Aegis and Buster broke through the burning shell of Solomon with a hard burn, engines screaming, debris streaking around them like meteor trails. Behind them, a battered squad of GMs struggled to keep formation, their numbers whittled down by the chaos of the battle.
Lockon whistled sharply as the fortress loomed closer.
"Damn. I knew Solomon was big, but this is… this is a fortress built to kill fleets."
Athrun didn't answer. His eyes were locked on the tactical HUD.
Because the gate—
the massive, armored main entrance to Solomon—
was not undefended.
Not even close.
The moment they came within range—
EVERY DEFENSE TURRET AWAKENED.
Dozens of mega-particle cannons snapped around and locked onto them with mechanical precision.
A grid of red targeting beams crossed their cockpits.
Then—
SOLMON FIRED.
A wall of green mega-particle fire erupted out of the fortress, turning the entire corridor into a sea of death.
"Evasive!" Athrun shouted.
GMs scattered, some too slow—
one was vaporized instantly, another torn in half by crossfire.
Lockon swerved Buster dangerously close to a collapsing chunk of armor, shielding a GM behind him.
"Solomon wasn't empty after all! These guns are everywhere!"
Athrun dove low, thrusters flaring, but even he couldn't find space—
because the firing arcs overlapped perfectly.
The fortress was designed so no matter where you moved, something had a shot on you.
And then—
A squad of Gelgoogs launched from hidden hangars.
Five of them—
fast, disciplined, positioned exactly where the guns forced Athrun and Lockon to dodge.
"Gelgoogs inbound!" a GM pilot yelled.
"We're pinned! Position's too tight!"
The battlefield had turned into a vice—
Solomon's cannons behind, Gelgoogs in front, and shattered debris on all sides.
Athrun grimaced as beam fire scraped across Aegis's armor.
"They're funneling us… forcing us into the kill zone!"
Lockon fired a scatter shot from Buster's shoulder cannon—
three Gelgoogs dodged cleanly, the fourth slipped behind a turret, and the fifth used a burnt-out cannon as cover.
"Tch—these guys know the terrain better than we do!"
More GM units crashed into the formation, one taking a direct hit from a mega-particle cannon and blowing apart.
The pilot's scream cut short.
Athrun tightened his controls.
"We can't break through by brute force. We need a weak point, a blind angle—something!"
Lockon scanned frantically.
"Solomon's gates were built to stop entire fleets. What weak points?!"
Then another beam barrage fired, even tighter than before.
A GM's left arm was blown clean off. Another spiraled out of control.
Athrun snarled—something rare for him.
"At this rate, we're going to be wiped out before we even reach the interior—!"
The Gelgoogs advanced as one, blades igniting, each pilot unshaken by the incoming fire.
Lockon's sensors screamed.
"They're pushing us into a crossfire!
We can't retreat and we can't advance—!"
Athrun swore under his breath.
For the first time since the battle began,
Aegis and Buster found themselves completely outplayed by positioning alone.
The gate to Solomon was right in front of them—
but the fortress refused to let them pass.
The push toward Solomon's outer gate was supposed to be coordinated. Clean. Controlled.
It wasn't.
The moment Athrun and Lockon broke through Zeon's scattered forward line, they found themselves staring up at a storm of defensive fire — layered mega-particle cannons, beam turrets, and Gelgoogs waiting like hunting dogs inside the shadows of Solomon's armor.
The GM squad behind them faltered.
"We can't get through that! One wrong step and—!"
A green beam ripped a GM apart mid-sentence. Another pilot screamed as debris tore across his visor.
Athrun gritted his teeth, transforming Aegis into mobile armor mode to draw fire, darting between cannon bursts.
"Stay together! Don't break formation!"
But Solomon's gate felt like a wall of death.
Then one GM — battered, smoking, its shield half-melted — surged ahead of the others.
"Commander Athrun! Lockon! I'll open you a path!"
Lockon's eyes widened.
"Kid, fall back! That's suicide!"
"No!" the GM pilot shouted, voice steady despite the panic around him. "If we hesitate, Zeon reinforcements will seal this place shut. I still have thrusters… I can buy you five seconds!"
Before Athrun or Lockon could stop him, the pilot diverted all remaining power forward and slammed his GM into the incoming fire.
He weaved through beam turrets, taking two hits to the legs, losing an arm, but still moved — still forced himself forward.
Each second he survived was a miracle.
A testament.
A countdown paid in pain.
A cannon charged directly at Athrun's blind spot — a fatal hit incoming.
The GM pilot threw his crippled machine in front of it.
"GO—!"
