On the Archangel, when they saw the enormous explosion where the Strike Gundam had been, Captain Murrue sprang nervously to her feet from the captain's seat;
Miriallia, serving as flight controller, hurriedly tried to contact Kira.
"Kira, are you all right?! Kira, answer me! Kira, Kira, how are you?!"
As Miriallia's voice came close to breaking into tears, only Badgiruel remained calm and continued issuing orders.
"Gottfried, fire at the last locked coordinates!
Deck bay, is the Launcher Striker ready to launch? Stand by for launch on my command!"
Soon, the colorless Strike Gundam frame emerged from the smoke and flames, and everyone on the bridge cheered. Kira, however, still didn't respond.
Meanwhile, the massive white mobile armor had lost one of its mechanical claws, but it still nimbly dodged the Gottfried's attack and prepared to lunge at the Strike Gundam again.
At that moment, Mu, having lost his Moebius Zero, arrived on the bridge and took a seat at the weapons control station without a word.
"Transfer control of the Valiant to me. Quickly!"
As Badgiruel signaled Sai to comply, she continued issuing firm orders in a loud voice.
"Load all the stern missile launchers with high-explosive warheads. Target the space between the enemy mobile armor and the Strike Gundam. Fire!"
At the flight controller's station, Miriallia kept tirelessly calling for Kira, and finally roused him from his brief unconsciousness.
"This is Kira Yamato..."
Though Kira's voice sounded weak, at least he was conscious. The bridge erupted in cheers once more, followed by a command from Badgiruel, tinged with relief.
"Deck bay, launch the Launcher Striker at once!"
Thanks to Mu's precise manual control of the Valiant, and the barrage of high-explosive warheads fired from all the stern missile launchers, the Launcher Striker had been launched in time to give the Strike Gundam a chance to regroup.
Kira understood what he needed to do without anyone having to explain it. He immediately moved toward the Launcher Striker and quickly began preparing its control system settings.
As the opponent of both the Strike Gundam and the Archangel, Haman naturally wasn't going to stand by and watch the other side "transform."
Although Mu's Valiant kept the barrage of high-explosive warheads from completely hemming in the Newtype-only Bigro Custom, it couldn't stop the Funnels from circling around the barrage to pursue their target.
After taking a minor hit, Haman was now fired up. She used her four-tube missile launcher to hold the Archangel at bay while launching all sixteen Funnels at once—two had been lost in the earlier explosion.
"You won't get away with this! Funnels, destroy my enemy!"
Under Haman's full-force assault, Kira, still making adjustments at top speed, once again felt an almost suffocating pressure. Forced by it, he entered the same strange state he had slipped into earlier, before losing consciousness and automatically coming out of it;
As Kira's perception heightened in this state, he even seemed to catch glimpses of some of Haman's memories and emotions.
"You and Lord Luther are so close. I'm jealous..."
Haman, meanwhile, was nearly beside herself with embarrassment and anger.
"Don't go snooping through other people's memories without permission! You and your best buddy Athrun can go live happily ever after together!"
Their mental resonance ended as abruptly as it had begun, at the same time as a brief but fierce exchange of fire in the real world.
At the last possible moment, just before the Funnels could hit him, Kira completed the connection between the Strike Gundam frame and the Launcher Striker;
Immediately, as he activated Phase Shift Armor, Kira relied on his instincts to fire the 320mm "Agni" hyper-impulse cannon at full power in a certain direction. Several Funnels failed to dodge in time and plunged straight into the red beam, detonating;
Then, again relying on instinct, Kira fired the Launcher Striker Strike Gundam's twin 350mm launchers from its multi-purpose weapon pod, followed by a blind shot from the 120mm Anti-Ship Vulcan Gun. By leading his targets, he shot down several more Funnels;
As for the remaining five Funnels' attacks, all he could do was take them on with his armor.
Fortunately, Kira managed to adjust the Launcher Striker Strike Gundam's stance at the last moment. Its shoulder shields took two more hits, and the remaining three shots missed vital areas.
For Haman, who had unleashed her ultimate attack and still failed to defeat Kira, the outcome was hard to accept.
She was both annoyed by the sudden resonance and thinking, If I'd gone all out from the start, I would've won!
At the same time, her rational side reminded her:
On the one hand, she had insisted on coming to test the "Ultimate Coordinator" Kira's abilities. In a sense, she had achieved that goal "perfectly"—even if the result hadn't quite met her expectations;
On the other hand, she had lost most of her Funnels, and the Archangel had already moved quite far from the Artemis Fortress. Continuing the fight didn't seem like a good idea.
After noticing a squad of mobile suits under Cima heading over from the direction of the Artemis Fortress to provide support, Haman decided to withdraw. Before leaving, however, she planned to give Kira one more headache.
"I'll let you off for today, Prince of Orb, Ultimate Coordinator Kira Yamato.
"Hmph. Once I get back, I'm telling Cagalli and Flay all about your embarrassing moments!
"And don't go blabbing about Luther and me, or you'll regret it!"
After making those threats, Haman quickly recalled her remaining Funnels and turned without hesitation toward the Gwameir. She didn't forget to flash a signal to the friendly forces coming to their aid.
Meanwhile, Haman's words and actions left Kira thoroughly confused. He remained in a guarded stance, frozen in the emptiness of space among the Funnels and scattered wreckage, unsure what to do.
As the battle settled down, Badgiruel found a moment to take over communications herself.
"Mr. Kira Yamato, return to the ship as soon as possible. We're leaving this area.
"Also, if you can, see whether there are any reasonably intact Funnels we can salvage."
Obviously, since Haman had been talking over an open channel, everyone on the Archangel's bridge had been able to hear what she said.
The title "Prince of Orb" wasn't exactly accurate. But if you considered that Cagalli Yula Athha would theoretically succeed Uzumi as Orb's representative after his passing, then Kira, as Miss Cagalli's biological brother, was indeed "rightfully" called the "Prince of Orb."
In any case, even Badgiruel—with her rigid military mindset—or perhaps precisely because she had such a clear sense of rank—had changed the way she addressed Kira and spoke to him so much that he found it uncomfortable.
Fortunately, Kira had too many thoughts crowding his mind to pay attention to that.
"Kira Yamato, roger."
After giving that simple response, Kira quickly inspected the wreckage, picked up a few pieces of salvageable junk, and returned to the Archangel.
After retrieving Kira and the Launcher Striker Strike Gundam, the Archangel didn't dare linger. They had no idea where to go, but the priority was to make full speed away from the Artemis Fortress, which was about to fall.
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