Amid the massive debris left by the colony satellite explosion, both the Archangel and the ZAFT warships had completed their respective repairs and resupply.
The two sides were like a hunter and prey deep within a primeval forest, each waiting for the other to lose patience first and reveal their position.
After several dozen hours of deadlock, the Archangel, whose supplies were running low, finally decided they could not delay any longer and decisively began a slow inertial drift.
Captain Murrue intended to use the massive piece of space junk beside them to widen the distance between themselves and the enemy.
Two more hours passed. Once the Archangel entered the high-speed corridor ahead, where there were no obstacles at all, Nataru Bagiru immediately gave the order without hesitation. "Decoy Number Three! Launch!"
In an instant!
The launch tube at the stern slowly opened, firing a specially modified missile in the opposite direction.
At first, the missile traveled slowly with only minimal thrust.
But once it had moved far enough away from the Archangel, its tail suddenly erupted with astonishing energy, illuminating the surrounding darkness and streaking through the endless depths of space at tremendous speed.
There was no doubt that the missile was simulating a space battleship accelerating away from the scene.
At least on enemy radar, it was no different from the Archangel suddenly starting its engines and attempting to flee.
Now, the trouble had shifted to the ZAFT Army.
Although they had two warships, the Ginns aboard one of them had been completely depleted in the previous battle, leaving it with barely any combat capability.
In particular, the terrifying combat power displayed by the mysterious unit Allen piloted meant that a warship lacking MS cover could be torn to pieces in minutes.
Faced with such a difficult enemy,