[Honestly, I always figured a Gundam pilot had to be some burly tough guy—but after seeing this bodysuit, I've made peace with myself. All I can say is—bodysuits, saikou!]
[After this pilot suit showed up, I've only got one thing to say: SEED, banzai!]
[Wahoo, liftoff!]
[I want to see Inori's pilot-suit mode right now]
[Inori just wearing her goldfish dress would be fine]
[No way she wears that in space too]
[She's an android—I bet she'd be fine even floating around naked in space]
[Saikou!]
[Saikou! Saikou!]
(Not bad at all…)
Because it wasn't a performance costume, it drew no extra attention—but just having Kira make her entrance in this look had already sent her popularity soaring. Kira herself, though, was blushing furiously.
(This girl really is something, 233)
(Really suits clingy-girl Kira's image)
"Do I really have to wear this?" Kira hesitated.
"It's an anti-G space suit, fully rated for space. Depending on your constitution, it raises your G-tolerance by 2–10 G, so you can pull off more aggressive maneuvers," Inori said. "It also handles biological needs, which makes it ideal for surviving in space. It's essential."
Then she looked toward the Strike. "The most powerful tech in an MS isn't its mobility or anything like that—it's its ability to shield the pilot from G-forces. The cockpit's suspension and inertial-damping systems are absurdly strong. But to draw out an MS's full performance, you need a better pilot suit."
Yes. The most absurdly advanced technology in this world—no, in most mecha works—wasn't the combat power or the miracle machines. It was the machine's own ability to counter inertia.
Consider: every leap an MS makes, every turn, is—for the person inside—practically the equivalent of jumping off a building or getting hit by a car. Inori, who had ended up on the Dimensional Popularity Stage through sheer luck, was the foremost authority on the subject.
And unlike a fighter jet, an MS constantly needs to brake hard, pivot, and so on—each time a horrifying "meat-paste experience." Only in worlds like this could such impossibly advanced tech exist.
[Never noticed before—this really is a blind spot]
[I heard an expert break it down once: every hard stop is basically a collision]
[A total blind spot—put that way, this really is the most absurdly advanced tech there is]
[With no assist and no cushioning, the cockpit's basically a machine for pounding its pilot into meatballs]
[Insane. Completely insane.]
The audience's world was the Gunpla world, and its people had never given this sort of thing a second thought day to day. But once they stopped and seriously considered this blind spot, they finally realized just how absurd it was.
"It's chilly…" Kira climbed into the Strike's cockpit and got back to tuning the system. She'd adjusted the OS before, but only as a stopgap—still far from "perfect." The pilot suit Inori had made was very thin, with a thermal system and a helmet unit, though both were off by default in an atmospheric environment.
"Got it!" Over on the other side, Tolle and the others drove a vehicle over. It was equipment fetched from the warehouse on Murrue's instructions.
Murrue knew all too well how powerless her side was right now. The Strike's only usable armaments were the beam saber, the Armor Schneider combat knives, the head-mounted machine guns, and an assault rifle with almost no ammunition left. On top of that, energy consumption was a problem too.
Though that strange rice cooker could help the Strike complete its final repairs, it couldn't make up for the machine's inherent shortcomings. When ZAFT had pulled back, the Strike hadn't had the reserves to give chase—not because the pilot wasn't strong enough, but because the machine itself was severely limited.
"This side's done too!" Kira opened the cockpit. The final system tuning was complete.
Murrue stood. "Next, connect the equipment pack to the Strike! The weapons and energy pack are one unit—just mount it as is!"
Under her direction, the group began installing the Launcher Striker Pack. Then Murrue turned once more to Inori.
"Can't you keep using that… unique piloting method of yours?" she asked.
"That's up to Kira." Kira wanted to protect Inori. So once she'd confirmed she could pilot the Strike herself, of course she wasn't going to put Inori in there with her again. Besides, Kira knew Inori had a "shield." So as long as she could protect Inori, Inori could protect Kira's other friends.
"BOOM!"
Just as the two were talking, the central axis of Heliopolis suddenly burst open, and a Moebius Zero and a CGUE came drilling out—Le Creuset and Mu, locked in their dogfight.
"So this is it?" Le Creuset spotted the Strike on the ground at a glance. In the atmosphere, the Moebius Zero's abilities were hamstrung; Le Creuset winged Mu's Moebius Zero with a single shot, then swung his muzzle around to aim at the Strike.
The Strike wasn't vulnerable to ballistic rounds—but behind Kira stood her friends!
"Like hell I'll let you!"
Without a word, Kira activated the Phase Shift Armor, then leveled her weapon at Le Creuset.
"BOOM!"
Sensing his intent to attack, Kira fired first—a preemptive strike.
"Kira, wait!" Murrue rushed to stop her, but it was too late.
"What?!" In that split second, dread crawled up Le Creuset's spine. He yanked the control stick with everything he had and, at the last possible moment, finally evaded the shot. But the powerful red beam still tore across the colony interior, punching a huge hole in Heliopolis.
"He read my move in advance?!" Le Creuset understood in an instant.
"Crap, the colony!" Seeing the hole blown in the colony, Kira panicked too, not daring to keep firing for fear of causing even worse damage.
"Oh?" Le Creuset immediately noticed the Strike pilot's "weakness."
"Won't fire? Protecting the people behind you? In that case—" He raised his muzzle. This time he aimed not at the Strike, but at the friends behind it.
"Don't!"
Just as Le Creuset had predicted, Kira changed her stance.
"Took the bait!" He broke into a grin.
And at that very moment, the feed suddenly went pitch black. Then Badgiruel's voice came through: "Fire!"
The twin Lohengrin positron blaster cannons fired, hurling two red beams straight ahead.
"BOOM!"
Smoke and dust blanketed the gap between the CGUE and the Strike.
(Gotta recreate the classic scene)
[Wahoo!]
[The mothership's here!]
[Cool enough to explode!]
[No lie, that was cool as hell, 233]
"The new-model ship took no damage?" Le Creuset had underestimated the Archangel's toughness. He glanced at the wall behind him—the colony's emergency system had already kicked in, spraying special material to seal the breach.
And in that moment, the Strike had swapped to the assault rifle with almost no ammunition left.
"BANG!"
A single shot—but with pinpoint accuracy, forcing Le Creuset to fall back.
"The Strike's nowhere near as good as it looked in the videos!"
"But for now… let's retreat." An MS that could "read" his movements—taking it down really wouldn't be easy. He would have to withdraw and rethink his approach…