From Setsuna's perspective, he saw Gundam Virtue being carried in a princess hold, rushing over through the billowing dust and smoke.
However, from any angle, Gundam Virtue was the sumo wrestler of the Mobile Suit class, which meant that only the arms of the Mobile Suit carrying it were barely visible. As for the lower body of that Mobile Suit, it also seemed thick and massive.
On Tekkadan's side, the only one capable of carrying the 66.7-ton Gundam Virtue was the Garibaldi Rebake. Its arms had been specially reinforced to sever anything they could clamp onto with their Thermal Pincers. A single arm could be used as a medium-sized port crane, and both arms could lift over a hundred tons in Earth's gravity.
However, adding Gundam Virtue's 66.7 tons to its own weight made it impossible for the Garibaldi Rebake to run quickly.
So, it took some time for the Garibaldi Rebake to transport Gundam Virtue and set it down in front of Exia.
At this point, all of Tekkadan, except for Norba Shino who was also lying in wait with a sniper rifle in the distance, had made their appearance.
That's right, Orga's claim that the last person had arrived was a lie to Celestial Beings. Even without Belfgang's training, Orga knew that one must always keep a reserve team when meeting with an unfamiliar group.
Since they knew beforehand that only one of Celestial Beings' long-range sniper units would appear, Norba Shino and Mikazuki had laid in wait at the two most likely sniping points. Whoever didn't encounter Celestial Beings' sniper unit would be the reserve team.
It was truly bad luck for Lockon that Dynames had run to a spot next to Gundam Barbatos Lupus to snipe. If he had run into Norba Shino, he wouldn't have been left without any chance to counterattack.
But despite their caution, it was actually impossible for Celestial Beings and Tekkadan to fight right now.
It was now clear that this organization called Tekkadan had been sent by Reid to return Gundam Virtue, so they were naturally not enemies.
As for Gundam Virtue being in the possession of an organization related to Reid, Setsuna expressed no surprise at all.
At this moment, Lockon, piloting Dynames, also arrived beside Exia under the "escort" of Gundam Barbatos Lupus.
Seeing this, Orga spoke directly.
"Alright, we've delivered the Mobile Suit. Don't ask me how Reid got his hands on your Celestial Beings' Mobile Suit, because I don't know either. Only he knows how many hidden pieces he's buried in the public world.
"However, every group in the organization does this, so I'm not in a position to say anything about him. Besides, as the only one given permission to wreak havoc in the public world, I can't afford to provoke him right now.
"Celestial Beings, this was just a greeting. We'll be active in this region for a while, so I'm sure we'll meet again soon. For now, we'll take our leave."
Just as Orga finished speaking, before he could even turn his Mobile Suit around, Lockon also spoke on an external broadcast.
"Wait a moment. Our support personnel in the rear have a question for you."
Hearing this, Orga immediately refused.
"You mean that little girl named Wang Liu Mei? Reid told me that girl is full of schemes. I can't afford to provoke a woman he would describe like that. We're leaving, we're leaving."
After speaking, the members of Tekkadan charged directly into the depths of the desert, quickly moving beyond the detection range of Exia's and Dynames's optical sensors and radar.
Meanwhile, in the rear, Wang Liu Mei had seven or eight cross-popping veins on her forehead. Her fists were clenched so tightly they trembled as she vented on the team's communication channel.
"That damn Reid Isaac!! How dare he ruin my reputation out here! Aaaargh! I really want to beat him up!!"
The remaining three men on the comms didn't dare to speak a word in response to Wang Liu Mei's outburst. Even Setsuna, with his almost non-existent emotional intelligence, instinctively felt that he would be in for a world of trouble if he spoke up now.
Thus, the three of them could only listen silently on the comms as Wang Liu Mei vented, slinging all sorts of labels at Reid, like liar, robber, playboy, a guy who likes to scare kids, nouveau riche, and a man with terrible taste.
A few minutes later, when Wang Liu Mei paused to drink some water out of thirst, Lockon finally found an opportunity to speak.
"So, should we bring Gundam Virtue back to the transport ship now? Although there are no visible problems from the outside, we can't guarantee there isn't something inside the Mobile Suit."
To this question, Wang Liu Mei, having just finished her water, replied smoothly.
"Just bring it back. Reid Isaac is definitely watching us silently like a peeping tom. If he really wanted to do something to us, he wouldn't need to tamper with the inside of Virtue. If we act all paranoid, he'll just laugh at us.
"Hong Long, can you temporarily pilot Gundam Virtue? (Hong Long is an excellent pilot and is capable of piloting a Mobile Suit.)"
Regarding Wang Liu Mei's question, Hong Long replied with unusual caution.
