Immortal Soul of Steel

After successfully blowing up the head monitor of the Thunder Gundam with the head Vulcan cannon.

The air combat type Strike Gundam also took the opportunity to kick the Thunder Gundam away, and used the beam from the beam boomerang in its left hand to cut off the hook lock of the Thunder Gundam's hook anchor.

"Nicole!?"

In Aslan's exclamation, the air combat type Strike Gundam raised its beam gun and wanted to perform a follow-up attack. But it was blocked by the roaring Aslan controlling the Holy Shield Gundam.

"Kira, stop it!!!"

A thick red beam came from the side of the Air Combat Strike Gundam, and the Air Combat Strike Gundam had to dodge.

"Aslan, calm down, I just want to disarm the Thunder Gundam."

After replying to Aslan in the common frequency, Lin Youde controlled the air combat Strike Gundam and put down the beam rifle in his hand. Turn around and rush inside the fortress.

"Take your friends and leave. With the Thunder Gundam in its current state, there is no way to continue fighting. For his safety, retreat, Aslan."

After saying that, the air combat type Strike Gundam rushed out of the port. He picked up a bunch of things that were obviously supplies and turned around to fly towards the Archangel, which was about to fly out of the port.

Seeing the air combat type Strike Gundam turn around and leave, it looked completely undefended. The Holy Shield Gundam, which returned to its MS form, raised the beam rifle in its hand and pointed it at the back of the air combat Strike Gundam. It took aim for several seconds, but failed to fire the beam.

"hateful!"

In the cockpit of the Aegis Gundam, Aslan punched the console.

Nicole: "Aslan..."

Without saying a word, Aslan controlled the Holy Shield Gundam and dragged the damaged Thunder Gundam away.

Seeing Aslan being so silent, Nicole comforted him: "Aslan, I think this is actually good."

Aslan raised his head slightly: "Nicole?"

Nicole smiled and said: "In this case, don't we have a legitimate reason to retreat?"

"Besides, Kira may not be able to escape."

"Don't forget, the captain, Yitzhak, and Diego are all outside. There are also other people who came to support before."

"With so many people here, no matter how powerful Kira is, he can't fly, right?"

"As long as the captain, Yitzhak, and Diego work hard, I believe Kira and Strike Gundam will be captured."

"Although this may cause some hardship. But at least we won't have to fight him anymore, right?"

"Think of the best. At least, we have now broken through a cosmic fortress of the United Earth. It doesn't mean we have done nothing. I believe the captain will not blame us."

Aslan's originally regretful expression gradually relaxed, and after a long time, Aslan replied: "Thank you, Nicole."

Nicole smiled and said: "In other words, aren't we partners? This is as it should be. Besides, I think Aslan you'd better drag my Thunder Gundam out quickly now."

"Now I have lost the view of the main monitor, and I always feel unsafe in this fortress facility that is so damaged that it may explode at any time."

Aslan calmed down: "That's right, let's retreat first. Our mission has been completed. Next, we will leave it to the captain and the others..."

The Holy Shield Gundam and Thunder Gundam left the battlefield.

But outside the Artemis Fortress, on the bridge of the Archangel just after it sailed out of the port, Malu and others discovered two ZAFT warships displayed on the radar.

Mirialia: "In the direction of 3 o'clock, a battleship-level reaction was found, the number is 2. It's the ZAFT army!"

Natal's face was full of shock: "Artemis fell like this? It was so simple..."

Ma Liu was very calm, because she had already thought of this possibility in her previous exchanges with Lin Youde and Mu.

As one of the relevant personnel involved in the production of 5 Gundams. Maru also has some understanding of the Thunder Gundam's abilities. It's just that as a non-combat professional, her association speed is not as fast as Lin Youde's.

But after Lin Youde reminded her, she also thought of Thunder Gundam's mirage system, which could avoid Artemis' surveillance. Sneak onto the surface of the fortress and destroy the device that generates the light wave defense shield in the Earth United Army, which is known as absolute defense.

As long as the Thunder Gundam destroys the generating devices of these light wave defense shields, it is not surprising that the Artemis Fortress will be invaded and attacked.

The reason why they did not tell Natal about this matter was that the three of them were worried that Natal would tell Artemis's defenders about it.

It's not that I want to deliberately trick the friendly forces, I just deliberately kept a hand for my own safety.

If the defenders of Artemis treat each other with courtesy, Malu and Mu are also ready to inform each other that the ZAFT army will use the Thunder Gundam's mirage system to hide the body and avoid detection by various radars to launch a surprise attack. . (Note 1)

Unfortunately, Artemis detained the three of them and had people steal the data of Strike Gundam and Archangel.

Since the other party is not a good person, we can't blame them for keeping it secret, which led to the fortress being breached.

After going through the previous events in his mind, Ma Liu calmly replied.

"Turn around and evacuate from the Artemis Fortress at full speed. Mu immediately used Mebius Zero to attack, and together with Kira-kun, he blocked the ZAFT army's pursuit."

Saying that, Malu exhaled softly and said: "Fortunately, the direction in which the ZAFT army appears is at the back of Artemis Fortress. With Artemis Fortress blocking it, we only need to block the MS attack. The battleship wants to pursue It may not be that easy to come up. The Archangel is the latest high-speed battleship."

Natal turned around and looked at Malu in surprise: "Are we going to send out the Mebius Zero at this time? Captain, what are you thinking about? Isn't it time to take the opportunity to recover the Strike Gundam and then retreat?"

It seems that she was angered by the attitude of the Eurasian Federation officers before, but Natal did not say anything about staying to help the friendly forces. I was just surprised by Malu's arrangement.

Malu shook his head: "This is Kira-kun's intention. According to him, they will not pursue easily as long as the mobile suits that have crippled the ZAFT army are viable."

"And this time the number of ZAFT troops pursuing has obviously increased. If we don't take advantage of friendly forces from the Artemis Fortress to resist, disperse the opponent's pursuing personnel and defeat them one by one."

"What we have to face next is the ZAFT army, which has an absolutely overwhelming numerical advantage."

"Once there are too many, even Kira-kun may not be able to carry them."

"So, we have to annihilate some of them here."

Natal's mouth twitched slightly: "Annihilate part of the enemy army? Just rely on a Strike Gundam?"

In the shared channel, Mu shouted: "Hey, Natal, have you forgotten me? Don't you still have me?"

——

Note 1·PS: Explain the function of the mirage system for readers who do not understand.

Mirage System: An optical camouflage system unique to the SEED world. The effect is that the body will be invisible for a certain period of time, and the radar will not respond. However, the price is that the use time is limited and the effect of phase transfer armor cannot be exerted when used.

In the original work, the fortress was defeated by relying on the Thunder Gundam's "mirage system" to avoid detection, thus defeating Artemis's light wave defense shield device.

The light wave defense shield is a barrier known as absolute defense in the world of Gundam SEED. It can withstand live ammunition and beam attacks. It has extremely strong defensive capabilities, but consumes a lot of energy. In the early stage, only fortresses can install it.