Chapter 61: ZAFT's Elite Demolition Team Arrives 

Having achieved his objective, Reid immediately got to work, moving both the NT-X Gundam and Ange's Custom Flag onto the maintenance racks in the hangar. Although their energy and ammunition consumption during the previous battle hadn't been high, every bit of replenishment counted. With the plot now significantly altered, who knew how many enemies would come in the next wave?

Naturally, Reid also unceremoniously had all the items taken from Orb's secret warehouse transported aboard and temporarily instructed his team to follow the orders of Archangel's mechanic, Kojiro Murdoch, for arranging the supplies.

While Reid was busy with these tasks, Kira's situation had also been temporarily resolved. Given the current circumstances, Murrue and Bargiruel wouldn't allow Kira and his friends to leave the ship.

Though Murrue and Bargiruel were inherently kind-hearted, they weren't foolish. Without even needing to discuss it, they knew they had to keep an eye on Reid. This man was willing to assist in combat without even demanding advance payment—clearly, it wasn't just because of Bargiruel's brief acquaintance with him.

So, what else on the Archangel could Reid possibly be interested in? Naturally, the Archangel itself, as well as the Strike Gundam, which hadn't yet been seized.

Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, Murrue and Bargiruel wouldn't allow Reid or Ange to pilot the Strike. On a daily basis, they even had to monitor the two to prevent them from extracting data from the Strike's systems.

After all, Murrue and Bargiruel had no idea that Reid had another mission. They had to worry: once Reid obtained what he wanted, would he still protect the ship? Following the darkest line of reasoning, if the ship sank and everyone died, no one would be left to hold Reid accountable.

Thus, Kira—now the only one capable of piloting the Strike Gundam—was forcibly retained. Moreover, with the Colony Satellite under a Level 9 evacuation alert and all shelters locked down, there was nowhere for them to go even if they wanted to leave.

So Kira and his friends had no choice but to remain aboard the Archangel, where they now formally met Reid and Ange.

Here, Mu provided some minor assistance. For him, the pressure from Creuset outside was overwhelming—a full force of four motherships (ZAFT motherships typically carried six Mobile Suits each). Even if Reid and Ange could each take on five enemies, the remaining forces would still overwhelm the Archangel in a group assault.

Additionally, the Atlantic Federation's Natural OS technology remained inadequate, leaving Mu still unable to pilot the Strike.

This time, however, Mu didn't need to serve as artillery on the bridge. Although his Union Flag custom unit was heavily damaged and couldn't be repaired anytime soon, after Reid's team transported all the vehicles aboard the Archangel, Murrue also dispatched them to raid the Atlantic Federation's warehouses for supplies.

Among the retrieved items was a complete set of Moebius Zero components (in the original story, Mu's Moebius Zero had all its wired gunbarrels destroyed, leaving only the central rod—yet the Archangel somehow had replacement parts. Doing the math, aside from the cockpit, they practically had an entire spare Moebius Zero). Once assembled, it would become a fully functional Moebius Zero.

Thus, Reid's team began working at full capacity alongside the Archangel's maintenance crew to assemble the Moebius Zero. With the additional manpower from Reid's side, the maintenance team was no longer short-staffed. The assembly would be completed within two hours.

Inside Heliopolis, while the Archangel was busy gathering materials to assemble Mobile Suits, the ZAFT ships outside were in a similar situation.

Reid had six Yang Guo ZAKUs that required emergency repairs, and Creuset's CGUE barely managed to fly back—a testament to the durability of ZAFT's military factory-produced MS. The four stolen Gundams needed their development data extracted and programs rewritten. Overall, they were even busier than the Archangel.

Fortunately, Creuset wasn't seriously injured, just shaken by the shockwave of an anti-ship missile. He felt some chest tightness, spat out a bit of blood, but otherwise didn't feel much worse.

Creuset paid little attention to such minor injuries. After all, his time was running out. As long as he could deepen the hatred between Naturals and Coordinators, a few scrapes were nothing.

So, after tidying up his appearance—wiping off the blood and changing clothes—he once again summoned the four ship captains and MS Squad members for a meeting.

The objective of this meeting was simple: to discuss how to shoot down the Atlantic Federation's Archangel and the remaining MS known as Strike, while also classifying the two MS from the New Misurugi Republic as enemies—though they were lower priority than the Archangel and Strike.

To justify labeling Reid and Ange as enemies, Creuset presented footage recorded by his CGUE: the 76mm heavy assault machine gun had failed to leave even a dent on the Empress Custom Flag. Creuset used this to steer the narrative.

