Chapter 278 - 279: Cheating Is Cheating?

Chapter 278: Chapter 279: Cheating Is Cheating?

Heliopolis had collapsed.

The colony split apart completely.

"Heliopolis..."

Kira and the others hadn’t boarded their mobile suits yet—or rather, they were just about to when the attack hit.

The only one still out there was the Red Frame, since Cagalli had been running simulated battles the whole time after getting her new toy.

"ZAFT forces—already moving out!"

Murrue received the alert.

"So they’ve come!" The instant the shockwave passed, the radar flashed a warning.

"Report damage! Begin damage control! Archangel, slow ahead!"

They couldn’t stay put—that would make them a sitting duck.

ZAFT had blown the colony apart from the outside for the sole purpose of getting the Archangel. They wouldn’t let her slip away.

"Heat source ahead—missiles!"

"They’ve already locked onto us?! Open the anti-air barrage!"

Murrue snapped out the order.

"Captain Ramius!" Cagalli’s comm cut in. "Red Frame Unit 2 is ready to launch anytime!"

"Stay safe—cover the Archangel at close range!"

Murrue gave the order without hesitation. Kira and Mu still hadn’t reached their machines, so Cagalli was all she had to rely on.

"There it is! Huh? Why is it that red one?!"

Yzak was a little taken aback.

They’d braced themselves to face the Strike, and instead out came that red machine.

"The attack worked!" Athrun concluded.

The Strike had probably been kept from launching in time by the explosion.

"I’ll pin down the red one! The rest of you attack the Legged Ship with everyone else!"

Athrun decided to tie up the red machine first and let the others press the assault on the Archangel.

"Roger!"

The group moved at once, the heavily armed Gundams teaming up with the GINNs to open their attack on the Archangel.

"The port-side barrage is too thin!" Murrue felt the ship shudder.

The Archangel was going all-out, but two fists couldn’t fend off four.

"Huh?!"

Meanwhile, Athrun had braced for a serious fight when he met the red machine—but the longer they fought, the more he felt that this red one... was actually surprisingly easy to push around.

The red machine had strong mobility, and its movements weren’t bad in themselves, but they were easy to predict, and the Aegis kept feeding him evasion solutions.

"The red one’s weaker than the Strike... a lot weaker! And the data package—it’s actually useful!"

He hadn’t broken through her defense yet, but Athrun knew: give him two more minutes and he’d take the red machine down for sure.

It wasn’t just that his opponent was weak—it was that he’d gotten stronger.

The data in the four G-series machines didn’t just include follow-up upgrade plans; it also came with an AI software assist package.

It was an experimental feature, but Athrun had gone through the data on it, and this AI’s assist performance was actually quite good.

Once he realized he was no match for the Strike, Athrun had gone ahead and switched it on.

The Aegis was the hardest of the five G-series machines to pilot.

But with the AI, Athrun found that the Aegis had somehow become even easier to handle than a GINN.

With one side rising and the other falling, taking down the red machine was only a matter of time.

"Damn it..."

Cagalli was barely holding on. Without Phase Shift Armor, all she could do against the Aegis’s assault was block with her shield.

"Cagalli! You just need to buy time!" Murrue’s voice came over the comm.

"I know that already!"

But it made her furious!

She was sitting in a mobile suit this smooth to control, and here she was being pinned down by the enemy.

When the piloting itself couldn’t be blamed, the gap in raw strength became painfully obvious.

At this rate Cagalli could barely even hold a combat stance.

She didn’t want to be nothing more than a punching bag—she wanted to beat the enemy too.

But she couldn’t.

"Not good!"

Hold a defense long enough and you’ll lose it.

Caught off guard, the Red Frame’s left hand was sliced clean off by a beam saber.

"Got you!"

The Aegis moved in to strike again.

But at that very moment, a beam rifle shot from the distance cut its attack short.

"The Strike!" Athrun pegged the enemy instantly.

"The AI’s incredible..."

He hadn’t sensed that last attack at all.

If not for the AI’s warning, he’d have been hit just now.

But with the AI’s help, he’d actually managed to dodge the Strike’s attack!

"They’ve gotten stronger again!"

Kira flew to Cagalli’s side.

"Cagalli-san, please return to the ship!"

"Tch—leaving it to you!"

Cagalli was reluctant, but right now she was nothing but a liability.

"Athrun!"

Having spotted the Strike, Yzak and the others immediately gave up on joining the main assault and came over to Athrun’s side.

The Legged Ship didn’t matter—the Strike had to be beaten.

"Turn on the AI assist—the boost is huge," Athrun reminded them.

The feature existed on all the G machines, but only Athrun had been using it.

"Let’s try it." Nicol switched the system on first.

"Hm?"

The effect was immediate.

The machine’s display changed at once.

Every threat ahead that could cause damage—debris and the like—was tagged, and though the machine hadn’t engaged a lock, the Strike stayed pinned on the panel almost the whole time.

The pressure dropped dramatically.

"AI—that sort of thing?" Yzak didn’t trust it, but he trusted Athrun.

"This targeting!"

Dearka switched on his AI too, and his aim improved a great deal.

The four of them closed in on the Strike again.

"They’ve gotten stronger again!"

Kira could clearly feel the enemy had grown much tougher.

[The villains’ side is one freaking Hero’s Party—they level up after every fight]

[Now that you mention it, yeah]

[First time they got curbstomped, second time they formed a party, and by the third time they’d upgraded their gear]

[Heroes vs. the Demon Lord]

[This is basically a retreat-enabled Souls game you have to clear on one life lmao]

[Now that you put it that way, yeah]

[Level up some more, I want to see even more special effects!]

[Fight! Fight! Fight!]

The audience just wanted to see rivers of blood.

"This thing really is something!"

After nearly landing a slash on the Strike and dodging its counter, Yzak’s eyes lit up.

—Good stuff.

This AI assist system was just too good!

[Ah, the sweet smell of eating your own words!]

[Oh man, now that smells good!]

[Hahaha!]

[This is a cheat, right? Ridiculous]

[Cheating is cheating, huh?]

[It’s actually because the mobile suits in the SEED world have problems to begin with]

[Now I’m scared GBN will recreate this setting—I’m no Coordinator, I couldn’t pilot a suit like this]

[I think it’s fine—this AI assist feels more like a patch for us to use later]

[Feels like both sides are pretty balanced in combat power now]

[Hard to say—the Archangel took the shockwave, its combat power’s down, it’s already eaten several hits]

Amid the audience’s chatter, the Strike tangled with the four machines once again.

And on the other side, Mu launched in the Blue Frame too, beginning to exchange fire with that poor unlucky sap of Dusk... ah, with the Magic Bullet of Dusk...