After Reid left, Hana immediately returned to her hotel with a troubled expression, though she didn't mention her encounter with Reid to anyone.
She was deeply reluctant to believe what Reid had said—that the Innovators' ideals were wrong, that Aeolia Schenberg was a thief. If all of that were true, then what was the point of her current efforts?
Still, Hana remained rational and didn't let her beliefs crumble outright. After all, Reid's words were just one side of the story. She decided to first observe whether a space-time gate would appear again during the Innovators' mission in the Mollaria Republic.
If a space-time gate truly appeared once more, it would at least prove that Reid Isaac's team could either foresee or detect such anomalies through some means. In that case, his claim that these outsiders would make the world fragile—a concept straight out of fantasy novels—might actually be true. At the very least, it would be an alien invasion, shifting the narrative from fantasy to science fiction.
Judging from the Kyrios' video records, the armor of the Mobile Suits that arrived last time didn't seem like anything this world could produce. She was inclined to believe it was alien technology.
As for Alejandro Corner and Ribbons Almark, Hana planned to wait until confirming the invasion in the Mollaria Republic before discussing Reid's warnings with Wang Liu Mei.
As for Reid Isaac himself, Hana decided to tentatively consider him human. After all, his behavior, speech, and mannerisms were exactly like a human's, and she hadn't detected any flaws.
Switching scenes to Reid, while Hana was contemplating her next moves, Reid was also discussing her, though his side was far more relaxed.
As Reid helped Ange and Noin organize their "spoils," he asked, "Ange, did you manage to plant the nano tracker (the same model used to track Kowloon) on Miss Hana?"
Without looking up, Ange assured him, "No problem. She was so shaken by your lies that I easily sprinkled the nano tracker into the seams of her bag and on her clothes. As long as she doesn't wash her bag or clothes later, the tracker won't fall off."
Reid nodded. The reason for planting the nano tracker on Hana was to locate Wang Liu Mei. That girl was elusive, and Hoshino Ruri couldn't pin down her whereabouts at all. Hana's meeting with her was the perfect opportunity for tracking.
Just then, Salia, Hilda, and the Xia sisters returned carrying large and small bags, roughly three times more than what Ange and Noin had bought.
It had to be said that due to different developmental histories across worlds, art, cosmetics, and clothing styles varied significantly.
The AD Universe wasn't like the Universal Century, which had been in a prolonged state of war since 0079. The three major factions here were relatively peaceful. In contrast, the RC War—a world war in the CE Universe—lasted a full nine years.
The unification of the three major factions—the Union, Celestial Being, and the AEU—had largely avoided large-scale wars, with only minor friction during subsequent expansions.
Indeed, conflicts of that scale could only be considered friction. Moreover, all three factions preferred proxy wars, essentially supporting a candidate with funds and resources, then peacefully merging and prospering once their supporter came to power.
This meant that the citizens of the founding nations of the three major powers hardly felt the brutality of war during the initial formation. They only saw the turmoil abroad through news reports, while they themselves were the beneficiaries of the war dividends. (The greatest dividend of war is the dignified peace enjoyed on one's own land.)
So this time, Salia and Hilda thoroughly enjoyed their shopping spree. After completing their mission of scamming Billy Katagiri, they even dragged the Xia sisters along as their pack mules.
As for Reid, upon hearing about Billy Katagiri's misfortunes, he could only say it served him right.
Reid was the type to side with his own people over reason. His original plan was just to make Billy twist his ankle and have Hilda stage a minor accident to buy some time.
But now, Billy Katagiri had torn Hilda's clothes—landing him in jail for a "coffee break" was unavoidable.
Reid even felt this wasn't enough and asked Hoshino Ruri to boost the visibility of the bystander footage uploaded to public platforms. Billy Katagiri had to stay trending for a while.
However, Billy Katagiri remained unaware of his social demise. After contacting Graham to bail him out, he rushed to the bar to find Hana, hoping she hadn't left yet.
Naturally, he couldn't find Hana. His subsequent calls went unanswered because Hana, preoccupied with thoughts of Reid, had silenced her personal phone.
In short, Billy Katagiri felt utterly unlucky that day and ended up dragging Graham out for drinks to vent his frustrations.
The next day, after a comfortable night's rest in their hotel beds, Reid and the others returned to the Granshaow fully recharged and flew back to the Mollaria Republic.
