The sky was completely falling apart. Smoke, fire, and the smell of ozone filled the air as the massive silver Mobile Armor Titan tried to stabilize its massive frame. But the phantom in black wasn't giving it a single second to breathe.
The Black Gundam hovered in mid-air, its neon-pink eyes leaving sharp trails of light in the gray fog. With a sudden, explosive burst from its thrusters, it dove straight toward the giant silver fortress.
"You arrogant piece of junk!" Princess Starsha screamed inside the Titan's cockpit, her fingers smashing the weapon triggers. "I don't care where you came from, just vaporize!"
The Titan unleashed a massive barrage of high-output beam cannons, turning the sky into a grid of melting energy. But the Black Gundam moved like a literal shadow. It zipped left, rolled right, and danced through the gaps of the beam fire with terrifying precision.
Pew! Pew! Pew!
In a fraction of a second, the Black Gundam's rifle barked in rapid-fire mode, spitting out three consecutive beam shots that slammed directly into the Titan's front sector.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The Titan's heavy beam barrier flared violently, ripples of green energy absorbing the impact, but the sheer force caused the massive machine to groan under the stress.
Thousands of miles above, in the flagship of the Neptune fleet, King Sergeth Colombus slammed his fists onto his command console. His face was twisted in absolute shock as he stared at the main tactical map.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Sergeth roared at his analysts. "A new Gundam type? Why isn't it registered in our intelligence files? Look at the radar! It just says Unknown Unit! Who dares to interfere with the divine judgment of Neptune?!"
Down in the valley, Zaki gripped his control sticks, his eyes wide as he watched the black machine push the Titan back. "That thing... it's not on our side, but it's ripping the enemy apart. We can't just sit here and watch!"
"Zaki's right!" Salia's voice crackled over the comms, her Red One Gundam already advancing. "Whatever that black suit is, the Titan is still our main target. Don't let it recover!"
"Sunflower Gundam, covering the flanks!" Augustina shouted, her sniper rifle already charging. "Let's turn this oversized trash can into scrap metal!"
"Deep Blue, moving in!" Agnes cheered, her voice full of newfound confidence as her royal blue machine drew its twin beam sabers.
"Don't lose your focus, Maki!" Tasya warned, her Lavender Gundam flying right beside the White Gundam. "We go in together!"
The Alliance squad launched a massive coordinated assault, raining beam fire and missiles onto the Titan from all sides.
Starsha was losing her mind inside her shaking cockpit. Pushed into a corner, she slammed her hand onto the secondary terminal. "Get away from me! All of you, just die!"
The massive backpack modules of the Titan split open, launching dozens of high-mobility tracking missiles. The projectiles swarmed into the sky, looping and curving as they locked onto the advancing Gundams.
"Watch out! They're tracking us!" Maki yelled, trying to adjust her targeting screen.
The Alliance pilots immediately scattered, pulling evasive maneuvers as the missiles chased them through the burning valley. But while the others were dodging, the Black Gundam did something insane. It didn't run. It flew directly into the path of the incoming missile swarm.
Inside the quiet, cold cockpit, Ichi's grey eyes didn't even blink. Her face was as still as a corpse. "Analyzing tracking vectors. Interception initiated."
Her thumbs flicked the controls. The Black Gundam's head vulcans erupted in a steady stream of fire, while its rapid-fire beam rifle snapped from target to target with mechanical perfection. Bang! Bang! Bang! The incoming missiles were systematically detonated in mid-air, creating a wall of smoke and fire that completely blinded the Titan's sensors.
"Neural Connector... system link: one hundred percent," Ichi whispered, her voice a flat, ghostly monotone. "Releasing safety constraints. Form: Crow."
Suddenly, the armor plates on the Black Gundam's back slid open with a sharp hiss. A pair of jagged, avian wings extended. A split second later, a violent, roaring aura of purple flame erupted from the thrusters, looking exactly like the dark, glowing feathers of a massive crow.
SHIII-NG!
With her right hand, the Black Gundam drew a sleek, glowing beam rapier from its waist armor, smoothly switching her rapid-fire rifle to her left hand. The purple flames flared, and the black machine completely disappeared from visual sight.
"Where did it go?!" Starsha screamed, looking at her flickering monitors. "Where is—"
SLICE!
A flash of black and purple cut through the sky. The Titan's massive left leg joint was cleanly severed, exploding in a shower of sparks and hydraulic fluid.
"Ahhh!" Starsha gasped as the massive fortress tilted.
SLICE! SLICE!
