Sahaku Rondo Gina was the pilot of the Gundam Astray Gold Frame.
Even the cooperation between the Earth Alliance and Orb had been facilitated by Gina behind the scenes.
In a sense, Cagalli had blamed her old man unfairly. Athha had taken the fall for other people.
That also had to do with Orb's political system, because Orb had always been a "union of emirates," not an authoritarian state.
After Representative Athha Uzumi Nara issued the declaration of neutrality, the Orb Union had consistently upheld the principle of "neutrality." But not everyone agreed with neutrality.
Orb's politics were governed by the Five Great Clans. Among them, the Sahaku Family was responsible for military affairs, and the siblings Sahaku Rondo Mina and Sahaku Rondo Gina were both opponents of neutrality.
When Heliopolis came under attack, Gina had been testing the Gundam Astray Gold Frame.
The moment he realized an attack was underway, he immediately made himself scarce.
Afterward, however, he had also tried to arrange for someone to destroy the Astrays hidden there.
But…
All the Astrays were already gone.
Of course they were.
Every Gundam Astray had been packed up and taken away by the Archangel.
Four Gundam Astrays, plus one arm from the Gundam Astray Gold Frame.
It was around then that Gina received intelligence that the Earth Alliance and ZAFT had fought a battle in the Debris Belt.
The battle had ended inconclusively after a huge asteroid barged into the middle of it. Later, quite a few Junk Guild members hungry for the latest technology had reportedly gone there hoping to "score some overlooked salvage," only to return empty-handed.
But Gina had heard that someone had discovered wreckage from the Aegis Gundam and the Astray Red Frame.
Now it seemed that intelligence had been accurate.
What surprised Gina even more was that he had actually run into Cagalli Yula Athha here.
For some reason, she was wearing an indecently revealing spacesuit, and there was a ZAFT pilot beside her.
A little analysis made the situation obvious.
Cagalli was probably the pilot of the Astray Red Frame, while that ZAFT pilot was likely the pilot of the Aegis Gundam.
—Gina knew that the Aegis Gundam had been stolen, after all.
He had no idea why Cagalli was aboard the Astray Red Frame.
But… wasn't this the perfect opportunity?
A perfect chance to silence her for good.
"That voice—Gina?!"
Cagalli recognized him too.
But she was about to die.
Then, in the very next instant, a beam pierced straight through the rifle.
[Justice! Descends! From! Heaven!]
[At first I thought Inori was the one coming, but it turned out to be the villain]
[This time it has to be Inori, right?]
"Who is it?!" Gina looked up into the sky. Then his eyes lit up. "Oh? Even the Astray Blue Frame showed up!"
The Astray Blue Frame seemed to have been modified.
But that did not matter.
The Astray Blue Frame still contained the original experimental data.
Compared with the Astray Red Frame, Gina wanted the Astray Blue Frame back even more. If he could not recover it, then he had to destroy it.
And now… he had the perfect chance to either destroy it or take it back!
"My luck is incredible. I only came looking for Unit Two, and now even Unit Three has shown up!"
Gina immediately drew the spare beam rifle from his back and fired at the Astray Blue Frame above.
But the Astray Blue Frame shifted only slightly and avoided the shot.
"Oh? A Coordinator?"
Gina grinned viciously.
"Then I'll use you to test my blade!"
In the next instant, however, four beams boxed Gina in.
"Warning shots?!"
Gina flew into a rage.
They were warning shots.
The Astray Blue Frame deployed the four Wired Gunbarrels on its back and fired a spread of warning shots that boxed him in.
And Gina realized that he had not even reacted in time!
"I… could lose?!"
At that moment, the thought flashed through his mind.
"Please cease this pointless resistance." A calm voice came over the public channel.
"Hm?"
That voice was very familiar.
"So it's our Songstress-san."
Gina remembered.
To advance its own plans, the Sahaku Family had once considered exploiting the influence of the "Songstress of Orb."
"Songstress of Orb" was not an official title. It was a popular nickname.
The Sahaku Family had invited her before, but her manager had rejected them.
Gina had originally intended to use force and make her submit.
Then Heliopolis was attacked by ZAFT.
But Inori remained completely unmoved by Gina's words.
"Second warning. Disarm and cease resistance. Otherwise, we will take coercive action."
"You're nothing but an entertainer!"
Gina raised his gun again, only for it to be shot out of his hand once more.
Against an enemy at this level, she could not even be bothered to move.
"Damn it! If my machine weren't missing an arm—! Hm?"
Reinforcements had arrived.
A group of Mobile Armors rushed in from the other side.
To make certain he could recover the Astray Red Frame, Gina had brought an entire team with him.
"Fire!"
No matter what, the first priority was making sure the Astray Blue Frame could not escape.
Destroying it or capturing it would both be acceptable.
"Ah!"
The Mobile Armors opened fire one after another.
The ones in the worst position were Athrun and Cagalli.
At least everyone else had an iron coffin protecting them. Those two were basically just two pieces of meat floating in space.
Athrun activated his jetpack and blasted toward the nearby Aegis Gundam as fast as he could, using it as cover.
"Earth Alliance?"
Athrun asked hurriedly.
"No, but… they're on our side!"
Reinforcements!
And the other side was probably that bastard Gina from the Sahaku Family!
Damn it!
"Assessment. Remaining energy is insufficient to guarantee the rescue targets' safety while maintaining nonlethal restraint."
"Extermination operation commencing."
Kira wanted Inori to hold back as much as possible.
But someone like Gina—a lunatic who got one Mobile Suit and immediately wanted to challenge both the Earth Alliance and PLANT before ruling the world—was not someone she could afford to spare.
—Yes. Once the Gundam Astray Gold Frame was completed, Gina's ambition was nothing less than world conquest.
That was even more outrageous than Gundam Bael.
He was the kind of character who would drag down the rating just by appearing in the main story.
To keep someone like that from interfering with her script… there was only one option. Remove him ahead of schedule.
Faced with the Mobile Armors' attacks, Inori merely tilted the Astray Blue Frame's body slightly and effortlessly avoided the simple volleys.
Long-range attacks were useless. Orb did not have any particularly powerful Mobile Armors to begin with, and Orb's overall military strength was mediocre.
"Damn it, I'm not going to lose!" Seeing that the Mobile Armors' attacks were ineffective, Gina screamed madly and charged at Inori.
The beam weapon struck the cockpit, but failed to penetrate.
The Moebius Zero's Wired Gunbarrels still did not have quite enough firepower.
So… the Astray Blue Frame drew its Tactical Knife.
"How could something like that possibly work?!"
—So that earlier moment really had been an illusion.
The other side had just gotten lucky.
And then—
The Astray Blue Frame slipped sideways past the Gundam Astray Gold Frame's attack. Its Tactical Knife slipped beneath the lower edge of the cockpit hatch.
This was the "Can Opener" Tactical Knife Inori had previously asked Kojiro Murdoch to modify. From this angle, it could pry the hatch open.
"Bang!"
In an instant, the Gundam Astray Gold Frame's cockpit hatch was ripped open.
"What?!"
The hatch in front of Gina went flying.
Then a second Tactical Knife stabbed straight inside, shredding everything inside the cockpit.
Gina never even had time to understand what had happened. It was already over…