In the MS assembly bay, two mobile suits lay side by side, both draped in green tarps that hid what lay beneath.
Two factory spies handed the access keys to Athrun's squad. "There are two more in another workshop, and one still undergoing final installation. Most of the Alliance personnel are over there."
"Weren't they about to ship them out?" Athrun asked, puzzled.
"Yes, which is why they're rushing the last of the work," the spy said. "That machine is supposedly the one that fought the GINN a year ago."
Before receiving the spies' intel, ZAFT had no idea the "Grim Reaper GINN" had ever encountered an enemy at all.
But once the spies had infiltrated, they finally learned that the GINN was likely destroyed because it had, at some point, fought a half-finished MS inside Heliopolis.
Unfortunately, all the data on that MS had already been wiped.
The pilot of that MS frame, like the GINN's pilot, was utterly mysterious, like a ghost.
In fact, at Morgenroete, that mysterious pilot's codename was precisely "Ghost."
This mysterious pilot, with no cameras and only a half-wrecked MS frame, had defeated a GINN that fought like a demon-god.
After this round of "cross-checking the records," ZAFT was floored.
It was almost unbelievable—yet it happened to be reality.
This was one reason Athrun's group had opted for infiltration.
—Otherwise, what if that pilot was still around and just silently one-shot the entire team in seconds?
ZAFT's analysis suggested the pilot probably wasn't an Orb local but was definitely a Coordinator; whether they were still around was another matter. But better safe than sorry, right?
The audience knew none of this; the Stage had shown a fraction of it but hadn't laid it all out.
Some things, once the audience knew them, simply became less interesting.
Preserving a little mystery could, at times, make things all the more intriguing.
After meeting the spies, the squad began its infiltration.
Yzak and Nicol slipped in under the tarps first, while Dearka, Athrun, and Rusty pressed on to the warehouse ahead.
They crept in, climbed straight into the MS cockpits, and jacked their handheld devices into the machines.
"I'll go pin down the last unit first!" Rusty waved Athrun and Dearka ahead, then pushed on with his team.
"Rusty, be careful out there. We'll disable the self-destruct systems first!"
Athrun and the others got straight to work.
The Stage's view cut once more to ZAFT's bridge.
"We've received Athrun's signal!" The CIC (Combat Information Center) officer immediately reported to Le Creuset, who had already taken the captain's seat.
"And?" Le Creuset asked.
"We've seized four of the Earth Alliance Forces' MS. The remaining unit isn't finished and can't be taken immediately. Per Plan C, it will be destroyed once the Alliance forces are subdued!" the CIC continued.
"And the other side?" Le Creuset pressed.
"We've pinpointed the location of the Earth Alliance's secret warship, and the demolition charges are in place, awaiting further orders!"
"Good. Coordinate with Athrun, commence the suppression operation on Heliopolis!"
At Le Creuset's command, ZAFT sprang into action.
Immediately after, the shot cut to a countdown.
The final ten seconds.
"Here it comes."
Inori knew the chaos was about to begin.
The central plotline of a story like this, she couldn't yet alter.
As Inori saw it, soldiers' sacrifices were unavoidable, but among civilians, at least, perhaps some could be spared.
So she set off the air-raid sirens ahead of time.
The Stage's view shifted again.
This time, it landed on the far end of the factory.
"The final work still isn't done?"
Murrue Ramius frowned at the GAT-X105 before her.
Today was the scheduled "delivery" day, yet the Strike was still just a hair short of completion.
No cameras installed, no OS installed, even the outer armor had only just been finished not long ago.
In other words, it wasn't yet capable of moving.
But there was no more time to wait.
ZAFT had caught wind of some of the Earth Alliance's shady dealings, and to avoid dragging things out and inviting trouble, they had no choice but to leave now.
"It can't be helped," the engineer beside her said, shaking his head. "The Strike took heavy damage in that earlier incident; we've done our best to patch it up, but for now this is as far as we can get."
"Mm... at least what's left is just installation and calibration." Murrue flipped through the documents.
It was a little short of finished, but the issues weren't structural.
"We'll just have to move it as-is for now."
Murrue was out of options.
And once again, the countdown appeared.
Three... two... one...
The view kept cutting between ZAFT's advancing forces and the everyday life of the city.
Then the explosions rang out.
Elsewhere, Natarle Badgiruel and the others, absent from the screen for a good while, were caught up in the blasts as well.
"Whoa—!"
Over on Inori's side, everyone was still reeling from the revelation of Cagalli's identity; with this little lioness still bristling, no one dared ask any questions.
Then a sudden tremor made everyone jump.
"A meteor?!" Sai steadied himself.
"Huh?!" Cagalli, sharp-eyed, sensed something was wrong. "Now's not the time to be arguing! It has to be that thing!"
The tremor rippled through the entire colony.
The view shifted back to Murrue.
The staff, thrown by the tremor, dropped to the floor.
"A meteor?! No, this is an explosion!" Murrue realized something was off.
And just then, a shrill air-raid siren blared from outside.
"What's going on?!"
Murrue demanded.
"It's the MS! The MS are moving!"
Several workers came running in from outside.
"What happened?!" someone else immediately cried out.
But those "workers" broke into wicked grins, then tore off their disguises and opened fire on the Alliance soldiers, spraying them with bullets.
"Enemy attack!"
Murrue whipped out her weapon and started to defend herself.
A firefight broke out.
Elsewhere, the MS seized earlier had risen to their feet under the control of ZAFT's red-coats.
The Duel, the Buster, the Blitz, and the Aegis.
"It's ZAFT!"
Murrue instantly grasped who the enemy was.
"Damn it, they're here for the 'G's!"
By now, Athrun and the others had finally taken full control of the MS.
The screens finally "lit up."
Then the four G-series MS shifted from gray to full color.
They threw off the tarps and rose to their feet.
Then Athrun gave the order: "Begin the assault!"