Chapter 17: The Tiger

The Desert Tiger keenly sensed the changes in the Strike, and a premonition in his heart quickly became reality.

The previously clumsy Strike suddenly became agile; it leaped and landed without sinking into the sand, and its marksmanship became accurate.

Even when facing the siege of four BuCUEs, it did not fall into a disadvantage at all.

Such a change made the BuCUE pilots, who had been unable to secure a victory despite repeated attacks, become irritable.

One of the BuCUEs was overly reckless and was instead knocked over by a shot from the Strike.

"Do not be overly reckless. Follow the original plan and exhaust its Phase Shift Armor."

Seeing this, the Desert Tiger reminded the frontline pilots over the tactical channel.

The ZAFT forces, having lost one BuCUE, calmed down under the Desert Tiger's command.

The BuCUEs continued to utilize their high mobility to constantly drain the Strike's energy, while the armed helicopter units that had previously retreated began using the sand dunes as cover to launch sneak attacks.

This type of guerrilla tactic was very annoying; it was a bit like "you advance, I retreat; you retreat, I advance." Li Boyong understood the sharpness of this tactic very well, so he made no reckless moves, only patiently waiting for a real opportunity.

Li Boyong also tried to deal with the ZAFT armed helicopter group; these guys who kept darting in and out on the edge of life and death were quite annoying.

However, as soon as he revealed this intention, the BuCUEs would begin to focus their fire on him, forcing him to turn and break away.

Tsk, the Desert Tiger's subordinates have quite rich combat experience; they can maintain such tacit understanding even in mobile warfare.

On the other side, Mula Flaga, piloting the Sky Grasper, was suppressing the BuCUE that had first poked its head out quite well. However, the ZAFT pilots were no slouches either; they began to use their high mobility to maneuver, occasionally even using the cover of sand dunes to counterattack.

"Notice: Lesseps, do not stop the shelling. It doesn't matter even if the Archangel finds you. The opponent's weapons cannot reach there in this terrain. Just keep firing."

Seeing that the BuCUE team he had high hopes for could not break the deadlock, the Desert Tiger temporarily changed his tactical objective.

The Waltfeld Team's mothership, the Lesseps, had been hiding behind a sand dune 20 kilometers away, using the data transmitted back by the frontline BuCUEs to continuously blanket the Archangel's location with its main guns.

"Damn it, this won't do!"

The change in the battle situation made Mu decisively abandon the BuCUE he was engaging and turn to follow the trajectory of the shelling to find the enemy mothership.

Although Mula Flaga quickly discovered the location of the enemy mothership in the rear, he soon realized that the opponent was hiding very well, and the Archangel's beam weapons simply could not reach that far.

Moreover, the two Zauorts and a pile of anti-aircraft guns on the Lesseps' deck caused Mu's two attempts to dive-attack the main gun turret to fail.

For a time, the Archangel, under continuous shelling, fell into a perilous situation.

"I swore I would protect her!"

Witnessing the Archangel's situation and thinking of Flay Allster, who was still waiting for him to return in her room, Kira Yamato directly unleashed the power of the SEED.

The Strike leaped high, attracting a BuCUE to leap along with it.

The Strike hammered the BuCUE onto the shelling trajectory with one punch, and the Lesseps' main gun directly destroyed this BuCUE.

The remaining shells fired from the Lesseps continued to fly toward the Archangel. The Strike turned and used the Agni to destroy them all before they could hit the Archangel.

The Desert Tiger, observing from the shadows, began to doubt the authenticity of the intelligence: "Is this really something a Natural can do?"

While Kira Yamato's god-like operation shocked the entire battlefield, Li Boyong also found his own opportunity.

That BuCUE, which had been suppressed by Mula Flaga, rushed toward the Strike as Mu turned to search for the enemy mothership.

In Li Boyong's eyes, this BuCUE was like a lone wolf separated from the pack; he did not let go of this opportunity to shoot it down.

A sudden and incomparably resolute dive attack was beyond all the ZAFT forces' expectations, and the excellent angle caused the BuCUE to lose its field of fire for counterattack. The precise shooting did not give the rushing BuCUE a single chance to dodge; the continuous hits from the beam rifle and missiles, while failing to destroy the BuCUE directly, caused it to lose its mobility.

After succeeding, Li Boyong did not linger, quickly climbing and turning back to support the Strike, and notified the Archangel of the BuCUE's coordinates.

"Coordinates 15.4.65, enemy BuCUE has lost mobility."

"Understood, Valiant, fire!"

Natarle Badgiruel, commanding the battle in the CIC, did not miss this opportunity and used the Valiant's railgun to destroy this BuCUE.

At this point, only two BuCUEs and the armed helicopter group remained fighting on the ZAFT side.

The change in the battle situation exceeded the ZAFT forces' expectations. The adjutant, Daguza, asked the Desert Tiger: "Captain, should we retreat first?"

The Desert Tiger stared at the data on the Strike in his hand, hesitated for a moment, and then said: "Order the Lesseps to continue shelling to pin down the Archangel. The armed helicopters are to cover the BuCUEs as they close in to siege the Strike. The Phase Shift Armor should fail soon."

Gritting his teeth, the Desert Tiger added: "I have a bad premonition. If we don't finish it off here, we will suffer greatly in the future."

"Understood!" Daguza nodded and relayed the order to his subordinates.

The Desert Tiger's judgment was very accurate, although Li Boyong, who had returned to defend, shot down two ZAFT armed helicopters.

But the remaining armed helicopters still covered the BuCUEs as they stuck to the Strike. After the BuCUEs closed in on the Strike, the Archangel feared friendly fire and had to stop providing fire support.

The BuCUEs and armed helicopters ignored Li Boyong's interference and poured all their firepower onto the Strike. After consecutive hits from rockets, the Strike's Phase Shift Armor failed.

After losing its energy, the Launcher Strike was caught in a pincer attack by two BuCUEs, basically losing its ability to resist; the situation was extremely critical.

On this side, Li Boyong finished off all the armed helicopters, only to find that his ammunition was basically exhausted, and it seemed difficult to rescue the Strike.

Damn it, the Desert Tiger is determined to finish off the Strike. How is this battle still so dangerous? Why hasn't that resistance organization arrived yet?

Just as he was complaining, an armed convoy suddenly burst out from behind a sand dune in the southeast. This convoy quickly approached the battlefield and began to provide cover for the Strike.

"Finally here."

Li Boyong, in the Sky Grasper, breathed a sigh of relief.

Soon, the armed convoy retreated out of the battlefield with the Strike, seemingly wanting to protect the Strike from being destroyed by the BuCUEs.

The pilots of the two BuCUEs got hot-headed and followed them.

Seeing that they were about to shoot down the Strike, how could they let go of the prey in their hands? What use could the resistance organization's armed vehicles be against BuCUEs?

The underestimated BuCUEs were thus led by the Strike into a trap long-prepared by the resistance organization: an abandoned underground gas mine rigged with explosives.

As a mushroom cloud rose and illuminated the desert night sky, the fragments of the BuCUEs were scattered all over the ground along with the explosion.

At this point, the Andrew Waltfeld Team's first probing attack on the Archangel ended in a complete defeat. ===== CHAPTER 18 =====