"What kind of joke is this! Are you all pigs?"
"We spend so much money every year, approving such massive budgets for you!"
"And this is how you repay us? Even a dog I raise would bite people for me!"
"What about you? What about you!"
"Besides reaching out your hands for money, what else can you actually do!"
Azrael's veins bulged at the Panama Spaceport.
Facing all the Federation officers present, he roared like a demon gone mad.
Watching the shouting, furious Azrael, the Federation officers remained silent, not daring to make a sound.
Especially when Azrael questioned each officer one by one, demanding to know where the military funds provided to them annually had gone.
A few officers standing at the back, who hadn't been questioned yet,
surreptitiously removed the expensive watches from their wrists.
The cause of all this
was the Drop Pods that ZAFT Forces had launched from space again when the battle reached its most intense stage.
Initially, the defenders at Panama Spaceport didn't pay much attention,
assuming it was the Coordinators in space seeing the unfavorable battle situation and sending additional reinforcements to break the deadlock.
But the Atlantic Federation Army commanders weren't fools. Though intelligence couldn't determine exactly how many mobile forces ZAFT currently had left,
pre-war military exercises and ZAFT's current divided attacks on both the East Asian Alliance and their own space launch ports made it clear.
Even with ZAFT's stretched-thin forces, how many reinforcements could they possibly send?
Even though Chairman Azrael had drawn core forces from various fronts to capture the Buster Gundam,
probably, possibly, perhaps
with the current Atlantic Federation Army's strength, nothing would go wrong for a while, right?
Yet the more they hoped for the best, the worse things became.
The newly descended Drop Pods launched by ZAFT landed in areas controlled by Coordinator forces.
But instead of the expected reinforcements emerging from the Drop Pods as Atlantic Federation officers had anticipated,
what four or five Mobile Suits carried out were massive cylindrical objects about twenty meters tall and five to six meters wide.
Then Coordinator soldiers formed defensive perimeters around these devices, concentrating firepower to escort them toward various Federation defense lines.
After reaching their designated positions, under the astonished and uncertain gazes of all Atlantic Federation troops,
ZAFT's new weapon called the Spear of Odin once again shattered the psychological defenses of the heavily assembled Federation forces at Panama Spaceport.
The enormous devices emitted powerful electromagnetic pulses and brilliant lights resembling beam weapons.
"EMP attack!"
Immediately, Federation soldiers recognized the purpose of those devices.
They were clearly large-scale electromagnetic pulse attacks targeting electronic equipment, and unlike known pulse attacks that could only last one second at most...
The weapon the Coordinator had just deployed this time clearly maintained its attack duration for over a full second!
Otherwise!
Even if the Strike Dagger was the most stripped-down version among budget models...
With the East Asian Army having set a high standard earlier, the military-industrial complex led by Azrael had spared no expense this time to avoid being outdone by their allies. They had equipped it with virtually all essential systems!
The anti-EMP equipment on the Strike Dagger was strictly configured based on the one-second threat assessment.
Moreover, the officers stationed at the rear of the Panama Spaceport keenly realized:
The newly deployed Coordinator weapon was definitely not just a simple EMP attack device.
Hadn't they seen the mass driver at the Panama Spaceport affected as well?
How could an EMP attack targeting only electronic devices cause unreasonable explosions in the mass accelerator, which was largely composed of pure physical equipment?
But now was clearly not the time to discuss these questions.
Large numbers of the Federation's Mobile Suits on the Panama Spaceport defense line had sustained damage.
Although it hadn't reached the point of total paralysis or annihilation as in the original timeline,
still...
The most critical mass driver was gone.
In terms of the battle's objective, the Coordinators had undoubtedly won this engagement!
Realizing their mission was accomplished, the Coordinator soldiers quickly began destroying the newly deployed weapon—the Spear of Odin.
They certainly had no intention of fighting a bloody battle against the Federation forces here; the ZAFT Forces orderly prepared to withdraw.
Aside from Dearka's group in the Buster Gundam, who were caught in encirclement, the rest of the ZAFT units retreated swiftly and smoothly.
The Federation forces confronting Dearka's team, equipped with genuine high-end units like the Calamity Gundam and the arriving Daggers, were largely unaffected by the Spear of Odin.
Thus, their fight was exceptionally tough. Had the Coordinator commander overseeing the battle not dispatched reinforcements promptly,
Dearka and the others might have been lost. Even so...
"Chairman Azrael!"
