With the Solar Ray System destroyed, there was no need for the nominal commander-in-chief of the Atlantic Federation to issue orders. The fleets of the East Asian Republic and the Eurasian Federation surged forward from the frontlines, launching a full-scale assault.
The Atlantic Federation, seeing how they had served as targets for the East Asian Republic and how the latter had snatched the credit for the first major victory after their own heavy sacrifices, was seething with frustration.
But no matter how displeased they were, the Atlantic Federation wouldn't sabotage the operation at this critical moment. With the Solar Ray System no longer a threat, their main forces, coordinating with the vanguard fleet that hadn't fully withdrawn from the battlefield, also charged forward, launching a fierce attack on Boaz Fortress.
The ZAFT space force commander at Boaz Fortress watched helplessly as the thirty Azure Dragon Gundams completed their sabotage mission and promptly retreated, leaving his reserve forces with fewer than five units. He gritted his teeth in anger, but he had no choice—he now had to face the impending fortress defense battle.
At this point, the Earth Alliance's numerical advantage was in full display. The defensive line of ZAFT's space forces around Boaz Fortress was instantly pushed back within the range of the fortress's defensive cannons.
Under normal circumstances, the correct strategy would be to retreat the bulk of the forces into the fortress and fight defensively. Given Boaz Fortress's Fortitude, ordinary weapons would likely take over ten days to breach its exterior.
After all, only a handful of warships were equipped with weapons like Positron Cannons. In fact, within the Earth Alliance, only the East Asian Republic's thirty Kunpeng-class ships and the Archangel were armed with them. And it wasn't feasible to use Positron Cannons as frequently as Gottfried High-Energy Beam Cannons.
However, now that they knew the Atlantic Federation had brought nuclear weapons, holing up inside Boaz Fortress would be suicidal. A dozen nuclear warheads could quickly blast open a breach, and a hundred could reduce the fortress to scattered debris.
According to intelligence, the Atlantic Federation had brought at least a thousand nuclear warheads this time, and they had used less than a tenth of them in the previous strike.
Therefore, the defenders of Boaz Fortress absolutely could not retreat entirely into the fortress. They had to sally forth and engage the enemy under the cover of the fortress's firepower. Otherwise, with no one to intercept the incoming nuclear warheads, Boaz Fortress would be shattered in an instant.
Thus, the space zone around Boaz Fortress instantly turned into a meat grinder.
The Atlantic Federation also knew that, given the strange MA's (the Covenant Gundam Meteor System prototype) anti-air capabilities, unless it was destroyed, their nuclear warheads wouldn't stand a chance of getting through.
As a result, the Atlantic Federation didn't opt for a nuclear strike this time. Instead, their warships and Mobile Suits surged forward, pouring firepower into Boaz Fortress.
Yet, ZAFT's space forces were no pushovers. Despite being outnumbered, their MS Pilots' average skill far surpassed that of the Earth Alliance's. Relying on Boaz Fortress's fire support, they managed to fight the Earth Alliance to a stalemate.
The battle raged for a full twelve hours, with both sides suffering horrific casualties before finally withdrawing to regroup. After all, soldiers weren't machines—twelve straight hours of combat pushed most of the Earth Alliance's pilots to their limits. In terms of physical endurance, most Naturals simply couldn't match Coordinators.
Throughout this battle, the Three-Ship Alliance had been watching everything unfold.
If it had been up to Kira, he would have intervened the moment the Atlantic Federation first deployed nuclear weapons.
But Lacus stopped Kira, knowing that with PLANT already aware the Atlantic Federation would use nuclear weapons, they couldn't possibly be completely unprepared. If their three ships intervened now, they would only disrupt ZAFT's plans.
So when the battle temporarily subsided, Lacus immediately sent envoys to both sides, hoping to persuade them to negotiate.
After all, both sides had learned from the first day's fighting that their opponent wasn't easy to deal with. Continuing the battle would leave the victor severely wounded regardless.
However, Lacus was being overly optimistic. The Boaz Fortress was defended by ZAFT's main forces, mostly hardliners. How could they possibly agree to a temporary ceasefire? In their view, the Earth Alliance's renewed use of nuclear weapons made negotiations pointless.
Still, considering the letter came from Lacus and the messenger was a survivor of the Star Palace Colony Satellite campaign, the Boaz Fortress commander didn't give the envoy trouble. Instead, he sent the letter to the rear for the Council members to discuss.
As for the letter to the Earth Alliance side, no one dared to be the messenger. After all, the Archangel was still officially a defected ship from the Atlantic Federation.
Thus, the message was sent via encrypted communications within the Atlantic Federation.
The Atlantic Federation commander scoffed at the proposal upon reading it. Only the knowledge that the Archangel and Kusanagi might be supported by the New Miserly Kingdom prevented him from sending a scathing reply.
