With Xiao Ran's arrival, the forces across the Far East began moving once more. Without any attempt at concealment, they deployed large numbers of troops to the front lines. The skies, seas, and land were all surrounded by MS units from Free, ZAFT, and Orb.
The three sides had cooperated for so long that, even though their mecha differed completely in scale and performance, they had developed a certain level of coordination through their lengthy partnership. The strongest, Free, was usually responsible for surprise assaults and key strikes; ZAFT, with the best foundation and deepest reserves, typically handled large-scale operations and fire suppression; Orb was responsible for harassment and strikes along the flanks.
Compared to those three factions, Ironclad Dragon was indeed not particularly large in scale, and its Mecha Performance could only be considered average. Its grunt-level units were roughly C-rank, while the Eight Trigrams Machines, in terms of performance alone, were at the level of B-rank Real Robots. However, there was one rather distinctive point: Ironclad Dragon's mecha all possessed, to varying degrees, certain Super Robot characteristics.
The Eight Trigrams Machines could harness the power of nature, often producing unexpected results at the right time and in the right environment. The grunt units were the same. Ordinary pilots found it difficult to deal with those heavily armored robots. It was entirely possible for two robots with identical appearances to use completely different powers—one might be wielding flame-like power, and just when a pilot had finally adapted, the next one might start using the power of ice. It was only an example, of course, but such situations had indeed occurred.
Furthermore, the Ironclad Dragon Empire had spent a full twenty years preparing. From the shadows, it controlled roughly seventy percent of the world's online information and had, more or