With the heaviest anti-ship missiles on Jegan fired, the overall weight of the mobile suit became much lighter compared to when it had first deployed.
Casually tossing aside the now-empty rocket pod, Jegan dodged the GINN's sweeping fire. The direct effect of the weight reduction was a noticeable increase in the suit's mobility.
"One minute until I reach the battlefield… can you hold on, Kira?" Roz glanced at the radar distance and pushed Jegan's throttle to maximum.
Roz casually opened the public channel, only to find Creuset still rambling about things no one could understand, and then shut it off again.
Roz judged this kind of psychological warfare on the public channel as "an overly virtuous disadvantage."
After all, during his previous simulated training in Jegan's cockpit, Roz had used "Amuro" as the test data. AI doesn't care what you say — when it's time to blow up your cockpit with a shot, it will never aim for your arm.
As for why "Amuro" was in quotes, it was because Roz only remembered that Amuro liked using "enemy-manipulating tactics" and aiming at cockpits. The rest of the parameters were maxed out based on the impression that "Amuro is strong," so Roz wasn't even sure if the simulation truly represented Amuro.
From being destroyed within a second of starting up to later being able to exchange a few blows with "Amuro," who knows how many times Roz had failed.
Roz's unconditional trust in his own crisis intuition and habit of targeting warship thrusters was formed during that period.
Whenever Roz tried to destroy the simulated "Ra Cailum," he would always get ambushed by "Amuro" from all corners. So Roz simply destroyed the warship thrusters from the outside first, forming the thought pattern: "take out the MS first, then the warships."
After another short lateral shift to dodge a volley of shells from a GINN pursuing him, Jegan turned and fired a forged-dispersion rocket backward.
Seeing the fragments from the rocket detonate, the GINN pushed its throttle to maximum, attempting to bypass CGUE.
Meanwhile, CGUE had been outputting verbal commands for some time. Seeing Jegan unbothered, Creuset — puzzled why his always-reliable tactics weren't working — finally realized the GINN's plan and slightly reduced its throttle.
The GINN successfully maneuvered in front of CGUE, raised its shield, and spread its wings.
The forged fragments rained down like a storm, smashing the GINN's wings, shattering its shield, and embedding itself into the frame. Although the shield blocked many fragments before being destroyed and preserved the pilot's life, the GINN had already lost its combat capability.
"The rest… I'll leave to you, Captain Creuset."
"Mm…" Facing the expectation in the GINN pilot's words, Creuset simply responded and piloted CGUE around the GINN wreckage, continuing to pursue Jegan.
If this were a typical shonen anime, the GINN pilot's words would have awakened Creuset's "hidden power" or some kind of "nakama power." But this is a Gundam story, and Creuset's only thought was to make the world explode in a one big fireworks show.
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With Jegan drawing ever closer to the Eighth Fleet's battlefield, Roz couldn't help but frown.
Two warships of the Eighth Fleet had already been destroyed, and the Archangel along with the transport ships were only now beginning to descend toward Earth.
Although the MA units were almost pinned down by the GINNs, luckily the Strike Gundam was holding back the Aegis, and the Buster and Duel Gundams allowed the fleet's anti-air firepower to barely resist the GINN offensive.
Seeing that they were already within rocket range, Roz pressed a few buttons on the joystick.
Jegan's shoulder-mounted triple missile launchers activated, placing the forged-dispersion rockets into a ready-to-fire state.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!" The triple missile launchers on Jegan's shoulders fired, sending six forged-dispersion rockets toward different areas.
With explosions larger than the rocket pod's caliber, the density of the forged fragments finally reached Roz's expected specifications.
Four GINNs chasing the MA, and three more about to fire anti-ship missiles at the Archangel, were all hit directly by the forged fragments, turning into fireworks.
"Forged-dispersion rockets? Cub?!" Izak, pursuing the Strike Gundam, saw the familiar armament and was surprised. "He actually got past them?"
"Izak, coordinate with Dearka to pin Cub from both sides," Creuset's voice came through the comms.
"Roger!" Dearka, piloting the Buster Gundam, reassembled his artillery tubes into an anti-armor shotgun and opened fire on Jegan.
The now-empty triple launchers released their locks and were tossed aside. With Roz pressing the pedal, Jegan — now converted from "Assault Type" to "High-Mobility Type" — once again displayed unmatched speed.
"Ugh…" Feeling that familiar G-force, Roz gritted his teeth and checked the rocket launcher's status.
Seeing the Duel Gundam approaching, Roz pulled the trigger on the rocket launcher. Two forged-dispersion rockets launched one after the other toward the Duel.
The Duel dodged the first rocket but was hit dead-on by the second.
The familiar shockwave hit, and Izak even felt he was growing somewhat accustomed to it.
Then it was Dearka's turn. The rocket the Duel had dodged exploded directly on the Buster Gundam.
Dearka, unaccustomed to this kind of impact, instinctively let out a beast-like scream.
"You bastard!" The Duel drew its beam saber, preparing to strike Jegan.
The next moment, Jegan raised his shield and, at extreme speed, barreled into the Duel Gundam like a locomotive.
