Gundam Seed: Kira Reloaded c46

A large shuttle flew over into a hangar in the large space station Ame No Mihashina. The shuttle docked, allowing people to leave the transporter.

Kira, his fiancée, and a full escort of engineers and mechanics left the shuttle. They were greeted by a group of military personnel.

“Admiral, sir, I thought that in at least official matters like these, you would be dressed appropriately.” The blonde Lieutenant greeted Kira. He was a bit dissapointed that his first meeting with Kira being his direct superior to be in a proper uniform. But here he was, the Ultimate Coordinator dressed in brown clothes meant for a mechanic!

Hilariously, the Captain of Archangel elbowed him. 

“Sadly, Lieutenant Commander, I have to juggle between Head Engineer, Head Mechanic, and Admiral at the same time. So, in this situation, my military role is in the background.” Kira sighed exaggeratedly.

“I see, sir.” The Captain and Lieutenant saluted alongside the rest of the crew.

“Good, now let’s get to work. I want to finish this trip before my wedding day.” The Ultimate Coordinator motioned for them to come.

“Oh? Already have a day!?”

Kira nodded as he motioned to get at ease and began to walk deeper into the station.

“I was able to negotiate a good day.” Lacus puffed her cheeks. Her fiancé wouldn’t mind any day at all. 

“Hah, as expected of our ace pilot, he can take any day," The blonde joked, making the captain and the pink-haired girl roll their eyes at him.

“Where is Lieutenant Badgiruel?” Kira noticed that his favourite rule book officer is missing.

“She got transferred to Kusanagi, and she is now captain.” Captain Ramius said to the Admiral.

“Oh, that's not bad. It reminds me that Orb ordered another two Izumo-class ships to be built. We are getting a bigger fleet," The coordinator told the pair.

“That’s great, Orb needs more of those.” Lieutenant Mu La Flaga said with a nod.

“The issue is personal,” Captain replied.

“Don’t worry, soon Orb will become something else,” Kira smirked.

“Oh? That look, I know that gaze, you have been plotting something.” The lieutenant grinned as well! He knows that look! Reminding him of the days when the teen would pull out a weapon that made no sense, but it could blow up warships! It’s that look!

“You are making up stuff. Regardless, let me show you what kind of project I've been working on.” The Ultimate Coordinator dismissed before confirming that it was true, making the blonde laugh.

As the group walked deeper, they arrived at the dry docks, where gravity was not present. People were working around the clock on the warship that had been stripped of its engines.

They went to the command centre.

“So you will finish the space elevator AND build a city in the middle of the ocean? Damn kid…” 

“Mu, he is your Admiral…” Captain Ramius reminded him, but she couldn’t hide her awe as well.

“It’s fine,” Kira shrugged. My admiral stripes are shelved for now. But our goal is the asteroid belt; we are travelling there, and that is why we are adding experimental tech to the Archangel.

Thrusters used by my Strike Freedom and Mirage Colloid combination alloy, as well as a nuclear fission reactor.”

“Damn… Asteroid belt, which could take over a year to arrive there.” Mu La Flaga realised that!

“The thrusters will make this ship the fastest in the whole Earth Sphere, believe me. That is why we are reinforcing the frame for absurd speeds. I am a bit concerned how it will work under the influence of gravity, but for that, we will need to wait,” Kira explained while stroking his chin.

“Just like old times, untested tech, chances of blowing up, I already miss the war.” The Lieutenant smiled, making the ladies roll their eyes and Kira laugh.

“Technically, it’s tested tech.” Kira could argue that it is tested; his Gundam is using it.

“Technically.” The Lieutenant played along with the ‘technicalities’.

After the initial banter, the group went to work. Captain Ramius was an engineer before this and worked on the mobile suits and the warship. Only Mu La Flaga didn’t have much work to do, but he served as a defence force in case anything happened with his Buster MKII. However, Kira is now part of it as well. He brought over his Strike Freedom, making the space station the safest place in the Earth Sphere.

~~~~~~Several Days Later~~~~~~

“Starting preliminary test in 3…2…1… Fire the engine!”

One of the Archangel engines ignited, and the white flames of purple and blue particles blasted with an absurd force.

“Damn…” Mu La Flaga exclaimed in surprise as he saw the reading of the force behind the engine.

“It’s a good thing we laminated the whole thing; otherwise it would melt away.” 

“Calling it lamination is a bit of a stretch. I reforged the parts. But it’s not the best, not that we have time.” Kira stroked his chin as he saw the power output reading.

It was around 15 times its original power. The mirage colloid is like petrol poured on a live flame; it explodes like a firecracker.

“Still, you had something like this scrapped to your mobile suit?”

“You have that on your Buster as well,” Kira smirked.

“...Kid, when?” Mu La Flaga looked at him. When did he upgrade his Buster!?

“Recently, I have been adjusting my Freedom, so midway, I decided to strip Buster and improve it with Mirage Colloid, refine the joints with new alloy and boost the weapons. Midway, I even added a nuclear reactor.” The Admiral shrugged.

“...You…” The Lieutenant was speechless! Can’t he tell him before he is doing any of it!? 

“I thought it was going through regular maintenance!” 

“It was before I retrofitted with the latest tech.” Kira nonchalantly nodded.

“I need to check and test it out!” Mu La Flaga exclaimed, worried. He needed to test-pilot it before he could use it in a battle. 

“Good call. We need to run some tests, and as your Admiral, I command you to test it.”

“You said a couple of days ago that your stripes are shelved!” The blonde complained.

“Yes, my uniform is, but I still have the rank,” Kira smirked.

The blonde ace sighed as he saluted and then rushed away to change into his pilot suit.

“Let’s go to the Command Centre and watch the test," The Ultimate Coordinator told his team of engineers.

“Sir, we still need to run a pressure test, among other things.” But the engineers were not that excited to simply skip this part.

“Alright. Then you guys continue with the engines, I will oversee Buster’s performance.” Kira shrugged as he began to walk towards the doors, he likes having control over what he can do and doesn’t need to listen to a certain by-the-book officer.

