Chapter 1067: Chapter 1066: A Battle for the Survival of Humanity
As Fang Zheng and others arrived in this world, chaos had already engulfed the Earth Federation Defense Headquarters.
"The Earth-Moon defense line has completely fallen! Isn’t there anything else we can do?"
An Earth Federation senior official slammed his fist fiercely on the table.
"Use nuclear weapons, it’s the last resort!"
"Are you stupid? Nuclear weapons? Are you sure they will work on those creatures? Instead of destroying them, we might end up killing ourselves first!"
"So what? We’re dead anyway, even if we’re going to die, we should choose how!"
"Nonsense! What if, what if we can win?"
"Victory? Are you joking? What do we have left now? MS, warships, defensive weapons, we can’t even use the fortress satellites against those terrifying metal monsters, what do you have to win?"
Amid the argument, a large man with V-shaped hair closed his eyes, sighing.
He was Admiral Goto of the Earth Federation Army, and the father of Nadeshiko’s captain, Goto Yurika. But now, he was just a weary old man.
"What exactly are those creatures?"
Mumbling to himself, Admiral Goto opened his eyes, staring at the Reaper on the screen in front of him. These metal creatures appeared suddenly. No one knew where they came from, only that they were first spotted on the battlefield between the Earth Federation and ZAFT. At first, they thought these monsters were ZAFT’s latest weapons, but they quickly realized that wasn’t the case.....
No, Admiral Goto would rather these creatures be ZAFT’s secret weapons, so they could at least try resolving the issue politically. But that wasn’t the case. These metal creatures wouldn’t communicate, they simply killed on sight, be they Earthlings, Coordinators, New Humanity, or Aliens. To those alien monsters, everyone was the same.
They mercilessly harvested all the legions from both sides on the battlefield, completely wiping them out.
And before both sides could react, reports came from all directions that colonies and colony satellites were being attacked by these monsters. Even the evil forces, including the Underground Empire and the Jupiter Lizard, were not spared from their attacks.
And it was only then that both Earth, PLANT, Zeon, and Mars factions came to understand one thing.
Their goal was to exterminate all life.
And even after realizing this, even after breaking longstanding prejudices to unite, they were no match for these fearsome metal monsters. In the Lunar Counterattack, the combined fleets from various factions launched an attack on the Reapers, but at the cost of two-thirds of their fleet, all they managed to do was shoot down one Reaper.
They lost hundreds of warships, entire MS units were destroyed, and less than one in ten survived.
Still, they managed to "repel" the Reapers’ assault temporarily, as reports suggested those dreadful metal monsters left the moon after this battle.
But they hadn’t truly retreated; on the contrary, the Alliance soon learned why those bizarre things had retreated—they moved to human settlements across the cosmos and launched relentless attacks!
The Mars colony was annihilated.
SIDE colony satellites from 1 to 7 were all destroyed.
The Jupiter Lizard Empire was directly shattered.
PLANT...became history three days ago.
And now...all that’s left is Earth and this ragtag group of survivors.
MS are useless, no matter whose mobile suit, its attack power isn’t enough to penetrate those metal monsters’ armor. Not only that, those metal monsters’ drones are simply the bane of MS; they’re fast, agile, exceedingly bizarre, and their firepower is terrifyingly overwhelming, practically no MS can withstand their attack!
Up until now, humanity is nearly at its wits’ end.
This meeting had been going on for three full days, during which the only dispute among everyone was over one issue.
Which is...whether or not to use nuclear weapons against the Reapers?
The pro-nuke view holds that since imminent death is inevitable, especially given the intelligence that the Reapers don’t need slaves and would instead turn humans into horrific creatures using their technology, even surrender means death. In such case, dying a glorious death is preferable. Earth has enough nuclear weapons to annihilate it 180 times over, even if it can’t destroy those monsters, it would show them human courage.
Humanity can face extinction, but never surrender!
The anti-nuke view argues that such despair would yield no good result. While we currently have no way to defeat those monsters, humanity must not become extinct. We can hide, survive in underground caves for millennia; as long as we’re alive, human civilization will inevitably continue someday!
Being alive gives hope! Death is only cowardly evasion of fear!
"What irony."
While Admiral Goto was suffering from the endless arguing, an elegant and calm voice rang beside him. Turning his head, he saw a blonde, masked, Zeon-uniformed man seated in the chair next to him, arms crossed, observing the conference playfully.
"Isn’t this quite a farce, Admiral Goto? Humanity nears extinction, yet they’re having a meeting? If meetings could solve the monster problem, we wouldn’t need to step in, would we?"
"Captain Natsuka..."
Hearing the masked man’s sarcasm, Admiral Goto smiled helplessly, but before he could respond, another voice spoke up on his other side.
"This is human nature, pitiful and weak; humanity will ultimately perish, and this is merely the beginning of destruction."
"Captain Creuse..."
Seeing another golden-haired masked man sitting on his other side, Admiral Goto felt uneasy. Can’t these masked men find somewhere else to chat? Why sit here, sandwiching me in the middle?
"Captain Natsuka, do you have a plan against those creatures?"
"I have no good plans... After all, human power is finite. I can fight armies and find victory in desperate situations, but I won’t foolishly resist when faced with catastrophes like landslides and tsunamis..."
"Interesting."
Hearing Natsuka’s reply, Creuse chuckled lightly.
"So Captain Natsuka, you view those monsters as natural disasters?"
"Something like that, don’t they resemble natural disasters? They suddenly appear, suddenly erupt, and humans are utterly powerless against them... These aren’t enemies we can oppose with our MS. But speaking of which, Captain Creuse, you don’t seem to want human victory? That’s unlike the hero from the Lunar Counterattack who managed to break the monster’s shield and destroy one of them..."
"Humanity’s extinction is fated, I just want to sit in the front row to witness it. Watching an act but missing the climax is truly regretful..."
At this point, they exchanged glances.
"Hee hee hee..."
"Ha ha ha..."
Admiral Goto: "........."
Can you two find another place to chat? It’s feeling really cold here, is the air conditioning set too high?
"Beep—!"
Suddenly, a sharp alarm blared, cutting through the conference’s bickering, and a distressed voice quickly appeared on the screen.
"Report, radar has detected metal creatures approaching Earth! Thirty in total! They’ll reach Earth in an hour!"
"They’re here!"
Hearing this, Admiral Goto’s expression changed. He stood up and left the conference room. To him, the discussion among politicians was irrelevant; as a Federation Army Admiral, he had only one task left!
With the blaring alarms, warships swiftly took off, forming formations outside Earth. Admiral Goto watched the screen in front of him, both fists clenched.
This battle would be Earth’s fight for survival, if they lose again then... humanity, could be completely wiped out.
"Report, enemy forces sighted ahead!"
No need for words, Admiral Goto already saw the large shapes of Reapers on the screen. He raised his right hand, hesitated for a moment, then forcefully lowered it.
"All fleets, open fire!!"