"Captain!? What's wrong... The maintenance crew just said your mobile suit..."
Addis's alarmed, concerned voice came through the headset. Clearly, Gates's miserable state had thrown the loyal captain into a panic.
"Vesalius, sortie! All MS units to Level One combat readiness; prepare to launch immediately! Send highest-priority transmissions to Hawkins and Heddalyn as well. Order them to follow at once!"
Rau Le Creuset had no time to explain his condition. Even one extra second of pleasantries was a waste to him. He rudely cut off Addis's anxious questioning and issued orders at a frantic pace, each word fired like a bullet through clenched teeth, forceful and rapid as though he were possessed by a demon.
"Y-yes...!? But Captain, our resupply hasn't been completed yet, and Gates is already damaged that badly..."
Hearing the unmistakably different tone in his superior's voice, filled with unsettling urgency and agitation, Addis instinctively tried to advise him from a tactical standpoint and questioned him in confusion.
"Shut up!"
Rau Le Creuset felt an unprecedented irritation at his adjutant's sluggish, overly cautious response. He slammed his fist onto the table, jolting the empty medicine case that had just saved his life into the air.
"We can't just stand by and watch! We cannot let the Freedom Gundam fall into the Earth Alliance's hands! Even if we have to throw every warship here into the fight, we must not let that strongest 'key' become Blue Cosmos's butcher knife!"
On his way back to the Vesalius, even from inside the cockpit, he had clearly felt the violent tremors coming from the direction of the Mendel colony satellite.
The interrupted battle had likely begun again.
Naturally, those tremors had also reached the Vesalius. This performance was not over yet; if anything, the climax was only about to begin. The