Chapter 33 - [Zum City]

There were 4 cruisers and 3 frigates remaining in the enemy fleet. More importantly, we were completely out of anti-ship weapons. It was basically impossible to breach a warship's fusion reactor with a 120mm MG. The best we could hope to do at this point was to destroy the helm or drive cone.

I targeted one of the remaining frigates. With two attack runs, I was able to destroy all of its armaments. The missile carriers detonated as they were pierced with high-caliber ammunition, but the detonations did not cascade like last time.

As the mission timer clicked down to -100 seconds, I magnetized the bottom of my feet to the frigate's deck just in front of the bridge. The barrel of my machine gun aimed at the command tower rising out of the warship's midsection. It might have been my imagination, but I could have sworn that I saw the screaming faces of the flag officers as I opened fire.

The bridge didn't explode like the others, but I put more than ten rounds into it, and I made sure to prioritize the area of the bridge that I was pretty sure held the helm. The frigate burned lightly and flew off course as I detached myself from its deck.

Throughout the battle, I had incapacitated seven Federation warships, but almost all of those kills were half-measures. My priority was in preventing the warships from reaching the colonies, so there was a distinct chance that many of these warships would become problems for Zeon later. For example, that frigate I just incapacitated could probably be repaired in a few hours.

Two loud cracks sounded through my cockpit as I was hit by bullets from a nearby cruiser. Reflexively, I tried to shoot upward, but one of my vernier thrusters was damaged by a 60mm bullet. I accelerated upward at an uneven pace, causing me to fly in a wide, curving arc.

As the timer clicked down to -60 seconds, five of the surviving warships began turning. The other cruiser began listing aimlessly as a glittering red comet pulled away from its damaged form.

"They're going to start decelerating in a minute!" I shouted into comms. "Find a ship and grab onto it ASAP!"

I flew toward one of the two surviving frigates and performed a quick attack run to destroy all of the guns on its upper deck. My machine gun clicked empty before I could take out the last gun, so I finished the job with my chest-mounted Vulcan Cannon.

The only ammunition left available to my Zaku was a few hundred 60mm rounds in my Vulcan Cannon. The mission wasn't nearly finished, and I would have to reach the finish line with little more than my Heat Hawk.

The mission timer hit zero, and the remnants of Cowen Fleet began decelerating at 2 Gs. Compared to the 5 Gs I had pulled earlier, this was comfortable.

They tried to shake me off during the deceleration process, but my magnetic bond to the frigate's hull was too strong. At one point, some soldiers with handheld rocket launchers stuck their heads out and shot at me. One of the rockets exploded against my shield, and I was able to dissuade them with a few bursts of my Vulcan Gun.

When the mission timer hit +600 seconds, the frigate stopped burning, and I used the opportunity to look around. To my surprise, all five of the enemy frigates were still in view. I thought they were going to attack all five colonies simultaneously. The plan had changed, evidently.

Suspended out in the void of space was a colony. This one was different from the other ones I had seen before. Island Iffish and Wathort Colony had large glass windows running across their superstructures, but this colony was completely filled in. I knew from the lore of Mobile Suit Gundam that Side 3 colonies didn't have windows like the others, but I had no idea which colony this was.

"It's Zum City!" Ramos shouted into comms. "They're only attacking the capital!"

I cringed internally at the situation. In hindsight, telling Cpt. Ramba Ral to split his forces among the five colonies had been a bad move.

With a few quick movements, I sent a call request in the direction of Zum City on the same frequency I used earlier to call Ramba Ral.

"Dogwood," Ral said quickly. "What happened to Cowen Fleet?"

"They're down to five warships, but they all decided to attack Zum City. Unfortunately, we used up all of our nuclear warheads taking out the rest of Cowen Fleet. We're down to our Heat Hawks."

"Five warships…" Ramba Ral said, scratching his face. "There's no need to worry. You can leave the rest to me."

"Thanks," I said, a genuine smile appearing on my face. With the Blue Giant and Red Comet on our side, we couldn't possibly lose.

The least I could do was try to reduce Cpt. Ral's work load, so I lifted my Zaku from its kneeling position and put the frigate's bridge in my Vulcan Gun's firing cone. The internal atmosphere of the bridge was ruptured and all of the important machines inside were destroyed as I completely unloaded my remaining 60mm rounds into the bridge.

Without warning, I was taken out of the fight.

Several high-caliber rounds from outside of my sightline hit my Zaku and penetrated its core. Immediately, I lost all control of the Zaku's motor functions, and my HUD began pulsing a dangerous red color as sparks began to cascade throughout my cockpit.

A second of shocked inactivity held me in place before I quickly unfastened my crash harness and pulled the emergency release lever on my cockpit's hatch. Silently, I thanked Zeonic for making the release lever mechanical and not electronic.

The jettisoning air pushed me most of the way out of the cockpit, and I quickly used the jetpack built into my flight suit to navigate over to Yoshida's mobile worker. The shot from earlier had passed straight through my Zaku, and I was terrified of what I would find inside of the mobile worker.