The Archangel's resupply was nearly complete.
Once that was done, it would leave the colony immediately and head straight for Orb on Earth.
For one thing, if it stayed in space, Orb simply did not have the military strength to protect it there. It would also risk drawing the war to Heliopolis itself.
One wrong move could lead to a tragedy like Bloody Valentine.
And once the Archangel was gone, Heliopolis would no longer remain such an obvious target.
After returning to Orb proper, even though it was still only a small nation, it at least had far more resources than a colony satellite. With the technology Kain had brought over, it would begin developing rapidly and, in a short period of time, gain enough strength to stand against both the Earth Alliance and ZAFT, creating a three-way balance of power.
If that happened, then both the Earth Alliance and ZAFT would become wary of Orb and no longer dare wage war so recklessly.
As for Kain, now that he had nothing to do, he naturally turned into a complete otaku, snacking, drinking cola, and playing games like Umaru.
The cola and snacks had not come from the satellite base. This place did not have anything close to that kind of variety. He had Kuroneko teleport them over from her world.
So he simply sat there enjoying himself.
At first glance, it might have seemed a little too lazy.
After all, his role here was basically that of a mercenary, someone hired by a generous employer, taking action when asked and following the client's arrangements.
As for planning and strategy, there was no need for him to get involved. If the employer was capable of handling those things, then they could handle them.
Which meant that when he had nothing to do, it was naturally time for him to enjoy himself.
Since he could not just wander around, he played games and ate snacks to satisfy his cravings.
He probably looked a little too much like a slacker.
If it were someone else, they would probably be working hard to build up power, win people's loyalty, and establish forces in this world that served them personally.
He had no desire to burden himself like that.
Wasn't life meant to be enjoyed?
Even before he had accidentally ended up in the world of Warhammer, he had already lived a pretty relaxed life.
He did not need to support his parents. They had died in an accident years ago. And he had no real family to speak of. Even where blood relatives existed, they were the kind he had long since stopped dealing with. No one nagged him about getting married or anything like that. Living alone suited him just fine.
So there was no need for him to force himself to chase great wealth. As long as he had enough to live happily, that was enough. Why struggle to become some superior figure standing above everyone else?
Maybe it made him seem unambitious, but why live so tired?
Sure, maybe after becoming one of those so-called high and mighty people, he would gain more freedom in the future.
But how much time would that take?
By then, he would not even be young anymore. What was the point of waiting until he was older to start enjoying life?
So even after gaining Hyperdimensional Channel, and even after being dragged into the Warhammer universe by the Emperor to work there, Kain still had no grand mission forcing him to exhaust himself building something enormous.
Which was why he remained so unhurried, with the attitude of a contented slacker.
His current mindset, even his mental state, was just as Yuri Takagi had described it.
There was something wrong with it. Something a little unhealthy.
Part of him treated everything like a game, like running a dungeon, which was why he never invested too much real emotion into it.
And excitement was also a kind of pleasure. That probably came from everything he had gone through in Warhammer.
That feeling of hovering on the edge between life and death was exhilarating. Pleasurable, even.
Like those extreme sports athletes who loved pushing themselves into ever more dangerous situations, except what he experienced was even more dangerous.
That did not mean he wanted to challenge the limit every day. Sometimes he got tired too, and when that happened, he shifted into lazy enjoyment instead.
Balance between work and rest.
So he did not mind spending energy coins on teleporting comforts for himself. There was no need to be stingy about that.
Hm?
A call from A2 appeared on the channel. The fully upgraded Ho 229 V3 model, after three rounds of enhancements, had finally been adjusted and could now be sent over to him.
In other words, Kain could pick up some new gear.
Of the three upgrades incorporated into the Ho 229 V3, one of the technical improvements had come from Tessa's side.
When Kain left Tessa's world, he had not taken the M9 equipped with the Lambda Driver with him.
It was not because the Lambda Driver had failed to be reinstalled before he departed. Rather, he had left that sample behind with Chidori Kaname so that they could more easily create a new Lambda Driver system.
As for the materials they lacked, or more accurately, materials with the same properties, A2's side could provide higher-grade, higher-quality equivalents. Those were then manufactured and sent over, allowing the Lambda Driver system to be upgraded and reassembled, or remade from scratch.
A completely new Lambda Driver system still needed more time, so for the moment they had focused on modifying and upgrading the original one.
And after the modification, several of the reserved physical interface ports were no longer suited to Tessa's AS platform, but instead had been adapted for A2's Ho 229 systems.
So once A2 received the upgraded Lambda Driver unit, she began fitting it to the Ho 229 and carrying out the upgrade installation.
Now it had finally been assembled successfully.
Well, "successfully" was not entirely accurate.
It was a theoretical success.
A2's side had difficulty activating the Lambda Driver at all. It seemed to require a real human in order to function properly.
So now it had been sent over for Kain to test.
"Where are you going?"
As he passed by a girl, she called out to him with that question.
"To pick up my new toy."
"New toy?"
Cagalli looked confused and turned her eyes toward Lacus Clyne.
"It means Mister Kain's new mobile suit has arrived."
That was the only answer Lacus could really give.
Explaining away things appearing out of nowhere by saying they had always been nearby under optical camouflage might work once, but not over and over, not in front of this many people, and certainly not when it happened near a battleship.
So they had settled on a cover story: Mister Kain would pretend the item had been shipped to a nearby area outside the colony, and then someone would go retrieve it.
As for this newly delivered mobile suit, since it had supposedly been sent by Miss A2, it was probably an upgraded version of the same transformable aircraft type as the Ho 229 he was currently using.
Otherwise, even though Mister Kain's four Ho 229 units looked stronger overall than PLANT's GINNs, the gap was not so overwhelming. Especially not now that the enemy had seized three Gundams.
In that case, they simply did not have enough strength to escort the Archangel safely to Orb.
So the newly delivered machine was probably much stronger.
It was a shame, really, that the warship from Mister Kain's original world could not be brought over. If it could, then for this world it would be almost impossible to deal with.
Even setting aside its weapon systems, its speed alone was on an entirely different level. It could casually enter near-lightspeed flight. Nothing in this world could possibly catch it.
And even just that ship's bizarre ramming capability was enough that nothing in this world could stop it.
From the downloaded videos, Lacus had seen it punch through an asteroid body more than half the size of the moon, and its speed had barely decreased at all after passing through. Which meant that if it struck Earth in this world, Earth would simply be finished.
And as for its true weapon systems, one of them was a craft-like armament built on the hidden planet once used by humanity in Mister Kain's world.
It was a dimensional weapon.
A weapon capable of reducing dimensions.
To be honest, when Lacus heard that it could not be brought over, she had actually felt a little relieved.
Because it really was that dangerous.
One small mistake and the problem would not be limited to Earth, or even to humanity.
The entire solar system could be wiped out.
And yet the humanity in Mister Kain's world, a humanity that possessed weapons like that, had still lost a war.
Lacus could not even begin to imagine how brutal the war must have been, the one that had swept across the galaxy once ruled by mankind.
(End of Chapter)
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