Chapter 164: All-mighty Warrior
"Daddy." Mineva smiled on the other side of the screen, "I miss you too."
The moment Char heard these words, he felt his heart melting. From birth to now, this was the first time he heard his daughter call himself that, it was just like a dream. But Char was Char after all, he did not lose his head in joy, but asked, "Mineva, who told you this?"
"Uncle Ade told me it." Mineva said with an innocent look on her face, "Is it true that Daddy is going to take me back?"
"It's true." Char nodded, "Finally, Lingus is not too heartless yet."
"Great! Then we can live together!" Mineva smiled, pulling her finger to start counting, "Daddy can finally go to parent-teacher conferences for me, and travel around with me, and bring my classmates home to play, and get my own name back, and…"
"Mineva." Char interrupted her shamefacedly, "I'm afraid the last few … are not allowed."
"Eh?" Mineva's little face stiffened and she asked tremulously, "Why, Daddy?"
"I am the Prime Minister's assistant and the main pusher of A-Laws. Simply put, that means I still have a lot of enemies, and it's not safe on Earth." Char narrowed his eyes and said in a deep voice, "It may be necessary to protect you like… the past."
"Protect me…" Mineva's big, pretty eyes were vaguely muddled with a layer of mist, "Is it like when I used to be at Aunt Haman's house? Stay inside the big house every day, not allowed to go out, and not allowed to make friends …"
"No, it will be more free than that, but there are certain limits." Char didn't know how to explain it for a moment. He originally planned to tell Mineva everything after he had arranged everything well, he didn't prepare to say these to Mineva now, "You can still go to school, and I also want you to go to school normally, but you need to be more careful to make friends."
"But I have a lot of friends right now, like Ple." Mineva asked with tears in her eyes, "Do I have to leave them? Can I still play with them?"
"They have to be vetted before getting permission to be your friends," Char could not say this in front of his daughter in any way. His status was different from Lingus, it was too sensitive, and the slightest mistake would lead to the end of the world.
"I, I know." Mineva wiped her tears with her sleeve, "I will be good and not cause trouble for dad, the same as, the same as when I was at Aunt Haman's house before."
Char felt a pain in his heart. His daughter's autism at Haman's was one of his biggest regrets. Now she had finally had many friends, was she going to repeat the same life of solitude again?
"Dad, when will I go to Earth?" Mineva asked in a frightened tone, huddled like a scared little animal, "Can it wait until the end of the semester? Uncle Ade promised to take me on a trip if I came first in my final exams. If I don't have the chance to travel after that, I want to ask if it's okay …"
"… The political situation is still unstable." Char showed his teeth with difficulty, "Let's talk about it when you graduate from elementary school."
The phone next to the computer suddenly rang, it was the set alarm clock reminding him that it was time to work. Char casually pressed it off, hurriedly said goodbye to Mineva, changed into a suit, and went out. He was currently at P.L.A.N.T., examining the satellite cannon that Lingus had created. The bigwigs in the Federation Council were extremely sensitive to the satellite cannon and wanted him to make a personal trip.
The ship arrived in the early hours of yesterday morning local time. Char only took a shallow nap for a few hours, then took advantage of the time difference with the moon to talk with Mineva for a while, and then went to work full time. Today, the commissioner assigned by Haman will accompany him to visit the facilities of the satellite cannon.
The name of the satellite cannon was interestingly chosen by Lingus, "Memento Mori". The phrase is Latin, and Char knows exactly what it means—
"Remember that you have to die." He smiled confidently and slightly, "You're exposed, Lingus. Other people may just think that it's just some kind of cool naming, but I see it. Your pessimism, your despair, it's all showing."
By the time he arrived on the scene, he was greeted by one of Haman's guards.
"Miss Meyrin Hawk." He gracefully offered his hand with a smile full of mature masculinity, "It's really rare to meet such an excellent woman like you in the Federation."
"Mr. Quattro, you're too generous with your praise." Meyrin stretched out her hand and touched him symbolically, with a standard formulaic smile on her face, "Haman-sama happens to have something to do, today I will lead your inspection."
Of course, these are just polite words. Char knew in his heart that it was just because his rank at present was not enough. Considering that Haman used to be his own secretary, Char could not help but sigh.
"What Lingus said is right." He sighed silently in his heart, "One's destiny depends not only on self-struggle, but also takes into account…"
"Well, Mr. Quattro." Meyrin's embarrassed voice interrupted his thoughts, "It's my first time being sent out to work by Haman-sama, so please don't take it personally if there's anything I've done wrong."
"Miss Hawk, you're too kind, please don't be presumptuous." Char responded casually, "I trust both Miss Hawk's ability and Karn the Speaker's vision."
"…It is the core energy unit in front, a brand new energy power designed by Dr. Lingus." Meyrin along the way introduced the various details of the satellite cannon for him, "If it succeeds in civilian use in the future, we may not have to go to war over energy. Dr. Lingus is really great, and he and Ms. Lacus have such a good relationship, I really envy him…"
Char gave her a puzzled look and sneered silently in his heart, "Humph, you can't fool me. Your acting is too bad."
