Borrow something from me?
With her beautiful eyes wide open, Lacus knew that in her current situation of being in enemy territory, any objection from her would be futile.
So the question of whether to lend or not wasn't actually up to her to decide.
But borrowing something! That was a sensitive matter.
Having read certain historical publications, she instinctively thought of the object around her neck.
Without saying a word, and thinking of some unpleasant possibilities, Lacus tried her best to appear naive and innocent, blinking her large eyes innocently at Flay.
As for Flay's question, Lacus had no intention of answering.
"Heh." Flay chuckled lightly, seeing Lacus pretending to be clueless but didn't say much more.
Taking a step forward, Flay firmly grabbed Lacus's arm and dragged her toward the bridge.
Playing innocent in front of me?
Don't you believe that if you're of no use, I'll shoot you right on the bridge in front of the Coordinators!
While walking quickly, Flay occasionally glanced at Lacus, who was still maintaining her facade.
Then, when Flay brought Lacus to the bridge under the astonished gazes of everyone...
"Flay, you..."
Sitting in the captain's chair, though not actually giving any commands, Murrue was the first to notice Flay and the other person.
Looking at Lacus, who was tightly held by Flay, she asked in confusion.
"Why did you bring Miss Lacus here?"
Ignoring the captain whom everyone on the ship now knew was just a figurehead, Flay kept her eyes fixed on the large screen hanging at the top of the bridge.
And it wasn't just Flay; Lacus, who was being dragged along, was also discreetly watching the screen.
To be fair, the time from when the red-haired girl went to find the pink-haired girl until she brought her to the bridge wasn't very long.
But the situation outside the Archangel had deteriorated to a rather grim state.
Kira's Strike Gundam and Athrun's Aegis Gundam continued the deadly, wild fighting style they had used outside the Artemis Fortress.
After a period of calm, both were now utterly convinced that they could never persuade the other.
Moreover, the influence of Wang Hu and Flay behind Kira, and Creuset and Nicol behind Athrun...
At this moment, the influence of these four people was only pushing these two childhood friends further and further apart!
"Kira!" "Athrun!"
Their voices roared hoarsely over the communication channel between them, trading blows with guns and swords in a no-entry zone for others.
Unconsciously during their battle, both naturally activated the ability known as Seed Mode.
From then on, their situation slid increasingly toward danger.
Leaving aside Kira and Athrun's fight, let's shift the perspective to Mu.
Piloting the Zero Ginn, Mu was giving 120% of his effort. With fire support from Natarle Badgiruel and Li Chengzhi on the Archangel,
although he fought arduously, constantly dancing on the edge of a knife, and often seemed on the verge of defeat, he always managed to survive.
"Dodged again?"
For the enemy Mobile Suit pilot facing Mu, such exclamations had escaped his lips more than once.
While Will, Creuset's newly appointed adjutant leading the team here, could still maintain his composure as he stared intently at the Zero Ginn, his remaining subordinates were growing increasingly impatient. Seeing this, Will decisively split the MS forces into two groups.
No longer expecting to eliminate Mu immediately, he instead prioritized destroying the obstructive Archangel. This instantly worsened Mu's situation.
Forced to both engage the enemy and divert attention to protecting the Archangel, his divided focus soon led to negligence. His primary weapon, the separation-type wired-control gunpods, were swiftly destroyed by Will's precise attacks.
Simultaneously, the Archangel's defensive fire could no longer repel the ZAFT Mobile Suits now concentrating their assault on the battleship. Were it not for the robust laminated armor and the exceptional skill of the helmsman, this legendary vessel would have met its end here.
"Archangel?"
Clashing blades with Athrun, Kira noticed in the midst of combat that the ship he served on was in peril. "Get out of my way!" he shouted, firing five or six consecutive beam shots in an attempt to temporarily force Athrun back and create an opening to return and aid the Archangel.
But Athrun's combat instincts were sharp, and he too had observed the Archangel's predicament. With this awareness, he had even less reason to let Kira escape. "For Nicol!"
The image of Nicol's tormented expression haunted Athrun's mind, recalling all Nicol had sacrificed for him. Gritting his teeth, Athrun endured Kira's beam attacks, the Aegis Gundam desperately grappling with the Strike Gundam.
"Athrun!" Kira roared in frustration.
Watching the Archangel sustain several missile hits, with two or three GINNs and CGUEs flanking to attack the battleship's thrusters, Kira saw that Lieutenant Mu's Zero Ginn was too overwhelmed to intervene. Furious and cornered, Kira prepared to take a desperate risk.
Just then, a resolute female voice cut through the public comms channel across the battlefield.
Recognizing that hesitation would only invite greater chaos, Flay concluded that with Captain Wang Hu absent, the two outside couldn't possibly protect the ship alone. She played her ultimate card—Lacus—using this controversial, no-win method to rescue everyone from danger.
"Flay, you—" Murrue looked at Flay with a complex expression as she held a gun to Lacus's head. Though she wanted to reprimand Flay, faced with the reality that the girl's actions had saved them all, Murrue bit back her words, unable to condemn the very person who had pulled them from the brink.
"If you won't do it, I will," Flay stated firmly. "This is war. To survive, methods know no good or evil!"
