Chapter 101: SEED – The Desert's End 3
Five BuCUE units advanced in a wedge formation at the forefront, launching missiles and railgun fire nonstop at the Archangel as soon as they appeared.
Fortunately, their numbers were about the same as before—otherwise, the battle really wouldn't have been playable.
The fighting on the battlefield raged on. Members of the Desert Dawn could only harass the Desert Tiger's attack helicopters along their routes, with little real effect.
On the Archangel's bridge, Natarle saw the incoming BuCUEs and immediately gave a sharp order.
"Linear cannons, target the MS ahead and fire!"
As the Archangel's linear cannons unleashed their barrage, Kira also noticed the Desert Tiger's BuCUEs had arrived.
He quickly opened his communicator to Tolle.
"Tolle, I'll take those five BuCUEs. You stay here and deal with the helicopters. Protect the Archangel."
Tolle, still flailing in his frantic evasive jumps, knew he couldn't dissuade Kira—nor should he.
After all, the main combat power rested on the Strike Gundam. His own Modified Ginn wasn't a match for BuCUEs, especially not when facing five at once.
Tolle could only answer immediately.
"Got it, Kira. Just be careful. Watch your energy consumption. If it runs low, come back to swap the Strike's pack."
Kira nodded and instantly piloted the Strike Gundam at high speed toward the five BuCUEs.
Tolle, with no choice but to get serious, activated full concentration mode. He mounted the Gunbarrel System onto the mechanical arms, letting Nami control them independently.
Meanwhile, he piloted the Modified Ginn himself—heavy sword in the right hand, heavy machine gun in the left.
Diving into the helicopter swarm, he counterattacked with full firepower, spinning and turning in 360-degree sweeps. In no time, he downed more than a dozen helicopters.
Counting the earlier kills, the three of them had already wiped out nearly thirty helicopters, leaving only a dozen or so for Mu to handle.
But Tolle's Ginn had run dry of everything except the heavy sword. Ammunition was depleted, and he needed resupply.
On top of that, his thrusters were overheating. If he didn't head back now, he might not even make it back at all.
Tolle opened comms to the Archangel.
"Captain Ramius, the Modified Ginn requests to return. I'm completely out of ammo."
Murrue replied at once. "Permission granted, Ensign Tolle. Return immediately for resupply."
"No problem, Captain. I'll just switch to a Recon Type Ginn and be ready to sortie again right away."
The moment Tolle landed back on the Archangel, the bridge radar picked up fresh MS signals.
He didn't even need to look—he knew it had to be Andrew and Aisha, arriving in their customized land-combat MS, LaGOWE.
Turning to Maddock, he said, "Is the Recon Ginn ready yet? I need to sortie fast—the enemy reinforcements are here."
"All set, kid. You can take off anytime."
Tolle immediately transferred to the Recon Ginn. After notifying Captain Ramius, Natarle directed the ship to open the launch route for his sortie.
"High-energy beam cannons, linear cannons—fire everything!"
At her command, four green beam blasts and two yellow cannon shots erupted from the Archangel, streaking toward the Desert Tiger's land battleships.
Tolle seized the chance to launch, his Recon Ginn fully armed: heavy swords mounted on both hips, heavy machine gun on the rear waist, left hand gripping the machine gun, right hand holding a bazooka.
The Ginn catapulted from the Archangel at full speed.
Seeing Tolle sortie again, Mu looked at the few remaining helicopters and volunteered to attack the two Desert Tiger land battleships instead, leaving Tolle to protect the Archangel and finish off the stragglers.
But as the battle dragged on, the Archangel's weapons fired continuously, pushing its main systems to the brink.
The linear cannons and the anti-air Vulcan phalanx turrets in particular were overheating and desperately needed cooldown. The situation was grim.
Natarle turned to Captain Murrue. "Please authorize the use of the Lohengrin positron cannon."
Murrue immediately refused.
"No. The positron cannon causes severe environmental contamination on the Earth's surface.
Adjust the output on the linear cannons and cycle the power reserves instead."
"But—"
"That's an order!"
Natarle had no choice but to obey, reluctantly recalibrating the firing cycles.
Meanwhile, Kira drove the Strike Gundam straight down onto one BuCUE that was chasing a Desert Dawn unit, slamming it with a crushing stomp and then blasting it point-blank with the beam rifle.
The BuCUE exploded instantly—ZAFT's BuCUE count: minus one.
The remaining four, enraged by their comrade's death, ignited their beam sabers and charged at the Strike.
Kira discarded his rifle, drew the Strike's beam saber, and met the first head-on with a clean slash.
That BuCUE split in two—minus one more.
Then, with a fluid motion, he hurled his saber like a throwing blade, striking another BuCUE right in the main monitor.
Quickly reclaiming the rifle from the ground, the Strike fired another shot into it—another BuCUE down.
The last two kept their distance, launching missile after missile at him.
Kira pushed the Strike into a sudden crouch and acceleration, then braked sharply. The missiles couldn't keep up with his maneuvering and collided midair, exploding against each other.
Using the explosion as cover, the Strike closed in on another BuCUE, kicking it over and finishing it with a blast to the back.
BuCUE count: down again.
Without pause, the Strike leapt at the final one, spinning 180 degrees midair and landing a shot straight into its booster pack.
The Desert Tiger's BuCUEs—completely wiped out by Kira.
Meanwhile, Tolle had eliminated all the helicopters near the Archangel. The rest retreated to guard their land battleships.
Tolle landed on the Archangel's deck and pressed forward with the others toward the Desert Tiger's ships.
By then, Mu La Flaga in his Skygrasper had already reached the airspace above the two land battleships.
He immediately fired the Agni hyper impulse cannon at a Zaft ZuOOT atop a Lesseps-class battleship, vaporizing it in one shot. The Lesseps itself took damage from the blast as well.
At that moment, Andrew and Aisha's LaGOWE appeared, cutting off Kira's path.
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