and for a good reason. After Char's surprise attack, nobody dared to let their guard down for even a second, fearful of another strike even as Lt. Ray reported that the Gundam was back at full combat readiness and that the crew were now busy assembling another of the prototypes from the parts they've been lugging around from Side 7 – a Guncannon, if he recalled correctly. Cassius would've called the man a miracle worker if he hadn't been told that all the engineering crew actually did with the Gundam was swap out the upper torso for one of the spares they've been lugging around since Side 7, the whole machine having apparently been modularly built for that very purpose.

Escort or not, however, the still-closed armored shutters right in front of him, beyond the broken glass that used to be the bridge window, was a stark reminder of what would happen if they let their guard down as the only thing separating the entire bridge crew from the vacuum.

He very nearly dozed off right where he was sitting by the time the ship jerked under him and he heard the voice of the young woman standing in front of him. – "We're down. Engines throttled down."

"Thank you, miss Yashima, and excellent work. We're lucky to have you."

She bowed her head. – "I'm glad to have helped."

In the end, Amuro's hunch was proven good after all: as luck would have it, there was indeed someone with a pilot license onboard and she was more than willing to help once the situation was explained to her. After all, having her fly the ship the rest of the way in was much faster than waiting outside until they can borrow a pilot from one of the docked ships, something Kemp agreed with. Though just to be safe, he had the man sortie in a Core Fighter anyway to notify the base of their situation and as evident from the Saberfishes flying escort for them, it paid off.

"I'm just giving credit where credit's due. If it weren't for you, we'd have had to ask Luna II to send us a pilot and that would've left us exposed far longer. Even the Red Comet will think twice before having another crack at us now."

And for once, that wasn't just boasting. Even though the war was entering its ninth month now, not once during that time did Zeon ever try taking on Luna II. All of the entrances were heavily fortified, multiple seismographs across the surface would've detected and triangulated any attempts at stealthily making a new entrance and for more than half a year now, over 80% of the entire EFSF armada was holed up inside, ready and willing to swarm out like hornets if anyone tried to kick over their nest.

"Well, it's just the same, captain. I don't mean to impose, but I think you should have your engineers look at the starboard engine. It was barely handling."

"Sir." – the radio operator spoke up. – "Base commander is requesting your presence for debriefing."

No sleep for me just yet, Cassius thought with a sigh. – "Understood. I'll be right there." – he said as he pushed himself out of his chair to go get changed out of his normalsuit and back into his uniform.

At least it wasn't going to be an unfamiliar face, if he recalled Luna II's flag officer rotation accurately from before their departure.

Ten minutes later, he was standing in front of the airlock, waiting for the hatch to open when he heard hurried steps from the side. – "Captain!" – Tem called out, coming to a halt next to Cassius.

"Lieutenant."

"I was hoping to have a moment of your time before you send the official report about the past day's events."

"That won't happen until tomorrow. This ship is not going anywhere until the crew has had time to catch their breath. Unless Jaburo decides to cut this whole trip short and have us stay at Luna II."

"They won't, sir." – Tem replied confidently. – "I'm still going through the Gundam's combat data but I already have preliminary results on which I need to confer with my colleagues here. If my suspicions are correct, we'll need to bring this data to Jaburo no matter what, even if the Gundam itself has to stay here." – After a moment's silence, he added – "Oh, but in any case, I wanted to know what you intend to do about Amuro."

Which was a question Cassius has been expecting for a while now. – "I know. I too would hate to have to put him in this position if he was my son."

"Actually, I wanted to officially request security clearance for him."

Cassius sent a sideways glance at the man, not quite sure how to interpret that abrupt deviation from concern. – "Wouldn't you prefer for him to be out of harm's way?"

"We aren't exactly in a position to choose, sir." – the engineer pointed out. – "I don't know how he's capable of what he did, but I'd like to find out and if he's cooperating, all the better. It could save a lot of lives, not just his."

Which was admittedly true, but still didn't put Cassius at ease. Was the man seriously okay with his son being in a mobile suit and getting shot at? – "I'll bring it up with the base commander. Anything else?"

"Nothing right now. We'll be running a full diagnostic on the Gundam to make sure everything is 100% operational, it's probably going to take overnight."

"Haven't you been up since we left Side 7?"

Tem just waved him off. – "That can wait. Data first."

"Do you have the uniform?"

"Here, sir."

"Very good." – Char put the vacuum-sealed case down next to the normalsuit prepared and ready on his desk. – "I'll be leaving early in the morning. Remember what we discussed: If I'm not back about… four hours after I leave, make for Solomon at flank speed. Don't wait a second longer because they'll be sending out patrols to locate this ship."

