With Sergei Smirnov's order, his MSJ-06II-ET Iron Man Type Space Commander Exclusive Model and Soma Peries's MSJ-06II-SP Iron Man Type Peach took the lead, charging straight for the Ptolemy.
At the same time, the two Tiger-class ships unleashed a barrage of fire at the Ptolemy with their combined total of twelve 20-tube missile launchers, firing a full salvo of Anti-ship Missiles.
Sumeragi's face paled slightly as she watched the 240 missiles fire in unison. If she had known, she would have kept Gundam Virtue behind. Even if it was equipped with the Real Type Armed Armor, it at least had a GN Beam Cannon and GN Missile Containers on its left and right that could fire a total of 48 missiles per volley.
That was an interception capability that the current Exia and Kyrios combined could not hope to match.
Failing that, even Dynames would be better than these two right now. A GN Beam Submachine Gun was far more suitable for intercepting missiles than a Beam Rifle.
Moreover, Sumeragi was keenly aware of how mediocre Setsuna's Mobile Suit marksmanship was.
As for Lockon, his Mobile Suit's legs were a temporary addition, and the firing parameters hadn't even been adjusted. It would be a miracle if his first few shots were accurate.
But it was useless to think about that now. She had to hold out against the attack for six minutes with Exia and Kyrios to receive support from Virtue(Plutone) and Dynames.
As foreseen, Exia and Kyrios failed to shoot down many missiles despite their best efforts. A large number of Setsuna's and Lockon's shots were near misses. Relying on chain detonations from successful hits was simply not enough to stop many missiles.
Judging from the radar map, at least 200 missiles had broken through their blockade.
Fortunately, the GN Particles prevented the Human Reform League's missiles, which still used gunpowder propulsion, from locking on. These missiles could only fly in a straight line without changing course, so it was estimated that only a dozen or so of the luckiest ones would hit the Ptolemy.
After all, this wave of missiles was just cover for the Mobile Suit assault.
However, a dozen direct hits from Anti-ship Missiles would be fatal enough. The warship's armor alone couldn't block them, so Sumeragi immediately commanded, "Christina, deploy the GN Field!"
Facing an attack on the battlefield for the first time, Christina was exceptionally flustered—even young Kira on the Archangel had been calmer back then. As a result, she deployed the GN Field at the last possible second before the missiles struck the hull.
Fortunately, the GN Field, being resistant to both energy and physical attacks, was quite effective. The dozen or so Anti-ship Missiles only caused some vibrations upon impact, without inflicting major damage.
However, the Ptolemy was currently designated as a transport ship, and its power source was a large GN Capacitor, not the large GN Storage Tanks from the second season.
Therefore, the Ptolemy's GN Particle storage was very limited, and it couldn't maintain this full-coverage GN Field for long.
(In both seasons of the anime, whenever the Ptolemy made an official appearance, it was always accompanied by at least one Gundam. Without the replenishment of GN Particles from a Gundam's GN Drive, the Ptolemy would cease to function after a short period.
The reason the Ptolemy isn't fleeing here is the same. Without a Gundam, the Ptolemy wouldn't get far before it ran out of GN Particles and became a coffin drifting in space.
Moreover, the Human Reform League wouldn't let the Ptolemy escape. Setsuna and a single Exia, with its extremely weak long-range capabilities, couldn't stop the Top Martial unit.
Leaving Kyrios behind was even more out of the question. A sniper unit surrounded by the Top Martial's elites, with a damaged frame and incomplete armaments—it would be better for Lockon to just surrender.)
However, as the enemy, Sergei Smirnov was unaware of the Ptolemy's situation.
He saw that the enemy ship had a shield identical to the captured fat Gundam's, and that they had already built another one so quickly.
Therefore, Sergei Smirnov judged that this shield could probably last for a long time and that he needed to strike hard to break it.
Without hesitation, Sergei Smirnov spoke into the team's voice channel, "Execute Tactical Plan Three."
"Tactical Plan Three" was a code phrase within the Top Martial unit, meaning: ram them with an unmanned warship.
And so, the Tiger-class ship, which had been leisurely firing missiles from beside the flagship, immediately surged forward, launching all of its remaining missiles.
The crew inside expertly transferred to the escape section. After pushing the ship to maximum speed and setting its course, the bridge at the bow detached from the hull, taking the escape section with it.
When Sumeragi saw the enemy mothership suddenly accelerate and its bridge detach, she instantly realized what they were planning and roared, "That protruding Tiger is preparing for an unmanned kamikaze attack!"
