Chapter 328: Justice Gundam
Just at this moment, the assassination squad that had been tailing Athrun arrived—and they were already outside the theater.
A soldier guarding Lacus immediately warned, "Miss Lacus, a large group of unidentified personnel has reached the outer perimeter of the theater."
As soon as he finished speaking, the numerous members of the ZAFT assassination squad suddenly rushed in.
Athrun reacted at once, raising his gun and shielding Lacus behind him as he demanded, "Who are you people?"
However, the commander of the assassination squad did not answer him directly. Instead, he said to Athrun, "Thanks for leading us here, Athrun Zala."
"What did you say?" Athrun looked shocked. He hadn't expected that he himself had been followed.
"As expected of the former fiancé—you really did us a huge favor." As the commander spoke, he waved his hand, signaling his subordinates to surround Lacus and Athrun.
"Come here, Athrun." Seeing that Athrun still stood unmoving in front of Lacus, the commander continued helplessly, "Please step aside and leave Lacus. She is an important fugitive charged with treason against the state.
"Orders from above state that if necessary, she may be executed on the spot. Are you sure you still want to protect her like this?"
"How could that be…." Before Athrun could finish speaking, he noticed that the members of the assassination squad were suddenly being killed one after another.
Seizing the moment when they turned back to check what was happening, Athrun immediately grabbed Lacus and took cover.
At this time, Liza, Nicol, DaCosta—the Desert Tiger's adjutant—and several of his soldiers joined the fight as well. The members of the assassination squad were quickly wiped out.
After eliminating the enemies, Liza emerged from the shadows and said, "Miss Lacus, this place is no longer safe. We need to leave immediately."
Hearing Liza's voice, Lacus smiled and said to Athrun, "Thank you very much, Athrun. Everything is fine now. Let's go outside."
Athrun stared at Lacus in a daze. It turned out she had already made preparations—his rescue had been completely unnecessary.
At this moment, DaCosta also walked over and urged again, "Miss Lacus, we must leave now, or it will be too late."
Lacus walked over to him and asked, "What about Reverend Malchio? How is he doing?"
"Reverend Malchio has already set out safely."
"Then, Athrun, thank you for bringing little Pink over." Before leaving, Lacus turned back and continued to say to Athrun, "Kira is on Earth. After you go to Earth, could you talk to him? You two are good friends, after all."
Then Lacus, Liza, and Nicol left the opera house under DaCosta's escort.
Athrun, on the other hand, silently returned alone to the ZAFT armory. He stood before the Justice Gundam, then piloted it toward Earth, preparing to search for Kira's whereabouts.
Meanwhile, in the hangar, Tolle looked at the Astray Gundam Unit 0. The armor on its surface still had slight dents, and he felt his perfectionism acting up again.
He was still dissatisfied with his improved second-generation TP armor, since some parts of the armor still couldn't react in time.
Sometimes either everything reacted at once, or a single hit to one area caused the entire body to activate. It was always just a bit off.
So he decided to add characteristics of VPS armor and make something like a T+VPS armor.
Tolle immediately said to Nami, "Nami, can you help me modify the TP armor's functionality?
"While retaining the TP armor's non-color-changing feature, add something like VPS armor.
"It should be able to temporarily adjust the PS armor's defensive strength and defensive energy consumption based on combat conditions.
"And it should be able to independently adjust only certain key areas of the machine, such as strengthening the cockpit and limb joints, increasing energy output there to improve defense.
"The remaining areas would maintain normal energy defense, reducing overall power usage and achieving an energy-saving effect."
"Master, that's absolutely no problem. Please wait a moment—Nami will begin the design immediately."
In less than a minute, Nami replied to Tolle:
"Master, the T+VPS armor design has been completed. Energy control can also be handled by Nami or an artificial intelligence, which would reduce the pilot's operational burden.
"Of course, if it's for a machine given to someone else, Nami can also design a standard version of the T+VPS armor, though the pilot would need to operate it manually."
"Mm, very good. Let's go with that. Nami is getting more and more capable—being able to add extra functions like this is amazing."
"Thank you for the praise, Master. That's all thanks to the computers you rewarded me with, which greatly improved Nami's computational capacity."
"I see. No wonder. Looks like those computers were indeed very useful." Upon learning that Nami's research capabilities had improved, Tolle suddenly had another burst of inspiration and continued, "Nami, the Zero System from the Wing Zero Gundam—having it sit unused is kind of a waste.
"Could we try downgrading it?
"Make it more like the PX System from the Gundam W side-story manga G-Unit, leaning toward enhancing the pilot's and the machine's own perception and reaction speed.
"Instead of forcing that unreliable future prediction simulation. Would that work?"
"Nami understands. I checked Master's memories.
"That PX System is essentially a 'mental-synchronization-type operating system' that directly links the pilot's reaction nerves to the control system, drawing out the pilot's latent potential.
"It feels similar to the Alaya-Vijnana System, except it doesn't require Alaya-Vijnana surgery, so its safety is much higher.
"And it won't perform excessive evolutionary calculations like the Zero System, which would cause excessive mental damage to the human body.
"Additionally, we also have the bodily sensory-response driving assistance system on the Phantom Kai pilot suit, which can serve as a reference for development.
"With these three samples as references, the development difficulty is not high."
———
Justice Gundam
A-Rank Mobile Suit
Terrain Adaptability: Sea B / Land A / Air A / Space A
Fixed Weapons: Beam Rifle x1; Beam Saber x2; Head Vulcan Cannons x4; Beam Boomerang x2; Anti-Beam Shield x1.
Flight Backpack Weapons: Rotary Turret Machine Guns x2; Beam Cannons x2; Machine Guns x4.
Meteor Equipment Weapons: High-Energy Convergent Fireline Cannon x2; High-Energy Convergent Fireline Cannon x2; Large Beam Saber x2; Anti-Ship Missiles x77.
Special Equipment: PS Armor; Anti-Neutron Interference Device; Multi-Lock System; Nuclear Reactor; External Meteor Equipment.
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