Chapter 45: Miss Alice Is Not Happy
Alice's magnificent appearance gave everyone a shot in the arm. Ade rushed to the deck and waved, and Inle stopped firmly alongside the ship. The friendly forces were shooting crazy to buy him time to get on it.
After Inle joined the battlefield, the situation was instantly turned over. Although Inle was designed to have overwhelmed firepower, he still felt a bit shocked after experiencing it all firsthand.
This time, Inle is fully loaded. Hyzenthlays and Ferber's particle cannons, particle beams, and live ammunitions flying in the sky, and the number of Zakus are reduced at a rate visible to the naked eye. V2 is battery-powered, so every shot has to be carefully calculated. But Inle is nuclear-powered and it can shoot energy beams regardless of cost.
Beam shields and PS armor provide a thick defense for Inle, and Zaku's beam rifles and rocket launchers can do little to no damage to it. Even a few Zakus luckily flew close to Inle, they will be shot off immediately by long-bladed rifles. On this battlefield, no one can stop him from blitzing freely.
This is an all-around technology crush and absolute cost crush. There are obviously several ACEs on the other side, but the performance gap between ZakuⅢ and Inle is so big that the ACEs' advantage is not reflected at all. Those ACEs should be very depressing now. Even though they have better driving skills, but sorry, hardcore players can not beat the noob players who paid to buy the best equipment. This is the truth of the game called reality.
The pressure from the enemy was so small that he had the strength to chat with Alice.
"Ade, I miss you so much!" Alice's voice was so soulful and cheerful, "I've been helpful this time, right? Right? Right?"
"I missed you, too." The long-awaited reunion with Alice made him feel good, "I owe my life to Alice, don't you think?"
"But these bad people want to hurt Ade. Alice almost had to be banished in the endless darkness." Alice's voice suddenly lowered, "So, die, all of you!"
As the words fell, six drones detached from Ferber's wings and swept straight toward the enemy group, firing wildly from all tricky angles. Constantly there were Zaku exploded and became Alice's annihilate record. Unlike the beam pods, which rely only on nozzles, the larger drones are equipped with the Minovsky floating system, and the built-in battery can allow them to fly in the atmosphere for a short period of time.
But there were too many enemies after all, and it didn't take long for two drones to be shot down. However, Alice had no intention of retreat, but fought more aggressively. Alice rarely shows her emotions, so Ade just lets her do what she likes. After all, drones are not expensive for him. He can afford to lose them.
The casualty ratio soon exceeded the upper limit, and the opposing commander decisively gave the order to retreat. Ade did not pursue, but simply followed the friendly forces and withdrew in silence.
"Ade, please be sure to take me with you wherever you go in the future." Alice remained a bit depressed, "I will protect Ade. Even if I can't do it, please give me the right to die together with you. Don't ever have the same situation this time. If Ade died, what should I do?"
"… I promise you. I swear."
"Great!" Alice's voice cheered up again, "Let's put on some music!"
"Just a moment, Miss Music Player." He fished out a spare phone from the cockpit stowage space, of course, this one wouldn't blow up, "I have to call C.C. first. She should have seen the news, don't let her worry."
The call went through smoothly, and hearing C.C.'s voice again after almost a month gave him a sense of reassurance. After exchanging information, he learned that C.C. was about to arrive in the Japanese archipelago with Asuka siblings, and was surprised to find that Uraki was also okay and had regained consciousness, but unfortunately could not talk to him at this point in time while he was temporarily in a coma.
"There are other less important things, we can talk about them when you get home. By the way, Uraki talked about your unusual reaction when you went down into the atmosphere. Ade, you … have you ever heard of a name…" C.C. took a deep breath and let it out again, "Forget it. I didn't ask."
"Wait! What's wrong? I want to hear about it."
"Sorry, I don't have the courage to know the answer right now." C.C.'s voice was a little soft, not quite like her usual self, "Just give me some time, okay?"
"So am I going to meet up with you guys now?"
"Just go straight back to the moon. Earth is too unsafe for you." C.C. suddenly shouted, "Alice, are you there? Please protect Ade for me!"
But Alice ignored her, and Ade hung up the phone awkwardly.
With the enemy retreating, the Earth Federation troops were finally able to run away in peace, and Ade temporarily left Alice to return to the ship. Aker ran to Orb Union's ship at some point, meeting him with a grief-stricken look, "Doctor … me, I …"
What can I say? Scum, give my daughter back?
"You have done a good job. Bring everyone safely to Sydney is what you have to focus on." Ade patted his shoulder, "Have you thought about what to do back there? I don't think you can stay in the Australian military zone, and you're having a hard time over here, right?"
"I may apply for a transfer. With my personal ability, this request won't be rejected. I just haven't thought about where to go yet."
"… Are you interested in working with Amuro?" Ade had a flash of light in his head, "I know Lt. Commander Noa quite well, I can write a letter of introduction to the 13th Fleet for you."
"Is this a fateful encounter?" Aker's eyes glowed, "Thank you, Doctor. Please."
Then Ade walked over to Lacus, and it was time to fulfill the promise to take her back to the moon. Not far away, Cagalli was holding Kira and whimpering. Ade whispered to Lacus, "What do you think the relationship between them is?"
"It's too obvious, isn't it?" Lacus looked at him in disbelief, "I think even with Ade-san's emotional intelligence, you can easily tell it out."
Ade was faced with a dilemma here, and after a fierce mental struggle, he finally couldn't stand the condemnation of his conscience and decided to tell the truth. After all, he has often taught Shinn to be a noble, moral person. He can't go against this principle.
