Blind Lies

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Having escaped from the muzzle of the Aegis Gundam, Xiao Ran saw through the images transmitted by the rear monitor that the Strike Gundam and Aegis Gundam were once again entangled and had drawn their beam sabers. He broke out in a cold sweat.

"Beep, beep, beep."

Before he could relax, the red alarm in the cockpit suddenly sounded again. Xiao Ran was so startled that his soul almost flew out of his body. He glanced at the display and saw that there were two Ginn mobile suits on his front-left and front-right, each aiming a gun at him. Directly in front of him, another Ginn was also facing him, raising a large cannon.

"My movement trajectory has been seen through." The thought flashed through Xiao Ran's mind, and he was shocked that his forward path was blocked. He knew that if he didn't change his trajectory, he would face unavoidable attacks from three directions simultaneously.

"Dodge quickly!"

"Teacher!"

Communications from the Archangel, the Strike Gundam, and the Moebius Zero simultaneously crackled through the communicator. Listening to the noisy voices and watching the muzzle of the guns on the display already spewing flames, Xiao Ran focused all his attention on the enemy. For some reason, Xiao Ran felt as if time had slowed down considerably, and he could sense a power rapidly draining away.

There was no time to think. In less than a second, his left hand made a series of rapid movements. He pulled back the control for the thruster power switch, directly shutting off all thrusters, and his fingers rapidly tapped on the buttons. He stomped on the pedals with both feet, pushed the control stick forward one notch with his right hand, and then pulled it all the way back. Then, he used his left hand to fill the thruster energy to maximum and opened it.

In an instant, Xiao Ran was pressed into the chair by the immense force, unable to move. Even his head was pinned down, making it impossible to lift. Fortunately, this state did not last long. After only a few seconds, it completely disappeared with a brilliant white light.

In the eyes of others, the Lightning Ginn was charging at extreme speed into the encirclement of the three Ginn mobile suits. If it continued at this speed, it would inevitably be shot down by the combined efforts of the three Ginn. But just before the three Ginn attacked, the Lightning Ginn's flight pack extinguished. Due to not closing the thrusters and inertia, its legs were directly thrown forward, turning the mobile suit, which was originally in a line, into a horizontal formation.

The moment the transformation was complete, the Lightning Ginn's backpack once again spewed out scorching flames. The powerful thrusters directly propelled the Lightning Ginn upwards, narrowly dodging the Ginn's cannon fire. The Lightning Ginn's series of actions was dazzling, and all these actions were completed in just over a second, leaving everyone in awe. However, the cost was severe damage to the Lightning Ginn's hip joint and knee joint, with the damage exceeding fifty percent. It also turned a Drake-class battleship to its rear right into fragments.

After dodging this potentially fatal danger, Xiao Ran found that everything had returned to normal, but his empty and slightly aching head seemed to be reminding him of something.

"Stats."

Accuracy 9 (11) Affects shooting ability and accuracy

Agility 8 (10) Affects melee ability and strength

Reaction 9 (10) Affects reaction speed and agility

Spirit 3 (10) Affects skill consumption and perception

Constitution 8 (10) Affects physical fitness and endurance

While operating the Lightning Ginn, Xiao Ran glanced at his stats and immediately understood the reason. The fully maxed-out stats at the start of the battle had dropped to only one-third of their level in just over a second. Perhaps in that critical moment, the mental energy consumption was inexplicably activated, enhancing perception. This was what allowed the Lightning Ginn to perform such actions.

"You idiot, how can you get distracted during a battle!" On the Archangel, Murrue grabbed the communicator by her hand and yelled at Xiao Ran.

Mu, having narrowly escaped danger, added, "Be careful next time. You won't always be this lucky."

"Hoo, sorry. New recruits tend to get distracted on the battlefield, but being able to dodge such an encirclement, I guess I can be considered an elite among the grunts, an elite grunt." Xiao Ran endured the slight ache in his head and gave a self-deprecating smile. His eyes sharpened as he entered serious mode. The targeting sight, which he hadn't used because he couldn't afford to be distracted, popped out from the side.

