In the airspace above the Pacific Ocean, a Penelope soared through the sky.
Flanking it were eight Kessaria transport crafts heavily laden with Jegans, along with eight ReZEL Type C units flying in Waverider (WR) mode.
Lane Aime gripped the control sticks with an expressionless face, watching the marked objective point and the distance numbers beneath it, which were rapidly counting down.
Inside the dedicated communication channel for the Circe Unit, complaints from the Jegan pilots regarding the Vulture Unit's sudden seizure of power surfaced from time to time.
Lane glanced at the ReZEL Type C units forming a wing around the Penelope—members of the Vulture Unit's 1st Company—and narrowed his eyes.
One could only say they were truly worthy of being a unit directly under Federation command.
Not only was the entire squad outfitted with ReZEL Type Cs, but they were also fully equipped with Defenser A-Units for this mission... No wonder they were called the Vulture Unit.
Looking at the designations "RGZ-95C" highlighted on the Penelope's panoramic cockpit, Lane seemed to recall something.
According to witness reports... didn't that enemy battleship also have ReZELs?
"...Those guys, I don't know what they're so smug about."
At that moment, in the Circe Unit channel, the Jegan pilots were still grumbling. "Suddenly demanding 24-hour standby and forcing ninety percent of the maintenance crew to focus on their ReZEL Type Cs... Hey, Lane, your Penelope hasn't been properly tuned either, right?"
After being trashed several times, the Penelope had exhausted its supply of spare parts.
Until Anaheim Electronics—now under investigation by the Federation Bureau—returned to stability and resumed production of Penelope components, there were no spares left.
This meant that if the Penelope were shot down this time, it would be stuck in the hangar waiting for parts, and Lane would be relegated to a temporary unit.
"A few parameters still need further fine-tuning, but I managed to adapt to them just a short while ago."
Lane sighed after hearing his teammate's words. "The Penelope's condition is a minor issue. I'm a bit worried about Colonel Kenneth Sleg. Ever since he rushed back to the base from California, I haven't heard a single word from him."
"...Colonel Kenneth Sleg is an old hand; he'll be fine."
The Jegan pilot consoled Lane. "If anything, we should worry about ourselves. Whether we make it out alive is the real question."
"Beep... All units attention. Ten minutes until contact with the target battleships."
A somewhat dull, heavy voice rang out over the comms.
This was the communication channel exclusive to the Vulture Unit, distinct from the Circe Unit's tactical channel.
For some reason, they had demanded that Lane and the others use this channel during the operation.
Thus, the small talk Lane and his comrades just had was conducted in their own private channel with the Vulture Unit's microphone muted.
"Remember, our objective is to sink the enemy ships—whether it's that strange battleship or the Ra Cailum..."
The heavy voice continued, "Circe 1st Wing, is that understood!"
Listening to the words of this temporary commander from the Vulture Unit, Lane glanced at his teammates; the Jegans aboard four of the Kessaria units were each equipped with two anti-ship missiles.
Beep, beep, beep...
Suddenly, a warning chime from the mobile suit rang in Lane's ear.
"...The concentration of Minovsky particles nearby is starting to rise. Something's wrong."
For some reason, Lane felt an omen of unease. "It might be an enemy trap."
"Continue for... Federation demands... sink these... ships..."
The communication began to suffer from Minovsky particle interference. The transmission from the ReZEL Type Cs became blurred and unintelligible, forcing Lane to shut off the communication channel.
But in the next split second, feeling a sensation as if a thousand needles were piercing through his spine, Lane subconsciously pulled the Penelope into a steep climb.
A torrent of reddish-purple beam energy surged toward them from the distance, accurately striking a Kessaria carrying the Jegans assigned to the anti-ship mission.
The power of the beam melted through the Kessaria and the legs of the two Jegans.
A violent explosion threw the Jegans outward, but the purple high-energy electricity swirling around the perimeter of the beam torrent lightly brushed against their hulls.
Lane's eyes widened as he watched the wreckage of the tossed Jegans get sliced apart by the touch of the high-energy electricity.
The reactors and anti-ship missiles began to explode one after another, until finally, the Kessaria and the Jegans were reduced to a sky full of debris that fell into the sea, kicking up sprays of water.
A massive and strange... no, rather, a familiar sound echoed in everyone's ears.
Realizing where this sense of familiarity came from, Lane's eyes bulged.
