"Did that Captain Wang Hu die?"
On the flagship of the vanguard force, the commander and Arsida bent over with their butts sticking out, both staring at the exploding fireball in space.
"He's finally dead!"
Yzak, who was chasing after the East Asian Army battleship, laughed maniacally. Who knew how deeply his hatred for Wang Hu ran?
If only he weren't so uncultured, the white-haired pilot really wanted to laugh heartily at the sky and then compose a poem to celebrate this moment.
"He's dead." For no apparent reason, even though he had personally sent Wang Hu to his demise, Creuset, sitting calmly in his Gouf Ignited, felt an inexplicable sense of emptiness and loneliness.
His life was a tragedy, with only two bright spots in this tragic existence.
Aside from Durandal, who understood but didn't support him.
The other was Wang Hu in that fireball before him - the only one who could still create ripples in his stagnant life.
Leaning his head against the cockpit seat, Creuset should have been laughing, but he couldn't bring himself to smile.
"How fragile human life is. No matter how strong one might be, when death comes, even the strongest ultimately becomes nothing but fleeting smoke."
After a moment of melancholy, Creuset quickly composed himself. Since Wang Hu was gone.
Then his ambitions and desires would face no more obstacles on the path to the world he longed for!
"Finish off the Allied Forces' vanguard fleet, then we'll rendezvous with Adjutant Will to end the Archangel's long journey."
Saying this, the Gouf Ignited turned its back to the still-dissipating flames from Qilin's explosion.
A real man like Creuset never looks back. He would continue fighting for his ambitions as always!
"Yes, Captain Creuset!"
With the huge boulder that was crushing the Coordinator ZAFT Forces shattered, the morale-boosted soldiers responded in unison.
They were about to annihilate the Allied Forces vanguard with the force of a strong wind sweeping away fallen leaves, led by Creuset who had reaffirmed his position as the strongest Mobile Suit pilot.
However
From within the fireball of Qilin's explosion, a black shadow shot out of the flames at incredible speed.
This unidentified black shadow moved so fast that it stretched the fireball into a long, cone-shaped trail.
"Captain, watch your back!"
Fortunately, while everyone on the battlefield was complacently convinced of Wang Hu's death and thought ending this battle would be as easy as shelling peas, Dearka in his Buster Gundam remained somewhat cautious.
Chasing right behind the East Asian Army's Drake-class Frigate, he happened to witness the black shadow emerging from the fireball.
So he urgently and timely warned Creuset, who had been chosen as the black shadow's target.
Simultaneously, Dearka raised his beam cannon. To prevent their Captain Creuset from being shot down unprepared, he briefly aimed at the black shadow and hastily pulled the trigger for a covering long-range shot without waiting for the beam cannon to reach maximum power!
"What?" Upon receiving his subordinate Dearka's warning, Creuset felt dazed as intense electric-like sensations flashed through his mind, making him consider one possibility.
"That shadow that flew over my head earlier?"
Only then did he recall the unusual scene before shooting down Wang Hu. "Could it be!"
Creuset in the Gouf Ignited didn't follow the conventional tactic of turning to face the enemy like many other pilots.
He deftly manipulated the Mobile Suit to execute a maneuver reminiscent of a martial arts technique called "Thousand Catty Drop."
Abruptly, the Gouf Ignited plummeted straight downward into the cosmic void like a weight sinking into water.
During the descent, Creuset finally controlled the machine to turn upward, looking toward the shadow that had been approaching from behind.
"Boom!"
What did Creuset see?
He saw an attack from his subordinate Dearka directly strike the nose of that shadow.
A flash of light! An explosion of flames!
Yet, as he watched the flames erupt, Creuset's face showed no joy, only seriousness.
Because, clearly in his eyes, the red front end of that shadow—its sharp nose—remained completely unaffected, still charging forward at high speed!
"Boom!"
Another simulated explosion sound echoed in Creuset's cockpit. His eyes flickered as he frowned and saw.
The shadow directly smashed through one of their own MS GINNs.
Shattering that unfortunate machine into pieces!
"Allied Forces? No, it's the East Asian Army's new mobile suit!"
Lowering his voice, Creuset roughly understood what was happening and turned to look at the now heavily damaged East Asian Army's Drake-class Frigate.
Right now, Creuset felt like he could chew the enemy to pieces!
"Ugh!" Overwhelmed with fury, Creuset felt a sweet taste in his throat. The more he had felt empty and lonely before, the more he now felt like a clown.
"Are you kidding me?"
Like Creuset, Yzak and Dearka, along with the other surviving Coordinator soldiers, witnessed the shadow take a direct beam hit and then, completely unscathed, proceed to smash a GINN to pieces.
Their jaws dropped wide in astonishment.
"Dearka?" The white-haired pilot immediately shouted at his friend. "How much did you hold back in that attack just now?"
Yzak knew that insufficient power would weaken the beam's effectiveness, so he wanted to know exactly how much force his friend had used.
