The sky over Neo-Verdia was no longer blue. It was a chaotic canvas of ionizing radiation, flickering heat flares, and the crisscrossing trails of high-output thrusters. Below, the city held its breath. Millions of eyes were fixed on the giant outdoor monitors, watching the live feed from the news helicopters that hovered at a dangerous distance. They weren't just watching a military engagement; they were watching the collision of two eras.
In the center of the storm, the White Gundam Eagle, now outfitted in its Full Armor Type configuration, looked like an ancient war god clad in ivory plate. Its silhouette was bulkier, its shoulders mounting dual-barrel beam rifles that hummed with enough power to level a skyscraper. Opposite to it, the Gundam Nova Alpha drifted with predatory elegance.
Prince William Solva didn't wait for a signal. With a flick of his wrist, the back rack of the Nova Alpha detached. Six Funnel Units—autonomous remote weapons—flew into the air like silver wasps, their beam emitters glowing a lethal violet.
"They're coming, Zaki!" Aurora's voice echoed inside the cockpit. She wasn't sitting in the co-pilot seat as a mere passenger. Her eyes were glowing with a brilliant, ethereal purple light, her Mind Space Communication fully synchronized with the ship's tactical computer.
"I see them! But there are too many variables!" Zaki shouted, pulling the control sticks to perform a high-G barrel roll.
"Don't look with your eyes, look with your mind," Aurora whispered. "I'm feeding the trajectory data directly into the HUD. Airis, stabilize the firing solution!"
The White Gundam's arms snapped up with mechanical precision. The dual-barrel beam rifles roared, spitting out twin bolts of emerald energy. Because of Aurora's mental foresight, the beams didn't go where the funnels were, but where they would be. Three of the silver units vanished in spectacular bursts of sparks and debris.
Inside the Nova Alpha, William's eyes widened. "To read the funnels of a Solva... who are you, White Ghost?" He gritted his teeth, a thrill of genuine excitement breaking through his weary royal mask. "Fine. Let's see if you can handle the weight of the stars!"
William slammed a protected switch on his console. "Limiter Release: Sequence Zero."
The Nova Alpha shrieked. The thrusters on its right side exploded into a haunting, beautiful violet flame—the 'Purple Soul' drive. The machine's speed doubled instantly, leaving after-images in the air. William charged, his twin beam sabers igniting into massive blades of plasma.
CLANG!
The collision sent a shockwave that shattered the glass of the nearby office towers. Zaki struggled against the controls as the Nova Alpha pressed its blades against the White Gundam's shield. The purple fire from William's wings was so hot it began to char the White Gundam's outer armor.
A few kilometers away, the veteran was teaching a lesson in efficiency.
Klaus Kimeza, piloting the Grai Gundam Spec 2, moved with the calculated stillness of a mountain. He didn't waste energy on flashy maneuvers. As the Gundam Nova Beta circled him, raining down funnel fire and beam shots, Klaus simply pivoted.
Olive Solva was screaming into her comms. "Why can't I hit you?! You're just a relic from a dead era!"
"A relic knows exactly where the cracks are, kid," Klaus muttered.
He reached back, the Long Beam Rifle mounted on his backpack sliding over his shoulder. In one fluid motion, he drew his beam saber with his left hand and parried a funnel strike, while his right hand pulled the trigger of the heavy rifle.
BOOM.
One of the Nova Beta's funnels was vaporized. Then another. Klaus wasn't just shooting; he was baiting her.
"Brother told me you were a legend! Prove it!" Olive roared, her face twisting in frustration. She, too, slammed her limiter release. The left wing of the Nova Beta erupted in the same violet fire as her brother's. She came at the Grai like a meteor, her beam rifle in her left hand spraying suppressing fire while her saber in her right aimed for the Grai's cockpit.
Klaus's eyes narrowed. The dance was getting serious. He engaged his own thrusters, the Grai's heavy armor groaning under the stress. They collided in mid-air, a whirlwind of grey and orange, swapping blows so fast the cameras could barely track them.
Back in the White Ark's medical wing, Maki was glued to the screen. Her hands were trembling, her knuckles white as she gripped Agnes's hand.
"Zaki... be careful," she whispered. She felt a strange sensation—a resonance. She knew Zaki was fighting, but the way the White Gundam was moving... it was different. It was smoother, more fluid in its predictions than when she was in the seat. She didn't know that Aurora was currently bridging the gap between man and machine with her very soul.
Agnes watched the screen with a hollow expression. "William is using the Purple Soul... he's trying to kill them. He's going to burn himself out just to win."
