Kycilia Zabi leisurely sipped her black tea, completely unconcerned about the battles taking place at the four decoy command posts. Even if the bases were completely destroyed, it would be no great loss.
"What's the situation?"
"The four decoy command posts are under simultaneous attack. Our outer forces have already begun to encircle them."
"Excellent. Have the encircling forces attack directly. Strike them while they're still trying to gain a foothold and catch them off guard."
"Understood."
"Oh, right." As her Adjutant turned to leave, Kycilia Zabi called out to her again. "Have all the enemies been located?"
"A total of seven battalions have appeared..."
"Seven battalions!" Kycilia froze, the teacup hovering at her lips. Her eyes widened as a terrible premonition welled up inside her. "This is bad! Quickly..."
"Wooo~ Wooo~ Wooo~..."
Just as Kycilia Zabi was about to give the order to relocate, the base's alarms blared, sounding incredibly harsh to her ears.
"I've been tricked!" Kycilia Zabi slammed her fist on the command console.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom...
Kycilia Zabi's punch not only echoed through the Command Room but also seemed to shake the very earth. Violent tremors came from all directions, and the roar of cannon fire and explosions filled her ears.
"Lady Kycilia, it's the Federation's MS units!"
"So I've been outplayed. Find an escape route!" Kycilia Zabi ordered immediately. She didn't think her forces outside could stop Yang Hui. The only thing to do now was to find any means possible to escape.
"The base... the base is surrounded... Lady Kycilia, we..."
BOOM—!
"AH—!!!!!"
The roar of the explosion sounded as if it had gone off right next to them. The ceiling of the Command Room was mercilessly torn open. Looking up, against the backdrop of the gray sky, with flames for light and thick smoke for decoration, the twin eyes of the handsome, square-faced Astray Gundam shone, looking utterly ferocious at this moment.
"You've lost, Kycilia Zabi."
The Astray Gundam's head moved away, replaced by the dark muzzle of its gun.
"Yang... Hui..." Kycilia Zabi gritted her teeth. Her pride could not accept this defeat. The scheme she had meticulously planned, racking her brains to arrange, had still been broken by Yang Hui. And now she herself faced two outcomes: surrender, or death.
"I'll only ask this question once, too. Surrender, or die?"
"Yang Hui! Don't forget I still have troops! Your men are within my encirclement! If you kill me, they will tear your subordinates to shreds!"
"Is that so? It seems you've made your choice."
The indifferent voice sounded chillingly cold in the ears of the Zeon personnel. The dark gun muzzle glowed with a pinkish light. Cute? Dazzling? At this moment, it was only fatal and despairing, like the hand of the Death God caressing their necks.
"Lady Kycilia!" Everyone in the Command Room looked at Kycilia with pleading eyes, hoping she would stop resisting. If they were captured, they might live to go home. If they died, they were truly dead!
"Surrender!"
Zing~
The Beam Rifle was quickly raised, and a pink beam shot toward the sky, ending the fiery dawn and declaring victory in this war.
"Everyone, come out and assemble outside. Don't try anything funny."
"Hmph!"
At this point, no matter how unwilling Kycilia Zabi was, she could only do as Yang Hui said. She had been so confident in her cat-and-mouse game that this command post was merely a converted basement of a small supply base. To maintain complete secrecy and prevent Yang Hui from noticing anything amiss, she hadn't even had any tunnels dug. So now, they had absolutely no chance of escape.
Seeing everyone from the Command Room obediently walk out as instructed, Yang Hui gestured to Jung and the others, then opened his cockpit to face Kycilia Zabi for the first time.
"I never thought you'd have a day where you'd fall into my hands, Third Lady of the Zabi Family."
"And I never thought that the third young master of the Vist Foundation, once abandoned in a corner by the world, was a hidden hungry wolf," Kycilia Zabi said, her unwillingness growing as she looked at the young face before her.
Years ago, when Yang Hui had accompanied the previous head of the Vist Foundation to a banquet in the Zeon Republic, Kycilia Zabi had seen him standing alone in a corner. He didn't talk to anyone, and no one talked to him, as if he had been abandoned by the world. She had simply thought the child was useless.
But now... the bloody truth told her she had been wrong.
"How did you find me?" Kycilia Zabi asked. She couldn't figure it out, believing her plan had been perfect.
"Don't you think the defensive forces for this small base were a bit excessive?" Yang Hui said mockingly.
"Just because of that!?"
"Just because of that."
Kycilia Zabi finally understood where she had lost. It was less that she had lost to Yang Hui and more that she had lost to herself. The problem Yang Hui pointed out was something one would normally notice, but why had she overlooked it? Because she was a Zabi, the Commander-in-Chief of the Zeon Army's Earth Attack Force. No matter how confident she was in her hidden location, she would subconsciously arrange for sufficient protection to follow her. It was an unconscious act.
