The asteroid serving as the carrier for this ELS "probe" was not particularly large, not to mention that a layer of its outer shell had been shaved off when it was struck and pushed away by the satellite cannon. The materials available for the ELS to convert were actually quite meager.
Even though the "probe" decided only to separate into the smallest individuals—about one meter in size—the resulting "metallic wave" covering the sky was still enough to instill a sense of despair.
After activating the NT-D, Roz Links's brainwave intensity and activity surged to a new level, making him an irresistible bait attracting the ELS.
However, at this moment, after sensing the somewhat strange brainwaves of this group of ELS and the emotions they roughly expressed, Roz Links's expression became a bit peculiar.
It was not cold rationality, nor was it a blade-like killing intent; rather, it was a fervent, curious emotion.
If these ELS had already "embraced" and assimilated one or two people through their own methods, Roz Links would likely have heard a bunch of ELS in his head saying "Come, let us embrace."
Unfortunately, the "embrace" of the ELS is fatal to humans—at least to humans at this stage. Under the ELS's assimilation instinct, the physical structure and material composition of the "embraced" human would change, which would most likely result in the death of said human.
"I don't really want to be assimilated by you guys right now..."
Watching the wave-like ELS behind him, Roz Links increased the distance from the battlefield.
"Sorry, you all arrived too suddenly. This place isn't ready yet."
"If you must, then hate me."
Particles gathered at the muzzle of the Beam Magnum, forming a sphere. As the sphere ruptured, a red beam carrying purple high-energy electricity carved a massive hole through the ELS metallic wave.
A large number of ELS dissolved and were destroyed within the Magnum beam, exploding into countless fragments.
The ELS do not possess an emotion called "resentment." For them, as a collective consciousness, the loss of a small number of individuals is insignificant.
Even if this entire "probe" were destroyed and vanished, it would be within acceptable limits.
However, Roz Links did indeed sense an emotion called "confusion" from their noisy brainwaves.
The large beam saber hilts on the Penelope's shoulders rose. Two pale pink beams erupted from these hilts, which doubled as shoulder cannons, continuing to destroy the ELS before him.
Beam scatter rockets, fragmented rockets, and the rarely used Funnel Missiles were all launched from the Penelope at once. These missiles trailed exhaust flames, tracing elegant arcs through space as they flew toward the ELS cluster behind the Penelope.
Off to the side, on the battlefield where the Psycho Zaku was engaged, everyone from the three superpowers to Celestial Being witnessed the Penelope in its state of total eruption.
The beam scatter rockets and fragmented rockets detonated just before reaching the ELS, blanketing them in a massive storm of beams and shards. Countless ELS were shattered instantly, reduced to tiny metallic splinters.
Meanwhile, the Funnel Missiles managed to evade the ELS's assimilation attempts, finding optimal points within the swarm to detonate and punching several massive holes through the once-overwhelming metallic wave.
While Roz Links was putting on a display of overwhelming firepower, Shinn Asuka felt like he was struggling.
The ship-slashing sword, one of the Destiny's core armaments, had been assimilated by the ELS, and the firing rate of his built-in beam cannon was not particularly high.
With his familiar weapons and combat style essentially sealed, Shinn Asuka felt completely hemmed in.
"Shinn, fly toward me."
At that moment, Roz Links's voice came over the comms. "I'll clear the ones behind you; you fire at the ones behind me."
The Destiny and the Penelope moved as if dragging two massive silver curtains behind them. The two machines traced a pair of arcs, steadily closing the distance between each other.
As they crossed paths, the Penelope spun around and raised its Beam Magnum.
The red Magnum beam erupted from the muzzle; the ELS following the Destiny had no time to change course and slammed directly into the beam, dissolving and detonating one after another.
Having been cleared of pursuers, the Destiny also turned back. Shinn Asuka raised the beam cannon on his left side toward the ELS behind the Penelope.
The red-and-white beam shot from the muzzle, acting as a roadblock for the Penelope. The ELS that failed to evade crashed straight into it, being destroyed in a series of explosions.
