Gundam, the Gundam journey of a certain glue guy and his mecha girl.

However, Kira was very concerned about Raven's fighting style of "only taking away the opponent's fighting ability, without destroying the opponent".

But to achieve that level, it definitely requires a lot of hard work.

"Thank you, teacher. But, as for my matter with Aslan, I still want to resolve it myself. But, if you have time, could you do more mock battles with me? I need a lot more practice to use the fighting methods you just mentioned on the battlefield!"

Kira's tone was less confused, and his eyes gradually became more determined.

But looking at Kira's expression, Raven suddenly realized that a casual remark he made seemed to have turned on some kind of switch in Kira.

'Is Kira's path of becoming a human puppet starting here?'

Chapter Twelve: Graves in the Universe

PLANT Home Country, Supreme Council Meeting Room.

PLANT Defense Committee Chairman and Supreme Council Member Patrick Salah is delivering a passionate speech at the meeting.

"We must never forget that bloody Valentine's Day, the tragedy of Julius VII! 243,721 people, a year has passed since the tragedy of losing so many of our compatriots. We have made many efforts to end the war as soon as possible, but nature has made our efforts futile!"

On the screens in front of the attending members of parliament, videos of short swords and assaults filmed by ZAFT troops on the front lines were being played repeatedly.

Faced with the short sword and the assault rifle, ZAFT's main force, MS King, was powerless to fight back. All members of the Supreme Council realized that the situation of the war was quietly changing and a tense atmosphere was brewing.

Patrick's speech and concerns about the war situation garnered support from moderate lawmakers who advocated for limiting the scale of the war, leading to their endorsement of the bill to increase military spending. Ultimately, the bill was announced as passed by Speaker Sigur Klein.

Ultimately, Sigur was the leader of the moderates, not the surrender faction; what he wanted was not for ZAFT to be defeated by the Earth Alliance.

However, this would undoubtedly mean a further expansion of the scale of the war, which is definitely not a good thing for PLANT, a country with scarce human resources.

and……

Sigurd glanced at Patrick.

This comrade-in-arms who fought alongside him to break away from PLANT became increasingly paranoid after his wife was tragically killed in the Junius 7 incident, and the atmosphere within PLANT became increasingly extreme under his instigation.

Sigur did not rule out using war to achieve his goals when necessary, but war could only be a means, not an end.

The current atmosphere only made him more worried. When the right time for a ceasefire came, Sigur could no longer be sure whether the war could end as he wished.

Sitting as a witness in a corner of the meeting room, seemingly detached from the world, Kruze took in the starkly contrasting expressions of Sigur and Patrick and smiled with delight.

The pointer, symbolizing destruction, is slowly moving toward the end.

-----------------

Having temporarily shaken off the pursuit, the Archangel is currently docked outside the Junius 7 wreck zone.

Following Raven's suggestion, the Archangel did not travel to the nearby Artemis Fortress for support and supplies, but instead headed directly for lunar orbit.

However, this would mean that the Archangel would face a shortage of supplies on board.

As the Earth Alliance's newest and most advanced warship, the Archangel is theoretically not that bad in terms of self-sufficiency. However, the Archangel has taken in a lot of refugees and set sail hastily before replenishing its supplies, which has led to its current predicament.

At Mu's suggestion, the Archangel sent a workboat into the Junius 7 wreck zone to collect usable resources.

The assault rifle and the short sword, acting as escorts for the workboat, also entered the wreckage zone.

The short sword, damaged in the previous battle, has been restored to its former glory thanks to the efforts of Raven and the maintenance team.

Not only were his damaged left arm and right leg repaired, but he also had a 94mm high-energy choke rifle and a 350mm anti-armor shotgun that Raven had retrieved installed on his shoulders. In order to supply these two power-hungry weapons, Raven installed two small battery packs on each side of the main thruster.

However, this additional equipment reduced the short sword's mobility. To address this, Raven added new thrusters to the outside of the lower legs of the machine to ensure the short sword's mobility.

This modification significantly enhances the short sword's firepower to handle situations where it is outnumbered. However, the trade-off is that the short sword cannot use the three assault packs unless these temporary additional equipment are removed.

Raven was aware of this flaw, of course, but the limitations of the assault backpack forced him to do so.

