Phase 28: Poison

An eye for an eye. Revenge, an act that perpetrates another act of revenge, which will feed into the vicious cycle of destruction. Once one had taken the life of another, he shall prepare for his life to be taken This is something that Andrew Wartfeld knew and made his personal code. Who would be the avenger? Would it be the Desert Dawn insurgents or that Yamato kid?

"Commander, why are we facing…" Martin's expression on the screen was one of puzzlement.

"Shut up and just look at your main screen," Andrew said.

"Yes… yes, sir!" Martin replied with confusion in his voice.

"I don't want anyone to talk pointlessly during the mission. Just remain as you are, maintain the lookout for a possible enemy attack, until I say otherwise. Do all of you understand?"

A chorus of affirmatives was their answer to Andrew's words. He sighed and ended the communication. The question was expected, given that Andrew had his LaGOWE and his team's BeCUEs assembled in the middle of the night doing exactly nothing except facing in a particular direction.

"We don't want to record what's taking place behind us accidentally, do we?" Aisha said from her seat in front of him.

"Hush!"

"Don't worry," she said, chuckling. "I've already disabled the cockpit's recording feature,"

Andrew raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You went so far?"

"Of course. When they contacted us for this operation, I kind of guess this would happen. I had the others disabled as well,"

"I'm a bad human being, aren't I?"

"If you're a bad human, how about me?" Aisha asked back. "Besides, even if we don't come here, do you really think the AC will let the attack on their base go unpunished? Does the Desert Dawn really think that it will get away killing unarmed and surrendering POWs?"

"That's why poorly trained insurgents are no good,"

"My thoughts as well,"

"Give a gun and everyone can shoot; knowing when or who not to shoot, now, that's the training for,"

"But that Jada doesn't seem to be trained to me," Aisha said skeptically. "Maybe her uncle is someone important?"

"Her father is the number two in the military," Andrew corrected. Earlier in the day, Andrew received an order from PLANTs to help the Colonel Jada Nzinga, a local African Communities military commander. When the commander herself came to his headquarters, he finally learned the details of the operation. Her brigade was to cleanse the town of Tasil of any terrorist filth haunting the local population.

The fact that Desert Dawn, or any other insurgents, operate from the town was well known to everyone, including ZAFT and the African Community. When he mentioned that to the colonel, she sniffed and haughtily replied that his reasoning didn't make sense. She likened the terrorist groups to a bone fire, which, if left unchecked, could burn the whole thing down. Fighting the terrorist groups head-to-head was just like trying to pour water on the fire, which could be ineffective. Rather than do that, Colonel Jada argued, it would be better to remove the fuel from the fire, in that case, the population support to the terrorist groups.

Even though everyone was facing away from Tasil, Andrew could see the intermittent flashes of light illuminating the sands in front of them.

The correct but difficult way of removing the support was to engage the population to identify the issues that were cause for discontent and try to address them as much as possible. At the same time, a carrot and stick approach to manage the population must be implemented to reward its cooperation while punishing the few members that didn't.

From what Andrew could surmise, Colonel Jada took the wrong but easier way of simply burning the town to the ground, probably attacking the civilians as well. The collective punishment targeting the town population for allegedly supporting Desert Dawn was quite cruel and most probably a war crime, but Andrew understood that done correctly, it could be effective. On the other hand, the action could end up pouring fuel onto the fire, causing it to burn more.

"Is the reason why we maintain this range is so that we can claim that we're too far away to know what is happening?" Aisha asked.

"That, and it's far enough that the communication may be affected, but still close enough in case we need to provide support,"

"To mow down the old people, women and children? I don't think their training is that bad,"

If someone else heard Aisha's comment, he or she might mistake her for supporting what was transpiring in the town. But Andrew knew that Aisha, just like him and the rest of the group, was against the mission. However, they had orders to follow, which Andrew had ensured didn't break any law. His team's presence in the area was morally suspect, true, but not complicit or party to Colonel Jada's mission.

There's also another reason why the African Community commander was assigned to burn down the town. It was safer to attack civilians instead of trying to fight Desert Dawn. Her father probably wanted her to have some operational successes under her belt to promote her to a higher rank soon. "Maybe they can design a 'genocide' medal ribbon for her brigade," Andrew replied, referring to the medal ribbon on military uniforms to denote service records.

"You think that kid and his friends may come here?"

