"Hurry up with the scrolling captions! Get the live feed on air now!"
Across the globe, television stations reacted like sharks scenting blood in the water the moment they heard of Celestial Being's intervention in Moralia. They swarmed, focusing all their attention on the conflict zone.
In the live broadcast, two solemn-faced anchors were talking at length about the outbreak of fighting in Moralia, while behind them, footage played on a loop showing the Moralia PMCs and military being steadily pushed back.
Inside a cafe, patrons stared blankly at the projected news. This was the first time people truly felt the overwhelming technical superiority of Celestial Being's Gundams over modern MS.
"Why..."
Standing in the crowd, Saji Crossroad's eyes widened as he watched the Kyrios circling in the sky.
It was the exact same Gundam that had saved him before, yet its actions now were like those of a different person entirely.
"Saji?"
Standing beside him, Louise Halevy looked at her dazed boyfriend.
"This is absurd... they just saved us, and now they're starting a war..." Saji instinctively clenched his fists as he watched the screens showing Moralia engulfed in flames. "Things like this won't change the world at all; it's just making everything more chaotic!"
Hearing her boyfriend's indignant outburst, Louise didn't know what to say.
But a moment later, a stir rippled through the cafe. The news anchors on the live program seemed to receive an urgent update; one pressed a hand to his earpiece, his brow furrowing.
"Cough, excuse me, viewers. We have just received word that another Gundam has entered the battlefield. Let's go to our live field reporter!"
One anchor straightened his posture, his expression turning grave. "This may be the closest we have ever been to a Gundam."
The background footage of Celestial Being attacking the PMC base quickly shifted to a shot from a moving open-top jeep.
A reporter, clad in a bulletproof vest and helmet, gripped his microphone tightly, his voice trembling with excitement.
"Everyone, we've just received news from Moralia. Sentries spotted a high-speed target entering Moralia from my current direction. Visual observation suggests it is a Mobile Suit—possibly a Gundam."
The reporter paused for a heartbeat, trying to steady his excitement. "This will be the closest we have ever been to a Gundam in hist—"
As the reporter was broadcasting live, a sharp, distinctive shriek—like the piercing cry of a monster—echoed across the sky.
-----------------------------------
The sea blurred past the cockpit's view as Roz gripped the control sticks with a calm expression.
The Penelope was currently in high-speed cruise mode, bolting straight toward Moralia at Mach 2. Roz didn't care in the slightest that his presence had been picked up by the media and other observers.
This was part of his plan: if the enemy was going to mistake him for "Lane Aim," he would use this direct, straightforward approach to deepen the Agents' misconceptions.
However, Roz wasn't currently focused on "building a persona"; instead, his thoughts were occupied by the Psycho-Frame embedded in the Penelope.
These sections of Psycho-Frame filling the gaps looked like a layer of panel lining, as if the machine had been treated with a grey panel line wash.
"Roz, we're about to enter the designated combat zone."
At that moment, the large Blue Haro, perched on its cockpit mount, flapped its two ear-like flaps.
Roz took a deep breath, pushing aside the idle thoughts in his mind. He firmly believed that getting distracted on the battlefield would lead to nothing but a bad end.
The Penelope began to climb. The shriek of the Minovsky Flight Craft echoed across the sky as the machine soared through the heavens like a great dragon.
"The PMCs... the gloves the AEU uses to spark wars across the globe..."
Recalling the intelligence files he had reviewed before departure—images of war-torn lands, the bodies of child soldiers, the agony of civilians—Roz instinctively tightened his grip. His conscience would not allow him to hold back against people like this.
"Go for it, Roz."
The Big Haro clearly understood Roz's current frame of mind. Having watched him grow into the man he was today, Haro didn't need to read his mind to guess his state of being.
"Whatever you do, we will support you."
"I know."
Roz didn't relax at Haro's comfort; if anything, he became even more serious. Precisely because they trusted him, he couldn't lead them down the wrong path. The education he had received and the life he had lived would never permit it.
Moralia's coastline appeared in the panoramic cockpit. Triangular markers highlighted the PMC base, units that had sorted or were currently sorting, and various anti-air emplacements.
Roz even spotted several open-top off-road vehicles carrying cameramen and reporters, frantically filming in the direction the Penelope was advancing.
A dense curtain of anti-aircraft fire rose to envelop the Penelope. At this level of intensity, even Celestial Being's Gundams would have been forced to take evasive action. Their GN-particle-reinforced E-Carbon was merely exceptionally hard; facing such a concentrated barrage, the armor would eventually be breached.
