Gundam Fire Still

The desert ahead has been filled with a dense curtain of artificial smoke.

"Engines on; ready for air, ship, and MS combat!" Colonel Hoffman looked at the red dot presented on the electronic map and ordered, "Right rudder, off the land, off the rocks!" , his deployment is complete, and just ahead in the desert, the tiger has arrived as promised.

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13. fire suppression

Covering the desert camouflage net with yellow-brown spots was the MS in a prone firing position, holding a weapon, and from the side, the blue-white body of the MS with many scratches could be seen where the camouflage had failed to cover it. The weapon the fuselage was aiming at was not a beam rifle, but an uncommon 75mm linear gun, a weapon adapted from the main gun used by Moebius, which also had excellent armor-piercing ability and accuracy.

Over the desert ahead, the ships on both sides had begun to exchange gunfire with each other. "Attention, enemy planes have been confirmed, Baku, number, 6, approaching the battleship at high speed." The communication from the battleships rang out in the helmets. On the main screen below, the optronics system had caught sight of the Baku advancing with trailing smoke and dust and zoomed in. These brave MS were rapidly advancing towards the exposed Archangel, unnoticed for the moment by the MS hiding on the flanks.Karl knew full well that Ginn didn't have the capital to fight those Baku in close combat, and when the airframe lost its back propulsion wings and jetpack, the melee capability was compromised even more, and as a sufficiently experienced MS commander, he knew what kind of Tactics.

The learning computer had actively aligned its aiming star with a calculated targeting dot, and the position of that dot was being constantly corrected as the locked target moved. The Baku facing the ship exposed part of its flank to the flanking Ginn, and Carl could still see on the side data-link screen that the MS Juggernaut squad that had been positioned on the other flank of the ship was also getting a good range of fire. Carl had a steady grip on the joystick, his hand on the trigger, and in semi-automatic control mode, he could also make some manual corrections to the alignment star.

With a flash of lightning from the front, two pillars of sand sprang up in the formation of the quadrupedal MS, however they were clearly prepared for it as well, the dense assault formation spread out violently under fire from the ships, and in just such a moment, Carl pulled the trigger.

As the high-capacity capacitor discharged rapidly, the accelerating coil voltage that spiked from zero to its limit in a tenth of a second in the form of an induced magnetic field ejected the armor-piercing round hard, the long-rod armor-piercing round crossed over the desert and slammed into its target at a speed the naked eye couldn't capture. The shoulder armor of a Baku located on the left flank was put to the test first, and while the roughly 45-degree angle of incidence wasn't a great angle, the core still drilled into the fuselage and jammed into the main shoulder joint, cutting several energy lines with flying debris inside the armor, and despite a puff of smoke, the fuselage was still moving forward. On the other wing of the Zaft assault force, one Baku slammed into the ground under a blow from the side, the other also slowed down after an impact, and flames could be seen coming out of the scope at maximum magnification.

The first shot hit, but failed to destroy the target, leaving Karl feeling a bit sorry for himself, the MA linear gun in his hands was indeed underpowered compared to the electromagnetic railgun used by those MS destroyers and MBTs. But destroying a third of the targets in the first round of fire was a good start, and they had all chosen to target the Baku with the magnetic rail gun, that weapon was a far greater threat at long range than the multi-mounted missiles. The rest of the Baku began to release smoke, and the assault formation began to be enveloped in a layer of smoke. Even after switching to the thermal imager's viewpoint, the smoke in front of them was still chaotic, and it appeared that the opponent was not using a normal smoke generator, but a more effective countermeasure.

A sniper would have needed to shift positions after a single shot, whether it destroyed the target or not, in order to defend against the other side's rearguard, but Carl had never been a sniper, he understood long-range attacks more as fire support and suppression, and even if he wanted to, there were no more pre-set positions for shifting. He fired a few quick point-blank shots from his 75mm linear cannon using the parameters of the target before it disappeared into the smoke from experience, the rapid fire capability of this small cannon was an advantage, able to make up for its lack of firepower. Stretched across a distance of less than 10 kilometers between the two sides, it was no more than a second's flight time for a linear shell, and even if it couldn't hit, it was good to be able to force the opponent to evade. He was well aware that the tiger must have more than these cards in his hand, but this successful flush should force some reaction from him.

