Rafflesia had already lost two petals before even engaging Reid's squad. Under normal circumstances, any sane pilot would have considered retreating.
But Iron Mask's mind was in chaos. This was a man so obsessed with pride that he needed a mask to hide his shame after his wife eloped with another man.
His muddled thoughts screamed at him: he couldn't back down now, or he'd never be able to show his face again.
However, the violent maneuvers during their escape from the Destroyer Beam Cannon's attack range had left Iron Mask thoroughly disoriented - his brains nearly shaken into a homogeneous slurry, making everything appear to spin around him.
Rafflesia utilized the latest Psycommu System from UC 0123, with the Mobile Suit entirely controlled by neural impulses.
Thus, the dizzy Iron Mask directly projected his disoriented state onto the Mobile Suit.
The mechanical tentacles extending from Rafflesia's body began twitching uncontrollably, while beam emissions erupted randomly from all its weapon ports in every direction.
This accidental chaos proved surprisingly effective. Only four Mobile Suits - the Joyeuse Gundam, Ice Phoenix Gundam, Gundam Artemis, and Blade Angel Gundam - possessed 360-degree protective shields. The remaining units found it difficult to approach under such unpredictable attacks.
But four Mobile Suits were sufficient. The other units - the Z Plus Gundam and Kampfer EX - could employ solid-shell rocket artillery, the NT-X2 Gundam carried twin-barrel Spiral Piercing Missile launchers, and the Gundam Eclipse wielded a large Electromagnetic Cannon sniper rifle.
As for the Mystic Lightning, it could simply serve as cheerleader for this engagement.
When the rear fire support group opened fire, Rafflesia was instantly enveloped in a storm of various artillery shells.
I-Fields offered no protection against physical projectiles, forcing Rafflesia to rely entirely on its own armor to withstand these attacks.
Rafflesia's outer armor consisted of Titanium Alloy/High Ceramic Composite Material, fundamentally inferior in strength to UC Gundarium Alloy γ.
However, this material that had seen mass production since UC 0079 had become extremely cost-effective by UC 0123 due to manufacturing advancements, while also showing significant improvements in defensive capabilities.
Combined with Rafflesia's massive frame, the solution was simply to stack armor thickness - using quantitative accumulation to achieve qualitative transformation.
This was evident from how even the most effective armor-piercing weapon, the Spiral Piercing Missile, could only create metallic craters upon Rafflesia's armor before detonating, rather than penetrating through before explosion.
The result after the initial bombardment: Rafflesia's main structure remained intact, though its surface armor became pitted and cratered like the lunar surface after a meteor shower.
The actual damage manifested in Rafflesia's tentacles, many of which were severed by explosions.
But this was essentially a tentacle monster - losing tentacles only meant losing beam emission capabilities, without affecting their constraining and binding functions.
Thus, when Reid's four units closed to melee range, numerous tentacles still surged forth, ready to engage in binding play.
As everyone knows, tentacles possess special effectiveness only against magical girls.
Among Reid's team, Reid himself was male. As for the others, while some were still young enough to qualify as magical girls (a certain friendship-through-artillery magical girl remained one at age 26), they had long been developed into young matrons by Reid.
Therefore, Rafflesia's tentacles currently lacked any special advantage.
However, normal girls all detest tentacles, let alone a sky full of them.
It should be noted that these tentacles had no I-Field protection, so once Ange and the others closed in, they dual-wielded Beam Sabers, cranked up the output to create over-ten-meter-long energy blades, and entered a slashing frenzy.
As for Reid, he activated the Sword Saint System of the Joyeuse Gundam, causing the two Large GN Buster Swords to whirl around the Mobile Suit at supersonic speeds—no matter how many tentacles reached out, they were all chopped to pieces.
With Nein's computational assistance and Reid granting her permission to adjust the flying swords' trajectories, Reid didn't have to worry about the swords accidentally injuring his allies.
Thus, Reid could confidently charge toward Rafflesia's "flower core," where its cockpit was located.
To be honest, Reid had been curious since his previous life whether Iron Mask was purely human.
In the original work, his ability to move in space without a pilot suit could be explained away by his full-body covering and helmet functioning as a spacesuit.
His immense strength, enough to bend centimeters-thick UC Gundarium Alloy γ, could also be dismissed as natural physical prowess.
But in the original, when his gloves were shot through by Cecily (proving they were just ordinary gloves, not part of a pilot suit), and his skin was directly exposed to the vacuum of space without any adverse effects, it was truly bizarre.
According to the settings, he was merely an Enhanced Person, without any so-called Newtype abilities (though in 0093, there was someone who pushed the limits of human survival in space). Reid even suspected that only his brain was organic, and the rest was a pure machine.
