Amuro's knuckles were still tense on the controls by the time he was nearing the factory section once more, the smoke from the fires visibly fogging the longitudinal axis of the colony above him. It would take the environmental systems a couple of days to clear it out, but structural damage to the colony itself was still light. Which was good, but not nearly as good as it could've been.

He was mentally kicking himself for not expecting Char to come back so quickly, and with an anti-ship rifle nonetheless. If it weren't for the low angle the shots traveled at, ordinance of that caliber could very well have punched a hole straight through the colony's outer wall and spaced a lot of the civilians who were fleeing to the dock nearby. Things were definitely not going according to plan – and not just because he failed to take down Char on the first try due to a cheap shot on the man's part. Hell, Char wasn't even supposed to have accompanied his wingmen into the colony during the initial incursion, let alone armed to the teeth with heavy weapons.

But that was no excuse for failing to take him out right then and there. There was no denying it: Amuro was having far more difficulty adjusting to an RX-78 than he expected. The controls he could vaguely recall and it wasn't as if mobile suit controls didn't have a similar level of cross-compatibility as airplane controls, but the difficulty was in how sluggish the machine was compared to what he was used to. It wasn't just the lack of a movable frame, the whole system was reacting to his commands with a brief but noticeable time lag, as if it was taking a moment to figure out what command to send to which actuator.

He definitely needed to look into the OS later on to see what he could do about that in the way of optimization. That is, if they would even let him.

The cockpit display alerting him to an incoming communication shook him out of his thoughts. – "White Base to Gundam. Sitrep."

"Contact lost with target, returning as ordered."

"Change of plans. The Musai is barraging the docks trying to smoke us out and the impacts are getting a bit too close for comfort. We're almost ready for launch, but I need you back here ASAP."

"On my way."

"Lieutenant Ray is going through our cargo right now to get you a weapon to use. I need you to get out there and distract them long enough for the White Base to get outside. We'll handle the Musai, you just need to buzz around their heads loud enough to keep their attention on you until we have them in our sights. Can you do that?"

"Yes, sir."

He would do more than that.

"Who was that, sir?"

"The reason why we aren't Zaku boot polish right now." – Cassius replied as he put down the receiver. – "You know Lieutenant Ray has a son, right?"

"Yes, sir." – Bright replied.

"Well, he somehow got into one of the prototypes when the Zakus showed up and tore them to pieces with it. Don't ask me how because I don't have any more of a clue than you do. He was about to return it to us too when a sniper started taking shots at us, so I sent him after it. He's on his way back now."

"Are you sure that was wise, sir? Letting an untrained civilian operate classified equipment is-"

"Against regulations, I know." – Cassius interrupted him wearily. – "You're not the first to remind me, either. But if he gets us out of here in one piece, I'll take the rap from the brass. Especially if we can hold these Zekes off long enough to not walk away empty-handed."

As the one-legged Zaku stood suspended by fuel lines in the middle of the Falmel's hangar like a spider sitting at the center of its web, Char was idly drumming on his knee with his fingers in the cockpit. As much as it hurt his pride, he was forced to change into a normal suit after all. A glance at the cockpit display told him the propellant loading was 95% complete, which meant he would soon be heading out again – and this time, for the killing blow.

After all, having the Gundam did the Federation a fat load of good if it couldn't leave Side 7, much less reach Jaburo, without a certain assault carrier to hitch a ride on.

While waiting, his thoughts inevitably went back to the way the Gundam fought. Newtype or Oldtype, it wasn't the practiced but rough style of a well-trained rookie, but more like an experienced ace who knew the full capabilities of a mobile suit and didn't hesitate in using them. But considering that it was far too early for the Federation to have mobile suit aces of their own, it hinted the possibility of a Zeon defector. But as much as he tried to wrack his brain for an answer, he didn't remember hearing about any Zeon aces who defected before the tides of war even turned in the Federation's favor.

Another possibility, of course, was one he considered but rejected. At this point in time, Amuro Ray was nothing more than an arrogant and whiny teenager with zero skill or experience, only surviving by the skin of his teeth and even then only due to the Gundam's sheer power. Were he in a Zanny back in the day, he wouldn't have even made it stand up before getting perforated by Zaku machine gun fire. It was a textbook example of the machine doing all the fighting, something Char personally looked down on as undeserving of the name of soldier. Of course, that situation very much changed later on, to the point of Amuro putting the fear of God into him like no one else ever did. Even facing down Haman Karn by himself in an inferior machine couldn't compare.

