Jonathan had no intention of wasting time explaining himself.
He strode forward, grabbed Murrue, and shoved her into the Strike Gundam’s cockpit.
Then he looked at Kira, who was still standing there in a daze.
After a moment’s thought, he tossed him inside as well.
Finally, Jonathan leaped into the cockpit and settled into the pilot’s seat.
With three people crammed inside, the already narrow cockpit immediately became unbearably cramped.
Unlike the original plot, Kira was not sitting in the pilot’s seat.
Jonathan was.
Murrue and Kira could only squeeze into the space behind him.
Kira was still an innocent high school boy.
Pressed so closely against a mature and alluring woman, his entire body stiffened.
He practically curled himself into the corner, terrified that he might accidentally touch her.
Jonathan had no time to care about any of that.
His hands moved rapidly.
Having watched the original series, he knew perfectly well that the Strike Gundam’s greatest problem was not the mobile suit itself.
It was the operating system, which was still woefully incomplete.
Therefore, the first thing he did after entering the cockpit was not attempt to make the Gundam stand.
Instead, he brought up the debugging interface and began hammering away at the keyboard, rapidly rewriting the system parameters.
Lines of data streamed across the screen.
Murrue watched his impossibly smooth movements, undisguised astonishment flashing through her eyes.
She quickly realized that the young man before her was most likely a Coordinator.
“This is a complete mess!”
“How is anyone supposed to control such a complicated machine with an OS like this?”
Watching Jonathan work, Kira could not stop himself from shouting.
His voice contained both shock and instinctive disbelief. Find the original chapter at g.com.
Jonathan merely scoffed without looking back.
Murrue, however, was clearly unhappy with Kira’s near-total dismissal of the Earth Alliance’s technology and immediately defended it.
“This OS was never completed!”
“There was nothing we could do about that!”
Unlike the original plot, Kira did not get the opportunity to display his brilliance in front of Murrue by rewriting the OS in mere seconds and overturning everyone’s expectations.
The person rapidly correcting the incomplete system this time was Jonathan.
With his Coordinator genetics, mobile suit piloting skills, and knowledge of the original plot working together, he needed only a short time to reorganize the half-finished operating system into something usable.
This time, Murrue was genuinely stunned.
“Kid.”
“The OS may be incomplete, but none of its basic functions are missing.”
As the Strike Gundam slowly rose under his control, Jonathan gripped the control levers and casually tossed those words over his shoulder at Kira.
Kira’s expression darkened.
In his opinion, the OS was still an atrocious mess.
Murrue, however, suddenly found Jonathan a little more agreeable.
She was, after all, an Earth Alliance officer.
Of course she would feel uncomfortable hearing someone criticize the Earth Alliance’s technology.
Jonathan’s words had clearly helped preserve the Earth Alliance’s dignity, so her impression of him naturally improved.
The flames inside the factory continued spreading.
If they did not leave immediately, everyone would be buried beneath the wreckage.
Jonathan stopped wasting time and piloted the Strike Gundam out of the underground factory.
Almost simultaneously, another red mobile suit burst out of the exploding facility.
The Aegis Gundam.
Athrun was its pilot.
As soon as the mobile suit landed, a nearby GINN established communications with the Aegis.
“Athrun!”
The GINN pilot’s voice was urgent. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
“Rusty failed.”
Suppressing his emotions, Athrun replied in a low voice, “There’s an Earth Alliance officer inside the other mobile suit.”
For reasons even he could not fully explain, Athrun deliberately concealed the existence of Kira and Jonathan.
The moment the GINN pilot heard that Rusty had failed, he immediately understood that his comrade was dead.
Rage surged through him.
“Athrun, take what you secured and withdraw!”
“I’ll capture the remaining mobile suit!”
Only one thought remained in his mind.
He would avenge his fallen comrade.
Athrun watched the GINN charge forward.
His mouth opened as though he wanted to say something, but in the end, no words came out.
He knew perfectly well that Kira Yamato was inside the Strike Gundam.
Meanwhile, Jonathan had barely taken a few steps after reaching the surface when a green GINN charged directly toward him.
The enemy mobile suit fired its thrusters and leaped into the air, raising its heavy blade high before bringing it down viciously upon the Strike.
Jonathan reacted immediately.
He activated the Phase Shift Armor.
PS Armor.
The instant the system came online, the Strike Gundam’s dull metallic-gray exterior lit up in its iconic blue-and-white color scheme.
In an instant, the machine transformed from a drab lump of metal into a true protagonist-class mobile suit.
More importantly, ordinary physical weapons were practically useless against Phase Shift Armor.
Sure enough, the GINN’s heavy blade struck the Strike’s arm, producing a shower of sparks.
Yet it failed to cause any meaningful damage.
Everyone present was stunned by the sight.
Everyone except Murrue.
Athrun immediately accessed the relevant information through the Aegis Gundam’s operating system and hurriedly warned his comrade.