Chapter 380 - 381: Le Creuset: How Is This My Fault?

Chapter 380: Chapter 381: Le Creuset: How Is This My Fault?

[Le Creuset didn’t board the ship.]

[Athrun is the captain.]

[Definitely a conspiracy.]

[If there isn’t a conspiracy, I’ll piss while standing on my head.]

[How could they possibly get jumped like this without an inside man?]

[Last time he summoned Blue Cosmos to attack the Archangel. This time he summoned Blue Cosmos to attack his own people.]

[But why?]

[No idea why, but there’s definitely a conspiracy.]

[Something is definitely wrong somewhere.]

Unfortunately, the viewers had guessed wrong.

Le Creuset had gone off to scheme together with Patrick.

Someone really was plotting something, but that person was not Le Creuset.

Le Creuset had become the designated scapegoat for this one.

"Come on—"

Inside the Rosso Aegis Gundam’s cockpit, Athrun’s fingers swept across the tactical map in front of him.

The rebuilt Rosso Aegis had not had time to install the newly produced 360-degree panoramic cockpit, but it had received several new projection systems.

"One minute to combat contact!"

A slightly hoarse voice came over the bridge channel. "Captain Zala, please... prepare for launch!"

They knew Athrun was an elite pilot, and they knew the Rosso Aegis could enter the atmosphere on its own, but knowing that was one thing. Watching him charge an enemy formation alone was still frightening.

"Mm."

The hydraulic locks securing the Rosso Aegis’s limb joints disengaged. From its fixed berth, Athrun slowly moved the machine onto the catapult.

"I’m going too!" Nicol said.

"You stay here. That’s an order! If another unit comes with me, there’s no point in me covering you! If you want to help, lend me your anti-ship sword."

With Le Creuset absent, Athrun was acting captain.

"Athrun Zala, Rosso Aegis, launching!"

The acceleration from the magnetic catapult slammed Athrun’s back into the seat.

Four Moebius units were pouring out from the underside of an Agamemnon-class ship while swarms of missiles streaked in after them. The two Laurasia-class frigates had already opened up with every anti-air weapon they possessed, but it was nowhere near enough.

A red beam from Scylla swept through the vacuum.

The improved Rosso Aegis no longer needed to transform into Mobile Armor mode before firing Scylla.

The beam swept across space.

Every missile captured by the Rosso Aegis’s targeting system detonated, blooming into orange-red fireballs.

Using the force of the explosions, the Aegis rolled over and transformed into Mobile Armor mode, its thrusters spewing azure flame.

"So fast!"

The Rosso Aegis was even faster than the old Aegis.

In its transformed state, the machine threaded through the dense barrage along a zigzag trajectory.

Once it plunged into the enemy formation, Athrun transformed straight back into MS mode and slashed at the Moebius in front of him, cutting the Mobile Armor cleanly in half at the waist.

[Wind-Cleaving Slash!]

[So cool!]

[Suddenly the Astray doesn’t seem so appealing anymore.]

[I hereby declare the Rosso Aegis the mobile suit of my dreams.]

[To be fair, Astrays aren’t good-looking at all. I can’t stand those exposed joints.]

[Astrays are like Japanese ashigaru. Only the important parts get armor. Way too low-budget.]

[Paper armor +1.]

[The Aegis itself isn’t that good-looking either, but I genuinely love the Rosso Aegis.]

[I still think the Strike looks best. Isn’t the Strike being upgraded too?]

[But the Strike can’t suddenly transform like this and pull off a one-slash charge!]

[The Rosso Aegis is basically the most mobile machine around right now, isn’t it?]

As the viewers argued, Athrun had already cut down three more Moebius units rushing toward him.

"Nelson-class main-gun array!"

A warning came over the channel.

The Rosso Aegis’s cameras automatically locked onto the distant flashes of light.

Athrun yanked the control stick back. The machine transformed into Mobile Armor mode again, pitching nose-up and completing an almost 180-degree flip.

The stream of beam particles passed just beneath the Rosso Aegis’s feet. It had nearly been hit.

"No good. At this rate they’ll hit the transports!"

Athrun transformed back into Mobile Armor mode and pushed the thrusters to maximum.

