Her fists clenched. Hard.
In that single instant, Kira—who moments ago had wanted so badly to protect her home—suddenly felt it wouldn't matter even if Heliopolis were destroyed like this.
If even its original owners fled without a fight, then what was the meaning of her standing guard here?
Kira didn't understand all those political considerations. She didn't know, and didn't want to know, what the people up top were thinking.
All she knew was that in the face of the enemy, Orb's leadership had chosen to run without so much as a shred of resistance.
Calling yourself a neutral nation and refusing to resist was, in a sense, normal—but then why develop those MS weapons at all?
If you want neutrality, why make eyes at one side? If you want to build your own weapons, why refuse to use them to resist?
For a moment, Kira felt that the sight of herself here, risking everything to protect it all... was utterly laughable.
[Feel bad for Kira]
[The front line only has to make sacrifices. We in the rear have so much more to consider.]
[The front lines fight to the death, the rear leads the retreat]
[It'd be hilarious if Orb knew they left their own princess behind here]
"Aside from the MBF-P01 that was flown out, the remaining four machines—designated P02 through P05—still exist within Heliopolis. Of them, Unit 02 and Unit 03 are in complete condition. Unit 04 and Unit 05 are finished, but have been broken down into parts; they can only serve as spares."
"Orb's prototypes use G-Series technology, but it's incomplete—no Phase Shift Armor."
"At present, now that you've granted me higher authorization, I can send Fyu-Neru into the two intact MS and control them as sub-units to coordinate with the Strike."
[Grass (a type of exclamation), unmanned drone Gundams]
[Pulling THIS move, huh]
[Shame Kira doesn't have clones, or you could stuff a "sister" into every Gundam]
[Grass (a type of exclamation), are you a demon?]
[The one above's referencing the Witch from Mercury meme—the Gundam in that one literally has the soul of the heroine's sister inside it]
[Holy crap, good thing I haven't watched Witch from Mercury—that scared the piss out of me]
[What are you all on about—two machines, obviously the Guntank and Guncannon from 0079. Neither has PS Armor, it's gotta be those two]
[Makes sense, they play support]
[The five machines should map to the five Gundams over here, but no PS Armor, one flew off, two aren't assembled—if you tell me this isn't setting up a Guntank and Guncannon, I won't believe it]
One key to rewriting a plot was making the audience buy it.
In the original Mobile Suit Gundam, even though the protagonist crew had only a single Gundam, there were two other machines—a Guncannon and a Guntank—so Amuro wasn't exactly "fighting alone."
As it happened, there were two machines here now, and from the audience's angle they seemed to line up perfectly with those two support units. Convenient, that.
All around came the roar of missiles and cannon fire.
The four G-Weapons danced before her eyes.
And the colony kept taking damage.
"Ah, it's all yours, Little Inori. Heliopolis... whatever happens to it, happens. All I want... is to make things quiet around here..." Kira's voice was low.
"Understood."
"Morgenroete self-destruct countdown aborted."
"Fyu-Neru has interfaced with MBF-P02 and MBF-P03."
"Friendly IFF designation applied."
"Relevant data transmitted to the Archangel."
"Cooperative Combat Network established. Subsystems linked."
As Inori began her control, the BGM likewise began to play.
Command after command went out, and the cameras of the two MS lit up from within the darkness.
"Message received from the Strike!" The Archangel got the transmission too.
"Nani?! Heliopolis still has MS?!" Murrue was floored.
—No wonder the Strike's repairs never got finished. So this is where it went—Morgenroete poured all its production capacity into developing its own MS!
And they stole our Alliance tech to do it, no less!
But now wasn't the time to dwell on that.
The four heavily-armed GINNs hadn't done much damage to the Archangel yet, but this couldn't go on—and Heliopolis kept taking hits.
"Register MBF-P02 and MBF-P03 as friendlies!"
Murrue issued the order at once.
"BOOM!"
With an explosion, two MS strode out of the rubble.
One red, one blue.
(Default loadout—no katana)
(Cool, I'll give it that)
[Classic color scheme]
[Grass (a type of exclamation), total Let's & Go déjà vu]
[They look pretty similar to the Strike, huh]
[Is this a Gundam too?]
[In other Gundam series, Gundams are rare treasures. In SEED, Gundams are wholesaled like they're free—ten of them right at the start]
[Strictly speaking it's eight—the other two, like they said, aren't assembled, kept as spares afterward]
[Counting only the ones that showed up, seven—one ran off]
"What is that?!"
"Why are there more MS?!"
"They look like the G-Weapons, but... they don't seem to have PS Armor!"
ZAFT had noticed the situation on this side too.
The battle was currently at a stalemate, and if the Earth Alliance had two more MS, it could tip the balance outright!
"What's going on? That thing wasn't in the intel!" Yzak gripped his controls tighter.
The four young aces were improving rapidly.
But even so, even four against one, they were still being suppressed by Kira, who was growing just as explosively.
If the Earth Alliance had more MS, then things really were up in the air.
The Le Creuset Team alone... might not be able to take the enemy down after all.
"MBF Astray... Orb's MS?"
Mu and Badgiruel had also seen the red and blue machines.
Only, these two seemed lightly equipped, with little combat power to speak of.
"Dearka! Fire! Yzak, Nicol!"
"Got it!"
Athrun ordered Dearka to open fire at once.
But now the Strike took up a beam rifle in each hand, firing left and right.
Under the threat of the Strike's ultra-high hit rate, Athrun's squad was forced into a defensive posture.
And in that window, the Astrays had already flown to the Strike's side.
The Strike handed the two beam rifles over to the Astray units, and gave them two beam sabers as well.
These weapons were spares Kira had brought along to "outlast" the fight; now they served nicely to arm the Astray Gundams.
Although the Astray Gundams had been built just as in "the original work," the earlier meddling by the black GINN had triggered a round of repairs across all of Heliopolis's underground factories. Combined with the effects of the Strike's refit, the Astrays hadn't been outfitted with weapons or extra equipment.
—That was what happened when production capacity fell short.
Fortunately, the Strike had brought along quite a few extra weapons.
Having handed its shield and weapons to the "sub-units," the Strike actually became even lighter and nimbler.
"Little Inori, what should I do next?"
Even with the Astrays now armed, Kira found herself at a loss.
"Kira—you don't want to kill?" Inori asked.
"Right, why do people have to hurt each other..." Kira didn't understand.
Inori let go of her hands and gently embraced her.
"Then go at it with everything you've got, Kira. I'll handle correcting the trajectories."
"Okay!"
Kira nodded, then immediately patched through to the Archangel...