By The ZAFT-Alliance fleet gathers near Heavens Base, and although only five hours remain in Durandal’s ultimatum, no response has come out of Heavens Base. On the base’s surface, mobile suits and armors prepare for launch, and crews work on the anti-air cannon Nibelung. Inside Heavens Base, several Logos members ask Djibril if he can protect them, and he states that he intends to go on the offensive. He says that the world’s masses of idiots have been tricked by Durandal, and he wants to crush him before Coordinators take over the world. In the Minerva‘s pilot’s room, Lunamaria tells Shinn that the Impulse Gundam is amazing and that she hopes she can use it as well as he did. She says that what happened to Athrun and Meyrin was Logos’ fault and that everyone was betrayed. Shinn hugs her, and they kiss. He then tells her that he’ll protect the Impulse Gundam. A TV news plane flies over the ZAFT-Alliance fleet and reports that only three hours remain in the deadline. On the Archangel, Kira, Cagalli and Kisaka watch over Athrun in the infirmary. At Heavens Base, Djibril orders the attack to commence. The base unleashes a barrage of missiles and artillery fire that destroys several of the Alliance destroyers. Durandal and Talia are shocked that Heavens Base attacked before giving an answer. Squads of Jet Windams, Jet Daggers and Euclid mobile armors launch from the base while a group of Forbidden Vortexes deploy underwater. Sting launches in a Destroy Gundam and is followed by four others. Athrun wakes up in the Archangel‘s infirmary and is surprised to see Kira. Sting opens fire and destroys several Alliance ships. The other Destroy Gundams fire on the fleet and inflict substantial damage. Durandal orders the fleet to return fire, and Talia orders the Minerva‘s crew to take up battle stations.
Operation Ragnarok commences, and in Earth’s orbit the Gondwana begins to release mobile suit re-entry pods. At Heavens Base, the Destroy Gundams attack ZAFT’s BABIs, DINNs and Vosgulov subs while Forbidden Vortexes attack GOOhNs and ASHs underwater. A mountainside opens and reveals the anti-air cannon Nibelung, which fires and destroys all the descending ZAKU Warrior and GOUF Ignited units. Shinn tells Talia he can’t stand to wait any longer, and Durandal gives him permission to launch. Shinn and Rey launch in the Destiny Gundam and Legend Gundam, and Lunamaria launches in the Core Splendor and forms up to the Force Impulse. In Orb, Unato and Yuna watch the battle on TV and discuss it. Yuna thinks they made the right choice in siding with the Alliance, and Unato hopes that Durandal is killed during the battle. Shinn destroys several Windams with his cannon and beam boomerang, and Lunamaria destroys a couple of Windams as well. A mobile armor fires at Lunamaria, but Shinn blocks the shot with his beam shield and tells her she’s being careless. The Destroy Gundams land on the ground and continue to destroy ZAFT mobile suits. Athrun asks Kira how he ended up there, and Kira explains that Kisaka brought him. He asks about Meyrin, and Kira tells him that she’s in better shape than he is. On the battlefield, Rey asks Shinn to charge in against the Destroy Gundams. Shinn goes into SEED mode and uses his anti-ship sword to slice up Sting’s backpack, along with using his palm beam cannon to destroy the head. Lunamaria destroys several Windams and cuts a path for the other mobile suit forces to follow. ZAFT’s mobile suit forces begin to overwhelm the Alliance in the air and water. Rey destroys a Destroy Gundam with his beam saber, and Shinn slices another in half with his sword. He tells Lunamaria to switch to the Sword Silhouette and give one of the swords to Rey. Cagalli asks what happened, and Athrun struggles to answer and says he wanted to see her and Kira. Kira tells him to get some rest because they can talk anytime. Shinn blocks Sting’s shots with his beam shield and slams his sword through the Destroy Gundam’s cockpit, killing Sting. As the Logos members watch the battle turn sour, Djibril quietly slips away and escapes in a submarine. A soldier informs Durandal that a white flag has been raised in Heavens Base. Shinn, Rey and Lunamaria attack the last Destroy Gundam and slice it to pieces. On the Archangel‘s bridge, Kira asks about the battle, and Murrue tells him that although nothing is confirmed yet, it looks at though the Alliance lost.
Durandal’s plan to destroy Logos comes closer to reality thanks to Shinn’s fighting in this episode. Shinn uses every weapon the Destiny Gundam is equipped with and has no trouble taking down the Destroy Gundams. It almost seems a bit too easy for him. Six episodes ago, Stella’s single Destroy Gundam was a seemingly unstoppable monster, but here the Gundam Team takes on five of them and destroys them as easily as if they were grunt Windams. And what was the point of brining back Sting, just to kill him in the same episode? Shinn and Lunamaria share a kiss, and one wonders how that will develop. Given past developments, Lunamaria seems doomed because she inherited a hand-me-down Gundam and because Shinn promised to protect her. That can’t end well. She seems to do well with the Impulse Gundam, but this is rather inconclusive because most of what she does is stock footage from Shinn’s battles. Throughout the battle, you’ll see the Dagger from SEED-MSV making a few cameos. The ground battle looked interesting, and although this was a good episode, I think the battle was too compressed. This is a major turning point in the series, just as the Battle of Alaska was in SEED, so it really should’ve been developed across two episodes. By the time the next episode begins, it’ll be nice to see Yuna eat his words about the Alliance being the right choice for Orb.
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