Silverin's massive size made its movements glaringly obvious. Even though the Archangel was still a great distance away, every move Silverin made was visible to Captain Grodek Ainoa through the high-definition cameras.
So, the moment Silverin aimed at the Archangel, Grodek Ainoa's voice came over their command channel.
"Ship and all forward mobile suits, evasive maneuvers! That giant MA is about to attack us!"
With the ship's onboard intelligent AI, the captain's orders were executed instantly. The Archangel promptly rolled 60 degrees to the right to dodge.
As for the Mobile Suits in front, their agility was far superior to the Archangel's. They had already scattered in a textbook evasion.
Subsequently, a MEGA Particle Beam, a dozen meters in diameter, swept through the Archangel's original position, bathing the barely-dodged warship in a purple glow.
Having missed its first shot, Silverin naturally wanted to fire another. The Archangel had yet to recover its posture from the evasion, making the next shot a guaranteed hit.
Unfortunately for Silverin's pilot team, their plan was sound, but Reid's trio wasn't about to stand by and watch the Archangel take a second hit from the Hyper Mega Cannon II.
Even before Silverin had fired its first shot, Reid, Ange, and Xia Yulan all had the same thought as they faced the two Kiharu II units before them.
"They think they can stop us with just two MS? Who are they looking down on!"
It was perfectly normal for Reid's trio to think this way. The Gundam TR-6 [Silverin] was indeed packed with black technology, but that didn't mean the Kiharu II was anything special.
In terms of performance, the Kiharu II was certainly not bad. Armaments aside, its mobility and output were no worse than the first-generation G Weapon, the Buster Gundam. Not only could it transform into an MA Mode, but the mobile suit was also equipped with a sensor array and was even capable of electronic warfare.
However, the Kiharu II was, after all, an unmanned drone carried by Silverin. Its armament consisted of a gunblade that functioned as a high-heat solid blade when closed and a scattering beam cannon when open.
(Getting this frame was not easy. The author always remembered the Mobile Doll version of the Kiharu II having no melee armaments, but it turns out it has a melee attack module in the game.)
Beyond that, this Mobile Doll Kiharu II's shield was a shoulder-mounted shield (the non-Mobile Doll version has a dedicated shield). The left and right shields also had two small beam cannons, but since this structure served as a shield and a thruster, the output of the beam cannons on it was predictably low.
Due to this overly simplistic armament, the two Kiharu II units couldn't stop any of Reid's trio. The movements of these Mobile Dolls, which lacked the combat data of an ace pilot, were too mechanical. Their scattering beam cannons were easy to dodge, and their melee capabilities were at the level of a grunt.
Therefore, Reid, Ange, and Xia Yulan all performed the same maneuver. They charged forward, dodging while their GN Fields were active, and bypassed the two Kiharu IIs attacking them to head straight for the main body of Silverin, which was trying to target the Archangel.
However, to prevent the two Kiharu IIs from taking potshots at their backs, all three chose to deploy their Funnel Blades as they passed the two units, finishing them off in the process.
Funnel Blades were still too advanced for the Kiharu II's Database; they could be considered a first encounter.
Thus, Reid and Xia Yulan easily used their Funnel Blades to pierce the Kiharu IIs' fuselages, destroying them.
The only one who made a mistake was Ange, who was inexperienced with funnel-type weapons. Nevertheless, she successfully severed the thrusters and lower bodies of the two Kiharu IIs blocking her. In such a situation, a human pilot might still be able to aim properly with manual adjustments, but a Mobile Doll would definitely have its beams fly off to who-knows-where due to the balance issues from the missing verniers. (Even the Dynames, controlled by Lockon with Haro fine-tuning its parameters, suffered a major drop in sniping accuracy after losing a leg, let alone a Mobile Doll.)
After dealing with the Kiharu IIs blocking their path, the trio's target was naturally Silverin. Ange and Xia Yulan didn't hesitate to open fire with all their mobile suits' ranged weapons.
Unfortunately, the Ice Phoenix Gundam's Magnum and GN Particle VSBR Beam Cannon, along with the Blade Angel's "peashooter" Beam Rifle, only managed to create some light sparks on Silverin's body.
It couldn't be helped. Silverin was equipped with two large I-Field generators, and its massive size was more than enough to house multiple Minovsky particle fusion furnaces. (The two Haze'n-thley II units that served as its upper and lower core components already had two reactors, and the six Kiharu II units each had one, making for eight on paper. With a body this large, the author wouldn't be surprised if it had another eight reactors stuffed inside.)
