The incident involving the destruction of the Mass-produced Prototype Zakus concluded after the four-nation investigation team intervened. They confirmed that the Anti-Neutron Jammers had indeed been removed from the Mobile Suits before returning them to ZAFT, emphasizing that they should be stored properly.
However, although Reid had gotten the better of Durandal on the matter of the Mass-produced Prototype Zakus, Durandal's subsequent countermeasures left Reid speechless and helpless.
In late January of CE 73, ZAFT's new next-generation Gundam, the ZGMF-YX21R Prototype Savior, was attacked by an unknown armed group during atmospheric flight tests in South America. The Prototype Savior, a test unit equipped with a Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactor independently produced by PLANT, was lost.
This incident nearly "ignited" all of South America in an instant. After all, the three nations of the Earth Alliance had been toiling away at the August Sextilis City colony cluster for four months with nothing to show for it, yet ZAFT had managed to lose a next-generation Gundam with a reactor at one of its military bases on Earth.
Normally, even if ZAFT lost a Gundam, they wouldn't make it public knowledge and would instead conduct a secret search.
But as ill luck would have it, this intelligence was stolen by a spy operating in PLANT.
In any case, from what Reid later heard, this spy had practically fought his way through the entire Sector 1 colony of December City (where ZAFT headquarters was located; one PLANT "city" refers to a single colony satellite, and Junius 7 was actually Sector 7 of June City). He managed to send the intelligence out, but the incident was so huge that it was impossible to cover up.
To be honest, after reading the intelligence report, Reid wondered if this spy had summoned a Heroic Spirit named James Bond as a Demi-Servant. Otherwise, how could a mere mortal fight his way through ZAFT's main base?
Even if you gave Reid the Xia sisters, plus support from Hoshino Ruri and Nein, Reid wasn't confident he could escape ZAFT's main base unscathed without a Mobile Suit once discovered.
A single shot from an anti-materiel Sniper Rifle would make Reid cough up blood, even with a Lunatitanium Bulletproof Vest. And as for the idea that there were no high-powered explosives in ZAFT's main base, did you think Reid would believe that?
In any case, Reid didn't think he could emerge unscathed from a hail of several hundred large-caliber rifle rounds. He was a Newtype, not Superman, and he didn't have skills like mind control or hypnosis.
Therefore, from the Mobile Suit's theft to the intelligence leak, the whole affair seemed as fake as it could be in Reid's eyes.
But regardless, PLANT had put on this show, the Mobile Suit was indeed gone, and the current PLANT National Defense Committee Chairman took the fall and resigned, officially corroborating the incident from the government's side.
As a result, every military organization in South America was mobilized. Everyone wanted to be the first to find out which bastard (or lucky soul) had snatched ZAFT's new Mobile Suit.
Moreover, every black market in the Earth Sphere was being monitored by agents from all the Earth nations, just waiting for the Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactor or the new Mobile Suit to surface.
In fact, looking at this incident, Reid felt that Durandal's control over PLANT was already on par with Patrick Zala's. Moreover, he had subtly and deeply extended his influence into ZAFT. It was easy to imagine that hardliners from the Zala Faction must have helped him smooth the way.
It was worth noting that after Patrick Zala, the Chairman could no longer concurrently serve as the National Defense Committee Chairman. This current chairman was definitely not one of Durandal's men; he had been completely set up.
As for who had the Mobile Suit, Reid could guess with his butt that it must have fallen into the hands of the true Zala Faction hardliners. But right now, Reid had no idea where those guys were, so there was nothing he could do.
However, news soon came from PLANT that the person temporarily replacing the National Defense Committee Chairman was Takao Shleifer. In the original story, he was the National Defense Committee Chairman during Durandal's re-elected term.
One could say that after Takao Shleifer took office, the original members of ZAFT's National Defense Committee began to be collectively suppressed. Reid didn't even need to look at the script to know that in the PLANT Supreme Council election in April of this year, the three National Defense Committee members—Ezalia Joule, Yuri Amalfi, and Herman Good—would all be forced to step down.
And during this period of political struggle in ZAFT, various thefts occurred frequently, as if ZAFT's once rock-solid security system had suddenly turned into a sieve.
In mid-February, before the heat from the Prototype Savior incident had even died down and while South America was still in chaos, news broke that a Prototype Chaos, which was being tested in the Fifth Space Zone, had also been lost.
