"It's no good—without cameras it's completely useless!"
Murrue climbed out of the Strike's cockpit.
"Damn it, weren't these supposed to have been installed ages ago?!"
Everything else she could forgive, but the Strike's head was right there, so why weren't the cameras installed yet?!
"Because we found a fault in the wiring that we hadn't caught before..."
"What about the auxiliary cameras?!"
Murrue pressed.
An MS didn't only have cameras in its head, it was fitted with all sorts of auxiliary cameras too.
"The last batch had too many defective units, so we prioritized the other machines..."
The engineer cowered off to the side, trembling.
"Damn it!"
With no other choice, Murrue leaned out of the cockpit and returned fire.
The engineer went on, "And even if they were installed, it still wouldn't run, the Strike's OS isn't set up either."
"As long as it can move!" Murrue shouted. "At least it can serve as a fixed gun turret!"
If it couldn't see, then a stationary turret would have to do.
"Here!"
The engineer tossed over a disc.
Murrue quickly slotted the disc into the Strike's console.
The Strike wasn't finished, but the remaining work could all be transferred to the Archangel; apart from the camera problem itself, everything else was easy enough to resolve.
As for the cameras, part of the delay really was down to the schedule slipping and the defect rate.
But some of it, too, was Inori's doing.
It hadn't taken much—just a small bug slipped in here and there.
Outside the factory, the Duel and the Blitz, the first ones out, had already begun suppressing the enemy.
Then the Aegis and the Buster emerged as well.
"Isn't Rusty done yet?" Yzak asked.
"Rusty's still pinning down the defenders on the Strike's side. If it doesn't work out, we go with Plan C!" Athrun said.
"Is that so? Shame, I actually like how this machine handles. To think the Earthlings could build such a practical OS. These people really can't be left alive!"
Yzak found the system remarkably smooth and easy to use.
—Naturally, since all of Kira's assignments were actually being done by Inori.
Kira herself had no idea that many of the so-called "industrial machinery" assignments Professor Kato had given her were, in fact, the OS suites for these five MS.
After half-heartedly fumbling through the first few, she'd dumped all the rest on Inori.
As for Inori, she actually had an OS of her own—one she'd obtained from Muv-Luv.
Muv-Luv's control tech was more or less the same, except it leaned heavily on brain-machine interfaces, so it didn't quite fit here.
But with that foundation to work from, Inori could put her "super-brain" to work crunching the calculations.
So... apart from the file Kira had phoned in, Inori had custom-built a separate OS for each of the Blitz, the Buster, the Duel, and the Aegis.
Aside from the one Kira had written herself, Professor Kato had given high marks to all four of the other "assignments."
Kira might be an Ultimate Coordinator, but sometimes she'd cut every corner she could and laze about whenever possible; her code ran on a single principle: as long as it runs, that's good enough. Bugs everywhere, and worse, she didn't! write! a single! comment!
[Wait, wait, why are the enemies the ones piloting all the Gundams?!]
[Gundam... is the enemy!]
[Gundam has betrayed us!]
[Every single one of you is a meme master]
[Hold on, is this unfinished Gundam the same one from Episode Zero?]
[Actually plausible, it broke in Episode Zero, which delayed the build schedule]
By now, all of Heliopolis had descended into chaos.
Sai opened the door to find Morgenroete's researchers all scrambling.
"What's happening?!"
"Who knows?"
"ZAFT's invading—someone spotted mobile suits!"
"We can't reach anyone outside the harbor, so you'd all better get to a shelter, quick."
At that, the young ones panicked.
"Miriallia!" Tolle hurried to find her.
"Kira—you—" Sai's gaze shot toward Kira.
"Um, Miss Cagalli! Not that way!" But Kira's eyes were on Cagalli, who had bolted in the opposite direction. Kira rushed after her.
"I'll go with Kira. The rest of you, head for shelter," Inori told the group.
"I'll come too!"
Sai made to follow.
But Tolle clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Don't just get in the way."
Then, leaning close, he murmured into Sai's ear, "That songstress is quite something, you know."
Tolle didn't bring up the matter of Kira. Sai was Kira's friend too, but he had no idea Kira was a Coordinator.
That Inori was no Natural, though, was something almost anyone could tell.
That gradient-pink hair didn't look dyed, so it could only be something she was born with, which meant she had to be a Coordinator.
Letting that little bit slip was harmless enough.
"Come on, let's go, let's go!" Kuzzey, at the back of the group, urged them along. He was the most frantic of all.
"Let's move!"
Sai was still worried about Kira, but for now he had no choice but to leave with the others.
"Miss Cagalli, it's not this way!" At a corner, Kira grabbed hold of her.
"Let go of me, there's something I have to confirm!" Cagalli shouted.
"Miss Cagalli! ZAFT is attacking Heliopolis—do you have any idea what would happen if something happened to you here?!"
Kira gripped Cagalli's shoulders.
This bit was Kira putting what she'd just learned straight to use.
"I—" Cagalli froze.
After the grilling Inori had put her through, even someone as thoughtless as Cagalli understood what it would mean if she died during a "ZAFT attack on Orb."
"The daughter of the Lion of Orb, killed in a ZAFT attack," that alone would be a pretext for war.
The Alliance could even use it as a public-opinion pretext to force Orb to pick a side.
As if all her strength had been drained away, Cagalli slumped to the ground.
"Kira." Inori had appeared behind Kira.
"Let's get to shelter."
Kira pulled Cagalli to her feet and headed for the escape route on the other side.
"You've got to be kidding!"
But when Kira arrived, the area was already sealed off, meaning it was full, and the escape pods had already detached from Heliopolis.
Of course they had.
Because Inori had triggered the alarm early, and by her design, Kira's group was the last to hear it.
—Please. A troublemaker like Cagalli belonged right at her side, to be grilled and personality-corrected from time to time.
She was Kira's sister, after all. And since Inori was Kira's tool, of course she'd look after this adorable little sister on her big sis's behalf!
"All the escape pods and lifeboats nearby have already launched. The city center still has 50% of its lifeboats available... now 45%." Inori was monitoring everything.
"Damn it, there's no way to reach there in time from here!"
Kira looked frantically around.
And then Inori's voice came again: "Kira. Use me."
Kira drew a deep breath.
"Please, Inori, take us to safety."