Chapter 165: The Precursor Is Not Awakened
This was not the first time Amuro had faced this kind of challenge, and it was quite easy to handle it.
The MSs in the system were all built based on the real MS's performance. There was only one MS that does not exist in the real world. Amuro often chose this MS, because losing to a nonexistent MS would be more acceptable to his opponents.
This MS, number RGZ-91, is theoretically part of the Zeta Gundam's Transformation series, yet it never appeared in Anaheim's production line. It could be regarded as an "abridged" version of the Zeta Gundam, and it even had a serious bug that couldn't transform back from the MS form to the plane form. Players had reported this to the designer, but the response was always "it was designed that way".
In short, this strange MS was neither realistic nor unique, so naturally, no one would waste time practicing it. Except for Amuro, he just found RGZ-91 was comfortable to use, and the familiar feeling made him doubt that this strange MS was designed by Ade himself — although Ade denied it.
Entering the sparring match, Amuro couldn't help but laugh, "Is this a plan to bet everything on close combat? Do you have some misconceptions about this meteorite terrain?"
In Amuro's understanding, the meteorite terrain was suitable for a sneak attack, and after discovering Athrun's intentions, he became a bit distracted, starting to think about other things.
The life now, except that Char had become his boss, which made him slightly uncomfortable, there was absolutely nothing to complain about.
The thing he was most worried about was this so-called satellite cannon, "Adrien is not a person without a target, he builds this thing at all costs, that is to say, he is very sure about what he said before about the aliens? At least Haman Karn must have understood it that way, otherwise, this place wouldn't have been so heavily fortified. Ah, crap."
When he was thinking, he subconsciously shot Athrun with the howitzer particle cannon, almost directly destroying Athrun's MS. Amuro hurriedly rushed forward to start close combat, so as to let Athrun take the upper hand. The two MSs fought together.
Amuro felt that he needed to say something to ease the slightly awkward atmosphere, "Captain Zala, you're very strong. If you continue to practice, your strength can even catch up with Suzaku Kururugi of Britannia."
"Are you saying that my current level is not even as good as that ACE's goalkeeper?" Athrun was impatient in his heart, and his movements sped up, "Captain Ray, don't underestimate ZAFT too much!"
"It seems that the mainstream view on Suzaku's real strength is very wrong…" Amuro smiled bitterly, "Fortunately, the two countries are not at war, otherwise, ZAFT would have suffered a big loss."
After playing along with Athrun for a while longer, Amuro tricked Athrun to rush forward and stabbed the beam saber into Athrun's cockpit, thus ending the competition. As usual, Amuro asked, "Captain Zala played a little out of order, ah, how about let's play again?"
"A loss is a loss, there's no need to play again. This is what Haman the Speaker always taught me." Athrun went up and shook hands politely with Amuro, "I'm really ashamed of this white suit as I'm even off in my understanding of the terrain."
"Captain Zala, you're very strong and broad-minded, unlike some narrow-minded person." Amuro smiled and shook back, "Let's have more communication in the future…"
"Captain Ray?" Finding that Amuro suddenly froze and looked up into the distance with an increasingly serious expression, Athrun remembered that Amuro was a well-known NT, and was instantly alerted, "What happened?"
"No, just a very vague feeling, but this is… it would be good if Adrien or Tiffa were here. My senses are not accurate enough." Amuro frowned to himself, and after a moment of thought, he looked intently at Athrun, "I hope it's just my misjudgment, but it's probably an enemy attack. Our army will be prepared just in case, Captain Zala, please your army also prepare for a battle."
"ZAFT, get ready immediately." Athrun decisively gave Amuro a military salute and turned to leave. Amuro's prestige was enough for him to trust unconditionally.
"Char." Amuro quickly opened a mind space chat room, "Come back immediately, I'm afraid something's happened."
The A-Laws and ZAFT forces finished rallying as fast as they could, and by the time the workers on the satellite cannon had finished evading, Amuro was already on standby on the Hi-ν Gundam.
"Captain Amuro, are you really sure? All the civilians have taken refuge, if it's a mistake, I don't know how to explain to Karn the Speaker." Char on the bridge asked in a rather disgruntled tone, "Why can't I feel anything? Is your sensing range bigger than radar?"
"Adrien and Tiffa could use their NT sense to chat when they were on both sides of the moon." Amuro answered Char's question very politely, "'Mr. Quattro', please make sure that the situation over here is communicated to the Moon in real time with all details."
