Because their main base had been struck several times by Wang Hu from the East Asian Alliance, people were now running around everywhere outside putting out fires.
This kind of incident was essentially a direct slap in the face—repeatedly striking both cheeks.
Patrick's face had darkened to the point of resembling charcoal, his oppressive aura so heavy that those around him dared not even breathe loudly.
The silence was broken by a new attendant. As for where the previous attendant had gone,
no one present knew, nor did they want to know.
They were simply grateful that the new attendant had helped break the funeral-like atmosphere in the room.
"That Lacus wants to see me? And she was intercepted halfway by Captain Balthلد?"
Patrick couldn't hide his astonishment, his expression shifting to reveal both surprise and delight.
Earlier today, that Lacus had made a baffling phone call, and now she was coming to see him in person?
Compared to external enemies like the Allied Forces, the hardline internal opposition faction was his real heartache.
As the saying goes, one must secure the home front before resisting foreign threats. If he exhausted all efforts to finally deal with the Naturals,
only to have the Clyne Faction stage an internal coup during the next election,
Patrick thought, wouldn't he become the ultimate fool by then?
"Hurry!"
Instantly forgetting the earlier humiliation from the East Asian Alliance, Patrick stood up and waved his hand rapidly.
"Have Lacus brought in immediately."
"Yes!"
Mindful of his predecessor's unfortunate fate, the new attendant watched his mercurial leader with trepidation, but felt relieved at this response.
After acknowledging the order, he turned to leave.
"Increase security! Ensure Lacus's safety at all costs, and don't let her escape again!"
Patrick urgently added another instruction just as he was leaving.
"Yes!"
Swiveling around quickly, the attendant bowed respectfully to Patrick before retreating backwards this time,
in case the Chairman had further orders.
However, Patrick ultimately said nothing more before the attendant departed.
"Congratulations, Mr. Chairman."
Once the attendant left, the previously silent officials immediately revived, with someone offering flattering words.
"Hmph."
Patrick showed no appreciation for these sycophants.
He turned to look at Ezalia, the evergreen of PLANT's political arena, carefully observing whether her expression had changed.
Though he initially wanted to say something, Patrick swallowed his words at the last moment.
Placing his clenched fists on the broad oak desk before him, Patrick felt that at this moment of impending total victory over the Clyne Faction,
sometimes willful ignorance wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
Assuming his most imposing manner, Patrick quietly awaited the only daughter of his deceased old friend.
"Lacus Clyne."
Soon, under Captain Balthلد's escort, Lacus appeared before Patrick.
When he saw the locally renowned and highly popular diva, Patrick completely ignored the Desert Tiger standing beside her and spoke with an imposing authority.
"I am glad you have seen the error of your ways and realized your mistakes, choosing not to continue down that path of irreversible sin."
Having uttered these words, Patrick was quite pleased with his performance.
Hmm, reasonable and justified without kicking someone when they're down—it maintained his dignity while subtly defining the nature of the Clyne Faction.
Perfect!
Having rarely changed his tactics and successfully played a hand of political understanding, Patrick couldn't help but feel like giving himself a pat on the back.
However, Lacus, whom Patrick had assumed was here to surrender, showed no appreciation and immediately spoke up, slapping the enthusiastic chairman's face.
"The path of the Clyne Faction is not one of irreversible sin. In fact, I have always believed that my father's choices are the only way for all Coordinators to embrace a hopeful future."
As soon as she finished speaking, Patrick's face darkened instantly.
The atmosphere in the room froze immediately, and the officials present held their breath, not daring to make a sound.
I didn't hear anything, I heard nothing at all.
This was the attitude of most officials, with some even looking for excuses to flee the office!
"The Clyne Faction's path is the correct one?"
Lowering his voice, Patrick's words dripped with coldness.
"Groveling before those Naturals? Grateful for the scraps they throw us when they're in a good mood?"
"Lacus, your way of thinking is wrong!"We Coordinators are the future of humanity, while those Naturals are nothing but failures destined to be eliminated by history!""
Suddenly standing up, Patrick waved his arms wildly, passionately preaching his ideology of Coordinator supremacy.
Perhaps because there were no outsiders present, as he spoke, Patrick grew increasingly agitated and even began mentioning the purge of Naturals.
"If Coordinators, who might face self-extinction after a few generations without Naturals, how can they be called the future?"
Seeing Patrick's words growing more and more outrageous, Lacus did not back down and interrupted his impassioned speech with this statement.
Faced with this same question his old friend had once used to challenge him, Patrick was momentarily speechless.
Regarding the issue of Coordinators' offspring deteriorating over generations, even with the implementation of the Compulsory Marriage Law in PLANT, it has never been completely resolved.
"Technology will advance, and the problem will be alleviated and improved."Both being intelligent individuals, Patrick could not argue this point and resorted to delaying tactics, shifting the focus back to accusations against the Clyne Faction, hoping to gloss over the issue."
"Handing over the Freedom Gundam equipped with an Anti-Neutron Jammer to the Naturals—
is this what you call the correct path of the Clyne Faction?"
