In A.C. 195, OZ's campaign against Libra was considered complete once Reid had recovered all the Virgo IIs from the battlefield.
It turned out that Reid's decision to keep the Eternal Peace was correct. The Virgo IIs were relatively bulky, so a single Gran Chaos couldn't hold over a thousand of them. It wasn't until the Eternal Peace's hangar was nearly full that all the relatively intact Virgo IIs on the battlefield were recovered.
In the end, including those Mobile Suits that could be repaired and reused with only their head controllers destroyed, Reid recovered over 1,200 Virgo IIs.
After finishing the task, Reid had the Gran Chaos tow the Eternal Peace back to the CE universe in full view of everyone.
Fortunately, the original Gran Chaos and Eternal Peace in the AC universe were both capable of stealth, so this time, no one thought it was another supernatural incident. They simply assumed Reid's mysterious unit had left under stealth.
However, how this timeline in the AC universe would develop afterward was something Reid couldn't know for now. He could only wait until he became a system administrator in the future to look back.
Upon returning to the CE universe, Reid disbanded the team as usual and had Hoshino Ruri and Nein work overtime to redesign an Automatic Machine Soldier System for the Virgo IIs.
After arranging for the native Military Factory to repair the Eternal Peace and the damaged Virgo IIs, Reid headed into the Factory Module.
After feeding the Wing Zero Gundam and a randomly selected Virgo II into the Factory Module, Reid proceeded to review the gains from this operation as usual.
He skipped over the large amount of G-Coins and 360 Merit Points.
After all, G-Coins were just numbers to Reid now—as long as he wasn't short, it was fine. As for Merit Points, he would consider what to draw once he accumulated a thousand. Currently, whether it was personnel or technology, B-grade items no longer provided significant improvements to Reid's forces.
After skipping these two, the next items were skill drops, which were the biggest gain from this campaign aside from the Virgo IIs.
Since he had essentially wiped out both sides of the final battle, Reid's drops this time were quite good.
The first five skills: Meteor Operation (when in a 1v1 battle, enemy vulnerability increases by 10%, ally vulnerability decreases by 10%) ×3; Fortitude (Defense +60, wielder's physical impact resistance greatly enhanced) ×1; Reaper (attacks are more likely to trigger weapon or reactor detonations) ×1.
The first five skills were dropped by the five members of the Meteor Operation. Perhaps because it was the final battle, all five dropped their most practical skills.
Fortitude and Reaper need no explanation—the former enhances physical attributes, while the latter likely contributed to Reid's ability to destroy shields with high-powered attacks every time.
As for Meteor Operation, there was no such thing as too many. Members of Reid's team often encountered situations where both sides' grunts would clear the way for ace duels, so skills for one-on-one combat were always welcome.
Following the skills from the five members was the skill Flash Count. Its effect: slightly increases the pilot's control over the Mobile Suit. Additionally, when the piloted Mobile Suit reaches Mach 1 in MS Mode while sprinting in an atmospheric environment, the Mobile Suit's mobility is multiplied by 1.5. System note: Increased mobility will simultaneously increase the G-forces the pilot must withstand.
This skill was clearly dropped by Milliardo Peacecraft. Like Char's Red Comet, it has significant effects accompanied by side effects.
However, while Red Comet increases mobility attributes and the pilot's G-force tolerance, its greatest effect is as an active skill.
But Lightning Count is different—his skill is passive. That means as long as you're piloting a Mobile Suit capable of reaching Mach 1 in MS Mode within atmospheric conditions, the mobility ×1.5 effect activates.
As for the slight increase in pilot control over the Mobile Suit, it's a god-tier skill for MS pilots who manually operate their units, but for Reid's side, which primarily relies on Psycommu System psychic control, this effect becomes somewhat redundant.
Nevertheless, the mobility ×1.5 effect was enough to convince Reid to equip the skill immediately. After all, the GN Field could effectively offset G-forces—not just 1.5 times, but even double would be manageable.
Moreover, with Reid's current physical capabilities, which could overpower Ange, as long as the G-forces remained within human endurance limits, he would certainly handle it.
After Milliardo's skill came those dropped by supporting characters.
Endurance Heart (increases the user's emotional threshold)—this skill came from Dorothy Catalonia. In simpler terms, it raises psychological tolerance, making one less prone to breaking down.
Frankly, Reid was somewhat surprised this skill came from Dorothy Catalonia, a woman with more than a few screws loose. Could this be a mutation resulting from her personality split after losing both parents to the ravages of war?
Still, the skill was useful, so Reid decided to equip it on Stella.
