The aerial battle over Neo-Verdia reached a fever pitch, a chaotic ballet of destruction beneath a sky choked with smoke and the metallic tang of spent energy. Four high-powered Mobile Suits—the iconic White Gundam (White Bird), the menacing Royalty Gundam, the agile Unit QUEEN, and the imposing Gundam TORTOISE—engaged in a desperate exchange of beam fire and intricate aerial maneuvers. Each machine represented a different faction, a different ambition, and now, they were locked in a struggle for dominance that transcended simple warfare.
In the White Gundam's cockpit, Zaki and Maki Kimeza were forced to fight on two grueling fronts. The relentless, almost feral aggression of the Royalty Gundam, piloted by the furious Felisio Nova, was a constant, deadly threat. Simultaneously, the measured, calculating attacks from QUEEN and TORTOISE, led by Dr. Lena and Tasya Lowe, were clearly not aimed at providing aid, but rather at testing their limits, assessing their capabilities, and ultimately, ensuring their own faction's supremacy.
"They're incredibly aggressive, Zaki! That TORTOISE unit is trying to cut off our escape routes, while QUEEN is just looking for the smallest openings for quick, precise strikes!" Maki yelled, her fingers flying across the sensor console, her eyes darting between multiple threat indicators. The sheer volume of incoming data was overwhelming, yet she processed it with practiced efficiency.
"They're not allies, Maki. Not in the slightest. They clearly want us and the Royalty Gundam to exhaust ourselves, to destroy each other!" Zaki retorted, his voice tight with concentration. He pushed the White Gundam's controls to their absolute limit, executing a dizzying series of evasive maneuvers, narrowly avoiding a brutal, sweeping blow from the Royalty Gundam's massive Golden Iron Sword. Felisio's attacks were growing more erratic, more desperate, yet no less lethal. His frustration was palpable, echoing even through the cacophony of battle.
As the White Gundam managed to deftly sidestep Felisio's devastating frontal assault, the Gundam TORTOISE, a behemoth of a machine controlled by the formidable Dr. Lena, sprang into action. With a burst of its powerful thrusters and immense physical strength, TORTOISE used its thick, imposing shield to bodily push the Royalty Gundam away, creating a crucial moment of separation between the White Gundam and the enraged gold machine. It was a calculated move, not for White Gundam's benefit, but to manipulate the battlefield.
"This is our chance, Tasya! The Royalty Gundam is busy with TORTOISE! Chase the White Ghost! Don't let them escape, not now!" Lena commanded, her voice sharp and strategic over their internal comm link. Her plan was unfolding with ruthless precision.
In QUEEN's sleek cockpit, Tasya Lowe nodded firmly, a surge of adrenaline coursing through her veins. There was a subtle, almost imperceptible discomfort in her chest as she targeted the White Gundam, a unit she'd been told was a dangerous rebel. She didn't know who the pilot was, but she had to follow Professor Itsuki's absolute orders: observe, assess, and ultimately subjugate. Itsuki's vision of Earth's future, with them at its apex, was paramount.
"Roger, Mom! I'll show them Unit QUEEN is the fastest on Earth, the strongest on Earth!" Tasya declared, her voice ringing with youthful bravado and determination.
With unmatched speed and grace, QUEEN darted forward, a white-purple blur against the smoky sky. Zaki tried desperately to evade, pushing the White Gundam to its absolute limits, but QUEEN was simply too fast, too agile, its pilot's reflexes honed to a razor's edge. The sleek unit successfully forced the White Gundam out of the immediate city limits, relentlessly herding it towards a barren, desolate mountainous area on the outskirts of Neo-Verdia. The chase was intense, a high-stakes game of cat and mouse above the ravaged landscape.
"She's still chasing us, Zaki! And she's much faster than us in normal mode! We're losing ground!" Maki exclaimed, her voice strained, the alarms blaring softly in the background.
"We can't fight in the middle of the city anymore! Too many civilians, too much collateral damage! We have to get out!" Zaki gritted his teeth, his jaw tight with resolve. He directed the White Gundam into a steep, controlled dive, plummeting towards the desolate terrain below. The Mobile Suit landed hard in a hidden valley, nestled precariously between towering, jagged cliffs, sending dust and small rocks scattering. It was a risky move, but one that offered a momentary reprieve from the chaos.
