The red flashing lights on the main tactical grid of the White Ark headquarters blinked erratically before turning into a solid, haunting gray. On the master status board, the words UNIT 05: IBIS CUSTOM – SIGNAL LOST / PILOT DOWN burned into the screens.
Inside the command room, the silence was deafening. But on the communication channels, it was pure chaos.
"Feres?! Feres, answer me! Come on, pick up the damn radio!" Augustina screamed from the cockpit of the Sunflower Gundam. Her eyes wide, staring at the distant smoke rising from the canyon ridge where her little sister's machine had been carelessly tossed like garbage. "No... no, no, no! Feres!!!"
A terrifying wave of fury washed over the entire White Ark team. The grief instantly transformed into absolute, merciless malice. Without a second command from Salia, the remaining Gundams and the Pioneer squads charged into the terrorist armada like demons. Agnes's Deep Blue Gundam unleashed a blinding flurry of beam cuts, slicing through Pioneer Mobile Suits before they could even register her movement. Augustina didn't care about sniping positions anymore; she pushed her thrusters to the max, firing her dual rifles point-blank into the terrorist transport ships, blowing them into balls of fire. They were wiping out the enemy without a single shred of mercy.
Suddenly, an open-channel transmission ripped through every single cockpit and headset in the sector.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
It wasn't a human voice anymore. It was a throat-tearing, soul-crushing shriek of pure, unadulterated agony and rage. It was Zaki. The scream was so loud, so intense, that the audio static distorted the speakers.
Up in the air, the White Gundam completely halted its standard maneuvers. The emerald-green twin visors of the machine suddenly flickered, snapping into a blazing, deep, predatory neon blue. The massive machine threw its arms back, its head tilting toward the sky, perfectly mimicking Zaki's screaming posture as it hovered suspended in the air by a terrifying surge of internal nuclear pressure.
Inside the cockpit, Maki panicked. "Zaki! Stop! Your neural pressure is too high! You're gonna burn your brain out! Let go of the controls, Zaki!"
Maki tried to reach for the primary override lever, but before her fingers could touch it, a mechanical CLACK echoed through the cabin. The high-tension seatbelts around her chest and waist violently tightened, locking her firmly back into her co-pilot seat.
"Hey! What—?! AIRIS?!" Maki gasped, turning her head frantically toward the operator seat.
AIRIS sat perfectly rigid. Her glowing green android eyes had gone completely flat, empty, and devoid of any independent thought. Her processing system had entirely submitted to Zaki's overflowing emotional cortex. She wasn't an independent AI right now; she was a complete extension of Zaki's wrath, feeding his brain total control over every single joint, thruster, and weapon safety lock of the White Gundam.
"Zaki... please..." Maki cried, but her voice was completely drowned out by the deep, terrifying hum of the overcharged reactor.
Back in the White Ark hangar, Klaus Kimeza was already sprinting down the gantry, frantically pulling his tight pilot suit over his shoulders. His face was pale, his teeth grinding in sheer desperation.
"Commander Klaus! Stop! You can't launch!" Airi Kimeza screamed from the control deck, running down the steps to intercept him. She grabbed his arm, her eyes full of panic. "The Grai Gundam is not ready for combat! The internal power couplings are still failing, and the generator can't support the high-output beam weapons yet! If you go out there, you're just flying a giant metal coffin!"
"I don't care about the damn weapons, Airi!" Klaus roared, violently ripping his arm away as he climbed into the cockpit of the massive, unpainted gray machine. "Did you hear our son's voice?! He's losing his mind out there! If that machine goes fully rogue, it'll kill him and Maki! I am going to bring my kids back, even if I have to throw this machine at them!"
Klaus slammed the cockpit hatch shut. The Grai Gundam booted up with a rough, unstable shutter. Without any high-tech beam sabers or plasma rifles, Klaus grabbed a heavy, old-school physical solid-bullet machine gun and a short, crude Heat Axe from the weapon rack. The thrusters erupted with a dirty, sputtering flame, and the Grai Gundam launched from the hangar, rocketing through the night sky toward the coordinates of the screaming white monster.
