After reviewing his skills, Reid moved on to the technology drops.
The design blueprint for the Bael Sword and the design blueprint for the Meteor Propulsion System of the Meteor Shenlong Gundam.
These two blueprints could only be considered supplements to the technology tree, offering relatively low practical value for Reid's team.
As for the technology dropped by the Hi-Nu Gundam, it was the design blueprint for the Fin Funnel.
To be honest, this item was even less valuable than the previous two. If Reid really wanted to research it, he could probably develop it himself with some time, as all the required technologies were already available on his side.
Only these three technology drops appeared. Clearly, Reid must have been slightly slower in shooting down the Nightingale, as the System judged that the Nu Gundam took it down first, so Reid didn't obtain any technology from the Nightingale.
In terms of Mobile Suit technology, the truly valuable item from this mission was actually that Amakusa unit, which contained at least a pre-trained Amuro Intelligent AI.
However, the Sazabi, having been captured by the System, should now be in the Factory Module in Star Palace City. The Amakusa, on the other hand, was aboard the Gran Chaos, but the existing equipment couldn't quickly analyze the Mobile Suit, and extracting the AI wasn't safe either.
When it came to enemy electronic programs, it was safest to have the Factory Module analyze and extract them. Even if the enemy had set backdoors in the AI module, after analysis by the Factory Module, any backdoor interfaces would be clearly marked upon output.
In terms of program analysis, even Hoshino Ruri and Nein combined were definitely no match for the Factory Module.
In short, to conduct technology analysis, Reid still needed to return to Star Palace City.
Furthermore, the Joyeuse Gundam was currently in a state with a severed arm. The factory aboard the Gran Chaos couldn't repair it quickly, especially since Nano Gundanium Alloy couldn't be produced on the Gran Chaos.
If obtained through the System, this material was very costly, and the setting for restoring nano-metal parts was extremely time-consuming.
The Factory Module could probably configure this in less than a second, but having someone manually set each part one by one made the entire process exceptionally lengthy.
Therefore, repairing the Joyeuse Gundam also required returning to Star Palace City, and Reid also planned to upgrade it.
Additionally, Salamandine's Mobile Suit had clearly fallen behind the times during this mission. Although the Core Gundam Armor System greatly improved a Mobile Suit's versatility, its performance gap was somewhat evident when facing top-tier MS from other worlds.
It proved that swapping armaments was indeed more cost-effective than manufacturing MS armor and also allowed the Mobile Suit itself more space for upgraded configurations.
Thus, Reid planned to later remold the Phantom Dragon Gundam from scratch.
The two armor sets wouldn't go to waste; by supplementing the Mobile Suit torsos, they could become two new Gundams. At that time, after removing those dangerous systems, they could be deployed to the New Misurugi Kingdom military.
But again, all of this could only proceed after returning to Star Palace City.
Normally, according to the previous plan, returning to Star Palace City wasn't an option for Reid.
After Athrun completed preparations and launched the attack into Europe, Ange was supposed to put on a show, "seizing" the British Isles from ZAFT and declaring occupation.
Reid was then to lead a portion of the troops to the Ascension Island Base, coordinating with the Hawaii Island Base to launch simultaneous landing operations against the Atlantic Federation mainland from both east and west.
At this moment, Reid needed to remain stationed on the island of Ireland to deter the Atlantic Federation's Paradise Island Base, preventing its forces from attacking the British Isles.
You might ask why not just capture the Paradise Island Base directly instead of spending time and effort keeping watch over it?
The reason, of course, is that if they were to launch a full-scale assault on the Paradise Island Base now, the forces under Reid's command would likely be insufficient to support the subsequent landing operations on the eastern coast of the Atlantic Federation's mainland.
It must be understood that after the recent Second Neo Zeon War campaign, the losses of Virgo IIs carried by the Gran Chaos were greater than Reid had anticipated.
Although there were still many Virgo IIs aboard the Eternal Peace, Reid's current forces were already below the originally planned strength.
Moreover, once the Atlantic Federation's mainland was invaded, a significant portion of the forces at the Paradise Island Base would undoubtedly be redeployed to defend the homeland. At that point, the base could be easily captured, making a forced assault now unwise.
However, not launching a full-scale assault didn't mean Reid intended to passively wait, dragging things out until the Atlantic Federation couldn't resist probing, only to react defensively.
That would be too passive, especially since Reid had already decided to return to his home country for a while.
Therefore, before leaving, Reid planned to "say hello" to the Atlantic Federation.
Of course, this "greeting" certainly didn't mean informing the Atlantic Federation of his departure.
Instead, it involved launching a surprise attack on the Paradise Island Base.
