Chapter 35: Is Downloading the Update
"Is this what you promised not to pick up trash?" C.C. hugged her arms and looked at the large spherical object in the hangar, thinking about whether she should talk to Ade about it when she got back. Wait, is this a parental complaint?
"I'm not, I'm not, this can't be considered garbage, it is a cockpit!" Shinn waved his hand, "What if the pilot inside is still alive?"
C.C. of course knew it was the cockpit, and also knew it was the cockpit of a Gundam. When the MS is about to blow up, the front of the body armor can be forced off to let the cockpit be ejected. Unfortunately, the Federation and PLANT are too attached to the cost, so far this function is only equipped on Gundams.
But the cockpit of a Gundam indicated that a Gundam had been crashed nearby. Although she hadn't seen any information about it, she knew that it was big trouble.
"Was it seen on the way back?" Asuka shook his head, "Very well, put it back wherever you picked it up, and everyone pretend nothing ever happened."
"But … but …" Shinn racked his brain for a reason, and suddenly a flash of light came to his mind, "… . what if this is the cockpit of V2 or Hyzenthlays? What if it's Mr. Adrien inside?"
"… open it up and see."
Under C.C.'s command, two security officers pointed their guns at the cockpit while another man stepped forward to open it. The ship's employees are recruited by herself, each of them has a detailed examination of the family background. She doesn't ask for strong ability, only loyalty.
The metal door of the cockpit slowly opened, appearing inside is a comatose blonde girl, surprisingly, she wasn't even wearing the driving clothes, only a blue and white dress on the body. C.C. carefully measured the beauty of the unknown pilot. Her face is good, and her body is also nice. Well, I won't bring her back in case Ade saw her.
"Close it and put it back to where you found it."
"Miss C.C., I have an objection!" Shinn righteousness stopped between C.C. and the unconscious young girl, "Adrien-san has always taught me to be a noble person, a pure person, a moral person, we can't just watch her die and do nothing! Even if we see an injured wildcat on the road, we should still send it to the veterinarian, for humanitarian reasons, I oppose Miss C.C.'s decision."
"I am the captain, this is not the Democracy, you don't have the right to decide." C.C.'s expression was cold, "This unknown pilot is likely to bring us trouble."
"But it is also possible to bring useful information." Shinn said with firm eyes and a firm tone, "Adrien-san and Miss C.C. are people with many secrets and enemies I don't know about, I understand that. And this girl is related to Gundam, there may be information we need on her. I think we can wait until she wakes up and then we make a decision depending on the situation."
C.C. looked at the teenager in front of her with some surprise; this was already a completely different person from the yelling little kid she had seen at the hospital. She hadn't cared much about Asuka's upbringing, it had always been Ade who had been teaching, how did this work? She thought of an encrypted folder called "study materials" in the computer in Ade's bedroom. Although she hadn't managed to open it, could it really be that reading made people improve?
"Asuka, people aren't cats that can just be picked up and raised, and we don't have the manpower to take care of this one." Her tone is much looser, and what Asuka said was not unreasonable. The young girl knew how to drive a Gundam, this fact itself shows some problems.
"I'll take care of her!" C.C. looked at Shinn's face, thinking that if it's love at first sight? It makes sense. Suddenly there is a young, beautiful girl of the same age, it's normal for a young boy to fall in love.
"You can raise her, but there are two requirements: First, do not forget your original task, if she poses a threat to us, then I will immediately dispose of her."
"No problem! The safety of Mayu and Miss C.C. definitely comes first!" C.C. observed him and it didn't look like he had lost his mind. Did I think too much?
"Secondly, keep the promises you make and definitely don't bother Ade."
Shinn nodded and was about to make a promise when he suddenly heard a wailing sound from behind him. The surrounding security personnel nervously raised their guns to the figure in the cockpit, the young girl just woke up, bewildered to open her eyes.
"This is … where … I am … who?"
C.C. rubbed her forehead with her hand and let out a long sigh, feeling as if she had transmigrated to a romance drama.
…
Ade rubbed his forehead with his hand and let out a long sigh, "You mean a shit yellow MS with extra thick armor came to support the enemy?"
Uraki nodded and handed Ade the video recorder, which Ade placed into his laptop and turned on to play.
Appearing on the screen were Freedom and Creuset's Zaku III. After a while, Justice also appeared and was attacked first by Freedom's D.R.A.G.O.O.N. system. Then Justice rushed up to Freedom, but Creuset came up to support Freedom, and Justice fell into a disadvantage. Uraki didn't shoot for the sake of safety as the two sides were in close proximity.
After a while, a shit-yellow MS appeared, and sure enough, although the appearance was subtly different from the memory, Ade still could recognize that it was The·O (PMX-003). The person sitting inside must be Scirocco, right?
The name Scirocco has appeared more than once in his life. Amuro mentioned it once, Uraki also mentioned it once. He guessed that this person is probably about to appear. Ade had learned in himself the "ambush effect": whenever someone suddenly mentioned to him a "familiar person" or "familiar thing" that he had never heard of before, the person or the thing will probably appear in his life later. But this statement is too materialistic, he is still in the secret verification and doesn't dare to jump to conclusions.
The speed of technological development in this world has developed a bit too fast under him and some other people, like the D.R.A.G.O.O.N. system and VSBR. Britannia developed the light shield, which is really a bit out of his expectation, which also has a sense of inconsistency.
