2023-02-01: Get To Know The GENESIS
- Cutscene: Get To Know The Genesis
- Cast: Inez Fressange (NPCed by Ruri Hoshino's player)
- Where: The Nadesico
- Date: 2023-02-01
- Summary: Allow Inez to explain the GENESIS weapon which now threatens Earth.
3! 2! 1..!
GET TO KNOW THE GENESIS!
"Allow me to explain," a voice cuts into your cockpit, or your bridge, or your living room. It's carried in a communication window which shows a middle-aged woman with tied-back blonde hair, wearing the universal sign of science: a lab coat.
How she opened this communication channel is a mystery; it's a one-way connection.
No one will interrupt her explanation today.
"The GENESIS -- the Gamma Emission by Nuclear Explosion Stimulate Inducing System -- is an old prototype for interstellar travel. Before humanity grasped the Fold Drive, this was the hope they held for reaching the distant stars."
This, as it happens, is an image, displayed full-screen for long moments -- https:''static.wikia.nocookie.netgundamimages332GENESIS_on_Screen_01_%28Seed_HD_Ep47%29.png -- before Inez's image appears to one side of it, again.
"GENESIS uses a nuclear explosion in order to produce a massive burst of gamma radiation," Inez says, and there are no glasses over her glinting eyes, but it's nonetheless difficult to see her eye colour through her foxlike stare. "This radiation is collected into a concentrated beam, and fired towards the separate mirror you see here," she gestures, with a pointer, to the small structure on the right side of her displayed diagram, "in order to fine-tune the beam's aim. This mirror reflects the concentrated beam back, and so it spreads and converts into the much larger destructive beam you've seen."
She taps at the diagram. "Of course, this level of destruction destroys the alignment mirror in the process! And so, the broken mirror must be moved out of the way and replaced -- thus, GENESIS cannot be fired in quick succession. The re-alignment process will take about twenty-four hours from initial firing, so please prepare warmly." Inez smiles, far too calm for the situation. "ZAFT has several of these mirrors ready near the main device... my, my, don't you think that means they're planning on firing several times?"
Inez seems to think it's exciting.
"ZAFT is using its Phase Shift Armour in order to defend the structure," her explanation continues. "This infamous shielding is strong enough to dampen physical weapons fire -- and other types of fire, just the same. Those of you associated with the Federation will no doubt be aware of your strike teams' futile efforts to break through the surrounding ZAFT fleet and damage the device! Oh, although I suppose you all know about those failures, now," she adds, her fingers veiling her smiling lips. "Even battleship-grade beam cannons did little to scratch it... of course, something like the Nadesico's Gravity Blast Cannon would fare better, but even that gravitational assault won't be enough to stop the device in time to stop it from firing."
She looks off-screen, for a moment. "And how am I sure, you ask? You see, one of ZAFT's ex-technical staff, Riika Sheder, has been so kind as to confirm all these details. Why, she positively babysat the first-generation PSAs!"
The communication window briefly shows Riika, instead -- a young woman with hair that poofs out into a mass of curls around her shoulders and a pink-lensed set of glasses. "I don't have any experience with GENESIS," she says, with a much more serious tone than Inez carries. "Only its origin, and only in theory - I didn't know they'd built it, astronomy isn't my field. But I tested ZAFT's first generation of Phase Shift Armour and they've only improved it since then. With large-scale generators, as anything this size would have, it's going to be difficult to damage as long as the generators are online."
And the window snaps back to Inez, almost violently. "I'll add," she insists, greedily, "that ZAFT hasn't only left the defense of GENESIS to this Phase Shift Armour. They've focused a good portion of their fleet on defending this one super-weapon! Really, things look quite grim, don't they?" She says it's grim, but she just looks interested.
