Chapter 358: The Battle Begins Again (2)
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In the command center, Cagalli said sternly to Kisaka, "The Atlantic Federation didn't even bother to respond to Orb's repeated requests for talks and just attacked us outright. That's infuriating!"
Kisaka said seriously beside her, "It looks like the Atlantic Federation is determined to wipe out Orb. With our current forces, it's hard to say how many more battles like this we can endure."
Cagalli said worriedly, "We really can't hold out for long. We originally had over a hundred M1 Astray Gundams, but now there are only a little over eighty left.
"And this time the Earth Alliance alone has around four times our mobile-suit numbers, not to mention warships and aircraft. After this battle, who knows how many we'll have left.
"If this kind of long-term attrition keeps going, I really don't know how much longer we can last."
Kisaka comforted her. "Don't worry. We'll always find a way to overcome these difficulties."
At the same time, in Orb's parliamentary chamber, after receiving the notice of the Earth Alliance's attack, Uzumi said helplessly, "So this is the Earth Alliance's answer? Once they decide someone is an enemy, is there really no room at all for discussion?"
The other council members asked, "Then what should we do? If this keeps going, Orb will be finished sooner or later."
Uzumi was silent for a while, then said dejectedly, "If we have no other choice, all we can do is leave behind our embers, so that they can let the spark grow into a wildfire in our place."
…
On the coastal battlefield of Orb, waves of Earth Alliance cruise missiles were being launched toward Orb one after another.
The tanks along the coastline kept firing their cannons into the sky, intercepting those howling cruise missiles.
Tolle piloted the Flight Armor Strike Gundam, continuously firing the shoulder cannons while slowly rotating the machine, sweeping sideways through the cruise-missile swarm.
The sky was filled with the fireballs of exploding cruise missiles, dyeing the entire dawn sky a vivid red.
On the other side, Kira, still in the hangar, hurriedly put on his pilot suit and ran toward the Freedom Gundam.
"Kira!" Athrun rushed up and called out to him, grabbing his shoulder with a worried look. "With this kind of overwhelming difference in forces, Orb has no chance of winning. You understand that, right?"
"Athrun." Kira first looked serious, then gazed at Athrun gently and said with a smile, "Even though everyone knows that, we still can't just give up fighting because there's no chance of victory.
"Since fighting is already unavoidable, if we just sit and wait for death, then we won't have even the slightest hope.
"The most important thing is knowing what we're fighting for, so I have to go fight too."
Stepping onto the elevator platform, Kira continued as he operated it, "Actually, I don't like fighting. But some things can't be protected without fighting.
"I'm really glad I had the chance to talk with you these past few days, Athrun. I hope we'll still have chances like this in the future, to sit together and talk."
After that, Kira sat down in the cockpit, started up the Freedom Gundam, and left the hangar.
Dearka looked at Athrun, who was standing there in a daze, and went up to him. "This situation really is a headache."
Athrun looked at Dearka, who had already changed into his pilot suit, and asked curiously, "Dearka? You're…?"
Dearka said lightly, "Athrun, you're under orders to recapture that Freedom Gundam, right? If ZAFT also jumps into this battle, it really wouldn't look very appropriate."
"But… I don't want Kira… them…" Athrun said with a troubled look as he listened. After a painful struggle inside, he continued unwillingly, "I don't want them to just die like this."
"That's rare. This is the first time we've actually agreed."
Hearing Dearka say that, Athrun's tense expression relaxed. "Agreed? Dearka, you're going to sortie to protect Orb too?"
Dearka patted Athrun on the shoulder encouragingly. "Yeah. So what are we waiting for? Let's go."
The two of them then ran to their respective machines and piloted them out of the hangar.
On the battlefield, the Huayan and the Archangel, which had already sortied, each led a group of warships at sea, guarding Orb's coastline.
All the weapons on both ships were firing at full power, constantly intercepting cruise missiles. Even the automated defense turrets were working nonstop, forming a dense web of fire.
However, the Earth Alliance's mobile-suit forces were also closing in step by step. The Forbidden, Raider, and Calamity Gundams rushed in first.
They continuously attacked the warships at sea, trying to break apart the maritime defense line.
The Forbidden Gundam swung its heavy scythe, splitting the bridges of one Orb warship after another in two.
The Raider Gundam carried the Calamity Gundam as it flew, firing its machine guns into the clusters of warships and constantly sinking them.
The Calamity Gundam casually fired its twin long-range high-energy beam cannons, striking Orb's mobile-suit forces along the coast.
This forced Orb's M1 Astray units to retreat, pulling back their defensive line.
Orga looked around grimly at the dodging mass-produced machines and said angrily, "How did these damn bugs get so agile too? They keep dodging around. And where did those two machines from yesterday go?"
Clotho replied with a grin, "They're probably too scared to come out. But what's that flying machine over there? I've never seen it before. Want to play with that one first?"
Orga said impatiently, "Fine. Let's take that one out first."
He then aimed the twin long-range high-energy beam cannons on the back of the Calamity Gundam at the Flight Armor Strike and fired two green beam attacks.
But when the beams struck the surface of the Flight-Pack, they twisted and deflected their own trajectories.
Seeing this, Shani immediately said angrily, "Damn it! It's that thief! It has to be the guy who stole my energy-deflection armor!"
The three of them immediately closed in on Tolle at the same time.
"Sigh. Kira, Athrun, hurry up and get out here. If you don't, I'm going to get ganged up on by the Three Aces," Tolle said helplessly as he watched the three of them charge toward him.
He then silently activated the PX System and the Focused Mind command, and with Nami's help, used the storage-space supplies to fully reload the Flight Armor Strike's micro tracking missiles.
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