Archangel, dormitory corridor.
"I see…"
In the corridor, Sai looked at his companion, who had already changed out of military uniform and back into casual clothes, wearing a gentle smile.
"Since Kuzzey, you're preparing to disembark, you'll need to hurry. There might be a traffic jam near the Mass Accelerator."
At this moment, Kuzzey held his suitcase, slightly bowing his head, seeming somewhat embarrassed.
"Sai… aren't you getting off too?"
"No. Miriallia and I aren't getting off."
Sai shook his head and explained his thoughts.
"Orb is under attack now; it's our country. There are still things we can do."
"Don't worry. We'll buy enough time for your evacuation."
Sai reached out and patted Kuzzey's shoulder. "When we called our families before, we said the same thing."
"But…"
Kuzzey still seemed to have lingering concerns. After a moment of hesitation, he spoke. "If I'm the only one disembarking… everyone will think I'm cowardly, dishonorable, especially when the Archangel needs combat strength the most…"
His voice caught slightly as he spoke. "But… I'm really scared. Back at Alaska, when that GINN pointed its gun at the bridge… I was so afraid I wanted to run away!"
"…Kuzzey, you don't need to care what others think. Each of us is different, and our choices will differ too."
Sai sighed, thought for a moment, and comforted Kuzzey, who was feeling down. "Do you remember what Mr. Roz said? He said you have the name of a strong one."
"I believe that, like us, there are things only you can accomplish."
Sai gave Kuzzey a thumbs-up. "I'm sure Mr. Roz thinks the same."
"I… things only I can do…"
Kuzzey murmured under his breath, his grip on the suitcase handle gradually tightening.
-----------------------------------
"Anyway… that's the current situation."
Miriallia opened a cell door on the Archangel and threw a red pilot suit onto the figure with short golden hair.
"Orb is about to be attacked by the Earth Federation."
"So… you can go now… sentence served."
After saying this, Miriallia turned and walked out of the cell.
"W-wait!"
Seeming surprised by the news he just heard, the figure who had been imprisoned followed after her.
It was Dearka, recently captured after being shot down.
"What… what does it mean that the Earth Federation is attacking Orb?"
Dearka's tone was anxious, as if he could not comprehend how things had come to this.
"In short, because Orb has the Mass Accelerator and refuses to join the Earth Federation while remaining neutral, they want to take the Mass Accelerator by force, which means war with us."
Miriallia did not turn her head, heading toward the Hangar.
"It will be chaotic once fighting breaks out, and there's no use keeping you here. So you've been released—figure things out for yourself from here on."
"Even if you say that… I really have no way to deal with this…"
Dearka scratched his head, the flood of information giving him a sense of unreality.
"Wait, what about the Buster?"
"Taken by Morgenroete, Inc."
Miriallia said this without looking back, not caring whether Dearka heard her, as she led him toward the disembarkation point.
Hearing this, Dearka's expression immediately fell.
-----------------------------------
After Murrue finished speaking to the Archangel crew, all except eleven members disembarked; the rest stayed aboard, intending to continue the fight.
At that time, the maintenance crew and Murrue were in the Hangar, watching Roz tap and work on something vaguely familiar in appearance.
Kira, in particular, looked on with a horrified expression at what was being created from Roz's hands. Finally, after tightening the last screw, Roz skillfully pocketed the wrench and picked up some nearby materials.
"That device is…"
Standing next to Roz, Murrue—the person with the second-highest technical expertise on site—looked seriously at the instrument Roz had just made.
The raw materials were just enough to fit perfectly in the reserved space.
Roz closed the cover of the new device and picked up the computer connected to it.
"The power of the sun…"
After pressing a few keys, Roz raised his right hand with an outstretched index finger.
Although this was a temporary creation made from various small parts, similar to the charging interface and magazine charging devices on the Archangel, anyone would feel a little excited hearing "start the reactor."
"…Condense in my hand!"
Roz smiled brightly, sweeping his arm in an arc as he pressed Enter on the computer.
The battery pack emitted a low hum. The nearby monitoring instrument showed its power level steadily increasing.
Finally, everything stabilized. The battery pack Roz had created entered a stable operating state.
Although temporary, Roz had installed numerous safety devices; even under heavy impact or jolts, as long as the outer armor remained intact, it would continue running steadily—not to mention the integrated neutron jammer canceller.
"This is…"
Hearing the sound, Murdoch seemed to understand.
"It's a nuclear battery."
Murrue had roughly grasped what Roz had created.
"Just roughly understanding the effect of the Freedom… and he made something similar?"
"Don't worry. It's very safe."
When no one dared touch the nuclear battery pack, Roz casually patted the outer armor a few times.