He saw a massive, bizarre machine, the lights on its body dragging out streaks of red luminescence, while green light particles left a brilliant trail behind it.
The very instant after they saw that high-speed machine, the formation that had been organized under the Vulture Unit's command was effortlessly scattered.
"Ugh..."
After maneuvering the Penelope to regain its balance, Lane saw the machine that had emitted that familiar sound.
"The Penelope?!"
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"So that's the one using the same model as me..."
Inside the Penelope's cockpit, AllMind licked her lips as she looked at the machine in front of her—one that was almost an exact mirror of herself.
"You've been quite hyperactive ever since we launched, AllMind."
Roz glanced at the translucent AllMind floating to his left. With an unchanged expression, he endured the G-forces, maneuvering the Penelope into a barrel roll.
Upon completing the roll, the Penelope's thrusters suddenly surged in power, the dazzling blue flames growing thick and intense, forcing the Penelope to execute a sharp, acute-angle turn.
"I don't know myself..."
Hearing Roz's words, AllMind paused for a moment before snapping back. "It's just that my instincts are telling me that I must settle the score with it."
"An instinctive loathing and rejection of a duplicate of yourself, is it?"
Roz operated the multi-lock system, framing the icons of the enemy machines in front of him one by one. "Your emotions are becoming more and more like a human's, AllMind."
Speaking of which, the fact that this attacking unit actually possessed ReZEL Type Cs was something Roz truly hadn't expected.
Furthermore, if the data just calculated was correct... were they modernized refits?
Tossing the stray thoughts aside, Roz pressed the trigger with his index finger.
From the shields on both arms of Roz's Penelope, a total of thirty-two small missiles flew out of their bays, swarming toward the locked targets.
As the small missiles propelled themselves forward, they left trails of white smoke in their wake, looking like scars etched into the sky.
"An acute-angle turn?!"
"I'm being tailed! He's too fast!"
"Scatter! Scatter, quickly!"
Even though the communications were being jammed by Minovsky particles—leaving the channels filled with nothing but white noise—the pilots all subconsciously screamed at the top of their lungs within their cockpits.
Facing the missiles at point-blank range, these units employed every method at their disposal to react.
The Jegans hitched to the Kessarias used their head-mounted or chest-mounted vulcans as anti-air guns, weaving a barrage of defensive fire while the Kessarias performed evasive maneuvers.
The ReZEL Type C units of the Vulture Unit transformed into their flight forms.
Much like Lane's Penelope, they retreated while using their head-mounted vulcans to intercept the small missiles fired by Roz.
However, Roz had never expected to defeat them all with a single move; the purpose of firing those missiles was merely to scatter their formation.
In the next second, before anyone could breathe a sigh of relief, Roz pulled the trigger.
While still in cruising mode, Roz's Penelope fired. A torrent of reddish-purple beam energy tore through the smoke created by the destroyed missiles, punching a circular hole through the haze.
Within that circle, a ReZEL struck by the Magnum beam saw its torso and abdomen melt and twist before dissolving into the beam torrent, the machine detonating into a sky of shrapnel.
"Vulture 6, destroyed!"
"He's charging in!"
The ReZEL Type C pilots of the Vulture squad watched as Roz's Penelope lunged out of the smoke in cruise mode, physically slamming into one of the ReZEL Type Cs.
Before the pilot could react, Roz's Penelope deployed the two beam saber hilts on its shoulders. The pinkish-purple particle beams struck the ReZEL Type C head-on, slicing the machine in half.
The wreckage of the ReZEL could no longer block the path of Roz's Penelope; it was tossed behind him and exploded.
Then, the two hilts acting as shoulder cannons flipped around, locking onto two Jegans atop a Kessaria behind the Penelope.
The pinkish-purple beams accurately predicted the Kessaria's flight path, landing direct hits on the cockpits of both Jegans.
As the Jegans exploded, everyone fell into a subconscious silence.
In a single pass, six MS had been destroyed by this Penelope—two of which were the ReZEL Type Cs piloted by the "elites" who had boasted about showing the veterans how it was done.
Such a staggering disparity left the members of the Vulture Unit looking grim.
"Vulture 5, destroyed."
At this moment, the captain of the Vulture Unit's 1st Wing, serving as the temporary commander, spoke through gritted teeth. "Don't let him get away!"
