Crossing Orb: Newtype Commander

December 15, CE70, underground command center of the Obu Defense Forces.

Cagalli Yura Athha stood before the simulated command platform, her palms slightly sweaty. As a first-term student in the MS Department of the Orb Military Academy, she had to complete at least four simulated command tests every month. Today was different—Char had personally set the scenario parameters for her. "Enemy Attack on Orb," difficulty "Expert." Only one person had ever achieved a perfect score at this level of simulation before: Char himself.

"Are you ready?" Xia stood behind her, holding a data tablet in his hand.

"Alright." Cagalli took a deep breath and sat down in the command chair. The fifteen-year-old girl had grown to over 1.6 meters tall, with her golden hair tied into a neat ponytail and her amber eyes focused intently on the holographic screen.

Scene loading.

Tactical map unfolds—East coast of Aubu Island, enemy forces are attacking simultaneously from three directions: approximately forty mobile suits (MS) for naval landings, twenty airborne troops, and ten submarine infiltration units. Our forces have only fifty MS, deployed in three echelons. The mission objective is to hold the coastal defenses for seventy-two hours until reinforcements arrive.

Cagalli quickly made a judgment: "First echelon advances to the beachhead, second echelon stands by, third echelon covers the flanks. AWACS aircraft take off, Minovsky particle concentration raised to the operational threshold."

The first few minutes went smoothly. The first echelon repelled the enemy's first landing wave on the beachhead, destroying seven mobile suits while losing two of their own. Cagalli's command drew frequent nods of approval from the observing instructors—the tactical choices were sound, neither reckless nor cowardly.

But then a second wave came.

The enemy forces outnumbered the first wave twice as many, while airborne troops flanked the enemy, and submarines launched missiles from the nearshore waters to suppress air defenses. Cracks began to appear in Cagalli's defenses. The first echelon was cut off and surrounded, the second echelon was hastily deployed and its formation was scattered, and the third echelon was still en route from the flanks.

"Commander, the breach on the left flank has widened! The enemy is infiltrating the second line of defense!"

Cagalli bit her lip, her fingers flying across the control panel. Her heart pounded, and beads of sweat appeared on her forehead. The shimmering lights and shadows in the simulator highlighted the tense lines on her face.

"First echelon retreating towards the center! Second echelon covering the left flank! Third echelon accelerating—"

Before she could finish speaking, the icons of three friendly mobile suits on the holographic screen simultaneously turned gray—they had been destroyed. The loss had reached twelve, while the enemy still had nearly forty. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, but the pressure felt like a mountain weighing on her shoulders.

Char stood behind her, silent. The real-time data stream on the data tablet told him that Cagalli was entering a state—not a breakdown, but a critical point.

Cagalli closed her eyes. In the darkness, she heard her own heartbeat, the VEDA alarm, and the instructors' whispers in the stands. Then she heard a voice, not from the outside, but from within—from the deepest part of her body, from the very source of her blood.

"Your abilities are not limited to this."

She opened her eyes.

The amber pupils changed. No longer a gentle honey color, but a light radiating outward from the center of the pupils, like the sun rising from the depths of the eyes. That light was not a reflection, but a self-illuminating light from within.

Char's hand stopped. The data tablet slipped from his fingers and fell to the ground with a crisp sound. But the sound didn't reach his ears, because his entire attention was drawn to Cagalli's back—not the back itself, but the almost invisible "aura" surrounding her. His Newtype abilities allowed him to sense her state, a long-dormant power that had suddenly awakened.

SEED. In the SEED world, this is a "genetic switch" possessed by a small number of Coordinators and a very small number of Naturals—once activated, their abilities are comprehensively enhanced, and their reaction speed, judgment, and decision-making abilities will surge to the limits of human capabilities.

Cagalli's fingers touched the control panel. Not pressed, but grazed it. Every command was precise to the millisecond. Her voice was no longer hesitant: "The remnants of the first echelon retreat to coordinates E7, not to escape, but to lure the enemy. The second echelon flank from the side, not to provide support, but to encircle. The third echelon abandons the flank defenses and penetrates at full speed into the enemy's rear."

"But Commander, the flank—"

"implement."

There was no room for negotiation in her voice. That decisiveness wasn't something acquired through training, but rather an instinctive, almost animalistic intuition.

Thirty seconds.

Within thirty seconds, Cagalli's forces completed the entire process from rout to counterattack. The remnants of the first echelon lured the main enemy force into E7 Valley. The second echelon surrounded them from both flanks, using crossfire to block their retreat. The third echelon suddenly appeared behind the enemy lines and destroyed the command ship. The enemy was thrown into chaos and then picked off one by one.

On the holographic screen, the last enemy icon disappeared.

Scene complete.

VEDA's voice rang out: "Mission complete. Personal losses: 28 MS." The optimal solution should have been to lose 22 MS—Cagalli's losses were 6 more. However, considering her unfavorable start, this result far exceeded everyone's expectations. Overall score: 89 points, second only to Char's 95 points.

Eighty-nine.

The instructors in the spectator stands exchanged bewildered glances. Fifteen years old, less than six months into the program, and scored 89 points in an expert-level simulation? Some rubbed their eyes, suspecting that VEDA had malfunctioned.

But Cagalli didn't hear any of this.

She was sitting in the conductor's chair when she suddenly leaned forward—her head hit the control panel with a dull thud, and she slid to the floor. The golden light in her amber eyes had vanished, replaced by a blank stare. Her face was pale, and her breathing was rapid, as if she had just run a marathon.

