"Freed, Strike, launch."
The moment Fred's words fell, the Strike, already positioned on the catapult, shot out.
The scene outside unfolded before him exactly as the synchronized footage had shown.
The specks of light behind them were their pursuers.
Fred changed direction, made a wide arc, and came to a stop at the Archangel's hull.
The deep-green massive cannon rose and took aim at the distant fleet.
Inside the cockpit, the sniping scope beside Fred automatically deployed before his eyes.
On the deep-green screen, the hazy silhouettes of the distant battleships were displayed.
Under these conditions, aiming was impossible.
But Fred wasn't disappointed in the least, and simply said:
"Position data synchronization, starting."
Although this Strike's radar was considerably better than theirs, it still fell short compared to their battleship.
For one thing, the sheer size was different.
Coordinating with the Nazca-class would raise the sniping range to a whole new level.
Of course, there were drawbacks too.
Under the influence of the Neutron Jammers, this kind of data link would suffer interference once out of a certain range, becoming completely unusable.
But at the current distance, there was no problem at all.
"Synchronization complete!"
With the communicator's words, the scope screen before Fred became noticeably clearer.
"Mm, no problems."
Fred's face remained as stern as ever.
"Firing."
The moment Fred's words fell and the successful-targeting alert sounded in his ears, Fred pressed the firing button.
The red-and-white beam looked far more powerful than that sickly-green cannon at a glance.
And indeed it was—the massive red-and-white beam shot rapidly toward one of the Nelson-class ships in the Atlantic Federation fleet.
Though it didn't reach light speed, it was still impossibly fast—like a bolt of lightning, the targeted Nelson-class only had time to turn a tiny angle before it was squarely struck by that immensely destructive beam.
In an instant, the Nelson-class exploded.
The power of that single shot briefly silenced the entire battlefield.
Even the voice of the Atlantic Federation shouting threats over the communication channel, demanding they stop, vanished in an instant.
"The Atlantic Federation's weapons... actually have that kind of destructive power."
In his temporary quarters, Kira stared at the battle on the screen before him, mouth hanging wide open.
He had long suspected that these weapons' firepower surpassed ZAFT's.
But actually witnessing it now, he still felt a knot in his chest.
After all, the stronger they were, the more villainous ORB appeared.
Not to mention, those pursuing them were clearly all Atlantic Federation personnel.
With this, it was basically confirmed that ORB was collaborating with the Atlantic Federation.
If ORB and the Atlantic Federation were on the same side...
Then why had his family moved to ORB in the first place?
"Kira..."
Flay, watching the scene in Kira's room, paused for a moment, then put on a comforting smile.
"It's okay! Big brother will handle it!"
"Mm."
Hearing this, Kira placed a hand over his heart, which was only now slowly calming down.
Though they hadn't seen each other in a long time, his trust in Fred remained unchanged.
Meanwhile, on the other side—
After witnessing the power of that single shot, the Commander of the Atlantic Federation's pursuit force felt his scalp go numb.
A single shot had wiped out one of their Nelson-class battleships.
It hadn't even hit a vital point.
But the power was so immense that it directly disabled the Nelson-class's outer armor.
Not to mention, due to the Neutron Jammers, their main guns hadn't even entered targeting range yet—how were they supposed to fight like this?
But having chased them this far, letting them escape was clearly unacceptable.
Moreover, there was only this one chance. If they slipped away, he would certainly be held accountable.
And it wasn't as if there was no chance at all.
"All main guns, target the battleship ahead!"
At close range, using beam cannons to target MS was like using a cannon to shoot a mosquito.
That was a lesson they had learned through countless losses before.
In any case, take out the mothership first—at the very least, they could seize that new type of battleship.
And if the enemy's reinforcements arrived too late and those MS ran out of power, they might even recover those Mobile Suits.
After all, with such powerful artillery, the MS's battery certainly couldn't fire many shots.
At the Commander's order, the Atlantic Federation fleet, despite their fear, followed the command.
A green glow gradually intensified at the muzzles of the main guns.
"Everyone else, hold off on launching—evade!"
The moment the Captain's words fell, Fred fired a second shot on his side.
This time, it hit a Drake-class.
The Drake-class, which was still launching missiles, instantly exploded in a massive blast, along with the missiles that hadn't yet been fired.
However, while the Atlantic Federation's plan wasn't wrong, they had overlooked the fact that the Strike Suit was not the only Mobile Suit of its kind.
As the remaining G Project Mobile Suits launched one after another, the battlefield quickly tilted entirely in one direction.
...
"Everyone, thank you for your hard work!"
The personnel of the receiving force gazed at the formidable unit before them on the Communication Channel screen—the troops that had just reclaimed ORB and, on top of that, crushed an operational division under the Atlantic Federation's Second Fleet—admiration plainly written on their faces.
Such achievements were enough to earn the other party several promotions.
"It was nothing."
Orphee lowered his eyes and gave a brief reply.
The Captain never appeared at occasions like this, and standing in for him felt somewhat awkward.
"Thank you all for the escort. Let's head straight to Jachin Due."
The data on these Mobile Suits and battleships needed to undergo basic analysis work over there before absolute safety could be confirmed.
The Captain before him naturally had no objection whatsoever; he saluted and agreed.
Meanwhile, once safety was confirmed, Fred immersed himself in the ocean of knowledge.
The analysis of the data on these Mobile Suits went very smoothly, and combined with his own skills, his learning efficiency soared.
"At this rate, in about three days I'll have fully mastered the Mirage Particles technology."
"Though it'll still take time to fully digest the technology aboard the Archangel."
As Fred pondered this, his gaze toward the grey Blitz before him grew even more fervent.
"Bro! Why are you still here!"
Flay's voice broke Fred out of his reverie.
"What's wrong?"
"What do you mean, what's wrong? We arrive at December City in half a day!"
"You promised you'd go see Lacus's concert!"
"Yes."
Fred nodded.
"There's still half a day left."
"We still need to think of a gift!"
True, according to their usual practice, they always brought small gifts whenever they visited.
But Fred was now quite skilled with his hands—whether it was a Haro or all kinds of small robots, he could make them with ease, so he wasn't worried at all.