Gundam Fire Still

"Commander, we have a problem." He sent the data to the captain's terminal and explained a little more.

"Good work," the dark haired lady nodded gravely, "This ship maintains its course."

She then turned back towards the second officer of the Balthazar, who was sitting behind her, "Dakusta, please find Andy on the bridge."

"Hi," the adjutant looked dumbfounded and disappeared into the bridge door.

Antjeu . Baltefelut was in the hangar, frowning, he had chosen this ship for a number of reasons, one was that it had the highest acceleration of any ZAFt ship, meaning it could shake off pursuit more easily; the other was that it had minimal staffing, and being a test ship, the ship was filled with temporary members who were not united and rarely slept on board, which made it easier to capture the Control of the ship had provided convenience.

Now that he and his men had succeeded in capturing the ship, they had to face the ship's shortcomings, there was nothing but a transport boat in the empty hangar in front of him, and the two valuable nuclear powered ms that were supposed to be deployed on the ship were still far away in the development center, which left him as a good ms pilot somewhat helpless, and the old whole group he had brought with him could only look at each other and do nothing; and The ship is also troubled by the fact that it has very little firepower, with only a single particle cannon on the bow and the Meteor weapon system on either side that was originally intended for use by the MS having anti-ship capabilities, and the Meteor system's range is terrible, with only half the firepower unless the target is directly in front of it. The close defence network, consisting of a large number of light anti-aircraft rounds, performs reasonably well, but limited ammunition stocks are always a problem.

There were also the untraceable pursuers, the ones that could be sent out by the old Sara to track himself must be elite troops that he trusted absolutely, the people there would not be mediocre, they might be able to track his chosen trajectory by the final acceleration of the Eternal's trajectory, although he ended up fine-tuning the trajectory using the side jets on the side of the PLAnt satellite cluster that was backing up, the side jets were limited in the range they could adjust, and as long as they saw that it was pointing to an orbit around the back of the moon, they might find themselves whether they were tracking lower or higher than they were.

"Chief, the bridge has picked up something." His old lieutenant, Dakusta, had found him and brought bad news.

He quickly ran back to the bridge, then leaned down behind the captain's chair and looked at the screen in front of the woman, "Aisha, what's going on?"

"A source of neutron interference, in a similar orbit to ours around the moon, with no heat pattern. Do you remember any captains who liked to turn on neutron jamming all year round?"

"No, that's not important. There's only one source of interference, right?" Instead of answering the question, he looked up and questioned the electronics officer.

"That's right, only one was found, the rest were clutter."

Baltefelut stood up and paced the bridge for 30 seconds, "It's a trap, for me."

Aisha looked back at him, speechless, he knew that meant "Please explain."

"They, or he-if there's only one commander on that fleet, deduced our course, they know we're on the back side of the moon, but not where I am." He turned around and tapped the large screen to delineate a few possible routes, "They'll split their course slightly to widen the search area. And then they know my style consistently likes to be aggressive. So make a trap where they expose a ship, and my best strategy is to take it out as quickly as possible with a surprise attack, which I do want to do. But that's when their other two ships would have spotted me through the heat source and surrounded me, no, us."

"But you didn't do that."

"Yes, because you're here," the man averted his face slightly, the yellow sands of the desert of Earth still behind his gaze, and his own flagship burning, "and I don't want to risk you again."

The woman was silent for a moment, answered by the medium-sized lieutenant.

"So we should maintain our current course?"

"Yes, but not for too long, because we'll be leaving the back of the moon soon. The moment we leave the backside of the moon, the ships will be glistening with sunlight and then they'll spot us."

"How long do we have, Navigator?"

"Eleven minutes and 43 seconds."

"Okay, from where we are in 10 minutes, design a reorbit course to head for L4 as fast as possible."

"L4?"

"Yes," the tiger lowered his head and met Aisha's gaze, "I know what you're going to ask, Mentor Malchior and Klein's representative are there."

"So," he drew a circle around the L4 colonial satellite cluster on the star map, "the Combine will be heading there as well."

"I'm sorry for causing trouble at the site of their engagement, but this will just prove the sincerity of the engagement, right, and we, being hunted by Zaft, will join the Combine in engaging Zaft."

"However, I think it's clear to everyone that we didn't betray the Adjusters, nor did we betray PLAnt's homeland, we were only trying to stop this, the war that has already shed too much blood, and to keep PLAnt's blood from drying up in a pointless battle."

