On a train in the Lunar Colony, a large number of workers were chatting idly.
Roz had already changed out of his officer uniform in the safe house, putting on a set of work clothes and blending in with the workers.
Along the way, everyone discussed how lucky they were, how much of a cut they had to pay to get onto this work list, and occasionally cracked a few raunchy jokes, making the car full of laughter.
Roz slightly pressed down the cap on his head to appear more inconspicuous. Finally, the train began to slow down, arriving at an unnamed station.
"Everyone! Out!"
A loud voice came over the broadcast, suppressing the workers' chatter and bringing the previously laughing crowd to silence.
Roz followed the flow of people off the train and saw several men in Earth Alliance officer uniforms, along with a group of armed guards.
For some reason, Roz suddenly felt as if he were entering a concentration camp; if the leading officer had a small mustache and the others nearby raised their right hands at a 45-degree angle, the feeling would be even stronger.
"One more reminder: this is an Earth Alliance project. You know what to do."
The loud-voiced officer glanced at the silent crowd and picked up the list in his hand.
"When your name is called, place your communication device and enter the work area! Do not approach the core zone. Standard assembly is at 1 a.m.!"
As the officer called each name, the workers skillfully placed their phones into the storage lockers supervised by two guards and entered the construction area.
"Amuro Ray!"
Hearing his name called, Roz casually took out a recently purchased communicator from the Lunar Colony's store and placed it into the strictly monitored locker.
Then, like a genuine worker, he grabbed the construction tools and the plans for his assigned area and entered the work zone.
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Walking past a tangle of cables and scaffolding, Roz glanced at the plans and the pipeline markings, roughly deducing Blue Cosmos' intentions.
Blue Cosmos always pushed projects forward in this way: splitting one target into multiple concurrent projects and integrating them at the end.
Just like when Roz had been tricked by Blue Cosmos into developing the platform architecture for the first-generation "Unmanned Combat Quantum Computer."
What these workers were building was merely the external structure of a device; its core mechanisms were certainly controlled by Blue Cosmos' core team.
"…Not yet time."
Roz casually glanced at a soldier patrolling with a gun, then lowered his head and pulled a wrench from a nearby toolbox.
Roz wanted to curse Blue Cosmos' management for possibly embezzling the budget; this wrench felt terrible in hand, and he worried it might slip if used to strike someone.
After pretending to assemble a pipeline, Roz feigned a trip to the restroom, leaving his assigned area.
The soldiers seemed unfazed, as occasionally a sneaky worker would try to freeload wages, but the job's pay was calculated by output; failing to meet quotas would result in deductions.
As Roz walked toward the restroom, he observed the site. Most equipment was still being installed; only a few locations in the construction area had cameras, relying mainly on patrolling soldiers for security.
Fortunately, the temporary restroom area had no cameras, only a single soldier patrolling, giving Roz an opportunity.
"Clang…"
Taking advantage of the other soldiers not looking, Roz slid the wrench from his sleeve and struck the soldier on the back of the head with precision.
He then dragged the unconscious soldier to a corner, stripping the soldier of his equipment and uniform, putting them on himself.
Roz tossed the soldier into a large garbage bin and used a dagger from the soldier's gear to slit the unfortunate guard's throat.
"Cough… cough…"
The intense pain brought the soldier back to consciousness; a large wound on his neck caused heavy bleeding. He tried to call for help but could only make a gurgling sound.
Roz calmly wiped the dagger with his work clothes and tossed it into the garbage bin.
The temporary restroom and garbage odor masked the smell of blood. While it wouldn't be hidden for long, it was sufficient for now.
Once the unlucky soldier, stripped down to his underwear, died in the garbage bin, Roz closed the lid, tidied his gear, and left the area.
Next, let's see what Blue Cosmos is planning here.
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Relying on his clothes, Roz successfully managed to sneak upto a locked door.
It seemed that since the Moon is now the main base of the Earth Alliance's space fleet, the people here were somewhat lazy. Roz passed by them without arousing suspicion.
