C.E. 71, January 23.
There were still more than two weeks to go before the Bloody Valentine incident would reach its first anniversary.
The location was the resource satellite Heliopolis, a colony satellite under the jurisdiction of the neutral nation Orb, located at Lagrange Point 3.
Because it was a neutral satellite, both Naturals and Coordinators lived there.
The atmosphere was relatively harmonious, without the kind of intense hostility seen elsewhere.
At one of the schools built there, students gathered in small groups, either taking part in club activities or discussing academic topics.
"Our reporter brings you the latest update. ZAFT forces have already advanced to..."
Some people were clearly paying close attention to the state of the world.
Ever since the Copernicus terror incident on the Moon, which had nearly wiped out the United Nations leadership, the newly formed Earth Alliance had declared war on ZAFT. Only days later, an even more tragic event took place: the PLANT colony satellite Junius Seven was destroyed, killing hundreds of thousands.
After that, both sides spiraled completely out of control, and the war had continued all the way to the present.
No one had expected this. At first, most people assumed the Earth Alliance would win through sheer numerical superiority. Instead, ZAFT's forces, armed with mobile suits, had achieved overwhelming victories over the Alliance military on battlefields across the world.
The reason was simple: the performance gap between the Earth Alliance's mobile armors and ZAFT's mobile suits was just too great.
MA stood for Mobile Armor, the Earth Alliance's standard space combat unit, a general-purpose single-seat heavy fighter. Some non-humanoid mechanical weapons were also classified as MAs.
MS stood for Mobile Suit, ZAFT's revolutionary new weapon. Its articulated humanoid frame gave it extraordinary mobility and versatility, and most of them were primarily humanoid in form.
It was precisely because of that overwhelming flexibility and adaptability, making them even more formidable than MAs, that the Earth Alliance had suffered one defeat after another.
It was not as though the Earth Alliance had never tried to develop mobile suits of its own. They had even managed to acquire ZAFT MS units, only to discover that those machines could be operated only by Coordinators.
It was not because of any special biological lock or genetic authorization requirement. The problem was purely the complexity of the controls. Only genetically enhanced Coordinators had the mental and physical capacity to handle them.
To put it bluntly, Naturals just were not as capable as Coordinators, and they struggled to pilot mobile suits.
As a result, the Earth Alliance still had no way to develop an MS operating system suitable for Naturals.
"This is bad. They're getting a little too close to home."
"We're a neutral country. It should be fine."
"Hmph. I wouldn't count on that."
The one who said that was a red-haired girl. From her tone and attitude, she clearly seemed to harbor some hostility toward Coordinators.
"Let's not talk about that anymore, Flay."
The short-haired brunette, Miriallia Haw, quickly tried to change the subject after hearing her classmate's remark.
Flay Allster was not actually that hostile toward Coordinators in general. After all, one of their own friends was a Coordinator.
The one who had just said, "We're a neutral country. It should be fine," was Kira, a Coordinator, their classmate, and their friend.
What Flay disliked was not Coordinators as a whole, but rather ZAFT of PLANT, and that had a lot to do with her background.
She was from the Atlantic Federation, and her father was also in the military.
So what topic could she use to steer things away from this?
Then she had it.
"Have you heard? That princess is supposed to be performing in Heliopolis."
As she said it, Miriallia pointed toward a giant screen up ahead.
On the screen, a pink-haired girl was singing, her voice carrying an anti-war message.
Behind her, the background visuals also depicted war. But it was not a war between the Earth Alliance and ZAFT. It was a war between humanity and extraterrestrial life.
In simple terms, the princess was trying to tell people that humanity should stop fighting itself, stop tearing itself apart, and stop obsessively dividing everyone into Naturals and Coordinators.
Everyone was human. Humanity should join hands and move into the cosmos together.
She also believed that humanity could not possibly be the only life in the universe, and that other lifeforms must surely exist somewhere in the depths of space.
