Chapter 202: Descent Operation 2
Under the sustained fire of the Tallgeese Wing Zero's beam cannon, after a little more than a minute the layered electromagnetic shields were finally all pierced.
Unfortunately the beam cannon's strike proved ineffective—the shuttles had already descended into much lower layers of the atmosphere.
Tolle, however, did not hesitate and fired the destructive beam cannon again through the atmosphere, but it destroyed only a few shuttles.
The shuttles that had entered the atmosphere first disgorged their unmanned units all at once.
Each carried atmospheric flight units, scattered out, and rushed toward Treize's OZ bases on Earth's various continents.
Their aim was to seize those Treize-faction bases before Lady could send reinforcements.
Seeing this, Tolle opened his communicator and said to Lady, "Lady, this looks bad. Their commander is really troublesome.
Leave those space drones to you — I'll descend to Earth first. I'm counting on Treize's side to handle things there."
"Don't worry, I'll take care of Treize's forces. Go on and go." Lady replied.
Tolle felt uneasy hearing Lady's words — it felt like he was setting up a flag for himself, a one-way heroic sortie.
But he stopped worrying and, piloting the Tallgeese Wing Zero, retracted the movable wings and plunged into Earth's atmosphere.
At the first moment of atmospheric entry he redeployed the movable wings, beam rifle in his left hand, destructive beam cannon in his right, and attacked the drones still near him in the sky.
Yet it was always a step too late; many drones got through. Tolle could only head for the nearest base to offer assistance.
The Romefeller Foundation centered their ground offensive on those unmanned Virgo units that had landed on Earth. In squads they launched attacks against Treize-aligned Earth Unified Forces and OZ units around the world.
This escalated the war between Earth and the space colony satellites.
As the war developed, however, the Sanc Kingdom's pacifist policy gradually gained recognition among nations that longed for peace.
Because the Romefeller Foundation was pressed by the war, their bases were repeatedly attacked by Tolle and several Gundam pilots. Lacking a solid pretext, the Consortium could only temporarily tolerate some incursions.
In space, Heero and Quatre tracked down the five doctors who had slipped out of the Moon base during the chaos and had them help remodel and tune Wing Zero and its Zero system.
While Wing Zero was being modified and adjusted, the two returned to Earth and were drawn into battle again.
During the fighting, a rift developed between Heero and Quatre, and at the same time the Romefeller Foundation launched attacks in regions near the Sanc Kingdom.
To protect Relena's Sanc Kingdom, Heero decided to join Treize's OZ forces — to eliminate the Romefeller Foundation, the root cause of this war, and bring the conflict to an end as soon as possible.
Quatre, having seen the brutality and selfishness of battle, chose to continue his travels; he believed fighting would only cause greater harm to ordinary civilians.
In combat, Heero piloted a land-combat Leo and, to cover fleeing civilians, caused Treize's OZ operation to fail.
After that operational failure, the Romefeller Foundation's OZ troops transported a large number of MD Virgos to the battlefield.
That forced Heero and the others to face far tougher opponents, and the battle became exceptionally grueling.
Even though the Leo's performance could not match the Virgo, Heero stood and fought alone against the enemy to cover the civilians' retreat.
Seeing this, Quatre decided to join the fight to protect the Sanc Kingdom and its people.
He piloted Gundam Sandrock to the battlefield, but that machine's performance was likewise no match for the Virgo.
In the end, with Noin's help, the Wing Gundam's destructive rifle was dropped from a shuttle.
Quatre operated Gundam Sandrock to pick up the destructive rifle and used it to fire a sustained destructive beam, piercing their electromagnetic shields and annihilating that MD Virgo formation.
After the battle, a group of Treize-affiliated OZ wounded soldiers were driven to the border of the Sanc Kingdom by the Romefeller Foundation, with the intention of smuggling them into the kingdom.
The Consortium's plan was to push wounded soldiers into the undefended city center of Sanc so they could use that as a pretext to wreak havoc on the kingdom.
But Heero immediately sensed the enemy's intent and distributed the Taurus units Noin had secretly stockpiled inside Sanc to those Treize soldiers.
He then piloted Wing Gundam himself and joined them in combat.
Those wounded Treize soldiers piloting Taurus units literally barged through the electromagnetic shields with their bodies and at point-blank range used beam rifles to destroy a Virgo.
At this time Tolle arrived in the Tallgeese Wing Zero and, together with Heero, fired the destructive beam cannon to annihilate the Virgo formation that had returned to attack.
After the fighting ended, Relena came to stand before the machines. Noin immediately stepped forward with a solemn face, bowed, and explained:
"The Sanc Kingdom does not need these things, Miss Relena — I imagine that's what you would say.
But the Romefeller Foundation's actions are increasingly pressuring the Sanc Kingdom.
I know this goes against your beliefs, Miss Relena. Still, I believe that without a defensive force, our Sanc Kingdom would be wiped out by the Romefeller Foundation.
This was my decision, and I am willing to accept any punishment."
Heero, cold-faced beside her, said to Noin, "You don't need to reproach yourself. To fight the Romefeller Foundation face to face, this level of force is still too little.
We absolutely cannot just sit back and die like past leaders of Sanc did."
Relena, moved by Heero's words, felt that without these machines the Sanc Kingdom might have been destroyed again.
She asked Heero with some insecurity, "Heero, were my previous thoughts just a dream, or were they a mistake?"
Heero replied, "The Romefeller Foundation will eliminate anything that stands in its way one by one.
Previously it was the space colonies and the Gundams; Miss Relena, now you have become one of their targets.
I am a soldier — I can only crush them by fighting. But the Sanc Kingdom's refusal to fight has provoked the Consortium into its current actions."