In late March, just as the new PLANT Chairman election was about to begin, ZAFT lost the ZGMF-X3000Q Providence Zaku, which was serving as a testbed for the new Dragoon System.
This series of lost Mobile Suits left the three Earth Alliance nations speechless. Even a fool could see that something was amiss.
After all, ZAFT had lost so many Mobile Suits, but the Earth Alliance nations hadn't found a single one, nor did they have any information about the culprits. It was as if the machines had vanished into thin air.
Therefore, from the perspective of the three Earth Alliance nations, either this was a self-directed drama by PLANT, and they had other plans...
Or, these Mobile Suits had been taken by the New Misurugi Kingdom, because only the New Misurugi Kingdom had the ability to make things disappear without leaving a single clue for other countries to find.
However, Reid was extremely proactive in searching for clues about the people who had spirited away these Mobile Suits. If he could just grab ahold of a loose thread, he could follow it to find the idiots who, in just over six months, would be manipulated into trying to smash him with satellite debris.
Therefore, the three Earth Alliance nations weren't actually very suspicious of the New Misurugi Kingdom. They were more inclined to believe that PLANT was up to something.
Then, the Supreme Council election in April seemed to give them their answer.
Again, the Patrick Zala affair had made the PLANT Supreme Council "once bitten, twice shy."
Thus, during Durandal's first term, he had almost no control over ZAFT and military affairs. He merely acted as an observer or offered suggestions, while also serving as a rubber-stamping machine for procedural matters.
Therefore, in principle, this series of lost Mobile Suits could not be blamed on Durandal. It was even difficult to hold him vicariously liable.
After all, the PLANT Supreme Council was one of the few parliaments with relatively little political infighting. Coordinators had always believed they shouldn't be like foolish Naturals, whose government efficiency was reduced by partisan strife.
As a result, in this PLANT Supreme Council election, no one held Durandal accountable. Instead, a large number of military personnel were dismissed and replaced.
And the people who were brought in were, in fact, all people Durandal had arranged for in advance. Durandal himself was also smoothly re-elected as Chairman.
Although Durandal still didn't hold military power in name, in reality, given how he casually handed out FAITH appointments in the original story and the military still recognized them, it was safe to say he had ZAFT more or less under his control.
Then, the first thing Durandal did after being re-elected as Chairman was to hawk a product.
Yes, the dignified Chairman of PLANT began promoting a product to the entire Earth Sphere right after his re-election: a genetic algorithm to help with employment, the Destiny System.
This Destiny System was a new version that Durandal had privately modified the program logic for in his spare time after his last conversation with Reid.
The principle of this system was still the same as the original Destiny Plan: it tested people's genes to determine their suitable professions.
However, the Destiny System being promoted would provide over a dozen professions at once based on one's talents, and it would also give a priority ranking.
After all, some professions are unique, like being president. The genes of Coordinators are selected from Naturals, so their potential is limited by that of Naturals. Therefore, when the sample data grows, it's possible for several individuals in a region to have the same high genetic aptitude for a certain role.
Reid had even given Durandal the example of the East Asian Republic. Assuming genes really could determine one's position, parents in the East Asian Republic would surely do everything possible to equip their children with all the genes needed for the top leadership position, even if it meant their descendants couldn't have children after three generations.
From this perspective, to prevent too many people from competing for positions with shortages, it was better to have more choices.
Also, Durandal had followed Reid's advice and was only marketing the system as a career recommendation tool.
Moreover, Durandal knew that while free things were easy to promote, people generally didn't cherish them. They might not even try the recommended professions, which would defeat the purpose of introducing the Destiny System early to let people adapt.
Therefore, using the system was a paid service. The fee wasn't high, though. As long as a family wasn't in extreme poverty with no income at all, they could basically afford it by tightening their belts.
To be honest, once the Destiny System was no longer mandatory, people's acceptance of it was quite high. The cost wasn't much, and it didn't just give random answers; it was endorsed by the PLANT Genetic Research Institute. As a result, many people in PLANT wanted to try it out for fun.
The Destiny System quickly became popular among the youth in PLANT. The internet was flooded with people sharing screenshots of their results, and some people actually started choosing their careers based on the recommendations.
Durandal's abilities as a genetic science researcher were genuine. So, those who followed the recommendations really did find suitable jobs thanks to the system.
