An advanced guide for experienced modelers, from building blocks to hand-building Gundams

"Maybe there's a sea monster in the ocean. I'll fish it out and show it to you."

"Give it up, Ross..." Speaking of fishing, Christina turned and looked at Ross with a complicated expression. "Last time in Heliopos, you told me about fishing, but when you got home that night, you went to the market and bought two fish."

"What? That's what I achieved in a day!" Rhodes was furious. As a junior angler, he refused to admit that he had any record of winning the Air Force.

"Are you saying that there are turtles in the lake in the center of Heliopos?" Christina did not indulge Rhodes, but instead told him the heartbreaking truth.

"Maybe someone released some animals into there!" Ross extended his hand, gesturing. "Even in the age of space, you can't deny that some superstitious people try to accumulate merit by releasing animals."

"Stop it, Roz." Christina shook her head. "The lake you went fishing in is managed by the city, and it only has ornamental fish."

"Besides, the market sign that was nailed on the turtle you brought back hasn't been removed yet."

Ross fell silent.

"...I've rested enough. I'll go check on the bridge."

After a long silence, Ross found an excuse to leave the deck, leaving people laughing and talking on it.

……

When Ross arrived on the bridge, Malu and that "Rambo" were discussing the next route.

The crew member who had been transferred to become a sonar observer was constantly adjusting the sonar device that had just been connected to the system.

"ZAFT has no plans to expand here. The ocean is their weakest point." Rambo pointed at the map on the screen. "But given the Archangel's situation, it's best to avoid combat if possible."

"Combat is absolutely unavoidable. The Archangel is too conspicuous on the sea." Ross walked over to Malu and patted her shoulder. "Without an escort fleet and a lack of countermeasures against underwater attacks, the Archangel's only resource is speed."

"Once we reach Orb, this neutral zone, we'll be able to deal with ZAFT no matter which direction we leave Orb." Ross smiled at Maru. "After all, ZAFT can't possibly have enough troops to completely blockade Orb, and the ocean is Earth's home turf."

"To be precise, the sky will soon be too." Rambo also looked at Ross. "For some reason, the Earth Army has deployed an unknown intelligent unmanned combat device. Now it has resisted the ZAFT advance and even regained some air superiority."

"Really... That's great..." Ross was stunned for a moment after hearing the news, but he still kept smiling.

"Rods..." Mariu was standing in the hangar at the time, watching Ross dismantle the "intelligent unmanned combat device." She looked at Ross with concern and reached out to hold Ross's hand on her shoulder.

Bajirolu, standing nearby, looked at Ross with a hint of worry. Aside from Kira's companions, who were a bit bewildered, the entire Archangel crew fell silent.

"No, it's nothing." Ross glanced at Maru and gave her a reassuring smile. "Speaking of which, we have to separate when we get to Orb."

"Yeah, it was something we agreed on after all." Malu was stunned for a moment, then laughed. Although her tone was calm, Ross could still hear the reluctance to leave. "Saiyi, you guys will also get off the ship by then."

"It's hard to say. I haven't thought about it yet." Saiyi scratched his head. "I don't know why, but I've gotten used to my current life."

"Anyway, this is the last stretch of the race," Ross gave Malu a thumbs-up. "Let's run to the finish line."

"Roz, what are you going to do after you return to Orb?" Maru suddenly asked. "Will we meet again?"

Ross thought for a moment and then said his plan, "Probably to find a way back to space and become a waste recycler again."

"If you're in the space fleet in the future, maybe we'll meet again."

"Then, could you please, Mr. Space Waste Recycler, stand guard for the last time?" Malu sighed, as if confirming the result, and loosened his grip on Ross's hand.

Although she was reluctant to let him go, life was full of separations and reunions. Besides, as long as they went into space, they would have the chance to meet again. Faced with the fact that Ross would leave, Mariu could only convince herself in this way.

"As you command, Captain." Ross stood up straight, gave Marlu a not-so-standard salute, and left the bridge.

"...You really like him?" Rambo, who had watched the entire process from the side, expressed his own judgment. "Just now, you were obviously reluctant to let him go."

"Wu... Please don't make any assumptions about this kind of thing." Malu was startled and subconsciously denied it.

"But just now, you kept questioning his decision, trying to justify your own thinking and convince yourself to give up." Rambo crossed his arms and looked out the window at the sea. "But I don't think he'll go back to space to become a waste recycler, as he just said."

"There's a fire burning in his eyes, directed at something." Rambo was silent for a long time. "He's planning to do something else on Earth."

……

Apparently, they felt that the Archangel's entry into the Indian Ocean was too smooth. Two red dots appeared on the jammed radar.

"There is a flying object approaching... It's very fast and doesn't look like a civilian aircraft." Thor, who was familiar with radar observation, told the information he knew.