"Not in time. We've received the confirmation that they were attacking another location. Why do you think our allies here are so enthusiastic in wiping out the invisible resista… I mean, terrorists, here? When the cat's away, the mice will play,"

"That's terrible,"

"Yeah, more than the instant you served,"

The team remained in its position for an hour before Andrew contacted the African Community colonel. "Good evening, Colonel Nzinga. Have you achieved your mission?" he said through the airwaves, careful not to initiate video transmission.

"Not yet. There's a lot of people to interrogate,"

"Since everyone is a terrorist, you need time to shoot and bomb them all," Andrew muttered.

"What was that?"

"As I was saying, we're running low on power and have to pull out in another fifteen minutes,"

"What! That is not enough time for us to achieve the objective!"

Andrew was sorely tempted to switch on the video feed to see the colonel's expression but managed to stay his hand. She was pissed off big time, for sure. "Apologies, but that's how fickle the battery systems are. We lost almost half of their capacities in this rough environment. If the enemy attacks, we don't want to be caught while our BeCUEs are offline, do we?"

"Give us another hour!"

"Thirty, that's the best we can do,"

"Very well," the colonel said before signing off.

"I'll have to record you so that we can swap that part of the audio," Aisha said, referring to the comment Andrew uttered.

"Much appreciated,"

"Being on standby doesn't use that much of power though,"

Most of the power being consumed was for the air purifying system, sensor suite and operating system, which was quite minimal; the BeCUEs could remain on standby for another five hours without adverse effect on the battery capacity. "They don't need to know. Thirty is long enough for them to drop anything they're doing, reassemble and leave the area,"

As he had predicted, after twenty-five minutes, the African Community brigade began leaving the burning city, hastily making its way back to its base. After a while, Andrew gave the order for his own team to return to his headquarters. As the team moved away from the area, they detected a lone aircraft flying toward the area.

"Should we engage it?" Martin asked.

"With what? It's beyond our anti-air missiles,"

"But what if it attacks?"

"It's unable to. Just let it be."

The lone aircraft, a Skygrasper landed not far from the area and Mu appeared from the cockpit, got down and stood in front of the scene of destruction and death, even as the smell of burning flesh wafted in the air, the wind carrying it from what was supposed to be a town. He dropped to his knees and punched the sand in front of him, letting off a silent scream.

Even though Sai had volunteered to follow him, he turned the offer down, knowing that Aegis didn't have enough to make the journey. It was just as well, since arriving at the scene after being involved in an operation earlier left his Skygrasper with bingo energy, just enough to return to Archangel.

He was very fortunate their enemies had retreated, as he was sure he couldn't even fire a shot without risking emptying the battery. There was a pair of missiles onboard, so he could aim and… Mu smacked his head in self-derision. He was trying to escape from facing the situation by imagining fighting against the enemies who had already retreated, as if by destroying them, he could wipe off the sight from his mind. Even though his rational mind was telling him not to look through the binoculars, there was a perverse side of him that told him to keep watching the bodies littering the landscape.

It is as he had expected. ZAFT and its allies weren't content with letting the Desert Dawn be, especially with the obvious war crimes. Just like in many conflicts, in the end, the civilians were those who bore the brunt of retaliation.

Eventually, he left the scene of carnage to return to the Archangel to make his report.

"Sahib! We must get revenge!" someone shouted at the man who was sitting on a chair, crossing his arms. "They had attacked the town and blood debt demand blood repayment!"

"He's right," another added.

Sahib got up and smashed his fist on the table, leaving a dent on its aluminum surface. "Idiots! How about the people in the city? Don't we need to help them first?"

"But we must not let the Tiger get away with his actions!"

Seeking support, Sahib turned toward Mu, who sighed and walked toward the middle of the room. "Is Wartfeld really responsible?" Mu asked.

"What do you mean?" The man who advocated for a swift retribution for the attacked asked back.

"He's not known for doing this kind of things,"

"How do you know? You're here for a few days and now you know everything! Typical Westerners!"

"That's a low blow, but I don't really care. What I do know is this," Mu said as he pressed the remote, which was already in his hand in the very beginning. One of the main screens in the headquarters changed to show aerial footage of Tasil burning. "Look at the ZAFT units and their tracks. None of them ever got within 3 kilometers of the town. On the other hands, there are some units, probably from the Communities, rampaging around."

"What's your point?" someone else asked.

