The Noticed Crowd

"After I sortie, recall all MS for resupply and equip them all with D-Equipment."

Rau Le Creuset, already seated inside his custom CGUE, issued the order to Adis on the bridge.

The CGUE was an MS developed as the next-generation successor to the Ginn. Compared to the Ginn, the CGUE's pearl-gray frame was more streamlined and aggressive, and thanks to the addition of thrusters, its propulsion was far superior.

"What? Captain, did you say... D-Equipment?"

Adis could not help but repeat the order to confirm, listening to Rau Le Creuset.

That was the heaviest equipment designed for fortress assault missions. By choosing to deploy such heavy gear in this situation, was Captain Rau Le Creuset planning to destroy this colony?

"Yes."

"But that equipment—"

"It's fine. Just do as I say."

After speaking, Rau Le Creuset smiled at the stunned Adis on the screen and launched his machine.

If he could have guessed what was going through Adis's mind, he surely would have given his captain a thumbs-up and said, "You guessed right."

Currently, both the Earth Alliance and PLANT were exercising great restraint.

Under these circumstances, the 'G' Project alone was not enough to force either side to escalate their offensive.

But if a non-military colony were to be destroyed—

"Rau Le Creuset—launching!"

With the activation of the catapult, the MS piloted by Rau Le Creuset shot out of the warship, heading straight for the nearby Heliopolis colony.

"Hm!"

Suddenly, a tremor flashed through the heart of Captain Mu La Flaga as he piloted his Moebius Zero. He looked toward the ZAFT warship behind him with a startled expression: "This feeling... Rau Le Creuset!?"

Almost the moment his gaze swept over, a gray-white MS entered his vision.

Sitting in the cockpit of his CGUE, Rau Le Creuset felt that inexplicable tremor and muttered to himself: "Just as I can sense you, you can sense me too, can't you... What a wretched, unfortunate fate, Mu La Flaga..."

The tone of his muttering seemed filled with infinite hatred, yet it carried a strange, inexplicable joy.

Tat-tat-tat!

Rau Le Creuset locked onto the MA in his line of sight and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

Having already sensed the shadow of the machine behind him, Mu La Flaga maneuvered his MA with desperate precision to dodge the attack. Feeling the pressure radiating from his opponent, Mu La Flaga pulled a sharp evasive maneuver and activated his wire-guided gun barrels.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

In the blink of an eye, several linear cannon rounds struck toward Rau Le Creuset's machine from all sides.

"What a troublesome fellow, though I suppose I am the same to you!"

As he spoke, Rau Le Creuset maneuvered his machine to dodge the attacks while raising his rifle and pulling the trigger toward the Moebius.

"Damn it!"

Mu La Flaga cursed inside the cockpit of his Moebius.

It was confirmed: this opponent who gave him such an uncanny sensation was his nemesis, the man he had crossed blades with in life-or-death battles many times—Rau Le Creuset!

Although he had come to understand Rau Le Creuset's reputation and combat style through their numerous encounters, that deep-seated, extraordinary intuition felt like a cold blade sliding up his spine. The suffocating tremor was deeply unsettling.

In a flash, the two clashed several times in the sector.

"Still as fond of darting around as ever—"

As he spoke, Rau Le Creuset piloted his machine straight into the port.

Though he didn't want to admit it, it was indeed difficult to land a lethal blow in such an open space.

Watching the MS turn into the port, Mu La Flaga fell silent for a moment before steeling himself and following.

Although the port was disadvantageous for him, he could not sit idly by and watch the enemy enter.

"D-Equipment?"

Inside the Vesalius.

Watching the Ginn being re-equipped, Athrun wore an expression of disbelief: "How could this possibly require D-Equipment?"

"How could it? Hah, is our Mr. Athrun about to give us another long-winded lecture?"

Dearka, hearing Athrun's tone of surprise, couldn't help but mock him: "What is it, ah, that's a neutral colony, so we must uphold the principle of friendship and go in there to die, right?"

"Dearka! That's not what I meant, it's just—"

"Just what?"

Yzak cut Athrun off directly: "No one is begging you to go. If you feel it's unbearable, then stay here and be your good person. It's not that we don't know certain things, we just hope you can figure out who the enemy is and who your comrades are!"

"Yzak..."

"If there is a next time, I will kill you myself!"

Yzak cut the communication link of the Duel Gundam immediately after speaking.

As one of the people who understood Athrun best, Yzak had already guessed a few things while Ino and Athrun were talking.

Combining that with the fact that the Aegis Gundam's armor hadn't been deployed when Athrun returned, he could roughly piece some things together.

For instance, forcibly dragging Ino out of the colony to escort him back to the warship—

It was absurd, but it was the only way to explain why someone with Athrun's capabilities had been unable to fully decipher the Aegis Gundam.

Fortunately, Michel hadn't met with an accident, otherwise—

"Yzak!"

Nicol wanted to say a few words after hearing that, but since Yzak had already closed the communication channel, he had no choice but to look at Athrun: "Um, Athrun, don't mind him, Yzak he—"

"I know, Nicol. I'm sorry."

Athrun hung up the communication as well after speaking.

He felt his heart was in chaos, a chaos he couldn't even understand himself.

"This..."

"Nicol, let's just leave it at that. Sometimes playing dumb is a good thing, and besides, Ino has actually known for a long time."

Dearka hung up the communication after saying that.

As the person who had personally cracked the Gundam, he could guess the general idea of some things just by thinking about them for a moment.

The only thing he couldn't understand was why Athrun would do such a thing—

Nicol opened his mouth, but in the end, it only turned into a silent sigh.

They had clearly been such good friends back at the Military Academy, yet ever since stepping out of school, things had turned out like this.

At the same time.

Inside the colony port.

In the zero-gravity axis, the CGUE piloted by Le Creuset used the factory equipment as cover, launching attacks on the Moebius Zero from every corner.

Captain Flaga, unable to maneuver flexibly due to the terrain, fell into a disadvantage and struggled to hold on.

Rumble—

Accompanied by an explosion.

The last gun barrel turned into a fireball.

"Damn it!"

Flaga gritted his teeth in anger, but there was no helping it; this kind of space was truly unfavorable for utilizing the advantages of an MA.

On the contrary, the MS moved as if it were in its element.

Rat-tat-tat—

Another series of attacks rained down, and Captain Flaga had no choice but to dodge again.

He hadn't experienced such a frustrating battle in a long time.

"Heh, what a tenacious guy."

Le Creuset watched the Moebius relying on the surrounding structures as shields, and while muttering to himself, he pulled the trigger toward the inner wall to the side.

A Moebius that had lost its wired gun barrels was like a tiger without fangs or claws, weak and vulnerable.

It was time to change the battlefield.

"This guy—"

Boom!

Flaga had just reacted when he saw a huge gap blown into the inner wall of the port.

Le Creuset then used the pressure brought by the gravity to dive inside.

"Damn it!"

Flaga roughly guessed the other party's intention, but he had no other choice at this moment; he could only follow him inside.

In his memory, there were five Gundams in total, four of which had already been seized by ZAFT, and the remaining one absolutely could not be taken by the enemy.