Just a few dozen meters away, hooded guerrillas began removing shoulder-mounted launchers from their long parcels, their scattered lookouts in the desert able to spot low-flying, stealthy approaching helicopter gunships before the radar on the Archangel could. These quiet and adept at ultra-low-altitude breakthroughs had been launched as soon as their front line had come under fire, and although Baku's losses had been somewhat larger than planned, they had managed to expose the Union's hidden points of fire.Zaft's helicopter squadron commander looked with some surprise at the data coming in from friendly forces.If they were correct, the Union, with far fewer troops than Zaft, had He had carefully studied the records of the last failed battle, the white battleship's stunning shot from its main gun was just a coincidence, and its CIWS system, designed for cosmic warfare and capable of capturing and intercepting anti-ship missiles, was a deadly threat to the slow helicopters, but now, the MS they had placed on the wings and the kind with tanks, were a deadly threat. The ground's gunnery MS (so Zaft decided for the MSD's) were well out of the mothership's cover, and whatever they wanted to do, this was an opportunity for the helicopters.

Unfortunately, they had wittingly or unwittingly ignored the guerrillas that used crude weapons but fought tenaciously in their corner of the desert.

Seb rose slowly to his feet, pointing the guiding head of his shoulder-fired missile in the direction of his sentry briefing, now looking like an equally yellow-green tube growing on a pile of yellow-green plants. There was no data-link link between him and the Combined Forces unit, but he radioed the ship, and had the satisfaction of seeing the MS under the camouflaged net a little farther away slowly moving its body while dropping its long-range weapon and instead picking up the beam rifle.

He soon heard another sound mixed in with the wind, which indicated that those helicopters were close, and he turned on the power switch on the missile and made a very small gesture to indicate that several of the surrounding air defense teams were also getting ready to fire. Those helicopters with infrared concealment equipment couldn't be locked down at great distances, and only when the sound of the rotors was almost overhead did the guide head give a drip beep. The helicopter leaping from the dunes immediately saw the target ahead, the adjuster's reflexes were ultimately half a beat faster than a natural, and the helicopter's short wing was the first point of light to flash underneath, before Seb confirmed the missile's lock and pulled the trigger.

Carl had seen the helicopter bursting out from behind the dunes and the flash of fire beneath its short wings, but he knew he had a few seconds to spare, and a premature evasive manoeuvre would instead allow the missile to turn in the right direction in time. He turned his line of sight to the second helicopter in the formation, for he could already see a thin white line rising below the first one.

It was now!

Two buttons on the side of the joystick were pressed, and Ginn, who had lost his pack thrusters, slammed into activating the posture-adjustment jets located at the front, and the fuselage leaned backwards in an odd position, while slightly sideways. The two missiles couldn't turn in time and trailed flames across the fuselage's chest, while on the other side a bright line of fire had exploded below the helicopter, and further away, a line of fire was rising beneath the incoming cluster of helicopters. The semi-active locking system had pointed the aiming star steadily at the target, and Karl pulled the trigger with some deliberate shaking in succession, scattering beams of particles shooting out as expected to block the helicopter's possible evasive direction, followed by a missile and a light green beam that simultaneously burst the target into a cloud of flame.

At the same time, the Archangel

"'Valient' gun body temperature approaching danger zone!" Lt. Bucky Lulu reported some terrible news.

"Where's the enemy MS?"

"It's still approaching, must keep it suppressed and apply for the use of the positronic breach cannon."

"No, it's too much radiation to the surface." Marius objected as usual ,

"At least not now, there's still a chance," said Hoffman, slowly, "to use the

Shrapnel head for Korinthos, lowered

Valient's firing frequency in response, that should work, right?"

"Understood."

"Is that the only way to do it?"

"Attention, shelling!"

"Evasive!"

"Can't do it, coming from both directions, and 6 o'clock, spotting a new radar exposure!"

"Large heat source confirmed at 6 o'clock! It's a battleship!"

Battlefield monitors at two different locations simultaneously confirmed the variables of the battle.

"Hold on, 6 o'clock, new explosions detected, unknown!"

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14. yellow bird in the back

A few minutes ago.

