Chapter 15: No Reward for First Kill
Inle's huge body advanced at high speed in the vacuum, its pitch-black fuselage almost merging with the background color of the universe. The cockpit was silent, each breath under Ade's helmet inciting anxiety.
Ade was wondering if he was too impulsive to drive Inle out this time, simply not in line with his personal style. Due to the presence of Moonlight Butterfly, he himself had no sense of crisis on the moon. But it's different when he went out alone. People die when they are killed, this truth doesn't need to be taught.
But what else could he do? Watch C.C. being taken captive and turn around and try to find another way after running away? Having known her for so many years, Ade just can't do this. Although he had reported the ship hijacking to the lunar government, he couldn't rely everything on them and do nothing. Now there are only Alice and him.
Ade continuously breathed deeply for moderate tension helps to focus attention. He has a clear understanding of his own level. With Inle and Alice, he has the confidence to fight no matter who it is. Even if he is no match for the enemies, with TR-4 Dandelion's speed, it's not a problem to run away.
"Detected high concentration of Minovsky particle reaction at the edge of the radar. At our speed, expect to encounter the enemy in thirty seconds." Alice's voice snapped him out of his thoughts, "Ade, your heart rate and body temperature are a little slightly elevated, want to put on some music to relax?"
"You're too dutiful as a music player." He couldn't help but laugh out loud, "You're right, I'm a little nervous. Let me see."
The enemy is Britannia, crap, there is no music from "CODE GEASS Lelouch of the Rebellion". Ade flipped through his song list and discovered his major mistake. Forget it, since I'm driving a Gundam, this one would be fine. He played "SALLY" and set it to a single cycle. Listening to the song, the slightly aggressive rhythm naturally regulated his mood, and the familiar tune gave him a feeling that he was on the home turf.
It felt good.
"Ade, the enemy will enter our sight in ten seconds." Alice's voice sounded a little nervous, "Five, four, three, two, one!"
As Alice said, the huge passenger spaceship appeared in Ade's sight. Five ZakuⅡs floated around the spaceship on guard. Even in the face of the unarmed civilian spaceship, the five ZakuⅡs still maintained a squad formation to look out for each other, indicating that they were well-trained soldiers. The spaceship did not move in place, could it mean that they haven't found C.C.? Wait, where are these second-hand ZakuⅡs from? Does Britannia have Zaku? Oh, they may want to hide their identity in this way. In that case, the enemy is not expected to send out too many combatants.
"Ade, look at the radar!" Alice marked on the edge of the map, "I detected two battleships without identification signal here. The enemy should have spotted us as well."
As if to confirm Alice's words, the opposite ZakuⅡs seemed to have no desire to negotiate, two of them began to cover firing, while the other three approached Inle directly at high speed. Behind the Zakus is the spaceship, which invalidated Inle's greatest advantage - long-range firepower. And the enemy still has three battleships, which means that they may send reinforcements at any time. Ade decided to solve the Zakus in front of him as soon as possible.
"Alice, detach Ferber." Inle retreated with irregular maneuvers while quickly taking off the huge fire parts in the upper part of the fuselage, and Ferber flew into the distance under Alice's remote control. The Inle now looked like a robot riding on a huge flying mount.
Ade maneuvered Inle along an arc. He approached the three approaching Zakus from the side while trying to target one of them with the long-bladed rifle on one side of Hyzenthlays' flanks. But avoiding shots from afar while trying to avoid the passenger spaceship made aiming very difficult. The opponent seemed to know that Ade was afraid to hit the spaceship, no matter how much Ade adjusted his position, they always tried to keep Zakus between the spaceship and Inle.
The distance between Inle and the three Zakus shrank dramatically with the speed visible to the naked eye, Ade still held the rifle's trigger tightly and waited patiently for the right moment. Finally, the distance between the two sides was close enough to initiate a charge, the distant support fire finally stopped to avoid injuring friendly troops. Taking the chance Inle was close fighting the three Zakus, the other two also approached quickly.
At this distance, Zakus can not keep up with the speed of Inle! As TR-4 Dandelion turned the direction of the thrusters, Inle circled around the three Zakus at high speed. The huge inertial force makes Ade's body cling to the side of the driving suit, and the fixed belt on the seat strangled the body tightly.
Finally, a Zaku appeared in the rifle's sighting telescope. It is now! The muzzle of the long-bladed rifle emitted a dazzling light, and the ion beam rushed out, directly piercing the Zaku's cockpit.
It's said that the first killing of humans would make people feel guilt and sick. Ade had not had time to experience it, and the two remaining Zakus, as if oblivious to the death of their comrades, had rushed to Inle. Ade desperately moved to the left flank of the two Zakus, while using the Vulcan cannon on Inle's head to fire at the one that was farther away, barely pulling the distance between the two Zakus and Inle to avoid being pinned down by them.