However, the Penelope, equipped with PS Armor, ignored the PMC's firepower entirely.
Shells detonated against the Penelope's armor, the heat generated by the PS Armor's operation dissipating through the machine's cooling vents. The barrage failed to even scratch the paint.
Seeing the mass of smoke in the sky, the PMC units briefly ceased fire. The reporters and cameramen in the jeeps swallowed hard after seeing the Penelope take so many direct hits.
"Hit by a barrage that thick, there's no way..."
Just as a cameraman was about to comment, a reddish-purple beam lanced out from the smoke, piercing through the haze and striking one of the PMC base's anti-air batteries.
Under the unblinking eye of the cameras, the entire world witnessed the anti-air turrets melt and dissolve, the ground beneath them vitrifying into crystal under the heat of the Magnum beam.
The Penelope burst through the smoke, the sharp edges of its frame trailing wisps of residual haze.
Watching the PMC units on the ground attempting to encircle him, and recalling the files he had studied, Roz calmly pulled the trigger.
"Since you've chosen this path, you must have prepared yourselves for the consequences," Roz said in a low voice as he watched a blue-black Hellion get struck by the Beam Magnum. It didn't just break; it liquefied.
"Rest in peace... no, just go to hell."
The light of the Beam Magnum flared across the horizon, with purple high-energy electricity coiling around the beam like a leaping dragon.
The reporters closest to the scene watched in horror as AEU's mainstay Hellions exploded simply from being grazed by that residual electrical discharge.
Clang, clang, clang...
The wreckage of the Hellions rained from the sky. The driver of the news jeep worked the steering wheel frantically, weaving through the falling debris. Several times, they narrowly avoided being crushed by a stray component of a shattered Mobile Suit.
Molten steel fell like rain, igniting the parched woods and grass below. The flames flickered violently in the turbulent air currents.
Through the first-person perspective of the camera, the global audience felt the monster-like reality of MS combat; a profound sense of powerlessness welled up in their hearts.
A battlefield cares little for the neutrality of a press badge. These reporters were far too close; several times, if Roz hadn't adjusted the Penelope's positioning, the desperate, frantic barrages from the PMC pilots would have shredded the journalists where they stood.
Under the assault of the Beam Magnum, the PMC base was decimated. Hangars were leveled, buildings vanished, and the runway itself turned to glass under the beam's radiation before shattering into countless shards from the tremors of falling wreckage.
Looking over the ruins of the base, Roz checked his map. According to the intelligence shared by Sumeragi, the closest unit to the Penelope was... the Exia?
Recalling the attack the Agents had launched against the Exia during the initial descent, Roz narrowed his eyes. Perhaps he should head over and take a look.
Just as Roz transitioned the Penelope back into its cruise flight mode to head toward the Exia's sector, a string of pale blue shells slammed into the Penelope's armor. The impact carried enough force to knock over a standard machine.
Even setting aside the Penelope's massive weight class, the impact was completely negligible to Roz. However, the attacker had utterly ignored the safety of the reporters; Roz saw several shells detonate dangerously close to the news crew.
A deep blue machine—its silhouette subtly different from the Enact previously unveiled by the AEU—streaked past the Penelope's shoulder. It transformed into MS mode mid-air and swung back to ram the Penelope.
It was clearly a custom-type Enact.
Roz calmly raised his shield. Then, before the eyes of the world, he delivered a shield bash that batted the Enact Custom aside like a bothersome insect.
"Heh... you really are the one they call the Raven."
A male voice, dripping with contempt, crackled over the open comms.
The pilot of the Enact Custom was, of course, Ali al-Saachez. Despite his mocking tone, his expression was turning grim.
"So, did you see Celestial Being show up and decide to come grab a piece of the pie for yourself?" Saachez licked his lips as he stared at the Penelope's rigid, mask-like Gundam face. "Or are you one of them?"
The Penelope remained silent. No pilot's voice came back, creating an awkward tension in the air.
As Saachez continued to spew trash talk, hoping to find a crack in Roz's concentration, a strange feeling rose in Roz's heart. These guys really were "chivalrous" in their own way—actually bothering with trash talk on a public channel.
"...You a mute?"
Saachez's throat was getting dry from talking, yet on his monitors, the Penelope remained suspended in the air, silent and still, as if waiting to see if he had anything else to say.
It was bizarre; the machine did nothing, yet Saachez felt an unsettling pressure radiating from it.
"Fine, whatever... I'm turning you in for that bounty regardless!"
Suppressing his unease, Saachez pushed his Enact Custom toward the Penelope.
"The Gundam is mine!"
...................