The Impulse, now consisting of only its upper body, continued to fire its beam rifle incessantly at the Unicorn.
"Meyrin, send the new modules! And the Sword Silhouette!"
Watching the Unicorn effortlessly block his attacks, Shinn instinctively gritted his teeth. Defeating the Unicorn through marksmanship was an impossible task. Not only was his own shooting merely "passable," but he had also learned through several battles exactly what kind of "sniper" Lunamaria was.
Shinn had stopped expecting any results from Luna's sniping; he just hoped it would at least interfere with the Unicorn's positioning. With the mindset of "the higher the pressure, the more you must melee," combined with the Impulse's current state, the destruction of his current modules was already a certainty. He might as well make them useful one last time.
Roz narrowed his eyes as he watched the Impulse charge. Guided by the warnings flashing in his mind, he slammed the pedals. The Unicorn retreated rapidly as a thick yellow beam tore through the space it had occupied, followed immediately by a barrage of anti-aircraft fire.
The Unicorn danced through the Minerva's AA fire. Compared to facing the relentless assault of "Amuro's" Fin Funnels—where one had to desperately find a sliver of survival amidst 360 degrees of danger—this level of fire felt incredibly sparse. Roz maneuvered the Unicorn and raised the Armed Armor BS toward the Impulse, unleashing another irregular blue beam.
Faced with an attack whose trajectory was completely unpredictable, Shinn didn't even try to dodge or block. He decisively detached the Core Splendor. The small blue fighter used a blind spot to retreat a safe distance. The Impulse's upper body and Force Silhouette were struck by the blue beam, leaving scorched, wave-like marks before the modules—true to their programming—continued their flight toward the Unicorn. However, before they could even reach their target, they erupted into flames and exploded into a cloud of debris.
"Shinn, keep retreating!"
Relieved to see the Core Splendor intact, Luna continued firing her beam sniper rifle. "Damn it, he's like a mosquito, I can't hit him at all..."
"Luna, stop firing! He's noticed you!"
Shinn, having just escaped the Unicorn's lock-on, didn't even have time to breathe before he saw the Unicorn aim that jagged-beam weapon toward the Minerva.
"Faster than him... I have to be faster than him..." Luna gritted her teeth, staring at her display as the blue light gathered in the Unicorn's hand. She kept her sights locked on the white machine, her finger tensed on the trigger. The sniper rifle was still charging and couldn't fire immediately. Cold sweat trickled down her forehead.
"Luna!" Shinn's eyes widened as the blue beam shot forth. Still waiting for his new modules, he could do nothing but watch from the Core Splendor.
Sensing the over-excited brainwaves and that familiar, Newtype-like sensation nearby, Roz instinctively tilted the Armed Armor BS, shifting the beam's impact point by a few centimeters.
As the blue light bore down on her, Luna abandoned all thought of sniping. She threw the heavy beam sniper rifle directly at the incoming beam, turned her machine to expose the shield on her left shoulder, and drew a Heat Hawk. The blue beam snaked like a serpent, carving a path across the Minerva's linear cannons before striking Luna's Zaku Warrior. The high-energy particles melted through the discarded sniper rifle and slammed into the Zaku's shield.
But the beam didn't continue forward to melt the Zaku's head monitor. Instead, it took a sharp turn and veered away. Before Luna could wonder why, her survival instincts screamed a warning. The source of the danger was the very shield that was supposed to protect her. She jettisoned the shoulder shield instantly; moments later, the spot hit by the Unicorn erupted in a blinding flash and exploded.
"Luna!"
Seeing the Zaku Warrior obscured by smoke and debris, Shinn felt as if a string inside him had finally snapped. He froze for a heartbeat. Then, a surge of complicated emotions—anger mixed with something wordless and deep—began to burn in his heart.
The notification for the Sword Silhouette docking rang out like a clap of thunder, jolting Shinn from his daze. It felt as if something inside him had been unshackled. He heard a phantom sound—a "pop" like a shattering seed. His chaotic mind suddenly turned eerily calm. His focus intensified to such a degree that his pupils seemed to dilate and lose focus.
The Impulse drew the Anti-Ship Swords from its back, igniting the massive beam blades. Gripping the hilts with both hands, Shinn charged through the smoke of the previous explosion and swung the swords down toward the Unicorn's head.
What greeted him, however, was a violent shield bash from the Unicorn, which had just deactivated its beam shield.
"...What strange brainwaves. Is he really a Newtype?"
Observing the Impulse as it quickly regained its posture to launch several fierce slashes, and feeling the emotion—like a rage encased in ice—transmitted through his mind, Roz instinctively frowned. "I thought Newtypes were supposed to be more... emotional?"
"You think this pilot in the red MS is a Newtype?" The Large Haro, silent for a long time, wobbled its round body in its cradle and looked at Roz. "How can you tell?"
"Because I can sense brainwaves similar to Andrew's and Lacus's... the intensity is somewhere between the two of them." Roz maneuvered the Unicorn to retract the Armed Armor BS and entered a melee stance. "You know, both Andrew and Lacus are Newtypes."
"Oh, right. Then why do you say he's strange?" The Large Haro, catching Roz's drift, added several markers to the panoramic display.
"His emotions are being suppressed by something..." Roz glanced at the cargo ship in the distance, which was nearly reaching the Nahel Argama, before returning his focus to the battle. "But it doesn't seem like an external force; it feels like his own body is suppressing these emotions."
