"Reporting for shift change, captain." – Bright announced as he walked into the bridge.

"Good timing, I'm in need of some shuteye myself." – Cassius sighed, suppressing a yawn. He didn't keep track of time, but definitely felt the exhaustion of having stayed awake since before their arrival to Side 7. – "No enemy sightings so far, let's hope it stays that way. Helm, time to Luna II?"

"Six hours at current speed, captain." – the helmsman replied without taking his eyes off the bridge window. Not that Cassius would fault him; some of the asteroids surrounding Luna II were already visible in the distance and it would be rather pathetic to survive an encounter with an enemy ace, only to be turned into roadkill by an asteroid instead.

"Steady as she goes, XO has the bridge." – Cassius announced as he stood up from the captain's chair.

"Yes, sir." – Bright saluted, then lowered his voice. – "I also watched the footage you told me, sir."

"Opinion?"

"I'm having a hard time believing it was really him in that mobile suit. Are you sure we can trust him?"

Cassius shrugged. – "Way I see it, if he'd be with Zeon, he had his chance to take us all out back at the colony. He didn't take it, so he likely isn't with them and I'll treat him as such until he gives me reason otherwise."

"Understood, sir. By the way, there's a lieutenant looking for you. He's just outside."

And sure enough, as soon as Cassius stepped out of the bridge to head for his quarters, there was a man in Federation officer uniform waiting for him outside. Cassius immediately noted he looked older than the majority of his crew, which by itself was a giveaway of him being from Side 7.

"You wanted to speak with me?"

The officer saluted. – "Yes, sir. Lieutenant William Kemp, Project V. Based on the fact that this ship is carrying most of the project's materials, am I correct in assuming that Jaburo decided to recall us?"

"That's right. Is that why you wanted to speak to me?"

"I'm the project's designated test pilot of the RX-78-2 Gundam, sir. In light of the nature of this ship's cargo and that Zeon forces will likely try to intercept us, I wanted to let you know that I'm available for combat duty." – the officer explained as he fell in line with Cassius on the way to the latter's quarters. – "Once we arrive to Luna II, I'd also like to request a transfer to that end. I believe I'll be of better use here than on Side 7, now that the prototypes are no longer at the facility."

"That'd be much appreciated; we're short-handed as it is. And you say you have experience with the Gundam?"

"Nearly 200 hours in the cockpit. I was also one of the pilots assigned to testing captured Zaku IIs, so I know what sort of performance to expect from them."

"Even better." – And Cassius meant it. As good as a certain amateur on the ship was, he would feel much comfortable with having a veteran pilot or two watching over the ship, even though the only veterans he could possibly get his hands on at this time were test pilots who weren't exactly in ample supply. Speaking of which... – "Where were you during the attack yesterday?"

"On my way to the prototypes but I got pinned down and couldn't get there in time. I saw a Gundam driving off the Zakus, but I don't know who it was."

Oh, boy. This again. – "I assume you're acquainted with project lead Tem Ray?"

"We've met, sir."

"As difficult as you'll probably find it to believe, his son was the one who took the Gundam out yesterday. Three confirmed kills, one nearly crippled Musai and faced down the Red Comet himself. Came back with barely a scratch."

Kemp's eyebrows rose as high as anatomically possible – not that Cassius was surprised by such a reaction anymore when it came to Amuro Ray. – "I met that boy once. Are you certain it was him?"

"That's right. He brought the Gundam back and turned himself in with zero incident. Says he wants to enlist."

"And you believed him?" – the lieutenant asked with a skeptical tone.

"Enemy of my enemy, lieutenant." – Cassius quipped, stopping in front of his quarters. – "I'm willing to give him the benefit of doubt, for now. He's with us on the White Base, I'll handle the paperwork for the both of you once we reach Luna II."

"With all due respect, sir, I don't think that's a good idea." – Kemp pointed out. – "He's a civilian who shouldn't even have been near that mobile suit, let alone using it."

