Gundam Fire Still

"Exactly," Jan's fingers worked the terminal on the wall, "and we can see that PLAnt has always tended to operate by means sufficient to demonstrate their technological superiority, be it ms, neutron jamming, or large emPs. So dropping meteorites on Earth, a, cheap and stupid method, is something they don't tend to employ."

"Yes, the Adjusters have been fighting in a way that shows off their technology in general, and some of us have speculated that it's some sort of emphasis on their technological superiority to force us to choose peace."

"What? Forcing peace? But Patrick, who is now in power, is clearly a radical who wants to see the war through to the end."

"That's why this conversation is important, it won't be the only time we discuss this, there will be a report sent to the top. The original Siegel on stage . Klein would have chosen to deter us with strategic weapons and then sought peace, but now Patrick ... Sara, according to our analysis, will fire directly at Earth." Major Wells spoke with a heavy face.

"If you don't believe me, this is what we intercepted and deciphered, his speech at the beginning of the Alaskan campaign: '-We deeply pray that this campaign will bring an early end to the war. In order to demonstrate true freedom and justice...' He believed that the operation of a powerful raid to overwhelm the enemy's command was an expression of freedom and justice, and, again, from the state of his soldiers' violation of the laws of war in Alaska, he believed that the destruction of the enemy was an expression of justice, and not otherwise. Subject to any legal or moral constraints. So how if he got his hands on a strategic weapon that could threaten Earth, he would choose to fire without any moral or emotional constraints."

"Even within the killing range of this unknown weapon are his fellow Adjusters? If I remember correctly, he's an adjuster chauvinist..."

"I suggest that we skip this question about the other leader's guiding principles for now and focus on the technical ones first."

"Then the next is an equally unlikely weapon, if the former is too far behind in technology, for this project it's technology that may not be up to the standard needed, a genetic virus." Yang began switching up the screen.

"While Blue Perestroika blames the Adjuster for the spread of s2 flu on Earth, we have no evidence yet as to where exactly s2 flu is coming from. So there exists the possibility that the Adjusters could learn some sort of technique and idea from this, whether or not the s2 flu is related to them, that they could use similar means to attack Earth in order to mass kill natural people and destroy the social order. Biological weapons have essentially been utilized for a long time in our history, starting with Mongolian-era sieges throwing plague-stricken corpses at enemy cities, typhoid fever, plague, not to mention the modified viruses that have been created in laboratories, modified smallpox, drug-resistant influenza, etc.; it wouldn't be surprising if the Adjusters made similar attempts. In fact it would have the added advantage for them of being able to genetically tweak it to avoid accidentally harming their fellow adjusters." What showed up on the terminal were images of viruses that have plagued humanity for thousands of years, from smallpox to AIDS.

"But those bio-weapons with scary paper data have never been used on a large scale and never really changed the outcome of a war, so even if they did, I don't think we need to worry too much. After all, the drawback of biological weapons being difficult to destroy an opponent's ultimate ability to fight back is always there." The first thing that came to mind from the Department of Defense was a counterattack "and we have a barely adequate counterattack capability."

Biological weapons can achieve mass destruction, but they can't stop an adversary from pressing the nuclear counter-attack button and then everyone dies together, so they are inadequate as a strategic deterrent weapon, and the same has really held true from the beginning of time.

"The remaining, and more likely, weapons are the various types of projectile weapons, whether they're firing live rounds or particles at Earth, they can accurately hit the half of the planet that faces the PLAnt satellite cluster. They could fire at the HsD as it turns to that side, whatever. If it's a large EMP cannon, then the fired steel pillar or tungsten rod, or whatever other projectile is accurate enough to destroy the HsD Manhattan, then whatever. If it's a particle cannon, then firing a beam of particles aimed here wouldn't produce much less effect. We can't defend against either one."

"Is there a technical difficulty with this type of projectile weapon?"

"Basically nothing, just zoom in on an electromagnetic cannon, or zoom out on a particle cannon, you know, electromagnetic acceleration cannons are easy, rails, capacitors, binding coils, and then it's enough, you don't even need a cannon barrel, just a magnetic field, you need a capacitor big enough. If they took care of the neutron interference canceller, they could use nuclear power, it would be easier to charge it that way. The only trouble is, if it's too big, we can see it, optically." Jan continued to operate, the terminal's screen constantly panned cross-sections of different weapons, from electromagnetic railguns to plasma cannons, each large enough to travel through cosmic space, penetrating the atmosphere might be a problem, but it should be easy enough to solve, as long as they had enough energy supply to leave enough power to irradiate the Earth's surface, as long as they avoided the main absorption peak of the atmosphere. And heating the atmosphere itself could give us a climate problem."

"Optical means can be shielded with a mirage system, as you told us."

"Exactly." Jan shrugged his shoulders, expressing his frustration.

"I can give you two pieces of information in no uncertain terms: first, their anti-neutron jamming is done, which means energy is no longer an issue for them; second, they're building something pointed at us, I don't know if it's an EMP or a particle cannon or what, but I can tell you that they're already building it."

........

Silence, and some sort of pressure from outer space enveloped the moment, and Morganstein observed the odd, rigid expressions of the two young men, which he knew were a mixture of feelings of shock and anticipation mixed with a bit of fear and helplessness. The young men sent to discuss this must have guessed long ago, but there was a long gulf between guessing and knowing definitively, and next thing they might not sleep well, knowing that some kind of heavenly weapon was raining fire down on them right now wasn't pleasant, especially when they were all aware of the terrible power that weapon could do. It was worse than the old, parable of the Sword of Dacmoris, the fabled sword dangling from a rope, which was now in the hands of a dangerous man.

