"Why are we being ordered to stand down?!"
Inside the Orb garrison camp at Mendel, several officers were slamming their fists onto the tables.
"I can almost accept letting ZAFT be, but the Earth Alliance has already broken into the interior of Mendel!" The "Great Migration of Orb" incident had left these soldiers with a deep-seated loathing for the Earth Alliance.
"What is the warning center doing?! Have they defected?"
"The command to sortie hasn't come down yet! The MS in the hangar are electronically locked!"
A higher-ranking officer sighed in frustration. He wanted nothing more than to swing the hangar doors open and lead the two M1 Astray squads recently stationed at Mendel into battle. However, the Seiran family held a tight grip over the deployment codes for these machines, leaving him with the agonizing feeling of being a "skilled cook with no rice to boil." He was beginning to suspect that the warning center's silence was also the Seirans' handiwork.
"To hell with it! Even if we only have conventional weapons and MAs, I'm launching! If I have to die, I'll die fighting." One officer hammered the table and stood up, heading for the door. "We cannot let Mendel become another Heliopolis. We have to drive them out—every last one of them!"
"Count me in."
More and more officers stood up and followed. Knowing the overwhelming power of a Mobile Suit, they could foresee the heavy casualties their units would take, but a fire of indignation was burning in their chests.
"Damn it, let's go for broke! If we can't move the MS, we'll go in on foot if we have to!" The senior officer stood up as well. "If I survive this, I swear I will haul the warning center and the Seiran family before a military tribunal!"
Static... Crackle...
"To the Orb military forces on Mendel: This is Cagalli Yula Athha, Prime Minister of Orb."
A female voice cut through the chaotic reports on the radio. "Are there any units still resisting?"
On a nearby screen, the caller's ID verification flashed. Seeing the official tag of "Current Prime Minister of Orb," the men in the room felt a sudden surge of calm, as if they had finally found their anchor.
"This is the 2nd Armored Division, Orb Military, Mendel Branch!" the senior officer shouted into the comms. "The Orb military is attempting to resist... but the hangars are under Seiran control! The MS won't launch! we only have conventional weapons and MAs!"
"Please rest assured, Ma'am. Even if it costs us our lives, we will drive the Earth Alliance and ZAFT out. Mendel will not share the fate of Heliopolis." He breathed a sigh of relief, knowing Cagalli was listening.
"...My fellow soldiers on Mendel. The Seiran family has sold out Orb's interests and colluded with the Earth Alliance extremist group, Blue Cosmos. They have committed treason." Cagalli's voice was firm and resolute. "I repeat: the Seiran family has committed treason. I am hereby issuing a direct sortie authorization to all Orb forces. Blockade all ports! All Orb military units—engage!"
Through the breach blown open by the Earth Alliance, two Mobile Suits flew into the colony's atmosphere. One of them shimmered with a brilliant gold light under the artificial sun. Every Orb sensor that scanned it automatically tagged the machine with the ID: [ORB PRIME MINISTER].
The scattered skirmishes within Mendel suddenly intensified. The suppressed and disorganized Orb soldiers began to rally, forming cohesive lines and opening fire on the Alliance Daggers.
"Quite the speech... nearly everyone is rising up to resist," Mu La Flaga remarked from the cockpit of the Strike. He watched the flashes of artillery within Mendel and stepped on his pedals, mimicking Roz's piloting style.
Powered by a nuclear reactor and in its "Perfect" configuration, the Strike was finally able to utilize the full performance of all three striker packs simultaneously. Only now did Mu truly understand why Roz loved maintaining such extreme speeds. Under the crushing G-forces, it was a sensation of "agonizing pleasure."
"It's not that my speech was inspiring... it's just that these soldiers have found their fighting spirit again," Cagalli said, her expression pained as she viewed the destruction caused by the Daggers.
"But without you to give them that final push, their resistance wouldn't be organized; they'd just be dying in isolation." Mu shook his head and banked the Strike. "You go deal with that Seiran family. I'll take care of these Daggers."
Mu hadn't flown far when he spotted a black modified Dagger unit using residential buildings as cover to pick off Orb's self-propelled guns.
"This is brutal... and is that an anti-infantry specialized unit?" Mu frowned at the heavy losses the Orb soldiers were taking. "Fine, try this on for size!"
The Strike reached out with its left hand, snatched the Midas Messer beam boomerang from its shoulder, and hurled it at the modified Dagger. Caught off guard by an attack from above, the black Dagger—along with its flight pack—was sliced clean in two by the spinning blade, erupting into a pile of scrap. The shockwave caused the building it had been leaning against to collapse.
