"Axel! I've secured the escape pod! Flay is safe!"
Kira's voice was bright, filled with a relief that radiated through the comms.
"Good work. Now, get her to the Eternal—no, wait."
I glanced at the tactical map. The Eternal and Kusanagi were still locked in a fierce exchange with the three Nazca-class ships. Sending a vulnerable pod into the middle of a capital-ship duel was suicide.
"Change of plans. It's a bit of a distance, but take her to the Archangel. This fight is far from over. Move!"
"Yes, sir!"
The Archangel was holding its own against the Alliance fleet, but unlike the point-blank brawl near the colony, they were trading shots at long range. With the Rapiesage, Weiss-saver, and the Megillots tearing through the Alliance ranks, the enemy's return fire was becoming increasingly ragged.
I had assumed Azrael would give up on the pod once we captured it. In the original story, he only obsessed over it because he knew it contained the "Key to ending the war." Here, he hadn't heard that pitch yet. But perhaps my efficiency had backfired. By recovering the pod without a second's hesitation—and using the Freedom, a high-priority target for Blue Cosmos, to do it—I might have accidentally signaled that the girl inside was the most valuable asset on the battlefield.
To a man like Azrael, if his enemies wanted it that badly, it had to be the secret to a total reversal.
"Phantoms!"
A squadron of Strike Daggers broke formation to intercept Kira. I didn't give them the chance. My Phantoms swarmed them, three remote units per Dagger. They systematically dismantled the machines—shearing off limbs with lasers before plunging blades into cockpits and backpacks.
"Adamant Halper... Nine-Tail Mode!"
I swept the nine energy whips through the center of the panicked formation. The void filled with the expanding husks of shattered machines. I didn't stick around to watch the debris; I cleared the zone to avoid taking unnecessary impact damage and scanned the rest of the theater.
It was a massacre.
The ZAFT GINNs were being systematically erased by the Justice's Meteor unit. Athrun was a whirlwind of missiles and beams, his oversized sabers cleaving through mobile suits like they were made of paper.
Nearby, Mu—backed by three Megillots—was relentlessly hounding Creuset's CGUE. While Mu lacked Creuset's years of MS experience, the Strike's Phase Shift armor rendered the CGUE's physical rounds useless. Creuset was fighting a losing battle of attrition, forced to evade constantly while his own weapons did nothing. Honestly, the fact that he hadn't been shot down yet was a testament to his sheer genius as a pilot.
Then there was the Duel and the Buster. They were simply... sitting there. Hovering in the void, facing one another. They were clearly talking.
"Everything seems to be under control," I noted.
"The Alliance side is... wait!"
A spike of intent flared in my mind. Two Strike Daggers were closing in from above and below. They were trying for a pincer maneuver, but their bloodlust was so loud it was practically screaming.
"Amateur."
They fired simultaneously, their beams aimed to cross at my center. I put the Glowsaver into a half-roll, letting the beams burn through the empty space where I had been a millisecond before. While mid-rotation, I swapped the Halper for the Gun Rapier in my lower hand and deployed the Linear Railgun for the upper.
"You picked the wrong side to die for."
I fired both weapons at once. The lower Dagger was perforated from head to toe by a hail of needle-thin beams; the upper Dagger was gutted by a railgun slug that traveled from its pelvis through the cockpit and out the head. Two explosions bloomed in perfect symmetry.
I looked up. The Alliance's MS count had plummeted. Fewer than ten capital ships remained functional. Yet, they stayed. Azrael's tenacity—or rather, his inability to accept defeat—was bordering on the pathological.
"But even he has a limit."
Bravery can't bridge a gap in fundamental power. The Alliance sailors knew they were beaten. Only the man on the bridge of the Dominion refused to see it.
Suddenly, a massive flare of light caught my eye. Athrun's Justice had just bisected one of the Nazca ships with its Meteor saber. Simultaneously, the Eternal and Kusanagi concentrated their fire on the ZAFT flagship—likely the Vesalius. Explosions ripped along its hull before a final, catastrophic blast shattered the bridge.
That was the breaking point. A signal flare rose from the last surviving Nazca ship: the order to retreat.
The remaining GINNs broke off immediately. Creuset's CGUE, battered and scorched, didn't hesitate to join them, slipping away into the debris field. Mu started to give chase, his thrusters burning hot.
"Mu! Leave him! Do you want to let the Dominion get away?"
