It was expected that Celestial Being's four Gundams would be pinned down by the bombardment, becoming stationary targets.
Seeing that the battle had entered "garbage time," purely intended to exhaust the Gundam pilots' stamina, Reid announced that the Gran Chaos's bridge would operate on a rotation schedule. All pilots were to rest for eight hours, after which the entire ship would enter a Level 2 combat alert, ready to join the battle at any moment.
Reid had his reasons for announcing an eight-hour rest, even though in the original story, the Throne Angels only entered the fray after fifteen hours.
In Reid's view, the three Throne Angel pilots had likely already arrived on the battlefield and were lying in ambush nearby.
The reason they only intervened after fifteen hours was that the Gundam pilots had held out for that long before being captured one by one.
This time, however, the combined forces of the three blocs were so numerous that they probably wouldn't wait fifteen hours and would likely make their move sooner.
But no matter how early they started, Reid figured a ten-hour continuous bombardment was still necessary, so an eight-hour rest period was about right.
Time ticked by. Eight hours later, as Reid was eating his dinner in the pilots' lounge and watching the live feed of the bombardment on a small screen, he couldn't help but remark, "Eight hours of intense concentration, without food or water, while enduring immense vibrations... I have to say, the spirit of the Celestial Being Gundam pilots is commendable. An ordinary person would have passed out long ago."
Since it was their private time, the other members of the squad were more relaxed. Hilda spoke up directly, "It's alright, I guess. Back at Arzenal, the Commander once punished some disobedient rookies by tying them to the coast for ten hours, letting the sea breeze blow and the waves crash over them. After two days of recovery, that person was back to his usual lively self."
As Hilda said this, everyone, including the members of Tekkadan, stared at her, their eyes all asking, "What kind of hell was your old world? Is that how you discipline rookies?"
But a second later, Salya shot Hilda a look and said, "As I recall, the Commander only used that punishment once. That batch of rookies was exceptionally unruly, so it was a case of making an example of them. But in my opinion, eight hours of intense concentration without food or water is indeed manageable."
Salya's words reminded the others that these two were from the same world as the great Ange. They just had to think about Ange's physical constitution.
Although Salya and Hilda didn't look particularly muscular, their physical strength far surpassed that of genetically enhanced Coordinators. The same was true even for the three who worked in administrative roles—Elsa, Rosalie, and Chris. It seemed one shouldn't use the people from their world as a standard for normal humans.
Belfgang then half-jokingly, half-seriously changed the subject, "Actually, with enough rigorous training, an elite special forces soldier should be able to endure a situation like Celestial Being's for eight hours without passing out. After eight hours of shaking, the body gets used to it. In fact, if the shaking were to suddenly stop now, the sudden change from tension to relaxation might be what breaks a person's spirit."
Noin strongly agreed with Belfgang's point and added, "That's right. It seems the Human Reform League, the Union, and the AEU feel that the Celestial Being Gundam pilots' nerves aren't stretched taut enough yet. Once they feel the pilots' spirits are about to snap, they'll stop the bombardment and cut them off, forcing them to flee. Then, they'll harry them on the run. Even if the Gundam pilots still want to fight back, their bodies will likely refuse to obey."
Noin hadn't read the script, but with how things had developed, her military expertise and third-party perspective naturally allowed her to see through the three blocs' scheme.
Reid nodded in approval. "It's fine. Celestial Being must have another card up their sleeve. The question is whether that card will be enough to save them. After all, the Human Reform League, the Union, and the AEU have deployed so many troops this time. If they're willing to throw lives at the problem, I don't see any chance for the Celestial Being Gundams to escape."
No one disagreed with Reid's statement. They had all had a turn playing with Gundam Virtue, so everyone had a clear understanding of the Celestial Being Gundams' capabilities.
Moreover, the members of Tekkadan had long since begun their officer training under Noin. Although their grades were currently terrible, they weren't so clueless as to not see this much.
Ange then took the initiative to ask, "So, Celestial Being's only chance to turn this around is the Otherworld Entanglement?"
Reid nodded in response. "Naturally, that's their only hope. The question is when the Otherworld Entanglement will begin and what kind of enemies it will bring. To be honest, if the enemies this time are even slightly weak, the combined forces of the three blocs here will deal with them easily. After all, this is an alliance of the three strongest nations on this Earth."
At this point, no one else could add to the conversation, as none of them knew what kind of enemy they would be facing this time.
The topic thus shifted back to calculating how many resources the three blocs had used, and everyone marveled at how truly wealthy the Human Reform League was.
However, while Reid's group was eating and chatting, the four Celestial Being Gundam pilots were in pure agony.
