Gundam: A Gundam Enthusiast's Journey with a Mecha Girl

“I understand, Lux. I won’t say it if you don’t want to. But I think it’s a very beautiful dream.”

Just as Lux affirmed his dream, Raven gave his sincere response.

"This gives me another reason to fight. Lux, the future you desire will surely come, and we will create it with our own hands."

Chapter 86 Standoff

Joint forces lunar base.

Just as Azrael was retreating from Orb, another piece of bad news came from Victoria.

In this timeline, the East Asian Republic did not participate in the Third Victoria Campaign. Although the Eurasian Federation's army managed to breach Victoria Spaceport, it failed to prevent the ZAFT defenders from destroying the Victoria Mass Launcher.

In this way, apart from the Kaguya Mass Launcher controlled by the East Asian Republic and Orb, there is no other facility on Earth capable of sending large quantities of supplies and warships into space.

However, despite the rather ugly situation over the Orb issue, the East Asian Republic is, after all, an important member of the Earth Federation. To maintain appearances, it still needs to preserve the alliance. In the end, it opened the Kaguya Space Port to the Atlantic Federation and the Eurasian Federation. However, in exchange, the East Asian Republic and Orb received a hefty toll.

Of course, these tolls were paid to the Ob government, which was quite sensible and used the huge sum for postwar reconstruction, entrusting the reconstruction project to a construction team from the East Asian Republic.

The East Asian Republic and Orb were a win-win situation, while the Atlantic Federation suffered a double loss, wasting a lot of military resources and having to pay an exorbitant toll.

For Murta Azrael, there were probably only two things that he could be somewhat thankful for during the entire Battle of Orb.

First, the officers and men of the 4th Naval Fleet kept their mouths shut and did not reveal that he had lost his mind and ordered the destruction of the mass accelerator.

Otherwise, even if he were a member of the Azrael family, he wouldn't be able to maintain his position as the leader of the Blue Cosmos Alliance.

Secondly, those four damned enemy planes were indeed formidable; they actually managed to intercept all of the hundreds of cruise missiles.

But wouldn't he have to thank those enemy planes that ruined his plans?

Azrael sat in the back seat of the car, his face turning pale and then red, making his secretary sitting next to him tremble with fear and dare not utter a sound.

However, the secretary was soon freed from this hellish atmosphere.

The car slowly came to a stop in front of a hangar. Azrael got out of the car and saw an extremely imposing mobile suit. At the feet of the mobile suit stood a man whose face was covered by a strange metal mask.

"These are the new mobile suits created by those cosmic monsters?"

"That's right, Your Excellency."

Kruse bowed slightly, his voice beneath the mask steady and respectful.

"This mobile suit is named Divine Will. It is equipped with the ZAFT military's latest Dragoon system, boasting formidable firepower. To power this system's enormous energy consumption, it is also equipped with a nuclear engine, and..."

Kruze paused deliberately, and after thoroughly piquing Azrael's interest, he uttered the words Azrael had been most eagerly anticipating.

"Anti-neutron jammer".

Azrael's breathing quickened, and a hint of fanaticism appeared in his eyes as he looked at the divine will.

Anti-neutron jammer—what a wonderful term! With it, he could unleash the nuclear arsenal once again and remind those cosmic monsters what fear truly is.

Azrael shouted "Good!" three times in a row, then abruptly turned his face toward Kruze beside him.

"Rau Rukrug, right? I remember you were the one who provided the intelligence about ZAFT's invasion of Alaska, weren't you?"

Kruse nodded slightly, his posture very respectful.

“Very good! I remember that the lunar factory is about to launch a new Archangel-class ship. That ship will be in your command. I will also lead the elite troops to board the ship myself. Then, together, we will bring divine punishment to those cosmic monsters and create a blue and peaceful world with our own hands!”

"As you wish, Your Excellency."

Kruse quickly bowed, trying to hide his barely suppressed smile.

-----------------

"Father, what is your view on this war? How far do we have to fight before we can stop?"

Having left justice on the Eternal and returned to PLANT alone, Athrun asked Patrick.

However, Patrick was already overwhelmed by Siegel's relentless propaganda offensive and had no patience to discuss war with Aslan.

"What nonsense are you spouting! Instead of all that, tell me how well you've completed the task I assigned you, now!"

