Battle of Paradise Island

"This is the airspace above Paradise Island Base! About three hours remain until the deadline for a response set by Chairman Durandal—but the Alliance Forces have yet to make any response at all!"

Against aerial footage taken above Iceland, the special correspondent's voice was being broadcast to the entire world.

The massive fleets at sea waited silently for an answer, while the Alliance fleet deployed across the ocean stood ready for battle as well.

"...If no response is received before the deadline expires, Chairman Durandal will become the supreme commander at the front lines and personally lead ZAFT and the anti-LOGOS allied forces in an immediate attack on Paradise Island Base."

"Paradise Island Base is a major Alliance Forces stronghold. It is enormous and renowned for its military factories. If this battle truly begins, the offensive on both sides is certain to be extremely fierce..."

As the reporter spoke, the camera shifted toward land, focusing on the vast base facilities where buildings of every size stood clustered together.

For more than an hour now, television broadcasts had repeatedly shown scenes like this.

This time, however, the cameras caught a change on land.

The Alliance fleet forming a defensive line toward the sea launched rows of objects trailing white smoke into the sky.

Almost at the same time, Bato's shout rang out aboard the Minerva.

"Enemy missiles launched!"

The air on the bridge instantly froze.

"What—?"

Arthur stared at the screen and cried out in terror.

Even Durandal's expression changed dramatically as he asked in disbelief, "What did you say?"

The fleet deployed on the ocean fired anti-aircraft shells a moment later. The streams of fire intercepted one another in the sky, but the unprepared ships became the first targets of the barrage from land.

Missiles savagely descended on vessels that