"Captain! Distance 608, ORANGE, 15Mark09, BRAVO airspace!"
"Thermal imaging detects one enemy Moebius approaching! Image comparison confirms this is the same fighter that shot down Mitt!"
Staring at the data displayed on the thermal sensor screen, the radar operator suddenly roared toward the captain of the Laurasia-class battleship behind him.
"What?" The Coordinator captain started at his subordinate's shout.
Since the war began, except during the initial phase when PLANT's Supreme Council was divided between war and peace...
As a result, the ZAFT Forces had fought quite conservatively on the battlefield.
But after the Junius Seven incident...
With the Neutron Jammer allowing ZAFT Forces to fully unleash their capabilities and seize the initiative in the war!
To be pushed back to their own warship by a mere Natural's fighter?
"How long has it been since we've faced something like this?"
The Coordinator captain rubbed his hands nervously - he was genuinely tense.
That an MS GINN could be taken down by a single Moebius meant this attacker must have real skill.
"One year builds an army, ten years build an air force, a century builds a navy." The ZAFT Forces' predecessor was merely a self-defense force.
Back then, the Naturals' vigilance against Coordinators couldn't be overstated. Though Coordinators were active in all walks of society...
The military was forbidden territory for Coordinators.
Even now, the ZAFT Forces internally acknowledged that compared to the long-established Earth Alliance forces in purely military terms...
They were inferior.
This wasn't like later in the war when Coordinators had fully demonstrated their might.
Where high-ranking officers gained psychological superiority over the Alliance forces both strategically and tactically.
Suddenly encountering a Natural ace pilot made both the captain and bridge crew feel uneasy.
"Hmph." After reconsidering, the Coordinator captain quickly made his decision.
"A single insignificant Moebius is nothing but a mantis trying to stop a chariot before our Coordinator forces."
"The Yggdrasil Defense Battle! The Ouroboros Operation! The Carpentaria Suppression Operation! The Grimaldi Front! The Endymion Crater Defense Battle!"
On the bridge, the captain proudly listed ZAFT's major victories one by one like reciting a menu.
With each battle name announced...
Both his and the bridge crew's morale rose higher!
"Naturals are backward! They're destined for extinction!"
"These foolish Naturals bound by Earth's gravity are resisting the tide of history."
"I order: Activate the Close-in Weapon System Vulcan Cannons! Open missile bays! Let that clown witness the might of Coordinators!"
"Long live ZAFT Forces! Long live PLANT! Coordinators shall unite the universe!"
Chopping downward with his hand as if to split the enemy in half, the captain passionately issued commands to his crew.
Seeing and hearing their captain's fervor, the bridge crew was galvanized into action, operating their stations in an orderly manner.
As the soldiers worked, the Laurasia-class battleship's close-in weapon systems began to rotate, and the hatches of anti-air missile launchers opened one by one. Crew members across all departments prepared for close-quarters combat.
"Hmm." The captain nodded slightly with satisfaction, clasping his hands behind his back as he observed his subordinates.
Come on then, he thought, staring at the Moebius unit gradually coming into focus on the screen. Though there wasn't a single MS GINN left near the ship for protection, having shaken off the shock of their MS GINN being shot down, the captain didn't believe this enemy could take down his battleship.
Especially since, from the optical images, the enemy's Moebius wasn't equipped with heavy torpedoes or missiles—just a multi-barrel Vulcan cannon.
"Prepared, huh? So I've been spotted after all."
Despite Wang Hu's caution, the Coordinator's reputation wasn't unearned. Watching the enemy Laurasia-class battleship bristle like a porcupine with its anti-air defenses ready, he wasn't too disappointed. He stomped on the accelerator without a second's hesitation, charging forward in his Moebius.
"Too bad. You'll be saying goodbye before your GINNs can return to help."
"Captain, the enemy is approaching!" the Laurasia-class battleship's detection officer shouted.
"Open fire! All weapons, fire! Hold our course steady. Without torpedoes or missiles, a Moebius' firepower alone can't take us down." The Coordinator captain remained composed, issuing commands methodically.
As the captain's orders were carried out and Wang Hu's charge acted like a starting pistol, the Coordinator's battleship was instantly enveloped in a web of gunfire. A dense barrage of bullets spewed from the ship, forming what seemed like an impenetrable curtain of lead.
"Hmph. Foolish," the Coordinator captain sneered, watching the Moebius continue its charge on the screen.
"Naïve," Wang Hu murmured with a faint smile, his Moebius appearing to charge recklessly like a raging bull.
He flew straight, then abruptly pulled up into a vertical climb before sharply nosing down into a steep dive-bombing run. His maneuvers made it seem less like a futuristic space battle and more like a scene from World War II, with a Stuka dive-bomber attacking a warship.
Indeed, Wang Hu's moves were straight out of history—the same tactics used by legendary bomber pilots of the past.
The roar of anti-aircraft fire exploded around him as he plummeted at high speed, the ground rushing up as if he were about to crash. Those aces of old had relied on dive speeds of 600 kilometers per hour to evade flak and drop bombs precisely on their targets. Now, Wang Hu followed in their footsteps, dodging the Coordinator's close-range fire and missiles in tribute to those pioneers.
His eyes locked onto the enemy ship's glowing thrusters.
"Here I come, Laurasia-class battleship!"
"Why can't we hit him?!" The once-confident Coordinator captain panicked, sweat beading on his palms as he watched their defensive fire only chasing the enemy's tail on the screen.
"The target's speed is too high, and those maneuvers... they're not physically possible!" The fire control officer was equally flustered.
The scene Mitt had once experienced was now replaying on the bridge.
These elite Coordinators scratched their heads in disbelief, unable to comprehend how a primitive Natural from within the Earth sphere could replicate such advanced aerial combat techniques.
If it were their own MS GINN, with its omnidirectional thrusters scattered across the frame, executing such maneuvers would make sense.
But the Moebius only had thrusters at its rear and a handful of directional nozzles.
There was simply no way the Moebius could support such extreme maneuvers!
"Vulcan guns?" The captain's mind flashed with realization. In the midst of this emergency, he even closed his eyes.
He carefully reviewed every movement of the enemy Moebius on the screen—Mitt's earlier video footage paled in comparison to witnessing it firsthand.
"I've got it!" The captain suddenly snapped his eyes open and roared.
"They're using the reverse thrust from the 360-degree Vulcan guns beneath the fuselage as directional propulsion! No wonder the enemy kept irregularly shutting down and reactivating their thrusters earlier. So that's how it is!"
"Huh?" The bridge crew processed the captain's explanation, recalling the earlier footage.
Indeed, every time the enemy Moebius performed an impossible turn, its rear thrusters would briefly deactivate.
Then the Vulcan guns would fire wildly in all directions—back then, they'd
assumed it was either a malfunction or pilot error.
Now that they thought about it, their faces turned pale with dread!
(End of Chapter)