Why would I join the army if I can’t drive a Gundam!

Chapter 342 Dendrobium Orchid Strikes

"Sir, we're about to reach our target area!"

"Alright, notify the Hunter: once the target is found, I'm going to promote all of them!"

The Hunter is naturally the information warfare-enhanced version of the Chebay-class ship, and at this moment, it is serving as the fleet's vanguard, charging at the forefront.

"Almost there, almost there, this is it!"

On the HMS Hunter, Captain Zeon looked at the navigation map that almost overlapped with his own, and tears welled up in his eyes.

It wasn't easy; they spent so much time finally finding it!

"Sir, once we bypass this ring of meteorites, we'll see the location of the minaret!"

"Then let's press on, accelerate, and charge through!"

"understand!"

Upon receiving the order, the first few Zeon squadrons accelerated like wild horses, then passed through the obstructing ring and entered the empty space behind them.

At this moment, in the center of that open area, a strangely shaped meteorite was floating there all alone.

"That must be the minaret, right?"

"The shape is so strange, it looks like a meteorite!"

"This is probably some kind of disguise, otherwise the Federation forces would have discovered it much earlier!"

Should we send someone over to take a look?

"Don't rush, have you calculated its data yet?"

"The measurements are in, but the data is a bit strange. It has a large mass and is about 700 meters long, which doesn't seem like a warship!"

One of the technicians frowned, because no matter how you looked at it, this thing was clearly a meteorite!

Meanwhile, Mark Bay's flagship, along with its follow-up troops, entered the open area and received a report from the front.

"A meteorite? There must be a miscalculation. Send someone over to check it out!"

When Mark Bay saw the large rock that looked like half a banana, he frowned. Was Lady Kycilia's aesthetic sense a bit peculiar, designing a perfectly good warship like this!

Therefore, he immediately ordered a small team to go out and check the condition of the meteorite.

Soon, a Musai-class aircraft approached the meteorite at cruising speed. Then, the Musai's cabin door opened, releasing two Warriors. Following that, the Musai released more than a dozen soldiers in spacesuits, who gripped the tow ropes attached to the Warriors and moved toward the meteorite.

"Release the rice grains and tell the brothers, we're closing the door to beat the dog!"

While the Zeon people's attention was focused on the meteorite, Makarius had already begun his operation with the Federation forces.

The Federation warships, which had been lying in wait for a long time, turned on their navigation lights and then suddenly pulled up from the darkness of space. The cosmic dust attached to the hulls was immediately thrown up by the vibrations. Then, due to the inertia of the warships, the dust was thrown to the rear, shimmering with a crystal-clear light under the light of the warships' engine exhaust flames.

Meanwhile, the Zeon soldiers were still struggling with the meteorite beneath their feet. They had reached the surface of the object, but to their bewilderment, they could not find any trace of human intervention on it.

"So, this is a meteorite, right?"

"Hey, hey, can you hear me?"

"What happened? Why was the communication cut off?"

"Sir, an increase in Minovsky particle concentration has been detected!"

Suddenly, Mark Bay heard a terrified shout from a technician on the bridge.

"Battle alert!"

At the very moment Markbe shouted the order, the first salvo of naval gunfire from the Makarius Strike Group came from the rear of the fleet.

The two Musai-class ships and three transport ships located at the rear of the fleet were destroyed by concentrated fire before they could even react. The pilots of the mobile suits on those transport ships hadn't even changed their clothes yet. After the explosion, countless pieces of debris drifted in space, and various mobile suit fragments could even be vaguely seen among them.

"It's a trap!"

Finally, a Zeon officer shouted out that classic line, but no one around him reacted to it. All the Zeon crew members were rushing to their battle stations, while the Zeon warships were desperately trying to turn around and engage in battle.

"Quick, quick, brothers, follow me! It's time to give that old bastard Mark Bay a good kick in the ass!"

"Major, we're already too slow!"

