With Justice's self-destruction, Reid's only thought was of his wife, and he rushed to get her back to the ship.
The main reason Reid dared to return to the ship at this time was that, aside from Ange, his squad had suffered zero casualties.
Because the others were quite far from the nuclear explosion, the standard configuration of AC Gundanium Alloy armor and a Lambda Driver ensured that the distant aftershocks couldn't harm them. At most, their Mobile Suits were knocked back some distance by the shockwave.
However, for the four organizations—Celestial Being, the Human Reform League, the Union, and the AEU—the reappearance of a nuclear explosion was a bit too much of a shock.
The Celestial Being Gundams had already formed a pincer formation with the forces of the original three major powers in a tacit understanding, holding back the successive waves of attacks from the CE Universe.
Everyone knew that although the enemies from this otherworldly invasion were numerous and difficult to deal with, SDP had already entered the fray and engaged the toughest few Mobile Suits. As long as they held out against the rest, victory would be theirs once the main forces of the three powers enveloped the enemy.
But Justice's nuclear explosion came far too suddenly.
Although the defensive positions were some distance from the epicenter, the immense impact instantly shattered the formations of the Human Reform League, Union, and AEU forces. The heavily armored Iron Men and Land Battle Heavy Armor Type Union Flags at the very front were sent flying like cannonballs, directly crashing into and damaging many of the lighter Mobile Suits behind them.
The sandstorm kicked up by the subsequent shockwave even buried some Mobile Suits entirely.
It was a similar story for Celestial Being. Even a GN Shield was useless against such a shockwave; all Mobile Suits were "blown away" equally, depending on their weight.
The good news, however, was that the nuclear explosion affected both friend and foe alike. The CE forces had been gathered around Freedom and Justice, and even after being scattered by Reid's squad, they hadn't gotten far.
Therefore, the damage from this nuclear explosion was even greater for the CE grunts.
The relatively fragile DINNs and Strike Daggers practically disintegrated the moment the shockwave hit. After the explosion subsided, only a few Mobile Suits that had been on the periphery survived.
The Dagger Series Mobile Suits and the GUEZEs fared better. As long as they weren't within three kilometers of the epicenter and weren't hit in a vital area by flying MS parts, they were basically unharmed.
However, the greatest damage the nuclear explosion inflicted on the Mobile Suits on the field was the EMP blast. Reid's team's Mobile Suits were fine; having suffered greatly from an EMP before, Reid would forget anything but EMP protection.
But it was a different story for the transported CE Mobile Suits. Aside from the nuclear-powered machines, which had Anti-Neutron Jammers and thus a higher level of inherent EMP protection, all other Mobile Suits shut down, including the surviving first and second-generation G-series Gundams.
If the CE Universe Mobile Suits were in this state, there was no need to even mention the Mobile Suits of the Human Reform League, Union, and AEU. All Mobile Suits on the battlefield shut down, and even the reinforcement units en route to the battle experienced widespread shutdowns.
Similarly, the Celestial Being Gundams also lacked EMP protection. In the AD Universe, nuclear weapons had been obsolete for nearly two centuries. Who would think they had too much equipment space and install protection against a nuclear-level EMP blast on their Mobile Suit?
Thus, the systems of the Celestial Being Gundams all went black in an instant. The most urgent task for everyone was to reboot their machines.
At this point, it became a matter of luck and the reboot speed of the Mobile Suits.
And then, a major characteristic of the CE Universe came into play. As long as the system wasn't completely fried and scrapped, with the Mobile Suit disappearing in a flash of red code, a quantum computer's reboot speed would always be superior to a traditional computer's.
Therefore, the CE Mobile Suit forces were the first to come back online. At this time, most of the rebootable Mobile Suits from the Human Reform League, Union, and AEU were still on their system loading screens.
However, there were two pieces of good news for the three-power allied forces.
First, the EMP blast had essentially disabled all the GOUF Flight Types. These were unmanned units, and they wouldn't reboot after shutting down. As a result, the CE army's air superiority was virtually gone, with only a few Slaughter Daggers and Aile Daggers capable of short-term flight. (The Strike's Aile Striker Pack was never able to grant it true flight in the atmosphere, only short-distance gliding, but it had excellent air time and aerial maneuverability.)
Second, the CE Mobile Suits faced the same problem as the allied forces' machines. The first thing every rebooted Mobile Suit had to do was dig itself out of the sand, preventing them from launching an immediate attack.
And so, a rather comical scene unfolded on the battleground of the Taklamakan Desert. A large number of Mobile Suits were trying to free themselves from the sand, and for a time, no one was fighting.
However, the Mobile Suits transported by the Otherworld Entanglement obviously hadn't been pre-programmed for movement in sandy terrain.