"Oh, I don't like putting a civilian in the line of fire any more than you do, but he stopped being a mere civilian when he pulled off what he did yesterday." – Cassius pointed out. It was becoming slightly annoying to be second-guessed from every direction at once for a decision he knew was controversial, even though he understood perfectly where his subordinates were coming from. – "He has both the will and the ability to be a valuable resource to the Federation. And I intend to seize this opportunity. The war has been at a stalemate for months now. We need every bit of advantage we can get, every tank, every bullet, every pilot. I don't know how or why he can do what he does, but that power should be on our side, not Zeon's." – Checking his chronometer, he suppressed another yawn. – "Anyway, we'll sort it out when we dock at Luna II. I know the garrison commander, he'll have to greenlight this anyway. Until further notice, consider yourself provisional CAG with ensign José as your second-in-command."

Kemp saluted. – "Yes, sir."

Kilometers away, Dren handed a damage report tablet back to a crewman before reaching under his helmet to wipe the sweat off his forehead. Even though all the internal fires had been extinguished hours ago and the life support system had dealt with the internal heat, he was still sweating all the same. Whether it was from nervousness or something else, he couldn't tell.

It was always a possibility that some of his crew will give their lives in the line of duty, but to have it happen with no warning that they were even being shot at... Now he supposed he knew how the ship crews felt in the days before Minovsky jamming, when they could be hit without even seeing who shot at them. How did that even happen, he still had no idea and no matter how many times he reviewed the remaining gun camera footage, all he saw was the two shots that hit the ship before the shooter changed target to Char's mobile suit.

And his superior was definitely not in the mood for supplying any information in that regard, storming out of the hangar in silent rage as soon as his headless, damaged Zaku came back to the ship.

Dren had no idea how could someone humiliate Char Aznable to that extent. And he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer. But delivering the collated damage report to his superior was something he had no choice over, hence why his next destination was the captain's quarters. Ringing the door buzzer and getting an affirmative response from within, he headed into the room and was about to speak up when he stopped dead in his tracks as his brain registered the helmet discarded into a corner, meters away from its hunched-over owner.

All he saw at first was a helmet-ruffled mop of blonde hair. But a second later he found himself under the glare of eyes so coldly blue that he unconsciously took a step back from the chill clawing through his very soul. Dren didn't think he had ever seen his superior officer without his mask – and now, he wasn't sure he ever really wanted to.

"What is it?" – came the quiet, almost emotionless question.

"S-sir! I have the collated ship readiness report."

"Go ahead."

Dren forced himself to look down at the tabled and cleared his throat. – "Turrets 2 and 3 are out of commission. The technicians say we might be able to feed some the excess power to turret 1 for faster charging, but it'll probably ruin the capacitors after a couple of charge cycles. Missile launcher ammunition down to 19%. We also have moderate damage to the superstructure, but it shouldn't affect combat maneuvering."

"Is there any way to get the turrets back online?"

"Not without a dry dock, sir." – Dren replied with a shake of his head.

"What's the status on the repairs of my Zaku?"

Dren glanced back down at the tablet. – "Still underway, but it should be done within the hour."

Char nodded and drummed on his desk with his fingers for a few moments before asking – "Are we still following the Trojan Horse?"

"Yes, sir. They're headed towards Luna II, as we expected."

"Dig up the latest intel reports regarding open approaches to the base and correlate it with the Horse's current course, then let me know which approach they're going to take."

"Um... yes sir, but I don't think we're quite up to snuff for a ship-to-ship engagement in our current condition." – Dren replied uncertainly. – "Shouldn't we at least call Admiral Dozle for resupply?"

Char merely smirked. – "Trust me, Dren. It won't come to that."

Well, he sure did hope so.

Four hours later, Bright shifted in his seat slightly. Had he been under gravity, some of his parts would've fallen asleep from sitting in the same pose for hours on end, but luckily that wasn't the case in zero gravity. Which was about the only thing that made being on watch bearable. Not that he would complain, though; his first space assignment certainly hadn't been uneventful so far, which was a given for wartime military service. What wasn't a given was a teenage boy saving the day in the very hardware they were sent here to retrieve. Bright had only spoken with Tem Ray a few times and even saw that photo of his son in Tem's room just before they arrived, but it still felt unreal to him that the very same boy ended up saving all their lives just a few hours later.

No matter how well they came out of that, though, you don't just hand military equipment over to a civilian to send them into combat, let alone one so young. Bright didn't know why his captain was so insistent on wanting to turn that boy into a soldier rather than sending him home where he belonged, but as XO it wasn't his call to make. In fact, he was glad on some level it wasn't his call, as officer training unfortunately didn't cover commanding a civilian militia and he had no idea what he'd do in that scenario.