"I'll install this on my mobile suit first."
Looking at the greenish battery pack, Murdoch subconsciously thought it might explode if touched. However, Roz's creations rarely malfunctioned, and it seemed the battery pack itself wasn't fragile either.
"Mr. Roz…"
At this moment, Kira stepped forward bravely.
"Although I don't know how you made a device similar to the neutron jammer canceller and nuclear battery pack, I want you to understand that this must not fall into anyone else's hands."
"Relax, it's only temporary. I'll probably dismantle it in a while."
Roz gestured toward Kira and pressed a nearby panel to lower a hook.
Seeing the neutron jammer canceller on the Freedom, Roz had instinctively developed many ideas, though most required returning to the shipyard to implement.
"…I'll help."
Murrue sighed, unzipping part of her collar and rolling up her sleeves, recapturing a bit of the feeling from assembling the G Project.
"No matter how safe you say it is, this is a nuclear battery pack—you can't replace it alone."
"Maintenance team! Prepare to remove the Narrative Gundam's battery pack!"
-----------------------------------
In the Earth Forces fleet, inside the battleship serving as the flagship—
A blond man in a light blue suit was flipping through the documents in his hand with utter boredom.
"…So Orb still rejected our demands."
He casually closed the file and showed a confident smile. "What a pity… they've simply missed the goodwill we offered them…"
"As expected, they just want to start a war."
"…Don't speak in such absolutes, Director Muruta."
The captain beside him tried to stop him, to keep Muruta from taking things further. "I believe we can still negotiate."
"Do you understand politics, or do I understand politics?"
Muruta didn't respond directly to the captain but instead asked this question.
"No matter what their true intent is, their current actions already harm the interests of the Earth Federation. Roughly speaking… this puts them in the category of traitors."
Placing the file on the chair he had been sitting on, Muruta stood up and turned to look at the captain, whose face had paled.
"Or… do you also want to become a traitor to naturals, like them?"
"Uh… I didn't mean that."
Faced with such a heavy accusation, the captain immediately denied it.
Muruta smiled, not caring further about the matter.
"Still, their timing in making that choice is quite convenient."
Thinking of the three new mobile suits in the hangar, Muruta narrowed his eyes slightly.
Inside the flagship's Hangar, three mobile suits—similar in appearance to the G-series yet equipped with more distinctive armaments—were quietly undergoing adjustments by the maintenance crew.
And in the resting room beside the Hangar, three young men were waiting idly for deployment orders.
"I've been wondering how to test these machines… We can just test them together with the Enhanced Human project."
"Director Muruta, although the intelligent combat system test was a great success… this Enhanced Human project—"
Just as the captain was about to voice his doubts, he noticed Muruta's irritated expression—his right hand already reaching toward the back of his waist. "…No, it's nothing. Please consider it nonsense. I shouldn't have questioned it."
"You think a lot. That's good."
Muruta showed a strange, false smile. "But no matter what you think of—don't say it, and don't act on it."
"Only people who can pretend to be ignorant survive longer."
Ever since the captain mentioned the intelligent combat project, Muruta was already agitated.
A project he had taken over midway—the original person in charge, along with the project's first laboratory, had all been wiped out by a single MS. Considering that the Earth sphere was still using MAs at the time, the culprit could only have been someone from ZAFT.
Unfortunately, the genius engineer who created the intelligent combat framework had likely been hit head‑on and left without a corpse. If he were still alive and under his control, ZAFT would have become nothing to worry about.
Thinking of that system framework made Muruta's anger rise again. Blue Cosmos had recruited so many engineers, yet all of them were useless—they had kept the same initial framework all this time, unable even to upgrade it.
With that thought, Muruta sat back down with a dark expression, tapping the armrest of his chair lightly with his right hand.
"Then, Director Muruta, the operation objective is…"
"Seizing the Mass Accelerator and the Morgenroete, Inc. factory. I don't need to teach you that, do I?"
"…Yes, sir."
-----------------------------------
Orb, inside a meeting room of the mass accelerator terminal.
"Is everything ready?"
Uzumi looked calmly at the people present, as if he had already foreseen his own end.
"It's all prepared. The Earth Alliance won't be able to take anything from us."
Beside him, a middle‑aged man spoke.
"Mm. Thank you all for assisting Cagalli."
Uzumi nodded and looked at the device in front of him.
"I cannot leave. Only if I die will the Earth Alliance shift their target."
"Lord Uzumi…"
Hearing this, everyone present clenched their teeth.
"Do not forget why we gathered in Orb."
As Uzumi spoke, he calmly opened the device and looked at the red button inside.
"You all should go. Just leave me here."
"These old bones of mine can still straighten up once more… and roar at them."
.................