An advanced guide for experienced modelers, from building blocks to hand-building Gundams

“…For our compatriots.”

"Okay! For our compatriots!" Although Shahib could see that Ross was a little absent-minded, and the whole atmosphere collapsed when it was his turn.

But Rhodes' words made Shahib very satisfied. After all, he joined the guerrillas for the sake of his family and compatriots.

After a glass of beer, everyone started talking.

"Even though Desert Tiger is dead, ZAFT isn't gone. You'll still have a difficult time ahead." Mu put down his empty glass. "Just because ZAFT is pulling back doesn't mean they're gone."

"But regardless, the time they're regrouping is a good time for us to build the tunnel." Shahib put down his cup and wiped his mouth. "The situation can't be any worse than it is now. Once the tunnel is built, we'll have more room to maneuver."

"It's nothing more than ZAFT making a comeback. We will continue to fight for our compatriots." Shahib reached out and picked up the rifle beside him, as if to express his determination.

"No matter how long they fight, we will fight until every last one of them is driven out."

Rhodes listened to their small talk without saying anything, but just poured another glass of wine.

"Ah, it seems this wine is quite strong. I'm going to go out for some fresh air and sober up." Seeing Mu's gaze turned to him, Ross scratched his head, smiled at the people present, and went out with the glass.

"What's he doing..." Shahib was a little confused. After all, according to the guerrillas who came back alive, Ross drove a MS to kill the Desert Tiger and also held back two MSs. It was only reasonable that the celebration party should pay attention to Ross's situation.

"Maybe he's tired. He gets all sorts of random thoughts when he's quiet after a fight." Mu laughed it off. "Let him get some desert breeze to clear his mind."

"Is that so?... After all, he's not a warrior as determined as we are, so it's normal for him to have some random thoughts." Shahib accepted Mu's explanation. "Our elders will hold a farewell ceremony for the fallen warriors. You should come and see."

……

Maybe it's because of the dryness? You can see stars at night in the desert.

Rhodes held a glass of wine, and there was a small hill. Not far away, people were gathering to watch the town elders hold a farewell ceremony.

"...Andrew Bartfield, and Ms. Aisha." Ross was silent for a moment and raised his glass to the sky.

"I don't know if you survived, but the explosion at that distance... I'll just assume you're dead."

"You are the first new humans I've met besides me." Ross took a deep breath and calmed himself down.

After all, when fighting with Andrew and Aisha, their emotions kept flooding into his brain, including the moment when Laco exploded. The strong emotional impact was not pleasant.

"I don't know if your souls can hear me right now, but I still have to say this." Ross paused, his tone becoming serious. "I will change this world for you to see."

"Look, above this sky obscured by the gunfire of war lies the future of mankind. I will personally take it back."

"You can curse me or curse me, I will be waiting for you in my dreams."

After saying that, Rhodes waved his arms, and the beer splashed in the air and finally fell to the ground.

The eyes looking at the starry sky became calm, as if they had let go of something, or seemed to have made some decision.

Ross put down his hand, turned around, and walked towards the Archangel.

"Bang...bang...bang..."

The sound of the salute at the farewell ceremony reached Rhodes' ears.

……

When Ross returned to the Archangel's hangar, he saw Zesta in a fully prepared state.

"Are you okay? Ross?" Christina stood in front of Zesta, as if waiting for Ross's return.

After only staying at the celebration party for a while, Christina returned to the hangar. After all, there was no need for her to eat anymore, and the special nutrient solution alone was enough to keep her brain functioning.

After confirming from Ross that Andrew and Aisha were the two "New Types" who had initially awakened, Christina understood Ross's situation. However, she was unable to do anything about it, so she could only go to the hangar and calm her mind by adjusting Ross's machine.

"Yeah...it's okay." Ross walked over to Christina and patted her shoulder. "As for the rest...I'll tell them when they come to me in their dreams."

"...I understand." Christina breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Ross's condition improve.

"How is Zesta now?" Without further ado, Ross turned his head and looked at Zesta.

"We just finished collecting data for the NTD program. We're experiencing significant damage to our skeleton right now," Christina sighed. "Earth's gravity isn't like space. You'll need to be careful in the upcoming battle."

"Also, according to the route given by the guerrillas, we will enter the Indian Ocean tomorrow." Christina handed the tablet in her hand to Rhodes.

"Zesta isn't a mobile suit for underwater use, so you can't go underwater."

"Then we could use the Archangel as a firing point, or use a high-mobility backpack for aerial combat." Ross thought for a moment and offered his own plan. "We could also build an adapter and temporarily use the Assault's artillery equipment."

“…Let’s get to work.”

……

The next morning, Ross climbed out of Zesta's cockpit with dark circles under his eyes.