"I'm the boss, I don't need you to direct me." Char bristled with displeasure, "What do you mean by "suspected NT"? It can't be an alien as Lingus said, right?"
"I suspect it is." Amuro looked solemn, "Here it comes."
Four battleship-sized energy reactions appeared at the edge of the radar map, steadily advancing in the direction of the satellite, and the warriors of both armies tensed up. A few moments later, four silvery-white medium-sized spaceships appeared at the end of the view, each about two hundred meters long.
"Captain Ray, no answer on the public channel." Athrun sent a communication, "They don't look like battleships. Our army is comparing the database."
"They are science research ships." Amuro said seriously, "In U.C. 0015, Dr. Aeolia, the father of the Coordinator, led five research ships to Jupiter, and it was said to have suffered an accident and only one returned."
"I found it too, too amazing…" Athrun looked incredulously at the data passed to him from the bridge, "Four ships from U.C. 0015, how is that possible?"
"No time to explain, Captain Zala, prepare to battle. That's why Karn the Speaker sent us here." Char immediately gave the order to go to war, "Why haven't you contacted Lingus yet? What is he up to at this critical time?"
"The moon is now at two in the morning, in consideration of his family situation, haha…" Amuro stopped laughing suddenly, followed by a backward breath, "What the hell? This amount! Stop spreading Minovsky particles, the other side is not relying on the electromagnetic waves to communicate!"
From the four ships that stopped moving suddenly, there were suddenly endless small cones gushed out. They were in the shape of a shuttle, several meters long, flying toward the direction of the satellite with extremely fast speed.
"The target is the satellite cannon!" Char was horrified and startled, "Battleships! Shoot your main cannons at them in unison!"
"Fin Funnel!"Amuro also unfolded the six Fin Funnels on the right side of Hi-v Gundam and raised his beam rifle at the same time. Due to the number of the small shuttles, he didn't even need to aim, "Crap. If I knew that there would be so many of them, I should drive F91. VSBR's firepower is much stronger."
Hundreds of MSs and dozens of battleships shot out at the same time, and the cosmic dust reflected brilliant colors under the flood of high-energy particles. An uncountable number of cones were blown up by the beams, but still more of the same type of objects whistled out of the science research ships in an endless stream.
"This number! We won't even be able to hit the enemy's ships!" Char thought quickly, "What the hell is it? A New Type of unmanned weapon?"
"It's not a weapon, it's all alive." Amuro deftly dodged the cones rushing at him and casually shot at them in sequence, "All of these little things are all suspected NTs, including those ships, but they refuse to talk to me."
"All NTs?" Char exclaimed, "Are you kidding? I can't feel them at all!"
"I said that they are suspected NTs!" Amuro was a little annoyed. He couldn't explain it clearly with an inferior NT like Char, "Where's Adrien? Still haven't made contact?"
"No, we have contacted Prince Loran, he said he would take care of the contact." Char suddenly let out a cry of surprise, "What's that?!"
A high-speed cone hit a ZakuⅢ, and the silver-white shuttle immediately transformed into a crystalline metallic substance, clinging to the surface of the MS. Before people could react, more and more cones rushed up to stick in the same way. Just a few seconds later, the ZakuⅢ turned into a silvery lump of metal. The only thing that could be heard on the public channel was a scream, and then nothing could be heard from the ZakuⅢ.
"Ah …" Athrun looked dumbfounded at the ZakuⅢ, whose pilot was once his subordinate and best friend. Something shattered in his brain, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
Justice Gundam rushed into the group of cone shuttles like crazy, and frantically harvested the cones with the guns and beam saber in its hand, and only Athrun's harsh cries could be heard on the public channel.
Amuro had no time to worry about Athrun. He just happened to notice several shuttles coming together, eventually taking on the shape of an MS.
"ZakuⅢ? The technology was absorbed?!" Amuro saw more and more cone shuttles start to clump together and deform, "Cha… Quattro! We can't delay any longer! Quickly think of something!"
"I'm thinking!" Char continued to mutter reluctantly, "What can I have if I can't contact the ones I need—"
"This is Haman Karn." A domineering female voice suddenly sounded on the public screen, "I have communicated with Dr. Lingus and hereby order the immediate evacuation of all staff on Memento Mori and the immediate retreat of the entire ZAFT army. Thank you A-Laws for your assistance, please evacuate your side immediately as well. Repeat…"
"… communicated." Char smacked his lips in a complicated mood, "All troops, cover the immediate evacuation of non-combatant ships."