"Tch... sorry! Got tunnel vision there," Mu replied, veering back toward the main fleet.
With the ZAFT retreat, the battlefield should have been clear of their units. Except... it wasn't. The Duel was still there, hovering right next to the Buster.
"Dearka... what's the status of the Duel?"
"Huh? You told me to talk him around, right? So I did. He's with us."
I blinked. Honestly, I was more surprised by Dearka's successful diplomacy than I was by Kira's successful rescue. Talking Yzak Joule into surrendering was a feat of Herculean proportions.
"I... see. Right. Good job. Keep him with you for now. We're moving to the final phase against the Alliance."
"Don't you ignore me!" Yzak's voice exploded over the channel, patched through Dearka's comms. "I am not a traitor! I won't stand for this!"
"Yzak, cool it," Dearka groaned. "Look, I know you're not a traitor, but you can't expect anyone but me or Athrun to trust you right now. Just play along."
"Fine! It's disgraceful, but I'll follow your lead! But you—Axel! I have words for you later! Be ready!"
I winced. I probably shouldn't have mentioned I was the original Blitz pilot. "Right. Whatever. All units, concentrate fire on the Alliance!"
The tide turned into a flood. The Archangel, Kusanagi, and Eternal poured everything they had into the remaining Alliance ships. The Freedom and Justice, freed from the ZAFT front, brought their Meteor batteries to bear. Cornelia and Lemon were already deep in the enemy formation, their units dancing through the chaos, systematically disabling any ship that hadn't already surrendered. The Strike Daggers were throwing down their rifles and raising their hands in a universal gesture of capitulation.
Only the Dominion remained defiant.
Mu and I moved in, two streaks of light aimed straight for the flagship's throat.
"Mu, I'm taking the front," I directed. "I'm stripping the Lohengrin, the Valiants, and the Gottfrieds. You take the rear—kill the Helldarts and the Sledgehammers."
"Got it. We're skinning this bird alive, then?"
"Exactly. Azrael is on that ship. If we leave him so much as a toothpick, he'll try to stab us with it. I'm not giving him an opening to fire those Lohengrins."
In the original timeline, Azrael's madness led to a Lohengrin shot that destroyed the Strike and "killed" Mu. I had no intention of letting history repeat itself.
"I hear you. Giving a man like that a loaded gun is a mistake I don't plan on making. Moving in!"
Mu dived toward the Dominion's aft, weaving through defensive fire. He peppered the Sledgehammer launchers with his beam rifle. The ship's laminate armor soaked up the first few hits, but eventually, the heat threshold was reached.
"Direct hit!" Mu cheered as a launcher vanished in a secondary explosion.
"My turn."
I dived in front of the Dominion's prow. I swung the Adamant Halper, the blade shearing through the portside Gottfried turret. On the backswing, I took the starboard one. Then, I drove the blade deep into the armor plating covering the Lohengrin's firing port.
"Hyaaah!"
I ripped the cover away, exposing the positron cannon's delicate internal mechanisms. There was no Phase Shift or laminate armor inside the barrel.
"Eat this."
I extended the Beam Gatling and poured a concentrated stream of fire directly into the Lohengrin's mouth. Seconds later, a chain reaction tore through the Dominion's forward port leg, blowing the entire weapon mount into space.
"Adamant Halper... Nine-Tail Mode!"
The lashes erupted, shredding the armor over the portside catapult deck and creating a jagged, gaping hole.
"The front door is open. Mu, status?"
"Sledgehammers and Helldarts are offline," Mu reported, his Strike pulling up alongside me. "What now? Just the two of us?"
"No, reinforcements are here."
The Rapiesage and Weiss-saver pulled up behind us. Behind them, the rest of the Alliance fleet was drifting, dark and silent. The Strike Daggers were no longer a threat.
"Axel," Cornelia said, her voice calm. "The fleet has surrendered. Only the Dominion remains. What are your orders?"
"Azrael won't surrender. We have to take the ship from the inside. Cornelia, Lemon—you stay out here. Keep the Dominion defanged. If a single CIWS turret so much as twitches, blow it off. Mu and I are going in."
"Understood," Cornelia replied. "Don't take too long."
"Mu, let's move. Megillots, guard the suits."
I banked the Glowsaver into the ruined catapult deck, Mu's Strike following close behind.
Azrael, I thought, my grip tightening on the controls. Today is the day your war ends.
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