Kycillia's boots clicked cleanly against the metal floor, her posture perfectly steady despite the distant thump-thump of gunfire echoing through the corridors. Smoke alarms wailed intermittently, lights flickered, and the whole fortress felt like it was groaning under the weight of its own collapse.
Her trusted subordinate kept pace, but he was visibly tense.
"Lady Kycillia… forgive my bluntness, but… why did you give Lord Degwin that letter? Because of it, he realized you planted the device inside A Baoa Qu. You knew he would confront you."
Kycillia didn't stop. She didn't even slow down.
Her cape swayed with every calm, unhurried step.
"Because he is still my father."
The subordinate blinked at how casually she said it.
Like she was commenting on the weather while walking toward the battlefield.
"But milady… he could damn you for treason. He could—"
"—He could do many things," she cut in, voice level. "But he won't. Degwin Zabi no longer has the resolve to crush anything decisively. His sentimentality is predictable."
Another boom shook dust from the ceiling, but she only brushed a stray fleck from her shoulder armor.
The man swallowed.
"So you truly believe he would never harm you?"
Kycillia finally glanced at him—just a small turn of the head, eyes sharp as a knife's edge.
"No. He wouldn't harm me."
She paused just long enough to let the weight settle.
"But that doesn't mean I must allow him to hinder me."
The subordinate felt a chill. The gunfire in the distance was nothing compared to the cold calculation in her tone.
As they approached the hangar doors, alarms blared louder.
A squad of Zeon soldiers rushed past them in disarray, clearly spooked.
Kycillia didn't spare them a glance.
"A Baoa Qu will fall soon," she continued. "But we will not fall with it."
She raised a hand. The hangar crew snapped to attention instantly.
"Prepare the flagship. We depart the moment the last structural locks release."
Her subordinate hesitated before asking the question that had been eating at him since the letter:
"Milady… was the bomb truly necessary?"
Kycillia walked up the ramp toward her craft, voice smooth and untouched by regret.
"In war, necessity is irrelevant. Only outcomes are real."
She stopped once more—just before boarding—turning back to him with a faint, unreadable smile.
"And our outcome will be survival."
Here is the continuation, clean and sharp:
---
Amuro, Lockon, and Athrun pushed through the smoke-filled corridor leading back toward the hangar. The last of Kycilia's loyalists had fallen, but the battlefield was a mess—wreckage, bodies, still-smoldering bulkheads.
Lockon moved first, eyes sharp. He glanced toward the departing Zeon flagship, engines sparking from the shot he had planted earlier.
Athrun frowned. "Lockon… that was risky."
"That's called instinct," Lockon shot back without looking at him. "And my instincts are screaming that letting that ship escape is a bad idea."
Amuro felt something too—a pressure, a wrongness in the air. A distortion only a Newtype could sense. He didn't waste time explaining.
He sprinted toward the hangar.
"Athrun, Lockon! Get to your suits—now!"
Athrun blinked. "Amuro, what—"
"Just move!" Amuro barked. "Something's about to happen."
The three split.
Amuro leapt into the Alex's cockpit.
Lockon climbed into Buster, already charging a shot.
Athrun dove into the Aegis, systems powering up.
The hum of Minovsky interference thickened around them like static.
The tension in Amuro's chest tightened.
Whatever Kycilia was planning…
…it was about to trigger.
And they needed to be ready.
Kycilia stepped onto the hangar deck just as the alarms blared. One of her men sprinted up to her, pale.
"Lady Kycilia! The flagship's engines—someone shot them!"
Her eyes narrowed beneath her helmet visor.
So they're already here.
"Get a repair team on those engines immediately," she snapped. "Everyone else—battle positions! Defend the hangar!"
Her men scattered like startled insects, rushing to Zaku II units, scrambling for rifles, forming defensive lines.
Then the hangar lights flickered—
Three shadows appeared in the doorway.
Alex Gundam.
Buster Gundam.
Aegis Gundam.
Kycilia felt her chest tighten.
This wasn't random. This was precision.
"Open fire!" she barked.
Zeon troops unleashed a storm of bullets and beam fire toward the three Gundams, trying desperately to keep them back while engineers swarmed over the crippled engine of her ship.
But Amuro, Lockon, and Athrun were already moving.
Amuro surged forward in the Alex, shields raised, absorbing fire as he closed the distance.
Lockon planted himself wide, Buster's rifle already charging, shouting:
"Kycilia's not leaving this hangar!"
Athrun sprang into motion, Aegis weaving between beams with unnatural speed, claws deployed.
Then Kycilia noticed movement in the far corner—
Gelgoogs.
Veterans. Not hers.
Her heart dropped.
"Those aren't my units… STOP THEM!" she shouted.
But the Gelgoog squad, loyal to Degwin's faction, leapt into action—not to help Kycilia, but to attack her troops.
In seconds, the entire hangar erupted into full-scale chaos.
Zeon shooting Zeon.
Gundams carving a path straight toward Kycilia.
Mechanics screaming for parts as the flagship's engine smoked under the damage.
And in the middle of it all—
Kycilia realized she was boxed in.
The battle for A Baoa Qu's hangar had officially begun.
And escape was slipping away by the second.
Amuro pushed forward through the hangar's smoke and debris, but even he—accustomed to battlefield madness—felt the sheer chaos grinding at his nerves.
Gelgoogs firing at Zaku IIs.
Zaku IIs firing back.
Gundams cutting through anyone who pointed a weapon at them.
It was a mess. A complete, unfiltered collapse of Zeon command.
"Why are they shooting each other!?" Amuro muttered, weaving past a stray beam.
Athrun blocked a rocket aimed at him and shouted, "Forget it! We take down the ones shooting at us!"
Lockon lined up another shot with Buster, but his comm suddenly crackled.
"—Lockon… Lockon, you hear me?"
He recognized the voice instantly.
Gary Lin.
"Gary?!" Lockon snapped, taking cover behind a half-melted transport crane. "Where the hell are you?!"
"In the inner corridors with Samus and Sayla," Gary answered, his breathing strained. "This place is a tomb waiting to explode—Zeon's turning on itself!"
"Yeah, I noticed," Lockon replied sharply, watching a Gelgoog annihilate two Zeon troopers, only to be stabbed in the back by another Zaku.
Then Gary dropped the bombshell:
"Kycilia planted explosives throughout A Baoa Qu. She's planning to blow the whole asteroid along with Tianem's fleet—and any Gundam unit inside!"
Lockon froze, jaw tightening.
"…Repeat that."
"You heard me! She wants a suicide finish! We need to warn the Federation now!"
Lockon swore under his breath.
"Gary… we can't contact anyone. Jamming's too strong."
A silence, then Gary replied bitterly:
"Great. Perfect. She built a death trap, and we're in the middle of it."
Amuro caught enough through the shared channel to understand the gist.
The sinking feeling hit him like a punch.
"We need to finish this fast," he said. "Or A Baoa Qu takes all of us with it!"
Athrun nodded, eyes sharpening.
Lockon chambered Buster's next shot.
The Gundams braced themselves.
Because now…
The clock was ticking.