"Flay, you should not say that. Do you even know who the Earth Alliance is fighting?" Even Tor could not stand it anymore. His girlfriend had nearly been grabbed, and Siegfried stepping forward had saved Miri, yet Flay still refused to admit fault.
"What do you mean? So I am wrong? Everyone was terrified with guns pointed at us. Would it not be better to let Kira help sooner? What did I do wrong? Sai, they are all bullying me."
"Clueless rich girl, someone like you deserves to be thrown outside," Cagalli said. Seeing Sai keep apologizing with a hint of weakness, she knew she could not actually hit Flay. Fuming, she dragged Tor to another side, and when her boyfriend followed, Miri hurried after them.
After arriving at Ganaku, Siegfried was thinking about how to stall without being obvious. Not far away, several Eurasian soldiers escorted a person with a black hood toward him.
"You, go unlock the Assault. You, wait a bit," a soldier ordered.
Surprised at the different treatment and wondering if the GINN was not important enough, the hooded person was brought beside Siegfried. When the hood was removed, a strange face appeared.
"Regret Allen. Go check the condition of that GINN."
The butterfly flapped its wings, and a second faint breeze began to move quietly from Artemis.
Siegfried looked at the strange man in front of him. The blue hair fit the usual flashy colors of a Coordinator, and the lack of basic hygiene left his face covered in stubble so it was hard to guess his age. He searched his memory for any trace of this character in the story, but found nothing at all.
He had already learned how many sides this world had, and with a dark gun barrel pointed at him, Siegfried calmly stepped aside. The GINN's password lock was set by his own hands and then encrypted again using Haro, so even Kira could not break it. He had no worry that this man who came from nowhere could start it.
As expected, the man called Regret shook his head inside the cockpit a few minutes later. Aside from Kira, who was pretending to work on unlocking, the Federation officer shifted his attention back to Siegfried.
"So, kid, since you can pilot a GINN, you must know its structure, or at least how to deal with this kind of thing. Have you thought about coming to our Alliance? Coordinator are rare even inside the Alliance, and I can give you the best treatment."
"I'll think about it." Remembering the vicious look this man had in the cafeteria, Siegfried was already counting down his future. He brushed the offer off casually, and the officer did not push further. In the eyes of the Alliance, he and Kira were just two Coordinator students, and as long as they held the Archangel, there would be time to persuade them.
Urged by several soldiers, Siegfried stepped into the GINN's cockpit. Regret gave up the seat but did not leave, and after a few orders from a Eurasian officer, he stayed nearby under watch.
Siegfried slowly lifted the GINN's lock procedures, knowing he would also need to export combat records and machine data later. His fingers moved fast but his actual progress was very low, and after watching for a while, Regret broke the silence first.
"Coordinator?" His voice was hoarse, as if he had not spoken much while detained.
"Isn't it obvious? You have not heard of a Natural piloting this thing."
"How did you end up with the Alliance Forces?"
"After Heliopolis collapsed, I was taken in by this ship by chance. What about you?"
"Coordinator. Something went wrong, I got wanted, and ended up here with nowhere else to go."
"Oh."
The talk was empty and unhurried. Whether it was just his imagination or not, Siegfried felt that Eurasian paid more attention to him than to Kira. Over by the Assault cockpit, technicians crowded around while Kira worked and they recorded, but here a Coordinator had been assigned to casually chat and dig for information.
"Think about joining us. You are staying under the Atlantic Federation anyway, so staying here is the same, and the treatment might even be better." Regret spoke in a flat tone without enthusiasm or flattery, making Siegfried unsure whether it was a real attempt or just for show.
"Never thought about it. I am not a soldier, and I will leave the ship sooner or later. Besides, the truly valuable thing is over there, right?"
Siegfried was not trying to sell out Kira, but the obvious focus on him made him wary of whether he had shown something strange. If conditions allowed, he did not mind using Kira and the Assault as bait.
"You really do not know your own value. Makes sense, you are just a student. From the machine's point of view, that G unit is more important, but from a human point of view, a boy who can perfectly handle a GINN is far more valuable than a rookie who almost got shot down even in a G."
Regret leaned against the GINN hatch, blocking most of the Alliance soldiers' view behind him. "Machines can always be replaced with better ones, but people cannot. A good pilot needs more than training, talent matters."
"Oh, then I'll think about it." Siegfried answered carelessly while continuing to slack off.
"Do you really think you can leave here?" When he saw there was no response, Regret sounded a bit impatient.
"Whatever. I do not decide these things. The Alliance on Earth do not have a record of forcibly conscripting civilians yet, do they?"
"That is just one order from above. Someone your age who can pilot a GINN and fight those things evenly, do you really think they will let you go?"
Siegfried stopped his hands and finally looked seriously at this so-called compatriot. This was no longer a hint, but almost a direct statement of intent.
"What do you want?"
"Help me remove these restraints. You take the G, I take the GINN, sabotage the fortress from inside, and force that ship to surrender to ZAFT."
"Too hard, low output, high risk, and no need."
He rejected the plan without hesitation. He did not know whether the original Regret died here with the explosion of Artemis, but for him, patience was enough to wait for a chance, and there was no need for such a gamble.
He shook his head and ignored Regret's continued persuasion, going back to slacking off. As time passed, he began to feel that events were drifting away from what he expected.
From his memory, although he did not know the exact timing, Thunder should have infiltrated Artemis while Kira was exporting data. Now he was almost done slacking, and even if he did not know Kira's progress, that honest kid would never be slower than him. Clearly, Thunder was late.