Victory Is in Sight

Both of them closed their eyes at the same time inside their cockpits, naturally avoiding the effects of the flash grenade.

However, the tactic that had once taken down Ramba Ral didn't prove very effective.

The two enemy Mobile Suits were still charging in a line. The first Dom was indeed affected, but the one behind it immediately moved up to take its place and parried Eli's slash!

"Well, well. The Federation's White Devil and that Jungle Devil—you've joined forces, have you?"

The other pilot's voice came through during that brief exchange.

It was Gaia, captain of the Black Tri-Stars.

"Zeon's intelligence network is a little behind the times."

Eli had nothing to say to a die-hard Zeon loyalist like him. He deliberately broke off the clash and lowered the Ground Type's body.

A beam shot in from behind him!

It was Amuro's shot.

The two had indeed built up some rapport while fighting side by side, but they shouldn't have developed the kind of coordination that could match—or even surpass—the Black Tri-Stars.

And yet Gaia could feel just how troublesome their relentless attacks were.

The Black Tri-Stars were supposed to be the ones giving others that impression!

"Ortega, are you back to normal?"

In his cockpit, Ortega shook his head and rubbed his eyes, red from taking the full brunt of the flash grenade.

"Yeah. I'm coming to help!"

"No. We're retreating. I don't think we're a match for them."

Gaia's expression was grim as he drove Eli back with his Heat Saber, then continued speaking to Ortega.

"I've called in artillery support from the rear. We're pulling out now!"

After giving Ortega his orders, Gaia heard shells tearing through the air overhead and immediately made the Dom leap backward.

Amuro had wanted to pursue, but Eli stopped him.

A curtain of artillery fire stretched across their path, making it too dangerous to move rashly.

But Eli wasn't about to give up. He raised his Beam Rifle.

"Together, Amuro. Like that time at sea."

Without another word, the Ground Type and the Gundam raised their Beam Rifles.

Without exchanging a word, they both aimed at the same Dom.

"Voom!"

The Ground Type fired first. Its cherry-pink beam pierced the dense barrage of falling shells and shot straight toward the Dom.

But the shot missed.

The Dom dodged at once, as if it had eyes in the back of its head.

"Ha! So much for the Devil being any—"

Still smarting from being blinded by the flash grenade, Ortega couldn't help taunting them.

"Bang!"

A cherry-pink beam shot after the first one almost immediately and pierced straight through him.

Amuro had fired it!

Eli forced the enemy to dodge, and Amuro attacked along the route it took.

A simple tactic, executed to perfection.

"Ortega too? Damn it!"

Lucky enough not to have been targeted, Gaia could only watch in fury as yet another of his teammates was taken out.

By now, he had reached the far side of the slope. He had just turned his Mobile Suit around to assess the situation when two beams came flying at him.

If he hadn't pulled back in time, his head would have been pierced, giving the enemy another kill.

Gaia gritted his teeth, but in the end he powered up the turbines in the Dom's legs and turned toward the mine.

M'Quve had already decided to abandon the area.

With the Black Tri-Stars routed, the position set up specifically to intercept the White Base had ceased to pose a threat. Eli's artillery strikes had finished it off.

After recovering the two Gundams, the White Base accelerated to full speed and charged toward the Federation Forces' left flank!

The Zeon Forces spotted them and naturally tried to suppress them with fire from their Dabude-class battleships.

They knew they absolutely couldn't let the White Base break through the entire battlefield!

But that also meant every Dabude-class battleship was marked by the Federation, which retaliated with its Big Tray-class vessels.

For a time, the battle between the two sides became a duel between their land battleships.

But what truly gave the Big Tray-class the edge over the Dabude-class wasn't the ships themselves.

It wasn't even the Mobile Suits.

It was the two types of atmospheric fighter that people had nearly overlooked: the Tingxue and the FF-3 Swordfish.

The Dopp was indeed easy to produce, but it was no match for the air force the Federation had spent years developing.

The Dopps were chased down and shot up by Tingxue fighters almost nonstop, while the Swordfish served as heavy bombers, inflicting damage on the Dabude-class battleships that was difficult to control. The Big Tray-class ships finished them off.

This made the importance of air superiority in ground warfare plain to see, but Zeon clearly hadn't anticipated it.

After all, where could they find a vast open sky to fly in on a colony satellite?

With the Dabude-class battleships no longer holding the line, even the GMs—with their worrying failure rates due to rushed production—had enough confidence to push the front forward.

As a result, before the White Base had even fully broken through the battlefield, the Federation Forces' line was advancing toward them instead.

"What a sight..."

The Ground Type Gundam and the Gundam stood on either side of the ship, watching the Federation Forces charge toward them.

After a day and a half of fighting, with a brief stop along the way to resupply, the White Base had finally encountered friendly forces again.

There were GMs, Type 61 Tanks, and all kinds of armored vehicles carrying infantry.

Fighters streaked overhead, leaving contrails that lingered in the sky.

Every unit that passed the White Base saluted them.

The ship was still belching black smoke from all over. It was obvious that they had avoided the devastating barrage they'd expected only because this warship in front of them had fought so hard.

Eli even saw a GM Ground Type towing another GM whose leg joint looked damaged. As it passed near the White Base, the pilot made a point of raising a hand in salute.

Amused, Eli returned the salute with the Ground Type. His gaze fell on the White Base's port side.

The port side was damaged again...

Looking at the smoking hole, Eli decided that if he ever had a ship of his own, he would make a point of strengthening its port-side defenses.

For now, though, he had to prepare for the final battle.

Anyone could see that the battle had swung in the Federation's favor. This was a Federation victory!

But that narrow-minded M'Quve refused even to admit defeat.

He was even prepared to openly violate the Antarctic Treaty.

Sure enough, an urgent communication from General Revil reached Bright.

He was torn. He didn't want the White Base to become a decoy like it had in the original story, but he also wanted the protagonist and Amuro to meet Lalah in person. What a dilemma.