A journey through the Gundam world

Dean's wreckage struck the inside of the right 'Long Leg', cracking the hull but causing no serious damage.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the catapult hatch also completed closing.

In this way, the two fighter planes completed the attack without any danger, and the Archangel was not taken advantage of by the enemy to invade the ship.

The addition of the two Skymasters, although it did not play a decisive role, could make the Dean fleet's attack on the Archangel even more confusing.

Chapter 136: So everyone is running away?

The fierce battle ahead continues, and intense discussions are also taking place within the ZAFT Army's frontline headquarters.

The focus of the discussion was whether to continue pursuing the Archangel.

"The other party changed the route again?"

After receiving Dean's report, the ZAFT Army command was a little confused about Long Legs' action.

The staff looked at the Archangel's trajectory displayed on the electronic map and made their own judgments.

"Could it be that this ship is going to fly directly back to Batangas?"

"It's possible, but they should know the information that the Third Fleet is about to arrive, right? That's their friendly force. Shouldn't they continue to join the nearby friendly force?"

"Perhaps they want to rely on this method to get rid of our army's pursuit first. After all, the physical condition of our mobile suit is not very good after the battle."

"Well, that makes sense. As long as they get rid of their pursuers, they can turn around again and join the Third Fleet."

"Then, the point of the question is, should we continue to pay more to sink this warship?"

The staff made various guesses, but they were only guesses. These guesses were only references.

The most important thing right now is whether to continue pursuing the Archangel.

Because as the Third Fleet continues to approach, there is not much time left for the ZAFT army to retreat.

For this reason, the frontline command even gave up a considerable part of the baggage. Of course, in order not to leave it to the coalition forces, these materials that could not be taken away were basically destroyed.

The large force has retreated to the shore, waiting to board the ship for evacuation.

As a mobile suit that can fly, Dean certainly has advantages over land combat aircraft such as Jinn and Baku.

But if we continue to pursue the Archangel, with the opponent's current course and speed, then it will be a problem to wait for these Deans to return.

If we give up the pursuit, we will not be able to sink this warship that is like a thorn in the side and a thorn in the flesh, making ZAFT feel very uncomfortable.

Just when everyone was struggling, an order from Carpantaria solved the problem.

The frontline commander put down the document and said to the communications officer.

"Order Dean's troops to return immediately and leave the task of chasing Long Legs to other troops."

"Yes!"

Although others are curious about the identity of the troops assigned to this task, for ZAFT right now, the most important task is to retreat.

In order to buy time for retreat, a considerable number of submarine carriers have been sent to the front line to attack and delay the advancement of the Third Fleet.

However, according to the report, due to the new weapons and tactics invested by the East Asian Federation, the delay tactics did not work well.

Therefore, the pace of retreat must be accelerated.

At this time, the submarine carriers staying on the surface of Davao Bay are very busy. In order to take away the MS troops, each carrier is now overloaded.

After the Gnaku was full, these submarine carriers maintained a surface navigation state so that they could use the upper decks to accommodate more mobile suits.

The underwater aircraft originally carried in the boat have all left the Gnaku and entered the water, and followed the mothership in a mounted manner.

It can be said that ZAFT is also racking its brains in order to retreat.

But despite this, their long-range attacks on the Davao base have not stopped.

This is not only to delay possible enemy counterattacks, but also to completely destroy the Davao base.

As the fuel depot and ammunition depot in the base were detonated.

The entire base was engulfed in continuous fires and successive explosions, like a flaming hell in a religious story.

Even so, ZAFT continued to attack the base that had been blown to the surface of the moon.

There is nothing left on the ground to blow up, so fire the ground-penetrating munitions and destroy the underground facilities together.

There is a strong tendency to wipe the Davao base off the map.

During the attack, a round of ground-penetrating ammunition penetrated into the empty headquarters, completely blowing it up.

As a result, the Third Fleet completely lost contact with the Davao base, so it further accelerated its pace.

When the ZAFT army in Davao Bay was extremely busy in order to retreat.

The Archangel also discovered that the Dean fleet that was besieging it began to retreat.

"The Dean fleet is moving away from this ship!"

CIC's voice was full of joy.

Although the Archangel is as far away from the base as possible, trying to increase the cost of the enemy's return.

However, these enemies continued to attack the battleships without fear of death.

This made this pursuit a difficult battle.

Now that the enemy suddenly retreats, it means that the opponent has reached its limit.

Alex also noticed this situation, which was a good thing for our own side, which was already at the end of its tether.

"Kira, stop chasing."

He shouted to stop the attacker who was about to jump up and attack again.

"Mu and Cagalli also broke away from the enemy and retreated."

