"Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!"
"Bang!"
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
For some unknown reason, the battle erupted without warning. Eli, who was on watch and had been expecting trouble, immediately woke everyone else, getting the whole squad into combat readiness at once.
"Have the Zeon Forces gone mad? Attacking at a time like this!"
Shiro Amada had just jolted awake. He leaped into his Mobile Suit, grumbling angrily.
They had launched a large-scale surprise attack at this hour. It was unprecedented.
Thanks to the rainforest terrain, it was difficult to organize large groups of Mobile Suits for an attack in this area.
But the Zeon Forces now seemed to have completely disregarded tactics and casualties, throwing themselves at the defensive line in a headlong assault.
The Minovsky Particle concentration, which had dropped considerably because nighttime conditions made combat difficult, was rising again. They were now completely unable to contact the rear.
"How could this happen..."
Karen immediately looked toward Eli.
This was exactly like what had happened back then, and Karen worried that it would affect Eli.
Even Sanders temporarily forgot about the so-called "curse" on him, worrying about the same thing.
"Eledore, scan the area at once. The enemy is close, but they don't seem to have spotted us yet. This is our chance. See if you can pick up the Zeon Forces' communications."
Eli watched a flash streak past a kilometer ahead. It was a bullet tearing through the darkness.
At the same time, he heard their own forces returning fire.
In an instant, the once-quiet jungle erupted in battle.
"Karen, drive him off!"
"Understood!"
Karen started up her Mobile Suit at once and advanced toward the eleven o'clock direction, her 100mm Machine Gun firing continuously.
The Zaku on the other side immediately backed off when it saw her, with no intention of getting into a prolonged fight.
"Don't pursue! Eledore, are you picking up anything?"
After ordering Karen to hold her position, Eli asked Eledore over the comms. He was already listening in.
"Yeah. There's a strange whistling sound... I've got their channel. Sending it through now!"
The comms fell silent, leaving only the audio shared from the Type 74 Hover Truck.
"East... twenty-five kilometers... defenses complete... protect the Apsalus!"
Eli and the others heard the Zeon Forces' orders loud and clear. If the Zeon Forces found out, not a single frontline commander would escape punishment.
"Looks like something's coming."
Shiro Amada made his assessment, signaling for Sanders's Mobile Suit to crouch down with him.
"Apsalus. Never heard of it. Maybe it's something from that secret factory?"
Shiro Amada said this to Eli, both to confirm his theory and to ask what they should do next.
"I'm not sure, but to be safe, how about we ambush them here?"
"Sounds good."
The two men with command authority agreed. The four Mobile Suits immediately split up, each finding a spot to crouch and hide among the trees.
"Uh, BB..."
Michel's voice came over the comms as he called for his girlfriend.
He was slowly climbing toward the Hover Truck's mounted machine gun, intending to serve as its gunner.
"Wait, Michel. We don't need that machine gun. Stay in the driver's seat and be careful. If anything seems wrong, pull back with Eledore immediately."
Eli hurriedly stopped Michel.
He clearly remembered how Michel, inexperienced in combat, had failed to restrain himself and fired too soon, giving away their position.
This time, Eli was determined to get the Apsalus. He wouldn't let that happen again.
"About forty seconds until it approaches from the east... Those pressure vibrations—it's not the size of a Mobile Suit. I hear multiple aircraft, too... There's a lot of noise."
Eli frowned.
According to the original story, only the Apsalus and two Dopp Fighters were supposed to be flying in.
Eli cleared his mind, casting aside what he thought he knew about the story.
This was reality. If he made the mistake of relying on past assumptions, he could end up in an irreversible disaster.
So he didn't treat the approaching aircraft as if they were Dopp Fighters. Instead, he watched the sky with caution.
Only then did Eli notice that the entire mountain range had gone quiet.
It seemed the Zeon Forces had drawn their allies away from this area, and the fighting had shifted elsewhere. That was why it had grown so silent.
But the silence didn't last long.
The distinctive roar of jet engines soon approached from the east.
The strange aircraft came into view.
It was a Zeon Dopp Fighter.
If the Federation had designed an aircraft with a shape like that, its designers would probably have been taken out and shot. Only the Zeon Forces, who had spent their time in the space colonies and had never experienced Earth firsthand, could accept a fighter like this.
"Let them pass."
Shiro Amada and Eli both reminded the others at once.
Sheltered by the trees and the night, the Dopp Fighters really hadn't spotted them.
Even when the wake from one Dopp Fighter scattered a few leaves above Eli's head, he still went unnoticed.
"The big one's coming!"
Eledore's voice rang out over the comms.
"With a size like that... It's the Grim Reaper, no mistake..."
Eledore followed with a dazed murmur.
"What?"
Karen was still confused, but soon the "Apsalus" came into view!
It was no exaggeration to say it looked like a mountain moving!
A man-made mountain of steel!
It was moving fast, too. Even flying low, it closed the distance in the blink of an eye.
"Shiro, Sanders, get ready! Karen, take care of the fighters."
Eli stared at the screen, which had captured the Apsalus with precision.
He raised the Beam Rifle he had prepared in advance and aimed it at the Apsalus's underside.
More precisely, at the enormous disc beneath it.
That was the Apsalus's Minovsky Particle flight system. If they could destroy it, the massive craft would come crashing down.
"Now! Fire!"
The instant the Apsalus passed overhead, Eli gave the order.
At the same moment, he pulled the trigger on his control stick.
On the Mobile Suit, the Gundam Ground Type's Beam Rifle unleashed a long, thin beam of pink light!
The beam shot straight toward the Apsalus, startling the pilot inside into pulling up without thinking.
That instinctive maneuver saved her life.
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