Thinking further, he had emptied a full magazine into the Thunder cockpit earlier without mercy. It would not kill Nicol, but what if it caused trouble, injured him, or knocked him senseless? Any of that could explain why Thunder had not shown up on time.
A while later, he saw Kira being taken away from the Strike Gundam, and knew things were getting messy. He could not delay anymore, or even an idiot would notice something wrong. If the attack started while he was not by the MS, or if Nicol was in trouble, the planned ambush would be gone, and the result for him and Kira would be hard to predict.
"If only I had not gone so hard." He laughed at himself, but even given another chance, he knew he would not hold back. With inferior machine performance, any hesitation would have meant death, and if he died, Hilde would only find his remains.
At this moment, the Archangel was like Siegfried himself, a bird trapped in a cage. The ship was trapped by Artemis, and he was trapped by a paradox created by the story logic. Without going all out he would not have survived to this point, but by doing so, Nicol was now late.
Just as Siegfried was about to hand over the final data and think of another plan, arguing below caught his attention. After looking closer, he realized that the shamelessness of the Federation had completely surpassed his understanding from the story.
Below the Assault, Kira was shouting angrily. Facing him were the officer who had tried to recruit him earlier, along with Tor, Miri, and Cagalli.
The distance was too great to hear the argument, but he could guess what happened. After failing to recruit both pilots, the officer likely lost control, returned to the Archangel, and took Miri and the others hostage as bargaining chips once he learned they were students from Orb. As for how Cagalli got dragged in, Siegfried had no idea, yet it felt completely fitting.
Deciding not to wait for the Nicol he had delayed himself, Siegfried signaled Regret to extend his hand. As the man showed a look of "you finally get it," Siegfried used the MS computer to alter several programs and removed his electronic restraints.
True to his word, Regret turned and knocked out the soldiers watching them, then grabbed their weapons. Siegfried did not give up the GINN as promised, since losing an MS now was no different from suicide.
"Deal with the people below. I will help you grab an MA." To avoid friendly fire, Siegfried could not attack directly with the GINN, so he made an unreliable promise. He closed the hatch, lowered Regret back to the ground, and retrieved his Heavy Slash Blade.
With the situation turning against them, Regret shot down several soldiers who tried to attack him. Amid Miri's screams and Kira's shocked stare, he shot the officer holding them hostage.
Seeing this from the cockpit, Siegfried first used the GINN to shield them. He then had Kira stand on its hand, carried him to the Strike Gundam, and reached down again to grab Cagalli, opening the hatch and letting this single-minded creature squeeze inside.
"I really do not get you. Why did you jump into this?"
"They took Miri hostage. I cursed at them a few times, and they grabbed me too."
At a loss for words, Siegfried lowered the GINN a third time. He let Miri and Tor stand on its hand, carefully controlling its posture, and under Regret's guidance, the GINN charged out through the fortress's Ganaku under weak gunfire. The Assault followed closely, PS armor activating.
"Sai, what are you doing?"
"They threatened Miri. You are not going to swallow that, are you, Kira?"
Rushing to open the GINN channel, Kira felt his understanding of the world collapse. He had thought that no matter how bad things were, they were still allies, yet Siegfried turned on them without hesitation, and for reasons so solid that not following felt like his own fault.
"You protect the Archangel. I will intercept their counterattack." Siegfried was sure this chaos would force Neumann to act, and with veteran Mu beside Murrue, there would be no hesitation. The priority was to block Artemis's response, and although it would likely be just a few ships and some Mobius, holding Miri and Tor meant avoiding combat if possible.
The GINN had barely moved when a massive explosion echoed from outside. Looking at Miri and Tor in his hand, then at Regret nearby, Siegfried had never hated being late as much as he did now.
Inside the cramped cockpit sat Cagalli. The GINN held Miri and Tolle, the young couple, in its hands, while Siegfried had to keep the machine steady to block stray shots without shaking too hard and hurting the two people he was carrying. Without Haro to assist and while multitasking, he felt this was more tiring than fighting a G unit.
Luckily, they were already in Artemis at Ganaku. After the internal defenses were cleared, Regret found a relatively intact Mobius, powered it up, and immediately opened a channel to the GINN.
"Kid, what do we do next?"
"I'm going back to the Archangel. Do what you want, we're even now." Siegfried did not waste words and had no interest in demanding repayment. Explosions outside were growing stronger, and since leaving Assault they had not seen a single Eurasian soldier, which said enough about the state of the fortress. Miri and Tolle were still without spacesuits, and if the fortress blew apart, they would die immediately.
After breaking out of Ganaku, Siegfried could already see Assault and Thunder locked in close combat inside the spaceport. The blast caused by the Anti-Ship Sword striking a spear dart made even the Archangel below look unstable.
In the chaos of the port, Siegfried finally found a small shuttle. Its owner had either fled or was already dead, so he had Cagalli climb out of the cockpit, placed her and Miri inside the shuttle, and escorted them back to the Archangel, where Haro was already waiting at the hangar. Once everything was in place, the GINN finally had the freedom to focus on the battlefield.
Because this was an infiltration operation, the distant duel meant Storm had not yet rushed into the fortress. With Assault providing cover, Thunder could not get close to the Archangel, so the problem lay with Eurasian. Several hastily launched Mobius units did not dare join the MS fight, but the massive Archangel, turning slowly, had its bridge targeted.
"Haro, adjust the fire control and aim for the Mobius thrusters." Siegfried had no intention of shooting them down. No matter what he did, when Artemis exploded, these outdated weapons and the people using them would be swallowed by fire anyway.
"Haro, Haro, hypocrisy, hypocritical Siegfried."