As Fred finished speaking, he easily locked onto the multiple mobile suits before him using the multi-layered targeting system on his screen.
Soon, dense swarms of missiles erupted from both sides of Fred's Meteor like streaks of rain.
On a cosmic scale, the fine, dense attacks looked like a storm of pear blossoms in the rain.
Of course, on the other side, Athrun was not about to be outdone, launching his assault alongside Fred at the same time.
The two of them fired a great number of missiles. Though their individual power wasn't particularly strong, their combined force was absolutely not to be underestimated.
Moreover, while these attacks might not necessarily work against the Caladbolgus, for the Mistrals and ordinary Moebiuses, being hit meant only one outcome.
After the two of them completed a single volley, most of the Moebiuses and Mistrals before them exploded, unable to dodge in time.
The sight of the chain explosions was spectacular.
Of course, the young man on the Blue Cosmos side had no mood to appreciate it.
Or rather, his face had turned frighteningly ashen.
The others' composure broke entirely, their mouths hanging open.
"How is this possible!?"
With just that one volley, nearly Eighty percent of their Mobile Armors had been destroyed.
The appearance of these machines had instantly rendered their human wave tactics useless.
"How can a machine with this kind of firepower achieve such targeting?"
The young man asked himself, but no answer came.
After all, this machine, smaller than a battleship, had achieved targeting and kill rates more complex than a battleship's.
Thinking about it carefully, this was absolutely another major factor influencing the battlefield since the appearance of MS.
Previously, MS could serve as support for battleships, but an MS with this kind of firepower had officially become the protagonist of the battlefield.
The ancient examples of one warrior standing against a hundred might no longer be a dream.
"Contract the defensive line! Have the remaining machines fall back and cover the Mobile Suit Force!"
Though his mind was racing with thoughts, the young man had not lost his composure.
On the battlefield, without calm, only death awaited them.
Fortunately, the Caladbolgus and GINN units in their force had not been too badly affected.
After all, those pilots were Aces, and moreover Combat Coordination—born for battle.
Their training intensity had never been low in the first place.
An attack of this scale posed no great threat to them.
Under the young man's rational commands, everyone came to their senses and began to move.
And just as Fred had expected, after dodging the first wave of attacks, the Caladbolgus reformed their formation. Rather than recklessly launching an assault, they continuously fired beams at them from all around.
For an MS, even the Freedom, without an Anti-Beam Shield, could not withstand beams head-on.
Given that, the natural best method against a lone infiltrator was encirclement.
Close combat would only make teammates hesitate.
They couldn't very well, like in those action movies, rush in one by one like the Calabash Brothers saving their grandfather.
"The enemy Commander has decent skills."
Fred muttered to himself, his hands not slowing at all as he piloted his machine through the empty expanse of space, dodging the enemy's endless barrage of attacks like a nimble blue bird.
"Release the Anti-Beam Burst Mines."
"Yes, sir."
At Fred's command, two long beam sabers extended from the boy's Meteor as well.
Soon after, a long, stardust-like curtain of barrage erupted between the two sides.
This thin layer of fire blocked the enemy's beam attacks coming from all directions, giving them the chance to break through.
"Kira, you protect the mothership. Be careful—the enemy may have a Mirage Colloid System too."
In his current state, Kira could only unleash his full power when defending the crystal.
As for breakthrough missions, they could be left to the others.
Counting everything, the enemy only had twenty Mobile Suits.
The remaining Mobile Armors had already been mostly wiped out in the earlier round of strafing.
Watch out for possible Mirage Colloid units, and then—
Just as Fred was thinking, alarms suddenly blared wildly in the cockpit.
"The enemy has new units too—is it those three? Ahead of schedule?"
As he spoke, a red-and-white striped beam shot straight toward Fred.
Though the unit was rather bulky, Fred still managed to dodge it by a hair.
Meanwhile, Orphee and the others, who had just been about to charge in behind Fred, slowed their acceleration considerably.
"I'll hold them down. Orphee, you lead the assault."
"...Yes!"
Though uneasy, Orphee departed with several others, including Athrun. The only one remaining at Fred's side was Alec in the Covenant.
"Stay safe."
Fred didn't tell Alec to hurry away or anything like that. After all, Alec's MS skills had only just brushed the threshold of Elite level. Even with his original abilities added in—and after that meal, which had given him strength slightly surpassing Athrun's—he would still need to be at his absolute sharpest against these three units.
Granted, the enemy wasn't those three prodigies, so their strength probably wasn't as great. But arrogance meant courting death.
"Got it!"
Alec answered firmly.
Clearly, unlike those originally noisy, unstable three prodigies, these three pilots and their three machines were not only less powerful but completely silent—no communication at all.
Both sides simply moved in silent determination to end each other's lives.
Then again, perhaps this was what war was supposed to be like.
Fred had never experienced any other battlefield, so he couldn't say. His objective now was just one thing:
Hold back all three of these units—or better yet, destroy them.
...
"Is Big Brother really going to be okay?"
Watching the fierce two-versus-three battle outside, Flay aboard the Eternal drew a deep breath.
The three new units each had their own strengths.
The black Gundam could transform into Mobile Armor form, and its injector-equipped Mace came whooshing in at Fred.
Though Fred blocked it with the railgun at his waist, it was still chilling to behold.
And in the instant the young man had just deflected that blow, another unit—a deep blue one, clearly artillery-enhanced—fired the massive cannon on its back toward Fred.
Its power rivaled Strike's Flame God. The twin cannons fired together, perfectly filling the gap just as Fred's attack ended.
Their coordination was seamless.
Watching, Flay felt her heart clench.
But this tense moment soon passed. Fred, who had seemed to have no way to escape, performed a backflip as if he had eyes in the back of his head, dodging the attack from the blind spot while the twin cannons between the wings on his back returned fire at the same time.
However, the shot was blocked by that green Gundam with its two massive shields.
The Distorted Beam struck the Anti-Beam Burst Mine and quickly dissipated.