Chapter 177: The Investigation Team
Zechs piloted the Tallgeese, its thrusters blazing at full power as he shot straight toward the investigation corps of the Romefeller Foundation in the sky.
Heero shouted loudly after the suddenly departing Zechs, "Zechs!"
"Heero, we'll meet again in battle next time."
Duo flew the Wing Gundam over to Heero's side and said, "That guy… he's going to be a tough opponent to fight in the future."
Heero replied flatly, "Yeah."
Then Duo transformed the Wing Gundam into MA form, hooked onto Heero's Heavyarms, and took off from the Antarctic base.
Noin, sitting in her Aries, reported to Zechs, who was charging into the enemy ranks, "Colonel Zechs, our Aries units are all prepped and ready."
Zechs, ready to shoulder everything and bid farewell to his past, gave the order: "Then leave this place with Relena. Once you're all safely out, I intend to surrender to the investigation team."
Noin immediately realized he was lying — most likely, Zechs planned to go down with the enemy. Wanting to die by his side, she said resolutely, "In that case, I'll join the battle too."
But Zechs tried to dissuade her, saying, "Noin, I have to protect the key figures who will shape the future of the Sanc Kingdom. Don't argue with me — go!"
"…Understood, Zechs." Noin no longer resisted his order. She led everyone from the base away from Antarctica, whispering to Zechs behind her, "Stay safe, Zechs."
Aboard the shuttle, Relena quietly looked toward the direction of Zechs's battle and murmured with relief, "No matter how it ends, it's good that this war can finally be over."
Zechs piloted the Tallgeese straight into the Aries formation, enduring their barrage of fire as he weaved through them, cutting one after another down with his beam saber.
But the Tallgeese wasn't in good shape — its left arm, already damaged by Heavyarms earlier, was completely destroyed under the constant fire of the Aries rifles and missiles, the joint blown apart and falling off.
Even with only one arm, Zechs continued fighting. Losing the left arm actually made the suit lighter and faster.
The only problem was the left shoulder, still sparking continuously. To keep it from being hit again, Zechs had to keep dodging wildly.
Although the Tallgeese's cockpit had been modified by Tolle to better absorb the G-force impact from acceleration, Zechs's constant dodging and rapid speed changes still left him nauseous, his insides churning.
Just then, Tolle descended from orbit with Ange, Zola, and the others, reentering the atmosphere.
Coco and Miranda, piloting the Phantom Kai in flight form, appeared over the Romefeller Foundation's investigation team. They opened their comms and broadcast loudly:
"We are the Sword of Damocles — a private organization bringing light to darkness, peace and hope to the world!
You hounds of tyrannical rulers — face our judgment and divine punishment!"
As soon as she finished, Tolle piloted the Savior Vanguard Gundam, raising a high-energy beam rifle in each hand. The backpack-mounted weapons locked into firing position, and he unleashed a full salvo.
Two high-energy beam rifles, two plasma convergence cannons, and two beam cannons — six weapons fired simultaneously at the Aries formations of the investigation team.
The six beams swept across the sky for over a minute like giant beam sabers, obliterating twenty or thirty Aries suits in an instant.
However, Tolle soon realized the sustained attack was too inefficient — the energy consumption was enormous, and the gun barrels were glowing red-hot. If not for the Vanguard Savior's upgraded DG cells and advanced deuterium core reactor, it would have run out of power already.
When the attack ended, Zola and Ange charged into the enemy transport fleet, using their laser cannons to tear through the battle transports.
The thirty-plus combat transports were nowhere near enough for them to share. If not for the fear that showing off their under-eight-meter MS units might cause a global uproar, the Aries suits would've been next on their list, too.
Tolle himself piloted the Vanguard Savior into the fray, wielding a beam saber in each hand as he cut through the investigation team's Aries suits left and right.
Partway through, Tolle suddenly realized that his "Full Salvo" attack style might have gone off-track — he was turning a ranged skill into melee combat.
He had to fix that bad habit. He needed to learn from Kira and the Freedom Gundam — use the "Trinity Cannon" and "Five-Barrel Burst" style properly.
While the barrels cooled, Tolle had Nami modify the Vanguard Savior to include a radar-based multi-lock system like Freedom's.
Not long after, the system was complete. Tolle quickly pulled back from the enemy group and re-aimed his weapons.
From a distance, he began a rapid, intermittent "Tri-Color Six Cannon" assault — beams of three different colors streaked continuously toward the enemy formation.
Within just over a minute, he shot down thirty to forty Aries units, and this time the cannons didn't even need cooling.
Watching the Aries explode into bright fireworks in the sky, Tolle felt deeply satisfied — this attack pattern worked far better. He decided he'd stick with this method from now on.
Within minutes, the investigation team's combat transports and Aries units were completely wiped out by Tolle's team of six.
Tolle looked at the Tallgeese still fighting in the sky, said nothing, and led Ange and the others straight out of the atmosphere, flying toward the space colonies.
After all, he'd sneaked out behind Lady Une's back — if he stayed missing for too long, he wouldn't be able to explain it. If he said he'd gone to rescue Zechs, she'd definitely get jealous and sulky again. Even the saintly Lady Une was no exception.
Meanwhile, battles continued fiercely at the space colonies.
The remaining Earth Unified Army units inside the colonies were under heavy attack by the OZ forces.
Against the superior mobility of OZ's newest Taurus suits, the space-type Leos had no power to fight back.
Tolle had piloted a Taurus several times himself — the performance was indeed impressive. Other than having slightly less firepower and armor than the Wing Gundam, it had no real flaws.
Its transformation mechanism was far more streamlined, switching modes much faster, and in actual combat, it was far more agile than the Wing Gundam.
Its weapons had also been upgraded to beam rifles and beam cannons, a huge improvement over the old solid ammo. No wonder the five original Gundams had trouble dealing with them.
Most importantly, its automatic "Mobile Doll" (MD) control system was excellent — Tolle immediately had Nami copy it as soon as he got the chance.