At the same time.
In the space near Heliopolis.
Two warships lay in wait behind an asteroid somewhere: ZAFT's Nassau-class Vesalius and the La'Lia-class Gamous.
Originally, there had only been one warship.
However, due to erroneous intelligence on January 24 claiming that the Alliance Forces were constructing a highly classified new military satellite at L3—
Cruze's team had been forced to deploy in full, only to discover upon arrival that the intelligence had been wrong.
Just as they were heading back, Noer's intelligence arrived. Since the L3 satellite was not far from Heliopolis, they reached it in just a day.
It truly was a remarkable coincidence!
Sitting in the command chair on the bridge, Cruze smiled at Addis, whose face was twisted in misery. "Don't look so glum, Addis."
"Yes... but..."
After hearing Cruze's words, Addis frowned even more deeply. He looked at Cruze as if he wanted to speak but hesitated, then said, "But, Captain, we could have waited for a reply from the Council before taking action."
It was not that Addis was cowardly. The mission his captain had ordered was simply too outrageous: Athrun and the others were to infiltrate Heliopolis and plant explosives, while MS units were to attack Heliopolis from outside to provide cover.
Orb was a neutral nation, after all.
Sending soldiers directly into a neutral nation's satellite for sabotage, then dispatching MS units to attack it, was tantamount to declaring war on Orb.
Although Cruze had received the Nebula Medal and was a member of the special forces unit FAITH, granting him a certain degree of wartime autonomy—
That did not mean he could directly attack a neutral nation. It would be one thing if the intelligence was correct, but if it was wrong... he would be facing a court-martial!
Cruze chuckled at that and slowly rose from his seat. "I trust Noel Cassia's intelligence."
"But..."
Addis wanted to say more, but before he could, Cruze cut him off. "Besides, we're too late."
"Too late?" Addis looked puzzled, unable to understand what Cruze meant.
"My instincts tell me that if we miss this rare opportunity, we will pay for it with our lives sooner or later."
As Cruze spoke, he flicked the photograph in his hand away with a finger.
Even in the blurry photo, one could still make out part of a massive humanoid armored weapon.
"So, before the Earth Alliance military can transport this new weapon away, we will seize it!"
Inside a factory somewhere in Heliopolis—
"Captain!"
A deep, booming voice suddenly came from a transport truck.
Marlue Lamias, dressed in worker's clothing, turned toward the sound.
Sergeant Kojero Maduk, the mechanic, stuck his stubble-covered face out the window and shouted at her, "We're heading to the ship first!"
"Thanks for the help!"
The surrounding area was noisy due to the cargo transport, so Marlu naturally raised her voice as well.
This was a ground facility of Akatsuki Industries.
The men busy with the construction all brimmed with energy, bustling back and forth amid the clamor.
Among them, although Marlu wore the same work uniform as the men—
Her shoulder-length chestnut hair and striking appearance still drew attention.
At the same time, she was an officer of the Earth Alliance Military, twenty-six years old, with the rank of captain.
"Captain, once we're done here, how about coming for a drink with us? Think of it as our last night in Heliopolis." A young subordinate nearby could not help teasing her as he looked at her face.
"Do you want to spend your last night in the brig on charges of insulting a superior officer?" Captain Marlu was not angered by his words. This was far from the first time something like this had happened, and she was already used to it.
Hearing Marlu's reply to the young subordinate, Lieutenant Hamana beside him burst into hearty laughter. "Idiots, you want to court this lady? Come back in ten years!"
"You should hurry up and get back to work!"
After saying that, Marlu smiled and shook her head, then turned to look at the workers bustling around her.
After today, the mission would more or less be complete.
"It's been a long few months..."
Captain Marlu felt deeply emotional.
Although the top-secret G Project had only been underway for a few months, its importance had forced her to remain constantly on edge. Now that it was nearly wrapped up, she could not help feeling much more at ease.
All that remained was to transport the new secret weapon codenamed G into the warship built alongside it, the Archangel—
Then secretly move it away from Heliopolis. Once that was done, her mission would be complete.
"But it's finally coming to an end..."
Thinking that, Captain Marlu could not help stretching. Her impressive figure made the subordinates nearby pause in their work.
But that was merely wishful thinking~
Beep, beep~
A series of alert tones suddenly sounded aboard the Vesalius.
Addis could not help looking toward Cruze.
"The time has come."
Cruze slowly spoke as he looked at distant Heliopolis.
"Raise anchor! Vesalius, launch!" Though Addis felt uneasy, a soldier's duty was to obey orders.
Besides, his loyalty to Cruze and PLANT was enough to suppress the unease in his heart.
Rumble~
Following Addis's order, the Vesalius's thrusters erupted with white light, and immense thrust carried the Vesalius toward Heliopolis.
Woooo, woooo~
The instant the Vesalius started moving and entered Heliopolis's radar range, alarms suddenly blared inside Heliopolis's control room.
The piercing alarm echoed throughout Heliopolis.
On the radar display, two icons marked as space warships were rapidly approaching Heliopolis.
"This is Heliopolis!"
"Approaching ZAFT warship! Respond!"
"I repeat! This is Heliopolis!"
"Approaching ZAFT warship! Respond!"
Inside the control room responsible for security, the announcer opened the public communications channel and called loudly toward the approaching Vesalius.
But the only response was silence.
They had no choice but to call out again and again, issuing warning after warning.
Yet their voices grew more uneasy with each attempt, until even the arm pressing the public communications button began to tremble.
"Controller!"
At that moment, the chief controller of the security control room floated over. The shouting man looked as if he had seen a savior and cried out excitedly, "They aren't responding at all!"
"Calm down!"
"You there, turn off that alarm!"
After saying that, the chief controller snatched the microphone away and barked, "Issue a warning to the approaching ZAFT warship. Your actions have... seriously violated... Please... immediately stop your vessel and leave!"
"ZAFT military! Stop your vessel and leave immediately!"
However, by the time his voice reached the Vesalius, it was nearly unintelligible, broken up by static.
Cruze suddenly laughed as he listened to the transmission from the public channel.
Cold sweat ran down Addis's forehead, but his expression remained unchanged. At this point, there was no room left to retreat!
"Chief... Chief Controller!"
"We've detected powerful radio-wave interference! It's coming from the ZAFT warship! There's no doubt about it—this is an obvious act of war!"
A subordinate monitoring the signals in front turned pale as he spoke to the chief controller.
"They... are they planning to start a war between Orb and ZAFT?!"
The chief controller looked in terror at the slowly approaching warships. This was merely an ordinary colonial satellite; it had no hope of standing against a full ZAFT military squadron. Their strength was not even remotely comparable.
Once the warship reached the designated distance, Addis could not help turning to look at Cruze.
Cruze did not answer. He merely extended an arm, raised two fingers, and pointed through space toward distant Heliopolis.
"MS! Deploy!"
Clank, clank, clank, clank~
The warship's doors slowly opened.
Thump~
The MS units inside, long prepared for launch, suddenly raised their heads toward the vast starry sky. The infrared sensors in their heads flared red, and amid the thunderous crash of metal, the MS units shot out of the warship along the launch rails.
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