As the Aile Pack-equipped Strike Gundam burst out of the smoke, it came at Haman alongside a barrage from its High-Energy Beam Rifle—and with Kira Yamato's furious roar.
"You and everyone else—why do you all insist on making me go to war? I've had enough!"
Kira's feelings were the sort only young people raised in peacetime could have. Haman had grown up amid the tense preparations for the inevitable war between the Principality of Zeon and the Earth Federation, so she couldn't relate. Naturally, she wasn't about to indulge him.
"Peace and justice don't just fall from the sky.
"You've got power, but all you do is blame the world. That's just a whiny kid's empty complaints!"
Haman didn't hold back with her words, and she immediately launched an attack that seemed just as merciless.
But judging from how she had fired only six Funnels and one salvo of four missiles, she clearly wasn't giving it her all.
For the still-inexperienced Kira Yamato, though, facing this level of "all-directional attack" from a Newtype-use Mobile Suit for the first time was more than his instincts alone could handle.
In the chaos, he tried to deal with everything at once—and took three high-explosive missiles and two Funnel hits.
Fortunately, the freshly repaired Strike Gundam wasn't about to lose much combat capability from two Funnel hits that his instincts had kept away from vital areas. The Phase Shift Armor absorbed the missile damage outright.
"So this is all the so-called Ultimate Coordinator can do?
"You don't even have enough power, and you're still whining. What a joke!
"Why don't I put an end to your troubles once and for all today?"
Haman handled another round of covering fire from the Archangel without much effort. As she continued to taunt Kira, she quickly closed in on the Strike Gundam and launched another wave of attacks.
Across from her, Kira quickly adjusted his tactics, focusing his efforts on the more dangerous Funnel attacks and deciding to rely on the Phase Shift Armor to absorb any missiles he couldn't dodge.
At the same time, he continued to vent his feelings over the open channel.
"What 'Ultimate Coordinator'? What 'power'? I'm just a first-generation Coordinator with two Natural parents. I wanted to avoid the war in Orb and stay out of the fighting!"
With a clearly more effective strategy, Kira came through that wave of attacks with nothing worse than a shaking mobile suit and some lost power.
Seeing how quickly Kira had adapted, Haman seemed even more interested now that she had a worthy opponent.
So while she continued to spill the truth and taunt him, she prepared to raise the intensity and launch an all-directional attack at close range.
"Looks like your adoptive parents have done a fine job protecting you all this time, Kira Yamato.
"But don't worry. Today, I'll make sure you die knowing the truth.
"Your biological father was Ulen Hibiki, once the finest genetic biologist.
"To create the 'Ultimate Coordinator' of his dreams, he kept conducting experiments until they failed and nearly exhausted his research resources. Then he went so far as to use one of the embryos from the pair of identical twins in his wife's womb as a test subject for genetic modification.
"You, Kira Yamato, were the one and only successful embryo to be born, through sheer luck, from the foundation of countless failed experiments whose consequences speak for themselves.
"As for your adoptive parents, tensions between Coordinators and Naturals had already grown sharply worse, thanks to people deliberately stirring things up. So your mother—Via Hibiki, Mrs. Yamato's sister—entrusted her newborn son and her unmodified twin daughter to the Yamatos.
"And just as she had expected, Mendel was attacked by Blue Cosmos not long afterward, and your biological parents died in the attack.
"At your adoptive parents' request, your sister was adopted by Orb's representative, Uzumi. You, too, were able to live in peace under his quiet protection.
"But now, the war has spread so far that there's not a single peaceful place left in the Earth Sphere. Even Heliopolis, once an untouched paradise, was destroyed with your own hands.
"And you still want to shout 'No more war' and run from battle? What a joke!"
Already thrown into turmoil by Haman's words, Kira was skillfully drawn in by her Funnels and had no choice but to take the full force of the four-missile salvo. The Aile Pack-equipped Strike Gundam was left visibly staggered.
Haman seized her chance and pinned the Strike Gundam's arms with the mechanical claws of her Newtype-use Bigro Custom, leaving it unable to move and forcing it to face the charging Mega Particle Cannon in the mobile armor's nose.
However, the nose-mounted Mega Particle Cannon had just fired a shot to force the Strike Gundam out of hiding.
So although Haman's Newtype-use Bigro Custom had considerably more power than an ordinary Bigro Custom, it still needed a little time to charge enough to destroy the Aile Pack-equipped Strike Gundam at close range.
Facing this "reprieve before execution," Kira was stunned by the sudden revelation about his origins. The Strike Gundam made no attempt to struggle, looking as if he had simply given up.
Neither the Archangel, which saw the Strike Gundam as a valuable test subject and combat asset, nor Kira's friends, who saw him as one of their own, would let that happen.
On the Archangel, with the situation deteriorating this badly, Badgiruel made up her mind.
"Archangel, turn to port! Gottfried, target the enemy heavy mobile armor. Get a lock!
"Aim as far away from the Strike Gundam as possible. Fire as soon as you're ready!
"Valiant, stern missile launchers—keep firing! Keep the Igelstellung going!
"Hangar, prepare the Launcher Striker for the Strike Gundam. Wait for my order to launch!"
Meanwhile, among Kira's friends, Miriallia—who could contact him directly—called out to him in desperation.
"Kira, snap out of it!
"No matter what your past is, you're still our good friend, Kira Yamato!
"Kira!"
Inside the Strike Gundam's cockpit, Kira could feel "death" as if it were a physical presence. Images flashed before his eyes.
Through the passage of time, he seemed to see his biological parents arguing and his mother secretly crying. Then came the separation of him and Cagalli as infants, his childhood memories with Athrun, his student days at Heliopolis and his feelings for Flay, and his reunion with Athrun not long ago.
As his mind seemed to suddenly grow clearer, Kira finally began to reveal the true power of the "Ultimate Coordinator."
"Maybe you're right. I really should take a good look at myself. And that's exactly why I can't die here!"
With Kira's hoarse, furious shout, the desperate Strike Gundam forcibly detached itself from the Aile Pack and made it self-destruct.
The explosion came without warning and happened in an instant, violently separating the two mobile suits.
Kira's Strike Gundam used the last of its power to rely on the Phase Shift Armor in its core unit and avoid fatal damage. But even with the body of an Ultimate Coordinator, Kira lost consciousness in the blast.
As for Haman, her Newtype abilities had warned her in time. The mechanical arms of her Newtype-use Bigro Custom were badly damaged in the explosion, but it suffered little harm elsewhere.
Still, by sacrificing the Aile Pack and reducing it to wreckage, Kira had created an opening where there had been none. And the desperate Archangel now showed why it had managed to survive against the odds so many times in the original timeline.
Before you continue