"Behind us?"
Murrue was taken aback. Dalida from CIC saw a signal appear on the radar behind their current position and spoke urgently.
"Enemy ship detected at our six o'clock!"
Hardly had he finished speaking when the Archangel came under heavy artillery fire from the rear. Natarle stared at the warship displayed on the screen and slammed her fist onto the armrest.
"There's another one behind us? Dammit!"
Murrue, however, breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, Mikazuki had sent the Strike over. It could intercept the warship behind them; otherwise, they would have been truly caught in a pincer attack.
Mikazuki glanced at the Archangel to his rear. With the Strike there to hold the line, things should be fine. As for the helicopters in the sky, the Skygrasper was handling them. He just needed to focus on dealing with the Baku.
Soon, he saw a machine charging down from the warship. It was much larger than the other Baku and was painted a vibrant orange. This was the command unit of the Waltfeld Team, the LaGOWE. This meant the Tiger himself was inside.
Furthermore, this unit was a two-seater cockpit type, requiring two pilots to operate. It was equipped with a 2-barrel Beam Cannon on its back. The moment the machine appeared, Mikazuki sensed Andrew's presence.
"The Tiger... and that woman."
By now, he had already taken out three Baku. Counting this command unit, there were three left. However, the other two standard Baku had clearly received Andrew's orders. They didn't engage with Mikazuki but instead charged straight toward the Archangel.
The Desert Dawn forces on the ground could basically be ignored. They had already been decimated by the Baku, suffering countless casualties. Luckily, Cagalli and Sahib were fortunate enough to still be alive.
Mikazuki wanted to clear out the remaining grunts, but Andrew cut him off. Andrew opened a public communication channel to speak with him.
"Hey, hey, hey, kid. Your opponent is me."
Barbatos stopped its propulsion. Standing its ground, it turned its head toward the orange Baku or rather, the LaGOWE.
"So it really is you, Tiger."
Inside the cockpit, Andrew, sitting in the upper seat, and Aisha, in the lower seat, exchanged a look and smiled.
"Hoh? You figured it out that early?"
"I knew from the moment you appeared. What? Are you here to get in my way?"
Mikazuki's gaze turned sharp as he spoke. If the man was there to interfere, he would destroy him without mercy. There was no need to ask, really. Andrew leading his team aggressively into battle against the Archangel was explanation enough.
"That's right, I'm here to stop you. What are you going to do? Like you said last time, will you kill everyone who stands in the way of your goal?"
Mikazuki didn't answer because his actions proved everything. Barbatos leveled its Smoothbore Gun and fired directly without even needing to aim.
Andrew, responsible for the maneuvering, hurried to pull the machine aside. The shell exploded right next to the LaGOWE, the shock jolting both of them inside the cockpit.
"That was close..."
Before Aisha could finish her sentence, a Beam Boomerang appeared before her eyes. Though she was a woman, she was also a Coordinator and a skilled pilot; she reacted instantly. The unit's 2-barrel Beam Cannon boomed twice, shooting down the boomerang.
Meanwhile, Andrew piloted the LaGOWE in a series of high-speed maneuvers to avoid being pinned down by Mikazuki. Aisha let out a long breath and turned her head with a wry smile.
"Andy, what kind of freak is this kid you've got your eye on? Just now, our distance was beyond the range of his Smoothbore Gun, yet he could still hit with such precision."
"Right? He's terrifying... Hey, wait!"
Before Andrew could finish his sentence, the mechanical face of Barbatos filled with a strange, predatory aesthetic appeared directly on the forward display.
BOOM!
A Tachi slammed into the spot where the LaGOWE had been standing, smashing a massive crater into the sand. Andrew, having backed away to dodge, watched the machine in front of him, cold sweat drenching his brow. He forced a smile.
"Its mobility is even faster than the last time we met. Every time I see it, it scares me. Was he not using his full power last time?"
"Now isn't the time to talk about that!"
BOOM!
Barbatos approached again. The LaGOWE scrambled to the right while firing its back-mounted beam cannons, but the shots were ignored by Barbatos's Nanolaminate Armor. Andrew finally recalled the intelligence stating that Barbatos was immune to beam weapons.
"Damn, how could I forget that this machine is immune to beam weaponry?"
Aisha shook her head, her voice heavy. "It doesn't make a difference. With that kind of high mobility, output, and the pilot's reflexes, I doubt beams or physical rounds matter to him. There's no distinction."
"True. Even Phase Shift Armor would fail after taking seventy-six continuous hits from standard shells. Energy and armor rigidity are always issues. This armor that blocks beams must be the same; it must have a weakness somewhere."
Though Andrew's ideals were noble, reality was cruel. Virtually everyone who knew Mikazuki knew that when he was in his battle-frenzied state, he had almost no weaknesses.
Because... Mikazuki would destroy his enemies with the highest efficiency and in the shortest amount of time before they could ever discover a flaw.
The Smoothbore Gun was detached and dropped into the sand. Barbatos's eyes lit up as it reached out to draw the second Tachi from its back...
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