Chapter 100: SEED – The Desert's End 2
Mu La Flaga turned back to Kira and replied.
"You mean a berserker? That's someone from a myth, isn't it?"
As expected, Mu knew the term. Kira grew excited and pressed further.
"This berserker is…?"
"Right, the kind of person who's usually quiet, but once they start fighting, they get abnormally excited—as if they become another person altogether, growing incredibly fierce."
Hearing this, Kira recalled his own recent behavior, which seemed almost identical to what Mu La Flaga described about berserkers.
Whenever he piloted the Strike Gundam, he would suddenly feel like he had changed into someone else. His piloting skills and reflexes grew unnaturally sharp and strong.
The thought made him uneasy, afraid of himself, as if he were some kind of freak, an aberration.
Noticing Kira's strange expression, Mu asked in confusion.
"What's wrong? Why are you suddenly asking about this?"
Kira hastily answered, "No, nothing. I'm sorry…"
At that moment, the intercom in the locker room came on with Miriallia's voice, urging them.
"Lieutenant Commander Flaga, Ensign Yamato, Warrant Officer Tolle, please prepare for immediate launch."
Kira had no choice but to abandon what he wanted to say. Together with Mu La Flaga and Tolle, he headed toward the hangar to board his unit for deployment.
On the Archangel's bridge, the radar operator reported in panic.
"Enemy signatures on radar…! Based on acceleration vector, they're approaching from one-thirty direction.
Also detecting two large-scale heat sources from the same direction, likely a Lesseps-class heavy land battleship and a Petrie-class medium land battleship!"
Captain Murrue immediately gave orders.
"Anti-air, anti-ship, and anti-MS combat—prepare to engage!"
Natarle quickly followed up with her own command.
"Strike Gundam, Skygrasper, Modified Ginn—launch!"
Below the Archangel, the Desert Dawn resistance fighters also received the enemy contact alert. Their excitement surged like adrenaline, as if they had been injected with chicken blood.
One after another, they raised their rocket launchers and portable missile pods, revving their vehicles as they sped forward, eager to clash head-on with the Desert Tiger.
But the Desert Tiger's forces were even more rampant. Over forty attack helicopters had already encircled the Archangel, launching volleys of missiles and pouring machine-gun fire on it.
Kira, piloting the Strike Gundam, had barely launched when he collided head-on with one helicopter, smashing it instantly.
The others weren't discouraged. They relentlessly attacked Strike Gundam, refusing to give up even though their weapons couldn't scratch its Phase Shift armor.
The helicopters frantically strafed with machine-gun fire and launched missile after missile, as if determined to exhaust Strike Gundam's power reserves as quickly as possible.
Captain Murrue immediately ordered the Archangel to provide covering fire for the Strike, activating the automated Vulcan anti-air gun turrets and launching anti-air defense missiles against the helicopters.
But there were simply too many. Even with the Archangel's support, Kira could only dodge and evade continuously in Strike Gundam.
He quickly relayed the situation to Mu and Tolle, who had not yet launched, warning them to be cautious.
Receiving the intel, Mu La Flaga and Tolle fired their beam rifles while launching, clearing a path ahead.
Both of them then catapulted their units out of the Archangel's hangar.
Once deployed, the three of them began covering each other, targeting the nearby helicopters.
To conserve energy, Kira had Strike Gundam raise its shield in defense, counterattacking with the head-mounted Vulcan cannons. Within moments, he had shot down two helicopters.
Just as Strike was about to land, it slammed its shield down onto a nearby helicopter, crushing it.
Meanwhile, the Skygrasper soared through the sky, strafing low-flying helicopters with machine guns, missiles, and beam cannons.
The Modified Ginn was more straightforward—its right-hand shield system handled both ranged and melee combat. One moment it fired its beam rifle; the next, it swung its beam saber.
On its left hand and mechanical arm, it carried heavy machine guns, which let it finish off enemies when close-range attacks missed.
Unfortunately, unlike the Strike, the Modified Ginn didn't have advanced thrusters to keep it airborne.
After downing several helicopters, it was forced to land, and its efficiency dropped sharply.
Tolle had no choice but to make the Ginn leap and jet around, attacking helicopters midair as best he could.
In less than a minute after launch, the three units had already shot down over ten ZAFT helicopters.
But the enemy numbers were overwhelming. More than twenty or thirty helicopters still swarmed the Archangel, relentlessly consuming its ammunition, the pilots' energy, and the mobile suits' reserves.
Under such intense firepower, the Archangel's Vulcan turrets and anti-air missiles were becoming ineffective.
The warship's hull shook violently as it was hammered by constant attacks.
Tolle felt a pang of regret—he wasn't on the bridge this time, which meant he was missing out on watching Captain Murrue and Natarle on the monitor.
That was one downside of piloting an MS—he couldn't enjoy the sight of Murrue and Natarle. Then again, Miriallia was still on the bridge, so he couldn't exactly watch openly anyway.
But Tolle also realized their side was severely outmatched. In the anime, there hadn't been this many helicopters—at most a dozen or so.
Now it was triple that number, if not more. And behind them were still five BuCUEs, four ZuOOT, and the Desert Tiger's custom LaGOWE, along with the Buster and Duel Gundams.
The Desert Tiger was taking him way too seriously. Just because he had one extra Ginn, they had thrown in over thirty helicopters and two ZuOOT?
Tolle figured that if not for a shortage of BuCUE units, the Desert Tiger might have deployed even more.
"Desert Tiger—Andrew! I really ought to thank you for this!"
Damn it, how are we supposed to fight this? Before the enemy even fully deploys, we'll be out of ammo and energy!
Sure, the Buster and Duel Gundams might not be too much of a threat—Yzak and Dearka were fighting their first desert battle and still not accustomed to it.
They'd probably end up as useless as in the original. But there was no guarantee that things wouldn't go differently this time.
At least the Recon Ginn had been repaired. Though its right arm had been replaced with a normal one, it was still usable.
Should he follow Mu's example and swap into another suit mid-battle, alternating between them to stretch their endurance?
But speak of the devil—on the two ZAFT land battleships, two ZuOOT each were already firing their beam cannons.
And from the Lesseps-class heavy land battleship, five BuCUEs began launching one after another.
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