"Got you!"
Fred emerged from the flank of the Agamemnon-class vessel, controlling his AMBAC to nimbly sway and dodge the sparse Close-in Weapon System fire around him.
His single eye, however, was already firmly locked onto the Moebius not far away, which had just completed a wheel-turn of one hundred and eighty degrees to evade the beam in front of it.
That red eye was like the head of an owl.
No matter how his body moved, that single eye remained locked onto that Moebius. Even those who weren't being targeted felt a chill run down their spines.
Inside the cockpit, all Fred could see now was the locking frame—the red crosshair closing in on the white locking frame of the Moebius.
Because he had focused most of his attention on aiming, the young man could no longer perfectly manage evasion. In the cockpit, he could already hear a crackling sound like rain pattering down.
That wasn't rain—it was the sound of Close-in Weapon System rounds striking his Mobile Suit's armor, transmitted through the vibrations into Fred's cockpit.
Fred didn't panic. His eyes remained fixed on the nearly overlapping targeting frames.
Everything was going according to plan.
While he couldn't perfectly dodge the dense Close-in Weapon System fire, its power was limited—especially against this MS with its reinforced armor.
He had deliberately used his armor to tank the attacks.
He was about to leave. Using his Golden Finger, he could see that his armor's durability was still nearly full.
That was his confidence in weathering this barrage.
With this auxiliary Golden Finger, he could grasp his Mobile Suit's strength better than anyone.
As for the missiles and Alec—
So, he didn't let those dense sounds distract him. He only saw the overlapping targeting frames and heard the lock-on confirmation alert in his ears. Without a moment's hesitation, he pulled the trigger.
Though the mental journey seemed long, from ZAFT's suppressive fire to Fred's successful lock-on, only an instant had passed. The noisy voices on Fred's communication channel vanished instantly, replaced by the desperate scream of the Moebius pilot.
"No!!"
Having just survived the beam attack, he could no longer dodge this one.
Inertia in space meant that even with full reverse thrust, he would remain wide open for several seconds.
And on the battlefield—especially on an ace's battlefield—several seconds was enough to die several times over.
But there was no time for him to beg. The Atlantic Federation pilot was already turned into a massive fireball, slamming into the Agamemnon-class vessel nearby, leaving only a scorched black mark on its sturdy armor.
The nuclear warhead didn't detonate in the explosion—it seemed the activation system had been disabled.
Or perhaps it had never been activated in the first place.
That was only natural.
It hadn't even launched yet—how could it have been activated?
Though nuclear warheads were devastating, without activation, they weren't so easy to set off.
Fred felt a slight regret, but seeing his energy gauge drop into the orange zone, he had no intention of lingering.
"Let's go. Leave the last one to them."
Though his tally was only one Moebius, it was an ace carrying a nuclear warhead.
Fred had no complaints.
Besides, he didn't need military merits. Good enough was good enough.
First, he needed to return to resupply energy and replace the outer armor.
Perhaps the external armor research should be accelerated.
If they had the external armor—the Corpse Armor—maintenance would be much more convenient.
[User Comment]
ZGMF-1017AS Assault GINN—ZAFT's Assault Armor designed with the same concept as the Striker Pack equipped on the Duel Gundam. Aside from being external armor that can't be swapped mid-battle, it's essentially similar to the Strike Suit's pack system.
"Alright!"
Alec breathed a sigh of relief and extracted himself from the missile encirclement of the Moebius units and Drake.
He wasn't worried about his own safety—after all, to protect PLANT, he would charge forward without hesitation.
But with Fred beside him, needing his protection, he was afraid something might go wrong.
As the two finished speaking, just like when they arrived, they transformed into meteors in space once more, vanishing gracefully from the battlefield.
With Fred having taken down one Moebius, the Atlantic Federation forces' morale sank even lower.
In contrast, the GINNs that had been providing support moments ago were now boiling with morale.
Watching the divine soldier descend from the heavens and leave after a single strike, their spirits soared.
The unknown ace's actions just now were almost like those stories of heroes taking heads in the midst of enemy formations.
In short—a hero.
With a hero unit present, morale naturally rose.
"Who is that?"
The commander, tense inside the ZAFT battleship, stared at the battle results before him, stunned.
Although they had felt that following orders was correct, seeing the results achieved by those two new-model Mobile Suits ahead still left them unable to stop their astonishment.
Those two Moebius units equipped with nuclear warheads were definitely top-tier pilots—after all, they were carrying nuclear weapons, the kind of devastating armaments that could inflict heavy losses on PLANT.
And yet, they had been pierced through by this nameless hero like an arrow.
That alone was bad enough, but this arrow could even turn around on its own.
"Captain Orphee, might I ask who this person is...?"
Even though they were in the middle of battle, the commander couldn't help but open a communication channel to Orphee, who was not far away and equally locked in combat with the enemy's flanking forces.
"This person's identity is classified."
As Orphee spoke, his Assault Rifle swept away several more Mistrals that the Atlantic Federation had thrown in to pad their numbers.
"Understood, understood."
Hearing this, the commander had nothing more to say and temporarily set aside his thoughts of forging connections.
He had previously assumed that Captain Orphee was the one in command, but it was now clear that he had been mistaken.
That person just now was obviously the real commander.
With such a powerful commander, how could PLANT not prosper!
With that thought, the commander's gaze shifted to the last remaining Moebius equipped with a nuclear warhead.
"We cannot allow the Naturals' nuclear weapons to fall on our heads! Nor can we let the Special Ops Unit look down on us!"
"Yes!"
Hearing this, the subordinates all let out spirited cries in unison.
Meanwhile, Fred had returned to the temporary hangar at the port outside April City.
"They should be able to intercept it, right?"
Alec's uneasy voice came through the Communication Channel to Fred from inside the cockpit.
Neither of them had exited their machines; only the maintenance crew was bustling around outside the cockpits.
"They can intercept it."
With only that one left, intercepting it wouldn't be difficult.
What was difficult, rather, was preserving a complete chain of evidence.
Otherwise, with only video footage, the Atlantic Federation's propaganda offensive could easily cover it up.
Only by catching them red-handed using nuclear weapons could they create the conditions for the Neutron Jammer to make its appearance later.
..
.