Faced with mounting pressure from the Federation, Kimberley desperately needed a decisive victory to prevent himself from being replaced.
Under this stress, he was determined to crush the "Mafty Army" in Oenbelli at any cost.
Consequently, while maintaining the encirclement, the Kimberley Unit began regrouping its Mobile Suits, preparing to break Oenbelli in one massive push.
"If the ν Gundam could defeat the Sazabi, then with so many advanced MS at my disposal, how could I possibly lose to two modernized relics?" Kimberley declared.
Indeed, he viewed the Delta Kai and the Sinanju merely as modernized versions of older machines.
In response to the tightening net, the Oenbelli "Mafty Army" had entered a state of total mobilization.
Every street, every house, and every room was occupied by combat teams armed with anti-vehicle rockets and rifles, using wreckage to form a desperate line of defense.
Since surrender meant a fate worse than death and resistance meant likely death, they chose to go down fighting. No matter why they had joined, there was no turning back now.
Char, accompanied by Pete and the others, was led by a guard into the conference room of a hotel—now serving as the temporary headquarters for the Mafty Army.
"I didn't expect... the headquarters to be in a place like this," Pete remarked, looking around the hotel.
"This is only a temporary command post. We'll move to a more secure location later, and this place will become a decoy for the Federation," a raspy voice replied.
A middle-aged man wearing a military-green short-sleeved shirt and camouflage cargo pants stood before them.
"I presume you are the pilot from the forums—the one who was flying the GM II." The man scrutinized Char for a moment before extending his hand. "I am Koren, the Commander-in-Chief of the Mafty Army."
For some reason, Koren felt Char looked incredibly familiar, as if he had seen that face somewhere before.
"Yes, that pilot is me." Char tucked away the communicator he had been using to research his own history. His eyes narrowed slightly behind his sunglasses. He shook Koren's hand and offered a calm smile. "The situation is urgent, Commander Koren. I would like to deploy immediately. As for introductions... perhaps we can finish them once the area is secure?"
"Agreed. That was my thought exactly." The middle-aged man breathed a slight sigh of relief. "Your timing is perfect. We need highly skilled pilots like you to stand against the Federation."
Koren walked over to a table covered in a heavily marked map and pondered for a moment.
"We can scrape together one standard Jegan Type-D for you. That is the absolute limit of our current resources." Koren sighed. "Even though Mafty is here, and those two mysterious MS are fighting the Federation, we cannot pin all our hopes on them."
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Hathaway stared at the Sinanju before him, involuntarily slipping into a trance of memory.
Twelve years had passed since the "Char's Rebellion." He had grown from a reckless boy into the young man he was today. Amuro, Char, Quess... the scenes of the past surged forward, playing like a film behind his eyes.
Glancing at the "Mafty Army" as they scrambled to set up defensive lines, Hathaway hesitated.
He switched on his voice changer, modulating his tone to mimic Gawman's voice.
He still needed his civilian identity within the Federation for future operations; Gawman would just have to take the fall for this one.
"Such a distinct Zeon style... Just who are you?"
"I am... Full Frontal."
Facing Hathaway's inquiry, Roz also activated his voice changer, making his voice deeper and more resonant, fitting the persona of the "Second Coming of the Red Comet."
"I am the designated vessel for the will of Char Aznable."
Roz chose those words carefully. In a literal sense, it wasn't a lie—after all, his "performance" as Char had been explicitly requested by the man himself.
Hathaway's eyes widened behind his visor. As the leader of Mafty, he had often been called the "Second Coming of Char," but he had never felt comfortable with the title. He believed that hope for humanity still existed, but that the deeply entrenched, decaying system had to be dismantled first.
In his own mind, he was using Amuro's attitude to execute Char's ideals. He wasn't the "true" Red Comet.
But if this newcomer was to be believed, there were now two "Chars" on the battlefield.
'A vessel for his will? Is he a clone?'
"Hey, Mafty! The enemy is moving up again!"
Gawman's voice crackled over the comms, interrupting Hathaway's thoughts.
"Kimberley... they reorganized their assault this quickly?"
In Gawman's experience, Kimberley's units were usually slow and bureaucratic—the very definition of Federation inefficiency. Why were they regrouping so fast today?
What Gawman didn't know was that Kimberley had staked his entire career on this single play.
He had committed every remaining asset—Jegan Type-Ds and Gustav Karls alike—into a final, desperate push to break Oenbelli.
"The Messer's performance can't match a Gundam... Use the buildings and the treeline for hit-and-run tactics! Do not get bogged down in a duel!"
Hathaway made his decision. He couldn't abandon the "Mafty Army." Even if only one percent of these thirty thousand people could be integrated into the real Mafty, it would be a massive boost to their strength.
Besides, he had a mountain of questions for this "Full Frontal." For instance... why did this man feel like an immovable wall? Why did his presence feel so much like Amuro Ray?
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The "Mafty Army" hangar was hidden within a long-abandoned factory on the edge of town.