After all, one must consider the master before beating the dog. It was best not to provoke the New Miserly Kingdom now.
However, the commander made it clear that if these two ships entered the battlefield, he wouldn't hold back, as officially the Archangel and Kusanagi had no ties to the New Miserly Kingdom.
Thus, Lacus's peace proposal fell on deaf ears on both sides. After an eight-hour respite, the battle resumed.
This time, the Atlantic Federation forces decided to use nuclear weapons against ZAFT's fleet, so nuclear-armed Moebius units were mixed into the assault force.
It must be said that ZAFT underestimated the Atlantic Federation's shamelessness. To cover the nuclear strike, their Mobile Suits fought without retreating.
In the end, at the cost of over a dozen Strike Daggers, a single nuclear warhead took out three ZAFT Laurasia-class ships and their escorts.
From the Atlantic Federation's perspective, this was an excellent trade.
But the Atlantic Federation was essentially treating nuclear weapons as conventional arms now.
Seeing this as justification, Lacus hesitated no longer. The Three-Ship Alliance mobilized with the goal of completely destroying the Atlantic Federation's nuclear strike team.
Thus, the Archangel, Eternal, and Kusanagi emerged from the asteroid belt, with Freedom Meteor and Justice Meteor charging ahead toward the Atlantic Federation forces.
However, the asteroid belt where the Three-Ship Alliance had hidden was far from the battlefield—they had to stay distant to avoid detection by both sides' scouts.
So even though all three ships were high-speed models, reaching the battlefield would take time.
Moreover, the Three-Ship Alliance approached from the Earth Alliance's flank, causing both ZAFT and Earth Alliance Forces on the frontlines to initially identify them as enemies.
ZAFT viewing the Three-Ship Alliance as enemies was understandable—everyone knew the Eternal had defected, and with the Archangel leading the formation, who would believe they'd come to help fight the Earth Alliance?
As for the Earth Alliance, they knew the Three Ships Alliance was an organization formed by Lacus Clyne, possibly funded by the New Miserly Kingdom, but not aligned with them.
In the eyes of the Earth Alliance, the Three Ships Alliance was naturally pro-PLANT, so their arrival on the battlefield certainly wouldn't be to assist them.
Moreover, the Freedom Meteor and Justice Meteor, which entered the battlefield first, were indiscriminately attacking everyone, making them targets for both sides.
Well, to be precise, it was only Kira who was attacking indiscriminately. Athrun was quite clear about his purpose here.
From the moment the Justice Meteor entered the battlefield, it focused on attacking the Agamemnon-class ships of the Atlantic Federation. However, following Lacus's advice to avoid escalating hatred, Athrun primarily targeted the ships' engines and weapon ports, rendering them immobile and disarmed.
But Kira, at this point, was trying to have his cake and eat it too.
He activated an open-channel broadcast on the battlefield, blaring, "Stop! You mustn't fight!"
Then, the Freedom Meteor unleashed a full barrage, severing the heads and arms of all Mobile Suits engaged in combat on both sides, before singling out and destroying any Moebius units carrying nuclear warheads.
Indeed, even if Kira aimed for the nuclear warheads, the non-nuclear explosion from their detonation was enough to obliterate the fragile Moebius units. Thus, their pilots would inevitably be killed by Kira's own hands.
As for those whose Mobile Suits were disabled by Kira—left headless or armless—they were naturally finished off by their opponents.
Consequently, it didn't take long for Kira to draw the attention of the Atlantic Federation's elite pilots after charging into the fray.
Mu, piloting the 105 Wired Guided Dagger, was the first to rush toward the Freedom Meteor, shouting angrily,
"Kira! What are you doing? This isn't your battlefield! Why are you disrupting the battle?!"
Recognizing the familiar voice, Kira immediately retorted,
"That's my question for you, Mu! Is the Atlantic Federation's use of nuclear weapons justified? If nukes become standard weapons, what will future wars look like?"
Kira's rebuttal left Mu, who had a strong sense of right and wrong, speechless. Even within the Atlantic Federation, there were dissenting voices against the reckless deployment of nuclear weapons.
However, Kira's words had no effect on another individual. The moment Canard Pars saw the Freedom entering the battlefield, he rushed over from the other side without needing orders.
Hearing Kira's righteous speech to Mu, he roared furiously,
"Bullshit! What right do you, born from a mountain of corpses, have to say such things?! Kira Yamato! Die!"
As he spoke, Canard fired two shots from his Beam Cannons at the Freedom Meteor.
During his visit to the L4 Colony Cluster, Kira had naturally gone to the abandoned Mendel colony and uncovered partial experiment records. Cross-referencing these with Reid's earlier revelations, he had pieced together the truth of his origins.
