She did not reveal the exact cause of her unease. She gave them only a single keyword: Junius Seven.
Cagalli and Murrue, who had already learned some information about Junius Seven from Lacus, immediately went pale.
That was because Junius Seven played a major role in the second season, SEED Destiny.
Some remnants of Patrick Zala's faction within PLANT still refused to accept defeat. They pushed the ruins of the Junius Seven colony toward Earth, intending to bring it crashing down upon the planet.
Fortunately, Junius Seven was ultimately shattered before impact. Even so, countless fragments struck Earth, causing horrifying destruction and casualties.
If the colony had fallen mostly intact, the devastation and death toll would have been on an entirely different scale.
The number of dead would undoubtedly have been measured in the hundreds of millions.
Murrue and Cagalli were not the only ones present. Nicol Amalfi and Dearka Elsman, both former ZAFT soldiers, were there as well.
The two of them had chosen to trust Lacus and remained in Orb to assist with some of her operations.
Among the intelligence Lacus had shared with them were several insane plans devised by the Earth Alliance and PLANT to annihilate one another.
One of those proposals was a revenge plan involving pushing the remains of Junius Seven toward Earth.
Now that Lacus had uttered the words "Junius Seven" with such intense emotion, did that mean the plan had already been set in motion?
"You've got to be kidding me. They're starting Operation Break the World already? Is PLANT really that eager to destroy the Earth Alliance?"
Dearka still found it difficult to believe.
"No, their primary goal probably isn't destroying the Earth Alliance," Nicol analyzed, his face equally pale. "They're trying to destroy Orb. If they can wipe out the Earth Alliance at the same time, all the better."
"Wait. What are you talking about? What's happening to Junius Seven? What do you mean by destroying Orb and the Earth Alliance?"
"PLANT wants to destroy Orb too?"
The two confused girls questioning them were Lunamaria Hawke and Meyrin Hawke, the sisters who had accompanied Yzak's mother to Orb.
Why had everyone suddenly gone so pale? What exactly was Lacus talking about?
"Erica, please examine the current condition of Junius Seven immediately."
Cagalli had already contacted Erica Simmons, the chief engineer of Morgenroete, and asked her to use Orb's satellites to observe the colony.
Orb could not observe it directly from the nation's territory because Junius Seven was currently on the other side of Earth.
"Something doesn't add up," Nicol said, rubbing his chin. "Junius Seven is far too large. If it had already begun moving, there's no way no one would have noticed."
"Then it probably hasn't started moving yet, right?"
Dearka breathed a sigh of relief.
"Not necessarily. It may already be moving. Orb might not know because the information has been suppressed."
Nicol raised another possibility.
"How could that happen? They might be able to keep Orb in the dark, but there's no way the Earth Alliance wouldn't notice. They have a lunar base, the Artemis fortress, and even a fleet stationed near Junius Seven. How could all of them possibly be blind enough to miss it?"
Dearka's rebuttal made sense.
Junius Seven probably had not started moving yet. Otherwise, the Earth Alliance would have reacted aggressively by now, and the news would already be in an uproar.
"Maybe the Earth Alliance is helping to conceal it," Lunamaria suggested. "Wouldn't the Earth Alliance also want an uncontrollable power like Orb destroyed?"
Listening to Nicol and Dearka's exchange, Lunamaria had begun to understand what they were discussing, though she still found it absurd.
They were suggesting that her own nation, PLANT, intended to push Junius Seven into Earth and use it to destroy Orb.
She could not let them slander PLANT like that, so she dragged the Earth Alliance into the discussion as well.
Lunamaria then proposed another possibility. If Junius Seven truly was being pushed toward Earth, perhaps the Earth Alliance was the real culprit.
Just as the Earth Alliance had destroyed Junius Seven with nuclear missiles during the Bloody Valentine tragedy one year ago, then accused PLANT of staging the incident themselves, this operation to drop Junius Seven on Orb might also be an Earth Alliance plot intended to frame PLANT.
The Earth Alliance had already done something similar. Just over twenty days ago, they had attempted to drop a space supply station on Orb's capital.
"That possibility is unlikely, but not impossible," Nicol replied. "However, it would require the Earth Alliance to possess the means to destroy Junius Seven."
"The only realistic way to destroy Junius Seven would be with nuclear weapons," Meyrin murmured. "But because of the Neutron Jammers, the Earth Alliance can't use them."
