Gundam, the Gundam journey of a certain glue guy and his mecha girl.

Seizing the opportunity, the Möbius Zero sped over and unleashed a volley of fire at the Aegis using the linear cannon on its nose and the four deployed wired cannons.

"Is the target the Aegis's thrusters?"

The instant he was suppressed, Athrun reacted to what Mu was about to do. Aegis extended the beam saber on its right leg and kicked upwards, forcing back the Strike. At the same time, it used the Ambac maneuver to turn its machine around, hiding the thrusters, and used Aegis's PS armor to withstand the attack from Mobius Zero.

Mu's attack failed, but the shell successfully hit Aegis, causing Aegis's attitude control to briefly become uncontrollable. Kira seized this moment, and the high-thrust nozzles of his unloading backpack propelled him forward at full power, swinging his beam saber before Aegis could regain its attitude.

The cherry-red light blade severed the Holy Shield's right leg in an instant.

Raven had already thoroughly analyzed the characteristics of Aegis's mobile suit for Kira. Aegis was equipped with a beam saber on each of its four limbs. Knowing this, Kira had no intention of entangled with Aegis and simply attacked and left.

However, just as Kira was about to join forces with Mu again to launch an attack, he suddenly received a warning from Mu.

"Be careful, Kruze is coming with the rest of the main force."

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

The fire rifle and anti-armor shotgun mounted on the back of the short sword were, in fact, temporary additions, and the heat dissipation issues that would arise during short bursts of fire were within Raven's expectations.

Raven did not panic over the heat dissipation problem. Instead, he put away his shoulder armor and opened communication with the Montgomery.

"USS Montgomery, can you hear me? Please retreat immediately. The mobile forces of the USS Archangel will cover you until you withdraw from the battlefield."

After a moment of silence, the captain of the USS Montgomery gave his answer.

"USS Montgomery received. We are about to withdraw. Best wishes for your safe return!"

As a soldier, such a helpless retreat in the face of the enemy is undoubtedly shameful. However, although he was unwilling, he could distinguish the importance and urgency of the matter and made the decision to retreat decisively.

However, the man in the suit next to him did not possess the composure unique to soldiers like him.

"Wait a minute, what will happen to Frey if we retreat like this? Is Frey, the pilot of the short sword, alright?"

But both Raven and the captain beside George, under the influence of the battlefield atmosphere, ignored George's deep love for his daughter.

"I wish you good luck with your gaming."

Raven turned off the communications and watched the USS Montgomery slowly sail away from the war zone, finally letting out a sigh of relief.

“That way George Alstar shouldn’t die here. The remaining problem is…”

Suddenly, the alarm bells blared in the cockpit of the short sword. Before the alarm even reached him, Raven's senses were enveloped by a thick, viscous malevolence. In an instant, Raven felt as if he were about to drown in a dark, viscous swamp.

"What exactly is causing this feeling of oppression?"

Raven mustered his strength and bit his lip until it bled, finally managing to calm himself down from the oppressive atmosphere. Just then, Mu's communication came through, and Raven learned the source of the malice he had just felt.

"You are, Raul Kruze?"

Kruze's overly obvious malice was as conspicuous to Raven as ink spreading on a blank sheet of paper. After El indicated that the shoulder armor had finished cooling down, Raven raised the short sword and the fire rifle on his right shoulder again, and with his vague feeling, fired a beam into the distance.

If it were an ordinary driver, they would most likely be easily shot down when faced with such a long-range sniper attack without any warning. But how could an ACE like Kruze be shot down so easily?

Just as Raven could clearly sense Kruze, Kruze could also sense Raven's spirit.

Without warning, Higu suddenly accelerated, causing the beam of light from the short sword to graz the fuselage.

"It was dodged?"

Feeling the lingering pressure in his heart hadn't dissipated, Raven knew he had made a mistake. The next moment, a feeling of unease washed over him, and without thinking, he immediately stepped on the pedal to move the machine.

The next moment, a beam of light, somewhat similar to that fired from the short sword but much thicker, swept past where the short sword had been.

Raven quickly realized that this was the Storm Gundam firing a high-powered fire rifle, which meant that the Storm had pinpointed its location from the previous shots.