After all, there is only one set of air-equipped backpacks that are most suitable for MS battles, and these should be given priority to Assault units. The other two types of backpacks are too restrictive.

In the previous battle, the short sword equipped with a sword-mounted backpack managed to wound Duel and Storm by utilizing the debris floating in the combat zone. After ZAFT reacted, the fire from Duel and Lightning alone prevented the short sword from initiating close combat. Later, when Raven was rescuing Kira from fighting three opponents alone, if El hadn't overloaded his mind and instantly increased his mobile suit's response speed, Raven would undoubtedly have been shot down on the spot.

Therefore, in order to avoid being unilaterally suppressed by the enemy, Raven made this modification to the short sword. Although the modification was quite a lot of work, by utilizing the pre-installed assault backpack interfaces in various parts of the short sword, Raven completed the modification in just a few days.

Besides modifying the short sword, Raven also took this time to complete the initial debugging of the natural human OS.

In some ways, this is a more important task than modifying the short sword.

Now, Raven is taking advantage of the escort workboat to test his skills with the short sword.

The short sword's silhouette moved nimbly through the wreckage, but unlike before, Raven now completely controlled the short sword's movements.

[Leg thrusters #1 and #2 are functioning normally. Shoulder weapons #1 and #2 are powered without issue, and the aiming system is working properly in conjunction with the main monitor.]

"Hmm, it seems that the newly installed equipment is functioning normally and has fully met the design standards in the testing process. There are no abnormalities in the testing equipment either. In this way, you can save a lot of computing power from the real-time calculation of the machine's movements."

[That's true, but if I intervene in the body's movements, I can improve the fluidity of the brain's movements by another 20%.]

"20%? It seems there's still room for optimization in this OS. Never mind that for now, the next test is... uh, a live-fire test?"

[Raven, shall we begin now?]

"forget it."

Raven unusually interrupted the test. Normally, he would be flying around in his short sword with great excitement by now, but today he seemed rather uninterested.

A year ago, this region of space was home to the agricultural satellite Junius 7, but now it has become a giant graveyard.

On that day, countless nuclear bombs struck the hourglass-shaped colony satellite. The violent energy released by the nuclear explosions tore the colony satellite apart in just a few minutes, killing all 24 people living inside Junius 7.

Raven felt he would be punished for conducting live-fire tests in a place like this.

And just like before in Heliopolis, Raven felt a slight throbbing in his head, and the cries of the victims of the Junius 7 incident echoed in his ears.

'That feeling again.'

After the last time these symptoms appeared, the ship's doctor gave Raven a detailed medical examination and prescribed him some sleeping pills.

But Raven's current symptoms clearly indicate that this is not the case.

Raven's unpleasant expression did not escape El's notice.

[Raven, are you feeling unwell somewhere?]

"I'm fine, I just have a bit of a headache."

[Lack of sleep?]

"I think so."

Raven took off his helmet and rubbed his swollen temples.

"Raven, if you have time, could you make me a human-sized body?"

"Of course, no problem. This is a rare request from you, and I'll do it for you as soon as I have time. But, may I ask why?"

I'm a little curious about what it feels like to have a body that can move freely. And, knowing your personality, Raven, once you get engrossed in your work, you become oblivious to everything around you, and without reminders, you won't even take care of your own health. If I'm gone, you might work until you pass out.

Although the words were spoken in an emotionless electronic voice, Raven still felt a warmth rise in his heart.

[Besides, I'm all alone in the hangar, it's a bit...]

"Huh? What were you saying, El?"

El's voice suddenly became softer, and Raven couldn't hear what she said.

[It's nothing, probably just the hissing noise from the machine.]

"Noise? Okay. Anyway, I'll keep the new body in mind, so just look forward to it."

But as soon as Raven finished speaking, a faint sense of hostility suddenly appeared in Raven's mind, and then the alarm sounded throughout the cockpit of the short sword.

[ZAFT MS spotted ahead.]

[Model: Armed Reconnaissance Type Kim, Quantity: 1.]

Chapter 13: On the move, and then I picked up the pink-haired songstress.

"Reconnaissance officer Kim? Is he here looking for the Archangel?"

