Chapter 185
Hundreds of thousands of people on Julius 7 perished while floating on the space station, and Julius 7 itself became a giant piece of satellite debris floating on the space station. However, it still had natural resources, such as a large amount of water. This water froze into huge blocks of ice after the satellite disintegrated, which then orbited the satellite debris.
The Archangel's target was these ice blocks. Because it was rushing, and because the Morgoth staff in the satellite had all gone into hiding, and the Federal Army had suffered heavy casualties, the Archangel did not receive any supplies, especially water.
Therefore, the Archangel went to Julius 7 to replenish water resources.
Also heading to Julius 7 is a pilgrimage ship from ZAFT.
When the Federal Army nuclear bombs to bomb Julius 7, they chose Valentine's Day as the date, which led to the Bloody Valentine event. Now, the day is approaching again. To commemorate those who died in the nuclear bombing, people come to pay their respects every year. This year, the person who came to pay respects is the princess and songstress of Plant, Lacus Clyne, also known as Lacus.
Although Lacus isn't a true fairy, as the daughter of a politician, she's quite politically astute, even becoming the chairperson of PLAN later on—she's incredibly shrewd.
The naive Kira was immediately attracted to Lacus's appearance when they first met, and later became completely captivated by Lacus.
In Julius 7, it was originally supposed to be the first meeting between Lacus and Kira. However, now, because of Li Yue's appearance, Kira didn't board the Archangel at all, so there was no first meeting between him and Lacus.
After the Archangel arrived at Julius 7, it opened the warehouse gates and allowed the maintenance crew to drive the engineering machinery out to collect ice.
Then, something shocking happened to everyone on the Archangel: a Geo Element Gundam reappeared in the Archangel's hangar and then went into battle with the maintenance crew.
"What's going on?"
The maintenance crew was completely dumbfounded by the sudden appearance of the Geo Element Gundam. The people on the bridge who were observing the surroundings were also dumbfounded. They never expected that the Gundam that had disintegrated before would reappear.
"Why did this happen? Why did this machine suddenly appear from the hangar? We checked it before."
The sudden appearance of the Geo Element Gundam led the crew of the Archangel to believe that the Geo Element Gundam had always been there, but had simply used the Mirage System to hide itself. As a result, they conducted a very thorough search of the Archangel. The conclusion after the search was that no mobile suits were found hidden in the Archangel's hangar.
But now, this Gundam has appeared out of thin air. As can be seen from the hangar's cameras, this Gundam was created from scratch, with parts appearing one by one and then assembled on-site.
This way of creating organisms is just too outrageous.
"I'm more interested in asking whether this way of appearing is scientifically sound than the fact that this organism suddenly appeared."
Mu watched the video of the Geo Element Gundam appearing and couldn't help but speak up.
"Of course it's unscientific. How could an organism possibly appear like that? It's simply creating something out of thin air."
"Since you also think this is a creation out of thin air, does that mean that this thing is not scientific at all?"
Mu pinched his chin.
"Although we all grew up under the guidance of science and technology, is it possible that there are actually some unscientific things in this world?"
???
Mwu and Bagele didn't react immediately.
Mu leaned back helplessly, then explained again.
"For example, vengeful spirits in the universe or something."
"Wait, you mean ghosts?"
Now the two understood, and their eyes widened in surprise.
"I'm not sure either, but this situation looks very much like it. It appears out of thin air, disappears after it's done a fight, and then reappears, and it's ridiculously strong, completely defying our science. Isn't this...?"
"It could also be a god!"
Mwu interrupted Mu's explanation, much to Mu's surprise.
"God?"
"That's right, it might even be God!"
Mwu's eyes lit up.
"Do you remember the outcome of that first battle with that ice-made mecha?"
"What was the result?"
"After that machine appeared, it repelled GINN, but it didn't defeat him. It had the power to kill GINN, but it didn't do it. Even when Cruze's GOUF came in later, it only cut off Cruze 'GOUF arm and forced Cruze to leave."
