"This is the Orb refugee camp aboard the Archangel. At Junius Seven, we discovered a PLANT escape pod and rescued Lacus Clyne-san from inside."
The somewhat gloomy, frail-looking girl spoke.
"Nani?!"
Several red-coats crowded closer.
In the video, Lacus smiled at the camera. "Hello, everyone. I'm Lacus Clyne. I'm perfectly fine right now. Everyone here has been very kind to me."
"Damn it, what is this supposed to mean?!"
Yzak was the first to blow up.
"We are preparing to return Lacus-san to PLANT. Lacus-san was rescued by us, the neutral nation of Orb, so this has nothing to do with the Earth Alliance forces."
—What was that supposed to mean?
The young aces were completely thrown by that one sentence.
Athrun, meanwhile, stared blankly at the screen.
This person looked somewhat like Cagalli.
But one thing was off.
This was a… girl?
Kira?
Was it really Kira?
Or was it just someone else who happened to look a lot like Kira?
"Athrun…" Yzak looked at Athrun.
—Athrun looked shocked and incredulous. He must be terribly surprised, heartbroken, and furious about what had happened to his fiancée, right?
"We had originally decided to return Lacus-san. But just now, the Earth Alliance ship Doolittle appeared opposite the Archangel…"
This was only a prerecorded video, so Kira on the screen had no idea what a colorful range of reactions the people on ZAFT's side were having.
"The Doolittle is Colonel Sutherland's flagship. He is a senior member of Blue Cosmos. We believe Lacus-san may be in danger, so we are notifying you in advance."
"Blue Cosmos!"
Whatever else one could say, merely hearing the words Blue Cosmos was enough to make practically everyone in ZAFT bristle with fury.
Blue Cosmos was an absolutely irreconcilable enemy!
Le Creuset, however, did not look pleased—though with his mask on, no one could see his expression anyway.
"Below is the opposing fleet's composition, along with our current coordinates…"
In addition to the video, the message also included the Doolittle fleet's detailed situation.
That included the exact number of ships, its Moebius deployment, personnel assignments, and so on.
It was so detailed that it almost looked fake.
After Kira finished speaking, Lacus beside her spoke as well. "Everyone, please don't push yourselves too hard. There is a very capable and kind person here who can help me leave this place! I'm terribly sorry for causing all this trouble."
Lacus bowed toward the camera.
"Is this for real?" Dearka's eyes widened.
Blue Cosmos obviously had to be dealt with.
But this absurd intelligence was so bizarre that no one knew what to make of it.
"Could this be a trap aimed at us? Is Long Legs trying to turn the tables and encircle us?" Nicol wondered.
Le Creuset shook his head. "We are the unit closest to Junius Seven, so it is perfectly natural that the mission to search for Lacus was assigned to us… Therefore, when information concerning Lacus-san appears, we are also obligated to verify it."
If Le Creuset Team had any other mission, they could simply have ignored this information, or at worst passed the responsibility to someone else.
But not long ago, their mission had specifically changed to searching for Lacus Clyne.
So once intelligence concerning Lacus appeared, they had no choice but to investigate it.
[Remember how confident Le Creuset looked earlier?]
[I took a screenshot: "In other words, perhaps we… still have a chance."]
[Hahahahaha]
[It's an overt gambit. Le Creuset has no choice but to go]
[One look and you know this is Inori's handiwork. Inori doesn't bother with tricks]
[You lured Blue Cosmos over yourself, so now you get to clean them up yourself. I'm dying]
[That move is checkmate]
[She even deliberately brought up Blue Cosmos to stir up ZAFT's hatred, and gave them the full deployment too. She's terrified Blue Cosmos might somehow survive lol]
[Now we just have to see whether they believe it]
"Let's go!" Athrun said.
"Calm down, Athrun. I know she's your fiancée, but whether that's really her or a trap is another matter," Yzak said.
"Ah… mm."
Actually, Athrun was more concerned about the girl standing beside her.
Unfortunately, the video was more or less over by then.
"In any case, let's send someone to investigate first."
They had been given coordinates and a location, so there was no reason they could not at least investigate.
Besides, three Nazca-class destroyers and four upgraded G-series units were more than enough to deal with Blue Cosmos.
Being led around by the nose felt awful, but since their mission was to find Lacus, they could not simply give up.
"Kira… could that be you?"
Only Athrun was still thinking about Kira.
The Stage smoothly cut to Kira.
"Everyone… please be okay…"
Kira had been locked in a detention cell.
They would interrogate Kira only after this.
But the trash talk coming from outside right now was honestly disgusting.
[Captain Creuset, hurry up and get here]
[Inori: Captain Creuset, for Kira's sake, use the Gundams against Blue Cosmos]
[Hurry up and wipe these guys out already]
[The Archangel should be strong enough to fight back, right? Why are they still staying here? Wouldn't it be better to kill them all?]
[Bro, they're Earth Alliance too. If they actually do that, they're screwed afterward]
[What's there to fear? Just defect to ZAFT]
[But everyone on the Archangel is a Natural]
[So what? The Archangel is this powerful. What do they have to be afraid of?]
[Are you in elementary school? Have you ever heard of something called "logistics"?]
[Forget anime. Do you have any idea how much work it takes to inspect and repair an entire fleet after a battle in the real world?]
[Newcomers are a good thing. GBN 2.0 is live now. Maybe things will get even livelier from here on]
The viewers and players were discussing things enthusiastically.
Kira, meanwhile, looked to the side.
That space was transparent.
But Kira knew there was a "claw" right beside her.
The Black Monolith could split into eight claws, and one of them was currently staying by Kira's side.
Just then, someone entered from outside the detention cell.
After seeing Flay, Sutherland had come over here.
"So this is that Coordinator pilot? Sure enough, they're all just artificially manufactured shells." Sutherland frowned.
Kira was cute and beautiful. But the way Sutherland looked at her was clearly the way one would look at an object, with contempt and greed mixed in.
The Archangel had undergone modifications, but at its current level, it still couldn't possibly defeat a ZAFT fleet.
Then the Strike's pilot was very likely another key part of the puzzle.
Perhaps there really was something special about this Coordinator girl…