Gundam Fire Still

"Of course not, the specifics will be briefed to you by the Intelligence Fusion," the Lieutenant General added as he watched his Lieutenant Commander look embarrassed, "The decision as to how much you are willing to tell your team, other than what they specifically specify as classified, is yours."

"No, it's not the secrecy I'm worried about, it's something else, like, transportation. Where on Earth should my squadron be mobilized? It's my observation that we're strapped for capacity right now, so where do the transports come from?"

"This... , I'm a Cosmic Army..."

"I know, but I can't help it, Zaft can carry MS all over the planet, and we have to keep up with our support."

"This....."

"Sir, I'm sure a small major can't manage this, borrowing the 5th Rapid Transport Squadron's c70? or the 105th Airlift Wing's c139II? which ever works, is it possible that the Intelligence Integration Department can provide any transport power? Anyway, we can go wherever we want, but, hell, how to get there is the question. Gotta take the plane and the people with us, you're the only one who can do that."

"Well, hell, I didn't think about that, we'll look into it when we get back, but until then, make sure the lines are classified and then the Intelligence Combine will tell you where you're going."

"Yo, Roy, it's you, actually? That's going to be a tricky assignment for sure." Carl looked at the familiar face on the screen and gave a grin.

1. from Echo

ROY. Gail, an investigator for the Intelligence Convergence, was facing the screen with a serious face, and Carl could see the logo of the Intelligence Convergence painted on the glass on his desk, three hands clasped together, and in the center an eye holding the Earth and the Moon.

A small dot at the Eurasian border was glowing red on the electronic map shared by the classified network.

"Turkey? Where is that, near Charcoy? Roy, you need to explain what it takes to move a MS team to that shithole. There's no reason there's anything there that we have to deal with. It's not the Channel-heavy town of Istanbul, it's just a very small garrison base."

"In fact there was," Roy began to explain, "it was a base there, of course, ours, not Zaft's, and it was of the modest kind, so we didn't pay much attention to it, as you say. Until some investigations started recently." The intelligence officer on the screen looked calm, just like always, "The opportunity to start an investigation well, you know, some of the fallout from what happened here."

"What happened here... That base is theirs?" Carl frowned at the question, this one they obviously weren't referring to Zaft.

"It's them," came the very affirmative answer, Roy knew exactly who they were referring to, "Look at this and you'll see why you're needed on board."

"Huh?" Carl lowered his head and began to look at some of the information transmitted from the lower screen, "This is interesting, yes man, this is interesting." His brow started to furrow, but a little smile was on his lips at the same time, "These repair spares, and ammo consumption are interesting. Here's the Ginn part, and this one in the back is the spec for the short sword, but the batch is different than what we used. This one... The opening three digit code is also of the short sword line, but I've never heard of the numbers behind it, maybe a new, secret model? And this one, totally new and different from the short sword, but this abbreviation code I can guess? This is the cooling assembly for a high-caliber beam weapon? Is that part of the Ps armor? Hell, there's no way a new airframe could be there." Karl knew he was surprised that the data was building a new one, or several, with cutting edge technology applied, and it was hard not to be interested in that.

"It's been said that you're the most familiar of the Earthforce ms commanders with the ms themselves, a claim I'm beginning to think is true."

Roy raised an eyebrow in wonder, "None of these numbers our analysts have been able to tell us much, they can only be sure that there are new airframes there, there are a few options in testing and lesser production runs, but they shouldn't be there, we can be sure that they got some of the stuff shipped there without telling us, but we're not sure of the type or performance yet. "

"And that's not all, look at the ammo consumption, they must be doing some sort of drill or weapons test, standard 76mm and standard particle cartridges are normal, but this, EMP rounds are suspicious, and you have another EMP gun for MS being tested now? I think there's another model with a large-caliber beam cannon? I'm almost certain of that," Carl marked the location of a few numbers, "there's a lot of good stuff, when will we be able to use it."

"It'll have to wait, at least we'll have to pick the good stuff out of their hands first, it seems like you were right for this assignment, this is already considered evidence to use against them."

"Has the top really made up its mind?"

Before continuing, Carl stopped abruptly and asked a somewhat abrupt question.

"It's not something you or I should be concerned about, Captain, we just have to follow orders, but the promise I can make to you is that you know no less than we do, so if I'm sold, then I'm sold with you."

"Hell, that doesn't sound any better."

"It does, secret work always does, you guys running the ms are still lucky you don't have to engage in this for too long, nervous breakdowns can be an occupational hazard for us." Roy made a few rare gossips, "Okay, on to the mission."

"But this last batch, the drugs, the life-support facilities, the biological agents, what the hell, hell, I can't understand the chemical terms."

"Actually, I don't understand it either, according to the analysis team, some of it has to do with genetic modification, the other part, the one they're warehousing in larger batches has to do with neurology and brain science, all of these drugs are classified and tightly controlled, and the analysis team's guess is that they're probably testing some kind of mind control drug."

"If I'm not mistaken, Roy, you're more familiar with covert operations than I am, and it's best not to do two classified things at the same time right, there's more risk of exposure that way."

"Broadly speaking, yes. But I don't want to popularize too many exceptions for you either."

"Okay, so go on" Carl shrugged, "so why would they test a bunch of secret new weapons at the same base, while conducting some kind of drug experiment on the brain and nerves?"