The goal was simple: to make the Paradise Island Base mistakenly believe that the large New Misurugi Kingdom forces stationed on the island of Ireland were targeting them. This would deter them from casually sending troops to probe, avoiding continuous attrition of their forces and potentially losing the base.
Naturally, the Joyeuse Gundam couldn't be deployed now, and Reid didn't feel comfortable commandeering someone else's Mobile Suit. Thus, he had no choice but to take out the spare unit stored aboard the Eternal Peace.
Reid's spare unit was, of course, the GP-08 (Phantom Rose) β, as the repaired Hermes Zero and Immortal Aegis were left behind in the Star Palace City Kingdom as commemorative items and hadn't been brought along.
This unit had been transferred from Flay before departure. After all, she currently had no combat missions, and the Jegan could serve as the Silver Thunder Core Unit.
However, the GP-08 (Phantom Rose) β was more than sufficient to deal with the Atlantic Federation. The Paradise Island Base only had a few more Destroy units, and Reid wasn't aiming to capture the base itself.
Thus, after resting for a day, Reid immediately convened a military meeting, announcing that they would launch a surprise attack on the Paradise Island Base with the objective of destroying the base's anti-air superweapon, "Nibelungen."
The existence of "Nibelungen" was strictly kept secret by the Atlantic Federation. In the anime, ZAFT remained unaware of it until the moment it was activated.
(There is a discrepancy between the novel and the anime here, so the anime is taken as the standard. After all, when Nibelungen was activated, Durandal's shocked expression didn't seem feigned, and at this stage, he had no reason to sacrifice an entire Orbital Drop Troops unit for such a performance.)
Therefore, Reid claimed that spies within the Atlantic Federation military had uncovered the existence of this specialized anti-air superweapon at the Paradise Island Base, necessitating an immediate operation.
Reid was aware of the basic information and location of "Nibelungen," so even if Atlantic Federation personnel were present at the meeting, they wouldn't suspect that the information Reid possessed was fabricated.
The senior officers of the New Misurugi Kingdom's military naturally had no objections to the plan to destroy the enemy's superweapon after Reid presented such intelligence and immediately took orders to begin preparations.
That night, under the cover of darkness, the Faroe Islands—just a stone's throw from Ireland—were once again set foot upon by soldiers of the New Misurugi Kingdom.
This time, however, it wasn't just six individuals. Including ground crew and security management troops, Reid's assault force numbered over six thousand.
First, Automated Soldier Kapools quietly infiltrated the Faroe Islands' harbor and surrounding waters, then launched an almost simultaneous attack, sinking various patrol ships and vessels around the islands.
Then, the main force pressed forward. As the Atlantic Federation garrison at the Faroe Islands harbor, alerted by alarms, just stepped out of their quarters, they could see the Automated Soldier Murasames of the New Misurugi Kingdom blotting out the moonlight over the port.
Out of goodwill, wanting the Atlantic Federation forces at Paradise Island Base to have a peaceful night's sleep, Reid had ordered no bombardment of the harbor to avoid alerting the base to the vibrations of combat explosions.
Thus, after his forces entered the harbor, Reid directly broadcast a call for surrender.
The entire Atlantic Federation garrison at the Faroe Islands harbor numbered just over a thousand troops, with only around thirty Mobile Suits—second-line models like the Long Sword at that.
So, the moment Reid spoke, white flags were hoisted by the Atlantic Federation forces at the Faroe Islands harbor.
After all, losing to Reid was no disgrace. It was certainly better than the forces on the Western Front, who, despite having over twice the combined strength in two consecutive battles, still lost to Reid's woman.
With the Faroe Islands captured almost without a fight, Paradise Island Base could indeed sleep soundly that night.
Reid had deployed several additional types of electromagnetic interference around the Faroe Islands, and there were no physical undersea fiber-optic connections between the two locations. Moreover, Reid had ordered that not even a single seabird be allowed to fly out from the vicinity. As a result, Paradise Island Base remained unaware of the loss of the Faroe Islands until the following day.
It was only when Paradise Island Base noticed that the routine observation reports from the Faroe Islands to the British Isles had stopped arriving that they realized something was wrong and dispatched a reconnaissance Mobile Suit to investigate.
This Mobile Suit was shot down shortly after takeoff, but the final transmitted image faintly showed the flag of the New Misurugi Kingdom fluttering over the Faroe Islands harbor, surrounded by the kingdom's warships.
That single image was enough to send Paradise Island Base into an uproar.
However, the base commander wasn't too surprised. The idea that the New Misurugi Kingdom's military had abandoned the Old Capital Base and relocated all forces to Ireland just to watch ZAFT's invasion of Western Europe up close was something even a ghost wouldn't believe.
So, what other high-value targets were near Ireland?
Naturally, it was his own Paradise Island Base.
