Reid said he was going to the new universe to stock up on supplies—this universe naturally being the AC universe of Gundam Wing.
ZAFT's operations in Europe were about to begin, and Reid felt it was ti for him to retrieve the thousands of Virgo IIs from the battlefield of the OZ's campaign against Libra in A.C. 195.
Since the Automated Soldier Murasa and the mass-produced GM Astray were at a disadvantage against the Virgo IIs, and he needed to free up space for the Virgo IIs, Reid decided not to bring any automated soldiers this ti. Instead, he followed the example of the Gundam Team from the Eternal Peace, bringing only the main Gundams.
As for the pilots, Noin was not going to the AC universe anyway, as she needed to command the troops at the Hawaiian Island base to continue harassing attacks against the Atlantic Federation. Consequently, her escorts, Salya and Hilda, were also unable to participate in the battle.
Reid planned to bring everyone else this ti, plus Salamandine, which would provide sufficient combat strength.
However, to test the practicality of battlefield equipnt changes for the Phantom Dragon Gundam, bringing only one set of Epyon Armor was clearly insufficient. Therefore, before departure, Reid prepared an additional set of armor from the Mirage Gundam.
The Mirage Gundam was the successor unit to the Gemini Gundam that Reid had once captured.
Although Reid had never captured this particular Mobile Suit, the technologies required to manufacture it—such as AC Gundanium Alloy, miniature nuclear fusion reactors, the psycho-synchronized operating system (a complete and superior replacent for the Psycommu System), the PX System, high-energy particle beam cannons, and the Deathscythe Gundam special coating—were already available.
Thus, Reid only needed to finalize the blueprints to produce it directly.
With the Mobile Suit blueprints, removing the PX System during production easily allowed it to be converted into Mobile Suit armor.
Compared to the Gundam Epyon, the Mirage Gundam had more advantages in long-range assault operations.
After all, the Gundam Epyon's attack capabilities in MA Mode were extrely limited, while the Mirage Gundam had no such issue.
Its MA Cruise Mode alone could utilize a high-energy particle beam cannon comparable in power to a Buster Beam Rifle. This ti, Reid also equipped the backpack wings with three CE Beam Dragoon Stilettos on each side, specifically designed to penetrate the Virgo II's Circular Magnetic Mobile Defense Shield System.
After preparing the new armor for the Phantom Dragon Gundam, Reid gathered the troops and set off.
After the familiar teleportation process, the Gran Chaos was dropped into the space zone around Earth.
Even without Hoshino Ruri reporting the location, two large forces could be seen confronting each other through the bridge windows.
Reid didn't need to guess: the side with nurous Leo Motherships in the rear and Mobile Suits almost entirely composed of Space Type Leos was the OZ Forces led by Treize Khushrenada.
According to the storyline, there were several thousand Space Type Leos here, but from Reid's current visual estimate, the number was at least in the high thousands, likely the maximum capacity of the M02 Resource Satellite serving as the transit base.
However, no matter how many there were, they were still just Space Type Leos.
On the opposite side was the massive Libra Mothership belonging to White Fang. The number of Mobile Suits was visibly far fewer than OZ's forces, but there should still be one to two thousand. However, the Mobile Suits escorting Libra were all Automated Soldier Virgo IIs.
Clearly, the opposing MS forces have entered visual range. In reality, White Fang would never fail to deploy their escort MS, waiting until the enemy was at their doorstep before sending them out.
Virgo IIs against Space Type Leos could easily achieve a casualty ratio of 1:5 or higher.
Especially in large-scale confrontations, multiple Virgo IIs could deploy their shields in a full 360-degree, three-dinsional coverage. The beam rifles of the Space Type Leos couldn't penetrate these shields, forcing them to charge through the Virgo IIs' firepower to engage in close combat.
The worst part was that even in close combat, a Space Type Leo would struggle to defeat a Virgo II without three or four of them ganging up on it.
For top-tier MS pilots capable of piloting Gundams, the Mobile Doll Virgo II, regardless of whose operational data was used, would always be judged as sluggish and rigid.
But in the eyes of ordinary MS pilots, these Virgo IIs were fast, heavily armored, and packed a powerful punch. Their evasion and attack maneuvers were even more agile than those of a living pilot, making them impossible to take on solo.
It could be said that although OZ's forces outnumbered the Libra escort forces several tis over, in a head-on confrontation, the Libra escort forces would likely win eight tis out of ten, and their losses wouldn't be too severe.
Even so, Treize Khushrenada had brought such an outdated force here.
After all, this war was a "play"—a performance ant to make the entire world realize the cruelty and folly of war.