Immediately, the remaining six ReZEL Type Cs reverted to WR mode and gave chase to Roz's Penelope.
Lane did not continue to follow the Vulture Unit's lead. Instead, he boosted his Penelope's signal strength.
"Static... Lane... what... do we..."
Even with the signal boosted, the voices of the Jegan pilots remained intermittent amidst the heavy white noise.
"Execute the mission according to the original plan. I repeat, execute according to the original plan."
Watching that group of so-called Vulture "elites" chase after Roz's Penelope, Lane felt this was a golden opportunity.
For some reason, Lane felt as though he were "in the camp of Cao Cao while his heart was with Han"—after all, if Kenneth returned, the next step would surely be joining the Londo Bell unit, and he would likely follow.
But for now, as he was still in the Federation Army, he couldn't reveal these thoughts; otherwise, those "air-dropped" power-grabbers from the Vulture Unit would have him locked up for interrogation next.
"Under... stood..."
After the response came through the comms, the remaining Kessarias began their planned approach, carrying the Jegans toward the Nahel Argama.
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"Launch Missile Container No. 1!"
As the captain of the Vulture Unit's 1st Wing pulled the trigger, a missile pod on the ReZEL Type C's Defenser A-Unit backpack snapped open.
A swarm of small missiles poured out of the container, lunging toward Roz's Penelope.
Simultaneously, the captain did not cease firing his beam rifle alongside his teammates; streaks of pale pink beam fire zipped toward the Penelope.
Facing the barrage of beams approaching from the rear, the Penelope performed a series of practiced rolls, deftly dodging every shot.
Seeing their captain open fire with missiles, the remaining five ReZEL Type Cs also jettisoned their No. 1 missile containers.
"Missile count from the rear... heavy."
Inside the panoramic cockpit of Roz's Penelope, AllMind watched the sky full of missiles biting at their heels without a hint of tension. "It seems they are dead-set on shooting us down right here."
Faced with the missiles behind him, Roz did not perform any additional evasive maneuvers. Instead, he skillfully tapped several buttons on the right control stick.
Following this, Roz slammed the trigger button with his index finger.
Three beam-scatter rocket rounds, preset for a specific distance, launched from the missile bays at the rear of the Penelope.
After flying only about ten meters, these three rockets exploded in unison in one direction.
The dense beam-scatter shrapnel acted like a torrential rain, blanketing the small missiles dancing through the sky.
A series of explosions erupted right in front of the ReZEL Type C formation. The intensity of the blasts forced them to alter their flight paths in an attempt to bypass the wall of fire.
But immediately afterward, a familiar reddish-purple beam punched a hole straight through the explosive flames blocking the ReZELs' view, landing a precision hit on one of the ReZEL Type Cs.
The chest area of the ReZEL Type C began to twist and melt before finally detonating.
In the blast, the rockets still stored within its missile containers were also triggered.
While the majority exploded along with the machine, a few rockets streaked out from the debris like headless flies, carving random white trails across the sky.
"Damn it!"
Seeing yet another comrade lost, the pilot of one ReZEL Type C could no longer restrain himself. He drew a large beam saber from the Defenser backpack and charged toward the Penelope, which had just finished firing its Beam Magnum.
"Don't go over there!"
The captain of the Vulture Unit's 1st Wing subconsciously maneuvered his ReZEL Type C to reach out an arm, as if trying to restrain his teammate.
The next second, the ReZEL Type C wielding the large beam saber surged through the gap created by Roz's previous shot, arriving directly in front of Roz's Penelope.
The white blade rose as the ReZEL Type C swung its arm, as if intent on cleaving the Penelope in two.
Faced with such a straightforward attack path, Roz practicedly deployed the beam saber from the Penelope's left-arm multi-function shield.
The blue-white beam saber appeared somewhat slender against the white blade of the large beam saber, but Roz angled his blade to meet the strike, parrying the large beam saber and forcing the attack to slide off harmlessly at an angle.
Immediately after, the Penelope's blue-white beam saber accurately pierced through the ReZEL Type C's cockpit.
Glancing at the ReZEL Type C as it gradually lost power—with even the indicator lights behind its head camera visor fading away—Roz casually tossed the wreckage aside.
"Eight enemy machines destroyed in three minutes... Have I become weaker?"
After flexed his fingers slightly, Roz couldn't help but lament.
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