"Roar… not fleeing in disgrace, but charging at me with that incomplete machine?"
Shani licked his lips as he looked at the rapidly approaching Narrative Gundam and suddenly pushed the control stick.
Forbidden's huge backpack spewed flames as it flew toward the Narrative Gundam. At the same time, the giant scythe in its hand was raised high.
"A good chance!"
Seeing Forbidden closing in, Roz quickly raised his gun barrel.
"Hmph, beam attacks are useless!"
Shani smoothly shifted Forbidden's two shields to its front and continued the charge.
But Roz did not fire. Inside the small sub‑shield attached to Narrative Gundam's right‑arm shield, a dozen small missiles launched, striking Forbidden's shield with precision. The explosions filled the area with smoke, and the repeated blasts forced Forbidden into a brief stun.
Then, under the cover of the smoke, the muzzle of the Narrative Gundam's beam rifle was already pressed right before the beam‑bending device—as Roz fired without hesitation.
After that rapid missile barrage, in order to prevent the beam‑bending device from being damaged, Shani refrained from activating it, afraid the TP armor would fail. Now, at such close range, he no longer had time to activate it at all, and the spinning beam destroyed it completely.
On Forbidden's left shield, the exposed beam‑bending unit shattered, and several spiraling beams struck the now‑useless shield, destroying it outright.
"What?!"
Seeing one of his shields turn red from damage, Shani felt a surge of rage rise from deep within. He moved the remaining shield aside and swung his scythe toward the Narrative Gundam at point‑blank range.
This too was part of Roz's plan. After a brief engagement, Roz could roughly tell from how the scythe was swung that the pilot of this machine was right‑handed.
If he had destroyed the right‑side beam‑bending shield, though it would reduce Shani's defensive area, it would have made his scythe swings even smoother. Destroying the left shield instead not only created a defensive blind spot but also obstructed his counterattacks.
But Roz did not follow up the attack. Instead, he turned and flew toward the ocean surface.
Two thick beams streaked past, striking the space where the Narrative Gundam had been. One of them nearly hit the damaged Forbidden, and Shani had to twist desperately to refract the beam away from himself.
"Orga!!"
Shani was clearly angry—Orga's firing angle had obviously included him as a target.
Faced with Shani's rebuke, Orga didn't care at all. Instead, he snapped back, "You got hit after just a little fighting. A useless pilot like you is better off dead!"
"Shut up!"
Shani was burning with fury, but since Muruta was watching them remotely, he couldn't attack Orga and could only vent his rage on the Narrative Gundam.
He moved the right beam shield aside, and one of the cannons on his flight pack began charging rapidly before firing an Plasma Induction Cannon blast at the Narrative Gundam.
Roz dodged the incoming ion blast skillfully—but the alarm sounding from behind his cockpit made him instinctively stomp the pedal, and the Narrative Gundam shot upward at high speed.
"The beam… turned?!"
Seeing the beam bend mid‑flight and attempt to strike the Narrative Gundam's back, Roz's eyes widened slightly.
But at the same moment, he found a perfect attack angle on the Calamity. The Narrative Gundam raised its beam rifle, and the spiraling beam drilled precisely into the muzzle of Calamity's left‑shoulder beam cannon.
With a sharp explosion, Calamity's left‑shoulder beam cannon was blown apart.
"Ugh… the center of gravity changed!"
With the beam cannon destroyed, the machine—already finely balanced—began to tilt noticeably to the right.
"Hey hey hey! We're gonna fall into the sea, Orga!"
Inside the Raider, which was transporting the Calamity in MA mode, Clotho stared in panic at the tilting indicators before him.
"Zzz… what are you three dawdling for?!"
While they were still in chaos, Muruta's impatient voice came through the comm channel.
"The Dagger team's assault on the island is being obstructed. Begin ground assault immediately and break the stalemate!"
"…Yes."
Upon hearing that voice, Shani abandoned his earlier arrogance and became obedient—almost unnaturally so.
"I'll hold him off! You two go land on the island!"
After receiving the order, Calamity and Raider immediately flew toward Orb's defensive line.
"Don't even think about it!"
Roz raised his beam rifle and fired several shots at the Raider and Calamity, both of which were now showing him their backs. But the next moment, the damaged Forbidden appeared behind them, its shield bending the incoming beams aside.
