Faced with the aggressive approach of the Penelope, Char did not pilot the Zorin Soul—which had just depleted its funnel missiles—into a retreat.
After all, the person he was waiting for had not yet entered the arena; how could he possibly withdraw early?
Char eased off the pedals slightly, maneuvering the Zorin Soul to lean backward. In a nose-down posture, the unit plummeted toward the surface of the Celebes Sea.
Gritting his teeth, Lane piloted the Penelope in relentless pursuit.
He held back from launching more conventional missiles, choosing instead to raise the Penelope's right-hand beam rifle.
Although Kenneth had not blamed Lane for his previous defeat, the Colonel's occasional look of exhaustion and his "disappointed mentor" gaze had deeply stung Lane's heart.
Since the completion of the Penelope's repairs, Lane had spent his time in the cockpit undergoing simulation training, desperate to sharpen his skills and win a victory to wash away his shame.
The conventional missiles tracked the Zorin Soul's signal, banking in the air to stay tight on its tail.
"Don't even think about escaping!"
Lane watched the Zorin Soul's trajectory, leading his target to fire two shots at its projected landing point.
Sensing the bone-chilling killing intent radiating from behind, Char let a slight smirk curl his lips.
He pulled the spherical grips while simultaneously slamming the pedals.
The Zorin Soul executed a sharp turn at low altitude near the sea, flying inverted with its back to the water.
The air currents kicked up by the trailing ends of the long-wing funnels—acting as aerodynamic components—scraped the surface, carving several wakes into the waves.
The conventional missiles failed to make the turn in time, crashing into the sea and exploding into plumes of water. The two shots previously fired by the Penelope also struck the surface, erupting in massive geysers.
Char leisurely raised his electrochemical gun and fired three consecutive shots at the Penelope. Searing gas vented from the opening covers, and the barrels cooled once more in the rushing wind.
Although the funnel missiles were spent, and neither the long-wing funnels nor the claw-type funnels could be deployed in Earth's environment, the electrochemical gun and beam sabers alone were more than enough to "play" with the Penelope.
Indeed, to Char, this battle with Lane was merely a game; from start to finish, he had only one true rival: Amuro.
"Here it comes!"
Seeing the multi-stage shaped-charge explosives streaking toward him like bolts of light, Lane didn't know exactly what kind of weapon they were, but his instincts—honed through simulation training—forced him into an evasive maneuver. However, the movement was a bit too wide.
The Penelope tumbled through the air, narrowly evading two streaks of light from the multi-stage shaped explosives, but the third shot was Char's true killing blow.
Seeing that he could no longer dodge the incoming projectile, Lane raised the shield on his left arm, a thin I-Field coating its surface.
However, this "beam" pierced through the I-Field with ease and slammed directly into the shield.
"What?! It's a physical round?!"
The "beam" didn't weaken or dissipate as expected; Lane's eyes widened in shock. But there was no time for surprise—a violent explosion erupted on the shield, causing the internal beam sabers and MEGA particle cannons to malfunction.
Wary that the eight remaining conventional missiles inside the shield might cook off, Lane didn't hesitate; he slammed the launch button.
Amidst the violent blasts, the opening missile bay covers were torn to shreds, but six of the surviving missiles managed to fire, curving through the air toward the Zorin Soul.
The remaining two detonated inside the shield, blowing two jagged gaps through the armor.
The Penelope's left-arm shield was now a mangled wreck, covered in blast damage and craters. It was hard to believe the shield could still function.
Likely because the unit had been beaten so badly by the Sinanju previously without the multi-purpose shield providing much defense, Kenneth had specifically ordered the Anaheim technical dispatch to reinforce it.
After all, Kenneth didn't trust Lane to evade every long-range attack with pilot skill alone; a sturdy shield was an absolute necessity.
"Ugh..."
Gritting his teeth against the wave-like shockwaves from the shaped-charge explosion, Lane pressed the firing key for his shoulder cannons.
Two pinkish-white beams erupted from the Penelope's shoulders, streaking toward the Zorin Soul's general position.
But a second later, as the shoulder cannons ceased fire and his vision—temporarily dimmed by the intense light—began to recover, Lane's eyes widened in terror.
The Zorin Soul, which had just fired three shots, had appeared at the Penelope's left flank at some unknown point. Its yellow mono-eye was coldly observing the Penelope's condition.
Then, just as the Penelope began to turn to use its vulcans to force the enemy back, the Zorin Soul thrust out its right leg, kicking the Penelope's massive auxiliary chest armor component directly. The impact sent the Penelope reeling backward.
"Ugh... another kick?!"
Seeing that kick—so similar to the Sinanju's—Lane gritted his teeth, bracing against the massive shock transmitted through the machine.
That single kick had deformed the streamlined auxiliary chest plate. The I-Field generator, designed to buffer against high-velocity winds, flickered and malfunctioned from the blow.
Due to the partial I-Field failure, the Penelope's mobility dropped significantly; its cruising speed was cut nearly in half.
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Meanwhile, aboard the Nahel Argama, which was navigating the Coral Sea region.
Murrue Ramius watched the screen as the Zorin Soul suppressed the Penelope, her eyebrows arching in surprise.
This red mono-eye unit was roughly the same size as the Penelope, and its color scheme and styling... Had Mafty acquired a machine from the same generation? And from Anaheim Electronics, no less?
