PS Armor—this equipment mounted on MS possesses excellent resistance to live ammunition, but its resistance to beams is almost zero. The reason it is described as "almost" is because PS Armor can possess beam resistance, but for PS Armor to manifest resistance against beam weapons, it requires an immense power supply.
Coincidentally, GENESIS utilizes PS Armor.
The reactor used to power the γ-ray storm is also providing power to the PS Armor, allowing it to manifest resistance to beam weapons.
While the beam stream fired by Gryps had no problem breaching the PS Armor covering GENESIS, dealing critical damage to GENESIS remained a considerably difficult task.
The white beam stream grazed a reflecting mirror that had just finished moving into position, melting part of the mirror's structure before striking the main surface of GENESIS.
The violent force of the impact caused the people inside GENESIS to instinctively grab nearby objects to maintain their balance.
Under the influence of the PS Armor and the mirror's material, the beam stream impacting the surface acted like a high-pressure water hose washing a giant boulder; massive amounts of white light splashed in every direction.
"Not good!"
Seeing the scene before him, Yzak Joule, piloting the Duel, widened his eyes.
"Hey, where are you looking?!"
Auel Neider, piloting the Abyss Gundam, swung his beam lance in a sweeping slash toward the Duel.
"You get the hell away from me!"
Seeing the Abyss Gundam attacking him, Yzak grit his teeth. In a moment of ruthlessness, he fired a missile hidden beneath his shield.
As this specialized missile burst, balloons featuring the color scheme and silhouette of the Duel drifted throughout this small area of the battlefield.
"What is this?"
Auel looked at the scene before him and the radar filled with enemy signatures. His hands did not stop, and he completed his strike, tearing through one of the balloons in front of him.
As the balloon was torn, a large amount of metallic strips fluttered out, creating significant interference for the Abyss's locking system.
This was exactly the result Yzak wanted. This type of missile was an armament designed based on various data after his battles with Roz Links; it was one of Yzak's trump cards intended for dealing with Roz.
Although he had used one now, he had two more remaining, which should be enough to sustain a fight against Roz.
Thinking this, Yzak pulled the trigger on his control stick.
As the built-in timers in the balloons expired, they all exploded, scattering metallic strips into space to interfere with machine locks.
Looking at his radar—which was so densely packed it was turning almost solid red—Auel instinctively wanted to retreat from the area.
But soon, a sequence of beams and railgun shells struck the Abyss Gundam. The Duel's left hand drew a beam saber as it charged into the area obscured by the metallic interference.
At this moment, Yzak abandoned the machine's radar lock, switching to manual aiming. As a top-ranked Red Coat of ZAFT, Yzak's accuracy was quite impressive.
A series of explosions and vibrations momentarily dazed Auel.
However, once he recovered, he saw the beam saber was already nearing the waist and abdomen of the Abyss Gundam.
He instinctively maneuvered the Abyss to swing its lance while backing the machine away.
Unfortunately, the Duel equipped with its Shroud Armor—even if it couldn't catch the Unicorn—possessed quite formidable speed. The beam saber, without any accident, carved into the waist of the Abyss Gundam.
The PS Armor was breached. Under Auel's terrified gaze, the machine was sliced clean through the waist.
The Duel flipped its arm. While the cut on the Abyss was still radiating heat and glowing yellow, Yzak thrust the beam saber upward through the upper torso of the Abyss Gundam, completing the kill.
It can only be said that Auel, as a second-generation Extended Human, had done his best in front of Yzak.
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While Yzak and Auel were locked in combat, the illumination of GENESIS by the Gryps beam continued.
Gilbert Durandal's expression remained calm, appearing as though he were completely indifferent to whether he might die then and there.
However, Patrick Zala, now serving as the PLANT Supreme Council Chairman, did not look well. Facing the blinding radiance, he watched the scene before him, his hands instinctively clenching tight.
"PS Armor power consumption is rising continuously!"
Enduring the intense light and vibration while monitoring the values on the console, a ZAFT soldier's expression was filled with terror, his face turning even paler beneath the white light. "...No! The PS Armor has overloaded and fused out!"
Finally, the beam fired by Gryps broke through the PS Armor of GENESIS, striking the main body of the station.