Xia rushed over, knelt down on one knee, and picked her up. "Cagalli!"

Cagalli's eyes slowly opened. It took her pupils a long time to focus, as if her consciousness hadn't fully returned to the simulated battlefield. She looked at her brother's face, that usually calm and composed countenance now filled with worry.

"Brother...did I win?" The voice was very soft, each word sounding like it was uttered with all her might.

Xia hugged her tightly, his voice trembling slightly. "You won. But you almost exhausted yourself."

The medical team arrived quickly. After examining her, the doctor confirmed that Cagalli was not seriously injured; it was just a brief coma caused by exhaustion, and she would recover after rest. Char insisted on personally escorting her back to the mansion, refusing all offers of help. He carried his sister in his arms as they walked out of the command center.

The corridor was long and brightly lit. Cagalli leaned against his chest, her eyes closed, her breathing gradually becoming steady. Halfway down, she suddenly spoke: "Brother, I just felt... the world slowed down. The enemy missiles were like slow motion, and every data point on the screen was crystal clear. The relationships between those icons weren't dots, but a net—I could see the net's weaknesses."

Xia looked down at her, his amber eyes opening again, weary yet possessing an indescribable light. That light emanated not only from his pupils, but from a deeper place. It wasn't the moment of awakening, but rather the unease he felt about his abilities after awakening.

"It's not that the world has slowed down, it's that your perception has sped up. Your brain is processing information faster than usual, so the world appears to you in slow motion."

"Can I do it again?"

"Yes. It will appear when you need it most. It will awaken naturally the moment you truly need it."

Cagalli remained silent for a long time.

"Does my brother have this ability too?"

Char thought for a moment. His new ability was different from SEED's, but they were similar in essence—both were forms of awakening human potential, only one was a constant state and the other a short-term one. "My ability is slightly different. I'll tell you later."

Cagalli didn't ask any more questions. She closed her eyes, and her breathing became steady again. This time, she was truly asleep.

That night, Char stayed by Cagalli's bedside, holding her simulation data playback. VEDA marked the critical 30 seconds—Cagalli's reaction speed improved from the usual 0.3 seconds to 0.08 seconds, her judgment accuracy increased from 78% to 96%, and her decision-making time was reduced from an average of five seconds to 1.5 seconds. This was not just "talent," it was something deeper—SEED.

"In VEDA, were any abnormal gene expressions found in Cagalli's physiological data?"

No. Her genome matches her previous medical records perfectly.

"So, the awakening of SEED isn't a change at the genetic level, but rather an epigenetic phenomenon? Or a deeper spiritual one?" Char muttered to himself. The definition of "SEED" in the SEED world was extremely vague—was it an "ability," a "state," or some kind of spiritual phenomenon closer to "Newtype awakening"? After being pulled back to reality by Lala's consciousness, he was no longer so certain about these boundaries. Perhaps Newtypes and SEED were simply different expressions of the same type of potential, limited by different worldviews and technological paths, presenting themselves in different forms.

Cagalli rolled over, mumbling incoherently, "Brother... I'll win." Char looked at her and gently brushed the stray hairs from her forehead.

"You've already won."

At the same time, in the underground laboratory of the Dawn Society.

Erika Simmons was also analyzing Cagalli's simulation data. She was summoned by a VEDA alert—"Cagalli Yura Athha's mental load has exceeded the safety threshold." She initially thought it was a device malfunction, but after seeing the data, she realized what had happened. The abilities Cagalli displayed at that moment had surpassed the limits of normal humans, and even exceeded the limits of Coordinators.

"This isn't something you can get through training," Erica told Veda. "This is awakening."

"Lord Char calls it 'SEED.' A possibility hidden deep within the human gene pool."

Erica was silent for a moment. "His Newtype abilities, Cagalli's SEED—maybe the two of them are telling us something."

"What?"

"Human potential is far greater than we think. It's just that most people's potential remains dormant throughout their lives."

A few days later, Cagalli had fully recovered. The first thing she did upon returning to command center was not to train, but to find Char.

"Brother, I want to watch the simulation replay from that day again."

Char pulled up the data. The two stood side by side in front of the holographic screen, watching themselves turn the tide of battle in thirty seconds.

"Is that me?" Cagalli asked softly. The image of herself on the screen flew across the control panel, commands pouring out like water, each decision made with a decisiveness unlike that of a fifteen-year-old girl. She didn't quite remember what happened in those thirty seconds; everything was too fast, so fast that her consciousness couldn't keep up with her instincts.

Char turned off the screen. "Cagalli, your ability is an innate talent. It slumbered within you for fifteen years, awakening when it was most needed. It will always be with you, waiting for you to need it again."

"What if it doesn't wake up? What if no matter how hard I try, I can't do what I did that day?"

Char crouched down to meet her gaze. "Abilities may change, battles may change, the world may change. But who you are—that will never change. Not because of how strong you are, but because you are Cagalli Yura Athha. The Athha family doesn't become weak just because their abilities have diminished."

Cagalli's eyes reddened, she sniffed, and nodded vigorously.

At night, Cagalli stood alone on the balcony, gazing at the starry sky. She stretched out her hand, looking at her palm, her fingers opening and closing. Nothing inside her had changed, but the feeling was different—as if her senses, dormant for many years, had suddenly been awakened, allowing her to smell flowers from afar, hear the gentler breeze, and feel subtler temperature changes.

"Mom," she whispered to the starry sky, "do you have this ability too? Or is it only me?"

No one answered. Only the night breeze brushed against her hair, carrying away a silent tear.