LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 229: The Red Comet
Chapter 229: The Red Comet
As the air wave formed by the shuttle's dive broke the tumbling clouds and pushed them to the sides, the blue and boundless Atlantic Ocean came into view. Ple, who had half her face pressed against the window, had a vague glint in her eyes and let out an "ooh ooh ooh ooh~" exclamation.
"Mineva, Mineva!" she turned her head and looked excitedly at the young girl sitting across from her, "I've never been to Britannia, any recommendations for places to visit? And also, I want to bring back gifts for mom and dad, any recommendations for souvenirs?"
"Ha …" Mineva sighed for the unknown times, "I will be safe after we get to Britannia, so you can go back already. Uncle Andy and Auntie Elsa must be going crazy, you'd better go back early."
"Hmph, if not for me, you would have been caught back by Hathaway, right?" Ple sniffed unhappily and pouted, "A woman who has lost her use value should be decisively discarded, Mineva is worthy of that man's … daug…"
Mineva's sharp eyes made her swallow back the last word hard.
"Wow, the sea is so blue!" Ple chose to press her face against the window again while surreptitiously observing the young girl from the corner of her eye.
"I actually know I am very immature." Mineva's body slightly bent forward and she softly said, "I neither have as rich life experience as C.C., nor can be as smart as Lacus, and can't solve all problems with strength as Sister Ange, but I don't regret my immature decision."
Ple returned to her seat and put away the jokey expression she had before.
"I know such feelings are forbidden and not allowed, maybe if I grew up in a normal family, I would have learned to restrain myself until I let time heal everything, but none of the adults in my family set a good example for me, rather they did things much more than I did." Mineva laughed lowly to herself, "So much for the family upbringing, I've become that kind of person, let Uncle Ade feel guilty."
Ple got up and moved to the opposite side, sat down close to Mineva's left, and extended her right hand to hold the girl's slender left hand. She smiled, "What do you mean 'this kind of person'? I think Mineva is very good. I like Mineva the most. Besides, isn't it the right thing for girls to pursue happiness?"
"I'm sorry." Mineva smiled apologetically at her, "Even if things went wrong, it would be my business alone, I don't want to put unrelated people in danger because of my impulsiveness. That's exactly why I don't want to get other people involved, especially you, Ple, because I like you too."
"Hey, hey, you like me too." Ple scratched her cheek in embarrassment, "Ah! So we left Hathaway behind to sneak away. Wow. Hmmmmm, so that's it, I thought you'd lull him into a fight."
"How is that possible?" Mineva looked at Ple as if she was taking care of a retard, "The alliance with Commander Bright Noa means a lot to Uncle Ade, and getting Hathaway involved is one of the last developments I want to see. I'm not like the other women in the family, who only know to mess things up. Taking C.C. for instance-"
"Stop, stop." Ple hurriedly interrupted her, "I can already recite their stories, you really don't need to tell it again."
"Ahem, forget it then." Mineva stood up slightly awkwardly, "It's almost time to reach the sea area we agreed with Sister Nunnally, let's go to the bridge."
According to Nunnally's original arrangement, after Mineva left the moon and successfully escaped from the pursuers, she first needed to use the robbed MS to reach Britannia's factory on a small satellite, then switch to a shuttle to enter the atmosphere, and finally merge with the emissary sent by Nunnally in the Atlantic Ocean and return to Britannia's homeland silently.
Although Hathaway was dumped in a factory on a small satellite for the reason that he needed to change the paint job on F97 - in fact, it was just to paint a few skulls on Gundam F97 - and Mineva had Ple with her, it was generally not too different from the plan.
In other words, Mineva feels pretty confident.
In a short while, the two girls arrived at the bridge. The bridge of this shuttle is not very spacious, and the MS it carried is only Kshatriya brought by Mineva. But in order to ensure the stealth of the operation, this is already the best choice.
"But you don't have to worry, Your Highness Mineva." The young man who served as the captain wore a pair of glasses, and his civilized and handsome appearance seemed to be easily mistaken for a woman, "His Majesty has sent two ACEs, Secretary Suzaku and Rockon, to meet you in order to ensure your safety. Unless Colonel Amuro Ray personally takes action, no one can catch us."
"Very well." Mineva nodded majestically and slightly, "I always-"
"Whahahahahahaha!" Ple's piercing laughter interrupted her, "Mr. Captain … hahahahaha, sorry … just now did you say that the person who came to meet us is called … I really didn't mean to… hahahahaha … called Rockon?"
The captain responded with a yes, his handsome face filled with embarrassment.
"Amazing, it's really called … hahahahaha … called Rockon!" Ple covered her stomach and bent down, "Mineva, it's really interesting. How could his mom and dad decide to …"
"He doesn't know who his parents are." The captain's eyes were in a bit of a trance, "Lockon was just a false name given to him by the late emperor, but he didn't know what his real name was, so he had to live under a false name. Fortunately, His Majesty Nunnally found a meaning for him, for everyone, to live."
"I'm sorry!" Ple bowed ninety degrees to the captain almost immediately, her long ponytail was thrown in front of her head under the effect of inertia, "It was really rude of me to make fun of someone's name, I will apologize to Mr. Lockon himself later too!"
The captain gave Mineva a look and waved his hand with a smile, "It's okay, you're a very polite and good girl, worthy of being a friend of Her Highness Mineva. And to be honest, his name is really funny."
Ple straightened up again at Mineva's gesture, and by now, her face was flushed with shame.
"Such innocent and lively, honest and frank, polite and understanding, well-developed girl… how could anyone hate her?" Mineva sighed in her heart, "On the contrary, some young, deep-hearted, mentally distorted role, is really not cute at all … sorry, I am not a little angel like you thought… "
Seeing that Mineva didn't make any comments, the captain refocused his attention on the task at hand.