So, taking advantage of this opportunity, Reid wanted to resolve his long-standing curiosity.
As Reid advanced toward Rafflesia's "flower core," Iron Mask, who had finally recovered from his dizziness, naturally tried to stop him.
But at such close range, it was impossible for Rafflesia to create distance again.
Iron Mask attempted to use Rafflesia's tentacles to block the approach, but found that no tentacles remained to protect the cockpit.
Rafflesia wasn't a true tentacle monster—these tentacles wouldn't regenerate once severed or destroyed.
Though 125 tentacles seemed numerous and had considerable redundant length, they couldn't withstand three Gundams wielding over-ten-meter-long Beam Sabers.
As for the transparent "convertible" canopy above the cockpit, Reid shattered it effortlessly with a single pulse from the Lambda Driver.
Iron Mask was then lifted using the Lambda Driver, and a scan with the Mobile Suit's metal detector revealed that he was indeed a cybernetically enhanced mechanical being.
His arms and legs were mechanical—no wonder he possessed such strength.
However, this made things rather dull. If he had been a full robot, Reid would have considered crushing his brain and taking the body back for detailed scanning and analysis using the equipment aboard the Gran Chaos.
Instead, Reid simply shoved him back into Rafflesia's cockpit and blasted through it with the Magnum Cannon.
Rafflesia was truly a Mobile Suit with a "bomb" planted beneath its cockpit.
A Beam shot directly into the cockpit would strike the energy transfer hub, causing the Mobile Suit's energy to run wild and trigger a massive explosion.
Thus, Rafflesia instantly exploded into a cloud of Red Code, vanishing along with Iron Mask.
With the obstructing Rafflesia dealt with, Reid turned his attention to the New Danuu's Child's position, only to see it had already fled so far that only a faint trail of exhaust flames remained visible.
As for Iok Kujan's Needlefish-class ship, it had long since disappeared to who-knows-where. (They knew Iok Kujan had descended to Mars, so this distress signal couldn't possibly have been sent by him.)
Iok Kujan's Needlefish-class wasn't important. As for the New Danuu's Child, given the Gran Chaos's speed, it wasn't impossible to pursue now, but how long the chase would take was an unknown variable.
After all, with Teletha's tactical abilities, she certainly wouldn't obediently engage in a long-distance race with Reid.
Reid now had two choices:
Pursue, which might take a long time. There was a risk that Hashmal could be destroyed by the Gundam Barbatos Lupus. If that happened, whether they could restore Hashmal from a pile of wreckage would depend entirely on luck.
Not pursue, which would mean risking a subsequent ambush by Code Amelias. Moreover, with McGillis Fareed in their group, there was a chance he might directly impersonate his counterpart in this world to mobilize troops.
The good news was that Reid didn't struggle with these two choices for long.
The bad news was that the choice was made for him.
Because just seconds after Reid started considering, five Gjallarhorn Mars Branch Needlefish-class battleships suddenly appeared in Mars synchronous orbit.
The moment these ships arrived, they deployed numerous Graze units and broadcasted on all channels:
"All vessels and Mobile Suits ahead, report your unit affiliation and identification numbers. Simultaneously, power down your weapons and prepare for ship inspection. Refusal will result in immediate engagement."
Upon hearing this announcement, Reid immediately guessed these Gjallarhorn Mars Branch ships must have been deceived by McGillis Fareed from Code Amelias' team.
So Reid didn't bother explaining and directly said over the internal comms:
"Sink these Mobile Suits and ships outright."
After speaking, Reid prepared to return to the ship—he had no interest in playing with these grunts.
Because what followed was completely one-sided combat.
While the mobile suits from the Iron-Blooded universe had excellent beam resistance and decent physical ammunition defense...
This "decent" physical ammunition defense meant nothing against Reid's heavy firepower.
These units weren't large Mobile Armors like Rafflesia—their Nano-Laminate Armor could be shattered by a single rocket blast.
Moreover, the electromagnetic weapons on Reid's side were far more powerful than those in the Iron-Blooded universe, so the charging Gjallarhorn Mars Branch Graze units might as well have been lining up for execution.
As for the Graze's 120mm rifles? These weapons were too weak to even qualify as "scratching the surface" against Reid's mobile suits.
After the MS forces were wiped out, the mothership naturally couldn't escape. Reid had the Black Tri-Stars retrieve a piece of nano-laminated armor from an Iron-Blooded warship, then ordered all five Needlefish-class battleships sunk.
This Gjallarhorn Mars Branch fleet lasted less than twenty minutes from appearance to destruction.