The cannon fired.
The GM vanished in a burst of white light.
The shockwave rolled through the battlefield, scattering debris, distorting sensors, and for a heartbeat — for just one heartbeat — the defenses flickered.
And Lockon Stratos saw it.
A ripple.
A corner where the overlapping fields failed to sync.
A small, trembling weakness buried in Solomon's armor.
"...There. You gave me the opening."
Lockon leveled the Buster Gundam's long rifle, vents glowing hot.
"Athrun! Cover fire on my mark!"
Athrun shifted, shielding Lockon with Aegis's armored frame.
Lockon exhaled once, steady and slow.
"For you, pilot…"
He fired.
The beam cut through the weak seam like a needle through cloth, drilling deep into the internal frame. Then —
BOOM.
A section of the gate blew open, molten metal scattering like meteors.
Athrun shouted to every surviving GM:
"The breach is open! Move before they regroup — forward!"
The GM squad surged into the opening, some limping, some barely holding formation, but driven by the sacrifice they had just witnessed.
Lockon reloaded, eyes hard.
"Athrun… let's make damn sure his death wasn't wasted."
Aegis and Buster pushed forward side-by-side, into the burning mouth of Solomon.
And Zeon's inner defenses readied for the next phase of the fight.
Athrun and Lockon pushed through the smoking breach and into the dark steel throat of Solomon. Inside, the air felt heavier. Columns of burnt metal lined the interior, alarms blared on every wall, and the distant rumble of collapsing bulkheads echoed like a dying heartbeat.
"Interior passage is tighter than I thought…" Lockon muttered, angling Buster's shoulder cannons inward. "One bad turn and we'll jam ourselves in here."
Athrun scanned ahead, Aegis's sensors sharpening.
"They know we're inside. Expect resistance."
Resistance came faster than expected.
A lightning-fast barrage of beam fire lanced toward them, forcing both Gundams to dodge back. A squad of Gelgoogs rushed into view, but their movements were too organized, too precise to be regular troops.
And then a voice cut through Zeon channels — sharp, deep, commanding.
"Federation intruders confirmed inside Solomon's inner corridor. All units halt them and protect the core. This is an order from Brigadier Dozle Zabi's adjutant!"
The Gelgoogs shifted positions immediately.
"That's him," Athrun muttered. "Dozle's adjutant… the one pulling troops everywhere."
Lockon clicked his tongue.
"Meaning we're the most dangerous thing in here right now."
A red-marked Gelgoog stepped forward — a commander type. The pilot's voice was cold.
"You shouldn't have come here, Federation. This corridor is the spine of Solomon. No one passes."
The Gelgoog leveled its rifle—and fired.
Athrun blocked the blast with Aegis's shield while Lockon countered with twin rifle shots, forcing two Gelgoogs back. But the Zeon formation didn't break. They repositioned, tightening the kill-zone.
"They're fighting like they've practiced this corridor a hundred times," Lockon said.
"They have," Athrun replied. "This is their home."
The adjutant's voice snapped orders again:
"Hold them until Lord Dozle finishes—buy him the time he needs!"
Lockon fired a full-power burst, collapsing a support beam and scattering enemies, but there were more—too many, funneling through every access hatch.
Athrun pushed forward, slashing a Gelgoog across the torso, kicking another aside, sparks raining across the narrow passage.
Still, the adjutant didn't budge.
"You won't reach the reactor. You won't reach Lord Dozle. You won't even reach the central command shaft."
Lockon gritted his teeth.
"God, this guy is annoying."
Athrun's eyes narrowed as he flipped Aegis into mobile armor mode, spinning and firing to disrupt the formation again.
But the adjutant only pressed harder.
"You may have breached the gate—"
His Gelgoog commander lunged with terrifying precision.
"—but the bowels of Solomon belong to Zeon."
Athrun caught the strike, forcing the Gelgoog backward.
"We don't need the whole base," he replied. "Just enough to break it."
The adjutant hesitated.
Then Lockon saw it—just a blink—but the red-painted Gelgoog stiffened, like he'd received a sudden transmission.
Athrun sensed it too.
"Dozle… he must be in trouble."
Far away, deep outside Solomon, the roar of Dozle's Big Zam echoed even through metal walls.
The adjutant's voice hardened.
"All units, reinforce the core! Do not let these intruders reach the inner shaft!"
The Gelgoogs surged together for one unified push.
Athrun's expression sharpened.
"Lockon—get ready."
Lockon steadied his aim, eyes narrowing.
"We break this line… or Solomon crushes the whole Federation."
The corridor lit up as the Gundams charged.