Two hours after Junius Seven was destroyed, the Earth Alliance surface fleet near Orb was taken into Orb custody.
The commanders involved were arrested, and it was revealed that the operation had been ordered by Blue Cosmos.
The organization had infiltrated the Earth Alliance at every level, with many senior Alliance officials secretly holding membership.
Naturally, an accusation alone would never have been enough to convince the world. However, an unending stream of evidence soon followed.
The Biological CPU Program, the experiments used to create Enhanced Humans, the adoption of children for human experimentation, and even programs that forced children to kill one another in order to produce superior soldiers.
As the Biological CPU Program was exposed, information also emerged concerning Aura Maha Khyber, the regional leader of Fendri within the Eurasian Federation.
Aura Maha Khyber had performed countless charitable acts, particularly by adopting children orphaned by wars around the world. Yet beneath that benevolent facade, she had been conducting deranged human experiments.
Those experiments had been performed to preserve her body's youth.
Put in more superstitious terms, she was no different from a medieval witch who devoured children's brains to maintain her youth and prolong her life.
The revelation instantly ignited public outrage around the world.
Many individuals, organizations, and regional powers that had benefited from Aura's charity initially refused to believe it. Yet when evidence so overwhelming that it might as well have been fact was released, they could only fall silent and begin severing all ties with her.
Furthermore, Aura Maha Khyber was suspected of being one of the culprits behind the C.E. 68 biological disaster aboard an experimental colony, an incident that had claimed countless lives.
She was nothing less than a demon wearing the face of an angel.
Blue Cosmos, however, was not the true mastermind either.
Behind it stood a secret organization of war profiteers known as LOGOS.
Its leading director was Muruta Azrael, the CEO of the world's largest multinational corporation and the true power behind the Earth Alliance.
These Merchants of Death had deliberately driven the world toward war so they could profit from the resulting chaos.
The C.E. 70 Copernicus Tragedy, in which national leaders attending a United Nations conference were killed in a terrorist attack, had actually been orchestrated by them. It had allowed them to accelerate the formation of the Earth Alliance.
The Bloody Valentine tragedy that followed had likewise been the product of their conspiracy.
Through war, these Merchants of Death had amassed staggering wealth while sinking their roots even deeper into the Earth Alliance.
"Bastards! Damn you! What are you standing around for? Get out there and stop those rioters!"
In one region, an internationally renowned businessman shouted at his security guards in terror, ordering them to stop the furious crowd below.
"Hurry up, you bastards! I don't pay you those salaries so you can drag your feet!"
As he cursed them, he hurled a glass across the room. It struck one of the bodyguards in the head and split his scalp open.
The bodyguard's expression twisted with rage. He had finally reached his limit, but just as he prepared to lash out, another man seized his arm and gave him a meaningful look.
The entire security team silently left the room, supposedly heading downstairs to stop the "rioters."
When they reached the furious crowd, they saw people frantically battering the bulletproof glass partition.
The security chief, the same man who had just stopped his colleague from attacking their employer, pressed a button in his hand.
The barrier that could have held for a while longer was immediately unlocked.
The enraged crowd surged inside.
The guards even cleared a route through the building and activated the passage indicators, conveniently guiding the mob straight to their employer.
Of course, some members of the angry crowd charged at the guards as well.
The security chief made no attempt to flee.
He knew this was what he deserved.
He had always known exactly what kind of monster his employer was, yet he had followed the man long enough for his own hands to become stained as well.
Similar "riots" were erupting across the entire world.
Influential figures from every field had suddenly been "exposed."
In truth, a complete list of LOGOS members had been made public, along with undeniable evidence of their crimes.
Enraged citizens stormed the places where those people lived and worked, intent on tearing them apart.
The lucky ones were arrested first by legitimate government agencies, sparing them from being burned alive by the wrath of the mob.
The unlucky ones were not the only ones to suffer. Their families were swallowed by that fury as well.
They pleaded desperately that their families were innocent, but what about the people they had killed? Had those victims not been innocent?
Could their families truly be called innocent when they had spent years enjoying luxury purchased with blood?
"Are you certain you want to drive us into a corner? Don't forget, your country's food supply depends on..."
Bang!
A gunshot cut off the desperate threat, drawing a scream from the speaker.
The authorities ignored his attempt at mutually assured destruction and continued their forceful suppression.
Some countries genuinely feared that the LOGOS members might destroy everything rather than accept defeat, but the situation was not nearly as dire as they had imagined.
Other parties were already taking control of the critical industries and resources formerly dominated by these people. Stability would soon be restored.
Orb had also publicly released a great deal of civilian technology, giving those governments additional confidence.
These were not military technologies. They primarily concerned energy production and food cultivation.
A massive purge was underway within the Earth Alliance itself.
Many officials continued to resist, but they were merely struggling against the inevitable.
Of course, the Earth Alliance itself would likely collapse as a result of this incident.
At the same time, a new proposal began gaining support: the establishment of a genuinely unified planetary government known as the Earth Federation.
The proposal only began receiving serious consideration after one person delivered a public speech.
That person was the princess of P.L.A.N.T., Lacus Clyne.
She was a Coordinator.
In the past, many Naturals had hated Coordinators. This time, however, their feelings were far more complicated.
Lacus had contributed more than anyone else to the destruction of Junius Seven and the exposure of LOGOS.
Despite being a Coordinator, she had stood with the Naturals. She had even been targeted for assassination by P.L.A.N.T. itself.
Her actions forced many Naturals who had once hated Coordinators to reconsider their beliefs.
The princess declared that she sought a harmonious society in which Naturals and Coordinators would stand together as equals, because neither could survive without the other.
Naturals did not need to fear that Coordinators would abandon them.
If Coordinators lost the Naturals, their own people would eventually become extinct.
Lacus publicly revealed that Coordinator society was already facing an extremely dangerous crisis: infertility.
Beginning with the third generation, Coordinator fertility rates would decline exponentially. Eventually, they might even begin suffering genetic breakdown.
This was the price humanity had paid for using genetic modification to adapt to space at an unnaturally rapid pace.
It meant that if Coordinators wanted descendants, they would need to intermarry with Naturals.
It was much like how men and women had to come together to produce children.
Lacus's warning about the future of Coordinators was not something she had fabricated merely to reassure the Naturals. It was something she had foreseen.
That did not mean Coordinators were not a new form of humanity's future, nor did it mean their existence represented an entirely wrong path.
The problem was that they had used artificial means to force themselves to reach that stage far too quickly.
They were like seedlings pulled upward in an attempt to make them grow faster.
Something raised that way could never survive for long.
(End of Chapter)
[Get +30 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Zaelum"]
[Every 300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]