Roz felt that his current state resembled that of a large bald man in a suit from his vague memories.
Although those memories were so distant that Roz almost forgot them, he still remembered that the bald man's special skill was putting on the enemy's clothes and blending into their ranks.
Abandoning the thought in his mind, Roz looked at the door with a keypad lock. It seemed this door was a backup passage; compared to the main entrance, it was much smaller.
After glancing left and right and confirming no one else was around and there were no cameras, Roz took out his wrench.
"Clang, clang…"
After a few attempts, he pried off the lock and fiddled with it for a bit.
Although he didn't fully understand the mechanism, Roz figured that connecting the two wires inside should open the door.
"Beep beep…"
Once the two wires were connected, the lock clicked open.
Roz smoothly put the lock back, walking naturally through the door.
Inside, compared to the chaotic exterior, the environment was much more refined. Numerous instruments had already been installed and were being adjusted by researchers in white lab coats.
Roz blended in with a patrol, discreetly holding a small camera to take pictures.
All kinds of instruments, the massive central component, and the movements of the lab-coat personnel were carefully documented by Roz.
"So… this is our preliminary product."
A voice sounded nearby.
Roz casually glanced and saw a Blue Cosmos member in a white lab coat explaining something to a blond boy dressed in some kind of noble attire.
"The Requiem beam firing system has been mostly installed. Next is constant calibration," the lab-coat Blue Cosmos person said excitedly. "Once five more beam deflection relay stations equipped with Mirage Systems are built, whether Earth or the PLANTs, everything will be within our strike range."
Following the patrol, Roz discreetly turned on a recorder and took a few photos of the scene.
"Hm?"
The blond boy seemed to sense something and turned his head toward Roz's direction.
Earlier, a strong mental scan had swept the area, making Orphee, who had come from the Kingdom of Foundation to check on project progress on the Moon, slightly uneasy.
Unfortunately, Orphee's brainwave detection technology was still in its early stages, so he could only feel that "someone roughly in this area is observing" without pinpointing an individual.
"What's wrong, Chancellor Orphee?"
The Blue Cosmos lab-coat person looked puzzled why Orphee was looking at the patrol.
Feeling Orphee's gaze, Roz calmly hid his devices and continued walking with the soldiers as if he were just another patrol member.
Roz had clearly sensed that the noble-attired boy's brainwave intensity was much stronger than ordinary people.
"…Nothing, I must have been mistaken."
Orphee scanned the patrol, looked at Roz at the rear a few times, and then returned his attention to the matter at hand.
"When will this facility be completed?"
"Uh… this should take another two or three months."
The Blue Cosmos lab-coat person was somewhat helpless regarding the current progress.
"This is only the preliminary completion of the main body. The subsequent construction and placement of the beam deflection relay stations will be the most troublesome part."
After spending some time explaining the situation, Orphee nodded.
"Understood… please continue advancing this project."
Orphee looked at the central beam emitter.
"You know, for the Kingdom of Foundation, money isn't an issue. But as a major project in cooperation with Blue Cosmos, you don't want to imagine what would happen if this gets messed up."
"Understood, understood… of course I understand."
Feeling the pressure from Orphee, the Blue Cosmos lab-coat member subconsciously wiped sweat from their forehead.
"Also, be ready to sound the alarm."
Seeing the patrol return to this area, the disappearance of the rear soldier, and the fleeting strong mental presence, Orphee smiled.
"You've been too lax. Someone has already infiltrated!"
Interesting. Very interesting. Who could have infiltrated?
Orphee wondered, while the Blue Cosmos lab-coat member beside him was still clueless about what had just happened.
"Ah?!"
Finally realizing, the Blue Cosmos member frantically waved and called the nearby soldiers.
"Guards! Sound the alarm! Someone has infiltrated—could be a ZAFT spy!"
By the time Roz had fully blended onto a transport train and departed as it started moving, the base alarm belatedly sounded. The loud-mouthed officer cursed while organizing soldiers to establish a defensive line.
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