After Reid finished speaking, Lacus's previously relaxed expression visibly darkened.
After a long silence, Lacus looked at Reid with sorrow and asked,
"Reid, do you really think peace between Coordinators and Naturals is impossible?"
As Lacus posed this question, Reid sensed three people approaching from the corridor behind them—likely Kira, Athrun, and Cagalli, who had come looking for Lacus after her prolonged absence.
In response, Reid shook his head, echoing the same words he had once said to Siegel and Patrick:
"The moment you arbitrarily divided people into Coordinators and Naturals, you sowed the seeds of conflict. There's no reproductive isolation between the two—why separate them into distinct races? I've always referred to PLANT as PLANT. Unless someone specifically brings up Coordinators, when have you ever heard me voluntarily categorize people that way?"
Lacus paused, recalling that Reid had indeed never spoken of Coordinators in such terms. Even when criticizing PLANT, he always directed his remarks at PLANT itself.
Still hesitant, she asked,
"But doesn't PLANT represent Coordinators?"
Reid frowned and firmly rebutted,
"Lacus, I believe the Coordinators of my country cannot be represented by PLANT. Using a single nation or organization to divide humanity and claim representation of an entire race—that mindset is no different from Patrick Zala blaming all Earthlings for Blue Cosmos' anti-Coordinator stance."
Lacus fell silent, realizing she had instinctively treated Coordinators and Naturals as separate races, making their conflict seem irreconcilable. Yet, her entire premise might have been flawed from the start.
She promptly admitted her mistake, speaking meekly:
"I'm sorry. My perspective was indeed flawed."
Seeing her contrition, Reid didn't press further. Instead, he said,
"As for the war between the Earth Alliance and PLANT, all I can say is that it will eventually end—but certainly not tomorrow."
With that, Reid turned to leave, intending to startle the three eavesdroppers.
But just as he turned, Lacus stood and grabbed his hand, asking,
"Reid, must the New Miserly Kingdom fight PLANT next?"
Reid slowly withdrew his hand from her grasp. Without looking back, he stated resolutely:
"My stance hasn't changed. The war between the New Miserly Kingdom and PLANT will end when Patrick Zala steps down and PLANT admits its mistakes with appropriate reparations.
"Of these, Patrick Zala's resignation is paramount. As long as he remains in power, there will be no peace between our nations. I will spare no effort to crush ZAFT and force the PLANT Council to remove him."
With that, Reid strode away. As he passed the corner, he glanced at Kira, Athrun, and Cagalli—their expressions complex after overhearing the conversation—and added:
"You've heard everything. Think carefully about what you'll do next."
"By the way, Cagalli, it's about time you returned to rebuild Orb's government. If you keep staying here, people might think I'm going back on my word and swallowing up Orb."
Cagalli clearly didn't want to return to Orb at this moment. She felt her mission with the Three Ships Alliance wasn't complete yet, and she believed she wouldn't do as good a job as Mina if she went back now.
So, Cagalli planned to let Mina oversee Orb for a while longer, hoping that Mina might change her mind about going to the New Miserly Kingdom.
After all, Cagalli thought that although Reid could be quite annoying at times, he was generally very principled and wouldn't actually force Mina to do anything.
Unfortunately, Cagalli was completely deluding herself. Reid had already made up his mind—he'd give her two more days to stay. If she still refused to leave after that, he'd summon Mina back, tie Cagalli up, throw her into the Justice Gundam, and have Athrun send her home.
The thing was, with limited manpower in western Australia currently left unattended, Reid needed someone to take charge, and Mina was the perfect candidate.
Neither Kira nor Athrun knew about Reid and Cagalli's little schemes. The two brothers were still brainstorming Reid's earlier theory that Coordinators and Naturals shouldn't be divided into separate races.
Just as Reid was about to walk away from them, Kira suddenly asked,
"Mr. Reid, do you really have to defeat Chairman Patrick Zala before you'll stop?"
Reid answered bluntly,
"You can ask Athrun that. Does he think his father would ever stop coming after me?"
