Gundam Fire Still

"What's wrong? There's Zaft around?" Roy had never trusted these mobile phones, and even though the ORB had repeatedly stated that they had military-style encryption, and that they were capable of allowing Young to risk making direct contact, it was actually just about clear enough what might happen.

"Two ships, squatting out in the asteroid belt, we think we're being watched. I think you'd better tell the captain."

"I will, but keep the plan the same for now, and don't do anything extra."

"Understood."

Things were actually expected, he never expected to keep Zaft in the dark all the time, if the Zaft on the scent could ingest the neutrality of the ORB and find it hard to act rashly was a blessing in itself, the Zaft on the outside wanted to come in and the Combine on the inside wanted to go out, if that was the pattern the initiative would actually be in the Combine's hands, after all Zaft's ships had a limited range.

But good luck didn't always come, and Roy was well aware of that, and he was equally aware of the fact that Zaft commanders were often full of the zeal to fight and lacked another important quality: patience. If the worst-case scenario was followed...

"Sir, the alarm equipment in Maintenance Channel 3 is offline for unknown reasons." A Marine Corporal pushed his way through the door and reported bad news. The news didn't interrupt Roy's thinking, rather it immediately found its rightful place in his thoughts.

"Is the third maintenance tunnel connected to the 6th ventilation duct via the mining area?"

"Yes sir, but that mining area is abandoned."

"Alright Corporal James, you go get the men who are on duty, and the equipment, and meet here in five minutes, we've got company. Then notify Dike and tell them to be careful too."

It was clear that Zaft's commander really didn't know what patience was, or he was simply a guy who was overwhelmed by his target.

"Captain, this is Roy, there are two Zaft ships squatting outside, I'm sure you've already anticipated this, please inform the old man and the MS hangar side as soon as possible. And don't leave anyone alone, Zaft already has someone infiltrating this satellite." Roy opened the communications interface on his computer as he pulled open a locked drawer in the corner.

The AR61G assault rifle wasn't a weapon he was very good at, and even when he was still on Earth as a field agent who had to deal with bullets or explosives, he used more of the easier to carry pistols than this heavy, manufactured weapon. But at least he hadn't forgotten how to turn on the safety and reload it, complaining in passing that the Union Army was poor enough to match a red dot sight. He dumped the rifle and a couple of magazines on the table and stuck a pistol and a couple of grenades into his waistband. He didn't know if Zaft had slipped in a couple of scouts or a commando unit, but he knew that at the level of ORB guards here, even a couple of scouts would be enough to mess up the Twilight Society, thanks to the fact that it was still an important state research facility for the ORB.

"Come on Corporal James, take your terminal and we'll go to the maintenance tunnel and find them out." Roy said putting on his helmet, "The mining area is close to where the ships are anchored, if they find us they'll be in trouble." He didn't like being watched from the shadows, that had never been his job.

Colonial Satellite Passage

"It's so peaceful." The short-haired young woman said as if she sighed, "At that age, there are people already on the front lines." The tone seemed to take on a somewhat reproachful tone.

"After all, this is still a neutral country, so it's better for kids of that age to stay in school, and the presence of teenage soldiers is a failure of our adult soldiers." Fred. Yang inadvertently brought a hint of rebuttal in his tone.

"But the war is here, and even young men must do their fair share for their country."

"Don't we take to the battlefield so that the next generation can grow up well and be protected from the poison of war?"

Staff Sergeant Neumann frowned slightly, he heard a little tit-for-tat mixed in with the conversation, but the conversation was Natal. Both Ensign Bucky Lulu and Ensign Young were senior officers to himself, and with little desire to intervene in the officer's conversation to voice his opinion, he was happy to listen to some of the fireworks between the two officers, and he could tell that it wasn't an argument that needed to be stopped, but merely an elucidation and exchange of differing opinions.

"If Eurasia can't build up the Iberian defences without an urgent relaxation of the age of enlistment, once zaft crosses Gibraltar, then the whole continent won't be able to put a safe desk on it, ah, and what properly grown up next generation will there be at that time?"

