"Aft... afterimages?"
As the pilots of the Federation MS unit watched their fire-control radars locking onto the slowly fading spectral images of the Destiny, a primal fear of the unknown gripped their hearts.
The brilliance and afterimages generated by the Voiture Lumiere had manifested in the skies of the UC world for the very first time.
"What kind of system is that?"
Staring at the Destiny, its frame slightly dimmed by the contrast of the explosive flares and its own radiant wings, a Gustav Karl pilot gritted his teeth and raised his beam rifle. "Have the Zeon remnants developed some kind of new technology?!"
"Stop complaining! The Commander was just killed! You're the highest-ranking officer left on the scene!" another surviving Gustav Karl pilot shouted anxiously over the comms.
"Do something, quickly!"
"Even if you tell me to... I don't know what to do anymore!"
The pilot promoted to temporary battlefield commander felt his scalp go numb.
To use such a massive sword in Earth's aerial environment and achieve results so effortlessly—the performance of that "Gundam imitation" could only be described as "science fiction."
Furthermore, there was still a restless "Sazabi Modernized Custom" that had appeared at Oenbelli not long ago, and a "FA ZAKU" currently rampaging through the battlefield like a runaway freight train...
It was a literal portrait of hell!
"...Watch out!"
Catching a glimpse of the Destiny flying toward his comrade's Gustav Karl out of the corner of his eye, the temporary commander instinctively yelled into the comms.
"Aaaah... Stay away from me!"
Seeing the Destiny surging toward him under the thrust of its light wings, leaving a trail of afterimages in its wake, the Gustav Karl pilot pulled the trigger in desperation.
Driven by a raw survival instinct, he unleashed a dense curtain of fire: the shoulder-mounted rocket launcher, the twin grenade launchers on his left arm, the right-hand beam rifle, and the head-mounted vulcans all fired simultaneously at the Destiny.
He didn't use the fire-control system's auto-lock. Since discovering that the sensors would track the Destiny's afterimages, the pilot had switched to manual aiming.
Pilots assigned to the Gustav Karl were, after all, Federation aces; their fundamental combat instincts were rock-solid.
"Too slow..."
Without even entering his SEED state, Shinn relied solely on the instincts honed from his daily training. He maneuvered the Destiny through the barrage with fluid grace, effortlessly weaving through the storm of fire unleashed by the Gustav Karl.
Violent energy converged in the center of the Destiny's left palm, forming a blinding white light.
With another flap of the light wings, the Destiny vanished from the Gustav Karl's front, leaving only a fading afterimage, and reappeared instantly on its right flank.
Under the Gustav Karl pilot's despairing gaze, the Destiny's glowing left palm—the Palma Fiocina—slammed squarely into the suit's waist.
The raging energy easily incinerated the beam-resistant coating and armor, tearing through the internal systems.
Ultimately, the white light pierced the spherical cockpit, consuming the pilot's vision before erasing him entirely.
The Destiny withdrew its palm, and its thrusters roared as the machine performed a crisp backflip.
The moment it disengaged, the Gustav Karl began to leak white light before exploding violently in mid-air.
Following through with the backflip, Shinn maneuvered the Destiny to raise its beam anti-ship sword.
After a mid-air spin, he accelerated into a dive, cleaving a helpless Jegan clean in half from top to bottom.
"Damn it..."
Seeing his teammates treated like vegetables on a cutting board, the pilot of the last remaining Gustav Karl—now the temporary commander of the Federation MS unit—gritted his teeth, forcing himself to remain calm.
Beep-beep-beep-beep!
Like a herald of the Reaper, the Gustav Karl's radar screamed. Almost by instinct, the pilot threw his remaining intact shield in front of his chest.
In the next second, a heat dagger pierced through the shield with immense force, the impact making the mechanical arm groan as if it were about to shatter.
Then, with a secondary surge of power from the attacker, the Gustav Karl's balance was completely broken. The mechanical mount on its left shoulder finally gave way; the shield, skewered by the heat dagger, was captured by Earth's gravity and fell toward the ocean below.
Only then did the pilot realize what had just happened.
"You... used me as a stepping stone?!"
The "Modernized Sazabi Custom" (Sinanju) had delivered a flying kick that destroyed his shield. Now, the machine was performing a skillful and elegant backflip in the sky, soaring as gracefully as a bird.
"Now's my chance!"
Seeing the opening, the pilot slammed down the pedals. The Gustav Karl's thrusters spat out thick pillars of flame, forcibly arresting its backward tilt as he raised his beam rifle.
But in the next heartbeat, while still mid-backflip, the Sinanju raised its beam sniper rifle and pulled the trigger.
A single yellow beam accurately struck the Gustav Karl's cockpit.
"Ugh...!"
The pilot only had time for a sharp gasp before the yellow beam transfixed the Gustav Karl, and the machine erupted into a fireball in the sky.
With the last Gustav Karl reduced to scrap, only four Jegan Type Ds remained on the battlefield. Roz maneuvered the Sinanju, surging toward a two-machine cell of Jegans.
As yellow beams spat from the muzzle of the sniper rifle, the two Jegan Type Ds instinctively raised their shields to cover their fronts. However, a second later, an explosion roared beneath them, and a sudden sense of weightlessness took hold.
The Base Jabbers beneath their feet had been destroyed, turning into twin spheres of fire. The Jegans tumbled past the blooming explosions, dragged toward the ocean by gravity.
Their thrusters spat flames, barely managing to maintain altitude, which allowed the two pilots a fleeting moment of relief.
But in the next instant, a yellow beam precisely struck one of the Jegan Type Ds. The beam-resistant coating and armor were melted and pierced through, leading to a violent detonation.
