The surprise attack in the Bering Strait ultimately concluded with the complete destruction of the Eurasian communication optical cables, both data processors, and the total leveling of the Atlantic Federation's surface base.
The New Misurugi Kingdom's losses in this battle were limited to the Archangel sustaining moderate damage, requiring extensive repairs to its outer armor. Consequently, after evading pursuit in the Bering Strait, the vessel had to surface and seek an island for emergency repairs, forcing it to continue its journey on the water's surface.
Nevertheless, the New Misurugi Kingdom had already secured victory in the first round of the Pacific naval war against the Atlantic Federation.
With the Atlantic Federation's base in the Polynesian Islands breached by the New Misurugi Kingdom and the threat from ZAFT along the South American coast, Atlantic Federation forces retreated all the way to their base in the Hawaiian Islands.
Meanwhile, the East Asian Republic, witnessing the Atlantic Federation's defeat in less than half a month, decisively advanced its forces gathered in the East and South China Seas, establishing defenses along the Tokyo–Ōsumi Strait–Manila line.
Why could the East Asian Republic set up defenses in Manila, which belongs to the Equatorial Union?
The answer is simple: the Equatorial Union consented. In the current global climate, weaker nations often lack the autonomy to dictate such matters.
Moreover, the East Asian Republic's garrison troops adhered to regulations, refraining from harassing local residents, and their military personnel's spending even stimulated the local economy—a potential boon for the area. Thus, the Equatorial Union turned a blind eye to the East Asian Republic's military presence, opting to endure it.
Naturally, Mina, commander of the New Misurugi Kingdom's Western Theater, seized the opportunity without hesitation. By offering financial incentives and benefits, she secured the Equatorial Union's agreement to lease the Jakarta–Melekeok line for New Misurugi Kingdom garrison troops, positioning them opposite the East Asian Republic's forces.
From a strategic map perspective, it appeared as though the East Asian Republic and the New Misurugi Kingdom had partitioned the Equatorial Union, or at the very least, were using its territory as a battleground.
In reality, while minor skirmishes were frequent, full-scale conflict never erupted. Tensions ran high, yet both sides maintained an unspoken understanding.
Of course, the truth was that neither nation prioritized this front in their war efforts.
The East Asian Republic knew that further advancement would invite beam attacks from the orbiting Balki Fortress, making it unwise to engage the New Misurugi Kingdom under such a threat.
With the Atlantic Federation faltering and unable to form a pincer attack, the East Asian Republic saw no need to do more than maintain appearances.
Currently, the East Asian Republic's main forces were shifting toward the Middle East, as the Eurasian Federation—cut off from the region by the New Misurugi Kingdom—was being pummeled by ZAFT.
As the East Asian Republic moved eastward, the New Misurugi Kingdom advanced north.
Une had already devised a strategy: first, eliminate the Atlantic Federation's Pacific forces to sever ties between the East Asian Republic and the Atlantic Federation, then directly threaten the latter's homeland.
Thus, after concluding the first round of the Pacific War, the New Misurugi Kingdom's naval forces, under Noin's command, pressed on without pause toward the Hawaiian Islands.
As for Reid, he had already quietly taken the Gran Chaos into space, with their destination being the Daedalus Base on the far side of the Moon.
The original work mentioned that Djibril fled to Daedalus Base just as the Requiem was completed, but now the course of the Second War has little to do with the original storyline.
Although such a superweapon as the Requiem, even if already built, would not be deployed by the Atlantic Federation at the very start of the war, Reid had no intention of leaving the Sword of Damocles hanging over his head.
Thus, Reid decided to personally deal with the Requiem, bringing the Xia sisters, Flay, Lacus, and Kira with him into space.
Don't misunderstand—Lacus and Kira weren't brought along to help Reid fight.
Kira currently had no reason to participate in this war. Reid had Lacus take Kira to the D.S.S.D. research institute to await the completion of the Luminous Pursuer Propulsion System.
Since the D.S.S.D. research institute was a neutral organization, Reid claimed he had received intelligence that it would be attacked and asked Lacus to take Kira there for protection. Naturally, Kira couldn't refuse.
To be precise, Reid directly placed Miriallia on Lacus's ship under the pretext of conducting an exclusive interview on the birth of new technology, leaving Kira with no room to refuse.
So Kira had no choice but to go with Lacus.
As for Lacus herself, Reid had already "devoured" this enchantress, so he felt at ease letting her go out and help him secure his assets.
Reid himself, along with the Xia sisters and Flay, boarded the Gran Chaos and traveled cloaked all the way to the Moon.
