"Earth..."
Slightly different from the outcome of the near-Earth orbit battle in the original timeline, the one thing that remained the same was that the Archangel still crash-landed in North Africa.
Li Chengzhi stood on the spacious outer deck of the battleship, gazing at the endless golden sea of sand outside, and let out a quiet sigh.
"Never thought we'd still end up here."
Indeed, in the original timeline, it was due to Kira and Yzak's dogfight that the Archangel altered its descent trajectory to rescue Kira.
This time, it was Athrun who tangled with Kira, yet the final result still brought them here.
Fortunately...
Turning around, Li Chengzhi looked at the refugees from the Archangel who had now crowded onto the deck, excitedly admiring the desert scenery.
"At least they're alive. Not everyone from the Eighth Fleet died." Li Chengzhi felt content.
"What's on your mind?" Wang Hu asked as he approached, holding a cup of water, just as Li Chengzhi was lost in his thoughts.
"Thinking about the future you mentioned, wondering whether you're not lying or just plain crazy, and most importantly, the supplies."
Making a move to take the cup from Wang Hu's hand, Li Chengzhi found that Wang Hu naturally brought it to his own lips instead. With a dark expression, Li Chengzhi replied without a hint of warmth.
"That's true." Wang Hu nodded, sipping his plain water.
"If we use the supplies Halberton gave us freely, they'll only last a month or two. After that, everyone on the ship will have to endure hard times again."
"Fortunately, the Goddess of Victory will be here soon. Once she arrives, we won't have to worry about supplies anymore."
"Goddess of Victory?" At this, Li Chengzhi seemed to recall something, his eyes briefly scanning the cup in Wang Hu's hand.
"Can she reimburse the invoice from the satellite? There's a ninety percent chance it won't be reimbursed back home, so you'll have to cover it with your own allowance."
"This..." Wang Hu's eye twitched, and he scratched his head. "Really can't be reimbursed?"
"Can't be reimbursed." Li Chengzhi answered firmly, leaving no room for negotiation.
"Sigh." Instantly, Wang Hu's face crumpled like a bitter melon, and he silently clutched his cup as he headed back inside the Archangel.
"Hmph."Watching Wang Hu's dejected figure, Li Chengzhi snorted lightly and also made his way toward the Archangel's bridge."
Natarle Badgiruel's shift was almost over, and he needed to hurry to take over.
Besides, there was no telling when Mr. Balthلد would arrive, so he had to make thorough preparations.
Meanwhile, just as in the original timeline, after receiving an urgent communication from ZAFT Forces headquarters in PLANT,
the influential star of the Coordinator forces in the North African theater, whose reputation was second to none and who had perhaps taken over Creuset's former position in ZAFT due to Creuset's fall,
the famous Mr. Balthلد was also on his way, riding in a jeep, covered in dust as he hurried toward the Archangel's landing site.
"Captain Balthلد."
Soon after, he arrived at the location where intelligence had reported the Archangel was parked.
His adjutant Martin asked Balthfeld, who was lying on a sand dune holding binoculars.
"Should we go greet them?"
"Greet them?" Putting down the binoculars with the Archangel as his backdrop, Balthfeld asked in confusion.
"How would we greet them?"
"By sending a few GOUFs to test their capabilities," Martin explained, puzzled.
"Space and Earth are different. Even if they defeated that Creuset in space, this desert is our territory!"
"Earth's gravity will make them understand the power of Balthfeld's team that dominates the desert region!"
"I think you're getting ahead of yourself."
Throwing the binoculars to his adjutant, Balthfeld shook his head clearly disagreeing with his subordinate's suggestion as he returned to the jeep.
"Let's head back, Martin."
"Huh?" Watching his captain looking as if he wished he could grow wings and fly back to town immediately, Martin was utterly confused.
Captain, if you don't want to engage the Archangel, then why did you rush over here eating mouthfuls of sand just to look at that ship?
"That's the famous East Asian Qilin. Do you think warriors from that nation would be less adapted to gravity zones than us?"
Facing his subordinate's confusion, Balthfeld urged him to quickly get in the jeep, explaining that he really just came to take a look at that ship.
Without thorough preparation, using our current forces to test their capabilities - are you trying to get our comrades killed faster?
"Then..." Following the captain's order, Adjutant Martin obediently took the passenger seat in the jeep.
"If headquarters asks, how should we respond? Just let them pass without doing anything? Once they start pursuing responsibility..."
"Hmph." Balthfeld snorted coldly at his adjutant's concerns.
Crossing his arms, this tough-looking man with his slicked-back hair actually had his own considerations.
As a deeply concealed member of the Klein Faction within the ZAFT Forces, he would indeed sacrifice everything to protect PLANT.
But holding no prejudice against Naturals, and not having lost his rationality because of the Junius Seven incident,
Balthfeld's vision was far more far-sighted than many high-ranking officials native to PLANT!
"The Qilin Wang Hu of East Asia, and that eastern nation."
Sitting in the jeep, just as he had come in haste and was leaving in haste, Balthfeld waved his sleeves without taking a single grain of sand.
How to reasonably meet with that Qilin - this was what he was truly considering.
