Gundam Fire Still

"Be careful with everything, just like you're doing now, buckle up, and then always ask someone; then you'll soon get used to it. If I remember correctly, MI5 is in charge of internal investigations, what the hell kind of mission was it to have you rush the first class of ships into the universe?"

"Very correct memory, because Blue Perestroika, I was originally investigating the activities that Blue Perestroika carried out before the war started, including a lot of arms smuggling, attacks on the Adjusters and the Institute of Genetics and so on, and what caught our attention, the target of their attacks, was Mendel, have you heard of this place?"

"In L4, if I remember correctly?"

"Yes, one of L4's research satellites. It was a very small, underfunded lab on our initial records, and we paid absolutely no attention to it; but after the Perestroika attack, our survey team found it to be much larger than we had anticipated. But unfortunately, we didn't pay much attention to the investigation there at the time, you know, the adjuster crisis took up almost all of our attention, and the investigation team took a few pictures, made a casualty list, and then just dumped it on the anti-biofouling decontamination team. And now we're just realizing the problem, how did the Perestroika people know that the lab was big enough to be worth smuggling guns and bombs into and making it their target?"

"Well, that does beg the question, so how does this relate to Major Frada? You could have kept it to yourself if it involved confidentiality."

"No, Major this is entirely open source information, and the hand that gave a secret infusion of large sums of money to this otherwise underfunded and scraping by small laboratory belonged to a man with the last name of Frada, who, if we are not mistaken, was the Major's father, who, in turn, died under suspicious circumstances."

"And then he knew about it, and then asked to take part in the investigation?" Carl frowned, he had the impression that the grinning Mu had never mentioned his father or any other family member, and it wasn't like him to do so.

"Yes, we questioned him, and then he, like crazy, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but apparently in a very unnatural agitation, asked to participate in our investigation." Borgman apparently observed that Frada was not near, before he spoke to reply.

"But you have to know that the course of this one hasn't been set - at least that's what I know so far - and even if it passes through Mendel we may not dock if we find a target we need to pursue. Even if we're stranded near L4, you're largely asking for death if you want to take a small boat on a satellite in a MS engagement."

"That's right, Major, we'll all have to watch this mission, and if I'm not mistaken, the commander will have a great deal of autonomy, which means that if I can convince him..."

Passengers could clearly feel the speed of the vehicle slowing down, the noise from the airport landings had slowly diminished, but a new, completely different noise was beginning to torment the ear drums.

"Behold, our cursed ship." The young, seated Garcia in the corner pointed to the line of white 'long legs' that showed on the side of the mass accelerator in the sky, "The bases it's been to are said to be unlucky later, we'd better get out of here fast."

Cal gave the young man a silent glare, then hopped off the transport.

======

"Did you hear, guv? The next batch of white ships to launch, I hear it's going to be bad luck everywhere it goes." The mass launcher operator complained about the same thing.

"Yes, of course we're going to be unlucky, look at what the military is asking for, 500,000 registered tonnage per day, that's unlucky indeed, if you have time to complain you might as well get to pre-launch inspection."

"Chief, the military is pressing again, this time it's the Universe Army's logistics department, requesting..."

"Demanding what?"

"Ask us to increase the launch tonnage by another 50,000 tons per day, 100,000 tons if you can."

"Boy, do you hear me, get that damn ship ready for launch and get it out of here now if you don't want me to kick your ass."

4. fleet convergence

Low orbit, Panamanian mass emitter space orbit, first re-orbiting node

Jet lights lit up briefly and rhythmically on the ship's side, the Archangel's activated side thrusters slowly pushing the ship away from the stream of large tonnage transports and outboard cargo containers, the busy route left behind by the ship was the shortest route to the Ptolemaic base on the moon's surface, and patrols from the 8th and 3rd fleets would be responsible for keeping it safe. But the ship wasn't aiming for the lunar surface, and a small sub-fleet was already in low orbit, welcoming the ship with light signals.

"Yo, Remiret's showing off his new toy again." Hoffman, who continued to sit in the commander's battle seat, freed himself from his impact-resistant stationary gear, then caught a glimpse of the laser signal from the Nelson class ahead.

"May God bless the Glorious Union, and the Federation."

Remiret watched as his comms officer signaled so to the approaching white long-legged warship.

Like most Cosmic officers, he didn't like Blue Perestroika - especially the ones who wore slightly higher rank uniforms and then tried to dictate command, as opposed to the lower ranking members who dared to charge the front lines, the former always assuming they knew everything; so he thought this presidential decision was a good thing, but that didn't mean he would have any extra sympathy for the Adjuster, or those who had been persecuted by Perestroika - though the two should never be confused, the Adjuster being the enemy, and the latter being a fellow officer who might be dragging their feet.