He only hoped it wasn't going to bite them in the arse by way of Amuro losing it during combat. At the military academy he heard tales of how quickly untrained and inexperienced troops tended to break in the face of death.

Bright was abruptly startled out of his thoughts by a sudden, loud thump accompanied by a startled cry from the helmsman. Head snapping up, Bright saw a large, spiderweb-like crack on the bridge window.

"Sir!" – the helmsman called out uncertainly.

"Micrometeoroid impact?" – Bright demanded.

"Can't be, this approach is supposed to be clear!"

Then another impact crater appeared almost directly on top of the other, the cracks now packed so densely as to render the glass nearly opaque.

A chill ran down Bright's spine. – "Close the shutters!"

He heard the technician behind him hurriedly entering commands into his terminal... just as a third crater materialized between the other two and the entire window began rapidly developing larger and larger cracks with the unmistakable sound of being moments away from shattering altogether due to the bridge's internal atmospheric pressure against the vacuum outside straining the already weakened glass.

"CLOSE IT, NOW!"

Armored shutters began descending from the top of the bridge window, but not quickly enough. With a loud shattering sound, the window gave way and everyone on the bridge was yanked out of their seats by the force of the air rushing towards the sudden hole. Bright's panicked grip for the armrest reached nothing but emptiness as he heard the brief shriek of the helmsman being hurled into space by the explosive decompression, followed by a moment of nothing but his ears crackling and popping louder than ever before in his life...

...then his back hit the shutter now covering the window and bounced off like an upside-down ragdoll, pain flaring across his torso as the impact knocked all remaining air out of his lungs. Even as blackness narrowed in from the edge of his vision, the young man all but instinctively kicked himself to the nearest console, trembling hands failing to press the environmental controls he wanted but panic forcing him to keep trying, ignoring the others writhing around in the zero gravity and clawing at their throats increasingly weakly, going still one by one from the lack of life-giving oxygen.

The last things he felt before consciousness blissfully left him was the rush of air from the vents in the ceiling and the slowly returning sound of decompression alarms.

Cassius was startled awake by the sudden, loud klaxon he unfortunately knew all too well. Throwing himself out of the bed, he immediately pushed himself to his desk and pressed the closed-circuit comm panel on the wall next to it. – "Bridge, this is the captain! Sitrep!"

No response came.

"Captain to bridge! Come in!"

After a few more seconds, he kicked himself towards the room's wall-integrated emergency normalsuit storage pod and practically tore the door open.

By the time he reached the bridge, fully suited up for a possible combat situation, he had to step aside to make room for an unconscious Marker being carried off on a stretcher, skin visibly swollen around the oxygen mask. He immediately noticed the broken window, closed shutters, as well as the multitude of bodies still being collected by the tired corpsmen.

He seized the first that came within arm's reach of him. – "What happened?"

"I don't know, sir." – the crewman replied. – "The entire bridge was like this when we arrived."

"Oscar, pull up the bridge security camera footage for the last minutes and find out what the hell happened!"

"Yes, sir!"

As Cassius looked over the bridge, he could barely keep himself from pulling at his hair from frustration. 'One second I take my eyes off of this place, one goddamn second...!' It was like the very universe was conspiring to make this day the worst he ever had - an observation that felt ever truer when he realized one of the injuries being carted off the bridge was his XO.

"How is he?" – he asked the corpsman.

"Breathing and has a stable heartbeat. Minor soft tissue damage consistent with vacuum exposure."

Cassius nodded and stood aside, watching as the last of the casualties were carried off the bridge. Having had to fly the ship on a skeleton crew was bad enough, but the bridge crew being out of action was even worse. Anyone could work the infirmary or the mess hall, but operating avionics was a whole another thing.

"Sir." – he heard Oscar's voice, shaking him out of his thoughts.

"What've you got?"

"Something blew out the window. Happened so fast they couldn't close the shutters fast enough and... hold on..." – The technician fiddled with his console for a few moments before looking startled. – "Oh, shit..."

"What is it?"

"Sir... Jackson is gone. He was closest to the window when it broke and he wasn't wearing a normalsuit."

Cassius promptly punched the nearest wall in anger. – "Goddamnit!"

An alarm tone came from the console, which prompted Oscar to quickly tap something and promptly turn even paler. – "Heat source, coming in from below! Emission profile says it's a mobile suit!"

