The movie theater.
Naturally, they had chosen one with private VIP booths.
Each booth was open only at the front, with partitions on both sides, behind the seats, and overhead. Unless someone deliberately walked around to the front, they would never notice what was happening inside.
Under normal circumstances, no one would pass in front of the booth anyway. It was a VIP section, and the theater's layout allowed anyone leaving for the restroom to do so without crossing in front of another group's seats.
The partitions behind them, on both sides, and overhead could also be made transparent.
Calling it "transparent" was not entirely accurate. It was more like opening a car's sunroof—the opaque panels simply retracted, revealing a layer of invisible glass.
That way, it did not feel as though their booth was the only one in the entire theater, allowing them to retain some of the atmosphere of watching a movie with an audience.
"Commander, it looks like this story takes place four years after the current events in Ms. Lacus's world."
6O had reached that conclusion after seeing the date displayed above them: C.E. 75.
Lacus's world was currently in C.E. 71.
The second Gundam SEED series Kain had watched ended in C.E. 74.
In other words, this story began after Gilbert Durandal's defeat.
Hmm?
A world peace monitoring organization called COMPASS had been established, and its military forces were now intervening in conflicts around the world.
COMPASS had been founded by Lacus's faction, most likely by bringing the Terminal network—previously an underground organization—into the open.
The unfolding plot felt remarkably familiar.
After watching a little longer, Kain finally realized why.
COMPASS operated almost exactly like Celestial Being from Mobile Suit Gundam 00.
Whenever it discovered a war or armed conflict, it intervened by force and compelled both sides to stop fighting.
However, the underlying causes of war in Gundam SEED and Gundam 00 were very different.
The conflicts in SEED primarily stemmed from the racial divide between Naturals and Coordinators. By comparison, the wars in 00 arose from a range of disputes more closely resembling those found in the real world.
Although 00 also contained certain racial and ethnic tensions, they were fundamentally different from the conflict in SEED.
The differences between Naturals and Coordinators were simply too great. Coordinators were born with physical and intellectual abilities far beyond those of Naturals.
What could an ordinary Natural possibly do better than a Coordinator?
The other person was a genius capable of doing practically anything, while the Natural would look like a complete idiot by comparison.
Naturals would inevitably grow deeply afraid of Coordinators. If the situation continued, Naturals would eventually lose their place in society and be rendered obsolete. That fear would naturally transform into jealousy and hatred.
All it would take was a little agitation and deliberate provocation from certain individuals for the conflict to spiral completely out of control.
On the other side, some Coordinators would inevitably consider themselves inherently superior to Naturals and look down on them.
Moreover, Coordinators had originally been created using the wealth and resources of Naturals, so the development of Coordinator society was expected to benefit Naturals in return.
But if you were forced to support an impoverished relative who could never escape poverty, wouldn't you eventually grow sick of it?
With so many Naturals, just how many resources would their continued support consume?
Sooner or later, complaints would begin spreading through Coordinator society. Its uglier side would emerge, and some Coordinators would start searching for a way to cast off that burden permanently.
Harsh as it sounded, the conflict between the two sides was already comparable to a struggle between different species.
When one side regarded the other as fundamentally alien and untrustworthy, the logical conclusion was that only one could survive.
Returning to the world of Gundam 00, Celestial Being's armed intervention eventually placed it in direct opposition to Earth's three great power blocs.
To defeat Celestial Being, those three powers ultimately cooperated and temporarily set aside some of their differences.
Simply put, Celestial Being deliberately portrayed itself as a Demon King, forcing humanity to unite against a common enemy and thereby advancing the cause of world peace.
The series also claimed that humanity's conflicts primarily resulted from people's inability to understand one another.
Once everyone achieved mutual understanding, humanity would supposedly find peace.
Mutual understanding was therefore one of the central themes of Gundam 00.
It was far too idealistic.
As long as humans remained emotional beings, it would be impossible for everyone to understand one another and establish some kind of utopia.
Celestial Being had also managed to conceal its activities from the entire world for two hundred years. It had received support from countless powerful groups, yet none of the three great power blocs had discovered it.
One could only imagine how vast and influential the organization's sponsors must have been.
Yet those people had spent two centuries pouring resources into Celestial Being.
It honestly seemed rather absurd.
If those same resources had been invested in the nations of the world, improving global conditions might have been much easier.
The later movie introduced extraterrestrials and retroactively provided a barely convincing justification for the plan. It made Celestial Being's entire project seem as though it had been created specifically in preparation for alien contact.
Ultimately, mutual understanding persuaded the aliens to cease their attack on humanity.
Hmm?
The information Kain wanted had finally appeared.
Lacus had traveled to the newly established Kingdom of Foundation.
Apparently, the country had been founded by another branch of Coordinators known as the Accords. Its blond prime minister had set his sights on Lacus, believing himself to be her destined partner.
Before long, the movie reached its climax.
The Kingdom of Foundation was actually a contingency left behind by Gilbert Durandal. Anticipating the possibility of his own defeat, he had preserved resources and a legacy that could be used as a backup plan.
When the time came, the newly established Kingdom of Foundation would carry out his Destiny Plan.
"Has a Real Robot series turned into a Super Robot one?" Kain murmured.
After Lacus arrived with the new Proud Defender and it docked with the upgraded Strike Freedom Gundam, the completed mobile suit unleashed a truly ridiculous attack.
A beam erupted from the Mighty Strike Freedom Gundam's forehead. It appeared capable of locking on to its target through sheer willpower—or, more accurately, through psychic control.
Lacus seemingly turned her mind into a radar system capable of perceiving the entire battlefield, allowing her to guide the beam as it sliced through everything in its path.
The defensive shields and armor of the enemy warships offered less protection than a sheet of paper.
Even Messiah—the fortress equipped with Neo GENESIS, the successor to GENESIS—was sliced apart as effortlessly as tofu.
Before firing the weapon, the Gundam had also generated a special defensive field capable of blocking the concentrated firepower of an entire fleet and numerous mobile suits.
At the same time, it unleashed widespread electronic interference that crippled the entire fleet.
This machine was clearly evolving into the kind of Super Robot Gundam found in other series.
"Commander, here are the more detailed specifications."
Beside him, 6O suddenly opened several files for Kain to examine.
With 6O's abilities, she could easily have obtained the movie for him before its official release.
He did not even need her help. Considering the power he had already demonstrated to this country, he could have spent 4.2 privilege points and secured an advance screening without any trouble.
That would have taken all the fun out of waiting for the movie, however. There would have been nothing left to anticipate.
The information 6O was showing him now had also been officially released. It explained the weapons used by the Freedom Gundam in the movie.
The machine was called the Mighty Strike Freedom Gundam.
The weapon installed in its forehead was the EQM-Y148 Convergent Heavy Nucleon Beam Cannon "Disruptor."
The beam simultaneously disintegrated atoms and suppressed nuclear fission. Consequently, anything it struck would not undergo an explosive reaction. It would simply break down and disappear.
It resembled the disruption field surrounding a power sword in the Warhammer universe, except this version could achieve the same effect through a ranged attack on a far greater scale.
Its earlier defensive capability was produced by psychically controlling nanoparticles to generate high-voltage electrical currents, creating a protective field. That same field could also be turned into an area-of-effect weapon capable of disabling or destroying multiple targets.
Simply put, the machine reminded Kain of a Lambda Driver—a system capable of converting mental power into physical phenomena.
(End of Chapter)
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