The cold moonlight cut through the thick dust of the canyon, casting sharp, jagged shadows across the white armor of the Polar White Gundam. Dr. Lena Lowe sat perfectly still in her high-tech command cockpit. She looked down at the four Gundams and the lone IBIS Custom below her with a cold, clinical expression, as if she were simply analyzing lab mice instead of human beings.
"So, you've managed to keep this scrap metal running," Lena's voice echoed through the local military frequency, cold and completely devoid of any emotion. "And you've even dragged my failure of a daughter along with you."
"Shut up! Just shut your mouth!" Tasya screamed, her voice cracking over the radio.
There was no hesitation left in her eyes. The terrifying trauma that had frozen her heart for years melted away, replaced by a burning, unfiltered rage. Tasya slammed her foot onto the thruster pedal. The Lavender Gundam roared to life, its upgraded purple-feathered thrusters flaring with intense energy as she charged straight toward her mother.
"I am going to end this nightmare right now!" Tasya roared.
The Lavender Gundam closed the distance in a fraction of a second, thrusting its newly restored right high-frequency claw arm directly at the Polar White's cockpit. The sharp silver talons screeched through the air.
CLAAAAANG!
A massive shockwave erupted as Lena calmly shifted her machine's weight, raising the long, heavy shield attached to her left shoulder. The silver claws ground violently against the specialized anti-beam plating of the shield, sending a brilliant shower of sparks flying into the dark night.
"Still as reckless and undisciplined as ever, Tasya," Lena noted flatly, her fingers casually shifting the control joysticks. "A machine is only as good as its pilot, and you are nothing but an emotional defect."
"I don't care what you call me anymore!" Tasya yelled.
With a lightning-fast motion, Tasya used the Lavender Gundam's left arm to draw the newly installed high-output Heat Dagger. The blade glowed a fierce, molten orange as she slashed upward, while simultaneously firing the built-in beam gun on her left wrist. At the exact same moment, the backpack of the Lavender Gundam clicked open, and six upgraded Beam Spread Cannons—her new funnel units—launched into the air, flying in a chaotic, unpredictable pattern to surround the Polar White from all sides.
Pew! Pew! Pew!
The funnels fired simultaneously, creating a web of crisscrossing pink beam arrays that locked onto Lena's machine.
But Lena didn't panic. She pulled her thruster lever back, forcing the Polar White into a precise, mathematically perfect vertical climb. The heavy machine danced through the lines of fire with impossible grace. She flicked a switch on her right console, and the dual heavy beam cannons mounted on her shoulders hummed with a terrifying blue electricity.
BOOOM! BOOOM!
Two massive blue energy blasts erupted from the Polar White's shoulders, vaporizing two of Tasya's funnels instantly and sending a massive kinetic shockwave that forced the Lavender Gundam backward through the air.
"Tasya, hang on! I've got your back!" Augustina shouted.
The Sunflower Gundam quickly took up a sniper position on a nearby cliff ridge. Augustina didn't waste a single second. She raised her dual beam rifles, one in each hand, and unleashed a continuous barrage of high-output green laser shots. Simultaneously, the armor plates on the Sunflower's forearms slid open, launching a volley of micro-missiles that spiraled through the canyon, leaving long white smoke trails behind them.
Lena tilted her machine sharply to the left, letting the green beam shots pass harmlessly into the sky. She raised her physical claws, swatting away the incoming micro-missiles and causing a chain reaction of fiery explosions that illuminated the entire canyon in a bright orange glow.
Out of the smoke, Agnes's Deep Blue Gundam suddenly materialized. Agnes had connected her twin beam sabers at the hilts, creating a massive, double-sided twin beam saber that resembled a glowing energy javelin. She spun the massive weapon, bringing it down in a crushing overhead strike.
"Get away from her!" Agnes screamed.
CRASH!
Lena didn't even look. She simply raised her left shoulder shield, effortlessly blocking the crushing weight of Agnes's double-sided saber. The impact rattled the canyon walls, but the Polar White didn't move an inch. With a cruel, fluid motion, Lena triggered the shield's pneumatic burst system. A high-pressure kinetic blast erupted from the shield, slamming into the Deep Blue Gundam and violently throwing Agnes across the airspace, her machine tumbling into the rocky canyon floor.
Inside the White Gundam, Zaki's fingers twitched on the controls. He was about to push the throttles forward to join the fray, but Maki suddenly gasped, her eyes locked onto the secondary radar screen.
"Zaki, look! To our right!" Maki shouted, pointing a trembling finger at the tactical HUD. "The primary terrorist army... they're bypassing the border defense! They've deployed heavy atmospheric combat ships and a massive squad of Pioneer Mobile Suits! They're heading straight for the central residential district of Neo-Verdia!"
Zaki's blood ran cold. If those ships reached the city while the main defense force was distracted, thousands of innocent people would die.
