"I won't agree to it."
Bargyll stared sharply at Xiao Ran's pleading expression. The resolve in her voice made Xiao Ran's heart sink, and a trace of anger surfaced on his face.
Bargyll ignored the fury in Xiao Ran's eyes, her words razor-sharp. "Eavesdropping on our military secrets and attempting to interfere with our military arrangements—what exactly are you trying to do? I've always found you suspicious. You appeared at far too convenient a time, and you can pilot an MS that Naturals cannot. Even though you boarded with Captain Mwu and Lieutenant Kira, and Kira and the others confirmed that you were a teacher from the Industrial Academy, I still suspected you were an intelligence agent from some faction. Speak. What exactly is your purpose in coming aboard the Archangel?"
Watching Bargyll's stern expression, Xiao Ran opened his mouth, then paused. After taking a deep breath, he gave a self-mocking smile. "Come on, is there really a spy like me? I did overhear your conversation, but you were speaking so loudly that I couldn't have avoided hearing it even if I wanted to, right?"
As Xiao Ran spoke, his mind raced for a solution—a way to make Bargyll agree to his request.
At that moment, Xiao Ran bitterly regretted being so impulsive. He had actually come to Bargyll for help. Even asking the unreliable Mu would have been better than asking someone as rigid and by-the-book as Bargyll. Even if Mu grew suspicious, he would most likely investigate in secret. At least he would not waste time confronting him face-to-face like Bargyll, leaving no room for maneuver at all.
Of course, asking Mwu would have been the best option. But after hearing about the Participants, Xiao Ran had been too rattled to think clearly. All he could think about was preventing those Participants from coming aboard the Archangel. When Bargyll appeared, the muddled Xiao Ran assumed she was going to handle the matter, which was why he stopped her.
But now, aside from confirming that those people were Participants, he knew nothing else. What excuse could he possibly use in such a short time? The question made Xiao Ran's head throb.
"Participants, Participants... Hm? That's it!" Xiao Ran's eyes suddenly lit up. Looking at Bargyll, who was staring at him intently, he suddenly felt infinitely more confident. "I don't know whether you were aware of something when we were on Heliopolis."
"What does that have to do with what I asked you?" Bargyll said coldly.
"Of course it does." Xiao Ran calmly ran through everything he needed to say in his mind, gradually placing more weight on his words. "On the same day Heliopolis collapsed, shortly before it came under attack, the Heliopolis Spaceport was attacked by a large number of people. Did you know about that?"
Bargyll's eyes shifted slightly. "I did."
"But those people were not ZAFT. Though from a certain perspective, they did ZAFT a great favor, at least by drawing away most of the garrison's attention." Xiao Ran rapidly pieced the story together in his head according to his own ideas, all to make it sound more plausible. "There were only five of them at first, but after the conflict with the garrison began, their numbers increased by at least several times. Every single one of them possessed physical abilities greater than even the Coordinators. Some of them even had skin bullets couldn't penetrate."
"Are you joking with me?" Bargyll sneered, assuming Xiao Ran was merely trying to divert her attention and change the subject.
"You can ask Kira, Tolle, Miriallia, or any of the others about what I said. After that, Kira and I encountered some of those people. They had obvious bullet marks on their bodies, but no wounds. They could leap dozens of meters in one or two seconds. Is that something a human can do?"
Bargyll remained expressionless, utterly unmoved.
Xiao Ran did not care what expression was on Bargyll's face or what she might have been thinking. He simply continued, "Afterward, I looked into what happened at the spaceport. Because of everything that happened on Heliopolis, most of the information was vague, but at least one thing could be confirmed. The entire spaceport security force was wiped out. The reinforcements were wiped out. Many passengers who were present at the time were missing, dead or alive unknown. And the ones who did all that may have numbered no more than a dozen. Oh, and this was not an ambush. These were the results of a direct confrontation while they were completely surrounded."
After Xiao Ran finished speaking, Bargyll's expression, which had shown no change until then, finally wavered. A trace of disbelief flashed through her eyes.
"If I'm not mistaken, the people you mentioned earlier are just like Kira and me—are they all from Heliopolis?" Xiao Ran looked at Bargyll, his expression full of sincerity and pleading. "People with exceptional individual abilities do exist, that's true. But what about people who have surpassed the limits of humanity? The Strike Gundam should still have records from that time. You can ask Sergeant Maddox to retrieve them. Once you see them, you'll understand."
