"A battleship?! How can it be so huge?!"
Staring at the massive Nahel Argama, everyone aboard the final Drake-class battleship swallowed hard in unison.
"Retreat! Retreat immediately! We can't stay here any longer!"
Seeing the heat ram—which had just smashed a Drake-class into a pile of wreckage—now aimed at his own ship, the Kingdom of Foundation commander, who moments ago had been directing an orderly withdrawal, fell into a panic.
"We're turning, but there's no time!"
The Drake-class helmsman screamed in despair, frantically twisting the helm before him. "Hurry... hurry!!"
The quadruple "Gottfried" Mk.71 high-energy beam cannons deployed their barrels on the Nahel Argama, locking onto the side of the Drake-class as it exposed its flank during the turn.
"Fire!"
Murrue Ramius seized the opportunity and issued the attack command.
Reality is not an anime; there isn't that much idle chatter in battle. Whether to survive or to achieve victory, any opening for an attack must be grasped. This was a truth the crew of the Nahel Argama, who had fought their way this far, knew all too well.
With the adjustment of the quadruple beam cannons complete, the barrels lit up. Four thick green beams struck two specific areas of the Drake-class.
Since the crew of the Nahel Argama were formerly of the Earth Alliance, they naturally knew the exact locations of the Drake-class's engines and ammunition depots.
The green beams accurately melted through the Drake-class's armor, detonating the magazines and the engines.
Under the despairing gaze of everyone on board, accompanied by two violent explosions, the Drake-class battleship that had come to Mendel to launch an assault followed in the footsteps of its sister ship, becoming nothing more than wreckage drifting in the void of space.
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"The Drake-class... there's actually a battleship that huge?!"
"It's no use! Retreat, retreat now!"
The remaining three Black Knights, seeing their two support ships easily destroyed, suffered a total collapse of morale. Their will to fight had already been whittled down to almost nothing by the Unicorn's relentless assault.
Suddenly, a powerful sense of crisis surged in their hearts. They instinctively slammed their foot pedals, and two of the Black Knights veered apart.
A thick red-white beam erupted from behind them, engulfing one of the Black Knights. The pilot didn't even have time to utter a word before vanishing from existence under the torrential wash of the Beam Magnum.
Even though the other unit had put some distance between them, a purple electric arc surrounding the red-white beam grazed the Black Knight's right hand. The FT Armor, which boasted excellent resistance against particle beams, proved powerless against this high-energy purple current. The Black Knight's right hand—and its beam rifle—were sliced clean in half.
"Damn it!"
Feeling another signal vanish from the mental space and hearing the frantic alarms in the cockpit, the pilot gritted his teeth. He desperately maneuvered his machine, flying toward a different exit from the Mendel airspace. His undamaged thruster pack erupted with fierce flames, pushing the Black Knight into a rapid escape.
However, some things were clearly faster than him.
A Funnel Shield glowing with yellow light overtook the Black Knight. It flipped around, facing the unit directly, and slammed into the Black Knight like a locomotive.
"Ugh..."
The violent impact forced a scream from the pilot as his forward momentum was forcibly halted.
What followed was a series of rapid vibrations. The twin beam Gatlings on the other Funnel Shield opened fire. Particle beams struck the Black Knight's thrusters like raindrops, easily shredding them.
The piercing alarm of the radar marking the enemy's approach wailed in his ears. The pilot stomped on the pedals in vain; without his thruster pack, the machine could not pull away from the rapidly approaching Unicorn. These maneuvers did nothing but trigger another explosion in the already wrecked thruster pack.
"No... don't... please let me go..."
Like a taut string snapping, the Black Knight pilot broke down. He clutched his helmet visor as if hiding his eyes could shield him from the cruel reality.
Unfortunately, Miss Machine Spirit did not hear his pleas—or rather, she wouldn't have stopped even if she had.
Miss Machine Spirit herself harbored a certain hostility toward Newtypes, though she usually left full control to Roz. These Black Knights, being "artificial Newtypes," naturally fell within her strike range. Moreover, Roz had designated them as "enemies" and handed control back to her.
She would not betray that trust; no matter what, these enemies had to be wiped out. Furthermore, the design of these machines... without a doubt, it was the same model that had caused the disconnection between her and Roz during the Great Withdrawal from Orb.
This realization caused the murderous intent welling up from her soul to grow even thicker; she would not hold back.
Another violent tremor rocked the machine as the high-frequency claws of the Armed Armor VN seized the Black Knight's back. Accompanied by a tooth-grinding screech, the entire back section was torn away, exposing the cockpit.