“Father, please tell me what you really think? This is very important.”

"Shut up!"

Patrick slammed his hand on the table, stopping Aslan.

"Children shouldn't pretend to know what they don't and try to learn those Kleinist theories!"

But Aslan did not back down in the face of Patrick's imposing presence.

“Father, I’m serious. Please answer me, when will this war finally end?”

Patrick's bloodshot eyes were fixed on Aslan.

"If we kill all the natural people, this war will naturally end!"

"Father……"

Aslan's eyes widened in disbelief that these words were coming from Patrick's mouth.

"Our fight shouldn't be for this purpose."

“What’s wrong with that? That’s what we ZAFT are fighting for. Have you forgotten how your mother died?”

Patrick's voice suddenly rose as he straightened up, braced himself on the table with both hands, and said through gritted teeth, word by word.

"Father, our battle is not for killing, but for protecting!"

But in front of Aslan stood Patrick, whose face was icy cold.

“I really misjudged you, Aslan.”

Patrick pressed the alarm bell in the office, and soldiers rushed in and surrounded Aslan.

"I'll ask you one last time, where have you hidden freedom and justice?"

Looking at the gun pointed at him by Patrick, Aslan spoke with difficulty.

"I've entrusted them to the right people."

Patrick waved his hand, and the soldiers swarmed forward, subdued Aslan, and dragged him out the door.

As he left, Aslan turned back to look at Patrick.

He stood alone in the dimly lit office, his face expressionless, like a statue, motionless with his back to the door.

-----------------

At the same time, in the L5 space domain.

The silhouette of the Eternal was rapidly approaching PLANT.

"Mr. Da Costa has sent word that Aslan has been arrested by the army, and the rescue plan is being carried out according to the established procedure."

"So it really turned out like this."

Raven touched his forehead with one hand, his tone full of helplessness.

"Um, Miss Lux, Athrun is alright, right?"

Kira asked with concern, his face filled with anxiety.

"Leave Athrun to Mr. Da Costa. The Eternal will coordinate with their operation and break into the perimeter at full speed to bring Athrun back. However, the escort duties will be handled by Mr. Kira and Mr. Raven."

"Okay, please leave it to me."

Kira answered without hesitation.

"I will handle it."

Raven gave Lux a thumbs up and led Kira toward the hangar.

However, halfway there, Raven paused, looked up, and muttered something under his breath.

"Speaking of which, Aslan, he probably wouldn't mind if I borrowed his justice for a bit, would he?"

Chapter 87 Aslan Rescue Plan (Part 1)

Since the newly assembled S Gundam was not yet fully tested, Raven had to leave El at L4 and hand over the testing work to her, while he switched to Justice and went into battle with Kira.

"Five minutes from now, the Eternal will break into the PLANT homeland alert zone from its current position at top speed, take in the shuttle that Athrun is riding in, and then turn around and return to the L4 temporary base at full speed without stopping."

During the communication, Andrew explained the battle plan to Raven and Kira.

"Your mission is to advance ahead into the outer perimeter of PLANT, drawing the attention of ZAFT homeland defense forces to the greatest extent possible, thus creating a sufficient window for the Eternal's incursion and evacuation. Although I have absolute confidence in your abilities, you must be careful."

"Mission understood, Raven, Justice, move out."

The catapult sent justice into space, and Kira's freedom followed closely behind.

"This is Kira Yamato. Freedom, sortie!"

As Justice and Freedom approached PLANT's outer perimeter, ZAFT's security forces swarmed out, their mobile suit thrusters flashing across the cosmos, simultaneously flanking from several directions.

"That's a really quick reaction, no wonder it's ZAFT."

A large number of mobile suits quickly surrounded Freedom and Justice. However, Raven and Kira were already seasoned veterans, and piloting top-tier mobile suits like Freedom and Justice, they were already used to this situation of being outnumbered. In fact, this situation of being outnumbered was the norm for them.

"ZAFT forces, we have no intention of engaging in combat, please..."

Before Kira could finish his call, ZAFT forces launched an attack on freedom and justice.

Among the ZAFT mobile suits surrounding the Freedom and Justice units, in addition to the familiar King and Sieg, a new type of mobile suit capable of using beam weapons has also appeared.