Another four hours passed. It was now four in the morning local time. For a normal person pulling an all-nighter, this was the time they would feel the sleepiest, let alone for Gundam pilots who were staying up through a bombardment.
(In the original story, it was already dawn when Setsuna escaped. I checked, and sunrise in the Taklamakan Desert is normally around 7 AM, so three hours before that would be 4 AM, which is correct.)
At this point, the four Gundam pilots were numb, both psychologically and physically.
The frontline commanders of the three blocs had also been up for twelve hours. The units responsible for the bombardment had been rotated dozens of times, as no Mobile Suit could sustain fire for that long.
Seeing that the time was ripe, the three blocs' frontline commanders made their move, just as Reid had predicted, a bit earlier than in the original story.
They weren't sure if an Otherworld Entanglement would occur here, so capturing the Gundams sooner would bring them peace of mind sooner.
Thus, the three blocs simultaneously dispatched their absolute elite forces.
The Human Reform League's Sergei Smirnov personally led the charge, bringing Soma Peries and the Top Armed Forces to capture the "Feather Machine" (Kyrios).
The Union, naturally, sent Graham Aker's Overflag Team, though this time the team was comprised of fourteen of the Union's finest pilots. Their target was Dynames.
The AEU was still led by the "2000-Time Man," Patrick Colasour. Their target was Virtue.
As for Exia, the three blocs had internally agreed that it would be a free-for-all—whoever secured their own target Gundam first would get first dibs.
However, the AEU played a little trick here. They took a risk and split their elite forces in two. The regular army, led by Patrick Colasour, would capture Virtue, while the mercenary units would tail Exia. As soon as Patrick Colasour's side succeeded, they would immediately move on Exia.
The Human Reform League and the Union weren't unaware of the AEU's trickery, but neither nation said anything.
After all, the Union was confident it could handle the AEU. With this extra Gundam, they could all still share the research results later.
As for the Human Reform League, their military's stance was that the Taklamakan Desert was HRL territory. If the AEU wanted to transport an extra Gundam out, they would have to leave something behind.
The Human Reform League was equally unafraid of the AEU not complying. Who asked the AEU to be the weakest of the three Earth blocs, completely unqualified to challenge the other two head-on?
Thus, once the elite forces of each nation were in position, the Celestial Being pilots were pleasantly surprised to find that the twelve-hour bombardment had stopped.
In the pilots' perception, with the sound of the bombardment gone, it was as if the entire world had fallen silent.
However, the four of them had not yet lost consciousness. Tieria, the most clear-headed of them, immediately shouted into the team's comms, "We need to retreat, now!"
Setsuna still had some strength left to respond, immediately saying, "Roger."
Exia then took off, preparing to withdraw, while Virtue, knowing it couldn't fly fast, chose to move along the ground.
At this point, the two were so exhausted they had forgotten to pay attention to Kyrios and Dynames.
Meanwhile, Alleluia and Lockon were in very bad shape.
Just as Alleluia was about to retreat, the approach of fellow Super-Soldier Soma Peries caused him, unprotected by brainwaves, to be struck by a splitting headache.
At this point, after twelve hours of attrition, even the awakening of his other personality, Hallelujah, was useless, as the man had already passed out from the pain.
Kyrios was subsequently tied up and dragged away by the Top Armed Forces.
At the same time, over at Dynames's position, after shooting down a reckless Overflag (an original model, unrelated to the one Reid modified), Lockon's exhaustion allowed Graham to successfully tackle and flip it over in a bear hug. Its weapons were all discarded, and it was captured.
On Virtue's side, Patrick Colasour showed off some fancy moves, baiting Virtue into firing its GN Rocket Cannon. While the GN Particles were recharging, three specially modified Marauder Complete units used their Plasma Capture Shields to form an Electromagnetic Barrier, locking Virtue in place. Simultaneously, the powerful electromagnetic field jolted Tieria inside, causing him to lose control of the Gundam.
Finally, Exia, just like in the original story, ran into the Agrissa Type 13.
At this point, it didn't matter if Sachez was piloting it or not. Any veteran mercenary could have captured Exia.
With all four Gundams captured, the three Throne Angels naturally made their appearance.
Up to this point, everything was proceeding as in the original story.
However, just as the three Throne Angels had repelled the three blocs' elite forces and rescued the four Gundams, they saw dense swarms of mobile suit silhouettes appearing on the horizon and in the sky.
Sergei spoke over the Human Reform League's internal comms, "Heh, so Celestial Being did have another card up their sleeve. Three Gundams I've never seen before... What a pity. Your debut will also be your final stage.
