Gundam Fire Still

"Yes, no... ," Ardis hesitated with rare hesitation "Not sure, they changed their formation a bit, but they don't seem to be planning to fight or run away."

"Oh? What is this, a cover longshot formation? Placed in low orbit, was the plan to have the 'long legs' land directly on Earth?" Crusher casually drew the possible trajectory of the descent on the screen.

"But why don't they just go into a descent trajectory?"

"Probably resupplying, or hasn't that old guy from the Eighth Fleet made up his mind yet?"

"Is the target Alaska?" Ardis probably wanted to say it like a confirmation.

"Gotta figure out a way to sink it on our turf...what do you think? While they happen to be still wasting time."

"...The 'Ziegler' has six Ginn, and our ship along with the 'Godshield Gundam' has a total of five. If 'Gamov' also sends out the three Gundams that have been repaired" Ardis reported the enemy's strength, "Also, the Rani Gundams don't mind engaging in battle, they can send out at least six even if they leave their planes behind for Miss Lax's search mission Ginn."

Crusher thought for a moment, then smiled conspiratorially, "Wise Admiral Halbarton... it's about time you were asked to leave the stage..."

A short time later, Archangel, hangar.

George. Alistair, Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs of the Atlantic Commonwealth, is in the same, or worse, trouble as Halbarton.

. The shuttle beneath his feet was supposed to return those ORB students to Earth, after they'd gotten their emergency enlistment and discharge papers. But now, a more complicated situation made the shuttle have an additional mission, to bring the Lax. Klein, PLANT Supreme Senate Speaker, Siegel. Daughter of Klein, the one who could have a long list of titles and could be called Princess PLANT, sent to the right place

--- a place that wouldn't let her just run away or be attacked by blue Perestroika elements and be treated reasonably by the United Earth officials, in a large probability. The place would be Washington.DC. the bigwigs there could have a better understanding of PLANT's political situation if they could talk to her. In fact, the fact that she'd been found floating in the gravel belt had enough uncovered value in itself that he felt he could come up with a series of political machinations to explain it, and it might just be a strange coincidence, but in any case, the mystery could only be solved on Earth.

On the other side of the fence, the ORB's voice had been in a state of sway after the Heliopolis incident, blaming the united factions and blaming the ZAFT for the endless tangle, and even after the official statement from the Asha representative, the situation hadn't gotten better

, he'd heard that a certain number of secret services were planning to cause something there, and the Atlantic Federation military attaché at ORB had been quite busy lately, and if the ORB refugees could return safely to their homeland, it would at least push local public opinion in a slightly more united direction.

And the obvious fact is that Washington and ORB, are two places thousands of miles apart, and there is only one shuttle brought in by the Eighth Fleet. On one side was a resounding enemy heavyweight, and on the other was a huge (by comparison) number of neutral refugees. Such a troublesome choice made his annoyance show on his face already, even if, as a seasoned diplomat, he should have long since become familiar with how to control his expressions.

It wasn't until the shuttle twisted around in a rather brusque manner and then slammed its landing gear down hard on the hangar deck of the Archangel that he snapped out of his reverie and remembered the purpose of his initial arrival, to console the ORB refugees, as well as the brave students, while also getting to meet the interdependent little Fury (lol, that's big frog talk for you) that had been worrying him for so long. As the hatch opened, a gentle smile appeared on his face.

As if an instinct had formed, Kira turned towards the hangar at the first opportunity when the alarm sounded. Even if it hadn't been an emergency alarm, even if he had realized in the next second that the ship he was on was no longer a lone ship being hunted, but under the protection of an entire fleet of ships, he couldn't say why, but his steps had naturally changed from walking to running.

But he hadn't expected what he'd seen in the hangar. Ginn, grey in raid and blue and white paint without the main generators on, still stood on either side of the hangar, while the middle of the hangar, which usually always seemed empty, was occupied by a shuttle. Greeted instead by a familiar face.

"Kira, you're finally here, take this...." Thor greeted with a smile and handed over a document.

"This is, a discharge order?"

