The sudden encounter with the GINN made Siegfried curse his luck, but fortunately the Strike Gundam nearby had already activated its PS armor. It looked like Kira was still modifying the OS, so the GINN paid no attention at all to a small transport truck. That gave them a narrow window to slip through the chaos.
"Hilde, a weapon." Just in case, Siegfried slammed the accelerator and tried to get out of the combat zone as fast as possible, since the three of them were basically unarmed. Hearing his call, Hilde in the passenger seat immediately tossed him a handgun, and after checking the safety, Siegfried could only tuck this barely useful weapon into his waist.
The fighting not far away was still ongoing, and the GINN's weapons were largely ineffective against PS armor. As the Strike stood back up again, it was clear that Kira had finished adjusting the OS. The clash between the two mobile suits sent shockwaves across the area.
"Look carefully. Yesterday this was still a peaceful city, and today it's turned into this," Siegfried said while steering around the aftermath of the duel. "Everyone is hiding in shelters, shaking, and those who didn't make it in, want to guess what state they're in now?" He spoke toward Cagalli Yula Athha with a sharp edge, though in truth he did not care that much about what Heliopolis became, only that Cagalli had refused to let go since they met.
"I'm not… Orb… my father isn't like that." Cagalli was not completely frozen, but she could not form a smooth sentence. She had only come to secretly investigate Dawn Society, yet she ended up seeing not just a Gundam but also the Astray. Now, seeing her own satellite engulfed in fighting finally crushed what was left of her resolve.
Another sharp turn avoided falling debris from above, and Siegfried noticed that the Strike seemed to be deliberately pushing the GINN in their direction. He silently cursed Kira and guessed the reason was that Milli and the others were on the other side. Instinctively, Kira wanted to keep danger away from his classmates, and a truck that looked like a military transport clearly mattered less than close friends.
Perhaps because of years spent driving in the harsh environment of Mendel, the truck weaved steadily through wrecked vehicles and falling hazards. Even so, Siegfried kept a firm grip on the wheel, while Hilde opened the back panel of Haro and worked rapidly with both hands. Caught between them, Cagalli could do nothing about the war outside or the people beside her, and after a hard jolt, she finally shouted.
"Reynard… Theresa… how did you even know about this place? Even I didn't…" Her words were cut off before she could finish.
"Reynard? Who is Reynard?" Hilde interrupted, still typing into Haro. The white-haired girl clearly rejected those names.
"He said his name was Reynard, and you were Theresa, mercenaries sent by Mithril."
"Don't call him by that bad man's name!" Hilde interrupted again, her tone flat but firm.
"Oh? You remember those names?" Siegfried said while dodging another piece of wreckage, even finding time to raise an eyebrow. "Anything else coming back to you?"
At that moment, Cagalli finally realized she had been fooled again by the boy in front of her. Not just the names, even the mercenary group was probably made up, and she was about to protest when another violent bump swallowed her words.
"Don't talk. You'll bite your tongue," Siegfried said quickly, knowing she had a temper that could explode at the slightest spark.
The fight between the mobile suits on their side was reaching its end. After the Strike Gundam drew its armor-piercing blade and entered close combat, the two machines staggered and crashed directly into the path of the truck trying to leave the satellite, forcing Siegfried to slam the brakes. The GINN's 76mm machine gun sprayed wildly, and with the truck's roof torn off earlier by the golden Astray's vulcan fire, Kira finally noticed that someone on the truck looked like the girl who had been near him before.
At the same time, Kira could barely hold off the GINN's heavy sword. Even if it could not penetrate PS armor, the sheer force of the blows sent violent shocks that were far more dangerous to the pilot than to the machine itself. Each impact rattled the cockpit.
When the Strike Gundam dodged the last burst of gunfire and drove its second armor-piercing blade into the GINN's shoulder, the first clash between the Alliance and ZAFT mobile suits finally ended in victory for the Strike Gundam. As Siegfried prepared to steer around the trouble, he saw Hilde brace herself against the battered truck and hurl Haro toward the GINN with one hand.
Sliding on its side "ears," Haro latched firmly onto the GINN's leg. In the next second, the cockpit hatch suddenly opened, and a green figure leapt out with a personal flight unit, landing with one foot on the truck bed.
There was no time to question Hilde's motive. Siegfried turned and drew his gun, but when he saw the young face under the helmet, his finger refused to pull the trigger. His mind went blank in that single second.
Everything he had learned over three years had never taught him how to kill a person. Unlike battles between mobile suits, he knew that a light squeeze of his finger would mean blood spilling from a stranger in front of him, with no explosions or fire, only a cold body left behind. The weight of that knowledge froze him.
"Heh, rookie." Miguru looked at the boy, who seemed only fourteen or fifteen, and judged from his trembling arms that he had never been on a battlefield. With a mocking glance, he pressed the thrusters again and flew off into the distance, carrying relief from a narrow escape and other feelings he could not put into words.
Watching Siegfried still shaking, Hilde stepped over the unresponsive Cagalli and calmly placed a hand on his head. After more than ten seconds, the tension in his body slowly eased. The simple contact grounded him again.
"I'm sorry… I…" Once calm, Siegfried knew how much danger his hesitation had caused. If that ZAFT pilot had been armed, a single second of delay would have meant none of them survived.
"Go check that GINN. See if it can still start," Hilde said evenly. "We need protection, and spare parts." Whether she did not realize how close they came to death or was deliberately avoiding it, she did not blame him and simply gave the next instruction as always.