The way the Gundam moved was most decisively not something Amuro would be capable of at this time, of that he was dead certain. Yet the possibility kept gnawing at the back of his mind, maddeningly teasing him with something he didn't know, an unknown that infuriatingly felt as if it should be obvious.

And Char did not miss the moment of himself instinctively calling out Amuro's name during the fight.

"Resupply complete, sir." – Dren's voice shook Char out of his thoughts. And indeed, the displays now indicated his thrusters were topped up with reaction mass he'd need to maintain maneuverability despite the missing leg. Although the deaths of his wingmen meant he now had an abundance of spare parts for his own Zaku, there was no time to conduct more extensive repairs if they wanted to catch the White Base before it left.

"Continue barrage but stand ready to change target if the ship comes out." – Char ordered before moving to close the cockpit hatch, his subordinate backing out of the way.

"Understood, sir."

"The Gundam is armed, sir." – Tem reported to Cassius via the wired headset the latter was holding as he sat in the captain's chair on the bridge of the White Base.

"Good." – Just then, another explosion rocked the ship as the Gundam flew by the bridge window and stopped in front of the ship, holding a rifle in one hand.

"Sir, that hit was in the berth below ours!" – one of the operators at the elevated station behind him reported.

"We have to hurry. Marker, tell dock control to open the bay doors and let us out." – Cassius switched channel on his headset with a button press on his armrest. – "Gundam, do you read?"

"Five by five."

"We're out of time. Get out there, we'll be right behind you."

"Roger."

"Ensign José here." – Ryu's voice cut in. – "The doc got me a fighter; permission to sortie to back him up?"

"Granted."

"Movement at the dock!" – came the report from the built-in speakers of Char's helmet as his Zaku floated off to the side of the Falmel to keep the latter's line of fire at the colony clear.

"I see it." – Char replied, dialing the rifle's optics to maximum magnification to see a blue-white speck flying out of the dock. 'Step into my parlor, said the spider to the fly...'

As soon as he reached open space, Amuro grit his teeth. Trying to actively reach out with his senses felt like climbing through a thorn bush: the harder he pushed, the more it felt like a jagged knife was slowly being driven into his skull. He knew the tickling sensation on his skin below his left ear was a thin trickle of blood even before his fingers brushed against it, but it still made him frown. This never happened before and there was no time to mull on it either.

Still, he needed to... there. A brief brush of intent directed at him was enough to subconsciously draw his eye in a specific direction long enough for him to notice the small silhouette of the Musai in the distance. Briefly moving upwards to clear the way for the White Base, Amuro raised his beam rifle and took aim with both hands.

"Listen up, Amuro." – came his father's voice through the radio, grainy from Minovsky interference but still legible due to his proximity to the colony. – "The computer can't lock onto the target without a clear visual silhouette, so you need to be reasonably close to your target to be able to hit it. Even then, you need to pay attention to the rifle's charge level-"

"I read the manual." – Amuro interrupted him. – "Visual contact with the Musai, about... 120, 130 klicks fore of the space gate, two o'clock low."

"Ryu, can you confirm?" – Cassius asked.

"Wait one... confirmed. Kid's got good eyes."

"No sign of interception." – Amuro continued. – "They're probably staying out of the line of fire."

"Maybe." – Cassius mused. – "Are you sure you got three Zakus in the colony?"

"Roger."

"Latest intel says a Musai has room for four at most, so that sniper should be the only one left."

'Assuming Char didn't bring an extra in the Komusai.' Amuro mentally remarked, but did not say it out loud.

"Alright kid, follow me but stay loose. Musais don't have anti-air turrets so if you just keep moving, you should be fi-"

"I can hit it from here."

"Don't be ridiculous!" – Tem cut in. – "That rifle isn't meant for long-distance shooting, the targeting system isn't calibrated for the Minovsky jamming at this range."

Amuro didn't reply. Inhaling and exhaling once, he closed his eyes.

"Are you listening to me?"

Inhale.

Exhale.

He could feel it.

The distant, almost completely silent, whispers on the wind, a ripple in the water no eye could see, bleeding into infinity as the flock rose from the surface like a blooming flower yearning for the sky fated to forever remain beyond its reach, a realm that existed beyond sight and thought, beyond mind and soul. beyond joy and sorrow, beyond life and death, its fingers softly guiding his to ends he knew not and could know not.

"Amuro!"