"If you were capable of doing anything to resist," she supposes, "it would begin with the defence generators. They power the Phase Shift Armour, and they're built into the device, some distance beneath its surface. But due to modern reinterpretations of Copenhagen's principles, we know that the equidistant point between these generators is the area where we are most likely to see Tulily's Particle Collapse. Allow me to explain," she inserts AN EXPLANATION INTO HER EXPLANATION, tapping a certain place on the diagram: "at this point, the Phase Shift Armour is at its weakest. And so, if multiple warships were to concentrate their assault here, they could break through the PSA and destroy the generators from the inside! If you destroy the generators, you take the PSA offline... and you leave the structure defenceless. Understand?"
Inez claps her hands together. "Wonderful," she moves ahead, as if she can tell her audience understands enough. "Now, if I can call your attention to this diagram," another one, labelled, flashes up behind her -- https:''i.imgur.comWLeJ06r.png -- and she taps at the larger structure, with her pointer. "If you were to go inside the detonation chamber and destroy the primary emitter -- that is, the device which fires the concentrated gamma radiation I explained before -- GENESIS will undergo catastrophic damage when it next attempts to fire. Or, simply, you could use the very weapon to destroy itself!" She flicks her wrist, helpfully, indicating an explosion with her pointer.
"So, the plan," she goes on, smiling, "is a two-pronged assault on GENESIS. An Exterior Team will drill through the weapon's Phase Shift Armour at this weak point," Inez indicates it again, "in order to destroy the generator and render the structure vulnerable." She pauses, for a breath. "An Interior Team, meanwhile, will destroy the primary emitter shortly before the weapon fires."
She indicates the PSA. "Timing is key. If the Exterior Team is too late, the PSA will dampen the damage of GENESIS's misfiring -- and it could still be repaired. If the Interior Team succeeds too quickly, meanwhile, the firing sequence could still be aborted. And if they're too late..."
Inez smiles, serenely. "A direct hit on the Earth at full power would burn the surface to a crisp," she warns them, unfazed. "I'm speaking of nothing less than a potentially planet-ending event."
Inez veils her smile behind her fingers, as she goes on. "Now, you might have some questions," she goes on. "For instance, 'Can't we just disable the defenses and then destroy it manually from the outside?' And of course, you could do something like that... but it would take far too long for you to do enough damage. Remember what happens when GENESIS fires."
She taps at the mirrors, with her pointer. "Then, you might ask: 'What about taking out the alignment mirrors?' And yes, that would work, if you could do so quickly enough to prevent the weapon firing -- the mirrors seem to be reinforced by PSA, too. But even if you succeeded, they have spares, and mirrors are simple to construct. Even if you destroyed all their alignment mirrors, they'd produce more, and quickly. The weapon itself must be destroyed."
Here, Inez indicates away from GENESIS. "'What if we went after the control centre?', is your next question, isn't it? It would be convenient, but given the commanders appear to be buried deep within the bunkers of Jachin Due, there's simply not enough time."
She taps at the main structure. "'Are there any defenses in the detonation chamber?' I hear you wonder," she says, and does she? This is the secret Inez holds in her heart. The secret.. of exposition. "And I'd encourage you not to worry about that. Fixed, automated defenses are unlikely to have been set up inside. Even so, you should be aware that ZAFT knows what you're planning, and they likely have a plan of their own... so don't let your guard down just yet, unless you'd rather die."
Here, Inez pauses, turning back to the camera with that calm smile. "And you're wondering what I'm not telling you, I suppose," she adds, "even though I've told you everything! Don't worry. I'll spell it out for you. You can't destroy the primary emitter too early -- if you do, the firing sequence can be aborted. That means you'll need to destroy the emitter in that brief period while the gamma radiation is being collected, but before the beam fires. You'll have a matter of seconds... and, yes, that means you'll be within the detonation chamber after the detonation of a nuclear warhead."
If only she looked troubled by that.
"Theoretically, you could survive... if you stick to the outer edges of the chamber during the detonation."
There's an intense curiosity, in her dreamy eyes.
"I hope you'll prove that possibility for me, when the time comes."