The battlefield was a silent standoff. On one side, the Mobile Suits of the Allied Fleet, Orb, and the Shadow Mirror; on the other, the Earth Alliance. They glared at one another across the void, a powder keg waiting for a spark. That spark came the moment the Glowsaver—flanked by the Freedom and Justice in their Meteor units—thrusted forward, shattering the fragile equilibrium.
"Kira, Athrun. We're starting this with a proper display of fireworks," I said over the comms. "If we shave down the Alliance's numbers with the opening volley, the rest of this gets a lot easier. You understand?"
"Yes, sir," Kira replied.
"Understood," came Athrun's steady voice.
The two of them shifted into full-burst stance. Ahead, the ranks of Strike Daggers seemed to realize our intent. Refusing to play the victim, they surged forward in a desperate scramble to intercept us before we could fire. I watched their approach through the T-LINK System and deployed all Phantoms. They flared out, hovering like a protective halo behind the Glowsaver.
The enemy had only closed half the distance. Too slow.
I deployed my arsenal: four barrels in total, comprising the Beam Gatling Guns, Linear Railguns, and the Lanzce Kanone. Simultaneously, I snatched the Halberd Launcher in my right hand and the Gun Rapier in my left from the weapon racks.
"Ai... T-LINK System, Full Contact! Time Stream Engine, Full Drive! Take this—Full Burst!"
Using the Spirit Command Love, I felt a surge of strange, miraculous power course through my limbs. I pulled the triggers. Every integrated weapon roared to life at once. Simultaneously, the twenty-eight Phantoms trailing the Glowsaver bared their "fangs"—their laser blades—and swarmed the Strike Dagger formation like a pack of wolves.
The Gatling's beam rounds peppered the lead Daggers, overwhelming their armor until they dissolved into expanding spheres of fire. The slugs from the Linear Railguns punched through multiple units in a single line; those unlucky enough to have their cockpits pierced bloomed into grisly flowers of flame against the black of space. The Lanzce Kanone simply erased anything in its path.
But the most miserable of the Alliance pilots were those targeted by the Phantoms. Guided by the T-LINK System, the remote blades acted as a direct extension of my will, multiple fangs plunging into a single Strike Dagger at once—specifically targeting the cockpits. Meanwhile, the Gun Rapier's precision beams stripped the enemy of limbs and sensors before delivering the killing blow, leaving no room for evasion. Finally, the broad-spectrum sweep of the Halberd Launcher vaporized entire clusters of MS within its trajectory.
I glanced toward the Freedom and Justice. Their Meteor units were raining a deluge of beams and missiles, purging a significant portion of the Alliance force from the stars.
The onslaught from our three specialized "area-denial" units lasted for what felt like both seconds and an eternity. In reality, it had likely been barely a minute. But when the light faded, over fifty Alliance machines had been wiped from the map. Even the survivors were battered, their frames scorched and venting atmosphere.
"...Incredible," a voice whispered over the comms. I couldn't tell who it was; they sounded utterly stunned.
In contrast, Cornelia's Rapiesage and Lemon's Weiss-saver moved out with cold efficiency. To them, my performance was a given. Leading a swarm of Megillots, they dove into the heart of the remaining Strike Daggers to press the advantage.
"Right, the numbers are manageable now. Let's get to work," I said, refocusing. "Strike and Buster, you two—"
"Axel!"
I was about to order Mu and Dearka to defensive positions around the Archangel when Mu's voice cut in, sharp and breathless.
"What is it?"
"It's him. Creuset is here."
...What? He's a bit earlier than expected. Well, call it a margin of error.
"Understood," I replied. "Mu, Dearka, I'm leaving the ZAFT forces to you. It'll likely be Creuset and Yzak."
"Yzak is out there!?" Dearka shouted.
"He is. I'm not telling you to shoot him down, Dearka. If you can talk him around, do it."
"..." Dearka went silent. I could practically hear his gears turning as he searched for a way to avoid killing his best friend.
"Mu, you're on Creuset. Naturally. And... Kira? Ditch the Meteor and back Mu up. I need you on Creuset, too."
"Hey! I can handle him myself—" Mu started to protest.
"Don't be arrogant," I snapped. "You might be a world-class MA pilot, Mu, but you've only just started piloting a Mobile Suit. Do you really think you can go toe-to-toe with a man who's been living in one since the war started?"
"But still...!"
Mu was digging his heels in. I knew why—the shadow of his father, the biological legacy he shared with the man out there.
"Don't misunderstand me," I said, my voice dropping an octave. "This isn't your personal vendetta. The future of this entire world is actually on the line here. Act like it."
"...Fine. I get it."
"Glad to hear it. Kira?"
"Understood. I'll make sure Mu stays safe," Kira promised.
"Don't get cheeky, kid," Mu grumbled, his tone lightening as he deliberately regained his composure. "You're just my insurance policy."
I watched them with a faint, wry smile and added one last warning: "As I told you before, the goal is to repel Creuset. Whatever you do, do not sink him."
"Right. That N-Jammer Canceller... the thought of a guy like that holding a card like that gives me the creeps. Alright, Kira, Dearka—let's move!"
"Hey, wait up, old man!" Dearka yelled.
"Not an old man!"
The three units—Freedom, Strike, and Buster—headed toward the Mendel colony, their banter a strange island of normalcy in the chaos. I watched their thrusters fade before turning my eyes back to the primary theater.
"I expected it from Cornelia, but I didn't realize Lemon was this capable," Captain Ramius commented.
Ahead, the Rapiesage's O.O. Launcher and the Weiss-saver's O.O. Rifle were raining a combined storm of beams and solid shells. Strike Daggers tried to hide behind their anti-beam coated shields, but the sheer output was too high. The shields buckled after a few hits, and the follow-up shots tore through the cockpits. Lemon's Solid Sword Breakers were also out, darting into the enemy's blind spots—above, below, and behind—to pick them apart with laser fire.