"Yes." A presumably civilian soldier behind Tor explained, "Even in an emergency, it's still a crime to allow civilians to engage in acts of combat. To circumvent that, we'll backdate it so that you were called up as volunteers in an emergency before then, and then discharged. --don't lose it."

"Yo, is this Kira . Press Dock-kun?" Another middle-aged man turned toward Kira.

"Yes, and you are?"

"This is the Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs of Alsta...."

"Ahem, I'm Fray's father, I've heard of your heroic battle and thank you very much for your aid to the ORB refugees, including the little girl."

"Uh... Oh. This." The adjuster boy didn't know how to respond, but then there was a ruckus behind him, "What's going on?"

"Seems to have heard that ZAFT is approaching, and the ORB refugees are hoping to get on board soon, but the ship still needs to carry that . . the PLANT civilian."

"She? Where will it be sent?" Remembering the only one of her compatriots who hadn't soldiered on with her in the past few days, the adjuster teenager showed a look of concern. Although she was always confined to her room and couldn't move around, her singing could be heard from time to time on the ship.

"Don't worry, she's just a civilian, and a child, and a famous person, so no harm will come to her in any way." The middle-aged man smiled awkwardly, "Otherwise, the journalists and the opposition could hold us over the fire."

The low orbiting Menelaus.

bridge

"Has the Archangel's shuttle not sailed yet?" Halbarton asked impatiently again

"Not yet."

"Tell them to hurry up and get those civilians and the Undersecretary of Diplomacy out of here before the ZAFT gets us into the MS's combat voyage."

After leaving that series of complications to Alsta, Halbarton could finally settle down and think about the situation he was facing. The full Eighth Fleet was facing a rather formidable fleet of three Loraxia-class ships and two Nazca. Although the Earth Army's side had the advantage in the caliber and number of guns, as well as the number of MAs, considering the exchange ratio between MS and MAs, and as he himself knew, the monster-like performance of the X-series, he was undoubtedly at a disadvantage in maneuvering weapons; meanwhile, the Eighth Fleet located in the Earth's gravitational circle had to struggle to maintain its altitude in low orbit, which approximately amounted to greatly reducing the fleet's maneuverability! . Of course, the other option he had for this unfavorable terrain was to voluntarily raise his orbit to make the fleet less susceptible to the gravity well - but this near-equivalent of heading straight towards the ZAFT's fleet would have been a great challenge to both the not-so-high morale members of the Eighth Fleet and to those hoping to Covering the Archangel's descent to Alaska unscathed was a forbidden option for Halbarton.

However, maintaining an altitude that is not conducive to maneuvering, even in an artillery battle where the Combined Forces have a slight advantage, would make it difficult for them to maneuver... but since Halbarton was in a "stable" box formation, right?

"Report, enemy ships accelerating, MS attack observed!"

The poignant report of the lookout resounded across the bridge.

There wasn't much time left for the Eighth Fleet.

Book lovers are welcome to read the latest, fastest, hottest serialized works at! READ.

24.Hal Barton and his G (below)

Halbarton's forehead was covered with visible beads of sweat when the red triangular dot of light representing the MS appeared from the radar screen being used, and his long office career had made him uncontrollably nervous as he faced his opponent's soldier front. In his opinion, those MS were far superior weapons to the MA's in his own hands, and the vanguard of the assaulting MS's, already identified by radar, was the X-series, with which he had become immensely familiar. He could read the excellent performance of those airframes, both from the ORB files and from the Archangel's reports, but now...

For the masked man on the bridge of the other ship, it was exactly what he had expected and hoped to see, and he watched with satisfaction as the points of light on the screen flung themselves at the enemy.

"Wise Admiral Halbarton, with whom Project G was so heavily motivated to get started in the first place, must now want to see for himself how good the airframe he has high hopes for is, too?" With his characteristic sarcastic tone - and perhaps with the resentment of not being able to get off the plane himself because he had to command the fleet?

The two NASCARs and the three Lorasias are cunningly staying within the limits of the Union's main guns, outside of optimal range, leaving Union commanders and gunners to choose between making long-range shots at these ships that are easy to evade, or futilely trying to hit the MS with main guns that don't have triple-rounds.In fact those Nelson classes that raised their guns early were truly in a daze, as even Halbarton The flagship Agamemnon-class beam main gun that sat there never opened its mouth either; as for those 130m classes, their 75mm Gatling was already an anti-aircraft gun, and they couldn't do anything until those MS came into their range.

