The room we stepped into was ornate and brightly colored. If I were to guess, I'd say it was typically used for high-end parties for Zeon's elite, which caused it to contrast heavily with the rest of Solomon Base's unfinished interior. About a dozen screens lined the walls, and they were all projecting a news broadcast. Scenes of the Earth's devastation played on the screens in unison, and the headline beneath the recordings made my teeth clench.
[MORE THAN A BILLION DEAD IN ACT OF ZEON AGGRESSION]
The headline became even more grim as I considered that it was the number of people killed so far. The ecological damage and massive flooding in the Atlantic would eventually cause that number to balloon significantly. That was to say nothing of the effects the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest and the damage to Europe's breadbasket in Ukraine would cause. Four billion people lived on the Earth, and the loss of life could very easily rise to two or three billion.
Surely, the Federation would need to surrender after taking such a blow. There was no way they would risk fighting a dangerous war in their current state just to keep some of their colonies under their control.
The rest of the room was decorated with opulent furniture and expensive red carpeting. Off to one side of the room, a stage had been built with a podium in its center. At that moment, nobody stood at the podium.
On the opposite side of the stage, half a dozen cameras had been set up on top of tripods. They recorded in all directions. Some pointed at me, some pointed at the empty stage, and one pointed at the ongoing news broadcast.
Two men stood out in the crowd. One was Char Aznable in his red uniform, and the other was Vice Admiral Dozle Zabi, a giant man with heavy scarring on his face. Other notable individuals in the crowd were the twenty civilians in formal suits or dresses. They must have been the politicians and socialites of Solomon Base.
"What do we do, Commander?" Vultee whispered to me while nearly a dozen soldiers and politicians vied for our attention.
"Engage the enemy," I said with a smile
"What do you mean?" Vultee asked as Ramos broke off and immediately began speaking to a group of women in expensive dresses. It was and continues to be true: women love a man in uniform.
"Walk around and draw their attention off me. Maybe you'll even be able to talk to a woman for the first time in a month," I whispered back to Vultee.
"Yes, sir," Vultee said, snapping off a crisp salute. I glowered at him as he walked to a corner opposite me and Ramos.
I conversed with some of the party's attendees. As I shook hands with every politician and smiled for the camera, Char and Dozle remained on the other side of the room. Dozle was sitting at a table with his wife, obviously bored by everything the party had to offer save for the food. Char, meanwhile, sat in a booth with his back to the wall. Every time I looked up, he was looking directly at me, but he never rose from his seat.
"Excuse me," I said when the next person in line was an officer that I outranked. If I had to snub someone, it was best for that person to be an inferior officer. "I need to consult with my associate."
I turned away from the crowd of people and leaned in to speak to Lt. Wei. Quietly, I whispered, "What's the play here? Why did Schneider put me in a room with Char Aznable and Dozle Zabi?"
"Char Aznable? I don't know who that is, but I think you'll find we've set up quite the piece of political theater here. This is where you'll deliver your speech," Wei said with a mischievous grin that raised the hairs on the back of my neck.
"You mean this speech?" I said, pulling several folded up pieces of paper from my breast pocket. That speech had taken a few hours to write. In that speech, I had couched a call for peace in the most patriotic language possible. I planned to say things like "the Federation is decimated" and "independence is only a pen-stroke away" when I spoke to the crowd.
"There's been a change of plans," Wei said quietly.
"What change?" I said, a low growl beginning to roil in the back of my throat.
"No, no, you're going to love it," Wei said, and he actually believed it. "We're going to play a recent Federation speech on the big screens, and then you're going to run up on the stage and read what's on the teleprompters."
I turned to look at the stage and saw the angled glass frames positioned in front of the podium. They would project words onto the frames so that only the person standing at the podium could read them.
"So, the plan is for me to run up on the stage and deliver an impassioned and completely improvised speech in response to Fed provocation? It's a bold move that relies entirely on my cooperation. What would you do if I refused?"
Wei frowned. "This is a direct order from Rear Admiral Kycilia Zabi. Even if you refuse, which you won't, the privilege of rallying the troops will go to Vice Admiral Dozle Zabi."
"I'm starting to get really tired of being pushed around by admirals," I said through my teeth.
"You're in the Navy. Isn't that your job description?"
"Shut up, smartass."
Wei looked me straight in the eye and said, "Will you do it?"
"Yeah, I'll do it," I said, pushing my pointless speech into Wei's chest with disgust.
"Am I interrupting something?" a voice from behind me asked.
I turned. Standing beside me was the Red Comet himself, Char Aznable. My arm jerked slightly as I had to stop myself from instinctually saluting him. In a metaphysical and skill sense, he was head and shoulders above me, but I still technically outranked him.
In a deep voice that made me feel like everything he said was a lie, Char said, "Greetings, Lieutenant Commander Sebastian Dogwood. I am Lieutenant Char Aznable. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
He reached his hand out, and I shook it, silently starstruck. After a moment, I reminded myself who I was talking to. If Char Aznable viewed me as a threat, he would not hesitate to kill me. All I had to do was speak his real name, "Casval Rem Deikun," and I was as good as dead.
Recalling Char's service record before the Battle of Loum, I said, "Yes, I've heard of you, Lt. Char. If you ask me, you've contributed more to the war effort than I have."
Lt. Shao Wei looked at me like I was insane.
With a slight chuckle, Char said, "What, pray tell, have I done that outweighs the capture of a fleet commander?"
"You prevented Dr. Minovsky from defecting to the Federation," I said like it was obvious. "If you delayed the Federation's invention of mobile suits by even a month, that's more important than Tianem's capture."
"I'm glad you feel that way," Char said, and I didn't believe for a second that he was being genuine. That must have been what made him such a good liar. Everything he said sounded like deception, so you would never know when he was actually telling the truth. "My superiors do not feel the same way. But I did not come here to discuss my own service record."
Char continued, saying, "Titles, ranks, codenames; they're all meaningless if you do not have the skill to give them substance. You might have the skill to deserve to be called 'Hero,' but neither of us can be certain of that. Not yet."
"You're speaking to a superior off-!" Wei began to say, but I cut him off with a gesture.
"Trust me, I have no intention to compete against you, Lt. Char," I said. "If you want to take the title of 'Hero' from me, it's yours."
"The next time we meet the Federation in the field of battle, I intend to do just that," Char said, and I realized that he had interpreted my earlier statement as a challenge. Oh God.
"That can only happen if the war continues," I said with a nervous smile. Char would kick my ass inside or outside a Zaku, and I had no interest in competing against him.
"Oh, the war will continue," Char said, laughing loudly and turning away from me. Over his shoulder, he continued, saying, "There's still glory to be claimed on the field of battle."
Char returned to his seat, and a terrible thought wormed its way into my mind. What would happen if Zeon didn't want the war to end? After the success of Operation British, it would be easy for Zeon to claim independence from the Earth Federation. If they kept pushing for more and more, eventually the Federation would refuse to sign the treaty.
Suddenly, the broadcast shifted to a middle-aged man in a three-piece suit standing beside a podium. Beneath the man, a new headline appeared, and I realized for the first time that the broadcast occurred the day before.
[January 12th, 4:00 PM] [PRIME MINISTER LADISLAUS WALKER ADDRESSES THE EARTH SPHERE]