Chapter Fifty-Two: Heliopolis Meets Its Fate

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"Just look at these pointless moves—how much free time does the pilot of this MS have?" As a true elite who valued simplicity, precision, and speed, Athrun simply could not comprehend it.

Facing his lifelong best friend, Kira, piloting the Strike Gundam, drew the massive 15.78-meter anti-ship laser sword "Cannon Blade" forged from a hybrid multi-composite alloy from its back and struck an iconic sword-wielding pose.

Hao Ren had been puzzled for a long time—why did these pilots always strike such useless poses? Was it some kind of deliberate 'cool move' program left in the mecha's initial design? Athrun, you poor future cuckold, have no right to criticize others!

Leaving aside Hao Ren’s envy and resentment toward these flashy antics, Mikhail certainly couldn't stand it. He raised his "Walrus Kai Heavy Particle Cannon" and fired directly at Strike’s face.

Strike, seeing itself about to be sullied, of course couldn't sit and wait for death—it dodged nimbly.

Naturally, the Helipolis docking point behind it suffered instead.

With one unable to fight freely and the other firing recklessly without hesitation, very soon, the Helipolis shelter went to level ten alert.

Cagalli, forcibly stuffed into the shelter by Kira earlier, wore an anxious expression, and by her side were several strangely dressed figures.

A black monk in full priestly robes, a delicate boy with a scar over his left eye, a long-haired pervert in nothing but rope bondage and underwear, and a youth in a pink magical girl costume with a perky rear.

...

Officer, arrest those perverts right there!

One could only worry for Cagalli...

Meanwhile, Athrun was locked in battle with the Loli-Con, and the other two GINNs, before they could even make a move against the Archangel, had their limbs shot off by the Loli-Con sniping whenever he found the chance. A finishing blow followed, turning them into experience points for the Loli-Con.

Even though this version of the Loli-Con was just a basic model, the power of its Beam Megacannon Rifle was over the top. A mere graze was enough to melt through the GINN's armor.

"Olor! Matthew!" Athrun screamed in anguish.

Those two background characters were truly pitiful—not even a minor nuisance to the Archangel, their presence was utterly negligible.

"Amazing! Is this MS from our Archangel? Sergeant Kojiro, what’s going on here?" Baki Lulu was thrilled.

Murrue’s thoughts were chaotic—she couldn’t find any plausible reason for this MS to appear.

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Temporarily serving as CIC communications officer, Mu rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

After witnessing the firepower of the Loli-Con’s rifle, Athrun began to carefully evade the thick red beams, while Sharp, unconcerned by energy limits, piloted the Loli-Con with wild abandon, firing non-stop.

After all, Aegis’s shell was "Phase Shift Armor," highly effective against physical munitions, but against beams—one hit, and it would probably be reduced to scrap.

Yet, the Loli-Con’s HP and EN decreased extremely slowly, sometimes even recovering, for some unknown reason—perhaps because Sharp’s core body could reset itself at any time.

"Damn, how agile! Athrun, flank it!" Missing time and again, Mikhail called for backup.

"Got it!" Hearing Mikhail's call, Athrun decisively abandoned his fight with the Loli-Con and charged at Strike.

"Athrun! Is that you?" Seeing the red MS charging in, Kira couldn’t help but be swept away by a flood of memories, all of them scenes from their previous confrontations in the Strike.

Just as Kira’s mind and heart were drawn toward Athrun, Mikhail chose that moment to sneak attack—green beams lanced toward Strike.

However, Strike easily dodged and, in passing, drew out the "King’s Blade" Beam Boomerang, which could carve unique trajectories when thrown.

Mikhail dodged the first phase of the "King’s Blade" attack, but as the story demanded, his GINN lost a leg to the secondary strike.

Given the way things were going, Mikhail would inevitably be cut in two by Kira. But at that moment, someone else swooped in to steal the kill.

A crimson beam snatched Kira’s victory.

"Mikhail!" Athrun’s expression was a study in shock.

"Experience points!" On the Loli-Con’s cockpit screen, the grinning face of a meme overlord flashed. "Ha~ha~ha~ha~ Three GINNs down, all the XP is mine—MS has reached Level 2. Please rest assured, Commander!"

"Mm, put the upgrade points into defense," Hao Ren commanded through his phone—a first-generation Motorola brick—communicating with Sharp, who was, after all, also a phone at heart.

It was impressive that Sharp could even connect with such ancient tech.

With only Aegis left as an enemy, there was little threat. It seemed as if Helipolis might escape destruction after all.

By all rights, this wasn’t how the script was supposed to go.

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While Hao Ren was lost in thought, a violent explosion tore through part of Helipolis’s outer wall and a nearby connector, and the station’s shell, finally unable to bear the strain, broke apart. Strike, Aegis, Loli-Con, and the Archangel were all sucked into the cold darkness of space.

Hao Ren clung to the scaffolding to avoid floating away—zero gravity was an entirely novel experience for him.

"To think it was destroyed so easily..." Mu floated in midair, muttering to himself.

"Weren’t there no threats left? What is going on?" Baki Lulu slammed the console angrily.

No one else seemed to notice, not even the Archangel’s sensors, but at the very instant of the explosion, a deep red MS flashed past the breach in the disintegrating hull.

"How dare they go off-script! Pathetic fools! I have to step in myself?" Whether out of rage or irritation, the masked man in the crimson MS was already plotting how to punish the young red-uniform ZAFT elites.

His mask, a black-and-red skull, lacked the dashing style of Rau Le Creuset’s—it was simply tasteless.

First sucked into space, the Loli-Con’s green electronic eyes flickered at the receding flames, as if recording something.

"For Helipolis to break apart even under these circumstances, this explosion must have been ZAFT’s doing. Did Le Creuset authorize the Cyclone? Only Cyclone has firepower to penetrate both the outer wall and connectors simultaneously," Hao Ren mused idly.

Meanwhile, Kira returned to the Archangel with his spoils.

A single evacuation ship.

"Why won’t you let me board?" Sharp’s Loli-Con was refused permission to enter the Archangel and was now kicking meteor debris in frustration.

"State your allegiance and purpose, or we’ll treat you as hostile!" Baki Lulu, facing the heavily armed Loli-Con, was on full alert.

"I told you, I’m an AI program designed by Lord Black Flame Dragon! Why won’t you believe me?" This was, of course, a lie.

"You think I’d believe that? State your identity and your purpose!" Baki Lulu insisted stubbornly.

"Just get that Black Flame Dragon kid over here and confirm it face to face! If you keep stressing like this, you’ll get wrinkles, you know." Mu activated the ship’s intercom, summoning Hao Ren to the bridge.