Heine Westenfluss

"What a dangerous bunch."

Prea looked at the wreckage of the downed MS units below, his expression complicated.

Three special warships, plus eleven elite MS units, backed by over a hundred Short Sword Ls from the Lohengrin base.

Honestly, that kind of force would have been enough to turn the tide of battle anywhere else.

Yet they had used such strength to surround a single Minerva and five MS units, only for things to end up like this.

Beep beep beep—

[Captain, an unidentified heat source has been detected overhead. Its thermal signature is suspected to be a ZAFT drop pod. One unit!]

[Outer Layer One detached!]

[Decelerating to Mach 4!]

[Angle favorable!]

[Fifteen seconds until forced cooling!]

[Aerodynamic control initiated!]

[Breaking through the troposphere—]

[Decelerating to Mach 0.9!]

[Cooling stopped, angle favorable—]

[Second control layer detached—]

The ship's communication came through to the cockpit.

"Is that so?"

There was not the slightest surprise on Prea's face. After a brief pause, he said, "Recover the MS units below and prepare to withdraw. If we keep fighting like this, we may be the ones getting swallowed."

[Withdraw? But Captain, we're about to win.]

The warship commander could not help being stunned.

If they kept fighting for just a little longer in the current situation, the Minerva would most likely be unable to escape.

And how many MS units could one drop pod even carry?

Why not take this chance to crush this tough bone in one go?

"Execute the order."

Prea ended the transmission immediately after speaking.

How could he possibly fail to see what the warship commander had seen?

This was indeed a good opportunity to eliminate the Minerva and Noel Cassia. Given their current forces and situation, even if ZAFT reinforcements arrived, they would not be able