Eyes snapping open, he pulled the trigger and a beam of deadly light lanced out of his rifle, streaking off into the darkness of space.

"You're just wasting energy! You can't seriously think-"

"Explosion at the Musai!" – Ryu suddenly interrupted.

"What?!"

Many kilometers away, Char's head snapped around at record speed when a beam of light suddenly buried itself into the Falmel's middle turret, which violently tore itself to pieces in a massive explosion that visibly rocked the entire ship. – "What the-?!"

"We're hit!"

Letting out a snarl of dismay, he pushed his engines to maximum forward speed, centered his crosshair on the Gundam and fired.

Amuro reflexively yanked the controls hard the instant he felt the familiar twinge in his head, throwing the Gundam to the side before lining up another shot. He didn't even see the high-caliber round passing through his previous spot a few seconds later.

But Char did. 'Did he saw the muzzle flash at this distance?! What the hell kind of eyes does that pilot have?!' – "Dren, status report!"

"Turret 2 is out of commission! Damage control teams are on their way! Turrets 1 and 3 will finish charging in 20 seconds!"

"No time! Load all missile tubes and fire a full salvo into the bay!"

"But sir-"

"We can't let that mobile suit leave this place! Do it!"

Just then, another beam struck the bottom turret, the explosion sending the ship careening off to the side.

This was starting to be more than what they could take and Char knew it. But now he was close enough to see the Gundam without magnification and he was not going to let it take out his mothership and strand him hundreds of thousands of kilometers behind enemy lines without a fight. The Gundam had evidently seen him coming, as it retargeted at him and fired. But Char's Zaku hadn't been legendary for its swiftness for no reason and the beam struck only void when he casually dodged out of the way with plenty of room to spare.

He almost didn't dodge the second shot targeted at the exact spot he would've been if his senses didn't alert him to it ahead of time. Which was enough for him to conclude that his foe's marksmanship was definitely not a fluke: the guy knew exactly where to aim. But there was only so much room for shooting here, with the speed he was approaching and the range he was currently at. So he stopped moving sideways and charged straight in, both physical and non-physical senses focused at his opponent with enough intensity for his head to feel like it was splitting in half.

In his mind's eyes, the universe slowed to a crawl as the Gundam aimed straight at him, the beam rifle's muzzle beginning to glow at the same moment his hands yanked the controls back. With less than a hundred meters and practically zero lateral relative velocity between muzzle and target, there was no way for any competently trained pilot to miss such a shot... but Char Aznable was no ordinary pilot himself. The outermost layers of the Zaku's paint bubbled as the machine threw itself into an impossibly fast backflip and the beam passed mere centimeters above the chest armor and the monoeye; there was no way for the Gundam to react before the Zaku's inertia closed the remaining distance and the red machine plowed straight into its quarry's chest with its remaining foot, sending the Gundam violently tumbling back.

An instant later, Char took aim next to his Zaku's foot and the anti-ship rifle let loose with its own high-caliber payload at an even shorter range - only for the Gundam's left arm to snap up and backhand straight into the path of the bullet, the almost point-blank blow tearing off a chunk of the forearm armor plating but deflecting just enough to miss the rest of the body. If it weren't for the lunar titanium, the arm wouldn't even have remained attached, much less intact and operational enough for the Gundam to swiftly toss its beam rifle from right hand to left, draw a beam saber with the now-empty right hand and immediately counterattack.

At that moment, Char knew without a doubt. None of the Oldtype aces he had known, either personally or by reputation, had that kind of reaction speed.

With that in mind, he righted the Zaku and counter-charged, pulling out the Zaku's heat hawk and immediately launching a swing before the axe blade had even finished heating up. Arcs of energy frayed the void as beam saber met heat hawk, the contained plasma failing to eat into the already superheated metal during the momentary contact before sliding off the curved blade from the force the Gundam was putting behind the parry. Char immediately reversed his attack into a horizontal slash to decapitate the Gundam but hit only space due to the Gundam leaning back to evade before kicking the Zaku in the side with the same motion and immediately stabbing forward with its beam saber to exploit the opening.

Amuro cursed to himself when the Zaku diverted the stab at the last second by ramming the muzzle of its rifle into the Gundam's elbow, only cutting a gash into the spiked shoulder guard instead of running the torso straight through. Zaku or no Zaku, this was Char Aznable he was up against and he wasn't considered by many to have been Amuro's equal for nothing. Not that Amuro particularly cared about competition or comparisons in the first place; war was never a game to him.