No matter how discreetly the Granshaow traveled, it was still far faster than commercial airliners. Thus, they arrived in the republic earlier than Hana's group.
By this time, the Mollaria Republic was already under heightened security, ready to declare a nationwide state of emergency the moment the Innovators appeared.
Therefore, the Black Tri-Stars couldn't return to the ship prematurely, as launching three Overflags would blatantly signal something was amiss.
However, they had successfully transferred the Blood Lily's ownership under Gaia's name.
Gold remained a solid currency in the AD Universe, and the trio easily exchanged it for cash through underground channels—their intimidating presence and palpable killing intent did the trick.
Moreover, Reid and the others had thoroughly investigated the Blood Lily before leaving, so the Black Tri-Stars weren't cheated out of a single cent.
After all, the three of them looked so menacing and untrustworthy that if they claimed they needed to kill someone daily, people would probably believe them.
So, when they barged into the creditor's company, threw the money at the bloodied creditor (the blood was from the bodyguards), and declared they were now in charge of the Blood Lily,
The creditor immediately offered his best service, stating that all debts with the Blood Lily were canceled. As for the clueless guards who tried to stop them, no compensation was needed—in the Mollaria Republic, getting a few bones broken and bleeding a little for being outmatched was no big deal.
Learning that the Black Tri-Stars were progressing smoothly with their work put Reid's mind at ease. No one would come looking for a bottom-tier PMC company like Blood Lily during the Mollaria Republic and AEU military exercises. After all, nobody knew Blood Lily possessed three significantly enhanced Union Flags.
Thus, Reid simply instructed Hoshino Ruri to notify the Black Tri-Stars to proceed as planned without further orders. Instead, after Hana and the other two's registered flight landed in a neighboring country, he dispatched Salia in the Mass-produced Wing Gundam with its electronic camouflage system activated to locate Hana's position.
Fortunately, Salia quickly picked up the nano tracker's signal leading to a villa deep in the mountain forests. However, the villa had signal jamming - Hana's signal disappeared completely upon entry.
For Reid, finding the villa was sufficient. He immediately recalled Salia from hovering over the villa to avoid the massive unknown thermal radiation alerting Wang Liu Mei.
Since the Innovators' mission had multiple phases anyway, he just needed to deal with the interdimensional arrivals before the final phase and use the system's forced teleportation to perform a vanishing act at the villa.
Meanwhile, Reid returned to spectator mode as the Mollaria Republic paraded 528 Mobile Suits in a military review, while the Innovators completed their launch preparations.
Hana was giving pre-mission instructions: "Begin the operation at the scheduled time. All hostile forces are targets."
But after speaking, she recalled Reid's words and added: "If another AEU orbital elevator situation occurs, do not act rashly. First observe whether ET appears. If they do, exercise caution when intervening in their battle with the strange Mobile Suits. After all, we still don't know whether Veda's prophecy has errors, or if these events were always part of the prophecy."
Nobody objected to Hana's words. The four Gundam pilots simply took it as routine precautionary advice, especially since the anomalies and ET hadn't appeared during the previous Ceylon Island operation.
As for Tieria, he wanted to argue that Veda's prophecies couldn't be wrong, but the fact that the first mission had already encountered exceptions made it difficult for him to refute.
Wang Liu Mei, however, seemed thoughtful upon hearing Hana's words and asked with a light laugh: "Miss Hana, do you have a feeling that the mysterious ET we've been searching for over half a month without any trace might appear this time?"
Hana maintained a perfect poker face, answering thoughtfully: "Just a hunch."
Wang Liu Mei didn't press further upon hearing this. As the Tactical Forecaster of the Ptolemaios, Hana's intuition carried considerable weight.
Just as Hana and Wang Liu Mei were speaking, the scheduled time arrived. The Innovators' four Gundams immediately launched, attacking the Mollaria Republic head-on from inland.
The entire world was watching this conflict. Not only were journalists from various countries broadcasting portions live, but Celestial Being and the Union had even positioned spy satellites directly over the Mollaria Republic, openly watching the complete live footage.
True to expectations, the four Gundams dispersed and assaulted the Mollaria Republic from four different directions. The Republic's main Mobile Suit model remained the Gouf, which stood no chance against the four Gundams.
