After Reid bypassed the main AEUG forces and returned to the Neo Zeon camp, he noticed that the battlefront between Aries and the Titans had also ceased fire. The entire battlefield had fallen into an eerie silence.
In terms of results, Neo Zeon had successfully defended the Colony Laser in this wave of combat, securing a temporary victory. However, the forces Haman had nurtured on Axis over the years had been reduced by one-fifth—a significant loss, though not yet crippling.
This outcome was partly because Neo Zeon hadn't shown signs of a full collapse from the outset. The decision not to make desperate sacrifices to preserve their combat strength had instead led to heavier losses.
Moreover, in the original "Great Vortex Operation," only AEUG had initially attacked Neo Zeon. Now, Neo Zeon was being besieged by two factions simultaneously.
Thus, upon returning to Aries, Reid immediately established communication with Haman, who was recuperating aboard the Gwadan.
Haman was visibly exhausted—her battle against Kamille and Char had drained her considerably. Nevertheless, she had no choice but to answer Reid's call. Reid wasted no time and cut straight to the point:
"Haman, how much longer until the Colony Laser can fire?"
Haman, who had been closely monitoring the weapon's status, replied promptly, "It's currently inoperable. During the recent battle, the Zeta Gundam breached our defenses and destroyed half of the Microwave Receivers on the Colony Satellite. This has significantly slowed the charging process. At minimum, we'll need another thirty minutes to reach firing threshold."
Hearing this, Reid quickly made his decision. "In that case, Haman, we should withdraw. Even if the Colony Satellite reaches minimum firing capacity, it can only eliminate either AEUG or the Titans' forces—not both. And at minimum power, it won't threaten the Titans' reinforcements."
He continued, "If we stay and face even one faction's assault while waiting for a second shot, the Neo Zeon forces you brought from Axis will suffer devastating losses. A pyrrhic victory would be meaningless—AEUG could still fight even if their forces here are wiped out, and the Titans have endless reinforcements coming. Neo Zeon would be spent."
Haman was well aware of Reid's reasoning, but she was reluctant to retreat while the situation remained favorable. "I can't accept withdrawing like this," she said bitterly.
Reid looked at her incredulously. "Who said anything about withdrawing from the fight? I'm suggesting we temporarily cede control of the Colony Laser—let AEUG and the Titans bleed each other dry before we move in for the kill."
He elaborated, "However, we can't simply hand the weapon to the Titans. When we retreat, we'll do so through the Titans' lines, allowing AEUG to seize the Colony Laser first. Then we'll reposition to its flank and rear. Unless AEUG's commanders are fools, their first shot will target the Titans."
"The Titans will have no choice but to stop AEUG from firing on them. Meanwhile, we'll watch the tigers fight from the mountain—and use the time to repair and regroup. After the first Colony Laser shot is fired, even if AEUG has forces left, they'll be severely weakened. That's when we strike."
"Take out the AEUG forces, then fire the Colony Laser to eliminate the Titans' reinforcements. By then, even if Neo Zeon isn't severely weakened, we won't have to worry about the small AEUG garrison left in Granada on the lunar surface."
After Reid's analysis, Haman quickly grasped the logic—after all, he was essentially outlining her original plan from the source material.
Thus, Haman relaxed and smiled, saying,
"Understood, Reid. We'll proceed as you suggest. Oh, and have Dr. Tem Ray come to me. My Qubeley sustained damage and needs repairs under his supervision."
Reid immediately saw through her ploy—Haman was rewarding him with access to the Psycommu System. The Qubeley was Neo Zeon's fully independent Mobile Suit development; Tem Ray had never even touched it. What repairs could he possibly oversee? The Gwadan's dedicated mechanics knew far more about it.
Still, Reid wouldn't refuse. He'd been eyeing the Psycommu System for ages. With it, the Linear Cannon programs from the Cosmic Era universe could be tossed straight into the trash.
So, Reid signaled Grodek Ainoa to summon Tem Ray to the Gwadan—though the Black Tri-Stars would still escort him as a precaution.
Then, Reid continued briefing Haman:
"Then the plan is settled. In fifteen minutes, we strike the Titans first. We can't afford to let AEUG initiate their attack, or we'll be caught between two fronts."
Haman had no objections. After exchanging nods, she ended the transmission.
Both sides immediately began urgent preparations—though Haman's faction had far more to do. Reid's unit only needed routine Mobile Suit checks since none had taken direct hits. At worst, they'd sustained minor damage from Vulcan Guns or ship-mounted defensive machine guns.
