Chapter 399: Celestial Being & VEDA
After arriving in the space near the far side of the Moon, Tolle immediately piloted the VF-1SS under optical camouflage and searched the area, but still could not find any trace of the Celestial Being ship.
Frowning, Tolle said to Nami, "Nami, even with optical camouflage and pseudo–GN furnace signal interference, it looks like normal methods won't be able to find the Celestial Being ship.
"It seems we'll have to copy what the Human Reform League did—release a large number of neo DG cells, go fully cloaked, and conduct a carpet-style search.
"Wherever the signal suddenly cuts off, that area will be our priority search zone."
"Understood, Master. Nami will begin the carpet search immediately."
Tolle then opened the storage space in his left hand and released a massive quantity of neo DG cells.
He prepared to engage in a true technology-versus-technology battle, using interference and stealth against interference and stealth.
They were reshaped into circular probes equipped with miniature Ahab reactors, cloaked with optical camouflage, and sent out to perform a sweeping search.
Tens of millions of soccer-ball-sized DG-cell probes instantly filled the surrounding space.
At Nami's command, they scattered in all directions, beginning a large-scale search of the nearby region.
This operation completely drained Tolle's accumulated reserves—everything he had gathered from salvaged materials across multiple worlds was poured into this search.
After more than ten hours, Nami excitedly reported, "Master, one area has lost contact with the probes. The Celestial Being ship should be located nearby."
"Really?" Tolle immediately jumped up from the pilot seat and looked at the probe-distribution map on the radar. After studying it briefly, he said, "Looks like that really is where Celestial Being is hiding.
"Have all probes slowly converge on that area. Narrow down the exact position, then begin assimilation.
"But be careful to avoid any trap zones. Don't trigger any alarm systems.
"Otherwise, whether it self-destructs or activates Trans-Am on all five GN-drive units, we'll be in serious trouble."
"Leave it to me, Master. Nami will carry out the final search perfectly."
"And also analyze the wavelength of the signal interference emitted by the GN Drives and compare it with Ahab-wave data. See if it can be cracked, and whether we can reverse it to use their signal for communication."
"Yes, Master. Analysis starting now."
After several more hours, one probe finally made contact with the Celestial Being ship.
Like jelly softly landing, it adhered to the hull and instantly infiltrated inside, beginning the assimilation process.
Having already cracked the GN-particle wavelength, Nami immediately directed the remaining probes to converge on the ship.
Millions of probes, emitting disguised signals, slowly wrapped around the entire Celestial Being vessel, initiating large-scale assimilation.
To avoid triggering alarms, the process proceeded slowly and carefully over several hours.
After all, Celestial Being's mothership had a diameter of fifteen kilometers—it could not be assimilated quickly.
It was a massive vessel constructed from meteorite material and E-carbon steel, equipped with six fortress-class pseudo–GN furnaces and housing the core of VEDA.
Once external assimilation was complete, large numbers of MS hangars were detected inside.
To be safe, these were assimilated first, obtaining the technical data for GN-T drives, fortress-type pseudo furnaces, and E-carbon.
When assimilating the large quantum computing system VEDA, the system first completely assimilated both the computer core and Aeolia Schenberg's hibernation pod, then accessed and copied the data.
As a result, no alarms were triggered, and the highest authorization level—Level 9—was obtained directly.
On the surface, VEDA's highest permission level was Level 7, which governed access to data of increasing importance from Level 1 to Level 7.
However, hidden above that were Level 8 control privileges and Aeolia's personal Level 9 supreme authority.
Once Aeolia's hibernation pod was destroyed, Level 9 authorization would automatically self-delete, ensuring no one else could ever obtain it.
Meanwhile, Tieria Erde—the quasi-Innovade created by VEDA—was essentially a personality copy of Aeolia himself.
Thus, Level 8 authority already belonged to Tieria. Once Level 9 vanished and Tieria died, his personality data would be uploaded into VEDA, granting him full control of the system.
Tolle couldn't help sighing at Aeolia's far-reaching scheming. Even Ribbons Almark couldn't outplay him in the end.
But that was no longer Tolle's concern—because Level 9 authority now belonged to Nami, which meant it effectively belonged to Tolle.
None of this had anything to do with him anymore.
Next, the GN Drive data and a large amount of Gundam manufacturing information were copied.
Unfortunately, the ever-cautious Aeolia had left one final safeguard: there was no trace of the Trans-Am system stored inside VEDA.
Instead, all Trans-Am data was hidden directly within the five original GN Drives themselves.
Though somewhat disappointing, at least the complete GN Drive technology had been obtained.
As for mobile suit data, there was plenty of it:
Prototype 0 Gundam and 1 Gundam;
Celestial Being's Exia, Dynames, Kyrios, Virtue, and Nadleeh;
and the goddess-series machines of the other organization—Justice Goddess, Astrea, Astrea Type-F, Plutone, Plutone Type-F, Judgment Gundam, and more.
The most important item was, of course, the GN Drive itself—a semi-perpetual energy generator.
Its operating principle was that when heavy particles evaporate and undergo mass collapse, enormous quantities of positrons and photons—GN particles—are produced, generating tremendous energy.
At the same time, released GN particles can generate a pseudo–anti-gravity effect, enabling flight and levitation.
However, the earliest GN Drives functioned similarly to GN-T units, emitting red GN particles.
These red GN particles were harmful to the human body, and the systems themselves were unstable.
Thus, Aeolia developed a special GN Drive filtering device—the TD Blanket—which neutralized the harmful effects of red GN particles.
Not only did the TD Blanket render red GN particles harmless, it also stabilized the GN Drive, transforming the particles into green GN particles and allowing the system to exert near-limitless power.
Manufacturing such a TD Blanket required extremely long periods of time and very specific environmental conditions, such as those near Jupiter.
According to VEDA's data, however, the TD Blanket was essentially a containment device. Inside it was confined a special unknown substance that Aeolia called the "Seed of the Universe."
By controlling this substance, it could continuously generate a photon subtype—GN particles.
Reading this, cold sweat broke out on Tolle's back.
This so-called "Seed of the Universe" was clearly a fragment of an ELS.
Fortunately, it had completely lost its consciousness and could only passively absorb and replicate metal. Otherwise, the Earth would have already been destroyed by these GN furnaces.
No wonder the first- and second-generation GN Drives were so prone to overload and explosion—it was all because of this "Seed of the Universe."
Only with the third-generation GN Drives—the five current ones—did TD Blanket technology become stable enough to safely trigger GN particle bursts and enter Trans-Am mode.
However, according to the setting, fourth-generation and later GN Drives no longer relied on the "Seed of the Universe" at all. Instead, the entire mobile suit itself functioned as the TD Blanket.
But that would only come five years later, when Celestial Being developed the technology.
For now, that was completely out of reach.
As for the GN-T (pseudo) Drives, while their performance was close to the original GN Drives, their principles were fundamentally different.
They lacked a TD Blanket and instead required external electrical power to generate GN particles—essentially functioning as energy converters.
Unlike true GN Drives, they could not operate indefinitely.
More importantly, as GN-T Drives continuously released red GN particles, once the output accumulated beyond a certain limit, the system would destabilize and collapse.
Thus, GN-T Drives could not be used for long durations and were fundamentally inferior to true GN Drives.
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