As the queen, Ange naturally had to guard the homeland. For this Battle of Hawaii Island, the remaining ace-level MS pilots available for Noin to deploy were Salya, Hilda, Mu, and Jane Houston (who could also rank among aces in naval battles).
However, before leaving, Reid had prepared new Mobile Suits for Mu and Jane Houston to use in this war.
The Mobile Suit prepared for Mu was a new Gundam tailored to his high-altitude recognition ability, and with a rather twisted sense of humor, Reid named it the Son God Gundam, inspired by Creuset's Providence Gundam.
Of course, Reid wasn't just naming it arbitrarily. The most critical system of this machine was the Dragon Machine Soldier System, which combined the Mobile Doll and Dragoon systems.
The Son God Gundam utilized a Detachable Mobile Frame, allowing interfaces to be installed across the entire body.
The main power source was a Pseudo GN Drive, but the entire machine was equipped with a total of seven CE Black Technology Batteries (one standard type and six small ones).
Thus, Reid armed the machine with six small drone turrets that could also function as Funnels (as shown in the image below).
Each of these six Funnel drones was equipped with an independent CE Black Technology Battery and a small GN Capacitor, ensuring long operational endurance and the ability to hover directly in atmospheric environments.
Naturally, since Reid had outfitted the Funnel drones with black-tech batteries, their armament was exceptionally powerful.
The design concept for these drones was derived from the Iron Ball, so Reid directly installed a CE Version VSBR on the "forehead." Even if an enemy Mobile Suit had a Beam Shield, taking all six beams would result in shield penetration and destruction.
Moreover, this VSBR cannon could rotate 360 degrees, providing an extensive attack range once deployed.
As for the two small arms below, Reid equipped them with Plasma Beam Chainsaws.
As the name suggests, this chainsaw is essentially a physical chainsaw enhanced with high-energy plasma.
With this weapon, the anti-electron shields of large mobile armors become as fragile as paper, while ensuring the underwater combat drones won't become mere liabilities.
However, to control these drones, Reid equipped Mu's mobile suit with the still-experimental second generation Psycommu system (Reid's main squad uses fourth generation, while the Joyeuse Gundam uses fifth generation).
Given Mu's current state of being on the verge of Newtype evolution, he should have no problem mastering this system.
As for the other equipment on this mobile suit besides this system, they're relatively standard.
The armor uses Gundarium Alloy γ obtained after Reid captured the F91, combined with full-body anti-beam coating.
With the enhancement of GN Particles, the bare armor can definitely withstand one shot from Zamza-zah's M534 'Gamzatov' Multiple-Arrayed Phase Energy Cannon.
Of course, this alone wasn't sufficient, so Reid also equipped this Son God Gundam with the same anti-beam laminated armor shield used by the Freedom Gundam.
The reason for not equipping a beam shield here is that the GN-T Drive has limited energy, which must be prioritized for the mobile suit and floating drones' levitation.
Six of the Son God Gundam's seven batteries are designed to detach from the main body, leaving the single battery in the main unit to power weapons, propulsion, and potentially a beam shield - which would stretch its capacity too thin.
For the same reason, the Son God Gundam's left-hand primary weapon is only a high-energy beam rifle with a grenade launcher. The remaining armaments, besides the head vulcan guns, consist of just a standard beam saber and a GN short blade stored in the calf compartments on both sides.
It could be said that if Reid had applied all his experimental technology, this Gundam could have reached Tier 1 status within the team.
But since Mu hadn't been recruited by Reid, Reid didn't equip it with much experimental technology, holding back more than just a few capabilities.
This resulted in the mobile suit being at most on par with the Destiny currently under development by ZAFT, inferior to the mobile suits used by Reid's interdimensional assault team.
Although this mobile suit has decent endurance, it has extremely high charging requirements. Without acquiring PLANT's deuterium beam power supply system, the mobile suit cannot perform missions far from the mothership.
Of course, Mu doesn't know how much experimental technology Reid could have installed but ultimately didn't during the mobile suit's construction.
After receiving the mobile suit, Mu has been having great fun with it. These six floating drones all have independent cameras, and when their GN capacitor particles are depleted, they can even camouflage themselves by lying on the ground - making them excellent tools for spying.
Unfortunately, since he's currently stationed on the flagship Mystic Angel, any misconduct would definitely land him in the brig under his direct superior Bargiruel.
As for Mu's current girlfriend Jane Houston, she's currently in the phase of prioritizing mobile suits over boyfriends.
The mobile suit Reid assigned to Jane Houston was modeled after the Giraga's appearance, named Azure Giraga.