QUEEN followed, landing a few dozen meters in front of the White Gundam with a more controlled, almost elegant movement, creating only a thin, graceful cloud of dust. The two Mobile Suits now stood facing each other in an eerie, profound silence, broken only by the mournful whistle of the mountain wind. The air crackled with unspoken tension, a prelude to an inevitable confrontation.
Zaki raised his beam rifle, its targeting system locking onto QUEEN. "Maki, prepare. We don't know her true intentions yet, despite her aggressive pursuit."
"Wait, Zaki," Maki interjected, her voice suddenly hushed, laced with a strange, dawning realization. Her eyes were fixed on the foreign unit's cockpit, a flicker of recognition crossing her features. "That voice... I know that voice."
Suddenly, a high-pitched voice crackled from QUEEN's external speakers, piercing the heavy silence. The voice sounded casual, almost dismissive, though there was an undeniable, hidden tension in its tone.
"Oi! White Mobile Suit! Why are you running? What's the big hurry? I was just about to tell you... you guys are so utterly lame in the air. You're new pilots, aren't you? Honestly, just surrender quickly and I'll be merciful enough to let you go."
Maki gasped, her entire body tensing as if struck by an invisible blow. A jolt went through her. She knew that voice. A cheerful, stylish, utterly distinctive, and incredibly familiar voice. The voice she had last heard just three days ago, back in the seemingly mundane halls of their school. It was a voice that belonged to her everyday life, not to the cockpit of an enemy Mobile Suit.
"That's... impossible," Maki whispered, her hands trembling uncontrollably on the controls. Disbelief warred with a terrifying certainty.
"What is it, Maki? What's wrong?" Zaki asked, sensing the profound impact of his sister's reaction, a cold dread beginning to creep into his own heart.
Maki ignored Zaki, her focus entirely on the external comms. With a trembling finger, she pressed the transmit button.
"Tasya...? I-is that you?" Her voice was barely a whisper, yet it cut through the silence like a knife.
The ensuing silence in the valley became heavier, more suffocating than the vacuum of space itself. Inside QUEEN's cockpit, Tasya Lowe froze, her bravado evaporating instantly. The arrogant smirk she had so carefully plastered on her face crumbled, replaced by an expression of pure, unadulterated shock. Her hands instinctively tightened on the control sticks.
"Wh-who is that? How do you know my name? What kind of sick joke is this?!" Tasya retorted through her speaker, her voice now high-pitched and laced with genuine surprise and nervousness, a stark contrast to the confident, almost mocking Gyaru pilot persona she had displayed moments before.
Maki pressed the speaker button again, her voice now thick with unshed tears, trembling with raw emotion. "It's me, Tasya... Maki. Are you okay? What are you doing? Why are you in that Mobile Suit?!"
Inside QUEEN's cockpit, Tasya felt her entire world shatter, collapsing around her in a deafening implosion of reality. The enemy Mobile Suit, the elusive White Ghost, the most wanted rebel unit by the Colony, the very target she was pursuing... it was piloted by Maki Kimeza, her closest, dearest friend. The girl she thought had vanished.
"Maki...? No! You must be lying! That's a lie! The White Ghost... that's an enemy! That's what Professor Itsuki told me! You... you're tricking me! Tell me it's a lie! Please, tell me it's a lie!" Tasya's voice spiraled into panic, tears welling up uncontrollably in her now crimson eyes, blurring her vision of the White Gundam.
"She's not lying, Tasya!" Zaki's voice cut in, taking over the communication. His tone was full of authority, yet laced with an underlying weariness and grief. "It's Zaki. Maki's twin brother. We are the White Bird! We are the pilots of the White Ghost! Now you explain! Why are you in that foreign Mobile Suit?! What are you doing working with Itsuki?!"
