Gundam Fire Still

"I hope so, Captain, but don't let this happen again."

"Yes, Chancellor Sara." The man nodded slightly, but did not turn away, "However, we must be more prepared for the dastardly nature of the Naturals to be more decisive..."

"Well, Captain Kreuzer, that's not something you should inquire about, there's trouble if you know too much about important matters like that."

"No, Lord Speaker, a good Adjuster would never doubt a long term decision like that, and any means is necessary to face a naturalist who dares to use nuclear bombs with a demilitarized colonial satellite." The corners of his mouth beneath his mask seemed to pull up in a smile.

"And on the contrary, those who report misgivings or even objections to these projects for the long-term safety of PLAnt and the Adjusters, those who have too much compassion and even respect for the naturals, that's what we should be paying attention to, among us."

"But don't let the battle be wasted by too much talk of politics, Captain Kreuzer, it's important to prepare for the next battle."

"Yes, Lord Chancellor."

The man in uniform turned and took his leave, Patrick smiled lightly as he looked at the door that had been closed, the man who was like a comrade of his own was indeed able to capture his thoughts well. That old friend of his own from his youth had indeed become an obnoxious stumbling block, and the effort to remove him should indeed be taken a step further.

As the door closed behind him, Crusher maintained his ancient face in the face of the guards at the door, but he smiled inwardly, you know nothing, Chancellor Patrick.

He was well aware that his plan had moved forward again. His words would bring Patrick . Sara a small step forward in the path he was already planning to take, what he would do, and then what that other man would do, and he knew that what he was waiting for would happen soon. On Earth, his plan had failed once, but here, probably since the Bloody Qingren Festival, the Speaker's thoughts and ideas had been in his script.

16. Epilogue, and things that are contrary to it

Earth, suburban, cemetery, Anchorage, Alaska.

A group of men in Earth Army uniforms were gathering here from different corners of the state, some of them in regular military uniforms, others only in regular combat uniforms, and an observer familiar with the military could tell that there were uniforms from different units of the Eurasian, East Asian, and Atlantic Federation. Some of them wore combat uniforms that were crumpled and stained with dirt and oil, as if they had been worn for weeks without being washed, and they were. Some were on crutches or in wheelchairs, but for their part, more of them didn't come, or if they did, they couldn't be seen, because these men were here for them.

The military band was playing a funeral march in an inaccurate tune, the soldiers in their unkempt attire were still assembled in the clearing in a neat and tight group, some of the squads were disheveled, in some the crutches were struggling to keep up with the others, in others there were not even enough to form squads, but this whole group of people gathered here still exuded an air of belonging to a mighty army.

In front of a forest of white, freshly painted crosses, the chaplain in a suit began to recite a long prayer to the crowd, praising the bravery of the martyrs and the worthiness of their sacrifice, but his voice was repeatedly drowned out by the rumble of the transport planes flying overhead.

No one paid any attention to whether the prayer was finished or not, and the list of the dead and missing that was read next began with a sergeant named Aaron, and with each name read, there was a low, gasping sound from the ranks. The list was long, and there didn't seem to be an end to it. Carl, as a listener also knew one thing, far from all of the units that had fought in the war were gathered here now, and if you counted the units that had fought in other corners of the snowy landscape, and the people buried elsewhere, the list would be three, four or worse times as long. This graveyard couldn't fit that many living people, as well as the dead.

The list came to an abrupt end with a soldier whose initials were Z's. Some units began to form up and leave, and a small group of reporters surrounded the "better dressed" senior officer in the front row. Carl disbanded his squadron, and with the exception of repairs, it was now time for the squadron to take a break, leaving the defense part of the base in the hands of another unit that had come all the way from Panama.

Karl took a seat in a less conspicuous spot, he had heard that some of the older pilots tried to locate the interceptor gate as soon as they sat down, but he hadn't gotten into the habit of doing that himself yet, he needed a little rest, just like everyone else. Then he noticed that his current temporary superior greeted him.

"Captain? You're here too, the loss of our brigade this time..." Carl greeted.

"No, don't talk about the loss, hell, as well as the fact that I won't be your captain anytime soon, Major" the captain of the 3rd Aviation Group, the Air Commodore shook his head, "Command won't keep a rare fighting force like the ms here for long."

"The ms won't be a rare fighting force any time soon, I've heard Panama already has a second squadron and even a squadron for Eurasia."

"True, but it's still not enough, and there's still a lot of empty shelves to fill. Your additions, I'm afraid, will have to wait." The Brigadier General instantly sensed the conversation partner's plot to replenish the airframe, "I'm afraid I'll have to wait until you're transferred to a new unit before I can replenish it, I'm afraid that's out of the question."

"Alright, I'll have them start making preparations for the transfer."

"No, Major, it's nice to have a work ethic, but that's not what I'm here to say, you could have kept your mind off the transfer," the Commodore smiled a little perfunctorily, then stopped, "There's something not quite normal about this battle, you should have been able to see that. "

"The battlefield is ever-changing, and all strange things can happen," was the first half of the paraphrase, and both sides were well aware of that, but the brigadier general still hoped the good midshipman had a higher level of insight than uttering the paraphrase. As a general officer he was well aware that, despite the large corps of Union officers, commanders with real-world experience had been a scarce resource after the massive losses in the early days of the war.

