At the very least, they needed to spread the news—along with evidence—that the Atlantic Federation had resorted to nuclear weapons.
This would secure another round of victory in the court of public opinion.
These victories seemed small, seemingly easy for the Atlantic Federation's shamelessness to deny.
But as long as they accumulated bit by bit, the world's trust in the Atlantic Federation would steadily decline.
Those who follow justice are helped by many; those who abandon it are helped by few.
Step by step, the future would become more favorable to them.
"Mm... after we finish resupplying, are we heading back out?"
Alec responded with a sound before asking again.
"We're going out. If that Moebius is still there, we need to make an appearance."
Though Fred felt there shouldn't be any problems, there was always the chance.
"Got it!"
Hearing this, Alec felt a bit conflicted.
He'd wanted to suggest that Fred stay here where it was safer, while he went out alone.
But Fred hadn't even given him the chance to say it.
Then again, that was just the kind of person Fred was.
Soon enough, without even leaving their cockpits, the two swapped out their batteries and launched once more.
"Those two—I'd say they're not far off from Captain Andrew now."
Watching their machines rapidly fly off into the distance, a few of the maintenance crew men remarked after finishing their work.
"Probably not quite there yet, but being able to handle new Mobile Suits that smoothly is seriously impressive."
"Too bad they never show their faces—who are they anyway? Their voices do sound pretty young."
Someone in the maintenance crew chimed in with curiosity.
"Don't even think about it. Every one of those test pilots has top-secret identities."
"True enough, but these Mobile Suits don't seem like something an ordinary soldier could pilot either."
As they chatted, watching the machines transform into shooting stars on the external monitors, genuine admiration was visible in their eyes.
Who wouldn't want the glory of riding solo through enemy lines?
But as the people who maintained the weapons, watching the machines they'd serviced tear through the battlefield was also quite satisfying.
While they were talking, Fred had already swiftly brought Alec back to the battlefield.
Only five minutes had passed, but the state of the battlefield was already vastly different.
Most of the several Drake-class vessels had been reduced to wreckage, with only one still barely holding on.
As for the Agamemnon-class, though still afloat, it was battered and bruised—even several of its main thrusters had been knocked out.
Only a few Moebius units remained, and the one carrying the nuclear warhead had just been destroyed by Orphee and the others the moment the two arrived.
A blinding light erupted in space.
Several times brighter than the one from the Moebius Fred had shot down earlier.
If the monitors didn't have automatic brightness reduction, it would've been worse than eating a flashbang.
The surrounding GINNs shielded themselves with their arms, and aside from being sent flying backward by the explosion's inertia and their Mobile Suits' surfaces being tinged with a red glow, they appeared unharmed.
"Self-detonation, huh?"
Fred could understand, after all—the previous pilot hadn't detonated because he'd been surrounded by allies.
Detonating then would've done nothing but cause a chain explosion among their own forces.
Though detonating now didn't accomplish much either.
"Next time, engage from farther away."
Fred opened the communication channel and reminded Orphee and the others.
He understood the danger here, but he didn't want any meaningless casualties on their side.
"Understood!"
Hearing Fred's words, Orphee paused for a moment, then realized that Fred had witnessed his performance just now. His expression turned excited as he replied.
"But it looks like they're not going to surrender."
"We've called out to them several times already, but they just cursed us out each time."
"Then forget it. Leave the rest to them—we'll go pick up the second squad."
Since these people were the garrison forces, they naturally knew what to do.
Their side was the Special Ops Unit after all. Though they had command authority, saying too much would just make them unwelcome.
As for the enemy not surrendering—that was perfectly normal.
Their offer of surrender wasn't out of kindness; they simply wanted witnesses.
The living were more useful than the dead.
But the living weren't necessarily willing to be used.
"Understood!"
In response to Fred's words, the members of the first squad suppressed their excitement as they acknowledged.
This was the first time they'd participated in this kind of mission under Fred's command.
And reality proved that Fred's talent as a battlefield commander was just as admirable as his other abilities.
