After the four Gundams from Phantom Pain joined the pincer attack on the Junius 7 wreckage, the front line of the Zala Faction hardliners and terrorist groups was compressed once again, but they still put up a desperate resistance.
It wasn't until the New Misurugi Kingdom forces, led by Tekkadan, arrived that the defenders, caught in a pincer attack from both front and rear, completely collapsed.
However, many mobile suits took the opportunity to hide in the city ruins on the colony's surface, preparing to fight to the bitter end.
Seeing that the enemy's battle line had crumbled and the path to the satellite wreckage was clear, Yzak immediately gave an order.
"The way forward is clear! Demolition Team, move in now! Athrun, you have to listen to my command now, too!"
Athrun knew Yzak just liked to gain the upper hand verbally, so he neither agreed nor disagreed. Without a word, he simply found a nearby demolition squad and acted as their escort.
Yzak stomped his feet in anger at being ignored by Athrun. Fortunately, Dearka immediately gave him an out.
"Yzak, don't just stand there. Hurry up and provide escort. Remember, not all of those terrorists have been eliminated. They're still in the colony ruins."
With Dearka giving him a way to save face, Yzak naturally took it, though he still spoke impatiently. "You're so noisy. I'm the captain." He then shot to the very front of the formation to clear the way.
As the Demolition Team entered the field, all MSs switched to escort duty. The warships, of course, couldn't get too close to the Junius 7 wreckage due to the numerous steel cables surrounding it. Getting entangled would be no laughing matter.
However, just as the Demolition Team began their work, the entire Junius 7 wreckage shuddered, and everyone could feel it accelerating.
Seeing this, Yzak immediately shouted over the team's voice channel.
"Demolition Team, hurry up! The Junius 7 wreckage has been captured by Earth's gravity! We don't have much time!"
At that moment, the MS pilots of the Demolition Team were already drenched in sweat. It wasn't that they didn't want to be faster, but with the Junius 7 wreckage captured by Earth's gravity, it was constantly shaking with minor tremors. The Ground Penetration Demolition Machines needed to be deployed perpendicular to the designated locations for the best effect, making them extremely difficult to secure.
What's more, the terrorists hiding in the colony wreckage had started to engage in guerrilla warfare. They would risk their lives just to get a shot at a Ground Penetration Demolition Machine. For a time, the Demolition Team's personnel losses weren't significant, but a quarter of their equipment was lost in short order.
Fortunately, some Ground Penetration Demolition Machines were successfully deployed and managed to complete their detonations.
The effect was extremely significant. With just three demolition machines, massive cracks appeared on the surface of the Junius 7 wreckage. It looked like it would shatter with just a few more blasts.
However, at this moment, the sharp-eyed Ange was the first to notice that the color inside the cracks wasn't right. She immediately contacted the bridge of the Mystic Angel.
"Captain Bargiruel, fire a Destroyer Beam Cannon at the coordinates I'm sending. There seems to be something underneath the Junius 7 wreckage."
Bargiruel didn't hesitate. After confirming there were no friendlies in the line of fire, she immediately fired a Destroyer Beam Cannon.
The shot triggered a massive explosion. After the blast, the familiar molten red of dissolved metal was visible beneath the torn-open ground. Good heavens, Junius 7 was also mostly metal underneath. No wonder a few ground-penetrating demolition charges had created so many cracks; it turned out only the outer shell had been broken.
Seeing this, Yzak cursed out loud, roaring in anger.
"Damn it! It's all metal underneath! What the hell are we supposed to blow up?! The weapons we brought are useless!"
The others were speechless for a long time, especially the members of Tekkadan. They had just rushed from one giant metal chunk only to be confronted by another.
At this time, Captain Talia of the Minerva connected directly to the Mystic Angel's communications, asking with a grave expression, "Captain Bargiruel, I'd like to ask, with your kingdom's current armaments, if we were to tow it with warships while attacking the other side with missiles, could we pull the Junius 7 wreckage back into a safe orbit?"
Regarding this question, Hoshino Ruri had already run the calculations before they set out. If they only wanted to pull all the wreckage back to a normal orbit, whether by blasting or towing, the New Misurugi Kingdom's technology could handle four pieces of wreckage at most.
One had to understand that pushing colony wreckage out of a safe orbit and pulling it back from a dangerous orbit were two entirely different levels of difficulty.
It wasn't a simple matter of opposing forces canceling each other out, with the stronger side pushing the wreckage to change its orbit.
The inertial force of such a massive object was terrifying. Moreover, the speed of these fragments was not fast compared to a real meteor, so they were easily caught by Earth's gravity.