"But sir, it's a good place, it shouldn't be bugged." Carl pointed slightly to the tombstone in front of him, then lowered his voice, "If there aren't any on either of us."

The Brigadier raised an eyebrow, the Major had more guts than he had expected, but that was good news for the rest of the mission.

"And from what I understand, some people don't like these kinds of memorials for ordinary soldiers who died in battle, and they don't care about ordinary soldiers, so they won't be here."

"You're very perceptive, Lieutenant, which tells me, as a side note, about your insight on the battlefield."

"But I didn't have my suspicions until after it was all over, and if I'm not mistaken, some of the people in the command discovered something much earlier and then saved the battle."

"Yes, but what exactly happened I can't tell you yet, but you'll find out," and the Commodore's face grew serious, "so what do you think of those men?"

"That's a tricky question, sir, I guess I'd be curious why you're asking me this, but my answer is this, they provide a lot of impulsive and at the same time fearless junior officers and soldiers, but in higher positions, hell, you're the one who remembers how I answered that day with the Jean . Kelly thing to answer that reporter who knew nothing about the war."

"Actually it has to do with some of the tasks ahead, we'll have to deal not only with Zaft, but also with these, internal factors carefully."

"In terms of the lessons we've learned from this battle, it's really necessary. Also, if you're interested, you can talk to the old Mu, Major Vladar is more interested in those people as well."

"Of course, I'm well aware of that," the Brigadier General smiled, "He's more militant than you seem, and more willing to take risks. But you know, we have to be careful when we're dealing with some internal factors, and there are times when the situation can be delicate. Wait a minute, hell, it's better not to say too much, the boys from the Intelligence Unity are watching us."

"Okay General, we were discussing the previous battle, and the future of this war."

"That's right, your squadron will be in the universe again someday."

"Thank you for your blessing, sir, I notice two familiar colleagues are having some sort of disagreement, if you'll excuse me."

Carl took two quick steps, then joined in another conversation, the Alaskan sun wasn't hot, but that didn't stop the lady from blushing in anger. Marius. Major Lamias, was questioning his superior, Hoffman, who had been working together for a long time, in an appearance more like a soldier than a technician.

"Where are the reinforcements from Panama? When they're dead in the field, when all the other ships are sinking, maintaining defensive lines, maintaining anti-aircraft fire, just knowing so..."

"That's what our orders are, and you know that, don't you, Captain Lamias, what are you going to do about it?"

"No, Hoffman, you need only explain one thing," Karl realized he'd better join the conversation, "from Panama to Alaska.

That's more than 8,000 kilometers across the entire North American continent, how fast are you going to have reinforcements arrive! It's true that intelligence failures have led many troops to support Panama for nothing, but how are you going to get them to show up here? Transmission?"

The female was slightly silent for a moment, but the redness of her face indicated that she was still very unstable, "But then, just watching one ship sink, those channels, those voices...." The female's voice was choked.

"But you did the best you could," another male voice joined the conversation, "There was a limit to what we could do, and at least, there were people who survived."

"But, even so ...."

"Thank God old Mu is here too, I would have thought he wouldn't show up at an event like this." Hoffman whispered to Karl as he took a few steps back.

"The Flying Brigade had a lot of damage, he should have shown up, and while he's always smiling, he's not really indifferent." Carl shook his head and pointed in the direction of the two men in conversation, "I think you can slip away while you're at it."

"She's good at deploying firepower, especially those new toys, but really, women in command just have this inherent disadvantage."

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that, Mr. Colonel."

"She'll have to get used to it, to the idea that death is part of war, part of military life, or she'll fall apart, really..." Hoffman shook his head as he walked toward the parking lot.

Carl was soon back in his office on the base, looking out of the office window he could see the repair shop of the ms and the steel giant standing in front of it. He was well aware that he wouldn't be here much longer, the ms was like a fire brigade, always being deployed to the most dangerous places, but to investigate Blue Perestroika? He rather thought it was just a test of his position, and in any case, he should have made some preparations. The squadron was still in bad shape, and even if you didn't count the damaged airframes, the ones that hadn't been hit would need to be replaced with a lot of worn spare parts. The repair progress of the damaged airframes was so far off that it was better to wait for the next batch of ms to come off the line than to wait for repairs to be made.

However, the commanding officer's orders came sooner than he had expected.

"Lieutenant General Hartmann? Is the squadron being transferred to the universe?" The contact from the command was none other than Lieutenant General Hartmann, who had a face-to-face encounter with the moon.

"That was the original plan, but I'm sorry."

"Well," Carl shrugged, as if he had been forewarned that something unplanned had occurred.

"This is your squadron's reassignment paperwork, direct from Cosmic Command, and then you'll be added back into the clear sequence after your mission on Earth is complete."

"Alright, orders accepted, hope we don't spend too much time on Earth, cosmic adaptation training, low gravity tactical practice, and program debugging are all time consuming tasks." Carl took the opportunity to complain, it was a rare opportunity to get resources for his squadron.

"Where else on Earth would you need a ms team to deal with? I don't think you're going to let us attack Gibraltar or Carpentaria."