Chapter 33: Forced Capture Is a Part of Gundam
Stella hid behind the cover and skillfully changed magazines. Time is running out, the enemy's reinforcements will arrive at any moment.
The six people disguised as tourists, divided into two three-person teams, and the target is Justice Gundam and Freedom Gundam. Freedom Gundam was on the Eternal, three of them have lurked on the ship early, only to wait for the mourning event to be over. Justice Gundam is parked in the ZAFT military base, and her group is responsible for infiltrating in to take it by force.
Although there is a map of the military base, they were still discovered in the hangar. Sting Oakley has been killed, only she and Auel Neider were still alive.
The mission must be completed, and the Gundam can only be driven by one person, that is to say, between she and Auel, there must be one to attract firepower, the other to seize the MS. she is closer to Justice Gundam, then Auel will go to attract firepower. Everything takes precedence over the mission, and life doesn't matter. Both she and Auel understand that.
She confirmed a look with Auel behind the cover on the other side, then threw a homemade smoke grenade into the crowd. This was the last one. Auel used the last clip to start the cover fire, and she took advantage of this chance to lunge in the direction of Justice Gundam.
A green-clad soldier suddenly raised his gun in front of her, and this is the last obstacle between her and the cockpit. Under the effect of drugs, her reflexes exceeded even a part of Coordinators. She stared at the wrist of the opponent, the moment the other side fired, she spurted to his side and then skillfully cut open his neck.
No need to be faster than the bullet, faster than the person who fired would be enough.
Stella opened the cockpit according to the instructions from memory, jumped in, and sat in the driver's seat. The last moment of closing the hatch she saw Auel being shot to pieces, but she was indifferent. Well done, the mission is half done.
Justice Gundam's systems started to boot up and the modules began to load. As written in the action plan, the trickiest password authentication was turned on, and she knew the password.
But this boot screen, this operating system, this conch-shaped pattern in the bottom right corner that was so faint as to be almost invisible… in addition to the ZAFT logo displayed in the center of the screen, all indicated that this was designed by Adrien Lingus. Stella remembered that she saw on TV a few days ago that this was a completely self-developed ZAFT production. These adults are so shameless, just like on Earth.
The last time she checked the medicine in her pocket, there was still enough to last until the arrival of Alexander. Ready to go.
In the next second, Justice Gundam shot up into the sky amidst the shocked gazes of the ZAFT soldiers. The backpack on the fuselage's back spewing out a searing stream of flame as it headed off into the universe. The other remaining MSs in the Cosport had no chance of catching up with Justice Gundam in terms of speed or energy. The Senators of the Supreme Council were the first to learn of this news and immediately sent communications to the Eternal.
And at this moment on the Eternal, Ade also fell into shock.
According to the plots in general romance movies, this time, Ade should ask, "What did you just want to say?" and Lacus would reply, "Nothing, you misheard", then they look at each other for a while. Then Ade showed a gentle smile, and Lacus was encouraged in the head and finally said "in fact, I love…", so the plot can progress in the happy direction.
But he is not thinking about this now, instead, his mind is full of questions. Intruders? How did they get on the ship? Or were they lurking on the ship before sailing? What was the purpose? Was ZAFT so useless? Can even such an important battleship, the Eternal mix in with the enemy?
"I just hope the enemy's purpose is not Freedom Gundam." Lacus found a seat and sat down, looking worried, completely forgetting what she had just wanted to say, "Otherwise, it means that the anti-Neutron Jammer has been exposed, and there is the possibility of war again."
"But sooner or later it will be exposed, right?" Ade did not think so, "The moon already knows it, and it is only a matter of time for the Earth Federation to know it."
"I understand." Lacus gave him a bitter smile, "We will transfer the technology of Neutron Jammer Canceller someday, but definitely not in this way."
"You agree to transfer the technology?" This is the first time Ade has heard of this. Is this Lacus' distinctive ruling philosophy?
