Up in the "sky," the entire Joint Maintenance Team had descended into chaos.
First the equipment malfunctioned—then a ZAFT GINN began moving on its own, with no one at the controls!
This was beyond bizarre.
This was absolutely insane.
"What the hell is going on?!"
"How is this happening?!"
"Rebooting systems now!"
"Dammit, who could possibly be doing this..."
Everything around them was pandemonium.
The Orb representative stormed over to the ZAFT captain, face ashen. "Captain—what exactly has your side been hiding?"
"..." Faced with the accusation, the captain silently closed his eyes.
They'd already inspected the interior of the ship. The Black Monolith had vanished.
Connecting that to the rampaging GINN, it was almost certainly that thing pulling the strings—and the equipment chaos was likely its doing as well.
"Captain, we will shoot down that GINN," the Orb representative said.
"Do as you wish. But we'll be taking the wreckage."
Even if the Black Monolith was utterly destroyed, it could not fall into anyone else's hands!
"Defense forces have arrived!"
"Begin the attack!"
Heliopolis's garrison forces also joined the fight. Since the battle was inside the colony, they hadn't deployed heavy combat units—just some flyers: Mobile Armors.
But then something eerie happened.
When these Mobile Armors began their assault, the GINN dodged every single attack as if it were out for a leisurely stroll.
And when it returned fire—one shot, one kill.
No wasted rounds. It moved like the Grim Reaper itself: anything that entered its range was shot down.
"Nani?!"
The ZAFT captain, watching from above, was utterly stupefied.
What was going on? Since when did a GINN have this kind of power?!
An MS could achieve roughly a 1:5 combat ratio against Mobile Armors. But this GINN seemed to predict the flight paths of every Mobile Armor. Anything that dared approach was dropped with a single shot. Forget 1:5—even 10, 20, or 100 probably wouldn't make a difference.
Heliopolis didn't have many Mobile Armors, and aside from a few proper military units, most were Mistrals modified from engineering machinery. Their combat capability was even worse.
(Cannon fodder from Episode 1 of the anime)
This was absolute dominance.
No unnecessary movement. No unnecessary shots.
It simply turned its gun—and a Mobile Armor fell from the sky.
"...The Reaper." The ZAFT captain murmured.
This was beyond belief.
The Heliopolis side was equally dumbstruck.
The GINN's ammunition was limited.
Their plan had been to let the GINN exhaust its ammo, then find a way to capture it. Sure, the ZAFT side insisted on destroying it and recovering the wreckage—but when push came to shove, plans could change. And even if it had to be destroyed, they could always examine and survey it first.
But reality wasn't cooperating.
Yes, the GINN's ammo was limited—but if it landed every single shot, that limited supply could still inflict devastating losses on the colony's forces!
"Use missiles!"
If Mobile Armors couldn't do it, they'd carpet-bomb it from range.
But something even stranger happened.
When the guided missiles entered that "zone," they all veered off course on their own—and destroyed each other.
"What is that GINN doing?!"
And then, the Orb representative suddenly realized—that thing was heading toward Morgenroete, Inc.
That would be catastrophic!
That was the facility where the G-series Mobile Suits were being secretly built with the Earth Alliance!
(GINN)
[Dream MS right there]
[Holy crap, AI is this terrifying?]
[The UC timeline had AI too, shame they never explored it]
[But is AI really this overpowered?]
[Why doesn't it just deploy a barrage?]
[Weird—GBN can't replicate this kind of operation at all]
[A GINN is basically a Zaku-tier grunt, right? So why does it feel like it's crushing everything? Should be small fry]
[It's not the GINN that's strong—it's the AI. Electronic warfare?]
[One shot, one kill. Never misses. Greatness speaks for itself]
[It's literally a grunt mech, but it's putting out straight Final Boss energy]
"By the way, are the special effects from the Stage or from the client?"
Inori and Kira were currently sitting in a self-driving taxi.
The GINN was closing in behind them, step by thundering step.
Inori took a moment to check the Stage.
On the Stage's broadcast, the GINN had been given visual effects—its original dark-green color scheme now rendered in a sinister black overlay.
Genuinely intimidating.
Give it a slightly flashier design, and this would look like a Final Boss razing the world.
"Inori-chan, where are we going?!" Kira demanded.
"Right here."
The car suddenly stopped.
And that's when Kira noticed the area around them was full of engineering machines.
"Is this... hacking? Electronic warfare?"
Kira instantly understood.
These units must have been on standby here, ready to fly up and help repair the warship and extract it at a moment's notice.
—But how did Inori know they were here?!
The two of them waited.
And the MS in the distance finally arrived, looming right before Kira and Inori.
Hand in hand, the two faced down the giant machine towering over them, its gun barrel aimed directly at them.
[A new world-famous painting has been born!]
[The sheer pressure of this shot]
[Worth it for this frame alone]
[The absolute peak of grunt-mech cinematography]
"BOOM!"
The ground around them suddenly began to cave in.
"That's it...!"
If these engineering machines had been deployed from below, then the lower level might be a hangar! A massive MS stuck in terrain where it couldn't maneuver—no matter how powerful, it'd be helpless!
The GINN, its footing crumbling, rapidly adjusted its posture and tried to take flight.
But the surrounding engineering machines had already latched onto it.
The GINN tried to swat them away, but these machines dodged its attacks with the same ease the GINN itself had shown earlier.
Buried under the "crushing weight," the GINN was finally dragged down into the lower level.
"This way!"
Inori led Kira toward another entrance, and both of them jumped down.
"It's this huge?!"
The space below was a world unto itself—not cramped at all. On the contrary, it was enormous.
"Here."
After entering the lower level, the two sprinted on, and behind them the massive machine had already shaken off those engineering pods and resumed its pursuit.
But by then, the two had reached their destination.
"This is—"
Before their eyes stood a Mobile Suit.
Only a skeleton and the most basic drive systems. No armor. No outer plating.
The client hadn't asked for a Gundam to appear.
But this was a Gundam set.
Gundam—had to make an entrance!