Beep, beep, beep!
Boom!
The countdown hit zero, and explosions erupted throughout the factory district.
In an instant, equipment ignited by the blasts burst into flames, engulfing the industrial zone. Rock collapsed inside the mining area, and rubble poured down.
Meanwhile.
With Ino keeping them occupied.
The Mobile Suits that had broken through the port began attacking Morgenroete.
Rifle rounds punched through the outer walls of buildings. Vehicles exploded when hit, and the blast waves swept toward the workers in the middle of their duties.
Taking advantage of the chaos, Athrun and the others made their move.
"Just like Captain Le Creuset said."
Yzak spoke in a cool, level voice.
Though he wore a helmet, his handsome, cold features were still evident. His neatly trimmed platinum-blond hair only reinforced that impression.
"Give them a poke and they come scurrying out of their holes in a panic. Just like rats," Dearka sneered.
At Dearka and Yzak's words, Athrun, Nicol, and Rusty said nothing.
They simply watched the area around the Morgenroete factory through their binoculars.
In the lenses, a beautiful woman in work clothes came into view. Soldiers had surrounded her, and she was issuing orders to them.
Behind her, through an open gate, a series of trucks hauling large cargo containers slowly emerged.
"Is that the Earth Alliance's new Mobile Suit?"
"It certainly looks different from our Mobile Suits."
"Those Naturals really are idiots."
Yzak spat the words coldly, then pressed the button on his communicator and began arranging the attack.
Listening to Yzak's instructions, Nicol couldn't help swallowing nervously.
His personal scores were impressive, but compared to his abilities, his nerves were remarkably weak.
Athrun noticed Nicol's tension and gently tapped his arm in encouragement.
Nicol glanced at him. A stiff smile showed through his helmet. With his big eyes and fair skin, his smile looked almost like a girl's, full of unease.
Rusty noticed Nicol's nerves too. He gave Nicol a light pat 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?!"
Feeling the pressure radiating from that Mobile Suit, Mu La Flaga couldn't help swearing.
Strong—unquestionably strong.
And the pilot's skill with the Mobile Suit was exceptional, far beyond anything the other ZAFT pilots could match.
Strangely, though, the guy didn't seem to want to kill him.
Beep beep beep!
But before he could think on it for long,
a string of alarms sounded as countless bullets came flying in from afar. Their trajectories nearly locked on to him, adding to the pressure.
With no other choice, Flaga put his thoughts aside and desperately twisted his craft to evade.
But just then,
the Mobile Suit that had been keeping him pinned down suddenly changed direction and charged into the port.
"Gael! Get out of the way!"
Three Moebius units suddenly darted out in front of the Mobile Suit, trying to stop it.
Seeing this, Flaga hurriedly shouted a warning.
That pilot was no match for rookies like Gael and the others.
At the sound of his voice, the pilot named Gael was still wondering what Lieutenant Flaga meant.
Then, as the Mobile Suit ahead flipped and weaved, it slipped through the gaps in the "dense hail of bullets" Gael had fired and appeared right in front of him.
For a moment, he could even see through the screen the crest atop the enemy's head, something like an Indian feather headdress.
Bang!
The next second, a violent shudder ran through the outside of the craft.
"Ahhh!"
Convinced he was as good as dead, Gael screamed and squeezed his eyes shut. But after a while, he still felt no pain.
"Huh? I'm not dead?"
Having narrowly escaped death, Gael stared blankly at the spot, dazedly watching the Mobile Suit's back as it charged into the port.
What was with that guy...?
"...What the hell was that guy doing?"
Flaga, who had seen everything, was just as dumbfounded.
At that range, the other pilot could have taken out both Moebius units with a flick of his fingers. So why hadn't he?
Rumble—
But before Flaga could puzzle over it for long, Gael, still celebrating that he'd survived, had his craft blown apart by a barrage of bullets.
"Gael!"
Flaga looked toward where the bullets had come from. Two Mobile Suits that had somehow dealt with their teammates were now flying toward the port.
"Ah! You bastards!"
Furious, Flaga roared and charged forward in the Moebius Zero.
The pilot of the Mobile Suit was none other than Michel.
Ino had no way of knowing what was happening outside. After leaving Michel behind to tangle with Flaga,
he used the excuse of covering Athrun and the others to make his escape, charging straight into the port.
Smoke now blanketed the inside of the colony.
The once-prosperous, peaceful land was in ruins.
In one smoke-filled corner,
a small boy with brown hair and purple eyes was sprinting through an emergency passage, dragging a long-haired blonde girl behind him.
His delicate features still carried traces of childishness and fear.
"This way!"
"Wh... Let go! Idiot!"
"Idio—"
The boy looked at her, displeased.
But when he saw tears in her eyes, he couldn't help pausing.
Meeting the boy's gaze, the girl said softly, "There's something I need to make sure of..."
"Make sure of?"
The boy looked at her suspiciously. At a time like this, she still needed to make sure of something?
"Is it already too late...? I came here because I was afraid something like this would happen, but...!"
"You...?"
The girl sounded as though she'd predicted what was happening. The boy stopped in his tracks, looking at her in astonishment.
But the sound of another explosion inside the building snapped him back to his senses. He grabbed her hand again. "Forget about making sure of anything! We need to get to safety first! There's an air-raid shelter in the factory district!"
At that moment, fierce fighting was underway outside the factory district the boy had mentioned.
The Earth Alliance Army tried to fight back with surface-to-air missiles, but ZAFT's Ginn Mobile Suits destroyed one armored missile carrier after another.
ZAFT's infiltration team took the opportunity to inch closer to the loading entrance.
Outside the factory gates, three trucks had been immobilized by the explosions.
Each truck's cargo bed carried a machine that was unmistakably a Mobile Suit.
With the target identified, Yzak took cover behind Dearka and fired, clearing the Earth Alliance soldiers blocking their path.
After tossing two grenades, he nimbly climbed onto a truck. "Destroy everything we can't take with us, including the factory equipment! The report said there were five. Are the remaining two still inside?"
"Nicol, go with Yzak and the others and board those three Mobile Suits!"
Athrun gave the orders without hesitation.
"Athrun, I—"
"Don't say another word, Rusty. Let's go!"
Nicol was about to say something, but Athrun cut him off harshly.
"Understood!"
Rusty turned and led his squad after them.
But thinking of Ino's parting instructions...
"Heh, I'm not going to die that easily..."
Once the others had left, Nicol pressed his lips together, then turned and ran toward the Mobile Suit Yzak and the others had left behind.
"—Once you're aboard, disable the self-destruct systems immediately!"
As Yzak spoke, he began following the plan to disable the Mobile Suits' self-destruct systems.
At the same time.
The brown-haired, purple-eyed boy and the blonde girl raced along the passageway and reached an open area.
It was an elevated walkway jutting out into a hangar-like space.
The boy was about to head toward the air-raid shelter when gunfire made him duck back.
A fierce firefight was unfolding below, and he could still hear explosions outside.
Instinctively, the boy looked up toward the source of the noise. The sight that met his eyes made him stop in his tracks.
Down below, an enormous humanoid machine, like an idol of some foreign god, lay sprawled on the ground.
Its armor was iron-gray, its head had what looked like four horns, and its body was slender. Its shape was clearly different from the ZAFT Ginns he'd seen on TV—
"The Earth Alliance's new mobile weapon... So it's real..."
The girl beside him suddenly buckled at the knees and fell to them.
Gripping the railing beside the walkway tightly with both hands, she cried out in anguish, "—Dad... Dad's a liar...!"
Her voice echoed beneath the high ceiling, the reverberation louder than she'd expected.
Before you continue