"For PLAnt!"

"For PLAnt!"

The bridge officers echoed in unison.

"All right, Aisha, I'll take the bridge, your shift is over."

"I take it you don't hate me being here?" The woman in white got up from the captain's chair and took the man's arm.

"No, it won't." Still standing, Balthazar Falut smiled gently at the woman, then turned his face to the large screen in front of the bridge.

A few minutes later, he looked at his watch to confirm the time and orbit

"Reactor warming up, confirm coolant status, all ships attention, enter combat mode, seal shield section."

The dull white lights of the bridge were joined by a red that indicated warning, a roar could be heard coming from the rear of the ship, the shield doors behind the bridge doors began to lower and lock down.

"All hands, anti-shock preparations, prepare to accelerate and turn!"

9. At the negotiating table

On the same day, at the same time, somewhere inside the ruins of L4

Jim. Rahel was slowly bringing the coffee to his lips, he couldn't remember how many cups of coffee he'd had, but it didn't matter, it was all paid for by the waste merchants anyway - or was it oRB? Anyway he wasn't wasting joint property, no trouble other than his own slight need to go to the toilet.

And he wasn't the only one working on his coffee, there was also the one sitting across from him, the representative from PLAnt. Both were well aware of the situation both sides were now in, a situation that was doomed to go nowhere, but in which they had to talk as much as possible, coffee was the best and only lubricant.

Who would have thought that in a pile of wreckage that looked tattered from the outside, and one could not think of any other way to call it than a pile of wreckage, or an abandoned satellite, there would be such a well-equipped, quiet and tidy place to negotiate hidden away?

Two shuttles without any emblems, markings, and filed down factory codes were docked in what was left of the wreckage, the spacious port facility that had belonged to the satellite was two-thirds blocked by aging and collapsing structural components and an alien meteorite, and the remaining third, barely enough space for the ship to drive through, was perfectly hidden in the shadow of the meteorite. After the shuttle passed through the chokingly narrow passageway where it seemed the meteorite was about to tumble over its head at any moment, the rest of the port docking equipment proved to be intact. The port's airlock was opened, the lead signaling the abundance of harmless air, and he was led through the remaining corridors of the port, undamaged or blocked by debris, before opening up a conference room that met most of Earth's standards. The air in the conference room seemed to smell of disinfectant mixed with cigarette smoke, traces of cigarette burns could still be seen on the plush carpet, the glowing ceiling overhead cast a warm white light downwards, and next door to the conference room was a lounge with a coffee machine filled with water and coffee beans, and a brand new beverage vending machine.

Obviously, this was not a place that had just been cleared out, but a negotiation facility that had been unearthed from the wreckage and had been used continuously for a long time, and it was feared that many disputes among the waste merchants had been settled here before that. But now it was probably the highest level of negotiation that had taken place here, though it was destined to be fruitless.

Sitting across from himself was a middle-aged man with a tired look in his eyes, and behind him stood a tall woman in an infantry combat uniform with an eye patch over one eye, apparently his security officer. On either side of the long table sat the people who had brokered this meeting, although the Vatican's church had declined, but still specialized in traveling as a religious to diplomatic occasions in various countries, the blind priest Malchio still wore black vestments and held the big cat, also covered in black, "for the peace of the earth" he said in the said with a cross crossed on his chest; across from the priest was a somewhat burly waste dealer, who wore a suit but did absolutely nothing to hide the fact that his physique revealed that he would more often be found at a recycling site than in an office; then there was a young oRB woman who had appeared only after their conversation had been going on for a while, calling herself Alita. Simmonds, as a researcher in the oRB Aurora, but even more attention-grabbing than her was the young blonde woman who had appeared at the same time as her but had then remained in the next lounge; as a member of the Foreign Policy Committee, Jim had no reason to be unaware of the oRB's strange form of government and organization, so he recognized who it was, Kagali . Yura. Asha, the young man who might inherit the old Asha's position as representative, if nothing else happened to the oRB.

If the young man had arrived here, it meant that the ship that belonged to the oRB's cosmic fleet had also arrived nearby, which was probably a reassurance to both sides of the negotiations, and so far, the neutrality that the oRB had maintained, while criticized by both sides, was a guarantee at this point, and their stubborn neutrality was visible to both sides.