"...It's ZAFT's atmospheric mobile suit, Dean!" At this time, the scan comparison results appeared, and Saiyi reported the information from the machine.

"First combat configuration for the entire ship!" Malu quickly gave the order.

"...Mariu, I'm ready to attack." Just a few minutes after the battle order was issued, Ross's voice appeared on the communication.

"Hmm... Permission to attack." Hearing Ross's voice, Mariu subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.

"Roz Links, High Mobility Type Zesta, attack!" Ross stepped on the pedal in the Zesta cockpit.

As Zesta ejected, the two Deans that were rapidly approaching also saw the situation in front of them, raised their machine guns and fired continuously at Zesta.

The mechanical arm controlled the shield to block the cannon's attack. For some reason, Ross felt something was wrong.

Like a knife pressed against my back, the murderous intent was aimed at...

"Malu, pull up the Archangel! There's still more in the water!"

Ross's words made Mariu a little dazed, but the sonar observer beside her soon brought her back to her senses.

"Sonar detected thruster sounds... and bursts! Mobile suits and torpedoes!"

"Maximum thrust, Archangel leaves the water!"

Following Malu's order, the helmsman pulled the rudder, and the Archangel's propeller tail flame grew larger again, and the hull rose and left the water.

"Aquatic? Is it a starfish or a squid?" Ross glanced at the sea. At this time, two streamlined mobile suits were marked by the full-circle cockpit. Obviously, these were ZAFT's aquatic products.

"It's Gunn! ZAFT's underwater mobile suit!"

"No matter whether it's Gun or Gu Long, I'm going to blow up all the fish I can't catch!" For some reason, Ross remembered the scene on the deck just now and couldn't help shaking with anger.

The robotic arm controlled the shield to aim at the sea surface below the Archangel, and eight cluster rockets were fired and flew towards the sea surface.

The fuse set precisely by Big Haro was activated, and the cluster rocket split into small high-explosive rockets, covering the sea area below the Archangel where the two submerged aquatic products were located.

"Oh no! Team Gun! Evade!" The bearded driver driving Dean saw the coverage of the cluster missiles and instantly understood Zesta's idea.

"No... I can't escape, I've been hit... Ah..." In the communication, I remembered the sound of the fishery pilot after his plane was hit by a high-explosive rocket.

The sound of Gun's explosion was mixed in with the large splash of water caused by the high-explosive rocket.

"You guy!" The bearded man was obviously a little angry. The machine gun in Dean's hand kept firing and rushed towards Jesta.

"Come on!" Rhodes looked at Dean who was charging towards him, raised his beam carbine and fired three bursts.

"Uh...it's not over yet!" Although the bearded man dodged two beams of light while driving Dean, the third one hit the machine gun in Dean's hand accurately.

Dean threw away the machine gun that was about to explode and drew the long sword from his waist.

"Cub, watch me cut you down with this long sword!"

The bearded man controlled Dean and charged towards Zesta.

----split line----

PS: This is based on my own personal experience. I took a fishing rod and went fishing for a whole day but caught nothing. Then I went to the market and bought two live turtles to take home.

I have forgotten what happened when I got home that day, but I only remember that the soft-shelled turtle was delicious.

Volume 39: Chapter I feel sleepy after taking cold medicine (free)

"Assault in this state? Is that so reckless?"

Ross pushed the joystick, constantly adjusting the height of the pedals, and Zesta nimbly dodged Dean's thrusts.

Then, Zesta raised the beam rifle in his hand and fired a laser at Dean's cockpit.

"What?!" Although he expected Zesta to dodge the attack, he didn't expect the counterattack to come so quickly.

Dean raised the sword in his hand and blocked the cockpit, trying to block the beam shot by Zesta.

This is also one of Dean's disadvantages. In order to be able to fly in the atmosphere, compared to Zesta's current great strength, Dean chose the route of reducing weight. The most obvious feature is the cancellation of the shield and the reduction of armor.

Dean's right hand holding the sword was hit by the beam, and the bearded pilot tried his best to twist Dean's body. The beam melted Dean's right arm and passed through, glancing past Dean's missile pod and Dean's left wing.

"Bang..." As the missile pod melted, an explosion occurred on Gun's right shoulder, directly blowing open the damaged right shoulder.

"Ahhhh..." The impact force of the explosion not only tore Dean's cockpit apart, but also several pieces of debris pierced the bearded pilot's body.

"Captain!" Another Dean driver saw this scene and became anxious, and began to approach here.

The damaged Dean began to fall towards the sea.

"Whoosh...whoosh..." Without the protection of the cockpit, the bearded pilot was crushed against the driver's seat by the strong wind, bleeding from the shrapnel. Clearly, he was no longer able to command the battle. "Temporary command transferred to Dean Two."