The short sword is not equipped with a high-precision sensor like the Storm, which is specifically designed for long-range shooting. This puts it at a disadvantage in long-range firefights. If Raven wants to use his senses to pinpoint the opponent's location as he did before, he would need to concentrate intensely. Now that his position has been exposed, it is clearly unrealistic to do so.

Realizing this, Raven chose to close the distance, and Kruze, noticing the short sword's movement, smiled.

“Nicholm, you go help Aslan deal with the assault. Yzak and Diego cover me against the short sword. King’s troops go deal with that MA.”

He quickly assigned tasks to his subordinates, and ZAFT's mobile suit units then dispersed, dividing and surrounding the Archangel's side of the mobile suits.

"Tch, so this time it's our turn to be caught in the crossfire?"

The pressure Mu felt instantly increased, and he was sweating profusely as he maneuvered his Mobius Zero through King's barrage of bullets, unable to spare any time to support the assault.

Kira's advantage was completely wiped out by the addition of Thunderbolt. He was caught between Thunderbolt and Aegis, but thanks to the superior mobility of his empty backpack, he was able to barely hold on against the combined attack of Thunderbolt and Aegis.

Raven's situation was even worse.

Storm flipped the combined weapons in his hand, aiming the anti-armor shotgun at the short sword.

Diego had discovered in his previous encounter with the dagger that this weapon had an excellent suppressive effect on the dagger, and that it did not require precise aiming; simply pointing in the general direction was enough to perfectly restrict the dagger's movement.

Storm seized the opportunity before Xigu and Duel could get close to the short sword and fired a shot first.

The widespread hail of shotgun shells forced Raven to raise his shield. The electromagnetically accelerated projectiles instantly dented the short sword's shield, and the impact from the shield caused the short sword to pause in its movements.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Shigu and Duel quickly approached the short sword.

Shigu's equipment remains the same three-piece set: heavy assault machine gun, Gatling shield, and heavy cleaver. However, the duel that reappeared on the battlefield was completely different.

A new armor was fitted onto the Duel's rather flimsy body, and Raven knew at a glance what kind of new equipment it was.

"The Shroud Armor, it really was made. Tsk, I'll definitely ask those guys at ZAFT for royalties when I get the chance."

In the original timeline, the Shroud Armor was an additional piece of equipment created by ZAFT engineers for the Duel Gundam to enhance its defense and firepower. It added a railgun and a five-tube missile launcher to the shoulder of the machine to increase its firepower, and a large thruster was also added to the back of the Duel Gundam to prevent the Duel Gundam's mobility from decreasing due to the additional equipment.

In his previous life, Raven loved this full armor design, so when he was drawing up the design for the duel, he also designed the Shroud armor.

"Wouldn't this be considered lifting a rock only to drop it on one's own foot?"

Although Raven was complaining, his hands didn't stop moving at all. On the shoulders of his short sword, two weapons from the Storm Gundam were raised again.

"I have shotguns here too!"

Although it cannot combine two weapons to fire at high power like the Storm Gundam, the difference between using high power and not using high power is irrelevant when it comes to the distance between the short sword and the duel and the shigu.

Raven opened fire decisively, and the Dagger's anti-armor shotgun fired countless bullets at Duel and Shigu. However, neither Kruze nor Yzak were easy opponents. The two machines dodged the shotgun fire from the left and right and surrounded the Dagger.

However, Shigu and Duel's actions were exactly what Raven wanted. As soon as the two machines separated to the left and right, Raven immediately stepped on the pedal, and the short sword turned into a blue streak of light, rushing straight towards Duel.

Kruze reacted quickly, immediately turning his machine around and biting the side of the short sword, his machine gun constantly spitting fire at it.

But Raven was prepared. The short sword's thrusters roared at full power, and the black body instantly performed an acute-angle maneuver on the Z-axis. This maneuver, which is usually only used by novices, surprised Kruze.

Shigu's machine gun bullets couldn't keep up with the short sword's movements at all, but the price was that Raven was now experiencing several times more G-force than usual.