"Hey, you."
The electromagnetic cannons on Forbidden's backpack began to glow.
"Keep fighting with me!"
-----------------------------------
"Ha… ha… ha…"
A young man wearing a white coat was constantly gasping for breath.
Four figures were running nonstop on the mountain.
Because they had avoided the combat zones along the way, they had missed the first wave of evacuees. And due to Orb's evacuation plan, the highway was now completely congested, with their vehicle stuck at the end of the convoy.
The civilians had already left the area, but Orb's evacuation zone was on the other side of the mountain. Undoubtedly, if they delayed any further, the area they were in might turn into a battlefield.
To catch up with the evacuation, this middle-aged man, a father of a family of four, made a choice: to cross the mountainside.
"Faster, almost there!"
The middle-aged man looked through the sparse trees and saw the mass accelerator not far ahead, and the crowd being evacuated under the army's direction.
But then, a Raider in MA form carrying the Calamity Gundam appeared on the mountaintop. Calamity raised its hand and fired, destroying the M1 Astray units guarding nearby.
When the Raider swept over the four of them, the intense wind pressure instinctively made them crouch and huddle together.
"Huff… it's fine, their target is military facilities. Let's move!"
The middle-aged man lifted his head and looked at the Calamity Gundam that the Raider had deployed in the distance.
"Really, move faster!"
Then, he continued running toward the crowd of evacuees.
"…Eh, that seems to be the evacuation line. Can I fire a shot at them?"
Orga casually destroyed an M1 Astray, realizing that the Raider had placed itself in this position. He squinted, thinking, "Anyway, they're the enemy now."
"Repeat that—we cannot kill civilians."
Clotho on the Raider glanced at its position and immediately understood what Orga intended.
"The boss just said this before we departed!"
"But there must be soldiers responsible for the evacuation in there too, who knows if soldiers are hiding inside?"
Orga didn't seem to care about Clotho's warning.
"Besides, we're in a combat state now. Collateral damage is unavoidable, right?"
"But the boss wants this mass accelerator intact!!"
Clotho grew impatient.
"In any case, control your hands! Push back from your position to the coastal defense line, and flank from both sides!"
At this point, Clotho didn't bother with Orga anymore; he was busy harassing the Freedom Gundam flying above.
"You're neither Shani nor the boss!"
Calamity casually blocked an attack from an M1 Astray and returned fire, destroying it.
Although Orga said that, his body still obediently moved toward Orb's defensive line.
"Hm?"
Seeing the warning on the radar, Orga stepped on the pedal again, dodging a beam fired from an M1 Astray that had appeared unexpectedly.
"Roar… so there's another one here."
Orga licked his lips and raised his beam rifle.
But this M1 Astray, unlike the previous ones, charged at Calamity with its shield raised.
"Hm?"
Somewhat puzzled by its unusual behavior, Orga squinted.
Then he noticed four figures running frantically near the M1 Astray.
"Heh… sorry, collateral damage happens in battle."
Orga slightly shifted the muzzle of his remaining beam cannon, firing together with the one in his hand.
Two beams instantly destroyed the M1 Astray trying to draw attention, but a slightly misaligned beam exploded near the four people, sending them flying.
"Ugh… sorry, collateral damage."
Orga said carelessly, as if he had just squashed a few ants.
Seeing several civilians running toward the four "bodies" affected on the screen, Orga sneered, ready to turn away.
But he saw a young man in a white coat holding a partially destroyed "body," with a rather irritating look in his eyes.
"Hm? What's that look? Still thinking of taking me out?"
Orga seemed amused. Calamity slightly raised the muzzle, "Ants without MS, what can you use to stop me?"
At this moment, the particle cannon of Calamity Gundam glowed faintly.
-----------------------------------
In the sky, Kira, piloting Freedom, was already drenched in sweat as he continuously fired at the Daggers.
The number of dagger units exceeded Kira's expectations. To take the mass accelerator "Kaguya," there was no doubt that the Earth Federation had paid a high price.
Not to mention the dagger units equipped with the "SB" system—after Kira destroyed their head sensors or limbs, they still continued to attack with agile movements, forcing Kira to fire again.