In the cockpit of the White Gundam, the heat was becoming unbearable. Zaki was sweating, his vision blurring from the G-force. "Aurora! He's too fast! I can't pin him down!"
"Then we stop chasing him," Aurora said. Her voice had changed—it sounded multi-layered, as if a thousand voices were speaking at once. "Zaki, give me control of the sub-systems. Trust me."
"Do it!"
Aurora closed her eyes. On the White Gundam's massive shield, several hatches slid open, revealing a bank of Piercing Missiles. These weren't standard ordnance. They were experimental units designed by Airi.
Without Zaki or Airis touching a single button, the missiles launched. But they didn't fly in a straight line. They curved. They swerved. They dived and rose like a school of predatory fish.
"What is this?!" William yelled, his sensors screaming. "Guided missiles? No... they're moving like funnels!"
Aurora was doing the impossible. Using her Mind Space Communication, she was treating each missile as an extension of her own nervous system. She was "feeling" the wind, the heat of the Nova Alpha's engines, and the panic in William's heart.
The missiles swarmed. William slashed three out of the air, but four more took their place. They weren't exploding on contact; they were maneuvering, waiting for the perfect opening.
"Now!" Aurora commanded.
The missiles accelerated. William tried to dodge, but the projectiles predicted his move. BAM! BAM! BAM!
The explosions rocked the Nova Alpha. The violet fire on its wing flickered and died. The proud Jupiter Gundam lost its momentum and began to tumble through the sky, smoke trailing from its ruptured joints.
"BROTHER!" Olive screamed. Her focus shattered. In a duel between masters, a second of distraction is an eternity.
Klaus didn't hesitate. He wasn't a cruel man, but he was a soldier. He shouldered his Long Beam Rifle, the barrel glowing with gathered energy.
"Game over, Princess," Klaus said.
He fired. The massive beam didn't hit the cockpit—Klaus was still aiming to disable, not kill—but it tore through the Nova Beta's left shoulder and its burning violet wing. The explosion was massive. The Nova Beta spun out of control, falling toward the wasteland alongside its twin.
Thousands of miles above, in the opulent palace of the Jupiter Colony, King Solva stood in front of his viewing screen. When he saw his two children—the pride of his empire—falling like broken toys, his face turned a terrifying shade of purple.
"Insolent... Earth... FILTH!" he roared, grabbing a crystal glass of expensive nectar and hurling it at the screen. The glass shattered, wine dripping like blood over the image of the White Gundam. "Kill them! I don't care about the duel! I don't care about honor! Launch everything! Erase that base from the face of the Earth!"
The order was instantaneous. The Jupiter fleet, which had been standing by in a "peaceful" formation, suddenly flared to life. Hundreds of Pioneer units and heavy Bishop types surged forward, their weapons hot.
"They're breaking the truce!" Airis shouted over the base intercom.
"I knew it," Augustina's voice growled over the radio. "Nobody with a crown knows how to keep a promise. Tasya, you ready?"
"Born ready," Tasya replied.
The hangar of the White Ark erupted. The Sunflower Gundam leaped into the air, its Beam Sniper Rifle already barking, picking off Pioneer units before they could even get within range. Beside it, the Lavender Gundam boosted forward, its high-frequency claws glowing. Tasya launched her six Micro-Missile Funnels, which zig-zagged through the enemy formation, creating a wall of fire.
But they weren't alone. From the shadows of the lower bays, a new force emerged. These were the G-ioneers—the mass-production fruits of the Dark Resistance and the Neo-Verdia Alliance. Based on the Grai Gundam's robust frame, these units were painted in aggressive black and red. Their humanoid heads, covered by glowing green visors, looked cold and determined.
"Red Knight Squadron, G-ioneer team, ENGAGE!" the lead pilot shouted.
The G-ioneers moved with a discipline the Colonial conscripts couldn't match. They raised their long shields, forming a phalanx in the sky, their short beam rifles spitting consistent, deadly fire.
The battle had escalated from a duel of honor into a total war for survival. Zaki and Klaus, despite their exhaustion, reformed their line. The White Gundam and the Grai stood at the center of the Alliance fleet—a father, a son, and a city of people who had finally decided that they were done being victims.
"Is this what you wanted, King Solva?" Klaus muttered, looking up at the stars through his sensors. "Because if you want a war, we'll give you one that'll burn your throne to ash."
The sky over Neo-Verdia turned into a sea of fire as the Alliance and the Jupiter Empire collided in a clash that would be remembered as the "No Rewarding Battle"—for in a war of broken promises, no one truly wins.
To be continued...