Even though he had just escaped ZAFT's pursuit, Roz still felt a prickling sensation in his head.
"Tch… still not safe?" Roz muttered, piloting the Jegan back into the hangar.
"Christina, I'll leave the maintenance to you," Roz said. He wasn't leaving the cockpit—he needed to be ready to strike at any moment.
"Understood, Roz. The junk dealer delivered a batch of rockets—you can use the rocket launcher now," Haro on the control panel flapped its wings, eyes glinting.
"Good. The beam rifle's magazines are nearly depleted too," Roz said, relaxing slightly when the cockpit display showed "charging."
Next, two rocket launcher magazines, along with Roz's favorite rocket launcher, were mounted onto the Jegan.
"Mr. Roz? Isn't it already safe?" Kira, having exited the cockpit earlier, floated near the hatch and was surprised to see the Jegan still active, continuing its armament upgrades.
"…Do you trust me, Kira?" Roz asked after seeing the forged rocket on the shield display read "connected."
"Huh? What's going on?"
"There may still be a fight. Be ready."
After saying this, Roz cut the comms, lifted the helmet visor, and pulled out a bag of drinking water from a nearby storage box, sipping through the straw.
Outside, Kira didn't know why Roz warned of a fight, but trusting Roz, he climbed back into the Strike Gundam.
About half an hour passed. Just as Kira thought this might have been Roz's misjudgment…
The alarm blared.
"…ZAFT? At this time?!"
On the bridge, Murrue frowned as she looked at the radar report.
"How long since returning Lacus… an ambush?"
"All hands, first combat configuration!" Natarle efficiently returned to her position.
"I'll prepare to sortie," Mu said, leaving his seat and floating quickly toward the bridge hatch.
"Radar scan shows… Duel, Buster, Blitz, and a Laurasia-class warship!"
Faced with the radar operator's report, Murrue considered how to hold through the window before Strike and Jegan could sortie.
"Bridge, Jegan ready to sortie. Open the hangar doors," Roz's voice came over the comms.
"Roz?! But you just finished—"
"Just pushing them back. No need to raid the warship, so conserve power," Roz said over the comms video, lifting his helmet visor and giving a thumbs up.
"…Open the ejection deck. I'll leave the rest to you, Roz," Murrue said, gripping the armrest.
"Yeah, don't worry. Also, have the Montgomery accelerate—they're too fragile," Roz replied.
In the ejection corridor, Roz piloted the Jegan onto the launch platform.
The once-dark ejection deck lights flickered on.
"Phew… Roz Links, Jegan, sortie."
Stepping on the pedal, the Jegan shot down the ejection corridor at extreme speed, entering space.
"There you are…" Roz pushed the throttle, the unit rising, heading rapidly toward the three Gundams below.
"I've already gauged the Aegis' strength. Now, let me assess yours," he muttered.
-----------------------------------
"Long Legs deployed an MS," Nicol said from inside the Blitz Gundam, checking the scan. "It's the Cub."
"Huh? Just him?" Yzak, in Duel Gundam, sounded displeased with the scan results. "What about Strike? Playing hide-and-seek?"
"Don't rush, Yzak," Dearka said relaxedly from the Buster Gundam. "Looks like Athrun couldn't take down this Cub either. Why not treat him as an appetizer first?"
"Hmph, fine." Yzak activated the Duel Gundam's PS armor, turning the originally iron-gray unit into blue and white. "Then he's the first to get cut!"
Raising his beam rifle, Duel Gundam fired a point-blank shot at the Jegan.
Strangely, Roz's Jegan dodged the seemingly certain hit with a brief, odd displacement.
"Tch, slippery bastard," Yzak muttered, thinking he had simply missed.
Roz raised the rocket launcher on his right hand, firing a rocket at the three Gundams in front of him.
The rocket exploded after some flight, scattering a conical fragment pattern, forcing the three Gundams to disperse.
Roz, however, wasn't fully satisfied with the effect.
"Fragment density too low."
"Roz doesn't have our modified schematics for fragment rockets. This is standard issue—its power and density are naturally lower than our modified version," Haro flapped its wings from the console.
"If one isn't enough, fire a few more."
Roz pressed the triggers twice more, firing two more rockets toward the Buster Gundam.
Compared to high-mobility types like Duel and Blitz with extra propulsion backpacks, Buster—a pure artillery-specialized unit without extra packs—was the obvious "soft target."
"Hey! Shouldn't you attack Yzak first? Why me?!" Dearka shouted, frantically piloting Buster to escape the fragment barrage.
"Probably because your speed isn't high," Nicol activated Blitz Gundam's Mirage System, vanishing into space.
"Tch, Dearka, after I finish with this Cub and Long Legs, I'll come back and teach you a lesson," Yzak pushed the throttle, Duel Gundam speeding up, firing point-blank shots at Jegan.
Jegan raised the shield on its left forearm, blocking an unavoidable beam.
"Perfect opportunity!" Yzak, seeing the shield up, approached Jegan with Duel Gundam, drawing his beam saber to strike.
Clearly, Yzak, like Athrun, favored melee combat.
"I won't lose in close combat," Roz thought, squinting at the incoming saber. Jegan's left arm swung.
The shield swiftly and smoothly hit Duel Gundam's hand, causing severe movement deformation.
"Shield strike?! Can this MS frame even handle it?!" Yzak was caught off guard; this MS fighting style hadn't appeared in training.
In the next moment, Jegan's left shield rammed Duel Gundam's cockpit, executing a standard shield strike. A fragment rocket fired from the shield, exploding at close range on Duel Gundam's cockpit.
"Ughhh…" The violent impact forced Yzak to cry out in pain. Duel Gundam was pushed back, and its power dropped significantly.
"Izak!" Nicol, now behind Jegan in Blitz Gundam, raised his attack shield to backstab Jegan.
What should have been an assured backstab, Jegan quickly spun, executing a standard roundhouse kick, knocking away Blitz's hidden arm.
"What?!" Nicol was shocked. Even the Archangel hadn't detect his gundam before the ambush.
"Killing intent… too obvious," Roz felt the sensation in his mind like a blade at his throat.
Though he couldn't see Blitz Gundam, the pilot's killing intent clearly revealed its cockpit location.
As Jegan finished the roundhouse kick, Roz fired another rocket, exploding near Blitz's cockpit.
"Ughhh…" Nicol, seeing the incoming rocket, used the fastest reflex of his life to activate the PS armor, raising the shield to protect the cockpit.
The impact not only drained Blitz Gundam's power significantly, but areas not covered by PS armor were shredded by the dense fragment barrage, with cockpit data turning red.
Fortunately, the shield was battered but the cockpit remained largely intact, saving Nicol's life.
"Perfect opportunity!" Dearka, lingering at the edge of the battle, saw Jegan's move. Buster Gundam's dual cannons rapidly combined into a Long-Range Sniper Rifle, firing a thick beam at Jegan.
Jegan didn't adjust in place. Instead, Roz boosted the thrusters, maneuvering between Duel and Blitz Gundams, avoiding the shot and moving out of the battle zone.
"Phew… squad reassemble. I underestimated this Cub," Yzak, having regained his posture, no longer looked down on the enemy.
What seemed like a long melee engagement had all happened in under a minute. Meanwhile, Strike Gundam had already launched from the Archangel.
.....................