"Rearguard units, on my command, fire a missile salvo and shoot down the newly appeared Gundams."
As Sergei gave the order, the AEU's Kati Mannequin and the Union's commander issued the same command.
A sky-darkening barrage of missiles reappeared, supplemented by all sorts of electromagnetic rifles and missiles from the ground, all firing in unison at the three Throne Angels.
Without any suspense, the three Throne Angel pilots, whose skills were comparable to Setsuna's, were immediately put at a disadvantage.
The high-power GN Launcher (a truly simple and unadorned name) of Throne Angel Eins hitting one or two mobile suits was completely inconsequential.
Throne Angel Zwei encountered the same situation as Exia initially had, completely unable to break through for close combat.
Finally, Throne Angel Drei managed to deploy its wide-area GN Particle dispersal, successfully jamming all communications in the Taklamakan Desert and preventing ultra-long-range missiles from locking on.
But this didn't solve the problem. The four Celestial Being Gundams had almost zero combat capability and needed time to recover. The three Throne Angels had no hope of victory against over a thousand Mobile Suits.
Moreover, the skies above were once again sealed off by Union Real Combat Types. Even if they could only aim manually, the various missiles were enough to blast the three Throne Angels from the sky to the ground.
Then they would have to face a bombardment from High Mobility Iron Men and various artillery pieces. With their limited GN Particles, the three of them wouldn't last long.
Fortunately, at this moment, the accident that everyone knew might happen, happened without fail.
Suddenly, the sky over the Taklamakan Desert lit up.
It wasn't the sun rising, but a giant sphere of light that had appeared out of nowhere at high altitude.
From the Gran Chaos's perspective, calculations showed this sphere of light had a diameter of about fifty kilometers and had appeared completely out of thin air.
Then, the sphere of light crashed toward the Taklamakan Desert like a meteorite.
The elite forces of the Human Reform League, the Union, and the AEU, as well as Celestial Being and the Trinity, were all within the impact range.
If this sphere of light had a physical impact, Reid's first evaluation mission could be declared a failure right then and there, and he'd have to wait for the make-up exam. Celestial Being's four Gundams could not possibly survive such an impact, and many important supporting characters were nearby. It could be said that ninety percent of Gundam 00's main and supporting cast from the first season would be wiped out.
Fortunately, this sphere of light, much like the sandstorm in the Kingdom of Azadistan, was grand in scale and showed high energy readings, but its actual destructive power was not that great.
After landing on the ground, it quickly dissipated into motes of light.
Then came one piece of good news and one piece of bad news.
The good news was that all the Mobile Suits below were completely unharmed; at most, the pilots were given a good scare.
The bad news was that they were now mixed in with the forces from the Otherworld Entanglement, practically face-to-face with each other.
And when Reid saw the invading force this time, he was rendered speechless and ordered, "All units, sortie! I don't need to introduce this enemy, you all know them.
"Liuli, mark the Celestial Being Gundams, the three new red particle Gundams, and the elite forces of the Human Reform League, the Union, and the AEU. Everyone, protect these people and help them retreat as best you can, on the premise of your own safety, of course."
As Reid's order was given, everyone replied, "Roger."
There was no helping it. Just as Reid said, everyone recognized this enemy, because the world that had entangled with them this time was the CE Universe.
The mobile suits that appeared practically included every model from the First War, along with some from the Second War.
The most numerous were the desert-type BuCUEs, but among them were quite a few Hellhound BuCUE Hounds.
Then, the Earth Alliance's Dagger Series (including the Slash Dagger) and Strike Daggers, and PLANT's GINNs, DINNs, CGUEs, and GuAIZ all appeared.
Furthermore, all the non-flying mobile suits were equipped with GOUF Flight Types.
And this time, there were even Gundams. The G-Series Five Machines (the non-flying ones had GOUF Flight Types), the Second Generation G Three Machines, Freedom, Justice, Providence, Reborns, Brave, and Covenant were all present.
Reid estimated that the number of grunt suits alone was about half the total number of the Human Reform League, Union, and AEU forces present, meaning around five hundred grunts.
But adding in so many Gundams made even Reid's own scalp tingle.
He had to remember that in the CE Universe, he had avoided fighting many of these Gundams through various strategies and maneuvers. Now, it was as if he was being forced to retake an exam, required to fight them all over again.
Moreover, as he approached the battlefield, Reid sensed the psychic power fluctuations of a large group of familiar people. Inside Freedom and Justice were definitely Kira and Athrun from some world or another, and inside Providence was Rau Le Creuset. The pilot roster had been maxed out for him.
(End of Chapter)