"Captain?"
"Captain Tyler?"
Due to their viewing angle, the two subordinates of Coordinator Captain Tyler couldn't see what was happening in front of their captain.
From their perspective, their valiant captain, who had cornered that Natural with his own strength and was moments away from securing victory...
Suddenly paused for no apparent reason!
Then, even though that Moebius hadn't taken any damage at all—
Their captain's mobile suit erupted with shattered armor fragments and flames.
"What just happened?" The two were utterly baffled...
"Impressive."
As the one experiencing it firsthand, Captain Tyler watched as the bullets from his own weapon pierced through his mobile suit.
With a sigh of reluctant admiration, he muttered,
"Perfectly avoided all the collateral damage from the explosions and even calculated the trajectory of the ricocheting bullets."
"Using my own weapon against me—with that level of computational power and spatial awareness, are you really a Natural?"
"Of course."
As the enemy's bullets shattered the enemy's armor just as he had planned, Wang Hu maneuvered the Moebius, locking onto the breach in the opponent's defenses.
The moment the two machines crossed paths, Wang Hu pulled the trigger, ruthlessly firing into the damaged section of the enemy GINN.
40mm bullets might struggle against intact armor, but once that armor was gone—
How could the tender flesh behind the wide-open gates withstand Wang Hu's assault?
The high-velocity rounds, like eels burrowing into soft tofu,
Drove deep into the GINN's internals.
Along the way, they tore through mechanical components, wiring, and hydraulic lines.
With Wang Hu's "generous" assistance, flames and explosions ran rampant through the Coordinator's pride—the war weapon MS GINN.
"Heh heh..."
Inside the cockpit, Tyler stared at the flood of error messages on his console and listened to the blaring alarms signaling imminent crash.
On a side screen, Wang Hu's Moebius flashed past.
"You know... this world has never been kind to Coordinators."
"We've done nothing wrong, yet hostility follows us everywhere."
"And now, even in the dangerous expanse of space, you still seek to wipe us out."
"If you refuse to let us live no matter what... then take this life!"
"But before that—at least keep me company!"
With those words, Captain Tyler struggled to control his crippled GINN, now barely responsive.
He forced it to pursue Wang Hu's Moebius, but realizing he couldn't catch up and that his machine was nearing its breaking point—
"Josie... Matsutaro... I leave our hopes to you."
"Follow your hearts from here. That's enough. I'll take full responsibility."
"My mistakes led to this defeat. But for Zaft... we never lost."
Captain Tyler spoke his final words, watching his two subordinates' stunned faces and the tears welling beneath their helmets on the comm screen.
He smiled with relief and pressed the self-destruct button on the GINN.
"If even the martyrdom of machine guns couldn't take down this terrifying Natural genius, then what about this?""
"Join me in the land of the dead!"
"Long live PLANT! Long live Zaft!"
The erupting fireball illuminated this quiet sector of space.
Far more massive than the previous explosion from the heavy machine guns, the flames wantonly expanded their reach in all directions.
Especially since Captain Tyler, determined to ensure Wang Hu's demise, had adjusted the GINN's posture before detonation.
Directing the full force of the explosion toward Wang Hu ahead.
Even someone as formidable as Wang Hu, who had nearly mastered Amuro's template perfectly.
His Moebius sustained visible damage for the first time since the battle began, the machine bearing its first scars.
"Captain Tyler!"
Watching helplessly as his beloved captain chose such a decisive method to defeat the enemy.
Matsutaro gripped his gun and screamed with heartrending anguish.
"Damn Naturals! I'll kill you!"
"What did we do wrong? Don't we even have the right to live?"
"Rat-tat-tat."
The roar of machine guns voiced Matsutaro's fury, representing the universal sentiment of Coordinators.
From this perspective, they seemed blameless.
Every bit of this was the Naturals pushing them too far.
"C.E. 44: The first ten of the new L5 Colony Satellite cluster, later known as the city of Aprilis, were completed."
"Due to their nature as large-scale production bases and their role in outer space exploration, they were called PLANT."
"C.E. 45: The Coordinator population surpassed ten million for the first time."
"As the Coordinator population grew and their control over capital and influence within the Earth Sphere expanded..."
"A sudden rhetoric began spreading across the Earth Sphere—that only Coordinators were fit to work in PLANT."
"Meanwhile, the proportion of Naturals working alongside Coordinators in PLANT sharply declined."
"Naturals who had originally worked in PLANT faced overt and covert discrimination."
"Gradually, as Natural management in PLANT dwindled to near-nonexistence, Naturals vanished from PLANT entirely."
In his rage, Matsutaro's bullets posed no threat to Wang Hu. Even before his fury clouded his aim, he couldn't hit Wang Hu.
Now, under these circumstances, it was even less likely. Wang Hu even had the composure to respond to Matsutaro's blood-soaked accusations on behalf of Coordinators.
"Absurd! It was you Naturals who deemed space too dangerous, far less comfortable than the Earth Sphere."
"That's why you shoved all the work in PLANT onto us!"
"We built our home with blood and tears, and now you covet PLANT's benefits and come to seize them!"
Matsutaro scoffed at Wang Hu's words. According to him, Coordinators were the ones at fault?!
"Funding, resources, manpower."
Wang Hu continued to engage, but the self-destruction of the enemy GINN had left his Moebius far less formidable than before.
One-on-one was manageable, but aside from the Coordinator currently trading words with him, there was still another GINN on the battlefield.
Although the pilot of that GINN never spoke a word, their attacks were truly ruthless.
If I didn't have some real skill, things might have taken a bad turn.
"The original PLANT had only ten satellite colonies—look how many there are now."
"Was that something you Coordinators could achieve alone?"
"And you claim Naturals can't handle work in space? Look at where you are now!"
"The L4 space sector—this is a space habitat built independently by our East Asian Federation through self-reliance."
"Millions of Naturals live here—our citizens, our compatriots. Aren't they living and working in space just fine?"
"The only reason you invaders are attacking this place is to cover up your lies."
"You drove out the original Naturals from PLANT with underhanded methods, all to hide the truth and uphold your so-called justice."
"That's why Zaft is attacking here. Right."
Wang Hu grinned as he watched the blips appearing on his cockpit display.
Those were the signals of his reinforcements arriving. He continued.
"Among the satellites in the L4
space sector, many are Naturals who originally came from PLANT—the very Naturals who built PLANT."
"Crows always fail to see their own blackness but never miss the blackness in others."