Chapter 296: Huayan 1
"Tolle, is this true?" Selene grabbed both of Tolle's hands, eyes fixed on his, her expression earnest. "Can you let me join the project too? Don't worry, I'll keep it secret."
Feeling the softness of her hands and seeing her sincere gaze, Tolle actually felt a little embarrassed to look at her.
But deliberately looking away while speaking would be rude, so he forced himself to stay calm, shifted his gaze slightly, and looked at the triangular area between her eyes and nose as he said, "Selene, I can help you. But the price might be a bit high for you. Still… the enhancement results are indeed very good."
Beside him, Yulia chimed in and performed a few difficult demonstrations—cutting paper, slicing a water cup, that sort of thing.
Tolle silently mourned that poor water cup for a second. Because of his earlier exaggerations, the sales of cups in Orb had spiked lately.
Selene, however, stared with wide, sparkling eyes, saying repeatedly that she wanted to join no matter what.
In the end, Tolle explained to her the entire rapid internal-energy transfer process and its precautions.
Selene immediately stripped down and cooperated fully, completing the accelerated transfer and receiving both physical and reflex enhancements.
Her original B-level constitution and response speed were boosted to about A-.
Tolle then implanted neo DG cells into her for conditioning, making Selene one of Mina's trusted helpers.
After all, she was talented in both piloting and development—Mina would never willingly let someone like her go.
Once everything at the Pillar of Heaven was finished, Tolle turned to Nicol, who had changed his appearance. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Nicol. I've handled the matters in Orb. I can now safely send you back to PLANT."
"Don't worry about it. I didn't wait that long."
"Alright. Mina has already prepared your ticket for this afternoon's flight to PLANT and your new identity passport.
We'll be parting ways again for a while. Good luck—safe travels."
"Thank you. You be careful too. If you ever need my help, just say the word. I'll do everything I can."
After saying farewell, Tolle escorted Nicol onto the shuttle to PLANT.
Then he piloted the Wing Zero White Snow Prelude, heading alone toward the ruins of Heliopolis.
There he gathered a large amount of debris and rebuilt another satellite—Zea—which he stored in compressed space as a long-term contingency asset.
While collecting debris, Tolle sat idle in the Prelude's cockpit and said to Nami, "Nami, I think building the Seraph was a loss.
Its appearance is way too obvious. It's practically a copy of the Archangel—they'd definitely get suspicious.
If I take it out, Murrue and the others will think I have ulterior motives.
If I don't take it out, I'll be stuck without a proper battleship in the SEED world. Help me think of something."
"Master, isn't this just a remodeling issue? Nami can handle it.
But if we're modifying it, I suggest choosing a ship with a sharp, pointed bow. It would greatly increase travel speed.
Something like the Archangel or the Pegasus-class assault cruiser—those travel too fast. I'm afraid their forward prongs would snap off mid-flight from the impact forces."
Tolle thought it over and found Nami's reasoning increasingly convincing. "You're right, Nami. We can't just think short-term.
If we modify it with a solar furnace later, give it triple red particles or something, it really might break apart mid-flight.
But among Gundam ships with sharp bows… there aren't many.
Eternal, Minerva, the Argama class, the Nahel Argama class, Ra Cailum, and the Diva—those at least fit my current taste.
I can't build anything better right now. Even these are just imitations of the exterior."
"No problem, Master. Leave it to Nami. I'll use current technology to remodel it, and if you want changes later, we can upgrade again."
"Thanks, Nami. You're the best. Let me think about which ship to pick."
After wrestling with the decision for a while, Tolle finally said, "Nami, choose the Diva's design and remodel the Seraph with that hull.
The Diva's assault mode resembles the Archangel a bit, so it should be easier to modify.
And its weapons are mostly internal—you can't tell from the outside that it's an assault warship.
Anyone who doesn't know would think it's just a regular transport ship.
The key is that it transforms. That's the biggest advantage.
Flashy is good. Power can always be improved with technology later."
"As you command, Master. Leave the remodeling to me. Since I'm only altering the exterior based on the original frame, it'll be finished soon.
Master just needs to wait a few days."
"A few days? That fast? I thought it'd take forever. Nami, you're amazing."
"Hehe. The key is the upgrade you gave me earlier—my computational ability increased, and I now have access to the satellite Zea inside your storage.
All of my capabilities have improved sharply, especially DG-cell manipulation and processing speed. That's why I can finish the remodel so quickly."
"You were already amazing before. Now you're even better." Tolle praised her generously, then continued, "Nami, let's use every piece of technology we have that can be applied to the ship.
TS armor, pinpoint barriers, full-direction shield systems, FTL jump capability—everything. Just throw it all in.
Especially the large Ahab reactor—that one is essential. It provides internal gravity and supports the external Ahab Nano-Layer armor.
Nami, can we do that?"
"No problem. Everything Master asks for, Nami can do. But I have a suggestion: TP armor and PS armor can operate in tandem.
Normally, the ship can stay in TP-armor mode. When necessary, it can switch fully to PS-armor mode.
Since the hull area is huge, dense kinetic attacks might be too fast for reactive armor to respond.
And if we add too many reactive layers, they could interfere with the Ahab Nano-Layer's beam defense.
But with TP + PS armor active together—
The hull will have reliable protection against projectiles, without sacrificing Ahab Nano-Layer defense against beam weapons."