Chapter 276: The Romanian Laboratory (Part 3)

Orb military fleet, flagship *Take-Mikazuchi*.

Two young men in Orb military uniforms were pushing each other back and forth at the entrance to the cafeteria.

"Tolle, don't push me."

The bespectacled young man being pushed whispered a reprimand to the bad friend behind him.

"Now that it's come to this, just be bold and go for it. This is a rare opportunity, Sai!"

Tolle pushed his friend while cheering him on.

Sai ultimately couldn't overcome his friend's strength and was pushed into the cafeteria.

His expression was momentarily flustered, but his eyes quickly locked onto the girl dining in the corner of the cafeteria—the girl wearing an Alliance military uniform that was completely out of place with the surrounding Orb uniforms.

For a moment, he was filled with mixed emotions.

He truly hadn't expected to reunite with Flay in this manner. He was following the fleet as an Orb pilot, and Flay had actually become a liaison officer dispatched by the Alliance to the Orb fleet.

"I really can't stand you!"

Seeing Sai standing there motionless, Tolle simply dragged Sai toward Flay, who was dining, and greeted her: "Yo, Flay, long time no see. Having lunch?"

Hearing Tolle's voice, Flay looked up from her meal and saw her ex-boyfriend Sai and Tolle, her companion from the Archangel days.

"Long time no see, Sai, Tolle."

She smiled and stood up to greet them, her expression gentle and friendly, not at all as awkward as Sai.

"Lo... long time no see."

Sai greeted her stiffly, then was forcibly pressed into the seat opposite Flay by Tolle.

"Sai, you should be having your usual salmon, right? I'll go queue for food over there. You two chat."

Tolle said, leaving the flustered Sai behind, and headed straight for the food counter, leaving the two in an awkward atmosphere.

"I didn't expect you to become a liaison officer..."

"I didn't expect you to be in this fleet..."

After a moment of silence, both spoke at the same time, only to stop simultaneously.

They smiled at each other, and the previously awkward atmosphere eased significantly. Sai made a gesture of invitation. "You go first."

"You're still as gentlemanly as ever." Flay smiled and praised her ex-boyfriend, then began to talk about some of her experiences after leaving Orb.

For example, she had received help from an old friend of her father, and with that help, she had obtained an official position, participated in the negotiations and signing of Orb's entry into the Earth Security Agreement, and was now dispatched as a liaison officer to the Orb expeditionary fleet.

Regarding her meeting with Li Boyong and learning about the inside story of Logos from Li Boyong and Wang Liumei, she didn't say much.

"So that's how it is." Sai was filled with emotion for a moment.

"What about you?" Flay asked.

Sai similarly gave a brief account of his experiences after Flay left. Flay had already known about him joining the Orb military when she was in Orb.

He mainly talked about his experiences after Flay left, but this part of his life inevitably seemed a bit dull; other than becoming a Murasame pilot, there was nothing interesting about it.

"It seems you've been doing well. I'm happy for you." Flay didn't find it boring, but gave her own evaluation after listening patiently.

When Sai decided to join the Orb military, she hadn't made any comments. Because she knew the impact that the knot in his heart had caused Sai, she had no right to criticize.

So this time, Flay similarly avoided that topic and didn't hypocritically express concern about her friend about to step onto the battlefield.

"Yo, how's the chat going?"

At this moment, Tolle returned with two lunches.

For ex-lovers reuniting after a long time, giving them some space was enough; too much time would only lead to awkwardness.

Tolle felt his timing was good, although he joined the conversation and brought up topics about other companions.

While the three were reuniting, the Orb fleet continued to sail north along the east coast of Africa, heading toward Suez.

On the other side, Li Boyong was preparing for his meeting with the Archangel.

In the Jones's hangar, Li Boyong was making final preparations before sortieing.

"Colonel, the debugging of the new unit is almost complete, but there might still be flaws. You must be careful."

Listening to the maintenance chief's nagging, Li Boyong sized up the new unit Wang Liumei had given him.

GAT-X370FG, Full Armor Raider Gundam.

The prototype of this unit used the second batch of G-series improved units from the Actaeon Project, the successor to the Raider Gundam—the Orange Raider Gundam. Based on Li Boyong's combat data, a backpack equipment redesigned to be extremely suitable for Li Boyong's combat style was added, resulting in a redesigned variable unit.

This unit used conventional energy and was equipped with VPS armor.

Its weapons included a 100mm beam cannon in the mouth and 80mm machine guns on both sides of the head.

The original four-barreled dual-beam, dual-live-ammunition shield cannon on the right arm was removed and replaced with a lighter handheld 75mm high-power beam rifle.

The super spherical smasher on the left arm was also removed and replaced with an MA head anti-beam shield, and two beam sabers were added to the waist.

The two 115mm railguns on the back flight assembly were retained, but the two 105mm cannons in MA form were removed and replaced with two ship-slicing blades.

As for the combat claws in MS form and the short-range plasma cannons on the combat claws, they were also removed.

Overall, this Full Armor Raider Gundam, compared to the Orange Raider Gundam, had reduced firepower but correspondingly improved mobility and melee maneuverability, and increased combat endurance by reducing energy consumption.

It could be said that the unit was more balanced in performance and didn't have those strange weapons.

"A good unit." This was Li Boyong's conclusion, but he wasn't entirely satisfied. "It's a pity it's missing a 320mm super-high-impulse cannon, otherwise it would be even more perfect."

"Stop joking, Colonel." The maintenance chief smiled bitterly upon hearing Li Boyong's evaluation. "There's no space left on the flight backpack on the back of the unit to mount that kind of thing."

"Haha, I was indeed being greedy." Li Boyong laughed and said no more.

Li Boyong took Miriallia with him to board the Full Armor Raider. After notifying the bridge and his adjutant that he was going to perform a special mission alone and temporarily entrusting the command of the fleet, he piloted the unit and flew away from the carrier Jones.

Relying on a total of eight power nozzles on its legs, the Full Armor Raider successfully took off in MS form, and then, under Li Boyong's control, the unit transformed into MA form and flew toward the agreed-upon location.

About thirty minutes later, Li Boyong arrived at the target location, a small isolated island in the Mediterranean.

He saw the Freedom Gundam kneeling on the island, along with a Murasame in MS form that was also kneeling. He manipulated his unit to transform back into MS form, then slowly landed on the island.

As the unit landed slowly, through the external monitor, Li Boyong clearly saw Natarle Badgiruel in an Orb military uniform among the crowd. ===== CHAPTER 277 =====