The Bering Strait, located near the Arctic Circle, remained in the polar night period by late December, rendering the concept of daytime nonexistent here.
Yet 3 a.m. was still when most people felt their sleepiest. No matter how thick their clothing, the bitter wind stole warmth from patrolling and stationed soldiers through every gap, making them instinctively seek shelter from the cold.
Thus, no one in this snow-swept base would look up at the sky—and even if they did, they wouldn't spot the Jet Black Hunter with its Obscurant Umbrella System activated.
Similarly, GP-08 (Phantom Rose) Alpha, skirting the terrain under cover of mountains, went undetected. Both Neil and Shinn successfully reached their designated positions.
The appointed hour soon arrived. At 3 a.m., Neil, who had long been prepared, piloted the Dark Hunter Gundam and deployed the Long MEGA Particle Launcher. Charging and firing the Mega Particle Cannon were executed in one fluid motion.
Neil knew full well that his mission was to divert the enemy. To facilitate Shinn's subsequent assault, he aimed this shot squarely at the Atlantic Federation base's watchtowers and anti-aircraft guns.
Having scanned the base's layout during its approach, the Dark Hunter Gundam ensured the Mega Particle Cannon effortlessly swept through all watchtowers. Under Neil's control, the beam carved a wide V-shaped arc, incidentally destroying three anti-aircraft cannons.
The guards in the watchtowers evaporated before realizing what was happening. Only the explosions of anti-aircraft ammunition and the collapsing towers alerted ground patrols to sound the air raid sirens.
The blaring alarms nearly jolted the base commander from his bed. Disregarding the female soldier who had moments ago been huddled with him for warmth, he hastily donned his uniform and rushed to the underground command center.
Upon entering, he overheard the duty officer cursing into a comms device:
"What do you mean you don't know where the attack came from? Can't you see where that massive beam originated?!"
"The blizzard's too thick to spot any Mobile Suits? Then did a ghost fire that beam? Send MS units immediately for a grid search! That shot only hit watchtowers—clearly, they misjudged the blizzard's effect on beam trajectory. But the next one will be aimed at our heads! Find the attackers now unless you want to die!"
The officer slammed down the receiver and snapped to attention upon noticing the commander's arrival.
Impressed by the officer's logical and swift response—and given the lack of follow-up attacks—the commander merely issued a stern directive based on the intel about the high-powered beam:
"Locate the attackers immediately. A beam of that magnitude suggests the New Misurugi Kingdom's forces are behind this. You know how it is—our president, for some misguided reason, pursued cloning their people, sparking this outright war."
The officer inwardly balked at openly discussing the cloning controversy. While everyone knew the truth, allowing the New Misurugi Kingdom to obliterate their nation was unthinkable. He deftly sidestepped the topic and zeroed in on the priority:
"If this is a New Misurugi Kingdom assault, we must deploy additional Mobile Suits.
"The New Misurugi Kingdom possesses a mobile stealth technology. Unless we deploy significant numbers of personnel, we simply can't detect them. And this is with the advantage of snow and low temperatures - a stealth Mobile Suit would inevitably leave footprints when stepping on ground, and generate heat when flying."
Upon hearing this, the base commander immediately recognized the logic and issued orders directly:
"Relay my command: Base to Combat Readiness Level One. All MS Pilots board your Mobile Suits. Activate base turrets and anti-aircraft guns. All patrol units deploy to search for enemy aircraft. Others stand by, awaiting reconnaissance team reports before further action.
Also, notify the East Asian Republic forces across from us that we suspect an attack by the New Misurugi Kingdom and advise them to exercise extreme caution."
With the base commander's orders, the entire Atlantic Federation military base instantly sprang to life.
These weren't third-rate Atlantic Federation troops - only the commander had been sleeping with a female soldier, who happened to be his assistant, while all others were well-trained professionals.
All MS Pilots boarded their Mobile Suits immediately upon receiving orders, completing the process from waking up to boarding in just minutes.
As the base lights fully illuminated the area, illumination flares were continuously fired outward, attempting to locate the stealth enemy.
Unfortunately, Reid's stealth technology had already evolved beyond the Electronic Camouflage System known to the Atlantic Federation, now utilizing the Obscurant Umbrella System.
The Obscurant Umbrella System could shield thermal signatures, so the Jet Black Hunter was already airborne while the Atlantic Federation, failing to detect any heat sources in the air, kept searching for enemies on the ground.
After scanning the base perimeter revealed nothing, the base commander decisively ordered the patrol MS units to sortie and search, determined to locate the enemy.
