After sailing at high speed for a long time, they still hadn't found any signs of the ZAFT fleet catching up.
However, no one aboard the Archangel relaxed. On the contrary, as they got closer to the boundary between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, everyone became more and more tense.
Roz sat in the Jesta, calmly watching as the beam rifle and the two electromagnetic rocket launchers finished reloading.
"This journey is about to end, Jesta."
Roz tightened his grip on the controls, recalling all that he had experienced, and the words Halbarton had said.
"Blue Cosmos is implementing the SmartBrain system on a large scale within the Earth Forces."
Just that single piece of news had made Roz feel powerless.
For a brief moment, the thought—'I give up. Let the world rot as it is'—flashed through his mind. Then, the pressure of the promise he had made to himself forced him back on track, driving him to face his inner doubts.
"In the face of immense hardship, to feel lost or want to give up—that's an instinct inherent to all humans."
After a long silence, Big Haro spoke, its tone filled with appreciation and recognition for Roz.
"But when faced with such a desperate situation, to rise again and continue fighting—that is what makes one a true Executor of the Courtyard."
"Is that so… Well, I appreciate the recognition."
Roz gave a dry laugh, lost in thought.
Just then, a sharp alarm blared throughout the hangar.
"ZAFT fleet detected on both sides! All hands, enter first combat sequence!"
"Strike, Jesta, prepare to launch!"
Roz casually opened a communication channel and lowered the visor of his helmet. As the hangar's launch deck moved into position, the Jesta was secured to the catapult.
He glanced at the electromagnetic rocket launcher held by the mechanical arm of the high-mobility backpack, and the two shields mounted on the Jesta's forearms, then nodded slightly.
"Roz Links, High-Mobility Type Jesta, launching!"
He pressed down on the pedal—the circuits connected, the catapult received the signal—and the machine shot through the launch corridor at incredible speed.
With a violent jolt, the Jesta was ejected out of the launch rail, immediately seized by Earth's gravity, plummeting toward the ocean surface. The thrusters on the high-mobility backpack ignited, spewing fiery exhaust as they propelled the machine upward into the sky.
Barely a second after entering the battlefield, a series of alarm tones exploded in Roz's ears. Countless inverted-triangle markers filled the radar over the sea surface.
A dozen gray-white DINNs sharply changed course in midair, rushing straight toward him.
"What—?"
Feeling the strange, chaotic bursts of brainwave signals from the incoming group, Roz froze for a moment—but quickly recovered.
He raised his beam rifle and pulled the trigger. A crimson-violet beam pierced straight through the cockpit of a white DINN, turning it into a burst of fiery debris.
Something was off...Very off…
The Jesta raised its shield, blocking several bursts of gunfire, then twisted its body to evade the thrusts of several white DINNs.
"There's no mistake… this feeling… these identical, completely uniform brainwaves…"
Roz fired continuously at the white DINNs, destroying specific parts of their machines — arms, legs, wings… Yet no matter how he confirmed it, there was not the slightest fluctuation in the pilots' brainwaves.
"Zzz… Roz, return closer to the Archangel! There are too many of them!"
Kira's voice came through the comm channel.
Roz saw one of the white DINNs with its limbs and wings blown off but using its thrusters it rushed toward the Jesta and self-destructed. He had to raise the Jesta's shield to block.
Fortunately, the Jesta moved backward just in time. The shield absorbed most of the debris; otherwise, the scattered fragments might have caused serious damage.
"Kira, aim for the cockpits of those white DINNs."
"W–what? But there are people in those cockpits!"
Kira was clearly stunned by Roz's words, standing on the Archangel's central deck with the Strike Gundam, momentarily frozen.
"There's no mistake. The ones piloting those white DINNs… their brainwaves are identical—no variation at all."
He switched out the magazines on the two electromagnetic rocket launchers, loading fragmentation warheads.
"...The ones inside are clones—living weapons!"
The electromagnetic rocket launchers moved into position over the Jesta's shoulders and opened fire madly at the dozen or so white DINNs ahead.
Each fragmentation warhead exploded midair, scattering high-speed metal fragments that shredded the DINNs. Several were struck in their battery packs and detonated midair.
A few white DINNs, unable to evade, had their cockpits shredded into pieces and fell out of control into the ocean.
"Archangel, full speed! Get us out of this area!"
After two DINNs—their limbs cut off by Kira—still managed to self-destruct near the ship using their backpacks, Murrue realized just how dire the situation was.
And Kira, having already faced two suicide attacks at point-blank range, now aimed his beam rifle directly at the DINNs' cockpits.
Even though he was standing on the Archangel's central deck, Kira's kill count was no less than Roz's. In fact, thanks to his incredible accuracy, his tally was even starting to surpass Roz's.
The Jesta drew an arc through the sky. Adjusting the angle of its dual shields, it fired anti-ship missiles toward two ZAFT ships marked with white stripes, hitting their reactors precisely. The explosions took with them the white DINNs preparing to launch.
But soon, a familiar brainwave signature rapidly approached Roz, causing him to narrow his eyes slightly.
The Jesta adjusted its thrusters, twisting in midair. The left-hand shield swung forward toward the source of that familiar presence.
Clang!
With the harsh sound of metal striking metal, a DINN with slightly different coloring—gray markings mixed into its white paint—clashed swords against the Jesta's shield.
"…I suspected you weren't dead. But to think you even have a new machine now."
Rau Le Creuset's voice echoed across the ocean through the DINN's loudspeakers.
"Then let me be the one to experience this new MS's performance… Cub."
Roz didn't respond. Instead, he maneuvered the Jesta's left arm to swat away Creuset's longsword, then kicked the DINN sharply in the waist, throwing it off balance.
The Jesta's leg thrusters ignited, the flames scorching the DINN's armor as the Jesta propelled itself sideways out of the area.
As soon as it cleared the zone, several white DINNs fired down from above, their rounds striking the water where the Jesta had just been.
"Hmph… To think you can still pull off such a powerful kick even under Earth's gravity. As expected of you."
Creuset pulled his control lever, stabilizing the DINN before it could fall into the sea, then shot back into the sky.
"But we have new weapons too. Show him your power, Copy Unit squad!"
Several white DINNs swept past Creuset's machine in formation, charging straight toward Roz's Jesta.
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