The Wind-Swift Cruisers

"Think you can just come and go as you please? Did you get my permission? Funnels!"

"Don't you dare hurt them!"

Accompanied by Luther's sneer over the open channel, the Time Observer released half of its funnels once more, attempting to bypass Athrun's Aegis Gundam to finish off the damaged Duel Gundam and Yzak.

At this increasingly critical juncture, Athrun let out a roar, and the Aegis Gundam's movements suddenly became agile.

Athrun then maneuvered the Aegis Gundam through high-speed transformations and maneuvers, dodging the intercepting fire from Luther's Time Observer funnels, slicing two of the funnels in half, and lunging straight toward Luther's Time Observer.

Although Athrun seemed to have "Seed-triggered," Luther was not afraid, merely heightening his vigilance.

In terms of piloting the Time Observer, he abandoned the pursuit of the damaged Yzak and the Duel Gundam, instead using the Zaku machine gun and the remaining funnels to block the Aegis Gundam's approach with all his might, his mouth remaining merciless.

"Hmph, relying on the Phase Shift Armor of a stolen machine, it really is quite a hassle to take out you second-generation red-coat elites. But I'd like to see how much battery life you have left!"

Under the threat of Luther's Zaku machine gun and funnels, Athrun, who was attempting to use high speed to force the Time Observer into a melee battle favorable to the Aegis Gundam, could only endure the fire from the Zaku machine gun. Even though he relied on reflexes far superior to his past to evade the vast majority of high-threat funnel beam attacks, he could not overcome Luther's precise marksmanship.

Consequently, watching the Aegis Gundam's remaining battery drain at high speed just as Luther had predicted, Athrun was left speechless.

Yet, Luther's words and his performance in piloting the machine left Athrun quite puzzled.

The opponent before him was undoubtedly from the Earth Alliance; otherwise, how could he be so familiar with the performance of these G-series machines?

However, the machine on the other side had more of a ZAFT style, and the opponent also appeared quite familiar with his own comrades and Captain Rau Le Creuset. From this perspective, it proved he should be someone familiar with PLANT or even ZAFT.

Moreover, those overly flexible movements and the unheard-of new weapons—could the opponent also be a Coordinator like his good friend Kira Yamato?

Because it had taken Athrun some time to re-equip and sortie again in the Aegis Gundam, he had not noticed Luther's earlier remarks about "Newtypes" when taunting Yzak and the others.

Confused in his heart as to why Kira had not come with him, Athrun, facing a seemingly similar situation, finally could not help but ask.

"To be able to pilot a mobile suit so skillfully, you must be a Coordinator, right? Why are you standing on the side of the Naturals!"

"As expected of Patrick Zala's son, truly skilled at this 'us versus them' mentality. Unfortunately, you guessed wrong. So-called Coordinators are, in the final analysis, merely slightly specialized Naturals; they are still confined to the old humans of Earth. We Newtypes are the true direction of human evolution. Coordinators or whatever are simply not worth mentioning in the same breath!"

Facing Luther's rhetoric, which was even more "extreme" than the extreme "Coordinator Supremacists," Athrun was filled with incomprehension and disbelief, yet the results of the battle before him left him unable to refute it.

Just as he was about to press for more answers, the voice of Captain Rau Le Creuset came through the squad channel.

"Athrun, Nicol, it's time to retreat!"

Along with the voice came not only the cautious support fire from the Vesalius and the Gamow—which were wary of the stolen Gundams due to a lack of IFF—but also the covering fire provided by Captain Rau Le Creuset, who had sortied in a spare GINN cobbled together from the Gamow.

It seemed that Rau's decisive retreat earlier had been to utilize the spare GINN parts on the Gamow for another sortie, which could be considered squeezing out the last bit of combat potential from the Rau Le Creuset team.

"Yes!" & "Understood!"

Under the clear command and active support of Captain Rau Le Creuset, Athrun and Nicol, those "good boys," naturally obeyed orders without lingering in the fight, beginning to retreat while firing back.

As for their opponent, Luther was unwilling to let it end there, especially since his primary target, Rau Le Creuset, actually dared to wander out in a GINN without the protection of Phase Shift Armor.

"Right on time, Rau Le Creuset. You don't need to worry about your lifespan as a clone anymore, because you will die here today!"

Although Athrun and Nicol were confused by the information mentioned in Luther's words over the open channel, since Captain Rau Le Creuset said nothing, their priority now was to fight the enemy side-by-side.

For Luther, while the harsh words had been shouted, facing the entire Rau Le Creuset team that was intent on retreating, it was indeed difficult to break through their entire defensive fire net with just the Time Observer, especially since he was also quite exhausted.

After all, aside from the negligible support fire from the two ZAFT warships;

Whether it was the threatening high-energy beam rifle fire from Athrun's Aegis Gundam and Nicol's Blitz Gundam as they retreated;

Or the full-force support fire from Rau Le Creuset, who had stopped under the cover of the warship's fire net after a brief advance and was sparing no ammunition with his GINN's 76mm heavy assault machine gun;

Or Yzak's Duel Gundam—with its arm simply reinforced after emergency repairs—and Dearka's Buster Gundam—which had been forced to use a makeshift adapter to wield standard GINN weaponry—both firing from the sides of the open catapult deck of the Vesalius;

The entire Rau Le Creuset team wove together a dense and layered defensive fire, making it difficult for Luther's attempts to use his funnels to break through and kill Rau Le Creuset to succeed.

The ship-to-ship fire from the Gwameir, which had stopped at the other end of the Heliopolis wreckage, was ultimately limited, and the friendly mobile weapons currently bypassing the wreckage to provide support seemed unable to quench a fire with water from afar.

After the funnel breakthrough failed, Luther, having cooled down from the heat of the fierce battle within the Time Observer, looked at the Vesalius and the Gamow, which were quickly turning their sides toward him and pushing their thrusters to the max to meet up with Athrun's Aegis Gundam and Nicol's Blitz Gundam. Helpless, he had to make the rational judgment to stop.

"Perhaps this is the power of what they call world-line convergence?"

"I have confirmed the energy brought about by the world-line shift on my end, but due to your previous accumulation on the UC world-line, becoming the Fourth Qualified is still a long way off. I'm afraid you'll have to at least quell this war first."

Facing A-Qiu's serious response to his own grumbling, Luther shrugged with a hint of helplessness.

"Wrong answer. I'm going to have to punish you tonight!"

"I would be more than happy to, but according to the agreement we all made, we must first draw lots for the overnight priority. I hope you still have the energy for it when it's my turn."

Facing A-Qiu's response, which was only particularly anthropomorphic when it came to matters between men and women, Luther was truly left speechless this time.

"Heading back. You just wait for tonight!"

"I'm looking forward to it, Master Luther."

Regardless, after these few exchanges with A-Qiu, Luther's mood improved quite a bit.

As Luther began to return to his ship, watching the Rau Le Creuset team fully disengage from the battlefield, the other friendly mobile weapons under the command of the Gwameir also turned back to their ships, abandoning the pursuit together.