Otherwise, he wouldn't feel confident facing that machine's red nose!
"About... about half?"
Stammering in response to his friend, Dearka swallowed hard.
With fear in his eyes, he stared at the enemy's new Mobile Armor, which was now pulling up and returning—a blue, white, red, and yellow craft with a distinct waverider aerodynamic layout.
"Is this a new machine developed by the East Asian Army for dual use in the atmosphere and space?"
The so-called waverider is a shape suitable for hypersonic flight.
All its leading edges have attached shockwaves; when a waverider flies, its leading edge plane coincides with the upper surface of the shockwave.
It's like riding on the surface of the shockwave, relying on the shockwave's pressure to generate lift.
Muttering to himself, Dearka felt a sense of relief. Although the enemy's new Mobile Armor possessed the characteristics of a hypersonic vehicle—
such as high speed, high altitude, long cruising range, and strong penetration capability—
it was still just a Mobile Armor after all!
And those features would be most effective within the atmosphere, where gravity has an influence!
In the vastness of space, it was an MA—nothing more than an MA!
"In today's world, the true kings are Mobile Suits!"
Dearka thought that as long as he avoided the indestructible nose of that enemy machine, there was nothing else to fear.
So he charged forward.
"No, it can't be."
Unlike Dearka's naive and somewhat fanciful notion, Creuset swallowed the blood rising in his throat but did not immediately issue any orders to his subordinates.
Staring at the MA that Wang Hu was piloting—somehow having managed to switch over—Creuset wondered: Given the East Asian Army's characteristics, having already witnessed the advantages of MS in current combat situations, how could they possibly continue developing MAs?
Even if this MA was versatile enough for both space and atmospheric operations!
"Charge! Avenge Hawk!"
While Creuset remained still, the other Coordinator soldiers sprang into action.
They were, after all, elite troops tasked with defending their homeland. Even without orders from their commander, their pride and initiative drove them not to let the East Asian Army's MA flaunt its power before them.
Before Dearka and Yzak could arrive, despite the flames of rage burning in their hearts, these Coordinator soldiers still formed a disciplined military formation before pressing toward the MA piloted by Wang Hu.
"The enemy doesn't have those annoying wired-controlled gun pods anymore!"
One soldier in the formation exclaimed joyfully after carefully observing the opponent.
"Hmph, in that case, we just need to avoid attacking the enemy's nose and make sure we're not rammed by it!"
Another soldier quickly added.
"Don't worry." After hearing his comrades' analysis, a Coordinator soldier chimed in, convinced the enemy's threat had significantly diminished. "These foolish Naturals—what era do they think this is? Instead of developing MS, they're still installing rams on MAs?"
"Do they really expect to confront us Coordinators with such outdated weapons?"
As they spoke, the Coordinator soldiers closed in to the optimal range of their rifles.
Raising their guns in unison, they arranged themselves in rows and unleashed wave after wave of suppressive fire. As elites, even without direct command, they instinctively coordinated their volleys to systematically cover the MA's potential evasion routes.
"What?"
But the reality unfolded far differently from their expectations. None of the countermeasures they had anticipated from the enemy MA materialized.
Instead, what they witnessed was straightforward and startling: the MA accelerated—an extreme, blistering acceleration!
Leaving only an afterimage in the Coordinators' retinas, the MA piloted by Wang Hu reappeared almost instantly, mere meters away from their MS formation.
"Evade, evade!"
Outer perimeter Coordinator soldiers immediately roared over the comms, urging comrades in the MA's direct flight path to scatter.
"The enemy is repeating their old trick! As long as we avoid the ram, or even seize the moment to let it pass, victory will be ours!"
A soldier suggested over the channel.
"Damn Naturals, don't think Coordinators will fall for the same move twice!"
Right in Wang Hu's path of advance, a Coordinator soldier was screaming loudly, his pupils constricted to pinpricks.
The adrenaline flooding his system created an illusion of invincibility.
Perhaps because this Coordinator soldier had witnessed Wang Hu's assault once before and was somewhat prepared.
Or perhaps due to the overdose of adrenaline coursing through his body.
Under the hopeful gazes of all those around him, this Coordinator soldier actually accomplished something that even with a Coordinator's physical capabilities couldn't be guaranteed with 100% success rate.
That is - in Wang Hu's thunderous assault, he managed to dodge at the very last moment before death!
"Bravo!" The surrounding Coordinator soldiers cheered excitedly for their comrade.
They were as thrilled as if they themselves had evaded that certain-death assault.
"The enemy has exhausted his tricks!" Coordinator soldiers shouted through the communication channels.
However, before their celebration could last long.
"BOOM!"
The GINN that had just dodged Wang Hu illuminated the cosmic darkness, transforming into a ball of flames amid everyone's stunned expressions!
"G-Gundam! It's the East Asian Army's Gundam!"
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