4

Chapter 4

~~~~~~Next Morning~~~~~~

"..."

"..."

"..."

The trio looked at the place where the pile of Mech bodies was supposed to be.

But there was nothing there.

Instead, the main hangar area has expanded and now it holds 4 Mechs. Three of them were in a semi-damaged state.

"Marcus Goldman has used his time powers to do the heaviest lifting, he dealt with all the salvage," Bronya said as she understood from looking around.

"...How long do you think this took him?" Mei asked with some worry.

"It doesn't matter! I am pissed regardless! That's it!" Kiana exclaimed angrily. She was pissed that he was doing all that alone! It rubs her like this as it reminds her about herself!

And it's just annoying! He has all three of them! He should include them in his time shenanigans!

Her angry gaze scanned the surrounding area looking for the culprit.

Eventually, they found him next to the Gundam Duel.

Finding her target the white-haired girl rushed towards him. Mei and Bronya followed after her.

"Mark!!!"

Kiana exclaimed loudly as she pounced on him to shake the hell out of him for his shenanigans.

Though her plan failed spectacularly as she kinda forgot that she can't pull out extra strength when she needs it as the power source she used to use all the time subconsciously doesn't exist.

So she ended up being caught by Marcus quite effortlessly. The girl ended up in his hands.

"Hug first thing in the morning? Quite adorable of you." His comment made the situation even more embarrassing. The girl tried to pull herself away from him. Which didn't work!

"Ehhh…Umm…Can you let me go?" She asked him with a very shy voice. This was not in her script! Kiana can't remember when she was manhandled like this before.

"Hmm, after a few more hugs?"

"...Fine…"

With an eye roll, she hugged him, then she felt that his hold was gone and she instantly retreated behind Mei.

"Morning Marcus," Mei said with an amused smile as she saw what happened to Kiana.

"Morning."

"Bronya was wondering where all of the salvage you acquired yesterday was?" The Silver-haired girl asked with a curious look.

"I spend several days sorting it out, three of those GINNs will end up as scrap for parts, while the rest will be fixed up." He explained quite casually. This was where Kiana got her courage back.

"And that's the problem! Aren't we supposed to be part of your…thing? This mission thing!? But so far you have been doing all the stuff by yourself!" The white-haired girl said that with a little bit of an angry voice. She was pointing her finger at him. It was almost like a court of some sort. The only thing missing is someone screaming 'objection!'.

"Hmm? I thought I could do all the boring stuff by myself and only focus on the interesting parts."

"Boring or not, we are supposed to do things as a group," Mei said with a sigh. She is worried about how constant time manipulation could mess with him. It would be better if they constantly watch him over. After all, he is watching over them. So they should do the very same thing back.

"Mei is right! If you want to constantly do things like that you should include us in your time shenanigans!" Kiana said as he got in front of him. She said that with a pouty tone.

"...Fine…I suppose we can do the boring stuff together." Marcus relented. He raised his hands in surrender. He can't fight them when they are this serious AND coming at him together at the same time.

"Affirmative, Bronya agrees we should work on this as one big group."

"Yes, we can do that, after breakfast," Mei said with a serious tone.

"Why don't we go to the kitchen? You can continue your work after you get your food." The oldest of the trio said with a smile.

This made Kiana grin as she wanted Mei's Breakfast. She then grabbed Marcus' arm and started to pull him to walk.

"Let's go! Until breakfast is done we can play a couple of rounds on Playstation 3!"

Bronya nodded when she heard Kiana mention video games, Marcus simply sighed and nodded at her.

"...Fine, let's go then."

~~~

After the food was done Marcus went back to work on Gundam Duel. He needs schematics to rebuild the legs, and for that, he was downloading everything he can on the mech.

While Bronya was working on the sniper rifle he asked her before.

The other two girls were doing their thing as well. Mei pulled Kiana into cleaning after realising that Kiana forgot that she was supposed to do something instead of just spending days playing video games.

"...Marcus Goldman, we need more robotic assistants or more people to run things." Marcus was brought back from his thoughts as he looked at the Silver-haired girl standing next to him.

