Neo wanted the Phantom Pain unit to flee, but Heine, Rey, and Lunamaria would certainly not allow it.
This Arsenal Gundam theft incident was solely Durandal's scheme. The current Chairman of the Military Committee was also unaware of it, as well as the series of previous Mobile Suit disappearances.
Therefore, in the eyes of Heine, Rey, and Lunamaria, this incident was just the same group that stole the Mobile Suits before, now grown brazen enough to snatch them in broad daylight. If they were allowed to escape, their next target would be the PLANT homeland itself.
Talia Gladys, the captain of the Minerva, shared this sentiment. She, too, knew nothing.
Although the Impulse had no energy problems this time, she saw the three Impulse-type Mobile Suits preparing to charge out in pursuit. Thus, she decided to sortie as well, regardless of Durandal's presence on the ship.
From Talia's perspective, the Minerva's launch ceremony tomorrow had already become a joke, so sortieing now was no issue.
As for Durandal, he refused to leave on his own accord.
As one of the people who knew Durandal's personality best, Talia guessed he was intentionally staying on the ship, but in the end, she didn't say much more. There was still love between them, and Talia was willing to trust Durandal's judgment.
Meanwhile, at the breach in the Armory One Colony Satellite, the battle between the Exass Aegis, the Impulse, and the two Zakus had begun.
Facing three opponents at once, Neo Roanoke naturally wouldn't fight them head-on.
Before the three Impulse-type Mobile Suits could even exit the colony, Neo once again had the Exass Aegis fire a "Siren Beast" Multiple Phase Energy Cannon. This time, however, he activated the Induction Type Magnetic Field Generator.
This Induction Type Magnetic Field Generator was, in fact, an improved version of the Forbidden Gundam's Mirage Colloid Distortion Field.
The Forbidden Gundam's original Mirage Colloid Distortion Field could only roughly control the general direction and point of distortion; the specific angle of deflection was impossible to control, which often led to friendly fire incidents.
The Induction Type Magnetic Field Generator on the Exass Aegis, however, could control the beam's deflection angle. Although errors could still occur due to environmental factors, they were within an acceptable range. It wouldn't cause a beam to suddenly bend at a bizarre angle and inexplicably hit an allied unit in a pincer attack.
And now, the new Minerva trio had to face this shot.
Neo had aimed this shot at the Impulse Gundam—after all, it was the only Gundam among the three.
Of course, Neo estimated that the Impulse Gundam could dodge it, and the beam would then curve to hit the Gunner Zaku Warrior behind it.
Why target the Gunner Zaku Warrior? Naturally, it was because the M1500 "Orthrus" High-Energy Long-Range Beam Cannon it carried was too powerful, and he had no interest in betting his life against the pilot's marksmanship.
Moreover, artillery-type Mobile Suits had relatively poor mobility, making them more susceptible to his sudden, redirecting attacks.
Things went just as Neo had planned. Faced with the "Siren Beast" Multiple Phase Energy Cannon, the Impulse Gundam deftly dodged with a mid-air spin. Both Rey and Lunamaria predicted the beam would miss them and didn't even bother to evade.
Then, tragedy struck Lunamaria. After grazing past the Impulse Gundam, the "Siren Beast" Multiple Phase Energy Beam shot straight for her Mobile Suit as if it had eyes.
Fortunately, Lunamaria had earned her red uniform through her own skill. With an extremely last-second maneuver, she twisted the Mobile Suit's torso to meet the beam with its shoulder shield.
After PLANT's breakthrough in Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactor technology, although Battery-Powered Mobile Suits still held an absolute advantage in mass-production costs, there was no problem with equipping all the red-uniform pilots with a reactor.
With a Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactor, the equipment on these red-uniform pilots' Mobile Suits could be brought in line with the Mass-produced Prototype Zaku. Therefore, both Rey's and Lunamaria's Mobile Suits were equipped with Phase Shift Armor.
Phase Shift Armor could reduce beam damage to some extent, not to mention Lunamaria's Zaku was painted red, which had higher defense.
Thus, the "Siren Beast" Multiple Phase Energy Cannon, which could have pierced straight through the Mobile Suit, was buffered by the shoulder shield. It merely blew off the Gunner Zaku Warrior's entire left arm and damaged the armor on the left side of the Mobile Suit. Lunamaria's Gunner Zaku Warrior went down, trailing smoke, but the Mobile Suit was still relatively intact. She shouldn't be dead.
