Gundam: A Gundam Enthusiast's Journey with a Mecha Girl

"How about predicting the point of impact?"

"Right ahead of the enemy ship's path... is a minefield!"

As soon as Thor finished speaking, a series of earth-shattering explosions suddenly erupted in the distant sands. Huge fireballs rose one after another, and the immense power of the ship's cannons detonated the minefield that Dawn Desert had laid out in advance, completely extinguishing the Archangel's side's wishful thinking that they could win easily.

"As expected of the Desert Tiger, such a simple trick is completely ineffective."

Maru admired Andrew's wisdom, but she was no longer the technical officer who had just entered the battlefield. She wouldn't be swayed by this matter, and from the very beginning, Maru had no intention of betting everything on the minefield.

"All ships, prepare for air, ship, and mobile suit combat! All mobile units, prepare for sortie!"

At this moment, the battle has only just begun.

ZAFT forces deployed attack helicopter units and Baku units as their vanguard, while the Archangel deployed Dagger and Sky King units to counter them, and Kira's Assault team did not join the attack.

Because the assault team has a more important mission.

The greatest threat to the Archangel is not the ZAFT Baku, but those land-based warships. Although the Archangel's firepower is superior to any of the enemy's land-based warships, if it were to fight three land-based warships at the same time, the Archangel would actually be at a disadvantage.

Therefore, the Strike Force did not advance with the Dagger to engage the enemy's MS forces. Instead, it chose to use the large sensor on the Lightning Pack to calibrate the Archangel's artillery fire, thereby improving the Archangel's long-range firing accuracy and maximizing its firepower advantage.

The Lightning Backpack's detection capabilities allow for sniping operations at a range of tens of thousands of kilometers in space, while on the ground, due to the curvature of the Earth, its detection capabilities are reduced to a range of hundreds of kilometers.

Although this is not the data that can be achieved in actual combat, it is enough for the Archangel to launch a preemptive strike before entering the enemy's firing range.

The Strike activated its back thrusters and arrived on the central deck of the Archangel. It then connected to the Archangel's fire control system via contact lines and began data sharing.

Long-distance wireless communication becomes extremely unstable due to the influence of neutron jammers. Furthermore, once combat begins, both sides will inevitably engage in electronic signal jamming, further reducing communication efficiency.

By using contact lines, information exchange can be achieved without delay or loss.

"What about data exchange with the Strike Force?"

"Baki Lulu, who is in charge of CIC, asked loudly."

"Everything is normal, it has already begun!"

Bakiru nodded decisively and then gave the order.

"Bariant, begin loading. Target: enemy Petrie-class land cruiser. Conduct first test firing!"

Because beam weapons are severely affected by the dust and heat convection on the ground, Bakirulu prioritized the use of the Bariant linear cannon, which uses live ammunition, as the primary means of attack in the first round of strikes.

Two shells whistled through the air and disappeared into the sand on either side of the Petrie, which was sailing ahead of the Restipus.

"The first wave of fire hit, two near misses, and none hit the target!"

"Ballistic correction!"

The Lightning Backpack's large sensors transmitted the impact point of the shells back to the Archangel's fire control computer, and Bariant quickly began to make corrections based on the transmitted data.

Soon, the second wave of firing began.

The target was still the Petrie. Although one shell missed its target again, another successfully hit the bow of the Petrie.

Chapter 45 The Final Battle in the Desert (2)

"The Petrie has been powered on. Our ship has been subjected to enemy fire, resulting in bow damage and a decrease in speed. However, damage control has brought the situation under control, and it will not have a significant impact on the battle!"

Andrew frowned at his subordinate's report.

Although Andrew had anticipated being suppressed by enemy fire from the beginning, he did not expect that the enemy could achieve accurate hits at this distance.

Taking a chance?

Such a thought flashed through Andrew's mind, but he quickly suppressed it.

He wasn't that stupid; the enemy was clearly using some new equipment he didn't know about to guide the Archangel's fire.

Andrew recalled the sniper attack he had encountered before the retreat.

However, now is clearly not the time to delve into the other party's methods.

"Full fleet, continue advance. Clearance to fire and return fire. Enemy ships are about to enter the Henry Carter's ambush zone; we must draw their attention. Hold on a little longer, victory is imminent!"

Andrew's orders were quickly relayed, stabilizing the slightly wavering morale of the ZAFT soldiers.

Although unforeseen circumstances have arisen, as long as the Desert Tigers remain, victory will surely belong to ZAFT.

The next moment, the ZAFT fleet launched its counterattack.

The main guns of the Resips and Petrie began to retaliate, while the Zaut, positioned on the decks of both ships, also joined the barrage.

The shells rained down, their impact far exceeding that of the two Bariant linear cannons on the Archangel, though their accuracy was far inferior.

