A fragmentation rocket shot out from the rocket launcher's barrel, flying into the sky and bursting mid-air into a cloud of shrapnel, precisely destroying several drones one after another.
But Jesta did not stay in place. Instead, it kept its leg thrusters running, moving in a hover-like manner to evade the crossing beams sweeping toward it.
"Its armor is way too tough."
Big Haro seemed surprised by Shamblo's armor structure.
After suffering multiple hits from anti-ship rockets, Shamblo's armor still had not been penetrated, making one sigh at how unbelievably sturdy it was.
Roz controlled Jesta to dodge another beam sweep, then used the high-explosive grenade mounted beneath the beam rifle to fire at Shamblo's incoming right claw.
With the explosion, Shamblo's right claw visibly stiffened for a moment, allowing Roz to exhale slightly in relief.
Throughout the battle, Roz felt strangely restricted—probably because he had spent so much time in the simulator fighting space battles and rarely fought on land.
"…The enemy's armor has reached its critical point. I need to find an opening."
Roz gripped the control stick tightly. While dodging the beam fire, he kept his eyes fixed on Shamblo's movements.
"Where…? Where is it…?"
He muttered under his breath, his concentration pushed to its limit.
"Beep, beep, beep…"
After such intense fighting, the machine's energy level had already dropped to the yellow warning zone.
"It's now!"
Roz didn't even notice the energy warning. The moment Shamblo thrust its head forward and opened its mouth to reveal the cannon inside, he pressed the buttons on the control stick and slammed down the foot pedal.
The multifunctional quad launcher mounted on Jesta's backpack loaded anti-ship rockets. The shields on its two mechanical arms adjusted position, and the particle cannon on its right shoulder completed its lock-on.
Then, a storm of anti-ship rockets fired from all of Jesta's weapons, the barrage exceeding even the previous saturation.
In Shamblo's cockpit, seeing the growing number of red warning indicators across the display, the black-clad pilot grew visibly agitated.
"Tch! Annoying little fly… You useless brain-pods, reroute the machine's power output! I'm going to vaporize him with the positron cannon!"
Due to battery limitations, Shamblo could only power either the shoulder beam cannons or the mouth-mounted positron cannon. In the earlier battle, the shoulder cannons had been prioritized.
Now, the shoulder beam cannons shut down, and the mouth-mounted positron cannon began charging.
But just as the black-clad pilot was preparing to aim, a series of violent explosions shook the machine.
The barrage of anti-ship rockets struck again. The armor, already glowing red from overheating, finally crossed its limit. The melted internal frame and wiring lit up as "OFFLINE" on the control panel.
"What? Shamblo is—"
Before he could react, the battery pack in the left shoulder ignited and exploded, blowing the entire shoulder plate apart and dropping the positron cannon's charge rate drastically.
Roz was not about to let a panicking enemy escape. He pushed Jesta forward.
Jesta's backpack thrusters roared, and the free left hand drew a beam saber, slicing off two claws from Shamblo's right mechanical arm.
Passing through Shamblo's defenses without obstruction, Jesta closed in on the head. The beam saber slashed sideways, striking directly at the mouth-mounted positron cannon.
"The positron cannon is destroyed?! Damn you!"
The black-clad pilot quickly rerouted power, restoring the remaining shoulder beam cannon.
But Roz had no time to care. He pushed Jesta relentlessly toward the cockpit.
Jesta's power was nearly gone. If he didn't finish Shamblo now, he would lose his chance.
Just as the beam saber was about to reach the cockpit, Shamblo suddenly swung its head, slamming Jesta away with its neck.
Boom
Jesta was sent flying, crashing into the ground and sliding more than ten meters, leaving deep furrows in the dirt.
"Ugh… Big Haro, check machine status."
Enduring the intense impact, Roz forced Jesta back to its feet.
"The frame is mostly fine, but… we're almost out of power, Roz."
Big Haro finished a quick diagnostic and said so bluntly.
"Retreat, Roz. Orb's fleet is almost here. We've done more than enough."
