The earlier posture adjustment had been ambiguous enough, but now with Brother Xia Chuan's further adjustments, the position became even more amusing.
Badgiruel's entire upper body had been jolted beneath the cockpit, her knees kneeling in the space before the pilot seat while her hands barely supported herself by gripping Lu Tianming's thighs... Combined with the suddenly extinguished lights, the entire posture and atmosphere looked somewhat suggestive.
Having now recovered from the earlier surprise, Badgiruel asked with slight annoyance:
"What's going on?!"
Lu Tianming was equally puzzled. He couldn't exactly say "I released the clutch too quickly and stalled the MS."
This wasn't a driving test.
He simply took a deep breath, adjusted his emotions, and coldly asked in return:
"During the earlier Machine Soul Ritual, were you perhaps not sincere enough?"
"Ah... what?"
Badgiruel hadn't expected him to counter with this question... and the truth was she really hadn't taken it seriously.
A superstitious ritual... she had thought it was just a formality.
"The Machine Spirit is dissatisfied with your lack of devotion, therefore it refuses to start."
Lu Tianming spoke with complete seriousness, as if stating an indisputable fact.
...And it wasn't entirely wrong, since it really was the 'Machine Spirit' that had caused the issue earlier.
"How could such a thing possibly exist?"
Badgiruel refused to believe it, thinking it was probably just a machine malfunction. She awkwardly shifted her body against Lu Tianming's in the confined space, turning around to imitate Lu Tianming's earlier actions and press the startup button.
But this time, no matter how many times she pressed it, there was no response - it seemed the mobile suit truly was rejecting her.
Now Badgiruel began to panic slightly. She turned back to look at Lu Tianming, her tone even carrying a hint of pleading:
"Then... what should we do now?"
Badgiruel's voice had softened. She hadn't expected things to actually go wrong.
Although she didn't truly believe in the existence of this Machine Spirit... the current situation was making her doubt herself.
After the first tremor earlier, she had been fully aware of whether Lu Tianming had performed any operations - the mobile suit had trembled again without any apparent action from him. Besides the so-called Machine Spirit actually existing, Badgiruel found it difficult to imagine any other explanation.
Coupled with her failed attempts to start the machine just now, she was genuinely becoming uncertain.
"Stay still and don't move around."
Lu Tianming patted Badgiruel who was sitting against his thighs, sighed somewhat helplessly, then cleared his throat to signal to Xia Chuan that it was about time to stop.
Time to get down to business, bro.
Xia Chuan didn't continue causing trouble either - he had only been trying to humble Badgiruel after seeing her overly confident attitude earlier.
Now that his goal was achieved, he naturally stopped interfering - allowing Lu Tianming to smoothly start the Assault Suit and exit the hangar with it.
But although the Assault Suit started normally... Badgiruel now seemed afraid to move much, remaining in her current position rather than returning to her original seating position - fearing she might accidentally break the Assault Suit again.
She glanced at Lu Tianming who was seriously piloting the machine, seemingly considering whether to ask him if she could move and return to her previous position.
Sitting like this on Lu Tianming's lap, with his hands gripping the control sticks effectively encircling her in his embrace... the scene looked somewhat ambiguous no matter how you viewed it.
After some thought, she realized she had been the one to propose this surveillance mission in the first place, and now she had caused so much trouble. Asking to change seats at this point would make even her feel like she was being overly thick-skinned.
Finally, she let out a deep sigh, bit her lower lip lightly, and decided to endure it—after all, moving supplies wouldn't take that long...
Fortunately, the rest of the walk went smoothly. Although the Strike Gundam had earlier removed its Striker Pack for maintenance, it was still perfectly capable of walking.
Following his memory and positioning, Lu Tianming and Badgiruel arrived at what he called the "factory."
The area that should have been the entrance was now littered with debris from the collapsed structure. Fallen metal beams blocked the only way in like a barricade.
Lu Tianming frowned slightly and maneuvered the Strike Gundam over the wreckage to clear the obstacles.
As the metal beams were roughly shoved aside, clouds of dust billowed down, revealing the factory's full extent to both of them.
The arched dome of the roof had collapsed in waves, with snapped and twisted steel reinforcements jutting out from the charred concrete remains like noodles drooping over the edge of a bowl...
Once inside, their eyes fell upon five massive ground-mounted frames—or more accurately, three frames and two bases.
Three of the bases bore fresh welding marks, resembling envelopes from which stamps had been torn off violently. The frames that should have been there had likely been urgently transported away.
On the remaining two frames, scattered pieces of MS leg armor gleamed with a bright metallic sheen. Hydraulic lines hung down like nerve clusters from an anatomy specimen, suggesting they were unfinished products still in assembly.
The most striking sight was in the southeast corner—where the collapsed dome had opened a gap, dozens of armor components lay exposed. This was probably the area Lu Tianming had glimpsed during the earlier battle.
"Looks like we've found the treasure trove."
Lu Tianming smiled faintly, his gaze sweeping over the scattered parts. For a moment, he thought he saw unopened weapon crates in the shadows... It seemed ZAFT's invasion had been so sudden that many usable components had been left behind in this factory.
"This... There really are MS parts here?"
Badgiruel stared in disbelief at the scene before her. She hadn't expected Heliopolis to be secretly developing other MS besides the five G Series units.
"It looks like three units have already been secretly transported away. As for the rest... I'm not sure if they were left behind or just not finished in time."
"But who would manufacture these..."
Badgiruel was puzzled. Not just anyone had MS technology—who had both the capability and the audacity to produce them here?
Yet, as soon as she finished speaking, she realized the answer.
Lu Tianming glanced at Badgiruel, who seemed frozen in place, then nodded slightly in confirmation.
"...No need to say more. It's ORB, of course. Only they knew about the G Series development and had the means to steal its technology."
As he spoke, Lu Tianming walked over to inspect the spare parts.
In the original story, ORB had developed five Astray Series Gundams here. Three of them were already completed by the time of the attack—the very three missing now, which later became the main units in the side stories.
Scattered around here are probably the remaining two mobile suits that haven't been assembled yet...
"Now let's see... what interesting components we can salvage from these spare parts."