His senses alerted him just in time to move the Gundam's elbow out of the way of the point-blank shot that would've blown the joint in half at this range. He had personally known some pilots who joined the force after the One Year War and swore up and down that beam weapons objectively beat everything else, but Amuro himself had enough experience being on the receiving end of physical weapons to know better than to underestimate them. It was impossible to build moving parts without leaving seams in the armor to allow movement and anything that hit the gap between two plates wouldn't care what those plates were made of.

As the Zaku's heat hawk swept down to exploit the opening of the Gundam's saber arm being too far away to intercept in time, the Gundam kicked upwards with one foot into the end of the shaft of the Zaku's heat hawk to cancel out the weapon's momentum and create enough distance to spin around and parry the follow-up strike over its shoulder. Amuro immediately took aim with the beam rifle under the raised arm, only for the Zaku to swiftly disengage from the blade lock, knock his aim off with a kick to the barrel's bottom and take aim with its own rifle. But by the time it could fire, the Gundam spun back around and heel-kicked the rifle's barrel to the side, the Zaku using the momentum imparted by the blow to spin around and backhand-parry the incoming beam saber.

Above them, the Core Fighter floated motionlessly. – "Santa mierda..." – Ryu murmured.

"Ryu, talk to me. What's happening?"

Just then his thermal sensors alerted him to a large number of contacts heading in his direction. And it didn't take him long to realize what those were. – "I-incoming missiles from the Musai!"

"Move to intercept! Gundam, if you're hearing this, change of plans!"

"He's a bit busy right now, sir!"

At that moment, the Gundam's head snapped towards the incoming missiles before it threw its beam rifle upwards, parried an incoming hit and swiftly drew its other beam saber to cleave the Zaku's anti-ship rifle in half before shoving the heat hawk back and kicking off the Zaku's chest as a stepping stone upwards, putting its first beam saber away and grabbing the drifting beam rifle before rocketing off straight towards the missiles, Zaku hot on its tail.

"...or not." – was all Ryu could say before flying after them.

Truth be told, the sight of the red Zaku sent a chill down his spine as his brain vividly remembered the sight of the same mobile suit firing a tactical nuclear warhead straight into the open hangar of the ship he launched literally seconds before at Loum. Whether it was the will of the grim reaper that he crossed paths with the Red Comet again or something else, Ryu didn't know. But he profusely thanked God that Char was focused on someone else at the moment and as he lined up the crosshair on the speeding Zaku, having to throttle his own engines to maximum just to keep up, Ryu decided he will not be the last man standing this time around. – "Bring it, pendejo...!"

Three beams of light lanced out from the Gundam's beam rifle in rapid succession, each bisecting a missile, before the Zaku caught up and grabbed the Gundam's right leg from behind, fouling the next shot. The Gundam swiftly kicked backwards with its other foot before blowing away another missile but as the Zaku raised its heat hawk, the Core Fighter swept down like a bird of prey and strafed the Zaku with its machine guns. While this did little more than distract the Zaku long enough for the Gundam to take out one more missile, Ryu swept back around and shot the Zaku in the back with a missile just in time to blunt a heat hawk strike meant for the Gundam's thruster block. This time the Zaku finally let go of the Gundam so that the latter could take out two more missiles, but Ryu had no time to savor the minor victory as the missiles were already about to fly past them.

So he turned and streaked off after the missiles, gunning down one after another. He almost didn't hear the kid yelling something over the radio when suddenly the view above his canopy was filled with a red Zaku, heat hawk swiping straight down like the scythe of the Grim Reaper.

The superheated blade was less than a meter from the glass before it was speared straight through by a pink-purple beam of light and the next moment became filled with noise, shaking and pain. He shook off his daze just in time to see the Zaku get decapitated by another beam, causing it to toss away its ruined weapon and quickly leave his field of view.

Then he remembered the remaining missiles, grit his teeth and rammed the throttle forward. Luckily, his ride seemed to have survived the close-range buckshot of shrapnel without being much worse for the wear. Minus the canopy, whose broken shards were clattering around him from the acceleration, Ryu hissing in pain as he realized at least three shards were lodged into his thighs and were now being driven further in from the acceleration, to say nothing about the visible air leaks around them.

