"Actually, we weren't originally planning to deliver anything... but to escort a group of people here first."
Ro spread his hands, indicating that things had turned out quite different from the initial plan, with some twists occurring during the mission execution.
Lu Tianming raised an eyebrow with curiosity and gestured for Ro to continue.
"Initially, we were only tasked with escorting Mr. Siegel Clyne and some of his followers who were willing to join him to ORB to meet up with you all. But during the pickup, we encountered an assassination attempt targeting Mr. Siegel, which ruined our original plan to depart aboard our junk dealers' home ship."
"At that point, Mr. Siegel suddenly mentioned he knew of another port with a battleship we could use for departure."
"So under Mr. Siegel's guidance, we forcefully broke into that secret port and escaped aboard a battleship called Eternal stationed there."
"While preparing for departure, we also took advantage of the chaos created by our home ship's interference to seize a prototype MS that was there... There were originally two units - we wanted to take both, or at least destroy one if we couldn't take it."
"But just after we loaded one unit, enemy Mobile Suit Forces arrived, forcing us to retreat with regrets."
Ro's tone still carried a hint of disappointment... as if missing out on the other unit was a real loss.
"That's pretty impressive... managing to escape while being pursued by Zala's faction and all."
Lu Tianming expressed genuine admiration... The most remarkable part was not just their successful escape, but also their acquisition of both Eternal and one of the Freedom/Justice units.
He wondered how furious Patrick would be when he learned this news.
He had anticipated the assassination attempt on Siegel Clyne. According to intelligence previously revealed by Andrew, the massive losses at the Alaska battlefield had severely impacted ZAFT's morale, sparking an uncontrollable wave of strong anti-war sentiment.
Assassinating Siegel, framing Naturals, and reigniting racial conflicts to consolidate the hawks' power - this was likely Patrick Zala's true intention behind the assassination attempt.
However... he hadn't accounted for Lu Tianming's intervention reaching this far.
Not only did the assassination fail to eliminate Siegel and achieve its original tactical objective - it actually provoked the originally conservative and compromising Siegel Clyne, who hadn't been fully committed to drastic action before.
Perhaps before the assassination attempt, Siegel hadn't intended to make the break so complete - to the extent of taking battleships and MS units along.
But the subsequent assassination attempt likely convinced the hesitant Siegel to make up his mind, recognizing Patrick's madness, leading him to deliver a major counterblow before leaving...
"Speaking of which, you mentioned the original plan was to send a group of people back... meaning that plan has been canceled now?"
Lu Tianming keenly caught the loophole in Ro's earlier statement and asked curiously.
Ro scratched his head and nodded.
"That's pretty much the situation... According to Mr. Andrew, the Eternal can play a greater role by remaining active in space—you'd better ask him for specifics. He should be descending to ORB along with our Homeland soon."
He waved his hand helplessly; that was all the information he had... Andrew had specifically asked Ro to take notes, anticipating that Lu Tianming would likely have questions.
As for broader strategic deployments, he wasn't interested, nor were they any of his business.
He was just a scrap dealer—occasionally taking on transport jobs like this was already outside his usual scope of work, let alone concerning himself with battlefronts or strategies.
In contrast—he had something else that captured his attention more.
"Speaking of which, I heard... Mr. Lu, you're also a Natural?"
His tone noticeably brightened when he brought up this topic, a stark contrast to his earlier monotonous report-like delivery.
"Yes, is there something you need?"
Lu Tianming nodded. Though his identity as a Natural being treated as a shocking revelation had become routine... everyone's curiosity seemed to focus on different aspects.
So... even though he was used to being questioned, Lu Tianming still had no idea what Ro was getting at.
"Just as I thought!"
Hearing Lu Tianming confirm his Natural status, Ro immediately clapped his hands excitedly:
"Could you share how you programmed your OS? It actually achieves that level of human-like performance in combat records... Xiao Ba and I tried for ages but couldn't figure it out!"
"And also, I've tried using the energy interface in the Mobile Suit's palm as a discharge device for attacks... but every time either the output isn't powerful enough to be effective, or it's too strong and just blows up in my face."
"How did you manage to control the energy so precisely, Mr. Lu... Did you improve the quality of the energy transfer conduits, or completely redesign the energy output logic from scratch..."
Suddenly, Ro practically pounced forward with burning curiosity, firing off a rapid series of technical questions about the Strike Suit.
From his words, it was clear that ever since learning about the Strike Suit's capabilities, he'd been trying to replicate its combat methods with his own Mobile Suit.
But leaving other aspects aside, just the movement patterns and the Lightning Ball had him completely baffled... Now that he'd met Lu Tianming in person, he naturally wanted to seek proper guidance.
Lu Tianming was somewhat overwhelmed by Ro's enthusiastic questioning... Most importantly, he hadn't really thought through the specifics of some of these issues himself.
For example, the OS... he had basically exploited Kira to create that—asking him was less useful than asking Kira.
As for the Lightning Ball... that was something that only worked through sheer willpower. Later adjustments just prevented overloads when he willed it into existence.
As for how to reproduce it scientifically, he'd never really considered that.
"...Some aspects weren't entirely my own research; they involved our technical team as well."
"I've already applied to ORB for access to the Dawn Organization. If you're interested, we could bring my technician along another day and continue our discussion while researching at the Dawn Organization. How does that sound?"
Lu Tianming could only try to stabilize the situation for now, offering vague promises about discussing it another day.
Ro realized he had been asking too many questions all at once. After nodding to indicate it was fine, he said they could discuss things in detail when there was more time later.
After watching him leave with a smile, Lu Tianming finally let out a sigh of relief... But as soon as he turned around, he discovered Lacus had been standing not far behind him for who knows how long.
In fact, it seemed she had been there for quite some time.
Just as Lu Tianming was about to ask why she was there, Lacus suddenly bowed sincerely to him:
"Mr. Lu, regarding my father's situation... thank you so much."
"Why thank me? Ro was the one who saved him, and Andrew proposed the plan. If you want to thank someone, you should thank them... What does it have to do with me?"
Lu Tianming didn't understand why Lacus was crediting her father's survival to him, so he waved his hand dismissively and asked in confusion.
Lacus shook her head and explained with a smile:
"Mr. Ro and Mr. Andrew certainly deserve gratitude... However, without guidance from someone behind the scenes, even Mr. Andrew probably wouldn't have realized my father was in danger."
"And if I'm not mistaken, that expert who provided the guidance was actually you, wasn't it?"