Chapter 54: Chapter 54: The Reignited Battlefield - The Emergence of East Asia's Celestial Soldiers
Reid's collaborative design blueprints with the East Asian Republic were finalized without a single modification requested - the Republic truly wanted a prototype within one month.
Their only requirement was that Reid's OS must be simplified as much as possible. The Earth Alliance had verified countless times that Reid, Angie, and Noin were all standard Naturals.
Particularly Reid - the Eurasian Federation possessed his complete medical records confirming he hadn't even undergone any physical enhancements.
Some speculated about the New Misurugi Republic potentially having enhancement technology, given Princess Angelise's combat prowess that could overwhelm even Coordinators. However, the Eurasian Federation dismissed this theory themselves, having thoroughly searched every inch of the former Misurugi Republic's territory without finding any laboratories or documents.
The possibility of such facilities existing in the Star Palace Colony Satellite was considered, though unlikely. Originally an industrial satellite, Star Palace might barely have the technical capacity for Mobile Suit development, but biological enhancement research? That would severely underestimate the required equipment and personnel.
Because of Reid, many high-ranking Eurasian Federation military officials faced disciplinary action. How could such a versatile Natural genius remain frontline cannon fodder for years? The East Asian Republic and Atlantic Federation must be laughing at their talent recognition failures.
Unaware of these behind-the-scenes developments, Reid became the subject of genetic research across both the Earth Alliance and PLANT (with PLANT's samples coming from his fight with Patrick). Everyone wondered if he was some naturally occurring superhuman to possess such all-around capabilities.
The East Asian Republic refused to use Reid's piloting skills as the Natural benchmark. Their requirement was an OS that even officers like Major Li could quickly master. Reid later learned this Major Li wasn't some desk-bound bureaucrat - he'd been frontline reconnaissance commander before promotion, now serving dual roles as military representative and security/anti-espionage agent during this visit.
Reid readily agreed to these reasonable demands, having never intended to restrict the East Asian Republic's Natural OS access. The provided OS simply required training time to master - comparable to learning driving from scratch. The talented might operate it within days; slower learners would need about two weeks of practice.
To avoid suspicion, the East Asian Republic couldn't observe Reid's actual development process. They'd maintain "radio silence," behaving like normal foreign office staff gathering intelligence and engaging in diplomatic maneuvering.
Shortly after securing the East Asian Republic deal, Reid openly purchased colony satellite exterior materials from them while having Une arrange urgent PLANT orders for massive sunlight reflector panels.
Since the New Misurugi Republic openly announced its plans to construct a new colony satellite, neither of the two procurement deals sparked any major disputes.
Although PLANT found it somewhat odd why the New Misurugi Republic needed such a large quantity of solar reflector panels—while these were essential for building colony satellites and had a high damage rate—ordering enough for four colonies at once seemed excessive.
In the end, PLANT couldn't figure out the New Misurugi Republic's reasoning. However, since colony satellite panels weren't military supplies and the production barriers weren't particularly high, the New Misurugi Republic had plenty of alternative purchasing channels.
Ultimately, PLANT didn't abandon this foreign trade order, which had become a scarce commodity since the war began (what PLANT provided to the Oceania Union could only be called military aid, not trade). They simply assumed the New Misurugi Republic was buying so much as a goodwill gesture toward PLANT after purchasing from Earth Alliance nations.
Thus, in an effort to reopen foreign trade markets and attract neutral nations to spend freely, PLANT prioritized this order, assembling the full shipment within a month and delivering it to the location specified by Star Palace.
In truth, Reid was simply playing a trick. The so-called "new colony satellite" was just a cover. His real goal was to construct a superweapon—just in case PLANT decided to wage war against him after he provided support to the Archangel and Patrick interfered.
As for what he intended to build, it was simple: the Solar Ray System. This weapon didn't require engineering modules—its principles were so basic even a child could understand them. Reid could handle the control programming himself, given that in this life, he had diligently completed university and graduated with outstanding grades.
The most troublesome part—construction—was already taken care of, since PLANT had delivered the materials to the designated location right next to the Star Palace Colony Satellite. Reid had no intention of using this system to attack anyone, given its shortcomings: short range, lengthy setup time, and vulnerability to sabotage.
It might work against stationary targets like fortresses or as a one-time ambush weapon, but once Reid used it even once, any future attempts would be futile—enemies would be prepared.
Reid built this system purely for defense. As for the colony satellite shell order from the East Asian Republic, it served two purposes: to mask the Solar Ray procurement and to lay the groundwork for another superweapon that was still in the conceptual stage.
Even if the colony satellite shell couldn't be repurposed for a superweapon, Reid could always just build a new colony satellite.
And so, the last two months of CE70 passed without full-scale war between Earth Alliance and PLANT, though skirmishes continued.
The mobile suits Reid provided to the East Asian Republic were successfully delivered by the end of November. After secretly transporting them back for secondary testing, the East Asian Republic was highly satisfied and privately inquired whether Reid had finalized the mothership design. Once that was settled, they could consider designing custom units for their own forces.
Regarding the mothership, Reid had no intention of letting the East Asian Republic build some classic supercarrier—because handing over the design would essentially mean giving it away for free. The East Asian Republic would never settle for just one; they'd mass-produce them to reduce overall costs while deploying them as their military's new motherships.
Reid's request was actually quite simple. He deliberately submitted a draft design for the battleship at the end of December, using the initial mothership [Carrier Base] from the G Generation game series as a blueprint, and drew up a schematic for the East Asian Republic. He asked them to build it according to this standard, with the additional requirement that the hangar must accommodate at least eight Mobile Suits. The construction difficulty wasn't too low, either.
Of course, Reid wouldn't claim to produce the custom Mobile Suit design schematics in just three days this time. Instead, he stated outright that the blueprints would be delivered two months later, before the battleship's handover.
The East Asian Republic ultimately accepted this condition. After all, their previous collaboration had been quite smooth, and even if Reid went back on his word or failed to deliver the schematics, the Republic wouldn't lose much—Reid hadn't demanded the mothership be handed over first before providing the designs.
However, starting from early CE 71, the East Asian Republic no longer had the time to pressure Reid. ZAFT decided to blockade Earth's military support to space and began relentlessly attacking the mass drivers controlled by the Earth Alliance. Fierce clashes erupted along the Pacific Tropic of Cancer front, and the flames of war spread once more.
Thus, on January 15, CE 71, the worldline shifted. This time, the battle at Kaohsiung Spaceport ended in the East Asian Republic's ultimate victory.
In this battle, the Republic deployed its domestically developed Natural-use Mobile Suits, fielding fifty [Celestial Soldiers]-class MS (modified Guncannons) and ten [Celestial Generals]-class MS (mass-produced Ground Gundams). Together with the base's own defenses, they successfully held Kaohsiung Spaceport.
However, despite suffering heavy casualties, ZAFT still achieved its strategic objective. In the end, through near-suicidal attacks, they severely damaged the spaceport's mass driver using MS self-destructs. Repairing it would be more trouble than it was worth for the East Asian Republic—they might as well dismantle and rebuild it from scratch. PLANT hadn't lost completely, at least.
The Battle of Kaohsiung Spaceport was definitely not something to get involved in—best to gloss over it like this.
Those who understand, understand.
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