All Three Sides Lose

Heliopolis's structural signal had vanished completely.

All that remained in the L3 Sector was an expanding cloud of debris and dozens of civilian escape pods fleeing in every direction.

Lin Yuan leaned back in his command chair, his fingers resting motionlessly on the armrest.

"Director, the ZAFT fleet has withdrawn from the combat zone, taking four G Weapons with them. The Atlantic Federation has confirmed that the Archangel escaped, carrying the Strike Gundam and some civilians." The communications officer's report came from his left.

Lin Yuan did not respond.

Sheng Lan stood behind him and placed a new intercepted communications record on his desk.

"Twenty minutes ago, Atlantic Federation Pacific Fleet Command issued an all-band notice requiring all vessels passing through the L3 Sector to submit to routine inspections. The stated reason is to prevent ambushes by remaining ZAFT forces."

Lin Yuan opened the communications record, his gaze lingering for two seconds over several encrypted fields.

"They're not looking for ZAFT."

"You mean they're looking for what they lost?"

"Five G Project units. They only got one, and even that was driven off by a civilian. What the Atlantic Federation fears most right now isn't what ZAFT took. It's whether a third party also made a move in the chaos."

Sheng Lan's breathing remained steady, but her right hand withdrew from the desk.

"Where is Ye Qingluan's evacuation vessel now?"

Lin Yuan brought up another small screen. A blue dot was moving slowly along a civilian route.

"It just passed L3-7 Relay Station. It's about forty minutes from the Atlantic Federation patrol craft blockade."

"Will her cover identity hold?"

"Shenghe Logistics' registration went through a legitimate Orb third-party commercial port channel. The vessel documentation and cargo manifests are complete. But if the Atlantic Federation boards her for a physical search, they'll find the storage device."

Sheng Lan's eyes fell on the blue dot.

"Do we need to provide support?"

"No." Lin Yuan shut off the screen. "Ye Qingluan can handle it herself."

At the edge of the L3 Sector, the medium freighter TS-074 was proceeding at standard cruising speed.

Ye Qingluan stood in the communications compartment behind the bridge, watching distant points of light through the forward viewport.

Two Drake-class Frigates blocked the shipping lane, their bow identification lights flashing alternately—the signal for a mandatory stop-and-inspection.

"Team leader, interception ahead." The helmsman's voice came from the forward compartment.

Ye Qingluan zipped up her work jacket, took the encrypted terminal from the inner lining of her waist pack, and handed it to a member of Team Two beside her.

"Take off the casing. Put the storage chip inside the packaging boxes for the communications components in the bottom layer of Cargo Hold Three. Mix it in with the spare circuit boards."

"Understood."

"Where's Huili?"

"In the crew rest area with another Dawn Society technician."

"Tell them that from now on, they're resident communications technicians for Shenghe Logistics. They were hired this March, and the contract numbers are written on their fake IDs. Don't say more than necessary."

The freighter slowed. One of the Drake-class Frigates deployed a small inspection craft, which slowly approached the freighter's docking port.

Ye Qingluan took off her hard hat, replaced it with a baseball cap bearing the logistics company's logo, and went to wait by the docking port.

The hatch opened, and three Atlantic Federation military police officers entered.

The lieutenant leading them was young. The patch on his uniform cuff bore the designation of the United Army Pacific Fleet.

"Where's the captain?" The lieutenant swept his gaze over the corridor.

Ye Qingluan stepped forward.

"I'm the acting captain. The official captain went missing while picking up cargo at Heliopolis Port."

The lieutenant raised an eyebrow.

"Heliopolis?"

"Yes. We were originally planning to leave after unloading communications components at Freight Port Seven, but then the satellite was suddenly attacked. The main port was sealed off, so we could only make an emergency departure through an auxiliary port. We have a shipment that couldn't be delivered in time, as well as two stranded resident technicians."

"The cargo manifest."

Ye Qingluan took a printed electronic certificate from her pocket and handed it over.

The lieutenant accepted it and scanned through it, his gaze pausing briefly on several item codes.

"Communications relay maintenance components?"

"Yes. Standard Orb civilian specifications. The buyer for this shipment was the Heliopolis Communications Authority. Now that the satellite is gone, we're preparing to take the cargo back to our registered port and cancel the order."

The lieutenant returned the certificate to her, then nodded to the military police behind him.

"Routine inspection. Open Cargo Holds Three and Five."

Ye Qingluan's expression did not change.

"Be my guest."

The military police headed toward the cargo holds, and Ye Qingluan followed at an unhurried pace.

