"What? Diakka was hit by the Sky Dominator?"
Up ahead, Yzak, who was attacking Kira alongside Athrun, could not help crying out in shock when he heard Nicol's transmission. "Isn't that an atmospheric fighter?"
Even Athrun looked stunned.
They had information on the Sky Dominator. After all, it was the Strike Gundam's support craft, and its identification code had already been entered into their systems.
But precisely because they knew that, it seemed unbelievable.
It was outrageous enough to send an atmospheric fighter into a space battle. And now they were saying that fighter had actually taken out Diakka.
It was utterly ridiculous!
"The Pharsalus was hit!?"
"Why?"
"Retreat!?"
Before they could recover from the shock of Diakka being hit, a report suddenly appeared on the message panel: the Pharsalus had been struck.
Nicol and Diakka received the same message and order.
"Captain Mu La Flaga is reporting in! Mission accomplished! He is retreating!"
Inside the Archangel, they also received word that Flaga had successfully ambushed the Pharsalus.
"Great!"
"We did it!"
The tense crew immediately relaxed.
"Don't let this chance slip away! Main guns, target—enemy battleship Pharsalus!"
Even as Marlu breathed a sigh of relief, she hurriedly gave the order to fire, hoping to finish off the Pharsalus in one strike.
"Yangcheng Electronic Cannons One and Two, activate! Target—the Pharsalus!"
"Inform Captain Mu La Flaga and the Strike Gundam to clear the main guns' firing range!"
"Main guns loaded. Voltage rising steadily! Firing ports open!"
Noer, positioned near the Archangel, spotted the slowly rising gun barrels at once.
His gaze shifted, and he realized the barrels were aimed directly at Yzak and the others.
"Bzzzt—bzzzt—bzzzt—"
Noer hurriedly activated the public channel, but signal interference made it impossible to send a message.
Watching energy build in the gun barrels—
"To