There were no explosions. All that could be seen were what looked like a hundred crimson beams cutting across the sky. When they seemed to touch something, there was a flash of combustion, and then they vanished.
As the beams disappeared, the missiles that had already flown into the airspace over the mainland were gone as well, leaving no trace behind, as if they had vanished into thin air.
If one could look more closely at the areas where they had disappeared, one would find faint sparks drifting in the air, but they too evaporated in the blink of an eye.
"All hits?"
In one corner of the performance venue, Yzak also stared blankly at the sight.
Laser missile defense was not uncommon, but an attack that instantly vaporized every missile in a single moment was something else entirely.
With air-defense capability like that, perhaps only beam weapons and hypersonic warheads could break through.
And aside from missiles, any other flying object would probably be burned away just as easily.
Hm?
It looked as though a second wave of missiles was coming. Yzak immediately lifted his binoculars and stared fixedly at the sky.
Sure enough, once they reached nearly the same airspace as before, they were struck again by the dense beams of light that seemed to tear the sky apart. After a flash, they vanished.
A one-hundred-percent hit rate.
That interception capability sent a chill down his spine.
Wait.
"Why do they have to reach the same area?"
Yzak immediately realized the limitation of this special beam interception system. Its power clearly decayed severely once the target exceeded a certain range.
In that case, it was not quite as terrifying.
At that distance, the effective range of ZAFT mobile suits' beam weapons exceeded the knight-like mecha's interception beams by about fifty percent.
However, even if a mobile suit attacked from outside the enemy's range, could it really threaten that mecha?
Was the defense of that seemingly antique knight mecha truly as crude as its appearance?
Perhaps the machine itself really was fragile, and only the autocannon-like laser interception system was an advanced product. Maybe they had simply taken an antique machine and temporarily used it as a gun mount.
After all, Yzak had seen the pilot climb into that mecha. He had also seen how outdated the cockpit was. It really looked like the cockpit of an engineering machine from several decades ago.
"Lacus, what exactly are you doing?"
Yzak frowned as he muttered that, because he had seen Lacus follow them inside.
Hm?
The mecha seemed about to use another weapon. The shape of half of one arm resembled the welding torch of an engineering machine.
The mecha raised that arm and angled it slightly toward the sky, pointing the welding-torch-like muzzle in the direction from which the missiles had been launched.
Was it going to attack all the way from here?
The next second, along with an ear-piercing sound and the shriek of something tearing through the air, what looked like a shell was fired.
At the same time:
Near a certain sea area close to the Earth Alliance fleet, aboard the bridge of a ZAFT underwater battleship:
"The Earth Alliance fleet's missiles were intercepted again. All of them!"
That incredulous voice echoed across the bridge once more. Someone even drew in a sharp breath and swallowed.
"What kind of laser air-defense interception is this supposed to be? Are they joking?"
"This means that in-atmosphere missiles become complete scrap metal in front of that interception system!"
Suddenly, something exploded above the Earth Alliance fleet, and countless tiny objects were blasted outward.
"A cluster bomb?"
After all, that was what it looked like. A huge number of objects then rained down, covering a large area of the Earth Alliance fleet.
But the strange thing was that even though they struck the Earth Alliance warships, no explosions occurred.
Was it fragmentation damage?
That would be more useful against people.
"Those are...!"
After magnifying the image, they saw that the objects piercing into the Earth Alliance fleet looked somewhat like syringes.
"What's the damage?"
On the Earth Alliance command ship, the commanding officer on the bridge stood up and swept glass shards off his body as he asked the question.
The cluster attack had partially penetrated the bridge's bulletproof glass and reached the interior.
However, before any report could arrive, something like a needle, roughly the size of a finger, was embedded in the floor near the commander, right beside the captain's seat. The exposed syringe-like section suddenly began to glow.
That sight made fear rise in him.
Immediately after, like a syringe delivering an injection, the glowing substance was injected downward.
It was not an explosion?
Then this might be a biochemical weapon, releasing toxins.
"Damn it! Orb is attacking with biochemical weapons! Activate biochemical defense protocols immediately!"
After issuing that order, he immediately ran toward the door behind him.
He crossed several steps at once, quickly reached the door, slammed the button to open it, and rushed out. At the same time, he did not hesitate to close it again and lock it.
"N-No, it's not a biochemical weapon!"
"The floor is melting!"
"The ship is melting. It's breaking down!"
The terrified voices transmitted from inside left him stunned.
Should he open it and look?
After hesitating for several seconds, he realized that the ground beneath his feet was softening. He saw his shoes sinking in, as if the floor were turning into mud.
His pupils dilated. The door before him was melting into liquid like a candle baked by high heat.
The melting rapidly spread toward him as well, making him run in terror.
"W-What the hell is this?"
"Are we going to be melted too?"
Terrified voices rang out everywhere. Soldiers scrambled over one another to flee outside and onto the deck.
When the commanding officer also made it outside, the sight before him made his entire body tremble.
The warship he was on really was melting, as if it were made of wax.
In some areas where soldiers were standing, the deck had actually melted up around their feet and pulled them downward.
Unable to endure the abnormal sight, some soldiers, terrified that they would be melted too, began jumping into the water one after another.
However, the most horrifying situation was not happening to the surface fleet, but to the submarines beneath the water.
Those needles had also pierced underwater and struck the submarines.
As a result, under the pressure of the seawater, the first places to melt were the areas where the needles had pierced in, and seawater violently surged inside.
"Lower the isolation bulkheads now!"
"It's no use! It's still spreading. It's expanding!"
The submarine's alarm echoed throughout the vessel. On one screen, the submarine's image showed patches of red spreading endlessly across the hull's surface. It looked like a medieval person infected with the Black Death, black spots rapidly spreading all over the body.
"This thing seems to corrode metal. The entire submarine is going to melt!"
"Quick, surface immediately!"
"Bad news! The hull is deforming. It's crushing the power system. We've lost it!"
Boom!
The explosion swallowed every sound.
The resulting shockwave also caused the surface of the sea above to bulge upward.
The ZAFT submarine not far away witnessed the scene before them, and every face aboard stared in terror.
An entire fleet had melted before their eyes like ice cream turning into water.
Although it seemed the personnel had not been directly affected, the sight still sent a bone-deep chill through everyone who saw it.
(End of Chapter)
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