Lacus made a quick assessment. If an explosion on this scale happened in her world, it would be hell.
Based on the live feed and the system calculations from the android command headquarters, the purely physical effects of the blast alone, especially the tsunami, would impact half the planet.
Some low-lying landmasses would be devastated outright.
If something like that happened in her own world, nearly a third of Earth's inhabited regions would probably be affected.
The number of dead and injured might amount to a fifth of the global population.
But in this world, since there were no humans left on the surface, only machine lifeforms and androids, and since most of the affected region this time was machine lifeform territory, the damage to the androids was practically negligible.
No, that was wrong.
The losses absolutely could not be called negligible.
Because the one who had destroyed that super-extremely giant machine lifeform was not an android.
It was the only human who had publicly stepped forward.
In the hearts of the androids, his importance was equal to that of a birth parent.
To put it even more bluntly, he was basically the god worshiped by a whole mass of fanatics - the androids.
And now their god had sacrificed himself in order to destroy the super-extremely giant machine lifeform.
A blow like that was suffocating.
How could that possibly be classified as a negligible loss?
It was a devastating loss.
A fitting comparison would be this: it was like Adolf Hitler at the height of his power in the twentieth century, when the entire nation regarded him as a hero, suddenly being killed.
The result would not be that the country immediately collapsed because its spiritual leader was dead.
It would be that the entire nation instantly went berserk.
The soldiers, overwhelmed by rage, would see their morale explode as well. They would fight like madmen and become a terrifying army of slaughter.
And at that moment, Lacus noticed something in the details.
Miss A2 was in the command room as well, so Lacus could see the reactions of the commanders there.
And their reactions were very strange.
When the human named Kain launched his death charge, every last one of them had been on edge, each looking as though she wished she could take his place instead.
Some of them had even seemed willing to sacrifice most of the androids' fighting power, even willing to crash the satellite bases into the earth, if that would only guarantee his safety and keep him from taking the risk.
And when Kain successfully broke through and destroyed the super-extremely giant machine lifeform, their emotions seemed to hit the absolute limit.
But then, at that very moment, something bizarre happened.
They glanced toward A2 and saw that she seemed to have no particular reaction at all, that she was perfectly calm, and suddenly every one of them changed expressions, as if a burden had been lifted, all letting out a sigh of relief.
It was as though all their previous worry had been an act, something they could now finally discard.
And the orders they gave immediately afterward sent a chill through Lacus.
There was no concern at all for Kain, as if the one who had died were someone utterly insignificant.
That left Lacus unable to avoid imagining some terrifying conspiracy.
Even the colony ship launched toward another star system might itself be part of that conspiracy.
If that were true, it would be enough to make one's blood run cold.
And just then, a new development erupted in the command center.
"I demand an explanation from Command. Why are there no search-and-rescue orders at all? Why is the identity of the creator who piloted that fighter being kept secret? Because it was Lord Kain, wasn't it?"
That furious demand echoed through the entire command center.
Clearly, someone was already openly questioning whether Command was hiding a conspiracy.
And before Command could even respond, more voices flooded into the channel.
"Command, is the information Jackass provided true?"
Many pieces of so-called intelligence data also appeared on the screens, things that seemed clearly unfavorable to Command.
Among them were incidents that looked like betrayals, though many details were suspicious. The official claim was that the machine lifeforms had infiltrated them, leaving no choice but to execute certain people, but it all looked far more like Command had been covering up some hidden truth.
"This was the incident from March last year. We always believed…"
"I have serious doubts here too…"
"On January twenty-third, the machine lifeforms clearly should not have been able to infiltrate our position, yet they claimed…"
"They obviously could have sent support, but Command kept finding excuses not to, and in the end…"
More and more voices joined in, each apparently sharing their own intelligence.
It was as though, in that moment, the long-simmering dissatisfaction of the ground Resistance androids toward the androids who lorded over them from space had finally exploded.
"What exactly have you been secretly sending YoRHa units to assassinate?"
That single question caused the chaotic noise to die away at remarkable speed.
"Could it be… that you were assassinating…!"
The speaker did not finish the sentence.
But the channel fell utterly silent in an instant.
"How interesting. So you androids, just like us machine lifeforms, have walked down the road of killing your own creators?"
Then, without warning, another voice cut in.
That voice did not sound like an enemy signal hacking into the channel.
It sounded more like an enormously powerful loudspeaker, broadcasting so widely that it could be picked up even through people's communicators.
And with that voice's intrusion, the silence on the channel became even more terrible.
Faced with that silence, Command still did not immediately offer any explanation.
It looked as though they had no answer at all.
At that point, the next stage of events was easy to imagine.
The androids would descend into civil war.
Then suddenly, one person spoke, another person replied, and Lacus froze for a moment.
That exchange had not come from the world of A2.
It had come from the viewers watching the livestream.
Another viewer who had joined around the same time as Lacus, someone from another world where Gundams also existed, said that she hoped the androids would not descend into civil war too.
And then another person, Fallen Angel Kuroneko, replied with complete certainty that they would not.
That made Lacus curious.
Such certainty meant she had some kind of evidence to support it.
So this Miss Kuroneko clearly knew more of the truth about A2's world.
As for why she had been taken away behind the scenes, the answer was -
[
Fallen Angel Kuroneko: Look. Isn't "Mr. Golden Toilet" online?
]
That single sentence left Lacus still unable to understand.
And yet the other viewer from a world with Gundams responded with sudden realization, saying, "Right, of course. I almost forgot about that."
Forgot what, exactly?
[
Universe's Number One Songstress: Um, could someone explain? I don't get it.
]
Lacus sent that message, and immediately got an answer from the other viewer from the Gundam world.
She said that Mr. Kain was still online, which meant he was fine.
Online? Mr. Kain?
Was that not the name of the young man from the androids' side?
Wait.
Lacus suddenly remembered that Kuroneko had once called "Mr. Golden Toilet" Big Bro Kain.
They were the same person?
But hadn't everyone said they all came from different worlds?
What was going on?
Lacus immediately asked in confusion, and someone promptly explained it to her.
If she had not logged off so early that day, she probably would have heard even more of that explanation, including some of the outrageous functions of the Hyperdimensional Channel, especially Cross-World Invitation.
In other words, Mr. Kain had come from another world to help out in A2's world.
And since he was online, that meant he was alive.
With that, Lacus had to completely overturn her earlier interpretation of the speech and form a new hypothesis.
It was entirely possible that humanity in A2's world really had already gone extinct.
And Mr. Kain's actions had been meant to prevent the androids from remaining shackled to humanity.
To help the androids gradually adjust to a future in which humanity was no longer beside them, so that when they finally learned that humanity was extinct, they would not collapse.
And just then, the players within the live feed reacted as well.
"Jackass, do you see now? If you do, then you should understand why we didn't order you to carry out a rescue mission."
That was Command's answer.
At the same time, one of the surveillance screens showed a fighter aircraft breaking out through the thunderstorm.
It looked as though it was on the verge of falling apart.
But at the very least, the person in the pilot's seat could be seen waving.
He seemed fine, and for now, that was enough.
(End of Chapter)
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