"My point is most probably ZAFT's not directly involved. Maybe it is involved, and I am wrong. Let's make it easy. Assume I'm wrong and you're justified in seeking revenge. And then what?"

"We attack them!" someone said.

"Right. I'm stupid here, so I am going to ask a foolish question: why didn't you attack them head on in the very beginning?"

"You are stupid!" another said. "If we attack them then, we will be wiped out!"

"Yeah, I'm stupid like that… which is why I've to ask, what's the difference between then and now?" Mu riposted. "What makes you think that charging ahead at a waiting enemy is a good idea? Or do you have a plan?" The Endymion ace stared at the people in the room one by one. "I'm all ears,"

Cagalli stepped up to grab Mu by the collar, but Kira, who was nearby, pushed her hand away. "Kira?"

"What Mu said is the truth. Why can't you understand that?"

"People have died!"

"And are you eager to join them?" Kira said softly. "There's no point in throwing your life needlessly,"

This time, it was Kira's collar who was grabbed. "Asshole! All of us fought desperately! Bravely! And even now we're still fighting desperately and bravely for the sake of the people! Those people who were slaughtered by ZAFT and its lackeys! And you tell us not to do anything?"

The whole room was silenced by a smacking sound.

The slap to Cagalli's face wasn't that strong, but it was enough to stun her, causing her to release her grip.

"You can't protect anyone with just pretty words and naïve sentiments!" Kira scolded her while holding the hand that slapped her, the hand trembling; he looked as if he was trying to prevent himself from hitting her again. "Think a bit about people who are left waiting for you!"

Cagalli's own hand went to her cheek absently. "Kira…"

"If anything happens to you…" Kira's eyes were closed, as he inadvertently relived the vision that had been burned in his mind. "If anything happens to those you left…"

"Why don't we cool our heads for now and talk again later?" Sahib said, clearly addressing everyone in the room. "That way we can plan our revenge accordingly,"

While there were some dissatisfied faces and a few grunts, all of them agreed. As some began leaving the room, Sahib gestured toward Ledonir, who nodded and said something to Cagalli. Together, the three of them left the place with Mu and Kira to go to the Archangel. Once onboard, they kept moving until they reached the briefing room. There, Mu turned toward them and held his thumb and forefinger apart. "I was this close to going postal, and Cagalli here was about to get hers if Kira hadn't interfered,"

"You dare strike a foreign dignitary?" Ledonir asked, frowning. "Don't your training teach you manners?"

"Yes, but my experience in war taught me something even better. It's called, 'I don't give a fuck'. What is she doing there, stoking everyone's fire? Their nerves are raw, we don't need someone egging them to throw their lives away,"

"What do you know about that?" Cagalli said in protest.

"269 confirmed kills. 335 probable ones, lots more not confirmed," Mu sniffed. "Not to be proud off but I do know my stuff." He thumbed toward Kira. "36 confirmed, 12 probable ones, maybe 30 not confirmed. His friend Assasin's record is around that too, while Monarch, he probably took out more than I do," Mu said while shrugging. "How about you, Princess? How many have you killed?"

Cagalli didn't answer.

"I guessed as much. No one who had enough experience would be so gung-ho to fight their enemies. While being proactive is good, always remember to take a step back and think," Mu said. "Like me, Tiger prefers his enemies to be morons, so you may want to consider denying him that. And speaking about thinking… it is time to come clean, don't you think?"

"We don't understand what you are talking about," Sahib said.

Mu rolled his eyes. "Sorry, we're trained with the best when it comes to this kind of thing. Alright, before we start, do we want to have this conversation with Princess here or not? People told me I can be an asshole once I start blabbing my mouth,"

Ledonir was about to say something when Cagalli cut him off. "Kisaka, I want to know what he's talking about,"

"But…"

"Old enough to fight, old enough to know,"

The man sighed.

Taking Ledonir's action as a sign to continue, Mu said, "Look, we're slow to notice, but Monarch remarked that your equipment is new and top-of-the-line. Meanwhile, that arms dealer, El-Jelly, or whatisname, he has so many types of weapons. What boggles the mind is that he also has ample munitions specific to this ship.

"How should I know what the man is thinking," Sahib insisted.