Even though Raven was wearing a standard suit with anti-G capabilities, his body was still gradually approaching its limit, and the area around his field of vision was gradually tinged with red. However, before Raven's body reached its limit, the opportunity he was pursuing was handed to him by Duel.

Upon realizing the short sword was charging straight at him, Yzak immediately stepped back to create distance, simultaneously sheathing his beam rifle and drawing his beam sword.

He still vividly remembered being ambushed by the sword-wielding short sword last time, but putting away the beam rifle did not mean that the duel had lost its ranged attack means.

The shoulder-mounted railgun and five-tube missiles fired simultaneously, attempting to block the short sword's assault route.

But the next moment, he regretted his decision.

With a slight tilt of his body, he narrowly avoided the railgun's projectile. Before it was fully charged, the anti-armor shotgun on his shoulder opened fire.

Although the firepower was insufficient to penetrate the mobile suit's armor due to its incomplete charging, it easily detonated the missile fired by Duel. Five fireworks exploded between Duel and Dagger in an instant, and the smoke from the explosions instantly obscured Dagger's fuselage.

Yzak sensed something was wrong and instinctively used his shield to protect the cockpit. His action was correct, and the next moment a beam of light shot out from the smoke and struck the shield of the duel.

But before the impact of the beam hitting Duel's shield could dissipate, Dagger's body instantly emerged from the smoke. The mobile suit's mechanical feet stepped onto Duel's shield, suppressing Duel's movements. At the same time, Dagger's Vulcan cannon fired, turning Duel's shoulder railgun into a sieve. Then, using the impact of the railgun's explosion, Dagger kicked Duel away with its legs.

'Is that guy even human? How can one person perform so many delicate movements at once?'

Having witnessed firsthand how the duel was completely suppressed by the short sword's series of moves, Diego couldn't help but wonder: even the best pilots of the Regulator couldn't simultaneously maintain precise control over fire control, maneuverability, and close combat, but the short sword's movements were far beyond his imagination.

What Diego didn't know was that Raven wasn't the only pilot of the short sword; this series of precise maneuvers was the result of Raven and El working together.

But as he lamented, he couldn't remain indifferent to the crisis facing Yitzhak.

Storm fired several beams of light, driving the short sword away from the duel, but this support shot also made the short sword target him.

Diego felt a chill run down his spine. The oppressive aura emanating from the dagger made him unconsciously swallow, and the scene of almost being knocked down by the dagger last time came to mind.

However, the next moment, the silver-white Shigu entangled the short sword.

Author's message

P.S.: I felt this chapter was a bit difficult to categorize, so I decided to combine it into one chapter and post it here. I hope you readers enjoy reading it.

Chapter 20 The Archangel's Assault

"Tch, this is really troublesome."

Raven's forehead was covered in cold sweat as he frantically maneuvered his short sword to fend off Higu's fierce attacks.

Looking at the performance of the MS alone, the Dagger is undoubtedly superior to the Sigma Gundam. After all, apart from the armor and some electronic equipment, the Dagger almost completely inherits the design of the Strike Gundam, and the components used are also the same high-specification components as the Strike Gundam.

But Raven had to admit that Kruze was the enemy who had put the most pressure on him so far, even though the other was piloting the Shig, which was inferior in performance to the short sword.

The malice belonging to Kruze seemed to permeate the entire space, constantly oppressing Raven's spirit. Meanwhile, Shigu's machine shadow transformed into a silver-white streak, drawing smooth and elegant trajectories in the dark space. Heavy assault machine guns and Gatling guns fired alternately, and bullets seemed to be attacking the short sword from all directions, forcing the short sword to constantly maintain its mobility and not to be negligent in the slightest.

Raven had to focus all his energy on dodging Xigu's attacks. With El's help, he was able to keep up with Xigu's movements with his short sword. The three weapons on his body fired in turn, and he engaged in a super-fast offensive and defensive battle with Xigu.

The shadows of the Shigu and the short sword intertwined, and the beams of light and bullets fired from the machine guns turned the entire space into an extremely dangerous space. A machine that was besieging the Mobius Zero was unfortunately caught in it and its battery pack was detonated by a stray bullet. In the intense flash of the explosion, it turned into cosmic dust.

