Gundam Fire Still

Carl couldn't see the cart, but he knew it was hiding in one of the small bushes he could see up ahead, a dangerous position, closest to the enemy.

"So many? We need artillery support!" There was a terrified shout over the ground forces' channel.

"Don't forget, there's no communications relay to the base here, so we're on our own."

"In that case, what do you think, commander of the big one?" The leader of the armored detachment dumped the question on Karl.

"Can you tell if that's an EMP or a rocket nest on the dog's back?"

"It's a rocket nest, and besides, we'd better be quick, we can see them firing into town. Oh no, there are still our men in town, do you see them?"

"We've seen it all," a small fireball exploded out of the side of a Ginn evident in the distant wavering smoke and fire, but the ms remained standing and strafed the area of smoke.

"I have a plan, easily done, you go to the north side of the woods and ambush them, but be careful not to get stuck in the swamp; I'll move with my squad along the south side of the open area and attack them to draw their attention. They will close in on us, and then you will fire from the flank."

"Sounds doable," the armored commander nodded, he wasn't familiar with the new major, but his scenario made some sense, on the other hand, it seemed rather rare to have the more costly ms act as bait for him.

"Wait, I remember you had a self-propelled mortar? Let it shoot two smoke grenades as we move. If we're out of comm range then leave us alone, you fight as you see fit."

Carl freed up a hand and adjusted the ms walk mode from "Move" to "Combat" and then displayed the expected movement path on the ms squad channel.

"Captain, why don't you let them be the bait and let us be?" The team member was indignant on the ms squadron's channel.

"It's simple, there's a forest between us and the airport and they'll have a hard time seeing the vehicles that are lower than us."

"But...."

"But cut the crap, action, action!"

The four ms started up again, and they moved eastward, approaching the burning town slowly along a diagonal line, the blunt heavy footfalls and roar of their engines enough to carry far in the cold wind. Just as Karl had predicted, after they got a little closer to their opponent, the Zaft in the opposite town moved, and like wolves raising their heads from the carcass of their prey, they stopped the firepower they were pouring into a town with only a handful of 3+ story buildings, zooming in enough on the main screen to see the red one eye of their opponent turning in their direction. And for the pilot who first mass-produced the short sword, this distance indicated that the target was in their effective range

"Fire." Carl whispered over the channel as the 4 ms fired particle beams at the targets exposed on the airport runway. Like other airfields in desolate Alaskan towns, the airfield occupied by those 3 ms had only one lonely runway, and the thin terminal with only 3 floors was far from being a concealment for the ms, the two Ginn were easily passed by the particle beams due to their large size, and then fell in response, the Baku dodged the particle beam with its excellent maneuvering, and then leapt high towards the ms team . Both intercepting particle beams missed their targets due to its sudden acceleration.

"You don't fire," Carl instructed over the channel in short bursts as he stepped on the pedal and met the momentum of the Baku's landing, the 75mm cannon in the head of the ms firing a line of fire at the target, but they all bounced off under the Baku's heavy head armor.

The latter did not slow down, activating the beam blade on its mouth after landing, dragging the dust and snow mist forward to accelerate the impact. Baku's pilot had opened the throttle to maximum, an acceleration far beyond what a natural human could withstand, an innate advantage of the adjuster that couldn't be broken even if the opponent also had ms.

He could clearly see the beam saber that the combined ms had drawn, but he knew that at the speed of his own machine, he would be enough to plunge the particle beam into his opponent's armor first; but there was a sudden flash of green light right in the middle of the screen, and then it covered the entire main screen, and his field of view.

Baku, whose head had been pierced by the beam, slowly fell back, "Confirm target silence,"

Carl put away the beam saber and then began to put a new magazine on the beam rifle in his other hand. Then the lock program on the screen had marked the emerging target.

"Target spotted, Ginn, number 3, Baku, number 1, approaching mid from north of town."

He wasn't sure if the armored detachment was in place, or if it was still in comm range, but he informed the channel of the new hostile situation and then mapped out a decoy route for his squad on the side screen.

"Hurry, get moving!" Large caliber rockets from Baku began to fall around the ms squad and Karl took his squad on a run, while smoke grenades from friendly self-propelled mortars fell in time, making the retreating squad hard to catch on the main screen of the Zaftms, and the occasional green particle beams from the smoke indicated that the target they were chasing wasn't far off.

A smoke grenade from a self-propelled mortar could cover a very small area, and Karl and his squad quickly crossed the smoke zone before turning around and pointing their weapons towards the actually thin curtain of smoke.

He wasn't sure if his opponent would choose to wait or just come right at him, Zaft always had a strong offensive spirit, but after this long battle he wasn't sure if they would still be that brave, after all, getting hit hard by an opponent's ms squad should be a first experience for them as well. It would buy some time if they could blindside their opponents. He had no way of knowing if those Army tanks were in place, and in the electromagnetic blackout himself had to be ready at all times, i.e., ready to face those targets on his own.

The roar of the ms engines increasing their output and activating their jetpacks had been heard from the external sensors, the approaching red monoculars were incredibly visible in the mist, and then in the next second, the opponent with the heavy cutter in hand broke through the fog.

"Take aim."

"Aim and fight!" The sergeant in the tank stared at the screen in front of him, the lights in the tank's closed armored box and the glow of all the electronic screens seemed to go dark for a moment, and then the entire 100+ ton vehicle shook, the 10km per second tungsten warhead crossing this distance to the naked eye in next to no time at all.

