War is just when it is necessary; arms are permissible when there is no hope except in arms.
-N. Machiavelli, 15th Century Italian Political Philosopher.
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Milliardo pulled the refurbished military truck in to the courtyard of the old Sanc Kingdom Institute, with the final round of volunteers in tow. Noin ran up to salute him as the engine puttered to a stop, "The last of the civilians have evacuated to the mountains," she reported, "Fortifications on the central streets are complete."
Battle would descend upon his beloved city once again, but this time they would not take the knee. Noin quivered anxiously next to him, almost imperceptible were they not standing so close. She leant in and whispered in his ear, ah, his sister had finally arrived. Milliardo gave orders to assign the new men, and headed into the building with Noin.
Milliardo strode ahead of Noin, who having spoken to Relena an hour prior, felt it prudent to warn him, "She'll not be persuaded of our purpose."
"I'm not going to convince her of the righteousness of our actions, but only to offer her a choice," Milliardo paused to regard his faithful companion, "Though I fear it's all too certain what she will choose."
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"Lead the militia? Impossible," Relena was horrified at the notion, "Our father's legacy of total pacifism cannot be reconciled with taking up arms."
"Our father is dead, his ideals doomed his own children to exile. Our people need us to lead them in a defensive battle." Milliardo was calm, but his words sent shockwaves through Relena.
"The Sanc Kingdom cannot take part in battles!"
Milliardo was quiet for a moment, marveling at the naïveté of his only remaining kin. Simeon shifted awkwardly from one foot to another, wishing he was anywhere else. Noin sent him in as a familiar face to ease tensions between the siblings, it didn't work. At length, Milliardo spoke again in a more paternal tone.
"Do you know why we were born, little sister?" He uncrossed his arms and approached the window Relena was seated in, "We were born to bear the burden of stewardship. We are not free to do as we wish, our blood carries with it the responsibilities of sovereigns."
"The world has progressed beyond the need for monarchs, kings and nobles are a thing of the past."
"To be replaced by whom? Politicians? War profiteers?"
Relena looked up at him unfazed, "My responsibility now is to reunite the nations in peace."
"The unification of all mankind is but a dream, Relena, an empire by any other name." Milliardo looked out the window at the courtyard below, busy with activity in the weak light of dawn, "When presented with such absolute power, there's not a man or woman born who can withstand so great a temptation for corruption."
"You think so little of humanity," Relena said, following his gaze, she could barely make out the movements of soldiers.
"No, I think humanity has great potential for good, but also an equal potential for evil. Can you really say the ESUN is exempt from this?"
Relena couldn't answer, it was true the ESUN was corrupt to the core. Could any system relying on corruptible human beings ever hope to bring peace?
Milliardo lowered his voice, "Sister, do you despise your birthright?"
"My birthright?" Relena was startled by his turn of phrase, "The people lived without our rule for over two decades."
"We waited twenty-one years," Simeon blushed at his outburst but forged on, "My grandfather left his own family to serve you until he died, yet you never even intended to return?"
"...Pagan was your grandfather?" Relena studied his face in a new light, parsing out features reminiscent of the reserved old man who had been her caretaker since infancy.
"We have utterly failed to protect our subjects," Milliardo put a hand on Simeon's shoulder, "Without her monarch, there is no kingdom, and our people are lost sheep."
"And that justifies a violent rebellion?"
"We are defending our homeland," Milliardo's patience was wearing thin, they didn't have much time, "What do you think is going to happen to our people when the ESUN dissolves?"
Relena had not given much thought to the future of her nation, if she still had any claim to it. The chaos wrought by a total collapse of the pan-national union would trigger a land-grab by predatory superstates. Small, peaceful nations such as the Sanc Kingdom will be carved up and annexed as provinces of other countries. Then there's always the lurking danger of colonization should the kingdom lack a coherent government. Though it was also possible that national boarders would simply default back to pre-Alliance boundaries, which were still functionally recognized by trade guilds.
"War is not a guaranteed outcome," Relena said, she refused to give in to despair.
"Neither is peace, pacifism is a luxury of the privileged few who are strong enough that no one dares attack them," Milliardo said, "We are far too weak."
Relena turned to Simeon, "You'd fight and be killed and deprive your children of a parent?"
"If I can't protect my children, what good is it to stay alive?" Simeon stood tall and resolute, the lion insignia on his old OZ uniform glistened in the dim light, "There are things worse than death."
Relena rose from the window ledge, her body cast a long shadow on the dusty carpet as the Eastern horizon grew brighter. "I cannot lead this nation in its current aspirations, however neither can I condemn the will of the people. I only regret not understanding your hearts sooner."
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Trowa rubbed his fatigued eyes and took a swig of coffee, which had gone cold and tasted like ash water. He scanned the network centre he was assigned to, the lights were dim in the facility and every terminal was manned by a new recruit, each busily sifting through the millions of threads on the web. Their unit's objective was to scour both public and private forums for any anti-ESUN sentiment, identify the source and pass the report on to the enforcement agency.
The Cyber Spyders unit, Trowa was unimpressed by the lame title, was stuffed into the old Preventers HQ, as if to deliberately erase the memories of its previous occupants.
Trowa surpassed the daily quota two hours into his shift, from there it was easy to keep his head down while browsing internal communications of the ESUN. A cache of detailed minutes from the meticulous clerk's account was Trowa's reward, he delved in.