And it was the latter that was now before him, Blue Perestroika had tried to suppress everyone who had anything to do with the ship, and even then he still didn't like the stupid ship, old man Halbarton may have been a good comptroller officer, but he had clearly made a mistake on this flashy ship. oRB people couldn't be blamed for not keeping secrets, but the old man should never have gotten involved in these things that shouldn't have been his to Dealing with the ms development thing going on, and then his recklessness nearly breaking his eighth fleet, it was not without reason that Blue Perestroika had to deal with him. And the stupid ship before him was still under the command of his good student, Ms. Lamias - a lady Remiret didn't think deserved her rank, a female officer who was nothing but a good figure - which was obviously not politically correct, just Remy's prejudice - was not at all fit to be on the bridge, she should go back to the technical department, or the civilian officers' Office.

"Have them close in on this ship, then share a new course and request a senior officer meeting, or video conference."

Remy gave new instructions to the communications officer, he knew they would only accept the terms of the video conference, but he added the previous one out of some selfishness belonging to the young man.

Familiar with the Moonface bureaucracy, he knew exactly what was going on with that female captain; Halbarton's status would soon go from cited retirement to being persecuted by the Blue Perestroika elements and forced to take a desperate risk to be hoodwinked by the oRB, and then to be suppressed by the LoGos and disastrously discharged, to be used as another pot of dirty water thrown on the LoGos mogul; as part of the deal, Halbarton wanted the Cosmic Army to give his student a little choice, and then the Lamias major, confusingly, good death still chose to stay on as captain of the Archangel.

--God do you really think a few weeks of sitting on the bridge is enough to teach someone how to command a battleship? Colonel Remiret with a certain prejudice, unfortunately, did think so.

"Hell, the young man." Hoffman scratched his head, he'd heard that the commander of the technically verified fleet was a very keen rank and command sequence comparison guy, and with both he and Hoffman being colonels, he still tried to dominate that way. Not that there was anything wrong with the rank comparison bit, of course, in fact the front line officers and enlisted men of the Atlantic Federation were happy to watch senior officers compare ranks with each other, but being compared in rank by a younger junior himself was another matter.

"Warrant Officer Garcia, get back to him and suggest a video conference, as the ship's transport boat won't fit all the commanding officers." Hoffman shrugged, which was true to an extent, the four seats the transport boat was rated for were apparently not enough to seat the officers in charge of this ship, sure, there was more than one transport boat if you had to be serious, but why do such a hassle?

Carl was in the hangar when he received the order to proceed to the conference room, and in the familiar hangar, which was considered a long time coming, he saw the extra-universe figure the MI5 officer had mentioned, a Marine captain and his squad, who were inspecting the two small craft, or multi-purpose infantry vehicles with short-range cosmic capabilities, that they had brought with them. These low wheeled vehicles looked comical when secured in a hangar designed for MSs of up to 20 meters in height, their roofs were a ridiculous distance from the top of the hangar; the scene reminded Karl of being in the Sahara Desert with this ship, when there were also two Eurasian tanks parked here, and also the same distance from the roof to the ceiling made the hangar look extremely empty. Back then they had barely won the war with extremely limited equipment and supplies, but now it was a different story, the Archangel's hangar had almost reached its design ms maximum load capacity, with 5 short swords (only 4 participated in the last mission, the remaining one was restored in Alaska), 2 long blades, and 3 gundams, probably the first time the ship had been able to perform its full function as an ms carrier! .

"Captain, why are they here?" Ensign Thomas leaned in to whisper a question, and I could tell that he was adjusting well to moving in low gravity.

"I would have thought there would have been a better question, Ensign, they got their orders, so here they are."

"I know, but that's Ari's layover, you know..." The young man's voice shook a little, and Carl could see the petals floating in the air by that lay-by, and the white flowers the young man held in his hand behind his back.

"I know that, Ari, and his 4, lost in Alaska, I wrote the notice of death myself, Ensign." Carl put his hand on the young man's shoulder, then pulled him back and drifted slightly, "His war is over, but we're not. We must make room for the future."

"But why them? Instead of supplementing the driver? Aren't we an elite unit?"

"What do you think they are?" Carl looked serious, "They're not elite troops? They had to bounce around in ice, snow or mud while we rested in air-conditioned briefing rooms, they were crammed into infantry vehicles with less than 200mm of armor while we sat in cockpits with 500mm of equivalent armor, and more often than not they protected themselves with only helmets and body armor, our briefing rooms were bright and spacious and even dust free while they were issued missions covered in dirt from the Tundra silt. You've seen them in action, when we were in Alaska, and I'm sure you remember the town that was almost blown to rubble, where you took your first hit. Then I don't think you'll forget the missile that came out of the rubble that looked like nothing could have survived being blown up."

"Yes, Captain." The wide-eyed Ensign tried to stand upright, but overshot, drifting halfway upward in low gravity.

"We're the best unit the Federation has, Ensign, and the Federation needs a lot of units just as good as us, the more the better." Carl nodded and pointed behind the young man who seemed to have something to float out of, "Good adaptation to low gravity operations, but remember to secure these ... Debris, flying into gaps like exhaust vents can be tricky."

Carl turned and drifted towards the comm panel, he knew that orders would be coming soon for the commander in charge.

He could feel the ship slowing down, turning, and rejoining the fleet, then he received the notification at the comm panel that the officers were heading to the conference room.