The Lightning Ginn slowed down, turned, and flew back into the combat zone. In Xiao Ran's right eye, a crosshair was constantly moving, locking onto the Ginn that had previously wielded the rocket launcher. He listened to the beeping prompts and leisurely fine-tuned the control stick in his hand.

"Beep!" The moment the crosshair locked onto the enemy, the Lightning Ginn fired three consecutive beams. The first beam flew under the Ginn's arm, the second beam hit the Ginn's shoulder, and the third beam pierced the Ginn's cockpit, barely kicking up a shower of sparks.

However, Xiao Ran, who heard no system prompt, knew that his three attacks had completely missed the enemy. As he was preparing to fire another shot, he heard the alarm in the cockpit and had to give up reluctantly. He executed a continuous spin to evade the attack coming from the side, watching helplessly as an Earth Alliance battleship delivered the finishing blow, destroying the already self-destructing wild Ginn.

He glared resentfully at the battleship that delivered the finishing blow. To Xiao Ran's dismay, this battleship was the Nelson-class, the very ship he had hoped the ZAFT forces would destroy quickly, the ship his father, Frey, was on.

He glanced at the percentage representing the remaining strength of the Eighth Fleet. The ever-decreasing number made Xiao Ran curse inwardly, "The ones that should be destroyed aren't, and the ones that shouldn't be are always getting destroyed."

With hidden resentment, Xiao Ran turned his mobile suit and began to circle around the Nelson-class. He fired a couple of shots at any Ginn he saw, and soon attracted a lot of aggro.

On this battlefield, the Lightning Ginn and Kira's Strike Gundam were only barely able to match the role of a single MS fighting with full focus. This led to extremely rapid losses for the Earth Alliance's vanguard fleet. The Strike Gundam was firmly entangled by the Aegis, and Kira, unwilling to fight Athrun, found it difficult to even shoot. Although they would separate from time to time, they would quickly become entangled again.

Xiao Ran, being self-aware of his poor piloting skills and the inadequacy of his mobile suit, did not dare to fight recklessly. He could only engage in interspersed shooting, but his accuracy was low. Especially when the Ginn had already become wary of him, he couldn't achieve much.

As for the other Earth Alliance MA's, what could they do besides block bullets? The Moebius Zero couldn't be relied on either. Not long after Xiao Ran advanced onto the battlefield, it was entangled by Cruse's specialized unit. It was having too much fun to come to his aid.

Half an hour later, the battlefield was filled with explosions and wreckage. The MA units were wiped out in less than half an hour. Of the original seven battleships, only three remained. Among them was the 250-meter Nelson-class battleship, which Xiao Ran most unwillingly saw, still holding on despite smoking. However, with its propulsion system completely disabled, the Nelson-class was just a sitting duck. The remaining percentage of the mission was only thirty percent.

As for how the Nelson-class battleship ended up like this, it was naturally due to Xiao Ran's contribution. Because Xiao Ran would fly back and forth towards the Nelson-class whenever he had the chance, appearing to be helping the Nelson-class fend off enemies, but in reality, he was drawing fire in that direction. One-third of the cannonballs he dodged flew towards the Nelson-class.

However, to avoid suspicion from others, Xiao Ran also shot down several cannonballs that flew towards non-vital parts of the Nelson-class.

On the ZAFT side, three battleships were almost intact, except for one Loorasia-class that sustained minor damage. Of the nine Ginn mobile suits, Mu and Xiao Ran had jointly taken down two, Xiao Ran himself had taken down one, the Strike Gundam had destroyed one, two were taken down by MA's and battleships, and three were still fighting. Including the Aegis Gundam and Cruse's specialized captain-class GOUF, a total of five MS and three battleships provided a combat strength far exceeding that of the Earth Alliance.

After half an hour, the Lightning Ginn's energy was also almost depleted under Xiao Ran's high-speed advances. Seeing a Ginn charging towards the embattled Nelson-class battleship, and a Loorasia-class battleship aiming its main cannon at the Nelson-class, Xiao Ran smiled inwardly and maneuvered the Lightning Ginn in a large circle before charging towards the Archangel.

