Inside the biology laboratory at the Star Palace City Science Research Institute, Reid watched the four women chatting happily before him with immense satisfaction.
Originally, when Reid secretly brought Salamandine and Gekko to a building that clearly had a laboratory-style design, both of them grew quite wary.
Reid's Newtype Sense could feel Salamandine's wariness had risen to the point where she was probably considering whether to knock him out first. He felt that if he said the wrong thing at this moment, her loyalty would instantly drop below 20.
Therefore, before entering the laboratory, Reid proactively explained:
"Alright, you two. Ahead is our nation's biology laboratory. As you know, humans here don't have wings or tails. So, you'll need to take medication to hide these two Dragon Human traits.
Don't worry, I've been taking care of a minor Dragon Human before this. She should already be on her way here from school.
As for the medication that hides wings and tails, Miss Gekko, you can inspect it first before deciding whether to take it.
However, if we can't hide your wings and tails, you two might have to stay in the laboratory for a while."
After Reid made things clear, Salamandine and Gekko's wariness subsided slightly.
Because Reid's words made perfect sense—they knew that walking around on the streets with their wings and tails exposed would cause a huge commotion if discovered.
So, the two didn't actually take action and instead followed Reid into the laboratory to take a look.
It must be said that Reid's previous decision to restrain Nanai Miguel from conducting large-scale experiments on living humans was correct.
Upon entering the biology research institute, everything appeared quite normal. Although there were many experimental animals, there were no scenes that would cause psychological discomfort.
The candy Vivian ate was only produced in small quantities in the laboratory since she was the only one who needed it. Vivian had quite a sweet tooth and would come to the laboratory herself to get more whenever her supply was running low.
After all, the original manufacturer had added a trace amount of appetite stimulant tailored to Vivian's constitution in the candy. Once she tasted it, she'd keep craving it.
Of course, it wasn't addictive. If she really wanted to quit, resisting the urge for two days would basically render it ineffective.
With Gekko's expertise, she used the laboratory equipment to inspect the candy and confirmed it was non-toxic, serving only to assist in hiding the Dragon Human's wings and tails.
Moreover, the medication couldn't prevent transformation. To regrow wings and tails, all they needed to do was transform into dragon form and then revert.
Due to the appearance of the two adult Dragon Humans, Nanai Miguel was naturally drawn over.
Fortunately, she and Gekko hit it off very well due to their shared professional expertise.
Later, when Vivian arrived, Salamandine promptly pulled the Little Dragon Human aside to ask all sorts of questions, probing into life under Reid's care.
Naturally, Vivian expressed that aside from studying not being fun, everything else with Reid was great.
Once Salamandine felt reassured, she began teaching Vivian how to transform, as she realized Vivian still didn't know she was a Dragon Human.
Reid watched with satisfaction as Nanai Miguel and Vivian built good relationships with the two. This would help them integrate into the team.
Sure enough, with the help of Nanai Miguel and Vivian, Salamandine and Gekko finally let down their guard. After taking medicine to hide their wings and tails, they attended the evening welcoming banquet.
However, Ange and Salamandine truly lived up to being fate-entangled individuals.
The moment they met, they unconsciously began competing with each other. Halfway through the meal, they started various contests—first playing darts, shooting hoops, and card games.
But as they competed, they got more and more excited. Later, they went out for a street race, and after racing, they even went to the palace arena for a fight.
That night, Reid was kicked out of his room by Ange, who declared she would be sleeping with Salamandine that night, making Flay sulk with jealousy on the side.
As for Reid, he naturally could only go to Murrue's room to seek comfort with little Maria.
But such warm and happy times lasted only a day. The war in the CE Universe was far from over, and the very next day, Reid immediately switched to work mode.
After waking up in the morning, Reid went to see Salamandine to inquire about her Mobile Suit.
Salamandine had her own pride. She stated that she wanted to understand the local technology first and then design her own Mobile Suit.
Reid agreed with this, as Salamandine was a genius capable of developing the Flame Dragon, so there was no need to doubt her abilities in MS design.
While Salamandine didn't need Reid to worry about her Mobile Suit, Tekkadan was another matter.
Tekkadan had been performing well in Europe, but with the East Asian Republic's military support arriving at the Suez Canal, the pressure on their side would multiply in the future.
Moreover, to attack the Atlantic Federation's homeland, Reid felt that relying solely on the offensive from the Pacific direction was insufficient.
Although the Atlantic Federation's Pacific Fleet was now virtually nonexistent, it still had a large army and air force.
The Atlantic Federation's military had not suffered losses severe enough to cripple it.
Especially now that the New Misurugi Kingdom had become a tangible threat to the Atlantic Federation's homeland, domestic anti-government voices were suddenly suppressed due to the external threat.
This was because most civilian protests against the government were driven by fear that the government would eventually abandon its duties entirely.