"Fixing all this damage done to the Mechs will take weeks if not months. We need more automated platforms for faster fixing." She added more as her gaze went to the GINNs who are missing heads.

"You have a point. I do have a few ideas for heavy loaders based on the one we have here."

They do have some automated loaders which help to bring loot for salvage.

"...Hnnn. Bronya can add a few things she knows as well. The issue is that we need Honkai particles…or something which could replicate it."

"Hyper conductive material would be faster than reverse engineer Honkai energy."

The girl slowly nodded, she then proceeded to show schematics of a few things she has.

"...that robot floats without propulsion."

"Yes. Anti-gravity technology is quite common in Bronya's world." The girl showed her Project Bunny. The mech that helps her to fight.

"Hmm, yes, I suppose you can upload the schematics, we might find some use for the things we have."

"...Bronya apologises that she doesn't have more uses. Adjusting to this place is still a work in progress." She said that with a deadpan tone. But she could not hide her disappointment in herself.

"Hmm…dont worry. Why don't you do all the programming while I will switch to designing? Once you are done you can join me?" To cheer her up Marcus decided to let her do something which she likes and loves doing.

"...Hnnn, alright. Bronya is very good at it."

"Alright, let's switch then."

…

…

…

"Weak…Software…"

…

…

"Bronya assuming complete control…"

…

…

"Downloading relevant data…"

…

…

Marcus could only shake his head from amusement, the girl is a weeb as she is telling lines from video games while hacking and downloading stuff from the Gundam Duel.

"...Hnnn…this is impressive."

"Hmm? You found something interesting?"

"...Bronya did. The Phase Shift Armour. Is ingenious." She showed the data she plundered from Gundam.

"With an improved Power source, no kinetic damage could impact this metal. It strengthens the metal at the atomic level. However, the weakness is that the metal has to be clean of all impurities." She showed the data to him while explaining.

"Bronya is impressed. Future uses of this technology are suggested."

"Indeed. We could rework this when we acquire the GN Perpetual Motion engine. The reactor could spread its particles following Phase Shift Armour patterns into the metal. The reworked particle-friendly alloy used in the Gundam 00 timeline could reduce the amount of energy needed to make Phase Shift armour working."

Marcus said that as he took some notes.

'Hmm, I never expected the use of Phase Shift Armour beyond a certain point. But it appears we could make something bigger out of it.'

"Hnnn…Bronya will pin this down. Possible upgrades for Project Bunny." She is thinking to base something on this for the future.

"Then, check and cross-reference the batteries of Gundam Duel and everything you know. People in that universe have been working and developing batteries for a few centuries."

"...Bronya is on it."

~~~

As the pair were sorting out the tech and working on the angles of how to use it. Kiana ended up checking on them. She wanted to see how things were going. Since she was tired of cleaning. She might have overestimated her capacities in this specific work.

The girl is a multitude of times better at cleaving and destroying not this! It's in her blood as Kaslana!

"Guys! How's it going?"

Kiana popped from Marcus' left side since on his right side was Bronya who was typing something on her blue-coloured solid holographic keyboard.

"We are almost done with a schedule for repairs and the upgrades for the mechs. Aside from that we are thinking about a few things such as how to automatize the hangar for quick fixes and upgrades for our machines." Marcus explained while he looked at what Bronya was typing.

"Sweet! By the way…Mark…can I start with my simulation battles?" She asked him while giving him puppy eyes.

"Did you finish all the tasks given to you by Mei?"

*Tsk*

"Yes?"

"You do know if you do your things I will be less strict with you and…may pamper you?"

"O-Of course…silly of me…" At that moment Kiana turned around and dashed back to the living quarters.

Bronya who for a second stopped typing and looked at the disappearing white-haired girl.

"Impressive… Herrscher of Flamescion is under control."

"Did you say something, Bronya?"

"Hnnn, Bronya is impressed with Marcus Goldman's ability to make subject Kiana less annoying."

"Is it? She is quite easy to understand." Marcus said with a shrug. Maybe it's because he has a different perspective since he played the game or it's because he finds it easy to get along with her.

"Yes. Let's finish this before Bronya gets back to designing."

The teen just nodded at the girl before focusing back on making the schedule.

