Flames licked the aircraft's wreckage as it fell, the debris fracturing into smaller pieces under the lashing of the gale winds, trailing thick black smoke as it plummeted toward the sea.
"Target destroyed! Repeat! Target destroyed by Mafty!"
Watching their mission objective get blown apart, the Jegan pilot's eyes widened. "7th Squad is engaging! Requesting backup, repeat, requesting backup!"
"Static... Understood. Reinforcements will rendezvous with you shortly. Please delay the enemy as long as possible."
Over the comms, the Kimberley Force liaison spoke: "Also, orders from Colonel Kimberley: because your current altitude is too high, MS performance will be affected. Lower the combat altitude as much as possible."
"That's easier said than done!"
Hearing the dispatcher's instructions, the Jegan squad leader gritted his teeth.
"Everyone, spread out! Encircle that Mafty unit!"
The Jegan squad leader shouted over the comms, maneuvering his Jegan to raise its beam rifle, aiming at the Messer Commander Type that was closing in on them, periodically leaping out from the cloud layer.
"He doesn't have a sub-flight system; that's our advantage. Pin him down!"
The four Jegans broke formation and began to surround the Messer Commander Type.
"Damien! The mission is complete, evacuate now!"
In the comms, Gawman's voice sounded anxious. "If we don't leave now, we won't be able to get away once the Federation army arrives!"
For decapitation assassination operations like this, Mafty had a complete set of protocols. The simplest part was finished; next came the most difficult stage: "Escaping alive from the Federation's pursuit and search."
Furthermore, they were currently at ten thousand meters; Federation radar had them fully locked. It was possible that in two minutes, Federation reinforcements would already be on site.
"...If we start the retreat now, the Valiant will be discovered by them."
Char had no intention of withdrawing yet. The Messer Commander Type's thrusters erupted once more with violent flames, piercing through the clouds. The machine dragged out spikes of white vapor that were immediately scattered by the gale.
"I'll draw their attention and cover your rear."
"Are you joking? If you get surrounded by the Federation army, you'll lose your life!"
Seeing Char's stubbornness over the comms, Gawman felt a headache coming on.
Whether it was Hathaway or this Damien, why was every single one of them such a handful?
"You never know about these things..."
Char smiled, not taking Gawman's words to heart.
Char gripped the Messer Commander Type's control yokes tightly, eyeing the Jegans that were currently flanking him.
"I'm engaging. You all go first."
As he spoke his last word, Char raised the Messer's long beam rifle and slammed the pedals.
The thrusters erupted with violent flames, forcibly halting the Messer's downward drift and instead propelling the machine directly toward the four Jegans.
"Damien! Damn it!"
Watching Char's signal close in on the four Jegans, Gawman gritted his teeth and stomped on his own pedals.
"...One after another, why is everyone so reckless?"
The Messer's thrusters spat out thick pillars of fire as Gawman disengaged his machine from the Galcezon transport and surged above the clouds.
"Civet, get ready to pick up Damien later! With the way he's handling that machine, he'll run out of propellant in no time!"
Even as his unit climbed, he didn't forget to coordinate the Galcezon for Char's extraction. "Golf, Fencer, provide cover fire!"
"...Alright, everyone needs to get back safely. Whether it's Mafty or Hathaway, losing us pilots would be a massive blow."
Seeing that Gawman was moving to support Char despite his grumbling, the Galcezon pilot, Civet, curled his lip. "End this quickly. If this drags on too long, the Federation reinforcements will be here."
-----------------------------------
Under the combined force of its thrusters and the howling gales, the Messer Commander Type engaged in a frantic dogfight against the four Jegans mounted on Base Jabbers high above the clouds.
Char needed to eliminate them as quickly as possible, but the Jegan squad was doing everything in its power to pin him down. The two sides were locked in a constant tug-of-war of positioning.
"Am I burning through propellant too aggressively...?"
Hearing the low propellant warning chime in his ear, Char frowned slightly.
At that moment, as if sensing the Messer Commander Type's precarious state, the Jegan squad suddenly abandoned their stalling tactics and raised their beam rifles toward him.
"Damien! Get back to the Galcezon, now!"
Gawman's voice crackled over the comms. "You're running on empty!"
Suddenly, Gawman's Messer burst through the thick cloud layer.
He pulled the trigger at a Jegan, and a yellow beam struck the enemy's thruster with precision, completely destabilizing the unit's flight posture.
Despite this, three pinkish-purple beams erupted from the remaining Jegans' rifles, streaking toward the Messer Commander Type.
Witnessing this, Char did not panic. Instead, he slammed the pedals once more; the Messer Commander Type surged upward, performing a sharp backward tilt under his expert handling.
The three beams passed harmlessly beneath the Messer's back, failing to score a single hit.
Seizing the opening in their attack, Char leveled the Messer Commander Type's long beam rifle at a Jegan Type D and pulled the trigger.
Unlike the Jegan squad, whose accuracy was hampered by the buffeting winds, Char had already adapted to the high-altitude environment. He planted a yellow beam squarely into a Jegan's chest armor.
With a violent explosion, a massive hole was torn through the Jegan's torso. Its flight posture was instantly shattered, forcing the machine to reel backward.
Char was not about to let this opportunity slip by. He kept the thrusters burning, using the last of his propellant to drift the Messer Commander Type in a reclined position directly above the compromised Jegan.
Char maneuvered the Messer into a backflip, slamming a foot into the Jegan and kicking it clean off its Base Jabber.
