Beneath lavish decoration, a blond man in a suit was leisurely enjoying a glass of fine wine.
On the large screen before him, the situation near Orb's territorial waters was being broadcast live.
From the Earth Alliance fleet's perspective, Orb's fleet was already visible on the horizon. They were closing in on Orb's territorial waters.
"That idiot actually went there in person."
As Muruta Azrael said that, his fingers tightened slightly around the wineglass in his hand.
The idiot he referred to was Lord Djibril, a man who held considerable weight within Blue Cosmos and LOGOS.
If something happened to Azrael, Djibril would very likely become the number-two man who succeeded him as leader.
And yet someone like that had personally taken the risk of going to the scene. If something went wrong, it would become a serious problem.
However, according to the intelligence he had received, everything was going very smoothly. The Seiran family's forces had already taken complete control of the venue and captured all the core figures, including Athha.
Under those circumstances, the only way for the situation to reverse was if the Seiran family's armed forces rebelled.
But after things had gone this far, rebellion was no longer possible.
All that could be said was that the old fool Athha was truly naive, overly confident, and arrogant.
Next came the question of how to use the hostages for profit and obtain that absurd machine.
No matter how powerful the third-party force behind it was, the forces they had dispatched were only those few machines and that small number of people. How much could they really do?
Since Orb had already changed masters, they would have no choice but to accept it and choose a new partner.
Therefore, cooperation with the Atlantic Federation would be best.
If that was impossible, then they absolutely could not allow the other side to cooperate with PLANT.
For that reason, the songstress had to die there.
Just as Muruta was thinking in a favorable direction, only a few minutes passed before he received intelligence that turned his face livid.
"That stupid pig!"
Something unknown had happened at the scene. In any case, contact had been lost, and Orb's Chief Representative, Uzumi Nara Athha, had instead connected to the navy and issued a warning to the Earth Alliance.
That meant the performance venue had still ended in failure.
It meant that the idiot Lord Djibril had most likely fallen into the enemy's hands.
And if Lord Djibril, who possessed so many of the organization's secrets, revealed the insane crimes committed by Blue Cosmos and LOGOS, then they would truly be finished.
At a time like this, there was only one option left.
Attack Orb's capital.
The mournful wail of air-raid sirens echoed across Orb's capital.
At that moment, everyone panicked, but not to the point of scattering like headless flies.
Many entrances to air-raid shelters could be seen opening throughout the area, and people began entering them in a fairly orderly manner.
However, one car racing along the road did not head toward a shelter entrance. Instead, it sped toward the coast.
"What's going on? Is that an air-raid siren?"
"Look at this."
Andrew controlled the steering wheel with one hand and handed the terminal over with the other. It displayed footage observed by ZAFT.
"The Earth Alliance has begun attacking? Did they declare war?"
Dearka's expression turned grave.
Wait. The large number of missiles launched by the fleet were flying far too high.
"They're not attacking Orb's fleet. They're launching a direct strike on the mainland!"
Athrun's face turned ashen.
That meant they were probably directly attacking the performance venue from earlier. Lacus, Yzak, and Nicol were in danger.
And it was not only them. There were so many civilians at the scene. This was practically a deranged massacre.
"Are they insane? They're going to attack Lacus's performance venue?"
Dearka shouted as well.
"What about our fleet? Are they intercepting?"
He could not help asking with some expectation.
"No."
Andrew's answer was low.
Their fleet would rather see the Earth Alliance's missiles actually bombard Orb and completely turn the Earth Alliance into Orb's enemy.
That way, the third-party force would definitely not become allies with the Earth Alliance.
"Do they not know Lacus is in Orb?"
"Most of them truly don't."
Information about Lacus coming to Orb had actually been under media control.
Most citizens believed Lacus had already returned to the homeland.
Then the three fell silent, staring at the image on the terminal. A large number of ballistic trails were flying over Orb's fleet.
Of course, Orb's fleet reacted as well and immediately began air defense.
However, the Earth Alliance fleet had fired too many missiles. It was almost as if they intended to launch everything in a single breath.
As the intercepting side, stopping an enemy missile barrage normally required firing several times the number of missiles the enemy had launched. A thin screen of air-defense missiles was nowhere near enough.
Yet the grim situation did not end there. New intelligence soon arrived.
"Have they really lost their minds?"
Above Orb, an Earth Alliance fleet supply station was deviating from its orbit.
That kind of deviation would cause it to be pulled down by Earth's gravity. It was probably going to fall directly onto Orb.
If the supply station's internal ammunition was fully stocked, then with the mass of the supply station itself falling as well, it would absolutely flatten Orb's capital, as if the city had been smashed by a falling celestial body.
"Mr. Andrew, please tell our forces that Lacus is in Orb!"
"It's no use, Athrun."
Their National Defense Committee chairman, Patrick Zala, Athrun's father, would absolutely not help.
He might even order ZAFT to retreat in order to let the Earth Alliance act more freely, removing the other side's hesitation and allowing them to launch a destructive strike against Orb.
This was truly bad. Andrew's expression also turned ugly. He could only wonder whether the princess had anticipated things reaching this point and had already made preparations.
"I'll contact them!"
Athrun immediately reached out to take the communicator, but the result made his face turn pale.
The other end of the communicator refused to accept any information. In other words, it could only receive intelligence transmitted from that side one-way.
At this point, only one method remained. They had to obtain their machines, reach Lacus and the others before the Earth Alliance destroyed Orb, and rescue them.
At the same time, in a high mountain valley ten kilometers away from them:
Someone was already seated in the knight mecha's cockpit, and the machine had completed its activation.
Against the current missile rain, the Ho 229 fighter operated by 6O would launch immediately, but it probably would not be able to intercept many of them. Sending his personal machine over would also be too late.
After all, in order to mislead the enemy, that machine had not been activated.
Relying solely on Orb's fleet air-defense missiles and land-based air defenses definitely would not be enough to intercept everything.
That meant they could only rely on this knight mecha.
Of course, there was a way to intercept them, because Kain had already considered the possibility of being subjected to large-scale concentrated fire.
For this kind of interception, using this should be enough: melta irradiation.
The shoulder armor opened like a set of covers, revealing two weapons that looked like multi-barreled rotary cannons.
Then the barrels suddenly separated slightly, as though each barrel's firing angle had been minutely adjusted.
That was because dozens of visible targets had already been calibrated.
In the next instant, more than a dozen melta beams fired.
Because of the high-frequency firing, in that single moment, what appeared in everyone's eyes was a hundred beams tearing through the sky.
(End of Chapter)
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