"Understood, captain." – the officer nodded.

"Now, I believe I have a call to make. Did you set up the laser comm link to Solomon as I asked?"

"Yes, sir."

After Dren left the room, Char sat down onto the borrowed chair he procured for his room. After his recent... outburst, everyone knew better than to ask questions about what happened to the old one, although he wasn't blind to the fact that rumors were already starting to spread. Not that he really cared; enough people hated him in his previous life already for him to have decided long ago not to care.

The screen above his desk indicated an incoming connection before resolving into the humongous, scar-covered slab of meat that was the face of Dozle Zabi. – "Ah, just the man I wanted to see!" – the man exclaimed jovially. – "What do you have for me, Char? Was our intel right about the Federation R&D facility?"

"It was, admiral." – Char replied, smoothly swallowing his distaste. As much as Dozle respected him for being a highly competent soldier, he was still a Zabi and as such, part of the problem with the situation Char has been in for nearly all his life. To say nothing about how quickly said favor evaporated when Garma received an express ticket to a personal meeting with his ancestors.

Granted, that was Char's fault, but still.

"We encountered an unknown warship with EFSF markings headed for Side 7 just ahead of us, probably to evacuate the facility and all research materials." – he continued.

"But I bet you had a word or two about that, eh?" – Dozle remarked casually, as if they were talking about a simple bar brawl rather than war. Though to be fair, considering that the man perpetually looked as if he came from a bar brawl, that was to be expected. Not to mention that Char was fully aware of the rumors about Dozle's "surprise frontline inspections" (one of which Char himself seemed to remember having participated in just a few months ago) which more often than not coincided in lone Federation ships out on patrol outside Luna II's perimeter at the time somehow never reporting back. That is, until EFSF elements wised up and started moving around in groups with overlapping AA killzones and heavy fighter escort to prevent being defeated in detail.

Naturally, Dozle never faced any consequences for any combat losses during "inspections". Being the Rear Admiral in charge of the whole navy, not to mention the son of the Sovereign and the brother of the Prime Minister, he could do with his troops whatever the hell he wanted and most of those troops would've willingly died for him anyway.

"Indeed I did. However, things didn't go as planned."

To call it an understatement was to call the tidal wave of the Sydney colony drop a pebble tossed into a pond. At this point, Char wasn't entirely convinced that there even was any point to planning military operations anymore, what with there always being one mobile suit pilot around who can screw up even the most detailed and meticulous plans, usually with a Gundam. Of course, that worked both ways – and on the few occasions when he was the one pulling a fast one and the enemy didn't have a Gundam in their ranks, the results were most satisfactory.

"What do you mean?"

"I didn't leave anything to chance and personally led the Falmel's entire Zaku compliment into the colony to investigate." – Char began. He definitely didn't intend to tell the whole story, not after what happened, but now was his chance to do some real damage by not withholding information for once. – "The Feddies were in the middle of evacuating when we arrived and didn't have any defenses set up, likely in an attempt to maintain secrecy."

"Sounds like a turkey shoot. What went wrong?"

"One of the Federation pilots managed to get into one of the prototypes at the facility." – With a few key presses, Char sent over a still-frame of the Gundam charging him, beam saber ignited. – "This one mobile suit singlehandedly wiped out my entire squad. Only I escaped."

To Dozle's credit, his surprise was currently stronger than his outrage at Char having lost his entire squad. – "How?! It's just one suit!"

"If it would be a Zaku, that would be my reaction as well. However, based on my observations this machine far surpasses the Zaku in all regards. It is faster, more responsive, its armor is all but impervious to everything we threw at it and worst of all, as you can clearly see it is armed with beam weapons as standard."

"Beam weapons on a mobile suit? How in the world…"

"It's not just a sword, either. When I attempted to intercept the Trojan Horse warship as it left the colony, the white mobile suit came out of the colony ahead of the ship and hit the Falmel twice with a battleship-caliber beam rifle. I had to engage it up close just to buy the Falmel time to withdraw. After departing Side 7, we tailed the Trojan Horse to the vicinity of Luna II and I launched another attack."

"And got them that time?"

For what it was worth, Char did appreciate Dozle's belief in his competence. He recalled having enough trouble as it is with fellow soldiers assuming he was nothing but a cocky bastard who only got his job because of connections. Which technically was true (thanks to the Dawn Rebellion) but didn't change the fact that no connection can buy raw natural talent at handling a mobile suit.

