The raid on Paradise Island was a great success.
The success of this battle lay not only in destroying the super anti-air weapon "Nibelungen" at the Paradise Island Base but also in obtaining its structural blueprints and all parameter data.
More importantly, this battle successfully misled everyone.
Even Athrun was misled by Reid, thinking that Reid was too lazy to split his forces to watch the Paradise Island Base and intended to capture it once and for all first.
Therefore, as soon as Reid returned to Ireland, he received a handwritten letter from Athrun, asking whether the ZAFT navy at the Gibraltar Base could help intercept reinforcements from the Atlantic Federation homeland supporting the Paradise Island Base. ZAFT could temporarily delay its offensive in Europe to assist the New Misurugi Kingdom in removing the thorn that was Paradise Island.
Reid immediately understood Athrun's thoughts.
Although after handing over the British Isles to the New Misurugi Kingdom, the New Misurugi Kingdom would be the one directly facing the threat from the Paradise Island Base.
But to be fair, bypassing the British Isles to head straight for Western Europe from the Paradise Island Base didn't add much distance, so the necessary vigilance against ZAFT couldn't be reduced at all.
However, if the New Misurugi Kingdom managed to take down this tough nut now, Athrun indicated that things would be much easier afterward.
Reid certainly wouldn't come to Europe to seize territory now because if he wanted to, ZAFT currently couldn't extend its reach into Europe at all.
Since the New Misurugi Kingdom's target had always been the Atlantic Federation, even if the Paradise Island Base were taken by the New Misurugi Kingdom, not many troops would be stationed there.
Then Athrun wouldn't need to keep forces on the western front of Europe for vigilance while also sending large forces eastward to conquer Europe, making troop deployment much more flexible.
However, Reid didn't trick Athrun this time; he just gave a seemingly irrelevant two-word reply:
"Inconvenient."
This sounded like a refusal, but Athrun would surely understand it as meaning the plan remained unchanged.
Of course, the reason Reid said this was to ensure that if it were later dug up and used against him, he could confidently claim he had refused the request for cooperation.
However, if even Athrun was misled, others were even more so. The Paradise Island Base now definitely wouldn't dare to casually deploy troops and would be anxiously awaiting his attack.
Thus, after replying to Athrun, Reid quietly returned to Star Palace City with Nein and Stella aboard an Antietam-class Freighter.
This time, Reid didn't even mobilize the Gran Chaos, taking only the Phantom Dragon Gundam and the Joyeuse Gundam, intending to make people think he was still in Ireland.
As for frontline command, Reid temporarily handed it over to Salamandine. Although she no longer had a Mobile Suit, all the elites of Reid's Otherworld Assault Team were present. If she, as the overall commander, needed to take to the battlefield, it would mean the New Misurugi Kingdom forces here were on the brink of a major defeat, and whether the Phantom Dragon Gundam was there or not would make little difference.
Moreover, Reid left behind the Gundam Gremory Deathbird. If absolutely necessary, Salamandine could pilot this Mobile Suit.
Of course, Stella had some complaints about being sent back to the country, but Reid couldn't let her stay in the military as an example of violating military discipline.
After all, if Reid hadn't consistently defined Stella as a military dependent, she would likely be facing trial in a military court right now.
Even now, after returning to the country, she would have to go through the procedures at the Star Palace City court. Sneaking into the expedition team earlier could still be blamed on the Archangel's inspection personnel, but piloting a Mobile Suit and acting without authorization during this war was a serious violation of the law no matter where you looked.
Fortunately, Stella was still obedient. Seeing that Reid was truly angry, she immediately expressed her willingness to comply with the order.
Moreover, upon hearing that Reid would return with her, Stella quickly stopped being upset. To put it simply, now that she no longer suffered from severe social anxiety, she was merely afraid of loneliness.
Reid's covert return to Star Palace City went surprisingly smoothly. The Atlantic Federation was only focused on the main forces of the New Misurugi Kingdom Army in the Faroe Islands, and no one paid attention to a transport ship that was most likely returning home for supplies.
The main forces of the East Asian Republic were still trying to break through the defenders led by the Minerva at the Old Capital Base, leaving them with no time to concern themselves with affairs in Western Europe.
As for the Eurasian Federation, the lords of Western Europe had only one task to accomplish each day.
That was to issue twelve top-level military orders daily, urging the troops that had just shown signs of defeating the Southern Nobles Alliance to rush back day and night to defend the west.
Athrun had clearly communicated with the Southern European Nobles Alliance, as they suddenly gained hundreds of Mobile Suits composed of GuAIZ and GuAIZ R units, desperately attacking the retreating main forces of the Eurasian Federation.
