Athrun piloted the Immortal Justice Gundam as it charged toward the Destroy Gundam, while his subordinates in their Blazing Tigers followed his orders, circling at high speed and firing at the Destroy Gundam.
However, the pilot of the Destroy Gundam immediately contorted his face into a vicious snarl at the sight.
To be honest, this pilot of the Destroy Gundam and Athrun shared quite a fateful connection in the anime—he was Sting Oakley, who had piloted the Astray Reverse Red Frame during the battle at the Daedalus Base on the moon.
After being driven off by the Silver Lightning in the space zone above the moon during the Daedalus Base battle, he did not return to the base to engage in a second round with the lunar rear base forces led by Reid.
It could only be said that while he regarded Reid as the enemy who had killed his "siblings and father," the psychological trauma Reid had inflicted on him was clearly greater than his hatred.
At the time, Sting Oakley had already been defeated by the Silver Lightning. Knowing that joining the lunar Daedalus Base would be futile, he decisively—and cowardly—fled to a crater far from the battlefield, where he remained until Reid led his forces away to ambush the Earth Alliance's lunar base troops.
Still, Sting Oakley had some wits about him. Seeing the New Misurugi Kingdom forces withdraw, he chose to self-destruct his Mobile Suit, pretending to have survived after being shot down.
Since the entire unit that had sortied with Sting Oakley was wiped out and the Daedalus Base had suffered a crushing defeat, no one doubted his story. Instead, he was sent back to Earth as a lucky tool and became the pilot of the Destroy Gundam.
Now, this was Sting Oakley's official debut battle piloting the Destroy Gundam.
Ever since his defeat by the Silver Lightning, Sting Oakley had come to believe that Mobile Suits were truly useless—if one wanted sheer destructive power, it had to be a Mobile Armor. Thus, he happily underwent further enhancements, allowing his mind to grow even more unhinged while quickly mastering the controls of the Destroy Gundam.
So, when he saw the ZAFT forces choosing to circle around him and attack, Sting Oakley twisted his expression in the cockpit and shouted:
"Mobile Suits are all trash! You scraps, I'll show you what real firepower is!!"
With Sting Oakley's roar, the large disc on the back of the Destroy Gundam began to shift upward, transforming into MA Mode. Two massive and menacing twin-barreled "Impact 13" High-Energy Beam Cannons aimed directly at the Immortal Justice Gundam.
At this moment, Athrun's subordinates assumed the enemy's target was their leader, and their confidence in Athrun's skills was even greater than Athrun's own.
At the very least, Athrun felt an involuntary tension and heightened focus when he saw the four pitch-black barrels glowing with red light.
Meanwhile, the Blazing Tiger pilots only wanted to cover Athrun's evasion, so they all slowed down and aimed at the Destroy Gundam's massive cannons to fire.
However, the beams fired by these Blazing Tigers were completely blocked by the Destroy Gundam's Positron Shield.
It must be noted that, powered by a large Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactor, the Destroy—no longer a Battery-Powered Mobile Suit—had far greater output than in the anime. A full-body shield was a trivial matter.
But the Destroy Gundam's counterattack was something the Blazing Tigers could not withstand. When the "Impact 13" High-Energy Beam Cannons fired, the twenty "Lotus God 503" thermal plasma composite cannons around its disc also opened fire simultaneously.
The Blazing Tiger pilots Athrun had brought with him were now relying purely on reflexes, and as a result, half of them weren't fast enough, getting swept and blown apart at the waist by the Thermal Plasma Composite Cannons.
Seeing half of his trusted subordinates lost in an instant, Athrun, who had just effortlessly dodged the four beams from the "Impact 13" High-Energy Beam Cannon, exploded with rage—he entered Seed Burst.
Since the Destroy Gundam had already revealed its 360-degree Positron Reflection Shield, the Justice Gundam prepared to charge in for close combat.
Sting Oakley wanted to use the wide-angle-turning Thermal Plasma Composite Cannons to block the Immortal Justice Gundam.
But the Immortal Justice Gundam, piloted by Athrun in Seed Burst, appeared in Sting Oakley's camera view only as streaks of red Mobile Suit shadows.
These weren't afterimages but simply trails left by its extreme speed.
Sting Oakley now felt that the "Lotus God 503" Thermal Plasma Composite Cannons were turning far too slowly. His attacks weren't even grazing the edges—each shot landed far away from the Mobile Suit.
Seeing that standing still and relying on shooting couldn't stop the Immortal Justice Gundam from closing in, Sting Oakley had no choice but to change tactics.
Of course, "changing tactics" for the Destroy Gundam didn't include Evasion. This Mobile Suit was purely a stationary turret machine. Although it could fly and had some forward thrust capability, it could only move in straight lines. Charging forward now would simply deliver it right into the Immortal Justice Gundam's hands.
