After Lockon was retrieved by the Blade Angel, Reid returned to the Gran Chaos with the Xia sisters. He needed to receive medical treatment quickly, or he would truly die.
Fortunately, when Lockon was placed in the Medical Pod, he was still breathing, though unconscious.
As long as he was breathing, and since his injuries weren't a massive loss of internal organs or a complete cessation of vital functions, the top-tier Medical Bay Reid had acquired from the Iron-Blooded Orphans universe could heal him.
Of course, since Lockon was suffering from severe internal bleeding and had small shrapnel fragments that needed to be removed, the recovery time would be measured in weeks.
Also, once he woke up, the name "Lockon" would have to be left behind. He would need to use his real name, Neil Dylandy, or take on a new codename like "Uncle Lock."
Having saved one person, Reid could rest for a little while longer. In the original story, the next battle wouldn't happen for another six hours (Sumeragi mentioned in the plot that it would take six hours to prepare Gundam Nadleeh's armaments, and it was clearly stated that the preparations were complete just before the attack). Since no Otherworld Entanglement had occurred, he would take any rest he could get.
However, the Gran Chaos remained on second-level combat alert, observing near the Ptolemy, ready for the next Otherworld Entanglement to happen at any moment.
As for the Wodom Pod forces, they had already rendezvoused with their mothership and moved to a safe location to resupply and repair. Although the two ships couldn't accommodate the twenty-plus remaining Wodom Pods, the extra personnel could stand guard outside, and they could resupply in rotating shifts.
By the time Setsuna arrived on the battlefield, all he could see were parts of the Throne Zwei and Dynames floating in the asteroid belt.
However, Setsuna soon received the terrible news. The Dynames had been brought back to the Ptolemy by Haro, and its empty cockpit said it all.
Lockon, the big brother figure, had long been an indispensable member of Celestial Being. His "sacrifice" was naturally met with disbelief, tears, shock, and roars of anguish.
Yet, after these sounds turned to grief, Celestial Being had to immediately step out of its shadow, because the enemy would not give them much time to mourn. The Wodom Pod forces had not yet retreated; they were monitoring this asteroid belt, and the moment the Ptolemy moved out, it would be attacked.
However, for Celestial Being, there was still an excuse to console themselves.
According to Haro's records, everyone believed that Lockon, not wanting them to waste precious energy on a dying man, had voluntarily left the cockpit.
Only a few minutes had passed between him leaving the cockpit and Setsuna's arrival, but the Exia had found no trace of Lockon's body floating in space.
Therefore, Celestial Being Gundam Meister Lockon Stratos was currently listed as Missing in Action (MIA), not Killed in Action (KIA).
Of course, everyone on the Ptolemy knew that classifying him as MIA was just their way of avoiding reality. In time, that record would change to KIA.
While the Ptolemy was resupplying its three remaining Gundams, a gloomy cloud also hung over the UN's Wodom Pod forces.
The appearance of the Trans-Am System made commanders Sergei and Kati Mannequin hesitant to attack recklessly. In its Trans-Am state, the Gundam had once again achieved an overwhelming performance advantage against their Mobile Suits.
Moreover, Sergei and Kati Mannequin didn't know the weaknesses and side effects of the Trans-Am System, so they naturally didn't dare to make a risky decision and gamble with the few elite pilots from the three blocs they had left.
The battle in the Taklamakan Desert had already resulted in heavy losses among the elite pilots. If this batch was also wiped out without eliminating Celestial Being, the two of them would be too ashamed to face their superiors back home.
Fortunately, by this point in the conflict, Ribbons had finally gained complete control of Veda, just as in the original story.
Aeolia Schenberg also failed to escape his original fate.
However, this time, Alejandro didn't dare to just open fire. Instead, he had Ribbons pull the oxygen tube from the stasis pod and cut the power to the cryogenic stasis pod without initiating the wake-up sequence.
This way, it was impossible for Aeolia Schenberg to ever awaken.
Fortunately, Aeolia Schenberg's failsafe had already been activated, and destroying his physical body would not trigger it a second time.
Next, Alejandro naturally declared that he would personally crush Aeolia Schenberg's final insurance policy to advance his own plans.
So, just like in the original story, Sergei and Kati Mannequin received orders to wait for reinforcements before attacking. Alejandro was preparing to make his grand entrance in his big, shiny golden Mobile Suit.
Six hours later, the Wodom Pod forces had completed resupplying and repairing all their units. At the same time, Alejandro arrived on the scene, piloting the Alvatore himself. He led all the Wodom Pods in an advance toward Celestial Being.
