Ange's words had truly broken through Saito's defenses. If the conflict between Patrick Zala and Reid Isaac was really more of a personal grudge, then PLANT's swift defeat in the last war due to the intervention of the now New Misurugi Kingdom was far too unjust.
Thus, the Mental Chat Room that followed was filled with Saito's curses, like "Nonsense!" and "Liar!"
It was just a shame that this kind of Mental Chat Room had no mute function, and Ange, unlike Reid, didn't know how to use her Psychic Power to suppress others, so she could only let him continue his tirade.
However, Salya and Hilda had already pinpointed his location through psychic senses and were mobilizing their Mobile Suits to find him. Athrun was also rushing toward Saito's position.
The Mental Chat Room, created by highly concentrated GN Particles, was temporary, after all. Although the remains of Junius 7 had been sliced into several pieces, they were still rapidly falling toward Earth. Due to their different masses, they had separated as they fell, and even their trajectories had changed.
So, as the GN Particles dissipated, the Mental Chat Room naturally dissolved.
However, as Saito stared at the Gundam Eclipse and the Z Plus before him, he could only drive his Test Type Mass Production Zaku forward in a crazed final struggle, raising his High Vibration Wave Axe.
But reality proved that while Saito's courage was commendable, his skills were lacking. In a single exchange, his arm was sliced off by the Gundam Eclipse, and then his remaining limbs and head were picked off by the Z Plus's beam shots.
Only then did Athrun arrive late, hastily shouting in the team voice channel, "Spare him!"
However, Salya and Hilda had never intended to kill him. Bargiruel had informed them via Independent Communication to capture this man, who looked like a minor leader of the Zala Faction hardliners.
In Bargiruel's view, it was impossible for this attack not to have the backing of a major power. This man was a key figure in dragging the mastermind out from behind the scenes.
So, Salya contacted Athrun and replied, "We never planned to kill him, but he must be taken back to the New Misurugi Kingdom."
Athrun had no objection to taking the man back to the New Misurugi Kingdom for interrogation, but he felt the mastermind might not let this Saito live. So he said, "No problem, but we can't just drag his Mobile Suit away like this. Let me talk to him first."
Salya knew Athrun was more or less on their side, so she didn't stop him. Instead, she said, "Be quick. The Junius 7 debris problem isn't solved yet. We don't have much time."
Athrun also understood the priorities. He immediately connected to the Mobile Suit via Laser Communication and spoke to Saito inside.
"I don't know your name, but I can tell you this. I have never forgotten the lives that were lost here. It is precisely because I always remember them that I cherish this hard-won peace so much.
"Through the mental communication just now, I have some understanding of your thoughts. You were right about one thing: I was intentionally shirking my responsibilities before.
"After this incident, I will return to PLANT and look at things from ZAFT's perspective once again. Whether to continue maintaining peace or to fight the Earth Alliance, I will make a judgment after I investigate the information I couldn't see before.
"So, you must live. Live to see if I, Athrun Zala, can lead the Coordinators down the right path."
If Reid were here, he would surely be astonished by Athrun's current thoughts and would have wondered, Is the ability of GN Particles to foster mutual understanding really that powerful? After the first war, he had told Athrun countless times to go back and inherit the Zala Faction's influence, but the kid wouldn't budge, preferring to be an intelligence agent. This time, after being yelled at a couple of times and hearing some inner thoughts, he had an epiphany?
In truth, Reid's understanding of Athrun was mostly based on the anime he had watched in his past life. But the real Athrun, how could he be limited to just what was shown in the animation?
Moreover, what Reid had said to Athrun before wasn't entirely without effect. After this mental communication, Athrun realized that if he didn't consolidate the Zala Faction, there would inevitably always be Coordinators dissatisfied with the current PLANT government committing evil acts under the Zala Faction's name.
Therefore, Athrun felt he had to go back and plug this hole.
At the same time, after a year of experience as an intelligence agent, Athrun was well aware of the nature of Earth's various governments. After this incident, it was very likely that war would break out again. At that point, it would be extremely difficult for him to operate as an agent, and he would have absolutely no control over the war's direction. It would be better to return to his country and inherit the Zala Faction. That way, he could at least have a tangible influence on the war.
Athrun's words somewhat eased Saito's anger. At the very least, his shouting had awakened the Zala Faction's heir. So he said, "Young Master Athrun, my name is Saito. If you are willing to re-establish the Zala Faction, I am naturally willing to return to ZAFT and continue fighting the Earth Alliance."
