After learning that the GINN could not sortie immediately, Mu called Siegfried and Kira to the combat briefing room. He explained the whole plan to the two boys, then looked at one face full of reluctance and another that seemed indifferent. The Alliance ace had no choice but to start his familiar pre-battle talk again.
"No one is born loving to fight, but if we don't fight, we can't protect what we cherish, so…"
"Sorry to interrupt, but can I go back to Ganaku to finish fixing the GINN first?" Siegfried said, cutting in. "The final response test is something Marduk and the others can't do, so, yeah, sorry." The three were already in flight suits, and unlike Mu's purple or Kira's blue-green, Siegfried had chosen black. Holding his helmet, he slipped out of the room, unable to stand the mental pressure any longer.
Coming toward him was Miri and her group, already changed into Alliance uniforms. As they passed, only Miri, who had once brought him food, gave him a brief look before joining the excited and nervous chatter of her companions. Their voices filled the corridor.
"As friends, that's really something," he murmured. Their reasons for enlisting were probably not pure, whether it was not wanting Kira to fight alone or fearing that their only shield might disappear. Still, having the courage to make that choice made the boy, now separated from Hilde, feel a bit envious.
Lost in that thought, Siegfried collided with someone at the next corner. In the low gravity, he struggled to steady himself, then realized it was Cagalli who had slipped out of her room as expected. She looked just as flustered as he felt.
"So it really is you. How many times are you planning to crash into me in one day?" Rubbing his chest, he thought that from Dawn Society to the GINN cockpit, Cagalli seemed destined to run into people. By now, he could tell who it was just from the impact.
"They said you're going out too, so I just… why can't you refuse?" She stumbled over her words. "You're not like that pilot. His friends are all on this ship, and I just saw them change into Alliance uniforms. You're alone, you really don't have a reason." Despite swearing earlier to ignore him if he refused her, hearing about the two Coordinators protecting them made her rush over anyway.
"Protecting friends is just a gentle excuse," Siegfried replied. "Threats or rewards, it doesn't matter. This is an Alliance warship, with more soldiers than civilians. As long as they want to win, they have a hundred ways to force us out there."
Unlike Kira, Siegfried had more room to choose whether to fight. As long as he delayed the GINN tests, he could avoid this battle entirely, then hide in Artemis and leave with Hilde if she arrived. If she did not, he could hand the GINN over to the Eurasian Alliance and blow it up with the fortress, disappearing once there were no mobile suits left.
But with Heliopolis breaking apart, the ship under martial law made it impossible to contact Hilde. Siegfried wanted to leave the Archangel as soon as possible, at least get beyond its surveillance range, and try using Haro to reach her. All of those reasons felt solid enough.
Yet looking at Cagalli clumsily expressing her concern, his throat went dry. Telling himself he only wanted to go out and contact Hilde, he hesitated, then waved his hand and tried to float past her. The decision felt heavier than it should have.
"Um."
"Yes?"
"May power be granted to you."
He stared in surprise as the girl beside him lowered her head slightly. He never imagined that a joking request he once made to Hilde at the spaceport would be answered like this. He did not know what the tradition of "Carod and Tifa" was, but Cagalli knew these were the words he wanted to hear when parting.
"What are you staring at? Isn't this what you wanted to hear?" she snapped. "I was just saying it casually, don't…" He reached out and pressed his hand on her golden hair, rubbing it hard once as a strange feeling rose in his chest. Without another word, the boy drifted toward Ganaku.
"Maybe I have someone I want to protect too," he said quietly.
She looked up in surprise, but only caught his back as he disappeared around the corner, the questioning tone lingering behind him. The corridor fell silent again.
Back in the GINN cockpit, Siegfried pushed those strange feelings aside and focused on testing every detail of the new components. Mobile suit tuning was a matter of life and death, and Hilde's harsh teaching never cared whether his knowledge fit neatly together. As long as he dared to ask Haro for help, the punishment that left the scar on his brow was proof enough.
After the Mobius and the Strike Gundam launched one after another, Ganaku grew unusually quiet. No one, including Marduk, dared to disturb the boy adjusting his machine, and even inquiries from the bridge were temporarily held back. The hangar waited on his signal.
"All set. Help me mount the weapons." With Siegfried's relaxed words, Ganaku came back to life. Orders rang out as the crew equipped the GINN with an assault machine gun and the Heavy Slash Blade, then watched him place the spherical robot on the display. For a veteran mechanic, pilots filling their cockpits with odd items was nothing unusual.
After another check of the hatch seal, the GINN did not move onto the launch catapult. When Siegfried connected to the bridge, the screen showed Miri in charge. "The situation outside doesn't allow me to use the launcher. Keep the timing tight. Once you open the hatch, I'll dash straight out."
Handling combat control for the first time, Miri had no idea how to respond. In her panic, she could only look to Badgiruel, who was always the clearest mind aboard the Archangel. Without even a second of hesitation, she approved Siegfried's proposal.
"Fire the anti-beam depth charges as soon as they're loaded. Roll the ship thirty degrees, then go to full speed. Cover with the bottom porcupine array and don't let enemy mobile suits get close."
Thinking that fighting alongside Badgiruel really was the easiest option, Siegfried felt the GINN shift as it relied on the Archangel's launch bay. When the balance changed, the hatch in front of him began to open faster. The moment stretched as space appeared.
There was no controller announcing a clear line, no one saying good luck, and not even the three LAUNCH lights came on. Siegfried simply drove the GINN out of the Archangel, just as a beam struck the anti-beam charge zone ahead. Green particles scattered, lighting up a mobile suit that did not belong here.
"Buster, huh? That greeting was right on time."