"Kira, you're using refugees as hostages?" Athrun was appalled by his childhood friend's allies' tactics. Confronted with the imminent threat to his fiancée's life, he felt Kira had truly changed.
"You attacked a neutral Colony Satellite. In retaliation for the Junius Seven tragedy, you slaughtered over a billion innocent people in the Earth Sphere."
Had it been the old Kira, he might have felt shame at Athrun's accusation.
But Kira showed no trace of embarrassment now.
In his heart, Lacus was no longer an innocent little white rabbit.
She was the daughter of the greatest politician from an opposing faction, a being on an entirely different plane from ordinary people like himself.
"I...!" Athrun, his eyes still dazed from Seed Mode, could only manage one word before being rendered speechless.
"War has nothing to do with the elderly, women, or children!" It took Athrun a long moment to come up with this retort.
"How many of the over one billion victims are elderly, women, or children?" Kira shot back instantly. "I misjudged you, Athrun!"
"Kira!" Inside the Aegis, Athrun felt as though his chest were being crushed.
Meanwhile, aboard the Archangel, Flay's brilliant maneuver had turned the tide.
Will, Creuset's adjutant, clearly couldn't risk continuing the attack on the Archangel if it meant endangering the life of their chairman's daughter.
On another front, Creuset had finally pushed Wang Hu to the brink of the Sanzu River.
He was on the verge of achieving his goal, ready to kick aside the biggest obstacle in his ambitious plans.
Suddenly!
The cockpits of the Mobile Suits closing in for the kill on Wang Hu were filled with the shrill, continuous blare of alarm sirens!
"What's happening?" several pilots instinctively shouted.
"Look behind us! My God, have the Allied Forces soldiers gone mad?"
Everyone, including Creuset, grew stern.
In past battles, Allied Forces soldiers had occasionally launched desperate charges when facing certain death.
But a battleship initiating a suicide charge—that record remained unbroken until now.
Today, at this very moment, the East Asian Army's Drake-class Frigate was setting that record.
In Creuset's field of vision, Zhang Hong, commanding the battleship under heavy fire from the Duel Gundam and Buster Gundam, broke away from the vanguard's box formation.
With overwhelming momentum, the lone ship charged toward them at high speed!
Mobile Suits were colossal compared to humans, and battleships were even more massive next to Mobile Suits.
Even a Drake-class Frigate—a paper-thin vessel that could be torn apart by a single Mobile Suit strike—was a behemoth!
Humans have an innate fear of gigantic objects. Though Coordinator soldiers routinely shot down Allied Forces' Moebius units and battleships like hunting turkeys, when the Drake-class bore down on them with immense authority...
Perhaps their pre-birth surgeries hadn't fully erased their fear?
Or maybe it was the dread of death, buried even deeper in their genes than fear itself?
Before Creuset could issue new orders, obeying their biological instincts, the Genes and CGUEs surrounding Wang Hu scattered to safer positions.
"Wang Hu!" Creuset was truly enraged by his subordinates' reaction.
He had wanted to kill Zhang Hong in front of Wang Hu—but failed.
He had wanted to kill Wang Hu—the opportunity was right there, yet it might slip away.
Unwilling to accept this, Creuset prepared to take a desperate gamble. Even at the risk of being struck by the Drake-class Frigate, he was determined to seize this chance!
"Die!" Ignoring all else, the six Dragoons on his Gouf Ignited fired relentlessly at Wang Hu, who had glimpsed a chance of escape.
"Head to these coordinates and prepare for ejection. I assume performing stunts in space won't be a problem for you, Captain Wang Hu!"
Using his spatial awareness, Wang Hu was probing for the deadly Creuset behind him.
Suddenly, a communication popped up on the screen in the Qilin's cockpit.
While dodging the Dragoons' beam attacks in a rather awkward posture, Wang Hu quickly skimmed through the message from Zhang Hong on the screen.
In short, Zhang Hong would launch a new weapon toward a specific coordinate.
Wang Hu needed to reach that coordinate and activate the Qilin's ejection escape system.
He would then need to complete the series of movements from the Qilin's cockpit to the new weapon's cockpit in outer space.
"You really think highly of me!" Wang Hu mentally simulated the key points he needed to pay attention to.
To ensure the successful completion of this maneuver, the Qilin and the new weapon needed to maintain nearly identical speed and horizontal positioning.
Even without external interference, this would be an extremely difficult task, let alone with Creuset hot on his heels!
"I'm ready." After cracking his neck, Wang Hu sent an OK signal to Zhang Hong.
"Changed his movements?" Creuset immediately noticed the strange flight trajectory Wang Hu adopted to complete the weapon swap.
Although he couldn't understand why Wang Hu was doing this, he wouldn't let the opportunity slip through his fingers.
Adjusting the Dragoons' position, just as a dark shadow flew over the Gouf Ignited's head—
It was also the moment when the beams fired from Creuset's Dragoons struck Wang Hu's Qilin, which temporarily couldn't alter its flight path!
"He's dead! Wang Hu is dead!"
Watching the purple-painted Qilin explode into a ball of flames under the beam attack, even someone as cunning as Creuset was stunned for a couple of seconds.
He couldn't believe Wang Hu would die?
But Wang Hu was truly dead!
Killed by his own gunfire!
(End of Chapter)