"Even Milai is dead...!"
Hearing Price's words beside him, Xu De came back to himself.
He remembered Milai.
He was a good person, talented, and somewhat loyal. But he had seemed too impulsive and too concerned with getting ahead.
Simply put, he had wanted to advance so badly that the prospect of great rewards had robbed him of his reason and his ability to stay calm.
His death was regrettable, but there was nothing they could do.
Surviving on the battlefield sometimes depended on more than strength. It also depended on one's state of mind.
Given enough time, Milai might have changed.
If his first battlefield hadn't been so brutal, he might have had a bright future.
But the world was not full of ifs.
That was true of both his original world and this one.
That was why he had to be careful.
After a moment's thought, Xu De continued.
"The dead can't come back. All we can do is keep living."
"We understand."
The others answered together.
"And as for what happened this time, you know what to say, right?"
Xu De reminded them again.
"Of course. We got separated."
Hans nodded and picked up where Xu De left off.
The others had no objections.
After all, Xu De had saved them, and they were decent people.
He had also looked after them from the very beginning.
Not only would selling Xu De out bring them no benefit, but they wouldn't do such a thing on principle.
"Then all that's left is to bring the mobile suit back."
Xu De looked at the Ginn in front of him, whose cockpit and some of its joints were the only parts that had been damaged.
"You all help, too."
"Sure!"
There was a little more sadness in the others' voices, but also some excitement.
Their feelings were complicated.
They were sad because of Milai.
They were excited because, even though Xu De had done most of the work, they had captured a Ginn together.
"Carefully, now. Pull it back."
As soon as Xu De finished speaking, reinforcements from the Earth Alliance appeared from the direction of the Moon.
ZAFT, having accomplished its objective, finally began to retreat.
The retreat was hardly orderly.
Some Ginn pilots, caught up in the fighting, were unable to withdraw in time and were surrounded and killed.
All in all, after a chaotic struggle, the three-colored signal flare signaling a ceasefire finally began flashing across the debris-filled space.
It looked like the ending of an SD series.
But Xu De was in no mood for such reflections.
After all, he had just experienced a battle unlike anything he had faced in his previous life. He had no time for sentiment.
He just wanted to get back, take a shower, and sleep. After that, he would withdraw to the Moon and find a chance to meet Halberton.
The others also breathed a sigh of relief when they saw the signal.
They might have lost the battle, but at least they had survived.
As long as they were alive, there would be another chance.
"Once we're back, I'll submit a report on the credit. You should also extract the combat data from your systems and send it to me."
After checking the captured Ginn behind him with the mobile suit's various instruments, Xu De spoke directly.
"Uh..."
At Xu De's words, the group, who had been heading toward the main force, all froze.
"You were the one who did the most to capture it with the Mistral."
Although the credit for capturing a Ginn with the Mistral was tempting, Flint and the others still refused.
"Yeah. Without you, we wouldn't even be alive."
"That's right."
Hans and Price said the same.
Hearing them, Xu De's still-tense expression relaxed a little.
"No need to be modest."
"If I report it, I'll have to submit the combat footage."
"Your modesty won't change anything."
Even cars had dashcams these days.
Moebius mobile suits certainly had monitoring systems.
Though they were more like black boxes than surveillance cameras.
They could record events and confirm combat results.
Otherwise, with the battlefield in such chaos, who would know who had destroyed what? The black box was the proof.
"Besides, I already destroyed a Ginn earlier."
There was no need for him to compete with them for this credit.
"But that still... What!?!?"
Hans and the others cried out in unison.
Their voices boomed through Xu De's comms.
"I mean exactly what I said."
Xu De spoke calmly.
It was as if he hadn't destroyed a Ginn, but merely stepped on an ant by the roadside.
"One Moebius, two Ginns..."
Hans murmured over the comms.
The others didn't laugh at his stunned silence.
Everyone who had just finished facing a Ginn knew how impressive Xu De's record was.
Before coming over, Xu De had already shot down a Ginn, and after arriving, he had helped them capture another one.
Despite the obvious difference in performance, someone had managed to shoot down two in a single battle.
"Xu, you must have broken the record!"
Hans finally recovered and spoke excitedly.
"You must have!"
Price chimed in.
"Maybe. But there are plenty of formidable people in this world."
Xu De wasn't getting carried away. He simply said,
There were Le Creuset, whom he hadn't faced directly just now, and Mu, who would appear in the future.
"But either way, that's still incredible!"
Hans said.
His friend's future was limitless. He would only grow stronger.
Xu De was no ordinary man.
The same thought echoed in the others' minds.
Following Xu De in the future would probably mean a comfortable life.
The bigwigs who had already secured their positions wouldn't give them the time of day.
But what about Xu De as he was now? He was loyal and upright, and they had been through life and death together.
They were practically natural friends or trusted subordinates.
And if Xu De eventually became a lieutenant colonel or even a major general, he would certainly need his own people.
"Xu, why don't you start a group?"
Flint, who was usually full of ideas, spoke slowly.
"It'll make it easier to chat when we get back, and to share combat records and things like that."
That was how he put it, but Xu De understood what he really meant.
They weren't anywhere near forming a clique yet, but Xu De sensed this might be the tiny seed of an organization that could someday take root in the military's ranks.
Only the future knew what would become of this little group.
"Sure."
Xu De didn't refuse.
For one thing, the group wasn't anything serious. It could just as easily be called a gathering of colleagues.
And this world was different. The Atlantic couldn't blame him for looking out for himself when it had no decency.
He understood the principle that there was strength in numbers.
Especially in this world.
He wasn't talking about building some underground organization.
At the very least, knowing more people meant having more sources of information.
More information meant more opportunities,
and more opportunities meant greater safety.
So Xu De had no intention of refusing.
Before you continue