On Reid's way back to Star Palace City, the Southern European Nobles Alliance not only reclaimed the territories they had initially lost but also expanded their sphere of influence by pursuing the main forces of the Eurasian Federation, nearly reaching the former Italian region.
After seeing this intelligence, Reid could only say that Athrun was still young—he had actually given these nobles so many Mobile Suits.
One must understand that the more territory these nobles captured now, the more troublesome it would be for Athrun to deal with them later, and there would be no particularly good justification for starting a war.
When the time came, this sticky situation would be difficult to resolve and would only cause headaches for Athrun.
However, this time Reid did not remind Athrun of the dangers posed by these nobles. After all, it was better for others to suffer than oneself, and having ZAFT expend more energy in Europe aligned with his own interests.
Moreover, after returning to Star Palace City, Reid was very busy.
After sending the relevant Mobile Suits to the Factory Module for analysis, Reid first arranged for Stella to go through the court procedures, where she received a light sentence of one year in prison.
However, the detention location was the Royal Palace prison.
Of course, the court had no authority over the actual conditions within the Royal Palace, so Stella's actual punishment was one year of house arrest within the palace, with no chance of leaving except under special circumstances.
To prevent Stella from getting bored, Reid adopted the style of an East Asian parent, filling her schedule with cultural courses and determined to bring her cultural level up to that of an East Asian Republic elementary school graduate within the year.
After completing this, Reid began arranging for the construction of a special Mobile Armor equipped with the "Nibelungen" generator.
The principle of "Nibelungen" was something even an elementary school student could understand—it relied on a large number of mirror blocks to reflect, excite, and amplify the special Beam emitted by the irradiator, shooting it from various angles.
This would enable an all-directional attack on all units within the firing range.
Of course, this System required an extremely exaggerated amount of energy to ensure its range and lethality, so it could only exist as a fixed fortress-level weapon.
With Atlantic Federation technology, if this system were miniaturized, it would end up in an awkward position where its power would be inferior to ordinary solid-shell machine gun bullets, and its range would be shorter than that of a solid-shell machine gun.
Relying on this thing for air defense would truly be worse than equipping a Mobile Suit with a rapid-fire 60mm solid-shell machine gun.
However, on the way back, according to Nein's calculations, with the energy output of an AC micro nuclear fusion reactor and connecting two reactors on a Mobile Armor the size of a Zamza-zah, this system could deliver decent power, achieving a range in atmospheric conditions comparable to that of a standard Beam Sniper Rifle.
Therefore, after Reid went to the Factory Module, he had the Factory Module manufacture all the components.
The main task of the Star Palace City factory was to assemble this Mobile Armor, which was designed for air defense, and then conduct practical tests. If the results were good, they would mass-produce some for military deployment.
After arranging matters for the new air defense Mobile Armor, Reid went to play with little Maria.
Including the time of the G Invasion Campaign, Reid hadn't seen his beloved daughter for nearly two months, so he naturally missed her deeply.
Unfortunately, the playtime lasted only a small part of the afternoon. The next day, after the Factory Module completed the analysis of the Mobile Suit, Reid needed to quickly modify his own unit.
The modifications to the Joyeuse Gundam weren't troublesome, as Reid already had ideas in mind.
First, he would integrate the GN Particle Thruster with the Halo Propulsion Wing System, allowing the Halo Propulsion Wing System to be driven and propelled by GN Particles, creating a GN Light Ring Propulsion Wing specifically designed for GN Particles.
This way, GN Particles could surround the wings to generate light wings, which, in addition to propulsion, could possess cutting capabilities similar to the V2 Gundam Wings of Light. They could even use the Lambda Driver to alter the shape of the light wings and use them as a shield.
Moreover, Reid discovered that during his absence, Dr. Cardo Nabo had developed a completely new particle internal circulation system.
This system was originally designed for the Gundam Lfrith to internally circulate Permet Fluid, reducing the Permet Score pressure on the pilot.
However, this system was never completed before Dr. Cardo Nabo's death.
It was ultimately Elnora Samaya who imported her daughter Erict Samaya's data into the Gundam Lfrith's successor, the Gundam Aerial, achieving the same effect in a different form.
Fortunately, after arriving in the CE Universe, Cardo Nabo discovered that many of the special particles here posed little harm to humans and even promoted human evolution to some extent.
Moreover, after compression, these particles were not much different in form from Permet Fluid.
So, she took the opposite approach, transforming the Permet Fluid internal circulation system she had originally developed into a mode that allowed particles to more easily affect the pilot.
At the same time, due to particle internal circulation, it could also enhance the Mobile Suit's mobility and agility.
Seeing this, Reid promptly had Nein read the technology and optimize it into a GN Particle Internal Circulation System manufactured from Nano Gundanium Alloy.