Now, with the threat of national destruction looming, most people naturally stopped causing trouble.
Furthermore, as the Atlantic Federation began large-scale recruitment and accelerated training of MS Pilots, the entire nation's industrial system simultaneously shifted into high gear.
This directly caused the Atlantic Federation's military to balloon like an inflating balloon. The number of Mobile Suits was quickly replenished using domestic reserve materials, and the number of pilots expanded to twice the pre-war registered count.
Of course, one could easily imagine how much combat effectiveness these hastily trained MS Pilots possessed, but at least the momentum was now there.
However, despite its aggressive momentum, the Atlantic Federation was still taking a beating on the Pacific front.
Reid and Une were not the least bit anxious. The New Misurugi Kingdom's military, using the Hawaiian base as a springboard, frequently provoked the nerves of local forces along the Atlantic Federation's coastline.
Reid's current strategy against the Atlantic Federation was to deplete their effective forces.
With such a long Pacific coastline, it was impossible for the Atlantic Federation's defenses to be flawless.
This gave the New Misurugi Kingdom's military the opportunity to wage an endless war of harassment.
The forces of the New Misurugi Kingdom seized every opportunity to launch sudden attacks, never considering pushing into Atlantic Federation territory to establish footholds. Each time, they would sink one or two ships, shoot down a few Mobile Suits, and then retreat.
Such assaults could occur up to a hundred times a day along the entire coastline, resulting in thousands of casualties within just a few days.
Meanwhile, the New Misurugi Kingdom's forces suffered minimal personnel losses, as most of their casualties were Automated Soldiers.
Moreover, with the Atlantic Federation's frontline flooded with hastily trained MS Pilots, these rookies struggled to achieve even a one-for-one exchange rate against the Automated Soldier Murasame.
Especially as the Automated Soldier Murasame accumulated more and more combat data, the casualty ratio was gradually approaching 1:3—meaning the Atlantic Federation needed three Windams and two pilots to take down a single Automated Soldier Murasame.
If this continued, even if the Atlantic Federation government didn't go bankrupt after a year or two of fighting, the New Misurugi Kingdom would grind down the Atlantic Federation's most vital three generations of personnel, causing the federation to collapse from within.
Of course, Reid had no intention of letting the war drag on for one or two years.
The reason he wasn't directly attacking Atlantic Federation territory now was because the federation had concentrated most of its forces in the Pacific theater. A full-scale assault would deplete his own troops heavily, and if PLANT or the East Asian Republic took advantage of his weakened state, Reid knew he'd be frustrated for a long time.
Thus, Reid needed PLANT to invade Europe first. Then, he planned to abandon the Old Capital Base entirely, relocating all his forces to Ascension Island Base. This would allow PLANT to engage the Eurasian Federation and the East Asian Republic in Europe, wearing down both sides' forces simultaneously.
Once Ascension Island Base received reinforcements from the Old Capital Base, the Atlantic Federation's forces in the Atlantic would likely retreat to their homeland. At that point, with a two-front pincer movement and the threat of PLANT in South America, the Atlantic Federation would be on a countdown to annihilation.
After all, the Atlantic Federation couldn't amass large forces on all three fronts simultaneously—whichever direction showed weakness would become the target of attack.
When the time came, PLANT would likely be even more eager than the New Misurugi Kingdom. Given that their conflicts with the Atlantic Federation were long past reconciliation, PLANT would seize any chance to utterly destroy the federation.
Of course, to execute this plan, PLANT had to invade Europe first, keeping the Eurasian Federation preoccupied. Reid had no intention of letting the Eurasian Federation or the East Asian Republic sneak an attack from behind while he was besieging the Atlantic Federation.
Therefore, Reid began arranging for Tekkadan to upgrade their Mobile Suits. Before withdrawing from the Old Capital Base, they would need to withstand pressure from two fronts—it was time for the entire group to switch to Gundam Frame Units.
However, just as Reid started designing each Tekkadan member's Mobile Suit, new news arrived.
D.S.S.D. announced to all shareholders that the Luminous Pursuer Propulsion System had entered its final functional testing phase and would soon be ready for acceptance.
Upon receiving this news, Reid decided to halt the development of Tekkadan's Mobile Suits. Once the Luminous Pursuer Propulsion System was completed, a large number of his Mobile Suits would require refitting. There was no point in completing Tekkadan's units now only to have them sent back later for retrofitting.
However, the news released by D.S.S.D. was like throwing a soybean into boiling water during a time when the whole world was at war—instantly submerged by the flood of war information. The public in various countries had no idea that deep-space exploration technology had made another breakthrough.
In fact, the completion of the Luminous Pursuer Propulsion System occurred much earlier than in the original timeline, but the outcome remained unchanged: the people of all nations were more concerned about the ongoing war.
But Reid knew that just because the public didn't care didn't mean the governments wouldn't.
