The 'Celestial Being' Problem That Must Be Faced

The council members were buzzing with discussion over Eileen Canaver's "teasing."

Naturally, what they were discussing among themselves was the point Eileen Canaver had made: "I presume everyone has conducted their own investigations."

After exchanging views amidst the slightly noisy chatter, everyone had to admit that they had indeed failed to find any valid information regarding the origins of Celestial Being.

Considering that as representatives of the various Coordinator industries, the information networks of these Supreme Council members were undoubtedly the strongest in the entire Earth sphere, this result only served to corroborate the statement Eileen Canaver had just made.

"If you eliminate all impossibilities, then the remaining one, no matter how unbelievable, must be the truth."

It was highly likely that Celestial Being had indeed appeared in this world suddenly; the only question was whether there was sufficient evidence to support this possibility.

Having quickly reached this conclusion, everyone turned their gaze toward Eileen Canaver, and Siegel Clyne, as Chairman and leader of Eileen Canaver's faction, smiled and urged her on.

"Councilor Canaver, please tell us the corroborating evidence you have uncovered."

Since Siegel Clyne had spoken, Eileen Canaver naturally stopped holding back.

"Although Celestial Being may have appeared suddenly, the actions of their fleet must still conform to the laws of physics, otherwise they would not have needed to choose such a circuitous method of intervening in the situation.

Thinking from this perspective, we focused our efforts on investigating how the Celestial Being fleet arrived at Heliopolis.

During this process, one of our investigators accidentally learned from a researcher participating in D.S.S.D. that:

On January 18, CE 71, in the L2 space sector on the far side of the moon, D.S.S.D. had briefly received unknown encoded signals, accompanied by gravitational wave fluctuations of unknown origin.

Based on this clue, and the reports from our personnel sent for routine reconnaissance in L4, we were able to roughly understand the origins of Celestial Being."

During the pause Eileen Canaver took after her long explanation, Ezarial Joule—a member of the Defense Committee whose professional field was aerospace engineering, and also Yzak's mother—began to calculate on her own.

"Appearing at L2 on January 18, and then arriving at L3 by January 25.

If we assume that the technical level of Celestial Being is actually on par with our own, this speed can only be explained by travel along the lunar orbit.

Combined with the mention of L4 and the Celestial Being support fleet that appeared during the Artemis Fortress operation.

A reasonable deduction is that Celestial Being suddenly appeared at L2 on January 18, and then headed to L4 without hesitation;

After arriving at L4 around January 21, the high-speed flagship departed first, arriving at L3 on January 25;

The support fleet may have departed later or was simply slower, arriving at L3 only on January 27.

Could it be that Celestial Being truly possesses precognitive abilities? Otherwise, their actions were simply too decisive."

Seeing that her words had been finished by her "close friend" Ezarial Joule, Eileen Canaver could only nod in agreement.

Having had her deduction confirmed by Eileen Canaver, Yuri Amalfi—also a member of the Defense Committee, whose specialty was production engineering, and Nicol's father—began to draw his own conclusions from his professional perspective.

"If that is the case, the red flagship of Celestial Being should be a high-speed warship no less capable than a Nazca-class.

Furthermore, judging from the design of the hull, I fear it possesses strong self-sustainability; it might even be capable of round-trips to the asteroid belt. One could call it an armed, high-speed Tsiolkovsky-class.

As for the green escort ships that appeared later, their performance currently seems to fall between our Nazca-class and Laurasia-class; they are likewise well-designed, mature light warships.

Fortunately, it seems that the technical level of Celestial Being is indeed roughly equivalent to our own, and they have merely mastered some unique technologies.

But this is strange; such a technical level cannot explain the sudden appearance of the Celestial Being fleet at all..."

Faced with his faction members falling into "academic contemplation," Patrick Zala, the representative of the December City and Chairman of the Defense Committee—who had hoped to play up the "Celestial Being Threat Theory"—had to speak up himself to steer the topic back.

"Regardless of how Celestial Being suddenly appeared, their current existence already constitutes a tangible military threat to Plant, and we must take it seriously.

We now need to face threats from both the Earth Alliance and Celestial Being simultaneously; we should undoubtedly further strengthen our military buildup!"

Siegel Clyne naturally could not accept Patrick Zala's ironclad assertion and immediately retorted.

"When even fourteen or fifteen-year-old youths have already been sent to the battlefield, how much more military buildup do you want!

We cannot afford to make any more enemies, and the war with the Earth Alliance cannot be allowed to escalate further!

If the war continues like this, we Coordinators will have no future to speak of!"

Likewise, Patrick Zala could not accept Siegel Clyne's "appeasement" rhetoric.

"So we should just sit here and be slaughtered!

If there is a shortage of manpower, besides producing more advanced mobile suits, we can further amend the conscription system!

It is currently only a voluntary service system; we still have sufficient human reserves!

As for compromising with the Earth Alliance, look at the new mobile suits they have developed—that is undoubtedly an expression of their will to fight to the end. How can we just surrender!

Before considering the future, please consider the present, Chairman Siegel Clyne.

As long as this war can end in victory, I believe future generations will surely find a way to create a brand new future for Coordinators. After all, that is how we have made it to this day!"

Faced with Patrick's extreme remarks, Siegel Clyne had no choice but to slam his hand on the table and stand up.

"This kind of talk is simply irresponsible!

Is it not the responsibility of us adults to create a peaceful and beautiful future for the children!

Sending children to the battlefield and then dumping the responsibility of cleaning up the mess onto them—this is absolutely unacceptable!

'The future where humanity joins hands to step into space will surely be realized!'

Compared to your rhetoric, the philosophy of Celestial Being is far better!

Since Celestial Being has already proven its strength, we should join hands with them and work together toward this beautiful vision!"

"Celestial Being or whatever, they are completely untrustworthy!

Captain Creuset's contributions are plain for all to see; have you already forgotten his service during the World Tree campaign!"

Seeing the two leaders arguing with genuine heat, the other council members scrambled to intervene.

Through the collective efforts of the entire council, the two men, who had become so agitated they were standing face-to-face, finally returned to their seats.

After adjusting his emotions, Siegel Clyne also attempted to push the agenda forward in order once more.