Gundam Fire Still

The Archangel was sailing into this narrow passage with enough caution that it could only accommodate one ship at a time, meaning it would get no supporting firepower if it encountered an enemy, and an attack by an ambushed ms in such a narrow passage would be doom and gloom for any ship if it was attacked by an ambush. Carl and Mu's two ms had been released early, patrolling the rubble around the passageway to defend against possible ambushes, or even to directly attack potential ambushers.

But they didn't wait for the ambushers, it didn't appear to be a trap, and a few minutes after driving into the channel they did see ms on the screen, the oRB ms were sending flashing light signals asking them to follow them forward - it was pointless, it was the only way to get through the ship.

But their presence confirms a theory of the Combine that the oRB ships they met on the voyage, attacked and protected by mercenaries, were indeed heading this way, and that the snail's neutrality was indeed helping them stall for time.

On the way to the passage, where the space became slightly more spacious, they once again saw the oRB's flagship, Kusanagi, who was sending out a light signal indicating friendship, and Mathiu opened the comm channel of the Combine to Montgomery, who was still on the outskirts of the L4 satellite cluster.

"We've encountered the oRB and are in the process of negotiating."

"You're in luck," Remiret returned without a good word, "We've encountered Zaft."

10.Opening Bell.

Five minutes ago, outside the L4 satellite cluster, lunar side of the unnamed meteorite.

A reconnaissance mA from the VF/A-300 Warrior Squadron, assigned to the cruiser USS Montgomery, is in cover.

This is one of several best hiding spots calculated by the intelligent tactical command system cortana to be located near the L4 satellite belt. The hastily cobbled together Joint Task Force does not have enough troops to monitor the entire intricate cluster of satellites, even though the L4 satellite cluster is so small compared to the symmetrical L5 that it is completely off the scale. The red dots on the screen map were the best solution for the satellite cluster's outer surveillance mission, based on the system's calculations of the fleet's current strength and the enemy's potential strength.

The mA, painted on the side with the team's insignia and 02 number, was hiding in the shadow of the meteorite, active radar and main engines off, with only the passive optronics system in the lower pod still monitoring the forward reconnaissance sector against the backup power supply.

The calm of the main screen was shattered after a long period of quiet surveillance that began at a certain moment.

First a yellow light came on, a dashed line framing something that appeared on the optoelectronic system screen, some object that was circling out from the back of the moon, reflecting the dazzling sunlight caught by the system. The pilot pressed the communications panel, and all of this body's next findings would be synchronized to his own mothership via an information relay system 35Km behind himself.

The next one to light up was a heat source warning, and on the enlarged pop-up window, the flying object shining in the sunlight erupted with a battleship thruster level heat source. Next was a green flash from the back of the moon that was visible enough for the naked eye to catch; the pilot subconsciously held his breath, then pressed the button for fuel refueling and engine warm-up, then selected the main engine to go into emergency start-up readiness; the bright, green flash that belonged to the widely equipped particle beam weaponry of the Zaft was something he would never have mistaken for anything else.

At the same time as the shock and roar of the engine activation was transmitted to the cockpit, one, another, and then a third battleship-class heat source appeared on his screen at a slight distance away, in the exact direction of the source of the particle barrage. In less than a second, the system had determined the signals from the three emerging heat sources to be Zaft's NASCAR class, but the earliest heat source that had appeared was still marked with the question mark of an unknown battleship. The continuous flashes of green particle beams that crossed between them indicated a fierce chase in front of themselves, the pursuers behind them were raining down particle beams at very high velocities on their targets, and the unidentified battleship being pursued had apparently turned in a different direction, coming straight towards the L4 satellite.

The engines had been fired up to the point where they could perform an emergency maneuver, but the pilot put his foot on the gas pedal and didn't press down. There was no need to activate his thrusters, increase his heat and then expose himself when the belligerents in front of him weren't noticing him and he wasn't firing his ms, he could have chosen to maintain surveillance and give more information to the mothership behind him. It would not be difficult for the mA to escape from the fire net of the ships without the interference of the ms.

Information from all over the satellite cluster was being sent to the Montgomery's war room in a steady stream, and one by one red dots were being marked on the situational charts, Remiret still sitting lazily, but his eyes were glowing with excitement.

"Hoffman, do you dare to fight?"

"Of course we'll fight, but not these ORB's."

"Don't need them, they'll just add to the mess." Remy waved a dashing hand, "If they have ms slipping in, you're on it."

"Captain, quantum communications from Washington." The comms relayed a communication from Earth to Remy's terminal, Remy raised an eyebrow, it looked like those nAsA toys were working.

He scanned this latest communication for a few seconds before forwarding it to Hoffman on the Archangel; seconds later, the unidentified ship that was being chased and rapidly approaching L4 had been labeled "neutral" on the entire joint data link system.

Those Washington guys, they're really wide of the mark, Remy thought, knowing exactly what was going on. And then somewhere on Earth, he didn't care if it was under the Pentagon or under some college baseball field, there would be a set of higher-performance supercomputers, plus a bunch of generals and their staffs making analyses and then sending out one such communication to alert them if necessary.