The-O's pilot was so good that he immediately leveled the battlefield and steered it toward the atmosphere, and it wasn't long before the blue Earth was visible in the background of the video. Justice is really trying to go straight to the atmosphere, The-O is desperately trying to create opportunities. Seeing that Justice was getting closer and closer to the critical point, Uraki finally waited for the perfect time to fire, and the VSBR hit Justice in the back, exploding to some degree. Then Justice fell directly into the atmosphere and The-O started to run away, and instead of chasing after them, Creuset and Uraki chose to return.
In terms of the process, V2 only fired one shot. But in terms of results, this shot is the most important shot of the whole battle. This shot not only achieved Ade's purpose, but also does PLANT a favor.
"Doctor, do I count this as mission accomplished?" Uraki looked at Ade with some trepidation.
"Well done!" This is the time to praise him, to boost his self-confidence and cohesion, "The mission was successfully completed, very good job!"
Uraki also looked happy to be recognized.
Ade played the video multiple times. Some details are covered by the smoke of the explosion, but from what he can see, Justice will definitely burn up in the atmosphere. If lucky enough, the pilot may have a very slim chance of survival - his escape measures for Justice are very thoughtful. After all, the life of an ACE is much more precious than a Gundam.
Just now, Creuset came to talk to him that the Eternal was going to burst into the atmosphere to check for possible cockpit wreckage. The landing site is expected to be in the South Pacific, and after landing, the Eternal will search along the Pacific waters. At that time, he and Lacus and other non-combatants will be sent to Orb Union, after which they can go back home themselves.
He had no problem with that, at least it sounded more reliable than him and Uraki running away in V2 and then looking for Loran for help. Although Creuset could not be trusted, at present he had no conflict of interest with Ade, so he won't suddenly go crazy and pull out a gun to shoot him, right?
Ade put away the computer and chatted for a while with Uraki. Not long after, the radio started to tell everyone to fasten their seat belts, the Eternal was about to burst into the atmosphere. Ade strapped in his seatbelt according to the electronic manual on the wall, and felt the ship start to accelerate gradually, and there was a slight nervousness inside. Not about the descent itself, but about entering Earth.
Is this a visit, or is it a return home? A sense of timidness raised from the bottom of his heart. He has always lived on the moon and never visited the Earth, not lazy, but subconsciously unwilling to go. I'm afraid I still think of myself more as an earthling, right? Looking at the route schematic on the electronic screen, the Eternal started from the outer atmosphere, gradually entering the thermosphere, mesosphere, stratosphere …
As the ship descends layer by layer, Ade had more unspeakable emotions in his heart, and even a kind of absurd impulse to weep. Suddenly many, many, many memories of his previous life came tumbling out from the depths of the mind. It was when he was still a freshman, returning home for New Year's Eve. Although he is not at all like this home, although he is not at all recognize this hometown, it is difficult for him to suppress his body from trembling.
I … came back?
Welcome back.
Ade jerked his head up and subconsciously looked left and right. Uraki threw a puzzled look at him, which he ignored. It was definitely not a delusion, he definitely heard someone say "welcome back" to him in his head. He couldn't repeat the pronunciation, he couldn't tell which language, but he instinctively understood the meaning of the words.
Who? Who was it? he shouted in his head. But no one, or rather nothing, responded.
As the Eternal continued its descent, Ade looked at the electronic screen and tried to spread his full consciousness to find the presence that had just been there. The moment the ship broke through into the troposphere, it was as if he was under some kind of unnameable oppression, his consciousness was squeezed back in a flash, and a burst of pain flashed through his brain, as if someone had carved a knife directly into his brain, and he almost gritted his teeth to keep from screaming out loud.
"--, --! --!" Uraki appeared to be shouting at him, but the intense ringing in his ears masked all sound, and he couldn't hear what Uraki was saying at all.
The buzzing in his head continued for a long time more, and only subsided when the ship began to catch water. Ade found himself panting heavily, his shirt long since completely sweated through. He instinctively understood that his sensing distance had been reduced to about half of what it used to be.
He had a few unreliable guesses as to what was really going on, but there was too little information to think much about it. Amuro had said that NT abilities on Earth would be inhibited to some degree, but definitely not in the way he had just felt. He guessed that it might be because of Code, and he needed to have a good chat with C.C. later. But for now, he wanted to go outside and take a look.
"Doctor, are you okay?!" Uraki ripped off his own seatbelt and rushed to Ade to help him unbuckle. Watching him lean back a bit weakly to sort out his breathing, Uraki's face is full of worry, "I didn't know it would be such a severe drop reaction, shall we go get a doctor?"
"No, it's already fine." Uraki helped Ade stand up. His body was sticky and a little uncomfortable, "Wait for me to change my clothes, let's go out for some air."
After changing clothes, the two of them were led by an enthusiastic green-clad soldier to one of the few places on the ship where they could get some air. The Eternal was designed as a spacecraft, with both nautical functions but no dedicated deck.
As Ade stepped out of the hatch, the sun stung him and he squinted slightly. As far as the eyes could see, the deep blue water stretched out in the distance, until the end of his gaze met the blue and white sky. The waves were accompanied by the wind whistling noisily past his ears, and the salty sea breeze came with a little stink. He breathed greedily, oxygen gulped down his throat into his lungs, entered the capillaries through the alveoli, and finally attached to the hemoglobin and wandered throughout his body.
"This is my first time in the South Pacific!" The wind was so strong that he shouted to Uraki.
This is the right time to write a poem, but it's a shame that he's so bad at literature. Ade searched his memory for all the poems he had memorized about his hometown and the sea, both ancient and modern, trying to find one that could express the complex feelings he was feeling right now. Hesitating for a long time he finally made up his mind and looked toward the hatch. Very well, no one was there. He showed a mischievous smile and shouted out.
"The sea! You are watery!"
