However, while Reid was having a headache over Stella, another group of people had an even bigger one.
The Atlantic Federation military naturally learned right away that Reid had appeared on the Bogotá front lines and that the New Misurugi Kingdom had airdropped a fleet.
The Atlantic Federation forces on the front lines didn't dare to rashly start a war with the New Misurugi Kingdom's army, and the military command certainly didn't dare either. The result, of course, was that the matter was reported up the chain of command.
However, when the head of the Atlantic Federation military saw the intelligence report that the New Misurugi Kingdom had captured the Exass Aegis, Gaia Gundam, and Abyss Gundam, he almost had a stroke from high blood pressure.
After quickly taking some blood pressure medication and catching his breath, the head of the Atlantic Federation military immediately used an internal line to contact the leader of the Atlantic Federation. He opened with a single sentence:
"Mr. President, LHC007 has been captured by the New Misurugi Kingdom on the Bogotá front lines!"
As soon as he said this, a loud "clang" was heard from the Atlantic Federation leader's end. Something must have fallen to the floor, but the leader clearly didn't care about what had dropped. He asked anxiously, "What are the specifics? How did the New Misurugi Kingdom's troops get to the South American front? Did they take the initiative to help PLANT attack us?"
The head of the Atlantic Federation military didn't dare to hide anything and recounted everything from the unknown mobile suit's surprise attack to the New Misurugi Kingdom fleet's airdrop.
After he finished, the helpless voice of the Atlantic Federation leader came through the receiver.
"We still underestimated Reid Isaac's intelligence network. I made sure that everyone, from top to bottom, was one of our own. This clone didn't even show his face, and we were playing a game of hiding in plain sight, yet he still managed to find a clue. This was clearly Reid Isaac infiltrating alone to find evidence, and only after finding it did he call in the New Misurugi Kingdom's fleet."
The head of the Atlantic Federation military could have analyzed this much himself, so he simply asked, "Mr. President, now is not the time to study how Reid Isaac found out about this. We must consider the possibility of war with the New Misurugi Kingdom. And there's something I must remind you of: although our army is well-equipped and morale is high, if we go to war with the New Misurugi Kingdom over the matter of a clone, the army's morale will inevitably be affected. Also, if our country is caught in a pincer attack by ZAFT and the New Misurugi Kingdom's military, we may have to prepare for a battle to defend our homeland."
Hearing the military chief's words, the Atlantic Federation leader sneered, "Hmph, since we dared to carry out the cloning experiment, we're not afraid of Reid Isaac's retaliation. The Eurasian Federation is a partner and can't escape. We need to find a way to drag the East Asian Republic firmly onto our warship, not just let them paddle along. However, you'll need to properly appease the military internally. At this critical juncture, we can't have another situation like the Mu La Flaga clone incident."
The head of the Atlantic Federation military heard this and thought to himself that the old geezer on the other end was truly vicious. The last Mu La Flaga clone incident had led to a complete overhaul of the military's top brass. You're telling me to find a solution, which means if I can't solve it, you'll throw me out to appease the officers below, right?
However, the head of the Atlantic Federation military had no power to refuse. The Atlantic Federation leader didn't care what he thought; since he was in charge of the military, he was the perfect person to take the fall, big or small. As for it being inappropriate to change commanders before a war, one could only say that it was already CE 73. Which military chief truly commanded the front lines anymore? As long as the general staff wasn't disbanded, the tactical arrangements on the front would not fall into chaos. Stabilizing the army's morale was the most important thing.
However, after this call ended, the Atlantic Federation leader immediately convened an emergency online meeting of the three Earth Alliance leaders (using a wired network connected via the Bering Strait underwater fiber optic cable). He synchronized the news of Reid Isaac capturing his own clone with his two allies.
After the Atlantic Federation leader finished speaking, the voice conference fell silent.
The Eurasian Federation leader had long anticipated that this day might come, so his silence was merely him thinking about how to completely drag the East Asian Republic into the mess. He and the Atlantic Federation leader were on the same page without even needing to communicate privately.
From the Eurasian Federation leader's perspective, when the cloning experiment began, Reid Isaac's Newtype status had not yet been exposed. At that time, spending a vast amount of resources to create a revolutionary super-scientist who could be used for about ten years was actually a good deal. Even if this clone was unwilling to research cutting-edge technology, he would have to research biotechnology for his own sake, so as long as he was successfully cultivated, it wouldn't be a loss.
Unfortunately, reality has a funny way of playing jokes. Reid Isaac's power was the result of postnatal evolution; his pre-evolution genes only held potential that couldn't be realized. Moreover, due to the genetic defects of clones, their only option was to gamble on one last evolution. Otherwise, the massive funds invested in cloning Reid Isaac would go down the drain.