With his comrade exploding so close at hand, a hail of debris sprayed in all directions. One fragment accurately struck the surviving Jegan's beam rifle.
Staring at the red "ARMAMENT FAILURE" warning on his cockpit display, the pilot discarded the ruined rifle and reached for his beam saber hilt. A pale pink blade hissed into existence.
Facing the yellow beam axe blades protruding from the Sinanju's shield, the Jegan pilot—knowing he no longer had any chance of survival—raised his saber and swung at the Sinanju with everything he had left.
The Sinanju spun violently, evading the Jegan's desperate slash. The momentum of the rotation accelerated the shield on its left arm, allowing the attached beam axes to bite into the Jegan Type D's waist. With clinical precision, the machine was cleaved in two.
"Whew..."
Watching the severed halves of the Jegan Type D vanish into the cloud layer below, Roz exhaled softly.
"Your current fighting style... it doesn't really look like your old self, Captain."
Having watched Roz conclude the engagement, Shinn pondered for a moment before voicing his confusion. "Why change your style? Doesn't that just lower your combat effectiveness?"
"Because I have to maintain a persona for the outside world, Shinn."
Roz shifted his gaze toward the nearby Psycho Zaku, which was still gripped in a state of manic frenzy.
"In the eyes of the world right now, I am not Amuro Ray—I am Full Frontal. To play that part, I can't use my past combat patterns. I have to lean toward elegance and flair."
"Otherwise, if I'm recognized too easily, the 'core' prepared within this machine won't be able to fulfill its purpose."
"But that Char guy knows who you are, doesn't he?" Shinn frowned slightly. "He could leak your information..."
"No... a man like Char will play along with my actions and help keep the secret."
Roz could roughly guess Char's line of thinking. "After all, we saw it in the Courtyard. At his core, he's a bit of a mischievous bastard."
-----------------------------------
In contrast to the elegant and flamboyant battlefields of Shinn and Roz, Stellar's side was defined by raw, direct brutality.
The barrels of the eight beam Gatlings spun rapidly, spitting out green beams that hammered into a Jegan Type D that had been too slow to evade.
The unfortunate machine was like a leaf caught in a torrential downpour; its beam-resistant coating and armor were effortlessly shredded.
The sheer kinetic impact of the Gatling fire forced the Jegan into a series of contorted, helpless postures in mid-air.
Under this relentless saturation, the Jegan's visor gradually dimmed before its reactor was finally struck, causing the suit to vanish in a violent spray of shrapnel.
"Aaaaahhh...!"
Locking onto the final Jegan Type D, Stellar let out a manic, beast-like roar and slammed the pedals down.
The fifty-plus thrusters across the Psycho Zaku's frame granted it terrifying mobility.
The machine closed the distance with the Jegan in an instant, spinning mid-air to deliver a savage double-kick directly into the Jegan's defensive shield.
It was a brutal "Dropkick" maneuver—the Psycho Zaku's feet slammed into the shield, and with a secondary burst from its thrusters, the Jegan was kicked clean off its Base Jabber.
But Stellar was clearly far from finished. The Psycho Zaku adjusted its posture slightly and immediately dove after the falling Jegan.
The Zaku slammed into the Jegan, its thrusters roaring as it physically pinned the Federation suit, carving a massive U-shaped arc through the air that turned their freefall into a steep ascent.
The Psycho Zaku's right arm, still carrying its shield, delivered a crushing bash that swatted the Jegan's own shield aside.
Under the despairing gaze of the Federation pilot, the barrels of the eight beam Gatlings spun once more.
A dense curtain of fire struck the Jegan at point-blank range.
Beam-resistant coating, armor plating, internal frame, and finally the cockpit—the green beams bored through the Jegan's structural layers one by one.
A rain of metallic fragments poured over the Psycho Zaku before falling toward the sea of clouds below.
Finally, the connection point at the Jegan's waist snapped. The machine was torn into two distinct halves by the Gatling fire, drifting past either side of the Psycho Zaku as it plummeted into the white abyss.
Before the wreckage could even reach the sea of clouds, the reactor—pierced during the Psycho Zaku's brutal execution—finally reached critical mass.
After a brief, volatile reaction, it erupted in a violent explosion high above the heavens, physically blasting a massive hole through the cloud layer.
"Huff... huff... huff..."
Stellar Loussier breathed heavily, her eyes trembling uncontrollably, seemingly trapped in the lingering haze of her frenzy.
Having been ripped out of her flow state earlier, she had spiraled into a state of pure, chaotic madness.
"Stellar... it's over."
Shinn Asuka's voice came through the comms. The Destiny reached out, placing a steadying hand on the Psycho Zaku's shoulder. Feeling the vibration of the contact through her suit, Stellar began to regain a sliver of clarity.
"Let's go back."
Watching Stellar slowly recover through the video feed, Shinn let out a breath of relief. "Back to be with everyone."
Roz had been right: love was the ultimate inhibitor. Now, Shinn had truly become the "stabilizer" for both Stellar and Mayu Asuka.
"Shinn, Stellar, we're pulling out."
Roz Links spoke up, his eyes fixed on the radar. Several signals tagged as "Federation" were beginning to flicker on the very edge of the long-range scan.
"If we stay any longer, the Federation's follow-up forces will be on top of us."
The three machines dove, plunging into the sea of clouds. Behind them, they left only drifting specks of green light particles and the dissipating trails of missile exhaust.
Not long after the trio vanished, the Federation's relief force finally arrived, late to the slaughter. They stared at the sky, "torn" apart by the lingering white smoke of the engagement.
For a fleeting second, the Federation pilots almost thought they could smell the acrid scent of gunpowder still hanging in the thin, cold air.
..................