Naturally, Symantec did the just, honorable thing and sued them for violating the EULA (which apparently forbids poking around in such a manner).
And, with UCITA (you've heard my UCITA rant already, haven't you? Just insert it right about here) looking like it'll weasel it's way into law, Symantec actually has a legal base for its complaint, as UCITA makes End-User License Agreements actually enforcable, no matter how ludicrous the terms. Assuming they sue in one of the states that passes UCITA, anyway.
Well, that's it. Everyone out of the pool.
Is it bad when you start rooting for the 'bad guys'?
We check in with our antagonist, Zechs, as his shuttle zips along, giant robot nestled in the hold. He's gotten more information on all these darn Gundams, but it's come at the cost of (last episode) lots of his followers. He's also lost the location of the one Gundam he was able to track, Wu Fei's. He knows where it's going, though. Soon enough, he gets a call from the base commander, a woman named Noin, and they banter cheerfully for a bit. Noin is in charge of training pilots for OZ's new space mobile suits, which are based there. She also seems quite chipper, which in this show means she's going to get dumped on. Poor Noin. She signs off, eventually, and Zechs banters some with one of his surviving speaking-line followers. Zechs and Noin (six and nine? whoo.) were in the top two of their class at the academy, the minion notes, for the benefit of the viewer. Zechs muses that Noin always made sure to come in second, to make him look better. Whoa, villain love!
We check in with Wu Fei, who's hidden his Gundam in the woods and is headed for Noin's Victoria base on a bike.
Back on the base, Noin is putting her trainees through their final paces in a zero-gee setup, and surls at them that Zechs is coming, and they'd better be at their best. The trainees, who are clearly doomed, are enthusiastic about this. Oh, man. They should know better. Every time Zechs shows up and people get enthusiastic, stuff starts blowing up.
Noin takes a shower, after a hard day's training (note that we don't actually see her in the shower, just coming out of it afterwards, and then we see her 'Zechs shrine', with lots of photos of everyone's favorite guy with a dumb hat. Villain love, indeed.
We check in on our protagonist, Heero, as he's pestered by Duo. Heero is solemnly working on fixing his Gundam, while Duo first offers to help, then grows increasingly annoyed as Heero ignores him. Heero finally speaks up, telling Duo to keep it down. Irritated still more, Duo wonders mockingly how long it'll take Heero to fix up his Gundam without any spare parts. Heero gets a call notifying him that a transport carrying Gundanium alloy is headed through the area tomorrow, and he is to destroy it. Duo rolls his eyes at this. However, the two still haven't figured out they're on the same side, although Duo is clearly starting to suspect it.
Meanwhile, Relena stands on the shoreline and shouts "Heero! Here I am! Come kill me!" Being concerned about someone is good, yes. Tempting fate, not so good. What would you do with a brain if you had one, Relena?
In a meeting of the Alliance council, the goobers remark that Gundanium can only be in from space, so clearly these Gundams came from the colonies. Wow! Brainwave! Relena's father tries to encourage them to find a diplomatic solution, but they insist on going to the colonies and kicking some butt. As he keeps protesting, they eventually suspect he's a spy for the colonies and send him out. Hmm. Could be.
Meanwhile, Treiys (not Trowa, as a thought previously. Too... many... names!), the head of the Specials, lounges in a bubble bath. No, really. His... secretary? minion?, a woman named Une, queries him about what to do about the foreign minister (Relena's father). Treiys lounges a bit more and instructs her to get rid of him. Une is more than happy to comply (although her facial expression never changes), and remarks that she'll go get Treiys some more bubble bath. ... um, yeah.