While they spoke, Shinn's slashes were parried one by one by the Unicorn's shield. Then, a textbook-perfect shield bash sent the Impulse spiraling backward. Immediately following that, the Unicorn's thrusters flared, delivering a standard roundhouse kick to the Zaku Warrior that had tried to sneak up behind it, sending it flying as well.
"Ugh... Damn it, how did he notice me?!" Feeling the violent impact and the unreasonable counterattack, Luna gritted her teeth and hurled her Heat Hawk at the Unicorn like a throwing knife.
Clang!
The Unicorn used its shield to knock the Heat Hawk aside, slowing it down while changing its flight path. As Luna's eyes widened in disbelief, the Unicorn's right arm—built to easily withstand the recoil of a Beam Magnum—ignored the kinetic force of the axe, and its hand clamped firmly onto the hilt.
With the interface successfully adapted, the Heat Hawk's blade, which had grown dim, glowed yellow once more.
"You've... you've got to be kidding. So easily..." Luna's mouth hung open as she saw her prideful throwing technique dismantled so effortlessly.
"Luna, use this!"
Shinn, having just recovered from being blown back, maneuvered the Impulse to Luna's side. He reached out to stabilize her machine and handed over the second Anti-Ship Sword.
"Yeah..." Luna forced herself to calm down, reaching out to take the sword from the Impulse. "Let's go together, Shinn!"
With that, Luna slammed the pedals, and the Zaku Warrior surged toward the Unicorn. Though her sniping was mediocre, her strength in military academy training had always been melee combat. When it came to a close-quarters fight, she feared no one—not even the Unicorn!
"Melee combat, huh..."
Watching the two machines charge through the covering fire while brandishing Anti-Ship Swords, Roz's expression remained calm. "As expected, if you're going to fight an Anti-Ship Sword, you should use one yourself."
Roz slammed the pedals, charging toward the two units. He raised his left hand, blocking Luna's strike with the shield, while the captured Heat Hawk in his right was thrown back at the Zaku in the first exchange, burying itself deep into the Zaku's shoulder. Then, he grabbed the Zaku's right arm, which was holding its beam saber, and performed a sudden spin.
The mass-production machine's frame groaned and shrieked. The Zaku Warrior's entire right forearm was actually ripped clean off by the Unicorn's sheer strength, and the rest of the machine was hurled away.
"Ugh! That output—it's fake, right?!" In a single exchange, both of the Zaku's arms were marked red on the status display, rendering them uncontrollable. Luna couldn't help but cry out.
Roz gripped the hilt of the captured Anti-Ship Sword, the interface synchronized, and the high-output beam blade ignited for cutting. He swung the massive blade with calm precision, parrying a horizontal slash from Shinn aimed at his cockpit. Like two crashing waves, particle beams splattered everywhere, striking the armor of both the Unicorn and the Impulse.
As Roz increased the output power, the stalemate instantly tilted in the Unicorn's favor, and the Impulse was sent flying.
Despite being at a disadvantage, Shinn remained eerily calm. Two teammates—one whose fate was unknown and another who had survived only to be instantly disabled—combined with the damage to the Minerva... these images fueled the "rage" within him. It wasn't rage toward the Unicorn, but toward the world itself.
Yet, the angrier he became, the more focused he felt. He continued to swing the Impulse's sword, attacking the Unicorn relentlessly. Advance, slash, advance, slash—a continuous loop, following the answers provided by his body, attacking with unstoppable momentum.
However, during one of the Impulse's thrusts, Roz seized an opening. He maneuvered the Unicorn to the Impulse's left and sheared off its left arm with a single stroke. Fortunately, Shinn reacted in time to pull back the right arm, or it would have been severed as well.
Before Shinn could launch a counter-counterattack, Roz flicked his right hand, throwing the Anti-Ship Sword like a dart, which severed the Impulse's right forearm. Then, the Unicorn's left hand grabbed the Impulse's chest plate, and its right fist punched directly through the Impulse's head monitor.
Watching his screen flicker as the primary camera was destroyed, Shinn quickly switched to the sub-cameras. But as the image restored, the first thing he saw coming toward him was the bottom of the Unicorn's foot.
"Shinn!"
Seeing the Impulse's head monitor smashed and then struck by a standard flying kick, Luna cried out instinctively.
All three MS pilots were now out of the fight. The Minerva was heavily damaged, and a warship twice its size loomed nearby. On the bridge of the Minerva, everyone's faces were grim. The situation had reached the absolute worst-case scenario.
-----------------------------------
"Static... Mr. Roz, we have rendezvoused. We can withdraw now."
Having just finished his own version of the "Nu Gundam smashing the Sazabi's head monitor" moment, Roz heard Lacus's voice coming through the communications.
"There is no need to continue the attack. Please retreat."
"But... they are the ones pursuing you, aren't they?" Roz glanced at the battered Minerva after hearing Lacus's request. "Is it really okay to let them go like this?"
To be honest, Murrue had also intended to coordinate with Roz to press the attack, but Lacus had talked her out of it. Otherwise, the Minerva would likely have sunk before Roz even finished his assault.
"The Earth Forces will arrive here shortly. Considering our hostile relationship with Blue Cosmos, and the fact that escorting the cargo ship back is our most vital mission right now... from every perspective, sinking them now is not a good choice."
Over the comms, Lacus shared her thoughts after a brief silence. "In any case, please withdraw."
"...Alright, I understand." Roz sighed after a momentary silence.
Then, Roz cast a final glance at the Minerva, which was still trailing smoke from multiple sections.
"You've managed to keep your lives today."
With that, the Unicorn smoothly turned and flew toward the Nahel Argama at incredible speed.
..................