JETFREED. Dawken was staring at the tactical screen in front of him, the electronic map that for a long time had shown nothing but maps had finally shown tactical markers representing friendly forces, a thin curved line of defense belonging to them was being formed. He was grateful for the help those Atlantic Federation guys had provided his men, including a nice lunch and a hot shower, but what really helped was the cleaning of the tank's dust control gear, which had allowed the three MBTs under his command to return to combat. War, that was his priority, and the forces the Atlantic Federation had thrown at him could indeed cause trouble for the Tigers, but they were still too thin, and the arcing defensive line built on the terrain could easily be defeated if Zaft concentrated his forces. Whether it was battleships, MS, or tanks, they were all weapons with an emphasis on mobility, and he didn't think it would be a good idea for them to sell a favor to help those guerrillas with their defense, maybe that commander had some sort of political consideration, but militarily, then it certainly wouldn't be cost effective to do so. But his choice of areas on the map for his squad to cover and guerillaize showed that he wasn't stupid, on the contrary, like himself, he could figure out that his opponents were trying to play some tricks.

"It's great to have those guys from the Americas to help us get a head start." Tariq the Gunner said distractedly.

"He's probably just afraid of getting into trouble; after all, command is worth tugging at for senior officers, and I'm thankful he's not dictating to us too much."

"But why are we heading here?" Tariq pointed to the digital map in the cockpit, the squad of three MBTs and two infantry fighting vehicles was moving away from the direction the Zaft army and ships had appeared.

"Because Tiger's a cunning bastard, he won't mull over their lines, remember when those Baku sneaked up on old Taylor's command?"

"You mean, we're covering their flanks?"

"That's right, keep your eyes open for any flying dust nearby, they're likely to emerge from this area."

"But sir, if we really want to keep an eye on our surroundings we'll have to open the window, you know, the scope has a very limited field of view." Tariq complained, "You're not really going to open the observation window, the temperature outside...."

"You're right," Jettfrid replied as he opened the comm channel, "All hands, slow down, then stop, guns pointed at 2 to 5 o'clock, stay in place and keep your guns open."

This main battle tank that was originally designed with the requirements of desert combat in mind had a very improvised air conditioning system, it would at least ensure that the men crammed into this little metal encased box would be able to maintain combat capability for a longer period of time without dying of heat or dehydration too quickly, it certainly wouldn't be as comfortable as a civilian air conditioned bus, and the quality of the air in the vehicle would slowly deteriorate, but even the worst of it was better than the sand outside under the scorching sun.

Then Tariq opened his mouth wide in surprise as his captain picked up his portable communicator and binoculars, then quickly opened the lid and jumped out, then quickly closed the hatch before too much hot air blew in.

"Hey, sir, this is ...."

"Be sure to stay alert, keep an eye on every screen, and contact anything that comes up." His captain's voice came through the communication window that opened automatically on the tactical screen.

"You'd better get back early if you don't want to die from the heat," Tariq thought, without radioing that out to the radio.

JETFRIED. Dawken felt a twinge of regret as he sprawled on the hot sand against the scorching sun, the burning sun of the Sahara and the equally hot sand below could quickly put a man lacking shelter into a troublesome state of dehydration, and even in modern times, this sea of death could still easily consume the lives of those who weren't paying attention. But he realized after a few seconds that he didn't need to be out there for long, a noise different from the wind or the tank engine had caught on his ear drums. As a tank soldier, he didn't have that specialized, camouflage suit that could disguise itself as a rock or a bush, but he felt that his desert camouflage would suffice. What was making the noise had to be some sort of Zaft carrier, and it wasn't the blunt, heavy footsteps of MS on foot or the driving sounds of a tank or other tracked vehicle. He peeked out from the top of the dune in some confusion, then raised his high-powered binoculars.

A strange object came into his view, protruding high behind another sand beam, no turrets or similar devices visible above, only a few objects like antennas or radars protruding from the earthy structure.

It took the armored lieutenant a few seconds to realize what he was seeing, and while he knew those things existed, seeing the target with his own eyes was still enough to shock him.

"God, do those adjusters really like the big guys that much?" The Lieutenant's exclamation was also beamed over the intercom channel.

"What did you say, Chief?" Captain Cook asked a question.

"You'll see soon enough," said Jettfrid, as he side-stepped over the dunes, slid right down, and then leaped up into his tank at a few quick strides. "But until then we'd better take a slight detour."

He was almost certain he hadn't been spotted, their radar wasn't enough to distinguish a man-sized target, and the thermal imager couldn't distinguish him from the entire desert below, which was emitting huge amounts of thermal radiation; but spotting the tanks would be a much easier job, so he needed to maneuver while his squad was still dead in the opponent's radar wave. A red box consisting of dashed lines and an arrow, also dashed, were marked on the map that had been updated with the inter-vehicle data link, along with a new maneuver route that he had purposely chosen to maneuver low among the dunes to avoid the opponent's radar.

"So Chief, what did you see?"