"Lacus… so that's it, a search-and-rescue fleet?"
Hearing Athrun's angry roar over the public channel, Roz understood the other side's intent.
Facing the swinging beam saber, the Jegan's free right hand grabbed the Aegis Gundam's shield. Then, with a smooth turn, the Jegan executed a standard over-the-shoulder throw, hurling the Aegis Gundam off along its right shoulder.
"Damn Earth forces, can't fight without taking a hostage?" Athrun, having become ZAFT's Red Suit, was naturally no ordinary opponent. After being thrown, the Aegis Gundam quickly adjusted its posture and charged back toward the Jegan.
"I originally planned to use the scrap dealer as a relay to quietly return Lacus to the PLANTs. You guys just made everything more complicated, kid!" Roz raised the shield, blocking the Aegis Gundam's left-arm beam saber thrust.
"Cut the crap! Give Lacus back!" Athrun clearly didn't trust Roz's words, intending to defeat him, then use him to force the Archangel to hand over Lacus.
The Aegis Gundam rapidly transformed into MA mode; its limbs became claws and it lunged at Roz.
Roz skillfully used the Jegan's limbs to block the Aegis Gundam's claws.
He pushed the controls hard, and the Jegan and Aegis Gundam entered a stalemate.
"Damn it…" Athrun pressed the controls, and the exposed Sea Demon Phase energy cannon from the MA mode began to glow.
Such a clear glow could not escape Roz's notice. The Jegan's left arm adjusted slightly, the shield rotated, and the remaining three forged rockets in the shield fired straight at the Aegis Gundam's Sea Demon energy cannon.
"Bang, bang, bang…"
With a series of explosions, the Aegis Gundam's energy steadily dropped. Athrun instinctively loosened his grip on the restrained Jegan and reverted to MS mode.
"Tch…" Athrun gritted his teeth, glanced at the Sea Demon Phase energy cannon showing "signal lost," noted the reduced energy level, and drew his beam rifle again.
Since close combat wasn't guaranteed, he decided to engage at mid-to-long range.
The battlefield, compared to the previous crushing advantage, became even more chaotic with the arrival of the Strike Gundam and Moebius Zero.
On the Saphirus, still some distance from the battlefield, Creuset, though his mobile suit was not ready, had no intention of doing nothing.
"Prepare the main cannon, take out the escort ships first!" Looking at the Montgomery, which was already battered, and the Bernard, which still retained decent firepower, he chose to destroy the Bernard first.
The Saphirus' main cannon lit up with a blinding white light, and the thick beam reached the battlefield almost instantly, effortlessly melting the Bernard's armor and detonating its reactor.
"…I've always wanted to ask, are Earth Federation warships all this fragile?" Roz frowned at the scene before him.
"Roz, prepare to retreat! If we continue, the Archangel will be destroyed too!" Mu's communication reached him just as he was considering his next move. "Just detected, at least two more ZAFT warships have joined the battle!"
"Zzzz… this is the Earth Federation's Archangel." Hearing the broadcast from the Archangel, everyone froze for a moment. "Our ship is providing humanitarian protection for Lacus Clyne, daughter of Siegel Clyne, chair of the PLANT council. We recovered her escape pod from the debris of Junius 7.
"If ZAFT continues its attack, we will consider you to have abandoned responsibility for Lacus Clyne and will handle the matter ourselves."
Badgiruel's expression in the broadcast was serious, while Lacus looked on in confusion.
"You… are despicable! Can't fight without taking a hostage?!" Athrun shouted over the public channel at the Jegan and the newly arrived Strike Gundam.
Though Athrun had no real feelings for Lacus, nominally his "fiancée," the hostage tactic enraged him.
"…Athrun, cease fire and retreat," Creuset's voice also came over the communication. Athrun begrudgingly piloted the Aegis Gundam away from the battlefield.
"…What an eyesore, the whole plan's been thrown off, Kira," Roz sighed, retracting the Jegan's beam rifle.
"I bet George on the Montgomery is starting to run around like mad now."
