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

Thanks to Raven's modifications, after successfully approaching the ZAFT fleet, the Möbius Zero fired all 12 anti-ship missiles at the Vesalius in one go. Although some missiles were intercepted by anti-aircraft fire, they still managed to destroy the Vesalius's engines. After confirming the results, Möbius then sailed away.

Although it was a bit of a pity that Mu couldn't kill Kruze directly, it was the best outcome to completely disable the Vesalius.

If nothing unexpected happened, the operation had been a great success so far. Unfortunately, the message Mu received next plunged his good mood, which had improved because of the success of the operation, back to the bottom.

"What? Striker has been captured by Aegis?"

Although only the original form of Mobius Zero remained at this point, Mu, who knew the importance of Strike, did not stand idly by and watch Strike be taken away.

Mobius Zero immediately changed direction and headed to intercept Aegis. Mu soon spotted Aegis's silhouette.

"If the cannon barrel is still intact... whatever, fire!"

Mobius Zero fired its last linear cannon at the high-speed Aegis. Although the linear cannon could not penetrate the PS armor on the Aegis, the shockwave from the hit still managed to slow the Aegis down.

"Damn it, that machine."

At this moment, Aegis was not in good condition. After fighting with Strike, most of its energy was consumed. If it were to take the attack of Mobius Zero, Aegis's remaining energy would soon be insufficient to support the consumption of the PS armor, and it would not be able to support Athrun's return. However, if it chose to counterattack, it would have to release Strike.

However, Aslan will soon no longer have to struggle with this dilemma.

Taking advantage of the opportunity created by Mu, the short sword quickly caught up.

"Shield of Aegis, give Kira back to me!"

The short sword fired a rocket anchor, which, under El's control, precisely clamped onto one of the Aegis's mechanical arms. Then, the short sword's thrusters fired at full power, forcefully holding the Aegis in place.

"Release the Strike!"

Athrun hurled a beam boomerang at the Aegis with his short sword. There was no way to withstand this with the PS armor. He had no choice but to release the Strike Force, revert to MS mode, use the beam saber on his toes to cut the cable of the rocket anchor, and then swing his shield to knock away the beam boomerang that came in front of him.

Freed from the shackles of Aegis, the Strike Armor now looked pitiful, its original blue-white PS armor turning back to iron gray due to insufficient energy.

"Strike back to base immediately. Archangel is ready with its artillery packs."

"I understand, I'll come to help as soon as possible."

"Mu, you too."

"Are you sure you can handle three Gs by yourself?"

"I'll try my best to survive. Besides, even if only the original form of Mobius Zero is left, it won't be of much help."

Knowing he wouldn't be of any help if he stayed any longer, Kira immediately obeyed orders and returned to the Archangel, while Mu clicked his tongue in resentment before following Strike back to the Archangel. But this time, Kira and Mu ran right into Duel and Thunder, who had just escaped the Archangel's barrage.

"Athrun failed? Perfect. Even if we can't capture him, shooting down the Strike is just as good. Nicol!"

"I know."

Although the two machines didn't have much energy left, they could still squeeze out enough energy to fire two or three beam rifle shots given the easy victory before them.

Raven noticed the movements of Duel and Thunder, and in order to cover Kira and Mu's retreat, Dagger threw out the beam boomerang he had just retrieved.

The next moment, the beam boomerang sliced ​​the beam rifle that Duel had raised in half, while Blitz changed its target and destroyed the beam boomerang with a single shot. Meanwhile, Kira and Mu took advantage of the opportunity created by Raven to quickly pass through Duel and Blitz and approach Archangel.

But Raven's act of covering for Kira and Mu did come at a price.

"If it weren't for you!"

Athrun, who was almost able to take Kira away, now poured all his anger into Dagger. Aegis abandoned its shield and unleashed all the beam sabers on its hands and feet, aiming them straight at Dagger's back.

Meanwhile, Duel and Thunder, whose chances of getting what they wanted had slipped away because of Raven, also set their sights on the short sword.

"You bastard, you keep getting in my way!"

Duel used his remaining arm to draw his beam saber, and together with Aegis, he attacked the short sword from both sides, while Swift Strike circled around to the side, aimed at the short sword, and launched the Wolf Claw-like anchor mounted on his left arm.

The three-pronged attack from the ZAFT Red Coat team almost completely blocked Raven's escape routes. Lightning Bolt's Wolf Binding Lock restrained Dagger's left arm, preventing him from making any evasive maneuvers. Meanwhile, Aegis took advantage of this opportunity to get in front of Dagger and unleashed a deadly strike.

[Emergency situation, activate overload mode.]

In order to survive this seemingly hopeless situation, El deliberately overloaded his mental capacity, causing his computing power to suddenly increase exponentially, allowing him to exercise more precise control over his body.