"It's alright. Here, one person faster than me is enough!"

As the fleet launched its bombardment, Amuro and his men also formed an assault formation. However, despite his quick movements, there was someone even faster than him!
"Haha, the universe is here! Dendrobium gp03d, move out!"

On the short-range communication channel, many Federation soldiers heard Makarius's cheer, and then a huge figure flew past them at high speed.

That was the GP03D Dendrobium piloted by Makarius. Due to its size, this large mobile armor could not be properly stored by the fleet, so it was mounted on the Rose Life. Before the battle, Makarius had already transferred from the Enterprise to the Rose Life. After issuing the attack order, he boarded the cockpit of the Rose Life and handed over the subsequent command to Captain Cuvatoro.

He, like an arrow released from a bow, launched a surprise attack on the Zeon fleet at maximum speed.

Marcarius had perfect timing, because at this moment, the Zeon fleet was in complete chaos. The transport ships carrying mobile suits were desperately fleeing forward. They didn't have dedicated catapults to begin with, and since they were moving at full speed, their mobile suit deployment speed was extremely slow.

The mobile suits that had detached from the ship were still moving forward slowly because they had no initial velocity. However, the surrounding area was not an open space, and there were a large number of warships turning around, so the mobile suits could not accelerate at full speed.

For Makarius, there was no better target!
"Sorry, Amuro, I'm going to be eating a lot of fries again today!" Makarius pressed the weapon button with his left hand, switching the main weapon to the missile pod, and then pulled the trigger again.

Then, a perfectly regular polygonal notch appeared on Dendrobium's huge right shoulder, followed by the emergence of a massive missile pod propelled by a rocket engine, accompanied by the billowing of white smoke.

After this pod is fired, there will be a second, a third, and a fourth!

The four missile pods already possessed a rapid initial velocity from the organic structure, and now, propelled by the booster rockets, their speed was even more astonishing. After launching the rockets, Markarius quickly set the fire control markers on the mobile suits that were still slowly accelerating.

With the assistance of a powerful fire control computer, the densely packed fire control markings were firmly fixed to the Zeon mobile suit. Even if they weren't fixed, the missile's warhead would automatically seek out the closest target and attack.

Then, Makarius pressed the trigger again, and immediately the four missile pods that had flown over the Zeon fleet began to transform a second time.

Inside the pod, rows of missile bays were easily opened by the missiles installed inside. Propelled by the vectoring engines, the densely packed missiles twisted their bodies after exiting the pod, leaving dazzling trails as they rushed toward their targets.

Although the close-in weapon systems on the Zeon battleship were firing desperately to intercept the incoming missiles, the sheer number of missiles was overwhelming. The four missile pods fired a total of 432 missiles. Even with the intercepting fire creating barrages, countless missiles still managed to slip through and hit the Zeon mobile suits below who had no time to dodge.

The pilot of a Warrior aircraft felt a tightness in his bladder as he heard the urgent missile attack warning. In the end, he couldn't control himself and could only let the liquid flow out, because on the tactical display in front of him, there were five or six missiles flying towards him.

"what!"

Without speed, the Warrior could only futilely try to withstand the onslaught. The first, the second, the third missiles struck his machine one after another, the explosions tearing at his armor until finally, the Warrior was ripped apart by the explosions. Shrapnel shot into the interior along the cracks in the armor, then pierced the cockpit, killing the pilot.

On the Zeon battleship, the gunnery crew could not hear the dying cries of the pilots who were being attacked, but they could see the rows of signals disappearing one after another.

What pained these soldiers the most was that, although they paid close attention to the firing range, some friendly aircraft were chased around by missiles and ended up crashing into the anti-aircraft gun barrage, becoming friendly fire.

For Makarius, the four miniature missile pods were just an appetizer. After firing those four pods, he fired the remaining four 84-tube missile pods, and this time the target was still those unfortunate mobile suits.