Inside Kyrios, Lockon could hear Sumeragi's voice because his Mobile Suit was in direct contact with the ship's hull.
Since this Tiger was carrying no cargo, and it was a kamikaze ship, its engines were pushed to their absolute limit.
So by the time Sumeragi finished shouting, the Tiger was already right in front of the Ptolemy.
Seeing this, Lockon roared, "Don't even think about it!" He then fired all 24 remaining GN Missiles from Kyrios's six quad-missile launchers (because Kyrios had been under repair, it only had pre-loaded physical ammunition; there was no time to install the reserve magazines) directly at the Tiger.
It had to be said, for a warship that leaned towards transport, the Tiger was already very cost-effective. Besides, what could you expect in terms of armor from a ship that could be used as a suicide weapon or a decoy at any moment?
The GN Missiles slammed into the Tiger's hangar's outer armor, causing it to cave in deeply. The missiles then easily unleashed their explosive power into the sealed space within. The entire ship successfully exploded just before it could crash into the Ptolemy.
However, the Tiger was very close to the Ptolemy at this point, and the shrapnel from the explosion could still damage the Ptolemy's equally weak outer armor.
The Ptolemy's outer armor was weak here because, to conserve particles, the GN Field had been shut down right after the missile attack.
Without the enhancement of GN Particles, there was really not much difference between the E-Carbon Armor and the Tiger's armor.
Therefore, Sumeragi immediately ordered the GN Field to be reactivated. Unfortunately, Christina, a newcomer to the battlefield, had already had an emotional breakdown. She had completely lost her self-control and could only clutch her head and scream, "No!"
But at that moment, reinforcements arrived. A large number of GN Missiles suddenly flew in from the flank, blasting most of the ship fragments heading for the Ptolemy to bits. The remaining small pieces posed no significant threat. They merely caused the people on the bridge to shake violently for a moment, giving a good show of the female figures, and then it was over.
Seeing that they were saved, Christina's composure returned slightly. Moreover, her friend Feldt displayed unusual fortitude at this moment and gave her a pep talk about "having to survive," which helped her at least regain her self-control.
The GN Field was activated again, and this time Sumeragi didn't dare to turn it off. The Human Reform League's Mobile Suit forces had already arrived.
At this time, the Ptolemy's optical cameras also captured the one who had just saved them: it was Tieria in the Real Type Armed Gundam Virtue.
In his cockpit, Tieria's eyes glowed gold. He let out a slight sigh of relief and muttered to himself, "It seems physical ammunition has its advantages. Even though it was beyond the Mobile Suit's guidance lock-on range, if you calculate the lead time, you can still hit the target."
Yes, Tieria had just connected to VEDA, using its computational power to calculate how far in advance the GN Missiles needed to be fired to destroy the Tiger before it hit the Ptolemy.
However, because Lockon had shot down the Tiger first, Tieria's attack ended up destroying the scattered ship fragments instead.
In short, although the two hadn't communicated and their relationship was average at best, they had successfully executed a brilliant coordinated maneuver.
Sergei Smirnov nodded again upon seeing this. He was starting to overthink things a bit now, sighing with admiration, "I didn't expect Celestial Beings' few Gundams to be able to coordinate so well. So, was their constant solo fighting before because their Mobile Suits were too powerful and they were arrogant? Did they learn their lesson after suffering a major loss at the hands of the terrorists? Still, this is going to be troublesome."
Sergei Smirnov could already see the particle glow of the Dominion on the other side. He decided to change formation and said into the team's voice channel, "Leave half the unit to continue attacking the enemy mothership. Remember, don't charge in. Stay out of that sniper Gundam's line of fire. If that close-combat unit dares to charge, lure it deep and surround it. If it doesn't charge, just use your smoothbore cannons to attack the mothership's shield. The goal is to pin these two Gundams and the third one arriving from the other side down here!
"Flagship, deploy Space Mines at the coordinates I've designated.
"The rest of you, follow me. We're going to give the faster-arriving orange Gundam a welcoming party."
With that, Sergei Smirnov led his men towards the Dominion's direction, and the Top Martial unit's flagship scattered space mines along Dynames's inevitable path.
If things had proceeded normally, Alleluia in the Dominion would have been doomed.
After being slowed down by the space mines, the resonance of his Super-Soldier abilities with Soma Peries's would have caused him to faint from a headache and be captured alive.
However, just as the Space Type Iron Man units at the front were using the Ptolemy for target practice, a strange, black hole-like sphere suddenly appeared in the middle of the battlefield.
The energy alarms of all nearby Mobile Suits and warships went haywire, blaring chaotically until they retreated to a certain distance and returned to normal.