Actually, Neil was already preparing to reveal himself voluntarily. The Long MEGA Particle Launcher had completed charging and could fire another Mega Particle Cannon.
This time, Neil aimed at the structures surrounding the recently deployed MS Hangar.
A base certainly contained more Mobile Suits than currently visible - the remaining units must still be on standby in the hangars, and Neil intended to force them all out.
Thus, a Super MEGA Particle Beam swept directly from high altitude into the Atlantic Federation base, obliterating five MS storage hangars in one sweep. The Mobile Suits inside were almost completely destroyed, resulting in extremely heavy losses.
The only good news for the Atlantic Federation was that the enemy had finally revealed itself, though in the one place nobody expected - the sky.
Seeing this, the base commander immediately exclaimed in furious frustration:
"Launch all operational MS units! Shoot down that Mobile Suit in the sky! We absolutely cannot let it fire a third shot!!"
By now, even without the base commander's orders, everyone in the base understood they must shoot down this black Gundam in the sky.
Since this base's MS units were primarily configured for naval warfare, in addition to underwater combat models, it deployed numerous jet-powered Windams capable of flying over sea surfaces to deploy depth charges.
Following the base commander's command, nearly thirty Windams immediately took off from the base, with second and third wave units queuing up behind them.
Seeing this, Neil remained calm. His leg missile launchers fired the pre-prepared Smoke Grenades, creating immediate smoke screens.
These smoke grenades were the Iron-Blooded Order's advanced black-tech models, functional even in space. So despite the constant sea winds in the Bering Strait, the smoke wouldn't dissipate easily.
When the first wave of thirty jet-propelled Windams saw the enemy deploying smoke, the squad leaders quickly conferred and decided to charge through while firing.
The Atlantic Federation Mobile Suit commanders had no choice - if they let the enemy escape and reactivate stealth, their base or MS forces would have to endure another super beam attack just to reveal the enemy again.
To keep their survival in their own hands, they could only risk charging into the smoke.
However, the Atlantic Federation forces didn't know this smoke also had powerful jamming capabilities. The moment the jet Windams entered the smoke, their close-range squad communications were completely cut off.
Inside their Mobile Suits, the jet Windam pilots could only see their cameras completely obscured by thick smoke, leaving them blind. They had no choice but to fire blindly while charging forward.
Naturally, these Mobile Suits became easy targets for Neil.
Neil adjusted the output of the Dark Hunter Gundam's Long MEGA Particle Launcher to lower power, effectively converting it into a beam machine gun, then immediately moved to the flank.
The jet Windams charging through the smoke were advancing blindly, while the Dark Hunter Gundam could lock onto them using its Clairvoyance System.
Consequently, none of these jet Windams managed to emerge from the smoke. The Dark Hunter Gundam mowed them all down with its beam machine gun, causing them to explode into fireworks in the sky before crashing to the ground as scattered parts.
The complete loss of the first wave of jet Windams infuriated the Atlantic Federation base commander. How could over twenty Mobile Suits be wiped out so quickly by just one enemy unit?
The base commander immediately issued new orders: "All operational Mobile Suits launch immediately. When encountering smoke, don't enter - just surround and fire beams into it. Also, equip the Mobile Suits with submarine interception nets. So what if it can stealth? Once we net it, it's just a dead fish."
Truth be told, this base commander wasn't incompetent and knew how to adapt.
Stealth didn't mean the unit lacked physical form. If the Dark Hunter Gundam got caught in a net, its stealth would be broken. Whether it tried to tear the net off or continue fighting while entangled, the net would create openings.
When Neil saw through the Clairvoyance System that the enemy was deploying nets and had already launched over a hundred jet Windams, he immediately turned and fled without hesitation.
His mission was to lure all the base's Mobile Suits away anyway - now was the perfect time to run.
Though retreating, Neil adjusted the Long MEGA Particle Launcher to sniper rifle output for short-range attacks, effectively kiting the pursuing forces.
This left the Atlantic Federation pilots sent to surround and kill the Dark Hunter Gundam in an awkward position.
The enemy Mobile Suit was much faster than they had estimated. They couldn't understand what black technology the New Misurugi Kingdom had used - without wings or additional thrusters, how could this Mobile Suit fly so fast?
Neil had already gauged the jet Windam pilots' psychology and intentionally maintained a speed just slightly faster than the Windams.
This gave the jet Windam pilots the illusion that they could eventually catch up and surround him.
However, in reality, to evade the continuous fire from the Jet Black Hunter Gundam, these jet-equipped Windams couldn't even build up speed.