Heine and Rey were furious that they were now down a person in a three-on-one fight before even making contact with the enemy.
Knowing that the "Siren Beast" Multiple Phase Energy Cannon couldn't be fired again within one or two seconds, they immediately pushed their thrusters to maximum. Riding the air rushing from inside the colony into space, the Impulse led the charge with its shield raised against any beams, while the Zaku Phantom provided covering fire from behind, preparing to force their way through.
After firing a few shots with his beam rifle and realizing he couldn't break through the Impulse Gundam's shield, Neo Roanoke stopped blocking the breach. Instead, he retreated while deploying two Wired Guided Pods from his back, timing his attack for the exact moment the Impulse Gundam and Zaku Phantom broke out of the colony to strike from the sides.
Unfortunately, this attack failed.
This Neo no longer had telepathy with Rey, but Rey's own high-level spatial awareness allowed him to quickly detect the presence of the funnel-type weapons.
So, just as they were about to burst out of the colony, he warned Heine to watch out for attacks from both sides.
With this forewarning, Heine easily dodged the sneak attack. However, the Exass Aegis instantly rushed forward and kicked the Impulse Gundam in the waist, nearly sending it crashing into the colony's outer wall.
Fortunately, Rey's Zaku Phantom was providing covering fire from behind, preventing the Exass Aegis from pursuing the Impulse Gundam further.
But Neo had already achieved his goal. The Chaos, Gaia, and Abyss had already rendezvoused with the Girty Lue-class ship and could escape at any moment.
So, after forcing the two Mobile Suits back again with the "Siren Beast" Multiple Phase Energy Cannon, Neo glanced at the Mystic Angel, which was just observing from the edge of the battlefield with no intention of joining the fight. He then transformed his Mobile Suit into MA Mode and returned to his ship at super-high speed.
The Impulse Gundam and Zaku Phantom's burst speed certainly couldn't compare to the Exass Aegis in MA Mode. All they could do was watch as the Exass Aegis instantly pulled away and disappeared into the distance.
Over on the Mystic Angel, Shinn, who was on external guard duty, saw through his Mobile Suit's cameras that the group that had stolen the Gundams clearly intended to flee. He opened a channel to the bridge and asked, "Captain, aren't we going to pursue these terrorists?"
Bargiruel heard him and replied directly, "No pursuit. Our status is not appropriate. Rashly participating in the battle would be a thankless task. If these terrorists are eliminated, we'd get a couple of verbal thanks at best. If they escape, we could very well be suspected of having ties to them, accused of deliberately holding back in the fight to let them get away."
Hearing this, Shinn immediately grumbled, "So that's how it is. You don't even get rewarded for helping. Serves PLANT right for getting robbed."
Bargiruel was a little amused by Shinn. The kid was as naive as she had been right after graduating from the academy. No wonder Reid had secretly told her to train him well.
But Bargiruel only smiled to herself. Seeing that the enemy ships had begun to flee and the Minerva had already sortied in pursuit, she said, "Alright, it looks like the battle here is over. We'll regroup, notify PLANT, and then return to our country."
Just as Bargiruel finished giving the order, a communication from Athrun came through. He said with a serious expression, "Captain Bargiruel, please let me sortie. I'll have to trouble you to take Cagalli back to Orb."
Before Bargiruel had set out, Reid had instructed her not to stop Athrun if he said he wanted to act alone. So, Bargiruel simply advised, "Athrun, I have no problem with you sortieing. However, in my opinion, the unit that attacked Armory One doesn't seem to be Zala Faction hardliners, but people from the Earth Alliance. They were piloting Dagger Ls, and that one Mobile Suit is clearly related to the Aegis Gundam."
Athrun nodded after hearing her. He agreed with Bargiruel's assessment, but he had his own considerations for wanting to sortie. He said, "I also believe they are related to the Earth Alliance, I just don't know if they belong to the Eurasian Federation or the Atlantic Federation. But no matter what, they could start a war, so I must follow them and see."
With Athrun having said that much, Bargiruel naturally wouldn't try to persuade him further and simply let him leave in the Hong Long.
As for Cagalli, abandoned by her boyfriend, she could only sulk and seek out Ange for some counseling.
While the theft incident was unfolding at Armory One, Reid, aboard the Balkis, was monitoring the actions of his scavenger subordinates in the Circum-Terrestrial Debris Belt.
After ten months of construction, the main structure of the military base on the far side of the moon, located underground, had long been completed. Veda I had already begun operations.
