"It's good that we won."
Seeing Cagalli so happy, Lu Tianming also felt a sense of accomplishment.
At least what he taught her wasn't in vain—that was good enough.
Now, Cagalli's political awareness was becoming increasingly mature... Perhaps she could truly break free from her brainless image in the original work and grow into someone capable of bearing the responsibilities of ORB's leader.
In the original work, she had no one to teach her and no opportunity to learn. After Uzumi and ORB self-destructed, she was thrust into her position like a duck being forced onto a perch.
If they could save Uzumi's life now... perhaps the possibility of Cagalli growing up properly would be even greater.
"By the way, how is the Freedom Mobile Suit performing? If the Dawn Organization doesn't listen to your commands, remember to come to me anytime!"
Cagalli glanced at the Freedom and suddenly thought of something, asking with concern.
After all, Lu Tianming was parachuted in from the outside, and she worried he might not have much say in the Dawn Organization and couldn't command the technical staff.
"The overall completion is quite high, but there are still some minor shortcomings... probably due to rushing the work."
After a brief thought, Lu Tianming replied.
For the most part, the Freedom had no major issues—at least Xia Chuan, that simple-minded guy, didn't notice any problems. However, from an overall perspective, Lu Tianming still detected some issues.
For example, the weapons consumed too much energy.
After one full-firepower burst, the remaining energy was a very low percentage of the total. Although the nuclear reactor could maintain a balance in moderately intense battles, the low energy reserves still limited tactical flexibility.
In short, there was insufficient firepower for emergencies or sudden bursts.
After Lu Tianming's review, he believed this was likely due to insufficient development time.
The overall energy loss rate was high. If they changed the manufacturing process or improved energy flow management, this issue should be somewhat alleviated.
In Lu Tianming's view, this problem was actually very important—with the current energy situation, even after activating 100% resonance, it wouldn't drain the power completely like during the Strike Suit era, but at the very least, it would be unable to maintain free flight.
At the very least, they needed to optimize it before the next battle so that it could still fly freely after one burst of firepower.
"As for the Dawn Organization, there's no need to worry... They follow orders quite well."
Hearing the latter part of her question, Lu Tianming smiled and replied.
"? What do you mean?"
A flicker of surprise passed through Cagalli's eyes. Based on her impression, those technical staff were quite proud, weren't they?
"In a way, they listen to Kira now. After all, Kira is quite skilled technically, and many people in the Dawn Organization consult him when they encounter technical problems."
Lu Tianming replied with a smile.
After all, as the dedicated maintenance technician for the Strike Suit, Kira had experience in MS-related technology that far surpassed the Dawn Organization members. Combined with his natural talent... he had now become something of an advisor within the Dawn Organization.
Even Ro occasionally sought his advice.
However, what Lu Tianming didn't mention was... when Kira was also unsure what to do, he would usually come to seek opinions from him, the pilot.
Even the Dawn Organization often competed to have Lu Tianming test new machines or analyze the feasibility of plans.
After all, compared to Kira's "development experience," Lu Tianming possessed even more valuable "usage experience" to provide reference for those researchers.
"That's good. I was worried you might be giving the technicians there a hard time."
Cagalli patted her chest, feeling somewhat relieved, and was about to say something when she noticed Andrew had also caught up from behind at some point, greeting Lu Tianming.
"Speaking of which, how is the battle situation on ORB's side?"
Returning to the topic of ORB, Lu Tianming immediately thought of ZAFT's offensive.
Although the units attacking were all grunt machines... their status as grunts was only relative to him.
On a normal battlefield, Mobile Suits were still special units with overwhelming suppression power.
Cagalli gave a brief report—overall, the battle was going quite well.
On one hand, ORB itself had established contingency plans for Mobile Suit combat. On the other hand, the few temporarily produced M1 Astray test units were performing exceptionally well.
With Kira and Ro as technicians and Lu Tianming's combat data as reference, the Operating System for Naturals had clearly surpassed that of the Earth Alliance.
The M1 Astray cut through Duel Daggers as effortlessly as an adult fighting a child, achieving the miracle of zero casualties under the cover of coastal firepower.
...Though there weren't many units to begin with that could suffer casualties.
Meanwhile, Ro, who had borrowed the Flight Platform and Striker Pack, had worked wonders with the Red Astray, shooting down quite a few Mobile Suits.
Lu Tianming nodded in relief upon hearing this report and was about to continue speaking when Andrew's voice suddenly came from behind.
"Hey, your handling of the new machine is still impressive as ever. To take down so many units in a row—truly worthy of you."
Andrew walked over with a smile, waving as he expressed his admiration.
He had arrived a bit later mainly because he was reviewing the battle results—and after going through them, he was almost shocked.
Destroying both the Blitz and the Storm while also shooting down one of the Earth Alliance's Gundams... it was truly remarkable.
Sometimes, Andrew forgot that Lu Tianming was actually a Natural because he was just too strong.
"Well, it's a Nuclear Powered Machine after all. It'd be a shame not to achieve some results with such a generational performance gap."
Lu Tianming responded modestly.
"Speaking of which, how is the recovery of the Blitz and the Storm going?"
Earlier, the Blitz had been sliced into half a Blitz, and the Storm had been shot into a near-crippled state... logically, neither should have been able to retreat on their own.
So, upon returning, he specifically suggested salvaging the wreckage of these two units—with some modifications, they might still be usable.
"Ro said it's his old trade and took the Red Astray to handle it."
Andrew scratched his head, his expression somewhat helpless.
Lu Tianming was taken aback for a moment, then realized it was true.
In the original story, the Junk Guild did all sorts of messy jobs... he had almost forgotten that post-battle scavenging was the Guild's real expertise.
"At this point, they should be arriving at the port soon... Want to go take a look together?"
Andrew glanced at his wristwatch, calculated the timing, then immediately made a gesture - pointing his thumb backward to suggest going together.
"If we're lucky, we might even get to see ZAFT pilots being captured on the spot?"
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