In the canyon, Dr. Lena Lowe looked up through her primary viewscreen, her eyebrows knitting together in slight annoyance as she watched the glowing blue eyes of the White Gundam.
"Pathetic," Lena muttered, shifting her controls. "An emotional outburst won't change the structural limitations of your machine. Fall."
The Polar White Gundam ignited its thrusters, soaring upward as its left physical claw extended, aiming to crush the White Gundam's cockpit in a singular, brutal strike.
But she miscalculated.
The moment the Polar White moved, the White Gundam vanished from her targeting sensors. It didn't just fly—it executed a high-G maneuver twice as fast as its maximum recorded speed specification, leaving a trail of blue after-images in the air. Before Lena could even rotate her shoulder shield, the White Gundam materialized directly on her left flank.
SHIII-NG!
The left forearm beam saber of the White Gundam ignited instantly, a thick blade of emerald energy piercing straight through the Polar White's left shoulder joint. Metal buckled, hydraulic fluid sprayed into the dark air, and the entire left arm assembly of Lena's machine sparked violently.
"What?! Such speed—?!" Lena stammered, her hands shaking on the sticks as the cockpit alarms blared.
Acting on pure survival instinct, Lena smashed her right control lever forward. The Polar White's remaining right physical claw lunged forward, clapping tightly around the White Gundam's head unit. "Die, you brat!" She initiated the hydraulic press, trying to squeeze and crush the White Gundam's head into scrap metal.
"GET OFF ME!!!" Zaki screamed over the radio.
The White Gundam didn't back down. The head-mounted vulcan guns ignited, firing high-velocity armor-piercing rounds directly into the palm of the Polar White's right claw from point-blank range.
RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
The explosive rounds completely shattered the metal fingers of Lena's claw, blowing the hand into smoking fragments and forcing the arm open. Before Lena could recover her balance, Zaki grabbed the Polar White's torso with both mechanical hands, violently spinning the massive machine around in mid-air before delivering a brutal, overcharged kick directly into its central spine.
CRUUUUNCH!
The Polar White Gundam plummeted out of the sky like a stone, crashing brutally into the canyon floor. The rock shelf shattered under the immense weight, sending a massive cloud of dust and debris into the air. The pristine white armor was now bent, cracked, and heavily damaged.
Lena gasped as her head slammed against her monitor frame, blood trickling down her temple. "No... this is impossible... a mere child... a faulty pilot sync..."
As she struggled to raise her damaged machine, a shadow blocked the moonlight.
The White Gundam dropped from the sky like a vengeful god, landing with its heavy mechanical feet directly onto the chest plate of the Polar White Gundam.
BOOOOOOM!
The sheer kinetic force of the stamp was so immense that it compressed the ground beneath them, bursting a hidden underground water pipeline. A massive geyser of water shot into the air, spraying over the two machines like a violent, artificial rainstorm. The water cascaded down the White Gundam's chest, dripping from its blazing blue visors like streams of digital tears, as if the machine itself was weeping for the girl who had just been taken away.
Zaki didn't hesitate. He threw the White Gundam's primary beam rifle into the mud. His left mechanical hand reached up to the shoulder armor, drawing the secondary beam saber. The green plasma blade ignited with a lethal, high-pitched hiss through the falling water.
He didn't aim for the weapons. He didn't aim for the thrusters. Zaki drove the glowing energy blade directly into the left side of the Polar White's torso, slowly sliding the plasma edge toward the central cockpit capsule. He was going to cut her open. He was going to burn her alive, millimeter by millimeter.
Inside the sinking cockpit, the heat was rising rapidly. The walls began to glow a terrifying cherry-red as the plasma blade melted through the outer titanium bulkheads.
Lena's cold, arrogant demeanor completely vanished. Pure, primitive terror took over her mind. "No! Stop! Get away from me!" she shrieked, her voice turning into a pathetic, hysterical sob as she pounded her fists against the locked control console. "I don't want to die! I am a scientist! My research is necessary for the future! Let me out! Let me out!"
She frantically hit the emergency cockpit eject switch, but the crushing weight of the White Gundam's foot had completely warped the framework. The heavy hatch wouldn't budge. She was entirely trapped inside her own metal coffin, watching the green plasma blade melt closer to her face.