"Commodore Yamato." He stepped forward and looked at Kira solemnly, "I'm sorry to disturb you, but there is something I must ask you. May I ask do you know Dr. Ulen Hibiki?"
Kira squeezed Cagalli's hand and gestured Ade to a deserted place. He spoke slowly after a moment of expressionless silence, "Dr. Lingus, thank you for giving us a helping hand. But as you can see, now Cagalli is not in a stable mode, I'm afraid it's not the time to talk about this. I can speak with you privately afterward if you wish."
"But this relates to-"
"There's no need for Cagalli to think about that now." There was an invisible power in Kira's gaze, "I know Dr. Ulen Hibiki, he is a famous geneticist. But he has turned into the dust of history and will have no impact on our lives."
Sensitive intuition from the NT let Ade decisively choose to stop here, "… then I will not disturb you."
After saying goodbye to Aker, he asked for two sets of driving clothes for himself and Lacus, and finally returned to Inle. Driving Gundam in an undershirt was not his style.
"Miss Lacus, hello, I'm Alice, the on-board AI of this MS." Alice greeted politely, "Ade used to talk about you a lot, so I presumed that you would show up one day."
"Miss Alice? Hello." Lacus probably took Alice as an ordinary AI and didn't look surprised, but smiled and looked at Ade, "Can you tell me what Ade-san said about me?"
"Ade often says that Miss Lacus has a nice voice, it's just a pity that-"
"Ah! It's getting late, let's get going!"
This time, Alice brought out TR-4 Dandelion as well, which means that he can drive Inle directly back to the moon without having to go around looking for Mass Driver. For safety's sake, Ade fixed Lacus behind the seat in the cockpit. It looks a little funny, but here it's for safety, and fortunately Lacus didn't protest.
Inle began to slowly accelerate up. The acceleration process was relatively long, because the inertial force that the human body needed to withstand should be always within an acceptable range, and Lacus, also a Coordinator, did not feel discomfort.
"Ade, she is the second." In the silent cockpit, Alice said in a mechanical voice, "Miss Lacus is the second woman to enter the Hyzenthlays, right? Will there be a third?"
Lacus didn't make a sound this time, and he couldn't see the expression of the young girl behind him, but he decided to decisively change the subject, "Let's play some music."
A full screen of song lists unfolded in front of him, and Lacus observed curiously, "Putting a music player in MS and saving so many songs, this wonderful contrast is indeed very much like Ade-san's style, just like those papers."
"Ade really likes to listen to music." Alice took the initiative to answer, "But Miss Lacus, I'm really sorry, I don't have your songs stored here."
At this time, the speed of the MS reached a limit, and the solar sail stowed inside the TR-4 Dandelion unfolded outward and began the second stage of acceleration. Everyone was uncharacteristically silent for a moment, letting their bodies get used to the new acceleration.
"I don't know the vast majority of songs here." Lacus spoke again, letting out an incredulous exclamation, "The only ones I know are … classical music from before the universe century? Are the rest also pre-universe century music?"
In a sense, Lacus was right, but it would be too much trouble to explain if he played some music she didn't know. Ade clicked on Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. He didn't really know much about classical music, but it was one of his few favorites.
"Ade, can you tell me how you met Miss Lacus?" Alice asked accompanied by the music, "You have left me almost a month, I want to know everything about Ade. You told me your things every day before."
Listening to Alice's somewhat aggravated voice, Ade felt quite guilty. It should be lonely to leave her alone in the hangar for almost a month. I have plenty of time to talk to Lacus after coming back, it is better to take care of Alice now. So he began to tell her about what happened after leaving the moon. Alice occasionally "hmmmm" to show that she is listening, Lacus remained silent from the beginning to the end, thinking about something he didn't know.
"Oh, it's the hero saving the beauty again, just like the last time. Ade is like the main character in the story, so handsome!"
It's deliberate, it's definitely deliberate. Although he trusted Alice blindly, he could feel it. Could it be that he did not correct Alice's growth direction every day like before, she learned some bad things from the Internet?
"By the way, Ade, in order to get the moon's lift-off permit, I connected to your home computer to fetch some files. This is a special circumstance, so it doesn't count as a violation, right?" Alice subtly paused for a while, "There is an encrypted folder inside, and I accidentally opened it. Sorry."
… crap. I'm fucking screwed.
"Lacus, let me tell you about Creuset and his family." Ade despairingly changed the subject, "Upon a time, there was a doctor called Ulen Hibiki…"
When they arrived at the moon, it was already late at night on moon time. Ade parked Inle and said goodbye to Alice and took Lacus back home. On the way past the convenience store, he bought a set of disposable underwear by the way. Lacus doesn't bring any change of clothes, so this is necessary.
He considered letting Lacus stay in a hotel later, but today, he didn't want her to stay alone.
"You can sleep in my room for now. This is my room." He gave Lacus a general description of the layout of the house, "I'll sleep in my parents' room. It's rather messy in there, and it's too rude to let guests stay."
"Ade-san lives in a much smaller place than I thought it would be, but it also has a more … sense of life than I thought?" Lacus surveyed the house, "Can I borrow the bathroom now? I can't take a proper bath in the barracks, after all, I'm a girl too."
Ade finally found a new set of towels after a rummage around the house - C.C. always likes to move his packed things around. The young girl thanked him and took the towels and the clothes he had bought earlier into the outer bathroom, closing the door gently.
"Sure enough." She looked at the sink and muttered to herself, "Two toothbrushes …"
