Compared to the celebratory atmosphere the last time he arrived at the shipyard, this time Roz could feel that the place seemed cold and efficient.
Was it because of the recent battles? Makes sense—no one knew when the temporarily stalled conflict between ZAFT and the Earth Alliance would resume on a large scale. Now it was literally a race against time.
"Hey! Big brother Roz, over here!"
Just as Roz began to wonder if everyone at the shipyard had become a little strange, Marvin's somewhat goofy voice rang out.
Roz saw Marvin standing in front of a pristine white mobile suit, unfolded for maintenance, waving frantically at him.
"Stop doing your Vtuber stream! Big brother Roz is back!"
Seeing the nearby Haro still mechanically working on the mobile suit, Marvin smacked it away.
"Eh, eh, eh! What are you doing! I'm working here!"
The Haro screamed in protest as it flew through the zero-gravity environment, spinning in midair.
"Quack! Big brother Roz, save me!"
Its bizarre screams and disconnection caused some confusion among the viewers in the virtual livestream.
"It's fine, no big deal."
Roz jumped lightly off the floor, floating precisely beside the Haro, catching it.
"Time is tight; the battle could resume at any moment. Besides, I'm not someone who cares much about ceremony."
Roz had once suspected he was allergic to the word "ceremony." When he first arrived at the shipyard, the welcome celebration almost made him want to dig into the floor until he carved out three rooms and a living room.
Unfortunately, in the zero-gravity environment, his feet weren't on the ground, so he had no choice but to awkwardly accept everyone's enthusiasm.
"Guh… saved… Big brother Roz…"
Once placed back on the control platform, the Haro's garbled voice sounded, as if it had been knocked dizzy.
"Marvin… you little rascal, I'm going to copy all the videos from your hard drive and post them!"
"Hmph… can you even find them, while spouting nonsense here?"
Marvin said confidently, clearly having great confidence in the location of the hard drive that Haro mentioned.
"…When did you get the impression we hadn't already copied those files?"
"Oh no, Roz!"
In an instant, the roles reversed.
Ignoring the two idiots bickering beside him, Roz floated toward the mobile suit, stopping beside Christina.
"You're back, Roz."
Christina shifted her attention from the data on her tablet to Roz, still in his jeans and flight jacket.
"…Didn't you buy any new clothes?"
"…This is my new outfit."
Roz paused slightly, answering Christina's question.
"I have several identical outfits in my wardrobe; easy to change."
"That's not important. Let's get down to business. How's the situation recently? Any problems?"
Although Roz could continue chatting with Christina, he wanted to finish the most important tasks first.
After all, priorities mattered—you couldn't spend all your time on emotional talk while the tense battle situation was happening right in front of you.
Christina, not one to let emotions interfere, began quickly showing the current progress at the "shipyard."
"The initial version of RX-0 'Unicorn' is almost complete. All that's left is the psycoframe chip in the cockpit, the NTD program, and…"
She pointed to a nearby component quietly resting on the floor.
"The miniaturized version of the Archangel-class laser nuclear fusion reactor."
"I understand…"
Roz looked at the component Christina indicated and habitually pulled a wrench from the nearby toolbox.
"As for other details… the shield has the Artemis Fortress lightwave barrier installed, and the thrusters use a miniaturized version of the Archangel-class electric propulsion."
Christina tapped twice on her tablet, displaying a shield and a weapon next to the white mobile suit in the hangar.
"The beam magnum, after emptying fifteen backup rounds, can connect to the suit and continue firing using the reactor. The design's maximum burst is five rounds in a short time, though the normal firing rate is much lower to avoid circuit overload."
"Hm… what about other aspects?"
Roz raised his head, wrench in hand, looking at the white mobile suit.
"The battleship has entered the initial finishing stage, but… both the GP3 and NTA projects have stalled."
Christina sighed at this point.
"Stalled… why?"
Roz hadn't immediately understood, thinking maybe he needed to handle some component himself.
"Did some technical blueprint have a problem?"
"No, it's not a technical issue… it's simply because we ran out of money."
Christina looked helplessly at Roz.
"…I'll think of a way."
The thought of money made Roz feel a headache coming on.
"But let's focus on getting this reactor working first."
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"It's just a reactor… no need to hide so far away."
Feeling the gaze from behind him, Roz sighed, stood up, and looked at the scene before him.
Marvin, along with a group of Haros, was crammed into a "temporary fortress" made of several steel plates, peeking out at Roz as he adjusted the reactor.
Christina and the Big Haro stood outside the "temporary fortress," looking at Marvin with expressions as if watching a fool.
"After all, this component triggered the safety brake twice already! If it exploded, it would be terrible."
Marvin said carelessly, "Even though all we have left now is just a brain, we're still scared, okay?"
"…Then why are Christina and the Big Haro completely unafraid of a reactor explosion?"
Roz shrugged and gestured toward Christina and the Big Haro.
"…If the reactor explodes, this temporary fortress is useless. We'll all die. This thing is just psychological," Christina said bluntly, getting straight to the point. "Rather than hiding behind a useless cover, I'd rather stand in front of the reactor—at least I can do something."
Compared to Christina's explanation, the Big Haro's answer was concise and powerful.
"My outer armor can withstand a nuclear blast."
"…Alright, got it."