"Ahhh, if you put it that way, it makes sense." Fred. Young chuckled at the acknowledgement of his disadvantage, "But compared to those temporarily trained marines, the more technically advanced cosmonaut positions still have to be filled by people with enough education, ah."

"That's true, I've heard that the guys at the recruiting office are looking at college graduates in electronics and mechanics." Apparently, Ensign Bucky Lulu also had a fair amount of pride in the technically rich Cosmic Army position.

Vision darkened sharply as the electric car drove through the hollowed out mine, the massive hollowed out asteroid that was the foundation of this colony satellite. The original Heliopolis was an asteroid chosen by the ORB for the lack of resources on the planet's mainland in order to take cosmic resources, as mining expanded, the infrastructure on the surface of the asteroid was slowly being perfected, and when the asteroid was almost hollowed out, the number of people living there and the amenities were already almost up to the standards of a colonial satellite, so the ORB government relied on the asteroid being hollowed out to Part of it was converted into a colonial satellite with traditional 3-blade solar panels and barrel-shaped living quarters. The abandoned mining area on the side where the satellite is covered by the rock shell can easily hide some things, such as the secret dock that is slowly appearing.

30m above, in the inner passage of the rock formation.

The crude metal platform made a sound even with the lightest tread, and the rude crashing sound reflected back and forth in the narrow passageway. If one were a coward to march in this darkness, the echoing footsteps might cause uncontrollable fear, but to Roy, it simply meant that they were no longer moving stealthily. Of course, the benefit was there as well; if there was another group moving through the series of passageways, the sounds of the others would be just as revealing. At least he hadn't heard anyone else so far, and it was unlikely that the other party was attempting an ambush, as the sound waves echoing through the passageways had been reflected in layers, making it difficult to identify the location of the vocalizations, and trying to stay somewhere on the defensive would be more likely to wait for nothing, and even if they were so lucky as to happen to be on the search route of the Combine, they wouldn't be able to evade the Combine Heartbeat detector in hand. So either, Zaft had entered the satellite, or, they were gone, and Roy thought the likelihood of the former was higher.

"Wait," Corporal James gestured, stopping the soldiers in the back, and Roy saw the same blinking spot of light.

"Hell."

The side wall of the tunnel was covered with a solid package encased in thick black tape, and in one corner of the package, a small LCD screen pulsed with flashing numbers** Roy recognized the old friend he had dealt with for years.

"Can we take it apart?" A soldier whispered a question.

"It's tough, I'm not familiar with Zaft's wiring and if it blows up here, none of us will survive. But I probably know what to do. Corporal, this isn't far from the outer maintenance entrance to the mining district, is it?"

"It's not far, and while we all have helmets, if we're going outside, there's only enough oxygen tanks for three people per safety regulations." The corporal caught wind of Roy's plan.

"All right. You, me, plus Private Ramirez, let's move on and throw this thing out. The rest of you head back the way you came, Zaft's guys should be in the satellite by now, remember to look for something similar on the way, they can't just plant one of these, you'll have to figure out what to do with it." Roy raised the bomb in his hand.

The next passage showed clear signs of someone passing through, in the light of the headlamp the disturbed dust made unknown tracks in the air, ahead was the airlock to the universe, the corporal made the all clear gesture, Roy put on his airlock helmet and watched as the corporal and the private slowly opened the airlock gate ahead.

Beyond the airlock, there was something more than a universe of floating asteroids. Painted black and sleek in shape, the small cosmic craft was cleverly attached to the asteroid's rock. Roy recognized it the first time he saw it, Zaft's small shuttle, designed for covert operations, two in number, he felt like he had been shot in the back, there was no doubt that the Combine was in big trouble, the other side was not scouts coming in to investigate the intel, but prepared commandos, and there were quite a few of them. It quickly occurred to him that he could do something about it, and so he did. By the time he got back inside the satellite, he didn't have the piece* in his hand anymore, and the grenade on his tactical harness had disappeared.

