The border of Neo-Verdia had become a literal hellscape. The Jupiter Colonial Army, driven by the wounded pride of their King, poured into the airspace like a golden tide of destruction. Their Pioneer units formed a relentless wall of fire, while the heavy Bishop units provided a terrifying drumbeat of shotgun blasts and heat saber charges.
But the White Ark forces—the newly unified Neo-Verdia Alliance—were no longer the disorganized rebels they once were.
"Don't let them breach the city line!" Augustina's voice crackled over the command channel.
High on a reinforced ridge, the Sunflower Gundam stood like a golden statue of judgment. Augustina didn't move much; she didn't need to. Her Long-Range Beam Sniper Rifle barked with rhythmic precision, each shot vaporizing a Jupiter Pioneer before it could even lock onto the city's defensive shields. When the enemy got too close, she triggered the missile pods in the Sunflower's forearms, filling the sky with a swarm of micro-explosives that shredded anything in their path.
In the thick of the fray, the Lavender Gundam was a blur of violet light. Tasya moved with a ferocity that bordered on desperation.
"Get out of my way!" Tasya screamed, her eyes wide and bloodshot.
She swung the Lavender's right arm, the high-frequency claws glowing a deadly purple as they sheared through a Pioneer's cockpit. She didn't hesitate. She didn't flinch at the explosions. In her mind, she wasn't just fighting soldiers; she was fighting the ghosts of her past. She remembered the smell of smoke from her childhood—the day the Colonial "peacekeepers" had marched through her village and gunned down her best friend, a boy who had only wanted to show them a flower.
They aren't people, she told herself, launching her six Missile Funnels to intercept a squad of Bishops. They are monsters who take everything.
She triggered the Beam Chakram from her left wrist, slicing a Bishop unit in half, before pivoting to blast another point-blank with the Beam Burst emitter in her palm. The Lavender Gundam was a whirlwind of vengeance, a machine built to punish the stars.
But while the main battle raged at the border, a shadow was moving through the skyscraper canyons of the city itself.
Hidden by a sophisticated thermal-stealth cloak, a massive, predatory silhouette lurked behind a half-destroyed office building. Inside the cockpit, a woman with sharp, tired eyes watched the violet trails of the Lavender Gundam on her monitors. Her hands trembled, but not from fear.
"Tasya..." the woman whispered, her voice a mix of longing and cold obsession. "You've grown so strong. But this world is too cruel for you. You're coming home to me, whether you want to or not."
She engaged the thrusters. The stealth cloak flickered and died, revealing a machine that looked like a nightmare born from the Arctic. It was a terrifying evolution—originally the Tortoise Gundam, but now rebuilt into something leaner and more lethal.
Suddenly, a high-pitched ringing echoed inside Tasya's cockpit.
"Ugh... my head!" Tasya gasped, clutching her temples. The Lavender Gundam's sensors went haywire, the HUD flickering between red and static.
From the smoke of a nearby explosion, the mysterious unit lunged. It was painted a haunting, pristine white with deep blue accents. It didn't carry a rifle; instead, both of its arms ended in massive, multi-jointed claws that hummed with a terrifying amount of energy.
CLANG!
The Lavender Gundam barely raised its claws in time to parry. The force of the impact sent Tasya skidding backward through the air, her thrusters screaming.
"Who are you?!" Tasya yelled, her breath hitching.
A voice broke through her private frequency—a voice that felt like a cold hand wrapping around her heart.
"Is that any way to speak to your mother, Tasya?"
Tasya froze. Her blood turned to ice. "M... Mom? Dr. Lena?"
The white-and-blue unit didn't stop. It moved with the same high-mobility logic as the Lavender, but with a weight that suggested far superior power. It lunged again, its long claws snapping like a predator's jaws.
"You're fighting for ghosts, Tasya," Lena's voice continued, devoid of any warmth. "Armen Itsuki was right. The Earth is a sinking ship. I've come to take you back to the sanctuary. Don't fight me."
"No! You left me!" Tasya screamed, firing her Beam Burst, but the mysterious unit simply tilted its head, the beam grazing its shoulder as it closed the distance to grapple.
"Tasya's in trouble!" Zaki shouted from the cockpit of the White Gundam Eagle.
He and Aurora had just finished clearing a path through the Jupiter vanguard when they saw the Lavender Gundam being pinned against a skyscraper by the white-and-blue intruder.
"I'm moving in!" Zaki pushed the throttle, the White Gundam's wings flaring as it dove toward the city.
"Zaki, wait! Something's—AAGH!" Aurora suddenly doubled over, clutching her head. Her purple eyes flickered, and the Mind Space connection that linked her to the Gundam's systems shattered.
"Aurora! What's wrong?!"
"A... interference..." Aurora gasped, her skin turning pale. "A high-frequency neural jammer... it's hitting my brain directly! I can't... I can't see the trajectories anymore!"
Zaki looked at the mysterious unit. It was emitting a pulse that was invisible to the eye but lethal to a Mind Space user. He gritted his teeth and raised his dual-barrel rifles, firing a warning shot that forced the white unit to release Tasya.
The White Gundam landed between the Lavender and the intruder, its emerald eyes glowing defiantly.
"Stay back, Tasya!" Zaki commanded. He turned his sensors to the enemy. "Identify yourself! Why are you attacking your own kind?"
The white-and-blue machine stood tall, its long claws dripping with hydraulic fluid. The pilot's face appeared on a small sub-monitor on Zaki's HUD. She looked like an older with brown short hair and brown eyes with wearing white helm with blue visor, colder version of Tasya.
"I am Dr. Lena Lowe," she said, her voice echoing with a chilling authority. "And I don't care about your 'Alliance' or ours 'Kings.' I am here for my daughter."
She raised the massive claws of her machine, the blue lights on its frame glowing with a blinding intensity.
"And if the 'White Ghost' stands in my way," Lena hissed, "then I will tear that bird's wings off. Witness the true power of the deep—the Polar White Gundam."
Zaki felt a cold sweat run down his neck. He didn't know the history between Tasya and this woman, but he could feel the despair radiating from the machine in front of him. The battle for the border was one thing, but the battle for the family was about to become much bloodier.
To be continued...