So Sting Oakley chose to fire all four MARK62 Type Six-Tube Multi-Purpose Missile Launchers simultaneously and deploy the super-large Dragoon "Gale Fist" Beam Cannons.
Well, the so-called super-large Dragoon "Gale Fist" Beam Cannons were essentially the Mobile Suit's forearms and hands being launched out.
Of course, the Destroy wasn't a super robot, so it couldn't perform the iconic super robot move, the Rocket Punch. These two arms were simply used as Dragoons.
However, given the Destroy's size, including the barrels of the Beam Cannon Assault Shield System mounted on the forearms, they were about two-thirds the size of a normal Mobile Suit.
Athrun had never seen this move before. Seeing the opponent suddenly shoot out its arms, he didn't dare to recklessly advance. Instead, he instantly reversed the Mobile Suit while firing two beams to test the waters.
Naturally, the beams were blocked by the Positron Reflection Shields on the Destroy's arms.
At the same time, after blocking the beams, the arms lifted slightly, and the Five-Tube MJ-1703 Type Beam Cannons, serving as fingers, fired directly at the Immortal Justice Gundam.
However, this maneuver fully exposed what was beneath the Destroy Gundam's Arm Shields. Athrun now felt relieved—he had been worried that the arms might have some strange equipment hidden to ambush him.
Athrun remembered during simulation battles with Reid, when they both used the Strike Gundam.
Even though Reid was highly skilled and could hold his own against anyone in a straight fight, whenever he could customize his loadout, he would hide something strange behind his Shield to catch opponents off guard and gain an advantage.
So after being ambushed a few times, Athrun had become somewhat paranoid on the battlefield. After all, the most dangerous weapons were always the ones you didn't know about.
But now, seeing that the Destroy Gundam's arms were just equipped with a few Beam Cannons, Athrun thought, "Isn't this just a Mobile Armor with limited mobility? What's there to fear?"
Thus, under Athrun's control, the Immortal Justice Gundam advanced instead of retreating, using its Beam Shield to block several intersecting beams fired from the Destroy Gundam's fingers. It then closed in, combining its two MA-M01 Type 'Scorpio' Beam Sabers into a Double-Bladed Beam Saber.
With a clean and decisive slash—diagonally downward from the right and upward from the left—the Immortal Justice Gundam severed both arms of the Destroy Gundam. Without even glancing back at the explosion, it thrust the Double-Bladed Beam Saber toward the large disc on the Destroy Gundam's head.
Sting Oakley knew well that an Electronic Beam Shield could not withstand a high-power Beam Saber thrust. He once again transformed his Mobile Suit, rapidly retracting the large disc to its back while firing the head-mounted 200mm "Wrath MK2" Beam Cannon in an attempt to force the Immortal Justice Gundam to abort its thrust.
Faced with the 200mm "Wrath MK2" Beam Cannon, Athrun indeed abandoned the thrust and opted for evasion. However, while evading, he simultaneously hurled two Beam Boomerangs.
The two Beam Boomerangs executed a precise "twin peaks piercing the ears" maneuver, striking the Destroy Gundam's head from both sides.
The outcome of the Destroy Gundam's head being struck by two Beam Boomerangs was predictable: it sparked with arcs of electricity before instantly exploding.
However, the headless Destroy Gundam had only lost its targeting system. The cameras positioned across its body still ensured that the cockpit's display remained largely functional.
Seeing this, Sting Oakley, driven by the threat of death, descended into complete madness. He declared he no longer needed targeting and initiated a round of unaimed Full Burst Mode, even firing the twin-barreled "Impact 13" High-Energy Beam Cannons—which were already pointed skyward—four times into the air.
Athrun had initially intended to strike the Destroy Gundam's chest, but the next moment, its three chest-mounted 1580mm "Super Siren Beast" Multiple Phase Energy Cannons fired simultaneously, forcing Athrun to evade.
However, the Destroy Gundam's indiscriminate area-of-effect attacks did not include friendly fire reduction. Consequently, the base behind it suffered collateral damage, with several buildings—including the base's command center—destroyed by multiple "Lotus God 503" Thermo-Plasma Composite Cannons.
Seeing that the massive Mobile Suit, now headless, seemed to have truly lost its intelligence and was firing wildly, Athrun decisively launched another assault.
This time, Athrun maneuvered his Mobile Suit to directly assault the Destroy Gundam's crotch—a blind spot for its weapons. The Immortal Justice Gundam then thrust its Beam Saber upward along the crotch armor, slicing all the way from the crotch to the chest.
This path intersected with the Mobile Suit's cockpit, leaving Sting Oakley with no escape. Amid furious screams, he and the cockpit were reduced to ashes, and the Destroy Gundam naturally lost its mobility, slowly collapsing to the ground.
