While the life-and-death struggle raged at Heliopolis, on the other side Athrun and the others were also calibrating their machines.
But honestly, there was little to calibrate—because they'd discovered that no matter what they did, they couldn't improve on the preset configuration.
They could still alter a few personal preference settings, but Athrun sharply noticed that those little piloting habits themselves might actually cause problems—and whoever had designed this OS had accounted for all of them. In other words, rather than making the machine conform to your habits, better to adapt yourself to the machine. That was how you achieved more precision.
"No good—there's nothing left to change." Athrun sighed and climbed out of the cockpit. The other pilots emerging from their cockpits looked just as deflated.
"Why the long faces? I'm the one who lost the most here. Rusty's sacrifice is a shame, but we carried out the mission brilliantly." Miguel drifted over to his comrades.
"This OS—there's nothing for me to change…" Nicol spoke up.
"You too?" Dearka asked, surprised.
"Athrun, your side too?" Yzak looked at Athrun.
Athrun nodded heavily. "That's right. If the Earth Alliance's designs are all this excellent, then ZAFT's future is in danger. It's not just the armor advantage—it's this terrifying underlying architecture and control system."
"No way…" Miguel was even more shocked this time. "So in that earlier battle, it wasn't that you couldn't bring out the machines' full power? I thought the unfamiliar machines were holding you back."
"Holding back or not… the fact is, once I got into the Duel, it drew out a hundred and twenty percent of my ability. I was the one limiting the MS, not the other way around." Yzak clenched his fist. For Yzak, a ZAFT Red elite, becoming the "burden" and "dead weight" on his own weapon was a humiliation that seriously pissed him off.
"Earthlings are this strong?!" Miguel wondered if he simply hadn't woken up properly today.
"There's got to be a Coordinator traitor!" Yzak refused to believe any Natural could be that capable. So naturally he assumed the Gundams had been built using Coordinator abilities.
Athrun, however, sank into thought. "But even a Coordinator… their technical level is too inconceivable."
He lifted his head toward the Aegis. There was still a gash on its chest, left by the Strike. Phase Shift Armor could completely negate projectile weapons and also offered some protection against beam weapons—but any ordinary MS in its place, and he'd surely have been done for.
"Aegis…" Athrun murmured. "Next time, I will definitely—!"
Miguel clapped Athrun on the shoulder. After seeing these men in such a state of disbelief, he pulled up the earlier battle records. "This isn't on you. Athrun, don't be reckless—this pilot's skills must be extremely strong. Going one-on-one is absolutely out of the question."
—Huh? Talk about the natural order getting flipped on its head.
Inori tilted her head. Whether or not Athrun recognized Kira as the Strike's pilot had clearly made a big difference to him. In the "original work," Athrun knew the Strike's pilot was Kira and kept hesitating, and it was Miguel who got careless for a moment and was cut down. The script had changed quite a lot. But Inori rather liked this kind of deviation. Interesting.
And now the view cut over to Inori's side. By this point, she, Kira, and the others had already boarded the Archangel.
Badgiruel came over with the others, then saluted Murrue. "I'm so glad you're safe."
"Ensign Badgiruel." Murrue returned the salute. "The same to you. It's thanks to you managing to start up the Archangel that we were saved."
"Ah! Isn't that the Songstress of Orb-san?" Kojiro Murdoch, the Archangel's mechanic, spotted the group in the back at a glance. Inori, in her goldfish dress, stood out here. She was a "superstar," after all, and the others turned to look too.
But once the Strike's hatch opened and Kira came down, everyone's eyes were drawn to her instead. A girl in a black skintight latex combat suit. She had an undeniably striking figure. Her face was a little flushed, rather bashful.
After the brief shock, it was Murdoch who reacted first. "Wait—why is a little girl piloting the Strike?"
Kira lowered her head, whether from embarrassment or from self-consciousness. But Inori walked over just then and handed her a coat. Once she'd pulled it on, Kira seemed to relax.
(93283305)
(Kira version; the combat suit is underneath.)
"Captain Ramius, what exactly is going on…?" Badgiruel was baffled. The civilians she could accept—but why was the one piloting the MS also a young girl?
"This…" Murrue didn't know how to explain either. The current situation was even more chaotic than the "original." With everything that had happened, she didn't even know where to begin. The whole thing seemed to have gone barreling out of control from the moment these two girls appeared.
"Whoa, now that's a surprise."
Just then, another person walked over, his voice breaking the slightly awkward atmosphere. A blond man approached. "I'm Captain Mu La Flaga of the Earth Alliance Forces' Seventh Mobile Fleet."
Ramius and Badgiruel saluted in return.
"I need boarding authorization. Who's in charge of this ship?" Mu asked.
Badgiruel said, "From the captain on down, the Archangel's principal officers have all been killed in action. Captain Ramius currently holds the highest rank—I believe she should take command."
"Just as I thought…" During the earlier contact, Murrue had already had a bad feeling; now it was confirmed.
"Anyway, just give me the authorization. The transport I was on earlier's already been sunk," Mu continued.
"Ah, right. You have authorization." Murrue nodded.
"This really is something. That's the Songstress of Orb-san, isn't it? One of my subordinates was a big fan of her MVs—before we shipped out, he even begged me for half a day's leave to go to her concert." Mu sighed.
"Then your subordinate…" Murrue trailed off, realizing she'd said the wrong thing.
"He fought the Le Creuset Team's GINNs outside Heliopolis and was killed." Mu shook his head. "But how'd this big star end up on our ship?"
"Mm… it's a long story. In short, if not for them, the GAT-X105 Strike would already have been taken. I had her pilot the Strike to drive off the four seized G weapons and ZAFT's GINNs. Her name is Kira." Murrue made clear the credit owed to Kira and the others.
"Wait—a single person drove off the seized G weapons and the GINNs?! That kid?!" It wasn't just Badgiruel; the other crew, hearing this, all found the feat unbelievable.
"I see." Mu looked at Kira. The girl stood with her head down, beside Inori; having pulled on a coat, she was visibly more at ease.
"I escorted the G weapons' pilots here. Where are those kids?" Mu asked, puzzled.
"When the explosion occurred, they happened to be on the bridge checking in with the captain, so they were caught in it too…" Badgiruel's voice grew fainter and fainter.
"I see." Mu lowered his head, then raised it again and walked toward Kira. "You… you're a Coordinator, aren't you?"