While Murrue was still contemplating the origins of the Zorin Soul, a communication alert chimed.
"Murrue, I'm preparing to launch."
At that moment, Roz Links—clad in a red pilot suit, complete with a golden wig and mask—was already seated in the Sinanju, having finished the startup sequence. "I have to involve myself in the battle over the Celebes Sea."
"Launching now? Isn't that a bit abrupt?"
Despite her verbal hesitation, Murrue efficiently arranged the launch procedures.
"No, the timing is perfect."
Roz reached out and tapped several commands on the left control panel.
"I can feel it. The pilot of that machine is Char."
"Char... You mean that red-and-white unit?"
Amidst Murrue's questioning, the Sinanju was moved onto the elevator and raised to the upper deck.
"Isn't it obvious?"
Roz gripped the control sticks, watching the gates of the upper-deck transfer hangar slide open. "Char hasn't ended the fight yet. This feeling from the brainwaves... that man is sending me an invitation."
"I see..."
Because the Nahel Argama was positioned in an area dense with islands, the ship was maintaining its Mirage Colloid system for stealth navigation.
Consequently, Murrue could not use the pulse catapult system to accelerate the Sinanju. "Then I wish you luck in battle. Should I arrange for a pickup?"
"Just standby near the Nahel Argama. I have a feeling Char wants to meet me face-to-face."
Roz reached out and patted the hand of the spectral Kara, who had placed her hand on his left shoulder.
"Now then... Sinanju, Roz... no, Full Frontal, launching!"
Without using any other catapult assistance, Roz slammed down the pedals. The thruster backpack erupted with blue flames, propelling the unit off the deck toward the Celebes Sea.
As the GN Drive roared to life, GN particles sprayed out alongside the blue fire, leaving a faint trail of green light particles across the blue sky.
-----------------------------------
"Damn it... damn it! He's like an eel!"
Inside the cockpit of the Penelope, Lane wrenched his controls violently, throwing the massive machine into a wide banking turn to evade another multi-stage shaped-charge explosive fired from the electrochemical gun.
The mono-eye unit before him was toyed with him. Every time he managed to close the distance, the enemy would use that kinetic weapon to force him back.
Occasionally, the red-and-white machine would ghost into his blind spot without him even realizing it, only to drive him away with a contemptuous mid-air kick.
'But the battle has dragged on this long,' Lane thought. 'Colonel Sleg must have already dispatched reinforcements. With the support of my squad, taking down this machine... won't be a problem!'
"I have to admit, this pilot has quite the spirit," Char mused.
In stark contrast to Lane, who was drenched in sweat and panting, Char had enough composure to evaluate his opponent's mental state while simultaneously outmaneuvering the Penelope.
Though his Newtype intuition was far from its peak—only providing him with a general sense of his target's position and intent—he could still clearly feel the waves of frustration and desperation radiating from Lane's brainwaves.
The Zorin Soul tilted slightly, executing a rapid side-step to the left. Two beams, spaced incredibly close together, lanced through the space the unit had occupied only a millisecond prior.
On the Penelope's right arm, the still-functional multi-purpose shield had flipped over. Lane was firing the shield's internal MEGA particle cannon simultaneously with his beam rifle.
While such a reckless firing arc risked damaging his own rifle, Lane was past the point of caring about such technicalities.
Meanwhile, Kenneth's logistical mastery was in full swing. Since the Penelope had launched, the deployment of forces had never ceased.
Twelve Galcezons, carrying four Gustav Karls and twenty Jegans, were now closing in from every direction over the Celebes Sea, forming a tightening noose around the Zorin Soul.
Faced with the "custom unit" described by the escort squad in their final transmission, Kenneth dared not be careless. He dispatched these forces with a singular goal: to shoot down the Zorin Soul and capture its pilot at all costs.
"Oh... it's getting livelier by the second."
Taking in the scene, Char raised an eyebrow. His instinct was to break through a weak point in the encirclement, but he quickly suppressed the thought.
"Still, has Full Frontal not arrived yet?"
As Char pondered this, Lane—seeing his allies closing in—breathed a sigh of relief. He began relentlessly launching conventional missiles and funnel missiles at Char.
It was a pity that Char had depleted his own funnel missiles in the previous exchange; otherwise, he could have kept this entire main force "playing" for much longer.
Just as Char was weighing the feasibility of a tactical withdrawal, a distinct rocket projectile descended from the heavens.
Under the watchful eyes of both Char and Lane, the warhead detonated in mid-air, bursting into a fine rain of thin beams that blanketed the path of the Penelope's missiles.
One by one, the incoming projectiles were intercepted by this sudden downpour of energy, erupting into a series of fireballs in the sky.
"Beam scatter warhead... It's you!"
Recalling the Battle of Palmerston North, Lane instinctively looked up.
A magnificent red unit hovered silently in the air. The under-slung rocket launcher attached to its beam rifle was still emitting a faint trail of smoke.
At the sight of that familiar silhouette and those emerald-green mono-eyes, Lane's expression twisted with a mix of recognition and rage.
"You've finally arrived... Full Frontal! No—you must be Amuro!"
Watching the Sinanju in the sky, the smile on Char's face widened.
"Let me see just how much of a gap there is between this machine and yours."
...................