Chapter 180: The Betrayed Homeland (Part 3)
Lady listened to what Tolle said, and though it sounded reasonable enough, she decided it was better to be cautious. "Mm, all right. I'll have the MD unit scout ahead later."
After the two of them piloted their Tauruses to the vicinity of their destination, Lady pointed toward the target area and said to Tolle,
"That's it, isn't it? The colony satellite where the fifth engineer is holed up. The other four were captured easily, yet this one still insists on resisting."
Lady had several manned space-type Leos head to the colony's outer wall first. She ordered them to check for potential dangers while she, Tolle, and several unmanned Tauruses stayed back to provide support.
After inspecting the outer wall, one of the Leo pilots reported to Lady,
"Lieutenant Colonel Lady, the Gundam factory is located in one of the outer modules of this colony satellite, but all the internal passages have been completely sealed off."
"You've tried to persuade him to surrender, right?"
"Yes, but he rejected our calls."
"Then there's no need to be polite. Begin the attack."
Tolle, keeping a constant eye on the heat signatures along the satellite's surface, had already sent the neo DG cells to infiltrate the interior.
Just as Lady issued her attack order, Tolle noticed Dr. J was preparing to fire his buster rifle at the colony's outer wall. He immediately warned Lady and the soldiers,
"Lady, wait! I'm picking up a heat reaction on the colony's surface — there's danger. Everyone, move away from that module! Advance team, scatter!"
The soldiers, realizing the threat, quickly accelerated their mobile suits and fled the module area.
No sooner had they left than a yellow beam shot out from the colony's outer wall.
Everyone looked in shock at the smoking hole that had just been blasted open. They were all relieved — if not for Tolle's timely warning, they would have been vaporized into cosmic dust.
However, one unmanned Taurus had been a second too slow and was hit by the beam, shattering instantly.
Tolle sighed at the explosion and reported to Lady, "One unmanned unit destroyed — must've been a delay in the MD response time. The others are fine."
Lady, angered by the loss, immediately snapped, "MD Taurus unit, prepare to fire the beam cannons!"
Not wanting Dr. J to die prematurely, Tolle quickly tried to dissuade her. "Lady, those beam cannons are too powerful. If you hit the colony directly, the damage will be enormous."
In full military mode again, Lady grew cold and unfeeling — even toward her superior, Tolle. She retorted mockingly,
"Since when did OZ start playing by the rules? Darks, this isn't diplomacy — it's war. And if the colony is damaged, it won't be our attack that did it. It'll be the rebels' fault."
Tolle thought to himself that since he was currently posing as an OZ officer named Darks, whatever she did couldn't really be blamed on him. With a resigned shrug, he said, "All right, have it your way."
Just as the Tauruses raised their beam cannons, Dr. J opened communications and addressed them,
"The OZ forces still carry that same despicable, dishonorable spirit. I can rest easy now. Very well, I'll surrender."
Tolle muttered under his breath as he looked at the gaping hole in the colony's wall and the fixed buster rifle,
"Please — you're the one who fired first. You've already blasted a hole that big, and you still call us despicable? What kind of logic is that?"
Still, Lady was more than happy to accept his surrender. Minimizing losses was, after all, her ideal way of handling a mission.
"Excellent. Surrender accepted. Step out immediately."
Dr. J walked to the hole he himself had created and, while watching the battle footage of the Gundams on his monitor, murmured to himself, "The darkness of OZ — someday, the people of the colonies will see it for themselves. Their fight must not be in vain."
Soon after, Lady successfully captured Dr. J, and the five Gundam engineers were all imprisoned together.
At the Singapore Spaceport Base, Quatre continued fighting in the Sandrock Gundam. Duo and Wufei had already secured an MS transport HLV shuttle and were loading the Deathscythe and Shenlong Gundams aboard.
But OZ's firepower was overwhelming. Sandrock couldn't advance an inch. Out of ammunition, Quatre had only one weapon left — the self-destruct system. There was no way he could escape into space with the others.
Reluctantly, Quatre activated the self-destruct countdown, raised his shield to block the cockpit entrance, and leapt out, sprinting toward the shuttle.
Step by step, Sandrock advanced toward the enemy MS formation. Under the cover of its imminent explosion, Wufei, Duo, and Quatre launched into space.
Meanwhile, Heero and Tolle were faring much better — they captured another spaceport outright, seized a shuttle, and likewise ascended to space.
In the command center, Tolle feigned ignorance and casually asked Lady, "So, what do we do with the five old men? Are we holding a public trial?"
"No. They still have their uses. After all, they're the ones who built the Gundams. It'd be a waste not to make full use of them."
Tolle muttered internally, Let's just hope OZ can actually handle them... not that it's my problem. I'm still looking forward to the birth of Mercurius's reflector shield and Vayeate's electromagnetic barrier.
Just then, a communications officer reported, "Lieutenant Colonel Lady Une, the five space shuttles carrying the Gundam pilots have just launched into orbit."
"Prepare the low-orbit micro missiles immediately."
Suddenly, red warning lights flashed across the command center, and the main monitor began to flicker. Lady turned sharply toward her subordinates. "What's going on?"
"Ma'am, the power system's malfunctioning! We're picking up interference waves everywhere — communications and radar are down!"
Lady was stunned. She hadn't expected this outcome at all. "Strange... what on earth is happening?" she murmured.
Only Tolle and the five doctors knew the truth. Those five weren't ordinary engineers — if they didn't want to be found, OZ could never have captured them in the first place.
They had surrendered on purpose. This entire act was a ruse — to ensure the five Gundam pilots reached space safely.