"Heh, Yang Hui, I didn't lose to you," Kycilia Zabi sneered, but she could taste the bitterness.
"If you can't even conquer yourself, how can you conquer your enemy?"
"Don't forget, your men are still in my encirclement. We can make a deal..."
"No need."
Click~
Before Kycilia Zabi could finish, the dark muzzle of a gun was pressed against her forehead. "Either I execute you now, or you order your men to retreat."
"You don't dare kill me," Kycilia Zabi said confidently.
"Is that so?"
Bang~
Yang Hui raised his hand and fired. The bullet entered the Adjutant's forehead. Blood and a yellowish-white fluid splattered as she fell to the ground, her eyes filled with disbelief.
"Heh, I told you, you don't dare kill me." Kycilia Zabi became even more confident. Yang Hui's threat was undoubtedly a cover for his own insecurity; otherwise, that bullet would have hit her, not her Adjutant.
"I was just giving you a demonstration. But if you don't understand, then you can experience it firsthand..."
"Wait!"
Startled by the killing intent that draped over her like a tangible coat, Kycilia Zabi's confidence wavered again. She was now genuinely unsure if Yang Hui would actually kill her.
"You can't kill me!" This was a retreat. From "don't dare" to "can't," Kycilia Zabi's bravado was gone. "I am a Zabi, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Earth Attack Force. I'm more valuable to the Federation alive. If you kill me, the Federation's high command won't let you off!"
"You think I care?"
"You..."
"Five seconds left. My patience is limited. Five..."
"You..."
"...Three..."
"Wait..."
"...One. Time's up."
"I'll have them retreat immediately!" Seeing his finger tense on the trigger, Kycilia Zabi conceded defeat. Her pride and confidence were nothing in Yang Hui's eyes. All her bargaining chips were worthless. She could see that Yang Hui's eyes showed no reaction to the words "Federation's high command," only disdain and coldness toward her threats.
Yang Hui said nothing, simply tossing a communicator to Kycilia Zabi, urging her to give the order quickly.
"This is Kycilia. All forces, listen to my command. Retreat. Abandon the encirclement operation... Don't ask questions, all forces retreat!"
After cutting the communication, Kycilia Zabi lost all strength in her body and collapsed to the ground like a walking corpse. No one knew what price she had just paid to issue that humiliating order.
"Heh... haha... hahaha... Yang Hui, so you and I are the same kind of person! Hahahaha..." Kycilia Zabi laughed, her eyes vacant.
"Don't misunderstand, Kycilia." Looking at the dazed and crazed Kycilia Zabi, Yang Hui's attitude was as calm as still water. "I will not abandon a single one of my subordinates. I had you give the order because I wanted the battle to end sooner. The reason I dared to kill you is because I have absolute confidence in myself and my men. Those small fries you have are no match for us. They weren't before, they aren't now, and they never will be in the future."
Watching Yang Hui's departing back, the light returned to Kycilia Zabi's eyes. Yang Hui's indifference was the greatest insult to her. That placid gaze deeply stung her pride. She bit her lip so hard that the skin broke, but she didn't care.
"Don't you give me a chance, Yang Hui... This humiliation, I will repay you tenfold... a hundredfold!"
Yang Hui didn't know about Kycilia Zabi's vicious thoughts, nor was he interested. Right now, he just wanted to quickly contact the Luna to pick them up, then take Kycilia Zabi and the other Zeon officers back to Federation territory.
From the start of this battle, covering the naval fleet as it laid minefields, he hadn't had a proper rest. Fatigue clouded his mind; he needed to rest well.
Moreover, with Kycilia Zabi captured, even if Zeon still had a large number of troops on the Indochinese Peninsula, they were no longer a threat. Freed from Kycilia Zabi's constraints, once the Twelfth Independent Technical Division was rested and re-entered the battlefield, they would be like sharks leaping into a fishpond, free to feast.
...
"Tch, Zeon's learned a thing or two. With such a massive formation, did Kycilia Zabi bring all of Australia's forces with her?"
"Who the hell knows! My fingers are going numb!"
"Hang in there, the Major won't abandon us!"
"What are we waiting for the Major for? Let's kill all these damn Zeon bastards!"
"You go ahead!" chorused several others.
"Uh, if I go, I'll... Zeon is retreating!"
"They're really retreating!"
The forces Kycilia Zabi had transferred from Australia to besiege the Twelfth Independent Technical Division's squadrons were not small. An iron-tight encirclement, a dense sea of red mono-eyes, and an endless line of Dopp Fighters and Magella Attack Tanks had completely surrounded the squads attacking the four decoy bases, giving them no chance at all.
They had originally thought they wouldn't be able to escape this time and were prepared to hold their ground and wait for Yang Hui to rescue them. But now...
The moment they saw the Zeon Army retreat, they were grateful to be alive and felt proud and honored to be part of their unit. As the approaching Luna came into view, victory followed.
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