"Well, how do you know? No, I should ask, is my level of secrecy sufficient?" Young reacted slightly, knowing full well that a senior CIA official couldn't have said this in a vacuum.

"I think you're all aware that there's a distinct anti-nuclearist plot in the PLAnt population after the Eunius 7 incident. And the rise of Patrick and the fall of Siegel. Klein's downfall likewise caused a bit of a stir in PLAnt, so..."

"You've found some friends on the satellite?" The young man from the Ministry of Defense looked surprised, "You guys are moving so x-rated."

"In any case, we have no reason to doubt the veracity of this intelligence at this time. This cannon against the planet is already under construction, and the next topic of discussion should be what should be the subject of our larger discussion tomorrow?"

"How to tear it down and stop it from being built."

"And, how to fight back."

2. End of holiday

Joint Base Eurasia, Turkey

Data and codes streamed down the screen belonging to the main display of the ms cockpit until finally, a green one popped up, indicating that all was well. Carl took a breath, then pulled up the status of the friendly airframes that accessed the data chain nearby on the side panel.

It was a rare vacation for the squadron, which had shrunk to a small unit. Not that there wasn't training and such, but having soldiers who had recently left the battlefield conducting routine training missions in the rear, and in a large rear that was surrounded by friendly control was a break in itself. Essentially, they were waiting for instructions from above regarding this covert operation, regarding the unplanned organism, and socious, and he understood the dragging out of the final solution that the gun lords of the HsD must have for the LoGos forces, but he also knew that this was a time of war, and your enemy wouldn't wait for you to take care of all your family business before acting. At the end of the last turn, the Combine had the advantage, but as anyone familiar with war knows all too well, that slight advantage can be lost from any misstep.

Now that Carl was not in his own airframe, and was testing one of the three x-series successors that had once belonged to the Blue Perestroika, known as calamity, the Calamity Gundam, the shell-shock-enhanced ms was instead a more 'standard' model compared to the other two, which had more specific design ideas. The Perestroika's airframe could be easily wired into the joint's data chain, and after the joint's staff had searched and eliminated any backdoor programs that might have been left behind in the os, the rest of the work was left to debug the program.

While more nozzles meant more troublesome program debugging, more nozzles and more power would always be a lifesaver for the ms pilot.

"Attention, full nozzle test." Carl stepped on the pedal.

"Nozzle oK, nozzles 1 through 36, activation normal." The ground crew gave normal feedback.

"Good, next up is a leftward slalom."

"All right side nozzles are activating normally."

"Then right side gyration."

"Nozzle status oK."

"Reverse jet."

"Normal activation."

"Good, test over, not much more fuel consumption."

"How's Perestroika's new toy?" A cold hard voice from the Intelligence Unity inserted itself into the conversation.

"Nice one, performance for its price, any new information to inform?" Carl knew Roy wasn't going to come over to him for a chat.

"The whole political situation of the war has changed drastically, plain and simple. I suggest you come down here, we need a little time to get it straight."

"I noticed that you said, the political situation?" Carl said as he initiated the off-board self-test and the cockpit lid slowly opened.

==== ==

"Yes, the political situation." Roy opened the screen in the briefing room, where the senior Atlantic Federation officers who were also stranded at this base, in addition to the Eurasian head of the base itself, had gathered.

"The latest, from the PLAnt, is information that Patrick, the PLAnt's Supreme Council Speaker, has officially issued a warrant for the former Speaker, Sigil. Klein, on a warrant for treason. The latter has absconded and used hacking to cut into the PLAnt TV channel 30 minutes after the warrant was issued and issued a short, to the effect of not continuing the ****ing war, and from which it was mentioned that Patrick was planning to use nuclear weapons.The PLAnt Supreme Senate has yet to issue any response to this."

...

"This..."

The officers present needed a few seconds to digest what it contained.

Such a change in the situation is indeed enough to call it a reversal of fortune, and the two giants who were originally considered to be the two carriages that kept PLAnt alive and working closely together have suddenly turned against each other to the point of a do-or-die situation.

"Huh? The two of them... This is a surprise, Siegel. Is Klein coming over to our side?"

"Best not to have that illusion, he should just be resigned to being used as a scapegoat, and incidentally exploit the anti-nuclear sentiment of the PLAnt population against his opponents. Hehe, Patrick is quick to turn the other cheek and he's quick to run away, and he's really an old fox."

"So the question is, is this true?"

"The wanted can be sure it's real, Patrick's public statements can be found in many places, and as for the nuclear weapons..." Roy paused, "It's still being confirmed."

"So what's more important is that we'll receive new orders with relevant information next?"

"That's right, on the next relay satellite over the top, both Atlantic Federation-owned and Intelligence Fusion-owned units will receive laser communication instructions from either HsD or Command, and you can stand by near the communications room after the meeting is adjourned."

The speaker was the joint Eurasian general in charge of this base, and it was clear that when it was Eurasia who was in charge, the Atlantic Federation would have some trouble taking orders, and the rift in the alliance called the United Earth Force still existed.

"Are you going to go on a mission in a Perestroika Gundam?" In between waiting, Lieutenant Colonel Torris of Eurasia came up, "I remember them performing well."

"Performance is good, but the programming is cumbersome, the original configuration for their biologic cPu was more for adjusters than naturals, and resetting the program and feedback takes time. If I had to strike with a Gundam now, I'd probably have to be a target machine." Karl shook his head, Perestroika's experiments were on the wrong track in his opinion.