Inside the Panama Spaceport defense command center, after the blond leader of Blue Cosmos had vented his fury sufficiently,
an officer finally mustered the courage to step forward and report.
"The East Asian Alliance didn't come out unscathed either. Moreover, we've just received news: although we failed to capture the Buster Gundam,
we have successfully retrieved the Duel Gundam. The pilot managed to escape, but it's still good news, isn't it?"
"Hmm?"
Azrael glared at the officer, his anger still simmering.
Instead of asking about the Duel Gundam immediately, his foremost concern was the situation with the East Asian Alliance.
He desperately hoped they hadn't emerged without any losses—ideally, their mass driver should be destroyed too!
Faced with a powerful enemy, yet wishing his allies wouldn't fare better just for the sake of pride—Azrael had never felt so fervent,
offering devout prayers to every deity in the heavens.
"Uh." The officer being questioned had intended to lead with the Duel Gundam report first.
But since the Chairman insisted on hearing about the East Asian Alliance, he would start there.
However, after glancing at the intel from his subordinates, the officer hesitated, uncertain whether the news was sufficiently dire.
"Speak!" Azrael urged, his eyes wide as saucers.
"The East Asian Alliance also came under attack by the Coordinators' new weapons, but their Rem units stationed at the spaceport suffered minimal losses."
"The losses they did incur were due to being too close to the enemy Coordinators' new weapons."
Swallowing hard, the officer quietly awaited Azrael's storm of fury.
"East Asia." Azrael squeezed the word through clenched teeth, surprisingly refraining from venting his anger on the officers.
He was merely resentful of their neighboring allies' lavish spending. Why did they have to equip even their mass-produced units with EMP-resistant equipment that exceeded specifications?
Wasn't functional adequacy sufficient?
Were they truly that flush with cash?
Didn't they realize how much could be saved by reducing configurations?
They clearly didn't understand the value of resources without managing a household!
"What about the mass driver?"
After a moment, Azrael asked with diminished interest, his intellect finally resurfacing as he cooled down somewhat.
Currently, he both hoped their mass driver was intact, so the Allied Forces' main corps could still deploy into space, and hoped it wasn't, as that would mean he had lost to the East Asian Alliance again in this covert struggle.
"It sustained some damage, though certainly less than our complete destruction here. It can be repaired with sufficient time."
The Allied Forces officer swiftly replied.
"Is that so? Still because of the distance, right?"
Azrael roughly guessed the reason, given the East Asian front was well maintained.
Clearly, while the Coordinators' new weapons had an extensive range, the East Asian side had pushed their front line far enough away!
"Sigh." With a long sigh, Azrael was again troubled by how to deal with the sarcastic remarks from other consortium representatives upon his return.
"By the way, you mentioned capturing the Duel Gundam, though the Coordinator pilot inside escaped?"
Suddenly, Azrael returned to this question.
"Yes." The officer perked up at this topic.
Especially since, during their exchange, considerable time had passed.
Technicians from the base had already arrived at the site where the Duel Gundam was located.
And those technicians had discovered something remarkable on the Duel Gundam!
"What is it?" Noticing the officer's excited expression, Azrael grew somewhat interested.
What could make his subordinate so exhilarated?
Could it really be what he was thinking?
"The enemy's Duel Gundam is powered by nuclear energy!"
As if worried others might overhear, the officer lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper.
"Nuclear!"
Azrael's eyes instantly lit up, his mood soaring with excitement.
Pacing agitatedly on the spot, he circled again and again under the gaze of the numerous officers.
"Announce publicly that the Duel Gundam has been destroyed, claim our soldiers couldn't restrain themselves."
"Also, quickly arrange a high-yield explosion and generate some radiation fluctuations."In short, make it resemble the movement and stillness of the Light of Peace, then condemn the Coordinators through diplomatic channels."
"Ensure everyone in the world knows that the damned, evil Coordinators have secretly regained the power of the Light of Peace."
His mind racing, Azrael swiftly issued the following arrangements:
"Send a diplomatic note to the East Asian Alliance—they must understand the gravity of the situation."
"Regarding the Orb issue, inform them if necessary that we will also apply pressure on Orb."
"Let them act without restraint. We must secure Orb's Mass Driver at all costs."
"After all, repairing the Mass Driver in the East Asian Alliance will also take time."
"If Coordinators are given the opportunity to drop the Light of Peace on us from space, the East Asian Alliance will bear full historical responsibility!"
(End of Chapter)