While the Argama and Radish were under heavy pressure at the frontlines, the Gwadan and Aries leisurely drifted into position behind the Titans' defensive fleet like taking a casual stroll after dinner.
This wasn't because Haman wanted to further deplete the Argama and Radish's combat strength—it was simply that haste wasn't an option now. Though the Titans had let their guard down, there was still one battleship keeping an eye on them. If they turned their guns now, they would immediately be noticed.
In truth, Haman overestimated the Titans. Their attitude toward Neo Zeon at this moment was akin to adopting a scrawny stray dog—some vigilance, but not much.
Bask Om, the commander of the Dogosse Gier at the frontlines, merely ordered the ships near the Gwadan to monitor it before dismissing the matter.
In Bask Om's eyes, Neo Zeon could only wag its tail and beg for scraps from the Titans to survive. Even if he didn't trust Haman, viewing her as a treacherous vixen who would betray them at any moment, he still believed she wouldn't dare bare her fangs unless the Titans were at a disadvantage.
Besides, what could a glorified showpiece battleship—with a third of its interior converted into a palace—and a retrofitted escort ship (the Aries), likely modified from a Salamis-class, possibly do?
However, Bask Om would soon pay the price for his arrogant underestimation.
Though moving slowly, the Gwadan and Aries gradually slipped behind Gryps II, using the Colony Laser itself to block the line of sight from the main fleet—including the ship assigned to monitor them.
As the saying goes, "A fish rots from the head down." Bask Om's arrogance naturally infected his subordinates. The Alexandria-class ship tasked with watching the Gwadan promptly reported that it had disappeared behind the Colony Laser.
But the captain of the Alexandria-class merely waved off the report, signaling that he understood, and continued observing the frontline battle. He likely assumed the Gwadan had retreated to avoid stray fire.
By now, the Gwadan had reached its designated position, hovering near the rear components of the Gryps II Colony Laser.
Meanwhile, under Une's orders, the Aries had moved ahead of the Gwadan, positioning itself to block any pursuit from the Titans' reserve forces.
As the Gwadan trained its guns on the target and notified the Aries that it would open fire in three seconds, Reid issued a command over the internal comms:
"MS team, launch! After sortie, all Mobile Suits must hug the Colony Laser's outer hull and coast on inertia. Wait for the Titans' forces to approach, then ambush them."
With that, Reid immediately sortied in the Mystic Lightning, followed by the remaining six Mobile Suits.
The Aries' MS launch and the Gwadan's barrage occurred almost simultaneously.
The Gryps II Colony Laser's nuclear pulse engines were obliterated in a single volley from the Gwadan, the massive explosion conveniently masking the Aries' Mobile Suit deployment.
Even the Titans couldn't miss such a disturbance—unless they were complete fools. But the Argama and Radish's feint had been successful.
Eager to destroy the Argama and the Zeta Gundam, symbols of the AEUG's resistance, Bask Om had thrown nearly all his forces at them in a single wave, desperate to drown them in sheer numbers.
So, when Haman stabbed him in the back, Bask Om found himself with almost no forces left to retaliate immediately. Moreover, the thought of bearing responsibility for the Titans' failed plan made him break into a furious, sweat-drenched roar on the bridge of the Dogosse Gier:
"Send out all remaining reserves! Bring down the Gwadan! Recall all frontline units—turn every ship in the rear around! Don't let Haman escape! I'll skin that vixen alive!!"
Bask Om's orders at this moment were nothing short of a disastrous blunder. The frontline forces were locked in combat—ordering a retreat now meant exposing their backs to the enemy, which could easily turn into a full rout.
Thus, the Dogosse Gier's actual captain, Bask's subordinate, immediately stepped forward to intervene:
"Colonel Bask, calm down! Defending Gryps II is our top priority. If we pull back the Mobile Suits now, the frontline will be left wide open!"
However, the captain's well-meaning advice only earned him a violent punch from the enraged Bask, who sent him flying with a single blow and snarled:
"Damn you! Don't give me orders! I am the fleet commander!"
With even the captain beaten, the crew of the Dogosse Gier had no choice but to obey, transmitting the retreat order to the frontline.
One could only say that Bask Om should be grateful the Argama and the Radish had no love for Haman either. Seeing the Titans retreat, Bright Noa immediately issued orders for his own forces to hold back and not pursue.
Because now, the roles had reversed—it was the AEUG's turn to sit back and watch as the Titans and Neo Zeon tore into each other.