But by this time, the attack from Gryps had reached its final stage, and the thick white beam stream began to shrink steadily.
A massive amount of steel structures were melted and destroyed, triggering several small-scale explosions. Finally, the beam stream—now reduced to the size of a battleship's main beam cannon—pierced through the structure of GENESIS and struck the asteroid rock used for camouflaging and reinforcing the frame, kicking up a massive cloud of dust.
"Phew... report the status!"
Patrick breathed a slight sigh of relief and spoke to the soldier beside him.
"The PS Armor blocked the strongest phase of the enemy's attack. By the time it broke through the PS Armor, the attack was already ending... Currently, about 1/3 of GENESIS's primary mirror surface is damaged. Output power has dropped by approximately 15%, and the reflecting mirrors must be replaced!"
The soldier quickly checked the data on the console and spoke.
"Then replace the reflecting mirrors! Attack the Earth Alliance's weapon satellite with maximum speed!"
Hearing the current situation, Patrick frowned. "We cannot allow such a thing to exist. They will definitely aim for the PLANTs!"
"Chairman, I believe it would be best for you and Council Member Ezalia Joule to return to the rear base first."
At that moment, Durandal spoke.
"You are the keys to commanding ZAFT to continue the fight. Now that GENESIS has been damaged by the enemy, it is clearly no longer safe."
"A good idea, but what about you?"
For some reason, Ezalia Joule instinctively frowned. She had a premonition that this fellow Durandal was hiding something.
"I am the designer of GENESIS. I must remain on-site to oversee and resolve any related issues."
Durandal stated his plan very calmly, while in his mind, he began to calculate his next move.
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"I must say, I didn't expect the Earth Alliance to have such a surprise up their sleeve as well."
Rau Le Creuset laughed loudly over the short-range public channel, maneuvering the ZAFT unit to continue waving its fingers, unleashing a massive barrage of beams. At this point, he already harbored a death wish, and naturally, he no longer bothered to hide his true feelings.
Currently, the Dendrobium, the ZAFT unit, and the Destroy Mk-II had not stopped fighting due to the attack from Gryps; if anything, Roz Links' attacks had become increasingly aggressive.
"Shut up! Your constant yapping is annoying as hell!"
Perhaps having partially regressed to his former state of mind, Clotho Buer found himself irritated by the trash talk on the public channel. The Destroy Mk-II used the two giant cannons on its back to fire two beams toward the ZAFT unit.
For some reason, Clotho felt his mind becoming calmer and calmer, and his operations were getting faster.
It felt as though something was leaking from his nose... was it snot? Clotho diverted a fraction of his attention and saw a smear of red floating inside his helmet.
That was it. His body had reached its limit. His originally ravaged frame was burning through its last drops of blood just for today's battle.
Since he was destined to die anyway, the task was simple: find someone to take down with him.
Whether it be the Unicorn or that legless thing next to it...
"Oh, how impatient, young man."
Creuset casually had the ZAFT unit ascend to dodge the Destroy Mk-II's attack. Armaments on its shoulders—similar to those on the Shamblo that had landed on the borders of Orb—scattered a large volume of beams toward the Dendrobium and the Destroy Mk-II.
Roz maneuvered the Dendrobium to evade the ZAFT unit's strafing fire, searching for a way to destroy these two enemies.
The small containers in the armed base container were nearly all spent. Next, he would have to rely on the giant twin cannons and the two beam ship-cutting swords underneath for combat.
"There has to be a flaw... just wait a bit longer..."
Roz's mental focus was sharpened to a high degree as he observed the status of the two machines, looking for an opportunity to take one out with a single combo.
In a daze, Roz felt as if the Machine Spirit Girl was standing right beside him, pointing toward a position between the ZAFT unit and the Destroy Mk-II.
"Go there."
The gentle voice of the Machine Spirit Girl whispered in his ear. Without hesitation, Roz stepped on the pedal, and the Dendrobium charged toward the ZAFT unit and the Destroy Mk-II at extreme speed.
Having reached the point where he could hear the Machine Spirit Girl's voice, Roz trusted her implicitly.
At that moment, the psycho-frame hidden beneath the Unicorn's armor flashed with a blue light for a split second.
....................