"Could the Earth Alliance have already constructed Requiem somewhere on the surface?"
Cagalli's expression changed as she voiced the possibility.
"Unlikely."
Murrue shook her head.
If Requiem had been constructed on Earth, it would have to be buried underground to prevent its discovery. That would severely restrict its firing angles and make it impossible to move.
With that alone, the Earth Alliance could not guarantee Junius Seven's destruction.
Even if the high-energy beam struck the colony, it would probably only tear Junius Seven into pieces. Vast amounts of debris would still crash into Earth.
They needed more information.
Before long, they finally received their first suspicious report.
Something was wrong with Junius Seven.
It appeared to remain in its original position, but the quality of all observation footage was abysmal.
The reason was that the region containing Junius Seven happened to be caught within an area where the Earth Alliance and PLANT were launching powerful electronic interference against one another. The interference made it extremely difficult for most observation equipment to determine Junius Seven's true condition.
Even images obtained through optical systems appeared to be affected by something strange.
"It looks like someone scattered enormous amounts of anti-beam particles around Junius Seven."
"If that's true, the refraction of light would also prevent optical systems from accurately observing the colony."
"Something is clearly wrong."
They eventually narrowed the situation down to two possibilities.
The first was that the Junius Seven they were observing was a fake, while the real Junius Seven had already been moved elsewhere.
However, a target of that size could not possibly move without being discovered. No matter how much the Earth Alliance despised Orb, there was no way every member of the Alliance would simply stand by and watch Junius Seven move freely through space.
"Unless Junius Seven has been made invisible," Meyrin muttered.
"Invisible? A target as large as Junius Seven?" Lunamaria asked skeptically. "Is that even possible? PLANT doesn't possess that kind of technology."
Whatever the truth might be, Lunamaria refused to believe that PLANT was secretly carrying out such an operation.
"No, PLANT does possess that technology," Nicol said heavily. "More importantly, they have enough industrial power to manufacture equipment capable of concealing the entirety of Junius Seven within a week!"
Before the Archangel had ever landed in Orb, Rau Le Creuset had already transmitted all the technical data from the Earth Alliance's GAT-X series mobile suits back to PLANT.
With PLANT's technological and manufacturing capabilities, it would not take long for them to apply that data and construct a massive optical camouflage system.
"This is..."
"Captain Murrue, what did you receive?"
Lacus looked at Murrue gravely. Murrue had just received a secret intelligence report from within the Earth Alliance.
The sender was Natarle Badgiruel.
"Seven hundred and twenty Earth Alliance air-defense systems entered their highest state of readiness yesterday. More importantly, some of them have had their warheads replaced."
"Their warheads?"
Cagalli immediately seized upon that detail.
"Has the Earth Alliance developed a new air-defense weapon?"
"No. These should be air-defense missiles equipped with nuclear warheads," Murrue replied, her voice growing heavier. "A significant number have also appeared around Orb. They've clearly surrounded and blockaded us."
"Nuclear warheads? But what about the Neutron Jammers?" Lunamaria wondered aloud. "Did the Earth Alliance upgrade its nuclear weapons or develop some kind of shielding system that prevents Neutron Jammers from affecting their warheads?"
As soon as she said that, Lunamaria noticed several people's expressions change.
"I nearly forgot about the Neutron Jammer Canceller!" Cagalli exclaimed, her voice trembling with fury. "Lacus, that bastard Creuset must have secretly given the technology to the Earth Alliance. That's why they've been pretending not to notice anything strange about Junius Seven!"
If the Earth Alliance's nuclear weapons had been unlocked and were no longer rendered useless, then they truly had no reason to fear Junius Seven.
At the same time, their abnormal deployment seemed specifically intended to blockade Orb.
The Earth Alliance might not launch those nuclear missiles directly at Orb, but they would certainly use them to restrict Orb's movements and interfere with any attempt to destroy Junius Seven.
They intended to let Junius Seven annihilate Orb.
In other words, the Junius Seven drop could practically be considered a cooperative operation between PLANT and the Earth Alliance, carried out through an unspoken agreement.
To destroy Orb, a rapidly rising power, the two sides had descended into such madness that they were willing to execute a plan like this.
If Junius Seven struck Orb, the nation truly would be annihilated. The colony's mass was simply too enormous to comprehend.
The resulting tsunamis would ravage the entire world.
They had all gone completely insane!
(End of Chapter)
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