When Rau realized that machine was extremely dangerous, he immediately went to the hangar and boarded his commander unit.
Just as he was about to launch, the enemy's sudden abnormal action gave him an intense sense of danger.
In the end, when the attack like a solar flare eruption came surging in and was about to annihilate the warship he was aboard, he suddenly thought of a method that might allow him to survive.
Almost at the same moment that the enemy's power was about to wash over the Vesalius, he immediately detonated the ammunition in the hangar, setting it off right in front of himself.
He used the shock wave produced by that explosion to form a shield, using it to withstand the enemy's attack.
As a result, he was extremely lucky. He had seized the timing of the detonation, and his commander unit had not been crushed along with the Vesalius.
Although it had not been destroyed, his commander-type CGUE was in horrific condition, nearly falling apart, and Rau himself was badly injured.
Now he lay in the medical room of the Nazca-class high-speed battleship, listening as Athrun and the others gave their follow-up report.
To buy Zero a chance to pull farther away, a Laurasia-class escort ship and its attached GINN squad had poured out their ammunition in a frenzied, suicidal assault, attempting to take the enemy down with them.
It was only by paying that price that the Nazca-class high-speed battleship managed to further withdraw from the battlefield and avoid being pursued by the enemy warship.
"In other words, the enemy's defensive field seems capable of shifting into multiple forms. What a terrifying technique."
Rau did not know how the enemy machine had performed after its thrusters malfunctioned. After hearing Athrun's report, even he found it difficult to believe that the enemy's defensive barrier could be used that way.
That gave him a rough idea of how the attack resembling a solar flare had been produced.
If his guess was correct, then things had become truly interesting.
With this, the Council would face much less resistance when further developing and manufacturing weapons.
After all, the enemy had displayed such horrifying armaments.
...
On this side, Kain returned with a "gift."
Blitz Gundam, which had lost power, had not been destroyed.
Its pilot was Nicol Amalfi, a boy who, in truth, did not particularly want the war between the two sides to continue.
His parents could also be considered moderates, people aligned with Lacus's father.
If Nicol were killed, it would effectively push his parents further toward the pro-war faction.
As for the boy himself, once he was brought back, it would not be too difficult for Lacus to persuade him to join their side.
Correction. It should not be called persuasion through trickery. That sounded too flippant. Rather, she would sincerely move him, and she would also show him certain classified information.
Once the machine came to a steady stop, Kain left the cockpit.
At the same time, several support robots approached. They were the same kind of support robots as A2's, though these were maintenance models. Having detected problems with his machine, they came over to repair it and replace parts.
The thruster malfunction had occurred because of the attack that resembled a solar flare eruption. The powerful recoil it produced had still affected the thrusters.
Although he had done his best to withstand it with the elastic, adhesive field generated by the Lambda Driver system, he had not been able to eliminate the force completely. Part of it had still pressed onto the machine.
As for that solar flare-like attack, he had based it on one of Accelerator's techniques: compressing a large quantity of gas and turning it into a plasma sphere.
In his case, he had reversed the concept. After releasing the power of a nuclear warhead, he locked it inside a confined space, then opened one outlet and directed it outward.
In that way, its power became far greater than if it had simply spilled out in every direction.
Of course, before attempting such an experiment, when he first received this machine, he had tested the strength of the defensive energy converted from mental power.
Although he had not tested it with an actual nuclear explosion, he had used thermobaric warheads and other equipment to verify the approximate limits, confirming what yield of nuclear warhead could be used without exceeding them.
The reason he had not released a second solar flare attack on the spot was that the Lambda Driver system needed to cool down. If he tried to deploy a mental-energy shield of the same strength for a second shot, the system equipment would overheat and melt, and the nuclear warhead would blow him up instead.
As for the mental strain, he felt he could still manage a second shot.
"Miss Lacus, why are you here?"
The captured pilot was very surprised to see Lacus approach, as if she should not have been there at all.
"Isn't it perfectly normal for me to be here?"
"But weren't you already back at PLANT? We only acted after confirming that you weren't aboard this ship."
"I never said I was going back to PLANT. Didn't I say I would stay aboard this ship and go to Orb with Princess Cagalli?"
"But we clearly saw a live broadcast of you returning to PLANT."
"Then, Nicol, do you think I'm fake?"
"No. I wouldn't mistake you for someone else. You are Lacus."
After saying that, Nicol fell silent, because he also seemed to understand something.
Kain and Lacus exchanged a glance, roughly understanding what had happened.
There was one possibility, and it was not that Lacus's substitute had gone online early.
In the blink of an eye...
"All right, ask whatever you want."
Having satisfied his appetite after finishing his meal, Kain signaled for Cagalli, who was sitting in front of him and staring at him, to ask her questions.
"Are you from Mars?"
"No."
"Then where are you from?"
"I came from the future in a time machine."
Cagalli frowned at that answer. Who would believe such a perfunctory response?
"It isn't that I don't trust you. It's that you're too young, Miss Cagalli. You're too impatient. Once you mature a little, Lacus will tell you."
"Too young? Mature a little?"
Cagalli's displeasure was plain on her face. Wasn't he treating her like a child?
This was clearly different treatment.
Wasn't Lacus the same age as her?
That made her a little angry.
As for Lacus, she was not here right now. She was speaking with the captured pilot, probably attempting to break down his resistance and have him join Orb.
"Right. You have the game console, don't you? Let me play it."
"No! And don't you already have one? Also, you're not allowed to choose my route!"
That was why Cagalli refused to give it to him. She knew what kind of game console it was, and she was one of the characters who could be pursued.
Once her affection reached the maximum, the story would enter a very vulgar route.
"Hey, is what it says in there true?"
After warning him, she pressed on, her body tense with nervousness.
"What?"
"Some of the information in it says that the boy named Kira is my older brother. Is that true?"
If that was true, then the other piece of information, that she was not her father's biological daughter, left Cagalli at a complete loss.
"That's easy to verify. Just ask your father."
After those words, silence fell.
Until...
"Mr. Kain, may I disturb you for a moment? I'd like to speak with you alone."
The voice that interrupted them belonged to the captain of the Archangel, Murrue Ramius.
How strange. Kain sensed hostility and disgust from her.
Hostility was still understandable. He had displayed the terrifying performance of that machine, so it was normal for vigilance and fear to manifest as a little hostility.
But her hostility seemed rather strong.
As for the disgust, that was harder to understand.
Wait. Perhaps it could be understood after all. It was probably because of the game console she had not yet given him.
Because when he played that console, he had entered the "Murrue Ramius" route.
(End of Chapter)
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