Chapter 181: Flying Into Space
It was a pity that among the few Gundams launched into space for the first time, only Wing Gundam was able to operate properly. The other Gundams' thrusters couldn't handle the space environment before being modified.
They would have to wait until the five doctors finished refitting all of them before those suits could fully adapt to combat in outer space, raising their space-environment compatibility rating to Class B.
Right now, though, those pilots were probably drifting in space, waiting to be rescued. If they weren't the main characters, anyone else coming to space like this would basically be on a suicide mission.
Meanwhile, data on the five captured doctors had been retrieved. After skimming through the reports, Tolle handed the file to Lady:
"The identities of those engineers have been confirmed."
"All five of them?" Lady took the file, glanced over it, and continued, "As expected—they were all technicians who worked on OZ's MS development projects."
"Yes. During the development of Tallgeese—or more precisely, right after the design plans were completed—the five of them all disappeared without a trace."
"Tallgeese? You mean the one used by Lieutenant Zechs, the MS said to be the prototype for the Leo?"
"That's right. Even though it was designed twenty years ago, compared to all the MS units still on Earth, it's still arguably the strongest."
"I think calling it 'the strongest' is a bit much," Lady replied coolly. "That word should be reserved for something every soldier can believe describes their own power."
Tossing aside the report, she looked toward the area where the five doctors were detained and said, "Let them handle it. Have them build something even greater—not just better than Tallgeese, but beyond the Gundams themselves."
After the Romefeller Foundation completed the autonomous combat system for unmanned units—"Mobile Dolls"—they planned to eliminate Zechs and his Tallgeese, since he refused to obey their orders.
However, Treize despised the MD system. He believed that a war without pain was nothing but a game—and such a war, stripped of suffering, would only lead to endless destruction.
He personally piloted a Leo and charged into the testing field, challenging the Mobile Dolls on behalf of all human pilots—and singlehandedly destroyed every test MS equipped with MD systems.
After returning to space, Quatre, having lost his Gundam, was left drifting in a shuttle. He was eventually discovered by remnants of the Earth Unified Space Forces stationed on an attack satellite.
Tolle, piloting a Taurus alongside another manned Taurus and three unmanned units, approached the area where Quatre was located. When he saw the Earth Forces deploy their twentieth space-type Leo, he quickly ordered his team to split into two groups.
Tolle immediately realized their plan—to divide forces, one group drawing his attention while the other tried to rescue Quatre's shuttle.
"The enemy MS are splitting up—why is that?" one soldier reported, staring at the radar. "There are incoming objects near the retreating squad—could it be the Gundams? Have they detected the one from Earth?"
Tolle checked the main monitor. Worried that if Quatre failed to escape the situation would worsen, he gave a swift order:
"The interceptors are just standard space-type Leos. Give the MD units their attack orders and take care of things here. I'll pursue the shuttle. Understood?"
With that, Tolle left the soldier and the unmanned Taurus units behind. Transforming his Taurus into MA mode, he leisurely flew toward Quatre's position.
The remaining unmanned Taurus units immediately activated and began wiping out the nearby Earth Government's space-type Leos.
From a distance, Tolle saw several people emerging from the shuttle—it looked like they had brought Quatre out as well.
He launched his attack at once. The few space-type Leos were wiped out within a minute—barely worth his effort. Once the area was cleared, Tolle radioed:
"The shuttle remains unresponsive. Begin clearing the flight path."
Just then, the lower half of a nearby space-type Leo suddenly exploded on its own. Tolle immediately knew—Quatre was there. Realizing that, he felt a small sense of relief; his part in this was nearly done.
Moments later, the shuttle suddenly started its engines. Tolle knew that meant the people inside had been replaced by Earth Unified Space Forces personnel, so he calmly obliterated the craft.
"The shuttle crew's still alive. All MD units, pursue and destroy it."
The three unmanned Taurus units responded instantly, launching their attack and blowing the shuttle to pieces.
Mission complete, Tolle and the other Taurus units returned directly to the Barge fortress.
Tolle couldn't help but think that among the five Gundam pilots who'd reached space, Quatre and Duo had the worst luck. The others had already made it safely to their colony satellites, while those two would still be drifting for a while before getting rescued.
Meanwhile, under Lady's coercion, the five doctors who'd built the Gundams were ordered to create new mobile suits that would surpass them. Though they appeared to comply, in secret they began working on five new Gundams—each better than the last.
At the same time on Earth, the Tallgeese faced its own crisis of destruction. The transport ship carrying it was ambushed at sea by a large force of OZ MS units.
Zechs immediately launched in the Tallgeese, counterattacking ferociously. With his Dober Gun, he downed one enemy per shot—destroying all fifty Aries and twenty Cancers of the OZ army.
However, the battle came at a steep cost. Both Zechs and the Tallgeese were heavily damaged. The back of his helmet cracked on impact, and he lost consciousness inside the cockpit, crashing onto a small island.
By sheer luck, he was rescued by Howard, one of Tallgeese's original designers. Howard urged Zechs to go to the chaotic colonies in space—to search for the true meaning of this war.
In space, OZ launched a massive suppression campaign against the remaining Earth Unified Space Forces scattered across various sectors.
Their strength in orbit grew rapidly, and the fortress Barge became the very symbol of OZ's power in space.
Lady appeared before the colony citizens in her "Saint" persona, completely replacing the Unified Space Forces. As OZ's commander in space, she forged friendly cooperation with the colony representatives.
Freed from the oppression of the Unified Forces, the colonies began to accept OZ's new system, and—at least on the surface—it seemed that peace and coexistence between Earth and the colonies had finally been achieved.