The Black Gundam was moving so fast it looked like a streak of dark lightning. It cut through the right arm, severed the left shoulder weapon array, and with a brutal, spinning slash, it tore the Titan's main head visor completely off its torso.
The colossal Mobile Armor Titan, the pride of the Neptune Kingdom, collapsed onto the cratered earth with a deafening crash, completely neutralized and utterly helpless.
Before the dust could even settle, the Black Gundam landed heavily on the Titan's shattered chest armor. Its neon-pink eyes glowed with a predatory hunger. Ichi raised the glowing beam rapier, aiming it directly down at the cockpit hatch where Starsha was trapped.
"Target neutralized," Ichi said flatly. "Executing the pilot."
"Stop right there!" Maki's voice echoed through the local frequency.
Before Ichi could drive the blade down, the White Gundam slammed into the black machine from the side, its heavy shield pushing the predator away from the fallen Titan. Zaki applied maximum reverse thrusters, positioning the White Gundam protectively in front of Starsha's ruined cockpit.
"What are you doing, Maki?!" Zaki shouted, sweating from the sudden collision. "That's the enemy pilot!"
"I know, but she's completely defenseless now!" Maki gasped, her heart hammering against her ribs. "We don't just execute people like that! It's wrong!"
The Black Gundam stabilized itself in mid-air, its purple wings flickering as it turned its head to look directly at the White Gundam. The neon-pink eyes seemed to stare right into Maki's soul.
BZZZZZ—!
Suddenly, a massive, violent wave of psychic energy flooded the area. Maki's eyes went completely wide, her pupils dilating as her mind was forcefully yanked out of her body.
"Ah... ahh..." Maki choked out.
In an instant, reality faded away. Maki found herself floating in the endless, white expanse of the Mind Space. She looked down at herself, completely shocked to realize her body was completely bare, surrounded only by glowing ripples of psychic energy.
"What... what is this place? Zaki? Airis?" Maki called out, her voice echoing in the empty void.
"Sister."
Maki gasped, spinning around in the white space. Floating just a few inches away from her was a figure that made her blood run completely cold. It was a young woman, also completely without clothes, her long, porcelain-white hair drifting around her like silk.
But it wasn't just any girl. As Maki looked at the stranger's face, she felt like she was looking into a twisted, ghostly mirror. The girl had the exact same facial structure as Maki, the same nose, the same lips—but her eyes were a flat, lifeless, gray-white void.
"Who... who are you?" Maki trembled, her voice cracking with terror. "Why do you look like me?"
The white-haired girl didn't answer with words. She floated closer, her expression completely vacant, and extended a cold, slender hand. Her fingers gently touched Maki's cheek, before sliding down to press against Maki's chest, right over her beating heart. The girl tilted her head, bringing her pale, emotionless face so close that Maki could see the empty reflection in her gray eyes.
"We are the same," the girl whispered into Maki's mind, her voice a cold, chilling echo. "Born from the same darkness."
GASP!
Maki snaps back into reality with a violent shudder. She was back in her cockpit seat, her body drenched in a cold sweat, her breath coming in short, panicked gasps as she clutched her chest.
"Maki! Hey, Maki! Talk to me!" Zaki's voice was frantic, his hand gripping her shoulder from his seat. "What just happened? Your bio-metrics just went completely off the charts! Are you hurt?!"
"I... I saw her, Zaki," Maki whimpered, her teeth chattering as she stared at the main monitor. "In my head... she was right there."
Before Zaki could even ask what she meant, the main tactical screen in the cockpit flickered. The encryption was effortlessly bypassed, and a small communication window forced its way onto their HUD.
The face of the white-haired girl appeared on the screen. Even in the digital transmission, her expression was a perfect, chilling void of emotion. She stared at the twins, her gray eyes locking onto them with a heavy, suffocating intensity.
The entire communication channel across the Alliance squad went completely silent. Nobody spoke. The air inside the cockpit felt like ice.
Zaki stared back at the screen, his fingers tightening around his control sticks as a wave of pure, defensive adrenaline surged through his veins. He didn't know who this girl was, or what kind of sick experiment had created her, but he could feel the terrifying, matching specifications radiating from the black machine in front of them. It was a direct antithesis to everything they fought for.
Ichi looked at Maki through the camera feed, her lips barely moving as she spoke her very first words to the pilots of the White Ghost.
"Finally," Ichi said, her voice dropping into a flat, haunting melody that echoed through the speakers. "We meet now... Sister."
To be continued...