"Whoops... was that a bit too much?"
-----------------------------------
On the other side of the conflict, Roz and Kira didn't launch immediately. Instead, they followed the Nahel Argama as it flanked the rear of the Earth Alliance fleet.
From their position, they could see the small Morgenroete-affiliated dockyard was already engulfed in explosions and fire. The Earth Alliance was clearly determined to destroy the Minerva.
The elevators brought the Unicorn and Freedom to their respective catapult decks. The locking clamps released, retracting back into the hangar.
"How do we handle these Earth forces? Just drive them off?"
The crew of the Nahel Argama had complicated expressions as they looked at the familiar ship models of the Earth Alliance.
"No, we destroy them."
Roz spoke with calm, decisive clarity. "Even if we drive them off peacefully, they'll continue to cause trouble for Orb. It's better to wipe them out here and pin the blame on ZAFT."
"They're already at total war anyway. One more reason won't make a difference."
"But... wouldn't that make things difficult for Cagalli?" Kira sighed, looking at the catapult track stretching out before him.
"Cagalli isn't as weak as you think, and her advisors aren't as incompetent as you assume." Roz took a deep breath to steady himself as the launch lights turned green.
"Roz Links, Unicorn, launching!"
Roz stepped on the pedal, and the catapult launched the Unicorn forward. Despite its relatively small thruster pack compared to other units, the Unicorn burst forth with incredible thrust, instantly putting significant distance between itself and the just-launched Freedom.
"So... so fast." Even though Kira's Freedom was already incredibly fast, his eyes widened instinctively at the Unicorn's speed. "Can he really handle those G-forces?"
Roz remained silent, focusing on the panoramic monitor of his cockpit, which highlighted the Earth Alliance ships and mobile suits. He deployed the Armed Armor BS on the Unicorn's right arm.
Blue light coursed through the fins of the Armed Armor BS before erupting outward, carving winding, twisted paths through the vacuum of space. This beautiful display concealed a deadly intent. The unpredictable blue beams swept across three Daggers attacking the port, causing them to explode into fireballs.
"It's beautiful..." Kira remarked, impressed by the beam weapon that stood out even among the multitude of others.
It seemed the attack had drawn the attention of the Earth Alliance fleet. A Drake-class and a Nelson-class battleship began to turn, initiating an attack run on the Unicorn.
Under Kira's watchful gaze, the Unicorn didn't even slow down. The Armed Armor BS instantly reconfigured, transforming into the likeness of an electromagnetic railgun from some Common Era sci-fi work.
"The first shot declares my arrival..." Roz pulled the trigger without hesitation, aiming at the Drake-class.
"The second shot declares your end."
The miniaturized Archangel-class laser nuclear fusion reactor funneled immense energy into the Armed Armor BS. The Psycoframe micro-adjusted the phantom particles, creating an acceleration field. The blue light within the "barrel" flowed and changed color, intensifying into a purple-red sphere resembling a Beam Magnum shot.
The "particle sphere" shattered, releasing a thick red beam toward the Nelson-class ship. Purple arcs of high-energy lightning crackled and extended wildly from the beam, causing Kira to instinctively pull back to a safe distance.
Kira's choice was correct. He watched as the Nelson's armor melted upon contact with the Magnum beam. The purple lightning sliced along the hull, following the beam's path. An unlucky Dagger, perhaps failing to notice the danger, strayed too close to the Magnum shot and was bisected by a bolt of purple lightning, exploding into fragments.
As the Magnum beam reached the Nelson's reactor, the Earth Alliance crew looked on in horror as the battered ship utterly exploded.
Roz didn't pause after firing the Magnum. He reverted the Armed Armor BS to its original state and continued closing in on the battlefield.
Seeing this, the Drake-class attempted to return fire, but eight thick beams slammed precisely into its hull, sending it to join the Nelson in oblivion.
The Nahel Argama didn't stay put either; it moved aggressively forward, its numerous anti-air turrets unleashing a barrage into the combat zone.
With the Nahel Argama joining the fray, the clear-cut "Earth Alliance beats up ZAFT" scenario devolved into a chaotic three-way brawl. The Minerva, having just broken out of the dock and entered space, nearly lost its composure seeing the Nahel Argama treating both them and the Earth Alliance with equal aggression, like a honey badger picking a fight with everyone.
.....................