Of course, similar to the High War Crab, although Reid referenced the Giraga's appearance for the mobile suit's design, it actually has no relation to the Giraga.
For the frame, Reid used the combat skeleton from the Gundam Epyon.
Regarding armor, considering that underwater combat primarily involves projectile weapons, Reid implemented VPS armor.
In terms of power, Reid utilized a combination of an AC Nuclear Fusion Reactor and a Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactor, though externally he only claimed to use the Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactor. Additionally, the AC Nuclear Fusion Reactor was equipped with an extra detonation device.
As long as the mobile suit wasn't completely disassembled, no one would ever discover it had two power sources.
The reason for adopting a dual-power system was that Reid, inspired by the Strike Freedom and Infinite Justice, replaced both the outer armor and internal frame entirely with separate Phase Shift Armor materials.
Moreover, this mobile suit incorporated a miniaturized Minovsky Flight System and was designed to utilize beam weapons underwater.
These systems were extreme energy consumers. If it relied solely on a Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactor, even one from a century later in the U.C. era, it wouldn't be able to sustain them.
However, with the addition of the AC Nuclear Fusion Reactor, the mobile suit's power output became excessive, allowing for reckless energy expenditure.
As a result, the VPS Armor of this Azure Giraga could amplify the mobile suit's voltage to the point where the Phase Shift Armor exhibited a blue-black hue, making it impervious to anything less than a high-energy beam rifle.
Furthermore, Reid equipped beam shields on both of the mobile suit's arm guards, maximizing its defensive capabilities.
In terms of armament, the primary weapon was a detachable double-ended beam spear.
When configured as a double-ended spear, it could fire a compressed beam from one end with power comparable to a beam sniper rifle, though its firing rate was very slow. Essentially, after firing both ends, it couldn't launch a second round of attacks within a minute.
Naturally, both the beam spear and the compressed beams it fired could be used underwater.
To compensate for its lack of long-range capability in non-aquatic combat, the chest housed a MEGA Particle Diffusion Cannon, though this cannon couldn't be used underwater.
Due to the chest being occupied by the MEGA Particle Diffusion Cannon, the cockpit was located in the head, which could detach and fly independently as an escape pod, similar to the head of the Zeong.
On either side of the head were two small electromagnetic cannons, capable of intercepting torpedoes underwater or serving as armament for the escape pod.
The waist featured two hardpoints for mounting triple-purpose multi-role missile launchers that could fire torpedoes.
Of course, the tail wasn't just for show—it was the High Energy Electro-Thermal Whip from the Gundam Epyon.
However, Reid added an electric discharge function to the whip, delivering an unexpected "electrotherapy" surprise to enemies observing the mobile suit underwater (the Azure Giraga naturally had built-in protection against electric shocks).
Finally, the mobile suit's joints and the protrusions on its shoulders were designed as cutting blades, with the shoulder armor blades being removable for use as knives. These weapons came in handy when enemies closed in and the beam spear became impractical.
In summary, the Azure Giraga was a close-combat mobile suit with formidable power and exceptionally high defense.
When Mu saw the power parameters of the Azure Giraga, he briefly wondered if Reid had some form of gender discrimination.
Why did the Azure Giraga have more than double the output of his own Son God Gundam?
However, upon learning that the mobile suit, due to its extensive use of Phase Shift Armor and various armaments, had a fully loaded weight approaching 100 tons—and considering it could both fly and maneuver agilely underwater—it made sense that such high output was necessary.
In reality, the Azure Giraga's performance was indeed slightly superior to the Son God Gundam, though not to the extent of a generational gap, roughly matching the level of the Strike Freedom and Infinite Justice.
If this Mobile Suit were in Athrun's hands, his combat power would be directly comparable to when he piloted the Infinite Justice.
The reason Reid assigned Jane Houston a Mobile Suit with better performance than Mu's is primarily because she's too incompetent.
Her capabilities barely reach the level of a top-tier ace in underwater combat—that's essentially Jane Houston's limit.
In aerial and ground operations, Jane Houston only meets the standard of an ordinary Natural ace. Against super aces like Kira or Athrun, she'd be utterly crushed.
Because her personal skills are mediocre, Reid specifically enhanced the Mobile Suit's defensive capabilities.
Moreover, the Mobile Suit is equipped with a fail-safe. Reid isn't worried about Jane Houston suddenly defecting back to the Atlantic Federation.
The self-destruct control lies with Noin. If Jane Houston dares to betray them, once the Mobile Suit enters the Hawaiian Islands base, it will instantly transform into a hydrogen bomb, blowing the entire base sky-high.
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