Athrun had learned to be a bit cunning now. He didn't tell Saito that he would be sent to the New Misurugi Kingdom. Instead, he said, "You need to pay the price for your actions. But you can't die yet. Open the cockpit and come to my Mobile Suit's hand."
Saito hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he decided to stay alive to continue fighting the Earth Alliance. The image of the Ice Phoenix Gundam's "One-Sword Star Cut" had shattered his confidence. If there was one such Mobile Suit, there could be a second. The plan to drop the colony debris would probably not achieve its original goal.
So, Saito obediently climbed out of his Mobile Suit and onto the hand of the Red Dragon Gundam.
At this moment, Athrun spoke to Salya again. "Miss Salya, please take this Mobile Suit's cockpit and return to the ship. I want to test whether the mastermind behind this incident is observing this battlefield. This Mobile Suit could self-destruct at any moment, so please be careful."
Salya thought Athrun had a point, but she expressed that flying with a Mobile Suit that could self-destruct at any moment was a shitty task. She said, "You owe me one."
With that, she used her Mobile Suit's grappling hook, meant for docking with a ship, to pull up the body of the Mass-produced Prototype Zaku from the ground and flew directly toward the Mystic Angel.
Meanwhile, while Salya, Hilda, and Athrun were off capturing Saito...
Just as the GN Particle Mental Chat Room dissolved and the people in this space zone could no longer sense each other's emotions, Durandal tried calling Talia's name in his mind. He even tried saying a few sweet nothings from when they were dating. When the latter didn't react, he finally spoke with relief.
"What a magical experience, for people to be able to communicate directly mind-to-mind like that. If it could always be like this, many of the world's conflicts would never arise. By the way, were all those green, unknown particles recorded?"
As Durandal said this, everyone on the bridge, except for the helmsman and the radar operator, looked toward Meyrin Hawke at the CIC console.
The latter was visibly startled, but she reacted quickly. After a flurry of operations on her console, her expression relaxed, and she said, "Report, they have all been recorded. However, these particles can't be considered unknown. Identical particles have been observed before. They often appear during Miss Lacus's Diva Gundam concerts and seem to be able to induce spiritual resonance in people.
"Although this particle is unnamed, the PLANT research institute has discovered that it has properties similar to Minovsky Particles and speculates that it is a variant or improved version of them. This is because it has now been confirmed that Minovsky Particles do indeed react to human emotions."
When Meyrin stated the PLANT research institute's almost entirely incorrect conjecture, everyone present nodded in agreement.
It wouldn't be strange if this was something caused by Minovsky Particles. After all, the New Misurugi Kingdom's research on this particle was definitely ahead of the rest of the world, and their own science academy had already confirmed that the particle did indeed react to human psychic states.
Thus, Durandal recalled the image of the Ice Phoenix Gundam's "One-Sword Star Cut" and couldn't help but sigh with emotion. "It seems the Minovsky Particle still has considerable potential to be tapped. We have truly fallen too far behind."
However, at this moment, the Minerva's cameras captured a scene: the New Misurugi Kingdom's Gundam Eclipse was towing a Mass-produced Prototype Zaku toward the Mystic Angel, having clearly captured a pilot.
The CIC merely reported this as a matter of routine, not paying it much mind. After all, for an incident of this magnitude, capturing a few terrorists to take back was perfectly normal. A report was just to let their side know they could ask the New Misurugi Kingdom for intelligence on the terrorists later.
But as Durandal watched this scene, his eyes narrowed. This was one of the reasons he had to be present on the battlefield and had to replace all the true Zala Faction hardliners' Mobile Suits with PLANT-produced ones.
For the sake of his plan, none of these true Zala Faction hardliners could be left alive.
One had to know that all warships had a certain degree of signal-jamming capability. Once the Mobile Suit entered the Mystic Angel, it could become troublesome.
So, Durandal silently pressed his wrist down on the armrest of his chair, activating a device in his clothes that required several seconds of firm pressure to start.
When this device activated, the self-destruct sequence of all the Mass-produced Prototype Zakus on the Junius 7 battlefield with relatively intact cockpits was initiated, regardless of whether they could still fight. And it was an instantaneous self-destruct with no countdown.
If Athrun hadn't taken Saito away beforehand, this incident might have truly left no one to testify. Not even the Junk Guild's support personnel would have been able to find anything, and they would have had to settle for killing whoever was pushed out to take the blame just to vent their anger.