Honestly, watching this 42.6-meter-tall, 56.1-meter-long, glittering golden behemoth on the camera feed, Reid found it quite jarring.
Although the gold on its surface was a special coating designed to more effectively disperse enemy GN Particle Beams and enhance its defense, its actual effect was quite limited, to the point where it would struggle to even block a shot from a GN Handgun.
Besides, the Alvatore had a whopping seven Pseudo GN Drives. Its GN Field was so thick that even Gundam Virtue's GN Rocket Cannon at full power in Trans-Am might not be able to penetrate it.
If it encountered a beam that could pierce such a GN Shield, what use was such a pathetic anti-beam coating?
Therefore, this coating was a complete waste of money, no different from simply painting it with gold paint.
Furthermore, painting a Mobile Suit in such a conspicuous color as gold was practically asking for a quick death. Anyone would automatically assume a Mobile Suit of this color was a high-value target.
And then there was its design, which gave one the distinct impression of a toilet with the lid down. Coupled with the fact that its pilot, Alejandro, was indeed a crappy pilot, it was no wonder some Gundam fans jokingly called this machine the "Golden Toilet."
However, the Alvatore's debut shot was still quite effective.
Although the Ptolemy had detected the cannon charging from a great distance and did its best to evade, the particle volume from seven GN-T Drives made the charge time incredibly fast. While it avoided a direct hit, one side of its thrusters was still grazed by the beam.
However, in this timeline, that would be the only time the Alvatore ever hit the Ptolemy.
That single shot was like a starter pistol at a race.
When the beam vanished, strange lightning appeared all along its path.
Patrick, whose Mobile Suit had been fully repaired, saw this and exclaimed excitedly in the squad channel, "Holy crap, that beam is awesome! It actually created an electric arc phenomenon as it passed."
The moment Patrick finished, Kati Mannequin shouted, "Idiot! How can there be an atmosphere in space to form an electric arc! The system has detected an abnormal, unknown energy! This is an Otherworld Entanglement phenomenon! All units, on alert!!!"
Just as Kati Mannequin said, before her words had even faded, the arcs of electricity instantly expanded outwards. The very space in this zone seemed on the verge of being torn apart by the lightning.
Then, the arcs of electricity seemed to shatter space itself. To the naked eye, the space between the Alvatore and the Ptolemy now looked like a cracked mirror.
However, within the dark, fractured areas, a large number of giant Mobile Armors appeared.
The next second, all these MAs charged out of the rifts. Then the lightning vanished, and space repaired itself.
Watching this scene, Reid just wanted to complain, "Where the hell did you drop me? This isn't an Ultraman set, is it? What the heck is this Super Beast invasion phenomenon?"
Of course, Reid was only complaining internally, because he recognized all the Mobile Suits that had just emerged from the other dimension.
However, the difficulty of this otherworldly invasion seemed a bit high.
Because the units that appeared were once again from the Universal Century, but this time, they were UC Mobile Armors.
The relatively smaller ones (under 50 meters) included the MA-04X Zakrello, MA-05 Bigro, MAN-08 Elmeth (47.7 meters head height, not including the antenna), MRX-009 Psycho Gundam, NRX-033 Messala, and NZ-000 Quebeley Mk-II (technically an MS, but it's only 0.8 meters shorter than the 40-meter-tall Psycommu Gundam, so we'll treat it as an MA for now).
The relatively larger ones (50 to 100 meters) included the MA-06 Val Varo, MAN-03 Brau Bro, MA-08 Big Zam, AMX-002 Lowee Guele, MAN-05 Grovre, ORX-007 Hati, and RX-136-1 Rosaceae.
The super-large ones (over 100 meters) included the MA-05Ad Bigro Lang (with a Mobile Suit repair platform, total length 203 meters) and the RX-78GP03D Gundam Prototype Unit 03 (the Dendrobium is 140 meters long including its beam cannon).
(I will post images of the more obscure units when I describe them in detail, but I obviously can't post them all now.)
A total of 15 MAs of various types. Honestly, Reid felt that if he weren't here today, these machines could turn the Alvatore, the Wodom Pod forces, and the Celestial Being Gundams into space junk in a matter of moments.
Don't even mention the Alvatore's super-thick GN Field. There were far too many units here with super-large MEGA Particle Cannons. The Alvatore might be able to withstand one or two shots, but any more than that and it would be toast.