-----------------------------------
When Roz returned to the Archangel's bridge, he saw the "Administrator George" that Murrue had mentioned, raging furiously on the bridge.
"How could you do this?! If we simply sent Lacus Clyne to the lunar base, we would have had more leverage, even the ability to influence this war!"
In the video, Administrator George usually appeared kind and friendly, but now his face was darkened with anger.
"This is treason!"
"Treason? If your decision prevents the Archangel and the Strike Gundam from returning to Earth, then who's committing treason?" Seeing the bridge locked in a stalemate, Roz spoke up, shifting the topic.
"And who are you? Why are you on the bridge?!" George, fuming, turned to Roz, aiming to attack.
"He's the pilot of that Jegan; he protected the Archangel all the way here," Murrue explained Roz's identity. "He's a space junk recycler. We hired him."
"Tch… this is an internal Earth Federation meeting. Unauthorized personnel, get out!" George was clearly still thinking about how to turn Lacus, this "political resource," into maximum gain.
At that moment, Roz did something no one expected.
Roz reached out, grabbed George by the collar, and with his right hand delivered a punch to George's cheek.
"Ugh…" George was sent flying, hitting the railing.
Before George could recover, Roz floated over, grabbed him by the collar, and lifted him off the railing.
"What are you thinking about, politics? This is a matter of life and death!" Roz's roar exploded like a bomb in George's ears.
"ZAFT has taken four Gundams. Only the Archangel and Strike Gundam remain. If we don't bring them to Earth, where will the Federation get MS and warship data?!"
"We've been forced to continually retreat against two ZAFT warships and their squads, and now there are three enemy warships!" Roz pulled George closer so he could see the anger in Roz's eyes.
"Why should we protect the Archangel? Why fight against Creuset's elite squad? With insufficient personnel and shipborne units, the Archangel keeps retreating, and the Montgomery, already half-disabled, couldn't even take down a single GINN in the last battle?"
Roz's words laid bare the bloody reality for everyone. What had seemed like a flourishing situation was only superficial. Despite the Archangel's extensive automated navigation, it was still understaffed and being relentlessly harassed by Creuset's squad.
"Besides, your daughter Flay is on the Archangel. Do you want her to die in space as ZAFT angrily destroys the ship?" Roz's question made George instantly sober, sweat pouring down his face.
Indeed—what had he been thinking? His daughter was right there on the ship. If she died, what would be the meaning of his life?
Seeing George begin to calm down, Roz casually pushed him, letting him lean against the railing.
"…What are you planning to do?" George's tone was no longer angry, but somewhat calm. "I have only one request: Flay must survive."
Though George was a Blue Cosmos officer, his love for Flay outweighed any organizational goal.
"We will use a space junk recycler as an intermediary for the transfer," Murrue explained the original plan. "Once the transfer is complete, we should be far away and relatively safe."
"Let's hope so. I'll take Flay once it's done," George finally realized that he couldn't intervene, nor did he have the right to.
He turned to Roz. That punch had left his cheek burning.
"I'll remember this punch."
-----------------------------------
"Roz, I've been meaning to ask — do you have some kind of personality-correcting martial art where one good beating fixes people?" After George left the bridge to fetch his precious daughter Flay, Mu joked to lighten the mood.
"Look — you smacked Flay and now she's behaving; you punched George once and now he's calmed down."
"If I really had that power, I should smack you right now so you'd act a little more sensible."
Hearing Mu, Roz felt his fist tense up — he almost wanted to punch that irreverent fellow.
"What are you talking about? I'm a perfectly respectable, responsible adult. Better than you, at least. Bow down before me, god," Mu said with a grin, pivoting around Murrue and Natarle and moving away from Roz on tiptoe.
"Don't run — I'll show you my personality-correcting punch right now!" Roz snapped back, riled up; joking's fine, but don't bring up his dirty laundry. He shoved the railing behind him and readied a punch to teach Mu a lesson.
With the two jokers bickering on the bridge, everyone who'd been on edge relaxed a little.
Now they only had to wait for the space junk dealer Roz had contacted to show up.
..................