The spaceport of the Mendel colony had begun to grow busy.
Inside the hangar, the Justice Gundam, which had just had its left arm destroyed, sat quietly. A group of maintenance crew members were scratching their heads in frustration as they looked at the machine.
Even the cleverest housewife cannot cook without rice; there were no spare parts for the Justice Gundam on Mendel. Facing a mobile suit missing an entire arm, the maintenance crew was at a total loss.
"This is a problem... Athrun."
Looking at the Justice Gundam before them, Dearka nudged Athrun in the ribs with a light elbow strike.
"We probably can't get back to Industrial 7 for an overhaul right now. Are you going to switch to a mass-production model?"
It must be said that Dearka's skin tone was quite dark; if he were to shave his head, that elbow strike would have captured about seventy percent of the essence of a certain legend.
"I'll likely end up piloting a mass-production model. There's no other way."
Athrun didn't mind Dearka's elbowing. He simply frowned, contemplating the future arrangements for the Justice Gundam.
They lacked parts, and there was no telling when they could return to Industrial 7 for repairs. After all, the blueprints for the Justice Gundam were all aboard the Eternal. If he had to temporarily pilot one of Orb's mass-produced MS...
No matter how he thought about it, Athrun felt his aggressive close-combat style wouldn't mesh well with Orb's machines.
'Should I change my combat style? Or continue to pilot the Justice with only one hand?'
As Athrun was deep in thought, he felt a pat on his right shoulder.
"What are you guys doing here?"
Roz Links, who had already changed into his flight jacket and cargo pants, floated over to Athrun's side.
At that moment, Roz also spotted the Justice Gundam with its severed arm and curled his lip.
"Lost an arm, huh... the Justice."
"That's exactly why I was looking for you, Roz."
Cagalli Yula Athha's voice rang out from behind the three of them.
As Cagalli floated down next to Athrun, Dearka took a quick look at the two of them and very tactfully yielded his spot.
Completely oblivious to how close she was standing to Athrun, Cagalli looked toward Roz.
"The Justice doesn't have any spare parts for repairs right now. As the best mechanic among us, I want to hear your thoughts."
"Do we have any Jegan arm parts here?"
Without a second thought, Roz asked Cagalli that question directly.
His instantaneous response left both Athrun and Cagalli stunned. Even Dearka poked his head over the railing, looking at Roz in confusion.
"...A Jegan?"
Hearing that familiar yet slightly foreign name, Cagalli thought for a moment.
"The last time the Justice arrived at Mendel, I remember three units were transported over."
"That's enough. Have a set of Jegan left arm parts sent over."
Gripping the railing with both hands, Roz vaulted over the observation deck and floated toward the Justice, where the wreckage of the left arm had just been removed.
On the way, Roz snatched a wrench out of the hand of a maintenance crew member.
Having acquired his "signature weapon," Roz grabbed the remaining debris of the Justice's left arm and began dismantling it.
This action left the maintenance crew members bewildered, and they were just about to shout for him to stop.
"This is Cagalli. He is our best mechanic. The maintenance crew is to give him full support in his actions!"
At that moment, Cagalli's voice crackled through the walkie-talkie on the maintenance chief's belt.
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While Cagalli watched with a numb expression and Athrun and Dearka stared with wide eyes, Roz used the remains of the Justice's left arm to forcibly craft an adapter interface, along with a large pile of scattered connectors in various specifications.
As specially designed units, the component interfaces for the Justice Gundam and Freedom Gundam—much like the original Jegan D Type—were not universal connectors. This was a measure intended to prevent an enemy from being able to install components immediately upon capturing them.
Speaking of the Jegan D Type, speak of the devil and he shall appear: a Jegan D Type arm was delivered to the front of the Justice.
Roz was currently installing the adapter. He could be seen tapping and hammering away with his wrench, occasionally pulling out wires from the interior to link them to the connectors.
That was the downside of hand-crafting parts: there was a certain margin of error. But Roz took a quick look and felt the current situation was essentially like building a plastic model kit.
Shaving down the pegs was out of the question; he'd likely just apply some lubricant and then use a "Hands of god" technique to force a miracle through sheer strength.
However, this was a 1:1 scale Justice. Rather than a "Hands of god," it was more like using a "Hammer of God."
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Accompanied by a series of metallic strikes, the adapter—hand-made by Roz from the wreckage of the Justice's left arm and possessing a distinctly "Ork-like" green-skin style—was installed onto the Justice.
For this act of using a machine's original wreckage to create the necessary fittings for that same machine, Roz called it "cooking the meat in its own juices."
"Send over the Jegan D Type left arm!"
Roz squatted on the connection point of the Justice's left shoulder, waving at the maintenance team leader who was holding the lift controls.
"Is this really going to work...?"
Looking at that interface—which looked unreliable no matter how one viewed it—the maintenance leader's expression was complicated. Nevertheless, he sighed and activated the lift.
The gray Jegan D Type arm was transported by the lift to the vicinity of the interface.
After all, the Jegan was a machine Roz had piloted for a considerable amount of time. With practiced ease, he manipulated the Jegan D Type's left arm, unfolding it into its maintenance state.
The outer armor plates expanded one by one, revealing the charming internal structure within the Jegan D Type's arm.
He connected the wiring and finally docked the arm to the suit via the adapter... Roz's movements were incredibly swift. It was as if the difficult task of interfacing two different mobile suit models was as simple as breathing to him.
As the arm officially completed its docking and the previously expanded armor closed back up, the Jegan D Type arm finished its integration with the Justice.
"It's done, but this left arm is only a temporary emergency measure. It doesn't have Phase Shift (PS) Armor."
Roz leaped down from the machine, casually tossing the wrench he had snatched from some poor soul earlier back into a nearby toolbox.
"Oh, right—everyone in the maintenance crew, remember to spray-paint this arm red."
Just as he was about to leave, Roz suddenly seemed to think of something and called out to the maintenance team.
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"Phew, all finished."
Roz floated back onto the platform, as if that shocking feat of maintenance was nothing more than going out to change a lightbulb.
"How on earth did you do that?!"
Dearka cried out in astonishment. Roz's almost magical display just now had left him with a sense of unreality.
"I just reckoned a Jegan D Type's left arm could be fitted onto the Justice, so I did it."
Roz's answer was flat.
"No, no, no—I mean, why are you so... practiced at this kind of operation? Just how many times have you practiced this?!"
Dearka pointed at the Justice, whose two arms now featured completely different styles, and voiced his disbelief.
"I've been piloting the Jegan D Type for so long I can recite its internal structure from memory."
Roz curled his lip. "Besides, it's just an adapter. Back then, I used wreckage from Heliopolis to hand-craft an adapter so I could use the Buster Gundam's beam cannon..."
"So you were the one piloting that machine and attacking us back then?!"
Dearka froze for a moment after hearing Roz's words.
Then, perhaps because he had been beaten so badly back then, the legendary soul of a certain "Mamba" seemed to possess Dearka. He launched a textbook flying elbow at Roz.
Unfortunately, with such intense thoughts and emotions, Roz didn't even need to look; he localized Dearka's position directly via brainwaves and easily dodged the "crash invitation" sent his way.
........................