The people of the Archangel gathered around Kira, chatting continuously.
"By the way, you, like Roz, got a new mobile suit…"
Mu looked at the machine before him, its wings already retracted, the original blue-and-white replaced once more with the color of steel.
"Is it because you went to ZAFT?"
"Mm… this mobile suit was entrusted to me by someone very important."
Kira fell silent for a moment, his expression turning unusually serious. "I'm no longer ZAFT, and I'm no longer Earth Forces either."
"I see… like Roz, you've become neutral…"
With Roz as a precedent, Mu roughly understood Kira's intentions. "But… we know nothing about this suit. For maintenance… you'll probably need Roz to make some kind of adapter for it? Like how he serviced the Jegan and Jesta on the Archangel."
"For maintenance and resupply, this mobile suit doesn't need it."
Kira shook his head, his tone extremely serious.
"This mobile suit is equipped with a neutron jammer canceller. In other words, it uses nuclear power."
"Neutron jammer canceller? Nuclear power?!"
Even the Archangel crew, who didn't fully understand the technology, realized this mobile suit was a hot potato.
But with Kira's piloting skills and the mobile suit's performance… a hot potato full of spikes?
"So, if you want to access the data of this mobile suit, I'll refuse and leave with it."
Kira nodded, confirming the Archangel crew's speculation.
"…I guarantee the Archangel will never touch that mobile suit."
Suddenly, Murrue's voice sounded from behind Kira.
He turned and saw Murrue and Roz approaching steadily.
Murrue was no longer in the tearful state from before and had returned to her usual appearance. She placed Roz's left hand on her shoulder, held his waist with her right hand, and guided him toward the crew.
Still dizzy, Roz could only give an awkward smile to the Archangel crew and raised his free right hand to wave.
"Of course, that includes Roz's mobile suit. The Archangel won't touch it either."
Murrue added, "Everyone clear on that?"
"A comrade who barely came back from the dead… how could we possibly touch his mobile suit?"
"If we actually messed with those two suits, we'd look pretty dumb."
"I remember Roz's adapter and charger are in the storage room, right? I'll go get them later…"
The Archangel crew chattered away, clearly not intending to touch the two mobile suits, instead celebrating the return of Kira and Roz.
"Mm… thank you very much."
Upon hearing this, Kira smiled.
"I have… a lot to say to everyone now."
"Coincidentally, I have a lot of questions too."
At this moment, Roz, who had been silent until now, raised his hand. "How come just a short while apart from you all feels like a whole different world? You're speaking in riddles I don't understand."
"Someone as soft as you should just go to the dorm and sleep it off first."
Mu stepped forward, giving Roz a firm pat on the shoulder, trying to force a grimace out of him.
"How can you make the captain happy like that?"
Unfortunately, Roz showed no reaction, leaving Mu somewhat disappointed.
"You! Stop making snide remarks! If your head had been hammered for a few minutes and you had to retract weapons and stop your suit, you wouldn't be any better than me!"
Roz didn't notice Murrue slightly bowing her head. Instead, his right fist hardened, eager for a full Waaagh-style free fight with Mu.
"But speaking of which… I thought your armor was gray? Why is it red now?"
Seeing Roz about to throw a forearm strike, Mu sighed, debating whether to give Roz a lesson in romance, all while verbally diverting the topic.
"I'd like to know that too…"
At this moment, Murrue's voice reached Roz.
"Can you tell me, Roz?"
Roz turned to look at Murrue, who was supporting him, and carefully chose his words.
"…The armor that can change color is a very important key in my plan."
After a moment, Roz smiled and described the significance of the psychoframe in an abstract way.
"This key… can open the door to a peaceful world. Maybe even usher in a new era."
"Bit of an exaggeration, Roz."
Mu pursed his lips, seemingly skeptical of Roz's words.
"Maybe it's just some stronger PS armor? If we're talking about opening the door to peace, Kira's mobile suit with the neutron jammer canceller is more qualified."
"…You'll understand later."
Roz didn't argue against Mu's doubt.
Even in the UC timeline, psychoframes caused much conflict, eventually being sealed. Now, in the CE world, where Earth Forces and ZAFT are at each other's throats, the stakes are even higher.