~~~

With the planning done the pair went to work. First, they needed to build a few robotic hands that could help them to remove mech body parts. Thankfully limb maintenance is extremely easy to do as both GINN and original Gundams built by Earth Alliance are easy to maintain.

'Hmm… The spare metal I acquired will run out quickly if we build this… Would it be enough to fix other GINNs and Duel?'

Marcus realised that once they build the automated repair platform they will once again be dry of resources.

"Bronya…"

"...Marcus Goldman needs to get more resources."

As if reading his mind she said exactly what he was thinking.

"...Indeed…"

"We should check which worlds we can access." The girl proposed to check out the terminal.

"You're right. We need to include them in our schedule."

The pair then walked over to the terminal and checked out.

"...Damn…"

[Select destination:]

[Warhammer 40000: Rise of Tau]

[Starcraft: Zerg Uprising]

[Code Geass: Battle of Shinjuku]

It was quite something else, the first two are extremely horrible choices. While Tau Empire has some interesting Mech suits it's not worth going to that death universe. And Starcraft… While not as dangerous as Tyranids, Zergs are in a league of their own.

Both are something he is not even considering going there. And besides… The last choice is something he wanted to visit either way.

Code Geass, battle of Shinjuku is just the perfect place to acquire Lancelot, that Knightmare at that moment has no advanced weapon. This is the only battle where the mech has no weapons apart from the common Slash Harkens.

"Marcus, you know these worlds?"

To Bronya's question, Marcus simply nods.

"The Warhammer 40000 is a death trap world. It's far, far more terrifying than your place. Humanity has been at the cosmic stage for nearly 40000 years. It has devolved into a fanatical zealotic society that wants to purge the entire cosmos of all alien life forms. Apart from their fanatical views, there are extremely terrifying life forms in space as well. You have Cosmic Gods which want to cause pure Chaos. Then hive mind monsters who want to purge all life as well… Let's just say that WE have to stay away from the first one. It's simply a horrifying experience. I want you three to stay away from this place."

The Silver-haired girl simply and quite dumbly nodded at him…it sounds crazy… yep… And here she thought her Honkai world was bad enough.

This sounds like pure hell.

"...And this Starcraft? It sounds like the name of a game…" Now that she thought about it… and what Kiana said… they are like stories…turned into games… The more interest they make the longer the franchise can be…

'...'

'...'

'...'

'...No way…'

At that moment Bronya had a crazy thought… What about their world?

'No… it's just silly…it can't be… But…BUT…what if… Bronya needs access to the internet… In-depth search just…just in case…'

"It's an RTS style of game where you build your base. You pick one race out of three.

Humans, advanced aliens, and aliens with a hive mind. They have their distinctive styles and stuff like that. But, just because we have access to their world through a game doesn't mean it's going to be easy.

I already was in Gundam Seed world and it's not an anime. Once you cross over there it's the real deal. Coordinators and Naturals…both tried to kill me."

What he said made her slightly relieved but at the same time, she was still thinking…if the world they were in at this moment was the centre of all these worlds? Does this place dictate how these other places progress? Does this world dictate how her world is progressing with all the events?

"You do know that we can't simply trust what we experience here to use it on another side. We can use it as a basis and MAYBE predict but that's about it. The moment we invade it instantly derails from a plot we know.

We are the outside element that derails the future of any world we visit."

'Yes…Marcus Goldman is right… even if our world is influenced by his world, our existence here would derail it! We might learn more about Honkai in this place!'

At that moment her silver eyes started to glow with fire. She was fired up! It's like she knows what she needs to do to finally put an end to all the bad things which happen in her world!

"Yes…Bronya agrees. We have a chance to change many things!"

Marcus for a second looked at her with slight confusion, why is she getting emotional?

"Are you okay?"

"Yes. Bronya is operating at 110%. Certain things have been processed. We should return to the matter at hand. From our current understanding, we are skipping Warhammer and Starcraft. Does it leave Code Geass? What about this world?" She pointed at the last choice.

To her question, Marcus simply smirked.