Meanwhile, behind Gryps II's satellite cannon, the Gwadan had already turned and fled the moment after firing, with the Aries covering its retreat.
In terms of speed, the Aries was far superior to the sluggish Gwadan. One shouldn't assume it was just another Salamis-class based on appearance—the East Asian Republic had spared no expense in its construction. In the Cosmic Era, the Aries would easily qualify as a high-speed battleship, much like the Nazca-class.
Besides, Reid and his team only needed to intercept the first wave of pursuing Titans forces. Once that wave was delayed, by the time the rest of the ships finished their 180-degree turns, the Gwadan would already be out of range.
Unless the defending forces here truly abandoned Gryps II, the bulk of the fleet wouldn't be able to give chase.
It had to be said—the Titans at this time were truly rolling in resources. Even after deploying nearly a hundred Mobile Suits to encircle the Argama and Radish at the frontline, their first wave of reserves still consisted of sixteen MS sent to attack the Gwadan.
But Reid's team, already lying in wait along the Colony Satellite's outer walls, had set the perfect ambush. The moment these Mobile Suits rushed forward, they exposed their backs to Reid and the others.
Taking one look, Reid chuckled over the comms:
"Six Marasais, six High Zacks, and four Bawoos? A bit light for an appetizer. Listen up, everyone—the bare minimum to qualify as an ace in this universe is taking down five enemy MS in a single battle. Let's see who bags the first ace title."
Before Reid even finished speaking, Ange eagerly cut in:
"Who else could it be? It's definitely gonna be me!"
With that, she immediately charged at the enemy in her Mobile Armor.
But someone moved faster than her. Considering the number of enemies they might face, Ange had opted for a Beam Machine Gun instead of her usual Beam Sniper Rifle this time, as it required closing in to engage.
However, Reid's team had no shortage of long-range combat Mobile Suits.
No sooner had Ange spoken than Noin instantly sniped down a High Zack with her Beam Sniper Rifle.
The Black Tri-Stars and Xia Yulan, piloting their respective Mobile Suits, swept the battlefield with Heavy Particle Beam Cannons. Six Marasais, burdened by lower output and sluggish mobility, didn't even have time to turn before being obliterated by eight Heavy Ion Beam blasts.
Of the remaining units, four Bawoos managed to evade the beam barrage thanks to their superior mobility, but only two of the five High Zacks were lucky enough to escape the onslaught.
By the time Ange closed in on the enemy formation, only six opponents remained—and their ranks had completely scattered in their desperate attempts to dodge the beams, leaving them disoriented and unprepared.
Seeing her prey dwindling, Ange swiftly transformed into MS mode, impaling one Bawoo's cockpit with her Beam Crutch while shredding another nearby Bawoo with her Beam Machine Gun.
But just as she sought to expand her kill count, the second volley from the long-range squad arrived.
Noin calmly took another shot, sniping down another High Zack. The remaining two Bawoos and one High Zack didn't stand a chance against the Black Tri-Stars and Xia Yulan, instantly vaporized under the overwhelming Heavy Particle Beam fire.
Less than ten seconds had passed since Reid gave the order to attack—and the Mystic Lightning, primarily a close-combat unit with weaker assault capabilities compared to the Immortal Aegis, had yet to score a single kill.
This outcome wasn't surprising. Every Mobile Suit in Reid's squad, even without special armaments, could hold its own against a Zeta Gundam in terms of performance—and that was without factoring in the absurdly lightweight yet ultra-durable Gundarium Alloy from the AC universe.
To suppress Reid's team, the Titans would need prior intel and at least five to six times the number of Mobile Suits, all piloted by seasoned veterans.
This time, caught off guard and judging by their reactions, these MS pilots were far from the hardened survivors of the One Year War—likely just a few years into service, hence their assignment to the reserve force.
Still, returning from battle with zero kills was too embarrassing—Reid had his pride to consider.
So he activated the Mirage Colloid System, bypassing the competition for Mobile Suit kills, and instead set his sights on the nearest warships.
At that moment, several Salamis Kai-class ships in the rear were turning around, while the Alexandria-class vessel, having just deployed all its Mobile Suits, was advancing toward the Gwadan.
Then, the bridge crew of the Alexandria-class witnessed something straight out of a nightmare—a High-Heat Blade materialized out of thin air and cleaved straight through the bridge, killing them before they could even react.
Following the Gundam universe's tradition of "burying bombs" beneath the bridge, the entire Alexandria-class ship erupted in a catastrophic explosion.
