After establishing contact with the Archangel, the massive battleship slowly descended and landed on the surface of the space colony.
The hangar doors opened, revealing access for Lu Tianming, Murrue, and the others, ready to take in the last Gundam and its components.
Without saying much, Lu Tianming returned to his machine and, under the guidance of the Archangel, boarded the battleship with Murrue and the others, bringing along the previously collected supplies.
After several trips moving the supplies back and forth, Lu Tianming finally finished his work and climbed out of the Strike Gundam.
But as soon as his feet touched the ground, another voice came from nearby.
"So you're the pilot of this Strike? Impressive—you even managed to defeat Creuset."
The speaker was Mu, the pilot of the Moebius Zero.
He hadn't been seen on the ground earlier... Now that he was here, it was likely he had been taken in by the Archangel along with the others.
"By the way, let me introduce myself. I'm Mu-La-Flaga, the pilot of this Zero."
As he spoke, he walked toward Lu Tianming, greeting him with an easygoing familiarity.
"Lu Tianming. For now... I suppose I'm the temporary pilot of this machine. I only managed to start it up in a moment of urgency and fought back out of necessity."
Lu Tianming chose his words carefully, his tone modest.
"Barely? You're way better than the originally assigned pilots. They're like night and day compared to you—there's no competition at all!"
Mu didn't hold back his praise... His previous mission had been to escort the originally assigned Gundam pilots to Heliopolis, so he was well aware of their skill level.
To put it simply... if Lu Tianming's Strike moved like a professionally trained soldier, the original pilots were more like toddlers just learning to walk.
The gap was simply too vast...
Lu Tianming merely smiled at Mu's excessive praise and said nothing more.
Truthfully, the reason he could operate the Strike was entirely because Xia Chuan was acting as its Machine Spirit inside, coupled with some strange restriction that prevented it from moving without a pilot.
Naturally, he wouldn't reveal all of this. At most, he'd gloss over it with a half-joking tone, much like how he'd handled Kira... After all, spilling everything would benefit neither him nor Xia Chuan. If some eccentric Earth Alliance officers found out, he might even be taken away for dissection.
He understood the principle: the less said, the fewer mistakes.
"...Ensign Badgiruel, this is Private First Class Lu Tianming, the one who piloted the Strike in battle and protected us."
After exchanging a few more pleasantries with Mu, he noticed Murrue approaching with another short-haired woman in military uniform.
Judging by her stern, solemn expression and Murrue's earlier introduction, Lu Tianming could confirm that the short-haired officer was Natarle Badgiruel, who would serve as the Archangel's deputy captain for a long time to come.
As Murrue made the introduction, Badgiruel turned her gaze to Lu Tianming. She gave him a quick once-over, her eyebrows lifting slightly—as if surprised that the Strike's pilot was a youth even younger than herself.
But then, as if remembering something, his brow furrowed again, and he asked in a slightly serious tone:
"Captain Ramius... are you saying this Private First Class Lu, without any prior training, proficiently operated the Assault Suit and repelled the attacking ZAFT Forces?"
Hearing the unfriendly tone in Badgiruel's voice, Murrue's expression also darkened as she responded:
"Lieutenant Badgiruel, if you have something to say, you can speak directly. There's no need to beat around the bush."
"What I mean is... is he really a Natural?"
Badgiruel no longer held back, voicing the doubt in her heart.
Her suspicion was not without reason. Up to this point in the timeline—in the SEED world, those who could skillfully pilot MS were almost exclusively Coordinators. It could be said that the equation "MS pilot = Coordinator" had long been an absolute truth.
It was hard not to be suspicious of an untrained youth who could proficiently pilot an MS right from the start.
Coupled with his low Military Rank... it was likely he hadn't undergone any rigorous identity screening. Badgiruel even suspected this guy might be a spy from ZAFT.
Hearing Natarle say this, the other soldiers and staff around immediately grew alert, casting unfriendly, sword-like glances at Lu Tianming.
In this worldview, aside from a few neutral nations like ORB that accepted both Naturals and Coordinators... in most other regions, these two groups were in a state of irreconcilable opposition.
It was as if the identities of "Coordinator" and "Natural" themselves marked their allegiances in the war.
"Private First Class Lu's identity is confirmed beyond doubt and not up for question."
Murrue replied firmly, standing unwaveringly on Lu Tianming's side.
Regardless of whether Lu Tianming's identity had been thoroughly vetted, just seeing how fiercely he had fought earlier made it clear he couldn't be a spy for ZAFT.
"I also think you're overreacting, Lieutenant Badgiruel."
Mu likewise stood by Lu Tianming, having witnessed his earlier battle with Creuset and genuinely felt the opposition between the two.
"If he were a spy, there'd be no need for him to stay, right...? He could have just taken the Assault Suit and left earlier, couldn't he?"
"Since both Captain Ramius and Lieutenant Mu trust him so much, I won't say more for now."
Seeing both Murrue and Mu taking sides, and lacking any concrete evidence, Badgiruel didn't press the issue further, though she remained cautious.
"That's more like it... We don't have time for internal conflicts right now, do we? Don't forget, it's Creuset's team out there."
"Even if Creuset's mobile suit was damaged by this young man, the rest of his squad will catch up soon, right? We need to hurry and prepare for the counterattack."
Seeing the conflict resolved, Mu smiled and changed the subject—shifting the focus to the immediate pressure they faced.
Mentioning this issue, Badgiruel and Murrue exchanged glances, both looking troubled.
After a moment of thought, Murrue was the first to speak:
"Due to our hasty departure, the Archangel hasn't been fully resupplied—especially with mobile suit repair parts. We only have the components the Assault Suit collected earlier."
"With this limited quantity... the Assault Suit's spare parts will be exhausted after just a few hits."
"...That's going to be troublesome. Daily supplies can still be obtained from other places later, but mobile suit repair parts—those aren't available elsewhere, right?"
Mu clicked his tongue lightly. At least for now, the Assault Suit's components were all specialized products of Heliopolis. If they couldn't manage to stockpile enough parts here, there would be very few places for resupply later
.
Just as everyone was looking at each other, pondering how to solve the current resource dilemma, Lu Tianming suddenly spoke up:
"Actually—I have a plan."