Mendel was now a scene of utter chaos, both inside and outside the colony.
"Dammit... there are too many buildings!" Shinn gritted his teeth, watching the Daggers use residential complexes as cover to creep closer.
Given Shinn's current sharpshooting skills, it would actually be more efficient to simply fire through the buildings to hit the Daggers, but he instinctively held back, wanting to preserve the homes. Perhaps it was because Mayu was still an Orb citizen; Shinn wasn't entirely sure, but his subconscious stopped him from leveling the residential blocks.
Shinn stepped on the pedals, the Impulse dodging several beams erupting from the city streets. But as he prepared to counterattack, two Daggers darted behind another apartment complex, relentlessly closing the distance.
Suddenly, a beam saber descended from above, skewering one of the Daggers from top to bottom. The blade was angled perfectly to avoid the battery pack; the Dagger simply ceased all movement as sparks showered from its pierced cockpit. This oddly familiar precision caused Shinn to blink in surprise.
A golden Mobile Suit dropped from the sky like a falling star. It swung a sharpened shield, cleanly severing the left arm of the second Dagger. Before the machine could react, the golden MS followed up with a heavy strike that shattered the Dagger's right arm, rendering its beam rifle useless.
The golden MS didn't stop. Its backpack thrusters and attitude control ports flared in a coordinated dance, spinning the machine in a half-circle as it slid from the Dagger's left side to its right.
Under Shinn's gaze, the golden machine reached out, snatched the beam saber still embedded in the first Dagger, and brought it down in a vertical cleave upon the remaining, defenseless Dagger. As the machine split in two, the first Dagger let out a metallic groan of overstressed steel and collapsed into a heap of sparking wreckage.
"A... a golden MS?!" Shinn stared at the magnificent machine, his eyes wide.
Inside the Akatsuki's cockpit, Cagalli adjusted her shoulders. Having grown accustomed to the spaciousness of panoramic cockpits, returning to this older style felt restrictive, even with her emergency training.
"Attention ZAFT unit: Vacate Mendel airspace immediately."
Compared to the Earth Alliance—who had forced Orb's retreat and caused massive casualties—Cagalli felt no love for ZAFT, but she was willing to grant them a brief warning.
"Counting down ten seconds. Leave Mendel!" Her patience was clearly thin. "Failure to comply will result in the Orb military opening fire!"
"Wait... wait a minute!" As Cagalli's countdown began, Shinn saw the Akatsuki sheath its saber and draw a beam rifle. He instinctively backed the Impulse away.
The Minerva was already in a desperate situation being cornered by the Alliance; if the Orb forces joined in to pincer them, they were finished.
"Meyrin! Has the Minerva broken out yet?!" Shinn shouted into his comms, his eyes locked on the Akatsuki's every movement.
"Not yet! We're pinned down; the Earth Alliance fleet is blocking the exit!" Meyrin's voice was punctuated by the sound of distant explosions.
"I've encountered the Orb military here. they've issued an ultimatum to leave or be attacked," Shinn reported rapidly. "We're about to be caught in a pincer!"
A wave of dread washed over the Minerva's bridge as Shinn's report came through.
"Hold them off, Shinn. We still need more time," Talia Gladys ordered after a quick assessment of the tactical map. Eight warships were currently harrying the Minerva, which was using the dock structures for cover, making the withdrawal agonizingly slow. Worse, swarms of Alliance MS were diving through the anti-air fire to harass them.
"Huff... I understand."
Shinn knew then that a fight with the golden machine was inevitable. Although the Akatsuki's movements had been swift, Shinn noticed several redundant turns. The pilot was skilled, but lacked the refined "minimum movement, maximum result" efficiency of a true veteran. He had to figure out how to stall this machine without killing the pilot.
Shinn remained conflicted about the Orb military. They were the ones who had died to buy his family time at Onogoro, yet now he was a ZAFT pilot forced to stand against them. Avoiding a lethal blow was the only mercy he could offer.
"...One!"
Without hesitation, Cagalli opened fire. The Akatsuki's beam rifle spat continuous rounds at the Impulse. Shinn raised his shield to catch the first shot and began to close the distance.
'Considering my own aim... it's probably better to just disable its limbs.' Shinn thought. He fired back with his own rifle—not to hit, but to disrupt the Akatsuki's rhythm.
The Akatsuki's flight pack roared to life. The machine soared upward, breaking out of the Impulse's line of approach and looping behind it. Although the Akatsuki carried more powerful weaponry, Cagalli refused to use them within the residential zone. She would save those for the Earth Alliance outside.
Cagalli spun the Akatsuki to press the attack, but the Impulse had already anticipated her. Its rear thrusters fired a counter-burst, killing its forward momentum instantly. The Impulse was already facing her, beam rifle raised and locked.
Several green beams streaked toward the Akatsuki, perfectly timed to catch it mid-maneuver. There was no time to bring the shield around. In that split second, Cagalli instinctively slammed a specific button.
