[Woo~ Woo~] [Enemy contact detected! First battle stations! All military personnel, return to your posts immediately!] [Repeat! First battle stations! All military personnel, return to your posts immediately!] [...]
"So they caught up after all?"
In the detention room, Noer slowly opened his eyes as he listened to the alarm, his gaze shifting as though he were contemplating something.
Everyone else aboard the warship was in chaos as well.
Military personnel hurried back to their posts, while the civilians could only pray in terror.
"There are clearly civilians like us aboard..."
"Damn it!"
Kira Yamato's friends were naturally no exception. Hearing the alarm over the broadcast, their faces filled with anger and fear.
[Kira Yamato! Please proceed to the bridge!] [Kira Yamato! Please proceed to the bridge!]
"Tol, are we just going to sit here and wait for Kira to save us?" Milia asked her boyfriend Tol as she listened to the broadcast summons.
Tol's expression darkened at Milia's words. Recalling the conversation between Flaga and Kira, he could not help muttering, "If you're capable of doing something, then do what you can..."
Maybe I don't have Kira's abilities, but at least...
Just as Tol raised his head, preparing to state his intentions, he suddenly noticed that Sai and the others wore the same expressions as he did.
At the same time, Artemis in the distance also detected the ZAFT military warship.
Without any hesitation, Artemis deployed the Umbrella of Artemis, known as the absolute defense, in just two minutes.
It perfectly demonstrated what it meant to turtle up.
"The Umbrella of Artemis..."
Cruze gazed at Artemis, which resembled a turtle shell, and muttered softly.
Although Artemis possessed little offensive capability, its defenses were absurdly powerful.
At least for now, no mobile suit had ever managed to break through it head-on.
Furthermore, Artemis was merely something like an outpost and posed no great threat to PLANT. There was no point in attacking it, so it had simply been left alone.
"Captain, we still haven't detected the new mobile suit since arriving here."
Thinking Cruze intended to make a move against Artemis, Addis hurriedly spoke up to warn him after hearing that.
The matter of blowing up Heliopolis had not even been dealt with yet! The captain absolutely could not stubbornly go after Artemis too!
Attacking that thing would be nothing but a thankless waste of effort. There was no meaning to it at all.
"We've already suppressed them. Today, we'll finish them off here once and for all!"
Cruze naturally understood what Addis meant. Though he was rather speechless at Addis's wild assumptions, well... forget it.
"Turn one hundred and eighty degrees!"
"Match Artemis's relative velocity and retreat in sync!"
Inside the Archangel~
After putting on his flight suit and finishing his pre-battle talk with Kira, Flaga headed alone to the warship hangar.
"Kojero~"
"Captain?"
Kojero Maduk, who was responsible for combat preparations, watched Flaga walk straight toward him instead of his machine and could not help feeling confused. Had this guy really lost his mind?
"Kojero, how's the Sky Dominator I asked you to modify?" Due to the lack of time, Flaga got straight to the point as soon as he approached.
"I modified it, but..." Kojero Maduk immediately looked troubled, his words hesitant.
"But what?" Flaga found it strange when he saw Kojero Maduk's troubled expression.
His request had not been demanding. It should not have been too difficult for Kojero Maduk.
"You already have a Mobius. Are you sure you want to fly that thing?" Kojero Maduk scratched his head and looked at Flaga as if he were an idiot.
The MA Flaga was talking about was actually the Strike Gundam's support craft—the Sky Dominator.
Its primary purpose was to carry weapons for the Strike Gundam.
Of course, as a fighter, it lacked none of the functions a fighter should have, and its firepower was no weaker than any other fighter. In fact, because it carried Strike Gundam equipment, it was even more powerful than ordinary fighters.
But the key issue was that it was a fighter meant for use within the atmosphere, not a spacecraft.
Of course, if you were determined to court death and stubbornly wanted to fly it in space, it was not impossible. Flying was flying, after all. If it could fly on Earth, it could fly in space too, so long as you modified it a little.
But no matter how much you modified it, it would still be a Sky Dominator. It was never designed for spaceflight in the first place.
So, in summary, the Sky Dominator could certainly fly out from here without any problem. But whether it could come back afterward... would depend on your skills and whether heaven was feeling generous.
"Just tell me whether it can fly," Flaga said, ignoring Kojero Maduk's question.
"It can definitely fly, but it..."
"Then that's enough!"
Flaga directly cut Kojero Maduk off, then continued, "Right, how are its combat capabilities?"
"It naturally has combat capabilities, but it..."
"That'll do. Thanks!"
Without waiting for Kojero Maduk to finish, Flaga turned and floated toward his Mobius.
"No... huh?"
Kojero Maduk had just been about to say more when he discovered that Flaga had climbed into the Mobius beside him rather than choosing the modified Sky Dominator.
"You're not piloting the Sky Dominator!?" Watching Flaga sit inside the Mobius, Kojero Maduk felt like his whole world had gone wrong.
If you weren't going to use the damn Sky Dominator, why the hell did you make me modify it? You even made me work through the night!
Did you really think my logistics department was so easy to bully?
"Why would I use it when I have a Mobius?"
Flaga, who was starting up the Mobius, looked stunned at the question. I'm not an idiot! Why would I leave a perfectly good Mobius unused and pilot a modified Sky Dominator instead?
"Not use it? Then why did you have me modify it?"
Kojero Maduk immediately flew into a rage. Was this guy really bullying the logistics department because it had no one?
"Of course, because we're short on combat power and need its help," Flaga answered reasonably.
"Help? Is there another MA pilot aboard the entire Archangel besides you!?"
Standing a short distance away, Kojero Maduk demanded, "Without a pilot, can your Sky Dominator fly out and fight enemies by itself?"
"Don't worry, don't worry. Someone should come pilot it soon. Just remember to carry out my earlier requirements when the time comes~"
After saying that, Flaga directly closed the protective canopy and connected to the bridge. "Mu La Flaga—Mobius! Requesting launch!"
He had only come to confirm whether the Sky Dominator could fly out. As for everything else, that would depend on the situation.
[Launch corridor ready! Mobius, launch!]
As the bridge finished speaking, the lights on the launch corridor indicators blinked in sequence.
"Mobius! Launch!"
"Bang~"
As Flaga's voice fell, the Mobius shot into the vast expanse of space like a streak of yellow lightning under Kojero Maduk's gaze.
"Pilot it? Other than an idiot like you, what moron would pilot a Sky Dominator in a space battle! No, when you get back, I'm definitely taking your cannon apart. Damn it, actually daring to bully my logistics department..."
Watching the Mobius fly away, Kojero Maduk cursed as he left.
As for Flaga's words, he did not believe a single one of them. Pilot a Sky Dominator in a space battle?
Did he even know what a Sky Dominator was?
Just like its name, it was the dominator of the skies!
But once it left the atmosphere, it was no longer the sky. That was fucking space.
Piloting an atmospheric fighter in a space battle? Heh, there were better ways to seek death!
He really had been an idiot to believe such ridiculous nonsense!
Before you continue