Chapter 306: Red and Blue
"This is the Astray Gundam Unit Zero. It's already been completed and is currently undergoing the final testing and adjustment phase."
Standing in front of it, Mina introduced it to Tolle while also asking, "Its appearance and color—don't they look very close to the Astray Gundam Blue Frame? You must be wondering why this color was chosen, right?"
Tolle also felt that this was basically just an Astray Gundam Blue Frame with different equipment, so he nodded and asked, "Yeah, I am a bit curious. Why make it this color?"
"Darling, isn't it so you can pilot it without worries and without dragging Orb into things?
After all, everyone knows that the Astray Gundam Blue Frame was taken by the mercenary Gai Murakumo.
So no matter how excessive you go, he'll be the one taking the blame."
The moment Tolle heard this, he knew just how vindictive Mina was as a woman. Gai Murakumo hadn't even killed her brother yet, and she was already thinking this far ahead.
"But Mina, if that Gai Murakumo comes knocking to demand an explanation, what do we do then? Do we beat him up? Or do we buy him off and have him work for us?"
"Mm, of course we beat him up first, then buy him off and make him work for us. Besides, he's already gotten in touch with Orb in order to modify the Blue Frame.
And anyway, since he 'picked up' Orb's Astray Gundam Blue Frame, how could he not pay some kind of price?
He's just a mercenary after all. Sooner or later, he's going to be brought under control. We might as well have him start working for Orb early."
Tolle felt that Mina was absolutely someone you could never afford to offend. Otherwise, you'd have no idea when you might get played to death. He silently mourned Gai Murakumo for one second.
"Mm, darling, you're absolutely right. I'll do whatever you say."
After that, at Mina's request, Tolle boarded the Astray Gundam Unit Zero and cooperated in various performance tests of the machine.
On the other side, after Gina obtained the Astray Gundam Gold Frame Amatsu Mina, he replaced the "Mina" characters on the shoulders with "Gina."
He then impatiently changed the name of the Astray Gundam Gold Frame Amatsu Mina to Astray Gundam Gold Frame Amatsu Gina.
He was afraid that his sister Mina might regret it later and take the unit back.
After familiarizing himself with the unit's performance, Gina excitedly went to find Tolle, who was still cooperating with the testing of the new machine, and emphasized, "My little brother! You can't just stay cooped up in the lab testing machines all the time. Big brother will take you out for some real combat training."
〈Sigh… I clearly won, so how did I end up being the little brother? If it weren't for Mina, I'd beat you until even your mother wouldn't recognize you.〉
Suppressing his emotions, Tolle asked Gina, "Are we going to have another match?"
Knowing he couldn't beat Tolle, Gina's old face flushed red as he said, "Not a match with you. I've spotted some ZAFT military activity nearby. Want to go test the machines on them?
Of course, if you want, I've also found you a pretty good opponent—someone you can really have fun with."
Tolle immediately understood. The opponent Gina was talking about was probably Lowe Guele and Gai Murakumo.
However, he himself was really just an add-on for Gina to show off his machine. He silently mourned those poor ZAFT soldiers for one second.
Tolle didn't really want to go and said awkwardly, "Gina… big brother, I don't have a mobile suit right now, so I can't go with you. The Astray Gundam Unit Zero hasn't finished its tuning yet."
Hearing that Tolle couldn't go due to lacking a machine, Gina wasn't upset at all. Instead, he looked rather gloating as he said, "My little brother, it's fine if you don't have a machine. How about borrowing your big brother's previous Astray Gundam Gold Frame to play around with?"
Tolle knew this guy definitely had ill intentions. But since you dare to lend it, I dare to pilot it. Even if you tampered with the auxiliary OS, I'll still fly it just fine.
"Hahaha, then I'll have to trouble you, Big Brother Gina. I'll borrow your machine and go with you."
Gina's eyes twitched violently. Lending the machine was just something he'd said casually to mock Tolle, and to probe whether Tolle still had an even better unit, hoping to scam something out of him.
He never expected Tolle to accept so readily. With his plan falling through, Gina could only force a stiff smile and say, "Alright, my little brother. Big brother will take you to get my Astray Gundam Gold Frame. Just remember—don't break it."
Tolle replied with an equally forced smile, "Don't worry, Big Brother Gina. I definitely won't… break it."
After that, the two of them laughed loudly at each other with fake smiles, neither willing to back down.
In the end, however, under Gina's lead, Tolle piloted the Astray Gundam Gold Frame, and together they headed toward the location of a ZAFT Nazca-class battleship.
Outside the battleship's detection range, the two Gold Frames simultaneously activated the Mirage Colloid system and drifted in at high speed toward the ZAFT Nazca-class battleship.
After approaching the target, Gina gave a signal, and the two of them simultaneously launched attacks on the nearby GINNs.
In Mirage Colloid mode, Tolle used the Trikeros Kai on the offensive shield system and split a nearby GINN cleanly in half with a single slash.
Gina, using the Calamity Sword from his back, forcibly cut another GINN in two at the waist.
Next, both of them fired green beams one after another from the beam rifles mounted on the offensive shield system, instantly destroying five GINNs.
Before the Nazca-class battleship could even react, Tolle and Gina separately fired high-speed kinetic penetrator rounds and beam rifle shots at the bridge and the hangar.
The ZAFT Nazca-class battleship instantly turned into dust in space.
Just as Tolle and Gina were about to withdraw, they discovered the Astray Gundam Red Frame charging straight toward them.
"Hahaha! I didn't expect to run into Astray Gundam P02 here. This really saves me the trouble of going to look for you." Gina said excitedly. He then opened a communication channel to Tolle and said, "Little brother, the opponent I mentioned is here. Let's go meet the other Astray Gundam together."
Tolle replied with a fake smile, "Alright. But one unit isn't enough to go around. Big Brother Gina, you should go first. I'll just watch."
At that moment, the Astray Gundam Blue Frame Second L was also charging toward them from the other direction.
———
Astray Gundam Red Frame
B-rank Mobile Suit
Terrain Adaptability: Sea C / Land A / Air — / Space B
Fixed Weapons:
Head vulcan guns x2; Kiku-Ichimonji x1; Beam rifle x1; Beam sabers x2; Palm lightning spheres x2; Shield x1.
Special Equipment:
Laminated metal foam armor.
———
Astray Gundam Blue Frame Second L
B-rank Mobile Suit
Terrain Adaptability: Sea C / Land A / Air — / Space B
Fixed Weapons:
Head vulcan guns x2; Beam rifle x1; Tactical Arms II x1 (switchable between greatsword mode and Gatling gun mode).
Special Equipment:
Laminated metal foam armor; PS armor; Tactical Arms II.