The matter concerning the Sahak family was actually quite simple to handle... As long as ORB remained stable, Gina's death would not become a stain on Lu Tianming's record. Instead, it could become a bargaining chip for him to leverage against the Sahak family.
When the time came, Gina's surprise attack on the Mass Driver would be almost equivalent to endangering national security or committing treason.
On a smaller scale, it could be called a terrorist attack; on a larger scale, it could be labeled an attempted military coup.
The question was, would the Sahak family fear this?
But this approach couldn't be taken now... Before victory was assured, revealing this information would only alert those individuals.
It might make them suddenly realize—"Oh, so treason is still an option."
In essence, the charge of 'treason' would only be effective against the Sahak family if the nation itself was vibrant—because then, treason would pose a risk to their established channels of vested interests.
However, if ORB itself was weak, they wouldn't consider such consequences. In fact, if betraying ORB promised greater gains than remaining loyal, Lu Tianming suspected these people might not hesitate to switch sides immediately.
Uzumi seemed to understand Lu Tianming's calculations and didn't press the matter further. He only mentioned that he would try to suppress the news until the situation stabilized.
After all, as long as they didn't actively expose it, the Sahak family's need for Gina might not be particularly urgent.
"By the way, Mr. Uzumi—there's one more thing I'd like to ask you."
After a brief moment of thought, Lu Tianming decided to bring up the matter of the Akatsuki to confirm whether it truly existed in this timeline.
"I've heard that you've been privately developing and building an MS... Is that true?"
Uzumi was momentarily taken aback, seemingly puzzled about how Lu Tianming had obtained this information. But since it had been discovered, he saw no point in hiding it and simply smiled, nodding in confirmation:
"That's correct... It seems you intend to use it as part of this battle as well?"
Lu Tianming nodded without hesitation:
"Yes, for ORB to win this battle... I believe it's necessary to unite all available forces."
"Well said. However, the unit I've developed is only half-finished... meaning only the basic framework has been completed."
"If it's useful to you, you may take it."
Uzumi didn't put up much resistance... At this point, he was even willing to entrust ORB itself to Lu Tianming, so why would he hesitate over an unfinished MS?
In the following days, while the Alliance and ZAFT had yet to launch their attacks, Lu Tianming took charge of Mobile Suit allocation and the training of new pilots.
The three individuals Lu Tianming had previously invited—Ro, Dearka, and Nicol—ultimately chose to join as well.
Ro's decision was easy to understand. Having been repeatedly caught in conflicts between Coordinators and Naturals, he had long felt discontent with a world where people had to fight to the death. Moreover, his recent cooperation with ORB had given him a sense of belonging.
Additionally... the appearance of the Red Frame had seemingly drawn the attention of the Federation forces toward him.
The situation with Nicol and Dearka was quite similar. Neither of them were staunch Zala supporters to begin with, and after Zala's series of reckless actions, they had already developed some resentment toward PLANT.
Now, seeing Lacus and the vision of ORB shown by the Desert Tiger, coupled with the foundation laid by the Clyne Faction... they too temporarily chose to remain in ORB.
After all, returning now would mean facing interrogation and suspicions about whether they had become spies for ORB.
Compared to the frustrating scenario of being doubted after struggling to return... staying here was actually more in line with their personal interests.
Facing the addition of these three, Lu Tianming naturally welcomed them gladly and informed Nicol and Dearka that he had already begun preparing new Mobile Suits for them.
As for Ro—he had long been granted the freedom to tinker around in the Dawn Organization as he pleased, so there was no need for Lu Tianming to specially build one for him.
Meanwhile, ORB's newly formed Mobile Suit Force was progressing smoothly. Lu Tianming temporarily appointed Mu as the training instructor for the Mobile Suits—after Lu Tianming taught Mu the combat methods, Mu would in turn teach them to the others.
Lu Tianming had originally intended to help formulate the combat methods as well... but after practical testing, he found that the new pilots' learning progress was barely enough to support normal operation of the machines, so he didn't push further.
In short, during this period of respite, ORB's military capabilities underwent a major overhaul and update under Lu Tianming's guidance.
In terms of Mobile Suits, aside from the mass production of the M1 Astray, many elite units were officially deployed for combat.
The 'Rouge Strike' assembled from Strike spare parts, the 'Akatsuki Strike' formed by combining the Strike's main body with the Akatsuki frame, the 'Verdant Blitz' developed from the remains of the Buster Gundam, and the 'Nebula Blitz' created from the wreckage of the Astray Gold Frame and the Blitz.
"And Ro's Red Dragon equipment—all these things were supervised by your dear old dad!"
In the hangar of the Dawn Organization, as Lu Tianming was intently examining the completed Gundams, Xia Chuan immediately popped up, adding to the list of development achievements not yet presented.
"Damn, I've been exhausted lately... whenever it came to derivatives of the Blitz and Buster, the Dawn Organization kept coming to me nonstop."
Xiachuan Haro's facial expression showed complete burnout, and the originally intimidating black coating somehow gave off a broken, despondent feel, like shattered honeycomb coal.
"Every time they couldn't figure out the code, they'd come to me to review bugs... I'm not ChatGPT or DeepSeek, I can't fix it for them, damn it!"
Xia Chuan's small mechanical arms covered his head, putting on an act of crying in despair.
Faced with such demands, he had initially relied on his nature as a Machine Spirit, with its innate affinity for programming languages—finding program bugs was as easy as spotting grammatical errors—and puffed out his round chest to accept the tasks.
After all, having been slacking off for so long, it felt good to show his presence and help others.
But he soon discovered that he could only recognize the code but couldn't write it—meaning, he couldn't actually modify the code.
After barely managing to handle one or two requests, it seemed his reputation had spread, and everyone came seeking his help.
The result was... no sooner had he dealt with one person than another showed up, leaving him no time to rest.
"Damn it, you CS, don't avoid explaining how you managed it," Lu Tianming snapped irritably—this bastard's method of coping was just calling for backup! He bombarded him with messages every day!
In the end, forced into a corner, Lu Tianming had no choice but to personally find time to solve the code problems... During this process, Xia Chuan at most helped with bug identification, while figuring out how to fix them without causing conflicts and meeting requirements was all researched by Lu Tianming.
Thinking of this, Lu Tianming let out a long sigh.
Given the current emergency, he and Xia Chuan working overtime was acceptable—it was like building a Gundam themselves... But they absolutely couldn't let these programmers rely on crutches to get by afterward.
Just as he and Xia Chuan silently reached an understanding, a sudden, urgent alarm abruptly interrupted their thoughts.
Clearly, after such a long period of preparation, either the Alliance or ZAFT had finally launched their attack!