However, this is not without its costs; this state can only be maintained for a few minutes, otherwise it will leave irreparable damage to the mind.

Under El's micro-management, the short sword instantly became as agile as a human. It flipped over and actively sent its restrained left arm toward the beam blade coming from the Aegis. The Aegis' beam saber instantly severed the short sword's left arm. Freed from its restraints, the short sword turned around again, sacrificing its right leg to allow its torso to avoid the beam saber thrusting from behind.

"You managed to dodge that?"

The short sword's movements startled the three attackers. Even within ZAFT's army of Coordinators, few could control a mobile suit with such precision. To be precise, aside from Kruze, they had never seen anyone else possess such control over a mobile suit.

Even though Dagger had escaped the encirclement, the situation hadn't improved at all. The three Gundams were still watching intently, and Raven's Dagger had become a thorn in their side. Dagger's condition was dilapidated; missing its left arm, right leg, and most of its armament, it was now at its limit. El couldn't maintain overload mode indefinitely. If the three Gundams could coordinate another attack, even El wouldn't be able to save Dagger.

Raven had no choice but to step on the pedal and try to get closer to the Archangel for support, but the Aegis and the other two ships couldn't just stand by and watch Raven escape.

We must take down this guy who keeps ruining their plans here!

At this moment, the three of them reached the same conclusion.

The Aegis, Duel, and Thunder machines surrounded the Short Sword from three directions, preparing to coordinate again and completely destroy it.

But at least for today, they don't have that opportunity.

Under Raven's cover, the Strike, which approached the Archangel, did not return to the hangar for repairs. Instead, it merged directly with the Archangel's ejected cannon backpack on the battlefield. The battery in the new backpack restored the Strike's power supply. Upon seeing Raven's predicament, Kira immediately set up the Flame God Hyperpulse Cannon on the cannon backpack. The high-powered beams of red and white light instantly pierced the dark universe, forcing back the three units that wanted to surround the Dagger.

Knowing they had lost their chance, the three had no choice but to retreat with resentment. After confirming that they were temporarily safe, Raven finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The standard uniform, soaked with sweat, made Raven extremely uncomfortable. He had no choice but to take off the helmet, wipe the sweat from his face, and lean back against the not-so-soft back of the driver's seat.

"El, thanks to you so much today."

Assisting you is my duty, but I'm sorry, Raven, my mind needs a rest for a while.

"I can handle the rest by myself. Al, you can get some rest."

Although El, as an artificial intelligence, does not need sleep to recover its physical strength, the intense battle just now overloaded its mind and hardware, forcing El to hibernate for a period of time to restore its mental stability.

Having just gone through a fierce battle, Raven was exhausted, but he still had things to do before returning to base.

Short Sword first returned to the space where the battle had just taken place, and then carried the two weapons left behind by Storm in his arms before returning to the Archangel.

Chapter 11 Close Friends

Zaft Army, Gamov, Kreuzer's personal compartment.

Aslan stood outside the door and nervously pressed the cabin doorbell.

"Come in."

At Kruze's command, the cabin door opened automatically, and Kruze's iconic image appeared before Aslan.

Even after suffering a defeat, this elegant blond man still wore the mask that covered half of his face, with a faint smile always playing on the corners of his mouth.

"Captain, I'm so sorry."

Even though he had prepared a lot of arguments in his mind before coming, Aslan couldn't utter a single word of defense when he stood in front of Kruze.

ZAFT deployed four Gundams and two Kings, while the Earth Alliance only had one Strike and one mass-produced Dagger mobile suit. As a result, they failed to shoot down even a single mobile suit, let alone the Archangel. In fact, two of their own mobile suits were shot down and two were damaged. Their Vesalius even had its engines destroyed and is now being towed back to PLANT by the Gamow.

Not to mention the hot-tempered Yzak, even Aslan himself knew how humiliating this defeat was.

"Alright, Aslan, the biggest responsibility for the failure of this operation lies with me, the commander, who completely misjudged the enemy's intentions. Don't take it too hard."

Kruse comforted Aslan like a caring elder.

"I've reviewed the combat logs you submitted, and you did a great job. But is there anything you want to say to me about the Assault?"

Before the sortie, Kruze explicitly ordered that if intercepted by enemy mobile suits, they should be shot down immediately. In the battle between Athrun and the Strike, it was clear to everyone that Athrun was holding back; otherwise, he would have easily taken down the Strike, whose piloting skills were somewhat inexperienced. Afterwards, whether Athrun directly attacked the Archangel or returned to participate in the siege of the Dagger, he could have changed the outcome of the battle. However, Athrun wasted a lot of time depleting the Strike's energy, solely for the purpose of capturing it.

