The Coordinators' High Echelons Lack Consensus

Because he had previously digressed during Eileen Canaver's report regarding "Celestial Being," Siegel Clyne naturally apologized to her first.

"My apologies, Councilor Canaver. Please, continue with your report."

"Yes, Chairman Clyne."

Facing the leader of his own faction, Eileen Canaver naturally would not say anything more; after reorganizing her thoughts, she first summarized the first half of her previous report.

"In short, to summarize: while we cannot trace the origins of 'Celestial Being' any further back, we are certain that we have gained a correct grasp of their recent trajectory. Considering that after the recently concluded Battle of Artemis, our people neither observed the wreckage of the 'Archangel'—the 'Long-Legs' reported by Captain Creuset—at Artemis Fortress, nor did we find the captured Archangel within the 'Celestial Being' fleet, we can conclude that the Archangel remains at large. Furthermore, judging by certain signs, this result may have been intentionally permitted by 'Celestial Being.' Additionally, although 'Celestial Being' has also announced a warrant for the Creuset Team, they have not taken any effective action. Based on the above, we have drawn two important inferences: First, the strength of 'Celestial Being' is limited, with a preliminary estimate being between 10% and 30% of our own; second, based on their limited strength, 'Celestial Being' is actually adopting a rather pragmatic strategy—that is, without violating the public political pledges stated in the 'Celestial Being Formation Declaration,' they are using flexible methods to distinguish between friend and foe."

Regarding Eileen Canaver's summary and inferences, the councilors whispered and discussed among themselves; Siegel Clyne naturally nodded in agreement, Patrick Zala made no effort to hide his disdain, and the other councilors generally fell somewhere in between.

However, generally speaking, although the Supreme Council of Plant was broadly divided by the current war situation into the Moderate Faction led by Siegel Clyne and the Hardline Faction led by Patrick Zala, in reality, each councilor was an independent individual without any relationship of dependency; they simply judged based on their own stances, more often supporting one of the two.

Determining that although the councilors were whispering, they had no intention of questioning her for the time being, Eileen Canaver continued with the second half of the report.

"Regarding initial contact with 'Celestial Being,' those who have had actual non-armed contact with them are mainly the 'Junk Guild' and the forces of Orb. Although we have also submitted inquiries to the Orb government, we have yet to receive an effective response. Through the familiar 'Junk Guild,' we have generally learned the following information: 'Celestial Being' is an independent force led by Major General Luther Deikun, with Colonel Teresa Testarossa as the fleet commander. Judging from information obtained from various sources, these military ranks are likely not self-proclaimed by the two, but originate from some unknown formal military system; their subordinate troops and weaponry also originate from the same unknown formal military system, while the detailed situation regarding logistics and supplies is currently unknown. Among them, the 'Junk Guild' indicated that the 'Celestial Being' fleet attaches great importance to resource collection; in addition to vigorously recovering usable resources from the wreckage of Heliopolis during their stay, they are even willing to exchange standard equipment and parts with the 'Junk Guild' for mineral resources. From this, it appears that 'Celestial Being' may have lost stable logistical support, but possesses relatively sufficient reserves and production capabilities."

Patrick Zala clearly wanted to speak, but after seeing Siegel Clyne, who was also poised to act, he ultimately remained silent; seeing that the other councilors were only nodding to indicate their understanding and did not intend to speak, Eileen Canaver continued her report.

"Because we have not yet obtained authorization from the Supreme Council, we only borrowed the identity of the familiar 'Junk Guild' to conduct preliminary contact. We have successively made contact with Special Operations Captain Monica Cadillac, Lieutenant Colonel Cima Garahau, and Major Aina Sahalin through different channels at different times. Quite unexpectedly, the upper echelons of the 'Celestial Being' fleet seem to be mostly female, and they are on good terms with each other, sharing information; during the latter few contacts, it could even be considered that the identities of the personnel we sent to make contact had actually been exposed, yet they still conducted pragmatic technical exchanges."

Clearly, Eileen Canaver's report further proved her previous statement, which was that 'Celestial Being' is carrying out pragmatic preliminary contacts and clearly has no explicit hostility toward Coordinators, or rather, Plant as a whole.

Watching the councilors discuss the possibility of contact with 'Celestial Being,' Patrick Zala's expression became visibly unpleasant; in such a situation, the representative of June City—that is, Junius City—and Chairperson of the Judicial Committee, Ms. Louise Leitner, combined with the remarks made by Luther at the end of the 'Celestial Being Formation Declaration,' made a joke about Luther that was quite in keeping with her status.

"Oh my, it seems Mr. Luther Deikun is quite the ladies' man. However, if this were in Plant, this would undoubtedly be a violation of the Marriage Control Ordinance."

"If they aren't married, shouldn't that just count as personal freedom?"

The response from the representative of November City, Parnell Jessek, who was also a member of the Judicial Committee, drew good-natured laughter and banter from the councilors, greatly easing the tense atmosphere that had previously existed within the Supreme Council.

In such an atmosphere, Eileen Canaver brought her report to a close.

"The above is the current known situation and preliminary analysis regarding 'Celestial Being.' As Chairperson of the Diplomatic Committee, I request that the Supreme Council authorize me to initiate formal contact with 'Celestial Being.'"

Because the positions of all parties had actually been fully expressed during the previous report, after Eileen Canaver made her request, seeing that Patrick Zala did not intend to debate another round, Siegel Clyne, as Chairman of the Supreme Council, announced the vote.

"Then, will the councilors please vote on Councilor Eileen Canaver's proposal."

Following Siegel Clyne's words, he himself was the first to press the button for approval, and then the other councilors made their judgments based on their respective stances.

In the end, the results of the vote were as follows:

January City, Chairman of the Legislative Committee, Ali Qasim, in favor.

February City, member of the Administrative Committee, Tad Elsbman (Dearka's father), opposed.

March City, member of the Defense Committee, Ezarial Joule (Yzak's mother), abstained.

April City, Chairman, Siegel Clyne, in favor.

May City, member of the Defense Committee, Yuri Amalfi (Nicol's father), abstained.

June City, Chairwoman of the Judicial Committee, Louise Leitner, opposed.

July City, member of the Legislative Committee, Jeremy Maxwell (father of the fallen Rusty), opposed.

August City, Chairman of the Administrative Committee, Orson White, abstained.

September City, Chairwoman of the Diplomatic Committee, Eileen Canaver, in favor.

October City, member of the Defense Committee, Herman Gould, abstained.

November City, member of the Judicial Committee, Parnell Jessek, in favor.

December City, Chairman of the Defense Committee, Patrick Zala, opposed.

Since passing or rejecting a motion requires a majority of at least six votes, the current tally of four in favor, four abstentions, and four opposed proved that the Supreme Council was deeply divided on this issue; it could only be sent back for further supplementation and re-deliberation at the next meeting.

Although the motion did not pass, Siegel Clyne breathed a sigh of relief.

After all, before the appearance of Celestial Being, the entire Supreme Council had gradually leaned toward a hardline stance due to the Earth Alliance's total lack of sincerity regarding peace talks, with vote counts even occasionally reaching 2:10; this result was already quite good.

Since neither of his own motions had been defeated, the next step was to see if they could gain some ground on the two motions put forward by the Hardline Faction.