"Dammit!" Zaki barked over the open team frequency. "Augustina! Agnes! Tasya! You three need to break off right now and intercept that terrorist fleet! Don't let a single one of those ships cross the city line! Leave Dr. Lena to us. The White Gundam will hold her here!"
"No! I'm not leaving!" Tasya yelled, her cockpit monitors flashing red as she tried to re-engage her mother. "She's my responsibility! I have to kill her!"
"Tasya, listen to the twins!" Augustina's voice cut in, fierce and unyielding as the Sunflower Gundam grabbed the Lavender Gundam's arm, forcing it back. "If those ships reach the city, everything we're fighting for is gone! We have to protect the citizens first! Move!"
Tasya ground her teeth so hard her jaw ached, staring at the Polar White Gundam through her main screen. "Fine... but don't you dare die, Zaki!"
With a sharp maneuver, the Sunflower, Lavender, and Deep Blue Gundams turned their thrusters to maximum, rocketing away into the night toward the approaching terrorist armada, leaving only the White Gundam and the Polar White Gundam hovering in the silent, empty airspace of the canyon.
Zaki took a deep, steadying breath. His face became a mask of pure concentration. "Maki, AIRIS. Let's do this. Standard operational split."
"Understood," Maki replied, her hands wrapping firmly around the secondary weapon controls. She would handle the beam rifle aiming and the head-mounted vulcan guns.
"Initiating wide-range predictive tracking," AIRIS added from her operator seat, her emerald eyes flashing with complex streams of data code as she mapped Lena's past combat movements. "I will provide real-time trajectory calculations. Please be careful, Zaki."
Zaki pulled the secondary saber hilt from the White Gundam's right shoulder compartment with his right mechanical hand, then quickly flipped the glowing green plasma blade into his left hand, holding it in a reverse grip. "Let's go!"
The White Gundam erupted into motion, a streak of pure white light dancing through the dark canyon. Zaki handled the complex flight maneuvers, zig-zagging through the narrow rock passages to confuse Lena's targeting sensors, while Maki unleashed a steady stream of green beam rifle fire from their left hand, paired with the rapid rat-tat-tat-tat of the head-mounted vulcans.
Pew! Pew! Pew!
Lena countered instantly, her machine diving into the canyon floor. The two white phantoms clashed in a brutal, high-speed dogfight. The sound of their thrusters roared like thunder through the stone valley, plasma blades clashing and grinding against shields in a chaotic display of light and sound. Zaki fought with everything he had, but Lena's experience was monstrous. Every time Zaki thought he had an opening, her shoulder shield or her physical claws were already there, waiting for him.
Deep below them, tucked away in the deep shadows of a narrow canyon crevice, Feres sat inside the cockpit of her high-mobility IBIS Custom. Her face was covered in sweat, her breath hitching as she adjusted the heavy, long-range solid-slug cannon mounted on her machine's shoulder.
She had disobeyed Salia's orders. She had promised Zaki that she would stand by him, and she wasn't going to let him fight a monster alone.
"Just a little bit closer..." Feres whispered, her eye pressed against the specialized optical targeting scope. She tracked the erratic, high-speed movements of the Polar White Gundam. "Got you!"
She slammed her finger onto the physical trigger.
BOOOOOOM!
A massive, hyper-velocity solid armor-piercing shell erupted from the IBIS Custom's long cannon, tearing through the air with a deafening crack. The shot was perfect. It traveled straight through the dark valley and slammed directly into the back of the Polar White's left shoulder shield.
CRASH!
The heavy impact forced Lena's machine to tilt violently to the side, the shield armor fracturing slightly under the immense kinetic force.
"What?!" Lena's eyes widened slightly in her cockpit, genuinely surprised by the unexpected sniper fire.
Inside the White Gundam, Zaki and Maki stared at their screens in disbelief as the Polar White stumbled.
"AIRIS, where did that shot come from?!" Zaki demanded.
AIRIS quickly routed the 360-degree external cameras down toward the source of the smoke trail, displaying a real-time video feed on Zaki's main monitor. There, standing proudly among the rocks with a smoking cannon, was Feres's IBIS Custom.
"Feres?!" Zaki gasped, his voice a mix of shock and intense worry. "Why is she here?! I told her to stay with Commander Salia's vanguard!"
But even as he screamed, a sudden warmth filled his chest. She kept her promise... she really came for me. He didn't have time to dwell on it. "Maki, keep firing! Don't let Lena recover!"
"Right!" Maki shouted, unleashing another barrage of green lasers.
However, the sniper shot had completely enraged Dr. Lena Lowe. Her cold, calculated composure cracked, replaced by a ruthless, vicious intent.
"A loud insect hiding in the dirt," Lena hissed, her face contorting into a mask of pure malice. "Die."
The Polar White Gundam ignored the White Gundam entirely, dropping like a falling meteor straight into the canyon depths toward Feres's position. Its dual shoulder cannons fired wildly, tearing up the ground around the IBIS Custom.