"Good guess, too bad it didn't go any further than what our people at the Intelligence Unity thought, they gave two possibilities, one was that they were experimenting on people soaking in the vivarium and then remotely brain-controlling the ms, so they needed those nerve agents, and the other was that they were using drugs and neural modifications to modify the pilot to allow people to reach the neural efficiency of the adjuster."

"I'm betting it's the latter one, and I have a bad feeling about it." Carl shook his head, something flooding back into the depths of his brain, some bubble with bad memories and bad vibes, there was always someone doing that kind of thing, wherever it was.

"So I have a worse idea, is it possible they could take the Adjuster's captives and reform them, brainwash them into MS manipulators who do their bidding?"

He realized that he had subconsciously let his voice become subdued as he said it.

"Well, old Blake, you've got a bit of instinct that can do our business, really, and you can read another confidential document, have you ever heard of a word called socius?"

"Not at all, and besides, no, it's enough trouble to open the ms, so let's dispense with the secret work."

"It was a plan a long time ago, back when I probably wasn't even born yet. It was probably not long after the concept of adjusters was first introduced, and the military started paying attention with a keen sense of smell and bad foresight, the Combat Specific Adjuster Program. However, as you can guess the result, Adjusters need to grow up, you can write in your genes what you're interested in, but by the time they grow up, a decade or so will have passed, and time can change a lot of things. Adjusters have a bright future, part of society says so, adjusters shouldn't exist, another part says so; this is bad news for the military, and the first combat adjusters who are just growing up, adjusters don't like being confined to cramped barracks, and the military has to admit, they're strong, but hot potatoes. So the military abandoned the program, which had been going on for over a decade and had eaten up a lot of money. Most of those adjusters were discharged, a few stayed with the military, and we thought it was over, and yet..."

"But some people still aren't giving up, are they?"

"Adam. Dr. Armitage, one of the people responsible for this project, Mishima Pharma found him, you may not have heard of him, but Mishima Pharma is behind it, one of the tentacles of that huge group called Logos, as well as being a part of them."

"I've never heard of that term, but you don't need to repeat it, go on."

"So the plan was transferred to them, and they started doing all the things you'd expect, psychological suggestion, brainwashing, implants, massive drug use, and genetic modification itself, i.e. finding out what's called the 'obedience gene', and so on. The second phase of the project is called socius, also known by its product code name, they are adjusters, but they obey their orders, and some "qing ren" once proudly said that those people will not resist even if you kill them."

"How do you know this?" Carl knew he must have looked like shit.

"The result of a partnership between the cia and the folks at Lubyanka Square, that was a few years ago, and the cia grabbed the corporate tail, so the corporation had to spit out some information in exchange."

"So they'd show up at this base?" Carl pointed to the place marked red on the map.

"A big possibility, because the source of those drugs is Mishima Pharmaceuticals, and they just happen to have a drug and medical lab on the coast of the Sea of Marmara, and there's very close correspondence between their lab and that base, and it just so happens that we have sitters watching them all the time. And that base is one of the most heavily infiltrated by those companies and those new friends of ours. According to the calculations, we're more likely to find socius there than we are to find an altered natural human..."

"Enhanced human, perhaps that's the word to use." Carl continued to sink his teeth in, he knew the generalization of the word better than anyone.

"Well, nice way of putting it, I'll use it in my report," Roy remained oblivious to the change in his conversation partner's face, "The probability of socius being there is slightly lower than the probability of a modified enhanced human showing up, but only a little lower."

"None of them are easy targets, even if they seem to obey orders, but these poor modified, drug-using people are mostly unstable."

"Even if they obey orders, man, they obey orders from those guys, mostly some nasty white coats. I don't think they're told they should obey the orders of everyone who wears a Union Army uniform while being higher in rank than they are." Roy didn't hide his dislike for some of them.

I remember some things, I've heard some things, and when things go wrong, it's going to be bad, very bad, worse than you could ever expect, Carl said to himself in his mind.

"Hell, there's new types of ms, new types of weapons, and 'processed' combat adjusters, and enhanced people, all at this little base?" Carl managed to make his face look a little more positive, tapping his knuckles against the tiny, red-glowing dot on the screen.

"It's like a quagmire or a fire pit. I sort of know why you need my team." Carl grinned.

"That's an order, man."

"By what name do we go?"

"Your squadron is training and maneuvering, but the scheduled arrival time will be two days earlier than in the official paperwork given to them, because the transport brigade happens to be free, or you want to go early on a whim one day, in any case, the excuse for your pilot to arrive early doesn't matter. As for me, they had an obvious intelligence unifier at their base, of course, who was being watched by their people, and even so he sent something out to us. I'm going to send him a transfer order this time, and I'm going to ask him to show me the base, but of course, the transfer order is real, to transfer him to the universe. But I'll be three days ahead of the scheduled arrival time."

"On the grounds that it just happened to catch our plane or something?"

"Exactly."

"Which means we have a little more time to prepare before you get the plane?"

"Yes, the details are being passed on to you, it doesn't really matter if you don't read them, but for the sake of strengthening the understanding of frontline officers and soldiers of intelligence officers like us and eliminating the stereotype that would sell you out and make you take the blame, the details are all being passed on to you. Like I said, you don't know any less than we do."

"Well, that's a lot of work for you guys," Carl replied, half perfunctorily, as he looked down to peruse the information that had been passed around, "It's not easy to change impressions."