It was quite possible that it had a double-digit number of Minovsky particle fusion furnaces, enough to sustain an I-Field with abnormally exaggerated defensive power. Among the mobile suits Reid had brought this time, aside from the Archangel using its Positron Cannon or having the Ice Phoenix Gundam return to the ship to grab a Buster Beam Rifle to test it out, all other beam weapons were basically rendered useless.
So, when Reid saw Ange and Xia Yulan foolishly attacking Silverin with beam weapons, he remembered that he had forgotten to sync their intel and quickly said, "Ange, Yulan, this mobile suit has an absurd I-Field. Beam weapons are ineffective. You need to use physical ammunition or melee solid weapons."
After speaking, Reid also sent this information to the Archangel, letting Grodek Ainoa inform the mobile suits returning to provide support.
Hearing this, Ange muttered, "Tch, what a pain," and immediately put away her Magnum rifle, switching to the single remaining Ship-Slicing Sword.
Xia Yulan said nothing more. The Blade Angel was covered in blades; it didn't fear the I-Field, only the inability to get close.
In fact, the most awkward one among the three was now Reid himself. The Gundam Artemis only had the two Electromagnetic Cannons on its waist and the Solid Attack Shield on its left arm. Firing those small waist-mounted cannons at a super-large MA like Silverin was truly like trying to scratch an itch through a boot.
Although Silverin used UC Gundarium Alloy, which had far less defensive power than the AC Universe's, they could just make the armor thicker. Given Silverin's size, Reid wouldn't be surprised if the electromagnetic cannons only left a small dent without actually penetrating the armor.
As for the sword-type attack shield on its left arm, it just didn't feel very reliable.
But for now, all three mobile suits had to close in on Silverin to launch an effective attack.
At this moment, Silverin was already in the charging phase for its second Hyper Mega Cannon II shot. Although its six Kiharu II units were either destroyed or disabled, as a super-large strategic weapon, its close-range defensive armaments were not limited to just six Kiharu IIs.
Silverin's pilot team consisted of a full six people (three in each of the two Haze'n-thley II core units), and firing the Hyper Mega Cannon II didn't require all six of them.
From the weapon systems in Silverin's upper half, four wired quad-barrel beam cannons shot out, their sixteen barrels instantly unleashing a sky full of beams to prevent Reid's trio from approaching.
Unfortunately, the same problem Ange and Xia Yulan had just encountered now plagued Silverin.
The output of these wired quad-barrel beam cannons was slightly stronger than the average Z-era beam cannon, which would certainly be enough against a normal mobile suit.
But Reid's three mobile suits just so happened to all have GN Fields, and the Ice Phoenix Gundam's GN Field was strong enough to charge through this level of beam shower completely.
As for the Gundam Artemis and Blade Angel Gundam...
Reid, relying on his mobile suit's Beam Shield combined with its GN Field, could also push forward against the beams. He thus extended his floating Photon Wave Barrier to cover the Blade Angel, which lacked a Beam Shield and only had an anti-beam coating and a GN Field.
Therefore, all three mobile suits were able to charge through the rain of beams. Silverin's attack was completely ineffective; it couldn't even slow the three of them down.
And so, Reid's trio easily closed in on Silverin.
Without a second word, Reid used his mobile suit's left-arm solid greatsword to slash at the booster unit on its rear half.
Silverin's physical armor defense was clearly no match for a high-vibration solid blade made of AC Gundanium Alloy. But after landing the blow, Reid clicked his tongue.
"Tch, the cut is too shallow."
That's right. Although half the blade had already sunk in when he slashed, he still hadn't cut through Silverin's armor, purely because the mobile suit had N layers of plating and was simply too thick.
The same problem occurred on Ange's side. Like Reid, she attacked Silverin's rear booster unit, as the wiring in such places usually connected directly to the thrusters. Severing a few wires would cause problems for the thrusters, and with luck, hitting the fuel tank could detonate the entire mobile suit. (Fun fact: UC-era mobile suit thrusters require fuel and are not entirely electric. The protagonist's mobile suits are all defaulted to have been converted to all-electric propulsion.)
However, Ange was clearly out of luck this time. She chose to thrust her Ship-Slicing Sword directly into Silverin's armor, hoping to gut it.
Then, Ange encountered a situation she had never expected: her Ship-Slicing Sword got "stuck in the meat."
Due to the powerful I-Field on Silverin's surface, the Ship-Slicing Sword's beam saber became extremely unstable, leaving only the solid blade to do the piercing.