Cassius immediately threw himself into the captain's seat and keyed in the shipwide PA system. – "General quarters, all hands to battlestations! This is NOT a drill!" – Muting the PA as alarms began to sound over the ship, he continued barking out orders. – "Call the hangar and tell them to get the Gundam ready for launch ASAP!"

As soon as the first alarm sounded, Amuro leaped right out of his bed, mind racing. 'Damn it, I fell asleep! Did Char resupply already?!'

After being discharged from the infirmary, Ryu made good on his promise and helped him find Frau. And, as it turned out, Frau's mother as well. Amuro was glad at least that turned out better than first time around. He still felt some measure of guilt when he remembered hitting a crying Frau just to snap her out of it long enough to get her on the White Base. Although having had Katz, Letz and Kikka under her care helped as a distraction from her grief, she was never the same chipper girl he came to know at Side 7 afterwards.

Come to think of it, he couldn't remember ever asking whether she ever went back to Side 7 to visit the mass grave her mother's body ended up in along with all the other civilian dead from that day.

He knows he didn't.

But there was no time to think about that. While the room he was put into had a wall locker for a normalsuit (it was standard for Federation warships, as keeping them in a central location that could get off from the rest of the ship by depressurization would be counter-productive), it wasn't his size. Putting it on didn't present any trouble, as he had years of experience in suiting up in a hurry, but the lack of gravity was pretty much the only reason he wasn't waddling like a child wearing an adult's trousers. Even so, by the time he reached the hangar, the alarm now having changed to combat alert after the PA announcement, he got through the airlock just in time to see the Gundam catapult-launching without him.

That... was definitely not according to plan.

In the Gundam's cockpit, Kemp steered the mobile suit into a wide turn around the ship before turning on the radio. – "Gundam to White Base Actual. Bogey dope."

"Kemp, is that you?"

"Roger."

"One bandit, off our starboard. Use extreme caution, there's a high likelihood that it's the Red Comet."

And indeed, as he saw the lone engine flare and zoomed in, it was a lone red Zaku, still missing its shoulder shield. He couldn't see a commander antenna either, which meant it probably had the head replaced as well. He could, however, see that the thing was armed to the teeth, dual-wielding a machine gun and a bazooka with missiles strapped to the legs as well.

Still, knowing it was the pilot who singlehandedly sunk five ships at Loum in less than five minutes made his mouth run dry. – "I have visual. Engaging."

"Use extreme caution, lieutenant!" – Cassius repeated. – "We don't have anything to send out as backup; you're on your own."

Lining up a shot from where he was, he pulled the trigger...

...and the Zaku simply zipped right out of the way of the beam in a single burst of engine power. Figures it wouldn't be that easy.

Closer, then.

It seemed, however, that his opponent had the same idea as the Zaku started closing faster than he had ever seen one move. A helluva lot faster, about right for the engine being redlined, but the level of control at said speed was just downright insane, the Zaku all but cartwheeling out of the way of his next shot before returning fire with its bazooka. But even that was a feint: it didn't even wait for the result of the shot before reversing its heading and opening fire with its machine gun straight at the Gundam's head.

It wasn't a particularly well-aimed burst, but Kemp knew better than to assume incompetence from a Zeon mobile suit ace. So he evaded all the same, boosting to the side before firing off another shot. And proving his point, the Zaku dodged that one too, despite the significantly shorter range between them, and fired another burst, this time from close enough that Kemp decided not to leave anything to chance and deflect with his shield.

Except this turned out to be exactly what Char wanted, as by the time he lowered the shield, the Zaku flanked him from the right and shoulder-charged him faster than he could aim. At least, that's what he saw before the Zaku suddenly switched stance and dropkicked his shield straight out of the Gundam's hands before twisting around and kicking the Gundam straight in the face with the other foot. Kemp immediately drew a beam saber and swiped at the Zaku, only for the red machine to nimbly flip over the blade and put a bazooka round directly into the Gundam's face at point-blank range, turning all of the cockpit viewscreens into static.