~~~

Mu La Flaga looked at his Buster. It didn’t look that different.

Except for the arms, the joints… 

“It does look different now that I can see it closer.” The Lieutenant sighed. Here he goes again… to learn to pilot a new machine.

‘I hope it’s not that different.’ The blonde hoped as he kicked off and floated towards the torso of the machine.

The hatch opened by itself, which indicated that the mech was aware that its pilot was close.

Once the pilot was inside, he noticed something…

“What the hell….” Mu La Flaga exclaimed in shock. There is only a seat with a controller! Where are the panels!?

“I need a manual for this…” He looked around. The hatch closed behind him, and the screens connected, creating a perfect sphere.

“...”

After looking for something, he ended up sitting down. The screens turned on, and he could see the hangar.

[Initiating security scan]

A hologram beam scanned his eyes.

The next moment, a picture of him appeared on the screen, confirming his identity.

[Releasing controls to Lieutenant Commander Mu La Flaga.]

[All systems Operational]

[Initiating Reactor]

The pilot looked around, realising that the camera was linked directly to the mobile suit’s head!

Such neural linkage was way above anything he had seen before!

It's like the machine is an extension of him.

“I can see you have already tested the new neural link. It’s 3.0. Installed AI booster and added more processing power.” Kira’s image appeared on the side as he began to explain the upgrades.

“Yeah, but it will take time to get used to this.” The Buster pilot commented on the new perk. Moments later, he made the mech walk out from its parked areas.

Mu La Flaga immediately noticed the changes, even in its walking. The mech felt lighter and more organic.

‘The neural link is even impacting how I want it to walk… I don’t need to use the controllers! Damn kid, this can change the game even futher!’

The Ace pilot didn’t realise it yet, but this was a prototype for the Gen 3 machines Kira is planning to build with Fusion Reactors and the next stage of Mirage Colloid.

Just because the war has stopped it doesn’t mean he stopped improving only morons sleep on their success.

“I think I've got the hang of this. I start my flyovers.” The Buster ignited its thruster, and the pilot needed to grab his controllers, as the force of those thrusters catapulted him out from the hangar and into space.

“Shittt!”

“Be careful, those are not your average thrusters. They are the same ones as my Strike Freedom’s.” 

“I can tell!” Mu La Flaga realised that his machine was like a small vehicle tied to an intercontinental missile!

If he is not careful, he could lose control and crash into the station or get caught in Planet’s gravity well!

After flying crazily for a couple of moments, he began to adjust. However, there is one thing to fly fast in space and another planetside: the ace realised that he would need some limiters installed because the mech is simply too fast!

And indeed it was, as Kira is gathering data for his Gen 3 machines, which will be designed for S.E.E.D. pilots.

They are meant for people who have borderline supernatural reaction time and think faster than any normal human.

Kira wants to push this concept to the very limits, a machine that can keep up to S.E.E.D mode. Because at the moment, not even his Strike Freedom can squeeze more than half of Kira’s battle potential for the simple reason that Freedom can’t keep up with his intentions.

“Kid! This thing is simply too powerful!” Mu La Flaga complained after flying a bit.

“I know, that is why I am sending out drones and obstructions.” 

“You can’t be serious!” The Lieutenant complained as he saw M1 launch from the hangar while carrying stuff in their hands.

“Very, you are helping improve military technology by piloting the experimental version of that Buster.” 

The lieutenant groaned. Kira had done that already in the previous war.

“I know that look. I might have installed the same upgrades in my machine, but I am not piloting it now.” Kira smiled as the blonde could only gnash his teeth and try to tame the beast.

~~~

“I think that's the Buster?” Athrun looked through the window of the shuttle.

“Of course it is! Kira most likely improved it again.” Cagalli sighed. She couldn’t believe this guy was her biological brother!

There are no similarities between them! But when she said that to Athrun, he started laughing!

All he said was ‘right!’ It was sarcasm! She knows it!

“Well, we will be going very far away from Earth’s Sphere, so having powerful thrusters is a must.” He reasoned, but he was in a similar boat. He never imagined an artillery support mobile suit to be this nimble.

As the shuttle began docking sequences with the space station, Cagalli and Athrun, along with a small group of pilots, walked out.

“Cagalli?” Captain looked surprised to see her and Athrun.

“You two joining us as pilots?” Captain Ramius commented.

“Yes. Travelling beyond Mars? Not every day we can do that.” The blonde girl smirked.

“And I am here to make sure she doesn’t do anything reckless.” Athrun sighed.