"Zaki! AIRIS! Stop it! Please, stop it!" Maki screamed from the co-pilot seat, her tears blinding her as she thrashed against the locked seatbelts. "If you do this, you're no better than her! Don't become a murderer, Zaki! Look at me! Listen to my voice!"
But her voice couldn't reach him. Zaki's mind was locked in a dark, suffocating loop. Every time he looked at the Polar White, all he could see was Feres's gentle, blood-stained smile on his monitor. All he could hear was her soft voice whispering, "I love you, Zaki."
"Die..." Zaki whispered, his eyes completely hollow. "Just die..."
THUD.
Suddenly, a heavy, solid gray hand clamped tightly around the White Gundam's left shoulder armor.
Zaki blinked, his screen shifting to show the battered, unpainted frame of the Grai Gundam standing beside him in the pouring water. The cockpit communication line clicked open, and Klaus's deep, trembling voice filled the cabin.
"That's enough, son," Klaus said quietly, his hand squeezing the machine's shoulder. "It's over. The enemy vanguard is destroyed. Don't waste your soul on a piece of human garbage that isn't worth your time. Your team needs you, Zaki. Feres is still out there. Prioritize your family. Prioritize your comrades."
The word Feres snapped something inside Zaki's broken psyche. The intense blue light in his eyes violently flickered, before fading back into its standard, dim green color. The overcharged systems automatically initiated an emergency cool-down sequence, and the White Gundam's systems went dark, its arms dropping limply to its sides.
Zaki slumped forward against his control console, his chest heaving as a loud, racking sob tore from his chest. He cried like a wounded animal, the absolute weight of his grief finally breaking through his anger.
Dr. Lena Lowe lay trembling in her dark, melted cockpit, hyperventilating and weeping in the dark, saved from absolute obliteration by a fraction of a second.
The battle was officially over. The terrorist army had been completely obliterated before a single unit could even touch the civilian borders of Neo-Verdia.
The rescue crews rushed to the high ridge, carefully using hydraulic cutters to open the crushed cockpit of the black-and-silver IBIS Custom. Medical emergency teams flooded the area, pulling Feres's pale, blood-drenched body out from the wreckage. She was still breathing, her pulse faint but steady, but the price of her sacrifice was devastating—her left arm had been completely severed at the shoulder by the Polar White's massive claw during the impalement.
The moment Augustina saw her little sister's mutilated body being carried onto the medical transport flyer, her knees buckled. A wave of intense, visceral horror hit her stomach, and she leaned against the side of a transport vehicle, violently vomiting into the dirt, her body shaking with heavy, bitter tears.
An hour later, back at the White Ark medical wing, the red "IN SURGERY" light glowed brightly above the Intensive Care Unit doors.
Inside the quiet pilot briefing room, Zaki sat alone on a metal bench. He was still wearing his dirty pilot suit, his head lowered, staring blankly at the floor. His face was pale, his eyes completely bloodshot.
BANG!
The door was thrown open. Augustina stormed into the room, her hair messy, her eyes wild with a terrifying mixture of grief and pure rage. Before anyone could stop her, she closed the distance and slammed her fist directly into Zaki's face.
CRACK!
The sheer force of the punch sent Zaki crashing out of his bench onto the cold floor. His nose split open instantly, a thick stream of dark blood pooling under his lip. Zaki didn't fight back. He didn't even raise his hands to wipe the blood away. He just lay there, staring blankly at the wall.
"You piece of trash!" Augustina screamed, her voice cracking as she grabbed Zaki by the collar of his suit, pulling him up just to punch him again. BANG! "She was out there because of you! She disobeyed orders because she wanted to keep you alive! Look what happened to her! She's missing an arm, Zaki! My little sister is broken because you were too careless to watch your own damn back!"
Zaki let out a ragged breath, his vision blurring as blood dripped down his chin. "I'm sorry..." he mumbled flatly, his voice hollow. "I'm sorry... I'm weak... I couldn't protect her."
Augustina raised her fist to strike him a third time, her teeth bared, but Salia suddenly rushed forward from the doorway. Salia grabbed Augustina's wrist, using her full military strength to lock her arm down and push her back away from the boy.