"Goddamn it!" – Kemp seethed as he blind-fired the head vulcans while hurrying to switch over to the backup cameras, succeeding only in time to see the Zaku's heat hawk hammer down on the inside of the Gundam's left elbow joint, exposed by the Zaku's other arm holding the Gundam's arm up by the fist around the ignited beam saber. He tried to kick the Zaku away but with the two of them floating in zero gravity with nothing to brace against, all it achieved was sending both mobile suits into a spin as the Zaku buried the heat hawk into the elbow joint once again, this time deep enough for an actuator damage alarm to sound in the Gundam's cockpit as the superheated blade hit something and got stuck between the arm's armor plates.

His next attempt to kick was interrupted by the Zaku beating him to the punch by kicking itself off of the Gundam, both arms swinging outwards in perfect symmetry to grab its machine gun and bazooka before nimbly backflipping to evade a beam rifle shot by mere centimeters, flipping to the side to evade another and firing a missile at him from its leg racks, forcing him to move.

Quickly checking if the Gundam's left arm could still move, Kemp gunned the Gundam's thrusters to maximum to go on the offensive. Firepower or no firepower, the Zaku's only close-combat weapon was currently lodged into the Gundam, so he had the advantage there. All he needed was one proper slash with the beam saber and it would all be over for the Red Comet.

Except the Red Comet had no intention of letting him get within saber range and by the time the Zaku dodged his seventh shot in a row, Kemp was starting to sweat. What the hell was going on? His specs were far superior to a Zaku's, how was it not enough?

Inside the Zaku's cockpit, Char frowned. The Gundam was barely putting up any resistance at all, compared to its earlier performance. Was it even the same pilot as before? Why in the world would they switch pilots now, after the previous one's performance against him? Was Bright trying to get everyone killed?

Oh, well. If they were considerate enough to offer him the opportunity to take out the Gundam right here and now, it would be rude to not oblige.

Thus as the Gundam missed the Zaku again, the latter launched itself into another shoulder charge. – "This again...!" – Kemp aimed at the Zaku but held fire, waiting for it to flip over into a dropkick again so that he can blast it mid-movement. And indeed, as soon as he saw the Zaku's arm start sweeping outwards in preparation of kicking out, he pulled the trigger...

...only for the Zaku to boost upwards and let the shot pass between its legs before reversing the feint and plowing both feet first into the Gundam's upper chest, redlining its engines to send both machines flying directly at the White Base too fast for Kemp to push back with the Gundam's stronger engines.

Just before impact, the Zaku suddenly reversed thrust into a high-gee deceleration that tore it away from the Gundam two seconds before the latter violently hit the hull of the White Base like a cannonball and rattled Kemp in the cockpit so hard he almost bashed his head against the front panel. And by the time he shook the dizzyness out of his head and looked up, it was only to see the red Zaku swoop down like a meteor and plow feet first into the haft of the heat hawk still lodged into the Gundam's elbow joint. What the Zaku's arm actuators couldn't achieve, 70 tons of Zaku with a helluva lot of momentum finished: the superheated blade instantly but through the joint and separated the entire forearm, hand and still-ignited beam saber from the rest of the Gundam.

And before Kemp could even swear, the Zaku's other foot swiped down with impossible precision and heel-kicked the back of the severed hand, causing the still-ignited beam saber to whip around and stab the Gundam in the gut just before the blade faded away from lack of power, just barely missing the cockpit. The damage alarms blaring in his ears didn't even have time to register before the Zaku pinned down his rifle hand with one foot and the Gundam's head with the other foot, facing away from the first and completely denying him a shot with the head vulcans.

And as if adding insult to injury, his cockpit viewscreen abruptly indicated an incoming hull-to-hull transmission from the Zaku. – "This has been quite entertaining, my friend, but I'm afraid you're not who I was looking for. I still appreciate you bringing this mobile suit out for the slaughter, though."

In the Zaku's cockpit Char smirked as he cut the contact link, aiming at the cockpit hatch with the bazooka...

...only to leap back as a warning flashed across his mind a moment before a hail of bullets zipped right through the spot where he just stood. And as his eyes locked on the Core Fighter that buzzed his position and flipped over to coast backwards on inertia while facing him, Char felt it.

'That's the one.'

Boosting backwards, the Zaku fired off a full-auto burst from its machine gun at the Core Fighter whose RCS thrusters flared like mad as the smaller machine danced out of the way of every single bullet, moving more like a Ball than its namesake aircraft. But Char wasn't stupid: he knew the pilot couldn't possibly keep that performance up indefinitely on finite RCS fuel. That was the very reason mobile suits were invented, after all. Which is why he boosted downwards and behind the White Base, his foe dropping out of sight the same instant his machine gun ran dry.