It was a good thing both sides had retreated, because the black sphere began to expand rapidly, as if to devour everything.
This rapid expansion lasted less than a second. The sphere grew from the size of a basketball to a diameter of three kilometers before it stopped expanding. However, the eerie red lightning crackling on its surface was extremely unsettling.
Sumeragi stared at this reality-defying scene and murmured, "Is this... Otherworld Entanglement? To happen at a time like this?
"Right, that strange interference wave. That solves it. That interference wave was emitted by the SDP. They're in this space zone!"
Sergei Smirnov had thought of the same thing as Sumeragi.
But unlike Sumeragi's delight, Sergei Smirnov only felt a headache. He thought to himself that he must check the almanac before his next mission. Why else would the capture of a Celestial Beings Gundam be so fraught with twists and turns, when he had already been on the verge of cornering the enemy?
However, the Otherworld Entanglement would not end just because of their thoughts. Soon, red lightning tore apart the black sphere, revealing rows of mono-eyed Mobile Suits inside.
Reid, who had been watching the battlefield, cursed again when he saw the Mobile Suits that appeared from the sphere.
"Fuck! This time it's the Zaku family coming as a team! But why are there so many impure-blooded Mobile Suits mixed in!"
That's right, the Mobile Suits that appeared from this Otherworld Entanglement were all from the Universal Century, and all of them were from the Zaku lineage.
The list was as follows:
MS-04 Zaku Experimental Type, MS-05S Zaku I (Char's custom commander unit), MS-06R High Mobility Psycho Zaku, RX-106E High Zaku Demon Wolf, RMS-108 Marasai (Yazan Gable's unit), AMX-011P Zaku III Psychomu Equipped Type, AMX-116S Commander Type Zaku IV, AMS-119C (Full Frontal's Custom) Geara Doga, AMS-129 Geara Zulu (Angelo Sauper's custom unit).
It should be known that these Mobile Suits were all offshoots of the Zaku's lineage.
Although by the time of the High Zaku, it was basically a child born after the mother remarried, no longer belonging to the same family as Zeon's Zaku, there was still some blood relation.
As for the Zaku III, a Mobile Suit developed by Axis under the Neo Zeon banner, it could be considered the child of a distant maternal aunt. (Think of the relationship between Liu Bang and Liu Bei; the blood ties were so distant they could be considered two separate families.)
Then there were the later Geara Doga and Geara Zulu, which were developed with the assistance of Anaheim Electronics, a company that had absorbed the technology of the Zeonic Company.
It seemed the bloodline had become a little closer to the original Zaku again. In any case, the lineage had been a mess ever since the Zeonic Company was absorbed by Anaheim Electronics.
What was certain was that all nine Mobile Suits this time were related to the Zaku line in some way.
But what left Reid most speechless was that the people who came this time were clearly no mere grunts. Reid could sense several Newtypes, and the rest had Psychic Power at least at the level of Enhanced Persons. Among them was also the familiar presence of his old friend, Char.
Oh, no, there was one dud among them. The pilot of the MS-04 Zaku Experimental Type was almost overlooked by Reid amidst the surrounding glows of psychic power. This person, like their Mobile Suit, was probably just there to make up the numbers.
Of course, these people were still berserk. The powerful Newtype and Enhanced Person psychic presences Reid sensed were all equally insane and bloodthirsty.
Therefore, Reid immediately gave the order, "All units, sortie! This time's opponents are no pushovers. Don't be fooled by their Mobile Suits; the pilots inside are all aces. I could even get taken out if I'm not careful."
With that, Reid piloted Gundam Artemis and was the first to launch.
At this moment, Nein was already standing behind Reid as his co-pilot. Reid took advantage of the free moment to ask with concern, "Nein, first time on the battlefield. Are you nervous?"
Reid's back was to Nein, so he couldn't see her expression.
But through his emotional senses, Reid was very certain she had just given him a huge eye-roll before saying, "I am an Artificial Intelligence produced for Mobile Suits. Why would you think I'd be nervous entering a battlefield?"
To this question, Reid answered without a hint of hesitation, "Of course it's because in my heart, Nein, you're a person with feelings. Hmm, a little girl with a computer's recording function who makes sarcastic remarks and has a sharp tongue."
Hearing Reid's words, Nein felt a warmth in her heart, but also a strong urge to hit someone.
However, Reid was about to enter the battlefield, so Nein still lectured him sternly, "Please focus! I don't want to be shot down on my first sortie. I haven't even gotten to use this Mobile Suit for very long!"
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