"Oops, I got off topic, I'm so sorry." Meyrin blushed and bowed slightly, and continued on with a stiff look on her face, "This crew is the most valuable part of the entire Memento Mori. In order to protect the safety of the crew, and also to protect the interests of the taxpayers, Lord Haman arranged for the white captains to be stationed here."
"Ah, by the way, the white captain will change his guard every month." Meyrin raised her index finger to her cheek, "Last month it was Captain Mashima Serro, now it should be the turn of… well, it's Captain Athrun."
Char pretended to be dumbfounded, "So that's how it is, Karn the Speaker takes this place seriously."
"That's right, Dr. Lingus has told us a thousand times that this place is the last line of defense for humanity." Meyrin proudly nodded her head, "Speaking of which, Haman-sama and Lingus-san' relationship is really good, they were even — oops, I did not say anything, please forget it!"
It was just a smoke bomb. The two must have some conflict that needs to be covered up. Char instantly recognized Meyrin's poor acting skills, and analyzed the most likely outcome.
"Well, speaking of which, what about Captain Ray who came with Quattro-san?" Meyrin changed the subject stiffly, "He is a legend, many colleagues and old classmates asked me to ask for Captain Ray's autograph!"
"Amuro is liaising with the Guardsmen." Char answered, "According to Miss Hawk, he should be with Captain Zala now."
…
"Captain Athrun, go for it!" A green-haired man was cheering for his captain, "I believe in the captain, if it's the captain, you must be able to find a way to defeat the legendary white devil!"
"Just call me Athrun like you did before, aren't we friends?" Athrun gave him a gentle smile, as he often did before, "Nicol."
"Yes, captain!" Nicol blushed, "Ah, no, Athrun."
Athrun patted on his shoulder with a smile. The P.L.A.N.T. and ZAFT accepted him and gave him a place to live again. All of this is thanks to the broad-minded Speaker Haman Karn.
"If you want to be a loser, go to a corner where no one is around and enjoy yourself. Don't show up in front of me again, and consider me to have made a bad deal by trading you back from the moon." Haman said to him when he first met her, "If you really believe Zala's words, then go and die on top of MS."
With Haman's great righteousness, he finally understood the narrowness of his father and Char, and finally found what he should really fight for all his life. And Haman trusted him regardless of his past, allowing him, the son of a sinner, to wear his sins.
"For the sake of Lord Haman, I cannot lose." Athrun took a big step forward and grabbed Amuro's hand and shook it hard, "Captain Ray, you are a legend in the pilot world and a signature of the Federation, but I also carry the honor of ZAFT, let's have a good sparring match."
"That's too much, it's just a friendly match." Amuro laughed bitterly, "And to be correct, I am now subordinate to the A-Laws, and in theory, it cannot be considered under the Federation's control."
Athrun didn't answer, just nodded solemnly, turned around, walked to the simulator, and sat down, starting to make the final preparations. Amuro shrugged helplessly, also turning back to the machine.
The platform that the two of them are fighting on is the latest MS simulation system, developed by Anaheim, with the participation of Dr. Lingus, and named GBN. The Federation, Moon, and ZAFT are actually using the same system, but with different names and different databases for the sake of MS secrecy.
One of the agreements signed at the first summit was the interoperability of the GBNs of the Earth, Moon, and P.L.A.N.T. to promote common progress in driving technology. Of course, whether the countries still have a version that does not interoperate is something only they know.
The GBN system will digitize the user's various levels based on his or her historical performance, making it easy for pilots to target intensive training or avoid shortcomings. This is the biggest selling point of GBN, and the reason why the military of various countries are so eager to this system.
Athrun fastened his seat belt, took a deep breath, and skillfully logged on to his account. He once again reviewed his six-dimensional diagram. Shooting: skill, defense, evasion, and hitting, some were good and some were not too outstanding. Only his "close combat" attribute value was 90+, the highest amongst the six attribute values.
"Even the white devil is not invincible." He said to himself, adjusting his mind, "I'm good at close combating. As long as I can maximize my strengths and find my opponent's weaknesses, even if the legendary Amuro Ray… is possible to be defeated."
Amuro let Athrun choose the terrain, and he chose cosmic warfare, a meteorite dense environment. As for MS, he chose Justice Gundam. Amongst all close combating MSs, he still likes Justice Gundam the most.
"The next step is to find the opponent's weakness." Athrun pressed the ready button and waited patiently for his opponent. On the loading page, he could see his opponent's six attribute values, and he could then develop targeted tactics, "Here we go, let me see your weakness. Amuro Ray's weakness is…uh … uh …"
Appearing on the screen was a solid square hexagon with Close Combat, Shooting, Skill, Defense, Evasion, and Hitting written on each of the six corners of the hexagon.