And the solid blade of the Ice Phoenix Gundam's wing-mounted Ship-Slicing Sword had no high-vibration capability. Relying on its own sharpness to cut through such thick armor, how could it not get stuck? Now she couldn't even pull the sword out. In a fit of anger, Ange simply stomped the warship-slicing sword deeper into Silverin's armor, hoping to set something off.
Unfortunately, nothing happened. It was as if a person had a needle stuck in their thigh; without the sensation of pain, it wouldn't affect their walking in the short term.
However, Reid and Ange's failed attempts made Xia Yulan decide against continuing to attack Silverin's rear booster.
She chose the front half of Silverin's body, ramming the Hyper Mega Cannon II directly with her Large Solid Blade Flight Pack.
This attack was effective. The barrel of the Hyper Mega Cannon II was too long, and even if the pilot team realized someone was attacking the cannon, it was difficult to maneuver it to dodge the attack.
Moreover, the Blade Angel's Large Solid Blade Flight Pack used the Justice Gundam's backpack system, which could be manually controlled to turn during flight.
Coupled with its built-in AC micro nuclear fusion reactor, its thrust was undeniably powerful. The barrel of the Hyper Mega Cannon II was unceremoniously sliced in half.
Keep in mind, the Hyper Mega Cannon II was in its charging state at this moment. With this disruption, the chain reaction from the exploding circuitry at the cut directly caused the energy capacitor behind it to cook off.
A massive explosion engulfed the front half of Silverin. Seeing such a violent blast, Reid's trio suspected Silverin might just detonate completely and quickly moved away from the mobile suit.
However, Silverin was not such a fragile machine.
A few seconds later, before the light from the explosion had completely dissipated, Silverin burst out in its cruise mode.
(The long rifle in the image below was photoshopped out by me.)
The super-large booster equipped on Silverin gave the machine an absurdly high speed, making it hard to believe it was a large MA over a hundred meters long (not anymore, since that length included the gun's shaft).
At this moment, Silverin's pilot team was treating the machine entirely like a fighter jet, performing an exaggerated 180-degree turn while simultaneously launching Nuclear Missiles, all aimed at the Blade Angel.
This was Silverin's ultimate weapon, meant for attacking fortresses. Now they were using it against a single MS, the Blade Angel. One could imagine how much hatred the six-person crew of this Silverin had for it.
Unfortunately, Reid had long since activated his Neutron Jammer, so these Nuclear Missiles were destined to be duds.
When the missiles had already flown near their target and the Blade Angel was preparing to dodge what it thought were ordinary Anti-ship Missiles, the Silverin crew pressed the detonation button.
But the few Nuclear Missiles showed no reaction at all. They simply flew past the dodging Gundam Artemis and went off to "explore" the depths of space.
The Silverin crew was stubborn. They thought the failure of the Nuclear Missiles to detonate was an accident, so they launched another round. The result, naturally, was more duds.
This time, the Silverin crew finally accepted reality. They turned and charged straight at Reid's three mobile suits, preparing for a mid-range firefight.
After all, the Hyper Mega Cannon II and the winch unit on top of it were gone, but the mobile suit still had a large weapon container filled with all sorts of missiles. Moreover, the other large MEGA Particle Cannons on its upper half were undamaged.
If worse came to worst, the core Haze'n-thley II units also possessed two Beam Cannons, leg missiles, and a MEGA Particle Cannon. The two core units could even jettison all external armaments and fight as two separate MS.
However, after all this time, the MS Reid had sent to destroy the Neo Zeon fleet had returned.
Having received Reid's intel, Gaia's Trio had all switched their Kyubey EX's Beam Rocket Launchers to physical ammunition mode. They intercepted Silverin from the flank as it charged towards Reid's trio, firing a massive number of Armor-Piercing Grenades that left a large patch of craters on Silverin's armor.
At the same time, the Archangel had drawn closer. Without a word, it fired two positron beams.
Silverin's crew was professional. After the mobile suit's systems reported the extremely high energy readings of the charging Positron Cannon, it immediately executed a fighter-like barrel roll, dodging the two positron beams.
Then, Silverin began its counterattack. The large weapon container opened, and a massive number of missiles flew towards the Archangel.
However, the Archangel simply activated its GN Field. Combined with its sixteen 75mm 'Porcupine Array' Anti-Air Automatic Vulcan Cannons, not a single one of those missiles managed to penetrate the GN Field.
At this point, the Silverin pilot team felt how truly disgusting it was to face an enemy with a shield. Their standard armaments couldn't break through it at all.
