Lady Une's arrival made Reid and Angie truly realize how fortunate it was to have an all-around perfect assistant.
In just half a month, the New Misurugi Republic underwent earth-shaking changes, leaving Reid and Angie with the feeling that they could never do without her in the future.
Here's how it happened: On Lady Une's first day, Reid introduced her to their companions and showed her around. After arranging her accommodation and treating her to a welcome feast, the day concluded.
The next day, Reid attempted to have Lady Une handle the administrative affairs of Star Palace, particularly those involving foreign guests.
By then, Lady Une had learned from Reid that all the staff in this Colony Satellite were created by "that god," capable of flawlessly executing any task within their abilities without unnecessary delays unless accidents occurred.
The original inhabitants within the Star Palace Colony Satellite were more disciplined than soldiers. Lady Une immediately thought to herself that she had never fought such a well-resourced battle in her life. Although these original inhabitants, as Reid described, had rather ordinary abilities, their perfect obedience, lack of betrayal, and absence of deceit already put any organization she knew of to shame by miles.
Thus, Lady Une gladly accepted her tasks and began mobilizing the original inhabitants to work.
According to Lady Une, the workload in the Star Palace Colony Satellite was pitifully light. With these original inhabitants who followed orders impeccably, all she had to do was review the collected data, make judgments, and handle two or three visitors daily—truly a breeze.
Reid and Angie were left dumbfounded. To them, those two or three visitors were the most mentally taxing part of their duties, as they were usually mayors from other Colony Satellites or diplomats from Earth nations, requiring careful consideration with every word spoken. Yet for Lady Une, it was as effortless as eating or drinking.
After a few days of trial operation, Reid and Angie fully delegated authority and focused wholeheartedly on managing their Crimson Wings Mercenary Group. Except for Angie occasionally signing and stamping documents in her capacity as head of state, all national administrative affairs were handed over to Lady Une.
Lady Une lived up to expectations. First, she persuaded Reid to halt the pointless expansion of factories (since there was no actual need to produce Mobile Suits, factory capacity was severely excessive) and prioritize internal development within the Colony Satellite. She even hired specialized designers to plan the layout of buildings in the outer zones. Reid only needed to construct the buildings according to the blueprints.
Thanks to the Earth Alliance's massive provision of basic resources and the original inhabitants' resumed mining operations in the asteroid belt, Reid could construct buildings without restraint. All constructions were completed in just over a week.
However, to maintain appearances, Lady Une publicly announced that immigration would only open after two months. By then, over four months would have passed since the visits from the Earth Alliance and PLANT, keeping the construction speed within acceptable limits for ordinary people.
After all, Heliopolis designed and built five Gundams for the G Project from scratch in about six months, along with the Archangel. They even had enough capacity to complete the construction of the Astray Gundams. The industrial capabilities of the space era were truly terrifying.
Of course, Reid wasn't left idle either. He had originally planned to embark on another expedition to other sectors to suppress pirates, hoping to scrape together enough for another ten-pull before the next phase of missions began. Alternatively, he considered taking a break before tackling the UC0079 Southeast Asian rainforest and mining town campaign against Zeon's Large Mobile Armor.
However, while handling external affairs, Reid also focused on getting the Crimson Wings Mercenary Group on track.
On the eighth day after officially taking over government duties, Reid was in the Factory Module discussing modifications to Angie's Union Flag with her.
Angie didn't want to pilot the NT-1 Gundam, saying she preferred transformable mobile suits and that the NT-1 Gundam felt clunky with unsatisfactory sprint speed.
Reid had no choice but to accommodate the pilot's preferences. He decided to modify Angie's custom machine using Luna Titanium Alloy. The Union Flag's entire frame was made of E Carbon Steel, weighing 67.1 tons unarmed, while the similarly sized NT-1 Gundam weighed only 40 tons. Luna Titanium Alloy was significantly lighter than E Carbon Steel while offering superior defensive capabilities. The Factory Module confirmed this modification was entirely feasible.
Moreover, the technology for Luna Titanium Alloy had already been analyzed from the NT-1. This alloy, composed of titanium, aluminum, and rare earth elements, wasn't difficult to source, and the Factory Module could handle the most challenging production processes.
Although developing subsequent versions of Gundarium Alloy (essentially an improved Luna Titanium Alloy) would require breakthroughs beyond the Factory Module's capabilities, Reid could mass-produce the version used in the NT-1 Gundam at very low costs.
Thus, Reid planned to upgrade all his main force's mobile suits with Luna Titanium Alloy armor, with critical areas reinforced with additional Chobham Armor.
But just as Reid and Angie were discussing weapon loadouts, the system suddenly displayed a message:
"Routine mission detected: Escort Osborne Industries' supply convoy transporting materials from Earth to Heliopolis. Reward: 5 Merit Points, 3000 G-Coins."
Reid was baffled by this mission. Who exactly was Osborne Industries? He wasn't in the Marvel universe, was he? And it wasn't like he could just waltz in and escort someone else's supply convoy.
Before Reid could finish processing his confusion, Reid's communication came through:
"Reid, while negotiating material trades with P.M.P Company, they mentioned their subcontractor Osborne Industries has a shipment ready for transport from Earth to Heliopolis. They asked if the Crimson Wings Mercenary Group would take the escort mission. What do you think?"
Now Reid understood. There was nothing to think about—he immediately accepted the mission.
It was already mid-to-late August. What else could it mean when Atlantic Federation's military-industrial enterprises were shipping materials to Heliopolis, a neutral satellite under Orb's jurisdiction? It had to be supplies for the G Project.
After all, Reid had heard that following the production of a batch of Union Flags by the Earth Alliance's three governing countries, combat performance proved unsatisfactory, with a 90% transformation failure rate among most pilots. However, a few exceptional pilots could complete the transformation, proving that Reid's OS wasn't the issue.
Naturally, the Earth Alliance had considered modifying the Union Flag's OS, but the results weren't promising.
So it didn't surprise Reid when the Atlantic Federation approved the G Project just like in the original timeline.
As a covert operation, the Atlantic Federation naturally couldn't send military escorts for the supplies, nor dared to use the names of major defense contractors.
After the Battle of Nova Colony in the L4 space sector, the Earth Alliance's control over space weakened further, making these supplies prime targets for space pirates. If ZAFT learned from the pirates that they'd seized high-end military-industrial goods, it could easily alert PLANT to the situation.
Thus, hiring the Crimson Wings Mercenary Group - who could legally operate Mobile Suits in space without arousing ZAFT's suspicion - became the Earth Alliance's best option.
Moreover, Reid's frequent crackdowns on space pirates made those desperadoes think twice, as Reid was known to personally blockade pirate bases with his mothership before sending in construction machinery for literal dismantling.
This mission gave Reid an idea: perhaps every official mission his deliberately established mercenary group took could earn Merit Points.
So Reid took several locals aboard a transport mothership, completed the escort mission efficiently with his Union Flag, and began frequently accepting similar assignments afterward. He discovered that if pirates actually attacked the convoy, he could take on emergency missions for additional Merit Points.
This meant a single mission could earn real-world money, complete system tasks, and sometimes trigger multiple emergency missions - getting multiple benefits from one job. With good luck, each run could net over a dozen Merit Points while giving him legitimate reasons to retaliate against pirates. Reid became utterly addicted to escorting merchant runs... until two unexpected application documents landed on his desk in October.
(End of Chapter)