Humanity ought to cooperate, develop itself properly, and prepare for whatever dangers might exist in the distant dark beyond the stars.
As for whether alien life really existed, that topic had become extremely hot recently. Rumors and supposed evidence were spreading online, including fossil materials that allegedly proved extraterrestrial organisms had once existed.
At first glance, it sounded like alarmism, like someone deliberately trying to stir up social anxiety by blowing the issue out of proportion.
If this had happened before the war began, Miriallia would have assumed those people were just intentionally trying to destabilize society and create panic.
But now, perhaps it could become a way to force the Earth Alliance and PLANT to stop the war.
If enough people truly began to worry, if public opinion swelled into a tidal wave demanding an end to the fighting, then both governments might have no choice but to back down.
"Oh."
Flay's response was utterly flat.
She had no fondness for that daughter of the PLANT Chairman, but she did not badmouth her either.
After all, the girl really was flawless.
She was a perfect young lady in the eyes of countless people, sincerely calling for peace, even risking herself several times by performing in dangerous areas and nearly getting caught up in disaster.
It was not an act. It was not some staged performance.
So if Flay started taking sarcastic shots at someone as widely admired and genuinely kind as that, even her own friends would probably think she was being awful.
"Really? If she performs this time, do you think there'll be a new MV?"
Sai Argyle sounded a little excited as he asked.
He was not exactly a fan of the princess, not obsessed with her, and not especially devoted to her songs, though they really were very good.
What interested him was the background CG shown whenever the songstress performed. Every time she sang, there were always a few new snippets added.
Those CG sequences were set in the distant future, depicting humanity's fate in the Milky Way.
In that age, humanity's enemies were not itself, but alien lifeforms.
Human worlds were invaded by an insect-like extraterrestrial species with a truly terrifying concept behind it.
Those creatures could infect humans with ease, turning them into their own kind. Even generations later, the descendants could regain human appearances and blend back into human society.
They were intelligent, insidious creatures. They would slowly sow chaos among humans, drive wedges between people, and incite civil war.
At the same time, they would also build nests deep beneath the planet's surface.
Then, once the time was right, they would erupt like a plague of locusts and invade human worlds in full.
The scenes of war in those CGs were breathtaking. Entire planets were swallowed by fire and battle.
Especially the giant space fortresses, each as massive as a colony satellite, crashing into planetary surfaces and causing devastation beyond imagination.
Worse still, insects were not the only threat in that world. Another kind of alien lifeform, something akin to demons, was invading as well.
It all looked utterly hopeless. Humanity even seemed ready to boil its own planet alive. The imagery was so grim that the first time Sai watched it, his eyes had stung with unshed tears.
Combined with the songstress's heavy, sorrowful singing that fit those scenes perfectly, it had almost moved him to tears.
After that, Sai had become completely hooked on every new song MV she released.
With every new song, there would be another update to that far-future CG saga bearing the name Warhammer.
Which was why the team behind the singer had to be incredible too. Producing visuals that shocking and magnificent was no small feat.
...
At 1:40, a diplomatic shuttle was approaching the port of Heliopolis.
"So this is where the story begins?"
Then it was time to log in again after quite a while and send out the invitation.
In truth, time synchronization had been restored several days ago.
It was just that there had been too many people around her, and she had still been on PLANT territory, so it had not been convenient to extend the invitation.
Now, at the very start of the story, inviting him on this satellite was perfect.
As for the timing, tonight would do.
It just so happened to line up with the moment he had finished his visit to Saeko Busujima's world.
Lacus had adjusted her own start time to match the very day he had gone to Saeko's world.
Then, after time synchronization was restored and several more days had passed, she arrived at this colony satellite just in time to coincide with his departure from Saeko's world.
Still, making him come straight here without even a break, as though he never needed rest, was a little much.
But she was the one who had suggested it in the first place, so there was no need to be polite with her.
Otherwise, if he went back to his original world, his boss would probably just send him off on another work trip immediately anyway.
(End of Chapter)
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