Gundam AGE Ep. 42: Girard Spriggan

Girard’s Thielva enters the battlefield, followed by four Danazines. She opens fire on the Abis team and launches her wing bits, which she uses to destroy several Clanches and Adele Mk-IIs. Derek comments that the enemy is out of their league and wonders who it is. Zeheart calls Girard and tells her that their objective is to defend the base, but she says she only wants to play with the Gundam. Kio uses the AGE-FX‘s C-Funnels to defend himself from the Fawn Farsia‘s funnels. Their fight is interrupted by the Thielva’s wing bits, which take aim at Fram so that Girard can attack Kio with a beam saber. Girard vows that she’ll take down the Gundam, and Fram yells at her for getting in the way. Girard asks Fram if she wants Zeheart’s praise so badly, and Fram says she’s just following orders. Fram has an X-Rounder reaction and dodges incoming beam attacks from Seric’s Clanche Custom and Derek’s Clanche. Girard deflects all of Kio’s C-Funnels and forces him to fight at melee range with beam sabers. Girard sets off an X-Rounder reaction and communicates telepathically with Kio. The bridge crew of the Diva pull up the data on Girard and the Thielva. Flit tells Kio that Girard is an enemy and he shouldn’t hold back, but Kio says he’s going to fight in his own way. Zeheart’s Ghirarga continues to attack Asemu’s AGE-2 Dark Hound, and Asemu pleads with Zeheart to listen to him about Ezelcant. Zeheart repeats that he’s not going to listen to Asemu, but Asemu declares that he’ll say it anyway. Asemu is forced to dodge when Zeheart deploys bits and asks him if he wants to follow a man who intends to create a new human race. Girard asks Kio if that’s all he’s got, and Kio tells her she should know what both sides have gone through. He tells her that he wants to end the war and asks her to join with him. Natora looks at Girard’s personal records, but Flit states that they don’t matter because she’s an enemy. Flit decides to launch in the upgraded AGE-1 Gransa and tells Natora to prepare the plasma diver missile. Natora reads Girard’s file, which states that her real name is Reina Spriggan.

Reina served as a test pilot who evaluated the performance of prototype mobile suits. But one day there was an accident. Kio asks Girard what happened to her, but she tells him she has nothing to say to the Federation. Girard flashes back to her time in a colony as she and partner Girard Fornell tested the custom G-Bouncer Deos. As they spent more time together, they grew closer and started a relationship. Fornell told Reina that with her he felt he could revive an old dream of having a happy family. One day, Reina and Fornell were fitted with experimental bracelets and anklets to draw out their X-Rounder abilities. They began the test flight in an asteroid field and used their X-Rounder powers to dodge asteroids at high speeds. They raised output on the system, which caused a malfunction that prevented them from moving. Fornell’s G-Bouncer flew out of control and crashed into an asteroid, while Reina’s experienced a crash landing on an asteroid surface. Afterward, Reina struggled to get out of her hospital bed and was found by a nurse, who told her that Fornell was dead. A technician then gave Reina an audio recording proving that her commanding officer didn’t care about the system overload because he wanted results. Reina confronted the officer, who told her that the accident would be blamed on Fornell’s pilot error. He also promoted Reina two ranks, which she interpreted as an attempt to silence her. As her hatred of the Federation grew, she accepted Simmons’ offer to defect to the Vagans. Kio tells Girard that fighting like this won’t accomplish anything and that her power shouldn’t be used like this. Girard tells Kio that he’s naive and that her power is for fighting. Fram closes in and attacks Kio, but Girard says she didn’t ask for help. Fram says it’s Zeheart’s orders because he would never abandon a comrade. Kio dodges attacks from Fram’s beam whip as she argues with Girard. Flit arrives in the AGE-1 Gransa and opens fire on both Fram and Girard. Kio says that Girard must’ve had reasons for leaving the Federation, but Flit says he doesn’t care what those reasons are. Girard says she’s together with Fornell and sets off an X-Rounder reaction that affects Kio, Flit, Fram and Zeheart. Asemu wonders what’s going on as Zeheart retreats.