April 1, April Fools' Day.
Noel was discharged from the hospital. Wearing the uniform of the MS Training Class, he entered the military academy.
The campus was peaceful~
However, Earth, thousands of miles away, was nowhere near as peaceful.
Calls for retribution and curses rang out without end.
Countless Naturals who had once been neutral took to the streets, carrying anti-PLANT banners as they shouted and cursed.
For the first time, voices opposing PLANT crushed and buried everything else.
Even neutral Orb could only silently allow its citizens to take to the streets and cheer them on.
"Ah, this is troublesome..."
Inside Orb's conference room, Yulaas Hah watched the scenes on the television broadcast and could not help shaking his head with a sigh.
Because of the Neutron Jammers deployed by PLANT, Earth was facing an energy shortage.
The next day~
Just as Earth's Naturals were filled with righteous indignation, PLANT dropped countless base facilities from orbit in batches at the Australian harbor of Capantaria in the Oceania Union.
In a mere forty-eight hours, the foundations of Carpentaria Base had been completed.
The Alliance Forces' Pacific Fleet set out to intercept them, but suffered a crushing defeat.
April 17.
The Earth Alliance Military's Fifth and Sixth Fleets departed from Ptolemaios to attack PLANT itself.
Near the resource satellite Yachin Due, under PLANT administration, they clashed with the intercepting Z.A.F.T forces—the First Yachin Due Siege.
From that moment onward, the PLANT Council approved a proposal to convert Yachin Due into a defensive fortress...
May 3.
Z.A.F.T began its assault with the objective of invading the Moon Base Ptolemaios, establishing a base at Lorenz Crater on the inner side of the Moon.
From then on, the two sides split the Moon in half along Grimaldi Crater, with conflicts constantly breaking out.
Only now had both sides truly been driven into a fury. If the earlier war had mainly been caused by the political leaders on both sides, with some soldiers still retaining a measure of reason and humanity—
Then from this point onward, the soldiers and civilians below began a war founded chiefly on vengeance.
At this point, there was no longer any voice in either military besides the destruction of the other side.
The successive wars had ignited the flames of revenge among the lowest ranks of soldiers and civilians.
May 20. Carpentaria Base was completed. It was equipped with the aerial-combat mSDinn, which had long been developed as Earth's fighting force.
May 22. Z.A.F.T used Carpentaria Base as a bridgehead to wage war against strongholds on Earth and began its offensive into the Mediterranean.
May 25. Off the coast of Casablanca, the Alliance Forces' Mediterranean Fleet, led primarily by the Eurasian Federation, clashed with Z.A.F.T's submarine carrier fleet—the First Battle of the Casablanca Sea. The aquatic MS "GOOhN" was deployed in actual combat for the first time. Z.A.F.T won the battle and entered the Mediterranean, beginning its invasion southward from Africa's northern coast while constructing Gibraltar base.
May 30, the Suez Canal Siege. At Alamein, now a battlefield, the Alliance Forces and Z.A.F.T ground forces fought for control.
Although Z.A.F.T initially struggled against the Eurasian Federation's large tank formations, Andrew Baltfeild's ingenious strategy allowed the ground-combat mSBucUe to achieve remarkable results. Afterward, Z.A.F.T pushed south from Africa's northern coast—the African Front—while expanding its influence.
Andrew Baltfeild was thus called the Desert Tiger.
While war raged chaotically outside, an unusually peaceful time had arrived behind PLANT's lines.
"Noel Cassia, stop right there!"
Inside the military academy, Noel, who had been slacking off all this time, had just been about to slip away when a white-haired tsundere guy called out to him.
Hearing the shouting behind him, Noel rolled his eyes and turned around helplessly. "Why are you so damn determined to keep clinging to me?"
This person was none other than the famous tsundere guy of the SEED world—Yzak.
Ever since Noel had been forcibly placed in the MS Training Class because of that previous accident, he and Yzak had become entangled in a cursed fate.