Previously, while riding the GOUF Flight Types, the Mobile Suits didn't have to deal with the sand directly, so this problem wasn't exposed. Now that they had all crashed into the sand, many Mobile Suits would lose their balance and fall over again as soon as they stood up, their feet sinking into the sand like toddlers learning to walk.
In the time this took, many of the Human Reform League, Union, and AEU Mobile Suits had also finished rebooting.
However, not even one in ten of the allied forces' Mobile Suits could stand up. The systems of the vast majority of their machines had been destroyed by the EMP blast. Although most of the pilots inside were fine, they no longer had any combat capability.
As for Celestial Being, they were much better off.
The Celestial Being Gundams could all be directly linked to VEDA. At this point, VEDA had not yet been seized, and the Gundams' hardware was very robust, so the Mobile Suits were naturally able to reboot quickly with VEDA's assistance.
However, after all the Mobile Suits rebooted, they all received a single command from VEDA.
"Ascertain the cause of the nuclear explosion and eliminate all nuclear-related facilities."
In fact, this order wasn't just received by the Celestial Being Gundams; all of Celestial Being's supporters and related personnel worldwide received it, including the Quasi-Innovators.
The reappearance of a nuclear explosion had stimulated VEDA to no small extent. It seemed determined to nip any and all budding threats in the bud.
But upon receiving this command, the Celestial Being Gundam pilots could only smile wryly.
How could Celestial Being not be paying attention to the main high-altitude battlefield where SDP was fighting? Both Dynames and Throne Angel Eins, two Mobile Suits with ultra-long-range observation capabilities, had been recording the battle in the sky.
Therefore, the seven Gundam pilots here were very clear that this nuclear explosion was caused by a Mobile Suit sent by the Otherworld Entanglement.
So, Lockon spoke up directly.
"Everyone, VEDA is telling us to eliminate the otherworldly Mobile Suits sent by this Otherworld Entanglement. What do you all say?"
Tieria, who had always been resolute in carrying out all of VEDA's orders, replied directly.
"This isn't up for discussion. Those Mobile Suits were already targets we were meant to intervene against."
No one objected to Tieria's words, not even the Trinity siblings. They had no objections whatsoever to executing VEDA's commands.
But at this moment, Lockon spoke again.
"Alright, many of the otherworldly Mobile Suits that were transported here have now landed. They're clearly not adapted to desert combat. Let's clean these guys up first, then go help SDP."
Lockon was actually giving everyone a way out. Everyone had a pretty good idea of what the battle in the sky had been like just now. It felt like if they participated in a battle of that level, they would just be getting in the way.
So, Lockon suggested they first clean up the opponents they could handle. Leave the professional work to the professionals. Although SDP had clearly taken some damage this time, they were obviously more professional at handling otherworldly Mobile Suits.
While the Celestial Being Gundam pilots chose not to get in the way, the commanders of the Human Reform League, Union, and AEU, who were outside the battlefield, were in a bit of a panic.
One had to remember that nuclear weapons had been banned in the AD Universe for so many years that, theoretically, no living person had ever seen a nuclear explosion.
Information about nuclear explosions was classified. Even for professional soldiers, most had only heard the name "nuclear bomb" and a very simple conceptual description; they hadn't even seen footage of a nuclear detonation.
Nowadays, the only people who could see footage of a nuclear explosion were basically archivists and the like.
Even the terrorists who came to seize the enriched uranium this time only knew that every country was afraid of it and that it could cause massive contamination; they weren't thinking of using it to build a nuclear bomb directly.
This was, of course, thanks to the Celestial Being Organization's continuous efforts, using various means to make the leaders of the major powers wary of all things nuclear.
Celestial Being's goal, or rather, Aeolia Schenberg's goal, was for humanity to completely abandon nuclear weapons.
The immense power of a nuclear explosion naturally had to be known by as few people as possible. Otherwise, ambitious individuals might covet that immense power for their own selfish desires. (This is the author's speculation, because without this, it would be impossible to completely ban nuclear weapons with the technology of the 00 era.)
So when a nuclear explosion occurred right in front of them, the command systems of the three powers were thrown into complete chaos.
The command posts of the Human Reform League and the AEU were located within the Taklamakan Desert, which was almost completely flat with no cover.
This resulted in the EMP blast even affecting the two nations' command posts, and incidentally, it completely cut off the Union's contact with the area.
While the HRL and AEU command posts were trying everything to reboot their base equipment, Kati Mannequin ran directly to the emergency communications room and used an old-fashioned landline to contact the HRL's current commander (it was originally an HRL base, so it naturally retained emergency landlines).
Kati Mannequin asked anxiously over the communication line,
"Sir, please tell me. Did your country bury old-era nuclear weapons under the Taklamakan Desert?