This accusation is indeed the sharpest spear the Sara Faction currently uses against the Clyne Faction.
In the PLANT satellite cluster, when supporters of the Sara Faction and the Clyne Faction engage in debates,
if the Sara Faction finds themselves at a disadvantage in the argument, they only need to raise this issue,
and the Clyne Faction typically falls silent—even if ordinary people are unaware that the Freedom Gundam is equipped with an Anti-Neutron Jammer.
However, from a logical standpoint, helping Naturals steal the most advanced Mobile Suit developed by their own side was an indefensible scandal.
"For peace."
While this question would be more than enough to challenge ordinary members of the Clyne Faction, it fell far short when used against Lacus.
Facing Patrick Zala's accusation, Lacus straightened her posture, placed her hands in front of her, and with her aura steadily rising, she offered this answer.
"For peace?"
Repeating Lacus's response, Patrick was utterly bewildered, wondering if he had misheard.
You helped the enemy steal such a crucial machine, which might very well break—no, would inevitably break—the seal that Coordinators had painstakingly imposed on the Naturals.
And now you tell me it was for peace?
Currently, Coordinators and Naturals are at each other's throats, their blood feud so deep that not all the waters of the oceans could wash it away.
Peace? What peace?
Taking a step forward, Lacus didn't wait for Patrick to gather his thoughts and mock her. Her clear, cold, yet persuasive voice echoed through the office.
"Precisely because the prejudice between us and the Naturals grows deeper, someone must take the first step to allow both sides to reach understanding."
"By delivering the Freedom Gundam into the hands of the East Asian Federation, who also yearn for peace, we are demonstrating our sincerity."
"And extending an invitation—for them to feel our goodwill and engage with us to bridge our differences."
"Sometimes, the first step is the hardest, so hard that it leaves many unable to comprehend and filled with fear."
"But precisely because it is immensely difficult, someone must make sacrifices and courageously achieve this crucial step."
"With such a promising start, as long as we persevere and both sides hold onto their aspirations for peace,"
"Then a peaceful future will eventually descend upon this world."
It's that same old, tired rhetoric about hoping for peace, just like your deceased father.
Patrick had thought that with that bastard Clyne dead, he would never have to hear such clichés again.
Rubbing his throbbing temples, Patrick had to admit that her words held sway over some Coordinators in the Satellite Colonies.
Such self-sacrificing rhetoric easily stirred up fervor in those who didn't grasp the full picture.
But...
Scanning the people around him, Patrick slowly spoke up.
"If the Naturals use this opportunity to reactivate the Light of Peace, how will you take responsibility for that?"
"Have you seen what's happening in the PLANT capital now?"
"Are these the peace-seeking comrades you speak of?"
"The East Asian Alliance is attacking us—their Battleships are at our doorstep, their sabotage teams are recklessly destroying our city!"
"The Freedom Gundam has never appeared on the battlefield."
With a smile that could soothe anxious hearts, Lacus's voice flowed gently.
"And those destroying the city may not necessarily be from the East Asian Alliance."
Lacus's previous statement was a fact—the Freedom Gundam had indeed not appeared on the battlefield to this day.
The next statement was a complete lie told with eyes wide open, but Patrick had no solid evidence to prove it was indeed the East Asian Army's doing.
You say Wang Hu was piloting the Training ZINN? Well, I say he wasn't!
I need to see the person alive or the body dead.
I won't acknowledge empty words without proof!
And even if you manage to produce a few corpses, Lacus can easily wash her hands of the matter entirely.
PLANT has its radicals—can't the East Asian Federation have theirs too?
Everything they're doing is to undermine peace!
"You!"
When it came to eloquence, Patrick was no match for the late Clyne.
So he was even less capable of competing with Lacus, who had surpassed her master.
"Heh heh heh, of course you can say that, but soon enough you won't be able to deny it any longer."
"Where are the other members of the Clyne Faction?"
"Perhaps the next time we meet, after their prison break, they'll have established an exiled government on East Asian Alliance territory."
"I believe it's necessary to inform all our fellow Coordinators about this matter. By then, the ugly true face of your Clyne Faction will be fully exposed."
After all, Patrick was someone capable of rising to the chairman's seat. In a moment of quick thinking, he had dug up another potential scandal.
"No, we would never betray PLANT."
Lacus smiled faintly. The other key members of the Clyne Faction had already escaped from prison.
Naturally, they couldn't return, which was why she had come here.
The other members, who had been arranged in advance, would now follow the path she had prepared for herself.
That path involved uniting all third-party forces within the Earth Sphere, such as the junk dealers, to form a new power.
This force would then join the increasingly intense—and inevitably escalating—conflict.
"Hmm?"
Staring intently at the confident Lacus, Patrick's eyes flickered slightly, unable to figure out what new trick she was planning.
"The Eternal has been shot down by Yzak in his Red Uniform!"
Just as the stalemate continued, the tense atmosphere was broken once again when the previously lucky attendant pushed the door open and entered.
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