Something's Really Wrong

[Anti-air missiles—launch!]

[Diffusion warheads—launch!]

[Anti-beam depth charges loaded! (Capable of dispersing beam particles to reduce the intensity of beam weapon attacks on the hull.)]

["Valient Mk-8" linear railguns ×2—fire!]

Inside the warship.

As the five MS reached the combat radius, Badgiruel did not hesitate to issue the combat orders.

Countless warheads flew out from the stern of the Archangel, heading toward the Buster Gundam and the other units not far away.

However, accompanied by a flash of beams.

Amidst bursts of explosive fire, the incoming warheads were all destroyed by Dearka and the others.

"Dearka, you and Nicol go take care of the warship. Michel and I will handle that damn unit!"

After Yzak finished speaking, he shot down an escaping missile and piloted his unit to charge toward the Strike Gundam in the distance.

"Huh? Why me?"

Dearka replied, sounding somewhat displeased.

"The biggest prey is yours, what else do you have to complain about!"

Yzak finished, raising his gun to lock onto the Strike Gundam, which was still stunned nearby.

However, before he could pull the trigger.

He saw Michel, off to the side, fire a beam first.

Bang!

A deep green light streaked across the battlefield, aimed directly at the Strike.

Beep, beep, beep—

Alerted by the radar, Kira piloted his unit to turn, raise his shield, and retreat.

Sizzle—

The sparks from the beam hitting the shield scattered across the screen, but perhaps because he was accustomed to this type of attack, Michel's beam posed no threat to him.

"Die, die, die! Just die!"

Michel, however, did not care about that at all; he simply steadied his gun and frantically locked onto the Strike.

He had only one thought now: kill him!

Kill the Strike Gundam!

Only then could he find peace within himself.

Bang, bang, bang!

For a moment, thick beams erupted wildly from Michel's muzzle. Relying on the heavy particle cannon modified from the M69 Elephant, Michel completely suppressed the Strike Gundam.

"Well done, Michel!"

Seeing this, Yzak simply retracted his beam rifle and drew his beam saber to charge forward.

Rat-tat-tat—

Boom!

Several incoming missiles were cleared away by the vulcan gatlings built into the head of the Duel Gundam.

He then flew straight past Athrun and arrived right in front of the Strike Gundam: "If you can't finish it, let me do it, you piece of trash!"

The blue and white Duel Gundam featured the most standard configuration among the five units.

It was equipped with beam sabers on both shoulders, and its handheld weapon was a 57mm beam rifle mounted with a 175mm grenade launcher.

"Die!"

The moment he reached the attack radius, Yzak roared and swung his blade under Athrun's gaze.

The pale red beam saber descended with fury, leaving a red trail in the dark space.

Alerted by his radar, Kira retreated to evade, and while dodging the beam saber, he hurriedly raised his gun to aim at Yzak.

Bang, bang, bang!

However, before Kira could pull the trigger, Michel fired another beam from nearby.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!

Kira raised his shield to block the beam while hurriedly retreating.

Beep, beep, beep!

Yet, the Duel Gundam in front of him followed closely like a persistent curse.

"Kira, Yzak..."

Under Athrun's gaze.

Under the coordinated assault of Yzak and Michel, the Strike Gundam was forced into a desperate retreat, teetering on the edge of destruction with every passing second.

Yet, faced with the Strike Gundam's predicament, Athrun found himself utterly powerless to intervene.

Or perhaps, his current inaction was already a betrayal of Yzak and the others.

But when it came to actually attacking Kira, he found he could not bring himself to pull the trigger; for a moment, he realized he could only stand rooted to the spot, watching the battle unfold with a conflicted heart.

"You cowardly piece of trash!"

Yzak snatched a glance at the Aegis Gundam, and seeing Athrun's complete lack of action, he couldn't help but curse over the open channel.

Ignoring Athrun's reaction, he raised his shield and brandished his blade, charging forward while tanking the scattered beam fire unleashed by Kira.

He found Athrun increasingly intolerable.

