Heavy Losses

Since they had yet to undergo a complete change in mindset, seeing their teammates die had clearly made them even more prone to mistakes.

Price, who had been hiding behind the wreckage, was hit in one of his engines.

"Steady!!!"

Seeing the situation unfold, Hans hurriedly shouted.

"Hold on until Xu gets here!"

"Milai is already dead! We can't meet the same fate!"

As soon as Hans finished speaking, the Ginn forcibly burst through a relatively thin patch of wreckage.

The machine gun in its hand aimed at Hans, who had just passed by.

If Xu De had been there, he wouldn't have dragged things out for so long. He would either have immediately looked for a chance to retreat or fought to the death.

After all, he was a Coordinator. Luring the enemy into the wreckage at the start had caught them off guard.

But against Coordinators who had gradually gotten used to fighting among the wreckage, they had absolutely no advantage while piloting Mistrals.

"Die, inferior human!"

Once the laser communications link between them was clear, the other pilot's words came through without a hint of interference.

Despair flashed in Hans's eyes.

He instinctively closed them.

But at that critical moment, an orange-yellow Linear Cannon shell came hurtling down from above, accompanied by a rain of Vulcan Cannon fire, and struck the Ginn's main monitor.

"Hans, lower right! Get behind that piece of debris!"

The instant Xu De's voice rang out, Hans instinctively pushed the control stick.

Without the main monitor to help him aim, and with the inertia caused by the exploding head, the Ginn's machine gun fire was no longer accurate.

Its bullets were repeatedly stopped by the dense wreckage, giving Hans a chance to duck back into cover.

"An ace?!"

Realizing the other pilot was in a Moebius, the Coordinator lost his earlier arrogance, though his tone remained nasty and savage.

"Surrender."

In response, Xu De spoke without a trace of emotion.

"Your main monitor is destroyed. With only your auxiliary monitors, you can't keep up with my speed."

"Fuck you! You goddamn idiot! We'll never surrender, even if we die! Never! Idiot!!!"

Hearing the other pilot's voice turn frantic, Xu De sighed.

He had meant to provoke the other pilot if he refused to surrender, making him lose his composure.

Just as he had done moments ago.

For Coordinator soldiers whose homes had just been hit by a nuclear blast, this tactic was nothing new.

At the end of the day, they were just militiamen who had joined the fight in a burst of passion.

But Xu De felt nothing about this unjust battlefield.

This wasn't about defending their homeland, nor about overthrowing a class system or anything like that.

It was simply oppression, and both sides were oppressors.

To borrow the words of a great man, the war happening here was neither just nor fought to put an end to war.

It was like how some conscientious soldiers returning from Iraq ended up questioning their lives.

Of course, this was a battlefield where it was kill or be killed. No matter how troubled Xu De felt, he kept it buried deep inside and continued to move with deadly precision.

The Ginn on the other side had only its auxiliary monitors left, while they had one Moebius and four Mistrals.

Whether the Ginn's pilot surrendered or not, the small-scale battle was soon decided.

"Inferior human!!! Just you wait!!!"

"This blood feud won't end here!!!"

Seeing that the machine gun had been shot off and the armor outside the cockpit had been badly damaged, the Coordinator pilot shouted and drew the sword at his waist.

"Mm."

Xu De gave no response. With cover from the Mistral Hans piloted, he simply used his Linear Cannon to destroy the already battered cockpit.

Watching the slight spray of blood kicked up by the kinetic cannon, Xu De felt no particular emotion. He simply opened communications with the other four and asked,

"Are you all right?"

"We're fine, thanks to you."

Flint was the first to reply.

His voice was full of relief at having survived.

After Xu De's dramatic arrival just now, the three of them no longer saw him merely as a rival. Now, they genuinely admired him.

If it weren't for Xu De, they would probably have been dead already.

The terror of ZAFT's two earlier assaults was still fresh in their minds.

Xu De merely gave a quiet hum in response.

They had survived because they had listened to his advice and done their part.

Even if he considered them friends, he couldn't protect them every moment of every day.

This was a battlefield, not somewhere else.

Once he was out here, even he could be killed.

But after this trial, as long as none of them died, they might not become aces, but they could probably become squad leaders.

People who had fought their way through a battlefield together were far more reliable than those who only knew how to flatter him.

They might not be brothers who had faced death together, but they were at least friends.

Thinking this, Xu De asked,

"How's the Third Fleet doing?"

After Xu De's question, there was a brief silence over the comms. Hans gathered his thoughts before answering.

"The Minsk, flagship of the Fourth Detachment of the Third Fleet, which we're directly attached to, was destroyed in the first wave."

"And the Houston, from the Second Detachment, didn't make it through the second wave either."

"The other warships weren't completely wiped out, but most of them probably didn't fare much better."

Hans's voice was bitter. Xu De could faintly hear the others breathing more heavily.

"Two detachments are gone..."

Xu De frowned at that.

The Third Fleet had three detachments.

One was the command unit, and the other two were combat units.

Each detachment had one Agamemnon-class ship, about fifteen Drake-class ships, and one space supply ship.

As for the Nelson-class, it hadn't entered service yet.

The Minsk and the Houston were two of the three largest Agamemnon-class flagships under the Third Fleet.

With two detachments gone, that left only one Agamemnon-class ship in the command unit.

He wondered whether Revil was all right.

But regardless of whether Revil was all right, once this battle was over, the Third Fleet and the other two fleets would probably be crippled as well.

Judging by the outcome, it wouldn't be surprising if the Earth Alliance ended up pinned to Earth in the future.

These three main fleets were enormous. The First Fleet had five detachments, the Second Fleet had four, and the Third Fleet had three.

If they were all lost, the Earth Alliance wouldn't stand a chance in space battles for a while.

After all, these three fleets were the largest United Army force in space.

The Eighth Fleet wasn't even at full strength. It had only a command unit, with not even a single squadron.

Otherwise, in the story, facing a fully staffed main fleet with five detachments and two warships, Le Creuset probably wouldn't have dared to charge in.