At this time, there were already quite a few people in the Gnarkuli moving various boxes.

Last night's repairs lasted for a long time. After such an intense battle, Zesta had problems not only with his skeleton, but also with various parts of his body, big and small. Ross and Christina were busy for a long time last night before they restored Zesta to normal condition.

Soon they would enter the Indian Ocean, where they might encounter aquatic products unique to the Gundam world. Adhering to the philosophy of "If I can't catch any fish, I'll blow up the fish pond", Ross replaced his favorite forged rockets with his second favorite cluster missiles.

Looking at Zesta, whose bullets had all changed color, Ross nodded with satisfaction.

When Ross came outside, the Archangel's crew, along with the guerrillas, were walking around the camp.

In the tent not far away, Cagalli was standing in front of Mariu and saying something, with rich body language.

"Good morning, what happened?" Ross patted his face to sober himself up, then walked in front of Mariu.

"Good morning, Ross." Maru greeted Ross and observed him carefully. After finding that his condition had returned to normal, he breathed a sigh of relief. "Cagallie wants to take our ship, but not to Alaska."

"Maybe she's going back to Orb?" Ross thought for a moment and offered his guess. "After all, Kira saw her on Heliopos, so it makes sense that Cagalli is from Orb."

"Besides, our route passes through Orb, right?"

"That's right, but you also know our situation, Ross." Maru seemed a little worried and did not immediately agree to Cagalli. "ZAFT is chasing us. We are not safe until we reach the Alaska base."

"It's not all bad to let me on board. Believe me, you will need me." Cagalli waved her hands, seeming very confident about this.

"Eh? Do you need me?" Mu, having just woken up, was clearly a bit confused and asked this question. "As for supplies, Ross is a space waste recycler and has some connections. Besides, we'll be in Alaska soon, so resupply isn't that urgent."

"You're overthinking it, Mu." Ross walked over to Mu, who was sitting on a pile of wooden boxes, and patted his shoulder. "Most of my acquaintances are in space. There's not much I can do on Earth. Don't always rely on me."

Then, Ross said to Mu in a voice that Cagalli couldn't hear, "Save some face for the child, she's almost red."

Mu turned his head and saw Cagalli, who looked a little embarrassed and obviously wanted to find an excuse to get on the ship back to Orb. He seemed to have sobered up a little.

"...Forget it. The Archangel's captain is Mariu. You need to get her consent."

"Uh... Anyway, I have something very urgent and important to do in Orb, and I must return to Orb as quickly as possible, that's it!" Cagalli clenched her fists.

When Kagali took Shahib away and began to explain the precautions, Mu turned his head to look at the young man who looked like Rambo and followed Kagali all day.

"Hey, who is that kid?" Faced with Mu's question with a smile, the young man didn't say anything, but just silently sorted the things in the box.

"Maybe it's someone from the 'Dawn Society'? After all, according to Kira's description, the place where she appeared was very close to where you parked the G-series." Ross stuffed his hands into the pockets of his flight jacket, looking a little lazy.

"But who knows? She gives herself the identities she uses when she goes out. Even if she says she's the daughter of Chief Orb, without any verification, we can only take her with a grain of salt."

For some reason, Ross felt a distinct hostility coming from behind him after he finished speaking, and it was very close. But soon, the hostility disappeared.

Ross naturally turned to look at Maru, but he was intentionally observing the young man who looked like Rambo.

The young man simply closed the box naturally, lifted it up, and left.

"Why can't it be my wife?" Mu obviously didn't realize how dangerous it was just now. He was just amused by Ross's words and asked back.

"...Nonsense, the Orb leader is not young anymore. How could Cagalli be his wife at this age?" Ross narrowed his eyes, refuting Mu's thoughts. "In this case, claiming she's the Orb leader's daughter is more plausible than his wife."

"Hey! I'm going to jump out and open the market now. I bet fifty cents that she is a daughter." At this time, Mu suddenly stretched out a finger and stood up with an expression of "I have a plan".

"Shouldn't you choose the wife option? I was the one who suggested the daughter option!" Rhodes felt the fist in his pocket begin to harden.

"This is called striking first to gain the upper hand. I predicted your prediction." Mu looked very proud.

"Fuck, I'm following you, Wumao, I choose my wife."

"...In any case, your speculation is unrealistic," Baki Lulu interrupted the discussion. "But regardless, she was able to get close enough to the warehouse where the G-series were stored, so she must be connected to the Akebono Society."

Ignoring the noisy sounds of Ross and Mu saying things like "It's well known that this is unofficial history" and "Why don't you try to guess too", Bakilu looked at Mariu who was thinking.

"Mariu, what do you think?"

Although Mariu really wanted to say "I'll sit and watch", it was obvious that she needed to express her opinion now as to whether Cagalli could get on the ship.

