[I was worried they were going to pull some garbage again after watching Kira earlier. What a relief]
[Japanese anime just loves making protagonists refuse to kill, then condemn their companions for killing too]
[Bro, this is Gundam. Don't apply dumb light-novel logic to it]
[Yeah. Even in Witch from Mercury, when Suletta turned someone into tomato sauce, Miorine was really just shocked. She never said she hated the little tanuki]
[Kira is a little different. She never wanted to kill anyone from the start, and before this she only ever dismembered their machines]
[I feel like Kira is putting pressure on herself]
[Inori is an AI, and Kira is Inori's master. Inori killing people equals Kira killing people. Logically, that actually checks out]
[Kira may be a genius, but mentally she's still an ordinary person]
[Heaven and earth are impartial and treat all things as straw dogs. Kill kill kill kill kill kill kill]
[Somebody get the Great Shun King off the stage already]
[No culture. It's "Heaven gave birth to all things to nourish man, yet man has nothing with which to repay Heaven"]
[Kira really knows how to pile pressure on herself]
[Think about it. An ordinary girl would scream her head off just from killing a chicken]
[Such a gentle girl. I want to take her home]
[Poor Kira]
"…It's over?"
Aboard the Archangel, Murrue had also seen the "retreat" signal sent by the Nazca-class High-Speed Destroyer.
The Nazca-class was retreating.
The Archangel had clearly been in a desperate, hopeless situation, yet at the very end, everything had suddenly turned around.
That unbelievable firepower had even given Murrue the strange feeling that this was the Archangel's true strength all along.
"Combat concluded. Authorization revoked. Control privileges returned."
The notification came without warning.
Then the Archangel seemed to return to normal.
"The Black Monolith… As I thought, that thing must be similar to whatever controlled the Black GINN."
AI.
The world of Gundam SEED had no shortage of such things.
Even quantum computers were hardly rare in this world.
Future Gundams equipped with the DRAGOON System would even carry related systems.
But AI at this level of advancement did not exist. Artificial intelligence certainly existed, of course, such as "8," the AI Lowe Guele had picked up.
But compared with what they had just seen, those things were not even on the same level.
"Incoming transmission… This is an Astray signal. Huh? The designation is MBF-P01, but the sender is definitely Cagalli-san."
"Put it through."
Murrue immediately opened the channel.
"Murrue-san! Thank goodness!" Cagalli seemed exactly the same as before, bursting with energy and full of life.
Seeing Cagalli like this finally loosened the stiff atmosphere that had settled over the Archangel.
It had to be said, having someone like Cagalli around to liven things up really could make everyone feel much more at ease sometimes.
Her carefree personality might be loud and boisterous, but it was just right for easing the mood.
Like a lubricant keeping everything moving smoothly.
"Let's bring them aboard first. And while we're at it… see whether there are any survivors."
Murrue glanced to the side.
Flay was unconscious, while Lacus gently held her hand.
Well, another high-ranking Atlantic Federation official had died this time.
And earlier, she had personally authorized an outsider to take control of the Archangel. They had survived, sure, but she had also taken another step closer to a court-martial.
Whatever.
Murrue had already given up trying to save herself.
[The eyes of someone who has lost all hope in life]
[To be fair, the Archangel crew has already done pretty well. They're critically understaffed here, and even before Inori took control, they were still able to trade blows evenly]
[Yeah, not to mention that absurd warship loop maneuver]
[But humans can't compete with AI]
[Feels a bit like Witch from Mercury. The higher the Permet Score, the stronger you get]
[Not really. This is more like overwhelming them with raw computing power]
[Honest question: if they're both quantum computers, can the difference really be that big?]
[Put it this way. Compare five-yuan earphones bought off the street with a hundred-thousand-yuan pair. They're both earphones. Think there's a difference?]
[Instantly understood…]
[Honestly, once you get into the several-thousand-yuan range you probably can't hear much difference, but five yuan versus five hundred is still huge]
The Archangel finally gained a brief respite.
Meanwhile, the Nazca-class that had withdrawn from the battlefield finally found Athrun.
"Athrun, you lucky bastard."
As Athrun climbed down from the Aegis Gundam, he saw Yzak standing there with his arms crossed, looking as smug as ever.
"I'm… back."
Athrun removed his helmet.
The air inside the hangar was not particularly pleasant, and it reeked of machine oil.
It had been cramped sharing the same breathing setup with Cagalli, but the smell had actually been… pretty nice.
Still, after finally returning from open space to the warship, Athrun felt a sense of security settle over him.
It was not quite the same as having solid ground under his feet, but it felt wonderful to be indoors again.
"Athrun, thank goodness. You really are all right."
Nicol relaxed as well. He tried hard to force a smile, but reality was too cruel for him to manage one.
"…You fought the Earth Alliance forces just now, didn't you?" Athrun asked.
"Yeah. Heavy losses. Two Laurasia-class Frigates and one Nazca-class High-Speed Destroyer." Dearka shook his head. "Even Miguel…"
"Just as I thought."
Athrun sighed.
"What do you mean, 'just as you thought'?!"
Yzak grabbed Athrun by the collar at once.
The guy had only just come back, and already he was making such insensitive comments.
"…It was the Gundam Astray Blue Frame, wasn't it…? Yeah, the blue machine," Athrun said.
"You knew?" Yzak's eyes widened.
"That blue machine came to rescue the Red Frame. We were stranded in the Debris Belt at the time, and she found us." Athrun gave them a brief explanation. "She isn't a member of the Earth Alliance. Put it this way: the person piloting the Strike we encountered before was very likely her."
"No wonder…!" Yzak's earlier confusion was finally resolved. "I knew that Strike felt completely different!"
The Strike was powerful.
And after Kira entered SEED Mode midway through the battle, it had also displayed overwhelming strength.
But the way that Strike fought on the battlefield had still felt different from before.
"Wait. She didn't take you prisoner?"
Yzak noticed a very important point.
"She isn't with the Earth Alliance, so she had no obligation to," Athrun said. "Because the Blue Frame was on a rescue mission, it had already consumed a great deal of energy on the way there. She warned me in advance that she wouldn't be able to hold back. I just never expected Miguel…"
To be honest, at first Athrun had thought Inori's words sounded rather absurd.
But after learning what had really happened in the battle, Athrun knew that Inori had not been exaggerating at all.
From that perspective, the fact that Miguel was the only one among his peers to die was already fortunate.
…At least the rest of his squad was still alive.
Nicol and Dearka were both stunned speechless.
Yzak looked even more incredulous. "You're saying our two Laurasia-class Frigates were destroyed by a blue machine that was almost out of energy?! And when it fought us before that, it was still holding back?!"