But despite all this buildup, it's clear to both sides, or including these neutrals, that this engagement is not going to work, because neither side can promise anything to the other. Jim. Rahel is but a regular member of the Foreign Policy Committee, and may even be reassigned after this secret contact because of his suspicions of espionage, so he can't say anything on behalf of the Union; and the same goes for the one across from him, the current PLAnt Speaker, Patrick. Sara is cracking down on almost all moderates, whether or not they're friends with Old Klein, who is being sought, and any politician who presents a peaceful preference will run into trouble, so he can't give any promises either, since the moderates have almost zero control over the PLAnt satellite constellation - maintaining the fact that Old Klein hasn't been caught shows that it's not exactly zero, but that doesn't provide any And what's worse, these moderates are not one body, the forces that organized this contact, the "Terminal", are clearly not representative of everyone, and the bottom line is different for each force.

But at least, Jim Rahal appreciated Klein Sr. But at least Jim Rahl appreciated the statement made by Klein Sr. when he was wanted, about an early end to the war. However, he also went on to suggest that the Earth side would apparently prefer the statement to include opposition to Patrick's centralized rule, while calling for peace talks with Earth as soon as possible.

There was no doubt that the latter point exceeded the other side's bottom line, and the representative from PLAnt, sipping his coffee cup after cup, expressed his difficulty in accepting the latter point. The Klein faction could oppose Patrick's persecution, but taking the initiative to make peace with Earth at this time would also make them be perceived as surrenderists and lose the support of the PLAnt people, after all, Old Klein still needed to hold the banner of protecting the interests of the Adjusters.

After a hypocritical exchange of appeals against the killing of civilians, against weapons of mass destruction, and the unanimous praise of neutral forces, there is no doubt that the negotiations have reached an impasse. The initial contact was a long way from real negotiations, and all they could discuss was the unspoken bureaucratic vocabulary of constructing the basis for negotiations, the conditions for constructing the basis, the preconditions needed to reach those conditions already. The ensuing, coffee-consuming conversation was not so much a stalemate as it was a mutual probing of each other's actions to try to get information out of each other.

Jim. Rahl wasn't above letting his guard down just because he knew one or two of his Adjuster friends, he was well aware that the negotiation had to be made in good faith, and even though he had no authority on himself, he still had the common sense of a joint diplomat. And what was called good faith was information that could be used to bring down old Sara - but also, for the Union, information that could be used against the entire PLAnt. But his opponents obviously won't give anything away easily, because if Union betrays, the entire moderate wing of PLAnt will become a rat on the street. And both of them are equally wary of the point that there are things that they don't want to be known by the oRB people who are listening in.

In the midst of this impasse, one of the waste merchant's handymen hurriedly approached the conference room and whispered something to the waste merchant's big man in the suit, then the big man lifted his face to Jim, "Your Union Army men have come to see you."

"We have no intention of concealing the existence of you, or the dealings here, from the Union."

"But now that they have arrived and the premises have been fully exchanged, I think the time has come when this negotiation can be brought to a close," the blind priest in the black vestments stood up first, "or else I think this friend from PLAnt will feel a little frustrated with the united The military has difficulty treating the possibility of the Adjuster's fears equally, though I have also seen that the United Earth has made efforts in the right direction." As he said this, he nodded in Jim's direction.

People were getting up, and just then the black cat that belonged to the priest suddenly jumped up onto the table and bowed its back towards the wall, or rather towards somewhere in the void beyond the wall, and growled hoarsely.

The next to rush in was a young man in an oRB uniform, who was attempting to whisper a report to Director Simmonds, but his voice was loud enough for all members to hear, "Satellite perimeter, combat heat source detected."

Outer edge of L4 satellite constellation, Earth side, temporary channel number A01

The white ship was slowly making its way towards the satellite cluster, and huge silver structures were beginning to appear more and more on the main screen of the bridge, but the crooked and crumbling battery panels, the slanting tractor cables, and the small but still gleaming metal junk floating in the channel all spoke to the fact that this place had been abandoned for a long time.

Ahead of the ship, four ms were leading the course for the ship in a not very coordinated position, two of them were short swords in Union Army livery, while the other two were identified on the Union's radar screen as, oRB-owned production ms, m1. All four ms appeared to be piloted by novices, their leadings testing and locking on to each other with stiff motions as they led the way, making the Archangel The officers on the bridge who had seen enough MS warfare almost thought the clumsy movements they saw were child's play.