Kemp was in the middle of silencing the damage alarms when the radio came on, this time from a friendly. – "Lieutenant, are you alright?"

The voice wasn't quite familiar to him, but Cassius butted in before he could answer. – "Mister Ray, is that you?"

"Yes, sir!"

As the voice wasn't that of Tem Ray, by process of elimination that could've meant only one person. – "Who the hell gave you permission to climb into that?!"

"We'll worry about that later, lieutenant!"

"My fa- Lieutenant Ray did, for the record." – Amuro replied. – "Ensign José is still down with his injuries."

If that's how it was, Kemp decided he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. – "Right. I'm down one saber, but I still have my rifle. If we can pin that bastard down, I can take him out in one go."

"Can you still move?"

"I'm still good. Listen, don't even think about trying to steal the show again! The pea shooters on your ride will barely even scratch a Zaku. Just get his attention and let me take him down, got it?"

"Roger."

Beneath the White Base, Char let go of the Zaku's bazooka to eject the machine gun's spent drum magazine and snap the spare in place before grabbing the bazooka once more. Getting double-teamed for the second time in a row was not how he would've preferred this to go, but at least the Gundam wasn't putting up as much resistance as before. He hated lugging around the damn bazooka and restricting his field of vision, but he had no choice: whoever was in the Gundam now wasn't a complete amateur and if he hadn't known already, he just found out the hard way that lunar titanium or no lunar titanium, his cameras were still vulnerable to 120mm bullets.

But the focus of his attention wasn't the Gundam. He could feel, plain as day, inside that Core Fighter the same pilot who tore him a new one at Side 7. Why he wasn't in the Gundam, Char had no idea but there was no time to mull on the issue as the Core Fighter zipped around the White Base and immediately zeroed in on his location, letting off a pair of missiles at him. Zipping out of the way, the Zaku returned the favor with its own leg missiles, which the fighter immediately swatted out of the void with precise bursts, the shrapnel bouncing off its hull. Yet Char had no expectation of any other outcome and already went into a charge before the missiles were even destroyed, swinging a knee straight at the Core Fighter's cockpit.

The fighter nimbly flung itself downwards and out of the way of the larger machine and in the same motion backflipped while coasting on inertia, its nose tracking the Zaku as the latter flew by while the smaller machine pelted its foe with vulcan fire. And when the Zaku returned fire at near point-blank range and the Core Fighter's RCS thrusters flared before the first bullet even left the machine gun's chamber, Char had no more doubt. Whoever was flying that thing was most definitely a Newtype.

Which meant that taking out the pilot was a much higher priority than the Gundam. After the Nu Gundam, Char Aznable was in no mood for another fair fight with anyone for the foreseeable future. Thus he fired his thrusters to maximum, flying around the starboard side of the White Base with the Core Fighter hot on his tail... and yanked his controls back just as his senses screamed danger at him, which swiftly materialized in the form of a particle beam flying through the spot his inertia would've carried him into had he not decelerated, courtesy of the Gundam leaning around the side of the ship's conning tower to stake out the dorsal half of the ship.

Not that it meant much, as the Zaku just rocketed forward until the tower was between it and the Gundam. With the momentary reprieve, the Zaku forward-flipped upside down and let loose with its machine gun at the Core Fighter, which swiftly throw itself into a sideways roll and launched its missiles, the fighter's spin giving the barrage a chaotic twirl of too many objects moving in too many directions at once for the Zaku to shoot down quickly. As it was, the Zaku still got half of them before zipping downwards, landing on the portside engine block of the White Base hard enough for everyone onboard to feel the impact. The remaining missiles curved to follow their target - only for the Zaku to kick off at the last moment, the missiles unable to correct their course in time to avoid plowing straight into the ship and detonating without even catching the Zaku in the blast.

With the threat gone, the Zaku lined up another shot at the Core Fighter, only to have to dodge another beam as the Gundam got around the conning tower, this time on the portside where it didn't have to expose itself as much due to only having the right arm to hold its rifle with. Without even looking, the Zaku fired its final bazooka round at the Gundam, forcing the latter to take cover behind the tower while the Zaku tossed away its empty bazooka and returned its attention to the Core Fighter, which was evidently out of missiles judging from the fact that it was only returning fire with vulcans before zipping back below the White Base.