The intense battle between the two machines even made it difficult for Yzak and Diego to keep up with the pace. Even when they wanted to cover Cruze, they had to give up because they couldn't keep up with the short sword's movements and were worried about accidentally injuring Shigu.

On this battlefield, they weren't the only ones marveling at the battle between the short sword and Xigu.

"Wow, just how outrageous are those two people?"

Mu, who was struggling to hold on, was stunned for a moment when he saw the fate of the unlucky guy who was caught up in it. However, this made his burden much lighter.

The two Jin En fighters that attacked him were clearly veterans with a lot of combat experience. Their coordination was seamless, giving Mu no chance to retaliate.

But now that one King was no longer suppressing him, Mu had a glimmer of hope. The Mobius Zero activated all its attitude thrusters for reverse jet propulsion and grabbed the back of the King that had been chasing him.

Taking advantage of this precious opportunity, the Möbius Zero's linear cannon began firing in rapid succession, successfully damaging King's thrusters before King could turn around.

With most of its thrust gone, King became incredibly clumsy in an instant, but his well-trained piloting skills did not falter. The muzzle of his machine gun continued to follow the trajectory of the Mobius Zero.

But by this time, he was already Mu's possession.

The Mobius Zero bypassed King. To launch another attack on King, it would have to enter the most vulnerable part of the Mach 3, the Spinning Maneuver. King's pilot was aiming for this moment, but he overlooked the special weaponry equipped on the Mobius Zero.

"Don't underestimate this Zero!"

Mu had already deployed four wire-guided cannons, and bullets rained down on King from all directions. King's machine gun, leg thrusters, and head-mounted main monitor were completely destroyed in the barrage. Then, the Mobius Zero completed its rotation, and the wire-guided cannon shells finally struck the vulnerable spot exposed by King's attitude control failure. A wire-guided cannon shell pierced the battery pack at the center of the machine, and King, along with his comrades, turned into cosmic dust.

But before Mu could even catch his breath, Duel and Storm, who had noticed their allies had been shot down, set their sights on him.

A beam of light struck, and before Mu could react, a wire-controlled cannon was destroyed. Mu was then forced to endure another chase by two mobile suits.

"Captain Maru, Lieutenant Baqilulu, whether I live or die today depends on you two!"

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Archangel, bridge.

"It seems the fighter jets have arrived."

Maru watched the flashes of light from the distant MS battle, suppressed her unease, and issued the battle order.

"Archangel, cease inertial navigation, start engines, advance at maximum combat speed, target: ZAFT warship!"

Upon receiving the order, Bakirulu, who was in charge of implementing the tactics, immediately began to mobilize the Archangel's armaments.

"Missile launch tubes 1 to 4 are being loaded with anti-beam detonators; tubes 5 to 12 are being loaded with anti-ship missiles. Barriant and Gottfield, deploy! Lohengrin I, begin charging!"

Considering the need to prioritize the propulsion power supply, Bakirulu did not use both Lohengrin positron cannons, but even using just one Lohengrin was enough to inflict fatal damage on a battleship-class target.

With Maru and Bakiruru's orders, the Archangel quickly entered combat mode. The thrusters at the rear of the ship emitted dazzling flashes of light, propelling the behemoth forward at high speed. The weapons installed on various parts of the ship unfolded, baring their fangs at the ZAFT forces.

The Archangel's entrance drew almost everyone's attention. Kruze used a feint to create an opening, taking the opportunity to glance at the Archangel's position. He then realized the Archangel's intentions.

"From which angle did the long-legged ship enter the battlefield? Was its target our warship?"

Kruze considered retreating to cover his own fleet, but Raven keenly sensed Kruze's intentions and changed his attack with his short sword, actively entangling with Xigu.

"Don't think I'll let you go so easily, Kruze!"

"Tch, I miscalculated. I underestimated him!"

The short sword's fierce attack left Kruze in a dilemma, forcing him to continue focusing his energy on dealing with the short sword and handing over the task of commanding the warship to his adjutant.

While the short sword continued to entangle Shigu, the Archangel rapidly approached the two ZAFT warships.

"Enemy ships have entered Lohengrin's maximum firing range!"