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The ELS probes felt a profound sense of bewilderment. Why does this massive metallic creation keep attacking us?
After a brief moment of collective processing, the ELS arrived at an answer.
'I see... so, using giant robots to fight one another is how they communicate. It's a pity we couldn't share this discovery with the individual that already departed for home.'
'However, when the expeditionary force arrives, they will surely be able to master this civilization's method of "communication" quickly.'
With this logic established, the ELS ceased their pursuit. A small cluster of ELS suddenly veered off, flying toward the nearby battlefield wreckage. Watching this, Roz Links frowned.
Under the collective gaze of every pilot in the sector, the ELS slammed into the drifting MS debris and began the process of assimilation and replication.
"What is that?!"
Even Kati Mannequin, who had been watching the "hunt" of the Penelope and Destiny from the sidelines with cold detachment, felt a chill run down her spine.
As the MS wreckage was decomposed, several small ELS merged. They began to shape-shift, molding themselves into grotesque mobile suits that shimmered with a metallic luster, their sensor lights glowing an eerie purple.
These machines were "monsters" in the literal sense—Chimeras constructed from the assimilated spare parts of the GN-X, the Gundam Throne Eins, and the Alvathore.
Regardless of how bizarre their silhouettes appeared, every single one of them began emitting purple particles from their backs.
In total, thirteen of these strange MS appeared. Seven of them had shifted their height to match the Penelope exactly, as if they were 1:1 scale replicas.
As for the wreckage of the massive Alvatore MA, the ELS ignored it. Since they had only observed MS-level combat so far, they had not yet "learned" that MAs were part of the conversation.
In their eyes, "communication" was strictly limited to the MS form.
Looking at these machines—which looked like the result of a mad scientist's Chimera experiment—Roz actually felt a slight sense of relief.
It was simple: compared to the overwhelming swarm of tiny ELS from before, these experimental monstrosities provided much larger targets.
And there were only thirteen of them. He could handle this.
"Big Brother Roz..."
Shinn Asuka flew the Destiny closer to the Penelope. Seeing the battle shift back to a familiar MS format, he exhaled slowly. "I've lost my ship-slashing sword. From here on..."
"Static...Shinn! Catch this!"
Stellar's voice suddenly cut through the Destiny's comms.
The Psycho Zaku burst through the encirclement of GN-Xs, the beam gatlings on its four sub-arms locking onto and shredding enemy units as it moved.
As the Psycho Zaku soared above the Destiny, Stellar unhesitatingly hurled the Zaku's own ship-slashing sword downward.
Watching the blade fall from above, Shinn manipulated the Destiny to reach out. He caught the replacement weapon with pinpoint precision and gave the new blade a sharp, practice flick to his side.
Seeing the Destiny obtain a new ship-slashing sword, several smaller ELS units—roughly the same height as the Destiny—responded by extending metallic blades of their own, mirroring the length of short-swords.
Almost the exact second those short-swords appeared, the Penelope raised its arm and fired. A shot from the Beam Magnum struck a large ELS mobile suit just as it was preparing to move.
The metallic-lustered torso of the machine was dissolved instantly, high-energy currents cauterizing the remaining structure and stripping it of its ability to autonomously recombine.
The four beam gatling guns on the Psycho Zaku also roared to life, blanketing the group of ELS mobile suits with white beams.
One ELS unit roughly the size of the Destiny was singled out and riddled with holes, its fragments scattering through space as they lost all biological activity.
Having lost two units in rapid succession, the ELS mobile suits naturally refused to sit idly by. They raised their "beam rifles," unleashing a flurry of purple beams in an attempt to begin "embracing" the Penelope and the Destiny.
The Destiny was the first to charge, raising its ship-slashing sword as the white beam-cutting edge ignited.
Not to be outdone, the ELS units manifested purple beam edges on their own short-swords. The units matching the Destiny's size raised these blades and flew toward Shinn Asuka.
