The espionage war over PLANT's Minovsky Nuclear Fusion Reactors had been raging since August of CE 72 and showed no signs of concluding as CE 73 began.
The three nations of the Earth Alliance were clearly prepared for a protracted conflict. In any case, according to the Earth Sphere Peace Accord, PLANT was required to allow its military armaments to be monitored.
Although the five-nation joint investigation team could only conduct a detailed inspection once every six months, tourist and work visas to public cities were kept open to ensure no one could seal off a city's intelligence and secretly manufacture Mobile Suits.
Of course, everyone knew that all sides were certainly producing extra MS in secret. After all, there were plenty of ways to do it—building production plants deep in remote mountains and forests, or hiding them within the various large asteroid belts in space. It was just a matter of whether or not they would be discovered by other nations.
Therefore, PLANT could not refuse the three Earth Alliance nations from continuously sending personnel into the August Sextilis City colony cluster, which was responsible for research in fundamental physics, theoretical physics, elementary particle physics, high-dimensional physics, and mathematics.
This directly led to Yzak, who had applied for a transfer to intelligence work to compete with Athrun after hearing he was involved in it, getting promoted all the way to a white uniform by catching spies. It also allowed Dearka, who had been transferred under Yzak, to have his rank restored from the demoted green to red.
Of course, both of them now had an "ethereal" look about them whenever they met people. It seemed that promotions could not erase the fatigue of continuous work.
As for Reid, from an outsider's perspective, his recent actions were exceptionally baffling.
In reality, starting from September of CE 72, Murrue, having rested for nearly a year after her postpartum confinement, announced she wanted to return to her post. She felt she was falling behind the era's technological advancements.
With the mother, Murrue, going back to work, Reid's hopes of slacking off were nothing but a pipe dream.
Besides, little Maria was now being looked after by several hundred people, so Reid didn't need to worry at all.
Since he didn't have to be a wet nurse, Reid's attention naturally returned to planning, scientific research, and intelligence work.
Planning and research were part of Reid's main duties, but he had actively requested to be involved in intelligence work.
However, Reid did not interfere with the intelligence agency Une had established for the New Misurugi Kingdom. Instead, he set up several junk collection companies himself and recruited many junk dealers.
To be honest, Reid made no secret of his dealings with these junk dealers, directly poaching people from the junk dealers' association.
He was also unusually generous, giving these junk dealers ZAFT warships that the New Misurugi Kingdom had captured during the first war (with the main cannons removed, all of which were either captured or repaired from the battle at the Star Palace Colony Satellite).
After handing over the warships, Reid arranged for these junk dealers to constantly patrol the Circum-Terrestrial Debris Belt, providing them with specific coordinates each time. The official reason was to recover and recycle precious metals from the debris belt.
Of course, no one in the world believed this excuse. With the intelligence battle between the three Earth Alliance nations and PLANT at a life-or-death stage, they still managed to spare a group of people to investigate what Reid was looking for and what treasures lay hidden in the debris belt.
Unfortunately, Reid really wasn't looking for anything, even though he was well aware that many of these junk dealers had been bought by the four powers. He simply had them continue to go to the Circum-Terrestrial Debris Belt to collect some actual junk, then use refining machines with costs higher than mining to extract rare metals.
So, the intelligence departments of the four powers could only go along with this pointless endeavor. However, the mission was relatively safe, much better than the one in PLANT's Sextilis City where people were dying every day.
In truth, Reid's real objective was to monitor all the abandoned colony satellites in the Circum-Terrestrial Debris Belt.
Reid strictly forbade the junk dealers from modifying the ships he gave them. The onboard cameras on these ships would transmit whatever they recorded to the computers of the New Misurugi Kingdom personnel responsible for receiving the goods, which would then be brought back for analysis.
Reid's reason for monitoring the abandoned colony satellites was actually to prepare for the System's next phase mission in the CE Universe.
He dared not forget the mission: "Prevent the colony satellite wreckage from falling to Earth (mission fails if over 30% of the colony satellite wreckage's mass falls to Earth)."
Reid knew very well that with the Balkis currently parked over Australia, even if the wreckage of Junius 7 was timed and angled perfectly from the other side of the planet to crash directly into North America, it wouldn't make it.
As soon as there were signs of Junius 7's wreckage falling towards Earth, the nations of Earth would likely request the Balkis to fire on the colony debris.
At that point, a single shot from the Barge Cannon would be enough to completely disintegrate the Junius 7 wreckage. The Balkis's escort fleet could easily take care of any remaining large chunks.