Wait, but why did one of the MSs stop in the middle of their range? As the Union radar officer looked at the radar screen in confusion and bewilderment, Storm Gundam wasted no time in putting the two handed barrels together, and then wasted no time in completing the coherent action of range, aim, and fire, the long range beam sniper cannon hit the 130m class located in the upper left corner of the box formation in one shot out of range of the close defense guns, the blazing high energy particle beam went straight through like striking through cardboard The ammunition tanks on the lower part of the bow failed to activate the explosive suppression system in time, and the booster fuel from the anti-aircraft missiles and heavy anti-ship torpedoes together with the high explosive warheads detonated brilliant sparks on the entire bow of the ship.

Then came the Shield, which after morphing was approaching at a much higher speed than the rest of the craft, and the remaining ships in the first horizontal column were frantically throwing their melee cannons at the red triple-speed target, but those CIWS couldn't always keep up with the fast-moving craft in MA form, and the occasional grazing hit rounds added to the anger of the teenager in the cockpit in addition to slightly reducing the energy of the Shield. He selected his target and plotted a course of attack, the left dodging fuselage raising its nose sharply, throwing several 75mm lines of fire beneath it, then appearing in front of the bridge of a 130m class ship, the recharged 580mm multiple phase energy cannon opening wide.

With the first line of the box array instantly torn open by two breaches, the assaulting MSs swarmed into the interior of the Eighth Fleet array like flies at the sight of blood. The Combined MA, which had been waiting to eat the exhausted MS that had been showered with CIWS and anti-aircraft missiles, was horrified to find that the MS they were facing were not only unscathed, but also fighting spirit was high. And the few that hit the lead were almost saber-rattling monsters, the 57mm beam rifles easily firing Möbius point blank into a ball of fire, and the duel in the face of the MA's flurry of air and air missiles, retrofitted with strong assault gear, also returned the favor with a shoulder-fired missile bay flush.

"In such a short amount of time, not only was the repair completed, but it was actually fitted with additional equipment!" Looking at the image from the friendly ship's data link, Marius in the Archangel's captain's chair let out an anachronistic - but very much in line with her origins as a technician - lament. And at the same time, "Vulcan cannons activated, Korinthos loaded, main gun and city-breaking run ready to fire!" Ensign Bucky Lulu was doing some really meaningful work compared to the one with more rank in the captain's chair.

"Hey, hey, can the shuttle go now?" Foreign Undersecretary Alistair irritably shouted towards the cockpit, he was simply acting like a normal uncle while doing so.

"No way, there's a battle going on out there, is it a death wish to fly out now?" The pilot growled back with equal irritation, also completely unconcerned about the former's officer status.

"So, Uncle, can we get another copy of the discharge order after the battle?" After a small period of silence, Doyle opened his mouth first, and then, one by one, several of the ORB teenagers by the hatch disappeared from his view.

The Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs nodded helplessly, then his expression shook sharply as Fray, who was beside him, whispered, "I want to, too, Dad, stay."

And he didn't notice that his daughter's eyes were now focused on the MS out the porthole and the sturdy figure that had jumped onto the MS.

The Eighth Fleet's box formations were in peril - even if they weren't in the field, the data transmitted into the nacelles alone was enough for Karl to conclude that. Shouts for support mixed with lockdown sirens filled the Joint Forces channels, while the public channels were already basking in the fall of the ZAFT's little sense of communications secrecy from the militia.

"罢工

The gundam self check is complete, on standby." The clear teenage voice suddenly appeared from the channel.

"Kira?" The two uncles on standby in the cabin expressed surprise at the same time, but the silence that followed seemed to imply that the two not-so-old fogies were worried about the decision the young man had made. It's going to be a tough life ahead for them if they're actively going to war at such a careful age.

------. ---

Tension spread across the bridge of the Menelaus, just as Halbarton had hoped, armed with the latest technology from the Combine and ORB, the new generation of maneuvers did have sharp fangs, but they were gunned towards their original masters.