...he nearly added Newtype talent to that list as well before he remembered Quess. Goddamn brat with her uncontrollable teenage hormones... but then again, there was Kamille as the counterexample and he was just as immature at times. In fact, he didn't believe he knew any Newtypes who weren't immature on some level, with the possible exception of Scirocco (and the definite exception of himself, of course – not that being a better human being than Paptimus Scirocco was a high bar to clear).

"On the contrary, I'm afraid. Whoever is flying that mobile suit is inexperienced, but the sheer specs of the machine more than make up for it. I went in with as much firepower as my Zaku could carry, but only managed to damage the ship before I was overpowered."

If there was one good thing to admitting that he got shot down, it was the fact that any gun camera footage of the incident was space dust along with his Zaku. Because there was no way Char was going to openly admit it wasn't actually the Gundam that got him in the end.

"Damn, Char." – Dozle muttered, unhappy but evidently not faulting him. – "At least you got out alive. So this… Trojan Horse is headed for Luna II?"

"They already arrived and the damage they took means they'll probably stay for repairs before moving on." – Which meant no time window for him to resupply this time around. Not that it worked the first time either, Bright having wised up to it and counterattacked first.

"And keep the research materials beyond our reach."

"Not necessarily, sir." – Char pointed out. – "Their orbital trajectory indicates they headed to Side 7 from Earth, not Luna II. Probably Jaburo. And if that's the case, they'll probably return there too." – If Char were to hear those words from someone else, he'd point out that those were a lot of 'probablies'. In this case, however, he knew for a fact that he was right, thanks to his... unique perspective.

"Taking the materials with them." – Dozle guessed.

"Exactly. If we intercept them after they leave Luna II, we can strike a major blow to the Federation."

And oh, how sweet that would be. It wouldn't stop the Federation from putting the GM into mass production in a few months and grinding Zeon into dust in a war of attrition, of course, but scratching off the Gundam would remove a major source of headache both for him and for Zeon, to say nothing of how much the lack of the Gundam's interference would increase Federation casualties. At this point, anything that weakened the Federation would be steering things in his favor if he decided to make a move once more down the line.

He always did like to strike two birds with one stone.

"A sound plan, Char." – Dozle declared, eagerness returning to his tone. – "Head back to Solomon; I'll start assembling a task force for it and I want you front and center. Although I'm not sure if I should risk the chance of including any of our fair Zeon maidens in it if you're intent on fighting like that from now on, heh heh heh..."

"We'll be heading back shortly, sir." – Char replied, deciding not to comment on Dozle finally remarking on the absence of his mask. As the conmen of old discovered, the easiest way to allay people's suspicions is to always pretend nothing is out of the ordinary – and although Dozle was too stupid to ever suspect that a man wearing a mask 24/7 might be hiding his identity, acting defensive over being seen without a mask could very well get back to the other Zabis' ears, which could be a mixed bag if either Gihren or Kycilia took a closer look and decided that Casval Deikun was likely not, in fact, a heroic prince modestly concealing his true identity in order to be able to fight alongside his countrymen for the memory of his father, as a few idiots of the few who did find him out eventually believed. – "I'm just doing a… reconnaissance mission before we leave back." – he added, glancing down at the normalsuit.

"Fishing for a promotion, Char? You needn't bother. I haven't heard if my brother is planning any offensives on Luna II at the moment."

"Just the same. If everything goes right, I'll be able to provide you with a detailed intelligence report within a few hours."

And for once, the plan wasn't actually any crazier than what he did the first time around.

By much.

"Good to see you, captain. Doctor." – Lieutenant Commander Wakkein said as he exchanged salutes with Cassius and Tem in front of the airlock leading back to the White Base berthed on the other side of the wall. – "I hear you've had trouble on the way."

"That's one way of putting it, commander." – Cassius replied, pausing while Wakkein dismissed the guards lined up behind him. Friendly ship or not, regulations were regulations and nobody was stupid enough to think Zeon wouldn't try impersonating the crew of a captured ship in order to get a suicide bomber in strike range of Luna II's base commander. Not that said regulations were written with Zeon in mind back in the day, but some separatist groups never really stopped being a nuisance for the Federation, even decades after the unification. – "Have you been briefed on our mission?"

"No."

"Project V."

"The Side 7 facility?" – Wakkein guessed immediately. As inflexible as he sometimes were back during Cassius' tenure as OTS instructor, the man was anything but an idiot. If he were, he wouldn't be the base commander of the EFSF's military headquarters.

"Bang on. Jaburo sent me in to fetch the research materials, but we got spotted and tailed there. They raided the colony just after we arrived; we have a lot of wounded, some of them civilian."

"I'll send word to the medical wing."

