After several days of travel, the Archangel arrived as scheduled at the ruins of Junius Seven, preparing to begin the search for supplies.
Other types of supplies were secondary... The main target of the search was the frozen solid water in space—this source of life was what the Archangel needed most right now.
However, Lu Tianming clearly sensed that Kira's small group didn't seem as resistant to this search mission as they had been in the original story. In fact, they all appeared quite understanding.
"Won't you feel any reservations about going on this search?"
In the hangar, Lu Tianming curiously asked Tolle and others who were preparing to board the work-use Mobile Armor to go out and search for supplies.
In the original story, they had been full of resistance to excavating this Cosmic Tomb, feeling that they shouldn't disturb the dead resting here.
"Well, a little bit... After all, many people died here," Tolle said, slightly surprised by the sudden question. After thinking for a moment, he slowly continued, "It does feel strange to excavate the place where they're buried."
"But Mr. Lu, you've helped us so much," Kira added with a shy smile from nearby. "Now that there's finally something we can do for you, it wouldn't be right for us to be picky about it."
"By the way, Kira, how's the research going on that new equipment I mentioned earlier—you and the maintenance team?" Lu Tianming suddenly asked.
During the voyage, since the Strike Suit's repairs hadn't used many parts, there was a significant surplus from what they had collected at the ORB factory. Sergeant Murdoch from the maintenance department had gathered Lu Tianming, the pilot, and Kira, the technical expert, for a meeting to discuss how to make use of the leftover materials.
At that time, Lu Tianming had mainly proposed two things: first, to create a flight platform similar to the Justice's Destiny 00, to improve the Strike Suit's mobility when not using the Striker Pack. Second, he suggested modifications to the original Flight Pack design, initially hoping to heavily modify the Striker Pack into a Flight Pack.
Both proposals had been acknowledged at the time, but during subsequent refinement, they discovered that while the former was technically feasible, they lacked sufficient materials—and likely the same was true for the Flight Pack.
Sure enough, Kira shook his head regretfully and said, "No, the maintenance team has looked into it, and we still don't have enough materials for development... But if we can find relevant supplies during this search, there might be some hope."
As he spoke, Kira handed Lu Tianming a list summarizing the types of materials the maintenance department was missing and which ruined components they could potentially extract them from—before their departure, the logistics department had already sent out small Mobile Armors to survey the available resources.
"What materials? Let us see too~" Tolle said curiously, leaning in to look, which made Kira somewhat hesitant. He glanced tentatively at Lu Tianming, silently asking if it was okay to let Tolle see as well.
Seeing this, Lu Tianming smiled and replied, "Go ahead, looking at it won't hurt... It's good to have everyone help search together."
He generously handed the list to Tolle. After all, having more people help search for supplies was nothing but beneficial.
After recording the supply inventory, Lu Tianming returned to the Strike Suit and went out with the work-use Mobile Armor to conduct supply recovery operations.
Unlike the Mobile Armors responsible for mining and transportation, the Strike Suit primarily handled obstacle clearance tasks. Only when the engineering Mobile Armors couldn't handle certain obstacles would Lu Tianming pilot the Strike Suit to push them aside or cut them open with the Combat Knife, facilitating the Mobile Armors' movement.
Therefore, most of the time, Lu Tianming's position was relatively idle.
"Even though I've seen it in the original work, witnessing such a vast expanse of ruins with my own eyes still makes me sigh with emotion."
From within the idle Strike Suit, Xia Chuan's voice reached Lu Tianming's ears. Usually carefree, even he couldn't help but feel moved by the sight of Junius Seven.
Lu Tianming sighed helplessly—the devastation before them was indeed at a level that could shock even someone as indifferent as Xia Chuan.
In terms of destruction, Junius Seven, having been bombed by nuclear weapons, surpassed even the self-destructed Heliopolis.
The cold vacuum of space isolated the erosion of time, perfectly preserving the horrific scenes from that time.
Suffocation, freezing, evaporation of bodily fluids... The cold, desiccated corpses exposed to space were more terrifying than monsters in horror shows. After all, the nuclear explosion wasn't the sole cause of death; more people died because the space colony's livable conditions were destroyed, trapping them in space until they perished.
And if that were all, the visual impact might not have been so strong. What truly struck them were the postures of the corpses before death.
There were couples who, knowing death was imminent, shared a final kiss—their dried bodies, fused together by the explosion's heat, truly never to part again.
There was a mother who shielded her child in her arms, hoping to protect her offspring, her frozen arms tightly wrapped around her chest, though the child she sought to protect was nowhere to be seen.
There were devout believers kneeling in prayer, begging for divine protection, yet even the idol they worshipped had shattered before them, leaving only their corpses drifting like insects in the void of space.
The vitality burst in the struggle for life and the lifelessness of the cold, dried corpses were eerily blended together... creating a scene of utter absurdity.
This was the war of this world—the real war...
Just as both of them were lost in these thoughts, an enemy target identification suddenly and abruptly appeared in their field of view.
"A Recon ZINN... It's from Lacus's side!"
Xia Chuan's eyes suddenly lit up, as if he had just remembered something, and he spoke excitedly, with the air of someone who had been waiting for this moment.
Lu Tianming was speechless. So, you never intended to let Lacus off from the start, did you?
Being more rational, he sent a message to inform Kira, advising them to find cover nearby and hide first. Then, the Strike Suit also began to conceal itself, preparing to track the Recon ZINN and see what it was up to.
Although, from Kira's perspective in the original work, this Mobile Suit was likely sent to rescue Lacus... he had also heard another theory.
Based on the details of Lacus' battleship being damaged by external attacks in the footage at that time, combined with certain lines from the later dialogue between Creuset and Athrun, some speculated—that this mobile suit had actually come to assassinate Lacus.
Otherwise, there was no explanation for why that GINN would attack the construction Mobile Armor passing by in the original work. If it were truly here for rescue... wouldn't they fear the rescue target might be on that MA?
However, this worldline had already been altered by his influence, so all speculations based on the original could only serve as references.
For now—he would see it with his own eyes.