The Boy and the Girl

Beep, beep, beep!

Boom!

The timer hit zero, and explosions erupted throughout the factory district.

In an instant, equipment ignited by the blasts burst into raging flames, swallowing the industrial zone whole. Inside the mining area, the bedrock collapsed, and rubble poured down.

Meanwhile.

Because of Ino's diversion.

The Mobile Suit that had breached the port began its assault on Morgenroete.

Rifle rounds pierced the outer walls of the buildings. Vehicles hit by the fire exploded, and the shockwaves from the blasts surged toward the personnel engaged in transport operations.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Athrun and the others moved into action.

"Just as Captain Le Creuset said."

Yzak spoke in a calm tone.

Even though he wore a helmet, his features remained sharp and cold, an impression reinforced by the blunt-cut, platinum-blonde tips of his hair.

"Poke them once, and they scurry out of their holes in a panic. Just like rats."

Dearka sneered from the side.

Listening to Dearka and Yzak, Athrun, Nicol, and Rusty said nothing.

They simply observed the area near the Morgenroete factory through binoculars.

In the lens, a beautiful woman in a work uniform came into view, with soldiers surrounding her as she issued various commands.

Behind her, through the opening gate, trailers pulling large containers were slowly rolling out.

"Is that the Earth Alliance's new Mobile Suit?"

"It certainly looks different from our Mobile Suit."

"These Natural are truly stupid enough."

Yzak spat out the words coldly and pressed the button on his communicator to coordinate the attack.

Nicol couldn't help but swallow hard as he listened to Yzak's orders.

His personal performance record was indeed impressive, but his psychological resilience was remarkably weak compared to his skill.

Athrun noticed Nicol's tension and tapped his arm lightly to offer encouragement.

Nicol looked at him, a somewhat stiff smile appearing on his face beneath the helmet. His large eyes and fair skin made his smile look like the anxiety of a young girl.

Rusty also noticed Nicol's nervousness and patted him gently on the back, letting him know he was right there beside him.

At the same time.

Outside the colony.

Ino had been locked in a stalemate with the Moebius Zero for quite some time.

"Damn it, who the hell is this guy!"

Mu La Flaga felt the pressure radiating from that Mobile Suit and couldn't help but curse.

Strong. It was undeniably strong.

Furthermore, the pilot's proficiency with the Mobile Suit was incredibly high, far beyond what any other ZAFT Mobile Suit pilot could compare to.

Yet, strangely, this guy didn't seem to have any intention of killing him.

Beep, beep, beep!

However, he didn't have long to ponder.

A series of alarms blared as countless bullets flew in from a distance. The trajectory of these nearly full-lock-on rounds created immense pressure.

With no other choice, Flaga had to cast aside his thoughts and struggle to roll his craft to evade.

But just then.

The Mobile Suit that had been suppressing him suddenly changed direction and charged into the port.

"Gael! Get out of the way!"

In front of that Mobile Suit, three Moebius units suddenly darted out, attempting to intercept it.

Seeing this, Flaga shouted a desperate warning.

That pilot was not someone rookies like Gael and the others could face.

The pilot named Gael was still confused by Captain Flaga's meaning when he heard the shout.

He watched as the Mobile Suit ahead flipped and maneuvered, weaving through the gaps in the "dense barrage" he had fired, and arrived right in his face.

In a daze, he could even see the Indian-style feathered crest on the head of the enemy unit through his screen.

Bang!

The next second, a violent tremor shook the exterior of his craft.

"Ahhh!"

Thinking he was done for, Gael screamed in terror and squeezed his eyes shut, yet after a moment, he felt no pain.

"Eh? I'm not dead?"

Gael stood frozen in place, dazed by his narrow escape, staring blankly at the back of the Mobile Suit that had charged into the port.

This guy...

"What the hell is that guy doing?"

Watching everything unfold, Flaga was equally bewildered.

At this distance, the opponent could have wiped out both Moebius units with a flick of a finger, so why didn't he?

BOOM—

However, before Flaga could ponder it for long, Gael, still rejoicing in his survival, had his Mobile Suit blown to pieces by a barrage of bullets.