Thanks to the GN Particle version of quantum communication technology, Reid could now communicate with the moon base with zero latency.
The network on the moon was unaffected by Neutron Jammers, so through it, and with the locators on the scavenger ships, Reid could monitor their positions and statuses with a delay of no more than 10 minutes.
In truth, Reid was using this batch of scavengers as cannon fodder. If Zala Faction hardliners were active in the colony wreckage, they would definitely shoot down these ships on sight.
Given the armaments Reid had provided for these ships, and the fact that the scavengers were a motley crew to begin with, their combat capability was very poor even with MS. There was no possibility of survival.
But their deaths would give Reid a legitimate reason to send troops to investigate the situation.
After all, it was no secret that Reid Isaac's scavenger guild made daily runs to the Circum-Terrestrial Debris Belt. If a ship went missing in the debris belt, it would be perfectly normal for the New Misurugi Kingdom's forces to go and check it out.
By the time Reid received a written report about the incident at Armory One, two hours had already passed since the battle.
This written report was transmitted back by the New Misurugi Kingdom's member of the four-nation military observation team in the Armory colony cluster.
In fact, two hours earlier, the Mystic Angel had already sent back a battle report via quantum communication between the Ice Phoenix Gundam and Veda I on the moon.
The report from the Mystic Angel contained the events of the story. Aside from being a little curious about the crimson Aegis Gundam successor and its pilot, Reid had nothing else to say.
But the news received by the four-nation military observation team indicated that not only had ZAFT lost three Gundams in the raid, but the previously sealed Mass-produced Prototype Zakus had also all been stolen in the incident.
To be honest, when Reid saw this report, his face darkened and he tossed it aside.
Durandal was truly adept at exploiting every opportunity. He had used this Armory One incident to once again send out 47 Mass-produced Prototype Zakus.
The Phantom Pain unit that attacked Armory One probably didn't even know they had also made off with 47 additional Mobile Suits that could be equipped with Anti-Neutron Jammers at any time.
But this Phantom Pain unit was definitely taking the fall for it. Even if they found out now that ZAFT had framed them, they couldn't possibly jump out and say they only stole three Gundams and that these 47 Mobile Suits had nothing to do with them. Or rather, even if they did clarify, no one would believe the words of a group of terrorists. The Phantom Pain unit couldn't possibly expose themselves as a secret unit of the Atlantic Federation.
Reid knew very well who these 47 Mobile Suits would end up with. The only silver lining was that after the Columbus Colony incident, these Mass-produced Prototype Zakus could only be Battery-Powered Mobile Suits.
If Durandal were to swap in Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactors for them again, it would be tantamount to admitting that PLANT had sent these Mobile Suits out.
Just as Reid was lamenting how cunning that old fox Durandal was, a message came from the bridge of the Balkis. Brian Eno reported, "Chairman, we've just received intelligence that the signals of seven scavenger ships in the debris belt have disappeared.
"Furthermore, we have observed slight anomalies in the wreckage of Junius 7, the Boaz Fortress, the Jachin Due Fortress, the World Tree, Heliopolis, and two other colony wreckages from the L4 Colony Cluster that were destroyed in the war.
"Although these seven large pieces of debris have not yet moved into dangerous orbits, the change is obvious."
Hearing this, Reid understood. This debris was all from colonies and fortresses destroyed in the last war. This must have been the choice of the Zala Faction hardliners. It seemed they were dead set on revenge.
But for seven pieces of wreckage to show movement at once, Reid was very curious where these Zala Faction hardliners got so many people. Even with Durandal's support, it would at most be financial, material, and intelligence support; he definitely wouldn't provide a single person. Could it be that mercenaries and pirates were helping them?
But that didn't matter. Reid had long been prepared for this. He responded directly, "Deploy the troops according to the plan. Have the ships carry large-scale deep-penetration demolition bombs. If you encounter any resistance, the MS units are to eliminate the enemy forces directly. Then, ignore everything else and blow all this fortress and satellite debris to smithereens.
"The Balkis is also to prepare for battle. If the forward fleet fails to prevent this satellite debris from being captured by Earth's gravity, use the Barge Cannon to destroy it directly.
"Notify the Mystic Angel to proceed directly to deal with the Junius 7 wreckage. At the same time, report this situation to the Earth Alliance and PLANT immediately."
After giving the orders, Reid contacted the Gran Chaos, which was docked inside the Balkis, and commanded again, "Liuli, prepare the Gran Chaos for departure. I'm heading over to you right now."
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