After doing all this, Durandal spoke again as if nothing had happened. "Alright, let's put the matter of the new particles aside for now. Talia, quickly contact the Mystic Angel to deal with the Junius 7 debris. While you're at it, ask Queen Angelise how long it takes before she can use that attack again. The Junius 7 debris is still too large."
Hearing Durandal say this, Talia could only swallow the question she wanted to ask about whether that Mass-produced Prototype Zaku had been shot down. She then connected to the Mystic Angel and asked, "Captain Bargiruel, the Junius 7 debris has now broken into multiple pieces. I suggest we first deal with the quarter-sized piece. Our firepower is sufficient to destroy it before it enters Earth's atmosphere.
"The half-sized piece is still too large. Please ask Queen Angelise to launch that attack again. We must reduce its size before we have any chance of destroying it."
However, this time, it wasn't Bargiruel who answered Talia, but Reid's voice.
"Captain Talia, my apologies, but Her Majesty Angelise just used a system beyond its limits, one that I have forbidden her from using casually.
"A system of such power has side effects. I have now remotely locked it, so Her Majesty can no longer use it.
"As for the fragments of Junius 7, the medium-sized one will be dealt with as you said. The two smaller ones will be handled by our forces returning to the area. As for the large one, I will handle it personally."
Just as Reid finished speaking, Meyrin reported, "Radar has detected a large number of Mobile Suit signatures! It's the New Misurugi Kingdom's MS! Reinforcements have arrived! Huh? The Hermes Zero is behind our ship..."
That's right. The commotion from Ange using the Twin Furnace Trans-Am was so great that Reid had naturally been able to directly order the Xia sisters and the Black Tri-Stars unit, who had already returned to Earth's orbit, to divert half their forces to support the location of the particles.
The Xia sisters and the five members of the Black Tri-Stars, along with the remaining half of the forces, continued to hold their position in geosynchronous orbit, destroying as many of the metal meteorites falling in other areas as possible.
While en route, Reid had already received good news from the other debris sites.
The remains of the Yggdrasil Fortress and the Heliopolis Remains had both been destroyed.
However, both pieces of debris were destroyed after being captured by Earth's gravity, so a large number of fragments of various sizes were falling toward Earth.
Although both units did their best to destroy these fragments, many still slipped through the net. All they could say was that they had managed to break up all the larger pieces a second time.
Therefore, people had to remain in Earth's orbit to continue intercepting the fragments. Otherwise, while Earth might not face a mass extinction, its surface would certainly experience a massive meteor shower in the physical sense.
As for Reid himself, he pushed the Hermes Zero's thrusters to their maximum. With his piloting skills already at the master level, Reid could rely on his immense Psychic Power to maneuver the Hermes Zero at extremely high speeds in a dense asteroid environment. Thus, he quickly arrived at the Junius 7 debris and overheard Captain Talia's words.
Reid figured that asking Ange to use Trans-Am again was clearly a probe to test the weapon's cooldown time. Reid didn't believe Captain Talia was unaware that such a weapon couldn't be fired consecutively.
So, Reid directly bluffed that the system had side effects and that he had locked it.
And to make the act complete, he even had Ange return to the ship. In any case, the firepower of the Ice Phoenix Gundam was no longer critical for the upcoming operation.
At this time, Ange wasn't the only one retreating.
When the Ice Phoenix Gundam performed its "One-Sword Star Cut," Neo Roanoke had already told the new three young aces to retreat immediately. He wasn't sure if this Queen Angelise would casually slice up "allies" like them, who could also be considered terrorists.
When the New Misurugi Kingdom's forces and the Hermes Zero were detected on radar, Neo Roanoke had his Gadi Ru-class battleship flee even faster.
Neo Roanoke felt that this was not the place for him to meet Reid Isaac. The disparity in military strength between their two sides was too great at this moment; he had no chance of winning if a fight broke out.
Reid had actually noticed the Phantom Pain unit's Gadi Ru-class battleship was already making a run for it when he arrived.
Although Reid's sixth sense told him there seemed to be something extraordinary on that Gadi Ru-class battleship, the more important matter at hand was clearly dealing with the remaining debris of Junius 7.
So, Reid suppressed the strange feeling in his heart and pretended not to see the Gadi Ru-class battleship.
In any case, this Phantom Pain unit would have plenty of fights with the Minerva later on. Finding them again would be relatively easy.