Editing KSGU:Volume 9 Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 18===

He rode upon the Hypersonic Transport chartered by Anaheim Electronics from Dakar’s airport for more than 3 hours, and after flying over the Atlantic and two-thirds of the North American continent, arrived at the Federation airforce’s Anti-Air Command Base in Cheyenne.

This terrain had more beasts of burden than humans in the old centuries, and even after the tragedy of the One Year War, this fact still remained. The HST landed on the plainlands of Wyoming, overlooking the darkness of the distant Rockies before it was dawn, and the landing gear was fastened on the runway, the only concrete area in the base. Ronan, together with Martha, was welcomed by his peers at the Senate Council, and rode on the military electric car; he was whisked into the underground Anti-Air Command Base before he could glance at the moonless night.

They passed through a tunnel-shaped entrance in the foothills, and the Command Center was at the end of this path located 1.6km deep inside. This was a place Ronan was familiar with; when the region was still called the United States of America, this base was built within the mountains to shield against any enemy nation’s nuclear attack. The facilities and system were no different from back then; there was anti-air intellgence used to watch over the North American region. After the war, it was merely a piece of junk when the surveillance satellites were separated from the radar network, and was relegated to as a place where the leftists’ soldiers were dealt with carefully. However, as it was not a place easily noticed, it became a place with some unique function over the years.

When Martha talked about the ‘secret way’, Ronan had already anticipated it to be this place. The wall of classified military information would not be of any use when dealing with her. He remained in the car, just like the journey before, and carelessly stared at the tunnel which could be said to be the relics of the old centuries. The hooded military electric car passed through the underground below the mountains, passed through the 25 ton blastproof door, and sent the contingent to the Anti-Air Command center.

They walked upon the uneven concrete path, was led through 3 layers of safety checks by their colleagues, and arrived at the desination. Ronan passed through the door leading into the only new place available, the space management center, and saw the exact same scene as the one he saw on the photo.

There were 6 large screens on the wall in the front, projecting the monitored conditions of the radars and the satellite surveillances. There were more than 20 of the each facing a terminal, “Mark 2, loading complete.” “Permitting the support ship “Chitose” to retreat from the firing line.” The men and women reporting in all looked anxious, and the atmosphere of an actual battle reached them naturally. Ronan heard the metal doors slam behind him, and looked around at this classified center, which he was not completely unfamiliar with. There were often Task Forces, authorized to deal with classified information, stationed here, working on their mission separately from the soldiers of the base management, which dealt with the leftists. The Cheyenne Base was dubbed as a relic of of the old era, but it was an image used to hide the existence here.

“The “System” is moving from behind “Luna II”.”

“Position controls begin. Self-rotation restrated, Gryoscope stabilized.”

“Reticule control, matching the guide laser’s path.”

The voices of the management pinged off the tall ceiling. That ‘thing’ seemed to have been activiated, and Ronan, who did not know how she controlled the situation, was unhappy that she had already begun with the preparations as he wanted to glare at the relaxed looking Martha. “Welcome to the Caucasus Forest” however, he heard this from behind, and turned back. A high ranking officer was standing at the commander’s seat at the back of the control room, elevated half a level higher.

“I’m Vice-Admiral Ables.  We once had a chat with each other at a golf match on “Luna II”.”

“I remember. Looks like Miss Martha and I have a lot of mutal friends.”

He grabbed the outstretched hand, and again glared at Martha. On the surface, he was the base commander in chare of running the leftists’ graveyard, but he was in charge of a secret mission only a few amongst them knew of, and was an elite general full of ambition. It would be easy for Ronan to deduce that there was something going on between him and the vixens of the Senate Council that was relying on the authority of the Vist Foundation, but this was not the moment to be dragged down by that. “May you please hear the current situation?” Martha did not look at Ables, who greeted her with a stare, as she hurriedly prompted Ronan, and the latter looked back at the screens in the front.

“This is the surveillance information obtained from the Moon, so the details aren’t clear. However, it seems the “Sleeves” perimeter is being broken through. The battle’s still going on though, I can’t tell how it’s going to go.”

One of the screens showed a visual of space taken from the Moon’s surface. An amateur could not tell what was going on amidst the flashing lights mixed amidst the stars. “What about “Industrial 7”?” Martha asked.

“Currently, we’ve executed a spaceway control, and up till this point, there hasn’t been any ship moving in and out from the docks. It seems the colony builder there was not activated, probably because of the damage suffered during the terrorist attack.”

The image was switched, and the projected visual became that of the sealed colony that was undergoing construction. Every space colony should be all in the same shape, but this colony had a unique shape with one end connected to the colony builder, and one could tell it was the “Industrial 7” that made the headlines because of the terrorist attack. It was an industrial port, and logically, there would be ships moving around the clock, but there was definitely no space light to be seen near the port. The colony builder too remained silent, and its snail-likeexterior remained hidden in the Shoal space.

“Targetting is complete, and we will proceed into automatic-tracking. Considering the space debris left in the path of fire, we plan to fire at 50% outpiut.This is the first actual firing after repair, but there’s no issue with the activation. We can fire only at the colony builder while minimizing the impact on the colony to the minimum.”

Ables said, “That’s how it is, Chairman Ronan.” and Martha followed up. Ronan gulped.

“We just need your approval from now on. This will solve everything.”

There was a lot of burdensome work for the Settlement Issues Council and the Vist Foundation to deal with even after working together, whether it was to explain to the internal government, or the manipulating of the media; Martha’s expression however was coldly aloof. Ronan did not immediately answer as he stared at the “Industrial 7” in the image, “Surveillance satellite K7 has caught sight of the “system”.”at the same time, he heard the voice from the operator.

“Expand the visual.” Ables commanded. The middle screen showed the image of Earth taken at low orbit, its silhouette encased in the thin atmosphere, expanded in phases. As the sun began to shine behind Earth, the anti-glare filtered visual approached it, and there appeared a cylindrical object with the bright light in the expanded background.

This obect was orbiting in one of the Lagrange Points created between Earth and the Moon, the L3 resonance points, and when viewed from afar, was a common sealed colony just like “Industrial 7”. It was only half the size of an ordinary colony, but there was an abnormally large number of solar panels around it, and more intriguingly, there was an exposed, severed part at one end, exposing the inside hollow in space—this large barrel-like appearance obviously was not designed for human living. It was an abnormally shaped construct, a colony, and yet not one, 15km long, and more than 6km in diameter. It was…

“The colony laser “Gryps 2”, the ultimate weapon of destruction that uses the colony itself as a barrel.

Martha said. Ables glanced over at her face, but Ronan did not mind as he continued to stare at the screen.

“It’s infamous because of the internal conflicts after the war, but we’ve been secretly rebuilding it and integrating it into the fleet assembly plan…such great foresight, I must say. Did you assume this will happen?”

Martha’s stare at Ronan was full of derision, and the latter inadvertently glared back at her sidelong face, wanting to say something. “The “Nahel Argama” and the “Unicorn” have entered the Shoal Space region. However, he was interrupted by this, and could only remain silent.

“We’ve considered other strategies, but we can’t guarantee that we can stop them. Once we detect that either them or Neo Zeon will reach the “Box” first…”

''There’ll be no other choice,'' her expression was stating this. If they used the colony laser, most of their issues would be settled. Ronan glanced his sweaty palms, and stared at the screen showing tis laser.

It was an unprecedented, said to be able to destroy entire colonies when fired at full output. The “Gryps 2” overlooked Ronan from hige above as the latter held its trigger, and pointed its large muzzle at the Shoal Space region containing “Industrial 7”—where the “Laplace Box” laid in slumber.


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