Named Gates, it is equipped with a beam rifle and a composite shield that can extend a pair of beam claws. It also has a pair of rocket anchors on its waist. Its full beam weapon configuration can effectively deal with PS armor, giving it combat power comparable to the first generation of GTX series Gundams.

Beams and physical projectiles rained down, almost filling the entire space, but the Freedom and Justice machines were able to dodge and weave through the barrage, seizing every opportunity to counterattack during the gaps in their evasion.

Kira's pupils contracted, and he instantly entered SEED mode. Freedom, under his control, continuously changed direction, precisely adjusting the machine's attitude, allowing enemy bullets to constantly sweep across its armor. In the intervals between evasions, Kira deployed all of Freedom's armaments. The multi-lock system simultaneously captured the positions of several enemy machines. He pulled the trigger, and beams and railgun projectiles fired alternately, destroying the enemy machines' armaments one by one.

Raven, on the other hand, took the lead, relying on Justice's impressive high mobility to transform into a crimson lightning bolt, constantly weaving through the gaps in the barrage of bullets. Whenever a ZAFT mobile suit attempted to approach Freedom, Justice would rush forward at an astonishing speed to deliver a devastating blow, destroying all the enemy's weapons in a barrage of beam saber and beam cannon attacks.

After the war, moderates will return to PLANT's political arena. If Raven goes on a killing spree there, the moderates' reputation will be severely damaged, which is not what Raven wants.

Most importantly, Raven's skill as a pilot and his righteous actions also allow him to do so.

"What exactly happened with these two mobile suits?"

ZAFT commander, who had been observing the battle, collapsed into his chair in a cold sweat. Just three minutes later, 24 mobile suits were rendered combat ineffective by Freedom and Justice, and a third of them were the new Gates.

Although this commander did not personally go to the front line, he had climbed his way up from MS pilot to the position of white-clad captain, and he knew very well that destroying the enemy aircraft's weapons without taking the pilot's life was much more difficult than directly shooting down the enemy aircraft.

The fact that the enemy could leisurely spare the life of his pilot despite being surrounded by 24 mobile suits can only mean that the enemy's combat power far exceeded his expectations.

"Get everyone who can still move back to the ship immediately. Also, call headquarters right away; we need reinforcements!"

-----------------

The dense barrage of bullets that had just filled almost the entire cosmos vanished like phantoms. Before freedom and justice, only rows of mobile suits, missing limbs and varying shapes, remained, floating aimlessly in space.

Those in slightly better condition only lost their right arms, while those in the worst condition were left with only the torso where the cockpit is located.

Upon receiving orders from their superiors, these ZAFT MS cautiously began to distance themselves from Freedom and Justice, although neither Raven nor Kira intended to pursue them at this time.

"It feels so quiet. There isn't a single enemy plane left in the space. This is completely different from what I expected."

Kira surveyed his surroundings and spoke softly into the communication channel.

"They probably realize that a small force is not enough to stop us, so they are rushing to deploy more troops."

Raven answered Kira with words that would make the ZAFT commander cough up blood.

However, ZAFT's decision to stall for time was actually a good thing for Raven.

The Eternal's arrival in PLANT was not intended to confront the main ZAFT forces head-on. After recovering Athrun, the Eternal would leave the battlefield at full speed.

However, just as the Eternal was about to arrive at the battle zone, new enemy aircraft appeared on the battlefield.

The database quickly completed the model matching.

Duel, storm, lightning, and the covenant.

-----------------

After Kruse's defection, the original members of Kruse's team were not purged. They were cleared of treason suspicion with the guarantees of three members of parliament: Jule, Yasman, and Amalfi.

The original Kruze team's structure was retained, with the captaincy being taken over by the former deputy Artis, while command of the MS unit was handed over to Yzak.

The first mission the newly formed Artis team received was to pursue the three stolen nuclear-powered mobile suits.

In order to enable the Artis team to have the combat power to confront nuclear-powered mobile suits head-on, the ZAFT army urgently carried out combat-oriented modifications to the Covenant and assigned it to Yzak. Yzak's original Duel was then handed over to Shiho, who was added to the Artis team, to pilot.

Covenant is a mobile suit created by the ZAFT military to test the Strike Pack technology. Like Freedom and Justice, it is equipped with a nuclear engine and an anti-neutron jammer, but it is not equipped with any weapons for actual combat. It is a mobile suit with more experimental significance than practical combat significance.