"We have hit the gold mine with the last one. It's the world that has Sakuradite. And even the entry point is simply golden. I will go there. But for that. We need to fix the Duel and that Sniper rifle."

"Hnnn, very well. Bronya will return to her work immediately."

The teen nodded as he saw the girl running back to her work.

'Did she figure out something? Curious… let's see the chain reactions.'

~~~

Raiden Mei was baffled by what Bronya just said to them. This theory was insane, but it made sense! And it would be another proof of what Marcus knows. Not just their world but other places as well.

"I guess it makes sense? I mean we already studied Gundam which is an anime and one of those is in the hangar. Our world is a game or anime that makes as much sense." Kiana was the calmest out of the three. The reason for her calmness is that she understands that she can influence any place from this place.

Meaning that she can save Aunt Himeko and other situations… Maybe even save her mother? That just made her more serious than ever.

From this place, the Garage dimension, she can visit any sort of place and influence. Marcus raiding the battle of Alaska has sent ripples through the timeline. Taking the Duel for himself most likely has affected the later space battles.

"This is why we should do our best. If we can get stronger and enter one of our timelines and help our counterparts! Just imagine my other me seeing my Herrscher of Flamescion form! She would lose her mind!" Kiana said that with barely hidden smugness. She wants to show her other self what working together can bring.

"...I guess you are right Kiana. I do want to say a few things to my other counterpart who is younger than me." Mei said while slowly nodding at the white-haired girl.

Bronya nodded as well, but she was not done there. She needs to ask Marcus to take her outside so that she could do her studying.

She then looked at Mei and Kiana. She could think of something. The pair of them would want to explore the outside world as well. At least for a while, she could use that time to research on the internet.

'...For now, Bronya will return to her work. Marcus is expecting his Sniper Rifle.'

While Bronya's words have shocked the pair to some extent, it only made them try getting more powerful quicker.

Though the moment Marcus arrived in the living room. Kiana could not control herself and started to show off her progress in the games she was playing. While she played less this time around she still played quite a bit

But…like always…even if the silver-haired girl played less she still owned Kiana in any game she played which had two-player mode.

This makes the white-haired girl somewhat disheartened. But a couple of pats from Marcus would fix her up pretty quickly.

This was how a regular afternoon looked in Marcus' place.

~~~

Marcus looked at an 8 metres long sniper rifle which was just recently manufactured from the automated forge.

The paint job has been recently put on it as well.

He could only chuckle from amusement as there was a yellow bunny insignia on it.

This was not any bunny but a HOMU from Honkai, both Bronya, and Kiana are all over this thing. Kiana even asked for a full body-size pillow manufactured of this thing. One could say this is their Mascot while Kiana is the face of the game.

"The sniper rifle is nothing special. Bronya valued the sturdiness and speed of bullets in this weapon over sheer power. The rounds are pure kinetic, there is a basic accelerator built inside of the rifle." The girl said with crossed arms.

"Bronya needs a Beam Rifle from Gundam Seed for reference. Even better if you got a Sniper rifle from them for me to tamper with to get the best result or technology similar to that."

"Hmm…the Accelerator is from your world?"

"Yes. But instead of Honkai it's electromagnetism. It should be good against Phase Shift Armour as well. Even if it doesn't pierce the armour it would drain the battery considerably." She said with a slightly proud tone. She used things she knows about Phase Shift armour even if she didn't focus specifically on that.

It's a good starting point nonetheless.

"Sounds good. Would it drain the battery of the mobile suit?"

"No. It has a separate battery stored in the frame of the gun. Duel should theoretically be able to shoot around 50 bullets before you would need to replace it. This amount should be enough."

"Nice, impressive work. I knew I should leave weapons development to a specialist like you." He praised the girl who simply nodded at him but there was a small blush on her cheeks. She likes to be praised like this.

"Now we should replace the legs of the Duel." His gaze went to another thing that they had manufactured. The leg parts for the Gundam.

"Yes. Thankfully you have heavy-lifting tools for this. However, it will be difficult to move to replace them without precise machinery."

"Well… It's a good thing the basic technology came from the Space colonisation timeline.

