Reid bypassed all the Gundam pilots and directly asked Sumeragi whether they wanted to fight for a simple reason—while the other Gundam pilots might impulsively engage in battle, Sumeragi, as the tactical forecaster, wouldn't.
Sumeragi's back was drenched in cold sweat at this moment. She had already run countless combat simulations in her mind regarding Reid's unit.
However, even with insufficient data and starting from Celestial Beings' perfect ambush, the outcome of the battle still wasn't favorable. Even if they could win, it would be a pyrrhic victory.
And now, the painstakingly restored Virtue had lost its head in just one round, while Reid Isaac was piloting yet another new Mobile Suit with unknown parameters.
If they fought now, Celestial Beings' combat unit could be reduced to dust in history.
It was important to note that within this Celestial Beings combat unit, only Tieria was one hundred percent certain of VEDA's orders. For the others, while they might agree with Celestial Beings' ideals, that was one thing—sacrificing themselves was another.
Most crucially, the accuracy of VEDA's prophecies was now being questioned within Celestial Beings. After all, it was confirmed that VEDA couldn't predict the Otherworld Entanglement, which had already occurred three times.
Thus, Sumeragi believed that unless Reid's unit—specifically designed to counter the Otherworld Entanglement—was definitively proven not to be saviors, she couldn't fight them even under VEDA's orders.
Forcing herself to calm down, Sumeragi spoke seriously, "Everyone, lower your weapons. SDP is not our target for intervention."
After Sumeragi said this, Setsuna, Alleluia, and Lockon hesitated.
Their hesitation wasn't because they wanted to fight Reid, but because they weren't accustomed to lowering their weapons first while being aimed at.
However, after a moment of hesitation, Setsuna was the first to lower his weapon. After all, this was the same person who had demanded an MS pilot meet him outside their cockpit in the middle of a raging battlefield.
Moreover, Setsuna wasn't ungrateful. The fact that SDP had saved him twice was undeniable, and he was willing to give Reid the benefit of the doubt this time.
With Setsuna taking the lead, Alleluia and Lockon—neither of whom had lost their minds—knew they'd be dead in minutes if a real fight broke out, so they lowered their weapons as well.
With Celestial Beings lowering their weapons, Reid manipulated Gundam Artemis to raise its hand slightly. Seeing this, Ange and the others lowered their gun barrels, though they clearly remained vigilant.
The tension on the scene eased slightly, but Reid knew he couldn't let Celestial Beings off so lightly.
Because he didn't know whether Tieria's actions were impulsive, ordered by VEDA, or if Ribbons Almark had manipulated things behind the scenes, altering VEDA's commands to test them. (Even without having seized control of VEDA yet, Ribbons Almark still had the ability to modify its orders—after all, Setsuna had only become a Gundam pilot through his backdoor dealings.)
Regardless of the reason, Reid had to maintain a firm stance. Otherwise, there would definitely be a next time, and another after that.
Thus, Reid continued coldly, "Good, it seems you don't want to fight. Then I'll give you a chance to explain—what was that VEDA intrusion just now?"
Sumeragi was inwardly exasperated. How the hell would I know? I'm not even sure if the 'intrusion' you're talking about actually happened!
However, since the head of Gundam Virtue had been severed by Reid, its communication antenna was naturally gone.
Under the influence of the Neutron Jammer and Minovsky Particles, even though the distance wasn't great, Ptolemy still couldn't contact Tieria.
Thus, Sumeragi could only say helplessly,
"I'm not sure about that either. We'd need to ask the pilot of Virtue, but his communications are currently cut off."
Reid knew that Tieria was unavoidable if he wanted answers. Even though Tieria was behaving himself now—Reid had only severed the Mobile Suit's head without destroying its weapon systems, and Tieria hadn't even raised his gun—Reid still couldn't just hand him over to Celestial Beings.
So he said,
"He's a crucial witness. How can you guarantee that what you extract from him is the truth?"
This question left Sumeragi speechless. It was like asking someone who secretly drank to enforce discipline—doubts were only natural.
Still, Sumeragi knew that if she handed Tieria over to Reid today, Celestial Beings could forget about team cohesion in the future. Morale would collapse, and leading the team would become impossible.