Although repeated attacks would waste ammunition and reduce kill efficiency, he had a lot of missiles. Even if they hit repeatedly, he could still take out those who slipped through the net again. Moreover, the Zeon transport ships were constantly dropping out new mobile suits.

After all, the Zeon fleet's ordinary warships had limited carrying capacity, unlike Macbeth's Gwadan-class battleship which could carry over a hundred ships. Therefore, the transport ships took on the more important loading tasks.

In reality, under normal circumstances, the aircraft carried on these transport ships are just ordinary reserve forces. Generally, friendly forces on warships engage the enemy first, and these ships are the second batch to be deployed to the battlefield.

But now, because Macbeth's main fleet is stuck inside, these unfortunate transport ships have become the front row.

"Forget about those damn missiles, take down that thing!"

Although Dendrobium Orchid's size of over 100 meters is much smaller than a warship, it is still much larger than an ordinary mobile suit. In addition, with Macarius's forces venturing deep into enemy territory alone, Zeon's artillery fire soon came at them.

However, most of the incoming particle beams were quickly shaken off by the massive yet exceptionally agile machine. Even those that couldn't be shaken off were deflected as they approached the machine, as if hitting an invisible barrier.

"Kid, never seen this before? It's called an i-field shield!"

Dendrobium orchids are too large to dodge incoming fire by simply moving around, so Anaheim installed an i-field generator on them. Moreover, the layout of this generator was modified in a later second modification to ensure that it would not become inoperable due to damage from minor attacks.

In return, Makarius gave the Zeon fleet that fired at him a gift: the last batch of missile pods carried by Dendrobium, two triple-launched heavy anti-ship missile pods!

Six high-speed anti-ship missiles swooped down without hesitation in a top-attack configuration, heading straight for the most conspicuous Chibe-class ship.

"Stop it!"

The captain of the Chibe-class destroyer was furious. He knew all too well the power of those large missiles, the same type used on Federation warships, against warships. Even a Chibe-class destroyer would be destroyed if hit by a few of those missiles.

"Hard to port! Tactical maneuver!"

Despite the gun crew's desperate attempts to intercept, three missiles still managed to hit the Chebe-class destroyer.

At the moment the missile struck, Captain Zeon felt as if springs had been installed under his feet, propelling his body violently against the ceiling.

Forces are reciprocal. When he slammed heavily onto the ceiling, he was hit on the head and bled profusely, seeing stars.

But he had no time to treat his injuries, because the entire warship was out of control and pressed against the ceiling. He could even hear the teeth-grinding creaking sound of the armor deforming.

The fire alarm and depressurization alarm were deafening, and the ship's internal communications were filled with screams and cries of agony.

The missiles launched by Makarius landed on the mid-to-aft side of the Chibe-class destroyer, causing enormous damage to the warship. The internal hull structure was even pierced and torn apart, making it impossible for the automatic safety devices to prevent the depressurization of the compartments. Most importantly, there were still many Zeon soldiers alive in those depressurized compartments. Although they had changed into spacesuits, it did not mean that they were safe.

Moreover, and most critically, the missile attack also severed the main power supply line of the Chibe-class cruiser, which caused its power output and firepower to drop significantly in an instant.

The leaking pipeline also caught fire due to an overload of electricity, and the fire brigade is still desperately trying to control the fire.

"Drain the damaged area!"

"We must not let the fire spread any further!"

Captain Zeon was extremely anxious. He wasn't sure when the next wave of enemy missile attacks would arrive, but he was certain that the ship would not be able to withstand the next missile attack.

"Sir, it seems it has fired all its missiles!"

"?"

"Really?"

"Yes, the optical lens can see it very clearly, it has no missiles!"

"That's good!"

The slight smile that had just appeared on Captain Zeon's face froze again a second later.

Although that terrifying MA no longer had missiles, it unleashed an even more terrifying particle beam attack!
(End of this chapter)