"It was the same outside the satellite before. When facing the GINN team, it crippled all the GINN without killing any of the pilots. If it were an evil spirit, it should have destroyed the cockpits long ago instead of letting each machine return. So, if it is special, it must be a god, and the kind of god that hopes for peaceful coexistence among humans."
"Is it really possible to interpret it that way?"
Mu looked at Mwu in surprise; this way of understanding truly astonished him.
"But this understanding seems to make no problem."
"But if it really is a god, this god seems to be on our side, at least it is protecting us, isn't it?"
While Mu was having these thoughts, Li Yue had already controlled the Geo Element Gundam to leave the Archangel and began entering the ruins of Julius 7 to search for Lacus's escape pod.
Li Yue didn't know when Lacus started escaping, but it certainly wasn't too long ago, because the Archangel's journey hadn't taken too long either, and the time it took to arrive wasn't much faster, so the timing shouldn't be too different.
Just before the group on Archangel finished collecting water, Li Yue finally found the escape pod floating in the broken ice.
It seems that the timing was just right.
Li Yue controlled the Geo Element Gundam to retrieve the escape pod, and then flew directly back to the Archangel.
322. Send Lacus back to Plant
"What's this?"
"I don't know, it was brought back by the god you mentioned."
Inside the hangar of the Archangel Mwu, who had rushed over after receiving the news, stared blankly at the escape pod in front of her. Behind the escape pod stood a huge Geo Element Gundam.
"Didn't it disappear this time?"
Mwu looked up at the Geo Element Gundam and discovered that this time, the Geo Element Gundam did not dissipate after it finished, but remained in the hangar as usual.
"Hmm, it didn't disappear this time."
The maintenance crew were also looking at the Geo Element Gundam. They crossed their arms and looked up at the Gundam with curiosity. It was completely different from any mobile suit they knew, and they had no idea how to maintain or repair it. In particular, the way it appeared was completely incomprehensible and was simply unscientific.
"So, what's the next step?"
"Let's open this escape pod first. Now that he's brought us back, we can't just leave it at that."
"Good!"
The maintenance crew immediately began to open the escape pods.
The escape pods can all be opened from the outside, so the maintenance crew could open them from the outside. It took them a short while to open the escape pod from the outside, and the people inside appeared in front of everyone.
Wearing a gorgeous long dress and sporting long pink hair, Lacus Clyne her entrance.
Then came Lacus's classic cute moment. The seemingly harmless girl greeted everyone as soon as she came out of the escape pod, looking like she knew nothing and even thought she was on a ZAFT ship. When she found out she was on a Federation ship, she looked completely surprised.
Considering that Lacus was Coordinator, Bagele was prepared to have the soldiers escort her away. Li Yue was waiting for this moment, and he controlled the Geo Element Gundam to reach out and grab Lacus.
"Well?"
Lacus, who had been captured, visibly began to tremble, but she tried her best to appear calm, and then looked at the Geo Element Gundam that had captured her with a look of surprise.
"Does Lord Camille have some ideas?"
Mu looked up at the Geo Element Gundam that was grabbing Lacus and couldn't help but ask a question.
"After all, the human was brought back by a god, so he must have some plans for this girl."
Mwu listened to Mu's words and looked at the Geo Element Gundam with a puzzled expression.
Under Li Yue's control, a gap opened in the chest of the Geo Element Gundam, and Lacus was thrown into it before the gap closed.
"Is that the driver's cab?"
Everyone stared curiously at the chest of the Geo Element Gundam. This was the first time they had seen the opening of the Geo Element Gundam's chest, which looked like the cockpit area.
"I'm starting to wonder what the cockpit of this machine is like. Could there really be a god inside the cockpit of a machine that appears out of nowhere?"
If Lacus could answer his question now, she would definitely tell him that there really is a god in the cockpit!
After the cockpit was closed, only Li Yue and Lacus were left in the space, and Lacus was very curious when she saw Li Yue.
"May I ask who you are?"
"I am the one who saved you."
Li Yue extended her right hand towards Lacus.