Fortunately, there was someone present who completely defied expectations to break the deadlock. Suddenly, Exia flew forward a short distance, its cockpit opening in full view of everyone. Setsuna stepped out of the cockpit and communicated with Ptolemy, saying,
"I'll be the hostage, but you can't have Exia."
Reid, watching Setsuna's unexpected move, thought to himself, "As expected—if you want to be the protagonist, action matters more than brains."
Amused, Reid laughed and said over the comms,
"Hah, interesting. Setsuna F. Seiei, you really are more intriguing than the other Gundam pilots.
"Very well. Stay as you are. Allelujah Haptism, pilot of Kyrios, take Virtue back and ask Tieria Erde inside properly—what exactly was he thinking with his earlier actions?"
Reid's statement outright revealed the names of all three Gundam pilots—information that was classified as S-rank even within Celestial Beings, unknown to most of their support personnel.
But Sumeragi and the others had long witnessed Reid's uncanny capabilities, so knowing a few names didn't faze them. For all they knew, he might have already investigated their entire life histories.
It was like being part of a hidden super-organization in society, believing your technology and intelligence surpassed all major nations—only to be told one day that you were just deluding yourselves. You thought you were the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, but in reality, you were just a dark horse.
So Sumeragi didn't bother questioning Reid further. Seeing that Setsuna had opened a path forward, she quickly seized the opportunity and said,
"Allelujah, bring Virtue back."
Allelujah didn't hesitate. Kyrios slowly maneuvered around Gundam Artemis, under the (self-perceived) hostile gazes of the surrounding Mobile Suits, and returned Virtue to Ptolemy.
In truth, the moment Kyrios made contact with Virtue, its internal comms were restored. Sumeragi signaled Christina to mute their outgoing audio to Reid before asking Tieria with unusual severity,
"Tieria, what exactly happened? Did you really connect to VEDA and hack into SDP's systems?"
Tieria didn't hide anything, answering only in a somber tone.
"Yes, I originally just wanted to bluff Reid Isaac into revealing whether he knew the whereabouts of Gundam Nadleeh.
But VEDA suddenly initiated a connection with me, wanting to collect detailed data on the SDP. I didn't refuse, which led to the subsequent intrusion."
Upon hearing this, Sumeragi asked in disbelief,
"You're saying VEDA actively sought to understand the SDP?"
Tieria affirmed this with a nod.
"Correct. When interrogating Reid Isaac, I didn't actively link with VEDA. VEDA's predictions encountered an issue—it likely wanted to compensate for the flawed data proactively, hence the attempt to supplement its information on Otherworld Entanglement by intruding into the SDP Mobile Suit."
Tieria's explanation gave the impression that VEDA possessed independent will.
However, as far as Sumeragi knew, VEDA had no independent personality. It was merely a program set up by Aeolia Schenberg before his death.
VEDA could only calculate based on existing events and vast amounts of intelligence, using these computations to deduce future actions and assign missions.
(In essence, this was the ultimate version of today's big data models. If a computer knew every action a person had taken since birth, down to the finest details, and had sufficient computational power, it could predict their behavior.
For example: A person steps out in the morning without having decided what to eat for breakfast.
But the computer could analyze what this person had eaten every day before, what they had done, which stores they passed by, what they would see, what scents they would catch—calculating their preferences and bodily instincts to determine what breakfast they would ultimately buy.
In short, theoretically, with enough data and computational power, every action of ordinary workers like us could be predicted. After all, normal people don't suddenly act against their own logic and cognition.)
For completely unknown entities, however, VEDA couldn't derive accurate answers.
Thus, rather than VEDA actively seeking to supplement intelligence, Sumeragi leaned toward Reid's earlier claim that there were higher echelons within the Celestial Being Organization—Alejandro Corner and Ribbons Almark. Could this be their doing?
Sumeragi had no intention of being someone else's pawn.
After all, in her understanding, her Celestial Being unit was strictly a military intervention force—intelligence gathering wasn't part of their mission.
So, Sumeragi had Christina reopen the communication line with Reid and said to him,
"Mr. Reid, we've clarified the situation. VEDA actively linked with Tieria to obtain information about Otherworld Entanglement.
As you know, for a computer, acquiring intelligence naturally means data extraction—hence the intrusion into your Mobile Suit."
Her words were both an explanation and a probe.
The explanation was straightforward, as it was the truth.