"Gael!"

Flaga looked in the direction the bullets had come from, only to see the two Mobile Suits that had finished off his teammates flying toward the port.

"Argh! You're asking for death!"

Flaga roared in fury, piloting his Moebius Zero as he charged forward.

The pilot of that Mobile Suit was none other than Michel.

Ino remained oblivious to the situation outside; after leaving Michel behind to tangle with Flaga, he had used the pretext of providing cover for Athrun and the others to find an excuse to slip away and charge directly into the port.

The interior of the colony was now blanketed in smoke.

The once prosperous and peaceful land was left in ruins.

In a corner shrouded by smoke.

A petite boy with brown hair and purple eyes was dragging a girl with long golden hair as they sprinted through an emergency corridor.

His delicate features still held a trace of childishness and terror.

"This way!"

"What... let go! Idiot!"

"Idiot..."

The boy looked at her face, feeling somewhat displeased.

But when he noticed the tears in the girl's eyes, he couldn't help but pause.

The girl met his gaze and whispered, "There's something I have to confirm..."

"Confirm?"

The boy looked suspicious; what kind of time was this to be confirming things?

"Is it already too late... I came here precisely because I was afraid something like this would happen, but...!"

"You...?"

The girl's words sounded as if she had already foreseen this situation, and the boy couldn't help but stop in his tracks, looking at her with a stunned expression.

However, the sound of an explosion inside the building jolted him back to reality, and he grabbed her hand again: "Forget about confirming anything! Let's get to a shelter first! There's an air-raid shelter inside the factory district!"

At this moment, a fierce battle was unfolding outside the factory district the boy had mentioned.

The Earth Alliance Army attempted to fight back with surface-to-air missiles, but the armored vehicles carrying them were destroyed one after another by ZAFT's Ginn Mobile Suits.

ZAFT's infiltration team took advantage of this opportunity to approach the transport bay step by step.

Outside the factory entrance, three trailers were immobilized by the shockwaves of the explosions.

On the cargo beds of the trailers sat three machines that were clearly Mobile Suits.

Having identified the targets, Yzak, under the cover of Dearka, raised his rifle to clear the Earth Alliance soldiers blocking their path.

After tossing two grenades, he agilely climbed onto the trailer: "Destroy everything we can't take, including the factory equipment! The report said there were five; are the remaining two still inside?"

"Nicol, you and Yzak take those three Mobile Suits!"

Athrun issued the combat plan directly.

"Athrun, I—"

"Say no more. Rusty, let's go!"

Nicol tried to say something, but was rudely interrupted by Athrun.

"Understood!"

Rusty replied, turning to lead his squad forward.

But thinking of the instructions Ino had given him...

"Heh, I won't die that easily..."

Seeing that the others had already left, Nicol pursed his lips and turned to run toward the mobile suit Yzak and the others had left behind.

"—Board your respective units and disarm the self-destruct mechanisms immediately!"

As Yzak spoke, he began to follow the plan to hack and disable the mobile suit's self-destruct sequence.

At the same time.

The boy with brown hair and violet eyes and the blonde girl were sprinting along the corridor, eventually arriving at an open area.

It was an aerial walkway, protruding into a space that resembled a hangar.

Just as the boy intended to head toward the air-raid shelter, the sound of gunfire made him shrink back.

A fierce firefight was unfolding below, and the sounds of explosions from outside could still be heard ringing in their ears.

Instinctively, the boy looked up toward the source of the noise, but the sight that met his eyes forced him to stop in his tracks.

Below, a giant humanoid machine, resembling a pagan idol, lay sprawled across the ground.

With its iron-gray armor, a head adorned with four horns, and a slender frame, the shape of this thing was clearly different from the ZAFT Ginn seen on television—

"The Earth Alliance's new mobile weapon... as I thought..."

The girl beside the boy suddenly went weak in the knees and collapsed.

Clutching the railing of the walkway tightly with both hands, she cried out in deep resentment: "—Father... Father is a liar...!"

Her voice echoed against the high ceiling, the reverberation louder than expected.