Mutation 20

Before Orphee's eyes, the Unicorn Gundam finally rendezvoused with the Eternal and withdrew.

The Covenant Gundam floated silently in the void. Inside the cockpit, the urgent alarms emitted a monotonous hum. On the main monitor, the blast light from the saturated volley was slowly fading, leaving behind an even more devastated field of space debris. Only a few ZAFT GINNs remained.

Orphee's gaze passed through that killing field and locked firmly onto the distance.

The Eternal had already become a tiny silhouette. After that pure-white mobile suit entered the hangar, it never appeared again.

The warship's main thrusters spewed long trails of flame as it accelerated into the depths of space. That point of light grew smaller and smaller until it finally vanished beyond the edge of his vision.

He did not move.

His fingers still rested on the controls, but he exerted no force. He merely watched that direction until even the last trace of light was gone.

The anxious voice of a ZAFT commander came through the communications channel.

"Covenant Gundam, Captain Orphee Lam Tao, please respond. The enemy has withdrawn from the combat zone. Our losses... we need to regroup. Please issue your orders."

Orphee did not answer. His auditory system automatically filtered out that irrelevant noise. Every bit of his consciousness was focused on what had just happened.

He, Char La Flaga, had never considered him the final target from beginning to end.

This duel, sacred in his eyes, had been nothing more to the other man than... an obstacle during the mother ship's retreat. An annoying obstacle that needed to be removed.

That was why, after the Eternal's main cannon had gotten him out of trouble, he had immediately chosen to retreat.

There had not been the slightest reluctance, nor had he displayed any obsession