stonecrandall Chapter 16: A Lament Amidst the Gunfire—The Fall of the Advance Team
Chapter 16: A Lament Amidst the Gunfire—The Fall of the Advance Team
[Archangel, Bridge]
The piercing alarm replaced the almost absurd conspiracy in the makeshift lounge.
The air was heavy, like lead, pressing down on everyone's chest. Inside the bridge, apart from the cold hum of the machinery, there was not a single other sound.
Everyone's gaze was fixed on the huge main screen, like iron filings attracted by a magnet.
There, a one-sided massacre is unfolding.
The initial grand pronouncements have long since vanished from the communication channels.
All that could be heard were desperate roars, piercing screams, and jumbled noises distorted beyond recognition by the electromagnetic waves of the explosion, all before the signal was cut off.
ZAFT's mobile suit forces, like a pack of hungry wolves, surged out from all directions, easily tearing apart the fragile formation of the Eighth Fleet's vanguard.
Beams, missiles, live ammunition... Fireworks of death bloomed one after another on the dark curtain of space.
Each dazzling ray of light represents the annihilation of a warship or a mobile armor.
Frey Alster stood at the back of the bridge, her hands gripping the electronic document she had just signed tightly.
Her knuckles turned white from the force, and the cold metal casing hurt her palms.
She didn't cry, she didn't even tremble.
Those icy blue eyes were fixed on the chaotic battlefield on the screen, like a glass statue about to shatter.
Ling Yu stood not far from her, hands in his pockets, his expression unusually calm.
His gaze shifted between the main screen and Frey's profile, as if he were watching a meticulously crafted drama.
just,
No one could see the fleeting complexity deep in his eyes.
[ZAFT Navy, Gamov battleship, bridge]
The same battlefield presents a completely different picture in another pair of eyes.
Xiao Ran's cold gaze swept across the constantly changing data stream on the main screen. Casualty ratio, enemy annihilation efficiency, ammunition consumption... everything resembled a precise mathematical calculation, cold and efficient.
The virtual interface of the ZAFT Armory System shimmered with a ghostly green light in a corner of his retina.
[Battle Assessment: Plan execution efficiency 98.7%. The enemy advance fleet is expected to be completely incapacitated after 7 minutes and 14 seconds. Our casualties are 3.4% lower than expected.]
"Very efficient."
He made his assessment in an almost inaudible voice.
His attention was focused more on another piece of data—the special signal source codenamed [Anomaly-01].
It remained quietly within the Archangel's signal spectrum, without any high-energy response.
"Just an observer?" Xiao Ran's brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.
"Is it because this tragedy, which was already destined, made him feel powerless, so he chose to stand by and do nothing?"
Or perhaps... his abilities are limited to MS piloting skills, rendering him ineffective in such large-scale fleet battles?
Countless possibilities raced through Xiao Ran's mind.
This mysterious "player" is the biggest uncertainty in his perfect plan.
But now it seems that this variable has temporarily chosen to remain "silent".
This is good.
Xiao Ran's lips curled into a cold smile.
No matter what the other side is thinking, it cannot change the fact that our ZAFT team is about to achieve a resounding victory.
---
[Archangel, Bridge]
Frey's breathing stopped completely at one point.
Her pupils suddenly contracted to the size of pinpoints.
In one corner of the screen, a familiar warship is making its final desperate stand.
It is the USS Montgomery.
It was her father, George Alsta's, flagship.
It's like a giant, silver whale covered in wounds, trying to break through the web woven by ZAFT.
But three Zeon units wielding heavy beam cannons, like three cold-blooded executioners, locked onto it from different angles.
There were no dramatic one-on-one fights, no heroic duels.
War, most of the time, is just a cold mathematical problem.
Three death rays, far thicker and brighter than ordinary beams, pierced the darkness, precisely tearing through the armor of the "Montgomery" and penetrating its core engine.
Time seemed to stretch out infinitely in that instant.
No sound.
The universe is absolutely silent.
At the center of the USS Montgomery's hull, a blinding spot of light first appeared, and then the light expanded wildly with unstoppable force, engulfing everything.
A fireball, more dazzling and massive than any explosion on the battlefield, silently bloomed before everyone's eyes.
Like a rose that blooms hastily and withers quickly in the universe, it uses its own dazzling shattering to draw a bloody end to this elegy.
"No--!!!"
A piercing scream, so shrill it was almost inhuman, finally burst from Frey's throat.
Her body suddenly slumped backward, and the electronic document board in her hand fell to the cold deck with a "thud".
He curled up on the ground, trembling violently like a shrimp whose bones had been removed.
Tears of despair flowed forth like a flood bursting its banks.
Sadness, anger, regret... emotions strong enough to drive any normal person mad, transformed into an invisible giant hand, gripping her throat and dragging her soul into an endless abyss.
However, just as her consciousness was about to be swallowed by darkness.
Ling Yu's absurd words, those cold business terms, and the statement "Emptying the enemy's pockets is more painful than taking their lives" pierced through her chaotic consciousness like the most tenacious radio waves.
And...the complex, expectant eyes of my father before he boarded the shuttle.
"Father...he...he knew this would happen..."
"He had already... left me a way out..."
Her sobs were punctuated by a faint, almost delirious attempt at self-comfort.
That's a morbid, distorted understanding.
But it was the only thing that could keep her from completely collapsing at this moment, her only lifeline.
Trembling, she used all her strength to reach out and pick up the electronic document that had fallen to the ground, clutching it tightly to her chest.
It was as if it wasn't a document at all.
It was her father's cold remains, the last relic of the Alstar family, and also her... only means of revenge.
In a corner of the bridge, Ling Yu quietly watched the girl curled up on the ground.
On his system interface, the notification that the "Twisted Revenge Princess" quest was completed had long been lying there quietly.
The icon of the document titled "Technical Data on Miniature Nuclear Battery (1/3 Incomplete)" gleamed with an alluring glow.
He knew he was powerless to stop the tragedy.
But he successfully planted a seed called "capital" in Frey Alsta's heart.
When this seed is watered with the blood of hatred, it will grow into a towering tree... powerful enough to overturn the world.
The crying gradually subsided.
Frey braced herself against the ground and slowly stood up again.
Her tear-streaked face no longer bore any trace of the girl's fragility. Her icy blue eyes, red and swollen, shone with a frightening intensity, like two will-o'-the-wisps burning in the ice.
She walked up to Ling Yu, raised her head, and asked in a hoarse yet unusually calm voice:
"Ling Yu,"
"When...do we start?"