"Light of Peace?"
The Yzak that had been skewered on his bayonet was gone, because Wang Hu's hand trembled in fright at the majestic Light of Peace glowing behind him.
Yzak had simply been shaken off by Wang Hu.
Was it fear? Not exactly.
Rather, Wang Hu genuinely couldn't comprehend how the Atlantic Federation's thought processes were structured.
Even though their own East Asian Federation and the Atlantic Federation were engaged in covert and overt struggles below the surface, fighting until their brains were practically scrambled like tofu pudding.
But nominally, everyone was still eating from the same pot as part of the Allied Forces.
Not to mention that the Atlantic Federation was currently the number one most steadfast anti-Coordinator faction within Earth's Gravity Well.
Just as the East Asian Army was about to clear the first barrier in the campaign against PLANT, ready to strike directly at the heart like welcoming back the two emperors...
"I understand."
In his daze, Wang Hu looked at the still-glowing Light of Peace behind him and shook his head speechlessly.
"I was naive. In the face of absolute interests, any ideals or positions are fake and can be changed at any time."
Wasn't that true?
Looking throughout history, not just foreign history - even flipping through his own country's history books.
Such acts of betrayal at critical moments were everywhere.
Famous examples included the Eighteen Lords campaign against Dong Zhuo - weren't they nominally allies too?
But that didn't stop several of those warlords from putting minimal effort into fighting against Chancellor Dong while being very enthusiastic about attacking their own allies to seize their territories.
There were many more examples - the Wind and Wave Pavilion incident, the case where fire virtue dissolved in water, killing one's own elder brother, and so on.
There were plenty of relatively familiar incidents - no need to list them all here.
As for those who thought the moon was rounder elsewhere and believed those were all things done by their own people.
That outsiders all respected contractual spirit, along with justice and fairness.
Well... for that, one could refer to records in history books from the old era.
Such as blowing up energy pipelines, such as economically fleecing one's own allies, or such as that refugee crisis and countless similar examples.
Oh, those don't have direct evidence?
Then let's take some with evidence, Wang Hu's eyes flashed with ferocious light.
He was speculating about what excuse the Atlantic Federation Army would come up with this time.
To explain such openly traitorous behavior.
Was it that I used the wrong ally identification code, or that I used outdated satellite positioning maps?
Would the more shameless one be - I have intelligence indicating!
"Don't tell me this fleet is a defecting fleet."
Wang Hu piloted the Lightning Zeta Gundam toward the rear, flying toward that Atlantic Federation fleet that was wreaking havoc with the Light of Peace.
A rather disgusting thought was surging in his mind.
There was a time when the main army corps slacked off while fighting invading enemies.
Then suddenly and inexplicably surrendered to the enemy, before turning their guns to fight against their own allied forces from another faction that was resisting foreign enemies.
This main army corps actually fought very hard - so hard that it astonished their foreign enemy masters.
"Brother Wang Hu! What exactly is going on?"
While rapidly flying toward the rear, Kira's voice came through the communicator in Wang Hu's cockpit.
Earlier, when attacking the Coordinator ZAFT Forces, given Kira's identity, it wasn't that they didn't trust him.
Rather than making things too difficult for him, after all, they were still compatriots in a sense.
Wang Hu and Li Chengzhi, with East Asian romanticism, temporarily suppressed Kira's desire to join the battle.
But faced with their ally's betrayal, Li Chengzhi directly unleashed Kira.
They intended to utilize the area suppression firepower of his Freedom Gundam to maximize the curb of the rampage of the Light of Peace on the battlefield.
After all, this was space.
The greatest threats of the Light of Peace, such as radiation and shockwaves, had no room to exert their influence.
As for the heat and destructive power generated solely by the explosion, frankly, it wasn't particularly impressive.
It was far less effective than the Goddess of Love, which resembled a virtual black hole bomb.
"What's going on?"
Hearing Kira's question, the flames of rage surged in Wang Hu's chest.
"For the sake of interests and next-generation hegemony, the Atlantic Federation has thrown all shame to the wind.""
"Kira, listen carefully—don't let a single Light of Peace detonate among our East Asian Alliance fleet again!"
"O-okay, got it."
Hearing such unprecedented killing intent in his elder brother Wang Hu's tone, Kira didn't dare ask further.
He hurriedly accelerated the speed of the Freedom Gundam he was piloting.
"Wang Hu, you don't need to go over there. Head to the main frontline to stabilize our formation."
Just then, another voice cut in—it was Li Chengzhi.
Wang Hu looked back and grinned.
It was unmistakably his good friend Li Chengzhi, piloting the GP02 while carrying a massive rocket launcher, charging forth with imposing momentum at a speed surpassing even the Freedom Gundam.
"Orders from above?"
Wang Hu asked over the communicator.
Was it ridiculous? Extremely ridiculous.
Weapons that they had even hesitated to use against enemies, avoiding them whenever possible, were now being forced upon what should have been allies.
Sometimes reality was stranger than fiction.
You better believe it—this was real!