What was even more tragic was that the pilots of the jet-equipped Windams found themselves unable to dodge the enemy's beams, while their own beam rifles couldn't reach the opponent due to range limitations. It was utterly frustrating.
Faced with this situation, the pilots of the jet-equipped Windams confronting the Jet Black Hunter Gundam had no choice but to order their flanking allies to encircle the enemy with full force. After all, they had over a hundred Mobile Suits on their side, while the enemy had only one—the advantage was clearly theirs!
However, what these jet-equipped Windams failed to notice was that, in their pursuit, they had lost sight of the base. Soon after, they flew completely out of communication range, losing contact with the base entirely.
By this point, the Atlantic Federation base commander had already sensed something was wrong. Did the New Misurugi Kingdom send only one Mobile Suit to attack? Could it be that the earlier unit was just a decoy to lure their forces away?
Thinking this, the base commander wanted to recall the troops that had chased after the enemy. Unfortunately, he was too late.
Shinn, who had been lying in ambush to the east, saw that the Jet Black Hunter Gundam had already led over a hundred jet-equipped Windams out of sight. He knew it was time for him to make his move.
Thus, the GP-08 (Phantom Rose) α immediately took off, launching a surprise attack on the Atlantic Federation's base.
However, the moment Shinn took off, he was greeted by over a dozen missiles and just as many artillery shells.
But Shinn was a reckless fighter. He simply used the Mobile Suit's Head Vulcan Gun to shoot down the missiles and relied on the Electromagnetic Armor to withstand the artillery shells—after all, they couldn't penetrate it.
As a result, the Atlantic Federation base's gunners could only watch helplessly as the Gundam charged into the base, completely unscathed despite the artillery barrage.
Once inside the base, four Mobile Suits instantly leaped in front of the GP-08 (Phantom Rose) α, forcing it to the ground with their tridents. Immediately, over a dozen Mobile Suits surrounded it.
There was no helping it—while the ones that had chased earlier were all jet-equipped Windams, this base still had a large number of aquatic combat Mobile Suits.
Now surrounding the GP-08 (Phantom Rose) α were the Atlantic Federation's main aquatic combat units: the Abyssal Forbidden and the Forbidden Blue, led by an improved version of the Forbidden Blue—the Forbidden Vortex.
Seeing this, Shinn felt not a trace of fear. What was there to fear from a bunch of outdated two-year-old models and one improved unit? Their tridents were designed for naval combat and used only solid ammunition, so there was nothing to worry about.
Moreover, the mobility of these units on land had been average even two years ago. Now, in Shinn's eyes, they were like a group of elderly people practicing tai chi.
Without a second thought, Shinn drew the Mobile Suit's Multipurpose Anti-Ship Sword and charged straight at the lead Forbidden Vortex.
Seeing the GP-08 (Phantom Rose) α daring to charge, the Atlantic Federation's aquatic Mobile Suits all activated their 115mm "Arm of Fire" autocannons and opened fire continuously.
Unfortunately, these attacks weren't even enough to scratch the Electromagnetic Armor. The GP-08 (Phantom Rose) α, sparking all over like a god of war, charged right up to the lead Forbidden Vortex and swung its sword down.
The underwater squad leader clearly intended to counterattack. He raised the shoulder shields on both sides, attempting to block the Multipurpose Anti-Ship Sword while thrusting his trident directly toward the cockpit of the GP-08 (Phantom Rose) α.
Unfortunately, he severely overestimated the durability of his Mobile Suit's shoulder shields. Against the Multipurpose Anti-Ship Sword equipped with a Beam Saber, they provided no blocking effect whatsoever. The Forbidden Vortex was instantly sliced in half along with its shields, exploding on the spot.
Had this been the old Shinn, he would have immediately switched targets to engage other surrounding Mobile Suits.
But the current Shinn understood the meaning of prioritizing mission objectives.
Using the smoke and flames from the Forbidden Vortex's explosion as cover, the GP-08 (Phantom Rose) α took off again.
This time, Shinn successfully reached the central area of the base. He retrieved the special bomb from the customized container at his waist, activated the ten-second countdown, dropped it, and then desperately ascended to high altitude.
The Atlantic Federation's aquatic forces could only run and jump on the ground, so they still hadn't caught up with the GP-08 (Phantom Rose) α. They could only watch helplessly as it dropped something before rapidly climbing.
Then, everyone on the surface of the entire Atlantic Federation base saw a blinding white light before ascending to heaven or descending to hell, as fate dictated.
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