As Xu De was thinking, Coby, the commander of the First Fleet straight ahead, spoke over the all-wave channel, his voice ringing throughout the sector.
"Warning to the ZAFT vessels ahead: leave this area immediately. The glory of us Naturals must not be sullied!"
"I repeat."
His deep, authoritative voice echoed through the sector.
It also excited the soldiers in the fleet who believed in Blue Cosmos's ideals.
Even those who didn't believe in them were still Natural soldiers, and hearing those words filled them with fervor.
Their fear of the ZAFT forces bearing down on them eased a little, too.
Of course, Xu De and the others weren't affected at all.
Those young masters and misses already knew the truth.
At that moment, they merely gave a disdainful snort.
"Starting off with a general's speech? They never planned to let them leave."
"It's just to boost morale."
Indeed, logically, a communications officer should have issued the warning first, followed by a squad leader.
Starting with a general made it obvious that they didn't take the Coordinator force on the other side seriously.
"Shh! At least switch channels!"
The girl named Bella complained in a petulant tone.
But she seemed to have only just realized Xu De was on the channel.
Of course, it was a public channel to begin with.
As soon as they finished speaking, the two switched to a private channel, and Xu De didn't receive another sound from them.
Meanwhile, Xu De remained seated in the cramped cockpit, his mood entirely unaffected by their childish behavior.
For one thing, Xu De had seen plenty of major battles.
And although he had next to no inside information, he still knew more about how this battle would unfold than they did.
In short, if he hadn't ended up here in the Atlantic with nowhere to retreat, the two sides could fight until their brains spilled out and it still wouldn't concern him.
The Coordinators were the old ruling class, while the Merchants of Death behind Blue Cosmos were the new one.
He had no fondness for either side, nor did he agree with either.
But he had no choice. To survive, and to live with dignity, he had to become stronger.
Just as the thought crossed Xu De's mind, interference suddenly crackled over the previously clear channel.
It sounded roughly like the static that used to appear on old televisions.
But this wasn't him sneaking out of bed as a child to watch TV. This was a battlefield.
That sound was a signal from the Grim Reaper.
"Wha... what..."
"Nuc—"
Xu De's communications broke up, and on the other side, the Coordinator warships had already begun their attack.
The fleet unleashed a volley, sending hundreds of green beams toward their main force.
"They're opening with a sight like this..."
He knew this was the biggest battle apart from the one on the moon, but seeing the dense barrage of beams before him still made his scalp tingle.
Amid a series of explosions, the Earth Alliance, caught completely off guard, lost nearly twenty percent of its warships.
Without communications, they couldn't receive orders.
Without radar, they couldn't launch tracking missiles.
Without neutron reactions, their nuclear weapons couldn't activate.
In short, the entire Earth Alliance fleet was in chaos.
Only then did everyone realize they were being jammed. They switched their communications to short-range laser transmissions.
"Damn it! Radar's completely black! Bella, how are things on your end?"
"Idiot! Look ahead!"
Bella cried out in terror.
The moment the girl's voice fell silent, a battleship-class beam cannon that had slipped past the other vessels struck the boy's Moebius and the Mistrals around him with perfect accuracy.
The second volley had clearly been fired.
These beam cannons traveled at the speed of light. The only way to dodge them was to calculate their trajectory in advance.
And in the face of life and death, all were equal.
A chain of explosions instantly blasted the young master and his guards into cosmic dust.
If you weren't prepared, you died.
No one could escape.
The girl's desperate scream over the channel was a stark contrast to her lively, sweet demeanor from moments before.
"Switch targeting to manual mode. Turn off radar detection and keep your eyes on what's ahead. The third wave is coming."
Out of basic human decency, Xu De warned the panicking squad as he watched the dense missile barrage flying toward them.
The third wave was missiles. These heavy missiles didn't have much accuracy without radar guidance, but they didn't need it.
The World Tree was right there, plain as day.
They only had to fly straight. There was no need to account for Earth's curvature, just the slight gravitational interference in low orbit.
"Headquarters orders... defend the space station..."
After hearing the same old order, Xu De decisively shut off his communications.
Defend it? They'd be lucky just to survive.
This was a major battle, a meat grinder in space.
The Earth Alliance wasn't given time to reorganize its lines. The third wave of attacks arrived as expected.
Xu De skillfully operated the two Vulcan Cannons on his Moebius, firing in rhythm at the incoming missiles.
He remained absolutely calm and didn't waste a single round. Once he confirmed a missile had exploded, he never fired at it again.
Who knew how many Ginns the enemy might have shortly?
Even this far behind the front lines, he had to be careful.
Xu De surmised that after these three waves of attacks, the Ginns would descend on them, their formation completely shattered.
"Help me!! I don't want to die!!"
Seeing Xu De deftly weave between the missiles, Bella clung to him as if he were her last lifeline.
"Only you can save yourself."
Xu De's voice was as calm as ever.
Even the successive explosions of friendly vessels right in front of him didn't affect him in the slightest.
That calm voice, so different from everyone else's panicked shouting, gave Bella a profound sense of security.
"I... I can fight!"
She had no idea who this pilot they'd ignored at first was.
But a woman's intuition told her:
If she wanted to survive, she'd better listen to this boy.
"You don't need to fight."
"Hide."
Xu De's voice remained calm.
The missile wave had already scattered their entire escort formation, giving him a chance to act freely.
As for the World Tree, its destruction was inevitable.
He only had to look at the defensive lines elsewhere.
Those young masters and misses had never been more than that; they couldn't stop these sudden missiles.
It wasn't that they could intercept them. They could barely even get out of the way.
If they failed to hold the line, it would be dereliction of duty at most. Even if they faced a court-martial, their families had enough influence to get them off the hook.
And even if they couldn't escape punishment, they'd only go to prison.
But here, death was death.
With the World Tree about to take a direct hit from countless missiles, there was no point in defending it anymore.
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