I've heard of such weapons. A giant mushroom cloud, accompanied by a terrifying electromagnetic interference that sweeps over everything. Although I've never seen footage of a nuclear explosion, I believe what just happened in the desert was a nuclear explosion."
Sergei Smirnov's deputy was certainly aware of the description of a nuclear bomb's explosion, but he didn't know if any dismantled warheads had been buried along with the old-era enriched uranium in the Taklamakan Desert.
However, he knew that even if they had been, he couldn't admit it now. Otherwise, it would bring great trouble to his country.
Thus, the deputy commander stated unequivocally,
"No, only enriched uranium was buried under the Taklamakan Desert. And that explosion just now was definitely not the buried enriched uranium exploding. If that stuff had really blown up, we'd be in freefall in the sky right now."
Kati Mannequin also believed that the Human Reform League wouldn't hide an undismantled superweapon from a bygone era under the Taklamakan Desert.
Even if the HRL did hide something like that, it wouldn't be here, because the Taklamakan Desert was a place the HRL had proactively opened up for the other two powers' forces to station themselves. If there was such a dangerous item, it would have been moved long ago.
And so, Kati Mannequin murmured,
"If it wasn't you, then it's even less likely to be us or the Union. An Otherworld Entanglement occurred, so SDP was bound to show up. Could it be that SDP used a nuclear weapon...?"
Reid, at this moment, had no idea that Kati Mannequin had just thrown such a huge pot of blame onto him.
He had just personally placed Ange into a Medical Pod.
Since the Medical Pod needed some time to produce a diagnostic report, Reid left after confirming that Ange had entered a state of hibernation.
The battle outside wasn't over yet, and it wasn't time for him to rest.
So, Reid immediately prepared to pilot the Gundam Artemis to quickly resolve this Otherworld Entanglement before coming back to check on Ange's report.
However, when Reid sortied again and looked at the battle reports coming in from all over the squad, it seemed there was nothing left for him to do.
Although no one in Reid's squad had eliminated their opponent when the nuclear explosion occurred.
Because the pilots inside Providence, Reborns, Covenant, and Brave all understood the principle of running if you can't win.
In an atmospheric environment, Providence and Brave could only exert about thirty percent of their combat power. Facing the Blade Angel Gundam and the NT-X2 Gundam, they naturally had no choice but to flee.
Moreover, the berserk Creuset and berserk Preya still had their passive telepathy, so it could be said the two of them had their own private mind-link chat room, and their coordination was exceptionally tacit.
But since most of their armaments were unusable, they didn't put much pressure on the Xia sisters, so the sisters hadn't been in a hurry to activate the Mind Connection System against their enemies.
However, after the nuclear bomb exploded, Xia Yufang and Xia Yulan saw the Gundam Artemis carrying the Immortal Aegis back to the ship. Worried about Ange and Reid's condition, the two of them naturally activated the Mind Connection System to go for a quick victory.
Once this system was turned on, the berserk Creuset and berserk Preya truly couldn't find any chance for a comeback. Providence's cockpit was directly pierced by Blade Angel and exploded just like in the original story, while Brave was held in place by the NT-X2 Gundam's two large Rocket Bits, which fired and melted it into slag.
After activating the Mind Connection System, it took Xia Yufang and Xia Yulan only thirty seconds to eliminate Providence and Brave, so they still had time to support other battlefields.
Reborns and Covenant had been fighting a back-and-forth battle with Gundam Eclipse and the Z Plus Gundam, but then Reborns and Covenant were directly sneak-attacked by the Blade Angel Gundam and NT-X2 with their Mind Connection System active.
The result was predictable. The two machines followed in the footsteps of Providence and Brave.
However, before Salya and Hilda could even start complaining about the Xia sisters' kill-stealing, Noin had already learned about the Immortal Aegis's situation from Hoshino Ruri.
Knowing that Ange was most likely fine, Noin breathed a sigh of relief. But she also knew that after what had happened, Reid would definitely want to end the battle quickly.
Seeing that the Xia sisters had stolen Salya and Hilda's enemies, Noin knew Salya and Hilda would definitely complain.
If Reid heard them complaining at a time like this, they would probably get an earful. So, she quickly spoke up in the team's voice channel.
"Yufang, Yulan, Salya, Hilda, once you four are done, go help Gaia or Orga clean up the first and second-generation G-series Gundams.
Ange's Mobile Suit is damaged, so we need to end this quickly. Also, Reid is definitely in a very bad mood right now, so don't start a fight and get caught in the crossfire."
As soon as Noin said this, Salya and Hilda also realized that now was not the time to argue. Besides, this wasn't their time at Arzenal; kill counts weren't tied to bonuses and benefits. So, kill-stealing wasn't really a matter of principle.
Therefore, when Reid sortied again, all the Gundams had basically been cleaned up by the others, leaving only some grunt units for him to vent his anger on.
(End of Chapter)