"Superhumans like that appeared, and not just one or two. Several of them appeared at once. I absolutely refuse to believe there was no organization or arrangement behind them. People who could commit such inhuman acts at the spaceport cannot possibly be good people. Since I've decided to remain aboard this ship, I have to consider my own safety. And you, as First Officer, must also consider the lives and safety of everyone aboard. If anything happens, we will be no match for them."
"If you believe me, you should investigate. If you don't believe me, you should investigate even more. But in any case, stopping them from boarding the Archangel for now cannot be wrong." Xiao Ran lightly patted Bargyll's shoulder and let out a long sigh. "That is all I have to say. But if they have already boarded by the time I leave the Captain's Room, I will take my students and leave the Archangel."
Slap! A crisp sound rang out in the corridor. Xiao Ran rubbed his stinging hand, but a faint smile still appeared on his face.
After swatting Xiao Ran's hand from her shoulder, Bargyll gave him a cold glance. "I'll investigate."
Watching Bargyll's retreating figure as she turned and hurried away, Xiao Ran felt incomparably relieved. I don't know why, but ever since coming to this so-called Prometheus, I've felt more grateful than ever to be an Earthling, an ordinary human. Haha.
Xiao Ran did not know how Bargyll would investigate after leaving, nor did he know what those people he had identified as Participants were doing at that moment. He had already knocked on the Captain's Room door and entered under the gazes of Mwu and Harborton.
Aboard the Eighth Fleet flagship, the Agamemnon-class carrier Menelaus, a Shuttlecraft had already been prepared. Four people who appeared to be in their twenties sat gathered inside—three men and one woman. The pristine, solemn white military uniforms they wore had almost completely lost any military air on them. Nearly every one of them had modified their uniform in one way or another. Some had cut off their sleeves, while others had left their jackets entirely open without fastening a single button. The lone woman had even shortened and torn her skirt, turning it into a slit miniskirt. There was not the slightest trace of military discipline about them.
Yet the rank insignia on each of their collars was exactly the same as the one on Mwu's collar: all of them were captains, even one rank higher than Xiao Ran.
Four duffel bags sat beside them, as though they were fully prepared to depart for the Archangel at any moment.
Perhaps they were bored from sitting aboard the ship for so long. One of the four, a short-haired blue-haired man, suddenly stretched lazily. "What are those pieces of trash doing? They've actually made us wait this long."
"The Earth Alliance's efficiency really is terrible." Another of the four, a man who had cut off his sleeves to expose his muscular arms, tapped the armrest of his seat and said disdainfully, "Where we come from, if the military handled things with this kind of efficiency, everyone responsible from top to bottom would have been thrown into the fuel furnaces long ago. A bunch of Low-species humans and gene-humans fighting each other—I don't know what the point is. Do they really think there are no other species in the universe besides humans?"
After hearing the sleeveless man's words, the blue-haired man shouted irritably, "This is driving me crazy. I wanted to see our units sooner. How much longer are we supposed to wait at this rate? I heard there are two units on that ship waiting for us to take over. I can barely wait."
The other silent man had silver hair that hung just low enough to cover his eyes. After hearing the blue-haired man's shout, he suddenly snapped in a cold voice, "Shut up, idiot. Do you want other people to hear you?"
"Tch. You're only a little stronger than me. Why act so high and mighty?" Though displeased, the blue-haired man lowered his voice. "Once I get a unit, I don't believe I still won't be able to beat you. Then we'll have to rearrange the rankings."
"Enough. Stop talking." The woman, who had been sitting quietly with her eyes closed as if dozing, slowly opened them. She first swept her spirited, beautiful eyes across the three men, then said in a soft voice that was slightly seductive yet pleasant to hear, "As we agreed earlier, Sman and I will take over the two units aboard that ship first. The two of you will help us complete our exclusive missions. After that, the units we encounter will be taken over by you two in order, and you will complete the missions."
Sman, the sleeveless man, grinned at the other two after hearing the woman's words. He then said to her, "Don't worry, sis. We won't mess around. Harvey, stop talking so much too. Barnes is stronger than you, so he's third. If you get stronger, you can choose between second and third."
The blue-haired youth, Harvey, curled his lip disdainfully after hearing Sman's words. After glaring at the silver-haired Barnes, he closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. In that short time, he seemed to have completely fallen asleep, and did not make another sound.