Since the Positron Cannon posed a clearly greater threat to Silverin than a few MS, and a warship was obviously easier to hit than those MS that were more agile than monkeys, Silverin made another 90-degree turn and charged directly at the Archangel.
However, before Silverin could even build up speed, it had to face another barrage of physical attacks.
The Archangel's 110cm Valiant Mk-8 Linear Cannons, Anti-ship Missiles, the Kyubey EXs' Armor-Piercing Grenades, the NT-X2 Gundam's Spiral Piercing Missiles, and the Gundam Delta Kai's High-Explosive Missiles all bombarded its front.
Faced with this assault, Silverin fired all its forward-facing MEGA Particle Cannons at full power and once again deployed its four wired quad-barrel beam cannons for interception.
But while it was easy to intercept things like grenade rounds with beams, it wasn't so effective against electromagnetic cannons. The Valiant Mk-8 Linear Cannons struck Silverin directly, halting its charge.
And at this moment, the Ice Phoenix Gundam had circled around to its rear again. This time, Ange directly used the Absolute Zero Bullet. (A name Ange came up with later. Although it didn't reach absolute zero, that didn't stop her from using such an intimidating name.)
The extreme cold of -273.056°C instantly froze the water molecules on the surface of Silverin's armor, forming a thin layer of ice. (The author looked it up, and it's true that water molecules within metal can be frozen out by ultra-low temperatures.)
This created a physical case of adding insult to injury. The super-thick armor, due to the solidification of water molecules within the metal, formed countless nucleation points, directly causing the armor to become as brittle as a corn chip.
At this point, Ange didn't even need to attack further. The G-forces from Silverin's high-speed movement tore the brittle armor apart and flung it into space.
With the outer armor of Silverin's booster stripped away, the thick layers of wiring inside were naturally exposed.
Ange didn't hold back. The Ice Phoenix Gundam's two shoulder-mounted Gatling guns riddled the vulnerable wiring. Nearby, the Blade Angel, now without its backpack (it was destroyed in the earlier explosion), provided support with a burst from its head-mounted Vulcan guns. The Gundam Artemis naturally took the opportunity to fire two electromagnetic cannon shots into the opening as well.
The Gundam Artemis's electromagnetic cannons were the final straw that broke the camel's back. The Gatling guns and Vulcan cannons had at most caused localized short circuits in the booster, but the electromagnetic cannons directly pierced its internal structure.
The very next second after the electromagnetic cannon shots hit, the entire booster unit of Silverin began to spark with electricity.
Seeing this, Reid quickly called for Ange and Xia Yulan to get away from Silverin. If a booster that large were to explode, only heaven knew how big the resulting blast from the fuel inside would be. In any case, he wasn't about to test the power of that explosion with his MS.
Sure enough, just as Reid and the others had moved a safe distance away, Silverin's massive, oval-shaped booster unit exploded.
The fireball from this explosion was even larger than when the Hyper Mega Cannon II had blown up, completely engulfing Silverin.
But just as Reid thought the battle was over, the two Haze'n-thley II core units once again burst out of the fireball.
It had to be said, Silverin's protection for its pilots was pushed to the extreme. After such a massive explosion that had caused Silverin itself to disintegrate, these two Haze'n-thley II core units could still emerge unscathed.
However, after these two mobile suits emerged, they found themselves with the Archangel, the NT-X2 Gundam, the Gundam Delta Kai, and three Kyubey EXs blocking their path ahead, and the Gundam Artemis, Ice Phoenix Gundam, and Blade Angel Gundam intercepting them from behind.
And now, the I-Fields of these two Haze'n-thley IIs no longer had the right to claim beam immunity in the face of a Magnum Beam Rifle.
Thus, like two trembling sheep, the two Haze'n-thley IIs were caught between a wolf pack in front and tigers behind. They were turned into red code and vanished completely under a concentrated volley from the eight MS.
Seeing Silverin completely shot down, Reid breathed a sigh of relief. It had taken a ganging up by his eight mobile suits this long to take down this one Silverin, which was a new record.
And the pilots inside weren't even Newtypes, at best they were at the level of UC's battle-hardened veterans. He had to admit, the Titans' black technology was truly impressive.
Thus, Reid decided that he would use a Factory Module to build one for himself later and ship it to the Star Palace Colony Satellite. If anyone tried to attack the Star Palace Colony Satellite in the next great war, Silverin and the Satellite Cannon there would make a perfect high-low combination. An ordinary fleet wouldn't be enough for them to chew through.