Cargo Hold Three opened, revealing neatly stacked boxes printed with the logos of communications equipment manufacturers.

The military police randomly opened two boxes. Inside were standard circuit boards and wiring modules, their packaging intact and batch numbers clear.

The storage chip was hidden inside an antistatic bag among the spare circuit boards on the third layer. It looked no different from an ordinary memory module.

The military police glanced over it a few times, then closed the box.

"What about Hold Five?"

Cargo Hold Five was filled with lubricants and pipeline seals. When it opened, the entire compartment was hit by an industrial smell.

The lieutenant wrinkled his nose and took a step back.

"Fine."

He returned to the docking port and glanced back at Ye Qingluan.

"Your navigation records show that you did not use a standard evacuation route when leaving Heliopolis."

"The standard route was blocked by debris. We left through the maintenance passage at the auxiliary port. The whole satellite was shaking at the time. We had no choice."

The lieutenant stared at her for three seconds.

Ye Qingluan met his gaze, her hands tucked into her work jacket pockets, her posture relaxed.

"Sign to confirm the inspection." The lieutenant removed an electronic signature pad from his belt and handed it to her.

Ye Qingluan signed it with the false name of the acting captain.

The three military police officers returned to their inspection craft, and the docking port closed.

The Drake-class Frigate's identification lights switched to green, signaling clearance.

The freighter accelerated again and merged back into the civilian shipping lane.

Ye Qingluan stood in the corridor. Only after the inspection craft had fully disengaged did she press the key on her earpiece.

"Director, we've passed the blockade. All personnel are safe, and the cargo is intact."

Earth, East Asia's capital.

After listening, Lin Yuan set his earpiece back on the desk.

"Estimated arrival time?"

"Seventy-one hours." Sheng Lan answered from beside him. Her memo was already filled with reception procedure numbers.

"What about the technical disassembly team?"

"All twelve are in position. Xu Yanqiu is personally overseeing the materials group. He said he wants to be the first to see the Ceramic Steel benchmark data."

Lin Yuan rose and walked to the strategic situation display on the other side of the command room.

On the screen, the colors representing the three powers covered their respective territories.

Blue for the Atlantic Federation, green for PLANT, gray for East Asia.

"The current situation." Lin Yuan tapped the screen with a finger. "The Atlantic Federation lost four G Weapons and a colonial satellite. All they recovered was an experimental warship and half a prototype unit driven away by a civilian. Their National Defense Committee must be in complete chaos right now."

"What about ZAFT?" Sheng Lan asked.

"ZAFT thinks it scored a complete victory, but the four captured units will take time to crack their operating systems and absorb their technology. They have far fewer engineers than the Atlantic Federation, so they won't be able to mass-produce them anytime soon."

"Orb?"

"A colonial satellite was destroyed, and the Dawn Society's Heliopolis branch was wiped out. Orb will swallow its anger and keep talking about neutrality."

Lin Yuan turned around.

"All three sides are licking their wounds. No one knows that the fourth player has already taken all the winning cards."

Sheng Lan closed her memo.

"Director, can the establishment procedures for the 811 Institute begin today?"

"Begin them."

Sheng Lan was about to turn away when the communications terminal rang.

She went to the console, glanced at the caller identification, and her expression shifted slightly.

"Director, there's an urgent meeting request forwarded from the Foreign Ministry."

"From whom?"

"William Sykes, the Atlantic Federation's envoy to East Asia. The stated reason is an intelligence briefing and coordination between allies regarding the Heliopolis incident."

Lin Yuan tapped the desk once with his finger.

"When will he arrive?"

"He's already at the Foreign Ministry building. He wants to meet today."

Lin Yuan's gaze settled on the edge of the blue region on the strategic display.

"Make him wait. Ten tomorrow morning, in the Special Equipment Bureau reception room."

Sheng Lan made a note in her memo.

"Director, Sykes has considerable authority. He's a special envoy directly under the Atlantic Federation Ministry of Defense and has the authority to raise technical inspection requests on behalf of the United Army Supreme General Staff."

Lin Yuan returned to his chair and sat down.

"Then the faster he came, the more panicked the Atlantic Federation is."

Sheng Lan paused for a moment.

"How do you plan to deal with him?"

"Sheng Lan, when a panicked man comes to your door demanding to know whether you stole his things, what do you think is the best answer?"

"Deny it."

"No." Lin Yuan picked up a document from the desk and opened it. "The best answer is to ask him why he left his things in someone else's home."