He opened the communicator, took off his helmet, and wiped away the sweat from his face, which was caused by the heat and the battle. "Archangel, I'm out of energy. Returning to base now."

"No, no, you can't come back. You have to protect my dad, you have to..."

He didn't hear Murrue's voice, but instead, Frey's sharp voice entered Xiao Ran's ears. Before she could finish, the call was forcibly disconnected, making Xiao Ran frown.

Shortly after, the communication reconnected, and Miriallia's voice sounded, "Teacher, you can return to the ship. Please choose your return timing carefully."

"Received," Xiao Ran said, wiping the sweat from his forehead with his hand. He glanced at the Nelson-class and the other two Drake-class battleships, which were still resisting desperately, through the display and sneered. He activated the mobile suit's thrusters to full power and flew towards the Archangel.

Two minutes later, Xiao Ran leaped off the Lightning Ginn and flew directly towards the elevator leading to the bridge. As the elevator doors opened, what greeted Xiao Ran's eyes was the Nelson-class, pierced by two green beams. Amidst silence and disbelief, the Nelson-class in the screen erupted in a flash of light and shattered into pieces. Xiao Ran floated beside Mu.

Without any orders, Xiao Ran watched the percentage number fixed at the corner of his eye decrease by another ten percent. He directly grabbed the communicator in Mu's hand. "Miriallia, all-frequency communication."

Miriallia quickly nodded and pressed two buttons on the panel in front of her. "Teacher, it's ready."

"Announce to all ZAFT forces, please cease combat immediately. This vessel is currently providing humanitarian aid and protection to your important personnel, Lacus Clyne. If you continue to fire, it will be considered your abandonment of all obligations towards Lacus Clyne, and we will act freely regarding her."

As soon as Xiao Ran finished speaking, the elevator doors behind him opened again. When Xiao Ran turned around, he saw Frey, her face filled with madness, slowly floating out while dragging a calm-looking Lacus. Before Frey could say anything, her frenzied expression instantly turned blank. She stared blankly at the shattered Nelson-class battleship.

"No, no... Dad!"

Watching Frey's heart-wrenching cry, even Xiao Ran couldn't help but turn his head away and sigh softly. "Sai, take her out."

"Y-yes." Sai stood up from his position and quickly led the dazed Frey away from the battleship.

After Frey left, everyone on the bridge looked at Xiao Ran with disbelief. Mwu and Bargyll sighed helplessly, seeing that Xiao Ran didn't seem to think there was any problem at all.

Xiao Ran didn't care about anyone else's gaze or opinion. He shrugged and smiled slightly at Lacus, "Miss Lacus, I don't suppose you'd mind helping us out this time?"

Lacus was slightly taken aback by Xiao Ran's words, then a sincere smile appeared on her face, "Yes, if we can avoid fighting, that would be best."

"Great, great!" Haro jumped up from Lacus's hands and flew around the weightless bridge.

"Then I'll trouble you to see this through to the end," Xiao Ran said with a smile. He turned and pressed the communication button again, stating, "Repeat, this vessel is providing humanitarian aid and protection to your important personnel, Lacus Clyne. If you continue to fire, we will consider you to have relinquished all obligations towards Lacus Clyne, and we will then dispose of her freely."

"After your side ceases fire and ensures our safety, we will return Lacus Clyne. However, given that this vessel has taken in too many civilians, we cannot be certain which one is Lacus Clyne. Please dispatch a shuttle to retrieve the civilians after withdrawing. We require your Captain Rau to arrive on this vessel with the shuttle. We will permit your side to dispatch no more than two MS for escort. What do you say, Rau? Do you have the courage?"

After speaking, Xiao Ran looked up at the masked Rau on the communication screen, a playful smile gracing his lips.

"Hello, Captain Rau," Lacus also smiled and waved slightly in the direction of the screen.

The people in the bridge were so stunned by Xiao Ran's words that their jaws nearly hit the floor. They looked left at the waving Lacus and right at the stern face of Rau on the screen, their admiration for Xiao Ran's blatant lie soaring through the roof. Mwu and Bargyll had already lowered their heads in embarrassment.