In the blink of an eye, the closer Zaku was already in front of him. Ade raised the long-bladed rifle that had not yet cooled in his left hand, and the huge rifle body was used as a shield to block the oncoming Heat Hawk, while his right hand drew his beam saber under the cover of the huge shield. The Zaku was slightly shaken back by the long-bladed rifle. The moment the gun was lowered, the beam saber broke through Zaku's weak armor and pierced into the cockpit. In the saber's high-energy particle beam, the pilot directly vaporized.
Turning off the saber's energy, Inle kicked the stabbed Zaku so hard that the remains of its body exploded around the third Zaku. Ade took advantage of this chance to pull back his saber and aimed his right long-bladed rifle at the last Zaku, which exploded with the press of the trigger. Everything happened too quickly and the Zakus were only just arriving from the distance.
"Alice!" The six beam pods on Hyzenthlays' back separated in response and scattered in all directions. Without the aid shot and perspective abduction from the enemy side, Alice was finally able to make her best use. The beam pods pierced left and right on the battlefield, constantly changing positions and attacking from every dead end. The 1.6-second-long turnaround time of ZakuⅡ was simply too slow to dodge them, and ordinary soldiers' physical quality simply could not adapt to such a fast pace of battle.
Handing the battle over to Alice, Ade maneuvered Inle to quickly fly towards the previously disengaged Ferber. The enemy will send reinforcements at any time, and his long-range firepower will be the biggest advantage. By the time Ade returns with Ferber, the two Zakus have been broken. The beam pods flew back to Hyzenthlays' back and Inle began to assemble it on the spot.
"Ade, a team of five Mobile Suits reacted around the battleship, expected to arrive on the battlefield in one minute. They are enemy reinforcements!" Enough time! The assembled Inle moved at a low speed towards the battleship, and at this distance… "Minovsky particle concentration is reduced, Ade, I can snipe from this distance! "
Inle stopped. Ade took a deep breath and raised the ultra-long-range beam cannon, and the one-hundred-meter-long giant barrel reflected an unsettling light. There were two battleships and he didn't know which one was the flagship, so he could randomly aim at one of them. The music in the cockpit had been turned off and Ade concentrated, starting to close his breath, waiting for the five Mobile Suits to approach to a reasonable distance.
Second by second, and as he waited patiently, the fleeting moment finally arrived and he pulled the trigger instantly. The blazing plasma stream surged, accelerated, and rushed through the cannon barrel, and finally roared out from the muzzle, tearing through the vacuum and pulling out a dazzling light in the universe, heading away into the distance. The five Mobile Suits were destroyed in just a moment, and the torrent of particles continued to burst forward until they smashed onto the ship. The heavy armor was rapidly reduced by the impact of the massive high-energy particle beams, then pierced, and the battleship was torn to pieces by the combined blast from within and the vacuum from outside, turning into a giant cosmic firework.
"Lost the MSs' signal. Lost the battleship's signal. Ade, total destruction! "
"Our MSs were destroyed in one shot! The frigate was sunk. Suspected enemy long-range sniper! Request instructions! "
"Retreat! Retreat! Immediately move out of the sniper range!" The explosion of the neighboring battleship affected the flagship as well, and a violent shaking occurred. Prince Clovis, who was sitting in the captain's chair, struggled to keep his balance. His handsome face twisted, not gentle and elegant at all. "What the hell is going on?! How can a mere MS do such a thing! Asplund, I want an explanation!"
"Even the GP03D would have difficulty sniping from this distance, not to mention that the Dendrobium should have been destroyed. As far as I know, no such airframe exists. It should be a secret weapon of an unknown force." Llyod Asplund, director of the Britannia Special Technical Department, pushed his glasses and showed an enthralled expression, "I want to capture it to take a look at it."
"Doesn't it mean you know nothing? We don't even know the other party sees us as ZAFT or PLANT or comes for that woman!" Clovis hammered down hard on the armrest of his seat.
It was hard to discover that woman's pseudonym and whereabouts, but they didn't dare to do anything on the moon. Finally, the woman bought a return ticket under a false name, so he quickly made a plan for the operation. On the one hand, he sent people from Earth to lurk in the ship. As long as they didn't get off the ship, the moon government wouldn't be able to find them; on the other hand, he sent a battleship and a frigate, hijacked the civil spaceship with Mobile Suits.
This MS came out of nowhere. If it was just passing by, it would be too much of a coincidence. Is the pilot her lover on the moon? Why would it arrive here? This firepower… is it really a common MS? Who exactly am I fighting with? My father and brother didn't know about my arrest operation. If I couldn't catch that woman, it would be too shameful!
"Asplund!" there was no point in continuing to send out the few remaining Zakus in the face of such an enemy. Clovis growled at the technical director, "Send your toy out immediately!"
"But… Your Highness, Lancelot has already shown its face in the previous military exercise. If we send it out, our identity will be immediately exposed." But Asplund's mouth raised and his excited expression betrayed him, "If you insist, Lancelot is always available."
"The success of the operation has the highest priority. I will solve the matter of identity exposure." The prince turned his head to a young man with short, sharp hair on the bridge, "It's time to prove your worth."
"As ordered, Your Highness." Suzaku Kururugi saluted to Clovis.