At this moment, the Raider, which had just deployed Calamity to the rear, flew near Freedom, transforming from MA form into MS form and threw its flail at Freedom.
"A new G? When did it sneak around!"
Kira saw the unit before him, maneuvered Freedom into a backflip, and raised the "Lupus" to counterattack the Raider.
During the backflip, he also saw Calamity, which the Raider had deployed behind the defensive line, very close to the mass accelerator.
Facing the Earth Federation's island-wide offensive, Orb had allocated the few remaining forces as efficiently as possible. But since the Earth Federation wanted the mass accelerator intact, they hid their command center in the mass accelerator's hangar, with only a limited number of units arranged around it to protect the accelerator.
Unexpectedly, that area had become the Earth Federation's breakthrough point. The last remaining M1 Astray was conducting a counterattack.
"Hey! Where are you looking!"
Seeming to realize that Freedom had detected Calamity sneaking near the mass accelerator and flanking the defensive line, Clotho frowned and continuously fired the Dual 52mm Hyper Velocity Shield Cannon at Freedom.
At the same time, another batch of dagger units leapt into the sky, continuously firing their beam rifles at Freedom, creating a dense barrage.
Although the dagger is just a mass-produced unit of the Earth Federation, with average armor and performance, a large-scale attack against a single mobile suit—even if the pilot was an "ACE"—would be suppressed for a while.
"Ha… you can't run away now!"
Clotho laughed maniacally, continuing to fire.
"You can only watch your defensive line get torn apart by us!"
Then Clotho again swung his flail toward Freedom. Raider's mouth glowed as it fired a energy cannon at Freedom, which had just completed a maneuver.
At that moment, before he could fully adjust the mobile suit's posture, Kira saw the incoming beam and flail. About to be hit, he instinctively raised his shield.
The beam was completely blocked, but his movement trajectory changed, forcing Kira to readjust Freedom's posture. But the next flail would be impossible to block in time.
Suddenly, a beam boomerang flew from the sky, precisely slicing the flail in half.
"What?!"
Clotho gritted his teeth, without hesitation, and fired the twin shield cannon at Freedom.
A red figure, holding a shield, appeared in front of Freedom.
"A new mobile suit?!"
Clotho was stunned for a moment, but then the unit began to sound alarms frantically!
Explosions rang in his ears—sounds of units being destroyed—but the quantity was overwhelming. Did Orb really have this many units?
Or… the Daggers?
On the radar, a light point rapidly approached the Raider.
Accompanied by a streak of red light, the Raider's right-hand twin shield cannon and arm were smoothly cut in half, leaving only a thinly connected shield.
The Raider's head sensor was also sliced in two by a beam saber.
Next came a violent impact—Raider was knocked flying.
"Ugh… what the hell…"
Clotho quickly readjusted his mobile suit's posture, trying to see what had attacked him.
"Look away… aaahhh…"
Through the comms came Orga's piercing scream.
"Clotho… that unit… is abnormal…"
Shani's voice also intermittently came through the comms.
The bizarre scene made Clotho break out in a cold sweat.
Across from Raider, Athrun, piloting the new unit "Justice," and Kira, on Freedom, clearly saw what it was.
A mobile suit with slightly shattered armor, the "armor" emitting dazzling red light, collided with Raider, cutting off its arm in an instant.
"What… mobile suit is that?"
Compared to Athrun's confusion, Kira froze for a moment.
"Narrative… turned red?"
-----------------------------------
"This guy…"
Looking at the persistent Forbidden Gundam in front of him, Narrative Gundam drew its beam saber with its left hand, and held its left-hand shield against Forbidden's scythe.
"So annoying!"
"Ha! Got you!"
Shani saw Narrative Gundam being restrained, and the plasma induction cannon on Forbidden's backpack began to glow faintly.
Without thinking, Roz raised his beam rifle and pressed it against Forbidden's cannon, decisively pulling the trigger.
The drill-like particle beam tore apart the cannon's muzzle. After seeing Roz's maneuver, Shani quickly adjusted his mobile suit's posture, transforming Forbidden's backpack from "mounted on the head" to "on the back."
For a moment, Shani broke into a cold sweat as he saw a large display of red on Forbidden's backpack.