The Alliance wasn't rolling over, though. Unlike the battle off the coast of Orb, the zero-G environment gave them infinite maneuverability. A month had passed since that defeat, and the Alliance pilots had clearly spent that time training. They were operating in tight cells now, using their shields to deflect the Megillots' suicide rams before countering with beam rifles.
However...
"A month is still just a month."
No matter how much they improved in four weeks, they were fighting Megillots—machines controlled by Aerogater combat AI that had distilled centuries of battle data. The Megillots danced through the beam fire with erratic, inhuman movements, closing the distance to fire Circle Lasers at point-blank range or dodging a beam saber only to tear the enemy's arm off with their "jaws."
"Now then, I should probably—hm?"
A cluster of Megillots caught my eye. They were mid-attack when something slammed into them, crushing the machines into scrap metal. A quick scan showed a spiked iron ball.
Right. That one was still on the board.
"Murue, that new model we missed at Orb has shown up. The Megillots can't handle a pilot of that caliber alone. I'm going to go take him off the board before he thins our numbers too much. Can you handle the command here?"
"Of course. I can't let Lemon and Cornelia show me up forever."
I turned the Glowsaver toward the Raider's last known position. But when I got there...
"Where is he?"
There was nothing but the drifting husks of destroyed Megillots. The Raider was nowhere to be seen.
Sensing something wrong, I expanded the T-LINK search. Boosted Men like Clotho were drugged and conditioned into a state of extreme aggression; their "presence" was a jagged, violent spike in the psyche that should have been easy to track. And yet...
"He's not nearby?"
I could feel Clotho's presence, but he was moving away from the Glowsaver at high speed.
"Ordinarily, I'd assume he was running because I killed his two teammates... but does a Boosted Man even have that kind of judgment?" It seemed unlikely. They were defined by a self-loathing that translated into suicidal aggression. They didn't run from the man who killed their brothers—they hunted him.
Which left one possibility: he was under orders to avoid me.
Azrael had seen me dismantle the other two GAT-X units in seconds. Avoiding the Glowsaver was a logical tactical move to preserve his remaining assets. But would a man as petty and arrogant as Azrael really swallow his pride and tell his pilot to run?
"Axel!"
Murue's voice broke through my thoughts, frantic and bordering on a scream.
"What's wrong?"
"The Kusanagi!"
I whipped the Glowsaver's sensors toward the Kusanagi. The ship was dead in the water, ensnared in a massive web of wires and debris. It must have been leftover dock components displaced by the Dominion's opening salvo. Just like the original timeline, I thought bitterly. Some things never change.
"I could send the Megillots, but... no, that'll take too long. I'm going."
The Megillots' Circle Lasers weren't designed for precision cutting; they'd have to gnaw through the cables, which would take minutes we didn't have. The Glowsaver's Adamant Halper was a much cleaner solution.
Beams and shells from the Alliance fleet converged on me as I raced toward the Kusanagi, but they broke harmlessly against the psychokinetic barrier of my Telekinesis.
"Adamant Halper... activate! Haaa!"
I swung the massive scythe-blade, shearing through the high-tension wires trapping the Orb ship in a single, fluid motion.
"Sorry, Axel. You saved us," Cagalli's voice came through.
"Don't thank me, just don't let it happen again. What's the status of the Megillots?"
"We've lost about ten, but overall, we still have the upper hand."
I nodded at Cagalli's report and scanned the theater. Lemon and Cornelia were displaying perfect synchronization, parrying the Daggers while beginning their run on the enemy's capital ships. Near the Archangel, the mass-produced Gespenst Mk-IIs were acting as snipers with their Mega Beam Rifles. Near the Eternal, Athrun's Justice was carving enemy ships in half with its oversized beam sabers.
But something was missing.
"Where is the Dominion?"
The flagship and the Raider were gone. All I could see were the standard frigates and the endless swarm of Strike Daggers.
Wait. This setup... This was the Battle of Mendel. In the original story, the Dominion used the debris field to mask its approach, appearing directly above the Archangel for a vertical strike.
"Murue! Look up!"
My warning was a heartbeat too late. The Dominion surged out from the shadow of a massive asteroid directly above the Archangel. Its Gottfried cannons were already glowing; four massive beams erupted from the ship's belly, raining down on the carrier.
Neumann performed a miracle of helmsmanship, banking the Archangel into a hard roll to dodge the beams, but the move sent them drifting right into a pre-laid spread of missiles.
"Accel!"
I triggered the Spirit Command. The Chronos boosters roared at 100% output. The Glowsaver blurred, pushing into its maximum combat velocity to intercept the gap between the Archangel and the incoming warheads.
"Axel!?" Murue cried out.
Ignoring her, I slammed the jammer switch. The missiles, which had been seconds from impact, suddenly lost their locks. They veered wildly off course, guided away by the jammer's false signatures, and collided harmlessly with drifting debris, lighting up the void like a string of firecrackers.
Pilot Status: Axel Almar
Level: 37
Stats: Melee: 258 | Ranged: 278 | Skill: 268 | Defense: 268 | Evasion: 298 | Accuracy: 318
SP: 454
Ace Bonus: SP Boost (Consumes SP to enhance unit performance)
Spirit Commands:
Accel (SP 4)
Effort (SP 8)
Focus (SP 16)
Direct Hit (SP 30)
Awaken (SP 32)
Love (SP 48)
Skills: EXP Up, SP Boost (SP Up Lv.9 & SP Regen & Concentration), Telekinesis Lv.10, Attacker, Gunfight Lv.9, Infight Lv.9, Morale Limit Break, Geass (Gray).
Kill Count: 317
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