I did install something to make things easier." He pulled out a phone, a device that was thought to be almost as thin as glass. This was something created from Bronya's wrist computers.

He pressed a few things. And that moment they started to float.

"...Gravity…is gone…"

"Indeed. And this is not pure technology but a thing we can do in the garage dimension we are at this moment."

"Hnn…this will make fixing the legs easier."

"Indeed let's get this over with."

~~~

The lack of gravity quickly got the attention of Kiana who was floating around in the hangar with an amused grin. It was amusing for her. Though she did help with the position of the mech legs in the process.

It took a few days to take off and put on the legs, connect the cables, adjust the OS, install data about the new weapon, and add new targeting OS support for the sniper rifle.

Bronya did take note of the Assault Shroud configuration that Gundam has in the database. But according to data, it performs poorly under the influence of gravity and it should be only used in space.

Thankfully the schematics are in the machine itself. So she could recreate this in the future. Maybe adjust and add something more to it?

"How is it? How does it feel to sit in a Gundam?" Kiana asked Bronya who was sitting inside the pilot seat. The white-haired girl floated and poked her head inside.

"Big…"

"Well…yeah? That's the point?"

"The seat is too big, the control sticks are too far away and Bronya can't reach the petals." The white-haired girl said with a dull tone. She was quite annoyed, thankfully she won't be piloting this thing anyway.

"I can see that. Is the Duel ready for battle?" The girl asked with an excited tone, ignoring Bronya's deadpan stare.

"Almost done. Coordinators are maybe genetically engineered but they are no match for Bronya."

"Cool! I want to test it out before Mark notices!" Kiana said with a crafty look.

Though her scheming didn't last long.

"Notice what?" Her whole body turned stiff as a cat hoodie-wearing girl heard a familiar voice.

"...This…well…"

"Gundam Duel and specs are up in the simulator. If you want to practise piloting it you can do it."

"B-But…"

"I will be diving into the Code Geass world soon. You need to do your studies in the meantime."

She rolled her eyes. As she remembered the main character of Code Geass. He was meh, to her. She prefers Kira Yamato over the edgy revenge obsessed guy.

Kira Yamato at least wants peace and gets hardened by the war but still stays true to himself…

Though she does love those agile mechs that Code Geass has. She can use that one in a world that doesn't have oversized mechs like the Gundam.

"I know not everything is interesting, but you need to be on top of your game. Why do you watch it as some sort of assignment instead of pure entertainment?" He suggested it to her but she still had a thoughtful look.

"I will, but why don't you take us outside after you return?" She asked him while giving Bronya a wink.

At that moment the silver-haired girl's eyes widened. Is subject Kiana giving her a chance to find out about their world!?

"I guess? I mean, I can show you around the town. It's not that big of a deal." He said with a shrug. He could show them the town centre, and maybe take them to his favourite cafeteria.

"Awesome, I will remind you after you return!" The moment she said that she pushed herself away from the Gundam's chest and launched herself toward the simulation pod.

It appears Kiana is taking zero gravity like a fish to water.

'Herrscher past effects? Curious, should I ask a few questions about space?' For a second he thought about it before looking at Bronya.

"How is the OS going?"

"Upgraded the software, added some alternation from our technology, the battery consumption should be more efficient. The Beam saber focusing lenses should be improved as well. The heat emitters were reworked."

"Nice."

"Removed multiple subroutines. They lag the data processing. The OS technology of Gundam Seed…is lacking." She said the last part with a dull tone. She was not impressed. From her understanding, she could cause utter chaos on their software.

"...Question for you, Marcus Goldman."

"Shoot."

"Quantum Computers? Do they have any?"

"Not to my knowledge. Gundam Seed technology has regressed after World War 3 and Reconstruction War. I guess that civilization grew on a specific path to accelerate the space colonisation race. Computers didn't need to improve beyond specific points as Space is very hostile towards electronics in general."

The girl slowly nodded her head in understanding, it made some sense to her.

"That reminds me. Do you think you could come up with a virus that could disable Mobile suits based on the GINNs and Duel we have?"

His questions made her show him a small smile.

"Possible. Depends if Marcus Goldman accepts HOMU to be a virus?"

"...Umm? I don't understand the issue with that. Both you and Kiana love that bunny thing."

"...Everyone likes it in my world. Since you want one I can give it to you. In the form of a virus." She said with a quite proud tone. Soon she will convert him to like Homu just like everyone in her world!

For a second he smiled at her. Well, that just sounds good. He might not need to blow up that many mechs, instead he could take them whole. With minimal damage.