The two Skymasters immediately circled away, and Dean had no intention of pursuing them. The two sides even passed each other in the air.

"Did the plan succeed?"

Cagalli suddenly felt as if she was surviving a disaster.

"Yes, if we continue to pursue them, they will run out of ammunition and food."

Alex glanced at Jin En's remaining energy and was already approaching the cordon, not to mention these Deans who had been flying around.

"So, we fought them off?"

As the raid fell back to the upper deck, Kira opened her mask and took a breath of fresh air.

"No, it's not that we repelled them, but that the other party took the initiative to retreat."

He corrected Kira.

Hanging down had already missed the attack bazooka, and the pink and white Jin En's red one eye looked towards the direction of Dean's retreat.

The opponent retreated very quickly, not even retaining basic rearguards, as if their buttocks were on fire.

Alex thought about this unusual behavior and asked the bridge.

"Captain Masuo, can we contact the Third Fleet or the Davao base now?"

"Hey?"

Although I don't know why he did this.

"The battle has just ended, and the interference has not completely subsided, but we can give it a try. What do you want?"

"They retreated in such a hurry. Could it be that our reinforcements are coming soon?"

"Is that right?"

Masuo was shocked, and the battle made her not think about it at all.

In fact, contrary to what ZAFT had inferred, the Archangel had lost contact with the Third Fleet due to strong interference during the battle.

After the last contact was made with the garrison headquarters, the ZAFT army blew up the communication tower and lost contact with the reinforcements.

This caused the defenders and the Archangel to make a miscalculation.

According to the original timetable, reinforcements apparently arrived too late before the fall of Davao.

That’s why Masuo chose to retreat toward Batangas Port.

But looking at it now, it seems that the reinforcements have arrived early!

"I see."

Mu also understood what he was thinking.

If reinforcements from the East Asian Federation were not about to arrive, why would the ZAFT army, which already had the advantage, retreat in such a hurry?

"I'm going to investigate the situation in Davao."

After Mu finished speaking, he controlled the fighter plane to turn around and fly towards Davao.

"Be careful, Major, and try not to get into a fight."

"clear."

Mu saluted in response to Masuo's instructions.

Then the captain turned around and gave instructions.

"Captain Natal, try to call the Third Fleet. We need to know where they are now."

"Yes."

Strike, Jinn, and the remaining Skymasters returned to Gnaku.

The Archangel temporarily stopped moving northward, and instead circled to wait for Mu's investigation results.

The Third Fleet at this time, or should be called, the Third Task Force Reinforcement Fleet.

The reinforcement fleet departing from the mainland arrived directly in Zamboanga and joined the Third Fleet to form a large fleet.

As a maritime power, the East Asian Federation's fleet is second only to the Atlantic Federation.

Ranking second in the coalition forces, it can be said that this time in order to reinforce Davao, it can be said that it has spent a lot of money.

Two full fleets were dispatched to cooperate with the third fleet. Although they were all conventional warships, ZAFT still attached great importance to the large fleet.

To this end, Carpantalia sent a combination of submarine carriers and underwater mobile suits to delay the fleet.

Unexpectedly, in addition to the large fleet size and number, the East Asia Federation also prepared special weapons.

The East Asian Federation is not as blindly reckless as the Eurasian Federation and the Atlantic Federation.

In view of the enemy's underwater MS advantage, the East Asia Federation has designed a brand new idea.

Since we currently do not have the ability to directly confront the enemy's underwater MS, we will find another way and first make a batch of emergency use based on the existing equipment.

The first need is to be easy to retrofit, and easy to operate in large quantities.

This can quickly transform production and put a large number of them into battle quickly.

Therefore, the technical personnel of the East Asia Federation focused on the M/A Mistral, which was first used for space combat.

As an engineering device similar to UC's iron ball, Mistral can be easily transformed into an underwater body.

Although these modified M/As are still fragile, they are more numerous and easy to operate.

The East Asia Federation's staff team also specially arranged suitable tactics for these aircraft carrying torpedo launchers and underwater harpoon launchers.

Group 10 aircraft into a group to carry out intensive saturation attacks on incoming enemies.

Relying on this defensive tactic, combined with ship-borne anti-submarine weapons, even the ZAFT army's underwater MS had to stay away.

And in order to maintain the continuity of firepower and carry these airframes.

The East Asia Federation also uses large freighters to transform them into carrying motherships.

In this operation, the first batch of modified carrying motherships and a large number of Mistral were put into battle.

In this way, the Third Fleet barely offset ZAFT's underwater superiority.

Therefore, the arrival speed of the reinforcement fleet was faster than expected.

Unfortunately, due to communication interference, the defenders and the Archangel were unaware of this situation.