If the operation truly was a tacit "collaboration" between PLANT and the Earth Alliance, then Orb had indeed been pushed to the brink of destruction.
Both sides would interfere with Orb's attempts to destroy Junius Seven, making it extremely difficult for Orb's fleet to intercept it in space.
For one thing, Orb barely had a fleet stationed in space.
That did not mean Orb lacked warships capable of operating there. It possessed a small number, but they would first have to launch from the surface.
The Earth Alliance would never stand idly by and allow that. It would undoubtedly interfere with the fleet's launch, perhaps even going so far as to intercept the warships with nuclear missiles.
A nuclear warhead did not need to score a direct hit. Its blast radius was enormous, making it extremely difficult to intercept every incoming missile at high altitude.
There would also be a vulnerable period while the warships were passing through the atmosphere. During that phase, their weapons would be difficult to use because the ships needed to withstand the intense heat generated by atmospheric friction.
Furthermore, if Orb committed too many of its forces to space, its homeland defenses would be severely weakened. The Earth Alliance would almost certainly take advantage of that opportunity.
Orb was caught between a rock and a hard place.
Its only practical option was to intercept Junius Seven directly from the surface.
But if they had to intercept it from the ground, that meant Junius Seven would already be directly overhead.
If they failed to destroy it completely, the resulting damage to Orb would be unimaginable.
"Erica, can't you finish it any faster?"
"We're already moving as fast as we can, but we still need three days!"
In theory, there was one device capable of shattering Junius Seven: the Crustal Breaker, a technology Kain had brought with him.
Cagalli was urging Orb's chief engineer to complete its construction as quickly as possible. Even if they skipped numerous safety inspections and accepted the risks of rushing production, however, the device would still require at least three days.
Would Junius Seven give them that much time?
After gathering more intelligence through their terminals, they had detected suspicious changes in the movement of space debris, as if the debris had collided with an invisible Junius Seven. Combined with the Earth Alliance's unusual fleet deployments, they had managed to estimate Junius Seven's trajectory.
The blurry "Junius Seven" they could still observe had already been confirmed as a fake.
According to the projected trajectory, the real Junius Seven would pass directly over Orb sometime tomorrow afternoon, around sunset, when day began giving way to night.
Orb's existing firepower was nowhere near enough to destroy it.
Even the thermonuclear bombs carried by Kain's Ho 229s and the gravity bombs used by the Knight Mecha could not completely obliterate the colony.
Of course, if they ordered a large number of thermonuclear bombs from A2, they could theoretically melt the entirety of Junius Seven, provided they had enough bombs.
The problem was that A2's forces had recently attacked another major stronghold belonging to the machine lifeforms on the surface, consuming most of their thermonuclear bomb stockpile.
Even if production were accelerated now, there was no way they could deliver enough bombs in time to destroy Junius Seven.
And even if they somehow obtained enough, there was no guarantee every bomb would hit its target.
The Earth Alliance and PLANT would undoubtedly do everything in their power to intercept them. Nuclear interception would be one of their most effective options.
As for the Knight Mecha's gravity bombs, their gravitational force was insufficient to destroy something as massive as Junius Seven. There were not many of those bombs available, either.
That did not mean they were completely incapable of preventing Junius Seven from striking Orb.
Their existing firepower was sufficient to break the colony apart and stop it from hitting Orb in one piece.
However, its fragments would fall into the waters surrounding the island nation. The resulting tsunamis would still cause catastrophic damage.
"Wait, the Cyclonic Torpedo!"
Cagalli suddenly remembered something and hurried over to Kain.
"A Cyclonic Torpedo could destroy Junius Seven, couldn't it?"
Cagalli had learned from the new footage Lacus shared that Kain possessed such a weapon.
While dealing with xenos on another planet, the Astartes under his command had provided him with a weapon called a Cyclonic Torpedo, though he had ultimately chosen not to use it.
That weapon was said to possess enough power to eradicate every xenos creature on the planet with a single strike.
"It could destroy Junius Seven, but its detonation would produce gamma radiation devastating to living organisms. Any life within ten thousand kilometers of the explosion would be severely harmed. Radiation levels would reach ten thousand times the standard safe exposure limit of 0.4 microsieverts per hour."
Even if Junius Seven were still at its original location and they destroyed it there with a Cyclonic Torpedo, the dangerous radiation zone would still extend all the way to Earth.
Fortunately, that did not mean they had no other means of destroying Junius Seven.
There were other weapons they could use, such as...
"What about a G-Bomb?"
Cagalli immediately thought of another possibility. They could ask Professor Yūko Kōzuki for one.
A G-Bomb was far more destructive to Earth than a nuclear weapon, but they would be using it against Junius Seven in space.
"We have one. It can be used."
That was one of the weapons Kain had already considered using to destroy Junius Seven.
A G-Bomb would leave behind a permanent region of distorted and altered magnetic fields.
However, since it would be detonated in space, the effects on Earth would be minimal.
The distorted magnetic field in space would, at worst, confuse the navigational instruments of any vessel entering the affected region.
"Phew. That's a relief."
Cagalli relaxed.
She had seen footage of a world devastated by G-Bombs. One had scooped an enormous section out of the planet's surface as though it were ice cream, simply vaporizing everything in its path.
Judging by the scale of that destruction, reducing Junius Seven to ashes would not be a problem.
A G-Bomb also produced little in the way of a conventional physical shock wave, so they would not have to worry about the blast harming innocent people nearby.
"Um, I don't know what a G-Bomb is or exactly how powerful it might be, but wouldn't delivering it to the target still be a problem?"
Lunamaria could not resist interjecting.
She once again studied the young man beside Lacus with a serious expression.
Orb's recent rise was closely connected to this man.
Lacus herself was clearly close to him as well.
Miss Lacus treated him very differently from everyone else. She was warm and familiar with him, yet at the same time remarkably courteous and respectful.
"Delivery won't be a problem, because..."
"I'm sorry, but that's classified."
Murrue immediately interrupted Cagalli before she could let the secret slip.
Come to think of it, Lacus did not seem to mind the Hawke sisters participating in their discussions. She probably intended to recruit them to their side.
However, the sisters had not officially joined them yet, so they could not reveal the G-Bomb's deployment capabilities.
Their next task was to locate the real Junius Seven and launch the G-Bomb to destroy it.
Hopefully, Natarle would also be able to provide them with intelligence about Junius Seven.
On the surface, Natarle had severed all ties with Murrue. In reality, she was an inside agent whom their side had planted within the Earth Alliance.
Of course, when they parted ways, they had not yet known whether Natarle would truly become one of them.
Now that she had sent them this intelligence, however, it was clear she had come to understand just how rotten and depraved the Earth Alliance truly was.
They finally had a reliable inside agent within the Earth Alliance.
(End of Chapter)
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