It took him an unnervingly long time to catch up, even with his momentum not having been decreased too badly by the hit he took earlier. As the colony loomed ahead of him, Ryu took out one of the last few missiles before the remaining ones suddenly started exploding, the Gundam zipping by him firing its head vulcans on full auto. Only one missile was left when the Gundam abruptly stopped firing and instead accelerated, leaving him behind. Ryu was in the middle of reaching for the radio to warn the White Base of incoming ordinance when the Gundam, now head-to-head with the missile, drew a beam saber and threw it at the missile, cleaving it straight in half before flipping around and decelerating hard against the colony's wall.

He winced when the Gundam bounced off the surface from failing to completely halt its momentum, but it didn't seem to affect the pilot much, seeing how it immediately headed towards him.

Taking a slow breath, Ryu carefully grabbed the first glass shard and slowly pulled it out, wincing from the pain. He knew every second cost him oxygen but possibly ripping the hole his normal suit even wider would be worse, hence why he took things carefully while his other hand reached into his suit's side pocket to grab the emergency sealant tape. As soon as the bloody shard was fully out, he tossed it aside and quickly unrolled the tape, sealing the hole just as the Gundam stopped next to him. – "Are you alright?"

"I'll live; thanks for the save." – Ryu replied, sweeping away the droplets of his own blood floating in front of him before getting to work on the second hole. – "No offense, but why the hell did you pull that stunt at the end? You could've just shot the damn thing."

"I'm out of ammo."

"Oh. Never mind, then. What about Char?"

"Escaped. The Musai is retreating too."

Ryu sighed. – "That's that, then. We'll go back shortly but I took some shrapnel and need to patch up my suit."

"Are you sure you're alright?"

"A little glass ain't gonna kill me." – Ryu replied with a scoff, tossing aside another bloody glass shard. – "Canopy's gone but the controls still work. This thing's built like a tank."

"The hull is made from the same material as the Gundam's armor, but it couldn't have taken a direct hit from a heat hawk."

"If you say so, kid. Next time we're on shore leave, I'm getting you a drink for this."

"I'm underage." – Amuro pointed out.

"I don't care! And no offense but I'm tossing your dad out the nearest airlock if he's got a problem with that." – Ryu finished extracting the final shard from his leg, taping the hole shut. – "After he's done fixing me up with a ride as sweet as yours, of course. I'm just about getting sick of being the underdog against the Zekes."

"I think you might want to call rain check with that airlock for now." - Amuro remarked with a slight smirk. - "I don't think your higher-ups would like it if you killed their foremost expert in mobile suit development while Zeon is still around."

Ryu laughed as he reached for the radio. – "Amen to that. You're alright, kid. José to White Base, come in."

"We heard the whole thing, ensign." – came Cassius' mildly amused voice. – "Return to ship and report to the infirmary. Mr. Ray, I trust you can get the Gundam into the hangar without crashing?"

"Yes sir, though I think the Core Fighter should go first." – Amuro replied. – "I'm not wearing a normal suit, so I can't open the hatch until the hangar is pressurized."

"Fair enough. Our berth didn't take any direct hits, so there shouldn't be any problems with maintaining atmosphere. Are you injuried?"

"No, sir. The Gundam took some light armor damage, but nowhere critical. One of the engine nozzle gimbals are a bit sluggish, though; I think it might be jammed."

"That's where Char hit you before he came after me." – Ryu spoke up, in the middle of steering the Core Fighter into the colony's space gate. – "I saw it."

"Ensign, can you confirm that was Char Aznable?"

"Beyond a doubt, sir. Color's one thing, but the guy was definitely flying like an ace. Speaking of which..."

Taking his eyes off the front for a moment, Ryu glanced at the Gundam.

"You might want to have the techs pull my gun camera footage, sir. You ain't gonna believe that shit."

Post-it author's notes - 2019.10.02.

The Core Fighter is canonically armored with lunar titanium, which makes sense considering that it was meant to basically serve as the Gundam's black box in addition to being an escape vehicle for the pilot. On the other hand, it could not possibly have had the same armor thickness as the Gundam or the Guncannon in order to remain VTOL-capable, let alone agile enough to outrun and outmaneuver dedicated atmospheric fighters like the Dopp.

The RRf-06 Zanny was one of the Federation's early attempts at producing mobile suits of their own, using captured Zakus as the base chassis. Although modified to use a Ball's recoilless cannon (caliber is uncertain: the Ball's is 180mm while the Zanny's is only 120mm, yet they're supposed to be the same design) rather than a machine gun, its development was severely underfunded due to competing with Project V and the final result was an extremely shoddy and mechanically unreliable design that never saw use as anything more than a training unit for future GM pilots.