"Charging in like this? So reckless?"
Roz pushed the control stick, constantly adjusting the pedal height, and Jesta nimbly dodged the DINN's thrust. Then, Jesta raised its beam rifle and fired a laser at the DINN's cockpit.
"What?!"
Although he had anticipated that Jesta would evade the thrust, he hadn't expected the counterattack to come so fast.
The DINN raised the longsword in its hand to block the beam aimed at the cockpit.
This was one of the DINN's drawbacks: to fly in the atmosphere, compared with Jesta's current brute force flight, the DINN chose a weight-reduction route, most notably removing the shield and trimming armor.
The DINN's right hand holding the sword was hit by the beam. The burly pilot twisted the DINN's body as hard as he could. The beam melted through the DINN's right arm, passed through its missile pod, and grazed the DINN's left wing.
"Bang…"
With the missile pod melted, DINN's right shoulder exploded, completely destroying the damaged shoulder.
"Uwaaaah…"
The force of the explosion not only tore apart the DINN's cockpit, but some fragments also struck the burly pilot.
"Captain!"
Another DINN pilot, seeing this, panicked and began approaching.
The damaged DINN began falling toward the sea.
"Hu… hu…"
Without cockpit protection, the burly pilot was pressed into his seat by the wind, and the wounds from flying fragments were still bleeding. Clearly, he could no longer command the battle.
"Temporary command transferred, DINN Two."
"GOOhN Team Two, hold off the Cub. Our DINN Two will assist the captain. Other units continue the mission!"
The DINN pilot temporarily given command quickly made a decision, flying his DINN toward the falling damaged unit.
As it passed Jesta, the still-functional GOOhN raised its anti-air scatter gun and pulled the trigger.
The mechanical arm of the high-mobility backpack adjusted the shield, blocking all scatter shots. Just as Roz prepared to counterattack, several beams shot up from the water.
Jesta smoothly swerved left and right, and the lower-right mechanical arm detached the electromagnetic rocket launcher mounted on the high-mobility backpack.
"Fuze distance updated, ready to fire, Roz."
On the control panel, Haro flapped its wings.
Roz had not used the rocket launcher earlier because there were few countermeasures against underwater targets. The cluster-missile-equipped rocket launcher was the only anti-submarine option.
The rocket launcher's magazines were limited, so it couldn't be used recklessly; hence, he had fought with the beam rifle until now.
Three rockets fired from the launcher, and after a certain distance, each warhead split into small high-explosive rockets that struck the waters around the GOOhN. The GOOhN, just submerged, was hit in its thrusters by multiple small rockets, and with its battery pack damaged, it exploded.
Though the caliber was smaller than the Jesta shield's rockets, these high-explosive rockets were more than enough to destroy the GOOhN.
"Captain has being rescued! All units, withdraw!"
Before the DINN wreckage hit the sea, this unknown DINN pilot finally caught the wreckage. He chose not to stubbornly fight, glanced at the situation, and decided to retreat.
But right after his command, a surfacing GOOhN was hit head-on in the cockpit by Jesta's rocket, and with the cockpit and battery pack destroyed, the unlucky GOOhN exploded on the surface.
"Retreat! Retreat!"
The unknown pilot panicked, hastily retreating with the remaining units far from Archangel.
However, the last GOOhN left in the battle didn't withdraw. It surfaced and fired its rocket at Jesta, attempting to interfere.
Jesta's Vulcan gun on the right side of the head monitor continuously fired, destroying all approaching rockets, then raised its beam rifle and fired at the GOOhN cockpit.
With the beam dissolving the GOOhN's armor, the final GOOhN exploded.
Roz watched the DINN rapidly retreat along the sea surface, checked the remaining energy of his unit, and abandoned pursuit.
"Return to the ship, Roz, we need to increase speed!"
-----------------------------------
As Jesta returned to the hangar, Kira had just landed the Strike Gundam.
"Things aren't looking good… we lack anti-submarine measures; the seabed is the domain of subs and aquatic units," Roz grumbled over the comms.
"So does that mean we can only take hits?" someone asked.
"There's nothing we can do — their attack was crafty," came the reply.
Mu's voice then came over the comms.
"Use the DINN to probe our advance direction first, then ambush with GOOhNs ahead of us — the whole submarine's been operating outside our sonar sweep."
Skygrasper taxied smoothly back into the hangar from the catapult track.
"I circled out there for ages and couldn't find their submarine," Mu reported.
"We can't just sit and take hits forever. Next time I'll fly Jesta out to look for it — Jesta can enter the water for short periods anyway," Roz suggested after thinking it over.
"Don't worry — next time I'll find that sub for sure," Roz added.
The Skygrasper's cockpit opened and Mu climbed out in his flight suit. "You and Kira stay near Archangel — we need you here right now."
Jesta stood in the hangar, secured to the standard mount. Haros-controlled mechanical arms began routine maintenance.
Cluster missiles were reloaded into the shield, the beam rifle's magazine swapped out and recharged.
Compared with the Archangel, the atmosphere inside ZAFT's submarine was more solemn.
"Doctor! Doctor! The captain is badly wounded!" shouted a DINN pilot who hadn't even taken off his flight suit yet, alarmed by the burly pilot's condition.
The ship's medic rushed to the damaged cockpit. After injecting a dose, the previously unconscious burly pilot slowly regained consciousness.
"Captain! You're in bad shape. We need to get to the nearest base for repairs!" the medic urged.
"No… doctor, I can still fight," the burly pilot said after glancing at his own state, pausing for a moment.
"Doctor, amputate and fit me with a prosthetic!"
"But we don't have enough anesthetic right now," the medic replied, feeling queasy at the request.
"Then don't use anesthetic!" the burly pilot snapped, his helmet visor already shattered.
"They can't find us right now — this is the perfect chance."
"Fit me with a prosthetic. I'm going to pilot ZnO!"
..........