Kira immediately turned to Athrun, who could only shake his head helplessly. As the only Earth Alliance soldier to survive the Junius Seven tragedy, Reid had half of Athrun's mother's death blamed on him by his father.
Truthfully, Athrun couldn't say he had no resentment toward Reid. After all, Reid had truly participated in the Junius Seven tragedy and later destroyed a third of ZAFT's space forces in the Star Palace Colony Satellite battle—many of whom had been his comrades, people he must have known.
But Athrun's rationality kept him in check. He knew he couldn't really blame Reid, because in both battles, Reid had been forced to act to some extent.
So Athrun changed the subject and asked,
"Chairman Reid, in this campaign of yours, will you attack the Colony Satellites in PLANT's homeland?"
Reid was surprised Athrun would ask that—he didn't think he came across as someone who killed indiscriminately.
Here, Reid was a bit lacking in self-awareness. On the battlefield, once he deemed someone an enemy, he never held back unless there were special restrictions. As for indiscriminate killing—he had already wiped out a third of ZAFT's space forces with the Solar Ray System. At that level of slaughter, calling Reid a "Coordinator-slaying executioner" would be an understatement.
But seeing the seriousness in Athrun's eyes, Reid decided to reassure him, saying,
"No, I'll only attack ZAFT. The primary targets are definitely the Jachin Due Fortress and the hidden Genesis main body. Forget about PLANT's homeland—as long as the local defense forces don't actively block my path or attack me, I'll pretend they don't exist."
"By the way, I forgot to mention something. The Atlantic Federation seems to have obtained the Anti-Neutron Jammer from PLANT. Nuclear weapons have been unbanned for the Earth Alliance, and the East Asian Republic and Eurasian Federation have also acquired the related technology. However, they'll likely prioritize using it to restore domestic energy supplies first."
"But you know how the Atlantic Federation is—they have too many Blue Cosmos members within their ranks. They'll definitely restart nuclear bombings."
As Reid said this, Athrun's face turned pale, and even Lacus, who had been lost in thought at the end of the corridor, hurried over.
Neither of them suspected that Reid was the one who leaked the Anti-Neutron Jammer technology, as it was clear Reid also had no love for the Atlantic Federation. Right now, everyone had to deal with the threat of Genesis first, so disputes were temporarily set aside. Reid certainly wouldn't do anything to aid the enemy.
After all, with the capabilities of the Terminal Organization behind Lacus, it wouldn't take long to investigate. The Atlantic Federation had obtained the Anti-Neutron Jammer the earliest—at least half a month ago—while the East Asian Republic and Eurasian Federation had only acquired it in the past few days. So once again, the Atlantic Federation would take the blame for Reid.
Reid didn't involve himself in discussions about how to handle the nuclear threat to PLANT. Revealing this information was similar to when he had sent Lacus and the others to Genesis Alpha—it was just to give them something to do and prepare early to intercept the nuclear missiles.
However, just as Reid was leaving the now-busy Lacus and the others, he was stopped after only a few steps by someone unexpected yet entirely predictable.
Erika Simmons suddenly appeared in front of Reid, her face tinged with restrained anger.
Reid immediately realized—she was here to collect a debt. It seemed Erika Simmons had returned to Orb and discovered that Dawn Company's data and the main body of the Akatsuki Gundam had been taken by him in one fell swoop.
Still, Reid's first instinct was to play dumb. Feigning surprise, he asked,
"Oh? Director Simmons, what brings you here? Even if you've come down from Heaven's Base, shouldn't you be in Orb figuring out how to rebuild Dawn Company?"
Erika Simmons didn't believe for a second that Reid didn't know why she was here. But this wasn't the place to discuss it, so she stepped closer to Reid, stopping just short of touching him, and whispered,
"Care to talk in private?"
Reid responded with a smirk,
"Sure. But Director Simmons, you don't want Cagalli to find out about certain things, right? So… you understand."