After a long time, Malu seemed to have made a decision. After taking a deep breath, he spoke.

"Huh... My decision is..."

----split line----

PS: I was exterminating cockroaches here today. After those people sprayed pesticides into the sewers, cockroaches started crawling all over the streets and would burst after walking just two steps.

Someone activated the magic card: "Cockroach Removal", activation effect: Special Summon "Proliferating C" and its derivatives.

Volume 38: Chapter : Seafood is a part of the Gundam worldview and must be tasted.

Flying at low altitude all the way and with the help of the mountains as cover, the Archangel finally arrived at the edge of the African continent.

After going around a mountain, what appeared in front of the Archangel was a sea that gradually changed from light green to blue.

"We're about to enter the Indian Ocean, everyone be careful." Looking at the endless sea before him, Malu became even more serious. "We have no cover on the sea."

"Maddock, is the sonar ready?"

"As for the sonar... Mr. Rhodes and the kid are still doing the final adjustments." In a room, Madoc felt a little scalp-tingling as he looked at the sonar in front of him, which had completely changed its appearance.

"If anything goes wrong with this thing from now on, we'll have to ask Mr. Rhodes to fix it."

The guerrillas had bought a ZAFT military-grade sonar device from the black market. After Rhodes tinkered with it with a wrench, the system composed of several devices was transformed into an all-in-one machine with a rather green-skinned style.

To ensure the safety of the operator, Rhodes used an angle grinder to smooth or round the corners of places that might hit people, and he also removed a lot of steel frames from the rocket cargo hold to fix the machine.

"Kira, I'm done here. How long will it take you?" Rhodes glanced at the program displayed on the screen, stood up from the instrument and stretched.

I had been bending over to connect wires and I felt like my whole body was frozen.

"Quickly... I'll check it again." Kira checked the program on the computer again. After all, this was something that concerned his life and he couldn't treat it as casually as handing in a college assignment.

"Okay, once Kira is done, you can use this sonar." Rhodes tightened the screws on the panel and looked at Madoc beside him.

"I've improved the machine's performance a bit, and I've also modified the operating logic and panel to Earth Army specifications." Rhodes put the screwdriver into the toolbox nearby. "You should be able to get started quickly."

"It should be no problem to get started, but... is it really safe?" Madoc smacked his lips as he looked at the drastically changed instrument before him. "To be honest, I was worried that the charging device and adapter you kept in the hangar would explode."

"Besides, your idea... I don't know how to repair it."

Rhodes picked up the tablet beside him, and Big Hello, who had been staying in Rhodes's hair, extended his robotic arm and transferred a piece of information into it.

"Here, the instructions and maintenance manual." Rhodes handed the tablet to Madoc. "Follow the instructions above, and you'll be fine."

"Oh, so this is how it is repaired..." Madoc flipped through the information on the tablet and suddenly realized it.

But soon, after seeing a certain passage, a feeling of confusion arose.

"Wait a minute, why is it written here, 'If a malfunction occurs and no cause is found after inspection, please prepare an incense burner and pray to the machine, and speak devoutly: Praise Omnissiah, the God of All Machines'?"

Madoc looked at Rhodes and narrowed his eyes, as if he thought Rhodes was playing a joke on him.

"Haven't you heard of 'Gray Electric Balance'?" Amidst everyone's bewildered expressions, Rhodes walked up to Madoc and patted him on the shoulder. "You have to trust some things. What if there really is a 'Machine Soul' in it?"

……

On the top deck of the linear gun, several figures were wandering around.

Ross leaned on the railing, looking at Kira's friends in front of him, who were shouting at the blue sea.

"Is this the sea that people on the Internet talk about?" Christina reached out and held the railing, her eyes constantly adjusting the focus.

"Yes." Ross turned his head and looked at the side of the Archangel.

From time to time, a few dolphins or flying fish would jump out of the sea and fall back into the sea.

"The war was so intense, but this place was not affected much." Christina took a few photos of the leaping dolphins and sighed.

"The Indian Ocean isn't a region of intense conflict, and N-interference doesn't have much of an impact on living things." Ross looked up at the Archangel's bridge. "Perhaps after everyone is dead and the war is over, animals and plants will take over the places where humans once lived, and then the cycle will begin again, until new intelligent life emerges."

“Nature is so magical.”

After looking at the sea for a while, Ross suddenly sighed.

"Hey... The Archangel is going too fast. It's impossible to go sea fishing."

"Sea fishing... that's fishing, right? I remember there shouldn't be fishing rods on the Archangel?" Thor looked at Ross with a worried expression for some reason.

"Thor... Oh, I heard they said you were born in Heliopos, right?" Ross gave Thor a thumbs-up. "I'm a genius mechanic. Building a boom is no problem at all."