The Ginn, heavy sword in hand and posed, flew sideways as if struck by a sledgehammer in the side, then fell heavily to the ground, the dull crash and harsh twang of metal, the sound of friction reaching the ear drums only after that.

It was followed by another Ginn, its torso ripped from its waist by the powerful kinetic energy, its upper body knocked in mid-air before dropping a dozen feet away.

In time to catch the source of the flanking shot, the last Ginn held its heavy sword forward towards the intercepting ms, he knew that the naturals had poor reflexes at this distance, they looked at the target that filled the entire scope while being overwhelmed with enough time for Ginn to cut the target in half, there had been enough mA's that looked at their opponent right on target this way, but not in time to press the gun button, they reacted fully Not coming.

But there's something about the reaction time of a circuit's distance divided by the speed of light that's faster than anyone's brain. Just as the proximity alarm went off in the cockpit, the 75mm self-defense cannon in the head faithfully followed the commands of the onboard intelligence computer and began firing, 75mm high explosive armor-piercing rounds bursting across Ginn's entire upper body, the shock of the chest armor hit transmitted to the cockpit, as well as the alarm of the energy lines in the arms and shoulders being hit, and the assaulting ms shuddered in the barrage.

Then the forward thrust of the beam saber melted through Ginn's cockpit before the heavy sword cut down.

With only one last target left on Karl's targeting screen, the Baku turned nimbly and then disappeared in a flash into the still-unfading smoke screen, the ms squad gave chase, but the firing particle beams were zig-zagged away from the ever-evading Baku. Then under a few columns of smoke from the mortars and a line of fire drawn by the 75mm head machine, the target in view had entered that town, weaving between the dense low buildings.

"Slow down, don't chase, we can't catch up, don't wear out the machine for nothing." Carl spoke up over the squad channel, "We can't outrun it unless we have an air force, and of course, it won't get far."

However, just as the target was on the verge of leaving town, it was suddenly enveloped in a small cloud of fire, and the purple ms was paralyzed when the smoke cleared.

Then three green flares soared up from the smoky town ahead, and three responding red flares flew from the bushes where the armored detachment had been ambushed.

"That?"

"It's our infantry, I didn't expect that, and seriously, they're better fighters than I expected."

14. closer to the truth

ce71 - 13 May, Washington, USA

"The fighting that took place in western Alaska a few days ago has tended to come to an end, and according to the United Earth Force military, the Zaft forces involved in the attack have begun to retreat, but sporadic firefights are still going on..."

The middle-aged man stood up, switched the terminal on the wall from the TV signal to a blackout, and opened the door. The guest standing in the doorway scanned the room cautiously, then stepped in.

Bill. Hayden, head of the Intelligence Community, it was his turn to host guests from the CIA and the Pentagon in his Washington lair, and for reasons that were clear: his men had just done some covert, but more attention-grabbing work on the mess in Alaska.

"We're all well aware of Lieutenant General Harantz and his lieutenants, and perhaps a few others you're still keeping from me? It's unlikely that these people who were supposed to be staying at the United Earth Command died in battle, so what the hell happened? I know Zaft used the emP, but you can't have no backup lines." The Admiral from the Pentagon spoke up first with a frown, as a representative from the military he knew he had an obligation to know the truth.

"You must know something, and keeping it from the military is not a good option."

"That's right, I have to tell you exactly what happened, this incident is so far-reaching that it will not only affect the military of the United Atlantic, but also the United Earth as a whole. That is why I must ask you to come here and discuss this matter further," Bill . Hayden sighed, although he didn't like the aggressive attitude of the military, he knew that the admiral was a veteran naval officer and that he was dealing with a worthy and informative subject. And the friend from the CIA was already a familiar face to him.

"These things are not to be taken out of this building, I must emphasize." Bill. Hayden took a sealed envelope from under the table and he pulled it open, letting the pictures inside scatter on the table, "And I must admit, I don't like what I see."

"I had some sort of expectation, but it was also far from this," the photo showed the body of a shot-drinking male in a Union general's uniform collapsing on a chair in his office, "Lt. Gen. John. Lieutenant General Harenz, it has been determined to be a suicide, the report can be shared with you to investigate, and the reason for the suicide, is this."

He picked out the next picture, a blurred, enlarged and sharpened photograph of a monitor, in which the text on the terminal in the man's hand was sufficiently recognizable.

"They have a plan to escape the base in a transport submarine while the battle is going on, or rather, while Zaft is using the emP, and then remotely activate the Hundred Eyes system below the base, you should all know that one, you know as well as I do what's going to happen."

"And deep in the perfect electromagnetic shield of the underground enclosed structure, the Hundred-Eyed Giant system will not be affected by the emP." CIA Deputy Director Mueller, another invited guest, added quietly.

"You mean they already knew ahead of time that Zaft would use emP?"

"I don't think they knew explicitly that it was an emP, but they clearly knew that it would be some kind of powerful, decisive new weapon."

Bill found another thin electronic terminal and pulled up an audio from it, where a somewhat flimsy male voice was saying incoherently, "They're coming, they're going to use that, they're coming soon."

Then another stern male voice questioned, "What the hell is that?"

"Hell." The Admiral pressed a button on his terminal, stopping the recording from playing.

"If you don't believe me, this record can be given to your Naval Intelligence to check, but under special conditions of confidentiality," Bill said coldly.