The Armed Armor VN reconfigured into its gauntlet form. The Unicorn raised its left hand and delivered a massive punch directly into the cockpit.
The Funnel Shield acted like an anvil; this heavy-handed blow crushed the entire cockpit against the armor, causing a spray of "tomato sauce."
When the fist was retracted, the blood coating the gauntlet boiled in the vacuum before freezing into bubbles. Finally, these dark red bubbles solidified into eerie yet beautiful ice crystals, which shattered as the Unicorn moved, drifting away into space.
The two Funnel Shields returned smoothly to the sub-arms of the Unicorn's backpack.
Ignoring the machine trailing blood-ice crystals, the Unicorn turned toward the final Black Knight still struggling against Athrun and Dearka.
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At this moment, the pilot of the final Black Knight—having watched his comrades perish one by one under the Unicorn's hands while their desperate wails echoed through the mental space—no longer had any will to fight.
Athrun and Dearka, as former ZAFT Red-Coats, needed only a glance at the Black Knight's movements to understand the pilot's mental state. They immediately shifted from a maneuvering stance to a containment stance.
"Dearka, stop him!"
Athrun pulled the trigger. The beam cannons on the "Fatum-00" backpack fired at the Black Knight, destroying the heavy slashing sword in its hand and its right leg.
"Copy that, he's not going anywhere!"
Dearka, operating the Buster, combined his cannon tubes into the anti-armor shotgun. After firing several consecutive shots, he launched the missiles from his shoulders.
A violent explosion and a dense rain of shells blocked the Black Knight's path, forcing the machine to a halt.
Before the Black Knight could take another action, the Unicorn, shrouded in yellow flames, suddenly charged out from the smoke.
The Armed Armor VN seized the Black Knight's armor. Its immense thrust pushed the Black Knight backward; in less than ten seconds, the Black Knight's back slammed into the outer hull of Mendel.
The Black Knight's frame scraped against the outer armor of the Mendel colony, sending up a shower of sparks. Under the high-frequency vibrations of the Armed Armor VN, the Black Knight's armor and internal structure were rapidly decimated.
As a space colony designed to withstand small asteroid impacts, Mendel's armor was quite thick; a bit of impact and friction naturally had no significant effect on it.
Seeing that the timing was right, the Unicorn's left hand suddenly jerked upward. The Black Knight was hurled away, its torso armor torn open to reveal the cockpit inside.
The Armed Armor BS on the right hand deployed. Instead of using the Magnum firing mode, it utilized the standard shot.
A blue beam, like a wandering dragon, struck the Black Knight's cockpit with precision. In a mere instant, the entire machine was blown into a pile of fragments.
Unfortunately, because of the nature of the beam attack, the "tomato" became "grilled meat," so no "tomato juice" was sprayed out this time.
Wrecked parts pelted Mendel's outer armor as the dazzling yellow flames on the Unicorn's body gradually faded.
Red once again bled into the Unicorn's Psycho-Frame, returning the unit to its original appearance.
The hunt was over.
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Feeling the control of the unit return to his hands as he surveyed the scene before him, Roz let out a small sigh of relief.
Miss Machine Spirit, who had vanished for a time since the start of the battle, reappeared in Roz's vision. Now, as if the mental link between the machine and Roz had tightened, he could see her form more clearly.
Without a word, she reached out with both hands, passing through his helmet to cradle Roz's face.
He felt a sensation on his lips that was real yet possessed a hint of the illusory—a passionate kiss from Miss Machine Spirit.
After a long moment, she reluctantly released him, observing him intently as if trying to engrave Roz's image into her very soul.
In a daze, Roz looked into her eyes; they were like flawless rubies, appearing as if they had something they desperately wanted to say.
Beep, beep, beep... Beep, beep, beep...
The communicator's alert chimed. Miss Machine Spirit seemed to let out a sigh before drifting past Roz's shoulder and vanishing.
"...This is Roz, go ahead."
After a brief silence, Roz opened the communication channel.
"Roz, the Nahel Argama has begun its docking maneuvers. Please return to the ship."
Murrue's voice came through the comms; clearly, hearing Roz pick up allowed her to breathe a sigh of relief.
"Also... the combat maneuvers just now were extremely intense. Is your body alright? Do you want Dearka to go pick you up and take you for a physical exam?"
"...No, that won't be necessary."
Roz maneuvered the Unicorn to turn around, flying toward the Nahel Argama as it approached Mendel.
"I feel great... or rather, better than ever before."
The lion, having finished its hunt, retracted its fangs and transformed back into the holy Unicorn.
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