Normally, due to Reid's massive investment in D.S.S.D.'s Luminous Pursuer project, both the three nations of the Earth Alliance and PLANT had gotten involved. Once results were achieved, they would be shared among all parties, and the Atlantic Federation would simply wait at home for the technology to be delivered to them.
But the Atlantic Federation's thought process had always been a bit abnormal. Their government's thinking was: "There's been a technological breakthrough. Even though we have a share, I must ensure that only we have it."
Thus, the Atlantic Federation decided that D.S.S.D.'s Luminous Pursuer technology must be destroyed, and all technical personnel eliminated, so that they alone would possess this technology in the entire world.
(Note: The reason for this event has been modified, with the explanation provided in the author's notes.)
It could only be said that the Atlantic Federation's reputation abroad was already bad enough, and they didn't care if it got worse.
At this point, Reid couldn't lock all of the Atlantic Federation's forces on Earth, so the D.S.S.D. attack incident would still occur.
However, Reid had long since dispatched Lacus and Kira to guard D.S.S.D.'s research Colony Satellite, so this time, Reid wasn't worried about the data or the Mobile Suits being seized.
Nevertheless, Reid decided to personally go to space.
This time, however, it wasn't for combat but to directly bring Serenity MacGrave and her research team back.
Of course, this operation had to be conducted in secret, flying all the way there in stealth mode aboard the Gran Chaos.
So that same day, Reid handed over his tasks to Une and once again headed into space with the Xia sisters and Flay.
The main reason Reid took Flay along this time was to prevent her from engaging in palace intrigue with Salamandine at the Royal Palace. Reid didn't want to return from space only to find that Ange's situation had gone awry.
To Reid's slight surprise, Flay showed no resistance to going with him to the D.S.S.D. Colony Satellite.
But once in space, Reid began to regret it a bit, as Flay kept asking, intentionally or not, whether Lacus was on the D.S.S.D. Colony Satellite.
Now Reid understood: Flay was planning to go show off in front of Lacus, and he was caught in the middle, likely to suffer for it.
However, Reid knew this was something he would have to face sooner or later. He already had a plan in mind for resolving the conflict between the two and wasn't afraid of Flay's little antics.
The journey to the D.S.S.D. Colony Satellite went very smoothly.
For the Atlantic Federation, the destruction of the Daedalus Base and the annihilation of three fleets at the lunar base were enough to keep their fleet holed up within the lunar sphere until they could recover their strength.
Moreover, aside from the L4 Colony Cluster, the rest of space was enemy territory for the Atlantic Federation.
Therefore, there was simply no possibility of the main Atlantic Federation space fleet suddenly appearing near the D.S.S.D. Colony Satellite.
If the Atlantic Federation still intends to attack the D.S.S.D Colony Satellite, they will undoubtedly send the same Phantom Pain Unit from the original work.
Only such a small unit could operate covertly under the watchful eyes of the New Misurugi Kingdom Space Force and the ZAFT Space Force.
As expected, once the Gran Chaos entered the range where the ship's systems could detect the D.S.S.D Colony Satellite, Hoshino Ruri immediately reported:
"Reid, combat flashes have been detected near the D.S.S.D Colony Satellite. Based on thermal pattern analysis, one of the Mobile Suits is the Strike Gundam.
The other side is the Atlantic Federation's Phantom Pain Unit. The successor models of the Strike Gundam and Buster Gundam previously recorded in the Faroe Islands are present, along with a Mobile Suit suspected to be the Duel Gundam. The rest of the units are Slaughter Daggers.
D.S.S.D's Civilian Type Astray DSSD Modified units are also participating in large numbers, but their numbers are rapidly dwindling."
Upon hearing this, Reid was not at all surprised and immediately issued the order:
"Gran Chaos, deactivate camouflage. Yufang, Yulan, Flay, and I will sortie in our Mobile Suits directly."
There is a major plot hole in the Stargazer movie.
In the storyline, after the first Stargazer experiment, a television news broadcast clearly shows Djibril fleeing to space and using Requiem to attack the Plant homeland.
At this point, Destiny and Strike Freedom have already fought once.
The official setting for the Light Ring Propulsion Systems of both Mobile Suits is that they are modified versions of the Starlight Transmitter. Therefore, during the development of these two units, the Starlight Transmitter had definitely not even undergone its first test.
If this isn't a timeline error, then there's only one possibility.
That is, while D.S.S.D was developing the Starlight Transmitter, they were simultaneously assisting PLANT in developing the Light Ring Propulsion System.
If that's the case, it seems the Phantom Pain Unit attacking them wasn't entirely unjustified.
The movie's setting is that the Atlantic Federation coveted the super AI in the Stargazer, which was claimed to develop autonomous consciousness after 10,000 hours of self-learning.
Of course, such an AI does not exist in this book—clearly another addition by the movie's screenwriters.
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