Chapter 200: The Struggling Anaheim
"That's... Anaheim's ship? What's it doing here?"
Near the lunar orbit, Eli entered the bridge in response to the secondary combat alert, eyeing the vessel information displayed on the screen with a hint of confusion.
It was an armed freighter. The White Chaser's database did indeed have a record of it.
But since the vessel had launched mobile suits, Paolo had prudently raised the alert level.
That said, Anaheim's name had become notoriously tarnished.
The Red Gallop falling into Yashima's hands had been a crushing blow to Anaheim.
Under Yashima's maneuvering, Anaheim had been forced to sacrifice Director O'Sullivan, who had committed suicide in his office.
And that was only the beginning.
Part of Anaheim's MS department had already been under the Federation's control. Because of the recent incident, Anaheim had to relinquish several batches of orders to Yashima in exchange for the Federation turning a blind eye to their culpability.
Of course, Anaheim's long-standing political donations and lobbying within the Federation Parliament played a role here.
If not for the rising influence of parliamentarians backed by Yashima, Anaheim might have gotten away with just sacrificing the unfortunate O'Sullivan.
Back to the present, Anaheim's sullied reputation made Eli naturally suspicious as he examined the armed freighter ahead. His first thought was whether they might be here to strike some shady deal with Zeon remnants.
"This is the Anaheim test team conducting confidential trials. Please clear the area."
From the MS units launched earlier, one flew over and broadcast this message on an open channel, circling just outside the anti-air perimeter.
It was a black GM.
Strictly speaking, it was an RGM-79Q Havoc Control Type GM.
A memorable model for Eli.
In his previous life, Eli had been quite fond of this GM variant and had even bought an MG model kit of it—only for a friend's child to snatch it during the New Year, never to be seen again.
Now that Anaheim had lost most of its orders, the Titans, ever opportunistic, approached them and used their independent funding to commission a custom mobile suit.
No doubt there was some under-the-table dealing going on, but on the surface, Anaheim was tremendously grateful for the Titans' timely "assistance," and the two quickly finalized this high-performance GM.
Furthermore, they seemed interested in deepening their cooperation.
This test flight was likely evidence of that intent.
"Titans, huh? Well, at least that rules out any dealings with Zeon remnants."
Eli thought to himself with mild disappointment.
Had the Titans not been backing this armed freighter, Eli might've invoked A.N.T.'s authority to search it outright.
Of course, that didn't mean Eli trusted the Titans.
Far from it—in fact, ever since the Titans destroyed the agricultural production satellite, Eli had been at peak levels of animosity toward them.
Still, speaking of test flights...
"Hold off on responding. Can we get visuals on those mobile suits?"
At Eli's instruction, the anti-air cameras began tracking the distant MS units in motion.
"Ah, that's…"
As the MS came into view on the main screen, the bridge crew couldn't help but murmur.
"Quiet. It's not like any of you haven't seen one before."
Eli quickly silenced them and stepped forward, watching as the image was enlarged and digitally enhanced by the computer.
There was no mistaking it. That was a Gundam.
A legendary one at that.
"That's enough. Let's change course."
Eli narrowed his eyes and peered through the bridge window, trying to see it with the naked eye.
But the MS's glowing trail vanished from view as the White Chaser veered away.
"Gundam MK-II."
He muttered the name while staring at the image of the Gundam's face on his terminal.
"Anaheim's really going all out."
The Havoc Control GM was one thing—based on the GM Kai and the Custom GM, its speedy rollout wasn't that surprising.
But the Gundam MK-II was a different story. It was a revolutionary machine.
Previously, all MS units had been considered part of the first generation. The MK-II, however, marked the true beginning of the second-generation MS.
Though generational classification didn't always correlate with performance—this MK-II wasn't necessarily superior to the GP-series Gundams—it still signaled that Anaheim had taken a leading position in MS development.
Yashima Heavy Industries, for example, was still only at the theoretical validation stage when it came to movable frame structures.
And the technology behind those frames came from none other than the Red Gallop—that's right, the Contract Zero Gundam possessed a movable frame, albeit an incomplete one.
After dropping the engineers off at Von Braun, where others were already assigned to handle things, Eli sent his specifications for the High-Zaku and the MK-II's intel to Yashima's lunar factory at Gryps.
Then, the White Chaser initiated its descent toward Earth.
Its destination: the Augusta Base in North America.
Now that both the Titans and A.N.T. had been ordered to withdraw from Earth, Augusta held the last batch of supplies waiting to be transported. And since the Augusta Research Institute was nominally under A.N.T.'s jurisdiction, the White Chaser was making the trip.
Eli no longer felt much about atmospheric reentry. He simply gazed at the North American continent below, shrouded in night.
A sea of lights.
"Earth... the Federation."
Just as the name implied, the Federation still revolved entirely around Earth.
The so-called "space citizens" were merely residents of the colonies.
Eli wasn't trying to be some righteous spokesman for space dwellers.
It was just that the flaws in the system were now plain to see.
Even as he left the White Chaser and headed for the Augusta Research Institute, he was still mulling over how he could leverage his current and future position to bring about change.
"Ah, Eli-san."
As he was lost in thought, Christina's voice called out to him.
"What is it?"
Eli turned around.
He saw Christina holding a young girl—Rita.
"Well, there's this new female Newtype at the institute. For some reason, she's been in a coma since arriving. Rita said you should take a look."
Walking over to Christina, Eli gently patted Rita's head and, seeing the seriousness in her eyes, nodded in agreement.
He was curious. What kind of person could make Rita insist like this?
So he went without protest.
After all, Rita's intuition was rarely wrong.
Eli came to a stop at the door to the room, waiting for the observation window to power on and shift from frosted to transparent.
Click.
The moment he saw the girl's face, his terminal slipped from his hand and clattered to the floor.
"La... Lalah?"
And at that exact moment, a voice he hadn't heard in four years echoed in his ears.
"Long time no see~"
A familiar chill ran down his spine.
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