In the conference room where half the participants had arrived with the aid of a screen showing the faces of Colonel Remiret and his squad, the fleet's position had been projected on the chart table in the conference room, the same projection relying on the data link shared between the two ships, the only difference was that for both sides, the other only had the top half of the screen.

With the mission at hand, the officers here had to properly understand the combat power they held in their hands.

The small fleet already possessed a small but nimble and well-trained force, and Remiret's Montgomery had just been modernized, its firepower and anti-aircraft capabilities greatly enhanced. Its originally nondescript 155mm triple-mounted secondary cannon has been replaced with a two-mounted beam cannon - actually a particle cannon, of course, but the designation is less of a concern; this secondary cannon uses technology accumulated from the main gun of the Archangel 'experimental ship' - the new technology test fleet insists that this oRB The white carrier cruiser was produced only as an experimental ship to solve the technical difficulties of the shipboard ms and to figure out the command of the battleship-ms with combat, rather than a ship that could actually be used in combat--these particle beam weapons with adjustable rate of fire and adjustable beam level were thought to be able to perform the dual mission of medium-range air defense and anti-ship. The only problem, and the reason why a significant portion of the 75mm Vulcan guns were retained, was that these EMGs were notoriously power-hungry, and there was no room for more in the Nelson class' limited hull. of battery packs now.

The four Drake class A/B frigates also had enhanced anti-ship and anti-aircraft capabilities over the older 130m class; two of the A-type converted the triple-mounted anti-ship torpedo launchers to twin long-range beam cannons, the same type that the Storm Gundam was equipped with in the X-series. The scenario of the Storm Gundam using its range advantage to snipe those poor 130m-classes in low orbital battles clearly benefited the Combine in anger and frustration. With the removal of the torpedo tubes, the ammunition silos that had stored the dangerous high explosive warheads and liquid fuels that made the 130m class a 'paper box' that exploded on a single hit were no longer filled with these hazards. Two high-energy battery assemblies were installed in them to power the beam cannons. The other two B-type Drake were specialised for anti-aircraft protection, and Moonface's arsenal added not only two sets of interceptor laser gatling on the port side, but also two sets of shotgun launchers on the forward and ventral decks of the bridge - also from the Storm Gundam's arsenal, these anti-armour shotguns acted as the ship's penultimate line of defence against close-range ms, and they were more powerful than the RAm-rolling shells they had replaced The missiles slapped more effectively in the face of the incoming ms, their only drawback being lack of rate of fire, and sufficient rate of fire was the only remaining advantage of the 75mm Vulcan gun that was still being used as the last line of defense.

Then there was the Archangel, which was manned up in Alaska and suffered severe damage in the ensuing defensive battle, and without the cover of the ms exposed its lack of anti-aircraft fire, taking a long, twisted tear on its starboard side from a 76mm gun during the battle, as well as a missile shot to the foredeck - but compared to most of the sunken Eurasian fleet, it was Or lucky. And that's why people started becoming it for the cursed ship - fortunately Halbadon didn't die, otherwise this would probably be called Halbadon's curse.

It spent the remainder of its stay in Alaska in dock for repairs, with no opportunity to add any improved weapons; then, as soon as the repairs were completed, it was scrambled to Panama because it was the only ship the Combined Forces had on Earth capable of carrying ms, traveling quickly to space and immediately entering combat. In the hands of the fleet commander, it was still the same ms carrier with strong forward anti-ship firepower, yet only anti-aircraft capability on the flanks and rear.

The data for each of these ships' rail or anti-aircraft guns lay in the command system's computer ready to be accessed by the commanders. Also marked in the database were the MS squadrons configured on the Archangel and the mA squadrons on the Montgomery, both of which were also in combat status.

And it's up to these assembled commanders, and above them, the people who give them orders, to make them work on the big board of the battlefield.

5. Heading

"cortana, star charts."

The virtual videoconference was live, Remiret issuing an audio dictation channel, and both sides of the videoconference saw the 3D projected fleet posture on the chart table being rapidly reduced until it became a tiny dot between the Earth and the Moon that could not be seen in any detail, right next to the giant Earth. The Earth is much larger than the Moon on a realistic scale, and the rest of the cosmic constructs, both of the fleet and the colonial satellites, are just dots on the chart, which can be seen as anything but dots, only the air defense circles, air surveillance circles and patrol routes of the bases of both sides. Alongside the dots belonging to this small fleet, numerous green dots were moving along the cargo track from Earth to the Moon. Those that were marked as mission targets were scattered in several different locations around the Earth-Moon circle.

"Is this, like, a new version of the command assist software?"

"New toy out of nAsA, command assist AI, cortana is beta, a little smarter than the learning onboard computer ms uses." It was an irrelevant question, but he answered casually.

"AI?" someone gave a skeptical look.

"Don't worry, it's not really an AI with intact learning capabilities and personality, that kind of thing requires a quantum computer to maintain, not something a ship's computer can handle. We've tested a single ship command version of it before, and it worked well. Now it's been upgraded once, and can be used as a fleet command aid, even if it gets buggy and goes back to a regular computer system."