Xiao Ran understood this clearly: defecting to the Zeon Army was absolutely unreliable. Even if he truly joined the Zeon Army, Prometheus would never classify him as belonging to the Zeon faction. At most, he would infiltrate Zeon as he had in the 00 World.
Since entering this world, Xiao Ran had been at his weakest. The world of 0079 was not like the SEED World. He knew the SEED World inside and out, but that was not the case for 0079. Too many things had happened during the One Year War of the entire UC era. It was nothing like the SEED World, where events followed only a few possible paths. If anything went wrong and involved something Xiao Ran himself did not understand, then with his current strength, he could not be certain he would make it through safely.
Even if he could make it through, what about those newcomers, especially Naluo's five clansmen?
As for joining the Earth Federation, Xiao Ran had already cut off half that path the moment he decided to seize the Gundams. There had been no other choice. A team of twenty-five was simply too large. More people meant more strength, true enough, but the problem was that even with so many people gathered together, their strength was still insufficient to protect their group. To ensure everyone's safety, taking control of the Gundams had become necessary.
In Xiao Ran's impression, the UC era was the darkest of all the Gundam chronicles, and the people here were the most devious. Their ideals were worthy of respect, but their methods were not so easy to accept. Throwing garbage down onto Earth was going too far. So trusting anyone else was inferior to trusting himself. Only power held in his own hands was real power.
And