Gundam, driving a mass-produced machine will change the world

Chapter 28 Hot Sand Front
If you were to tell him that there was a desert in Southeast Asia in the 21st century, Eli would never believe it.

This is as absurd as saying that the sea has turned into land.

But when you actually look around and see the desert in front of you, it is shocking no matter how hard you try.

This is the Hot Sand Front.

This is due to the irreversible damage caused to the Earth's ecology by humans' wanton development before the Cosmic Century.

"All machines, report status."

Normal ×4
On the afternoon of the second day after the White Base arrived at the Southeast Asian base, in the desert, four Gundams and hover trucks were moving slowly and steadily towards a rift valley.

Needless to say, this combination is naturally Team 86.

"Eli, is it true that Apsaras would be in this place?"

Shirou Amada wiped the sweat from his forehead, fanned himself with his hands and asked Eli.

"I can't be sure about this. But didn't we use a reconnaissance plane to scan the rainforest area? We didn't find any trace of that big guy. It can only be here."

Eli pressed the first key and checked the surrounding terrain to determine the direction of travel.

"The big rift valley ahead is probably the most likely place."

After all, in this vast desert, if we want to conduct experiments, only the Great Rift Valley can hide the traces of Apsaras.

Team 86 went there for a field investigation just to confirm this matter.

After finishing the routine briefing since entering the desert, Eli crossed his legs in the cab and stretched to relax his back which was stiff from sitting for a long time.

Apsaras was conducting experiments in this rift, which was naturally inferred by Eli based on his memory of the 08MS team's plot.

But soon, he discovered some discrepancies between what he remembered and what he remembered.

"It's actually Zaku..."

On a sand dune, Eli and his colleagues operated the aircraft and half-knelt down to avoid sight, while he got off the plane and climbed to the top of the dune to investigate.

We had conducted prior exploration and found that the concentration of Minovsky particles here was high enough, so such a bold action was acceptable.

However, to be on the safe side, we had Eredoya stay in the car and monitor the situation at all times.

"One, two... We can see six Zakus defending on the ground. It's unclear inside the rift for now."

Shiro Amada used a telescope to explore the direction of the rift and found that there were Zakus on guard on both sides of the rift.

There are helicopters circling in the sky all the time, and occasionally there are Doppler fighter jets flying by.

"That's not good."

Eli frowned.

Their team was able to leave the base and fight for a long time because they had containers to carry supplies.

But Zaku does not have this function.

In other words, there must be a base or land battleship nearby to provide logistical support for these Zakus.

"Then what should we do?"

Shirou Amada apparently thought of this as well and leaned over to ask Eli.

"We should be able to call the White Base over now. This situation basically confirms that Apsaras is here."

This was the answer given by Kallen.

As a battleship, the White Base was too big. If it was used in the reconnaissance, it would be too blatant. Therefore, the White Base was now hiding in a mountain nest near the defense line in the federal occupied area.

Eli raised the telescope again and looked toward the valley.

"We can't see what's going on in the valley... Kallen, take Eredoya and Michelle back to the defense line and contact the White Fortress, and move here under the cover of night. Tell them to send core fighters to scout the surroundings. Bring them to this place in the back, lay optical cables to maintain communications, and hurry here as soon as Apsaras appears."

Eli unfolded the map in his hand and pointed out the designated location to Kallen.

"We don't know what the experiment cycle of Apsaras is, so we don't have extra time to observe. As soon as the enemy appears, we will launch an attack."

"Yes!"

Kallen knelt down and saluted, then turned around and left.

"Wait, what if that Apsaras shows up during this time?"

Kallen suddenly thought of this and asked Eli.

Eli slowly turned around and looked at Shirou Amada beside him. After getting a positive response in his eyes, he turned to Kallen and answered.

"In that case, our lives will be in your hands."

After watching Kallen and the hover truck leave, Eli returned to the machine.

Now they are getting quite close to the canyon. Even though this place is covered with a high concentration of Minovsky particles by Zeon, they still have to be careful of possible reconnaissance in the sky.

Therefore, the three Lu Gaos must now disperse and camouflage themselves.

There were no engineers following, but MS was the best engineering machine. After arriving at their designated positions, Lu Gao used his toothed shield to dig a few times on the ground, and a pit large enough for Lu Gao to lie down was completed.

The operator lies down in the pit, and then the pilot comes down to cover the aircraft with desert camouflage cloth.

In this way, the most basic disguise is completed.

By the time all this was done, it was already dark.

Eli sat in the machine and checked the time on the onboard computer. He felt that the White Base should have traveled halfway.

Originally, Eli thought that his arrangements should be completed before Apsaras' next experiment, but what Kallen said before she left made Eli suddenly have a bad feeling.

This has nothing to do with the feeling of the new humans, it's purely because it sounds too much like a FLAG line.

"I feel like something's going to happen tonight."

Eli, who was on second shift, sat in the cockpit, wearing a Federation Army T-shirt, constantly pulling the fabric on his chest to allow air to circulate.

Unlike the humid heat in the rainforest, the heat in the desert is dry heat. In this comparison, Eli prefers to stay in the rainforest.

At least you don't have to replenish water so often.

After taking a sip of the relatively cool water, Eli sat in the cockpit and used the periscope camera on the head of the Land Combat Gundam to scout the direction of the rift.

Seeing that there was still not much movement and even the MS pilots had left the Zaku, Eli felt that his premonition was ultimately groundless and a waste of worry.

But in the next moment, Eli's face froze without even a hint of relief.

Because, those pilots suddenly ran towards their own aircrafts, helicopters took off one after another, and Dopp fighter jets appeared in the sky.

"Whatever you fear will come true. Shirou, Sandas, something's happening!"

Eli immediately turned on the communication, assuming that the wired communication that had been established during the day was working at this moment, and immediately woke up the two pilots who were sleeping in their own bodies.

There was a rumbling sound coming from the sky.

(End of this chapter)