This skill would likely alleviate Stella's psychological condition—like a wounded animal, she was prone to fear-induced rampages at the slightest provocation.
It was worth noting that most of this girl's issues had already been treated, yet she remained timid. Without a familiar companion, she absolutely refused to venture outside the Royal Palace into crowded areas, which wasn't conducive to her future integration into society.
After Dorothy Catalonia's skill, the next one was dropped by that universe's Noin.
Instructor (Command +30, increases soldier growth speed by 20% during training)
Honestly, this skill truly reflected Noin's style. Although the Noin in Reid's team didn't have this skill in her repertoire, she indeed trained troops quickly and effectively.
Thus, this skill was directly equipped on Noin—fitting the original to its source.
Thinking of Noin, Reid realized she had been stationed on Hawaii Island for quite some time. He should probably go check on her.
After that, there were no more skills. After all, other supporting characters on both sides were either doctors or pure politicians who simply didn't drop skills.
As for the OZ grunts piloting Space Leos, clearly none among them were significant enough supporting characters to drop skills.
If anyone's skill was missing, it was Treize's.
After a brief thought, Reid guessed he had likely already left the Libra Ship after swapping Mobile Suits with Heero. Since he hadn't died and couldn't be considered defeated, no skill dropped.
Fortunately, this wasn't a big issue. Given Treize's abilities, he would probably drop skills related to dueling or leadership—certainly decent in quality, but unlikely to reach god-tier levels.
Since Code Amelias's squad didn't appear this time, there were no additional technological drops. Thus, the gains from the G Invasion ended here.
However, this time the gains were substantial enough that even the initial digestion of the results would take the New Misurugi Kingdom nearly half a month (accounting for the time needed for Mobile Suit and ship repairs).
Of course, Reid wasn't idle during this half-month.
First, Reid visited Noin on Hawaii Island, equipped her with skills, and took the opportunity to boost the morale of the troops.
On his return, Reid also brought back the crew of the Archangel. After some rest, they would accompany him on a mission to Europe.
As for Reid himself, after returning from Hawaii Island, he entered a secluded mode of work.
The construction of Tekkadan's new Mobile Suits, the modification of the Luminous Transmitter System into the Halo Propulsion System to provide high-speed bursts of energy for Mobile Suits—there was a pile of tasks waiting for him.
Fortunately, with the Factory Module, these tasks wouldn't actually take too much time and could be completed within half a month.
However, Reid was quite troubled by the question of how to stir things up in Europe to help ZAFT advance into the continent.
Judging from the battles of the past half-month, it was unrealistic to expect ZAFT to break through the Suez Canal on its own. The Minerva, leading reinforcements for the ZAFT forces in North Africa, had launched several offensives, all of which were repelled by the combined forces of the East Asian Republic and the Eurasian Federation. The situation had now returned to a stalemate and rest phase.
It was said that ZAFT headquarters in PLANT could no longer tolerate the situation at the Suez Canal and had been contacting Andrew Waltfeld recently, hoping that this "Desert Tiger" would return to the military and once again take command of the North African forces.
Unfortunately, Andrew Waltfeld was now essentially a retainer of Lacus. With Lacus's heart and body already claimed by Reid, he was effectively under Reid's command.
Moreover, Andrew remembered the favor Reid had done by restoring his eyes and severed limbs, so he explicitly informed PLANT that he would not return.
In fact, Reid was now considering whether to have Andrew Waltfeld pretend to return to ZAFT. The current frontline commander for ZAFT in the Suez area was Talia Gladys. The previous commander had been eliminated by the East Asian Republic in a decapitation strike.
With Talia Gladys's command abilities, leading a small fleet might still be commendable, but commanding an entire theater, especially one involving unfamiliar ground warfare against the East Asian Republic—a nation with fully developed land combat skills—was truly asking too much of her.
It could be said that the fact ZAFT was still able to hold the Suez Canal front without collapsing was already a testament to the experience Talia Gladys had accumulated on the South American battlefield and her growth in ability.
Given that direct involvement in the Suez Canal conflict was entirely inadvisable, figuring out how to help ZAFT logically advance into Europe was genuinely giving Reid a headache.
However, Reid didn't actually suffer from this headache for long, because a turning point came to him on its own.
One ordinary afternoon, Reid was gathered with a group of senior officers, simulating the war situations at Suez and in Europe, trying to figure out how to ensure the Eurasian Federation would obediently stay in Europe and not meddle in the Atlantic Federation's affairs.
Suddenly, Reid's private phone rang with a call from Lacus. She said a guest wanted to meet him and that he needed to go to Orb for a discussion.
