Regarding the young man Shinn Asuka, Rau Le Creuset still had a profound impression.
After all, many people joined ZAFT for money, but Shinn Asuka was the first blockhead who, in the context of a few of his jokes, would seriously consider the possibility of kidnapping Chairman Patrick Zala for an astronomical ransom.
Incidentally, Shinn Asuka had rarely activated his notoriously single-threaded brain on this matter, ultimately calculating the conclusion that "it would be impossible to succeed."
But speaking of which, Chairman Zala would probably be furious upon receiving news from here. After all, this was the second round of Gundam theft incidents, truly a bad start.
Sitting in the ZAKU Warrior's cockpit, Rau Le Creuset casually adjusted some options in the OS, waiting for the hangar to clear enough space for launch.
His stalling plan was very successful—in fact, too successful. He estimated that Yzak Joule in the Duel Gundam next to him must be so anxious that smoke was practically coming out of his head.
Yzak Joule, currently in the Duel Gundam's cockpit, skillfully flipped down the keyboard on the side, modified the most critical data points, and began observing the hangar situation.
Although the maintenance crew was moving the parts on the ground at full speed, it was still too slow.
For some reason, seeing the scene before him, Yzak Joule subconsciously thought of a maneuver Roz Links had used while piloting the Jesta on Earth.
"He can do it, so I can do it too!"
Yzak Joule gritted his teeth, put the keyboard back, gripped the control sticks with both hands, and, without waiting for the maintenance crew to clear a complete path, piloted the Duel Gundam out of the standby area.
Standing in the narrow open space, Yzak Joule pressed a few buttons and stomped the pedals.
Compared to Roz Links' hover-like movement on the Jesta using leg thrusters, the Duel Gundam's legs did not spray flames. Instead, it used the backpack fixed to the unit to propel the unit into a hover.
The Duel Gundam began hovering, passing over the parts on the ground, and flew to the doorway, grazing the roof of the hangar at an extreme altitude.
The maintenance crew still moving parts in the hangar only felt a wave of heat knock them down. Looking up, the Duel Gundam, which had just finished preliminary debugging, was already hovering and flying out of the hangar door.
"Yzak Joule, watch your energy!"
Seeing Yzak Joule's current maneuver, Rau Le Creuset narrowed his eyes. "The Duel Gundam hasn't been equipped with the new high-energy battery yet! It's still using the original design's battery!"
"It's enough. It won't take much time to defeat those guys."
Yzak Joule pulled down his helmet visor and stomped the foot pedals.
"Yzak Joule, Assault Duel Gundam, launching!"
The thrusters on the previously hovering Duel Gundam erupted with fierce blue flames. The flames from the legs even scorched the ground.
With powerful thrust, the Assault Duel Gundam rapidly ascended and flew toward the chaotic battlefield.
"Hmm... Too bad. The ZAKU Warrior can't perform his maneuver."
Sitting in the silver-white painted ZAKU Warrior's cockpit, Rau Le Creuset lamented the difference in unit performance, but internally, he was calculating how long the Gundam thieves could last against Yzak Joule.
After all, while Shinn Asuka's piloting skills improved at lightning speed, Yzak Joule could still easily overwhelm Shinn Asuka, showing his undeniable skill.
"A headache..."
In the hangar, the maintenance crew, who thought Rau Le Creuset couldn't hover out of the hangar like Yzak Joule due to the ZAKU Warrior's performance limitations, sped up their part moving even more, and expressions of "shame" appeared on their faces.
After all, in their minds, they were delaying the battle due to the maintenance crew's inefficiency, completely unaware that this was all orchestrated by Rau Le Creuset.
At this moment, Rau Le Creuset was simultaneously planning how to transfer that "gift" to the Earth Alliance while looking at the screen, which showed a path that had been cleared, allowing just enough space for one MS foot.
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Meanwhile, explosions were echoing between the hangars.
The Impulse Gundam executed a somewhat unconventional shield bash, ramming directly into the Abyss Gundam, which was holding up its beam trident with its center-mass wide open. The intense impact instinctively made Auel take two steps back, and the Abyss almost fell over.
The Impulse's head-mounted vulcan cannons fired continuously. Although they couldn't penetrate the Abyss Gundam's Phase Shift armor, they successfully forced the Abyss Gundam to retreat.
Immediately after, the Impulse turned and used its shield to graze the Gaia Gundam, which had inexplicably reverted to its Mobile Armor (MA) form and was charging towards it. Shinn Asuka used the momentum to break free from the encirclement of the three mobile suits.
Shinn Asuka had once tried to replicate Roz Links' maneuver of abruptly turning and taking down an ambusher while surrounded by enemies. However, after being "stabbed in the waist" by Yzak Joule multiple times during training and getting thoroughly chewed out, he never tried that move again.
