Chapter 120: The Tracks of the Angels
"Lacus, aren't you sleeping yet?" Cagalli asked worriedly while touching her big belly, "Maybe we'll have news tomorrow."
"You should go to sleep first, or it won't be good for the children in your belly." Lacus gave her a faint smile and made herself look relieved, "I'll wait a little longer, it's okay."
"Then… it's fine." Cagalli hesitated for a moment, finally nodding and turning around to go back to her room. Kira was not at home, she was now temporarily staying at Dr. Lingus' house.
It was already ten o'clock at night, and even if Mineva didn't have to go to school tomorrow, she was forced to go to bed, and the living room was empty with only Lacus in it. She pushed the laptop away, slumped helplessly on the table, and her pretty pink hair spread out messily. The communication software was open on the laptop screen, and the avatar marked as "husband" was still gray.
"You call me everyday, but stopped today. I have never been so worried about you." She lowered her eyes and sighed softly, "Is this the so-called perfect Pavlovian method of getting a girl? I'm about to be domesticated by you. Is this your ultimate goal?"
Lacus didn't know how long she had waited. After a day of work, she was already exhausted and gradually sank into sleep. Suddenly, a subtle rattling woke her up, and she jerked her head up, only to see Ange was fully dressed with a big bag on her back.
"Where are you planning to go at this late hour?" She was asking knowingly, and the answer was obvious.
"Ade hasn't called me even now, something must have happened." Ange replied as expected, "Even Momoka hasn't contacted me, the situation must be very serious, I can't wait. I must go to him."
"Your power of action is really quite enviable sometimes." Lacus smiled to herself and smoothed out her hair that was messy from sleeping, "But that's not how things work, you might give him a bad time instead."
Ange thought for a moment, put her bag down, sat down across from Lacus, and seriously locked eyes with her, "I don't understand, please tell me."
"Maybe he's dealing with an important matter and doesn't have time; maybe he's injured and Momoka is taking care of him and isn't available; maybe he's suddenly inspired by something and is thinking about it; maybe he met with an NT friend, chatting and forgetting about time; maybe you've fallen for the enemy's plan. There are too many possibilities." Lacus showed a bitter smile, "All I can do is trust him, continue to wait, and contact Loran if there is still no news tomorrow."
"But I'm worried sick without seeing him for a day, are you just—" Ange suddenly stoped. She remembered the way Lacus just fell asleep on the table, "Lacus, have you… been coming over like this?"
"Do I have a choice?" Lacus asked softly, and immediately answered herself, "No."
"I thought you had—" Ange's voice said getting smaller and smaller, "already disliked him, then it's better to get a divorce."
"People always cherish what they have worked so hard to get, and no matter what they become, they can't be ruthless enough to give it up, while they often don't cherish much of what comes to them, and don't feel any pain when they trample on it." Lacus looked at the gray avatar on the screen in disbelief, "I can't tell now if what he does every day is out of sincerity or acting."
"How can it be acting?" Ange hurriedly defended Ade, "Even if he's a little greedy and wants everything, he definitely won't rely on acting to deceive other people's hearts!"
"Possessiveness and liking are not the same, and liking and loving are not the same." Lacus looked at Ange with slight envy, "And loving and loving are also different."
"… I'm sorry."
"Are you taking pity on me?" Lacus immediately put away her earlier expression and replaced it with a cold look, "I'm not saying this to you for that purpose."
"No, it's not!" Ange waved her hands in panic, "I was apologizing for something I did!"
"What kind of things?" Lacus asked with a clear, cold voice like C.C.'s.
"It's, it's the matter of showing love with Ade in front of everyone before." Ange lowered her head, the fingertips of her hands kept bumping against each other, showing that she was a little nervous, "I can't help but be pampered, forgetful, and let loose when I'm with him… I always thought you guys didn't have feelings for him anyway, and wanted to deliberately provoke you. But this will actually hurt you, right? Well, I'm sorry about that."
"How can I be mad at you for you being so frank?" Lacus shook her head, closed the laptop, and stood up, "It's late, go change your clothes and go to sleep."
After that, she picked up her laptop and went back to her room. She waited until the noon of the next day when she got Ade's news from Ange's mouth.
"Ahhhhhhh, why didn't Momoka say it? I was so worried and couldn't sleep all night! Whose maid she is?!" Ange grumbled with dark circles under her eyes, "Well, Lacus, why don't you go back and catch up on your sleep? Mineva and I can just order take-out, we don't need to bother you with cooking."
Lacus looked at Ange, who had suddenly become honest after the night, and was in a bit of a trance, not even knowing how to react for a while. She walked to the kitchen and pretended to be calm, "Cagalli is pregnant, it's not good to eat take-out for her. It's better for me to cook."
After the meal, Lacus decided to take a nap. Even for Coordinators, staying up late is still the natural enemy of women. Ange took Mineva off to play a game, and Cagalli videoed her husband. Now Celestial Being has basically nothing to do, and the two of them talk for hours.
Kira is much more honest than Ade and reports every day on what's going on to Cagalli, you can even call him a model husband.
"I have a meeting this afternoon, I'll hang up now, be careful with your body." He reluctantly ended the happiest part of his day and headed to the ship's briefing room.
In the briefing room, Chang Wufei and the other three Celestial Being members were already there, all looking down at something. Kira nodded to Chang Wufei in greeting, took the seat reserved for himself, picked up the same thing, and read it. The content was a speculation on the principle of light particle reactor written by Dr. Lingus.