"What does Washington say?" Appearing on the screen was Rick. Old Man Eisenhorn, who had previously moved to the Archangel in a transport boat, as the ship that would enter the L4 area first would be the first to contact the neutral forces involved in this secret negotiation, and he was clearly needed to sit in on such a negotiation operation.

"As you can guess, the ones being pursued are friends of the PLAnt representatives who came to negotiate, and the pursuers are Old Sara's special forces, used to take out anyone planning to oppose him or attempt Earth negotiations, or friends of those people."

"Well, as it turns out."

"So we'd better not take them out, I've had the system mark them as neutral, that's what the people down there mean, I think you can understand we didn't mark them as friendly." Hoffman interjected, the Archangel was now in fairly peaceful proximity, due to the satellite perimeter pickup, the Lieutenant was greeting the Union rookies who had been in the surrounding gravel belt practicing targeting with each other and the ORB's test pilots to hurry back to the ship, and there were no troublesome matters that needed to be decided by him on the ship's course. In fact, he'd already seen the massive satellite wreckage ahead on the bridge, and if he was right, the hidden negotiation site was somewhere in there.

"I think we can help them out a bit, it's a bit difficult to take on three NASCARs with just us."

"That's right, old man, Remy, does that clever chain of command of yours have a plan?"

"Of course it does, it will give you many options and your trouble is finding that you don't know which one to pick, I suppose I could do a round of strikes with the mA out there, but put them in the satellite cluster, trap them in the cluster and let you and your ms squadron deal with them."

Remiret pretended to think for a moment, but the smirk on his face next indicated that he had been planning for a long time about choosing this option.

"Hmm, I think I can guess" Hoffman had a look of recognition of the conspiracy as he tapped his thick knuckles wrapped in gloves against the armrest of the seat "You want to pull the oRB's down, don't you? A very smart approach."

"Yes, it's the most likely battle plan for the oRB's to enter the war and be on our side."

"Then let's do it," Hoffman shot the version, "The first strike, and a little rescue of these neutral PLAnt people will be yours."

"Major Owen, how's your squadron?" Remiret's got his hangar on the line.

"Loaded and ready to move out."

"Good, follow this course and attack the first batch of NASCAR first."

"What about the unidentified battleship?"

"Don't worry about it, it's firing at NASCAR behind us, you have the same target."

"If it's firing at us?"

"Don't return fire until any new orders are given, keep a safe distance, it won't fire at you, if the people up there aren't idiots."

"Very well, Warrior Squadron, airframe self check, prepare to attack."

Meanwhile, inside the satellite, the scene of the engagement

The conference room was a bit noisy now, with the waste dealers and oRB personnel coming and going several times, and a terminal down on the long table in the center of the room, showing what they knew to be the situation on the outer edges of the satellite.

"I'll get you out of here as soon as I can." The leader of the waste merchants said gravely, while the two negotiating representatives smiled sadly and continued to drink their coffee.

"If you want good faith, sir from the Earth Army," after the noise and panic had passed slightly, the, tall, female bodyguard who stood behind the PLAnt representative walked towards Jim. Rahel approached and showed him the terminal in his hand, "This is 'Terminal' in good faith."

Jim looked down at the PLAnt news on the terminal, the unclear video showing the shelled and destroyed port gates, the burning port components, and a distant, somewhat blurred battleship on the far side of the screen, the person who had assembled the news had apparently deliberately circled the ship as a marker.

"We got this ship from Sara, and now our companions are fighting them. This is what we brought, in good faith for peace."

The tall woman gestured her finger to the table, then pointed again to a certain bulkhead, which was apparently the same direction where the waste merchant stronghold here had found the heat source of the battle, and which was likewise the direction in which the cat, covered in pure black, had bowed and growled, and perhaps it was true that cats had instincts other than those of humans.

"Then, at least, as a matter of my personal good faith, I have to remind you of one thing: if your companions on that ship hadn't been tracking and unable to shake it off, you'd have to consider another possibility, the possibility that the place of engagement here has leaked out and some of you weren't sufficiently tight-lipped." Jim narrowed his eyes, and the look in the woman's one remaining uncovered eye changed somewhat.

"That captain is one of PLAnt's best commanders, and that ship is one of the new high-speed ships. They can't be tracked."

"That means that some of your Sara faction friends already know we're here, and that the pursuing Nazca is just a ship that your companions got on their way to here."

"Damn it." The female whispered a curse, then looked up, "What are you trying to say?"

"Quite simply, the Union's ships are already in the vicinity, and I would like your friend..."

"They will, the captain is a very wise man, and for the time being we have no choice." The female appeared resigned, but the PLAnt interlocutor spoke slowly, "They're here to kill us, so we have no choice, and that, too, in good faith."

"Having to fight alongside the Union Army, I hope that's a sincerity that you, and the guys in the underground bunker in Washington, D.C., can accept."

The female drew a pistol from her waist, then jogging into the conference room were soldiers in Zaft-style infantry combat uniforms with the Hourglass insignia painted off, armed with assault rifles.

"It's all we've got in this satellite, plus the waste dealers and oRBs are also very limited,"

Jim grinned, "Get the Union's ships on the line and let me talk to the commander. I know they're always ready to come."

11. First Strike