The Lightning Pack immediately detected the ZAFT fleet's movements. Upon receiving the report, Bakirulu calmly directed the ships to change course, causing all of ZAFT's bombardment to miss. The Archangel's counterattack followed immediately, and the Petrie instantly sustained two more wounds on its hull.

"Tsk, they're completely suppressed. Da Costa, what's the situation with the vanguard?"

"Just received communication that the combat helicopter unit has been intercepted by enemy fighters and suffered heavy losses, and is withdrawing from the battlefield. Baku is currently engaged in combat with enemy mobile suits, and the situation is unfavorable!"

The series of bad news left Andrew scratching his head in frustration.

"We're the ones getting the short end of the stick in both artillery and mobile suit battles. There's nothing we can do, Da Costa!"

Andrew summoned his adjutant.

"I'm handing over command of Resips to you. I'm going to drive Laco to the front lines."

"team leader?"

Upon hearing Andrew's decision, Da Costa rushed forward and quickly stopped Andrew.

"Please wait a moment. You are the commander of this battle. You need to stay behind and oversee the overall situation!"

What kind of logic is it for the commander-in-chief to suddenly run to the front lines during the middle of a battle? And what if something happens to Andrew at the front lines? Should the battle continue?

But Andrew had his reasons.

"There's just a little distance between Longlegs and the ambush position. Now, besides me, who else can stop that mobile suit?"

Da Costa looked back and saw that of the five Bakus that had fought the Dagger, three were missing. At this rate, the Dagger would be able to break through to the Lesseps alone before the Henry Carter could launch its attack.

"May you have great success in your military endeavors."

Da Costa could only step aside and watch Andrew's figure disappear into the distance.

-----------------

The Dagger, which had already reached the front line, was dodging the ZAFT army's barrage of bullets with dazzling maneuverability.

While the iwsp backpack grants the short sword the ability to fly, it also makes it an easy target.

However, the barrage fired by the five Baku aircraft was far from being completely impenetrable.

Raven pushed the short sword to its limits, seizing the opportune moment to whiz through the artillery fire. Then, with El's assistance, the beam rifle and various firearms on his backpack instantly locked onto three scattered targets.

The next moment, a barrage of fire, a mixture of beams and shells, enveloped the three Baku aircraft, tearing them to shreds before they could react.

However, the other two Baku planes, instead of being intimidated by their teammate's failure, seized the opportunity of the Dagger's descent to fly close to the ground and pounced on the Dagger from one behind.

Baku, who was charging ahead, lowered the muzzle of his cannon and locked onto the short sword with his railgun, trying to force it to make an evasive maneuver and expose an opening.

The Baku behind it revealed the light blade on its mouth, leaped high, and prepared to cut the short sword in half.

The beam blade at his mouth was a modification kit sent by the Gibraltar base, which also gave Baku melee capabilities.

But Raven's reaction speed exceeded their expectations.

The two cannons on Dagger's shoulder fired rapidly, hitting the railgun turret of the Baku in front of him and rendering it immobile. Then, Dagger took advantage of the situation and stomped heavily on the back of the Baku. He turned in mid-air and used the momentum of his left arm shield to strike the head of the leaping Baku.

The Baku tilted as it was hit, and the beam blade at its mouth left a dark scratch on the shield. Meanwhile, taking advantage of the moment when the Baku lost control of its posture, the short sword fired its beam rifle at point-blank range, turning the charging Baku into scrap metal.

Raven let out a long breath in the cockpit, but before he could fully relax, a feeling of unease prompted him to raise his shield in front of him.

Two streams of emerald green particles struck the shield, evaporating the reflective layer on its surface and leaving two charred marks.

"I knew this guy wouldn't be taken care of so easily."

"Andy, you're the commander now, so don't get too carried away with your enthusiasm. Da Costa will get very tired."

A man's and a woman's voices came through the communication channel.

An orange-red machine that looked somewhat similar to Baku emerged from the hatch of the Resips, rushed into the desert, and headed straight for the Dagger.

"That voice, is it Andrew Butterfield and Miss Elsa?"

El was somewhat surprised, not expecting that Aisha, who had acted so gently that day, would also go to the battlefield.

"The Desert Tiger has come in person. How have you been, Mr. Andrew?"

Raven was much calmer than El.

"Is El in that machine too? That makes it a fair two-on-two, so we can't afford to lose."

"Hey, you were the one who told me not to get carried away, but now you're the one who's all fired up, what kind of nonsense is that?"

Unlike the relaxed conversation in the voice communication, Laco's offensive was quite fierce.

Lako used its beast-like limbs to leap and land repeatedly on the sand, dodging the barrage of fire from the various weapons on the IWSP backpack with this unconventional high-speed maneuverability, while the twin beam cannons on its back fired continuously under Aisha's control.