"Of course, you can also think of me as your savior."
"God!?"
Lacus looked at Li Yue with a curious expression.
I don't quite understand what you mean.
"It's okay, you'll understand soon enough."
Li Yue flipped her outstretched right hand so that her palm was facing up, and then a rock chair appeared behind Lacus, lifting Lacus up.
"Next, we'll be heading to Plant. Can you lead the way?"
"I can't lead the way, but my Yhwach can."
Behind Lacus, a pink Hello popped out, landed on the ground, and then bounced up again.
"Haro, Haro, Lacus!"
"Then, let him unfold the map."
"Are you sure you want to take me to Plant? With this strange-looking MS?"
Lacus wasn't in a hurry. Instead, she looked at Li Yue with curiosity. This person said he would take her back, but the problem was that it was a very, very long way from here to the Plant homeland. This was the front line of the war, and it was impossible to return to the Plant homeland with the power of a single mobile suit.
"That's right, hurry up and unfold the map. I don't have the ability to find my way around the space station. Give me coordinates and reference points so I can move around."
"I see."
Lacus didn't know what Li Yue's situation was, but now that she had fallen into the hands of the Federal Army, it would be best if someone was willing to rescue her.
"Haro, open the coordinates."
As Lacus requested, the pink Haro opened a map and unfolded it with Earth as the origin.
Li Yue glanced at the map to get a general idea of where the plant was, but she couldn't figure it out completely inside the Archangel.
"Let's go outside and see. At least we can see where Earth is once we're outside."
With this in mind, Li Yue controlled the Geo Element Gundam to begin its ejection.
The sudden activation of the Geo Element Gundam caused the people in the hangar to get busy again. They didn't know what Li Yue was trying to do, but they knew that the Gundam controlled by Li Yue had suddenly started moving again and was heading towards the elevator. Helpless, the maintenance crew could only help start the elevator again and send the Geo Element Gundam to the catapult.
Throughout the entire process, they ignored Bagele, who was trying to stop them. Of course, Bagele was just talking; she couldn't actually stop them. This was inside a warship. If a fight broke out and the hangar exploded, the unfortunate ones wouldn't be anyone else, but everyone on the Archangel.
So they could only watch as the Geo Element Gundam, carrying Lacus, was launched from the catapult on the Archangel and then spread its wings and flew towards the direction of PLAN.
Mu watched the Geo Element Gundam fly away, then turned to look at Mwu.
"Now that your god has flown away with the little girl from the Coordinator, what do you say?"
"Um... I don't know what to say."
Mwu sighed and rubbed her forehead in exasperation. Just moments ago, she had said that the Geo Element Gundam might be a god and that it was biased towards their Federal Army. But now, the Geo Element Gundam had taken Lacus away right in front of her, and it was flying in the direction of the PLANT homeland. It was clearly sending Lacus back. In that case, it was uncertain whether she would ever return.
"In any case, we've replenished our fresh water supply now, let's head back to the lunar base."
The Archangel set off again, heading towards the moon. Without ZAFT chasing them, they were perfectly safe along the way.
Li Yue, on the other hand, controlled the Geo Element Gundam, leading Lacus as they advanced along the PLANT homeland.
On the way, Lacus looked at Li Yue curiously, and then asked the question she was most concerned about.
"After you take me to Plant, is there anything else?"
"Oh? You noticed?"
"Because I always felt that no one would suddenly help me like this without any ulterior motive."
"I do have a purpose, and it's quite simple."
Li Yue gave her own answer.
"I need you to help me read the data information of several mechs, and then design a mech that is unique to me."
323. The deal with Plant
A special guest arrived at Plant's homeland: a machine never seen before, which entered Plant's territory alone in space, instantly putting the ZAFT army responsible for defending Plant's homeland on high alert.
Because the last time a PLAN satellite was approached, it was destroyed by a nuclear bomb, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, ZAFT army have been stationed outside PLAN's homeland ever since, with the majority of their military forces concentrated outside PLAN's home satellites.