Noin finally introduces her trainees to their mecha, and remarks that they'll be flying them out tomorrow, since she doesn't want to train anyone can't take care of their own machines. They have to evacuate the suits anyway, as the Gundam is coming. She then goes to hang out with Zechs at a... disco? Well, an empty disco, anyway. Both of them in their dressy Specials uniforms complete with swords. Zechs remarks on the, er, cheery flashing lights, and Noin replies that she put this in as a place for her trainees to feel more relaxed. Zechs cautions her against getting too attached (he's read the script, apparently), but Noin replies that she doesn't intend for any of them to get killed - people only get killed when there's a screw-up, she insists. Zechs disagrees (understandably, having seen quite a few perfectly good pilots get wiped out), but is interrupted by a phone call. His minion is down in the base's armoury, fiddling with the Gundam they acquired last episode. Sure enough, it's pretty buff, but will take about a month to properly re-fit. While he's making this call, however, Noin sits quietly nearby, lazily tapping her sword against Zechs' sword. See, those dress uniforms can come in handy, after all. Noin looks unbearably smug at this subtle method of flirting, while Zechs doesn't seem to know what the heck to do, and just mumbles away on the phone. Villain love, indeed.
Meanwhile, Quatre and Trowa (that's the name of That Other Gundam Pilot, apparently) have a little jam session with violin and flute. What? Hey, wait, the background music doesn't even remotely match what they're actually doing. Where's that electric guitar coming from? My god! They're doing instrumental karaoke! Meanwhile, down below, Quatre's minions are fixing up Trowa's Gundam, and there's yet more remarking on how similar the designs are. Are there no brains anywhere around here?
Noin heads off to bed (alone, you perverts) but is interrupted by explosions set off by Wu Fei, who's apparently used his innate bad-assedness to infiltrate the base. The explosions level the trainee dorm, and Noin hurries to the scene but too late to save her charges. Noin rallies the base defenses and checks that they're all set up before heading out herself, having located Wu Fei's fleeing motorcycle. Two of her minions follow carrying a sodding great laser, which they complain won't be able to dissipate its heat in the atmosphere. Hey, wait a minute. Heat dissipates EASIER in the atmosphere than in space, doesn't it? Because you get convection and all that, in addition to radia... wait, I'm criticizing the science in a giant robot show. Nevermind.
Noin shoots at Wu Fei a bit, knocking him off his bike, but hesitates when she sees he's just a kid, which gives him time to throw some explosives and get away again while she's distracted. Now that's just dirty pool. Wu Fei gets to the Gundam and casually downs Noin's mecha. Her minions show up with their cannon, but she (far too nice a person) tells them to wait, which allows Wu Fei to kill them and take the cannon himself. Oops.
Back at the base, people are starting to lose it, and the next in command orders the space mobile suits to be flown off in a transport. Zechs suggests that this is a bad plan, but is ignored - and, sure enough, the transport is promptly shot down on launching by Wu Fei's big cannon. Whups.
Noin curses, but her mobile suit is disabled and she can't do anything about it. Wu Fei insults her a bit in a boredly miscogenist fashion before wandering off, saying she's unworthy even to be killed by him. This annoys her even more.
Back at the ship, Duo and his minions awaken to the sound of a jet engine - Heero's gotten his mecha repaired during the night. Duo cheers Heero on as the Gundam launches, calling his fellow pilot a genius, until he notices his mecha and discovers just where Heero got all the needed spare parts from... D'oh!
Heero happily shoots down the transport he was sent to take care of, and laughs like the homicidal little sociopath he is.
Meanwhile, Zechs' minions recover Noin's mecha, and he helps her out, looking about as concerned as it's possible for him to get. Noin remarks somewhat sardonically that Zechs is only concerned because if she died fighting the Gundam, she'd probably get promoted over him. Since her mission here is effectively over, she asks to come with him, and get another shot at the Gundams - Zechs, being no fool, accepts. They're both doomed, but hey, it's a tragic sort of villain love.
Wu Fei wanders around in the desert (desert?) and howls at the sky about how fighting wimpy opponents makes him feel empty. Oh, shut up, already! Less angsting pretty boy, more Zechs, dammit!
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