"Let go of me, Salia!" Augustina snarled, thrashing against her.
"That's enough, Augustina!" Salia shouted, her own eyes filled with heavy guilt as she shielded Zaki with her body. "If you want to blame someone, blame me! I am the commanding officer of the vanguard! I should have noticed her ship detaching! I allowed her to run to his side, and I am the one who will take full responsibility for this failure! Leave the boy alone!"
Augustina stared at Salia, then looked down at Zaki's pathetic, bleeding form. She let out a sharp, bitter curse, violently ripping her hand away from Salia's grip. She turned around and marched out of the room, her shoulders shaking as she broke out into a loud, sobbing cry down the corridor.
Maki rushed into the room, falling to her knees beside Zaki. She pulled a tissue from her pocket, gently wiping the blood from his nose as she began to weep quietly. "Zaki... oh god, Zaki..."
The room fell into a suffocating, somber silence. Every pilot stood in the shadows, carrying their own weight of the tragedy.
Tasya stood near the back corner, her hands clenched into tight fists until her nails drew blood. Her face was completely pale. This is all because of my family, Tasya thought, her heart twisting in deep, agonizing guilt. My mother did this. She ruined everything again... and Zaki had to carry the entire curse of my bloodline on his shoulders.
AIRIS walked over to the weeping Kimeza twins. Her beautiful, expressive face was clouded with a deep, robotic sadness. She knelt down beside them, extending her soft synthetic arms to pull both Zaki and Maki into a tight, protective embrace. She held them close against her chest, letting them lean on her as they cried together in the quiet room.
The next morning, the sun rose over a completely changed Neo-Verdia.
Acting Principal and Prime Minister Spersen Treyman didn't waste any time showing the world the resolve of the city. In the central military plaza, the captured terrorist commanders and soldiers who had participated in the border breach were lined up under maximum guard. In a swift, unyielding public demonstration of wartime justice, Spersen authorized their immediate execution by a military firing squad, sending a clear, terrifying message to the 7 Colonial Kingdoms: Neo-Verdia will offer no mercy to those who bring violence to its shores.
Down on the streets, the public perception had completely shifted. The citizens didn't care about the propaganda from the space kings anymore. They had seen the burning wreckage of the enemy armada outside their borders. They realized that the White Bird and the White Ark crew were the only things standing between them and total annihilation.
The streets were filled with hundreds of thousands of people holding candle vigils. The front gates of the military hospital were completely buried under thousands of colorful flower bouquets, letters of encouragement, and prayers dedicated to the recovery of the brave pilots—especially for Feres, who was now recognized as the ultimate guardian angel of the city.
Meanwhile, deep within the subterranean isolation sectors of the White Ark, the atmosphere was freezing cold.
Dr. Lena Lowe was confined inside a stark, completely white room. Her body was tightly bound to a specialized metal restraint chair, heavy electronic cuffs locking her limbs and blocking any access to her neural implants.
The heavy blast door slid open, and Tasya walked into the room.
Lena slowly raised her head, a weak, manipulative smile breaking across her bruised face. "Tasya... my sweet girl. You came to get me out, didn't you? Tell them to unlock these cuffs. We can leave this primitive city together. We can build a new lab, a better Gundam—"
"Shut up," Tasya interrupted, her voice dropping into a flat, icy register that completely cut Lena off.
Tasya walked up to the edge of the glass partition, looking down at her mother. For a brief second, a flicker of pity crossed her eyes as she saw how pathetic the great scientist looked. But then, she remembered Feres's empty sleeve. She remembered Zaki's bloody, broken expression.
Tasya's eyes went completely cold, hardening into a resolve that was sharper than any plasma blade.
"I used to fear you," Tasya whispered, her fingers resting against the glass. "I used to think I was defined by your madness. But you are nothing to me now. From this day forward... I will bear the entire weight of the Lowe family's sins. Every drop of blood you spilled, every life you broke... I will pay it back by fighting for Maki, for Zaki, and for every single friend on this ship. You will rot in this cell, 'Mother,' while I tear down everything you ever built."
Tasya turned her back on her mother's screaming protests, walking out into the light as the heavy iron doors locked behind her.
To be continued...