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Mikazuki arrived at the top floor of the building, looking at the crisscrossing roads in the distance, eating a date, and then looked towards Factory No. 37, which Orga had mentioned. That was where the Morgenroete and the Earth Alliance jointly manufactured and concealed the Gundams. From this position, he could easily see a long convoy stopped on the road. There were no other vehicles on that road; it was clearly blockaded.
Mikazuki looked at the artificial sky of the colonial satellite, a certain intuition arising. He softly murmured, "It's coming..."
In the outer space of Heliopolis, two ZAFT battleships that had been lingering outside suddenly launched an attack. Alarms continuously blared in the colonial satellite's port control room. "This is Heliopolis, ZAFT vessel approaching, please respond. ZAFT vessel, please respond..." The port controller floated over, his face grim, but still very calmly said, "Calm down, stop the alarm first." Then he snatched the earpiece from a staff member and shouted into it, "Notify the approaching ZAFT vessel that your actions infringe upon our sovereignty. Please cease your advance immediately..."
All that came from the earpiece was static. The staff member sitting at the console said to the controller, "There's strong electromagnetic interference. The source is the approaching ZAFT vessel. We've lost contact with Heliopolis' interior. This is already a clear act of war."
"What?!" The controller's forced calm finally shattered at this moment, his mouth gaping wide.
In a ZAFT Nazca-class high-speed combat ship, a masked man with golden hair, dressed in a ZAFT white commander's uniform, had a faint smile on his lips and waved his right hand. The deputy commander, sitting in the captain's seat beside him, waved his hand: "Operation start! Electromagnetic interference launch! Detonate explosives! MS team sortie, and this ship advances! Notify Yzak and the others who infiltrated to hurry up and find a way to seize the mobile suits!"
"Yes!"
"Everyone move!" The Archangel, which was deploying its MS launch deck, along with another Laurasia-class battleship, the Gamov, rushed towards Heliopolis' docking port. The white-clad commander, Rau Le Creuset, who could not be seen on his face, smiled throughout, saying nothing. He had confidence in his subordinates; this operation was a sure thing. Of course, this certainty was predicated on no unforeseen circumstances.
Hidden deep within the mountains of Heliopolis' District 7 was a factory, where a white battleship nearly four hundred meters long was moored. Its overall structure was a wide catamaran, simply put, it had two large, long legs. This battleship, codenamed Archangel, was a new type of battleship developed by the Earth Alliance simultaneously with the codenamed Gundam mobile suits, meaning it was specifically designed to complement the Gundams.
The captain and crew of the Archangel were nervously preparing for the mobile suit sortie. "Archangel fuel filling, already at twenty percent!" The captain nodded. "Good, speed it up!" At this, an intelligence officer spoke up: "Reporting, Captain! We are under attack from ZAFT externally. The enemy also seems to have dispatched mobile suits!"
"ZAFT? Damn it, did they really get the intelligence? It's fine, leave it to Heliopolis to deal with." Then he turned to a female Ensign behind him and said, "Ensign Muruta Azrael, you are to supervise the Archangel's rotation shaft work and simultaneously notify Lieutenant Ramias to speed up preparations for boarding. Tell her that if an accident occurs and the mobile suits fall into enemy hands, it doesn't matter if they are destroyed, understood?"
"Yes!" After a crisp military salute, Muruta Azrael left the maintenance bay without any hesitation, taking a Sergeant with her. However, not long after Natasha left, an anomaly occurred. The maintenance area suddenly exploded. The captain and other senior officers in the factory control room hadn't even reacted when the explosion's flames broke through the windows and engulfed them.
The explosions in the mountain and underground caused a strong earthquake throughout District 7. But this wasn't Earth; it was an artificial colonial satellite. How could an earthquake occur except for a meteorite impact? But a meteorite was absolutely impossible; Heliopolis, in space, would shatter all meteorites. At the same time the tremor occurred, alarms blared throughout Heliopolis. "Heliopolis is under attack by ZAFT forces. Civilians, please evacuate to shelters immediately. Repeat..."
People listened to the alarms, looking up at the sky. Several black dots fell from the artificial skyâthey were ZAFT's GINN. "Those are Mobile Suits! ZAFT really invaded! Quick, run!" "Damn it, why is ZAFT appearing in Orb's territory?!" "What are Heliopolis' soldiers doing?! Why are Mobile Suits getting in?!" "Stop talking, quickly get to the shelters! Those Coordinators are starting a war!" All the people of Heliopolis then realized that the tremors were caused by ZAFT's attack. Everyone frantically rushed to the nearest shelters.
And what was our Mikazuki doing at this moment? He stood calmly on top of that building, looking down at the unfolding scene below, slowly putting a date into his mouth, and said into the earpiece pressed against his cheek, "Orga, they've started."
"Ah, the explosion is right beneath your feet. Well, since they've made their move here, the Gundam transport convoy should also be taking action, right? Mikazuki, should Barbatos go now?"
"Mm." Mikazuki nodded, raised his wrist, and pressed the sortie button displayed on his watch screen. Barbatos, hidden in the mountain, disengaged its camouflage, and its green eyes flared with dazzling light.