The assault landing ship Zhu Long was designed by the East Asian Army to adapt to the current combat situation.
As the flagship assigned to Wang Hu's Uprising Army under the South Heavenly Gate Project, it was developed in comparison to the Archangel battleship from the G Project proposed by Admiral Halberton of the former Atlantic Federation Army.
It incorporated the strengths of its predecessor while undergoing improvements by East Asian designers.
The Zhu Long emphasized stronger independent combat and assault capabilities, boasting higher aircraft capacity and more formidable firepower than other ships in its class.
This battleship could carry a maximum of 12 Mobile Suits, with three catapult runways at the front arranged in an upper-lower configuration—two below and one above, with the central catapult located on the upper deck.
The stern featured a landing deck, which could also be used for Mobile Suit launches in emergencies.
Although the bridge's appearance somewhat resembled that of the Archangel, additional antennas were installed on the radar base to enhance communication stability under Neutron Jammer interference.
This ensured that even during solo special missions, the ship could maintain real-time updates on global developments.
The bridge was also specially designed with elevation mechanisms to improve safety, avoiding the vulnerability of being prominently exposed as an easy target for enemy attacks.
Thanks to the quantum computer technology acquired from the Breaking Ball World, combined with their existing technical expertise, the East Asian Alliance significantly reduced the crew required to operate this battleship model.
This freed up more space for other purposes.
In terms of armament, the Zhu Long was equipped with a City Breaking Cannon of larger caliber and greater power than that on the Archangel.
Mounted beneath the central deck, this cannon was powerful enough to pierce through a closed Colony Satellite in a single shot.
With sustained fire, it could even tear apart the Junius Seven wreckage, which the Coordinators still held dear.
In addition to the powerful City Breaking Cannon, the Zhu Long featured four twin-mounted beam main cannons, meeting the current standard for Allied Forces capital ships.
It also incorporated three VLS systems—one on each side and one behind the bridge.
Each VLS system consisted of 24 independent missile launch tubes, arranged in four rows of six.
Coupled with 28 twin CIWS distributed around the battleship, it could not only defend against incoming missiles or Mobile Suits with high firing rates but also provide suppressive firepower during ship-to-ship combat.
Overall, this weapon configuration placed the Zhu Long far ahead of any other battleship on either side of the conflict.
As for the power source, it was equipped with the latest technology as a priority.
Notably, the Zhu Long was fully outfitted with a Mirage Colloid System, making it particularly suited for covert infiltration and attacks behind enemy lines.
"What an incredibly impressive battleship."
Thus, when Murrue first laid eyes on the Zhu Long, she couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.
Later, seeing Natarle Badgiruel seated in the captain's chair of the Zhu Long, even someone of her temperament felt a twinge of envy.
Since the mission involved retrieving Lacus, Wang Hu, after careful consideration, decided to bring Kira along.
And since Natarle Badgiruel was originally designated as the captain of the Zhu Long, the presence or absence of Murrue and Mu made little difference.
He brought one along just to let them broaden their horizons.
"East Asian Alliance..."
Following closely behind Murrue, Mu also let out a sigh.
Staring at Li Chengzhi sitting in the weapon commander's seat previously occupied by Natarle Badgiruel on the Archangel, he made clicking sounds with his tongue. Fortunately, his emotional intelligence was still intact.
Plus, there were quite a few people on the bridge, so he ultimately refrained from saying anything inappropriate.
"This is Lelouch, and next to him is C.C."
"As for Zhang Peng, you've met him before, so I won't introduce him again."
Wang Hu ignored the somewhat sour Mu and proceeded to introduce both sides to each other.
"Hahaha, I'm really sorry about last time."
Immediately after Wang Hu finished the introductions, Murrue let out an apologetic laugh and approached Zhang Peng to apologize again.
"No problem, no problem."
Of course, he wouldn't be impolite in front of outsiders, especially in front of a beautiful woman, so Zhang Peng laughed it off.
"What are you looking at?" Lelouch asked C.C. beside him.
For his sister's sake, Lelouch had thrown caution to the wind. With his intelligence, he was well aware of the little schemes Wang Hu and Li Chengzhi were plotting.
But for his sister, Lelouch needed to establish unshakable achievements.
That was why Lelouch was here.
Even without his Geass ability, he believed his intellect could play a decisive role.
As for C.C., she was purely here to join the fun—or perhaps to court death.
Having lived too long and witnessed too many human joys and sorrows, and having spent too little time with Lelouch so far, she hadn't found new bonds in life. She was desperate to end her existence.
Having failed to die before and being rescued, she realized it was difficult to achieve her goal while staying in East Asian Alliance territory.
So she wanted to use this opportunity to die in a spectacular way.
"Big."
But despite her desire to die, after seeing Murrue, a sense of feminine pride made her slightly displeased.
Just like when she first saw Shirley, who had an ambiguous relationship with Lelouch, her focus always seemed to be on aspects that were obvious to ordinary people.
"Hmm?" Lelouch, with his high IQ but lacking emotional intelligence, was about to ask C.C. what was big when—
"Lelouch, come here for a moment. As the combat advisor, shouldn't you brief these people on the mission?"
Suddenly, Wang Hu, who had been chatting with the others, called out to him.
"Alright, the mission is..."
