The Vesalius, Rau Le Creuset's warship.
The three new Earth Alliance mobile suits they had stolen had all been recovered an hour earlier.
At present, the ship was lying in wait along the route from the Heliopolis colony to Earth, maintaining radio silence.
"Captain Le Creuset, one Nazca-class destroyer and two Laurasia-class frigates from our reinforcements will arrive in three hours."
"Mm."
Le Creuset nodded.
Resting his chin on one hand, he replayed the declaration the two princesses had just made.
"This is rather troublesome. That young lady intends to board that ship and go to Orb as well."
To everyone else on the bridge, it sounded as though their captain had a headache because the chairman's daughter was on that ship, making it impossible for them to act freely.
In reality, what was giving Le Creuset a headache was the fact that the princess had survived at all.
Were those fools on Earth, the ones always preaching about protecting the blue skies, really that incompetent?
They had still managed to fail.
It was probably the work of the force behind that new fighter craft.
Le Creuset did not believe that such an agile transforming fighter belonged to either Orb or the Earth Alliance.
That thing was clearly already a mass-producible war machine. It could not have been something Orb had only acquired after the invasion began.
So what force possessed that kind of technology?
Mars?
Were the Martian colonists interested in this side as well?
"Captain Le Creuset, we've received intelligence from our infiltrators inside the Earth Alliance. It seems the Alliance is also shocked and furious over Orb's public statement."
"In other words, they are not playing along together. Now that is interesting."
Based on the intelligence gathered so far, the new warship and new mobile suits had obviously been built for the Earth Alliance, using Earth Alliance resources and Morgenroete's technical support in Orb.
And yet now Orb intended to keep them and claim them as its own.
That was no different from openly tearing up relations with the Earth Alliance.
If Orb dared to do that, then it meant they had confidence, and something behind them was supporting that confidence.
The force behind those fighters, most likely.
That had genuinely taken him by surprise.
And it was precisely why it could not be ignored. It had to be investigated thoroughly.
Le Creuset had no desire to let a third-party force sit back and watch the tigers fight.
No, he wanted all humanity dragged into the conflict, all sides battered, all sides destroyed.
...
In a secret dock at Heliopolis.
The Archangel, built there, had nearly finished resupplying and was preparing to depart Heliopolis.
"Captain Flaga, the Archangel is ordered to leave port."
Seated in the captain's chair, Murrue Ramius issued the notice.
She had been recommended as captain because she was the person most familiar with the Archangel. She had witnessed its construction and taken part in building it.
And now she herself watched the screen before her, where the transformable fighter designated Ho 229 flew near the port.
No, not patrolling.
Test-flying.
Trying to get used to the controls.
It was hard to believe that the young man named Kain had shown so little concern about lending out one of his own machines for someone else to use.
And after receiving permission, Captain Flaga had naturally rushed out to pilot it at once.
As for why he was not using the Strike Gundam, that was because the system had already been modified by that child into a setup suited for the child alone. The controls were so complex that Flaga simply could not operate them.
Even if they reset the system, learning how to handle it was not something he could do in a short time. If he took it out now, he would only be a target.
Compared with that, the fighter Kain had provided was far easier to learn and easier to operate.
And now Kain himself had taken the female-use unit designated 2B and flown away from Heliopolis, heading out to retrieve what was on its way.
"Understood."
"Captain Ramius, which do you think is stronger, the Ho 229 or the GAT-X105?"
One of the helmsmen on the Archangel suddenly asked the question out of curiosity.
"That is hard to say."
As far as the GAT-X105 Strike Gundam was concerned, if its theoretical performance could be fully brought out, Murrue believed it would be stronger in a one-on-one fight.
But one thing had to be noted.
The enemy's special weapons.
Those miniature missiles resembling thermite rounds.
If the GAT-X105 were hit by those, its Phase Shift armor definitely would not hold. Their laser weaponry, on the other hand, could be endured.
It would also be best to avoid getting tied up with them in close combat. Their agility was even greater than the GAT-X105's. The better tactic was to use the Strike's speed advantage and keep your distance.
Though to be precise, that did not mean the other side was truly slower.
In fighter mode, it could keep up.
But in that form, its agility dropped.
And of course, that speed comparison was only valid in space for the time being.
If they were inside Earth's atmosphere, then from an aerodynamic standpoint, the Ho 229 looked likely to be faster than the GAT-X105.
Still, the Ho 229 had one fairly fatal weakness.
When transformed into MS form, its cockpit was exposed.
Under those conditions, moving at high speed through space while wearing a combat suit, a single collision with debris could be enough to damage it badly.
Even if the combat suit they had been given did look more protective than the normal spacesuits used here, being caught in an attack from an MA or an MS would still be fatal.
"The fact that he let Captain Flaga use one without hesitation probably means he has something even more advanced."
That remark was met with agreement from most of the crew, because none of them really believed he would hand over such an advanced machine unless he had something better.
Which meant the "package" Mister Kain had gone to pick up was probably a new unit.
Just then, the bridge door opened and four figures entered.
The two in front were both princesses. One was Orb's princess, and the other was PLANT's princess.
Behind them followed two bodyguards, code-named 2B and A2, assigned by Mister Kain to protect them.
The two were dressed almost identically, both wearing visors. Apart from the difference in hair length and the weapons they carried, they moved almost like machines.
"Captain Ramius, Mister Kain has already received the shipment and is on his way back to the port. So we can depart now."
Seated now, Lacus spoke to the captain.
They had delayed departure until his return was confirmed.
"Understood. All hands, prepare. The Archangel will formally depart Heliopolis in one minute and set course for Orb."
After giving that order, Murrue glanced toward one particular station.
Natarle Badgiruel was seated there.
She had not been locked up again. Instead, she had temporarily been assigned responsibility for part of the Archangel's weapons control and combat direction.
She would take the work seriously, Murrue was sure of that, because Natarle did not want the Archangel and the Strike Gundam falling into PLANT's hands either. ZAFT was certainly lying in wait nearby, ready to intercept them along the way.
In the next moment, the Archangel had already cleared the dock and emerged into open space beyond the colony.
Captain Flaga, who had been waiting outside, also moved in closer.
"This is Flaga. No abnormalities detected at present."
But the instant the words left his mouth, an anomaly appeared.
The radar picked up something approaching.
The Archangel's cameras immediately locked onto the target, projected the image onto the main screen, and magnified it further.
"That is the package?"
Murrue stared, visibly taken aback.
On the screen was a transport-like aircraft approaching, another unfamiliar model.
It was fairly large, too large to enter through the MS launch catapult, meaning it could only be brought aboard through the Archangel's cargo hatch.
But that was not the important part.
The important part was the other craft beside it.
That one looked like a Ho 229 as well. The overall shape had not changed much, though it looked reinforced, as if it had bulked up slightly.
Even so, it was still only around eleven meters in size, still smaller than an MS.
The real point was the enormous unit mounted to its back, something like a high-output flight wing larger than the machine itself, yet also looking like a massive weapons module.
It was a bit like the GAT-X105, whose design emphasized versatility and compatibility with various weapon packs.
One such piece of equipment was even a fighter craft that could combine with it as a backpack wing assembly.
Which raised the question.
Could the combined pack on the Ho 229's back be the same high-energy weapon that had destroyed a ZAFT warship in a single shot earlier?
Yet there was one issue Murrue could not stop thinking about.
Captain Flaga was probably wondering the same thing.
What was the Ho 229's power source?
Because the unit Kain had provided for Captain Flaga to use still had not shown any sign of energy depletion.
Which inevitably made people suspect that it might be powered by that kind of engine.
(End of Chapter)
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