Upon hearing the news of the enemy, Raven forcibly suppressed the discomfort that welled up inside him and used his short sword to hide behind the wreckage.

The reconnaissance aircraft flew around the wreckage of a civilian spaceship, seemingly to check on its condition.

"The wreckage of that spaceship looks very new; it must have been sunk recently. Is the reconnaissance team led by King after that spaceship?"

[Raven, should we attack?]

"Wait a minute."

Regardless of the other party's purpose, the reconnaissance aircraft Jin had not yet detected them, and launching an attack at this time would be tantamount to disturbing the enemy.

Therefore, Raven did not rush to fire, but the reconnaissance-type King noticed the workboats moving around and raised his electromagnetic sniper rifle towards them.

The locked alarm blared throughout the workboat's cockpit, and Raven's communication channel was instantly filled with cries for help.

We can't wait any longer.

"El, begin ballistic correction, and also keep an eye on data collection."

Raven pulled the high-precision firing sight in the cockpit, and the beam cannon newly installed on the short sword's shoulder began to charge.

Although the short sword is not equipped with sensors of the same specifications as the Storm, and its accuracy at long distances is not as good as the Storm, it is still sufficient for the current distance.

The moment the enemy plane aligned with the crosshair, Raven pulled the fire button.

The emerald green beam arrived in an instant, and the ambushed reconnaissance officer, King, had no time to dodge; his gun-wielding arm disappeared into the beam.

The reconnaissance-type Jin En finally realized that something was wrong and decisively began to make irregular movements, trying to interfere with the short sword's aim and take the opportunity to retreat.

But Raven had no intention of letting him off the hook.

Al quickly completed the calibration, and Raven decisively pressed the fire button. This time, the beam accurately hit the torso of the reconnaissance-type King.

Seeing the smoke and fire from the MS explosion in the distance, Raven let out a long sigh and leaned back in his chair.

Although he had shot down the enemy plane, Raven felt no joy whatsoever. The discomfort that had been forcibly suppressed surged up again, and in Raven's ear, he seemed to hear the dying voice of the pilot, King, who had just been shot down.

"This is absolutely terrible."

But before Raven could process this indescribable emotion, something that looked like an escape pod drifted into his field of vision.

'Wait, this can't be...'

A wrecked civilian spaceship, a reconnaissance mission led by King, and an escape pod.

Raven felt like he knew who was in the escape pod.

"Could it be such a coincidence?"

-----------------

Some time later, in a cabin on the Archangel.

“My name is Lux Klein, and this is my friend, Hello.”

Lux picked up the small toy robot in her hands with her signature kind smile, completely oblivious to the fact that she was on an enemy warship.

Looking at the pink-haired girl with an innocent and carefree appearance, Maru couldn't help but sigh and cover her forehead, which was starting to ache.

While the surname Klein may not be a household name, anyone with even a slight interest in politics will certainly know the name of the current PLANT Speaker, Sigur Klein.

Maru remembered the name of the PLANT chairman's daughter, which happened to be Lacus Clyne. Thinking about this, Maru felt a headache coming on.

If this girl is indeed Sigur Klein's daughter, it will undoubtedly bring countless troubles to the Archangel, whether from the enemy or allies.

Out of a sense of wishful thinking, Maru asked.

"What is your relationship with Siegfried Klein?"

"Oh, it's my father! Do you know him?"

Even the usually calmest Buggy Lulu couldn't help but sigh and glance at Raven standing to the side.

'Why do you MS pilots always have the habit of picking up items on the battlefield?'

Although she didn't say it aloud, the resentment emanating from her eyes was fully conveyed to Raven.

“Don’t look at me like that, Lieutenant Bucky Lulu. I only retrieved the wrecked escape pod out of humanitarianism. I didn’t know it contained Chairman PLANT’s daughter.”

However, despite Raven's explanation, he actually knew better than anyone else who was in the escape pod.

"I am truly sorry for the trouble I have caused everyone, and Mr. Raven as well, I am sorry for the trouble I have caused you."

Upon hearing Raven's words, Lux politely rose and addressed him, though she seemed a little embarrassed.

Maru quickly coughed and continued the conversation.

"As the daughter of the PLANT Speaker, why have you come to this region of space?"