October 22nd, 0083
On tonight's Eye on Change, Edward Burral will be interviewing an EFGF Colonel regarding the Torrington attack on October 14 0083.[/center][/b]
Burral: So, as per our agreement we won't show your face or mention your name, but we would like to know your rank for the record.
EF Colonel: I'm a Colonel with the Earth Federation Ground Forces.
Burral: Thank you, sir.
EF Colonel: How are you doing?
Burral: I'm doing fine, thank you. So one of the main reasons we asked to interview you is because of the number of questions surrounding the events of the 14th.
We all know that there was an attack on the Torrington Base on the 14th, but EF command is being very tight-lipped about what is going on. Would be able to offer us some information about what really went down?
EF Colonel: In them middle of the night, Torrington was heavily bombarded with missiles and attacked by several mobile suits. Many of the soldiers and pilots stationed there were killed before we could get a force together to retaliate.
Burral: So you were there at Torrington that night?
EF Colonel: Yes, I barely managed to get to my gun-erm-Mobile suit in time.
Burral: So as part of the retaliatory force you went after the attackers. Who were they?
EF Colonel: As far as we knew at the time, they were a trio of high end Doms from the war being supported by one of the fleets that Vao Kai is supposed to be chasing down. It later came out that it was something more.
Burral: So there is basis to the rumors that Dutchy sympathizers are on the move?
EF Colonel: I didn't believe it at first. We all knew that there were phantoms out there; SS that went into hiding, ships that managed to slip away, and those guys who fled out into deep space, but I never thought they were organized enough to try something like this. They call it "Operation Stardust" and their goal is to start another war.
Burral: Wow. So this assault was part of Operation Stardust? It is well known that Torrington houses the stockpile of strategic nuclear warheads both EF and what was recovered from the principality in 0080. Was that the target of this Operation Stardust?
EF Colonel: I don't think so. The nuclear arsenal at Torrington is locked down tight. They would have had to bring the whole base down if they wanted to jet out with one of the warheads. It was just to prove a point.
Burral: Well that seems to be awful lot of effort to make a point, strong at it may be. We were able to find some footage shot by a resident in the area at the time. Would you mind if you shared your thoughts on the footage and explain what is happening in these?
EF Colonel: Not at all.
Burral: We apologize for the graininess of this video, but Minovsky interference skyrocketed during the assault making this blurry at best.
::A brief clip plays grannily showing what appears to be a yellow mobile armor with a cannon its back and a large blue and while mobile suit mostly obscured by the mobile armor.::
Burral: Again, this footage is very low resolution, but can you help us identify what is happening here?
EF Colonel: That's one of the Duchy's Xamel units. They're like a cross between the Doms and our Guntanks; lightning fast and capable of laying down a barrage of artillery. That unit was probably part of the bombardment on the base that night.
Burral: Interesting. Obviously the Xamel is not a particularly common unit. We had a couple of our experts look at the photo and while they were able to ascertain its function, they weren't able to put a name to the unit. Do you have any estimates on how many of these Xamels were manufactured?
EF Colonel: Probably not too many. They showed up right before we really started to push Zeon off Earth during the last war so there probably weren't too many hovering around. Plus I'm guessing it's a lot more expensive than a Zaku and the Zabis could barely produce those towards the end.
Burral: So it would be safe to say that this is superior to some of the artillery Zakus that were recovered and documented during the reconstruction period in 0080 through 0081? Would they be harder to maintain without major support of a centralized government or easier?
EF Colonel: The Xamel has a huge advantage of over those artillery Zakus thanks to its hovercraft system. They're not even really in the same class. That also means that it's alot harder to maintain. Those Zakus were a lot more common and parts were a lot more common. The Xamels? A lot of Zeon mechanics have probably never even seen them in action before let alone worked on one. So yeah it'd be a lot harder to maintain without major support.
Burral: It seems like fielding the Xamel would be more than a significant investment of resources. A unit like that, being hard to maintain, would obviously be much harder to repair. That seems like too much of an investment for just a showing of force. In the video there was what appeared to be another mobile weapon, one that our experts could only spitball guesses about.
::Zooms in and enhances an almost unrecognizable blur of metallic blue and white behind the Xamel.::
Burral: Any thoughts on this?