Without further delay, they quickly rendezvoused with the forward garrison forces.
Seeing that the ambush had failed, the Atlantic Federation's main force soon slunk away in defeat.
"To think Blue Cosmos would choose to launch an ambush at this time... Even with our early warning systems degraded by solar wind interference, they were far too slow to react."
At that moment, inside the Supreme Council chamber, a Councilor was conducting an inquiry into the earlier attack, his expression grim.
"According to our scientists' analysis, the other side likely possesses some kind of technology that can hide signals."
Patrick replied.
Hearing this, the atmosphere in the Supreme Council chamber grew even more tense.
"Chairman Zala, are you certain about this?"
"We don't have definitive evidence at the moment, but it's the most reasonable explanation."
"I'll also make this the primary direction for subsequent investigations."
"The reason we stationed defenders in August City was precisely because we considered the possibility that the Atlantic Federation might possess relevant technological capabilities."
The scientist Patrick referred to was, of course, Fred.
And he genuinely trusted what the man had said.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have made preparations in advance.
In fact, Fred hadn't let that trust down—the attack had indeed occurred.
And Fred himself had been a firsthand witness.
On the other side, under Patrick's confident words, the members of the Supreme Council gradually calmed down.
First of all, Zala's attitude was indeed reliable.
Moreover, as the Military Committee Chairman, if he spoke with such conviction, he likely had confidence in his assessment.
The internal inquiry came to an end there, and after the meeting, Patrick sought out Siegel, who had remained largely silent throughout.
"According to Fred, the other side's method is likely a kind of quantum virus."
"If that's true, it might be a means capable of countering our Neutron Jammers."
Patrick's expression was grim as he continued.
"This is a method we absolutely must get our hands on."
"Mm..."
Siegel acknowledged, while unable to stop himself from thinking about the anomalies recently discovered by the spies he had planted in Heliopolis.
If it were true, then secret development of MS was likely indeed taking place in Heliopolis.
If the Atlantic Federation truly possessed MS that Naturals could pilot—or even just their own Coordinator Mobile Suit Force—it would be a devastating blow to them.
However, if they rashly sent spies over and they got caught, without evidence proving ORB's actual involvement in the development, all that awaited them would be ORB's condemnation.
The Atlantic Federation would certainly seize the opportunity to attack them in the court of public opinion.
Their righteous war would be stained with blemish.
The Atlantic Federation was just waiting for the chance to reverse the narrative.
"I'll take charge of the investigation."
"The Yggdrasil operation still needs you on that front."
Meeting Siegel's words, Patrick gave a silent nod and continued.
"What about Fred then? The frame for the new-generation Mobile Suit has already passed Shiva's approval."
"Should we send him to Yggdrasil?"
While Fred couldn't dominate the main battlefield, as a hidden trump card, he could prevent certain unexpected situations from occurring.
As for what kind of unexpected situations—no one knew.
A battlefield could never proceed exactly as planned.
Anything could happen.
"See what he wants."
"Then he's going."
Patrick shrugged.
Fred had indeed mentioned wanting to go—not to the front lines, but to the rear as something of an observer role.
Which happened to align with their arrangements.
"Recently, he's been looking more and more like an ace pilot."
As Patrick made that remark, on the other end, Fred had just finished going through the CGUE's data.
"The frame strength is sufficient—I really have to thank you for that, Heinlein."
"Not at all."
The youth, who already bore the faint shadow of his future self, smiled with a hint of shyness.
"It's all thanks to your precise control over the overall direction and research, Chief."
"Enough with the mutual praise."
Fred cut off the other's words with an amused tone, simply adding.
"As for the power system, although we've integrated the experience from the High Mobility GINN, achieving a balance between endurance and output will require more accumulated experience."
On that front, Fred had actually already made a breakthrough at Clyne's secret factory.
The CGUE itself was nearly fully developed as well.
For now, this all served as training for Heinlein.
And the man's abilities were growing stronger, just as Fred had hoped.
Without wasting more time, Fred soon ended the communication.
Now he needed to move on to his other plan.