"Jegan Type-D..."
Now clad in a pilot suit, Char sat within the cockpit of the Jegan that Commander Koren had managed to spare. He adjusted the OS settings while scanning the machine's performance specifications.
To distinguish it from others, the machine's thighs had been crudely repainted with red and yellow markings.
"This machine is leaps and bounds beyond the GM II... are all Federation suits monsters these days?" Char mused, closing the settings menu after finalizing the last adjustment.
"Damien, the Federation is moving up again." Koren's voice crackled over the Jegan's comms. "We're counting on you."
"Understood. Damien, Jegan Type-D, launching!"
Char maneuvered the Jegan to a standing position, grabbing the beam rifle and shield prepared nearby.
As the Jegan stepped out of the factory, he saw the remnants of the "Mafty Army" MS units—those who had been battered relentlessly during Kimberley's first wave.
They were now scrambling back to the front lines to mount a desperate defense.
In the distance, toward the direction of the Federation's advance, he spotted the Messer and the Sinanju—two machines exuding an undeniable Zeon aura. He could hear the dialogue between the pilots over the open frequency.
"...I am the designated vessel for the will of Char Aznable."
"?"
Hearing those words, Char's expression became utterly bizarre—looking exactly like that "old man squinting at a smartphone" meme.
'What is going on? What has happened to this era? Have I gone crazy, or has the world?'
"Vessel for the will of Char"? Then what the hell was he?
Moreover, that sensation—there was no mistaking it. Despite the voice changer, the pilot of that crimson machine was definitely the "Amuro" who had just been chasing him through the shopping mall! 'Don't think I won't recognize you just because you changed your tone!'
'What on earth are you doing, Amuro?! Have you lost your mind?'
Char let out a long, weary sigh and shifted his gaze to the purple Messer.
Presumably, that was the pilot people called the "Second Coming of Char"—Mafty Navue Erin.
'What exactly did I do in the future to become this popular? Why is it that after I'm dead, everyone and their mother is using my name as a prefix?'
Char shook his head, physically tossing the chaotic thoughts out of his mind.
Sure enough, it's better to focus on the battle first, crush the Federation forces, and then rise through the ranks of the Mafty organization...
Char pressed the pedal. Under the operation of the thrusters, the Jegan Type D slowly took flight, "jumping" toward the position where the Messer and Sinanju were located.
"Ugh... this feeling, am I also being bound by gravity?"
Feeling the gravitational environment of Earth, Char couldn't help but curse under his breath.
Because of the thruster performance of the previous GM II, it wasn't capable of high jumps like the Jegan, so this feeling of being bound by gravity hadn't been as obvious.
After piloting a machine like the Jegan, Char felt the sensation of "gravity" for the first time.
Char stopped the machine's ascent. According to his calculations, as long as the Jegan landed steadily, it would drop near the Messer and Sinanju; continuing to use the thrusters at this point would only waste hard-earned propellant.
Speaking of which, that unnamed Gundam has been hovering in the sky this whole time... does it really have that much propellant?
Thinking this, Char saw the units of the Kimberly Force approaching in the distance and raised the Jegan's beam rifle.
Within the ranks assembled by the Kimberly Force, in addition to the conventional convoy, the MS complement included eight Gustav Karls and twenty Jegan Type Ds.
Excluding the MS that had to remain stationary to maintain the blockade, it could be said that Kimberly had brought out the rest of his family fortune.
A purplish-red beam accurately struck a flying sub-flight system. The two Kimberly Jegan Type Ds on the platform had no time to react before they were thrown by the explosion and inertia, crashing to the ground.
The sudden attack caused a bit of chaos for the Kimberly Force. Immediately afterward, even though they had not yet reached the edge of the town of Oenbelli, the Kimberly Force's MS began firing toward the town.
Clang...
The Jegan landed steadily on the ground. A pinkish-purple beam fired by the Kimberly Force struck a building next to the Jegan that was spitting muzzle flashes, blowing a large hole in the structure.
At this time, four Messers had already begun their actions from various directions.
Relying on the short bursts of their back thrusters, the machines moved quickly between buildings, their long beam rifles continuously firing yellow beams.
However, Char felt as if he were being locked onto by someone and subconsciously halted his next move.
He looked toward the source of the pressure—that magnificent Sinanju.
This machine was observing his own unit with its mono-eye, as if it wanted to peer through the cockpit and see him directly.
"Are you not going to fight? Mr. Vessel of Char's Will?"
Inexplicably, as if thinking of something amusing, Char's lips curled into a smirk.
Meanwhile, after seeing the footage of the Jegan and Sinanju facing off at headquarters, Koren, the commander-in-chief of the "Mafty Army," seemed to realize something.
He suddenly clenched one hand into a fist and struck it into the palm of his other hand.
"I see, no wonder I thought Damien looked so familiar."
Recalling Char's appearance, Koren spoke with some surprise.
"Damien... doesn't he look exactly like Char?"
.....................