But the need to break free from the enemy's encirclement as quickly as possible was something Shinn Asuka had ingrained into his body; his instinct was to keep all enemies within his line of sight.
"What a persistent guy..."
Looking at the Impulse Gundam, which was single-handedly blocking their three mobile suits, Auel, sitting in the Abyss Gundam's cockpit, gritted his teeth and raised the beam trident in his hand.
"Time is almost up, we need to withdraw!"
Sting Oakley frowned as he looked at the countdown set on his mobile suit.
"I'd like to leave, but Stellar is completely caught up in the fight now, isn't she?"
Auel squinted, watching Stellar operating the Gaia Gundam in a relentless assault on the Impulse.
"Hey, Stellar, it's time to pull out!"
Sting said over the communication channel. Taking advantage of the brief moment of transformation after the Impulse blocked another charge from the Gaia Gundam with its shield, he raised his beam rifle and pulled the trigger at the Impulse.
"Only this one... only this guy, must die!!"
Stellar operated the Gaia Gundam to turn around in the air and land steadily on the ground, her eyes fixed on the Impulse. Clearly, Stellar had entered a state of frenzy.
"What?!"
A harsh alarm sounded in his ears. Seeing the incoming beam, Shinn Asuka's eyes widened. He stomped the pedals and dodged the shot.
"A good chance!"
Seeing the Impulse expose an opening due to its emergency dodge, Auel smirked. The multi-phase beam cannon on the Abyss's chest lit up, starting to aim at the Impulse, which was trying to regain its balance.
A thick yellow beam suddenly appeared in the sky and shot towards the aiming Abyss Gundam.
Seeing the attack, Auel instinctively took two steps back and canceled the charging of the multi-phase beam cannon.
"Tch... missed again."
At this moment, a girl's voice came through the Impulse's comms.
In the sky, a red ZAKU Warrior was holding a beam sniper cannon. It was clear that the high-power sniper shot just now came from this red ZAKU Warrior.
"Luna?!"
Seeing the identification signal on the radar and the Abyss being stopped by Lunamaria Hawke, Shinn Asuka gritted his teeth, raised the small shield on his left forearm, and rammed it into the charging Gaia Gundam.
"Ugh..."
Stellar didn't expect Shinn Asuka to suddenly flare up. The Gaia Gundam crashed directly into the Impulse's shield and was sent flying by the Impulse, whose thruster output had been increased.
The next moment, a thick yellow beam descended from the sky, landing in the Impulse's direction of advance.
Seeing the beam about to hit her, Stellar didn't care where her mobile suit was. She forcibly completed the transformation while being pushed by the Impulse and, in a split second, protected the cockpit with her shield.
The attack from the beam sniper cannon accurately struck the Gaia Gundam's shield, knocking the Gaia Gundam even further away.
"Nice one, Luna!"
Seeing the scene, Shinn Asuka was overjoyed. He took the opportunity to scoop up the beam rifle he had kicked away earlier and continued his pursuit of the Gaia Gundam.
"Uh... You're welcome?"
Lunamaria Hawke, sitting in the cockpit, saw that her reticle, which was originally aiming at the Abyss Gundam, had drifted due to the recoil and hit the Impulse's path instead. A few drops of sweat beaded on her forehead.
"Stellar!"
Seeing Stellar knocked away, Sting operated the Chaos Gundam to fire a few missiles at the Impulse.
Just as Sting was about to continue attacking the Impulse with the Chaos, a barrage from an MS-use heavy assault rifle appeared in the sky, forcing Sting to raise his shield.
A grey-white ZAKU Warrior was seen holding its heavy assault rifle, pouring bullets onto the Chaos Gundam.
"I'll deal with him. Keep them here, Shinn Asuka!"
A somewhat familiar voice came through the Impulse's comms.
"Rey! Why are you guys so slow!"
Hearing the voice on the comms, Shinn Asuka did not relax. Instead, he became nervous because the Gaia Gundam had picked up the anti-ship sword he had flung away earlier.
The two anti-ship swords clashed, and the scorching beam sparks flew everywhere, partially melting several jeeps and hangars.
Unlike Shinn Asuka's instinctive combat style, Stellar's use of the anti-ship sword was more like relying on an unknown frenzy, repeating the single motion of slashing.
The powerful, heavy, and rapid slashes meant that even Shinn Asuka couldn't find a good opening. He could only struggle to hold on, creating a stalemate.
"Time's up! Stellar, we have to go!"
