"Nao?" "Good morning, Yuki." "Clydesdale Platoon has returned from Mazuurek Landing Castle recon mission." "Roger that." "Open well dock." "Okay, all units have returned to base." "Warrant Officer Kaizuka." "Yes?" "Come to the captain's quarters later." "You've been requested." "Me?" "Yes, it has to do with the Deucalion." "It's on its way back, apparently." "To Earth." "Port Aden has been chosen as our return point." "Calculate our reentry time and report." "Yes, ma'am." "Always on the move..." "The top brass must be trying to wring every last drop out of us." "Are you sure it doesn't mean that they value the Deucalion's power really highly?" "If anything, the vibe I get is that they don't know what to do with us." "I need your final approval for the resupply list, ma'am." "I finished it a while ago." "Go ahead and transmit it." "Yes, ma'am." "Attention, all hands." "At 1300 hours UTC, we will begin our Earth reentry sequence as ordered." "That's Calvados." "Thank you, but no." "I see." "So, is it true that we'll be acting as the Deucalion's escort?" "It's temporary." "It's only while they take on supplies and make repairs." "Plus, the base they're assigned to isn't very far from here." "It's not like you two don't have ties to that ship, right?" "Though I hear that you were supposed to serve aboard her, but turned it down." "Being on that ship only opens up old wounds." "I understand that your younger brother serves aboard her." "His exploits have been quite something, I hear." "Yes, I suppose..." "May I?" "Of course." "What did the other nobles do afterwards?" "I'm told that none of them are openly expressing opposition." "In Harklight's opinion." "Do you also believe that, Slaine?" "No." "They are only holding their tongues for the time being, thinking it distasteful to raise objections while the count is still being mourned." "It is an undeniable fact that Count Saazbaum's death is a great loss to Vers." "I am the result of an indiscretion committed on the Moon by my father, Gillzeria, the second emperor." "Father perished as a result of his second sin, Heaven's Fall, and the Moon we now stand on was shattered." "Count Saazbaum found me and offered his allegiance when I had lost my family." "Although I never truly knew what he was thinking deep down." "But that is fine." "It is actually more difficult to trust those who have no talent for scheming." "Like it or not, you will have to bear the brunt of their jealousy and envy, Slaine." "You have inherited all of Count Saazbaum's privileges..." "As well as his status as Princess Asseylum's guardian." "I am prepared." "But it is a grave responsibility that deserves to be envied." "That outfit looks quite good on you." "Do not forget." "The princess that you must protect now is right before you." "I am keenly aware of that." "To think that he named some nobody as his successor, only to die an untimely death immediately afterward." "Count Saazbaum had terrible luck." "Perhaps it was comeuppance for his folly." "He may have been caught off guard and killed." "Are you suggesting that Count Saazbaum was betrayed?" "Enough." "Without any hard evidence, it will sound like nothing more than idle gossip." "Whatever the case, the dignity of all knights is at stake!" "We mustn't allow him to continue to do as he pleases." "Count Mazuurek," "I am aware that you go out of your way to avoid destructive acts of aggression because your priority is on seizing Earth's resources." "No, I am not criticizing you for taking such a position." "However, now is the time to press on with the invasion of Earth, by force if necessary!" "If this continues, the authority of the knight order known as the 37 Clans will decline further." "This calls for a faction that will set aside their power struggles and work together." "What are your thoughts, Count Mazuurek?" "It is a poor knight indeed who slays one who defies him." "The key is to show yourself to be so superior that they will not defy you in the first place." "Wise words, Milord." "Count Saazbaum spoke them." "Which is why I must give them a reminder." "Condition, generally satisfactory." "I'm not seeing anything in particular that concerns me." "That's what I've been saying." "I wish you'd cut me loose already." "Incidentally, what is happening with the war?" "I would have thought that they would be coming at us relentlessly." "After all, the odds of reconciliation are effectively nil now." "Mars isn't monolithic." "Sure, some of them attacked purely out of hatred of Earth, but some of them would rather seize it for our natural resources." "Ah, you mean that they're restraining themselves." "But..." "Hang on, you don't suppose it's because they never imagined that their main Kataphrakts would be taken out one after another, do you?" "Things haven't gone to plan and they feel threatened and have gone into defensive mode." "Maybe you're right." "But it was a single boy who gave us this chance." "You mean Inaho." "Yuki must be worried sick about him." "Yeah, she wanted him out of the military, so she kept asking the top brass." "Isn't that just a rumor?" "That her pestering alienated them and that's why she got stationed here." "Possible enemy Sky Carriers detected east and west of Yemen, as well as in the desert region roughly 14km northeast of Aden." "We'll hold it off here to keep it from reaching the urban area 6km east of here." "All units, wait for it to enter firing range." "When I give the order, commence attack." "Roger that." "Roger." "Attack!" "Enemy Kataphrakt advancing!" "Our rounds are landing!" "Keep it up!" "What the hell are those?" "Our rounds, they're–." "A tornado?" "!" "No, windspeed, air volume, and atmospheric pressure aren't showing any major–." "My head... feels like it's being