The White Base rocked under another barrage. The hull groaned, plates shuddering, the ship threatening to tear itself apart. Panic swelled in the refugee decks, cries echoing through steel corridors.
Bright gripped the railing with white knuckles. His voice was hoarse from shouting, yet steady. "All units… keep fighting. White Base will not fall here."
"Bright!" Mirai cried suddenly, eyes wide as she scanned the monitor. "Multiple signatures descending from high altitude!"
The radar lit up with a wave of blips — fast, deliberate, unmistakably Federation.
Sailor gasped. "Six full squads… GMs! Federation reinforcements!"
The bridge erupted in disbelief. A surge of hope pierced through despair.
From the sky above, the streaks of reentry fire flared like meteors, splitting into dozens of descending machines. The GMs' thrusters ignited, and formation after formation burst into the fray.
On the battlefield, both sides faltered. Zeon pilots glanced upward in shock, voices filling comm channels with alarm.
"What—? Federation reinforcements? That many?!"
Even Amuro paused, breath catching as he glimpsed the descending tide. "GMs… all at once?"
In his flagship, Garma's expression froze. His earlier arrogance withered as the realization dawned. "No… it can't be. The trap… was meant for me?"
His officers exchanged uneasy glances, their confidence bleeding away.
Bright seized the moment. His voice thundered across the White Base comms. "Form a line with the GMs! We break them here, together!"
Amuro's voice steadied, inspired by the sudden turn. "Understood, Bright. I'll lead the charge!"
---
The GMs surged into formation, their rifles blazing, cutting into Zeon lines with surgical precision. Zaku squads fell one after another under the coordinated barrage.
Amuro drove forward, Gundam's beam rifle tearing apart a Dom in a burst of fire. Yet amid the chaos, one GM caught his attention.
Its movements were not standard — not clumsy like the usual rookies fielded by the Federation. Instead, every maneuver was sharp, instinctive, flowing like water.
Amuro blinked. "That GM… they move like they know what I'm thinking."
The GM pivoted beside the Gundam, rifles firing in perfect synchronicity. Together, they swept through an advancing Gouf, dismantling it in a coordinated blaze.
Inside his cockpit, Amuro's pulse quickened. "Who are you…?"
The GM pilot gave no name, no callsign, only silence. Yet their presence was undeniable — a rhythm that matched Amuro's tempo step for step.
Another Dom charged forward, its bazooka raised. Amuro shouted, "On the right!" The GM moved instantly, intercepting, its beam spray gun blasting the Dom apart before Amuro even pulled the trigger.
"Unbelievable," Amuro whispered. "It's like they can hear my thoughts."
Together, Gundam and GM carved through Zeon's armored spearhead. The Gouf squad faltered under their combined strikes, their formation unraveling.
Kai, still battered in the Guncannon, cursed as he reloaded. Then his eyes widened. "No way… Amuro's got backup?!"
Hayato forced the Guntank's cannons to fire, suppressing another wave of Zakus. His voice cracked with new determination. "Then we can still do this! Cover Amuro!"
The tide shifted. Federation machines pressed forward, emboldened by the Gundam and the mysterious GM's display.
Amuro tightened his grip, sweat dripping into his eyes. "If we can just push through… Garma's finished."
---
On his flagship, Garma watched his carefully arranged assault crumble. His pilots fell in rapid succession, his squadrons collapsing one by one under Federation pressure.
"No… this isn't possible," he hissed. "I had them cornered! This should have been my victory!"
One of his officers shouted frantically. "Commander, our escorts are breaking apart! If we don't retreat now—"
"Silence!" Garma barked, though his voice wavered with desperation.
Amuro's Gundam cut through the last Dom, while the unknown GM punctured a Gouf with a precise burst. The path to Garma's flagship opened wide.
Bright saw it instantly. His fist slammed down. "Now! Push forward with everything you have! Cut off his escape route!"
White Base's cannons roared to life, firing in unison with GM support. Explosions carved away Zeon resistance.
Amuro's voice echoed across the channel. "We've got his ship in sight!"
The Gundam and the GM moved as one, weaving between enemy fire, closing the distance. Together, they coordinated their final assault.
"On my mark!" Amuro shouted. The GM responded instantly, mirroring his movement.
Their shots struck simultaneously. Gundam's rifle lanced through Garma's retreat corridor, while the GM's beams crippled the flagship's secondary engines. The vessel shuddered violently, systems failing.
The battlefield burned with chaos. White Base's cannons, along with the Federation GMs, pressed relentlessly against Garma's dwindling escorts.
Bright shouted, "Full pursuit! Break through! Don't let him escape!"
Amuro and the unknown GM carved through Zeon lines, opening a path to Garma's flagship. "We've got him in sight!" Amuro called.
Garma gritted his teeth inside his bridge, panic sharpening his pride. "No… I will not be humiliated!" He slammed the console, twisting the controls to dodge the relentless assault.
The flagship lurched under fire from the Gundam and the GMs. "Retreat! Regain control!" an officer shouted.
Amuro fired again, but the shot was interrupted. A red streak darted between debris and smoke — a GM's discarded beam rifle, seemingly lay on ground through the chaos, grabbed and piloted by no ordinary hand.
Char Aznable's crimson Zaku streaked across the battlefield, moving with deadly precision. Within moments, he had seized a GM's fallen beam weapon, adjusting its controls instinctively. The massive rifle hummed with energy in his hands.
Inside Garma's bridge, alarms blared. "Incoming fire!" the officers yelled, pointing frantically.
But the shot was unlike any they expected. A single beam from the stolen GM rifle lanced through the flagship's weakened hull. Garma was thrown violently back, choking on smoke and sparks. "Impossible… not from them…" he gasped.
The flagship groaned, systems failing one by one. Garma staggered, eyes wide with disbelief. "I… I won't be defeated here!"
Outside, Amuro and the GM moved forward, unaware of the true source. "Direct hit! His flagship's going down!" Amuro shouted, but even he didn't see who fired.
Bright's voice rang over the comms, tense. "Already? The Federation has shattered his forces."
The crimson Zaku pulled back silently into the smoke, Char's face hidden behind the mask. "Garma… you were too proud for your own good," he muttered, voice low. He had fired with deadly precision, the stolen GM weapon giving him the range and power needed for a clean strike.
The flagship exploded in a blinding fireball, fragments scattering across the battlefield. Garma Zabi, heir of Zeon's northern command, was gone — his retreat ended before he could complete it.
On White Base, the crew stared at the distant explosion, stunned. "He's… really gone," Mirai whispered.
Bright exhaled, tension draining slowly. "His forces are broken. The North American theater… it's ours."
From within the smoke, Char's crimson Zaku slipped away, the stolen beam weapon silent now, leaving only destruction behind. No one had seen him fire, no one knew how the flagship had fallen with such deadly accuracy.
Amuro's eyes lingered on the fading red streak. "Who… was that?" he murmured.
Char vanished into the horizon, leaving chaos and a battlefield forever marked by his intervention.