At the location where their teammate Mitt had fallen, they couldn't find that Natural executioner.
Coordinator Captain Tyler immediately thought about the most likely destination for that Moebius.
It had to be their own Laurasia-class Battleship.
After all, the three of them had turned back from heading toward the Natural fleet's direction. Since they hadn't encountered that Natural along the way...
His destination became obvious.
Just as expected, while returning to their mothership...
"Captain Tyler! Message from the mothership! The mothership... the mothership is under attack!"
Coordinator Josie exclaimed with shock and anger as he read the message on his cockpit screen.
"I see it."
Gritting his teeth hard, Coordinator Captain Tyler felt fury rising in his heart.
He thought he had already sufficiently overestimated that Natural pilot who seemed to have emerged from nowhere.
Yet the opponent's audacity and capability had once again surpassed his expectations.
A single Moebius - and not even one equipped with heavy armaments - had nearly blown their mothership's engines to smithereens...
Thankfully it was still repairable. But what if the propulsion system had been damaged beyond repair?
What would become of them? How would military headquarters view this?
"Disgrace! We almost became ZAFT Forces' greatest humiliation!"
Squeezing the words through clenched teeth, Coordinator Captain Tyler growled.
"Josie! Matsutaro! No matter what, we must intercept that Moebius!"
"The humiliation he's inflicted upon us - as warriors of PLANT, we'll wash it away with his head!"
Coordinator Captain Tyler was truly enraged!
From the bottom of his heart, he swore to kill Wang Hu.
"Understood!"
Exchanging glances through their cockpit screens, united in their hatred, Josie and Matsutaro fully grasped the situation.
The mothership had already issued retreat orders to the remaining team members.
Their mission was undoubtedly a failure now.
If they returned empty-handed like this, forget about personal careers being ruined -
They couldn't bear the strange looks others would give them.
Hah, look! Aren't those members of Tyler's team?
Heard they got humiliated by a single Natural in a Moebius?
What a disgrace! Are they really our elite Coordinator soldiers?
Such words seemed to echo in their ears already.
Josie and Matsutaro shuddered violently.
"We absolutely cannot allow this to happen!"
Flames burned in their eyes at the thought of such a future.
"Captain, we're going ahead!"
Determined to prevent their imagined scenario from becoming reality, as soon as their visual sensors detected the Moebius,
Without waiting for Captain Tyler's orders, Josie and Matsutaro charged forward as if confronting their father's murderer.
"Hmm... truly warriors among Coordinators."
Witnessing his subordinates' initiative, Captain Tyler felt somewhat comforted.
Though... perhaps it was better he didn't know their true motivation.
"Two... three... three Guineas in total."
"Quite the welcoming party."
Piloting the Moebius to return to his mothership, the Kangji, Wang Hu spotted the obstacles blocking his path back.
To be honest, he had considered taking a detour to avoid potential trouble.
"The Moebius limits me too much."
Glancing at the energy gauge in the cockpit, Wang Hu realized that if he took a longer route and still encountered enemies, he'd be in trouble with his dwindling energy reserves.
It would be like lifting a rock only to drop it on his own foot.
And besides…
"Just three GINNs. It's not like I can't handle them."
A confident smile curled beneath his helmet. After adapting to Amuro's combat template, he was ready.
Facing the two GINNs charging straight at him, Wang Hu's Moebius didn't slow down in the slightest—instead, it accelerated forward!
"Matsutaro!" Josie roared.
Staring at the Moebius that had clearly spotted them, Josie felt both excitement and fury.
He was thrilled that the damned Natural hadn't turned tail and run, saving them the trouble of pursuit.
But he was furious that this Natural had the audacity to face them head-on without fear!
Did this guy really think a single Moebius could take on three GINNs?
He was outright looking down on them!
"I see him!" Matsutaro shouted back, sharing Josie's sentiment.
"Let's teach this stupid Natural a lesson."
Matsutaro raised his heavy machine gun, ready to fire.
"Let's go!" Seeing his teammate prepared, Josie, burning with rage, drew his Zan Sword and charged.
"Die!"
With a furious roar, Josie maneuvered his machine right beside the Moebius, slashing downward at the cockpit in the head unit.
"What?!"
His sure-kill strike missed. Josie's eyes nearly popped out of his skull as he watched the Moebius suddenly reverse a full body length on the screen.
"This isn't possible!"
The sound of machine gun fire pinging against his armor made Josie lose his composure.
What had he just witnessed?
There was no such thing as reversing mid-action—yet this Moebius had just done exactly that!
Were they putting on an airshow here?!
Newton's coffin lid was about to flip open!
"Josie, move! Let me handle this!"
While Josie was still reeling from Wang Hu's audacious maneuver, Matsutaro, who had seen everything, yelled over comms.
"R-right!"
Snapping back to reality, Josie quickly cleared the line of fire for his teammate.
"Die, you damn Natural!"
Matsutaro lined up his sights on the unnatural Moebius and squeezed the trigger.
A long stream of bullets spat from the barrel, chasing relentlessly after Wang Hu's tail—
Yes, his tail.
Normally, taking down Federation Moebius units was effortless for him.
Three or four shots were usually enough to secure a kill.
But now, after emptying two entire magazines, he hadn't even grazed his target.
"Stop running like a coward, you bastard!"
Red-eyed with frustration, Matsutaro found himself cursing in his native tongue at the slippery Moebius.
"No good."
Captain Tyler, who had arrived a step too late, shook his head. He didn't believe his two subordinates could take down that Moebius.
"Can even Red Coat elites do it?"
Initially, he had been skeptical about the message from the mothership regarding the Moebius before them.
Its mastery of machine guns and Vulcan Cannons, combined with the precise control of thrusters to stop and restart, seemed too incredible to believe.
He couldn't accept that a mere Natural could achieve such godlike skills.
But after seeing it with his own eyes...
"Matsutaro, Josie, fall back."
Captain Tyler recalled his two subordinates, not wanting them to waste their efforts.
"Captain, we can do this!"
The two, furious after being toyed with by Wang Hu, still wanted to persist and take down that damned Moebius with their own strength.
"Fall back." The captain's tone carried considerable weight.
"Yes."
Their captain's serious voice was like a bucket of cold water poured over their heated heads.
"Listen well. That man is an absolute elite among Naturals. Even your captain might not be able to defeat him one-on-one."
Captain Tyler stated this to make his subordinates face reality.
"But Coordinators have more than just martial prowess—we have teamwork!"
"From now on, we'll take control of this battlefield!"
(End of chapter)