However, for the coming breakout, Reid had Noin's Wing Gundam equipped with its Buster Beam Rifle. Though it was the same factory-issued weapon that required recharging aboard ship after three shots, it would be devastating against pursuing Mobile Suits during the retreat.
Plus, the Titans had never encountered this weapon—its debut would deliver a nasty surprise.
The fifteen minutes passed swiftly. Reid estimated AEUG's Mobile Suits would have fully replenished their ammunition by now, with damaged units receiving emergency repairs.
As for the Titans, their second wave had arrived five minutes earlier. This time, Reid held back, deploying only Xia Yulan and Ange with Neo Zeon's main force to intercept.
Once Haman's preparations were complete, Neo Zeon's entire fleet surged toward the Titans. Reid and the Black Tri-Stars sortied as well—though the Tri-Stars' mission now was guarding the Gwadan, given Tem Ray and Haman's presence aboard.
Neo Zeon's sudden aggression left the Titans dumbfounded. Hadn't they agreed to defend the Colony Laser? Why was Neo Zeon committing its entire fleet to attack them instead of the numerically inferior AEUG? Did they think the Titans were softer targets?
The already volatile Bask Om's blood pressure spiked again. He ordered a full assault, determined to teach Neo Zeon a brutal lesson.
Yet his all-out offensive resembled an enraged man swinging wildly at empty air.
Under Reid's command, Neo Zeon's forces effortlessly crushed the Titans' second wave of attackers, then immediately turned tail and fled.
The Titans were also wary of Neo Zeon's "Phantom" units potentially infiltrating their ships, especially after witnessing the AEUG fleet's disastrous state earlier. Bask Om had just ordered his fleet to retreat not long ago, so the Titans' ships remained far from the main battlefield.
By the time they rushed to the frontlines, Neo Zeon's fleet could only be seen as distant engine flares in the distance.
For a moment, the Titans' fleet was caught in a dilemma—to pursue or not to pursue.
If they gave chase, firstly, the threat of the "Phantoms" remained unresolved. During pursuit, the fleet couldn't maintain tight formation while moving slowly—they'd have to push their engines to maximum output.
Secondly, pursuing Neo Zeon now would essentially hand the Colony Laser over to AEUG.
It had to be considered that AEUG had already swiftly occupied the Colony Laser's defensive positions. Any further delay would mean taking a direct hit from the weapon.
Yet not pursuing was unacceptable to Bask Om, so he chose a compromise solution, directly ordering:
"Dispatch twenty ships to pursue Neo Zeon! The rest of the forces will join me in retaking Gryps II!"
It must be said that Bask Om had chosen the most foolish resolution possible. Even though the Titans currently held the greatest resources among the three factions, dividing their forces only served to equalize the balance of power.
Consider this: Bask Om's Titans fleet, having lost two waves of ships to Neo Zeon under Reid's command, had already dwindled from nearly a hundred vessels to just over sixty.
Splitting off twenty more to deal with Neo Zeon left slightly over forty ships facing AEUG's dozen or so vessels. While this still gave them absolute numerical superiority, the pressure on AEUG would be dramatically reduced.
Soon, worse news arrived. The twenty ships sent to pursue Neo Zeon encountered Neo Zeon's new weapon—a single Mobile Suit that fired a Beam over fifteen meters in diameter (In Wing, the Wing Gundam's Buster Beam Rifle could indeed fire a Beam Cannon blast large enough to completely engulf a Leo).
The pursuing Mobile Suits and fleet were wiped out in just three shots. Only two terrified ships and about a dozen Mobile Suits managed to escape.
At this point, sweat dripped from Bask Om's bald head in belated fear. Neo Zeon actually possessed such terrifying Beam Weapons. If they'd fired that at the Dogosse Gier when he'd ordered the assault earlier... would there even be enough left of him to bury?
Thus Bask Om found himself grateful that Neo Zeon had simply wanted to retreat—otherwise, he might already be dead.
In truth, Bask Om's continued survival was entirely because Reid wanted him alive. Given this fool's command abilities, Reid had numerous methods to destroy the Dogosse Gier.
But eliminating Bask Om now would simply hand his remaining forces over to Paptimus Scirocco—the final boss. Reid had no intention of strengthening the enemy like that.
As for why the Buster Beam Rifle wasn't used against the Gundam Team or Paptimus Scirocco? Let's just say Reid believed that if the protagonist team and final boss could be taken out with one shot from this weapon, they'd be utterly worthless.
After all, even when the Black Tri-Stars first encountered the Buster Beam Rifle in simulated combat, none were instantly destroyed—all three only lost one of their Mobile Suit's arms.
