Almost in an instant, a thick beam fired from the muzzle of the Hyper Impulse Long-Range Sniper Rifle, striking precisely on the hull of a Laurasia-class warship.
The reflective beam layers on the hull dissipated, the outer armor and internal structures melted away, until the beam reached the ship's reactor.
"Boom…"
With the Laurasia-class reactor detonated, the entire warship was blown into two pieces, debris scattering in all directions.
Seeing the destruction, the remaining ships intensified their fire.
"Two shots left…"
Roz glanced at the remaining ammo in the Hyper Impulse Long-Range Sniper Rifle, pressed the pedal, and dodged a volley from the anti-air guns.
The hyper-impulse long-range sniper rifle began charging again, and Roz scanned for his next target.
"You're next!" Seeing the two Nazca-class warships, Roz planned to take one out.
According to information from Mu, Creuset's flagship was a high-speed Nazca-class warship. If the Gundam was here, then he should be too.
"You bastard! Stop right there!!" Although Roz's ambush had just disrupted the formation, seeing the Laurasia-class warship blown apart snapped Yzak back to focus.
He pushed the throttle and pressed the pedal. Even though his Duel Gundam had assault shroud, it still felt unusually slow.
Roz, of course, had also seen the marked Duel Gundam and tapped a few times on the touchscreen beside him.
The charging limit of the hyper-impulse long-range sniper rifle was removed, squeezing out the remaining energy.
If the Buster Gundam were using this weapon, with the combined support of its main batteries and built-in weapon batteries, the endurance would be considerable.
But for Jegan, which only relied on the connector to operate the weapon, the cannon tubes could only serve as a one-shot assault weapon.
Since it was a disposable setup, concerns about weapon lifespan didn't matter.
A beam, half again as thick as the previous one, shot from the repeater's muzzle. As the remaining energy discharged, the barrel began to show signs of melting.
Yzak watched helplessly as one Nazca-class reactor detonated, and beside it, the second Nazca-class warship split in two.
"Damn it!" Yzak piloted the Duel Gundam, raising the right shoulder railgun and firing several rounds at Jegan. The five-missile launcher on his shoulder deployed, instantly emptying its payload.
Feeling a jolt of electricity in his head, Roz pressed the pedal, and Jegan easily dodged the railgun rounds.
Seeing the Duel Gundam approaching, Roz activated the bomb installed on the cannon tubes, swinging the tubes toward the Duel Gundam.
Jegan retreated, using danger sensing to avoid a series of point-defense fire. The Vulcan gun on the left side of the head monitor fired precise bursts, detonating the tracking missiles launched by the Duel Gundam.
Meanwhile, the Duel Gundam reached the area where the cannon tubes had been swung.
With a violent explosion, the cannon tube turned into a makeshift grenade, debris scattering everywhere.
"Ughhh…" Yzak's control distorted as the blast hit his face. A fragment of the cannon tube struck the electromagnetic cannon on his right shoulder, rendering it inoperable.
Jegan grabbed the rocket launcher hanging at his waist, spun deftly, and dodged a secondary cannon shot.
Engaging with the Duel Gundam here was pointless. Roz's current mission was to destroy or severely damage the ZAFT fleet—to lure the GINNs back or slow down ZAFT's operations.
In short, Roz was accumulating enough battle results, gambling with ZAFT for a "swap."
Jegan's speed continued to soar, weaving through the fire from the Laurasia-class warships, rushing toward their thrusters.
"He's back! Our six o'clock side is thinly covered!" The Laurasia-class warship targeted by Roz panicked.
In less than ten minutes of close combat, he had already taken down a Laurasia-class and a Nazca-class ship—something even ZAFT's elite in red couldn't achieve.
Jegan fired the remaining rockets from his magazine with precision, hitting the thrusters and shutting down one Laurasia-class warship.
"Huh? A GINN I haven't seen before?" Roz then noticed a silver "GINN" emerging from the surviving Nazca-class warship.
As the silver GINN approached, Roz sensed a familiar brainwave.
"So that's it—you're here!" Roz realized that inside this silver GINN sat Creuset.
"But I don't have time to circle around with you!" Jegan executed a smooth rolling maneuver, dodging the silver GINN's cannons and the Duel Gundam's beams.
Jegan swapped out the empty rocket magazine for one loaded with forged-dispersion warheads. Under the shocked gazes of all ZAFT forces, the large anti-ship missile on Jegan's left shoulder fired a long tail of flame, striking the powerless Laurasia-class warship.
With a massive explosion, the Laurasia-class bridge was destroyed, leaving a huge gap in the hull.
Jegan kicked away the Duel Gundam attempting a beam saber strike and fired a forged-dispersion rocket at its cockpit.
Then, performing a short-range thrust to dodge the silver GINN's sweeping fire, Jegan launched a few forged-dispersion warheads from the waist missile pod, forcing the silver GINN to retreat.
"Phew… what a troublesome guy." Sitting in his CGUE, Creuset felt a headache coming on.
As a cunning strategist, he could clearly see Roz's plan to "swap targets."
"Yzak, I'll handle him. You go with the main force to attack the Earth Federation fleet." After a second of thought, Creuset chose the ultimate tactic: ignore it.
"…Understood." Though he wanted to take down Jegan, Creuset was his superior he had to follow his orders.
Though the two continued exchanging fire, neither stopped moving. CGUE took over from the Duel Gundam and began pursuing Roz.
While CGUE's performance wasn't as powerful as a Gundam's, as a high-end custom unit, its speed was no less than the Duel Gundam.
Roz smoothly maneuvered Jegan into the belly of another Laurasia-class warship while being pursued by CGUE.
Jegan's waist missile pod continuously fired forged-dispersion rockets, aiming to damage CGUE's components.
But Creuset, as Mu had said, was a "hard opponent." CGUE weaved through the barrage, using its shield to block projectiles it couldn't dodge.
Although CGUE's equipment and parts weren't destroyed, those rockets successfully held it back. That bought Roz time to fire his anti-ship missiles.
Two conspicuous anti-ship missiles on Jegan's right-shoulder rack ignited; one after the other they struck the belly of a Laurasia-class warship.
The violent explosions blew that unlucky Laurasia into three pieces.
"Single-handedly downing four capital ships — if you survive, you'll probably become a legend like the Hawk of Endymion," Creuset's voice came over the public channel.
"Of course — you've gotta survive first! Missile porcupine!" Even Creuset couldn't keep a straight face at this point, given the obscene firepower on display.
Anyone piloting a fragile MS and chasing a Jegan through a barrage of forged-dispersion rockets would break under the pressure.
CGUE suddenly appeared in front of Jegan, raising its long blade and bringing it down.
Luckily Roz hadn't installed the original left-arm armor; he'd kept the shield.
Jegan casually batted aside CGUE's descending blade with the shield on its left forearm. As Roz moved in to finish, a GINN inexplicably appeared nearby and swept fire at Jegan.
Jegan had to break off from the adjusting CGUE and look for another opening.
Just as Roz was about to go trouble the remaining two warships, a comm from Strike came through.
"Kira? Didn't you get off the ship?" Roz cut the public channel, letting Creuset's taunts run.
"Not now, Roz." Kira, sweating, answered from the Strike. "It's urgent here — come back and support us."
Facing Aegis, Duel and Buster at once had Kira flustered. On top of that, the Eighth Fleet's MA units were struggling against the GINNs, which made things worse.
"…Understood."
Roz exhaled, then loosed all the dispersion rockets from the waist missile pod at the GINNs and CGUE trailing Jegan.
The "swap targets" tactic had failed — so he'd have to eliminate the enemies right in his own neighborhood.
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