"Big Haro… do you really think if we let this thing go, Orb's forces can handle it?"
Roz stared hard at the turning Shamblo, gripping the controls again.
"Or rather—how many people will die if we let it through?"
"Don't forget you still need to take revenge. You have other objectives. Retreating now is the best choice."
Big Haro continued trying to persuade him.
"Just treat me as if my brain's malfunctioning. I just can't watch something like this happen and do nothing."
Roz ignored Big Haro's warnings and instead checked his remaining armaments.
"If you want to leave, disconnect the link and go find another Executor."
"Are you joking? If you don't go, how could I ever leave you behind?"
Big Haro seemed extremely annoyed, its wing-ears flapping in protest.
"But… what you just said was pretty cool. Careful—I might add it to your black history."
"Heh… go ahead and record it."
Suppressing the dizziness, Roz prepared for battle one last time.
"Run the final stretch with me, Jesta."
Jesta's dim red visor suddenly shone brighter, as if something behind it were about to burst out. Three letters appeared sharply on the cockpit screen:
NTD
As if responding to Roz's call, Jesta's previously sluggish movements became fluid once more. The thrusters behind it emitted crimson light, propelling it toward Shamblo.
Strangely, the ground touched by the red trails was not scorched at all.
"Psychoframe propulsion… and only four psychoframe units resonating with Roz did this?"
Big Haro in the "shipyard" watched the remote feed and shook its oversized wing-ears.
"What astonishing talent…"
But Roz wasn't thinking about any of that. Lying inside the cockpit, his mind held only one thought—
Destroy Shamblo.
Inside Shamblo's cockpit, the black-clad pilot felt that killing intent and froze.
As Jesta passed Shamblo's left claw, the beam saber in its hand seemed to grow thicker, slicing downward.
The massive claw was cut cleanly in half near the base, leaving a glowing red cross-section.
Jesta retracted the beam saber, grabbed the falling claw, and—despite its immense weight—swung it with one hand.
Before Shamblo could react, Jesta whipped the giant claw like a flail straight at the cockpit.
The cockpit armor, already at its limit after being hit by anti-ship missiles earlier, was torn open effortlessly. The claw tip punched deeply inside.
The black-clad pilot could see Shamblo's silver claw—its tip less than ten centimeters from his head. The wild, brutal assault left him completely stunned.
Of the five "SmartBrain" units in front of him, three were already destroyed, spilling a grayish nutrient mixture through the breach.
Boom!
Before he could react, Jesta reached in and tore open the cockpit armor. Its crimson visor glared directly at the black-clad pilot.
"W-wait, I surre—"
Panicked senseless, he tried to raise his hands to surrender.
The next second, Jesta's shoulder beam cannon finished charging. The red-white beam engulfed the cockpit, vaporizing everything inside.
Jesta glanced at the now-ruined Shamblo cockpit, then gracefully returned to the ground.
-----------------------------------
"Haa… haa…"
After such a long battle, Roz finally let out a small breath of relief. Fighting with his mind fully tensed the entire time made him feel a kind of long-forgotten exhaustion.
"Boom… boom… boom…"
The battery packs on Shamblo began exploding one after another. Pieces of armor were blown into the sky by the flames, then fell back down to the ground.
With the metallic groaning noise echoing, Shamblo could no longer maintain its hover movement. It crashed heavily onto the ground, continuing to explode nonstop.
But obviously, things would not end there.
A crimson "flame" erupted from Jesta's backpack, pushing the machine away from a chain of incoming beam fire.
"What a brilliant battle, Cub. As expected of an ace pilot."
Rau Le Creuset's voice, amplified through loudspeakers, echoed across the battlefield.
A gray-white DINN flew in from an angle almost impossible to guard against, firing its rifle continuously at Jesta.
"But your backpack isn't capable of flight, is it? Otherwise why didn't you enter flight mode earlier?"
Sitting inside the cockpit, Le Creuset naturally wouldn't let such a perfect chance to kill Roz slip by.
"With your armaments spent, how will you fight us?"
