GUNDAM

"Look out!"

The boy spotted something glowing flying toward them and immediately pulled the girl away from the railing, leaping backward.

A gunshot rang out, and a bullet narrowly missed the railing.

As if shielding the girl, the boy ran desperately until he finally reached the entrance to an air-raid shelter.

He pressed the intercom, and a voice came through: "Is anyone still outside?"

Hearing the reply from inside, the boy answered with a sigh of relief, "Yes! It's just me and a friend. Please open the door for us."

"Two people?"

"Yes."

There was a brief pause before the intercom crackled again.

"This shelter is full. There's another one, No. 37, in the left section. Can you get there?"

The boy turned to look toward the left section.

To get there from here, they would have to go straight through the gunfire.

He might have been able to risk it alone, but with this girl—

As the boy weighed his options, he shouted into the intercom, "Please! Even if you can only let one of us in! She's a girl! Sorry for the trouble!"

Perhaps it was the childishness in his voice, or the mention that she was a girl, that made the difference.

After a moment of silence, the intercom replied, "All right. Sorry!"

The orange lock indicator turned green, and the shelter door opened.

There was an elevator inside. Seeing it, the boy shoved the girl, who was still lost in thought, inside.

She had seemed completely drained and hadn't said a word, but now she finally noticed what was happening. "What are you doing...?"

"Forget it! I'm going to the shelter over there. I'll be fine! Hurry!"

The boy finished speaking and forcefully shut the elevator doors.

Through the glass, he saw the girl's lips form the words, "Wait!"

But the elevator had already whisked her down to the shelter below.

After confirming that the indicator had turned red again, the boy ran toward the shelter they had mentioned.

"—Hamana Bryan, hurry! Get X105 and X303 started!"

A woman's voice rang through the hangar. It was Murrue Ramius. With the outside overrun by ZAFT forces, she had no choice but to lead the surviving soldiers farther inside, searching for an opportunity.

The boy instinctively looked down the passageway and saw a woman in work clothes crouching behind that Mobile Suit, firing a rifle.

Gunshots rang out from the direction of another Mobile Suit farther inside, mixed with shouts and cries of pain.

The boy remembered what the staff member had said earlier: ZAFT had broken in.

If their enemy was ZAFT, they were at a tremendous disadvantage.

That was because all ZAFT soldiers were Coordinators, superior to Naturals in athletic ability, eyesight, and judgment.

"Look out! Behind you!"

The boy realized that a ZAFT soldier was aiming at the woman who seemed to be a soldier.

Hearing him, Murrue Ramius immediately turned and shot the enemy soldier dead.

Only then did she look up and see Kira standing above her. "You're a kid?"

Slightly surprised, Murrue fired back at the ZAFT soldiers and shouted at the boy, "Get over here!"

"I'm going to the shelter in the left section! Don't worry about me!"

"There's nothing left over there but a door!"

Murrue's words made the boy stop in his tracks.

He made his decision quickly. Without hesitation, he jumped down from the elevated passageway, making Murrue's eyes widen.

The drop was at least five or six meters.

Even a well-trained soldier wouldn't dare jump without a second thought, let alone land so steadily.

"Rusty!"

Just then, a somewhat familiar voice suddenly came from nearby.

"Ahhh!"

Seeing Rusty fall, Athrun, who had led the group inside, roared and pulled the trigger, firing at the Earth Alliance soldier.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The shots rang out, and the soldier who had hit Rusty collapsed, instantly losing his life.

"Hamana!"

But seeing the figure on the ground made Murrue cry out in horror.

Because the person lying there was the pilot of the Mobile Suit beneath her—

Murrue's voice snapped Athrun out of his bloodthirsty frenzy. He turned and took aim.

"Look out!"

Bang!

Two gunshots rang out at the same time.

Hit in the shoulder, Murrue cried out in pain and dropped her pistol.

Across from her, Athrun dropped his empty pistol and charged with a knife.

One of the few students at the ZAFT Military Academy who could defeat the combat instructor, Blade Fred, in a head-on fight, Athrun had an exceptional talent for close-quarters combat with bladed weapons.

Seeing this, the boy hurried over to help Murrue.

"—Kira?!"

But the figure across from him, dressed in a ZAFT uniform, suddenly stopped moving.

Hearing that familiar name and tone, the boy turned around in surprise.

By the light of the explosions burning through the base, Kira made out the delicate face beneath the helmet.

"...Athrun?"

Without thinking, Kira blurted out his name.

Athrun's body trembled slightly. His green eyes, brimming with resolve, clearly reflected the figure before him.

Kira felt as if the whole world had slowed down.

Three years had passed, and the obedient face in his memories had grown sharper with age.

While the two of them stood frozen, Murrue clutched her wounded shoulder and picked up her gun again.

At the last moment, Athrun leaped aside. A gunshot rang out, and the bullet streaked through the space where he had just been standing.

Still dazed, Kira looked toward Murrue, but she slammed into him, and the two of them tumbled into the Mobile Suit's cockpit.

"Get behind the seat!"

After speaking, Murrue reached out and started up the Mobile Suit's systems.

The instrument panel lit up, and the whirring of the drive system gradually grew louder.

The screens brightened, revealing the scenery outside.

A figure in a red pilot suit flashed across the side monitor. He was clearly running toward another Mobile Suit.

"Athrun became a ZAFT soldier..."

Kira desperately wanted to deny it, but everything happening before his eyes told him otherwise.

As Kira struggled to process it all, a string of characters gradually appeared on the startup display:

Gerneral

Unilateral

Neuro-Link

Dispersive

Autonomic

Manneuver...

Kira's eyes instinctively read the six red-lit initial letters. "GUN...D, A, M...?"

As if it had been given life, the Mobile Suit's eyes lit up, and its fingers began to twitch.

The engine let out a low growl, and its massive limbs began to move stiffly.

The steel bars securing its body to the maintenance stand sprang apart with a series of sharp cracks.

Like a toddler just learning to walk, it rose from the flames with incredibly clumsy movements.

The firelight gleamed on its iron-gray armor, accentuating its towering crimson majesty.

At the same time.

Outside the factory.

Yzak and the others had already cracked the control locks on the Mobile Suits they had seized.

Soon, under the horrified and bewildered gazes of the surviving Earth Alliance soldiers, two Mobile Suits slowly sat up from their transport trailers.

"Tch. Naturals actually think they can pilot Mobile Suits into battle with a system like this. Ridiculous."

Inside the cockpit of the GAT-X102 Duel Gundam.

Feeling the sluggish responses from the machine, Yzak couldn't help but pity the abilities of the Earth Alliance personnel.

"Let's head back and report. This system's too hard to use."

Dearka had also noticed that the GAT-X103 Buster Gundam was responding poorly.

"Nicol, how much longer do you need?!"

As he spoke, Yzak activated the Vulcan gun built into the head of the Duel Gundam and destroyed a Linear Tank in the distance that was preparing to fire.

"Done!"

Almost as soon as Nicol finished speaking, the GAT-X207 Blitz Gundam stood up from its trailer as well.

"If you're done, then get ready to head back! Don't break it!"

After speaking, Yzak started up the Duel Gundam's engine and flew straight off the ground toward the nearby harbor that had been blown apart.

"But Athrun and the others—"

"Forget them. If he can't handle something this simple, he wouldn't be Athrun!"

Yzak cut off Nicol's worried protest. "We'll take these three Mobile Suits back first!"

Yzak had never liked Athrun, but that didn't mean he doubted Athrun's or Rusty's abilities.