Theoretically, they would arrive at the reserved sea area after about forty minutes, however, not long after, the strange things happened.
"Your Highness Mineva, a group of Britannia MSs is approaching us, the communication request from our side is rejected." The captain chose to report the situation immediately, "The opponent's movement speed is only one-third of the normal MS movement speed, temporarily unable to infer the MS model … so fast! There is an MS three times faster than other MS, only it is flying at the normal speed!"
As soon as he said it, a small red dot appeared in the field of view.
"Minovsky particle concentration is rising rapidly… Oh no, the long-range communication means is cut off! This red MS's purpose is to disperse Minovsky particles, so it flys in advance alone!" The captain hammered hard on the panel in front of him, "What a shame this is!"
"Suzaku Kururugi could not have leaked the secret coordinates to a third party, that is to say …" Mineva gazed at the red figure at the end of her gaze that was growing larger and larger, "You betrayed again… and what's the reason for your betrayal this time?"
"Is it him?" Before Mineva could respond, Ple got the answer from her eyes. The single ponytailed girl gave a confident thumbs-up, "Don't worry, I'll protect Mineva!"
…
Char - as we can finally justifiably call him - surveyed the large "green pepper" that stopped in front of him.
The elastic driving suit restrained his slightly fat body, and the slightly greasy blond hair also didn't detract from his heroic face. It's a shame he just took off the damn metal mask an hour ago, otherwise, he would still be a handsome man again if he took care of his appearance a little.
"Mr. Edward, the other side seems to have only one MS." The intermittent voice of the ally came from the helmet, in the current concentration of Minovsky particles, even short-range communication would inevitably be affected, "Please just delay the other side for a moment. We can directly hijack the other side's shuttle after the MS squad arrives."
"There's no need for that." Char refused, "Senator Ronah, without your all-encompassing trust in me and dedication to me regardless of the cost, I would not have lived to remove the collar that woman put on me. To show my gratitude, allow me now to demonstrate my worth."
"Mr. Edward, your value doesn't lie in the battlefield, and your excellent MS driving ability is just a small part of your countless talents." Korozo& Ronah let out a cheerful laugh, "As the only son of the great revolutionary Mr. Mass, you are the only one who can understand my thoughts, don't die here for the sake of acting hero."
"I have endured humiliation for so many years just to get things back on track." Char aimed his large beam rifle at Kshatriya's heart, the location of the cockpit, "The first obstacle on your ideal journey, let me, Edward Mass, remove it with my own hands."
The whistling particle beam was attenuated by the I-Field and grazed Kshatriya's shoulder armor, the hot flash burning the armor with an ear-splitting sound. While the opponent was still rejoicing at the timely activation of the I-Field, the howitzer hanging below Sinanju's rifle mixed in with the beam and struck Kshatriya, leaving the latter wrapped in a cloud of smoke.
"Good reaction time, and I'm sure the pilot's talent is good." Char made his comment with ease, raising his hand in the direction where his opponent was expected to break out for another shot, "But the experience is so far off, how could I possibly fight a close combat with an MS of this tonnage?"
Kshatriya panicked and burst out of the smoke. Ple instinctively twisted the fuselage in the nick of time, and Kshatriya's skirt armor underneath the cockpit flew into the air in the flames. When she opened the I-Field again, two anti-MS rockets had encircled her left and right.
"Battles inside and outside the atmosphere can be worlds apart, and heavy armor will only become a liability that affects maneuverability under huge air resistance. Yet a novice who has only experienced simulated battles will not understand this." Char shot off all four of the remaining rockets at once, "Let me tell you, the performance of the MS is not the key to victory or defeat."
At this point Kshatriya's pilot finally reacted, unfolding the cannon hidden under the shoulder armor to knock out the rockets, and using the particle cannon on the MS's chest to meet the four new threats that followed. Three of them were detonated one by one under her fairly accurate shooting, and the remaining one was barely dodged by her.
"Naive." Char responded by pulling the trigger.
The beam leapt out of the chamber of the cannon and caught up with the rocket that had just been dodged, and Kshatriya was caught off guard by the blast from behind and lost its vision again in a cloud of smoke. Sinanju was now sprinting towards the side of the smoke at high speed, the fierce beam battle-axe in its hand raised high, chopping down hard on the location where the cockpit was supposed to appear.
"Stop it!" Mineva's mournful shout resounded through the public channel, "Don't hurt her, I'll go with you!"
Sinanju drew back sharply, quickly returning to a safe distance after hearing the voice.
"Mineva?" Called out Ple anxiously, "It's okay, I can still fight!"
"That's enough already." Mineva let out a sigh, "Who is behind you? Why are you doing this? Aren't you worried about Britannia's retaliation?"
"Retaliation?" Char laughed out loud, "You are terrorists threatening Lingus and the Wheel of Angels, in other words, you are standing against all peace-loving people around the world. Her Majesty Nunnally needs to clarify the relationship with you to the world first, how can there be any revenge?"
"What Mr. Edward said is extremely true." Ronah added, "As a Senator of the Federation Council, it is necessary for me to put you at the disposal of Prime Minister Marcenas. Don't worry, tell us where Mufti is and you will receive a fair trial."
"So the destination is …" Mineva recalled the map a little. The Earth Federation headquarters is on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, "Dakar? That's quite a side trip."
"Exactly, so give up the meaningless resistance." Char showed a teasing smile, "Thanks to the light defense wall provided by Lingus, Dakar is solid as gold, and you can't escape even if you have wings."