The alarms began just before noon.
Jaburo's underground sky — a steel dome laced with cables and floodlights — turned crimson as sirens screamed across the complex. Mechanics shouted, consoles flickered, and hangar decks rumbled like a heartbeat.
"Enemy contact confirmed! Zeon amphibious forces breaching western shaft!"
The words cracked through the loudspeakers. Metal groaned as blast doors sealed behind every maintenance crew. Within the chaos, one unlucky trainee ran the wrong direction — as usual.
Hikigaya Hachiman.
He had a habit of being in the wrong place at the worst possible time, and fate clearly found that adorable.
"Zeon again?!" he muttered, yanking at his half-fastened pilot suit. "Didn't we just fix this place yesterday? I swear this timeline has no respect for maintenance schedules."
He ducked under a swinging cable and nearly collided with a rushing crew chief.
"Hey, you! You're the Blitz pilot, right?" the man barked.
"Unfortunately," Hachiman replied flatly.
"Then get in your damn cockpit!"
He blinked. "Wait, now? Like, right now-now? Not after a nice motivational speech or something?"
"NOW!"
So much for options. Hachiman sighed and jogged toward the black silhouette of the Blitz Gundam, freshly repaired and gleaming under the floodlights.
A voice called out from behind him — soft, cheerful, and completely oblivious to the concept of danger.
"Hikki! Don't die, okay?"
Komachi waved from the control platform, her Federation trainee uniform slightly oversized.
He forced a grin back at her.
"No promises, but I'll try to make it look heroic!"
She puffed her cheeks. "At least act like you care!"
"I do," he said, climbing the ladder. "That's why I'm panicking quietly."
He slid into the cockpit, pulling the hatch shut. The hum of energy filled the space — familiar and foreign all at once.
Maybe if I pretend this is just a VR game, he thought, I can keep my sanity for another ten minutes.
---
The Duel Gundam was already active beside him, thrusters glowing faintly blue. Inside it sat a boy — quiet, focused, and far too calm for the apocalypse.
"Mikazuki Augus, ready for launch," came the monotone voice through comms.
Hachiman stared at his monitor. "You sound way too composed for someone about to fight an army."
Mikazuki didn't respond. Instead, he checked his weapons one by one with machine-like precision.
"Duel Gundam," the launch controller called. "You're cleared for sortie."
The catapult deck opened. Duel's thrusters ignited, hurling the machine into the crimson light beyond.
"Blitz Gundam, follow immediately!"
Hachiman closed his eyes. "If I die, I'm haunting every high school teacher who said math would save my life."
The launch clamps released, and Blitz shot into the battlefield.
---
The tunnels of Jaburo had turned into a hellscape of molten steel and fire. Zeon's Goggs and Z'Goks poured through breached sections, their claws tearing through Federation turrets like paper.
At the front of the charge — Rezen Schneider, his custom Gogg painted blood-red, hydrojets roaring as he smashed through another wall.
"Federation dogs! You think a fortress can stop the sea?!"
His laughter echoed through the comms, distorted by static and madness.
Mikazuki landed first, Duel Gundam's beam rifle snapping up instantly.
He fired — precise, controlled — the blast slicing through a Z'Gok's shoulder. It fell, convulsing, before Duel's next shot silenced it.
Hachiman followed, Blitz darting across the tunnel wall, cloak flickering in and out of visibility.
"Wow," he muttered. "He's like Amuro without the social awkwardness."
Revil's voice came through the command channel:
> "Hikigaya. Augus. Contain the enemy advance. Do not let them reach hangar bay four."
"Copy that, sir," Hachiman said, then whispered to himself, "I think. Probably."
---
The first Gogg lunged from below, claws snapping.
Blitz spun, Mirage Colloid shimmering, vanishing mid-leap. The Gogg hesitated — too late.
Hachiman decloaked behind it and drove the Trikeros spear straight through its reactor.
"Ha! Got you!"
The explosion shook the tunnel, debris pelting Blitz's armor.
"...Okay, maybe got both of us."
Mikazuki's Duel dove through the smoke, beam saber cutting another in half. He didn't even flinch as shrapnel hit his armor.
Hachiman muttered, "And here I thought I was cold. This guy's a human iceberg."
Between bursts of fire, he tried conversation.
"Hey, Augus! Where'd you learn to fight like that? Military training? Special ops?"
A long pause. Then —
"Mars."
Hachiman blinked. "Mars. Like… the planet? Red, dusty, has sandstorms and no internet?"
"Yes," Mikazuki said simply. "I was with Tekkadan. We were protecting Kudelia. Then there was light. When I woke up… everything was different. The stars. The year. The war."
For once, Hachiman forgot to be sarcastic.
He barely dodged a missile, his mind blank.
He's… another one. Another person out of place.
"So you got isekai'd too," he muttered.
Mikazuki tilted his head. "What's that?"
"Nothing. Just… an inside joke with the universe."
---
The comm cracked open again — Rezen's voice, loud and mocking.
"You send children to fight me, Federation?! I'll crush your toys and your pride!"
His Gogg slammed a fist into Duel, throwing Mikazuki back into the wall.
Blitz reappeared from cloak and fired — beams lancing across the tunnel. Rezen turned, snarling.
"Stay out of this, brat!"
His claw swung — Hachiman barely twisted away, alarms screaming.
"Too close!"
"I told you not to get near me," Mikazuki said coolly.
"Yeah, thanks for the reminder, Mr. Martian Terminator!"
Duel charged forward, ramming its shield into Rezen's chest.
Blitz darted low, stabbing upward — the Trikeros beam spike piercing the Gogg's flank.
Rezen screamed, retreating, his machine sparking.
"You'll pay for that, Federation filth!"
He vanished into the tunnels, his forces withdrawing behind his.
---
Silence fell, heavy and sudden. The only sound was cooling metal and Hachiman's shaky breathing.
They'd won — barely.
Blitz and Duel stood amidst the wreckage, scarred but still standing.
Komachi's voice broke through the comms, teary and relieved.
"Hikki! You're alive!"
"Mostly," he said. "Emotionally, I'm dead inside."
"Always have been," she said softly, and he couldn't help but smile.
---
Later, back in the hangar, mechanics swarmed around the battered suits.
Hachiman sat on the catwalk, helmet beside him, watching Mikazuki below.
The kid just stared at Duel's chestplate, lost in thought.
Hachiman wanted to ask a hundred things — about Mars, about how it felt to lose everything — but he couldn't.
Some things didn't need words.
When Mikazuki finally looked up, their eyes met. He gave a faint, genuine smile.
"You fight weird," he said. "But it worked."
Hachiman shrugged. "Yeah, well. Weird's all I've got."
He leaned back, staring at the ceiling lights that mimicked a false sky.
Another world, another war, another mess I didn't ask for.
Komachi's laugh echoed faintly from the next room.
And for the first time, Hachiman thought — maybe, just maybe — he could survive this one too.