In the hangar, Halberton was examining the small container labeled "SmartBrain," his expression serious.
At this time, the hangar had been sealed off, leaving only the Archangel crew and those Halberton trusted.
Looking at the mechanical component placed in the center of the hangar—a component that had left Murdoch scratching his head, unable to figure out how to disassemble it—Halberton couldn't help but recall the conversation on the observation deck.
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Half an hour earlier, at the observation deck.
"This matter… I'm not at liberty to reveal it, because I don't know if you are trustworthy."
"I will vouch for it. If you trust me Roz, then General Halberton is trustworthy."
"Alright… that container labeled SmartBrain—have you ever disassembled its contents?" After hearing his desire to know the full story, Roz asked this question.
"No, we haven't disassembled it. Inside is just a machine for interfacing with mobile armors. It's said to be a newly developed automatic combat component, and I don't know its specific structure." Halberton didn't understand why Roz asked this, but he sensed that the automatic combat component was the reason Roz had said what he did. "As for the exact reason…"
"…It uses Blue Cosmos' specially designed interfaces and anti-tamper screws, right?" Roz smiled, finishing the sentence Halberton was about to say.
"And sometimes, armored units equipped with the automatic combat component attack friendly forces, correct?"
"…Where did you hear about this?" Halberton's relaxed expression vanished, replaced by a stern tone. "These things should be military secrets. Answer me directly."
"…You still have one last chance to give up. Forget what I just said, and you can continue to remain uninvolved, General Halberton." Roz didn't panic in response to Halberton's change in attitude. Instead, his own expression grew serious. "If you continue, there's no turning back."
"I, Halberton, have never feared anyone." Despite Roz's warning, Halberton didn't waver; if anything, it strengthened his resolve to get to the bottom of this.
"…Let's go to the hangar." Roz turned, seemingly having made a firm decision, leaving without looking back. "Everything I face, the reason I fight, I will explain there."
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The viewpoint returns to the present, in the hangar.
"I can't open it, Captain Murrue." After trying the disassembly interface on the "automatic combat component" for a long time, Murdoch gave up. "The interface is a brand-new spec — you have to use their own adapter cable. To tear it open you'd have to—"
"—come to me, right?"
Just when everyone was at a loss, Roz floated into the hangar with Christina.
"Yes. You're the one who has to do it, Roz." Murdoch grinned and gave Roz a thumbs up when he saw him.
After seeing Roz fashion adapters out of wreckage that everyone else thought useless, the maintenance crew had come to think of him as a walking "mechanical troubleshoot expert."
"SmartBrain…of course — after all this time they're still using the structure I designed." Roz's usual sunny-boy expression vanished; he looked dark, staring fixedly at the automatic combat unit.
"What? You designed the structure?" Before she became captain of the Archangel, Murrue had been a tech sergeant and could read the device's lock design — how solid the one-piece shell was and how clever the engineering. She couldn't help but be surprised.
"Before I became a scrap dealer I was a researcher with Blue Cosmos." Roz took a piece of wreckage, worked a file for a few quick strokes, and shaped a weird screwdriver head on the spot. "This thing was the institute's flagship project. I designed this structure back in C.E. 68. I didn't expect them to keep using it unchanged for years."
As electric screwdrivers turned out the specially made anti-tamper screws, Roz's face grew even darker.
"Christina, give me a hand." Roz told Christina to hold the other handle so they could remove the shell.
Fortunately they were in microgravity — otherwise two mechanical arms would have been needed to pry this casing open.
When Roz and Christina split the automatic combat unit's outer shell, the mysterious device at last revealed its interior.
What lay inside plunged the hangar into an eerie silence.
"H-How could this be?!" Murrue instinctively covered her mouth at the sight.
"I didn't expect…this." Even normally upbeat Mu couldn't help but feel nauseated.
Natarle said nothing, but the thing in front of her had already shaken her worldview.
Within a shock-resistant frame of springs and steel, a precision electronic platform hovered, tied down with numerous cables. Fixed to that platform was a semi-circular, custom glass dome assembly. The dome was filled with specially prepared nutrient solution.
Floating in the nutrient fluid was a human brain, connected by implanted electronic modules and wiring.
"SmartBrain is the project codename," Roz said with a little unfamiliarity as he put on a headset and pulled out a tablet. "On the surface, it's presented as an intelligent automatic combat system for armored units. That's how I thought of it when I designed the loading platform for a quantum computer."
"But in the end they put a gun to my head and told me the real purpose." Roz sighed and spoke a truth that made everyone in the hangar shiver. "This is not an AI-guided automatic combat system. They were building high-performance biological CPU wetware."
"Blue Cosmos took a large number of orphans from Earth orphanages. When those children's brains reached sixteen to eighteen years old, they removed them and made wetware like this."
"I couldn't stand it." Roz took a deep breath, then connected his tablet to the wetware platform with a data cable. "So I destroyed that institute."
"Apparently, Blue Cosmos kept the project going." Halberton's tone grew grave as he looked at the component's interior; human instinct recoiled. "As far as I know, this has already begun initial deployment in some Atlantic Federation units."
"Blue Cosmos bastards…" Mu ground his teeth.
"…Can you hear me?" Roz collected himself and spoke in a calmer voice, then set the tablet on the frame so everyone could see the screen.
After a short silence, a string of words began to appear on the tablet.
"…I will follow orders. Please issue commands."
"…I am not a Blue Cosmos person." Roz exhaled; sorrow weighed him. "You're safe now."
After another pause, a flood of words began to scroll across the tablet at a gruesome speed.
"Kill me kill me kill me kill me kill me…"
Simple words, like an indescribable whisper, seemed to ring faintly in the ears of those watching.
The flood scrolled as though a tortured adolescent were using his last strength to howl a final lament to the world.
"…I understand." Roz had seen this sight many times before.
Generally, this collapse only happened with test subjects marked "failed" in the institute, though some "good" units also broke down after a period of time.
Roz quietly pulled out the RE45 he'd used last time and aimed at the semi-circular glass dome.
Soldiers around him should have restrained him when he drew a weapon — but everyone remained motionless, silent.
"If there's a next life, please don't be born into this world of pain," Roz prayed for the brain floating in front of him, whether it had once belonged to a boy or a girl.
Then he pulled the trigger.
"Bang… bang… bang…"
The gunshots sounded like bells in the quiet hangar.
The glass dome shattered, nutrient fluid splashed… and finally the brain burst into fragments.
"Phew." Roz let out a breath; his hands, the same ones capable of crafting exquisite instruments, now hung uselessly at his sides.
Christina stood beside him, sorrow written across her face.
"…You did the right thing, Roz." After a long time, a firm hand came down on his left shoulder. Halberton's voice carried anger, bewilderment, and sorrow. "You ended its suffering. Look — it left you one last line in this world."
Roz looked at the tablet beside him.
"Thank you."
Such an ordinary phrase, but its weight pressed like a jack on everyone's chest.
"Is this why you got into a mobile suit to fight?" Halberton glanced at the dismantled outer shell with the SmartBrain and Blue Cosmos insignia, frowning.
Then he looked over at the Jegan D-type — or rather, the Stark Jegan — that had already been fitted with the stark components.
"I owe you an apology for previously underestimating you."
"You're a remarkable man."
Halberton patted Roz's shoulder again.
"I stepped into this pit by my own will."
"We will exterminate these pests. I promise."
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