"Take a look, everyone. This is footage of my engagement with the Empress Custom Flag. We've all encountered Earth Alliance's Flags before—none of them have this level of defensive capability.

This proves that the New Misurugi Republic has collaborated to some extent with the Atlantic Federation. That's why they now possess Phase Shift Armor. The Atlantic Federation's MS development wasn't just a partnership with Orb—it was a three-way collaboration with Orb and the New Misurugi Republic.

You've all seen the basic performance data of those MS. We have to admit, they far surpass all our currently deployed units. If the New Misurugi Republic was involved, these specs make sense.

Say what you will about Reid Isaac, but when it comes to MS development, he is an undisputed authority. And his stance has always been pro-Earth Alliance."

Honestly, Creuset's argument was flimsy. The data from the stolen MS hadn't even been fully extracted yet, and claiming collaboration between the New Misurugi Republic and the Atlantic Federation just because a 76mm heavy assault machine gun couldn't penetrate was a stretch.

But the few ship captains and senior officers who saw through this wouldn't voice objections to Creuset's plan—they simply nodded in agreement. After all, Reid had wrecked six GINNs, making him look anything but an ally.

As for the younger soldiers, they naturally believed whatever Creuset said.

Thus, the New Misurugi Republic was outright branded as pro-Atlantic Federation. Everyone sharpened their metaphorical blades, declaring that the New Misurugi Republic needed to be taught a lesson—to learn who truly ruled space.

After the meeting, Creuset allowed a sly smile to creep onto his face. His motive was simple: to drag the New Misurugi Republic into the vortex of hatred.

The fact that the New Misurugi Republic could develop Mobile Suits had already drawn Creuset's close attention, though the Republic's territory was just a single Colony Satellite—too small in scale to make stirring up trouble worthwhile.

However, after personally experiencing Ange's overwhelming presence today, Creuset immediately realized she was a super soldier on par with himself, and at the peak of human physical condition. This significantly increased the value of dragging the New Misurugi Republic into the war. Once this princess entered the battlefield, regardless of which side she aided, she would inflict heavy casualties on the enemy, inevitably breeding hatred.

Still, repairing the GINNs would take time, so Creuset had to continue waiting.

Meanwhile, Creuset planned to escalate things drastically—equipping the GINNs with D-Equipment designed for fortress assaults. He hoped the battle's aftermath would level Heliopolis, causing massive casualties in the Colony Satellite. Surely Orb couldn't keep pretending to be uninvolved after that.

While Creuset sharpened his blades and prepared fortress assault gear to expand the war, aboard the Archangel, Reid was in the hangar assisting Mu with adjusting the OS for his Moebius Zero.

Just as the OS adjustments were nearing completion, the system suddenly alerted them to an emergency mission:

ZAFT is preparing to attack the host ship. Repel them and defend the vessel. Mission reward: 20 Merit Points, 5000 G-Coins.

Reid was momentarily stunned. After signing the escort contract with Murrue, no daily missions had triggered, leading him to assume main storyline missions couldn't be exploited for multiple rewards. Yet, emergency missions could still activate normally. 20 Merit Points... just how many Mobile Suits did Creuset send this time?

As he waited for the OS to finish loading, Reid struck up a casual conversation with Mu:

"Captain Flaga, you fought outside the Colony Satellite before coming in, right? Any idea how many ZAFT forces are out there now?"

Mu paused to consider before answering seriously:

"Reid, no need for formalities—just call me Mu. We're comrades in arms now, bound by life and death.

As for ZAFT's numbers... we've confirmed four motherships. Outside, I took down three GINNs, Strike destroyed one, and I just heard you disabled six. Princess Angelise severely damaged another, while three Gundams were escorted away, and one retreated intact. Factoring in reserve units—assuming they repair the units you damaged and all ships are at full capacity—minus the slots reserved for five Gundams, they could deploy up to fourteen more GINNs."

Mu himself gasped at the tally. Currently, the Archangel could only field three Mobile Suits and one small Mobile Armor. Worse, Strike Gundam's pilot was an untested Coordinator child. The outlook seemed bleak.

Yet Reid felt relieved hearing the numbers. Fourteen GINNs? Well within the Archangel's capacity to handle. He patted Mu's shoulder reassuringly:

"Got it, Mu. Just call me Reid from now on. Don't worry—if it's only fourteen GINNs, we can break through. My real concern is them turning the stolen MS against us. Judging by Strike's performance earlier, the Atlantic Federation really has developed impressive Mobile Suits, though I haven't seen the specs."

