Neutron Jammers were sealing devices developed by PLANT after the Bloody Valentine tragedy to neutralize nuclear weapons.
By launching these devices down to Earth and driving them underground, PLANT caused their effects to cover almost the entire planet, rendering nuclear fission ineffective.
For Earth, that meant more than just nuclear warheads going silent. Even nuclear-fission power could no longer be used.
And during later battles in space, Neutron Jammers would be activated as well.
It was not only PLANT that activated them. The Earth Alliance did the same, because they were also afraid that PLANT would launch nuclear missiles.
The Earth Alliance also possessed Neutron Jammers, having reverse-engineered the technology from the devices that had been launched down to Earth.
Now, just as the Archangel was passing nearby, one warship suddenly fired a large number of missiles at them. Only after interception began did they suddenly detect that the neutron interference had vanished.
Murrue immediately realized there was something wrong with those missiles, and her face went pale.
Her lips parted. She was about to shout for the Neutron Jammer to be activated, but white light so intense it almost blinded her seemed to pierce straight through the screen.
The stimulation was too strong. Her eyes went sore, as though they might melt in the next instant.
Her body instinctively tried to protect her eyes from injury, whether by closing them, turning her gaze away, or raising a hand to block the light and prevent it from shining directly into her eyes.
Murrue's reaction was to raise her hand and shield herself.
Just as she blocked the light, it rapidly weakened, but the image in her vision did not immediately become clear.
At the same time, one of her hands clutched the grip on the captain's seat, fixing herself in place so that the impact would not throw her out.
However, the impact she imagined never came.
"It blocked it."
Cagalli murmured in a daze.
Because this had happened so close, she finally felt the true power of that machine. The defense it deployed had even stopped the energy of a nuclear warhead.
"Activate the Neutron Jammer!"
Murrue immediately gave the order, and the crew members who had not yet fully recovered hurriedly activated the Archangel's Neutron Jammer.
The reason it had not been activated earlier was that this entire area nearby was already covered by the 8th Fleet's Neutron Jammers.
In that case, there had been no need for the Archangel to activate its own.
After all, activating a Neutron Jammer would also easily affect communications.
The surrounding area had already been covered. If the Archangel layered its own interference on top, the disturbance would worsen further. Admiral Halberton of the 8th Fleet might still have something to contact them about, and communications could be disrupted. That was why it had not been turned on.
In addition, Murrue had believed Admiral Halberton would not suddenly launch an attack. Out of trust, she had left it inactive.
Who would have expected one warship in the 8th Fleet to suddenly fire a mass of missiles, followed by the Neutron Jammers shutting down just as the missiles were about to reach them?
As a result, the nuclear warheads could detonate.
After narrowly escaping death, Murrue immediately opened communications with the command ship Menelaos.
"Admiral Halberton, what is going on?"
"I did not give the order to attack. It was the deputy flagship acting on its own selfish initiative."
The response from the other side carried a bitter smile.
Murrue also transmitted those words to Mr. Kain as he closed in, making sure he did not misunderstand and believe the entire 8th Fleet was the enemy, then destroy the whole fleet.
As before, he ignored every barrage and charged straight through them. The deputy flagship was so frightened that it had already turned around and begun trying to flee.
"Lieutenant Badgiruel, it is exactly like the video you brought."
Aboard the Menelaos, Admiral Halberton watched the scene on the screen and sighed.
"They're finished."
Natarle Badgiruel answered with a bitter smile.
Although she had not interacted with that man much, she could be certain of his personality. He was the type who would not attack unless attacked, but once someone attacked him, he would absolutely retaliate.
He would never let the deputy flagship go. Murrue's words were even less likely to stop him.
Perhaps he might listen to Lacus.
And right now, the deputy commander who had originally refused to believe the contents of the video Natarle had brought had lost all semblance of a military officer on the communications screen.
No, this man had probably never been promoted to deputy commander through military merit in the first place. To put it bluntly, he was an empty suit who had reached that position through various interests.
Suddenly, that fat pig thought of their side too and demanded that they attack as well, ordering the entire 8th Fleet to open fire.
Naturally, no one accepted his command.
By the time the deputy flagship had nearly completed its turn, Mr. Kain's fighter had already reached its side.
Unlike when he had attacked the ZAFT warship, no warhead emerged this time. Natarle let out a slight breath of relief, because an attack like that had a wide range and would affect the nearby warships.
However, he did not launch any other attack either. He merely extended a mechanical arm toward the warship and spread its five fingers.
With just that motion, the deputy flagship, which had already turned around and pushed its engines to full output, strangely remained in place, as if it had been fixed there.
The next moment, the open five-fingered mechanical hand began to close into a fist. It was not fast. It felt as if it would take ten whole seconds for the fist to fully close.
The meaning of that action was unclear at first. But as the deputy flagship began to deform and twist, Natarle gradually understood what he was doing, and she stared in shock.
"Captain Ramius, order him to stop immediately! You are making enemies of the Earth Alliance!"
The Archangel also received an emergency transmission from the 8th Fleet's deputy flagship, and the deputy commander's tone was still like that.
Even with death upon him, he remained that stupid.
So Murrue's answer was no answer at all. She watched him die with cold eyes.
All he had needed to do was let the Archangel leave peacefully. Instead, he had insisted on seeking his own death.
Because the transmission had come through, they could see the interior of the warship being crushed. They saw people flattened by metal twisting inward from every direction, bursting under the pressure. The sight made their scalps crawl.
Murrue had a feeling that compressing that warship was not actually so difficult for him.
Mr. Kain was deliberately creating terror. He was not letting them die quickly. He wanted them to meet death under overwhelming fear.
Just like when he had faced ZAFT earlier. On the surface, it looked as if he was showing off the machine and displaying its power. In truth, he was using terror as intimidation. He was spreading fear.
In the end, as the five fingers nearly closed, the deputy flagship was compressed by an invisible force and turned into a mass of scrap metal.
When the fist fully closed, what entered everyone's view was a metal sphere.
A warship that had originally been more than two hundred meters long had been turned into a sphere less than twenty meters across.
Through the video link with the 8th Fleet, Murrue also saw the people over there staring at the scene in horror. She could only smile bitterly.
If this intimidation went too far, it might not necessarily be a good thing.
(End of Chapter)
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