In fact, from the moment these fragments left their safe orbit, they were already being influenced by Earth's gravity.
Therefore, trying to push the wreckage back into a safe orbit was tantamount to wrestling with a portion of Earth's gravity, requiring an exceptionally massive amount of thrust.
In other words, if they had chosen to alter the wreckage's orbit from the beginning, even counting the fact that the Basilisk could blast one piece to bits on its own, the New Misurugi Kingdom could handle five pieces at most. That would leave two pieces of wreckage completely unattended.
Reid didn't dare gamble on whether the system's failure condition—"mission failed if over 30% of the colony wreckage's mass falls to Earth"—referred to 30% of the total mass of all seven pieces, or 30% of a single colony's mass.
Furthermore, according to calculations, if a single large piece of colony wreckage were to fall, no matter where it landed, the New Misurugi Kingdom would not have a good time. As an equatorial nation, a large amount of debris would inevitably fall on their heads. This was the same reason why in the movies of his past life, Sydney always seemed to get hit by disasters falling from the sky.
That was why Reid ultimately gave the order to split their forces seven ways to destroy the colony wreckage by blowing it to pieces. Without those huge metal chunks, shattering the wreckage was far easier than changing its orbit.
As for the Junius 7 wreckage, it had now been completely captured by Earth's gravity and was rapidly falling towards the planet. At this point, you would need to summon two-thirds of the New Misurugi Kingdom's fleet. Ignoring the possibility of cables snapping or connection points breaking, and without considering the positioning of the ships, only then could they tow the wreckage out of Earth's gravitational pull.
Therefore, in Bargiruel's view, there was no way the Mystic Angel, the Minerva, the three Nazca-class ships of the Joule Team, the three Constellation-class ships brought by Tekkadan, and that unknown model of Earth Alliance warship could push this piece of wreckage off its trajectory.
Thus, Bargiruel could only reply helplessly, "It's impossible. We don't have nearly enough power. If this piece of Junius 7 wreckage were cut down to one percent of its current size, there might be a glimmer of hope. At this size, it's completely impossible."
Bargiruel's words left Talia in silence. If it were only one percent of its size, why would she even bother trying to tow it?
In fact, forget one percent; if its volume were reduced to just a quarter of its current size, the combined firepower of the ships here should be enough to blast it to pieces.
But at this moment, Ange suddenly interjected, "Actually, if we just want to cut this colony apart, there is a way. But I've never used this system before, so I don't know what it's actually capable of."
The moment Ange spoke, Durandal, who had been listening in, spoke up. This was a chance to see the New Misurugi Kingdom's hidden armaments, an opportunity that could not be missed.
"Queen Angelise, if your kingdom has some hidden weapon, now is the time to use it. The survival of Earth is at stake; there is nothing left to hide."
Durandal's words were filled with righteousness, giving no hint that he was the mastermind behind this incident.
Although Reid had warned Ange not to trust Durandal's words, she also felt it was time to use her trump card. She gave an order over the unit's voice channel.
"Salya, Hilda, Mikazuki, Akihiro, protect me. All units in front of me, move aside."
The moment Ange's voice fell, all the mobile suits in front of her vanished in an instant.
As the nation that had been on the receiving end of the New Misurugi Kingdom's various high-energy beam cannons the most, the people of PLANT would never doubt the power of the New Misurugi Kingdom's mobile suit weaponry.
What Ange was preparing to use now was the Trans-Am System, supported by the new Jupiter-made GN Drives that could theoretically achieve perfect resonance.
Ange piloted her mobile suit to draw a large GN Particle Beam Sword, which Reid had added as extra equipment after the GN Drives were replaced, from its leg storage compartment. Then, with a cry of "Trans-Am," the entire mobile suit instantly turned crimson.
In an instant, green GN Particles swept across the entire space zone like a tidal wave, with the Ice Phoenix Gundam at its center.
Reid, who had already turned the Boaz Fortress and Jachin Due Fortress wreckage into a vast belt of cosmic metal debris and was now rushing towards geosynchronous orbit, leaving the Gran Chaos and the Archangel to clean up the large fragments captured by Earth's gravity, could see the glow of the Ice Phoenix Gundam's GN Particle burst from an ultra-long distance through his mobile suit's camera.
If the light of the GN Particle burst could be seen from that far away, it was a different story for the forces at Junius 7. For a moment, their mobile suit cameras were completely filled with green.
The Ice Phoenix Gundam raised its large GN Particle Beam Sword high, its wings spread wide, resembling a sword-wielding angel of judgment. Empowered by a massive amount of particles, the beam saber extended limitlessly into space.