"Thank you. That's a big load off my shoulder." – Cassius sighed, not even trying to hide his exhaustion as he and Wakkein headed out of the docks and towards the latter's office, Tem splitting off soon after to go after his own business. – "We're running on a skeleton crew as it is, and Char's last attack killed my helmsman and took my XO out of commission. Only reason we even made it out of there in the first place is because one of the mobile suits at the base was combat-ready and Dr. Ray's son is a whiz kid or something."

"I wasn't aware his son enlisted."

"He's 15." – Cassius held a hand up. – "I know what you're about to say. But that kid is flat-out insane in a mobile suit, he ran the Red Comet ragged. Nobody's got any idea how he's doing it."

"What are we going to do about him?"

"That's up for Jaburo to decide, but my own recommendation is that we make use of him. He's proven himself in combat against seasoned veterans and I had a talk with him before we arrived. He wants to enlist anyway, plus he already passed up several chances to fly off with that mobile suit." – Cassius paused to let someone headed in the opposite direction pass by him before continuing. – "Wakkein, that boy is one kill away from making ace. And the one on the Red Comet wasn't even in a mobile suit!"

Wakkein halted in his step so abruptly that the two men almost collided. – "He killed the Red Comet?"

"No, he keeps saying he saw the guy eject. But that doesn't change the fact that he out-foxed one of the most dreaded Zeon aces out there." – Not that the Red Comet's reputation needed to be emphasized. After Loum, most of the EFSF knew the man's name due to Zeon propaganda, even the ones who couldn't actually name any other Zeon aces. – "And I saw the combat footage myself, it wasn't the machine, it's all him. However he's doing it, we can use people like him. I can use people like him, if we're to continue our mission."

"You're not going to make it to Jaburo in that condition."

"I know. That's why I was going to ask if you'll let us have a pit stop here before we move on."

Wakkein nodded immediately. – "Of course. I'll call Jaburo to let them know. Do you need anything else?"

"Repair crews to assess damage and getting the wounded off the ship, for now. We have a couple of civilians on board, refugees from Side 7. I told them ahead of time that they can't get off here and some of them volunteered to help out while they're with us, so I don't think there'll be much trouble on the front. Even our helmsman is a volunteer, but she's got a shuttle licence and got us in here just fine, so I think we'll manage."

"And the boy?"

"Ray? Confined to the ship unless under supervision. If the brass doesn't say otherwise, I'm definitely not letting him off until we reach Jaburo."

"Regulations state-" – Wakkein began.

"To take him into custody for unauthorized handling of military equipment in wartime, I know." – Cassius interrupted, fully aware that he was technically being disrespectful to a superior officer but also knowing that his former pupil respected him too much to object. He sensibly decided not to add that Amuro technically stole the Gundam rather than just piloting it without security clearance. Besides, that part was going to be in his official report anyway. – "But after all that happened, we owe him more than to just let rot in a cell surrounded by MPs just because we don't know what his angle is. Speaking of which, I'd like to request security assistance."

"For what purpose?"

"There was an unreported security breach at Side 7 a few months ago. Some of Ray's buddies tried to throw his relation to Dr. Ray around to force entry into the facility in a vehicle. Guards used excessive force in subduing them, which I'm fairly sure is also against regulations."

"Not in that particular case, I believe. Side 7 was a classified facility handling sensitive materials, security personnel are fully authorized to use deadly force. I don't see a problem."

"There's a difference between warning shots against trespassers who don't obey vocal warnings and physically assaulting them after they already surrendered." – Cassius insisted. – "It's entirely unnecessary."

"Why was the incident unreported?"

"Ray got involved and local personnel didn't want his father to have to undergo security screening to make sure he wasn't compromised. In any case, I have the guards in question on my ship – well, the ones that survived Char's attack, anyway. They aren't part of my crew, I've got no intention of keeping them on and I can't exactly send them back to Side 7 now, so I'd like to drop them off here until somebody above my pay grade decides what to do with them. Not sure if it's going to be Jaburo."

"I don't believe that will be necessary. Personnel transfers are within my authority."

"Fair enough. When's the next transmission window?"

Wakkein glanced at his chronometer. – "Seven hours."

It wasn't a highly-advertised fact in the EFSF outside flag officers, but Luna II did actually have means to communicate with Jaburo via means that didn't involve sending a courier ship down where Zeon could intercept it. Radio, of course, has been down ever since the war broke out due to every single warship in the Earth Sphere routinely venting Minovsky particles out into space specifically for that purpose. However, that wasn't the only way to wirelessly communicate if both ends were at known locations and had direct line of sight to each other. For that particular scenario, lasers worked just fine and actually have been in use for well over a century now; in fact, even the White Base had ship-to-ship laser interlinks, as did practically every ship in the EFSF.