Upon receiving news of the Faroe Islands' fall, the base commander immediately declared a state of first-level combat readiness. All anti-aircraft weapons at the base were pre-loaded, ready to face a rain of rockets from the New Misurugi Kingdom's forces.
The reason the Paradise Island Base commander first thought of rockets was that, after all this time, both the Atlantic Federation and the Eurasian Federation had thoroughly investigated the circumstances of the Black Sea Campaign.
Conventional long-range inertial rockets, weapons that were nearly museum pieces, had unexpectedly proven remarkably effective in modern warfare.
This breakthrough opened everyone's eyes.
Now, the East Asian Republic, Atlantic Federation, and Eurasian Federation were all scouring their last-century weapons inventories, searching for affordable and practical options that could be deployed immediately.
Long-range inertial rockets were back in production, though each nation was manufacturing them on an emergency basis—there simply wasn't enough time in just a few days to equip entire armies.
The Faroe Islands were only 440 kilometers from Paradise Island Base. Even if they dragged out primitive V2 rockets from the last century and used modern fuel formulations, they could reach 500 kilometers. Their own base was already within the firing range of the New Misurugi Kingdom's military.
Thus, with Paradise Island Base unable to deploy its own long-range inertial rocket batteries for counter-fire, the only option was to maximize air defense.
The Atlantic Federation forces at Paradise Island Base had learned from their allies' mistakes and grown wiser, but the base commander's judgment was correct.
After capturing the Faroe Islands, Reid indeed ordered the establishment of rocket launch sites in the flat areas of the islands. Rockets were cheap, and he had just earned a hefty sum of G-Coins, so he was determined to fire them relentlessly—even if they only managed to destroy some of Paradise Island Base's outer defenses.
After all, Paradise Island Base certainly wouldn't reveal its "Nibelungen" trump card immediately in response to rocket attacks, so Reid wasn't worried about the rockets being ineffective.
Even if all the rockets were intercepted by Paradise Island Base, Reid argued that since he planned to capture the British Isles later, firing tens of thousands of rockets now was justified.
Of course, the rockets were merely a diversion to draw the enemy's attention, just like the troops stationed at the Faroe Islands' ports.
Reid had no intention of sending forces for a feint attack, as even feints could result in Mobile Suit losses.
Reid himself was no longer on the Faroe Islands. He was now leading an infiltration team—composed of the Xia sisters, Neil, Belfgang, Shinn, and Stella—around to the rear of Paradise Island Base.
Frankly, Ange strongly opposed Reid's decision to transition from Chairman of the Military Committee to leader of an enemy infiltration team, calling it utterly reckless.
However, Ange's proposed alternative was for her to command the assault team herself.
Seriously? If it was reckless for the Chairman of the Military Committee to become an assault team leader, was it any less reckless for the queen to do the same? Reid dismissed her suggestion outright, stating that military matters were his domain and the queen had no command authority.
Salamandine, for her part, argued that she was the most suitable candidate for leading the assault team, as her combat command skills surpassed Reid's.
But Reid clearly had no intention of reasoning things out. He vetoed her proposal as well, insisting that her abilities were more urgently needed to command the main forces at the Faroe Islands.
As for the others, they dared not speak up. Opposing both Reid and Ange without a special status was a sure way to fall out of Reid's favor.
In the end, Reid, with his military authority and greater say on the battlefield, secured the role. Ange was left stationed on Ireland, not even setting foot on the Faroe Islands.
As for why Stella was in the team?
Naturally, after Reid took Shinn on the mission, Stella secretly followed them.
The distance from Ireland to the Faroe Islands wasn't that great, so Stella didn't need to sneak into the forces that had attacked the Faroe Islands the previous night.
She simply seized an opportunity in the early hours of the next day and piloted the Gundam Gremory Deathbird straight to the Faroe Islands.
The personnel at the temporary base in Ireland didn't dare shoot Stella down. By the time the guards relayed the message to Ange, the Gundam Gremory Deathbird had long since vanished.
The only good news was that when the Gundam Gremory Deathbird arrived at the Faroe Islands, Reid and the others hadn't yet departed.
If Stella had arrived at the Faroe Islands only to find that Reid and the others were already gone, things would have gotten quite messy.
Salamandine wasn't particularly close to Stella, so she couldn't keep her under control.
If Stella had slipped out of the Faroe Islands again to try and flank Reid and the others, the variables in the plan would have been too great.
Fortunately, the worst-case scenario didn't happen.
But now that Stella was here, expecting her to obediently stay in the Faroe Islands was impossible.
So Reid could only scold her once more before reluctantly bringing her along.
--Enjoying the story? Want more chapters? Check out my Patreon and support me for 40+ advance chapters.
Just search for "LegendaryTL" on Patreon!"
Thanks!