Before, it was just a simple dislike, but now... in short, he was a waste of space; that mobile suit would be better off in the hands of Ino than Athrun!

Thinking of Ino, Yzak's gaze toward the Strike Gundam turned increasingly frigid.

Yzak wouldn't go so far as to say his relationship with Ino was incredibly close.

But there was one thing he acknowledged: Ino was a friend he recognized, a schoolmate, a classmate, and above all, a comrade-in-arms.

Yet, the very guy he recognized had died a miserable death at the hands of this piece of garbage before him—this grudge had to be settled!

"Die!"

Having had his inner rage ignited, Yzak let out a guttural roar.

Michel, meanwhile, had blood in his eyes, his heavy particle cannon firing beams in a frantic frenzy.

Had he been equipped with a beam saber, he would have charged in right then and there to force a desperate one-for-one trade.

[Anti-beam depth charges—launch!]

[Auto-defense system activated!]

[Diffusion shell loaded and fired!]

[Anti-air warheads set to auto-fire!]

[Magnetic railgun firing!]

[······]

Inside the Bridge.

Unaware of Yzak and Michel's true intentions, Ino drifted as the warship shifted position.

His attention was entirely focused on the battlefield displayed on the screens.

The Archangel possessed immense firepower; it would be no exaggeration to call it the most heavily armed warship currently in existence.

One only had to look at its equipment to understand why.

Two fortress-class positron blaster cannons mounted on the warship's legs;

A total of four 225cm Gottfried Mk-71 (Gottfried, also known as main cannons) on the sides;

Valient Mk-8 (Valient) 110cm linear railguns on both wings;

Beyond these three heavy weapons.

The warship was also equipped with 75mm automatic multi-barrel CIWS, totaling sixteen units, spread across the entire body of the Archangel, granting it formidable close-range defensive interception capabilities.

There were 16 anti-missile launchers in the rear.

24 large missile launchers at the stern.

4 anti-submarine torpedo tubes.

Coupled with the Archangel's unique laminated armor and anti-thermal gel, it was granted the ability to independently traverse Earth's atmosphere, while possessing extreme resistance to beam weaponry.

It could be said that from the early stages of its development, the Archangel had been armed to the teeth.

Therefore, the safety of the Archangel was not an issue.

At least for the time being, the Blitz Gundam and Buster Gundam could do little against it.

Instead, it was the Strike Gundam—which he had assumed would be fine—that was in serious trouble.

As a qualified pilot, even without being on the scene, Ino could sense Kira's desperate situation from the combat footage on the screen.

He was completely suppressed by Michel at range, to the point where even agile movement was a luxury.

In close-quarters combat, he was being relentlessly shredded by Yzak.

It was only thanks to the high performance of the mobile suit Kira was piloting, and his own decent proficiency in long-range defense, that he was still standing.

Otherwise, Kira would have likely become space debris within these few minutes.

But even so, if Kira didn't find a way to break free from Yzak's close-range encirclement, defeat was only a matter of time.

"The butterfly effe..."

BOOM!

Before Ino could finish his sentence, a sudden flash of fire erupted from the Strike Gundam.

"Kira!"

"Strike Gundam!"

Amidst the exclamations of Tolle, Miriallia, and the others.

Strike Gundam had one of its legs severed by Yzak.

Watching the mobile suit clearly lose its balance, Ino slammed his hand against the back of someone's chair before gritting his teeth and storming off the Bridge.

Something had actually gone wrong.

In space, the legs of a mobile suit didn't have much utility, but that was only for those familiar with the machine.

For someone unfamiliar with the unit, the sudden loss of counterweight would lead to poor control during operation.

While Kira wouldn't necessarily die here, what if he did? What if he actually kicked the bucket?

He was counting on Kira and the others to save the world so he could slack off later.

Besides, looking at the combat feed, Kira really couldn't hold out much longer.

Captain Murrue watched Ino's retreating back, the anxious expression on her face easing significantly.

She knew of Ino's strength; after all, being a ZAFT Red Uniform was proof enough.

"I'm counting on you, Ino—"