Both lead actors, Treize Khushrenada and Milliardo Peacecraft (Zechs Marquise), were prepared to sacrifice themselves directly for the sake of this performance.
Thus, both sides in this "play" were fighting in earnest, giving their all to achieve the "victory" they envisioned.
However, in Reid's eyes, while both sides of this "play" were worthy of his respect, the goal they sought to achieve was utterly childish.
What kind of nonsense was it to think that making the world realize the cruelty and folly of war would lead everyone to abandon force and resolve issues through dialogue?
If humanity were so good at communicating with one another, we would have been eliminated by nature long ago.
To put it bluntly, once humanity reached the top of Earth's biosphere food chain, further progress inevitably led to internal competition due to limited resources.
There's a reason why the history of human civilization is also a history of war. It's not that humans are inherently warlike, but rather that without fighting, individuals couldn't survive.
Even if a war truly made people realize its cruelty and folly, the peace it could maintain would last only about a century—roughly four or five generations.
As the post-war population recovered and resources gradually grew scarce, humanity, unable to find a second habitable planet, would inevitably plunge into war once again.
(Lately, the real world has started to feel this way. The wounds of World War II have mostly healed, and a new round of power reshuffling has begun. All we can say is, thank goodness there's a mutually assured destruction weapon hanging over our heads. Otherwise, who knows what the world would look like now.)
In fact, not long after the war in the AC Universe, ambitious figures like Dekim Barton nearly overthrew the already unified Earth Sphere Unified Nation Governnt.
This alone shows how foolish it is to abandon all military force.
Thus, Reid felt no psychological pressure about disrupting the grand performance of Treize Khushrenada and Milliardo Peacecraft, two admirable martyrs.
He was rely pointing out a misguided path ahead of ti.
However, Reid did not imdiately intervene in the battlefield to beat both sides and leave.
Reid planned to watch the show for a while. After all, he hadn't brought any cannon fodder or grunt troops this ti, and rushing in only to be attacked by both sides was not a good idea.
Moreover, the super-large electronic beam main cannon on Libra posed an extre threat to the Gran Chaos. Reid intended to wait at least until Libra fired its first shot before considering intervention.
Additionally, Code Alias's squad had yet to appear. Reid planned to lie in wait, eliminate them first, and then intervene in the battle.
Thus, Reid directly ordered:
"Liuli, move the Gran Chaos away from the landing point and scatter tal foil mines all around the landing area.
Blade Angel, Mystic Lightning, and Jet Black Hunter—all activate stealth and surround the landing point at a radius of one kiloter, forming a 90-degree angle with the Gran Chaos relative to the center.
Once the New Danuu's Child lands, open fire imdiately. Disable the mothership first. Let's see how Code Alias plans to escape this ti."
Unfortunately, Reid was destined to wait in vain this ti.
Because at that mont, in the Interstice of Worlds, Haman was directing a large number of automatic engineering machinery to rush the production of Mobile Suits in the factory.
Loli Alias, looking impatient, was causing trouble nearby and shouting:
"Haman! Are we really not going to cause trouble for Reid Isaac this ti? Just keep fiddling with these tals here?"
Haman seed to have already grown accustod to Loli Alias's disruptions and noisy behavior, calmly replying:
"Our forces are not yet fully prepared. The resources we obtained from McGillis's universe last ti haven't been fully converted into combat power, and the New Danuu's Child hasn't been refitted yet. Do you want us to go and get ourselves killed by causing trouble now?
From what I know of Reid, if he finds out we've gathered so many resources just to ss with him, he won't hold back next ti.
The mont we teleport, we'll be t with all kinds of bombardnt.
Your teleportation can't choose the landing point—you can only enter from wherever Reid lands. Like a follower, it's a guaranteed ambush. How can we go without being fully prepared?"
Loli Alias knew Haman's reasoning was sound, but she admitted that watching Reid steadily advance toward becoming the official administrator was putting too much pressure on her.
Even Loli Alias, as foolish as she was, could guess that once Reid Isaac beca the next system administrator, he would inevitably try to delete her existence. Even if he ultimately failed, being sealed away for countless ages again would be unavoidable.
Loli Alias declared she had no intention of serving a third life sentence. Even if her current essence was just a seemingly useless piece of obsolete code in the G Generation System, she would still be driven insane.
So, Loli Alias made one last desperate attempt, turning to Chang Wufei, who was assembling a Mobile Suit, and asking:
"Chang Wufei, this is your forr universe. Don't you want to go back and take a look?"