"If it can be activated, providing stationary fire support from a distance shouldn't be a big problem. But then there would be no one in the rear to provide intelligence support."
Hearing this, Wang Liu Mei rolled her eyes at Hong Long and said, "Are you underestimating me? If it's just intelligence support, I can handle it by myself. I know how to fly the ship on my own too.
"We're going to be short on combat power. Setsuna, Lockon, bring Gundam Virtue back. By the way, the Mobile Suit that was carrying Virtue earlier had incredible strength. Can your Mobile Suits princess-carry Virtue?"
Lockon answered after a brief mental calculation.
"Impossible. We could manage to fly while holding Virtue using the GN Drive's power, but with just the strength of the Mobile Suit's arms, Dynames could probably just barely flip Virtue over on the ground. If we tried to lift it outright, the arms would be wrecked in a few seconds."
After Lockon finished, Setsuna immediately followed up.
"It's the same for Exia; its lifting strength isn't that great. If we worked together with Dynames, we could probably manage to lift Virtue. If Kyrios helped too, the three units should be able to lift Virtue in a gravity environment with relative ease."
Hearing this, Wang Liu Mei muttered, "So that Mobile Suit's arm strength is supposedly three times that of Exia... As expected of a mysterious organization like SDP. It seems the industrial technology evaluation of the organization behind SDP needs to be raised again.
"Forget it. In any case, let's bring Virtue back first and see if it can be activated."
Since Wang Liu Mei judged that there was likely nothing wrong with Virtue's interior, Setsuna and Lockon didn't say anything more. The two Mobile Suits each grabbed one of Gundam Virtue's arms and used the lift from their GN Drives to transport it back to the rear transport ship.
After Gundam Virtue was brought back to the ship, Hong Long and Lockon began trying to activate the Mobile Suit. As a local, Setsuna volunteered to go out alone to gather intelligence.
Since Reid hadn't tampered with anything, and this Gundam Virtue was a newly produced unit from the Factory Module with identical specifications, output, programming, and materials to the original, Hong Long and Lockon found no problems despite their cautious operations.
However, after Gundam Virtue was captured by mercenaries, VEDA had actually locked its activation.
But the program created by the Factory Module, even if it was identical, couldn't be controlled by VEDA until it was reconnected.
If Tieria were here, with the program completely unchanged, connecting to VEDA would be a dead giveaway, immediately revealing that this Gundam Virtue was not his original one.
Unfortunately, Hong Long and Lockon lacked the ability to connect an "unfamiliar" program to VEDA. Thus, this Gundam Virtue started up very smoothly and was even fine-tuned according to Hong Long's piloting habits.
By the time they finished their adjustments and Tieria took over, he would no longer be able to tell from the program whether this Mobile Suit was his original one or not.
Meanwhile, Wang Liu Mei, taking advantage of everyone's absence, contacted the Fereshte Organization, which was responsible for recovering Celestial Beings' equipment and had some shadow agent characteristics.
With a severe shortage of personnel and Mobile Suits for this operation, Wang Liu Mei planned to have the Fereshte Organization provide secret support.
Although Fereshte's only GN Drive and Gundam Plutone had been temporarily handed over to Celestial Beings for use, they still possessed three Gundams: the GNY-001F Gundam Astraea F Type, the GNY-003F Gundam Gnadleeh F Type, and the GNY-002F Gundam Sadalsuud F Type.
Even without GN Drives, Fereshte could use GN Capacitors to allow the three Gundams to perform at their inherent combat potential. The only difference was that their energy would no longer be infinite, and they would need to plan their combat time.
Night fell quickly. Based on information from various sources, Wang Liu Mei analyzed that regardless of whether the Kingdom of Azadistan would erupt into a civil war, its solar power receiving antenna facility, built in cooperation with the United Nations, would definitely be attacked.
Even if the conservatives didn't attack, the third party trying to stir up conflict would.
This was because the solar power receiving antenna facility was the lifeline of the reformist faction in the Kingdom of Azadistan. Once destroyed, the reformists would no longer be able to remain calm.
Moreover, Union forces had already been stationed in the Kingdom of Azadistan. If the solar power receiving antenna facility were attacked at this time, the Union forces could be drawn into the war as well.
However, considering the possibility that the enemy might also carry out a decapitation strike against the reformists' spokesperson, Marina Ismail, in the capital to trigger a civil war, Wang Liu Mei had to divide her forces.
Exia, which was suitable for urban street fighting and less likely to cause collateral damage, would lie in wait near the capital.
Dynames and Virtue would lie in wait near the solar power receiving antenna facility. This way, Celestial Beings could intervene no matter where the fighting broke out.
