Gundam: The 08th M.S. Team Ep. 8: Duty and Ideals

Shiro is court-martialed under suspicion of being a spy. He says that there are good people on both sides of the war, and he hopes for the time that the war will end. The panel laughs at him, and Captain Isan Ryer asks him if he could shoot the enemy. Shiro answers that he isn’t sure at the moment, and the panel orders him to be confined to the base. At the Zeon base, Ginias notices that Aina is more feminine, and he shows her a photo of her and Shiro. She says they only worked together to survive, but he thinks there’s more to it than that. Elsewhere, three Zakus piloted by Topp, Arth and Dell approach Kiki’s village. Topp says their purpose is to get food and warns Arth not to kill anyone. Ginias receives a call from Yuri that his forces are relocating to the Asia base. He says they need Ginias’ Zanzibar class ship Kerguelen to get into space, so the Apsaras project is canceled. Ginias shoots the screen in anger and says he is no arms dealer. He says that throughout every war in history, innovations like the Minovsky particle and the mobile suit were created by scientists. He shoots the screen repeatedly and turns the gun on Aina, but it is empty. Topp asks Kiki for food, and Arth hassles the villagers by nearly crushing a child with his heat hawk. Baresto wants his people to lay low, and he wonders if Kiki has a crush on Shiro. At the EFF base, Michel, Karen and Sanders sit by themselves and drink. Two people from the 07th M.S. Team come in and make fun of them for having a spy as a commander. The people from the 07th M.S. Team let them in on the tidbit that Kiki’s village is being occupied by the Zeon. While Sanders and Karen pour drinks on them as gratitude, Michel runs to tell Shiro. Apparently, Kojima doesn’t consider saving guerillas a priority. Shiro tells everyone to move out, and Jidan says Shiro will take the fall unless he uses an orders form with Kojima’s signature. Shiro refuses to buy it, but Karen does. As they leave, Jidan thinks that Shiro will never be a good soldier.

Karen and Sanders standby in their Gundams outside the village. Karen wonders why Shiro has them stationed so far from the village, and Sanders figures he has some sort of plan. Shiro and Michel head for the village in the Bloodhound. Shiro tells Karen and Sanders that he wants them to snipe the Zakus from their current position. Karen says if they miss and hit the Zakus’ thermonuclear engine that the whole village will be destroyed. Shiro says the villagers might be hostages and they have to be careful. Shiro starts to lay down wires for a trap, and Michel tells him he shouldn’t sacrifice himself over the court-martial. In the village, Kiki delivers food to Arth, and he grabs her with his Zaku. She throws the food at him, and he tosses her aside. The guerillas want to avenge Kiki’s death, but Baresto doesn’t want to turn the village into a battlefield. One of the guerillas grabs a bazooka and fires it into Arth’s cockpit, killing him. Topp orders Dell to escape, and he fires up his thrusters. A guerilla fires a bazooka out of Baresto’s house. The thrust from Dell’s Zaku destroys the house and kills Baresto. Kiki is woken up inside a hut by Shiro. She asks if he came to save her, but he says he came to save everyone, not just her. Shiro wants help in luring the Zakus to the river, but the guerillas want to kill them to avenge Baresto. Shiro leaves and hides in the fields while Topp and Dell approach. He fires a bazooka at the underside of Topp’s Zaku and disables it. Sanders then begins firing his beam rifle and destroys Dell’s Zaku. Shiro asks Topp to surrender, and she tries to shoot him with her Zaku’s machine gun. Guerillas arrive and blast the cockpit open, and Topp panics and fires antipersonnel weapons. Shiro shoots most of them, but one explodes and kills all the guerillas. As he aims and fires the bazooka at top, he remembers Ryer’s question. Afterwards, Shiro tells Michel that he wasn’t able to save anyone or prove the truth in his own words. Kiki says that isn’t true and believes everyone would have died if he hadn’t come. She thanks him for his help and asks him to leave so everyone can mourn.