It's just that high-bandwidth laser communications from ground to orbit and back tended to run into a little problem called 'atmosphere', which diffracted and scattered lasers far more effectively than Minovsky particles ever could unless the beam was cranked so high up on the electromagnetic spectrum, not to mention power output, that whatever unlucky bird flew over the antenna developed radiation sickness in short order. And that's if said antenna didn't put out enough heat to show up like a lamp on the infrared cameras of any Zeon reconnaissance flight. But for a fixed installation that was supposed to be a military command and control facility, bulk, expense and power needs of communication equipment were no problem, especially since they knew they were going to need it – and thus, Jaburo and Luna II could communicate with 1.3 seconds of lightspeed lag in each direction while orbital mechanics ensured Zeon couldn't just park a Musai in the middle to eavesdrop.

On paper, that is. In practice, being situated deep inside an equatorial jungle didn't quite help in seamlessly operating communication equipment that required a clear sky free of rain clouds, something no amount of dry ice launched into incoming clouds to make them disgorge their contents away from the actual base itself could fully handle. And of course the more antennas they scattered in the base's vicinity to look for holes in the cloud cover, the more they risked a Zeon foot recon unit stumbling on one of the cables and following it to Jaburo. All in all, making the Federation's two largest military bases able to talk to each other for 12 hours every day as soon as Luna II rose above the horizon of the Guyana Highlands was horribly expensive and complex – especially since there were only a grand total of four other ground-to-orbit laser communication facilities in the entire Earth Sphere, so technical expertise in operating and maintaining such arrays wasn't exactly in generous supply.

Of those arrays, three were on Earth itself, spaced out 120 degrees of each other along the equator for the sole purpose of at least one of them always having an uninterrupted connection to the fourth one, located on the barren lunar surface a couple dozen kilometers from Von Braun. From there, ordinary communication lasers spread out to and between every single colony still intact in the Earth Sphere - not that either the Federation or Zeon had any illusions about the network's security for military communication without each other's SIGINT divisions eavesdropping on the traffic despite Von Braun's supposed neutrality.

"Please let them know we have arrived. I'll have a complete report to send by the end of tomorrow." – After a moment, Cassius added – "Also, add that Dr. Ray is asking for one expedited security clearance for Project V, name Amuro Ray."

Post-it author's notes – 2021.08.11.

As the physical means by which Minovsky particles interfere with electromagnetic radiation is specific to low frequencies (ie. radio, radar and microwave ovens), with excessively high particle concentration expanding the effect into infrared and potentially into visible wavelengths as well (though I'm personally skeptical of that last one, no matter what the wiki says), I'm guessing tight-beam laser communication on high EM frequencies (ie. ultraviolet, X-ray or gamma) should be able to brute-force power through Minovsky jamming on a point-to-point basis, on the logic that jamming even those would require a truly ludicrous Minovsky density. In fact, space-to-space laser communication between satellites is currently being prototyped by SpaceX in real life (hence the above mention of this being old technology) and NASA already demonstrated laser transmission to the Moon and back decades ago, using mirror arrays placed by the Apollo missions to calculate the Moon's exact distance by measuring signal round trip time (2.56 seconds on average) and dividing it with the speed of light (which is a known universal constant) to obtain the result. Incidentally, the lightspeed lag to Luna II is approximately the same as to the Moon due to Luna II being located at Earth-Moon Lagrange point 3, ie. roughly the same orbital altitude as the Moon but directly opposite of it at all times (although Luna II's surface is further away due to the asteroid itself being substantially smaller, the difference is negligible at lightspeed).

Although Wakkein's full name is not stated in any official sources, an unofficial one claims his first name to be Wolfgang. His rank is a tougher nut to crack: although the wiki claims no less than four ranks for him, it doesn't provide much details and neither the original series nor the compilation movies has anyone ever address him as anything other than the generic Japanese term for "commander". Further muddying the issue is that in both animated canons, Wakkein explicitly salutes Cassius as if the latter was a superior officer and the wiki indeed claims that Cassius outranks him at that point. Thus, from what I can speculate in the blind, Wakkein is a Lieutenant Commander during his tenure at Luna II, gets promoted to Captain sometime before Solomon and dies at Texas in the original series. In Origin, he further gets promoted to Commodore at Solomon to take command of Tianem's battlegroup after the latter was killed by Dozle and when the Solar Ray kills most of the flag officers participating in Operation Star One, Jaburo quickly brevets Wakkein to Rear Admiral so that he could take command of what was left of the fleet until he too ended up killed in action against a Dolos-class supercarrier at A Baoa Qu.