Watching the setting sun outside the window, the youth stood up.
"Big brother, where are you two going~?"
Seeing Fred preparing to leave the house with Lacus following beside him, Flay came bouncing over.
A smile tinged with ambiguity played on her face.
"Going to do some work—want to come along, Flay?"
"...No way~"
Hearing Fred's deadpan response, Flay rolled her eyes.
She realized things weren't what she'd imagined.
Though that seemed about right—her brother's mind was always occupied with training or research, as if he'd never have such thoughts at all.
Her own brother wasn't acting strange, was he?
It wasn't that she was cursing Fred, but this was Lacus they were talking about.
The princess of all of PLANT.
So many people admired her, yet he showed no sign of taking the initiative at all.
And Lacus was the same way.
But Flay didn't think Lacus would make the first move either, which was why she was so anxious.
"There's no danger, right?"
Thinking this, Flay still asked.
"Don't go doing anything dangerous with Lacus!"
"Is that really the point here..."
Fred complained helplessly, while Lacus let out a soft laugh.
"Don't worry, it's nothing dangerous."
"Right."
"Mhm."
With that exchange, the two quickly took their leave of Flay and boarded the dedicated vehicle.
"The person you're looking for—we've checked. Ken Nolan Susa is indeed the illegitimate son of an upper-class ORB family."
Lacus had long since stopped asking how Fred knew the young man's identity before their own investigation had turned it up.
"His mother is suffering from a rare disease, and the treatment costs are indeed exorbitant."
"But to use this method..."
Lacus's words trailed off as her smile gradually faded.
"It's not coercion. I'll fully ask for his consent."
Fred nodded.
As the female lead, her moral compass was perfectly sound.
Actually forcing someone by holding their mother hostage or demanding repayment for a favor—that kind of thing would definitely clash with Lacus's principles.
Fortunately, he knew Ken well enough. The man was deeply devoted to his mother, and he would repay the favor.
"Good."
Hearing this, Lacus's shoulders, which had been slightly more tense than usual, quietly relaxed.
Although she felt Fred probably wouldn't do something like that, she couldn't be entirely certain.
Planting spies in ORB was already something that made her quite uneasy.
For ORB—the place where her mentor resided—she, like her father, felt a natural affinity.
But since intelligence indicated that ORB might genuinely be conducting secret research, even without concrete evidence yet, this was no longer something they could afford to let emotions dictate.
"Fred, do you really think ORB would be pulling strings behind the scenes?"
Lacus couldn't help but ask.
"They want power, they want international influence. As long as they have that goal, they're bound to come into conflict with us."
Fred chose his words carefully.
He didn't have much fondness for ORB, but he also couldn't just badmouth them without any evidence.
At this point, he was simply stating the facts based on the information available.
"We have you to thank this time—we finally caught a thread to pull."
ORB was indeed quite competent when it came to intelligence, especially on Heliopolis.
If it weren't for Clyne's connections in the Kingdom of Scandinavia, and their maneuvering through that fellow neutral power, they wouldn't have found any leads on ORB for quite some time.
"After all, it's for peace..."
Lacus said thoughtfully, looking at Fred.
"Yes, for peace."
"So what does peace look like in Fred's mind?"
Everyone acted out of self-interest—she'd known that for a long time—but the matter with ORB still gave Lacus a bit of unease.
Though she trusted Fred completely, she still felt a nagging fear of losing what she had.
"The peace in my mind... the world reaching a balance, returning to an era of mutual development and mutual restraint?"
He wouldn't dare imagine such a grand goal as total world peace.
Otherwise, he'd never be able to retire for the rest of his life.
"Is that so..."
As she grew older, her abilities seemed to have improved as well. At this moment, Lacus looked at him and found no trace of deception.
Mutual restraint—it was similar to her own thoughts.
Someone always had to step beyond their own interests to strive toward that goal.
"I understand."
As Lacus's words fell, the high-speed vehicle gradually came to a stop.
Ahead was their destination this time—the April City Comprehensive Medical Center.
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