Although Roz's current psychoframe isn't the complete version, and the reinforced redesign prevents it from detaching during combat, fewer people knowing about it is still better.
"Mm… I trust you, Roz."
While Mu voiced doubt, Roz instead heard Murrue's voice. "I've always, always believed in you… You can definitely open that door you spoke of."
"Thank you."
Roz smiled at Murrue, feeling her arms tighten slightly around his waist as she pressed closer.
At this moment, the maintenance team had already begun transferring these two new mobile suits onto the Archangel.
-----------------------------------
After a while, the two mobile suits had already been parked in the Archangel's hangar.
The maintenance team and damage control crew were busy conducting emergency repairs on various damaged parts of the Archangel—either working or on their way to work.
After all, it was their own battleship they were protecting. Despite the extreme pressure it had endured, they voiced no complaints.
On the bridge of the Archangel, a group of people gathered together, discussing something with worried expressions.
"So… your combat plan is like this?"
Kira leaned against the railing, arms crossed, head down, his expression not good.
Ever since hearing Murrue mention the "orders," he had remained in this state.
"That's right… we didn't receive any notice."
Murrue handed Roz a bottle of water. Roz, already dressed in his familiar jeans and flight jacket, slumped into a chair.
"And at that time, the base kept repeating a single command…"
"A pre-recorded voice, meant to buy time—a classic tactic."
Roz nodded to Murrue and took the water bottle she handed him.
"Regarding this, General Halberton recently captured a number of Blue Cosmos on the Moon. From the information extracted from them, it's now clear that this combat plan was devised by them."
"Blue Cosmos knew in advance that ZAFT would attack the Alaska base, so they arranged for their officers to bury the Cyclops under the base."
"…The Alaska incident, PLANT didn't know. It was a last-minute plan change by Chairman Zala; everyone else was kept in the dark."
At this point, Kira recalled everything he had seen at Plant.
"Is Blue Cosmos really that powerful?!"
Mu frowned, seemingly not fully believing what Roz had said.
"After all, joining Blue Cosmos has already become somewhat mainstream on Earth."
Roz took a sip of water and shook his nearly fully-awake head.
"Moreover, they may have given a lot of money to their mole inside ZAFT."
"Tch… this news isn't exactly funny."
Mu scratched his head and looked at Murrue beside Roz. "So now, Captain, where are we headed? Panama?"
"With N jammer affecting this area, there's no way to communicate externally. Are we really going to Panama in this situation?"
"They'd probably execute us as deserters."
"Or maybe add extra criminal charges?"
Hearing Mu's words, others on the bridge began to speak up.
"If the Archangel leaves the front line without orders… by Earth Forces' standards, that counts as desertion."
Murrue sighed and furrowed her brow. "And… with the SmartBrains, the Alaska operation, and General Halberton's intelligence… after knowing all this, I no longer know what I'm even fighting for."
"…To end this war, I think we must keep fighting something."
Kira said with a sigh, "But the mastermind pushing the war to escalate—I don't know who it is…"
"If you don't know the mastermind, then temporarily switch targets."
Roz patted his forehead to fully clear his mind and stood from the chair.
"Start with the simplest target—fight just to survive."
"Only by surviving can we meet the masterminds who twisted the world like this."
He gave a thumbs-up to everyone present. "Until then, we survive well, until we can smash our fists into those masterminds' faces!"
Whether it's Blue Cosmos or any other mastermind, Roz had only one thought for them: "Blow their brains out with the beam Magnum!"
Power struggles? Lofty ambitions? Grandiose schemes? Who cares! Roz just wanted to be the classic protagonist-type hero and utterly destroy these people who had twisted the world!
They scarred humanity, ruined countless lives, and then dismissed it all with a casual, "It's worth it for the new era"? Not on Roz's watch!
"According to what you said earlier, you probably can't return to the Earth Forces… or maybe you never intended to go back."
Roz placed his hand on Murrue's shoulder, making her pause. "I happen to know a good place."
"…Is it what I think it is?"
Kira raised his head and looked into Roz's eyes.
"I guess it's the same."
"Orb."
Roz and Kira spoke in unison.
..................