"Team Gunn 2, you go and hold back the cub, and our Team Dean 2 will go to pick up the captain, and the other teams will continue with the mission!" Pilot Dean, whose command was temporarily transferred, made a quick decision and flew his Gun towards the damaged aircraft that was falling.

As it flew past Zesta, the still intact Gun raised its anti-aircraft shotgun towards Zesta and pulled the trigger.

The high-mobility backpack's mechanical arm adjusted the shield's position, blocking all the shotgun shells. Just as Rhodes was about to counterattack, several beams of light came from the sea.

Zesta smoothly swung left and right, and the mechanical arm on its lower right side removed the electromagnetic bazooka mounted on the high-mobility backpack.

"The fuse distance has been updated. You can fire now, Ross." On the console, Big Haro flapped his wings.

The reason why Rhodes did not use the rocket launcher before was because there was a lack of means to counter targets in the sea, and he could only use the rocket launcher loaded with cluster missiles as an anti-submarine weapon.

The bazooka does not have many magazines and cannot be used casually, so the only way to fight was with the beam rifle.

Three rockets were fired from the launcher. After traveling a certain distance, the warheads split into smaller high-explosive rockets that rushed into the sea area where Gunn was, exploding into the water. Gunn, who had just submerged a short distance, was struck by several small high-explosive rockets in the thrusters behind him, causing explosions as the battery packs ruptured.

Although the caliber was not as great as the rockets on Zesta's shield, these high-explosive rockets would have no problem blowing Gun to pieces.

"Captain! Everyone evacuate!" Before the wreckage of Dean fell into the sea, the unknown Dean pilot finally received the wreckage, but he did not choose to fight to the death. After taking a look at the battle situation, he decided to evacuate the battlefield.

But just after he issued the order, a rising Gun was hit head-on by Zesta's rocket, hitting the cockpit. With the cockpit and battery pack damaged, the unfortunate Gun exploded on the sea.

"Retreat! Retreat!" The unknown pilot finally panicked and hurriedly led the remaining troops away from the Archangel frantically.

But the last Gunn left on the battlefield did not retreat. Instead, it surfaced and fired the rocket in its hand at Zesta, trying to interfere with Zesta's actions.

The Vulcan cannon on the right side of Zesta's head monitor fired continuously, destroying all the approaching rockets. He then raised the beam carbine in his hand and fired at Gun's cockpit.

The last Gun exploded as the beam dissolved its armor.

Rhodes looked at Dean, who was already flying away from the sea surface at a high speed, and then looked at the remaining power of the body, and gave up the idea of chasing him.

"Please return to the ship, Ross, we need to speed up!"

……

As Zesta returned to the hangar, Kira had just parked the Strike Gundam.

"The situation isn't very good right now... We lack anti-submarine measures, and the seabed is a haven for submarines and aquatic products." Rhodes complained in the communication channel.

"If that's the case, won't we just get beaten?"

"We can't help it. Their attack was very cunning this time." At this time, Mu's voice rang out over the communication channel. "First, use Dean to detect our direction of travel, and then send out Gun to ambush us in advance. The entire submarine is out of our sonar detection range."

The Sky-King glided steadily from the catapult track into the hangar.

"I just walked around outside for a long time and didn't find their submarine."

"I can't just keep taking the beating. How about I drive the Zesta to look for it next time? The Zesta can get into the water in a short time anyway." Ross thought for a moment and made his suggestion.

"It's okay. I'll definitely find that submarine next time." The cockpit of the Sky King opened, and Mu, wearing a pilot's suit, jumped out of the Sky King. "You and Kira should stay near the Archangel. We can't do without you here now."

Zesta stood in the hangar. The universal mounting frame secured the machine, and the robotic arms controlled by the Haro men began to tidy up Zesta.

Cluster missiles were reloaded into the shields, and the beam carbine's magazine was replaced and recharged.

Compared to the Archangel, the atmosphere in ZAFT's submarine became more serious.

"Doctor! Doctor! The captain is seriously injured!" Driver Dean, who had not even taken off his driver's suit, was at a loss when he saw the bearded driver's condition.

As the ship's doctor rushed to the damaged cockpit and injected the bearded pilot with an injection of medicine, the bearded pilot, who was originally in a coma, slowly woke up.

"Captain! You're in very poor condition. We must go to the nearest base to recuperate!"

"No... Doctor, I can still continue fighting." After taking a look at his own condition, the bearded driver was silent for a while.

"Doctor, amputate my limb and replace it with a prosthesis!"

"But now, we don't have enough anesthetic." The ship's doctor felt a little scalp tingling when he heard the bearded pilot's decision.

"Then don't use anesthetic!" The bearded pilot, wearing a shattered helmet visor, looked at the ship's doctor. "They can't find us now. This is our best chance."

"Give me a replacement limb. I want to pilot the 'Zono'!"