However, just as Reid was preparing to have the Gran Chaos descend to Mars, another surprise occurred.
A trail of fire was seen shooting straight toward the Gran Chaos from space. Camera feeds clearly showed it was a Reginlaze.
Soon, this Reginlaze flew directly in front of the Gran Chaos and broadcasted across all platforms:
"What happened here? Did you destroy these Gjallarhorn vessels? Who are you? What have you done with Lord Kujan?"
Hearing this, Reid recognized it immediately—this was the voice of Julieta Juris, the true protagonist of Iron-Blooded Orphans and Director Nagai's favorite "daughter."
However, she seemed to have misunderstood something, likely thinking she had captured or eliminated that useless Iok Kujan.
Reid immediately grew interested and prepared to personally meet this "Chosen One."
Watching Reid pilot the Joyeuse Gundam into battle once more, flying up to the Reginlaze, he used laser communication to say:
"Shouldn't one introduce themselves before asking others questions? Are all of Rustal Elion's people so ignorant of etiquette?"
Upon hearing this, Julieta Juris immediately thought that this absurdly large warship might belong to some major faction, hence why it knew her Mobile Suit's affiliation.
Not wanting to embarrass Rustal Elion, Julieta Juris promptly replied:
"My apologies. I am Julieta Juris of the Gjallarhorn Arianrhod Fleet. Please state your affiliation and explain the situation here."
Reid responded directly:
"Reid Isaac, no affiliation. If you must define us, consider us junk dealers. I heard Mars unearthed a large piece of junk from 300 years ago during the Calamity War, so I came to haul it away.
However, the Gjallarhorn Mars branch seems to have misunderstood us. They insisted on searching our ship, and left with no choice, I had to dismantle them all into scrap.
By the way, Miss Julieta, you should have come with Rustal Elion, right? Why are you here alone now?"
After Reid finished speaking, Julieta's mind was somewhat in disarray. She understood every individual sentence he said, but when strung together, they became completely incomprehensible.
She knew about junk dealers—professionals who collected metal scraps in space, brought them back to Colony Satellites for reprocessing, and sold them for profit. Depending on the situation, they occasionally engaged in archaeology or developed some side businesses like pillaging.
It was plausible for people in such a profession to take an interest in a Mobile Armor.
But what junk dealer would dare claim they had the capability to annihilate an entire Gjallarhorn sub-fleet single-handedly?
Moreover, that ridiculously large Mothership opposite them was clearly not something a junk dealer could possess.
Thus, Julieta Juris retorted directly:
"Are you mocking me, sir? Destroying a Gjallarhorn sub-fleet is no longer a provocation—it's a declaration of war. Do you intend to declare war on Gjallarhorn with a single ship?
Furthermore, someone of Lord Elion's status would never come here without understanding the enemy's situation."
Hearing this, Reid acknowledged that Rustal Elion was indeed the cunning old fox from the original story who outmaneuvered both Tekkadan and McGillis Fareed.
Rustal Elion also wanted to reform the corrupt Gjallarhorn, but he successfully had Tekkadan and McGillis Fareed eliminate all the elements that needed purging during the reform.
Then, he let Tekkadan and McGillis Fareed bear the blame for the killings, permanently branding them with infamy.
Finally, Rustal Elion took advantage of half the Seven Stars families losing their heads, abolished Gjallarhorn's Seven Stars council system, reorganized the organization, and achieved the reforms McGillis had desired—securing both fame and profit.
Therefore, such an old fox wouldn't recklessly reveal himself without knowing who the enemy was. He was merely sending Julieta Juris, his key subordinate under cultivation, to scout the path.
Rustal Elion had thought things through quite well. If the enemy belonged to a major faction, they would likely spare Julieta Juris out of respect for his reputation. Even if they didn't spare her, he would at least know who the enemy was.
If the enemy was a minor faction, Julieta Juris stood a high chance of escaping with her combat skills. If she couldn't escape, it would prove her abilities fell short of his expectations, making her unworthy of further cultivation.
Unfortunately, Reid wasn't from the Iron-Blooded Universe at all, so Rustal Elion's seniority meant nothing to him.
As for combat prowess—hah—even if the entire Arianrhod Fleet brought all their Gungnirs (Dáinsleif), Reid wouldn't fear them. Although AC Gundanium Alloy couldn't completely nullify physical projectiles, weapons like Gungnir, having lost their advantage against Nano-Laminate Armor, stood no chance against AC Universe's Gundanium Alloy with penetration power alone.
Thus, Reid decided to test whether Julieta Juris truly possessed plot armor.
In the original story, this true protagonist narrowly escaped death every time. Reid wanted to see if she could survive facing him this time.
(End of Chapter)