After some time, everyone finished reading. Chang Wufei put up videos on the big screen. There were two in total, a video of the battle from Zeta's perspective and a video from Sinanju's perspective. After the videos were played, Chang Wufei's sharp gaze swept over the four people present, and even with Kira's experience in battle, he inevitably felt a little uncomfortable.
"Before the meeting begins, I'd like to say that it is strictly forbidden to take the ship's public network to download porn. Don't think you can do whatever you want just because you know some technology, I've already found out whose IP it is."
Everyone turned their heads to look at Kamille.
"Why are you looking at me? It's not me!" Kamille's face turned red.
"This is the end of the topic, the next time you do it, I will announce your name via the ship's broadcast." Chang Wufei coughed, "Kamille!"
"Yes!" Kamille reflexively shrank back.
"You, analyze the enemy Gundam's pilot and performance in the videos." Chang Wufei said in a deep voice, "A good fighter needs more than experience and intuition. Use your brains."
Kamille recalled what he just saw and analyzed, "That MS should be using a Minovsky nuclear power reactor, I saw the beam saber, there is still an I field present. This deranged thing written by Dr. Lingus may exist as an external device, perhaps just to have the MS go into that red high-performance mode?"
Chang Wufei nodded and gestured for him to continue.
Kamille was encouraged and could not help but feel a little more confident, "The enemy pilot is not necessarily much more powerful than Captain Aker, it is the Zeta Gundam's performance that is too poor. But the pilot's also not too weak, after Mr. Quattro joined the fray, he still lasted for a while before turning the MS into the red light mode."
With Kamille's level, he was unable to find the essence of the battle. Chang Wufei frowned at the other three.
Kira thought for a while and took the initiative to speak, "The enemy Gundam pilot is very experienced, but his overall technical level should not be as good as Captain Quattro. He just took advantage of the performance of the MS."
Chang Wufei is much more satisfied with this answer, and then the crowd started a discussion based on Kira's statement, discussing the optimal means to deal with such an opponent with their respective MSs.
After finishing the tactical literacy training, Chang Wufei continued with the more important work: ideological education. Dr. Yang often taught him during his lifetime that an uneducated warrior is a stupid warrior, and that both combat skills and cultural learning are important. He grew up in the midst of Dr. Yang's wise teachings.
Chang Wufei played the video of Charles' war speech on the big screen and continued to stare at Kamille, "What do you think about this man's words? Don't be afraid to speak up, we won't blame you."
"Why is it always my turn to answer the question…" Kamille muttered in a small voice and replied in a loud voice, "Although I did not fully understand what he said, it feels like there is some truth to it. Well, at least it sounds righteous?"
Chang Wufei sighed in disappointment and patted Charles' old face on the big screen, "Anyone who can say something like that is either stupid, bad, or stupid and bad."
Shinn raised his hand in amazement, "Grandpa, you sound like Mr. Adrien!"
"They're both masters of double standards." Kamille pouted unconvincingly, "Just said that you won't blame me, and then you scold me. Put that 'evolution' saying aside, the Federation sucks is the truth, right?"
Uraki scratched his head in embarrassment. He felt that only this could not be refuted.
"It's obvious that science and technology are so advanced, but the upper echelons are becoming more and more corrupt… It's really because those adults are liars, right?" Kamille said and got more and more excited, "Not to mention them, even in the NT group, there are scums like Scirocco. Dr. Lingus is also covering up and refuses to say exactly what we are going to do. It's simply impossible to understand each other with such people who are full of lies, right?"
"I think the fact that everyone is willing to believe in the Doctor unconditionally is somehow mutual understanding in itself." Kira said with a straight face, "And in any case, provoking a war is most undesirable."
"Actually, Kamille, the current state of the Federation is not such a simple matter." Shinn deliberated for a moment and said briefly, "The corruption is mainly due to the uneven distribution of wealth caused by the severe class rigidity of the federal government, and the old relations of production for the Federation are no longer adapted to the advanced productive forces. The problem was worse in Britannia, only to be muddled through by Emperor Charles."
Kamille was dumbfounded and didn't understand a word of it.
In fact, Kira was also confused but pretended that he understood. People like Uraki and Chang Wufei, who have been trained for a long time, were nodding their heads and thought Shinn was right.
"There are indeed solutions, with the current environment of the Federation, it's either having a top-down reformation or having a bottom-up insurgence. Well, this topic is bigger, I'll give a few books for you to read." Shinn smiled kindly at Kamille, "I can probably guess a bit of what Mr. Adrien is doing, but it wouldn't be something you could understand right now."
Kamille has always felt that he was born smart, but today he suddenly found that there were things he didn't understand. He looked at Shinn with a look of reverence, "Brother Shinn, how do you know so much? That's amazing!"
"Mr. Adrien taught me that." Shinn smiled shyly in embarrassment, "There's a lot more, I can teach you if you want to learn, you just have to read a lot of books."
"That guy turned out to know all that? But he did nothing but scold me, never argued with me about these things." Kamille said and sulked, "He didn't expect anything from me in the first place. Well, it's normal for him to think that way, not everyone is like Mr. Quattro."
Chang Wufei weighed up the situation and decided that it was about time after this ideological education. He cleared his throat to get everyone to focus on him.
"Good news for everyone, the first mission for Celestial Being has been decided, and the Doctor has already made a battle plan." He noticed that some of them were acting a bit eager, "But the first mission is to declare our presence, not revealing too much of our strength."
This meant that not everyone will have the opportunity to participate in the mission and take this chance to show off their new Gundams.
"I have not yet decided all the task personnel, but I feel that we must have it." On the big screen appeared an angel-like feathered Gundam, Chang Wufei sighed with emotion, "Old friend, ah, I did not expect to have the day to see you in battle again."
