Chapter 241: Pursuit and Ambush (Part 1)

Inside the izakaya, things became lively the moment Neumann and the others arrived.

Just as everyone was making a ruckus, the door to the izakaya slid open again, and Mu pushed Katz inside.

"Sorry, I'm late. I had to beg your Captain for quite a while to let me out," Mu said, waving a greeting.

"Ev... everyone, long time no see."

Seeing his former comrades, Katz greeted them with some reserve.

"Seriously, are you still dwelling on that?" Mu saw this and gave his shoulder a hard pat. "Didn't I say that the choice you made in that situation was unavoidable? You don't need to feel ashamed."

"Katz, it's a rare gathering, let's have some fun." Tolle, who was always good at reading the room, went over, pulled Katz to his seat, and then sat down on one side of him, with Sai sitting on the other.

"Exactly. As a penalty for being late, I'll punish myself with a bottle first."

Mu spoke up, snatched a freshly opened beer from Madok's hand, and downed it in one go—*glug, glug, glug*.

"Refreshing!" Mu looked like he was in heaven, then complained, "Your Captain is so annoying. She had me on a three-month alcohol ban; I nearly died."

"Seriously, stop showing off your affection."

Madok rolled his eyes, drawing laughter from everyone.

The Archangel's men were filled with laughter and joy, while Li Boyong, who was also qualified to attend this gathering, was currently miserable, eating a bland set meal in the space battleship's cafeteria.

Having just finished a battle and with a new ZAFT flagship tailing him, Li Boyong was seizing the time to replenish his energy.

After wolfing down his food, Li Boyong left the cafeteria to check on Stella and the others in the Enhanced Human maintenance room.

"How is the situation?" Li Boyong asked the white-coated technician operating the console.

"Colonel!" The technician gave a military salute and replied, "They have basically stabilized. However, Auel seems to have used a forbidden phrase on Stella, which has caused some inconvenience for the calibration."

"Is the problem serious?" Li Boyong pressed.

"There shouldn't be a problem; it will just take a bit more time than usual," the technician answered.

"That's good." Li Boyong nodded, then tentatively asked, "Come to think of it, the manual provided to me says that Enhanced Humans must enter the maintenance pod periodically, otherwise they won't be able to maintain normal bodily functions. What happens if the facilities here are damaged in battle?"

"The maintenance of Enhanced Humans is indeed as you say. After all, although their appearance is the same as ours, their internal makeup is different. This is the price of enhancement, but also a means of control."

The technician replied, "Of course, if the problem you're worried about occurs, although it's troublesome, we can barely maintain their bodily functions through drug injections. However, we won't be able to calibrate their mental state. If we want to use them, we would need to go to the rear to resupply with new facilities."

"I see. It seems I need to protect this place well, otherwise they won't be of any use."

Having obtained the answer he wanted, Li Boyong indicated he wanted to wait for the three to wake up to arrange the operation, and while chatting idly with the researchers, he observed their operations under the cover of his helmet.

About half an hour later, Stella and the other two woke up one after another and emerged from the life-support pods.

"Neo!"

As soon as Stella woke up and saw Neo, her face lit up with joy, and she threw herself into Li Boyong's arms.

To be honest, holding such a cute girl in his arms, Li Boyong felt very comfortable at first.

But thinking that the reason she relied on him so much was merely due to the false memories implanted in her, he couldn't help but feel a trace of sorrow and shame.

"Did you sleep well?"

He reached out to tidy a lock of Stella's hair and asked softly.

"Mm~~~"

Stella nodded heavily, her elongated nasal hum full of joy.

"That's good. There's an operation coming up; you three should gather in the pilot ready room later."

Li Boyong stroked Stella's blonde hair and left the maintenance room.

The three still had some checks to do, and he needed to go arrange the battle plan first. After all, there was still a Minerva tailing them that he couldn't shake off. He couldn't return to the Moon Base with that thing on his tail; that wouldn't be a classified mission anymore.

————

The Lesseps running in front was preparing for a counterattack, while the Minerva chasing behind was also making battle preparations.

In terms of speed, the Minerva was ultimately slightly superior and was gradually closing in on the Lesseps.

The battle was about to begin, and the hangar became busy as they performed final pre-sortie checks on the MS.

In the pilot ready room, Shinn looked at the Ceremonial Ginn being serviced outside and asked Shihe, who was also in the room, "Are you going to sortie too?"

"Is that not allowed?" Shihe retorted sharply, not giving any pleasant look to this brat with a foul mouth and a prickly personality.

"With that kind of equipment?" Shinn frowned. "Although I admit your skills are strong and you were able to hold off the Gaia for so long with a Ceremonial Ginn, even if you switch to combat equipment, it's hard for a Ginn to cause damage to a Gundam."

Shihe raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised. For this brat to say something like that, it already counted as concern.

"Don't worry."

Shihe replied, "You are the ones who have to go to the front line and risk your lives. I'm only responsible for escorting the Minerva."

"That's good."

Shinn huffed in a tsundere manner.

"What is this guy being difficult about..."

Luna Maria looked at Shinn's expression and shook her head secretly. He clearly cared quite a bit about Ms. Shihe in private, even saying things like how she had the same hairstyle as his sister.

Yet when they met, he could only use sarcasm to attract attention. Is this guy an elementary schooler?

Luna complained in her heart, then sat intimately next to Shihe and started chatting casually: "Sister Shihe, I heard you participated in the last Great War. Can you tell us about some of the situation back then?"

In order not to let the atmosphere go cold, and not to let the guest feel that the people on the Minerva didn't know how to treat guests, Luna decided that she, as a girl, should come out to ease the atmosphere.

Mentioning the last Great War, Shihe couldn't help but think of the situation at Jachin Due back then, and at the same time, she couldn't help but think of Li Boyong, who was currently missing—neither dead nor alive.

During the Minerva's pursuit of the Lesseps, Shihe had taken the time to ask Athrun if the Three Ships Alliance had any news about Li Boyong, but unfortunately, Athrun also indicated that there was no news about Li Boyong at all.

At that time, Athrun looked at Shihe's disappointed expression and nearly couldn't keep a straight face, hesitating whether to tell Shihe some things.

After all, he had been in Orb for over a year and had heard people on the Archangel mention that Li Boyong seemed to have a Natural lover, a female officer named Natarle Badgiruel.

It seemed that she was also pining away, waiting for news of Li Boyong... ===== CHAPTER 242 =====