As the Messer touched down on the stolen sub-flight system, its remaining propellant finally hit zero.
Watching the Messer Commander Type interface with the Anaheim universal ports to begin loading the Base Jabber's drive systems, Char raised his arm and took aim at the Jegan Type D he had just sent plummeting.
But in the next second, two beams pierced through the clouds from below, accurately striking the Jegan that Char had just kicked away.
"We Mafty are a unit; don't think for a second we'd abandon a comrade."
Over the comms, the pilot known as Golf spoke up.
"Comrades, is it..."
Hearing that term, Char paused for a brief moment.
"Cut the chatter, Damien, finish them off quickly!"
Gawman skillfully raised his shield, the integrated machine guns firing continuously at the Jegan Type D whose backpack had just been destroyed, keeping it pinned down.
"If we stall any longer, the Federation reinforcements will be here!"
As Gawman pulled the trigger, yellow beams erupted from his long beam rifle, accurately striking the crippled Jegan Type D he had been targeting.
Two more beams surged from beneath the clouds, striking the sub-flight system beneath another Jegan Type D.
"Ugh...!"
Feeling the vibrations rattling his suit and seeing that his Base Jabber was about to explode, the leader of the 7th Jegan Squad kicked off violently, leaping away from the flight platform.
As he jumped, he watched his final teammate's arm get severed by a Messer's beam rifle.
With the suit's posture shattered, it was promptly destroyed by the same two beams that had just taken out his own flight platform.
Watching his teammates being picked off one by one, he knew clearly that there was no going back for him. However, he could still stall until reinforcements arrived to wipe out this group of Mafty.
"Heh... This is 7th Squad. I am unable to return to base."
The 7th Jegan Squad leader gritted his teeth and launched the four missiles from his shield at the Messer Commander Type, which sat atop the stolen platform without any propellant.
"Brothers, avenge us!"
The missiles traced arcs through the sky, homing in on the Messer Commander Type.
Facing the incoming missiles, Char calmly raised his shield.
The barrels of the shield-mounted machine guns began to rotate, spitting out a stream of bullets that formed a curtain of fire, intercepting the missiles mid-air.
The missiles were struck, blossoming into flashes of fire and thick black smoke in the sky.
In the next instant, the Jegan Type D, having drawn its beam saber with its left hand, lunged out from the dense smoke.
The beam rifle in its right hand continued to fire incessantly at the Messer Commander Type.
Even though the Messer Commander Type now possessed a sub-flight system, its maneuverability had dropped more than a notch after exhausting its propellant. For the leader of the 7th Jegan Squad, this was the perfect breakthrough point.
Char maneuvered the Messer Commander Type to bring its shield forward, intercepting the Jegan Type D's beam fire.
He reached his left hand toward the right armpit of the suit; as the beam saber stored in the chest flank ejected, the hilt fell firmly into the Messer's grasp.
Seeing the two machines closing the distance, Char suddenly shoved the control yokes. The Messer swung its left hand, the white beam saber flashing out from the shoulder line to precisely sever the Jegan's head sensor and its right arm.
Immediately following through, the Messer Commander Type shifted its angle of attack. The beam saber in its left hand thrust forward, piercing directly into the torso of this final Jegan Type D.
Char retracted the beam saber and watched as the Jegan plummeted downward, only to explode violently mid-air.
"Whew... settled. Gawman, we should leave."
Char let out a brief sigh of relief. Between fighting on Earth and still being somewhat unfamiliar with the machine's specific performance, he felt he should have finished them off even faster.
"...It won't be that easy now, Damien."
Hearing Char's words, Gawman sighed. "Federation reinforcements have arrived."
Eight Jegan Type Ds, coordinated with four Gustav Karls, each mounted on their respective Base Jabber transports, surged out from the cloud layer.
"We're doomed..."
Watching the scene unfolding before them, Gawman swallowed hard.
"Is that so?"
As if sensing something, Char turned his head toward the direction of Old Sydney, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. "I don't think that's necessarily the case."
-----------------------------------
A beam "frisbee" suddenly manifested from within the clouds, slicing through the air toward the Federation MS force and carving a hideous gash into the shield of a Gustav Karl.
"An attack from beneath the clouds?!"
Startled by the damage to his unit's armaments, the Gustav Karl pilot gasped.
In the next instant, the beam boomerang—spinning so rapidly that its blades had blurred into a solid disc—arced back toward its origin.
"What?"
The Federation MS pilots were caught off guard by the returning projectile.
A second later, the beam boomerang struck the left arm of a Jegan Type D, shredding both the shield and the limb itself; fragments of the machine rained down into the void.
Three silhouettes, trailing green light particles, burst forth from the cloud layer.
The beam boomerang flew straight toward a machine equipped with massive, wing-like thrusters.
The unit reached out its right hand, deftly catching the weapon, which could also function as a beam dagger.
With practiced calm, she stowed the beam boomerang back onto her left shoulder armor and looked up.
The "Citroën" faceplate, marked with indentations resembling streaks of bloody tears, was revealed to everyone present.
"That's..."
Seeing the three units before them, the Federation MS pilots' eyes widened in unison.
Among the two crimson silhouettes, one was the already-sighted Sinanju, while the other was clearly a Zaku model—albeit one carrying a colossal propulsion backpack.
But it was the final machine that truly shocked them.
"Zeon remnants... and an unknown Gundam?"
...................