"No, no, no," Mu said while shaking his finger before pointing to Cagalli. "It's not that difficult if you think about it. His Majesty told his beloved princess to go out and learn about the real world. In other families, that probably entails undergoing an internship at another company, or go on a world tour to visit tourist places. But no, it has to be in a conflict zone, embedded in a sufficiently equipped resistance group equipped with the latest military-level hardware and software,"

"You expect us to throw rocks or slash them with our swords?" Sahib asked.

"No, but you're not supposed to have something that new. Heck, ZAFT's allies are probably less equipped than your group is. That arms dealer, he's just pretending to be, but he's actually one of your people, isn't he? That's why we don't find ourselves lacking supplies, as if he knew what we would need; no, the real reason is he's just a middleman tasked to resupply Archangel. He pretends to sell it to us while you pretend to pay him. Am I getting anything wrong so far?"

"Your statement sounds so fantastical," Ledonir remarked.

"Manufacturers need to test their products, preferably in conflicts such as these. You get access to the equipment and weapons while they get access to real-time data. Of course, there's the need to maintain deniability on this transaction, which is where El-Jelly comes in,"

Cagalli considered Mu's words before turning toward Ledonir.
"Is this true, Kisaka? Is Orb supplying the resistance with weapons?"

The man nodded.

"But we're supposed to be neutral and not supposed to intervene in the conflicts of other nations!"

"Whoa there, Princess," Mu said. "Before blame train goes choo choo, I want to point out that you're in no position to complain, since you're here as well. A country is a sum of its people and all that,"

"Kira and the rest are here as well," Cagalli retorted.

"Not the same. They're here as part of the Eurasian military… and the train's not going to leave the station. I get the gist of the situation now. Okay, Sahib, here's the game plan. Your people want revenge, we give them revenge. But it would be different from what they expect."

Sahib crossed his arms. "I'm listening."

Before Mu could say anything, the door opened and Murrue entered, breathing heavily, as if she ran all the way from the bridge to the briefing room. "Mu, you got to see this!"

Unbidden, Mu's eyes looked at her, stopping at her heaving chest. "See what?" he managed to say, even though his eyes still remained at the same spot.

Murrue went to the screen and pressed some buttons. The screen showed a news report about a plane crash. According to a reporter reporting from the scene from the crash, the emergency responders have arrived at the crash location and are shifting through the ground to search for potential survivors. However, the chance of survivors was slim. Mu was beginning to wonder the reason Murrue showed him and the rest of the people there when a name of the victim caught his ears. George Allster. It sounded so familiar, but he could not put a finger on where he had heard the name before.

"Flay!" Kira said, paled-faced.

Nicol stood at the door, looking inside. His father was hunched over his worktable, staring at something. Nicol turned his attention to his mother who was standing on the other side of the door. She nodded solemnly.

It had been three days that his father had cooped himself inside the room. According to his mother, his father hasn't slept a wink and only left the room for toilet breaks. If she wasn't around, he probably would have gone without eating as well. His mother had tried to convince his father to take care of himself, but to no avail. He was an obsessed man on a mission. Therefore, his mother had pleaded with Nicol to talk some sense to his father.

Nicol gave a look at his father again and nodded to his mother. "Father, may I come in?"

"Yes, sure, Son," his father said absently.

Nicol entered the room and approached his father.

Yuri Amalfi looked tired and haggard, no doubt the result of not sleeping for days. The fire in his eyes belied his expression, as he kept his attention on the table.

Nicol got closer and finally saw what his father was looking at. It was a diagram of an equipment being displayed on the screen on the table and Nicol found his gaze being captured by it. "What is it?"

Yuri took a deep breath and exhaled. "It is a new type of nuclear reactor,"

At that statement, Nicol felt his blood curdled. "Antevorta?" he asked, recalling the orbital mission assigned to his team.

"No," Yuri said, shaking his head. "The analogue to the N-Jammer Canc… It's not, so you don't have to worry about it. This was known as 'Project Jormungandr'. It was a rumor that existed even before Operation Ourob… what am I saying," The man ran a hand through his hair. "It's a MOMENTUS nuclear reactor,"

"MOMENTUS?"

"Motion Obrogation Magnetically Enforced Neutron Transmission, Unhindered and Stabilized."

Yuri then explained that the current design of a nuclear reactor entailed creating a nuclear fission in which a heavy nucleus splits into two or lighter fission products while releasing kinetic energy, gamma radiation and free neutrons. Those free neutrons, in turn, would smash into neighboring heavy nuclei, triggering more fissions. Neutron Jammer prevented such reactors from functioning by generating a field that inhibits free neutron motion, therefore preventing nuclear fission from taking place.