Aurora Society, MS Development Facility Office

Karl perused the code on the screen one last time, not out of mistrust, but simply to pass this last moment, and perhaps to appreciate the results of his work, which was the Combined Forces' own OS, from the original OS of the mechanical system supplied by the ORB, a few commands to complete an action; to the basic operating system, one command, one action; to the system now in hand, an Commands, a set of movements, and although the movements recorded in it now needed to be perfected, the integrated system itself would free the pilot from the strange circle of comparing hand speed, making the natural human pilot also have the capital to fight against the adjuster. Not only that, he was well aware of this, this was originally how a machine with complex joints like MS should operate; the Adjuster used their reflexes to their advantage to allow the pilot to control every movement, but this actually went astray, their operation no matter how fast they were could only be limited to the early MS, with the development of MS technology and the gradual increase in moving parts and weaponry, even the Adjuster. There is a limit to the ability of a single mind to do more than one thing; the human consciousness does not need to manipulate the human body by controlling every muscle stretch, and likewise the pilot does not need to control every joint and nozzle to drive a giant of steel.

The transport of the G-Series was underway, with the convoy being driven by Marius. Captain Lamias was in charge, and he was happy to be in his office overlooking the slowly moving convoy and waiting for the new pilot who was about to report.

The head of the new MS with its eyes and antennae always reminded him of something, like seeing a long-lost acquaintance, but what was it? Some long-standing memories are no longer clear due to mixing and overlapping, and the past of being a citizen of the Atlantic Union seems more tangible than a year of war. But whenever I see the new MS standing in the factory, or the line by line code and operation interface on the screen, the memory which was vague and seemed to be lacking in reality becomes vivid and real because of the inexplicable familiarity. It is not the kind of instincts like carving into the marrow when sitting in the cockpit with the pedals under your feet and the joystick in your hands, but the clear and vague memories left behind in the long river of the cosmic war with your own eyes.

The ringing of the phone broke off after a split second, but the white noise that vibrated behind the ear drums of the handset was also enough to send a message in place of words, and on the phone's screen, the signal dropped to zero for a split second, and for him, that was enough of a sign. Grabbing his flight helmet from the table, he remembered that the hangar was not far away.

What followed was an unexpected explosion and the vibrations that followed. A few minutes later, dismal sirens began to echo through the colonial satellite.

"It's really, really slow."

------This is still the author's delimiter-----.

During exams, on the one hand updates can become erratic, on the other hand, I try to update to save character. Above

3. Edge of Collapse

Major Wiseman subconsciously gripped the back of the chair beside him, though he was also well aware that it was actually pointless in the face of the waves of air and fire coming in from above. He looked over his shoulder to lock eyes with the Emir, and he read the same thing in the fat staff officer's eyes as he had thought in his own. Their battle plan had missed a possibility, and now it was that missed possibility that made that plan useless, and was about to take its own life.

Then the wall of flames mixed with rubble slammed down on the observation deck of the dock.

Rick. Eisenhorn was awakened by the explosion, seconds before in a dream where the frigate he commanded, the Beagle, had been bitten hard on the side by a Mk48 torpedo, and the martyred bow ammunition bay had filled the main screen of the bridge with a red, expanding ball of fire. So amidst the explosions and concussions, he opened his eyes. The sound of explosions and debris crashing into each other hit the newly awakened old man's ear drums, and the memory flooded his brain in due time that the Archangel beneath him was docked in the ORB's secret dockyard, not on the battlefield. But there was a faint sound of a firefight in an indistinguishable direction, and he wondered if it was real or a remnant of a dream in reality, so he stepped out of his cabin. There wasn't a single light in the corridor, and the distant sounds of a firefight were still somewhat faint, but he smelled something familiar, and the scent of gunpowder that permeated the air made him realize that last night's dream might have been an omen or a summons. He strode toward the hatch that connected the docks, the door of the outgoing ship sliding open on either side as it had been designed to do, and was greeted by air that smelled of dust and even more gunpowder, and the bloodstained ruins that presented themselves, the few remaining emergency lights glowing white in the darkness that shrouded the central dock. The sound of gunfire in his ears seemed clearer, and the old man slowly chewed over the scene before him, there was no longer any doubt that this was reality, and the worst of it, had already happened.