"Yes, it will even be given out for sure." Seeing his interested look, Lacus patiently explained, "Originally, the Clyne faction did not support Neutron Jammer Canceller's research, but since it's already there, we can only maximize its value. Once the Earth Federation knows of its existence, it will certainly threaten us to hand it over, and here we can use the negotiations to delay it for a while while we expand our forces and prepare for war. After that, the Earth Federation will most likely declare war, and we are unlikely to win the war, but we can use the energy advantage to cause some warfare in the early stages."
"Using war for peace?"
"Exactly, when the time comes, we can make active peace talks during a period of strategic advantage. the Earth Federation is only a loose political alliance, and for the more neutral and energy-consuming countries in it like China, exchanging Neutron Jammer Canceller for nuclear fuel is perfectly acceptable."
"So the core idea is obtaining nuclear weapons for self-defense?" It seems that Lacus' plan at least sounds more reliable than her father's one.
"Use nuclear deterrence and nuclear bundling to re-establish strategic balance, after which Neutron Jammer Canceller can even be used to trade with more countries. This would usher in a longer period of peaceful development, at which point PLANT could rapidly upgrade its technology. With Coordinator's ability, it is perfectly possible to develop the next stage of technological superiority during this time and then form a virtuous cycle."
Looking at Lacus, Ade was a bit dismayed. She always tried hard to act like a teenage girl, like she always acted to the others. To be honest, the acting was quite good. But what was going on now? As if she didn't care to show her side as a politician.
"What's wrong? Do I have something on my face?" Lacus looked at him with a curious look, "Or is there something wrong with what I said?"
"No, there is no problem, what you said is indeed a viable method. It's just that," he hesitated for a moment, but decided to say it, "I always feel that there is something different about you."
"There is? It's Ade-san's delusion, isn't it?" Lacus put on that familiar, cute, perfect-as-an-actor smile again, "I've always been like this today, really, all the time …"
The atmosphere became a little strange again, it seemed like a good time to ask "what were you trying to say before", but intuition told Ade not to pursue the question, and he chose to trust it. Recently, he has been trusting his intuition more and more, does his thinking mode generally become an NT's? But no matter how Lacus behaves, there must be her deeper meaning and purpose in it. There is no need to dwell on this.
"How did the enemy sneak onto the ship?" He decided to change the subject, this atmosphere is too weird, "is not the Eternal ZAFT's top-level secret? Or was there a mutiny on board?"
"Mutiny is unlikely, everyone on board has undergone a rigorous background check." Seeing that Ade did not mean to continue, Lacus seemed to be relieved, "The biggest possibility is to have lurked on the ship beforehand. After the event is over, when everyone is most relaxed, it's the best time to launch an attack. Think about it this way, it is the most reliable guess that a mole had leaked information beforehand."
"Then, if we consider in this direction, is Justice Gundam also in danger?" In Ade's mind, the military bases in this world are not guarded, which is the reason why all Gundams he designed have very complex power-on passwords. Unfortunately, some people just refused to use this function, perhaps because of some military regulations. As you can see, the GP02 has been snatched away in this way. Anyway, not his fault.
In addition to his Inle, which is controlled by Alice, F91 and V2 have boot authentication, even Blue-eyes White Dragon has a start-up code that only C.C. knows - anyway, he doesn't know how to drive the ship.
"Justice is placed in a heavily fortified military site over there, so it's unlikely anyhow." Lacus didn't care when she looked at Ade's disbelieving expression. A moment later, when the alarm was lifted, he would realize that she was right.
The two talked for a while and then ran out of topics. Ade was not familiar with Lacus to that point, he could not find so many topics to talk about, what surprised him was that Lacus did not take the initiative to find topics, it seems that today she is not normal.
Ade looked out the window and thought about other things. The window is actually only the broadcast of the monitor outside the ship. The red light of the alarm was a little bright, and the reflection in the room obscured the view of the starry sky.
The screen reflected Lacus, and she took off her hairpin and tossed it between her fingers, looking at it with a smile on her lips. After playing with it for a while and bringing it back, she then looked up and suddenly saw herself on the screen. The eyes of the two met and she put on that perfect smile again.