"The skies belong to me, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Just accept your death!"
"…Don't even think about it."
Roz licked his slightly dry lips, almost nostalgic for his high-mobility backpack.
He might not have much armament left, but that didn't mean he couldn't fight.
"The beam rifle only has two magazines left, the beam cannon can fire once more, the quadruple multi-launcher has four fragmentation rockets remaining, and I won't even bother mentioning the shield and beam saber."
Big Haro flapped the wings on its head. "That's all the armament Jesta has left."
"Mm… I know."
The more dangerous the situation became, the more calm Roz felt.
"Jesta, sorry—we're going into overtime."
Jesta lifted its head slightly. Its crimson visor looked at Le Creuset circling in the sky, and the approaching group of white DINNs.
And of course, the completely out-of-place machine mixed in among them: Duel Gundam, riding its flight pack.
"Cub… this time I'll definitely destroy you!"
Although Yzak Joule didn't like attacking someone in such a weakened state, this was a battlefield—he couldn't worry too much about pride.
The mechanical arms dropped the two empty electromagnetic rocket tubes, slightly reducing Jesta's weight.
"Haa… let's go, Jesta!"
Roz took a deep breath and his expression turned serious.
The multi-launcher mounted on Jesta's left shoulder fired four fragmentation rockets rapidly toward the sky. The dense cloud of shrapnel tore through the armor of many white DINNs with ease, blowing them apart mid-air.
"You bastard!"
Riding the flight pack, Duel moved rapidly, its shoulder-mounted electromagnetic cannon and five-tube missile launcher firing repeatedly at Jesta.
"Yzak! You're too far forward! Fall back!"
Seeing Yzak recklessly driving Duel forward, Le Creuset frowned.
"A great chance!"
Roz spotted the overly-aggressive position of Duel. Blocking several DINN shells with his shield, he raised the beam rifle and opened fire.
But his target was not Duel itself—It was the flight pack beneath Duel's feet.
The G-series relied almost entirely on flight packs to fly in Earth's gravity. Destroying it meant crippling their mobility.
"Tch… damn bastard."
Seeing the flight pack begin to explode, Yzak could only abandon it and try to guide Duel down to the ground safely.
Jesta reloaded its final beam rifle magazine. The red glow from its backpack thrusters grew thicker, with even more crimson light leaking visibly from the cracks in the damaged armor and wrapping around the machine's surface.
"What are those red things… exactly?"
Even the well-informed Le Creuset furrowed his brow at the bizarre sight.
Then, in everyone's eyes, Jesta lifted off the ground, trailing a long crimson tail flame as it shot toward Le Creuset at incredible speed—
Like a scarlet meteor.
"What?! That fast?!"
Seeing Jesta appear in front of him in the next second, Le Creuset was shocked. He drew the shotgun and fired.
Jesta slightly shifted its mechanical arm, blocking the shot, and its left hand drew the beam saber, slashing at Le Creuset.
Le Creuset immediately executed a horizontal maneuver, but the right arm holding the rifle was still severed. Seeing Jesta closing in again, with that beam saber clearly aimed to bisect his machine, Le Creuset reflexively pulled the ejection lever.
The familiar cockpit module launched upward, and the mobile suit was cut cleanly in half by the beam saber, falling near the still-exploding Shamblo.
"Haa… that was close."
Caught by a white DINN, Le Creuset still felt lingering fear from that brief exchange.
"How did that machine become so fast?"
"Don't run!"
Roz roared loudly, moving Jesta to continue chasing Le Creuset.
But a sudden stabbing pain in his head forced him to halt Jesta's movement. Several green beam shots suddenly fired upward from the ground.
"Don't even think about chasing! Get down here!"
Yzak aimed Duel's rifle upward and fired several shots, then stomped hard on the pedal.
Duel's thrusters flared intensely as it ascended toward Jesta.
"Haa… haa…"
Roz felt like he was close to passing out, but he gritted his teeth, pushing Jesta to dodge DINN shells and fire repeatedly at Duel.