"But the way you're obsessing over this reactor, it is as if the reactor works,"

"Conceptually yes. A MOMENTUS generator is like a tokamak but the plasma field encapsulates the fission process, simultaneously protecting it from the Neutron-Jammer field and moderating the rate."

Nicol considered his father's words. A tokamak, its name derived from a Russian acronym, was a toroidal chamber with magnetic coil, was a device which used a magnetic field to confine plasma in the shape of torus. "But tokamak is normally used to support nuclear fusion, not fission,"

"True. It's one of the likeliest candidates for the method to contain the fusion process. But in this case, it would allow the use of nuclear fission. Some of the energy released by the fission process can also be rerouted to maintain the field, allowing fissions to continue,"

"That's great, isn't it?"

"It has many weaknesses,"

"Weaknesses?"

"Requiring a high output starter generator, for one, though it may not be an issue if we put it in a power station. Another one that I can think of is miniaturizing the reactor. It's not impossible, but difficult as it will introduce many failure points."

"What do you mean?"

"For example, if it is fixed to a spaceship and there's a strong shock, the nuclei and the neutrons may get out of the field, causing the fission rate to drastically drop."

Nicol nodded. "But on the plus side, this makes it harder to weaponize it. An explosion would cause the field to dissipate, causing the N-Jammer to retard the whole fission chain."

"True," his father admitted.

A thought hit Nicol. "Wait a minute. This kind of knowledge would have caused a massive stir on PLANTs! Or the whole world, even! I'm not surprised if it's classified 'SECRET' or even 'TOP SECRET'. Why are you even telling me this?"

Yuri pointed to a number near the reactor's diagram. "For some inexplicable reason, this diagram was sent to this device, along with this. I couldn't forward it to anyone else, and I didn't call my colleagues, as our house is probably monitored. I tried to analyze it as much as possible, as every second counts,"

Nicol looked at it and saw that the number was 11 and counting down. He would have said something, but it was clear that his father wanted him to wait. Finally, the number reached 0 and for a while, Nicol expected something to happen, such as a video to play. But a whole minute went by without anything happening. Just as he was about to ask his father, his phone rang. Nicol took it out and saw that Athrun, Dearka and other acquaintances were trying to contact him, all at the same time.

"Information about the MOMENTUS reactor has been released to the public," Yuri said. "The clock on the nuclear age resumes,"

1

A/N

1. Weapon dealers are merchants. So, they will sell things that sell. Why would they stock munitions belonging to a particular weapon system if there wasn't any operating in the vicinity? Transporting and storing the munitions would have been a waste. So, it is strange A-Jairi would happens to sell munitions compatible with Archangel's weapons unless he already has access to the manufacturer… which happen to be Morgenroete. Which is in Orb. Which has pledged not to intervene in the conflicts of other nations. Then again, selling weapons may not equate to intervening so it is technically correct.

2. We can assist other party because of altruistic and selfish reasons at the same time. Giving weapons to a party to defend itself is good, but at the same time, there's no need to deny ourselves from collecting information on their use in order to improve the weapons.

3. Even in cannon Gundam Seed, Cagalli's presence to assist Ledonir's home country, is suspect at best. Think about it for a second, if a child of a reigning monarch / president / prime minister was captured while being part of an insurgency against the occupier, could the parent claim that it has nothing to do with him / her and have everyone believe the statement? No. In diplomacy, 'optics' is very important, and in some situations is more important than what you say. In a way, Uzumi risked triggering a conflict between Orb and ZAFT by supporting the insurgents in North Africa. Morally right? Probably, but still doesn't adhere to the principle of the country. Which the point here: no country is 'good' or 'evil', or 'peaceful' or 'warlike'. Say what you will about the man, but Uzumi is a savvy politician who doesn't hesitate to use statecraft to achieve his objectives.

4. The MOMENTUS reactor, which is in the title of this story, is grounded in the setting of Neutron-Jammer and Neutron-Jammer Canceller technologies. In Fallen Angel, a lot of focus was given to the scientific foundation whereas this story focus more on conflict and warfare. But it is still a Gundam fanfic and adheres to the world as much as it could.

5. Not to complain, but it looks a bit... Kira and his team seems flip-floppy in GSF regarding the use of nuclear reactors.