The main guns of the carriers far out at sea shot down all the shells chasing after their two machines, focusing their combined fire on the Barbatos.
Mikazuki wanted to press the pursuit, but a beam from a carrier's main gun grazed the armor on the Barbatos's shoulder. An armor-overheating alarm blared inside the cockpit.
He remembered Lacus telling him that this suit's armor couldn't withstand the beam weapons mounted on battleships. His brow furrowed slightly.
"This is really inconvenient..."
By "inconvenient," his meaning was clear: he couldn't just ignore battleship-grade beam weapons and chase them down like he used to. It was a real hassle.
"Is Nano-laminate Armor that hard to manufacture?"
He muttered to himself before calmly maneuvering the machine to dodge the dense barrage of beams and missiles. Even so, the enemy's firepower was incredibly fierce.
Behind him, Strike Daggers from the Earth Alliance continued to harass him with beams, making it impossible to move forward. Mikazuki decided to abandon his chase of the fleet and returned to Onogoro Island in Orb. Drawing the Tachi from his back, he fired his cannon at the Strike Daggers while retreating.
The paper-thin armor and shields of the Strike Daggers offered no resistance against the 300mm Smoothbore Gun. Each shot took out one, sometimes two; its power was simply absurd. In this world, the Barbatos was the only unit capable of wielding a physical cannon of such caliber.
Aboard the flagship of the Pacific Fleet, Muruta watched with a grim expression as his side's MS signals vanished from the screen one by one.
"This is bad! In less than three minutes, twenty-one of our Mobile Suits have been destroyedno, twenty-two! The signals are still disappearing!"
"How can this be... is that machine a monster?"
Muruta's mouth twitched violently upon hearing the report. The captain pressed down on his cap and spoke to him.
"Mr. Muruta, we should retreat for now. Without new models, our Mobile Suit units are just lambs led to the slaughter."
"...Retreat."
The Pacific Fleet signaled a withdrawal. Seeing the signal, the Strike Daggers on Onogoro Island beat a hasty retreat. However, Mikazuki was not the type to let go once he had his eyes on a target.
He glanced at the thruster gauge; it was still half full. Excluding extra maneuvers in the air, a round trip from the island to the Pacific Fleet at sea would leave just enough fuel, even accounting for a bit of extra movement.
Then there were the shells for the 300mm Smoothbore Gun and the Arm Mortar...
"That's enough."
With those words, the Barbatos broke away from the ground and chased after the retreating Strike Daggers. Orga's voice rang out over the comms. "Hey, Mikazuki, get back here. The Chief of Orb has something to discuss. Orb's forces and our own Mobile Suits have already begun gathering toward the Mass Driver 'Kaguya'."
"Are they abandoning Orb?"
"...Pretty much," Orga replied after a moment of silence. Mikazuki took down another Strike Dagger, tanking a beam hit as he lunged toward a second one.
"Tell them I'll keep my promise. Just let them watch from there."
"You don't seriously plan on taking out their entire fleet alone, do you? Hey, hey, don't joke around. They've still got carriers and"
"It doesn't matter who they are. Anyone in the way just needs to be taken out, right?"
"Ugh..."
Orga's pupils contracted, and then he broke into a wild grin.
"You really haven't changed at all, have you? Always saying the most unexpected things. Fine, I get it. Be careful."
"Don't worry. We won't die here. Right, Barbatos?"
The Barbatos stepped onto the wreckage of a Strike Dagger and raised its head. Its cold, mechanical gaze lifted as its green eyes flashed brilliantly, and a surge of overwhelming pressure erupted from the machine.
On the bridge of the Archangel, Murrue connected to the Sassari.
"Mr. Orga, why hasn't Mikazuki returned yet?"
Orga's image appeared on the screen, one eye closed as he spoke.
"Oh, I was just about to tell you. That guy went off on his own to give chase."
"Pursuit?!"
Murrue stood up abruptly. At that moment, Cagalli and Uzumi appeared on another screen from the Orb command center.
"What do you mean, pursuit? Does he intend to take on the entire fleet by himself?"
"That's too reckless! Call him back immediately!"
The group was in a panic. Even Uzumi's brow was furrowed tightly; he understood some of the intent behind Mikazuki's actions.
Just then, an unidentified communication signal entered the Archangel.
"Heh, has Mikazuki charged that far ahead again? Orga."
Orga opened his closed eye. First came a look of deep shock, followed by a wide, toothy grin.
"You're too slow, Akihiro..."
Aboard the flagship of the Pacific Fleet.
Muruta slammed his fist onto the console's armrest, his face contorted with rage. On the screen, the Barbatos finished off a Strike Dagger, leaped off the wreckage, and soared high into the air, rapidly closing the distance to the fleet.
"That monster... is it still coming? Fire! Shoot it down!"
The captain shouted back in protest.
"Are you kidding? Do you want to hit our own troops too?"
Muruta roared back.
"Then have the units scatter! Aim for the joints! That machine can ignore beams, so it must be the armor's properties. Attack the areas not covered by armor! Or destroy its thrusters!"
"Order the MS units to scatter! Attack the enemy machine's thrusters and joints!"
The captain immediately had the operator relay Muruta's orders to the Mobile Suit units. Under the circumstances, the order was indeed logical; there was no reason to argue.
But thenBoom!
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