This was the third time today that she felt that way. She probably really liked the hairpin. But that thought was a bit self-serving and he didn't quite want to admit it, and he couldn't tell if the other party was intentionally trying to give himself that misunderstanding. After all, it was Lacus.
After another moment, the alarm was finally disarmed, and the door lock of the room was automatically opened. Within a few seconds, Uraki appeared at the door, "Doctor, are you okay?!"
"Yes, you're just in time, let's go to the bridge." He looked at Lacus, and she nodded to indicate that they would go together. He and Lacus obviously had the authority to do so.
The three arrived at the bridge, and both Creuset and Athrun were there. There was blood on Athrun, who himself did not appear to be injured, presumably from an intruder or a wounded comrade. Athrun nodded to them, or only to Lacus.
"Captain Creuset, may I ask what happened?" Lacus asked out loud. It was indeed much more convenient for her to ask at such a time. No matter what, he was always an outsider.
"Miss Lacus, Dr. Lingus, it's great that you two are safe." Creuset stirred slightly and slowly floated in front of him, "Three terrorists have invaded the Eternal in an attempt to forcibly seize the Freedom Gundam, all have been killed so far. We are in contact with the headquarters. The enemy is likely to have accomplices outside, you should return to the room."
"Captain, contacted Senator Zala." The CIC staff glanced at Ade and Lacus.
Creuset moved again and drifted to the man's side, picked up the headset, and started talking to Zala, nodding his head every now and then. His voice was so low that Ade couldn't hear it clearly. After a while, he hung up the communication and turned on the ship-wide broadcast.
"Attention all personnel. Fifteen minutes ago, ZAFT Cosport was attacked by terrorists, our newest MS, Justice Gundam was taken by the enemy by force and is currently escaping. The latest mission received by this ship is to intercept Justice Gundam at all costs. All combat personnel get ready for battle. All non-combatants please return to your rooms. This ship will not return until the mission is completed. Repeat …"
Ade looked at Lacus, and Lacus' face was filled with disbelief.
"I thought only the Federation bases leak like sieves, but it turns out ZAFT is too." Uraki whispered in a low voice, "Trashes are samely bad all over the world."
"Excuse me." Creuset came over again, with an apologetic tone, "The mission of this ship has been changed, this is the highest priority. You will just have to endure until the end of the mission."
"Creuset Captain, there are many ordinary people on board who have come to attend the event besides Dr. Lingus and myself." Lacus had a bargaining tone, "Can we send these people back with a lifeboat first? Not that we doubt our combat power, but we can't involve civilians in a dangerous engagement."
"With all due respect, Miss Lacus, you are still too naive." Creuset waved his hand gracefully, "As I said earlier, there are probably enemy associates lurking outside now, and it is the most dangerous to release the lifeboats at such times. At times like this, the ship is instead the safest."
Lacus seemed convinced and did not continue the argument. But Ade did not trust Creuset at all and was ready to run at any time. Although V2 was powered by a battery and it's impossible to fly to the nearest human settlement, a call to the moon for help was still possible. The Queen couple will come to take him back.
However, if Justice is really taken away, it is equivalent to the Earth Federation will have Neutron Jammer Canceller. Will they have a war? C.C. is still on Earth. I hope Creuset can stop … Wait a minute, Creuset? From my understanding of his character, it's impossible for him to take Justice back!
He looked at Lacus, who still knew nothing about it, and thought about how much he would gain if he told her this information. Rationally speaking, he was very much in favor of Lacus's ruling philosophy, and he also longed for a period of peace. Black technology, aliens, God knows what else. Can both sides stop for a while?
So if Lacus really controlled PLANT, such a ruler is actually in line with his interests, at least better than Zala and Char.
"Both of you, please don't worry." A bright smile appeared on Creuset's face, as if a particularly happy thing had happened, "I will definitely not let our army's top secrets fall into the hands of the enemy, definitely not!"