Meanwhile, from the perspective of everyone aboard the Granshaow, Setsuna had clearly improved—at least he was now carrying a shield and using cover.
With air superiority firmly held by the Kyrios Gundam, the Goufs attacking the Exia were largely limited to low-altitude, close-range shooting.
They were attacking the enemy's strengths with their own weaknesses, attempting to overwhelm their opponent with numerical superiority, only to find their attacks ineffective. As a result, the Mollaria Republic's Goufs were effortlessly mowed down by the Exia.
The situation in the other battlefields was similar to that around the Exia.
Allelujah Haptism's aerial combat skills far surpassed Setsuna's, and the Kyrios Gundam's performance completely outclassed the Goufs in every aspect. The Goufs' sole advantage over other Gundams—speed—was nonexistent against the Kyrios.
As for the Tieren Taozi and the Kyrios, their situations were almost identical. They stood their ground, trading shots with the Goufs, as the Goufs could neither penetrate the Tieren Taozi's thick GN Shield nor breach the Kyrios's newly acquired GN Full Armor Shield.
However, when Ali al-Saachez—the man who had taught Setsuna swordsmanship, brainwashed him, and driven him to kill his own parents—confronted the Exia, things took a turn.
Just like in the original story, after a few exchanges, Setsuna recognized him and nearly awakened as an Innovator on the spot (though this was meant as a joke, in the anime, this was the first time Setsuna consciously activated the Exia's GN Drive to release a massive amount of GN Particles).
After calming down slightly, Setsuna decided to first confirm the other's identity. Defying regulations, he sent a light signal, asking Ali al-Saachez to exit his cockpit for a face-to-face meeting. To show sincerity, Setsuna took the initiative and stepped out of his own cockpit first.
In truth, when Reid had watched the anime, he found this scene overly contrived. Given Ali al-Saachez's personality, if he saw a Gundam pilot voluntarily giving up the advantage of their Mobile Suit and stepping out of the cockpit, why would he obediently do the same and confront them outside?
At that time, Ali al-Saachez hadn't recognized Setsuna; he only felt that the Gundam pilot's moves were familiar, as if he had seen them somewhere before.
Frankly, if Reid were in Ali al-Saachez's place, he believed he would have shot Setsuna dead on the spot—treating the battlefield like child's play? There was no need to step out of the cockpit for a chat.
Nevertheless, reality played out just as in the anime. Ali al-Saachez suddenly awakened a sense of "chivalry." Seeing the opposing pilot open the cockpit and step out, he actually halted his Mobile Suit and exited his own cockpit as well.
But this time, Setsuna didn't get a chance to speak.
Just like during the incident at the AEU orbital elevator, the sky above the Mollaria Republic suddenly darkened with thick clouds. However, this time, no lightning struck; instead, the sky turned as black as spilled ink.
Then, defying intuition, the clouds coalesced into black masses of varying sizes and plummeted toward the ground.
Most of these cloud masses were about ten meters in diameter, but ten of them measured sixty meters across.
This bizarre phenomenon, just like last time, forced the Mollaria Republic forces and the Gundams below to cease fighting.
No one wanted to be hit by these strange clouds.
Setsuna, having already seen Ali al-Saachez's face, immediately rushed back into his cockpit.
Although Ali al-Saachez felt it was a waste to have gained no intel from this encounter, with so many peculiar clouds falling from the sky, he also prioritized returning to his Mobile Suit.
Fortunately, these clouds posed no real threat upon falling; even when they struck the mobile suits, they merely sent them bouncing away.
However, when all the dark clouds descended to the ground and sunlight returned to the Mollaria Republic, the clouds dispersed, revealing what they had concealed. At least three hundred Arm Slaves had been deployed into the Mollaria Republic, while the ten sixty-meter-wide clouds contained ten Behemoths.
The moment Reid saw the Arm Slaves, he immediately realized that this invasion originated from the world of Full Metal Panic, which did not belong to the Gundam universe.
Moreover, all the mobile suits that arrived were piloted by living humans, though their mental states seemed abnormal—like soldiers consumed by bloodlust on the battlefield.
Sure enough, the next moment, these Arm Slaves began indiscriminately attacking everything around them. Even an Arm Slave that landed near the Exia, despite being only half its height, fearlessly raised its high-vibration dagger and stabbed toward the Exia.
(End of Chapter)