Strike's Pilot

"I want to review the communications data from every engagement."

Three days after Lin Yuan said that, the first batch of surveillance buoy data arrived.

April 12, C.E. 71. Intelligence Analysis Room, 811 Institute.

When Ye Qingluan's people transmitted the raw data back, they performed an initial screening, removing civilian communications interference and noise from ZAFT's routine patrol frequencies. The remaining valid intercepts were compressed into seventeen separate file packages.

Sheng Lan began unpacking them one by one at five in the morning. By ten, she had placed three files marked with red priority labels on Lin Yuan's desk.

"Director, the Archangel had its second engagement with Rau Le Creuset Team in the L3 corridor."

Lin Yuan opened the first file. It contained a noise-filtered communications intercept from an internal ZAFT channel.

"Duration of the engagement?"

"Eleven minutes. Rau Le Creuset Team deployed two Ginns and one captured G Weapon, the Buster Gundam. The Archangel had only one MS in the battle."

"Strike."

"Yes. We didn't intercept the pilot's call sign, but we pieced together the course of the battle from fragments of ZAFT communications."

Sheng Lan opened the second file. It contained a reconstructed battle trajectory map compiled by Ye Qingluan's analysts from the communication timestamps.

"The two Ginns moved in from the left and right flanks simultaneously, while the Buster Gundam suppressed from the front. A standard triangular encirclement, with tactical coordination at the red-uniform level."

Her finger traced a line across the trajectory map.

"Six seconds before the encirclement closed, the Strike Gundam changed thrust direction twice. It first drove back the Ginn on the left, then used the Archangel's firepower blind spot to circle around behind the Buster Gundam, forcing it off its attack route. Throughout the entire engagement, it used no beam weapons—only a physical sword and head-mounted Vulcan cannons."

Lin Yuan stared at the trajectory line, his fingers motionless on the desk.

"What about the third file?"

Sheng Lan pulled out the final page.

"This is a cockpit transmission from Athrun Zala that I extracted from the ZAFT communication fragments. He reported to Rau Le Creuset after the battle. His exact words were—"

She read it aloud, deliberately slowing her pace.

"That pilot's operating style does not resemble military training. There are obvious hesitation gaps between movements, but the reaction window for every decision is only 0.3 seconds. I cannot determine who he is."

Lin Yuan arranged the three files side by side on the desk.

"0.3 seconds."

"Director, the average reaction window of active United Army pilots is 0.9 seconds. ZAFT red-uniform elites average around 0.5 to 0.6 seconds."

"0.3 seconds is at the limit for a Coordinator."

Sheng Lan turned to a new page in her memo, her pen hovering above the paper.

"Director, Ye Qingluan's analyst wrote a note in the report attachment. Let me read it to you."

She flipped to the end of the appendix.

"Based on the system specifications of the GAT-X105, this unit's operating system uses the United Army's standard interface adapted for Naturals. However, combat data shows that the pilot's input rate far exceeded the Natural limit, and that the unit's operating system was rewritten in real time at least twice during the engagement. The analyst assesses that the pilot is highly likely to be a High-Level Coordinator, but his registered identity is an Orb civilian student, age sixteen."

Sheng Lan put down the attachment and looked at Lin Yuan.

"Director, I don't understand."

"Which part?"

"The Atlantic Federation let a sixteen-year-old civilian student pilot a top-secret G Weapon prototype. And that student was a Coordinator. Blue Cosmos, the United Army faction, loathes Coordinators. How could they possibly hand their most critical military asset to a Coordinator boy?"

Lin Yuan closed the file and leaned back in his chair.

"Because they had no choice. When Heliopolis was attacked by ZAFT, the Archangel had no qualified MS pilot aboard. Mu La Flaga's MA was already destroyed, four G Weapons had been captured, and only the Strike remained. An entire warship, hundreds of lives, and the only person who could sit in that cockpit and make it move just happened to be a passing student."

Sheng Lan's pen stopped over her memo.

"So it wasn't an arrangement. It was an accident."

"This is the most absurd thing about the entire war." Lin Yuan rested his fingers on the file cover. "The conglomerates paid to build weapons, politicians signed off on war, the military drafted battle plans, and Blue Cosmos stirred up civilian hatred. From beginning to end, not one of those making the decisions sat in a cockpit. In the end, the one taking bullets for them was a sixteen-year-old kid writing code at an industrial academy."

Sheng Lan set down her pen.

"Director, how do you intend to handle this data?"

"Have Zhou Boyuan import the intercepted combat footage of the Strike Gundam into Machine Soul-Jiachen's analysis module."

"Analyze what?"

"The operational limit of a Coordinator ace pilot."

Lin Yuan stood and walked to the tactical display on the wall. He switched it to a live feed from the western assembly workshop of the 811 Institute. The Black Iron Prototype's right arm joint had just been fitted with a new version of reinforced bearings, and the engineers were conducting preload tests.

"Sheng Lan, Black Iron's path was designed for Naturals. But the battlefield will not contain only Natural opponents. If one day East Asia's Black Iron Squad encounters a pilot on Kira Yamato's level, I need to know the outcome of a one-on-one fight."

"What does the Director think the result would be?"

"In a one-on-one fight, Black Iron would lose."

Sheng Lan drew a horizontal line across her memo.

"Then what do we do?"

"Don't fight him one-on-one."

Lin Yuan shut off the tactical display and returned to his desk.

"Notify Zhou Boyuan. Have Jiachen run two simulation sets. First set: one Black Iron against one Strike-class high-mobility unit, with all parameters fully replicated. Second set: three Black Irons forming a crossfire squad against the same high-mobility unit."

"What are the evaluation criteria for the two simulations?"

"The first calculates the probability of victory or defeat. The second calculates the suppression rate."

Sheng Lan closed her memo.

"Director, if the second set produces usable data, can we initiate the Black Iron Squad tactics project?"

Lin Yuan picked up the coffee cup on his desk. The liquid at the bottom had already gone cold.

"Wait until the data comes out."

The simulation results arrived on Lin Yuan's desk the following afternoon.

Zhou Boyuan delivered the report personally. The Machine Soul-Jiachen analysis number on the cover was marked in red ink.

First set: one Black Iron against one Strike-class high-mobility unit, one thousand simulations. Black Iron victory rate: 11 percent.

Second set: a three-Black-Iron crossfire squad against the same high-mobility unit, one thousand simulations. Probability of the target being suppressed within the fire coverage zone and unable to break through: 78 percent.

Zhou Boyuan stood across the desk, a canvas bag slung over his shoulder.

"Director, after the six-hundredth simulation in the second set, Jiachen adjusted the fire allocation weights on its own. The three Black Irons stopped dividing firing arcs evenly. The left and right units were assigned to seal off maneuver routes, while the center unit focused specifically on catching the opponent at direction-change points."

Lin Yuan looked at the final line of data in the report.

"It made that adjustment itself?"

"I didn't write that rule. Jiachen inferred the direction-change habits of high-mobility targets from the failure data of the first six hundred runs, then reallocated its resources."

Lin Yuan closed the report.

"Initiate the Black Iron Squad tactics project."