Part 181: Mission 50 (Plant Route) - Prologue

Well, I think it’s safe to say that Plant is the major victor of this vote and, while it’s a day before when I said I’d end it, there is practically no chance for a comeback of the moon route.

So, let’s just jump into the prologue!








Canard has decided to take matters into his own hands and stealing a Neutron Jammer Canceller from a Security Council base.
Garcia quickly calls him, livid at how the kid grabed his mech without permission and decided to attack a Federation base.
Not that it matters to Canard - all he can think about is fortifying his Hyperion.
Garcia keeps yelling, saying that this theft will turn make the Eurasian Army lose what few public supporters it has left; Canard doesn’t really care for Garcia’s political plots and tells him that he's no longer a Eurasian soldier – from here on out, he’ll fight only for himself.



Canard starts envisioning what it will feel like to take out Kira and whoever is piloting the DRAGOON-using Gundam…
With his new power, victory will finally be his and he will prove his existence!



At Jachin Due, Patrick Zala is being rather standoffish in turning down Rose's overtures for peace talks, maintaining that this conflict was destined to spiral beyond control ever since it began.
He says that the Federation’s hand at the Blood Valentine event, the development of the Cyclops at Alaska and the Fermion Missiles are all indicative of how there is no possibility of peace – neither Naturals or Coordinators are meant to coexist!
Rose admits that the development and use of Fermion Missiles were done outside of the Security Council’s jurisdiction and, had she known beforehand, he would’ve tried to stop it.



Regardless of that, however, Rose is aware of the Genesis and its potential of destruction.
Patrick is momentarily shocked that Rose knows about it but quickly realizes that Lacus and her faction must’ve informed her; Rose reminds Patrick of how Siegel wanted to put an end to this purposeless conflict and tells him to open his eyes and see that no one will be an actual “winner” if this battle happens.
Patrick is done talking, intent that the Coordinators are the future of mankind – the Naturals have long since tried to oppress them but no more – it’s time for the “old” to be destroyed and for the Coordinators to fulfill their destiny!



Patrick is quite irritated that Genesis' existence has already been leaked.
Still, he figures it's already too late for the Feds to do anything about it: once he's incinerated the Federation forces, his next target will be the Earth; Creuset relates how the gamma rays are projected to kill over 80% of life on Earth, which would more or less make the Radam trees moot if not destroying them too.
He tells Patrick that the Federation army is steadily advancing on their position at Jachin Due after the fall of Boaz.



Patrick means to fire when the Feds have amassed, and Creuset is thinking that the Feds are about to meet a most cruel fate due to their lack of the Neutron Jammer Canceler.
It was this deficiency that led them to make the even stronger Fermion missiles, which in turn led the Plants to decide to use Genesis.
His main question is just how much stuff will get wrecked before all is said and done.



Neo-Wärter is headed for Jachin Due to try to put an end of the Zaft/Federation battle before it can really begin.
Likely the Federation flagship will be the black Archangel, the Dominion, with Natarle at the controls; of course none of our people really want to fight her, most especially her former shipmates, but fighting despite one's personal feelings is what wars are all about.
Kazuma's deepest concern at present is for Prayer, whose health seems to be deteriorating quickly.



Flay and Kazahana is trying to convince Prayer to stand down from the battle and get treatment at Orbit Base but he has a reason why he's refusing to do so: there's a man he's got to release from hatred.
That would be the mystery pilot who's out for Kira's life; Prayer tells Flay and Kazahana that that Canard is quite similar to him – and probably got very lost while looking for his purpose in life.



Elsewhere, Muu is telling Murrue and others about how Creuset is a clone of his father.
However, he was not complete and his complex over his shortened telomeres might well destroy the world; Kira says that, no matter what evil was done onto him, he has no right to cause this much destruction.
Athrun agrees and says that they’ll have to make sure to stop not only his father’s but also Creuset’s insanity.
Oddly enough, Gai Murakumo says he can relate a bit to Creuset’s situation; Cagalli and Lowe asks what he’s talking about and if he’s trying to justify the guy’s actions but Gai walks away before answering anything.



Quatre wonders about Gai, having come to a realization that he’s not an ordinary Coordinator and Elijah explains that, in a different sense than Kira, Gai's also an ultimate Coordinator.
Elijah quickly apologizes to Kira for bringing that up, though Kira says he’s gotten over it.
Elijah then starts musing about how he always had an inferiority complex regarding his own Coordinator skills (barely above a Natural) but that seems as nothing next to what Kira had to endure (though it does allow him to understand a sliver of what the Eurasian pilot must be feeling).



Elijah is only where he is today through loads of hard work, and in some sense Gai Murakumo is also in that boat.
Yet, there's something hidden within that occasionally grants Gai superhuman abilities in combat; Lowe has firsthand experience on Gai’s skills and wonders what is it that gives him such an edge…



Kazuma finds Gai servicing his own machine, conscientious to a fault.
Kazuma admits that the Valzacard is kind of too big for him to service, and that an automated maintenance droid from the Arm Storer has been given the job.
Hesitating some, Kazuma then asks Gai if it bothers him at all fighting Plant.



Gai says that he considers himself a mercenary, and that means being beholden to no country.
He fills Kazuma in that, while he's a Coordinator, he wasn't born in Plant, but rather in a Federation laboratory as test subject to create some of the first Combat Coordinators.
He was conceived to help the Earth out in a battle with Plant, and was supposed to have been mind-controlled to keep him from ever siding with Plant in battle or even being able to harm a Natural.
The successful fruits of that project are the "Socius" Series, though the ones the Sahaku spirited away were special in that they had autonomy in how to fulfill their mission; in Gai's case, he fled the laboratory before the mind control was complete - the last thing he lets anyone do is tell him what to do.
He's mainly cooperating with us because his current target is among our adversaries - and when he encounters that target, his real mission will begin.



Aboard the Dominion, Azrael couldn't be happier with the Fermion missiles, which wiped out the formerly intractable Boaz base in only a few shots.
He gloats about how his wonderful connections to "Black Technology" are good for all kinds of gadgetry like that.
Natarle is a bit skeptical about all this, wondering if they shouldn’t have set their troops in position to attack the Radam on the Moon; Azrael assures her that he will use the Fermion Missiles against the Radam...after taking down the "space monsters" first.
Natarle worries about the effect of using such destructive weapons near the Lunar Colonies but Azrael maintains that such hazardous weapons are indispensable in the coming battles, and if the colonies get damaged here and there, it’s an acceptable loss.



He even pulls out the insidious rationale that the weapons cost so much to develop and build, there would be totally no point in just leaving them for show.
Hell, to NOT use these weapons now would merely be seen as a sign of weakness, so they’ll use it and bring about a decisive end of those Space Monsters.



Before he can finish his monologue, the Neo-Wärter’s approach is detected - presumably to try to stop the fighting.
Azrael has someone else in mind for them to tangle with, weakening our dudes so he, the hunter, can swoop in for the kill shot; Natarle can only shake her head at this, wondering how much lower she and the Federation will have to sink while serving this man’s whims…