Decker slung a grenade hard before it exploded and yanked back the private who was trying to poke around him, bullets whooshing overhead and in front of him. The large MS carrier was a good bunker, but only effective for infantrymen using light weapons, and the heavy, continuous firing from mid-air meant he couldn't stay behind this bunker for too long.

This mission would either be just an easy vacation, or he would essentially not make it back alive, a fact Dike had been well aware of from the beginning of the plan. If the Combine and ORB fell out, this little Marine unit would be easily run over by ORB forces in this satellite; whereas if the plan had gone normally, they would have had to do nothing, simply maintain their existence as a Marine unit. But now, when the Intelligence Convergence had told him earlier in the day that a Zaft had slipped in, he'd discovered that the situation was a little different than he'd initially expected.

The first accident came when MS started being loaded onto the transport, a panicked PFC ran over with a time bomb he found in one of the nearby tunnels, he didn't have a bomb disposal soldier on hand so he had to deal with the troublesome thing himself, the dangerous object wrapped in black rubber was placed somewhere open enough, ORB colonial satellites always have large areas of it. Nobody's green field. But when, at one point, an explosion occurred, the Marines noticed that there were more explosions coming from the Dawning Society behind them as well. Then Zaft commandos equipped with small propulsion packs appeared from the direction of the outer wall, followed by jamming noise from the radio, and two MS flying from the direction of the port.

Zaft's infantry-MS synergy was just as bad as it had been on the moon's surface, and Decker came to this expert conclusion after firing a barrage of lacklusterly aimed rounds at Zaft from behind the massive wheels, the commandos keeping the Union Marines pinned behind the transports with a dense and accurate barrage, but their MS Absentmindedly destroying a distant factory facility with high explosive rounds from a heavy assault rifle. Decker didn't like to sit around and wait for death, not at all, if the ORB infantry had pushed all the way flat out with their familiarity with the terrain, the small Marine squad wouldn't even have a chance to fight guerrilla, but against a Zaft that was unfamiliar with the environment and didn't work well together, he thought he could think of something. He looked over his shoulder in the direction of the Twilight Society, and against the backdrop of black smoke in mid-air and the occasional eruption of fire, two black dots were approaching the intercepted transport convoy along the highway.

"Bunch of idiots." Roy stood on the outer wall on the side of the Colonial Satellite mine, perched high above the firefight on the highway, he reckoned that Zaft's assault team had slipped into the satellite through the same exit he was standing on, and now it was him and two other Marines standing here, and the ORB knew nothing about it. It was more than ten minutes after the bombs went off that two ATVs pulled out of the already smoky Twilight Society plant.

"I hope the idiot you're talking about isn't our captain." Corporal James frowned, more interested in going down to support his teammates than in watching his squad get pinned down like an all right onlooker.

"I mean the ORB, of course, Zaft's tactics in not very smart. With the situation there, even if we raid Zaft's back it won't help, we need to wait for our chance, and the same goes for Decker's place." Roy knew exactly what the Marines around him were thinking, and in the lens of the binoculars the two ORB vans were getting closer to the battlefield.

"Are the ORB's sending them meat?" Roy handed James the binoculars in his hand "They're going to take out two MS with two ATVs carrying light missiles?"

"Sir, you're right," seeing the two red laser beams emanating from the cart, James had to agree with Roy's earlier comment, "they're actually using laser shelf beam guidance at this distance and in the visible wavelengths, are they suggesting that Zaft's laser alarms aren't sensitive enough? ?"

"I'm sure Decker knows to move to a better place while the ORB's get Zaft's attention, leaving two Trick Ray's here as a gift for when they want to leave from here again, and then it's time for us to find a way to rendezvous."

"But is there anything we can do about those MS?"