It's impossible that Kruse couldn't see the problem here.

Finally, under Kruze's gaze, Athrun revealed his affair with Kira.

"To reunite with a childhood friend on the battlefield, that's really..."

Kruse struggled to suppress his elation. Fighting his childhood friend on the battlefield would be a tragedy anywhere, but for Kruse, it was more intoxicating than fine wine.

"In that case, Aslan, you don't need to participate in the next operation against Long Legs. As a commander, I don't want to force my soldiers to shoot their friends."

"team leader?"

"Even if you were friends in the past, you're enemies now. You should know what that means, right?"

"Kira is a Coordinator too, he must have been coerced by the Earth Alliance! I will definitely find a way to bring him back!"

"What if he refuses?"

Kruze's words plunged Aslan into an icy abyss.

"If that were the case, I would kill him with my own hands."

Hearing Aslan utter those words in a trembling, incredibly somber tone, Kruze sighed deeply, then turned away, concealing his barely suppressed smile.

Heh, as expected of humans...

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

Archangel, hangar.

After sleeping in bed all day, Raven struggled to get out of bed and returned to the hangar.

After all, he was exhausted the day before. He had to pilot the mobile suit in combat, help maintain the mobile suits, and collect combat data on the Dagger and Strike in his spare time. He was busy all day long before he had time to rest.

Even though he had been busy all day, Raven's workload hadn't decreased at all.

The short sword was severely damaged, requiring the replacement of its entire left arm and right leg. Data collected during the battle also needs analysis to develop a new version of the Natural Human OS. In addition, Raven plans to use available resources to make a minor modification to the short sword, enhancing its combat capabilities.

This requires Raven to finalize the modification plan. Fortunately, El can help calculate various data, and Raven estimates that the modification plan will be finalized in a short time.

"Mr. Raven, may I borrow a little of your time?"

While Raven was busy in the cockpit of the Dagger, Kira floated to the hatch and poked his head out with a somewhat gloomy expression, asking a question.

Raven glanced at Kira and roughly understood why he had come.

"Is it because of the Aegis's pilot?"

Kira looked up at Raven in surprise.

"Teacher, how did you know?"

"I only overheard your conversation with the Aegis pilot while I was extracting combat data from the Strike Force. But don't worry, I didn't tell anyone."

Raven reached out and pulled Kira closer to the cockpit, closing the hatch. Raven knew that what the boy was about to say was something completely out of place in the military atmosphere.

"The pilot of Aegis is named Athrun. He's a friend I met in Copernicus..."

Kira slowly recounted his past with Athrun, and Raven did not interrupt, simply acting as a listener.

"I'm sorry, teacher, for listening to me for so long."

Raven could tell that Kira had been holding these words in for a long time, and now that he had said them all at once, it relieved a lot of his pressure.

"It's nothing. Listening to students' troubles is a teacher's duty. Besides, there's probably no one else on this ship who can listen to you like this, right?"

Being friends with the enemy pilot would only create unnecessary trouble for Captain Maru, whether he told his soldiers or friends.

"Kira, are you going to give up piloting the Strike? If you encounter Aegis again, can you even shoot him?"

"I have no idea."

Kira answered with a confused expression.

He wanted to say yes, but as the words reached his lips, memories of his friend flashed through his mind, and he couldn't bring himself to say them.

Kira didn't want to fight his friend, but if he didn't fight, he couldn't protect the Archangel and his classmates who were still on board.

This dilemma tore at the boy's heart, but Kira's serious nature prevented him from making up something to brush it off.

It wasn't hard to guess what the boy was thinking. Seeing Kira's predicament, Raven didn't intend to make things difficult for him.

"Although I really want to say something cool like 'Leave it all to me!', I'm not good enough to take on four Gs single-handedly. But next time we face the Kruse team, I'll deal with the Aegis. I can do that. I'll try my best not to go all out against the Aegis."

"teacher?"

Kira opened his eyes wide and looked at Raven in surprise.

"Why are you so surprised? Solving students' problems is a teacher's responsibility. Or do you think I'd say something like, 'If they become enemies, we should shoot them down!' like a military officer?"

"So, teacher, what exactly do you want to do?"

"Uh, like destroying the opponent's limbs, or dismantling the weapons in the opponent's MS's hands?"

"But, but..."

It wasn't that Kira didn't trust Raven's piloting abilities, but Kira had already experienced the battlefield firsthand and knew just how dangerous battles between mobile suits were. Simply surviving was already difficult, let alone having to hold back and only take away the opponent's combat power without destroying them.

Kira knew that this was creating unnecessary trouble for Raven, and that he was making Raven risk his life to satisfy his own willfulness.