Tasya slumped in her pilot's seat, the weight of the revelation crushing her. Her tears streamed down her face, wetting her helmet, blurring her vision further. She struggled to breathe, a suffocating, agonizing dilemma hitting her with the force of a physical blow. Her best friend, the person she thought had disappeared, was revealed to be the very enemy she had been ordered to hunt, the symbol of the rebellion she was told was dangerous.
"Zaki... Maki... Oh God... why... why are you doing this?! You... you're Rebels? Why didn't you tell me?! Why did you keep this from me?!" Tasya cried out, her tears now completely uncontrollable, each word a testament to her profound betrayal and confusion.
Maki, her heart breaking into a thousand pieces, replied in a desperate, pleading tone. "Tasya, we had no choice! We couldn't tell you! We were trying to protect you from all of this! But you! Why are you a pilot of that unit?! That unit... that unit isn't ours, is it?! You're with Itsuki, aren't you?"
"No! It's not like that!" Tasya refuted, her voice cracking with emotion. "This... this isn't Colonian! This is a Grai Unit! I... I'm here because Professor Itsuki moved me! He said he would protect Earth! He said your Mobile Suit... he said it's dangerous! He said you were a threat to his vision!"
"Itsuki?!" Zaki was utterly shocked, his voice filled with a dawning horror. "Tasya, you're being manipulated! You're being used! Itsuki is nothing but a schemer, a manipulator! He's just using you for his own ends!"
"No! Professor Itsuki isn't lying! He wouldn't! He said we have to be on top! He said we have to fight Colonian tyranny... and also fight you if you get in his way! If you stand against his plan for a new Earth! I don't want to fight you, Maki! You're my best friend! But I can't betray Itsuki! I can't betray my mother!" Tasya roared, her hands trembling violently on the control sticks, her resolve warring with her desperate love for her friend.
Maki's heart clenched. She realized that Itsuki had not only exploited Tasya's loyalty, but had also thoroughly brainwashed her with an insidious ideology of superiority and control, twisting her sense of justice.
"Tasya, look at me! Look at the White Gundam! Listen to my voice! We are friends! You know my goals! You know I would never lie to you! Not about something this important! Please, Tasya, come down! Get out of that Mobile Suit, Tasya! We can talk! We can figure this out!" Maki pleaded, her voice choked with sobs, tears streaming down her own face.
A profound, agonizing silence once again enveloped the valley. Tasya, inside QUEEN, stared at the White Gundam, the enemy unit she now knew was piloted by her best friend, the girl who was like a sister to her. The internal conflict tore at her soul. Her duty, her loyalty to Itsuki and her mother, versus the unbreakable bond of friendship.
"I... I can't, Maki. I can't. I... I have to prove I'm strong. I have to follow orders. I have to... protect my mother, Lena. She's counting on me. I'm so sorry, Maki... so, so sorry..."
Suddenly, with a jolt that seemed to echo her internal turmoil, QUEEN raised its right arm. The beam gun integrated into its arm armor hummed to life, a menacing glow appearing at its muzzle, aiming it directly at the White Gundam's cockpit. Tasya's finger hovered, trembling violently, above the trigger. Her face was a mask of anguish, tears still pouring, but her resolve, however twisted, was hardening.
"I... I will fight you. I have to. I'm so sorry, Maki! I'm so sorry, Zaki!"
Maki flinched, a fresh wave of tears streaming down her cheeks, her voice raw with pain and desperation. "Tasya... don't! Please, Tasya, don't do this!"
Zaki let out a heavy, ragged sigh, his eyes now cold and focused, a grim determination setting in. The brutal, unforgiving reality of war, the way it twisted even the purest bonds, had slammed into him. "Maki, she can't be reasoned with! Not right now! She's too far gone, too deeply under Itsuki's influence! AIRIS, activate full shield! We will only disable her! We will not, under any circumstances, harm Tasya!" His command was absolute, even as his heart ached for his sister and their lost friend.
In the desolate middle of the valley, two close friends were confronted with an impossible, heart-wrenching choice: the unbreakable bond of friendship, or the cruel, unyielding hand of a destiny forced upon them by manipulative forces. This was a battle that neither of them had ever wanted, a clash that would leave scars far deeper than any beam weapon.
To be continued...