This internal circulation system wasn't particularly useful under normal circumstances, only slightly enhancing the flexibility of the Mobile Suit's limbs.
However, it could significantly increase the duration of Trans-Am and the particle compression rate, greatly boosting the Mobile Suit's performance during the Trans-Am period.
When Reid tested this system, even without a pilot, the Mobile Suit alone could activate Trans-Am, causing the particles covering the suit to compress into a pale blue instead of the usual pale red.
However, after adding this system and the Light Ring Propulsion Wing, the Mobile Suit could no longer have shoulder armor added to the left and right sides, as the new GN Light Ring Propulsion Wing occupied the shoulder armor positions.
But Reid didn't want to give up on the Sword Saint System so easily, so he focused on modifying the backpack instead.
Reid directly equipped the Mobile Suit with Strike Freedom's backpack. However, since a second set of Light Ring Propulsion Wings was unnecessary, the eight wings of this backpack were composed of a combination of Funnels and Large Funnel Blades.
To put it simply, all eight wings of this backpack were Large Funnel Blades, equivalent to a GN Buster Sword with only one blade.
On the side without the blade, the wings were wrapped with Fin Funnels identical to those of the Nu Gundam, except these Funnels fired GN Particle Laser Cutting Blades compressed into a single line, rather than normal GN Particle Beams.
This backpack was designed so that once all its weapons were deployed, nothing would remain behind the Mobile Suit except a mounting base. Each wing could separate into a single-blade Funnel Sword and a Funnel.
The Funnels could be dispersed individually, but to use the single-blade Funnel Swords, both components had to be launched together.
However, they could be covered by the light wings of the GN Light Ring Propulsion Wing. Whether they were powerful or not was another matter, but once activated, the wings with particle enchantment were undeniably cool.
The two Magnum Cannons originally on the backpack were relocated to the waist, and some additional armor was installed. The rest of the armaments remained unchanged.
Thus, the Joyeuse Gundam · Infinity was successfully modified.
(Ignore the backpack armaments in the image below. The author couldn't create a picture of the Gundam 00 Sky Type · Moebius Equipment Strike Freedom backpack in a short time.)
After completing the Joyeuse Gundam · Infinity, Reid also helped Salamandine with the "reforging" of the Phantom Sky Gundam.
Of course, the so-called reforging was essentially building a completely new Mobile Suit.
The design concept was simple: heavily modify the appearance based on the Nu Gundam to create a Phantom Dragon Gundam · Flame Feather.
Well, to put it bluntly, Reid was just being lazy, using the RX-93 Nu Gundam as a base to create a Mobile Suit equipped with Twin Solar Furnaces.
Since Reid had already used the two sets of Perfect Solar Furnace Systems brought back from Jupiter on the Ice Phoenix Gundam and the Joyeuse Gundam, if he didn't want to exchange for them at a high price from the System, he could only use the other eight Original Solar Furnaces also brought back from Jupiter.
However, those eight could still meet the activation standard for Twin Drive Synchro, though their output wasn't as high as the two Mobile Suits piloted by Reid and Ange.
To fully utilize the skill bonus from [Char's Counterattack], this Phantom Dragon Gundam · Flame Feather was equipped with two Funnel Attack Shields with built-in GN Rocket Cannons on its backpack. To allow them to operate in atmospheric environments, Solar Furnaces had to be installed.
Thus, Reid selected two Solar Furnaces with relatively higher resonance capabilities from the eight and installed them.
Of course, the AC micro nuclear fusion reactor was also installed, and the Mobile Suit's arm armor could deploy CE Beam Shields.
In terms of armaments, since the Shield was Psychic Controlled, the Mobile Suit could dual-wield weapons with both hands.
Reid directly equipped the Wing Zero's Twin Buster Rifle onto it, with the close-range weapons being the two GN Buster Swords mounted at the waist.
Honestly, the Wing Zero's Destroyer Beam is far too powerful; unless facing a Mobile Suit with Nano-Laminate Armor, there's simply no way to withstand it head-on.
With this thing, there's no need for any other long-range weapons.
Of course, for scenarios requiring rapid fire, this Mobile Suit can also dual-wield GN Beam Machine Guns—just a matter of adding an extra interface on the hands and running an additional internal pipeline.
Anyway, Reid only needs to state the requirements; as long as the Factory Module doesn't indicate insufficient internal space, everything can be added.
As for other special Systems, those are standard equipment in Reid's team: the latest Psycommu, Lambda Driver, Trans-Am, and the same GN Particle Internal Circulation System as the Joyeuse Gundam · Infinity.
Once the Mobile Suit was manufactured, Reid simply painted it red to meet the trigger conditions for [Char's Counterattack], and Salamandine's Mobile Suit was all set.
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