In a low voice, Lelouch pushed thoughts about C.C. to the back of his mind and began systematically explaining the mission to the group.
Since they had come all the way to PLANT's homeland and had so many skilled people with them, merely picking up Lacus would, in Lelouch's view, be missing the bigger picture.
Especially after learning from Wang Hu that everyone on this battleship had their own unique skills.
Lelouch and Wang Hu had coincidentally come to the same conclusion: they were going to make a big move and teach the Coordinators a lesson!
By leveraging the influence of the Clyne Faction, they might even seize this opportunity to destroy Genesis.
To that end, this ship was carrying some very special equipment!
At the same time, while Wang Hu and his group were advancing toward PLANT aboard the Zhu Long using the Mirage Colloid System.
To counter the Allied Forces' clearly imminent full-scale assault.
The ZAFT Forces, aside from maintaining minimal troops within the Gravity Well, had been continuously withdrawing the rest of their units.
To defend their homeland and secure victory in the final battle, the Coordinators were also exerting every effort in active preparations.
"Yzak, are you all right?"
At the ZAFT Forces headquarters, Athrun and Nicol encountered the trio of Yzak.
Smiling, Athrun greeted his old comrades on the opposite side.
At this stage of the war, there was nothing better than seeing old comrades still alive.
"Hello, Athrun."
However, Athrun's cheerful expression did not receive the expected response. Among Yzak's trio, only Heine acknowledged him.
Yzak and Dearka remained grim-faced throughout.
"Yzak?"
Even though he was met with cold shoulders, Athrun still wanted to reach out.
"Athrun, don't."
Nicol tugged at his friend's sleeve, watching as Yzak's trio passed by them.
He shook his head and said, "Yzak lost the Duel Gundam, and my father mentioned that the explosion at the Panama battlefield might have been suspicious."
You can't wrap fire in paper. Although the Atlantic Federation hadn't actually used the Light of Peace to pave the way.
They had genuinely prepared to do so, so the ZAFT Forces had noticed some anomalies to some extent.
Additionally, intelligence network information indicated that the Atlantic Federation Army was originally scheduled to attack Boaz Fortress, but the East Asian Army had taken over the task at the last minute.
This unusual mid-battle change of forces seemed to hint at something.
Was the Allied Forces trying to conceal something?
For instance, perhaps the Atlantic Federation intended to use some trump card against Boaz, but the East Asian Alliance did not want the Atlantic Federation Army to deploy it just yet.
Thus, the East Asian Army proactively replaced the Atlantic Federation Army to take on the tough challenge of capturing Boaz!
"That probably isn't the case."
Gazing at his friend, whose face was hidden behind a mask, Athrun couldn't bear to imagine what exactly the "problem" his friend referred to entailed.
Or what punishment Yzak would face if that problem turned out to be true.
"Former Chairman Clyne is dead."
Suddenly, Nicol brought up something seemingly unrelated.
"If, and I mean if, we could find some evidence of former Chairman Clyne's private communications with the Allied Forces."
"Maybe we could help Yzak avoid punishment."
"What do you mean?"
His expression instantly stiffened, Athrun thought of some unpleasant possibilities.
"I said, former Chairman Clyne is already dead. A dead man taking the blame for the living shouldn't be a big issue, right?"
His masked eyes fixed intently on his friend, Nicol spoke slowly.
"I know you still can't forget Lacus, but don't forget—your surname is Zala. To change this pitiful world."
"You've already made a decision before, haven't you?"
"In that case, to accomplish that great undertaking, a few flaws should be acceptable, right?"
"Not to mention, do you recall what happened at the satellite opera house last time? Those agents we had stationed outside beforehand."
"They were taken out by someone. Don't tell me it was the Clyne Faction's doing."
"The evidence left at the scene conclusively proves that our people eliminated the Clyne Faction members first."
"Then they were subsequently eliminated by later arrivals, and judging by the methods used, the perpetrators were clean and efficient."
"So it couldn't have been a hidden contingency plan by the Clyne Faction. The most likely possibility is spies from the Allied Forces infiltrating our ranks."
Athrun clenched his fists, appearing somewhat hesitant.
Heaven knows how turbulent his heart became when he received news of Clyne's death while still on Earth.
If he were to follow his friend Nicol's suggestion,
Not only would Clyne's posthumous reputation be further tarnished, but Lacus would also be significantly affected.
This wasn't like the previous warrant issued by his father, which only contained the single black mark of the Freedom Gundam being stolen,
with no other issues found against Clyne.
Clearly, Nicol was trying to create faults where none existed to exonerate Yzak from potential blame.
Watching Athrun's conflicted expression, Nicol waited silently.
According to Mr. Durandal's intention, PLANT cannot tolerate the existence of reputation monsters like Lacus.
Since she cannot be used for our purposes, she must be completely destroyed.
And now presents the perfect opportunity. From the information he heard from his father, that political weeble was among those who helped clean up the mess Yzak made in Panama.
So it's evident that this current operation of ours would be welcomed by that person as well.
With support from multiple parties, destroying the final banner of the Clyne Faction would no longer be difficult!
As a bonus, it would sever Athrun's last connection with that woman - truly killing two birds with one stone.
"Alright."
After struggling with himself for a moment, Athrun let out a heavy sigh and agreed.
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