~~~~~~Later~~~~~~

Marcus pressed the button and the Gundam Duel monitors turned on. He saw the Earth's Alliance's OMNI-enforcer sigil appear on the screen followed by a…

Yellow Homu rabbit.

The teen chuckled seeing the bunny. It appears Bronya has left a surprise for him.

Once the bunny image disappeared he could see the outside image. The teen has spent several hours in the simulation just to get used to the explosiveness of Duel Gundam. He was so used to GINN that it was quite shocking, the power was quite appreciated by him.

When all the systems were online he pressed the button and the machine was released from the hangar hold. He then walked towards the weapon racks and took the sniper rifle which Bronya called Bunny-01 Electromagnetic High Impact Kinetic Sniper Rifle.

He is pretty sure she will name everything she makes with 'Bunny' in its name. Not that he is complaining, the rifle she made is very powerful, as he tested it out in a shooting range.

It's safe to say that if not for Phase Shift Armour, his Duel Gundam would have lost an arm.

Even with this Bronya said that the rifle doesn't focus on damage but instead it focuses on the delivery of the bullet.

Pretty sure it's the same thing…

Again, he didn't bother with the semantics of this and instead accepted the explanation.

'With the spare ammo cartridges, I have in total 15 bullets.'

'Should I bother grabbing everything I could? Even the Earl of Pudding trailer? He should have prototype stuff on the V.A.R.I.S rifle in his databases.'

'Among other things…'

Getting Lancelot is fair and crispy but the data banks themselves should be worth a fortune. The dude is a genius of his world alongside that Indian woman.

The pair progressed decades' worth of technology in just a few short years. So anything they have is juicy stuff for him and his girls.

As he walked towards the launching pad a window popped in front of him.

'Ah yes… the choices…'

[Select type of Operation]

'Hmm…for this… I Will take an extra-long route. I need that metal and the Knightmares are three times smaller than a Mobile suit. This means I need to take three just to get the metal of one Mobile suit.'

'That reminds me…each Sutherland has some Sakuradite. This means that I need even more reasons to gather all of the stuff.'

[Looting Salvage Operation has been selected]

*DING*

[Looting Salvage Operation]

[Loot the entire battlefield and pile all the technology to a single point]

[Requirements to leave the area: Loot the whole battlefield or stay in the area for 48 Hours]

[Time left: 47 hours 59 minutes 56 seconds]

Once he selected his Operation the Gundam stepped on the catapult pad and the catapult tunnel lit up in red light. As the machine got into position the tunnel changed its colour to orange, then green, followed by a clear horn which made Marcus press the launch button on the control stick.

The feeling was something else when one launched in an actual Gundam and not some common use GINN!

~~~

The grey and blue mobile suit landed on concrete rubble as he looked around. It was a destroyed city. Or more precisely a destroyed district of Tokyo.

His Mobile suit sensor started picking up moving objects in the distance.

At that moment a pop-up window appeared showing what it was. It was a Britannian Recon Helicopter.

"Well, well, it will soon discover me. We can't allow that."

As Marcus said that he targeted the flying craft with his anti-air guns also known as CIWS which are mounted on the mech head.

A short burst of explosive rounds made the helicopter explode, and the pilots of this craft have been transported to their changing room.

Once he dealt with them the mobile suit proceeded to walk. This was not Alaska. This was a much smaller area and his machine is much bigger.

If his guess is right his mech could play football with those Knightmares.

'I should start trying to listen to their comms. Unlike these people, I have a semi-built-in A.I. To sort out the radio chatter.'

As he thought about it he started to do just that but then…

He stopped a Knightmare…it was just looking at him…more like his gigantic machine…