"Ughhh…" Izak screamed in the same beast-like manner again.
"Perfect opportunity!" Seeing Jegan slow slightly from colliding with the Duel, CGUE — who had been trailing Jegan and almost left behind — immediately surged forward, drawing its sword.
Jegan tried to shake off the Duel pressing against his shield but found the Duel had grabbed hold of it.
"Don't think you can escape!" Izak, now slightly recovered, piloted the Duel Gundam, holding the shield tightly while stabbing at Jegan with his beam saber.
Roz quickly adjusted the shield's angle, activating the forged-dispersion rockets on it. Two rockets detonated again on the Duel Gundam.
Although the Duel Gundam, protected by PS armor, suffered mainly a cliff-like drop in power, its beam saber was not so lucky. The hilt was completely destroyed by the dense forged fragments.
Taking advantage of the Duel loosening its grip on the shield from the impact, Jegan executed a spinning kick, deflecting CGUE's downward sword, then rolled sideways, escaping from the pincer attack of the two mobile suits.
"Damn it, he got away," Izak shook his head to clear his thoughts.
"Doesn't matter, Izak. I think I've figured out what he's trying to do," Creuset observed the battle and formed a plan. "You continue chasing Cub. Leave the rest to me."
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Roz weaved continuously across the battlefield, occasionally using the shield in his hand to block GINN-fired machine cannon shots.
With Jegan holding back the Duel, Buster, and CGUE, Kira's pressure had significantly eased, and the battle, initially at a disadvantage, began shifting toward a stalemate.
At that moment, Roz instinctively pressed a pedal, and Jegan slid a short distance to the left.
A green beam shot from behind Jegan, grazing past him.
"Don't think you can run!" Izak frantically pulled the trigger, occasionally checking his mobile suit's energy gauge to estimate how much longer he could keep fighting.
Roz fired the last rocket from the rocket launcher at the Duel Gundam, casually tossed aside the empty launcher, and drew the beam rifle.
Izak did not try to take the rocket head-on. He turned to dodge and then raised his shield to block the beam from Jegan.
"Izak, get ready. Wait for my command," Creuset's voice came through the comms, and Izak eased off his speed.
"I'll give him a choice he can't refuse," Creuset said with a smile, piloting CGUE.
CGUE aimed an anti-ship missile, salvaged from the wreckage of a GINN, at a transport ship descending with the Archangel.
Creuset had confirmed through Lacus that the Archangel had civilians aboard earlier, and after simple deduction, he assumed the civilians were now on the transport ship.
Instead of wasting the missile on the "spiky" Archangel, he would fire at the "thin-skinned but loaded" transport ship.
"Come on, protect yourself, or protect them?"
Roz seemed to sense something and looked up.
He clearly saw CGUE fire the anti-ship missile toward the transport ship.
"Creuset! You bastard!" For the rare time, Roz felt anger. He stomped the pedal, and Jegan's booster pack instantly went into overload, erupting thick flames.
"Faster… faster… still not in range… faster!" Pushed by immense G-forces, Roz focused entirely on the missile flying toward the transport ship.
"Hmph… gotcha, Izak. Let's go!" Seeing Jegan rush toward the transport ship as expected, Creuset laughed, tossing aside the launcher and charging at Jegan.
"Too late!" Roz, fully concentrated, realized he couldn't catch up. Gritting his teeth, instinctively guided by some unseen force—or maybe feeling a second pair of hands on his left guiding him—he flung his shield toward the missile.
On Jegan's head monitor, the sunglasses' blue glow flickered with a trace of green, and the thrown shield suddenly accelerated.
On the transport ship and the Archangel, everyone saw the anti-ship missile approaching.
The Archangel tried to shift its anti-air fire, but the missile was too fast and too close; the fire control couldn't keep up.
Flay froze in terror at the missile approaching.
Just when everyone thought they were doomed, a deep blue shield suddenly appeared in the missile's path.
The shield flickered a faint green and instantly stopped from high-speed motion, colliding with the missile's warhead.
"...Roz?" Flay watched as the familiar shield glimmered with tiny green sparks, which was engulfed and destroyed by the missile's flames, detonating the missile at the extreme safe distance from transport ship.
"Perfect opportunity!" Seeing Jegan toss the shield, Izak realized it was his chance and continued firing while closing in.
From Izak's experience, many of Roz's combat techniques relied on Jegan's shield and legs. Now that this key weapon had been voluntarily discarded, finishing him…
But the next moment, a beam saber flash cut Izak's beam rifle in two.
Instinctively, Izak dropped the broken rifle and raised his shield.
A beam saber struck the Duel Gundam's shield, the tremendous force even deflecting the still-thrusting mobile suit's trajectory.
After slightly adjusting his output to stop moving backward, Izak finally saw Jegan's status.
In Jegan's sunglasses, the original blue and faint green were now overlaid by red light.
"Come dance with me," Roz thought, glancing at the Duel Gundam ahead, then shifted focus to CGUE flying toward him, mentally counting.
"Dance until death!"
Jegan kicked the Duel Gundam away, his sunglasses glowing red, and swung the beam saber at CGUE.
...............