Char was about to follow when he was forced to evade the Gundam's potshots again. He was starting to feel really annoyed at the constant interruptions and made his displeasure known with his last remaining leg missiles before jettisoning the launchers and moving to fly around the conning tower from starboard... except as soon as he was out of sight, he decelerated to a halt, waited for a second, then doubled back and rounded the tower from portside instead. And indeed, the Gundam was in the middle of relocating back to its starboard shooting position when the Zaku violently kicked it in the back hard enough to kick it straight off the ship and into a tumble, at which point the Zaku took aim and fired a full-auto burst straight into the Gundam's beam rifle, shattering it to pieces in a small explosion.

With its foe neutered, the Zaku ignored the Gundam and moved to follow the Core Fighter. It didn't matter to Char that he had no more missiles or bazooka rounds, as the Core Fighter's armor could only take so much head-on force from bullets before giving away and splattering the pilot into a rapidly evaporating cloud of blood. The chase was coming to a close and after all the trouble that pilot gave him, Char relished the opportunity to finally put a major obstacle away. And indeed, as soon as the saw the white glint standing still like a perfect target, his machine gun snapped up and opened fire, the impacts sending the Core Fighter into an uncontrolled tumble...

...which is when Char noticed the open and very much empty cockpit. 'Wha-?! A decoy?!'

In his state of confusion, it took his brain a full second to register his peripheral vision's alert that the starboard turret of the White Base was pointed straight at him, which was a second too much. Char saw the muzzle flash just in time for his eyes to widen in panic before the cannon shell hit the Zaku's engine block dead-on.

The Zaku violently lurched forward from the impact... then the entire engine block erupted like a volcano, launching the mobile suit upwards on a spiraling trail of fire and broken components like a fireworks rocket. In the cockpit, Char was painfully squeezed into his seat by overwhelming G-forces as he futilely tried to throttle back down, only for the controls to do nothing as the deafening cacophony of cockpit alarms assaulted him and screen after screen went dead.

After a few seconds, the Zaku's flailing died down as its armor plates began falling away in pieces, soon followed by its arms.

It was at this point that Char grit his teeth, hit the cockpit hatch emergency release and was violently yanked out of his seat by the explosive decompression, a moment before the Zaku's continuing acceleration slammed him ribs-first against the edge of the now-open hatch hard enough to stop his breath. With nothing but his own ragged and pained breathing breaking the sudden silence in his helmet, he ultimately managed to wedge his hands into the hole and pull, giving himself one last heave to get halfway out – at which point the torque slammed his upper body down and violently flung him out of the hole as his doomed mobile suit left him behind.

He pushed the panicked disorientation of suddenly spinning in zero-G away long enough to use his normalsuit's RCS thrusters to cancel out his rotation, regaining his bearings just in time to see the Zaku finally erupting into a massive fireball in the distance.

Back at the White Base, there was silence on the bridge as the crew fearfully waited for the sounds of fighting to resume. Eventually Cassius, having stayed silent to avoid distracting the pilots, decided to chance it otherwise. – "White Base Actual to any receiving unit, sitrep."

When the answer came, it was the last thing he expected.

"This is Amuro. Splash one. Repeat, splash one."

Post-it author's notes – 2020.06.06.

I originally intended for Amuro to participate in the skirmish entirely from the White Base's turret. Said hit being scored by the Core Fighter's missiles was the next version, with the final version being Amuro using the Core Fighter as a decoy to line up a shot with the turret. As contrived as it sounds, this is actually perfectly in-character for Amuro, as evidenced by the demise of Gyunei Guss: when he shot the Nu Gundam's shield from far enough that the two combatants couldn't clearly see each other, Amuro dropped the damaged shield and the Nu Gundam's bazooka as a high-visibility decoy, zipped out of Gyunei's field of vision while Gyunei was fixated on the white silhouette with visible weapon, then shot him in the back just as Gyunei got close enough to visually confirm the shield and bazooka as a decoy.

According to Origin, Lt. William Kemp is the Gundam's canonical test pilot who was killed in the Zaku attack at Side 7 while on his way to the Gundam. He had a brief speaking appearance in the sixth OVA as the Federation officer who interrogated Amuro about the latter's knowledge of the Gundam's existence, which is what he refers to in this chapter when saying that he met Amuro before.