This was also why the leaders of the Atlantic and Eurasian Federations, knowing that the Reid clone had no scientific research capabilities, still risked sending him to the front lines instead of destroying him to completely eliminate the evidence. They couldn't justify such a massive research expenditure to their congresses for a mere ace pilot's combat power; both of them would have to step down.
What's more, cloning violated the simple moral standards of all citizens. They would be in the wrong no matter how they spun it, and claiming it was an experiment for mass-producing ace pilots would convince no one. To protect the thrones beneath their asses and to avoid being thrown directly into prison for violating anti-cloning laws, the leaders of the Atlantic and Eurasian Federations would naturally take the gamble that Neo Roanoke could evolve just like Reid Isaac.
In the worst-case scenario where Reid Isaac found out, the nations would bear the brunt of it. Based on their private analysis of Reid Isaac, if he obtained such a perfect excuse, even if their countries handed them over, he would probably treat them to good food and drink and have them serve as tainted witnesses, just to get the perfect reason to start a war and unify the Earth.
One could only say that the leaders of the Atlantic and Eurasian Federations understood Reid far less than Patrick Zala did. If these two really fell into Reid's hands, Reid would subject them to every single torture method used to train Enhanced Persons. He would use the best medical care throughout the process, ensuring that before they experienced every punishment, not only would they not die, but they would also remain perfectly conscious.
At this moment, the leader of the East Asian Republic was silent because he was inwardly cursing the Atlantic and Eurasian Federations for being pig-headed teammates. This time, the leader of the East Asian Republic was truly experiencing what it felt like to have incompetent allies.
In the East Asian Republic's plans, victory in this second war between the Earth Alliance and PLANT was a foregone conclusion. Although ZAFT was actively organizing counterattacks after the Earth Alliance's first wave of attacks and had achieved some success, the East Asian Republic saw ZAFT's actions as a grasshopper in autumn, unable to hop for much longer.
It might seem like ZAFT had regained some initiative on the battlefield, but as far as the East Asian Republic knew, they had already mobilized over eighty percent of their domestic forces. If the war continued, ZAFT would face the same shortage of troops they had in the latter half of the last war within six months.
Meanwhile, each of the three Earth Alliance nations had a population more than ten times that of ZAFT. After two years of rest and recuperation, their military strength had recovered.
The combat loss ratio between ZAFT and the Earth Alliance was no longer the 1:5 it was when their regular forces clashed head-on at the beginning of the last war. Now, if the ratio in a direct confrontation between non-ace regular forces reached 1:2, it would be considered a command error on the Earth Alliance's part. There was a gap in the performance of their mass-produced mobile suits, but it truly wasn't that large.
If there was one area where the Earth Alliance was inferior to ZAFT, it was that the Earth Alliance had fewer MS ace pilots than ZAFT, and their aces' mobile suits were not as powerful as ZAFT's.
Furthermore, as the East Asian Republic had deeply experienced in the L4 Colony Cluster campaign, the importance of a super ACE who far surpassed ordinary ace pilots was immense. If ZAFT hadn't had Athrun Zala stationed there during the battle at the L4 Colony Cluster, the situation would definitely not have been a stalemate.
Therefore, unlike the first war, it was now the Earth Alliance trying every means to force a decisive battle with ZAFT, while ZAFT was always trying to use tactics to gain an advantage before the battle even began, or to directly send their aces to tear through the Earth Alliance's lines.
But if the New Misurugi Kingdom were to join PLANT's side at this juncture, the situation would be completely different in the eyes of the East Asian Republic. The New Misurugi Kingdom had inherited the population of the former Oceania Union. Although not as numerous as any of the three Earth Alliance nations, it was not something a country like PLANT, with a population under one hundred million, could compare to.
Moreover, the New Misurugi Kingdom's Mobile Doll System far surpassed that of other nations. To this day, the East Asian Republic had not been able to decipher the programming used by the New Misurugi Kingdom's Mobile Dolls in the first war (they had tried to crack the internal programs by recovering electronic storage devices from mobile suit wreckage from the battle on the PLANT homeland through the Junk Guild).
If the New Misurugi Kingdom allied with PLANT, PLANT's disadvantage in troop numbers would be instantly erased. Even more troublesome was that the New Misurugi Kingdom had more MS ace pilots than PLANT and possessed various Super Beam Cannon technologies. If a real war broke out, the New Misurugi Kingdom might really be able to push the combat loss ratio against the Earth Alliance back to 1:5, or even higher.