The probe lay in using this explanation to gauge Reid's actual understanding of VEDA.
If this Reid Isaac truly knew VEDA well, he should conclude that this incident, at the very least, had nothing to do with her Celestial Being military intervention unit.
If Reid clearly rejected this answer, it would prove he wasn't as knowledgeable about Celestial Being as he claimed.
Sumeragi's prediction was spot on. Upon hearing this, Reid's first reaction was also that someone had tampered with VEDA's commands, using Tieria to steal his information.
From the two seasons of the anime, it was clear that VEDA itself had no intelligence—it was merely a supercomputer with extraordinarily exaggerated computational power. It wasn't until the movie, when Tieria fully merged with VEDA, that this super quantum computer could be considered to possess intelligence.
(At the end of the second season, Tieria had only managed to reclaim VEDA but couldn't fully utilize its computational power.
However, even in the movie, Tieria didn't have complete control over VEDA, as a significant portion of its computational power was allocated to the new Earth Federation. By then, Celestial Being had already handed over the Celestial Being ship to the new Earth Federation, and the VEDA within it was ostensibly under their jurisdiction as well.)
If Sumeragi was telling the truth, then today's intrusion into Gundam Artemis by VEDA through Tieria was most likely orchestrated by someone behind the scenes.
And that someone was almost certainly Ribbons Almark—90% him, with a 10% chance it was one of his subordinates sneaking into VEDA to alter the commands under his orders.
This fit Ribbons Almark's personality perfectly. In his eyes, Celestial Beings were a force destined for sacrifice. Even if they perished prematurely, the Trinity Team could still facilitate the unification of Earth's nations.
Thus, Reid now had a way to step back, as he couldn't possibly destroy Celestial Beings' forces here.
With a slightly softened tone, Reid spoke up, "Understood. I'll tentatively accept this explanation. Miss Sumeragi, a friendly reminder—don't blindly trust VEDA's words. It's just a computer, and like any computer, it can be manipulated."
Hearing this, Sumeragi realized Reid had picked up on her hint.
She felt both relieved and uneasy.
Relieved, because at least Reid wouldn't escalate the situation today—it seemed she might live a few more days.
Uneasy, because if Reid had so easily let it go, it meant he had reached the same conclusion as her. He truly understood VEDA. For all she knew, he might even be privy to her most private details, like when she was weaned or how many relationships she'd had.
But Reid couldn't care less about Sumeragi's thoughts right now. All he wanted was to find Ribbons the next time he entered the AD Universe—if he had time—and give him a good scare.
After all, the guy was currently stuck playing the obedient subordinate to Alejandro Corner, making him relatively easy to track down.
With that, Reid turned Gundam Artemis around and flew off.
Once Reid left, the other Mobile Suits also turned and departed, quickly vanishing from sight.
Now, only Celestial Beings and the Human Reform League forces remained in the space zone, staring each other down.
Seeing the SDP forces withdraw, Soma Peries took the initiative to ask, "Colonel, what do we do now?"
Sergei Smirnov had just begun to relax from the tension earlier.
When the SDP suddenly moved against Celestial Beings, Sergei had thought the two sides were about to clash right then and there.
While the Human Reform League could accept either side winning, Sergei believed Celestial Beings would be insane to fight the SDP at this moment.
And if the SDP initiated the attack, would they also eliminate his forces as an afterthought? It wouldn't be much extra effort for them.
Sergei Smirnov didn't believe for a second that the SDP held the Human Reform League in any regard.
If what that Tem Ray had said earlier was true, the SDP had already witnessed the rise and fall of countless dynasties—it'd be strange if they showed any reverence toward modern governments.
Fortunately, the SDP and Celestial Beings didn't come to blows, though this likely meant the Celestial Beings had deliberately created some misunderstanding.
Otherwise, there'd be no reason for the SDP to attack and then suddenly stop.
But now, having lost half his forces against three fully prepared Gundams from Celestial Beings, Sergei Smirnov admitted they probably couldn't win.
After all, ambushes and head-on confrontations were entirely different matters—with the Gundams' performance, one could easily take on ten.
Thus, Sergei Smirnov decided not to sacrifice more lives needlessly and immediately ordered:
"We're in no condition to fight today. We need to bring back complete data on those otherworldly MS units. Retreat!"
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