The countdown alarm sounded in the cockpit. Sting gritted his teeth, opened the cover on the Chaos Gundam's backpack, and launched the components towards the grey-white ZAKU Warrior in the sky.
"Kill you kill you kill you..."
At this moment, Stellar seemed to have entered a state of heightened frenzy, focused only on destroying the Impulse in front of her.
"Boom..."
A hole was blasted open in the outer wall of the artificial colony not far away.
"We absolutely have to go, Stellar!"
Seeing that the withdrawal route had been opened, Sting urged her again.
Stellar did not respond but continued to slash at the Impulse.
"If she doesn't go, she can just stay here and die!"
At this moment, Auel glanced at the battle-crazed Stellar, deployed his backpack, and fired three beam cannons hidden in the arc-shaped armor components at the red ZAKU Warrior in the sky, forcing Lunamaria Hawke's ZAKU Warrior to retreat.
"...Die?"
Like a fiercely operating machine abruptly pressing the pause button, Stellar executed a final slash, then maneuvered the mobile suit to back away, creating some distance from the Impulse.
Stellar's pupils were constricted, and she was constantly trembling, as if she had seen something terrifying.
"Phew... Phew... A trap to lure me into attacking?"
Shinn Asuka took a couple of shallow breaths, operated the Impulse to raise the anti-ship sword again, looking for an opening in the Gaia Gundam.
But Shinn Asuka quickly frowned. Even though the Gaia Gundam was showing openings everywhere, recalling the earlier frenzied attacks, he couldn't be sure if the openings were fake.
"...Die... Die... Die?"
In the Gaia Gundam's cockpit, Stellar murmured, her fear constantly surging from her empty heart, almost drowning her.
"Auel! What are you saying?!"
Sting grew anxious seeing Stellar's current state.
"But it worked, didn't it? She stopped."
Auel seized the opportunity, retreated two steps, and activated the mobile suit's backpack thrusters. "Stellar, if you fly out through that hole now, you won't have to die."
"Tch... Auel, you withdraw first, I'll cover Stellar!"
Seeing Stellar was still in a confused state, Sting gritted his teeth and piloted the Chaos Gundam towards the Gaia Gundam.
"Won't have to die... Won't have to die?!"
Apparently stimulated by Auel's words, Stellar grasped onto them like a life-saving thread in the abyss.
The Gaia Gundam threw the anti-ship sword at the Impulse like a throwing dart, stomped the pedals abruptly, and flew towards the breach at an extreme speed.
"Alright, it's time for us to go too, Captain!"
Seeing his plan succeed, Auel grinned.
"Phew... Retreat!"
Seeing Stellar finally flying towards the breach, Sting breathed a slight sigh of relief.
At this moment, Shinn Asuka operated the Impulse to block the anti-ship sword thrown like a dart, and then he saw the three mobile suits flying towards the breach.
"Damn it! My bonus is getting away!"
Shinn Asuka was getting anxious now. After fighting at high intensity for so long, he was about to reap the fruits of victory. Was the victory he had almost grasped going to slip away just like that?
With that, Shinn Asuka stomped the pedals, and the Impulse, equipped with the Sword Silhouette pack, also flew towards the breach.
"Shinn Asuka, don't be reckless. You can't catch them with the Sword Silhouette. The Minerva has launched the Force Silhouette pack, go change it first!"
Rey's voice rang out through the comms.
Rey and Lunamaria Hawke's ZAKU Warriors flew past the Impulse, continuing the pursuit.
"We'll chase first!"
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"Faster... faster... faster still..."
Stellar's expression was panicked. Watching the breach grow closer, her mind seemed to be sinking into chaos. "No... I don't want to die..."
Just as she was about to exit through the breach, a beam hit the Gaia Gundam's shield.
A mobile suit that looked slightly familiar to the trio was rapidly flying toward them.
"ZAFT is not a place you can just stroll into and walk out of whenever you please!"
In the Duel Gundam's cockpit, Yzak Joule felt an awkwardness as he fired that shot.
Clearly, this was due to some data not being finely tuned, but there was no time for micro-adjustments now.
"All of you, stay here!"
The trio was momentarily stunned by the sudden attacking mobile suit, but their movement toward the breach did not stop at all.
"...You continue to withdraw, I'll hold him off."
At this moment, a slightly decadent voice sounded over the communication channel.
A red and white beam emerged from the breach, striking the Duel Gundam's shield and forcefully halting the Duel Gundam momentarily.
The Raider Gundam had appeared there at some point, raising its twin beam cannon.
"If it's just stalling him... it shouldn't be a problem..."
Clotho Buer casually screwed the cap back onto his flask, placed it in the storage box next to him, and pulled down his helmet visor.
"As long as it's not the White Devil... no problem."
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