Despite firing at high speed, the beam cannon was surprisingly accurate, forcing Raven to focus on piloting his machine to dodge attacks and leaving all weapon control to El.

Laco successfully pinned down the Dagger, and the two aircraft rained bullets at each other on the sand. Just then, behind the Archangel, the Henry Carter unveiled its camouflage.

Countless grains of sand flowed down the towering hull as the HMS Henry Carter, carrying three Gundams—Duel, Storm, and Thunder—joined the increasingly chaotic battle.

Chapter 46 The Final Battle in the Desert (3)

Because using positron cannons within the atmosphere would cause serious environmental pollution, Murrue did not agree to use the Lohengrin positron siege cannon in this battle. However, by sharing data with the large sensors in the Lightning Backpack, the accuracy of the cannon fire was greatly improved, and the Archangel suppressed the two land warships, the Lesseps and Petrie, with the firepower of a single ship.

In order to get out of the situation of being outnumbered by two as soon as possible, Bakirulu chose to focus her main firepower on the more vulnerable land cruiser, the Petrie.

The Goldfield twin beam cannon and the Bariant linear cannon fired alternately, constantly creating wounds on the hull of the Petrie, while the various anti-aircraft turrets on the hull and the Zaut guns on the deck were also targeted one by one by Kira with his long-barreled railgun.

After the anti-aircraft firepower of the Petrie was reduced to a certain extent, Mu's Sky King took advantage of the situation to break through the barrage and used the Flame God Pulse Cannon mounted on its fuselage to deliver the final blow to the Petrie.

A thick, red and white beam of light pierced the armor of the Petrie and penetrated the engine room of the land cruiser, bringing the steel behemoth to an instant halt. After a violent explosion, the Petrie fell completely silent, its hull billowing black smoke as it lay motionless in the middle of the sandy sea.

But before the crew of the Archangel could celebrate their victory, a sand dune collapsed to the side and rear of the Archangel, and another land cruiser tore off its camouflage net, broke through the sand sea, and aimed its main guns at the Archangel's engines.

"Fire from all gun emplacements at once, to avenge the Petrie!"

At that moment, all the weapons on the HMS Henry Carter roared in unison. The main guns, missiles, and even anti-aircraft guns joined the bombardment of the Archangel, while the Duel, Storm, and Thunder machines carried on board also participated in the attack on the Archangel.

"The enemy ship has emerged from the sand dunes and is positioned to the side and rear of our ship, at extremely close range!"

Thor reported loudly and nervously, and then a tremor swept across the bridge of the Archangel, almost causing Maru, who was sitting in the captain's seat, to fall to the ground.

"Multiple hits on the port side, power output down by 40 percent and still dropping! Thrust is insufficient to maintain altitude, the ship is losing lift, we are about to crash!"

"calm!"

Maru's voice stopped the fear spreading across the bridge. She grabbed the armrests on either side of the seat to steady herself and then gave a loud order.

"All ships, prepare for an emergency landing! Neumann, control the engine output and the landing attitude, don't let the Archangel crash to the ground!"

"We've been trying our best, Captain!"

Helmsman Neumann, sweating profusely, struggled to control the Archangel's flight attitude, while Kira on the center deck spotted the Henry Carter.

The long-barreled railgun in his hand quickly switched fire, but with its firepower, it could not sink the Henry Carter in a short time, and the mobile suits that were already rushing towards them were more dangerous than the enemy warships.

"The Duel and Storm gear is too heavy; it makes it difficult to move around properly in the sand. I'll leave the vanguard to you, Nicol!"

"Ok!"

Under the cover of fire from Duel and Storm, Thunderbolt unleashed its thrusters at full power and charged toward the landing Archangel.

Although the Thunder's firepower seems somewhat weak against warship-sized targets, the three high-speed armor-piercing shells mounted on the attack shields can render a warship combat incapable if they hit a critical part such as the bridge.

"Archangel, I need to change my equipment. The Lightning Pack can't handle those mobile suits."

Kira used his long-barreled railgun to hold off the enemy while calling for the Archangel.

However, even Bakirulu couldn't easily meet his demands.

Within the atmosphere, it is impossible to use a catapult to quickly deliver backpack components to the Strike as in space, and the Sky Overlord II, which can be used to deliver equipment, is currently unmanned.

However, the next moment, the Archangel's sortie channel was opened, and the Sky Overlord II, carrying its empty equipment backpack, took off.

"Who was flying that Sky King?"

"It's Cagalli!"

The communication from the hangar surprised Bakiru, but she was pretty used to the unexpected situations that would occasionally occur on the Archangel.

'So now we can only trust that little girl?'