The Destiny's Voiture Lumiere thrusters worked incessantly, the brilliant Wings of Light propelling the machine and creating two distinct afterimages.
Three silhouettes of the Destiny swept past five ELS units at incredible speed.
Just as the alien machines completed their turn to pursue, a yellow beam struck one of them with pinpoint accuracy, blowing the machine into fragments.
In the next second, the Destiny suddenly appeared directly in front of an ELS mobile suit. Its ship-slashing sword slammed into the alien's short-sword; the white beam edge instantly overwhelmed the purple one, bisecting the entire ELS unit and causing it to explode.
Following up, the Destiny drew a beam boomerang from its shoulder and hurled it at an ELS unit equipped with a grotesque shoulder cannon, completely destroying the weapon. Immediately after, violent energy surged into the Destiny's left hand.
With a Palma Fiocina palm strike delivered directly to the torso of the disabled unit, the energy flooded the machine's frame until it burst into a cloud of debris.
Just as another ELS mobile suit prepared to backstab the Destiny with its short-sword, a dense barrage of green beams covered its body, causing it to detonate.
The Psycho Zaku's sub-arms had abandoned their locks on the distant GN-X forces to provide covering fire against the ELS.
The Destiny then spun around, deploying its long-range beam cannon from its left side. Shinn Asuka pulled the trigger on a closing ELS unit; the red-and-white beam struck the final small-scale ELS mobile suit, ending it in a violent explosion.
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Seeing that the smaller ELS mobile suits had all been destroyed by Shinn and Stellar, Roz exhaled a small sigh of relief and refocused his attention on the six large-scale ELS units surrounding him.
The Penelope pulled the trigger of the Beam Magnum again. One of the ELS units, which was preparing to raise a beam rifle similar to the Alvathore's, was struck squarely. It dissolved and was utterly annihilated within the torrent of the Magnum beam.
The multi-function shield on the Penelope's left arm extended a white beam saber, precisely parrying an incoming ELS unit wielding a purple beam saber.
As the machines locked blades, the shoulder cannon rose, firing a pale pink beam at point-blank range into the ELS's head.
Roz followed through by swiping the purple blade aside and delivering a vertical cleave that split the alien machine in two, ending it in a violent explosion.
In the next moment, the Penelope retracted the shield saber and instead drew the massive beam saber hilt from its shoulder.
Upon activation, a thick, lime-green beam blade erupted, so powerful that the hilt's built-in I-Field struggled to fully contain its output.
Roz rotated the multi-function shield on his left arm, aligning the mega particle cannon muzzle with the direction of his palm.
He then raised both his left hand and the Beam Magnum in his right, firing simultaneously at the two ELS units attempting a pincer maneuver from both sides.
The Magnum beam easily obliterated one unit, while the pale pink beam from the shield's mega particle cannon punched a massive hole through the other.
Before the damaged unit could recover, the gargantuan green beam saber swept through its frame, melting it into an exploding wreck.
An ELS unit managed to close in behind the Penelope, raising its purple beam saber for a strike. Out of habit, Roz maneuvered the Penelope into a spinning back-kick, slamming his foot into the machine and knocking it back.
At such close range, he simply leveled the Beam Magnum and pulled the trigger. The violent beam dissolved the ELS's upper torso, while purple high-energy currents carved glowing yellow gashes into its remaining limbs until it detonated into a cloud of shrapnel.
Under normal human circumstances, such devastating losses would trigger a rout, but the ELS possessed no fear. Even with only one unit remaining, it continued the "dialogue."
The last ELS mobile suit raised its Alvathore-style beam rifle and pulled the trigger. A massive purple beam erupted from the muzzle toward the Penelope, but Roz performed a fluid roll, spiraling around the beam as he closed the distance.
While maintaining his evasive maneuvers, the right shoulder cannon locked on and fired. The pale pink beam struck the center of the final ELS unit, scattering it across the stars as a cloud of debris.
With that, the ELS probe had been reduced to nothing more than inert, lifeless scrap metal drifting in the void.
....................