"Retreat? What does Adrien want?" Although Amuro didn't understand the order, he still performed it, "Captain Zala!"
Justice Gundam was being surrounded by a number of silver-white ZakuⅢ and a dozen cone shuttles. One cone shuttle had already stuck to Justice Gundam's arm, and another was about to stick to the cockpit. In the nick of time, the cone shuttle that was rushing to the cockpit was blown out by a Fin Funnel, and Justice's left arm was shot off by another Fin Funnel. Seizing this opportunity, Athrun hurriedly flew back to the troop.
"Good thing I caught up." Amuro had a moment of fear, "If they absorbed the power of Gundam and mass-produced it… I don't dare to imagine it."
"Civilian evacuation complete." Char's belated voice sounded like a voice of heaven to the soldiers, "All troops retreat."
ZAFT and A-Laws, who were struggling to hold on under the tidal wave of the enemies, finally let out a long breath and retreated one after another in an orderly manner. The silver-white MSs and cone shuttles didn't chase after them, scrambling towards the satellite cannon together with the four science research ships, and disappearing deep into it in a flash.
"Excuse me, Dr. Lingus asked me to explain the situation to everyone." A girl's voice suddenly rang out on A-Laws' friendly channel, "Ah yes, hello everyone, this is Lord Haman's escort, Meyrin Hawk. The Doctor said that the aliens were targeting the Chulip crystal reactor of the satellite cannon, and he had counted on the possibility of such a thing happening, so he left a back door there."
Meyrin's voice stopped abruptly. Char waited for a moment and pursued, "What is the back door?"
Just as he asked, the distant satellite exploded into a huge "firework", and the pitch-black universe was instantly lit up.
…
"Everyone, get on Iserlohn immediately." Ade looked incredibly serious, "Ange, protect Mineva."
Ange had been playing a "bedtime puzzle game" with Ade less than an hour ago, and was now in a very bad mood after being interrupted by the phone call. Fortunately, Miss Friday is a sensible person, and she would never give Ade trouble at such a time. She obediently picked up Mineva, nodding solemnly.
What she was most curious about was actually how Loran's phone call came in when it was clear that both of their phones were turned off. Ade said that his phone had a bug. Although Ange didn't know much about the principle of cell phones, this reason was really not very convincing. Fortunately, this was not the time to dwell on that.
"TurnA is fixed." Aeolia said in a deep voice, "I've made enough mistakes, and this time I can finally make up for it."
"Make up for? Your mistakes? By relying on others?" Ade pointed at the girl beside Aeolia and questioned, "Ikari Yui's cultivation cycle hasn't finished yet, right? She didn't even recover her memory, so she was forcibly taken out and thrown into the ELS to die? I don't know how you educated her, but I absolutely do not agree with your plan."
"Memory did not recover… does not matter. As long as she still remembers the knowledge, it's enough." Aeolia stared hard at Ade with a harsh sight from behind the lenses, "By the way, to prevent information leakage, now she is called Ayanami Rei. Ayanami is Ikari's old surname, and in her native language, Rei means—"
"Ayanami Rei? Why did the plot come back around?" Ade shook his head hard and stopped thinking about this, "ELS is here to dig, there is no possibility of reconciliation in any case. Whether you agree or disagree, what you want to do is just send her to die. I won't let Rei go!"
The young girl, named Ayanami Rei but was actually Ikari Yui, looked at Ade and said in an emotionless voice, "Are you… Ade?"
"Hm? Hm!" Ange scanned back and forth alertly and said silently, "Forget it, let's talk about it after this is over. I can't cause Ade any trouble at this moment."
"How did you recognize him? He's not even an NT anymore now." Aeolia was a little surprised, but quickly threw it behind and glared at Ade with vigor, "What do you understand?! If we can reach a mutual understanding with ELS, do you understand how great a help it can be?"
"Mutual understanding my ass!" Ade roared, "Just get them all killed!"
"You! I didn't expect you to be this kind of person, Lingus! I was wrong about you!" Aeolia flung his sleeve in anger, "Loran, control him! Get Ayanami ready to get on the MS!"
"Doctor, I'm sorry." Loran showed an apologetic expression and walked over to Ade, taking his arm and smiling sweetly, "I'm on Ade's side."