If the colony wreckage couldn't fall, the Earth Alliance wouldn't necessarily declare war based solely on terrorist attacks across the nations by self-proclaimed ZAFT Zala Faction extremists.
Even if the Atlantic Federation wanted to go to war, if the other two Earth Alliance nations didn't follow suit, it would be very difficult for the war to start.
If war didn't break out, Gilbert wouldn't be able to assume the victim's stance to persuade his country's populace to go to war and justifiably eliminate everyone who would obstruct his Destiny Plan.
Moreover, Reid believed that after their last conversation, Gilbert had already marked him as an obstacle to the Destiny Plan.
This time, he was likely formulating a plan with the goal of completely destroying the New Misurugi Kingdom in one fell swoop.
Therefore, to ensure that at least all three Earth Alliance nations would join the war and to retain the possibility of destroying the New Misurugi Kingdom in a single blow, there would definitely be more than one piece of colony wreckage falling.
Reid was even prepared for all the colony and fortress wreckage in the Circum-Terrestrial Debris Belt to be hurled at Earth. That was why he had that bunch of junk dealers constantly patrolling the debris belt, to see if anyone had already started making preparations.
Of course, Reid had found nothing at this stage, but it didn't matter. Supporting these junk dealers was a small expense for him, and he was only funding them for a year. If the money was wasted, so be it.
However, this wasn't the only thing Reid was doing.
For the past four months, Reid had also been very high-profile about constructing the New Misurugi Kingdom's lunar military base on the Moon.
This lunar base had been approved and signed off on by all nations in the Earth Sphere Peace Accord. So, Reid directly marked out a large plain on the far side of the Moon, building in a large crater and becoming neighbors with the Atlantic Federation's Daedalus Base.
The other four powers did not protest or interfere.
Of course, the Atlantic Federation probably had a guilty conscience.
At this time, the construction plans for Requiem should have been finalized, and its construction begun at Daedalus Base.
The area Reid chose for his base, while being a "neighbor," was at a safe distance according to any nation's military experts. But for high-speed ships, attacking the other's base would only take about ten minutes.
However, the Moon was only so big, and the Atlantic Federation didn't dare tell the New Misurugi Kingdom, "I'm building a base on the far side of the Moon, so you can't."
That would be a dead giveaway. What if the New Misurugi Kingdom hadn't been suspicious and had only come to the far side because all the good spots on the near side were taken? Such a statement would only arouse suspicion.
As for the other three nations, in their view, it was more acceptable for the New Misurugi Kingdom to invest money in a lunar military base than in scientific research.
If the money went into research, they would have no idea what strange things Reid Isaac's current team might come up with.
Of course, Reid wasn't building a base on the far side of the Moon just to be ready to attack Requiem at any moment.
Reid decided to learn from Celestial Beings and assemble Veda I, whose factory modules were being built in batches, at this base.
The Atlantic Federation would surely never imagine that the New Misurugi Kingdom would place a massive quantum supercomputer so close by. Moreover, there were no Neutron Jammers on the Moon. When the time came, Veda's electronic intrusion would definitely give them a surprise.
Furthermore, to cover up the construction of the super quantum computer, Reid openly placed a Cyclops System at this base. He even built it first, all but explicitly stating, "Don't come messing with this base, or however many troops you send will die."
The other four powers were at a loss for words at this behavior. After all, what could they say about the New Misurugi Kingdom planting a bomb in its own base?
Besides, the Cyclops System was not prohibited by the Earth Sphere Peace Accord, as it was, in principle, still a mineral extraction device. The metals brought back by those junk dealers were also being used directly for this base.
So, the East Asian Republic, PLANT, and the Eurasian Federation could only ignore this base in the end. The headache belonged to the Atlantic Federation, its lunar neighbor.
However, while the other four powers of the Earth Sphere didn't stir up trouble, the junk dealers Reid was supporting, perhaps feeling a bit embarrassed for getting paid to do nothing, or perhaps because the people who had bought them wanted to leak some intelligence to get their agent into Reid's inner circle, acted.
A few days into January of CE 73, Reid received a piece of news.
A junk dealer's ship had encountered a PLANT transport ship heading for the L4 Colony Cluster in the Circum-Terrestrial Debris Belt.
This transport ship was highly suspicious. The junk dealer captaining this ship was a former Atlantic Federation soldier. Feeling the transport was suspicious, he followed it, eventually tracking it to a colony satellite that was supposed to have been abandoned (similar to Mendel's state).