Ange remembered Reid telling her that GN Particles could be shaped by a person's will. If one's mind was strong enough, it could break through the so-called particle containment limits, allowing one to form any shape desired without needing a Lambda Driver to bind the particles.
Of course, the more particles that needed to be bound, the greater the mental strain. The beam saber grew from tens of meters to several thousand, then broke through ten thousand, twenty thousand, and finally thirty thousand meters before it stopped growing.
This length was not actually the limit of this Twin Drive System, but rather the limit of what the hilt of the large GN Beam Saber in Ange's hand could withstand.
Moreover, while condensing such a greatsword was relatively simple, maneuvering it for precise slashes was a great test of the pilot's control.
The Junius 7 wreckage had a diameter of 16 kilometers (the plot mentioned it was still 8 kilometers in diameter after being broken in half). 30,000 meters was 30 kilometers, almost twice the length of the Junius 7 wreckage.
As Ange roared and brought the colossal sword down, swinging it in a 270-degree arc, the Junius 7 wreckage was instantly sliced in two. The power of this GN Greatsword was such that even a solid block of metal was no different from tofu.
However, although this greatsword lasted longer than the 00 Gundam's 40,000-kilometer-long one, the duration only went from being countable on one hand to being countable on two. This was because the Ice Phoenix Gundam lacked an external device like the 0 Raiser, which could both assist in stabilizing particles and had some capacity for compressing and storing them.
So, after cutting the Junius 7 wreckage in half, Ange thought about cutting it in half again horizontally. She swung the sword in a downward-right 45-degree slash, then raised the blade, intending to make another horizontal cut downwards.
However, Ange hadn't paid attention to the particle consumption. Halfway through the horizontal slash, the GN Particles produced by the two resonating GN Drives dropped to a critical level. The Trans-Am System shut down automatically, and the greatsword naturally vanished.
Thus, the Junius 7 wreckage was ultimately cut into four giant pieces: one half-sized piece, one quarter-sized piece, and two pieces that were roughly one-eighth of the original size.
At the same time, the massive amount of GN Particles passively formed a temporary psychic chatroom. After the Ice Phoenix Gundam completed its furious slash through the solid metal satellite wreckage, everyone had only one word in their minds: "Shock!"
Then, a Zala Faction hardliner hiding in the ruins despairingly sent the first message in the chat group.
"Monster! The New Misurugi Kingdom's MSs are all monsters!"
The next second, Ange shot back.
"Hm? Who are you calling a monster?"
Ange's single sentence made everyone realize something, and the person who had spoken instantly fell silent under the force of her presence.
Then, Saito, the man who had stunned Athrun with a single line in the original story, mustered his courage and roared, "Of course, you people from the New Misurugi Kingdom are all monsters! Look at what Reid Isaac has created! Lord Patrick Zala's thinking was correct! Reid Isaac is a monster, so he must be the first to be eliminated!"
As soon as Saito finished shouting, Athrun couldn't take it anymore and retorted, "Why are you still so stubborn?! Father never thought of Mr. Reid as a monster. He only saw him as his rival. Although he was a target to be killed, he still held respect for Mr. Reid in his heart. His very last words were that he had won against him. It's just that in the end, Father was ultimately wrong, and that's why he met such a fate. Don't do things that insult him in his name anymore!"
Saito naturally recognized the speaker as Athrun. He shrieked in a tone of someone bitterly disappointed in another's failure to meet expectations, "Heir to Lord Patrick's bloodline! Why do you not understand your responsibility? Why do you not understand your father's thoughts? How can you forget the lives that vanished here and laugh together with their murderer in this hypocritical world? Your mother was among them! Why don't you understand?! For us Coordinators, the path Lord Patrick Zala walked is the only path!!"
At these words, all the PLANT personnel present fell silent. Many pilots in the Joule Team showed expressions of shame.
At this moment, Durandal was about to say something, wanting to take the opportunity to deeply experience this completely unscientific psychic chatroom.
But Ange spoke again before he could, directly retorting, "That's hilarious. The only path for Coordinators is genocide? Reid's assessment of Mr. Patrick was right after all. He was a man who hid the PLANT version of Blue Cosmos's ideology in the deepest part of his heart. He went mad after his wife's death, and the demon in his heart was unleashed.
"To the person who just spoke, I don't know who you are, but I can tell you this: Reid did indeed see Patrick Zala as his greatest enemy. But that was only because Patrick Zala wanted Reid's life due to his wife's death. It was all personal. It truly had nothing to do with any path for your race."
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