Duel raised its shield to block the beam shots and increased its thrust. Seeing this, Roz swung the beam saber hard at Duel's shield.
But in the next moment, the red "flame" weakened slightly due to Roz's exhaustion, and Jesta was rammed away by Duel. The beam saber flew out of Roz's hand.
"A good chance!"
Yzak tried to stab Jesta with the beam saber—But Jesta's free left hand gripped Duel's right hand tightly.
The gripped mechanical hand even bent under the pressure, causing the beam saber to shut off due to connector failure.
"What? That kind of output?"
Though surprised, Yzak immediately used the shield to swat away Jesta's beam rifle. His shoulder-mounted electromagnetic cannon aimed at point-blank range.
Jesta's head vulcans fired continuously, draining Duel's battery, while its last particle cannon began charging.
Jesta's left-shoulder shield blocked the electromagnetic shot, but the close-range impact caused the mechanical arm to snap.
At the same time, the beam cannon completed its charge and fired.
The red-white beam destroyed Duel's shield instantly. With a slight adjustment of angle, the beam swept across Duel's head monitor, shoulder armor, and weapons.
"Boom…"
Both machines finally crashed to the ground, the violent impact making Roz shake his head, barely keeping consciousness.
To be honest, Roz had no idea why, after NTD activated, the nearly powerless Jesta could continue fighting for so long— even flying temporarily. But he knew one thing: after this activation, his mental state was rapidly deteriorating.
Roz made Jesta stand, detach the beam cannon, and pull out the last beam saber.
Using what little vision remained through the auxiliary monitors, Yzak threw aside his destroyed shield and drew his beam saber as well.
Lit by Shamblo's flames, the two machines began their silent charge—each blade pointed only at the opponent's cockpit.
Their distance grew smaller, just about to reach striking range—
A white DINN—no one knew when it arrived—suddenly blocked Jesta's path, slowing its movement.
A moment later, Jesta's beam saber pierced through the DINN's cockpit.
Using that DINN as a shield, Duel circled around to Jesta's left flank.
Jesta's left hand rose to block the incoming beam saber— And the left forearm was immediately pierced through.
Two more white DINNs rushed forward, drawing long swords and stabbing toward Jesta.
The DINN whose cockpit was pierced began overheating its battery pack—about to explode.
For some reason, even facing this hopeless situation, Roz felt no panic. No curses. Just… calm.
Perhaps, ever since the day he touched a control stick, he knew he might die in some battle. He had accepted long ago that someone might eventually kill him.
ZAFT clearly seized the perfect opportunity— He was already at his limit. This was a kill-shot situation.
"Your time to die is not now."
Just as Roz calmly accepted that he was "about to die," the cockpit UI vanished. Red text replaced the interface, appearing across the panoramic screen.
"…Jesta?"
Roz blinked in confusion at the letters, instinctively mumbling the question.
But before he could finish, the cockpit suddenly ejected.
At the same time, Jesta activated its self-destruct sequence.
Its once crimson visor dimmed, fading until it returned to its unlit state.
"Boom—"
The cockpit hit the ground heavily, rolling several times before crashing into a small slope.
"What? Ejected?!"
Yzak saw the cockpit fly out and tried to raise his beam saber to pursue— A massive explosion engulfed Duel and the three white DINNs.
-----------------------------------
"Yzak, can you hear me? Yzak!"
Sitting inside the cockpit being carried by a white DINN, Rau Le Creuset kept trying to get a response from Yzak Joule.
"…Captain Creuset, Orb's fleet is arriving."
At that moment, the submarine captain—who was responsible for transporting Creuset and the Copy unit—sent a communication.
"We're out of time."
"…Tch, there's no helping it. Withdraw."
Although his tone sounded reluctant, in truth Creuset was inwardly thinking that Yzak's death was quite convenient.
"To use your life to take out an enemy ace—an absolute profit. This is war, Yzak."
As Creuset thought this, his face showed no expression, but the eyes hidden beneath his mask narrowed slightly.
....................