Inside the panoramic cockpit, the locking frames marking the enemy unit types shifted continuously before eventually splitting into two groups.
Roz could clearly see that, aside from Lane's Penelope and those four ReZEL Type Cs before him, the Jegans carrying anti-ship missiles were all riding Kessarias toward the Nahel Argama.
"Splitting their forces?"
With just a glance, Roz understood the opponent's arrangement: use a matching Penelope and the ReZEL Type Cs to contain him, while allowing the Jegans to complete the strike on the battleship.
"How confident... but I don't plan on letting you just pass by."
Roz applied slight pressure to his feet, depressing the pedals. "AllMind, let's intercept them."
"Thruster output at 125%, missiles green!"
AllMind's eyes glowed with a faint red light as the touch panel to the right of Roz's cockpit began adjusting settings and parameters. "They won't get past us."
Roz's Penelope shifted into cruise mode, its thrusters erupting with thick pillars of flame once more, tearing straight through the billowing black smoke left by the missile explosions.
Beep... Beep... Beep-beep...
The highly distinct alert for an approaching enemy rang in everyone's ears. Roz's Penelope emerged from the smoke, plunging into the ReZEL Type C formation at staggering speed.
Facing the aggressive interloper, the ReZEL Type Cs quickly broke formation to give him space while pulling their triggers. Four red beams wove a thin web of fire, obstructing Roz's path.
However, facing the incoming fire, Roz skillfully maneuvered the Penelope through a barrel roll.
With a swing of the unit's right leg, he delivered a kick that sent the ReZEL Type C on his left flying backward.
Lane pulled his trigger, and his Penelope's vulcans began strafing Roz's machine.
Yet, backed by PS Armor, Roz simply ignored Lane's barrage. The vulcan rounds detonated against Roz's Penelope in a shower of sparks, but they failed to even scratch the paint.
"That's not right! That isn't the Penelope's armor strength... Did he replace the armor?!"
As a Penelope pilot himself, Lane naturally knew the limits of the machine's defenses.
While vulcan fire indeed shouldn't penetrate the Penelope's armor, it certainly wouldn't be like this—where not even the paint was scuffed. At the very least, some pitting and surface damage should have been inevitable.
"Damn it... With this level of performance, did Anaheim not only sell the Federation's cutting-edge machine to them but upgrade it as well?"
The captain of the Vulture Unit's 1st Wing watched as Roz's Penelope sped toward the Jegan formation and bit his lip. "This must be reported to the General Staff Headquarters!"
Following his lead, the four ReZEL Type Cs reverted to WR mode and gave chase to Roz's Penelope.
"We can't pin him down... is the opponent an Ace as well?"
Glancing at the ReZEL Type Cs rushing toward Roz, Lane also maneuvered his Penelope into cruise mode, staying hot on his heels.
Lane pulled the trigger, his beam rifle firing repeatedly, but the target moved as if he had eyes in the back of his head, effortlessly dodging Lane's attacks with a single roll.
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As the four remaining Kessaria units formed a formation, carrying the last eight Jegans toward the Nahel Argama:
A torrent of reddish-purple beam energy manifested from their rear once more, striking directly between two Jegans equipped with anti-ship missiles.
The flood of high-energy particles instantly melted their armor and reactors.
The high-energy electricity not only sliced their transport Kessaria in half but also cut the anti-ship missiles in two; the residual energy then triggered a sympathetic detonation of the missiles' warheads.
This chain reaction resulted in a massive, dazzling explosion of fire from the two machines.
Shattered components sprayed in every direction like fragments from a shrapnel grenade. One piece struck a propulsion nozzle of another Kessaria, causing a loss of lift; the craft began to tilt precariously.
Thump... Beep-beep-beep-beep, beep-beep-beep-beep...
Following a sudden vibration, the Kessaria's cockpit began to blare warnings frantically.
"The Kessaria has been hit by debris! I'm going down!"
The Kessaria pilot screamed in desperation, "Bail out! Bail out! Everyone, get out now!"
The final two Jegans carrying anti-ship missiles were forced to leap from the Kessaria, using their thrusters to maintain altitude through jump-like bursts of propulsion.
Before the two Jegan pilots could even collect their thoughts while watching the Kessaria plunge into the sea:
A massive black shadow appeared behind them like a specter, closing the distance almost instantaneously.
A blue-white beam saber pierced accurately into a Jegan's cockpit. Before the pilot could even react, they were vaporized within the glare of the beam blade.
In the next second, Roz's Penelope deactivated the beam saber and suddenly increased its power output, physically tearing the Jegan's wreckage in half with its hands.
Then, just as the other Jegan carrying anti-ship missiles noticed the situation and turned around:
Roz's Penelope flipped the direction of its left-arm shield. The Mega Particle Cannon, which had been charging unnoticed, fired toward the Jegan.
Under the thick white beam, the Jegan's upper torso was rapidly dissolved, and the anti-ship missiles were successfully detonated by the impact of the Mega Particle Cannon.
With this, every member of the fleet demolition team had been killed in action.
Having finished this, Roz spared a glance toward the remaining Kessaria before shifting his focus back to the ReZEL Type Cs and Lane's Penelope, which were still in hot pursuit.
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At this moment, Lane's position was quite exposed. Because the ReZEL Type Cs could not keep up with the Penelope's maximum cruise speed, a gap had opened between the Penelope and the ReZEL units.
"Damn it, neither of these machines can catch up!"
It was only now that the captain of the Vulture Wing truly experienced the sheer performance of these high-spec custom machines.
Even the Penelope—a machine that had faced defeat after defeat—was slowly widening the distance, even as the ReZEL Type Cs pushed their engines to the limit.
Lane continued to fire green beams at the lead Penelope, and the missiles on his unit began to drop away, streaking toward Roz.
Seeing Lane's Penelope launch its attack, the remaining ReZEL Type Cs threw caution to the wind and jettisoned their second missile containers.
Although they had lost four teammates, making the swarm of small missiles somewhat sparse, it was enough for the Vulture Squad, whose only goal was to create a chaotic environment to destroy Roz's Penelope.
Glancing at the approaching missiles and the Vulture Unit's high-speed flight path, Roz narrowed his eyes.
He tapped several buttons on his right control stick, setting the detonation distance for his beam-scatter rocket rounds.
Without even looking back, Roz dropped two beam-scatter rockets.
Once they reached their preset distance, they exploded into a rain of beam fragments. The incoming missiles were once again intercepted by the beam-scatter fire, forming a wall of black smoke.
Suddenly, Roz yanked the Penelope upward. In a posture almost vertical to his previous flight path, he began to spin the machine at high altitude.
The next second, as Lane burst through the smoke screen, he saw Roz's Penelope maintaining its cruise state, the machine rotating like a pendulum, with the muzzle of the Beam Magnum pointed directly at him.
The four ReZEL Type Cs emerging from the smoke also witnessed the maneuver.
"A pendulum maneuver?! Using the Penelope?!"
One of the ReZEL Type C pilots was momentarily stunned. Because the ReZEL Type C utilized a WR mode, all these pilots had studied fighter jet maneuvers; they naturally knew exactly how difficult such a feat was.
"Not good!"
Realizing he was locked on, Lane jettisoned the shield on the Penelope's right arm and used every ounce of strength to force the machine into a side roll, trying to break Roz's lock.
A split second later, the reddish-purple Magnum beam erupted from the muzzle of Roz's Penelope, striking the shield Lane had just discarded.
As the shield was melted and pierced, high-energy electricity surged around the beam.
Even though Lane had done his best to evade, the high-energy current still sliced into the Penelope's left shoulder armor, nearly severing the entire arm.
.......................