Moreover, a GN Field has an output efficiency limit. The Hati alone, with its Psycommu System Controller (an early version of a funnel missile system) carrying 800 missiles, could forcibly break through a GN Field with sustained fire.
Frankly, with so many MAs, Reid felt it was no different from fighting giant monsters. If all these units were to open fire simultaneously, the firepower would be so dense that this entire space zone would be filled with beams and missiles, with nowhere to dodge.
This was supposed to be the final battle of Gundam 00's first season. If these big guys started firing their AOE attacks indiscriminately and even a few important supporting characters died, his evaluation would be over.
Reid glanced at the World Change Fluctuation Value. It was a crimson 89%. One could only imagine the consequences of letting so many MAs run rampant.
So Reid immediately gave the order, "All units, sortie! Also, launch all the Mass-Produced GM Astrays. Equip them with Armor Piercing Bazookas. After they fire, use their Electromagnetic Armor to shield the Wodom Pods and Celestial Being. Oh, and don't worry about that golden MA. If it gets blown up, it gets blown up.
"Gran Chaos, activate the Destroyer Beam Cannon. Target that white, refrigerator-like unit. Be careful not to hit the Wodom Pod forces or Celestial Being."
Reid had his reasons for ordering the Gran Chaos to target the Dendrobium first.
Among all the high-speed MAs, it was the fastest and had the most ferocious firepower. It would be a pain to send someone to chase it down later. It was better to take it out now while it was temporarily unable to accelerate due to the traffic jam (all the MAs were crammed together and couldn't disperse immediately).
But no matter how fast Reid's side moved, the Wodom Pod forces and Celestial Being would have to endure the first wave of attacks on their own.
The good news for the Wodom Pod forces and Celestial Being was that these UC Mobile Armors recognized friendlies. Moreover, these units were all from before UC 0090, and there were no monstrous units like the Silver Lightning among them.
So, with all the units crowded together, no one used large-scale AOE attacks. Instead, they let the faster, smaller units like the Zakrello, Bigro, Elmeth, and Messala disperse first.
Then came the medium-sized batch. The principle was simple: smaller, faster units disperse first, creating enough distance to ensure no friendly fire before engaging.
Of course, as they dispersed, the units that weren't moving weren't just standing by idly. Those with ultra-long-range weapons fired at the Wodom Pod forces and Celestial Being whenever they had a clear shot.
The Wodom Pod forces were targeted by the Bigro Lang and the Big Zam. Two incredibly thick MEGA Particle Beams swept toward them from the left and right.
Faced with these two beams that were clearly impossible to block, the Wodom Pod pilots acted in perfect unison without needing any orders: they immediately ducked behind the Alvatore.
It couldn't be helped. Alejandro, wanting to avoid any further delays, had flown to the very front to clear a path and quickly annihilate Celestial Being. Besides, any fool could tell that with so many Pseudo GN Drives, this machine's GN Field must be incredibly powerful.
It could only be said that Reid's earlier act of putting a bounty on Kowloon had misled Alejandro, making him think the SDP's appearance this time was just to eliminate the straggler Kowloon, not that an Otherworld Entanglement was about to occur.
But it was too late for regrets now. The Alvatore had been pushed to the front by all the Wodom Pods.
Facing the beams from two large MEGA Particle Cannons, Alejandro could only pray as he pushed the Alvatore's GN Field to its maximum, sweat dripping down his face.
Fortunately, while the MEGA Particle Cannons of the Bigro Lang and Big Zam had large calibers, they were still units from UC 0079. The beams were thick, but their particle density was insufficient.
So, the Alvatore managed to block both attacks.
However, the collision of Minovsky Particles and high-density GN Particles produced a considerable explosion. This secondary explosion was not something the GN Field could nullify, as it was essentially a shield break explosion.
It was a good thing the Alvatore's own armor was thick and tough. The explosion originating from its own shield only sent the Alvatore spinning like a top for a dozen or so rotations, leaving Alejandro dizzy but otherwise unharmed.
Meanwhile, on Celestial Being's side, since there was only one ship, they only had to face the Dendrobium's large MEGA Beam Cannon.
The Ptolemy's helmsman, Lichtendahl Tsery, showed a touch of ace piloting skill. With one of the Ptolemy's thrusters damaged, he managed to dodge the shot by using the other thruster to lift the ship at an angle.
However, the Ptolemy's crisis was not over. The first to disperse, the Zakrello and the Bigro, had already set their sights on it.
To their berserk pilots, this seemingly unarmed ship was the softest target on the field, perfect for them.
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