With the Destroy Gundam gone, only minor threats remained in the base, which were effortlessly wiped out by the other Zaku Warriors Athrun called back.
However, Athrun felt no joy at this moment. The members of his unit capable of piloting the Blazing Tiger were absolute elites, and in this single engagement, half of them had been lost. Even if no further casualties occurred during the subsequent occupation of the British Isles, Athrun still considered it a loss.
But Athrun possessed no resurrection magic; he had no means to revive the dead.
Therefore, to minimize further losses, Athrun proceeded to provide support wherever enemies appeared. After all, with the speed of the Immortal Justice Gundam in MA Mode, circling the British Isles seven or eight times a day was a trivial feat.
Half a day later, Athrun's forces managed to clear out all Atlantic Federation garrisons across the British Isles without major incident. With their cities left unprotected by military forces, they had no choice but to surrender, acknowledging that the British Isles had fallen into ZAFT's hands.
However, less than ten minutes after the British Isles surrendered, the Gran Chaos sailed boldly into Ireland with its small fleet in tow.
Then, the ZAFT forces on the island scattered like mice fleeing from a cat.
This left the mayors of several cities on Ireland utterly bewildered. What was the meaning of this? Weren't the New Misurugi Kingdom and PLANT allies? Why had the New Misurugi Kingdom just helped ZAFT block the Paradise Island Base, only to turn around and seize ZAFT's territory now?
The mayors' misunderstanding was quite natural. Under normal circumstances, if PLANT had agreed in advance to hand Ireland over to the New Misurugi Kingdom, they should have done so after occupying it.
Not by fleeing the moment the island surrendered, leaving the enemy to surrender to empty air.
Surrendering to two different forces in a single day is a humiliation for any government or military. The way the New Misurugi Kingdom and PLANT were playing this game would severely undermine future governance of the region.
However, what the people of Ireland didn't expect was that after the Gran Chaos entered Ireland, Queen Angelise personally came down to accept their surrender.
Who would dare refuse Queen Angelise face? Even if Reid Isaac offended Queen Angelise, he'd end up sleeping on the couch that very night.
It was well-known that while Reid maintained a harem, his fear of his wife was equally famous.
Especially since some people knew Queen Angelise was bisexual, many who envied or resented Reid privately claimed he only appeared to keep a harem—in reality, he was just the head of the warming bed department.
After Ange followed the procedures to accept Ireland's surrender, she immediately delivered a public speech as per protocol, condemning ZAFT for seizing the Old Capital Base while their nation's military was being redeployed. Thus, occupying Ireland was only the beginning. The New Misurugi Kingdom always repaid grievances and settled scores—this debt would be settled with ZAFT slowly.
Reid arranged for Ange's speech to prevent the Earth Alliance from framing them as allying with Coordinators.
There were still vast numbers of people in North America and Europe who deeply disliked Coordinators. The wounds from the April Fools' Crisis two years ago hadn't healed that quickly.
Moreover, many hadn't forgotten the horrors of the Colony Satellite drop incident. Now, Coordinators' reputation in North America and Europe was even worse than during the First War.
If the New Misurugi Kingdom truly allied with PLANT, most North Americans would resist desperately. This wasn't just due to government influence—PLANT's three successive chairpersons had indeed taken actions that harmed Earth's populace.
Of course, to anyone with half a brain, this declaration sounded like covering one's ears while stealing a bell. Did anyone really believe two people who had just collaborated closely had turned against each other just because they staged a fake argument?
Yet facts proved that among the populace, followers outnumbered the rational. With just a little manipulation of public opinion, all of Ireland's civilian discourse instantly shifted to condemning PLANT for being inhuman, while framing the New Misurugi Kingdom's actions as merely passive retaliation.
In the court of public opinion, the New Misurugi Kingdom suddenly became the true victim.
In this way, ordinary people who still harbored some doubts were swayed by public opinion, and at least in Ireland, there were no longer any voices questioning the alliance between the New Misurugi Kingdom and PLANT.
As for the people in other regions who currently didn't believe the words of the New Misurugi Kingdom, it didn't matter. Once their locations were captured, with this groundwork laid, public opinion could instantly shift.
As for PLANT, which had been protested by the New Misurugi Kingdom, they chose to play dead, not even bothering to issue a single response.
At this time, Great Britain had already been occupied by ZAFT, and Athrun had applied to PLANT for airborne troops. Once the personnel were assembled, ZAFT would immediately launch an attack into Europe.
Faced with the temptation of occupying Europe, being criticized a few times by the New Misurugi Kingdom during their performance was nothing. As long as the New Misurugi Kingdom didn't allow the Atlantic Federation forces at Paradise Island Base to stab them in the back, PLANT was willing to let the New Misurugi Kingdom take as many verbal advantages as they wanted.
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