Rumours of a Gundam sighting was confirmed early morning, seven aircraft carriers were deployed from five different countries to neutralize the threat. So Heero did complete his pet project, Trowa mused, some days he missed Heavyarms, too. How would a Gundam fair against un-armoured combatants? He shuddered to think of the moral injury the pilot would suffer from such an asymmetrical battle.
With the Gundam delayed, would Heero make it back to the Sanc Kingdom in time? They were pulling significant numbers from Bavarian police forces to quell Zechs' rebellion. That particular German state did not even remotely border the target, why not draw manpower from somewhere closer?
Zechs was in Sanc, Trowa's breath caught in a thought. Bavaria was a former Alliance stronghold, the local police forces would jump at the chance to strike down the man who humiliated them as a commander in OZ. There must be an observant tactician inside the ESUN Peace and Safety council, or someone from the Romefeller Foundation was involved intimately with this operation.
Trowa's scalp tingled with goosebumps, Romefeller never let a tragedy go to waste, even so, the timing of the Brussels protest bombing was too convenient to be coincidental. The bodies of the dead children weren't even cold yet, they were already used as an excuse for conquest. This unification was to be built on innocent blood.
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"Today we mourn for the senseless loss of thirty precious young souls, but we must not be paralyzed by grief. The unspeakable evil attack last night was a declaration of war against the Earth Sphere Unified Nation, and against humanity.
"We must turn sorrow into strength and strike down these terrorist states in a swift and decisive victory. For this reason, I ordered the total shut down of communications in terrorist controlled territories, and the extremist infested network forums will no longer be allowed to be the breeding ground for more acts of violence.
"Peacekeepers have been deployed by the ESUN Council of Peace and Safety, we will restore order around the world.
"What's more, the Colonies are now allied with the radical extremists, as evidenced by the appearance of a Gundam over the South Atlantic this morning. But our brave Naval Peacekeepers destroyed the Gundam in an intense battle at four hundred hours universal time.
"I repeat, the Gundam has been destroyed. There is no point in fighting, I appeal to all dissidents to surrender peacefully."
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Noin observed Relena closely as the ESUN announcement played on the small comms. unit in the briefing room. After Davos' speech, footage of the confrontation between a lone Gundam and the fleet of aircraft carriers was played on loop, no doubt in an effort to demoralize the "dissident" nations. Why else would Davos go through the trouble of broadcasting during the blackout?
Noin had her suspicions about the authenticity of the footage, but the look on Relena's face confirmed at least the existence of the mobile suit. Antarctica...the boy must've taken advantage of the defunct OZ base to reconstruct the Gundam. Was Relena aware of what he had done?
Regardless, no one here believed the Gundam to be so easily defeated. Judging by the jeers of the soldiers, instead of being discouraged, the broadcast roused their fighting spirits. They all had faith that the Gundam would come to their aid.
As usual, Noin found herself staring at Zechs, no, this was Milliardo, dressed in his imperial guard coat. The "killer of his own men" they called him, it wasn't that Milliardo was reckless as a commander, on the contrary, Treize trusted his friend's ability enough to send him to unwinnable battles, casualty was always high but the Lightning Count won each battle against impossible odds.
They were facing impossible odds now, a ragtag resistance force made up of retired soldiers and young volunteers. some of the boys were so green their voices were still changing, but Noin herself wasn't much older when she first enlisted with OZ.
"Sons of the Sanc Kingdom, my fellow soldiers," Milliardo addressed the assembled men at the front of the lecture hall turned makeshift command centre, Noin stood at attention beside him, "We fight not to conquer, but to protect, and faceless tyrants from faraway lands will not rule over us."
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Relena watched the morning fog roll in from the bay, covering New Port under a thick veil. Around her in the foyer of the institute building, medics busied themselves with preparations to receive the wounded, nurses tried to disguise fear with professionalism to varying degrees of success.
Milliardo had insisted on her retreat to the safety of the mountains, but Noin understood her decision to stay. If Heero was alive, he would be coming back here. Relena also felt a deep sense of guilt for her long neglected people, who nevertheless remained fiercely loyal. She could not leave them. Her brother looked at her wordlessly for a moment before he left to lead the men out to battle, she was familiar with such a look, she'd seen it on Heero more than once, it was the gaze of a warrior silently saying farewell.
Was it right to take up arms for self defence? Wasn't that act alone a provocation? How easy it was to justify violence. No, Relena shook herself, Heero was not a violent man, his capacity for violence was wielded exclusively for her protection. And it wasn't as if direct, physical violence was the only way to harm others.
She has pursued total pacifism by universal disarmament and the unification of all nations. In the end this only resulted in the oppression of small countries by larger states via bureaucratic manipulation. Nothing changed the corrupt nature of human behaviour, it was only driven underground, and became subversive beneath a veneer of politeness.
A lone shot rang out in the empty streets, echoing off the abandoned buildings. Sharp shooters were taking down ESUN scout drones as the "Peacekeepers" waited at their boarders.
Heero had told her once that the battlefield was a lonely place, Relena now understood this wasn't always true. The men who marched out with her brother today exhibited extraordinary camaraderie, perhaps Heero felt isolated because he always fought on his own, never truly belonging with those he fought alongside.
The way his Gundam faced down the coalition naval fleet, barely a few pixels on the screen...Relena realized with a pang, he was still fighting all alone.
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Tbc...