With this initial success, the nations of Earth became less hostile to the system. However, the leading three nations of the Earth Alliance still believed the system was just a way to collect genetic data from Earth's population. They refused to import it, demanding that Durandal make the entire algorithm public and store the genetic data locally.
Durandal certainly refused to make the algorithm public, as he was afraid others might modify it and affect the actual calculation results of the Destiny System.
At least, at this stage, Durandal himself had no intention of artificially interfering with this system, which embodied all his life's work.
However, Reid helped Durandal out on the issue of the Destiny System.
Reid actually thought the Destiny System was quite useful for university students choosing their majors. So, he only required that the genetic data be stored locally. The algorithm system could remain private, but he would completely disconnect the server room housing the equipment from any external network. All results would be processed in and out in paper form.
To be honest, Reid's action moved Durandal a little. He expressed that perhaps Reid was only prejudiced against the Destiny System because he didn't know its benefits.
Therefore, Durandal agreed to Reid's proposal. He even said that if Reid was willing to join the research team, he could open up the algorithm to Reid and let him help with debugging.
Reid naturally wouldn't agree. After all, what the hell did he know about genetics? If they really started discussing it, his cover would be blown in less than three sentences.
Moreover, the moment the Destiny System was set up, Reid tested himself first. He then discovered that his talents were, as expected, being a pilot for various combat machines, because his spatial awareness was naturally high.
The next level down was his ability to spin stories. Simply put, Reid was good at shooting the arrow first and then drawing the target. In human terms, he was good at making things up and deceiving people.
The level below that was his physical talent. It seemed he had some athletic aptitude, which explained why he hadn't found military training too painful back in the day.
Afterward, Reid had Nein enter the system and delete all his test records.
Yes, the reason Reid agreed to let Durandal keep the algorithm private was that as long as the thing was deployed, the algorithm and everything else couldn't be hidden from Nein and Hoshino Ruri at all.
However, after Nein went in, she confirmed that Durandal really hadn't left any backdoors in the system. The algorithm was also meticulously programmed; he genuinely wanted to promote the Destiny System.
With the New Misurugi Kingdom as an example, the three Earth Alliance nations relented.
They knew they were definitely not as tech-savvy as Reid. If Reid thought Durandal's thing was useful, it might actually have some merit.
So, the three Earth Alliance nations also imported three Destiny System units under the guise of a pilot program, using them for students from second-rate universities who faced unemployment upon graduation.
And then, the three Earth Alliance nations ate their words. 90% of these graduates who would have been unemployed found jobs by following the Destiny System's guidance.
Although these jobs weren't necessarily their dream jobs, it at least proved that the Destiny System could probably detect a person's talents.
Thus, in order to boost their domestic employment rates, the three Earth Alliance nations began to import more Destiny Systems to increase evaluation efficiency. This, in turn, earned PLANT a wave of foreign currency.
Time passed day by day, and soon it was August of CE 73.
For Reid, the biggest event this month was Little Maria's first birthday.
However, at the beginning of August, the Jupiteris successfully returned in triumph from Jupiter.
This Jupiter exploration mission was very smooth. Apart from a dozen people who had accidents due to not following regulations while operating near Jupiter, no one in the entire crew died during the round trip, fully demonstrating the reliability of the Jupiteris.
Moreover, all the tasks Reid had assigned were completed perfectly. The trip brought back a total of twelve GN Drives, all produced in the same batch. After testing, all 12 GN Drives could activate the Twin Drive System.
However, only four pairs had a frequency difference that was just right—not too much, not too little. So, Reid directly replaced the Ice Phoenix Gundam's set of GN Drives.
As for his own set, Reid said he hadn't decided how to build the Mobile Suit yet, so it could be set aside for now.
Also, the Jupiter exploration team successfully found a second Winged Whale Fossil in an asteroid near the moon Europa and brought it back.
Of course, along with these two good things, trouble was also brought back.
The Jupiteris had passed by Mars on both its trip to and from Jupiter. On the way to Jupiter, the people of the Martian Sphere wanted to join but were flatly refused. However, bringing back a visiting delegation on the return trip was no problem.
So, as Reid looked at the name of the Martian Sphere delegation's leader on the list, Agnis Brahe, he felt an exceptional headache. He remembered this guy as a hot-tempered and impulsive person.
(End of Chapter)