Chapter 42: The Unattainable Love
"It's just an unseen MS, what's the big deal?" The Zaku pilot seemed to be annoyed, "I'm driving the latest ZakuⅢ, what the hell do you know!"
In Shinn's eyes, the ZakuⅢ slowly adjusted its posture, slowly retargeted, and finally slowly fired. Shinn directly turned off the energy-intensive beam shield. It was impossible for him to be hit by this waste.
When the particle beam hit the previous location of F91, Shinn had already manipulated the MS to move to the shore. In one fluid motion, he turned off the floating system, turned on the thrusters, took out the beam saber, and sprinted next to the ZakuⅢ in just two changes of direction. He followed the principle that Mr. Adrien had said countless times in his memory, and stabbed the beam saber in the cockpit. The high-energy particle beam easily penetrated the Zaku's armor and stabbed in.
This was Shinn's first time killing someone, but his heart didn't feel anything.
Several nearby ZakuⅡs noticed the situation over here and started to attack F91. There were not many tall buildings near the dock, and there was nothing to find as a cover. Shinn calmly opened his beam shield and swept towards the nearest Zakus.
Due to the overwhelming difference in MS performance and pilot quality, the mass-produced MSs on the dock were steadily reaped at a blistering speed. Shinn expressionlessly drew his saber from one cockpit and stabbed it into the next. Blame it on your bad luck.
Turn on the beam shield when needed, turn it off when not, stab all those Zakus on shore with the beam saber, and shoot any of them who wants to go after the ship with the beam rifle. Efficiency is the only thing he cares about.
But it seems someone sent out a request for reinforcements, and new Zakus kept appearing in the dock area. Shinn, who had planned to retreat after clearing this area, had to continue his harvest of mass-produced Zakus. And ZAFT after sacrificing many of their MSs one after another, the danger assessment of the dock was continuously raised, and finally, Freedom Gundam received dispatch orders to this battlefield.
"Just leave this place to me, you guys go reinforce the other areas." Athrun arrived at the dock and quickly gave orders to the nearby troops. He didn't feel he was being arrogant at all, and a proper understanding of his own strength was a quality that an ACE should have.
Zakus began to withdraw from this area one by one, and Shinn had no intention of pursuing them. The message Athrun received was that there was a camouflaged battleship trying to escape, and another Gundam was protecting the battleship, presumably with some important person on board, but the Gundam had the entire dock blocked off, and Zakus could not break through it.
The Gundam in front of Athrun was an MS he had never seen before, and was equipped with a beam shield, a technology that ZAFT did not even have heard of. Was it a new MS secretly developed by the Morgenroete Incorporated of Orb Union?
Shinn looked at the red MS that joined the battlefield and immediately recognized it as the Freedom Gundam that he had seen in the news before, the latest result of ZAFT's own development. However, he felt that the F91 made by Adrien-san would definitely be stronger than ZAFT's.
"Brother!" Mayu sent communication from the ship, "Miss C.C. said that red MS is a nuclear-powered Gundam made by Ade-san, you must be careful."
"Hey?" What's going on, isn't it self-developed by ZAFT?
But now there is no time to think about this, the other side has already initiated the attack. Freedom Gundam relies on its own nuclear power, shamelessly flying around in the sky, and its beam rifle keeps shooting continuously. Shinn was so overwhelmed on the ground that he was forced to turn on his floating system and come to the sky to tangle with the red Freedom Gundam.
Freedom Gundam and he fought for a while, and began to try to break through Shinn to fly to the ship. Several stray bullets flew in the direction of the ship and exploded in the nearby sea, and Shinn struggled to drag Freedom on the dock.
With the floating system and beam shield energy opening at the same time, the energy consumption is too much. Shinn gradually felt the burning of anxiety. No, I can't go on like this, F91's battery won't hold up long. Mayu, Stella, Miss C.C., Uraki-san, everyone is on board, I must protect them, I need more power!
It was as if something exploded in his mind, the flow of time around him seemed to slow down, he could see every detail in his vision clearly, and his body would respond faithfully.
He suddenly remembered that Mr. Adrien once told him, F91 has a function that should never be turned on unless under special circumstances. It was definitely referring to this situation.
On F91's head, its mask opened to the sides, three small wing-like heat sinks protruded from each of the left and right shoulders, the beam shield was turned off, and the VSBR, which had never been used before, was transferred from the back to the front of the fuselage. As if completely unafraid of being hit, F91 quickly burst towards Freedom Gundam, yet all of the opponent's shots were incredibly missed.
"Why? I have locked on him, why can't I hit it?!"