However, with the deterrence of the Buster Beam Rifle now in play, Bask Om had learned his lesson. He merely dispatched two Mobile Suits to scout Neo Zeon's movements from a distance and left it at that. After all, the Titans' greatest enemy had always been the AEUG.
In truth, the AEUG thought the same way. From their perspective, what had just transpired was somewhat miraculous.
Originally, Bright Noa and Char had been discussing how to deal with Reid's Gundam Team, as it now appeared that with Tem Ray's technical support, Reid's squad's Mobile Suits might have an even purer Gundam lineage than their own, with performance and special systems that were no less formidable.
Especially that stealth system. According to Kamille, since Reid himself tended to draw attention, the stealth system wasn't particularly useful. But against those who couldn't sense Reid, this system allowed him to become a true phantom, making him virtually untouchable.
Moreover, Reid's team was packed with elite pilots. Bright and Char were well aware that just the three members of the Black Tri-Stars, when fighting together, required absolute aces like Kamille or Char to handle. As for the remaining Mobile Suits—well, to put it simply, the blue-and-white transformable machine's ability to cut through Titans' forces like a hot knife through butter was proof enough that its pilot might even surpass Kamille and Char in skill.
Kamille certainly wouldn't dare claim she could pilot the Zeta Gundam alone and carve through Titans' forces like that.
Of course, this was partly because Kamille didn't yet fully understand her own power. If the Zeta Gundam were in its red Soul Possession Mode, forget cutting through enemy lines—as long as Kamille's mental stamina held, no amount of ordinary forces would be enough to stop her.
But just as Bright and Char were agonizing over Reid's team—so much so that they hesitated to act even when the Titans and Neo Zeon were engaged—they feared that if Kamille and Char were tied down on the frontlines, Reid might pilot his black-and-gold Mobile Suit and infiltrate their fleet, sinking the remaining half of their ships in the process.
However, to their surprise, Bright and Char soon discovered that Neo Zeon's entire force had charged toward the Titans' position, leaving not a single defensive ship behind. It was as if they had abandoned the Colony Laser and were solely focused on breaking through.
Bright naturally wouldn't let such a golden opportunity slip. Regardless of why Neo Zeon had abandoned the Colony Laser, this was the perfect chance to seize control of this decisive superweapon.
So the AEUG fleet surged forward, effortlessly occupying the Gryps II Colony Laser—only to be pleasantly surprised that Neo Zeon had left no traps behind. In fact, the Colony Laser's charging sequence hadn't even been interrupted and was now nearing its firing threshold.
By this point, Neo Zeon's fleet had already turned away from the Gryps II battle zone, retreating to the Colony Laser's blind spot.
Kamille naively assumed that Neo Zeon had finally realized their slim chances of victory in this war and were preparing to withdraw.
But Bright and Char weren't so naive. They believed Haman and Reid must have had a reason for this move, though they couldn't immediately figure out what it was.
Then, the Titans' fleet made Bright and Char stop wondering why Neo Zeon had so easily relinquished the Colony Laser.
Because forty-plus warships against a mere dozen? The advantage was entirely on the Titans' side.
And so, just as Reid had anticipated, the AEUG and the Titans went to war—and the battle was exceptionally brutal.
The AEUG, in order to hold out until the Colony Laser could be fired, not only dispatched a battleship to repair the Microwave Receiver damaged earlier by Kamille to accelerate the charging speed of the Colony Laser, but also had to face the Titans' full-scale assault.
With no room left to retreat, the AEUG fleet could only fight the Titans head-on. The battle quickly escalated from Mobile Suit skirmishes into an all-out warship artillery duel. Outnumbered, the AEUG fleet was battered relentlessly, with ships exploding one after another.
Yet, the AEUG managed to hold out until the Colony Laser reached its minimum firing threshold. Without hesitation, they unleashed a single sweeping blast that annihilated Bask Om's entire force—Bask Om himself naturally reduced to cosmic dust.
However, by this point, the AEUG fleet had been whittled down to just two surviving ships: the Argama and the Radish. While they still had over thirty Mobile Suits remaining, most were damaged, and with no available battleships to land on for emergency repairs, the AEUG's situation was even more dire than Reid had imagined. (In the original work, only the nearly wrecked Argama remained after this battle.)
Meanwhile, Paptimus Scirocco, who had been watching the battle unfold from the rear, seized control of the Titans after Bask Om's death. Commanding his flagship, the Jupiteris, along with over a dozen Salamis Kai-class escorts, he entered the battlefield, intending to finish off the crippled AEUG fleet before turning his attention to Neo Zeon's forces.
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