EF Colonel: Do you know how a targetting computer works? It sometimes needs to make guesses. If it looks a bit like a Zaku then it fills in the blanks and registers it as a Zaku. If it looks like a GM then it fills in the blanks and registers it as a GM...
::Interrupting the silhouetted Colonel::
Burral: But this was taken by a civilian camera and not a targeting computer. Assuming that this is a GM though, you're stating that it is possible that this strike force has made off with one of the newer model GMs?
EF Colonel: Not at all. There were a lot of SS that disappeared after the war ended. It's not unheard of for them to take advantage of the targeting computers and field units largely similar to that of the Federation. It's one of the reasons we rely heavily on IFF frequencies, though when m-particle interference is heavy we are forced to use visual confirmation. It just takes a second of hesitation to get a kill, after all.
Burral: Colonel, so again I ask you. Why would these remnants place three high-end Doms, a Xamel, and a potentially camouflaged mobile suit at risk just to make a statement? What is it that we are missing here?
EF Colonel: It's a last gasp for them. They were never going to be able to wait us out. Maintaining those units takes too many resources and every day our units get more and more advanced. Torrington, despite the nuclear arsenal stored there, is one of the least defended bases remaining in the Federation. Bombarding our forces as our men slept in their beds is the last blow available to them. One of the few ways they can potentially goad us into stepping back into a war.
There may, unfortunately, be no other action available to us than to play into their hand.
Burral: Wouldn't that be playing into the hands of Operation Stardust? After all it seems unusual that they would goad the Earth Federation Forces into a fight without some sort of plan. Do you believe that the EFF brass are going to pursue this and possibly reignite The War?
EF Colonel: It had to happen eventually. They're still dreaming that they can reverse the outcome of the last war and they don't care about the atrocities they committed for their "independence." They would have struck us eventually, and the only fortunate thing about their operation is that it's exposing most of them to us.
The question is will the High Command take them up on their offer? It seems like we have no other choice when the mad woman leading them has them launch from their hiding places on Earth and space to commit more attacks like the one on Torrington.
Burral: That is certainly an interesting comment to make. So you feel that there is someone who is ringleader and orchestrator to this entire operation and that this is not just a loose confederation of those left over from the One Year War?
EF Colonel: I don't feel that there is someone behind it all, I know there is. We knew shortly after the war ended that there were members of their high command that were unaccounted for. Ships with entire squadrons of mobile suits that fled. One of the highest profile members of the Duchy of Zeon to avoid capture was Delaz. He fled with several ships and a number of pilots with a lot of blood on their hands.
We've intercepted communications that link him and his fleet to the attack, but there's still the Xamel and camouflage unit problem. Where are they getting the parts? Where are they getting this support? It's been years making it impossible for them to operate this long without someone within the Republic of Zeon giving them support. Delaz would have been forced to surrender, after all, if he couldn't feed his men.
Burral: So you believe that there is an individual in the Republic of Zeon who is supporting him logistically?
EF Colonel: Non-military? I believe that there is an individual in the Republic directly behind Delaz and all these attacks and I can prove it in just one moment.
::Hands a packet of documents to Edward::
Burral: Colonel, what are these documents?
EF Colonel: Shortly after our first skirmish with the forces fleeing from Torrington, we came into contact with one of their members who wished to defect, "Scarecrow." He provided us with information on the Earth-based goals of Operation Stardust. They were hoping to have the forces from Torrington link up with a submarine force and then proceed to Arabia to be launched into space. These are direct copies of Scarecrow's communication with our forces. Although short, Scarecrow makes mention of a woman leading the actions of both the Earth and space forces of Delaz's fleet:: Veronica Wu.
Burral: Well Colonel this has certainly been enlightening and we will be pouring over these documents for the foreseeable future. We appreciate your time and candor. Do you have anything else that you'd like to contribute before we close out for the evening?
EF Colonel: I think I've said my piece. I just hope that people like Wu and Delaz will come to their senses. The Federation is the sword of justice and no one is going to be able avoid it forever. All of humanity is looking towards the future and we won't allow these relics from the past to make us look back again.
Burral: Colonel, it was a pleasure interviewing you. To all of our ESNN viewers, we will be analyzing these documents and posting them in their redacted forms as soon as possible. Thank you and godspeed.
