The battlefield had become a densely packed meat grinder.
Off balance but still fighting to the death without giving ground, the Freedom Gundam and the Experimental Nuclear Zaku, unleashing its firepower to the absolute limit, held fast against the Calamity Gundam and the Forbidden Gundam as they tried to coordinate a killing attack.
In the vacuum not far away, the Goddess of Liberation Gundam seemed to have recovered from that brief shock to the soul. It tightened its grip on its Beam Rifle again, and light once more filled its electronic eyes.
The tangled web of the three-on-three melee was about to tighten again, the threat of destruction pressing against everyone's nerves.
"!?"
From either side of the Archangel's bridge, signal flares rose above the battlefield, trailing long tails of chemical flame.
The bright points of light climbed steadily upward.
Then came a second, and a third-the signal to retreat.
Jiliang's eyes never left Flay's machine, but her fingers had already begun the retreat.
The Freedom Gundam's wings adjusted their angle, and the machine began slowly falling back toward the Archangel's coordinates.
The Experimental Nuclear Zaku broke off its exchange of fire with the Calamity Gundam at the same time. Canard used his last few railgun rounds to block the Forbidden Gundam's pursuit route, then brought the Nuclear Zaku in behind the Freedom Gundam, following its trail back toward their allies.
But the Earth Alliance's G-series machines did not let them go.
The Forbidden Gundam and the Calamity Gundam advanced together, trying to stay on the heels of the two retreating Archangel Alliance machines. The Calamity Gundam's rifle fired continuously, beam after beam grazing the Nuclear Zaku's backpack. The Forbidden Gundam accelerated again, trying to circle around the flank and cut in front of the Freedom Gundam.
Then Jiliang turned