The moon's surface lay deathly still.
The five of them froze in place.
An enormous mechanical figure slowly stepped out of the seemingly ordinary White Cabin, exposing itself to the cold moonlight.
It stood a full five meters tall, forged entirely from cold, hard, silver-gray alloy, every piece of armor polished perfectly smooth.
It had the standard build of a humanoid mech, with thick, sharp-edged shoulder armor and an integrated pulse gun in its right arm.
The entire lunar surface instantly fell into deathly silence.
Where had this Gundam come from?
The mech's camera locked onto the five people ahead. The cold whir of machinery broke the silence as its right-arm pulse gun instantly rose, aiming straight at them.
An overwhelming sense of impending death engulfed them.
"Run!"
Senku shouted sharply.
None of them dared hesitate. They turned and fled, running with every ounce of strength they had.
The moon's gravity, one-sixth of Earth's, was both an advantage and a deadly drawback.
Pushing off too hard sent their feet floating off the ground, leaving them unstable and unable to reach the speeds they could on Earth. Every step felt sluggish and weightless, severely limiting their ability to dodge.
Behind them, the mech's attack arrived in an instant. A pulse beam skimmed past their backs and slammed into the lunar soil behind them, blasting fine dirt and rock into the air and leaving a shallow crater.
Having barely escaped a fatal strike, their backs were drenched in cold sweat, their hearts pounding wildly.
"This isn't right!" Li Xiang shouted as she stumbled along at a run. "How can there be a mech like that on the moon? I really misjudged you, Why-man!"
Stanley clenched his teeth, his expression ice-cold, and swiftly drew his gun as he ran.
**"Everyone, prepare to fight!