Some Things Must Be Carried Forward Even Through Pain

"Launch chaff missiles! MS units, prepare to sortie!"

With Talia's order given,

Minerva fired the first shot.

"Sensors...!"

The missile exploded in front of Main Angel, instantly turning its thermal sensor display completely blank.

Chaff missiles carried special warheads that dispersed heat upon detonation.

With radar rendered useless by neutron interference, thermal sensors were a battleship's eyes.

Now Main Angel was nearly blind. Amid mountain terrain layered like screens, its field of vision was so restricted that it could barely move.

"Port twenty degrees, lower altitude!"

Bagiruru immediately gave the order.

That missile clearly had not been fired by the Compton ship pursuing them from behind, which meant—

[Missile approaching!]

"Activate the Auto-Intercept System!"

Missiles rained down from behind the peaks blocking their view, grazing Main Angel's armor and striking the surrounding mountainsides, making the ship shake violently.

The helmsman struggled to steady the vessel while guarding against the mountains closing in from both sides.

Main Angel did not slow down. It soon rounded a cliff and abruptly discovered that gray giant warship.

"—Minerva!"

Bagiruru frowned instinctively.

Minerva was charging straight at them, and the white glow of its secondary guns reaching critical charge had already appeared. But there was no time for her warning to be shouted in that instant.

Fortunately, before the shot was fired, the helmsman threw his full strength into wrenching the helm all the way over.

Main Angel suddenly rolled hard to the right, nearly throwing Bagiruru, Flay, and the others from their seats.

A beam then swept beneath the sharply tilted underside of the ship, blasting a huge hole into the mountain wall behind them.

"They really aren't to be underestimated."

Watching Main Angel's maneuver, Talia could not help but remark.

As a warship that had survived since the last war, it