"Mhm.Li Chengzhi's voice carried an unmistakable gunpowder scent that he couldn't suppress. He soon overtook Wang Hu and flew headlong toward the Atlantic Federation Army fleet without looking back.
"I'll leave it to you."
Assessing the combined strength of Li Chengzhi's GP02, Kira's Freedom Gundam, and the other friendly warships turning their bows, Wang Hu didn't believe this Atlantic Federation force before them could remain arrogant for long.
Their temporary advantage was solely due to their own side's failure to anticipate such treachery, which had momentarily thrown them into disarray.
But once the East Asian Alliance regained its footing, if the Atlantic Federation Army still thought they could devour the main East Asian fleet relying solely on the Light of Peace—
that would be nothing but a fantasy.
With this in mind, Wang Hu redirected his Lightning Z Gundam.
He turned his attention back to the main battlefield, observing the fierce clashes between allied forces and the improbably high-morale ZAFT Forces.
"They're the real threat."
After confirming the situation across all fronts, Wang Hu rushed tirelessly to serve as the stabilizing backbone.
He coordinated counterattacks on various fronts to suppress the morale surge among these Coordinator soldiers.
Thanks to the Atlantic Federation's unexpected move, the ZAFT Forces on the battlefield had gone practically insane.
Probably in this current world, the Coordinators—who had experienced the devastating power of the Light of Peace firsthand—were the most confident in its capabilities.
Then came entirely unexpected reinforcements. The defenders of Boaz Fortress were determined to cooperate with those bastards to exhaust the East Asian Army fleet right here.
Thus, they fought with remarkable aggression one after another.
Coupled with the sudden explosion of the Light of Peace earlier, many East Asian Army soldiers were caught off guard.
Several battle lines were torn apart by the Coordinators' assaults.
Compared to before, the East Asian Army was fighting an exceptionally arduous battle.
After all, while Aces like Wang Hu had the confidence to turn the tide, the ordinary soldiers lacked neither courage nor the spirit of sacrifice.
Yet with the tangible threat of the Light of Peace looming behind them, these common soldiers carried a heavy psychological burden.
War, in the end, is not the affair of a single individual, but of a collective formed by millions!
"Listen up, all of you! Have you ever visited the martyrs' cemetery? Have you ever gazed upon the figures of heroes?"
Rushing back to the front lines, Wang Hu single-handedly stabilized multiple sectors.
But how many fronts could Wang Hu manage alone?
If the enemy had attacked in a concentrated frontal assault, Wang Hu might have handled it with greater ease.
Yet now, the Coordinators were too scattered—striking here and there unpredictably.
Wang Hu spent more time traveling between fronts than actually engaging the enemy.
Typically, no sooner had Wang Hu stabilized one sector than another would falter.
Seeing that this couldn't continue, Wang Hu issued a wide-area communication to the entire army over the internal comms channel.
His voice struck a chord in the heart of every soldier.
"Why are they heroes? Because they lie there!"
"Why do we commemorate the martyrs? Because we stand here!"
"Why do we stand here? Because they lie there!"
"Why do they lie there? Because they want us to stand here!"
"It's just the Light of Peace—our elders have seen it before."
"Were they afraid back then? They weren't, so why should you be!"
"Not afraid!"
Every soldier who heard Wang Hu's questioning recalled the education they had received since childhood.
The deeds of their predecessors in history were vivid in their minds. Searching their hearts, how could they be afraid?
They absolutely could not, nor were they permitted to be.
After a moment of silence, as the saying goes: one either erupts in silence or perishes in silence.
And death does not belong to the soldiers of the East Asian Army, so they erupted!
The spirits of their ancestors watched over the East Asian Army from the heavens; the spirits of their ancestors would also protect the East Asian Army.
Under this gaze spanning time and space, the soldiers of the East Asian Army could not show cowardice.
Remember the days when they fought against seventeen factions and prevailed—why fear the two factions before them now?
Especially when the weapons in their hands were no inferior to the enemy's, and their own rear support was so solid.
They could not bring shame upon their forebears, nor allow future generations to look down on them.
Victory would bring glory; death on the battlefield would earn them a separate page in the family genealogy!
In an instant, the Light of Peace behind them was regarded as a paper tiger, and the enemy ZAFT Forces before them as paper tigers.
This shift in mindset brought a qualitative change on the battlefield. Shedding their previous restraints, the East Asian Army moved like clouds following the dragon, wind following the tiger.
Come on! Let's fight!
In a flash, the intensity of the fierce battle on the front surged several levels, and the East Asian Army, once at a disadvantage, quickly reclaimed the upper hand!
With the Uprising Army, to which Wang Hu belonged, serving as the spearhead, large numbers of Red-clothed Elites—the backbone of the ZAFT Forces—were systematically hunted down.
Having lost these die-hard Red-clothed Elites, the Green Coats alone were insufficient to pose any trouble for the East Asian Army!
"Huff!"
After rushing through over thirty battlefields consecutively, even Wang Hu's stamina was beginning to falter.
Only when the situation on the frontlines had stabilized did Wang Hu finally have the mental space to turn his attention to the rear.
How Kira and Li Chengzhi were handling those Atlantic Federation Army forces.
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