“Holy… shit,” Milos breathed.

But the depot was gone. Zeon wouldn’t refuel at Granada for a week. And somewhere, a Federation fleet carrying the new RX-78-2 Gundam was getting ready for a final push toward a place called Solomon.

“Aris! The ridge!” Darius yelled.

They can bleed, she thought. We just have to be willing to become monsters to make them.

They drifted in on thrusters set to minimum, looking like a cluster of asteroids. The Zeon outpost was quiet. Two MS-06J Zakus stood at idle, their reactors humming a low thrum that Aris could feel through her seat. Their pilots, confident in Zeon’s space superiority, were probably playing cards.

With a screech of tortured metal, she ripped the Zaku’s primary thruster housing open. The reactor went critical. The Zaku pilot had three seconds to eject. He didn’t make it.

The Zaku pilot scanned the crater rim. He was a soldier of the Principality. He didn’t believe in ghosts.