A crimson meteor wove through the rocket barrage fired by the Agamemnon-class ship.

The web of death woven by Moebius units and gun turrets was punched apart by continuous precision fire.

Then Athrun returned to humanoid form, and the borrowed anti-ship sword plunged straight into the Agamemnon-class ship’s bridge.

The other Moebius units were already closing in, however, trying to surround the Rosso Aegis after its lone charge deep into their formation.

"Damn it, they just keep coming!"

After the Aegis’s upgrade, the Rosso Aegis was extraordinarily powerful.

Faced with the onrushing Blue Cosmos forces, Athrun simply drove straight into the middle of the fleet.

For this sequence, the Stage presented the entire scene as one long take.

From the instant Athrun launched until now, it had all been one continuous shot—smooth and seamless.

"Atmospheric reentry sequence initiated! Repeat, reentry sequence initiated!"

Athrun let out a breath of relief.

The descent had begun.

The MS hangars of the Laurasia-class frigates were released directly as "drop pods."

A Laurasia-class ship’s MS hangar could be deliberately detached, allowing the section to separate like this.

Once deployment was complete, both Laurasia-class frigates began to turn away.

But the turn happened to open a gap, and two escort ships broke through the Laurasia-class defensive barrage.

"Not a chance!"

Athrun transformed again, tore through the enemy formation, rushed ahead of them, and shifted back into MS mode.

The Rosso Aegis’s beam sabers then sliced through the engines of both escort ships in rapid succession, finally stopping their attack.

An alarm suddenly shrieked. Having broken through right in front of the enemy, the Rosso Aegis naturally became the focus of every weapon in the area.

"Tch!"

Every missile silo on the escorts and Nelson-class ships opened at once. A silver torrent of more than two hundred tracking missiles surged toward him like a school of piranhas that had scented prey.

Physical ammunition was useless against PS armor.

But sheer volume was another matter.

With this many tracking missiles, even if only one-tenth struck the Rosso Aegis, they could still overload its armor or drain its energy completely.

"Remaining energy, forty percent...!"

Athrun’s gaze flicked across the instruments. Before the enemy closed in, he transformed into Mobile Armor mode again and swept Scylla across the approaching barrage.

The massive 580mm cannon cleared away most of the missiles.

Explosions merged into a crimson sea of clouds, and the Rosso Aegis’s path through the barrage looked like a brushstroke painted in flame.

But there were simply too many missiles. Clearing even half of them was already the limit.

"We’re clear of Earth’s gravity well!"

The Laurasia-class frigates began their withdrawal.

"Athrun! We’re pulling out! Hurry!"

Yzak’s message came through, but a moment later, communications with the drop pod were cut off.

For Athrun, that was actually convenient.

The system then displayed a descent trajectory for him.

"This support system...!"

Athrun stared in surprise.

—Was the Rosso Aegis’s support system really this powerful?

Of course not.

But Fyu-Neru, which had been hiding beside Athrun the entire time, was.

Inori had never revealed herself throughout the entire battle, but she really had been quietly backing up the Rosso Aegis from the sidelines.

Otherwise, even Athrun would have had a hard time rampaging through the enemy like this.

Even with that support, however, he had reached his limit.

Athrun shoved the throttle all the way forward. The Rosso Aegis climbed vertically and completed Pugachev’s Cobra just before the missile swarm reached it.

The tracking warheads collided with one another as they tried to make the sharp turn, but seven still clung stubbornly to him.

At this point, he could only rely on the PS armor to take the hits head-on.

The machine shook violently amid the explosions.

But Athrun had already corrected the Rosso Aegis’s attitude.

In Mobile Armor mode, the Rosso Aegis plunged headfirst into the atmosphere.

The enraged Blue Cosmos forces fired another wave of missiles after him. If they came any closer to Earth, they would fall into the atmosphere themselves, so long-range fire was their only option.

After taking another wave of missiles, the Rosso Aegis somehow held together.

Unfortunately, its energy was nearly exhausted as well. At the last moment, Athrun could no longer fully adjust his course toward Gibraltar and instead plunged toward the slightly off-course Tassili n’Ajjer plateau...