Murrue was at her wits' end.
The Archangel had indeed correctly anticipated the enemy's encirclement and interception.
But that did not change much.
With the enemy holding a decisive tactical advantage, there was only so much the Archangel could do.
And now Flay had barged in as well, making the bridge even more chaotic.
At that moment, another transmission came through, and Captain Koopman appeared on the screen.
"Archangel! This is an order! Leave this sector immediately! Go forward!"
There was no way out behind them anymore, so the Archangel would have to pass the Montgomery and escape from the front.
"But…!"
Murrue was about to object when a shrill cry from behind interrupted her.
"Dad!"
The figure behind Koopman was none other than George Allster.
At last seeing her father, Flay immediately burst into tears.
George, however, had not noticed what was happening on this side. He was still roaring at Captain Koopman. "Bastard! You're telling the Archangel to retreat at a time like this? Then what about us?!"
Koopman finally lost patience. "Someone! Put the Vice Foreign Minister aboard an escape pod!—In any case, you need to get out of here as quickly as possible! Understood?!"
After issuing the order again, Koopman cut the transmission himself.
"Dad! Dad!"
"Flay!"
Although Flay had "dumped" Sai, the two of them had in fact been betrothed by their families before they were even born.
After noticing Flay wandering the corridor in a strange state, Sai had followed her and arrived just in time to see her making a scene on the bridge.
"I'm really sorry! Flay! Come on, let's go! You can't stay here!"
Sai dragged the still-screaming Flay off the bridge, finally restoring some calm to the Archangel.
"Let's go to the officers' quarters. The screens there can show us what's happening outside."
Sai pulled Flay toward the officers' quarters.
There were plenty of officers' quarters, most of them empty, so it was easy to find one where they could watch the battle.
Under the ongoing assault, the Montgomery was already on the verge of collapse.
When Buster aimed its railgun at the Montgomery, Flay nearly screamed.
"I won't let you!"
Out in space, Kira immediately broke away from the melee and rushed toward Buster.
"Heh, fell for it again. This time I won't miss!"
It worked every single time!
Dearka swung his weapon around and aimed it at the Strike.
It was a repeat of the battle in the debris field!
The railgun's target was not the Montgomery at all. It was the Strike!
Every Mobile Suit had only one target—the Strike!
Yet at the critical instant, the Strike Gundam suddenly made a right-angle turn along a trajectory that seemed to violate the laws of physics. The railgun shell grazed its Phase Shift Armor and vanished into the space behind it.
Kira's left hand blurred across the keyboard while her right hand pulled the control stick. The Aile Striker's thrusters behind the machine blasted far beyond rated output, and the immense instantaneous G-force nearly overwhelmed even Kira.
Without Inori's assistance, Kira had manually removed the thruster limits and forced them into overload, producing a load severe enough to nearly kill the pilot.
Anyone else would already have been dead.
A fatal gap opened in the encirclement formed by the five GINNs.
The Strike Gundam drove its saber into the nearest GINN, then used the momentum to hurl the wreckage toward the Duel Gundam on its flank.
"Damn it!"
Attacked by an "ally," Yzak roared again.
"Then let's do it one more time!"
Dearka once again took aim at the Montgomery.
It was an overt trap.
If the Strike did not come to stop him, he would destroy the Montgomery. But if the Strike came to stop him, then the Strike itself would become his target!
"Yzak, Dearka, calm down! The Strike feels different from a moment ago!"
Nicol sensed that something was wrong.
"I'm completely different now!"
Yzak shouted and charged forward in Duel once more.
After its refit, the Duel Gundam Assault Shroud had become extremely powerful.
By contrast, although the Strike had been strong at first, it had weakened by now.
"Out of my way!"
Kira was trying to get to Buster, but Duel refused to let her go.
Yet Kira was different now.
Kira turned around. The beam saber Duel swung straight at her was as clear as a sequence of individual frames.
Everything became extraordinarily distinct.
Every tiny flaw in the Duel Gundam, the Strike's engine noise, every number displayed on every instrument, even the trajectories of the scattering beam particles—she could perceive all of it at once.
Compared with Inori's "indirect" method, this was far more immediate.
Time was slowing down.
Duel was fast, but in front of her, it looked slow.
Kira even had enough leeway to glance at the tips of her hair floating inside her helmet.
Kira lightly twisted the control stick, let the pedal return to neutral, then immediately pressed it again.
The Strike moved with her, slipping gently to the side.
Light and agile, almost as though it were dancing.
Just like that, the Strike evaded Duel's blow.
But it was not over.
In the same motion, Kira swung the Anti-Ship Sword "Schwert Gewehr."
Then she pulled back again in the very next instant.
The Anti-Ship Sword carved across Duel's side, throwing off dazzling sparks.
Although the Strike's Anti-Ship Sword was a "physical attack," it was still powerful enough to pierce Phase Shift Armor.
In short—Armor Penetration.
In the "original" story, both Miguel and Nicol had died to the Anti-Ship Sword.
"Aaagh!"
Yzak threw everything he had into moving Duel out of the way.
At the critical moment, the AI overloaded the propulsion system, forcing the charging Duel to make an emergency course change.
The G-force overload caused Yzak's vision to black out, and it took several seconds before he could see again.
But by then, the Strike had already ignited the Aile Striker's main thrusters and attitude-control thrusters and was racing toward Buster without looking back.
"Not a chance!"
Yzak's mouth was full of blood. He no longer cared. He could see nothing but the Strike.
"Dearka! Now!"
"Got it!"
The device on Buster's back opened.
It was not a GINN weapon, but rather a prototype cannon intended for installation on a new Mobile Suit.
The Strike Gundam's thruster nozzles abruptly changed direction, sending the machine sideways through the Buster Gundam's barrage.
At that moment, Blitz appeared in Kira's blind spot.
Kira slashed down, and Blitz instantly twisted aside with ease.
But Kira reacted even faster.
Kira rammed her shield into the Blitz Gundam's chest armor like a battering ram while simultaneously severing Blitz's right leg with the Anti-Ship Sword in her right hand.
Blitz had only just begun to raise its gun when a spinning kick sent it crashing toward the drifting wreckage of an escort ship.
Dearka was not doing much better.
As Kira slipped sideways, she precisely caught the opening created when the Buster Gundam deployed its new weapon. The beam boomerang mounted on the Sword Striker traced an eerie arc and sliced the barrel of Buster's forward 380mm railgun clean off at the base.
"Impossible! This is impossible!"
Yzak roared.
Why had the Strike gotten stronger again?!
Why was the Strike now… terrifyingly strong all over again?!