Thus, facing Canard Pars—a victim of those experiments—Kira lacked conviction. He could only dodge silently before responding,
"Canard Pars, I don't want to fight you. I deeply regret what happened to you, but right now, I can't stand by and watch the Earth Alliance fire nuclear weapons at PLANT. You're a Coordinator too—don't you understand?"
Kira's words only fueled Canard's rage further, and he continued his furious tirade...
"Who needs your hypocritical apologies! Coordinators, Naturals—they're all the same to me. They'll both persecute me for the sake of the so-called Ultimate Coordinator. Weren't there enough Coordinators in the lab back then? Kira Yamato, let me make this clear—only your death will bring me peace!"
With that, Canard Pars attempted to charge toward the Freedom Meteor with his shield raised for close combat.
However, Mu suddenly sensed something and urgently warned,
"Kid Canard! Evade now! Something's coming!"
No sooner had he spoken than over a dozen beam shots struck the Hyperion Gundam's beam shield, halting Canard Pars' advance.
Canard adjusted his Mobile Suit's view and saw the attacks had come from four large red Bits. As the Bits retreated, a blue-and-white Gundam with an X-shaped red Bit backpack came into view.
This was none other than the Brave Gundam, an experimental Anti-Neutron Jammer unit secretly preserved by Siegel Clyne.
Originally slated for dismantling, Siegel Clyne had contacted the Junk Guild to covertly transport it out of PLANT.
However, due to the altered fate of Canard Pars, the events of the side story never unfolded, allowing Praya Reveley—its pilot—to survive without pushing his body to the brink through repeated intense battles.
Moreover, after Lacus sought the aid of Reverend Malchio, the blind priest mediated the completion of the Dragoon System for the Brave Gundam, upgrading it to its full potential.
Additionally, Reverend Malchio used his connections to procure the same medication Creuset regularly took from PLANT's Genetic Research Institute. This ensured Praya Reveley—a clone of Mu with an unstable genetic foundation—could shine brightest in his final moments.
Staring at the Brave Gundam, Mu voiced his astonishment over the comms to Kira:
"Kira, don't tell me Rau Le Creuset has joined your side."
Praya Reveley recognized Mu's voice instantly—after all, fragments of Mu's life often flashed through his mind.
Thus, Praya Reveley responded politely,
"Mr. Mu, my name is Praya Reveley. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Hearing this, Mu's tension eased. Though the psychic link with this boy was strange, at least it wasn't Rau Le Creuset.
Mu was about to ask more, but Canard Pars had already lost patience. He fired a barrage from his Beam Submachine Gun at the Brave Gundam and roared,
"I don't care who you are! Stay out of my fight!"
Fate worked in mysterious ways. Though these two were originally destined to be adversaries in another timeline, they now stood opposed on this battlefield where neither was meant to be.
Praya Reveley raised the Brave Gundam's shield to block the submachine gun fire, positioning his Mobile Suit squarely in front of the Hyperion Gundam. He then addressed Kira:
"Mr. Kira, leave this to me. Go intercept the nuclear strike team."
At that moment, Kira noticed Athrun's Justice Meteor was already being swarmed by Earth Alliance forces, forcing him to rely on the Meteor System's speed to evade while counterattacking.
Meanwhile, the Archangel, Eternal, and Kusanagi were under fire from both sides as soon as they entered the battlefield.
ZAFT and the Earth Alliance seemed to have coordinated as if by prior agreement, sandwiching the three ships between them and exchanging fire.
The Archangel, Eternal, and Kusanagi had no choice but to engage both sides, which only escalated the situation as both factions dispatched forces to block the three ships from advancing.
Kira naturally couldn't leave Praya Reveley to face the nearly invincible Hyperion Gundam alone.
To be honest, Kira felt uneasy at the thought of either Praya Reveley or Canard Pars dying in this battle.
So Kira turned and spoke to the rear:
"Lacus, both ZAFT and the Earth Alliance are attacking us now. Further intervention would be extremely dangerous. Let's withdraw for now and seek out Mr. Reid. We can hear his thoughts on the matter, what do you say?"
Lacus was well aware that both sides on the battlefield now viewed them with hostility. Even the East Asian Republic's forces had begun maneuvering to encircle them—this armed intervention had utterly failed.
After all, there was no telling whether the Agamemnon-class ships Athrun had destroyed contained nuclear-equipped units, and the remaining combat achievements belonged solely to the Mobile Suits of both the Earth Alliance and ZAFT.
Thus, the Archangel, Eternal, and Kusanagi simultaneously launched recall flares.
Lacus announced over the comms:
"We're withdrawing for now. Let's leave this Space Zone and discuss our next steps once we reach a safe location."
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