Seizing the opening, Mu cautiously probed further:

"Yeah, I was amazed by the performance of these Mobile Suits when I saw the originally assigned pilots testing them. What, Reid, you want to take one for a spin too?"

Reid glanced at Mu, not directly calling out his probing, and simply replied casually,

"Don't even think about it. I have professional ethics. I bet the two beautiful captains are worried I might steal data right now. I'd better stay away from the Strike Gundam."

Hearing this, Mu understood—Reid was signaling that he wouldn't do anything to disrupt unity anytime soon.

So he steered the conversation toward a topic more appealing to men.

"Beautiful captains, huh? That's true. At least in terms of looks and figure, they're top-tier. But Reid, with Princess Angelise around, you wouldn't dare fool around, would you?"

Reid just rolled his eyes at the question and pointed downward, signaling Mu to look for himself.

Mu looked up and saw Ange below, directing the crew to retrieve the recharged cables. Apparently, due to the crew's lack of expertise, the cables got stuck on a latch during retrieval.

Impatient with the Archangel crew's slow handling, Ange stepped in herself. Where two grown men had failed to pry open the switch, she effortlessly forced it open with a single pull, leaving the two crew members dumbfounded and questioning their existence.

Mu broke into a cold sweat and gave Reid a sympathetic look.

"You really have it tough, huh."

Reid didn't answer—he didn't have time to. Just then, alarms blared across the Archangel, followed by Bargiruel's temporary CIC announcement:

"Colony Satellite is experiencing widespread electromagnetic interference. Neutron jamming levels increasing. All hands, assume first battle stations. Pilots, report to your Mobile Suits immediately. Repeat, all hands, first battle stations. Pilots, report to your Mobile Suits."

Without hesitation, Reid immediately returned to the NT-X Gundam, and Ange naturally did the same.

Soon after, Reid noticed Kira had also returned, boarding the Strike Gundam's cockpit.

Seeing this, Reid opened a comm link to the Strike and asked,

"Kid Kira, this is the real battlefield now. Are you prepared?"

Kira hesitated before replying,

"I have no choice. My friends are on this ship. I have to protect them. Captain Murrue said even with your help, we're still short on firepower..."

Reid studied Kira's reluctant, resigned expression and could only say,

"Well, at least you have conviction. The worst thing is a soldier who doesn't know why they're fighting. Alright, I'll admit you're a rookie now. Rookie, after launch, don't stray too far from the Archangel. Staying close and providing long-range support is safer for you. And remember—watch your fire. Don't hit allies."

With that, Reid directly called the bridge.

"This is NT-X Gundam, Reid. When we sortie, equip the Strike with the mobility-boosting, long-range firepower set. I saw its equipment modules. Don't send him out with a greatsword—this battlefield isn't suited for close combat."

Here, Reid had to remind the Archangel not to foolishly deploy with the Sword Strike Pack. Whether it was due to merchandising considerations in the original work or fear of repeating the incident where Kira had just blasted a hole through the Colony Satellite wall with a single shot, they clearly didn't want him recklessly firing and damaging the Colony Satellite again. Yet, they actually considered equipping the Strike with the Sword Pack in the middle of a large-scale aerial battle.

The Sword Pack was only suitable for use in areas with complex terrain and ample cover. Deploying it here would be sheer idiocy on the commander's part.

Reid's suggestion was naturally accepted. Though Bargiruel was still somewhat academic and lacked practical combat experience, even she could see that this battlefield was no place for the Sword Pack to shine.

As for Murrue, who had originally intended to equip the Strike with the Sword Pack, her words were cut off before she could voice them by Reid. And since she trusted his judgment, she naturally didn't object.

While Reid was communicating with Kira and the bridge, Heliopolis' outer wall was blasted open once more in a massive explosion, and over a dozen GINNs surged into the Colony Satellite.

Most of them were armed with two fortress-class large missiles on each arm, along with M68 'Leopard' Triple Short-Range Missile Launchers mounted at their waists.

A few units positioned further back were also equipped with M69 'Elephant' Modified Enhanced Firepower Heavy Particle Cannons, specifically designed to counter mobile suits with Phase Shift Armor.

And finally, the Aegis Gundam charged into the Colony Satellite, signaling the official start of the second phase of the Battle of Heliopolis. Creuset's elite demolition team had arrived!!