Of course, Erika understood. Expecting Reid to just hand over the Akatsuki Gundam was wishful thinking. The only option was an exchange of interests, so she said bluntly,
"Fine. Let's find a place. I can't show you anything here anyway."
Reid had no objections. He had already fed the main body of the Akatsuki Gundam to the system and mastered the Yata Mirror Armor technology. If he could freeload a bit more tech now, that would be even better.
Reid quickly led Erika Simmons to an empty conference room.
Erika Simmons was equally straightforward. Once inside, she immediately turned on the computer, inserted a data drive, and connected it to the projector to display the screen.
Without beating around the bush, she opened the file, letting lines of incomprehensible code flash across the screen, and said bluntly:
"This is the data I downloaded from the Red Frame Gundam—the code for an artificial intelligence that belongs to the junk dealer Lowe Guele.
Since the Red Frame was a test unit, it had equipment to record all operational programs, which is how this AI's code was preserved.
Because I haven't fully deciphered this code yet, I didn't store it in Dawn Company's database as a precaution.
Now, how about exchanging this for the return of the Akatsuki Gundam? The New Miserly Kingdom's Mobile Suits make heavy use of intelligent AI—this data might help upgrade your automated systems."
Hearing this, Reid realized Erika Simmons had indeed brought out something valuable. The AI [Hachi] in Lowe Guele's possession was one of the unsolved mysteries of the side stories.
It could be said that Lowe Guele's prominence in the side stories was 90% thanks to [Hachi]. Without its assistance, Lowe—a Natural—wouldn't have been able to even properly start up the Red Frame when he first found it, let alone fight in it.
Moreover, [Hachi] could later autonomously adjust the Red Frame's systems based on Lowe's commands, modify weapon output, and even guide electrical energy to converge in the palm and shape it into an energy sphere.
Keep in mind, the original Red Frame didn't have a single Mirage Colloid component. Reid had no idea how [Hachi] managed to shape leaking energy into a sphere.
Most importantly, [Hachi] was a computer suspected of having a personality—meaning it was likely a strong AI, more advanced than the combined Mindless Drone System from the AC universe and the Full Metal Panic AI system Reid currently used.
Of course, Reid would absolutely forbid deploying a strong AI in a Mobile Suit. If an AI got too used to killing, it might trigger a machine uprising.
But for high-risk R&D tasks requiring real-time reactions—where human operators weren't suitable—this AI would be the optimal solution. Building a small Arm Slave as a bodyguard would also be a good idea.
So after staring at the code for a while and admitting he understood none of it, Reid immediately agreed:
"Deal, Director Simmons. At the latest, within a week, I'll secretly transport the Akatsuki Gundam's main body back to the hidden base beneath Okinoshima Island in Orb—right where it was taken from."
Reid's decisiveness took Erika Simmons by surprise.
From her perspective, she was essentially bluffing Reid with an AI code whose purpose, functions, and even programming logic she didn't understand. She had prepared a whole arsenal of persuasive arguments, only to find none of them necessary.
Meanwhile, Reid was staring intently at the computer in Erika's hands, making her wonder if his motives weren't entirely professional. She was, after all, a married woman with children old enough to run errands. Could it be that Reid had inherited the Wei-Wu tendencies of the East Asian Republic?
However, Erika Simmons was completely overthinking it. Reid might have had some interest in her physically.
But Reid made it clear that he wasn't some stallion. The biggest difference between humans and beasts is that humans can control their desires. Reluctant interactions were out of the question.
Moreover, when it came to figures that maintained harmony while showcasing maximum fullness, Murrue was top-tier even within the entire Cosmic Era universe. Reid had no need to sneak around outside just for a change of taste.
With that, Reid simply took the computer from Erika Simmons' arms, keeping the data drive without returning it. After a brief farewell, he left the conference room.
He needed to feed this [Hachi] data to the Factory Module first—analyze the technology within it while cleaning up any potential vulnerabilities or virus files. Only then could he hand it over to Nami for research.
(End of Chapter)