squeezed in a vise!" "Count Barouhcruz, pay attention." "The way I fight is worthy of the Orbital Knights and my noble title." "W-Wait, Clydesdale 22!" "A-Are you okay?" "I barely got away..." "Fall back!" "What the hell is going on?" "Lieutenant... the gauges!" "Look at... the accelerometer!" "Gravity..." "Are you telling me... that this thing..." "is manipulating gravity?" "My accelerometer... is showing wild oscillations." "They're acting as gravitational-tidal pairs and revolving at high speed around the Kataphrakt..." "It uses that to..." "To create gravity waves?" "Yes..." "So any object that gets too close will be torn apart by the tidal forces, and any attack will also be deflected, huh?" "Is it also causing this sound in our heads...?" "Probably..." "I bear this world's people no ill will, but this must be done for the future of Vers!" "Here it comes!" "We can't just sit here and let it reach the city!" "We'll keep its attention and draw it away!" "But sir!" "How?" "!" "Kaizuka." "Sir?" "Call it in to the carrier." "Ask if there's any satellite bases overhead with equipment that can detect gravity waves!" "Do you not see that your efforts are futile?" "It's no use!" "They're disintegrating before they can connect!" "Even if they don't damage him, they're having the effect of keeping his attention on us." "We're another 10km away from the urban center." "We're definitely managing to draw him away." "Another 2km south." "Just another 2km." "That's how much further we have to draw him away." "What's wrong?" "!" "Don't stop moving!" "Clydesdale 22!" "Clydesdale 33!" "Crap..." "Kaizuka!" "I'll get his attention!" "You go retrieve those two!" "Lieutenant?" "Come get me, you twister son of a bitch!" "It is pointless." "Why are you doing this?" "What value is there?" "Lieutenant..." "This is bad, I'm too close..." "I need to get some distance." "Just a little farther..." "Come on!" "I'm coming!" "Crap!" "Am I never gonna be free of these memories no matter how hard I try?" "!" "Thank you for luring it into position, Lt. Marito." "A laser transmission?" "Wait a second, Yuki." "Nao?" "Its gravity waves are ripples that propagate outward horizontally." "The gravity waves that propagate vertically are integrated and lose their effect." "Correcting for errors... 0.2 degrees/second." "Locked on." "Fire!" "It was a lucky break that we got through to the Deucalion." "No, or maybe we were lucky that he was there." "We begin reentry in 10 minutes!" "Hurry up and get Mustang 00 inside!" "We're no longer in an area with a line of fire." "It looks like this is all the help we can give you." "No, that was plenty, Kaizuka's brother." "TK-67, 68 are on designated trajectory." "Opening gate." "Trash cleanup is taking forever..." "Well, that was a huge battle." "A ton of debris got scattered around." "It's a pain, is what it is." "It makes it a lot harder for shuttles to come and go." "Radar return detected!" "No IFF signal detected..." "Sorry, sir." "We didn't pick it up right away because it was mixed in with all the debris." "Just one unit?" "What do they hope to do with just one unit?" "That's–." "It's now 10km away!" "I can't believe it..." "How can it fly through a dense debris field at that speed?" "Launch Kataphrakt platoons, hurry!" "Long time no see, Yuki!" "Darn it, you up and left all of a sudden!" "You scared us!" "Sorry." "Chalk it up to grown-up reasons." "We'll be able to fight together again, right?" "So, I hear you guys have been busy." "Yep!" "And you haven't changed a bit, Yuki." "Rayet." "So, you liking it here?" "It's okay." "I'm glad." "Inaho is doing fine, too!" "It seemed that way." "Did you see him already?" "He just said hello over the radio." "Maybe he thinks that's enough." "I see..." "The memories resurfaced again, did they?" "There doesn't seem to be any way to escape the damn things." "Is it possible that perhaps they were deliberately revived?" "Shock therapy you chose to perform to give a boost to your fading consciousness." "No way..." "It's possible that you're using the memories of that tragedy to give yourself a reason to fight, Lieutenant." "Of course, you're not doing this consciously." "You're saying that I've beaten them?" "At the very least, you've won the battle." "I'm sure it was around here..." "I hope you accept that fact, if nothing else." "Found it!" "That's mine..." "That's where you've been hiding it?" "If you're confronting the past, your drinking takes on an entirely different meaning." "Hey, these have been sterilized, haven't they?" "Lieutenant!" "There's an emergency!" "It's Trident Base!" "This is a recording from the time of the attack." "It waited until the shuttles had entered the docking bay and then set off all the munitions they were carrying at once." "Talk about lousy timing..." "No, I think it was planned." "Planned?" "There was just a major battle there, so it's a safe bet that shuttles would come." "They probably checked to make sure that the base's reinforcements had left." "They stood a good chance of winning, so they attacked with just one unit." "But the service details of munitions shuttles are supposed to be top secret." "All they really do is stuff like change their registry numbers and alter the supply routes." "You'd be able to sniff them out with careful cryptoanalysis and data sifting." "But..." "We're probably dealing with someone capable of that." "Milord Slaine, brilliantly done." "The fiend..." "You mustn't overlook his results." "He did what he set out to do and did it brilliantly." "We can't brand him a traitor, not now." "Causes always rally around the powerful." "The mangy cur has transformed himself into a wolf." "Harklight, we're returning to the Moon." "The Tharsis..." "Slaine Troyard." "I guess I have no choice."