Chapter 363: Toward the Dawn Universe 1
Tolle's side was much easier. The Flight Armor Strike was moving at high speed through the sky, repeatedly slashing at the Forbidden Gundam's back with the Heavy Guillotine.
No matter how Shani dodged and adjusted his direction, Tolle kept stabbing him in the back nonstop. If it weren't for the TP armor, the Forbidden Gundam would have already been completely wrecked.
While he was running himself ragged just trying to defend, one moment of carelessness let the beam cannon's sweeping fire blow off the entire left leg of the Forbidden Gundam.
The rest of the battlefield, however, was not so lucky. The M1 units were taking severe losses. In less than a minute, more than a dozen of them were shot down by the Earth Alliance MS forces.
Counting those destroyed before overclocking, more than thirty had already been lost.
The Earth Alliance wasn't faring well either—eighty or ninety Strike Daggers had been destroyed, and more than a dozen Duel Daggers as well.
But their numbers were still huge, with around one hundred seventy or eighty units left, maintaining a four-to-one advantage.
On the bridge, Azrael lazily watched the explosions flaring across Orb's territory. Glancing at the little overclock time remaining, he sighed, "I really hope we can finish this entire battle tonight."
In Orb's command center, Cagalli watched the monitors as M1 Astrays, defensive facilities, and surveillance feeds vanished one after another. Furious, she could no longer hold herself back and started to rush out.
Seeing something was wrong, Kisaka immediately grabbed her and asked, "Cagalli, what are you trying to do?"
Struggling angrily, Cagalli shouted, "I order you to let me go! I'm going to the battlefield too—I'm going to fight the Earth Alliance forces together with Orb's soldiers!"
Kisaka refused to indulge her. "What nonsense are you talking about?"
"I can't stand just sitting here watching this!" Cagalli cried stubbornly.
Kisaka grabbed her other shoulder, shook her, and scolded her sternly. "Cagalli! You are the supreme commander of this operation. How can you leave your post without authorization? You have to be sensible now—you can't keep acting like this!"
Tears filled Cagalli's eyes as she answered painfully, "But… I really…."
Seeing her on the verge of tears, Kisaka helplessly softened his tone and tried to console her. "You can't cry. You have to be strong right now—you are Orb's highest operational commander. If you fall apart like this, what about everyone else in this command center? What about all the people fighting for Orb out there?"
After hearing that, Cagalli wiped away her tears and silently returned to her seat.
Elsewhere, in Orb's council chamber, a councilor hurried in and said nervously to Uzumi, who was watching the bombardment, "Lord Uzumi, everything is ready. We just need two more hours."
"Mm. Don't delay too long. At this point it's no longer just a matter of time," Uzumi replied, still uneasy. After a moment, he added, "Forget it, I'll go as well. Order all remaining forces to assemble at Kaguya Island and abandon Oru Island."
A few minutes earlier, aboard a submerged ZAFT submarine carrier, the ZAFT captain said to Rau Le Creuset, "I didn't expect Orb to hold out this long. But with their resources, it's only a matter of time before they fall."
"Yes. They really are not a country to be underestimated," Le Creuset replied coldly. Looking at the combat footage on the monitor, he asked, "How is the collection of those rare MS combat data coming along?"
"We're gathering it with top priority."
"At this distance, we'll eventually clash with one side or the other. Still, at least we can bring Chairman Zala some pleasing news. Inform me immediately if anything changes."
Just as Le Creuset was about to leave, a soldier watching the monitor suddenly reported, "Sir, the Earth Alliance units on the battlefield are all moving much faster now, and faint blue light is appearing as their machines move."
Before the words had even finished, he continued, "Orb's units are also emitting blue light now. That blue-white-black machine in the sky is even leaving afterimages."
The captain stared at the display in shock. "What? Can you determine what that blue light and those afterimages are?"
"Based on the data, it's energy fluctuations caused by extremely high-speed movement along the machine surfaces. Their movement and reaction speeds have increased by about twenty percent. That blue-white-black unit has increased by roughly forty percent."
With a crooked smile, Le Creuset said, "So this is probably Orb's technology. When we attacked Panama, the Earth Alliance MS didn't move this fast.
"Their MS pilots seemed so skilled before, even on par with most of our regular soldiers—now it all makes sense.
"No wonder the Earth Alliance suddenly withdrew three days ago and only resumed their attack today. They obtained something extraordinary.
"Future battles will become more and more unfavorable for ZAFT."
Beside him, Yzak stared at the Earth Alliance MS on the screen, clenching his teeth in anger.
On the battlefield, after receiving the command center's retreat order, Murrue immediately asked Sai, "What? A retreat order?"
"Yes, Captain Ramius. It's a transmission from Representative Athha, ordering the Archangel to disengage and land at Kaguya Island."
"Kaguya Island?" Rommel said in surprise. "That's Orb's mass driver. They actually want us to go there?"
At the same time, the three-minute time limit quickly expired. Orga, who was still entangled with Kira and Athrun, complained to Clotho and Shani, "These guys are really hard to deal with."
Clotho agreed, "They really are."
Looking at his depleted energy and the overclock countdown about to end, Orga said unwillingly, "Damn it! This piece-of-junk MS is almost out of power!"
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