Flying Tiger

"Shiro Amada..."

Hearing Shiro Amada's mournful cry, Eli could not help but fall silent.

He could not understand why Shiro, who harbored such deep-seated hatred for Zeon, would be so emotionally volatile because of Aina.

To dismiss this simply as love would be to belittle the complexity of such an emotion.

Setting aside what he could not fathom, his primary objective was to neutralize the threat posed by the Apsalus.

"Please lower your altitude and cease all operations, otherwise your personal safety cannot be guaranteed."

Seeing the two of them momentarily caught in a stalemate, Eli spoke up again, hoping to persuade Aina to surrender voluntarily.

On Aina's side, facing the threat of the Beam Rifle while simultaneously being urged to surrender by Shiro Amada, her resolve inevitably began to waver.

If she surrendered now, could she at least escape this endless cycle of war?

Aina was not suited for the battlefield.

Her hand, which had been resting on the control stick, slowly reached toward the Gundam displayed on her screen, marked with the number "08."

In her heart, she judged that to be the machine piloted by Shiro Amada.

Let it be this way...

"I..."

"Aina, can you hear me, Aina!"

Just as Aina was prepared to surrender, the communication link, which had been severed by the high concentration of Minovsky Particles, miraculously restored itself!

The voice emanating from the comms was none other than Ginias!

Aina recoiled as if electrocuted, pulling her hand back to grip the control stick tightly.

"...Aina, can you hear... prepare to ascend the Apsalus, head to... Norris has already..."

Aside from the first sentence where Ginias's shout interrupted Aina's intentions, the rest of the transmission remained fragmented and intermittent.

It felt as if fate itself had intervened.

"I hear you, Brother..."

Aina lowered her head, letting the helmet of her G-suit cast her face into shadow.

"I will try my best, for the sake of Brother's dream."

She pressed down on the pedal, and as a bird in a gilded cage, she manipulated the very cage that bound her, intending to surge toward the sky.

"Surrender failed. Attack!"

The moment Aina stepped on the pedal, the Apsalus shuddered violently.

Already battered by multiple artillery strikes, the Apsalus trembled uncontrollably under the strain of being forced into motion.

Even the Minovsky Particle flight system at its base began to flicker with purple electric arcs.

Faced with this, Eli felt a sense of relief.

At least the enemy was no longer threatening to self-destruct.

Now, all he had to do was completely destroy this massive MA!

With that thought, Eli did not hesitate; he immediately maneuvered his machine to bend its knees, crouching atop the Apsalus.

Then, stabilizing his machine as best he could, he aimed the Beam Rifle at the Apsalus's cockpit once more.

Even though he had been moved by the love that allowed Shiro Amada and Aina to transcend their opposing factions, Eli would not hesitate or soften his resolve now.

Pink particles gathered at the muzzle once again, ready to fire at any second!

However, at that very moment, a faint flash of lightning streaked across his brow.

A premonition of danger flooded Eli's mind!

Eli turned his head instantly, a movement mirrored by his machine.

He saw it: a machine that looked eighty percent like a Zaku had just broken through the cloud cover, wielding a glowing red blade and charging toward him in a slashing stance!

Eli immediately attempted to shoot it down with his Beam Rifle, but the enemy's speed was far greater than he had anticipated.

Pulling back on the control stick, he made his machine step backward, narrowly avoiding the machine's swift strike.

But the pilot of that machine was clearly no amateur; it changed the trajectory of its blade in an instant, targeting the Beam Rifle!

The fully charged Beam Rifle was sliced in two by a single blow.

Eli immediately released his grip, thrusting his left arm forward to shield himself from the secondary explosion of the rifle.

His gaze followed the machine as it moved, watching it raise its own left arm and slam into Shiro Amada's machine, knocking him off the Apsalus as both units plummeted downward.

"That is... a Gouf Flight Type? No, that can't be right, the timeline doesn't match..."

Seeing Shiro Amada knocked away, Eli did not panic, instead immediately comparing the machine against his own memories.

After all, the damage the Apsalus had sustained was not light; even if it forced an ascent, it was still within the operational limits of the Gundam Ground Type.

Eli maneuvered his unit into a crouch, his right hand drawing the Beam Saber from his lower leg without igniting it yet. His left hand remained held before his chest, maintaining a defensive posture.

He still could not recall the specific model of that unit, but it was undoubtedly a Gouf.

Perhaps it was an early prototype of the Gouf Flight Test Type.

In fact, that was exactly the case.

"Miss Aina, are you alright?"

Norris sat within the cockpit of the Gouf Flight Test Type, inquiring of Aina.

This Gouf Flight Test Type had not originally been within the scope of Ginias's development projects, but relying solely on Dopp Fighters to escort such a massive MA was, to say the least, unsettling.

That was why Ginias had procured this Gouf Flight Test Type from North America, intending to refine it himself.

However, as it stood, he had only managed to replace the machine guns on its hands with standard manipulators; before he could make any further adjustments, Norris had already piloted it into the heat of battle.

"Yes, I am fine, it's just the Apsalus..."

"That does not matter. I will eliminate the enemy; Miss Aina, you need only focus on operating the Apsalus!"

Norris did not place demands upon Aina the way Ginias did.

He understood that she could not handle any more pressure.

Just as the Apsalus itself could no longer withstand any more strain!

Norris slammed his foot onto the pedal and pushed the control stick forward.

The stabilizer wings on the back of the Gouf Flight Test Type deployed, angling downward to provide greater lift.

Immediately after, the four thermonuclear rocket engines on the backpack and the two on its massive legs roared to life in perfect synchronization at high output!

Bolstered by this, the thrust-to-weight ratio quickly exceeded 1, sending the sixty-ton Gouf into a rapid ascent!

"Miss Aina's safety shall be protected by me!"

Norris stared intently at the screen, where the battered armor of the Apsalus still loomed before him.

But soon, he would be able to see the scene above!

"Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!"

Before Norris could even confirm the situation, a barrage of gunfire tore through the air toward him.

Fortunately, the climb speed of the Gouf Flight Test Type was fast enough that the barrage could only pass uselessly beneath his feet.

No, it could not be called entirely useless; one bullet had grazed the outer armor of the right leg's thermonuclear engine, breaking Norris out in a cold sweat.

"Is that intuition? Truly terrifying."