Chapter 280: Breaking Out at Departure 2
As the smoke dispersers launched their payload, thick interference smoke spread around the Archangel, wrapping the entire battleship in a shroud of fog.
At that moment, Mu launched from the hangar in the Skygrasper equipped with the high-maneuverability pack, heading straight toward the ZAFT squad.
Tolle followed closely behind in the High-Performance GINN, providing Kira with precise target coordinates.
In the distance, Dearka stared at the massive cloud of smoke ahead, which had completely disabled Buster Gundam's radar.
He complained to Yzak with clear frustration, "This smoke messes up our radars and blocks our view. We can't find the targets, so we can't attack."
"Tch, just the cowardly tricks of cowards. I don't believe they'll stay hidden forever." Yzak grumbled irritably—right as he spotted the Skygrasper and High-Performance GINN bursting out of the fog.
"Two units? Heh. In the end they still have to come out. Cowards." He raised Duel Gundam's beam rifle and opened fire at Tolle.
Tolle maneuvered the SFS Guul and easily dodged Yzak's shots.
At the same time, he transmitted the updated locations of Aegis, Buster, Duel, and Blitz to Kira.
Kira, piloting the Launcher Strike, raised the Agni high-energy impulse cannon and unleashed continuous blasts toward the coordinates of the four Gundams.
Seeing the fierce barrage, Athrun immediately ordered his teammates to scatter, narrowly dodging the beams.
But Kira was still holding back—despite firing over a dozen shots from Agni, not a single one struck Athrun's team, only grazing past their machines.
As the blasts continued, the fog before the Archangel gradually thinned.
Kira disconnected the Launcher Strike from the ship's power cable and charged toward the enemy.
Yzak saw the Launcher Strike suddenly closing in and erupted in fury. "Strike Gundam! I'll kill you!"
He fired again with Duel's beam rifle, and the Guul's missiles followed in a dense salvo.
Dearka also opened fire—alternating shotgun blasts from Buster's right arm and beam rounds from its left-arm high-energy rifle.
Kira weaved effortlessly through the attacks. In his first counterstrike, he destroyed Buster's Guul with Agni, then held back yet again—delivering a sideways aerial kick that sent Buster tumbling into the sea.
Using the rebound, the Launcher Strike leapt toward Duel.
Before Yzak could react, Kira used Strike's shoulder-mounted anti-ship Vulcans to destroy Duel's Guul as well.
Duel was then kicked straight into the water.
Meanwhile, Tolle took the chance to cover Kira's retreat, attacking Aegis and its Guul.
The GINN's beam rifle targeted Aegis while the rocket launcher aimed at its Guul, firing at both simultaneously.
Athrun was forced to raise Aegis's shield and change flight direction while blocking both the beam fire and the rockets.
Tolle didn't want to neglect Nicol either and fired at Blitz next.
The rocket hit Blitz only symbolically, but the beam rifle remained trained on Aegis's shield and fired again.
Just as they prepared to counterattack, the Archangel burst forward, opening fire on Aegis and Blitz.
Twin high-performance beam cannons unleashed streaks of green beams at them repeatedly.
Kira took advantage of the opening and boosted back toward the Archangel's deck.
On the bridge, Natarle shouted, "Single linear cannon—air-defense missiles—fire!"
A spray of linear cannon rounds and streams of missiles surged toward Aegis and Blitz.
Facing the Archangel's fierce assault, Athrun could only keep retreating, using Aegis's head-mounted guns to shoot down the incoming missiles.
Nicol also pulled back while firing Blitz's beam rifle to intercept the missiles flying toward him.
Tolle continued firing from afar, his beams forcing Aegis and Blitz to retreat even farther.
Meanwhile, Mu returned to the Archangel area in the Skygrasper, ready to assist with Strike's equipment change.
Once the Skygrasper approached, the Launcher Strike dropped its equipment on the deck.
Then Kira fired the thrusters at full output and leapt upward.
Mu detached the high-maneuverability pack, beam rifle, and shield from the Skygrasper and equipped them onto Strike, completing the loadout change.
Now in the Air Strike configuration, Kira drew the beam saber and charged straight toward Aegis.
Tolle glanced at the fully fired-up Kira and headed off to pin down Nicol—he couldn't interfere with the two's battle.
This time he went all out, triggering the Focus directive. He used the beam rifle to draw Nicol's attention, tricking him into raising Blitz's shield block.
Closing the distance, Tolle fired the rocket launcher at Blitz's Guul and destroyed it instantly.