Thus, unaware that because of his presence, Mr. Tiger didn't come to greet them as in the original timeline,
Wang Hu, who had been waiting in the Zeta Gundam cockpit ever since receiving news that Kira had awakened,
Waited left but didn't see Mr. Tiger, waited right but still didn't see Mr. Tiger.
He kept waiting until Kira recovered and came to thank Wang Hu, when Wang Hu received news that the runaway princess had taken the initiative to visit.
"Wasn't Mr. Tiger supposed to come first?"
Standing in the lineup to welcome potential allies, Li Chengzhi asked Wang Hu from among the crowd.
Though he verbally claimed Wang Hu's predictions about the future needed verification, his body and mind were honest—he had been pulling full shifts on the bridge lately.
Thus, when the princess arrived before the "Tiger," Li Chengzhi was curious to hear his friend's explanation for the situation.
"Maybe the Tiger hasn't woken up yet, or perhaps the princess simply moved faster."
Wang Hu eyed the so-called members of the North African Liberation Front disembarking from several jeeps—their faces wrapped in scarves, RPGs slung over their shoulders, and AKs strapped to their backs.
Shrugging, he replied to his friend Li Chengzhi, "Haven't you noticed I didn't even call Kira over? That kid's still on standby in the Strike Gundam."
"The Earth and space are different. Have the parameters been adjusted?"
Li Chengzhi, who already had his own conclusions, didn't dwell on the matter. Instead, taking advantage of the fact that the other side hadn't yet begun formal negotiations, he kindly reminded, "I adjusted my own settings. I can handle these parameters."
"As for Kira's, there's no need to even mention it—he sorts them out in a minute or two."
Wang Hu's expression turned serious as he quickly retorted, making it clear he'd already considered this, "Enough small talk. They're coming over."
Li Chengzhi opened his mouth, then rolled his eyes. There was nothing more to say about this friend of his, who was always so quick to shift blame.
"The Allied Forces' Archangel—we've long heard of your reputation."
Ashka, the leader of Desert Dawn, had the typical appearance of someone from the Dark Continent—only a head and a half taller than Cagalli, but built solidly. His gaze swept coldly over Murrue and the others at the forefront of the Archangel's crew.
"What brings you to our territory?"
"Leader," Murrue glanced around and noticed Wang Hu hanging back with a "you handle this, no need to involve me" expression. Resigned, she took a step forward. As the saying goes, a powerful dragon cannot crush a local snake.
She was acutely aware that the Archangel had landed in enemy-controlled territory. Unlike in the original timeline, where they had established some rapport with these armed fighters while resisting the Desert Tiger, they now had no such understanding.
Until she could discern their intentions, Murrue remained exceedingly polite.
"Due to certain circumstances, we originally intended to re-enter the atmosphere and return to the Allied Forces headquarters in Alaska."
"But by a twist of fate, we've ended up here. If possible, I would like to request..."
Before Murrue could finish her sentence, the Desert Dawn members burst into raucous laughter.
Their leader, Ashman, not only failed to stop his subordinates' rudeness but was the first to laugh, and with the most contempt.
"Here to use us again? Do you Atlantic Federation types think we're a pack of dogs?"
"Throw us a few bones when you need us, and get a kick out of hearing us bark?"
"Then when you don't need us, you kick us aside and naively expect us to remember your kindness?"
"You think tossing a few more bones will make us shamelessly come crawling back to be used again?"
Despite the mockery from these standard-issue armed fighters, strangely, Murrue and the others did not feel the anger one might expect after being ridiculed.
However, it was extremely difficult to find anyone aboard the Archangel without a conscience, so when they detected the bitterness hidden behind the other party's laughter—
"No, that's not it," Murrue anxiously tried to explain. "We have no intention of exploiting you! In fact, if needed, we would do our best to provide humanitarian aid!"
Murrue was a good person at heart, but as the saying goes, "One takes on the color of one's company." Having been born and raised in the Atlantic Federation, she was inevitably influenced by her daily environment and later military career. Deep down, she had unconsciously adopted a hint of the Atlantic Federation's demeanor—that is, even when acting out of goodwill and genuine kindness, her actions still carried a subtle, innate sense of superiority characteristic of Atlantic Federation citizens.
There was no helping it; most people from the Atlantic Federation were like this. In their eyes, the center of the world was where they lived, and everywhere else needed their salvation. Countless movies, TV shows, and various media had been reinforcing this idea day after day.
"Humanitarian aid? You mean bullets for us to fire at our own people?" Ashman's eyes flashed with menace. As soon as he uttered these words, the armed individuals behind him uniformly raised their weapons. It was clear that at the slightest disagreement, these desperate, have-nots were ready to make the privileged elites from the Atlantic Federation understand what it meant to face the iron fist of the oppressed.
"Hey! We're allies, aren't we?" Seeing that Murrue couldn't control the situation, Mu quickly stepped forward, holding out his hands in a gesture to stop them while shouting, "Right now, the real enemy is the Coordinators of ZAFT! We're on the same side!"
"Bullshit! You're no different from them. You just want to plunder the resources of our land but aren't willing to spare us a single piece of bread!"
(End of Chapter)