Why call it a cursed fate? Because, by sheer coincidence, Noel had transferred into Yzak's class—MS Training Class One!
Faced with Noel, who had achieved such "brilliant results" on his very first time piloting, Yzak naturally proposed sparring with him.
The result was that Noel got brutally beaten. Noel himself did not know how that previous situation had happened, so...
Yzak, having won, seemed to have found confidence through Noel. The next day, he ran off to challenge Athrun. The result was~~~ wonderful, at least from Noel's perspective.
So afterward, it developed into Yzak getting beaten by Athrun, then immediately coming to Noel to restore his confidence, before heading back to Athrun full of confidence to get beaten again...
After a few rounds of that, Noel simply gave up and became a youth devoted to lying flat!
"What do you mean, clinging to you? Where exactly are you planning to go?" Yzak Joule approached with Diakka and Latis.
"School's over, so obviously I'm going home to sleep." Noel was speechless. Where else was he supposed to go after school but home to sleep?
"Home? Did you forget something?" Yzak asked in astonishment.
"Can you stop saying 'you brat' every other word? Do you know how badly that damn attitude of yours makes people want to punch you?" Noel finally snapped.
Yzak's favorite phrases were "you brat," "you bastard," "you"...
"Pfft~ Someone finally said it!" Diakka raised his brows and whistled from the side. It had not been easy—someone had finally said that to this tsundere.
Latis also looked startled and silently gave Noel a thumbs-up!
"You br—"
"Come on, come on. There are MS training machines over there. Let's have a practical match!"
As he spoke, Noel stepped forward, grabbed Yzak, and dragged him toward the MS training grounds. Noel had endured Yzak's catchphrases for far too long, and over the past few days, Yzak had been following him around like a shadow, trying to beat him up.
Today, he absolutely had to let off some steam!
Winning or losing was not the important part. The important thing was getting this anger out of his system!
"You think I'm scared of you? Fine, let's go!"
Yzak's tsundere nature was no ordinary tsundere nature. He was the type to throw down the moment someone challenged him, and he was already heading for the training grounds.
"Enough, enough! Are you two insane?"
Diakka was completely speechless. He hurriedly stepped forward with Latis to pull the two apart. "Weren't we supposed to attend the gathering at Athrun's house today?"
"What gathering?"
"That was a thing?"
Noel and Yzak both froze.
"It would be one thing if Noel forgot, but Yzak, weren't you just talking about this?" Diakka was stunned. Was there really nothing wrong with these two idiots' memories?
Noel genuinely did not remember anything about it.
As for Yzak...
"What is going on with you two?"
Just as Noel and Yzak were confused, Athrun arrived from behind with Nicol.
Seeing that, Diakka released his hold on Yzak and spread his hands. "The man himself is here. Talk to him."
"Ahem. Noel said he wasn't feeling well and didn't want to attend some bullshit banquet!" Yzak coughed, pointing at Noel in the distance.
"Huh? When did I ever say that?" Noel was speechless. How had he never noticed Yzak had this talent before?
Athrun Sarra looked between the two of them, automatically ignored the subject, and said, "Noel, actually, the one inviting you this time isn't me. It's my father. He wants to meet you."
"Your father!?" Noel's eyes widened slightly. Athrun's father—wasn't that Patrick Zala?
He wanted to see him? Why?
"There will actually be quite a few people at this banquet, including a few you know." Seeing that Noel remained unmoved, Athrun continued.
"People I know?" Noel was taken aback. To be fair, he had not met many people since coming to PLANT.
"Rau Le Creuset, and..."
"No! My stomach suddenly hurts, so I..."
Noel decisively refused the moment he heard that. There was no other reason. His stomach simply hurt.
"I heard Lacus Clyne will be there too. Apparently, she'll even sing live." Before Noel could finish refusing, Diakka remarked quietly from the side.
"I... I've thought about it. Athrun, as my closest friend, if your father is inviting me, then even if I have to drag my sick body there, I will go! I have to give him this respect!"
"..."
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