Lacus had been part of Reid's harem for some time now, but she never involved herself in the politics of the New Misurugi Kingdom. Her daily work consisted of covertly managing the operations of her International Rescue Team.
The fact that Lacus could make a personal call to Reid during his office hours instantly made Reid guess that someone from PLANT had arrived.
Given the current situation in the CE Universe, every communication between the New Misurugi Kingdom and PLANT was closely monitored by the Earth Alliance Three Nations. Any movement of military forces following such exchanges would immediately heighten their vigilance. That was precisely why PLANT had chosen to go through Lacus's channel.
However, since they could reach out through Lacus and were heading to Orb, Reid already had a guess as to who the visitor might be.
Sure enough, after secretly arriving in Orb that evening, Reid met Athrun in casual clothes at the private residence of the Athha family.
One could only say this was exactly the kind of thing Cagalli would do. After all, Athrun was currently the highest-ranking military commander of ZAFT in Armory City, located in the L4 Colony Cluster. Though he still wore the White Uniform, he was practically the designated next Defense Committee member in the upcoming council.
As the current Prime Minister of Orb, Cagalli had directly brought PLANT's quasi-Defense Committee member into her private residence. It could be said that her political sensitivity was completely nonexistent.
If Reid weren't the actual controller of the New Misurugi Kingdom, seeing the Prime Minister of what was essentially a vassal state pulling such a stunt would likely have led to an immediate purge of Orb's political circles.
Of course, this was probably also because Cagalli was certain Reid wouldn't mind Athrun's involvement with her, so she went ahead with it openly.
Still, the less politically sensitive Cagalli was, the more at ease Reid felt. It seemed that without the lesson from the Yuna Roma Seiran incident, it would take a long time for this girl to transform into the Cagalli with some political acumen seen in the movie version.
So, Reid didn't stand on ceremony either. After entering, he acted as if he were visiting a close friend's home, pulling out a chair and sitting down without hesitation. He teased,
"Athrun, I knew it was you. But how did you get from the L4 Colony Cluster to Orb? Don't tell me ZAFT kicked you out of the military again, and you had no choice but to seek refuge with Cagalli, planning to live off her from now on."
Reid was, of course, joking. The situation in the L4 Colony Cluster was the opposite of the Suez Canal conflict—it was the East Asian Republic that had launched multiple offensives against Armory City, only to be repelled each time by Athrun's forces.
In the end, the East Asian Republic simply couldn't sustain the attrition against ZAFT's defenders, who had the entire PLANT military-industrial complex directly supplying their logistics, and had to retreat to their own territory, settling into a stalemate.
Athrun was already used to Reid's way of speaking. Moreover, by opening with such a friendly, joking tone, Reid was subtly expressing that he didn't mind Athrun coming to Orb and staying at Cagalli's place.
So, Athrun simply smiled and replied,
"Kicked out of the military? Not exactly. In fact, I've been promoted. From now on, I'll be operating on Earth as the overall commander of ZAFT's Earth Forces for North Africa and Europe."
Hearing this, Reid frowned slightly and immediately pointed out the most critical issue.
"Promoted? More like a promotion in name but a demotion in reality. You had complete control over Armory City, and now they're transferring you to ZAFT's Earth Forces in an unfamiliar region, and one that's been consistently losing battles at that. Sounds like the higher-ups are setting you up. By the way, who's taking over your position in Armory City? I haven't received any news about that yet."
Athrun clearly already knew the intricacies behind the situation, so he calmly replied:
"Although the official orders haven't come down yet, I heard that someone named Orphee Lam Tao will be taking my position at Armory One.
But I'm not worried about that—Yzak is keeping an eye on things there.
Moreover, after returning to ZAFT this time, I learned that the legacy my father left me is far greater than I imagined.
The deputy commander of ZAFT's Earth Forces in North Africa and the commander of Gibraltar Base are both officers who were mentored by my father. So, I don't have to worry about command issues when I go there."
In ZAFT, military ranks are generally distinguished by the color of the uniform.
From highest to lowest: Purple Uniform/White Uniform/Black Uniform/Red Uniform/Green Uniform.
Typically, Purple Uniforms are for Supreme Council Defense Committee members (or the chairman), White Uniforms are for unit commanders and ship captains, and Black Uniforms are for base commanders and (deputy) ship captains.
Depending on the position, there are cases where the authority of White and Black Uniforms can be reversed, specifically referring to situations where a Black Uniform position holds greater authority than a White Uniform one.
Special insignias can also serve as rank distinctions, such as FAITH.
(End of Chapter)