"Ha… ha…"
Shani panted heavily, looking at the battery level that had dropped significantly. "Fought this long… I don't believe you have much power left."
Shani had confidence in this new unit's battery pack. Although the backpack looked heavily damaged, it was only a high-energy fuel leak and a few destroyed battery units. In contrast, the semi-finished Forbidden across from him surely had very little power left after this long battle.
"Beam distortion shield… such a troublesome thing…"
Looking at the few remaining missiles on the left-hand shield, Roz calculated how to take out the Forbidden in one strike.
"Zzzz… Roz… mass accelerator… emergency."
Through the battlefield interference causing white noise on the comms, Cagalli's voice came through.
"Earth Federation's G… deployed… killed two civilians… severely injured one… still firing…"
"Huff…"
Listening to the intermittent voice, Roz exhaled and gripped the control stick tightly.
"Earth Federation… Blue Cosmos… you bastards…"
As Roz's anger surged, the "NTD" letters appeared on the screen, sensing Roz's intense brainwaves.
On Narrative Gundam, the slightly fragmented "armor" began to emit dazzling red light.
"Huh? Turning red… ughhhh!"
Shani was still confused why Narrative Gundam had turned red, but what followed was a violent shock.
With NTD activated, Narrative Gundam's high-mobility backpack instantaneously expelled intense flames, reaching Forbidden at a speed far exceeding before.
The right-hand shield collided with Forbidden's body, and the left-hand beam saber cut through Forbidden's scythe-wielding hands.
"Damn… I still have…"
Forbidden reached for the railgun on the backpack, now near the waist.
But Narrative Gundam adjusted its right hand, firing two shots at the two electromagnetic cannons.
Seeing the beam saber about to pierce the cockpit, Shani's eyes widened as Forbidden's backpack shifted from the back to the head, then activated its thrusters.
Forbidden quickly severed the connection to the backpack, letting the mobile suit fall into the sea.
Narrative Gundam was only pushed back slightly; the beam saber quickly cut Forbidden's backpack in half, letting it explode behind Narrative Gundam.
Roz no longer cared where Forbidden went, now focused solely on taking down Calamity.
The high-mobility backpack spewed intense flames. Narrative Gundam drew a red streak through the chaotic battlefield. The wire-controlled floating cannons on the backpack fired like twin machine guns, detonating Daggers blocking its path one by one.
Beyond the explosions from the Daggers, Roz saw Raider facing off against two mobile suits.
One was Kira's Freedom, and Roz had no time to worry about the other. The red unit seemed to be supporting Kira, so he decided to leave Raider to them.
Narrative Gundam's beam saber arced precisely, slicing Raider's head in half, following up with a downward chop, cutting off Raider's right hand. Then its right hand delivered a shield strike, knocking Raider away.
Although Raider's shield was sturdy, the inner arm and twin cannon were not as durable.
"Huff… got you."
Crossing another section of the battlefield, Roz saw the mass accelerator. Numerous M1 Astray wrecks already surrounded it.
And the bastard standing on the mountain, raising his gun at the nearby civilians!
Roz pressed the pedal again, as if hearing the anger in his own mind. Narrative Gundam slightly raised its head, moving even faster.
"Die!!"
Orga laughed wildly, finger pressing the trigger.
In an instant, the screen in front of him lost signal, turning into static like snow. Then came a violent shock.
Orga quickly switched to a secondary monitor and saw Narrative Gundam glowing red, smoothly turning with the speed of its glide. The beam saber descended from above, stabbing directly into Calamity's cockpit.
"Don't… aahhh…"
Alongside Orga's scream, the armor above Calamity's head melted, and the beam saber pierced completely through the cockpit.
The Earth Federation enhanced pilot's short life ended there.
It seemed that something had been burned through, or there was some problem, Calamity began to erupt like fireworks from the hole Roz had made with the beam saber.
Roz expressionlessly retracted the beam saber, maneuvered the suit to scan the crowd of civilians, and breathed slightly easier.
At this moment, the boy named "Shinn" stared in awe at the MS that had descended from the sky and, in a few moves, destroyed the "demon."
Against the backdrop of the firework-like sparks, the red-glowing mobile suit was deeply imprinted in his mind.
...................