Athrun futilely switched weapons. Beam rifle, particle cannon, magnetic rail gun, all locked on that Gundam, but all missed as if the lock was on something else at all.
"… residual image? No kidding, how could this unscientific stuff be true!"
F91 was doing multiple high-speed vector changes in mid-air, constantly shortening the distance between him and Freedom Gundam, and various cannonballs and particle beams brushed against him with no danger.
"So that's how it is. Only in this state, I can harness this speed of F91." Shin said to himself cheerfully, "Freedom Gundam … will be defeated by me! Today! At this place!"
The VSBR has no independent battery and uses the core power of the MS directly. The super high energy consumption and super slow firing speed make it hard for him to have a second shot, therefore, he needs a right distance and a right angle, like …
"Now!"
As Shinn pulled the trigger, a highly concentrated stream of high-speed particles whistled toward Freedom Gundam. Athrun tried to change the MS's stance and raised its shield to defend in the nick of time, but the shield that was supposed to block the beam was easily torn apart like paper, and the entire left arm, along with the small half of fuselage, disappeared.
Freedom's floating system was damaged, and in the efforts of the only remaining thrusters, it finally fell to the ground. The cockpit does not seem to be completely destroyed, so Shinn raised the beam rifle to the cockpit and gave it a shot. Suddenly, a golden Gundam rushed between him and Freedom, the particle beam hit the golden MS and was … surprisingly bounced off?
"The other side has lost the ability to resist, why do you continue to shoot!"
It should be the pilot of that golden Gundam shouting in the public channel, but Shinn simply does not bother to pay attention to him, answering such questions is simply an insult to his intelligence.
"This voice …Kira?"
Wait, Kira Yamato of Orb Union? You're crazy. Running to save ZAFT's ACE, is that an act of treason?
"Athrun? It's you! Why is PLANT doing this again?"
So the two people know each other, and they are talking? I don't care, I'm going to say goodbye. Shinn left the two who had somehow started chatting on the public channel over there and flew at full speed in the direction of Blue-eyes White Dragon.
A few hours later, the news of the fall of Orb Union shocked the entire Earth. At this moment, in a mansion in Europe, there were two men sitting in a luxuriously decorated room who could influence the direction of the war.
"Hymem, not rushing back to save Orb Union?" Guin Sard Rhineford sat gracefully on the leather handmade couch and smiled at the older man in front of him, "Now that Amuro Ray has been released, I thought I'd be able to watch another replay of the defense of Orb Union."
"That's enough of this good thing. Since they refuse to join the Federation, let them die." Jamitov Hymem sneered, "It's better to give Orb Union to ZAFT, let all those mutants in the sky come down, so we can clean them up at once."
"Does it matter if the Morgenroete Incorporated falls into their hands? When the time comes, it's your people who will die."
"Soldiers are born for wars. Rhineford, are you asking knowingly?" Hymem put on a straight face, "By the way, the additional sponsorship that was agreed upon before …"
"Wow, the treasury secretary is really worried about the Federation's finances. Admirable." Rhineford gave a dangerous smile, "Adrien Lingus. You know what I mean."
"I don't understand, it won't do you any good." Hymem frowned, "And Loran Cehack has already issued a statement. This is too risky for us. I've never seen the moon take such a serious stance. No, not with this Lingus."
"It doesn't matter if you understand or not." Rhineford showed a complex expression that Hymem couldn't read, "What matters is that it wasn't the Federation that wanted Lingus, so it's not the fault of the Federation. And you get the chance to draw down all the mutants from the sky and clean them up at once. As you said earlier, the bigger the war, the better for TITANS, right?"
"But the Federation will sacrifice a lot …"
"So will a lot more military spending, and a lot more additional sponsorship. As I said, money is not an issue," Rhineford touched his short moustache, "It is not easy for TITANS to maintain financial independence, and dedicated community members like me understand perfectly and are willing to help the Federation army."
Hymem narrowed his eyes in silence for a long time, and finally made up his mind, "So be it, then it's a deal. I'll go back first to prepare for it."
"I wish us a good cooperation again." Rhineford raised his glass to Hymem, "Goodbye."
It wasn't until Hymem had completely left the room that Rhineford turned the terminal on his desk, and what appeared on the screen was the video of the ultimatum Loran had delivered to the Federation earlier. He flicked on the video and Loran's voice rang through the room. The video was set to play on a loop, having been played an unknown number of times before.
"'We will not be able to guarantee that we will not act aggressively' … How many years has it been since the last time you said that?" Rhineford reached out and tenderly rubbed the cheek of the Loran on the screen with his fingertips, "Is this man that important to you, Laura?"