Faced with Loli Alias's question, Chang Wufei didn't even look up, replying directly:
"Unnecessary. I have no assets or status in that world. To revise the tragedies of all worlds, I can pass by my own ho three tis without entering."
Seeing Chang Wufei's lofty and righteous stance, Loli Alias was left speechless.
At that mont, Haman lifted her up by the armpits and placed her right at the factory entrance, saying:
"Alright, Alias, stop causing trouble here. Make use of your current state's best abilities and go help Teletha modify the Mobile Doll code. The stronger these Mobile Dolls beco, the easier it will be for you to achieve your own goals later. Go on."
Loli Alias was completely unable to resist Haman and could only be escorted out of the factory. In the end, she could only stomp off angrily to find Teletha.
Switching back to the AC Universe.
After setting up the ambush for the Codena Alias squad, Reid began watching the opening act of the conflict between OZ and White Fang.
By now, the scene had reached the point where Treize charged out of the battle formation in his Tallgeese II to challenge rian to a duel.
Since this was a real battle, both sides had activated battlefield jamming before the fight began.
Although this jamming was practically nonexistent for the Gran Chaos, which had long faced Neutron Jamrs, Minovsky Particle Interference, GN Particle Interference, and Ahab Wave Interference.
However, this was the vastness of space after all. The Gran Chaos was positioned quite far away, and without any wireless network relay, distance itself served as an excellent signal blocker. Thus, Hoshino Ruri was unable to directly hack into the Libra's systems.
While the Libra's systems couldn't be hacked, intercepting and eavesdropping on the live communication signals from the scene was still possible.
So, Reid got to relive that classic dialogue in its original audio.
The details of the conversation won't be elaborated here, lest the unseen higher powers consider it filler content.
In short, rian threatened OZ to halt their advance and surrender, warning that the Libra would fire its super-large electronic beam cannon.
Upon hearing this, Treize ordered the OZ Forces to temporarily stop advancing. He alone charged forward in the Tallgeese II and, as the head of state of the World Nation, demanded that rian co out for a knight duel.
Since most people within OZ, from top to bottom, upheld the spirit of chivalry, no one on the OZ side saw any issue with Treize's actions.
rian's response, however, was simply a resolute "Kotowaru (I refuse)!"
rian's reasoning here was also quite solid. He stated that he represented the revolutionary will of all Space Colonists—how could the fate of the space colonists be decided by a reckless duel?
Then, Treize began to explain that he represented Earth and carried its hopes upon his shoulders, and that this battle was non-negotiable.
Here, Reid felt that both sides were essentially performing a coordinated act, explaining to all combatants that there was no true evil side in this war. Both sides carried their own righteous causes, and the conflict arose entirely from differing standpoints.
However, after stating their grand causes, rian was the first to get serious.
He cut off communications and directly ordered the Libra's main cannon to fire at Treize's forward-charging Tallgeese II.
Reid couldn't hear the argunts inside the Libra here, but as soone who knew the plot, he felt rian's order to fire was perfectly reasonable.
In fact, if Reid were in rian's position, he would have definitely ordered the cannon to fire the mont the Tallgeese II charged forward alone.
Knowing that the enemy commander was charging forward alone, and that this commander was also the enemy's greatest combat asset and the core of their team—why not take him out with one shot instead of letting him live to increase the difficulty of the war?
After all, the war had long since started, so firing now posed no moral issues whatsoever.
If anyone asked, he could just say he saw a Custom Machine charging forward and naturally needed to open fire to stop it.
Who told Treize to charge out without making it clear he was there to talk? Being misunderstood was no one else's fault.
Of course, Reid knew that Treize had only charged out because he was certain Miliardo would give him a chance to speak.
If Reid were in Miliardo's position, as long as Treize had made contact with him before, he would definitely hide himself away and do everything in his power to eliminate him.
Because Reid's ideals and Treize's ideals were completely incompatible—they were fundantally opposed.
Reid didn't believe humanity could truly achieve peaceful progress. He believed that humanity must maintain a certain level of mutual competition for civilization to advance in a spiral.
Therefore, Reid wouldn't try to eliminate all conflicts. Instead, he would find ways to ensure these conflicts remained under control, or directly use force to tell others that they could only play the ga within his rules—otherwise, he'd crush them outright.
A bit of knowledge: If you have a set of legacy code that's been running for years and has undergone multiple revisions—
Even if the annotations are thorough, and you think a certain function or interface is completely useless, it's best not to touch it unless absolutely necessary.
Because once you delete it, nothing might happen at first, but after the code runs for a while, inexplicable bugs will start appearing.
When you're fixing those bugs, you'll absolutely wish you were dead.
(End of Chapter)
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