Marvin sighed but still didn't leave the temporary fortress. Instead, he placed a steel plate on top, only revealing his eyes to observe the surroundings.
"We will never leave this fortress!"
"Exactly, exactly!"
The Haros beside Marvin also began hopping in agreement.
Watching this scene, Roz felt a vague sense of déjà vu, as if he had seen something similar before.
The main characters inside were a cat and a mouse? Or something else—Roz couldn't quite remember.
"The parts we dismantled with temporary materials in Orb could make a nuclear battery, so how could these custom parts not make a reactor?"
Roz smiled and gave a thumbs-up to everyone. "Don't worry, it'll be fine."
In fact, Roz had carefully inspected the component Christina called "faulty" and found no problems.
To find the cause, Roz decided to start the reactor once, since, according to Christina, the safety brake should function normally.
Roz reached to the computer linked to the reactor and pressed a button.
The component, just repaired and sealed, began operating, and everyone tensed up.
But unlike before…the safety brake did not activate, and the reactor operated very smoothly.
"Hiss… no problem."
Roz frowned at the data on the computer. "I only tightened the screws; I didn't change anything else."
Silence fell. Everyone was thinking—why could the same reactor operate smoothly this time?
"…Since the reactor is stable, let's load it onto the mobile suit first."
The Big Haro observed for a moment, confirmed there were no issues, and spoke.
"Stop hiding, the reactor is fine. Let's get back to work!"
Hearing the Big Haro, Marvin put down the steel plate and called the Haros beside him, preparing to install the reactor onto the mobile suit.
"Roz, I need to continue following up on your battleship, so I'll go ahead."
The Big Haro wobbled a bit, ready to return to its position.
"…You just want to slack off, don't you?"
Knowing the Big Haro's personality, Roz could guess what it wanted.
"Resting… how can that be considered slacking off?"
The Big Haro's eyes twinkled as it argued righteously, "Slacking off is slacking off, loafing is loafing—they're two different concepts!"
Roz briefly wondered if there really was a difference between "slacking off" and "loafing" as the Haro claimed.
But by the time Roz realized, the Big Haro had already walked away.
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When Roz removed the four palm-sized psycoframe chips from the Narrative Gundam's cockpit and installed them into the new mobile suit's cockpit, he sensed that Christina seemed to have something to say.
After all, Christina was standing right beside him, and her brainwave reactions seemed somewhat conflicted.
"Do you have something to tell me, Christina?"
Roz finished installing the last psycoframe chip in the cockpit and turned to look at her.
"…I've looked at the two psycoframe chips and the Newtype files."
Christina looked at Roz, thought for a moment, then spoke. "Is what's written true? Even though they're composed of microcomputer chips, these psycoframe chips can attach to the soul."
"What exactly are you asking?"
Roz seemed to have an idea but wanted to confirm.
"The ones still in the storage device…"
"Don't even think about it."
Christina had barely mentioned a name when Roz immediately rejected her suggestion without hesitation.
"But they've all come to terms with it!"
Christina persisted. "They want to participate in battle, they want to help you, Roz—that's what they think too."
The hard drive, which stored ten thousand consciousness datasets, had been idle ever since Ryan handed it to Roz, maintaining network connection and power.
As the preliminary second-phase outcome of the original "SmartBrain" project, Blue Cosmos had converted ten thousand "defective units" into data, intending to develop the next-generation "intelligent combat system."
Unfortunately, before the project results could even be backed up, Ryan and Roz cooperated to completely destroy the research institute along with all its files.
But because it was unclear whether Blue Cosmos had tampered with the consciousness data, Roz had never dared to touch it, leaving Christina to communicate with them.
Moreover, having suffered under Blue Cosmos for so long, their mental state wasn't stable, and it had taken a long time for them to stabilize.
During that period, Christina had already conveyed many proposals to Roz about "building unmanned combat units."
However, seeing the mental instability displayed in the simulation programs, Roz ultimately rejected their requests.
"Attaching them to the psycoframe chips isn't a good thing—they'll gradually be assimilated by the skeletons!"
Roz's expression was serious. "Every use of a miracle comes with a cost. I will not accept your proposal."
"But are you just going to let them watch as bystanders?"
Christina opposed Roz. "The files said it—the performance of psycoframe chips becomes stronger when they attach to a soul."
After Christina read the instructions for the psycoframe chips, the consciousness datasets understood the situation and clamored to enter the psycoframe chips to contribute to Roz's battle.
Christina had restrained them for a long time, but after seeing the battle situation during Orb's great retreat, she was persuaded when constructing the RX-0.
"That was just an explanation about the psycoframe chips—not instructions for you to actually do it!"
Roz maintained his stance.
"In short, your proposal—I absolutely cannot allow it!"
The atmosphere froze, a low pressure hanging between Roz and Christina.
"Beep… beep…"
The alarm on Christina's tablet rang.
"…Fine, if you insist, Roz, we'll talk tomorrow."
Christina swiped the screen to turn off the alarm.
"It's time to rest. Don't forget—you're not like us."
Christina increased her body output, pulling Roz to the shipyard dormitory.
The shipyard project continued to operate, unaffected by Roz and Christina's argument. Because they both knew, even though a dispute had occurred, in the end it would be resolved smoothly.
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