Of course, Wang Liu Mei had placed all her main forces at the solar power receiving antenna facility, even directing the Fereshte Organization to go there.
This was because she judged that it was impossible for a large force to attack the capital of Azadistan. The urban terrain was too complex, and given the performance of the Human Reform League's export Longnose Type, the most numerous MS in the Middle East, even soldiers without MS could hold them off for some time with man-portable rocket launchers.
Wang Liu Mei was an all-around talent who also understood tactical forecasting, but she was clearly not as professional as Sumeragi and had to expend more mental energy. Fortunately, her conclusions were all correct.
So, when all the arrangements were made, she turned off the communications and muttered to herself inside the transport ship.
"I'll have to ignore SDP and that Tekkadan for now. If they get involved, it'll be impossible to predict the course of the battle. Reid Isaac! If you cause me trouble again this time, I'll definitely make you pay when we next meet!!"
Unfortunately, Reid couldn't hear Wang Liu Mei's complaints, and the battle that night would be anything but peaceful.
Just as in the original story, the garrison at the solar power receiving antenna facility included many soldiers from the conservative faction.
Since the conservatives were now under the command of the extremist official who had survived the kidnapping, they received orders to act that night and completely destroy the solar power receiving antenna facility.
Thus, amidst roars of "Bring down divine thunder upon the infidels who trample this land," the civil war began within the garrison of the Kingdom of Azadistan's solar power receiving antenna facility.
Graham's Overflag Team (though they went by that name, all members of the squad were piloting Union Flags at this time) was the first to arrive on the battlefield. However, in their systems, everyone below was a friendly unit, and they couldn't understand the local Middle Eastern language, so they had no idea who the real allies were.
Fortunately, someone helped them distinguish friend from foe at that moment.
Hong Long was fluent in various languages. He quickly analyzed the enemy's voice chatter provided by Wang Liu Mei and identified the force that intended to destroy the solar power receiving antenna facility.
What followed was a performance by Dynames. With the mobility of the export Longnose Type, they were little more than stationary targets in front of Dynames and were all destroyed within a dozen seconds.
However, the enemy's offensive was far from over. Sachez and Kowloon had long since set up rocket launcher positions in the surrounding mountain ravines with their men who could pilot MS.
Seeing that the conservative faction of Azadistan was indeed useless, they launched a full salvo without a second thought, firing large cluster missile-type rockets.
Dynames was a sniper-type Mobile Suit, after all, and intercepting a dense barrage of rockets was clearly not its specialty.
Fortunately, Reid had returned Gundam Virtue ahead of time.
Hong Long's claim that he could only provide stationary fire support was truly him being modest. Although it was impossible to be too proficient with a Mobile Suit after only a few hours, he was far from a rookie who couldn't perform when needed.
Seeing the situation, Hong Long piloted Virtue, flew out dual-wielding the GN Rocket Cannons, and swept them across the missile swarm in the sky. Ninety percent of the missiles were intercepted by this one attack. The remaining scattered missiles mostly landed on the periphery of the solar power receiving antenna facility, causing no major damage.
The moment Virtue appeared, the other factions were all dumbfounded.
There were a total of five factions currently paying attention to the solar power receiving antenna facility.
The Union, Sachez and Kowloon's mercenary force, and the Fereshte Organization all had the same reaction:
"How did this Mobile Suit (Gundam Virtue) get here?"
To the Union and the mercenaries, Celestial Beings should have already lost this fat Gundam. According to intelligence from the Human Reform League, the equipment and parameters of that fat Gundam had changed significantly during their last battle with Celestial Beings. Moreover, that Mobile Suit had its head chopped off by SDP, and it was unknown if it had been repaired.
Both groups could only guess that Celestial Beings had built another identical fat Gundam in the meantime.
While the Union and the mercenaries could convince themselves that Celestial Beings had just built another Virtue, Fon Spaak, who had been sent by the Fereshte Organization to provide support, knew very well that his organization had not built a second Gundam Virtue.
Therefore, he believed that Celestial Beings had subsequently recovered this Virtue, which made it outrageous that they were still holding onto his GN Drive and not returning it.
Fon Spaak was almost tempted to abandon his mission of attacking the missile launch units and turn around to give Celestial Beings a good thrashing.
The remaining faction was, naturally, Tekkadan, who were lying in wait nearby. However, they were mainly focused on the Gundams and had no intention of getting involved for the time being.
As for the remaining garrison troops at the Kingdom of Azadistan's solar power receiving antenna facility, in the eyes of the various power players in this game, they didn't even qualify to call themselves a faction and could only resign themselves to being "armed civilians."
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