Gounod Relay Station

Blinding flames erupted around the abandoned space station.

The Alliance had clearly deployed a considerable number of forces here.

At least for their advance squad, the Alliance's military strength was formidable.

Boom—

A Windam MS exploded beside Yzak's mobile suit.

Watching the enemy fight with such utter disregard for their lives, Yzak began to feel inexplicably uneasy.

This madness of dragging someone down with them even in death reminded him of the battle in the Thirteenth Forest.

The enemy back then had been just as brutal.

Hiss—

At that moment, the enormous cylinder that had been drifting toward the PLANT colonies suddenly vented gas.

"Braking?"

Yzak frowned. "Here? Why?"

After raising his hand to cleave a Windam in two, Yzak used the brief opening to look at the inexplicable giant cylinder before him.

That towering object was clearly slowing down.

He had initially assumed the enemy intended to slam the space station's wreckage into the colonies. From the looks of it, at least that would not happen.

But they had sent a fleet all this way to bring this thing here. Surely they would not simply stop because they had been discovered?

Yzak continued fighting while keeping a wary eye on the space station.

The space station had already stopped decelerating. Instead, thrusters along its diagonal arc ignited, gradually tilting the cylinder.

No, the thruster bursts were extremely precise. It seemed to be adjusting its direction, subtly controlling its posture.

For some reason, a sense of ominous dread rose within Yzak.

"What is it aiming at?"

After the final relay station's position was determined, Commander Freeman Byron turned to look at Matisse.

"Afurius City. There aren't any other targets more worth attacking, after all."

They could not locate the ZAFT fortress, so they could only attack PLANT's political center. Hopefully