Save the Day Program, once again. (Gundam IBO/Satisfactory SI): Chapter 20

Gjallarhorn HQ, Earth. P.D. 318.

McGillis Fareed sat with Montag Company’s President, Clive Montag II, as he went through the files and data that they got from their people who had attended the event yesterday.

The twenty-year-old young man watched with interest as various companies and factions tried to outdo each other to get the first contracts for the newly released Zaku-Frames.

However, while they were busy doing this, the fools were unaware that the head of FICSIT Inc., David Thornton, had quietly left the area with his second in command, leaving behind his head of Maintenance and R&D to take the brunt of the mayhem.

As for where they were headed? It was quite clearly recorded in the video.

McGillis watched as the CEO of the most popular and currently unrivalled company in the solar system walked through the venue, meeting promising talents and geniuses and directly recruiting them into his company, all the while, the rest of the companies and factions were distracted by his new death machine.

“He played them like a fiddle. Distracting them with his shiny new Mobile Suit and then taking the real resource, the promising upcoming talents, for himself. No wonder he managed to rise to such heights in a mere three years.”

Clive Montag looked at the young man.

“Do you wish to arrange a meeting with him? I will be meeting with him for the Half-Metal negotiations in a month anyway. I can have you accompany me there under your usual disguise.”

McGillis, also known as Montag within the Montag Company, the real owner of the company who controls everything while using Clive Montag as his public face, shook his head.

“Now is not the time. I will need to prepare thoroughly before I meet him. After all, it won’t do for a hunter to be unprepared when facing the king of the jungle.”

“Hunter? Are you thinking of taking FICSIT out?”

“On the contrary, I think we can work well together. However, just because he is a potential ally does not mean that he is also a potential enemy. It won’t do for us to be unprepared in case of any aggression on their part.”

“Then, what do you wish to do now?”

“For now, watch. The rest of my plans are not yet ready, and neither are my connections strong enough to achieve what we want. Until that day comes, we will simply keep an eye on them.”

The heir of the Fareed family changed the image to show the Zaku-Frames.

“In the meantime, acquire a few of these frames for the company and have our R&D start reverse engineering them. Knowing how paranoid FICSIT is with their tech, they might have black boxed everything about the machines, but we could still gain some insight into their design philosophies by pulling them apart.”

“Alright. Anything else?”

McGillis smiled blankly at the older man.

“No, that will be all for now. I need to get back to the party before Gaelio and Carta realize that I am missing. I don’t think they will appreciate Iok Kujan’s and the rest of the families’ arrogance as much as others think they do.”

“Then, how about we meet after my negotiations with FICSIT?”

McGillis nodded at those words.

“That will be optimal. You can brief me about them later on.”

As the heir of the Fareed family got up, Clive could not help but ask the question that he had been meaning to ask ever since he had been left as the puppet ruler of the company more than four years ago.

“McGillis, why not involve your friends in your plans as well? We could certainly use their connections and help-“

“No.”

The reply was as swift as it was cold, making the older man shut up instantly.

And yet, he could not help but notice the warmth in the eyes of the usually cold man as he stared in the direction of the party.

“…..I do not wish to taint their innocence and naivety with the cruel reality of this world. As long as my plan succeeds, they will smoothly become the heads of a Gjallarhorn that has been purged of its filth.”

Then, the fire in his eyes dimmed, leaving behind only a blank look that terrified the older man.

“And, if the day ever comes where I am forced to pull them into reality-no. No. I won’t allow that. I would rather have them die with their innocence than be tainted by the darkness of this accursed organization.”

With those chilling words, McGillis Fareed walked out of the private meeting room, leaving behind the horrified yet sympathetic adult who swiftly left the place, knowing that he had overstayed his welcome thanks to his question.

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Earth Orbit, Arianrhod fleet.

Rustal Elion watched with great interest as his team disassembled the newly released Mobile Suit called ‘Zaku-Frame’ by the company called FICSIT Inc.

The head of the Elion family could not help but marvel at the way the company had grown to be such a large presence in the solar system in a mere three years, showing their skills in both business management and innovation.

But the skill that Rustal was most keen about was their skills in espionage and violence.

As the supreme commander of the Arianrhod Fleet and the Head of one of the Seven Stars families, Rustal was very much aware of FICSIT’s achievements and movements in the past few years, including the silent destruction of various Gjallarhorn assets and personnel.

The only reason why the Supreme Commander had not moved against the company yet was because they were very good at covering their tracks, and the fact that everyone from Gjallarhorn who had died or disappeared due to the company had struck first, hence deserved the retaliation that befell them.

However, it would not do for one of the leaders of Gjallarhorn to be unprepared against a potential enemy, hence his acquisition of these new mobile suits to see what he could find from them.

“I am guessing you don’t have much good news? Lex?”

Lex Lang, or as he is better known by his pseudonym, Galan Mossa, simply nodded his head at his old friend and leader before handing over the datapad.

“As we anticipated, the mobile suit is black boxed and trapped to hell and back. But what we did not anticipate was that there is a hidden self-destruct sequence within the main Generator.”

“Unfortunately, while our R&D was pulling the suit apart, they accidentally triggered the self-destruct sequence and trashed the generator completely, along with the majority of its systems and weapons. Now, the suit is nothing more than a hunk of Nanolaminate metal.”

Despite anticipating it, Rustal could not help but feel surprised. He knew that they would protect their suits from tampering, but he never anticipated that it would be to this extent.

A good amount of paranoia, something that he could respect, but one that was playing against him at this moment.

“Did we get anything at all?”

“Well, we managed to crack the formula for their Fuel, but the synthesis of such an energy-dense biofuel is simply not profitable with the technology that Gjallarhorn has. Whatever method they use to synthesize that fuel, it is leagues ahead of anything that we can even theorize right now.”

“We have also cracked how the Heat Hawk works. The principles behind it are fairly simple and can be replicated for our use rather quickly, but the problem is that a single Ahab reactor cannot provide such bursts of intense power on demand.”

“So, while the Fuel that they use provides a finite operation time and less stable power output, giving it only in bursts, the sheer power that their generator outputs dwarfs what a single Ahab reactor can output at once?”

“Correct, sir. Make no mistake, the Fuel they use is inferior to Ahab reactors due to its finite capacity and operational time, making it a hassle to constantly refuel it in the middle of an operation compared to the near-infinite power provided by the Ahab reactor. However, when it comes to pure power output, their generators have the Ahab reactor beat.”

“Hmm, anything else?”

“No, sir. That was all we got out of the suit before it was trashed.”

“I see. Then, take another one from our stock to experiment with, and tell them to be careful with this one, we only managed to get twenty suits, and we have already lost one. We cannot lose another, especially since I plan to put them to use in the hands of the Gjallarhorn Pilot school graduates.”

Galan Mossa gave a salute before walking out of the room, leaving Rustal to his thoughts.

“…Are you an ally? Or an enemy? Will you enable me to rid this organization of its filth? Or will you become just another cog in the machine?”

“I hope you can keep up what you have been doing until now, David Thornton, because it would be a shame to kill someone who seems to be a genuinely good person.”

The head of the Elion family got up from his seat and headed out of the room, whispering to himself.

“Then again, none of my wishes have ever come true, so I guess I’ll just hope for the best, and prepare for the worst, just like I always do.”

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McGillis Fareed:

Gaelio Bauduin:

Carta Issue:

Galan Mossa:

Rustal Elion: