Chapter 265: The Dort Defense Battle 1
With the entire colony blockaded, Tolle and Mikazuki had no choice but to put on spacesuits and use small thrusters to return to the Isaribi first.
Then they each boarded their mobile suits and headed to Dort Colony 3 to bring everyone back.
Tolle took the Bael Demon to draw the attention of the Gjallarhorn MS units.
Mikazuki piloted the Barbatos Lupus, escorting Kudelia and the others' shuttle back to the Isaribi.
Tolle charged into battle in the Bael Demon, a large railgun on his right shoulder and an assault rifle in his left hand.
From afar, he fired the railgun at the Gjallarhorn Space Graze units that were attacking the Spinna Rodis.
A single railgun round streaked across space, cutting two Space Grazes in half along its path.
Tolle marveled—this railgun was no worse than steel spikes at all; it even took out two in one shot.
He raised the railgun again and fired several more shots at clusters of enemy MS units, each blast taking out two or three.
But this quickly drew the attention of the Gjallarhorn battleships. They ordered their Space Grazes to pull back and began concentrating fire on the Bael Demon.
A dense barrage of assault-rifle rounds rained toward the Bael Demon.
Excited, Tolle struck a dramatic pose in the cockpit: "Tolle Koenig—Bael Demon—eliminate the target!"
He dashed ahead of the worker-piloted Spinna Rodis, directly facing the incoming bullet storm.
The Bael Demon stood its ground and began rapidly firing its chest-mounted scatter beam cannon to intercept the incoming fire.
While the beam had no effect on MS equipped with Ahab nano armor, it had no trouble neutralizing bullets and missiles.
One beam after another intercepted the incoming rounds, stopping them a hundred meters out with almost nothing slipping through.
After clearing the barrage, Tolle opened a channel to the workers: "All MS of the Dort Colony—return immediately or find somewhere safe to hide.
You've been used. The weapons on those Spinna Rodis are defective and can't attack. Staying here is suicide.
I repeat, all MS on the Dort Colony—"
Most of the workers obeyed and withdrew. But some raised their battle axes and chose to remain on the battlefield.
They declared they weren't afraid to die and wanted to fight alongside Tolle.
Tolle felt helpless. If they insisted on throwing their lives away, he couldn't stop them.
Mikazuki, meanwhile, encountered a group of Space Grazes blocking his path.
Piloting the Barbatos Lupus, he fired the smoothbore cannon in his right hand, taking out a distant target with each shot, then hurled his sword-mace like a javelin at approaching MS.
He sprinted toward the Grazes struck by the thrown weapon, retrieved his sword-mace, and smashed another Space Graze cleanly in half.
After finishing that one, Mikazuki leapt out of the next volley of attacks, then crushed another Space Graze's head in a single strike.
But bad news arrived—before Tolle could steal it, the Kimaris Trooper had already launched under Gaelio's control.
In high-speed flight, the Kimaris Trooper flew like a high-velocity missile straight toward the Barbatos Lupus.
If only Tolle knew where Gaelio's family stored its units—he would have stolen the Kimaris Trooper along with the Bael the last time. Too late now.
And as expected of a fully preserved, complete-form Gundam frame, its mobility in space far surpassed the Barbatos Lupus.
The Kimaris Trooper thrust its Gungnir lance forward and accelerated straight at Barbatos.
Mikazuki had no choice but to block with his sword-mace. His entire machine was pushed backward.
Even with Barbatos Lupus firing all of its thrusters, it was still being driven back.
Seeing Mikazuki on the losing end, Tolle had no choice but to abandon the main battle and rush toward Barbatos.
He stored the railgun on his back and switched to his thermal army blade.
As he closed in, the Bael Demon brought the blade down on the Kimaris Trooper's Gungnir, entering a direct power struggle.
Tolle opened a channel to Mikazuki while straining against the weapon lock: "Mika! Go cover Kudelia and the others—get them back to the Isaribi. I'll hold him here."
"Got it. Thanks." Mikazuki understood instantly and charged toward the shuttle, destroying several Space Grazes along the way.
The Bael Demon and Kimaris Trooper suddenly disengaged, separating in an instant.
They weaved around each other in rapid bursts, trading blow after blow.
Although the Bael Demon had been modified with TP armor, the response time of the reactive layer wasn't ideal—half a beat too slow.
Small dents formed wherever the Gungnir's tip struck the armor.
While dodging, Tolle complained to Nami: "Nami, the imitation TP armor still needs work—worse than the original. Next time, add a composite layer over the cockpit, computer, monitors, and power systems.
Keep a low-power PS armor layer active as a reactive outer layer.
Only switch to full-power PS armor after a hit is detected.
And if we use this on non–Gundam-frame units later, power that low-power PS layer with an independent module, separate from the main combat power source."
"Understood, Master. Nami will adjust the Bael Demon's TP armor. Please hold on—don't let the enemy hit you."