As the light of destruction prepared to fire, a beam suddenly erupted from within and destroyed the weapon.
The sight allowed some of the tension gripping Lacus's heart to ease. Her strength left her, and she sank back into her seat.
According to the plan, if Kain infiltrated GENESIS alone but failed to destroy it in time, Lacus would use the Hyperdimensional Channel to warn him the moment the firing sequence began.
Kain would then switch to their backup plan.
He would immediately sever the dimensional passage and send Takao back to her own world. Once his personal space became available again, A2 would transfer the KX139 mech to him, allowing him to destroy GENESIS from the inside.
Judging from what they had just witnessed, the mission had succeeded.
The reason Kain had not entered the fortress with the KX139 from the beginning had nothing to do with conserving Energy Coins. He had done it to ensure Lacus's safety.
Takao had remained beside her, ready to protect her with a Klein Field if anything unexpected happened.
Now, however, everything finally seemed to be over.
"Fire the forced communication devices into the fortress."
"Send them the evidence of that bastard Le Creuset's crimes. Make them understand what they're doing and how they're being manipulated into repeating the same mistakes."
"Show them who the real traitor is, and who betrayed whom."
Since the fortress refused all communications, the only option was to force it to receive the information.
Some people would refuse to believe it, but the evidence would still be enough to shake the enemy's morale. With any luck, it would reduce their willingness to resist and spare both sides from further bloodshed.
Fifteen minutes later, Jachin Due Fortress had completely fallen.
The command center had been seized even earlier.
A "mutiny" had broken out inside. After receiving the evidence, half of the fortress personnel chose to "betray" Patrick. Of the remaining half, more than half declared themselves neutral and remained silent.
The few who still resisted were no match for the defectors.
National Defense Committee Chairman Patrick Zala had been gravely wounded and captured.
He had attempted to make the entire fortress self-destruct. That decision caused even some of those who had initially sided with him to abandon him, since the explosion would have killed everyone in the fortress along with him.
At the critical moment, the "traitors" opened every isolation bulkhead leading to the command center, allowing the "monster" to reach it as quickly as possible.
The thunderous barrage that followed left everyone inside, Patrick included, with their ears ringing.
Soon afterward, the Archangel recovered a mobile suit. Its pilot emerged and casually tossed a man onto the deck.
To prevent the prisoner from committing suicide or dying from blood loss, Kain had already administered emergency treatment.
His reason for bringing Patrick directly aboard the Archangel was simple. He needed Lacus to use her Mediator ability to peer into Patrick's mind and discover where Le Creuset was hiding.
Le Creuset had not been aboard Jachin Due Fortress.
Combined with Patrick's behavior, it was obvious they still had another plan in reserve.
As for the evidence of Le Creuset's crimes, Patrick either refused to believe it or was simply too afraid to accept the truth. He had traveled so far down this path that turning back was no longer possible.
Or perhaps he had simply gone mad and deliberately concealed everything he knew about Le Creuset.
Suddenly, Lacus's face turned deathly pale.
She had clearly discovered something terrible within Patrick's mind.
"There's another GENESIS!"
"What? Another GENESIS?"
"Where is it?"
"How could they possibly conceal something that large?"
"And we tracked the resources used in its construction. There was no sign of a massive concentration of materials anywhere else!"
Everyone who heard Lacus reacted with alarm, bombarding her with urgent questions.
"Quiet."
Kain's voice was calm, but its weight instantly silenced the panicking crowd.
"It's located at the abandoned Mendel colony in L4…" Lacus explained immediately.
Chairman Patrick had prepared two separate plans.
The first involved constructing Messiah at the abandoned Mendel colony, a weapon identical to GENESIS despite being given a different name.
More accurately, they had converted the Mendel colony itself into a weapon. Doing so required far fewer resources than constructing another GENESIS from scratch.
Mendel had always been a highly specialized research facility with enormous energy requirements. Its circular light-focusing panels could be modified to serve as the reflective array needed to focus the nuclear explosion used by GENESIS.
The colony also possessed an artificial sun, which normally supplied the power for its gamma-ray sterilization system.
Countless biological experiments had once been conducted there, and the colony had later suffered a biological disaster. To prevent viruses and other contaminants from spreading, Mendel had been equipped with an extremely powerful sterilization system.
That existing infrastructure meant converting the colony would require relatively few additional resources.
Whatever raw materials were still needed could be extracted directly from nearby resource satellites.
P.L.A.N.T had also failed to discover the project because its colony clusters were concentrated around Earth's L5 Lagrange point.
Mendel, however, was located at L4. There had been no need to transport materials across a vast distance to gather resources near L5.
L4 and L5 lay on opposite sides of the Earth-Moon system, almost like mirrored positions.
That was the most dangerous part of all.
"It's in L4?"
"You've got to be kidding!"
"That's even farther away than Earth!"
"Can we possibly reach it in time?"
The distance between L5 and L4 was what filled everyone with despair.
The GENESIS at Jachin Due had come within a minute, perhaps only seconds, of firing. There was no guarantee the other weapon remained unfinished. For all they knew, it had already entered its firing sequence.
There was no possible way to reach it in time unless they could jump through space.
"Captain, we're receiving a transmission!"
"It's on a public channel from the direction of L4!"
The communications officer's announcement silenced everyone again.
The instant the channel connected, Mendel appeared on the screen.
However, the colony looked nothing like the Mendel they remembered. One entire side now closely resembled the firing aperture of GENESIS at Jachin Due.
"Well, everyone aboard the Long Legs, how do you like my little surprise?"
A mocking voice echoed through the bridge.
A man wearing a silver mask appeared on the screen. It was Rau Le Creuset, the man determined to drive the world toward destruction.
He held a dart in one hand and walked toward a spinning target divided into two sections.
One section bore an image of Earth.
The other displayed the P.L.A.N.T colony clusters.
Everyone could already guess what he intended to do.
"Some of you have probably figured out what I'm about to say, but I'll explain it anyway for those who haven't. I'm going to throw this dart. Whichever target it strikes will receive the Light of Messiah."
Le Creuset spread his hands theatrically.
"After all, this facility can bestow Messiah's blessing only once. It would hardly be fair to favor both sides."
His words made everyone grit their teeth. Some openly cursed him.
"Now, let's see which side fortune chooses."
On the screen, Le Creuset stepped back until he reached a line on the floor. He turned around, put his back to the target, and tossed the dart over his shoulder.
The dart struck the spinning board cleanly.
The impact threw it off balance, causing the wheel to slow rapidly before stopping.
The dart had landed on P.L.A.N.T.
"Well, that settles it. The Light of Messiah will be fired at Earth."
Le Creuset chuckled.
"I imagine everyone on Earth is cursing me right now. But did I ever say the dart would determine where Messiah's light would fall? Did I? Perhaps I did. I must be getting forgetful."
His feigned innocence left almost everyone watching livid with rage.
What he did next filled them with both fury and horror.
Le Creuset began entering the target coordinates.
The selected region was on the side of Earth directly opposite Orb.
The public transmission also displayed his calculations, revealing the estimated scale of destruction.
More than eighty percent of Earth's population would die.
Something felt wrong.
Lunamaria Hawke suddenly noticed how calm Lacus remained.
Why was she so composed?
Did that mysterious man named Kain still have some way to stop this?
Could he create yet another miracle?
Lunamaria turned toward Kain.
He was gone.
After searching for him, she finally spotted him outside the Archangel, floating alone in space.
A colossal curtain of light suddenly appeared beside him.
It was circular and at least a kilometer in diameter.
What happened next made Lunamaria's eyes widen as far as they could go.
N-No way!
(End of Chapter)
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