The Akatsuki's golden surface emitted a subtle, shimmering glow. Instead of dodging or blocking with a shield, the machine took the beams head-on.
"Wait! Is she suicidal?!" Shinn shouted.
But the next moment, the Akatsuki emerged from the light. It was not only unharmed but seemed to shine even more brilliantly. Then, to Shinn's utter disbelief, the very beams he had just fired erupted from the Akatsuki's own body, hurtling back toward the Impulse.
Shinn barely managed to raise his shield in time to avoid being shot down by his own attack. A cold sweat drenched his back.
"What the—?! The beams... were reflected?!"
Looking at the golden machine as it reset its stance for another charge, Shinn felt a chill run down his spine.
"What kind of armor is that?!"
-----------------------------------
"Honestly... how can the Earth Alliance have this many MS?!"
Manning the beam sniper cannon, Lunamaria stood on the top deck of the Minerva, firing continuously at the incoming Earth Alliance Daggers.
"I hate moving targets!" she complained. Except for a few Daggers that stayed still for too long, her shots at the high-speed units were mostly missing, though one or two unlucky Daggers failed to brake in time and slammed right into her beams.
"Stop complaining and keep firing!" Rey commanded. He piloted his grey-white Zaku Warrior, casually picking off a Dagger that had tried to flank Lunamaria. After destroying it, he breathed a small sigh of relief. "Shinn is behind us holding off the Orb forces. The sooner we get out of here, the sooner the pressure on him eases up."
"That's exactly what makes me so mad! If they had just let us leave peacefully according to the plan, none of this would be happening!" Lunamaria gritted her teeth, re-adjusting her aim at another flying Dagger.
"That's just life... plans never survive first contact with reality, right?" Rey mused, drawing a Heat Hawk from the rack on his right shoulder shield. He tilted his machine, using the left shoulder shield to catch a beam saber strike from an Alliance Dagger.
As the thrusters flared, Rey used the spiked shield to ram the Dagger, throwing it off balance. He followed through with a swing of his left arm; the Heat Hawk's blade sliced through the Dagger's armor like paper, incinerating the cockpit.
"Can the Minerva really punch through this much fire?" Talia Gladys asked, her anxiety rising as time slipped away and the battle remained at a stalemate. With wolves in front and tigers behind, the Minerva was caught in a pincer. One wrong move and they would be sunk on the spot.
"Ah?! Well..." Arthur swallowed hard, mentally calculating the status of the recently repaired ship. "If we could just find a gap in their firing line, it might be pos—"
Suddenly, a winding blue beam streaked across from the right, vaporizing several Daggers instantly.
"—sible?" Arthur stared, dumbfounded by the familiar irregular beam and the sudden gap in the enemy formation as two Alliance warships began to veer off course.
"Now's our chance! Minerva, full speed ahead! Escape Mendel while we have this opening!" Talia realized they couldn't afford to wait. "Also, signal the Impulse to return to base immediately!"
If they delayed any longer, Shinn—who was still blocking the Orb forces—would reach his limit. Meyrin could already hear the strain in his voice over the comms. The Minerva's pre-heated thrusters roared to life, propelling the ship out of the port at high speed. As a ship personally designed by Durandal, the Minerva's speed was enough to rival Lacus's Eternal.
As they cleared the port, they were met with a shocking sight.
The crew of the Minerva witnessed the power of a Beam Magnum for the first time. The Unicorn—the same machine that had previously battered them into a mandatory repair cycle—seemed to have reconfigured its weaponry. A massive Magnum beam tore through the vacuum, effortlessly obliterating an Earth Alliance Nelson-class ship. One Dagger was even sliced in two and exploded just by grazing the purple high-energy electrical discharge surrounding the beam.
"That..." Arthur's jaw dropped in sheer terror. "That power is just... it's insane!"
"Minerva, come about! Vacate Mendel's airspace immediately!" Talia ordered, wasting no time.
At that moment, Shinn, who had been playing cat-and-mouse with the Orb forces in the residential district, piloted the battered Impulse out of the port and raced toward the Minerva. Behind him, the Akatsuki and the Strike emerged in pursuit.
The Impulse, which relied almost entirely on beam weaponry in its Force Silhouette, was being completely suppressed by the Akatsuki. Shinn's long-range attacks were useless against its armor, and whenever he tried to close for melee, the Akatsuki slipped away like an eel, maintaining its distance while keeping up a steady barrage. Combined with the rallying Orb garrison, Shinn had been fighting a losing battle of frustration.
Seeing that the Earth Alliance's attention was fully occupied by the Unicorn and that the Minerva had begun its escape, both Shinn and the crew felt a momentary wave of relief.
Then, they watched as that "Super Minerva-class" ship—the Nahel Argama—suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Moving at incredible speed, its prow-mounted ram glowed with a menacing red light as it slammed into an Earth Alliance Drake-class ship, snapping it clean in half.
.....................