The nearby Salamis Kai-class ships stared in stunned disbelief as their ally's vessel inexplicably blew up.
Their radar operators scanned the area repeatedly—but found no trace of any enemy presence.
Thus, the captains of these ships came to a bewildering conclusion—that some rookie aboard the Alexandria-class must have accidentally triggered a missile explosion inside the vessel. Otherwise, there was simply no explanation for why it had suddenly blown up.
But soon, they would be refuting their own conclusion in hell.
Reid was purely taking advantage of the UC world's ignorance of Mirage Colloid. These ships hadn't even entered combat airspace, so naturally, they hadn't activated their automated machine gun barrages to fire defensively at thin air.
Soon, they encountered inexplicable beam attacks piercing their bridges; inexplicably, their bridges were blown open; inexplicably, their comrades were dead.
Without Newtype perception, the Mirage Colloid System was like encountering actual ghosts for the UC world. The five ships closest to the Gwadan were annihilated in less than two minutes, their crews left to debate in hell how they had died.
However, Reid only took out five ships because the others were too far away, and dragging it out would risk the frontline Mobile Suits returning.
In any case, with five ships sunk, many of the MS pursuing the Gwadan were destroyed before they could even launch, still trapped inside their vessels. Ange and the others had already wiped out the second wave of pursuers, and the third wave had been strangled in its cradle by Reid.
So Reid promptly announced over the internal comms:
"Mission accomplished. Everyone, return to the ship. Aries, you're clear to turn around now."
With Reid's order given, though still itching for more, Ange and the others had no choice but to return. The Aries also swiftly turned to rejoin the Gwadan.
At this moment, Reid had no idea that what he considered a minor feat—sinking five ships and destroying over twenty MS—was anything but trivial. Sure, the performance gap between the two sides was significant, and the intel was one-sided.
But from the Gwadan's perspective, the first wave of sixteen MS had been practically wiped out in a single encounter by Reid's squad.
Even the Gwadan, positioned so close, couldn't figure out how those MS had been destroyed—only that Reid's MS firepower was terrifyingly overwhelming.
The second wave of sixteen MS attacks was at least somewhat comprehensible. Since their positions had been exposed, this wave managed to hold out for a whole minute.
But this battle could only be described as a massacre. The Black Tri-Stars and the Immortal Aegis instantly shot down eight MS upon first contact, scattering the enemy formation. The rest of the time, Ange and the others spent hunting down the remaining eight MS, with the Titans' Mobile Suits unable to even fight back.
As for how the five Motherships farther away had exploded, the Gwadan was even more clueless. It had to be Reid's doing—unless, of course, those five ships had self-destructed out of sheer shame for failing to monitor the Colony Laser properly.
Thus, the Gwadan's captain was the first to snap out of the collective shock (with the entire bridge crew looking like they could fit three eggs in their mouths) and sighed:
"So this is the true combat prowess of Zeon's elites during the One Year War? How on earth did we lose back then?"
Hearing her trusted subordinate's lament, Haman grew even more determined to recruit Reid. This wasn't just about her personal fondness anymore—Haman now believed that for the sake of her ambitions, Reid's squad had to be secured. Otherwise, the Zabi revivalists might rally behind Reid in an instant, proclaiming him the new leader of Neo Zeon.
Of course, the good impression Reid left on Haman still had an effect, as Haman wasn't considering eliminating Reid to remove future threats at all. Instead, she was thinking about how to keep Reid by her side day and night to serve her.
Naturally, even allies aboard the Gwadan were shocked by this turn of events. As for their enemy Bask Om, he felt that if he hadn't already gone completely bald, his current rage would have set his hair on fire.
From Bask Om's perspective, within five minutes of issuing his orders, four of the five ships at the rear had transmitted reports of sudden explosions before being completely wiped out.
It was as if Haman possessed supernatural abilities—his forces were being annihilated one after another without even knowing what had attacked them.
As for the Mobile Suit units, thermal signatures suggested they'd been completely destroyed by the Mobile Suits dispatched by Neo Zeon.
With the Colony Satellite blocking the view, Bask Om couldn't determine what kind of enemy his Mobile Suits had faced before recovering the wreckage. He could only assume they'd been wiped out by inferior units like the Gaza-C.
Realizing pursuit of the Gwadan was now impossible, Bask Om could only vent his fury on the bridge, cursing the crews of the five destroyed warships as worthless incompetents before violently punching the communications officer responsible for relaying the information in a fit of rage.