Zaki pushed his thrusters to the absolute limit, diving after her. "Feres, get out of there! Move!"
Feres frantically fired her thrusters, her IBIS Custom leaping backward as the ground where she had stood just a second ago was completely pulverized into dust. But she couldn't outrun a Gundam. Lena closed the distance instantly, her machine landing heavily on the canyon floor right in front of the IBIS Custom.
Zaki brought the White Gundam down, swinging his green beam saber with all his might to force Lena back.
CLANG!
Lena raised her physical right claw, catching the green plasma blade directly in her metal palm, the energy hissing violently against her reinforced structure. She held the White Gundam in place, her eyes locking onto Zaki's cockpit through the cameras.
"You are annoying, Klaus's boy," Lena whispered.
Suddenly, the palm armor of the Polar White Gundam's left hand slid open, revealing a hidden, high-tension wire-anchor mechanism. Before Zaki could pull his beam saber back to fly away, the wire anchor shot out with explosive force.
SHRIIIING!
The heavy titanium cable wrapped tightly around the White Gundam's right leg and torso, locking its thrusters and pinning its joints. Zaki slammed his controls, but the levers wouldn't budge. The wire was holding them dead in their tracks.
"No! The thrusters are locked!" Maki panicked, her fingers flying across the weapon console. "I can't clear the angle!"
Lena raised her heavy shoulder cannon, pointing the glowing blue barrel directly at the White Gundam's central cockpit from point-blank range. "This is the end of the line for the White Ghost."
Zaki stared at the blue light gathering in the barrel. His mind went completely blank. This is it... I can't dodge. Maki... AIRIS... I'm sorry...
ROOOOOOAR!
Suddenly, the deafening screech of overcharged jet engines echoed through the narrow cavern.
Feres didn't hesitate. She didn't look at her fuel gauges, and she didn't care about the structural limits of her machine. She slammed her thruster levers past the safety red line. The IBIS Custom transformed into a blur of black and silver metal, launching itself forward like a human missile.
SLAMMMMMMM!
The IBIS Custom crashed brutally into the side of the White Gundam, the sheer kinetic force of the impact breaking the tension of Lena's wire anchor and physically shoving the White Gundam ten meters to the left, completely clearing it from the line of fire.
Zaki's cockpit spun violently as his machine tumbled into the dirt. Through the main monitor, everything seemed to slow down into an agonizing, terrifying slow-motion sequence.
The communication window on Zaki's screen suddenly opened. Feres's face appeared on the monitor. Her helmet was slightly cracked, and her short hair was damp with sweat. But she wasn't looking at the enemy. She was looking directly at Zaki through the digital camera link, her eyes soft, incredibly bright, and filled with a profound, beautiful warmth that he had never seen before.
A gentle, peaceful smile broke across her lips, completely ignoring the red warning sirens screaming inside her own cockpit.
"Zaki..." Feres's voice whispered through the radio, clear, steady, and completely unbothered by the chaos around them. "I'm glad... I'm glad I could protect you. I love you, Zaki. Always remember that."
Before Zaki's brain could even process the words, time snapped back to its brutal, violent reality.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
The Polar White Gundam's launched right hand—the massive physical claw array attached to a high-tension cable—fired directly into the center mass of the IBIS Custom.
The sharp, multi-ton metal talons ripped through the cockpit armor of the IBIS Custom with terrifying, explosive force. The screen showed the metal twisting and buckling violently, punching straight through the pilot sector, hitting Feres's right shoulder and tearing deep into her abdomen.
Blood splattered across the interior camera before the feed cut to absolute black static.
"F-Feres...?" Zaki's voice was a tiny, breathless whisper. His brain completely refused to accept what his eyes had just witnessed.
Lena let out a cold, irritated tsk through the radio. With a brutal, careless flick of her wrist, she swung the Polar White's right arm, ripping the wire back. The shattered, broken frame of the IBIS Custom was violently thrown through the air like a discarded rag doll, crashing heavily into the high right ridge of the canyon wall. The machine didn't explode—it just lay there, a crumpled, smoking heap of black metal, completely silent.
The silence inside the White Gundam's cockpit was absolute for three seconds. Maki had her hands over her mouth, her eyes wide with a frozen, petrified horror, tears spilling uncontrollably down her face. AIRIS stood completely still, her processing units failing to compute the sudden, violent loss of their comrade.
Then, the dam broke.
Zaki's chest heaved, his eyes turning a bloodshot, frantic red as the raw, unfiltered agony tore through his soul. Every nerve in his body screamed in pure, unadulterated torment. He clutched his hair with both hands before slamming them down onto the control sticks, a sound ripping from the very depths of his throat.
"FEREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!!"
His scream echoed through the dark, bloody canyon, a sound of absolute heartbreak that shattered the night.
To be continued...