Furthermore, while the ship was unloading its cargo, the crew of the ship, hiding in the debris belt, used binoculars and spotted nuclear symbols on the cargo.
To be honest, the matter was so coincidental that Reid felt it was a story for idiots.
But the ship's logs and his own hidden cameras proved that the captain was telling the truth. He had simply ordered his ship to follow the PLANT transport because it seemed suspicious, and had even argued with his subordinates about it.
Moreover, after syncing up with Une, it turned out she had related intelligence on her end.
Combining the information from both sides, it was basically certain that the ship was indeed carrying nuclear-related materials.
Inside were the mass-production prototype ZAKUs equipped with Anti-Neutron Jammers that ZAFT was preparing to dismantle.
Before the Earth Sphere Peace Accord was signed, ZAFT, fearing another attack, had produced a total of 47 of these mass-production prototype ZAKUs equipped with Anti-Neutron Jammers.
According to the Earth Sphere Peace Accord, the Anti-Neutron Jammers on all these prototype ZAKUs had to be removed.
After seeing the consolidated intelligence, Reid recalled that there seemed to be such an event in one of the SEED side stories. In the end, these prototype ZAKUs were indeed dismantled by ZAFT. However, the precious metals from the Anti-Neutron Jammers were used to create Neutron Stampers.
But upon further thought, Reid discovered a blind spot.
Times were different now. In the original story, ZAFT dismantled these mobile suits because they were designed to nuclear-powered standards.
The mobile suit's weaponry and armor were huge energy consumers. Without the Anti-Neutron Jammer, if they were converted to battery power, the mobile suit would run out of power in a few minutes, making it completely unsuitable for mass production.
That was why the down-specced ZAKU Warrior later became ZAFT's new generation mass-produced mobile suit.
But now, with the Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactor, even with the crappiest reactors that he had Orb produce under license, these mobile suits could continue to be used.
Although a Minovsky Reactor from UC 0079 had a poor output, its operational endurance was still at the level of a nuclear fusion furnace, sufficient to support the lightly armed mass-production prototype ZAKU.
In that case, it was very strange that these prototype ZAKUs were still being dismantled. They could have just removed the Anti-Neutron Jammers and repurposed the junk Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactors that PLANT had bought from Orb.
It had cost a lot of money to build these mobile suits. Such wastefulness didn't seem like a decision the PLANT Supreme Council would make.
After mulling it over and feeling that something was off, Reid decided to send someone to actually check out this abandoned colony satellite and see what the ZAFT personnel were up to.
As for who to send on the investigation, it was naturally our Zala Faction heir, Athrun Zala.
Since the espionage activities in PLANT's August Sextilis City had not yet ended, Terminal's main focus was there.
Athrun was clearly not suitable for a mission in August Sextilis City. And without Terminal providing intelligence, to ensure Lacus's safety, Lacus herself had rarely traveled to conflict zones recently. Kira, on the other hand, was still active, accompanying Miriallia.
So, Reid summoned Athrun, handed him the data and the intelligence analysis he had someone write up, and began his persuasion.
"Athrun, take a look at this intelligence. There's something I'd like to ask of you."
Athrun looked at the intelligence and analysis, his brow furrowed slightly. After a moment of thought, he said, "Chairman Reid, while ZAFT's actions are indeed suspicious, this is still an internal matter for PLANT, isn't it? After all, PLANT has the right to decide whether to dismantle these prototype ZAKUs and where to do it."
Reid heard this, nodded, and then said, "That's why I'm asking you to go. I have another piece of intelligence here, but it can't be put in writing. I've heard that this batch of prototype ZAKUs might be connected to those hidden Zala Faction hardliners."
Upon hearing this, Athrun's expression instantly became extremely serious. He asked directly, "Chairman Reid, is the intelligence reliable?"
Reid first nodded, then shook his head slightly. "It's reliable, but not confirmed. If it were confirmed, I wouldn't be looking for you. I'd just storm the abandoned satellite under the pretext of searching for terrorists and arrest them. That place doesn't belong to PLANT. I could legally storm it even if I disregarded PLANT's opinion. However, I believe such unnecessary provocation is meaningless for peace. So, I want you to go personally. If it has nothing to do with the hidden Zala Faction hardliners, just come back and don't say anything to me. If it is related to the hardliners, you can act according to the situation. I will have troops secretly stationed nearby, and they will rush in as soon as they see your signal."
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