In any case, the East Asian Republic definitely did not want to face Reid Isaac's super mode (the state he was in when pushing the Junius 7 wreckage).
Therefore, in the eyes of the East Asian Republic's leader, the leaders of the Atlantic and Eurasian Federations were idiots. Cloning Reid Isaac was one thing; he could understand their envy. But once you cloned him, you should have managed him properly. What was the point of throwing him onto the front lines? Was that how you play "hiding in plain sight"?
Now that Reid Isaac had caught them red-handed, he could just publicize it in the media. Without even lifting a finger, the citizens of the Atlantic and Eurasian Federations would be protesting daily. The boomerang of the Blue Cosmos ideology would come flying back at them again.
Thus, the leader of the East Asian Republic could only break the silence with a troubled expression, saying, "Since it has come to this, I will first send someone to the New Misurugi Kingdom to sound them out. We'll talk again when there's news. I'm logging off for now."
After speaking, the leader of the East Asian Republic went offline immediately, preparing to convene an emergency meeting. The East Asian Republic's future strategic goals might need to be adjusted. This time, they had truly been screwed over by their pig-headed teammates.
However, their discussions dragged on, and by the time Reid returned to the New Misurugi Kingdom, the East Asian Republic still hadn't reached a conclusion. This was because Reid's reaction this time was also somewhat beyond everyone's expectations.
War with the Atlantic and Eurasian Federations was a certainty, and Reid didn't plan to delay it for too long. But how to fight and how to make the initial arrangements definitely required further discussion. Reality wasn't a game; Reid couldn't just say "Go to war" and have his troops mindlessly A-move.
Moreover, there was a political drama to play out before the war.
However, Reid didn't plan to participate in the political drama. After returning to his country, meeting requests from the East Asian Republic and PLANT were immediately placed on his desk. But Reid didn't plan to see any of them, leaving everything for Une to handle.
In short, the principle was one: no alliance with PLANT, but some material transactions could be conducted, and they could coordinate tactically. As for the East Asian Republic, the strategy was simply to stall. Nominally, he would guarantee not to declare war on them, but say nothing else.
In truth, Reid knew that war with the East Asian Republic was inevitable this time. Once he declared war on the Atlantic and Eurasian Federations, the East Asian Republic would automatically declare war on the New Misurugi Kingdom according to the Earth Alliance treaty.
But a declaration of war was one thing; how the war was actually fought was another matter for negotiation. Therefore, Reid needed to awe the East Asian Republic with a thunderous blow in the first wave of battle.
Based on Reid's understanding of that country, they would definitely try to avoid a direct confrontation with the New Misurugi Kingdom afterward. At that point, the two sides could just go through the motions in the Pacific Ocean and the Equatorial Union's territory. As long as they didn't reveal too big of a flaw, Reid could focus on dealing with the Eurasian and Atlantic Federations.
However, while Reid didn't participate in the political drama, he had to take charge of the war preparations. The New Misurugi Kingdom took advantage of the fact that war hadn't broken out yet to airdrop a large number of troops to the Ascension Island base in the Atlantic and the port base in the former Misurugi Empire on the European mainland.
At this time, the Atlantic and Eurasian Federations desperately wanted to stop the New Misurugi Kingdom from reinforcing its troops, but they lacked a pretext and didn't dare to proactively bring up the incident on the Bogotá front to turn the tables. After all, Reid hadn't publicly revealed the matter of the clone yet, which in their eyes meant there was still room for negotiation.
So, the two nations could only blockade the areas around these two bases, preventing the people in the bases from receiving any more material supplies from the local area. Unfortunately, the two bases were now well-stocked with supplies. In terms of food and water alone, lasting for half a year wouldn't be a problem.
Back in the homeland, the New Misurugi Kingdom's military factories were operating at full capacity, beginning mass production of Ghost Jegans and various other weapons and equipment to ensure that new mobile suits could be promptly supplied to replace combat losses.
At the same time, Reid was preparing to go to the AD Universe to bring back the technologically mature Pseudo GN Drives from four years in the future for mass production, and then go to the Iron-Blooded Orphans universe to bring back Hashmal.
Reid planned to modify Hashmal's programming, turning it into a mobile suit for annihilating specific, independent targets. Since the Atlantic and Eurasian Federations dared to create a clone of him, he would use Hashmal to airdrop and dismantle all the assets of their high-level officials and arms dealers, as well as those experimental bases.
As for the civilians of the two nations, Reid could only say that he would try his best not to cause collateral damage, but some things in war are unavoidable. Reid would not give up eating for fear of choking.
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