“Shit the generator output is dropping.” Lieutenant JG Eliard Hunter said as he unconsciously gritted his teeth while looking at the monitor’s gauges. His Gaplant Hrairoo was being attacked; the energy of the beam cannons of the active thruster unit attached to both arms had already run out. He was no longer in a position to continue fighting. Upon inspecting the monitor, he noticed that various portions of it were malfunctioning.

“What’s the situation?”

With Minovsky particle dispersion reaching combat levels, communication with ally units ceased. He could only depend on his sight. A beam flared, exploded into a ball of fire, and then vanished. He didn’t know whether it was an enemy or ally. Twenty days prior, the AEUG had gained control of Gryps 2 Colony Laser. A three-way battle unfolded between Eliard and the others, the AEUG and Axis. The moon looked so close with the Earth shining blue in the distance.

Suddenly, a ball of light erupted from the rear. Eliard spun around. The monitor displayed the figure of a Salamis Kai-class space cruiser sinking. It was an explosion from their thermonuclear rocket engines. There was no mistaking it, it was the Izmir, the mothership of Eliard and the others Murphy platoon. Eliard could not believe what he was witnessing. There was no place to return to. This was the biggest fear for mobile suit pilots. He wasn’t sure how long the Gaplant Hrairoo’s life support would hold out, calculating the damage was impossible, and on top of that, he only had a small amount of propellant remaining. For the first time ever, Eliard felt despair. A mobile suit without a home is the same as a coffin. He was away from the frontlines, having retreated after being attacked. But there was no telling when the combat zone would move to him. It was then he noticed he was trembling.

The mobile suit shook from an impact. Something had come into contact with it. His rear monitor showed a close-up of another Gaplant Hrairoo. The unit belonged to team commander, Captain Wes Murphy.

“Eliard, are you alive?”

“Commander… the Izmir’s been sunk.”

“Don’t worry about it, everything will be fine. The Aswan is at our rear to pick us up. Do you see the ship?”

“Yes, I see it, sir.”

“We’ll retreat to there.”

“What about Carl and Audrey?” Eliard was worried about his teammates, Lieutenant JG Carl Matsubara and Lieutenant JG Audrey April.

“They’re still fighting, or there’s a possibility that they escaped. Don’t worry. They’re dyed-in-the-wool Titans. They won’t go down without a fight. Besides, you can’t fight with your unit anymore. Let’s go.”

Commander Murphy fired up his thrusters of his Gaplant Hrairoo and headed towards the Aswan. Eliard followed suit. *

Eliard heard Commander Murphy’s voice once again, “Char Aznable may be in this area. Have you seen a gold colored mobile suit?”

“No sir. But about this Char…?”

“I just wanted to fight him once…” the Commander said, grumbling.

“Nice to see you made it back in one piece,” said the Aswan’s deck hand to Eliard as they manually opened the Gaplant Hrairoo’s cockpit. “We’re leaving the damaged Gaplant behind. It may explode if we keep it.”

Eliard felt that couldn’t be helped, “Where’s Commander Murphy?”

“Over there,” Eliard followed the deck hands direction. A blood-soaked Captain Murphy was being carried away; he was seriously injured.

“Commander!” As Eliard tried to get closer, Murphy smiled and gave him a thumbs up.

“Leave treatment off the Commander to the med team. You need to rest up too; we don’t know when they’ll order us to sortie again.”

He had no choice but to do as instructed. For the first time, he felt exhausted.

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Translation Notes:

Well, I thought something was a little strange with this chapter. When I first read it back when the first compilation AoZ book came out, they stated that only one of the arms was inoperable, and in the latest incarnation, they state that both are inoperable. The only other difference has to do with Eliard not “taking his helmet off” after seeing the Commander being taken away.