Chapter 243: Pursuit and Ambush (Part 3)

"Rey, fall back!"

Just as the Zaku Phantom was damaged, Shihe, who had finished off the two Daggers L, had already arrived in the combat sector between Li Boyong and Rey.

Two extremely precise continuous shots directly destroyed the two mobile gunbarrels, helping the Zaku out of its predicament, while simultaneously approaching Li Boyong's Dagger at high speed.

"No, I can still fight. Let me provide support; this enemy is very troublesome."

The damaged Zaku Phantom, under Rey's control, began to provide fire support for the Ginn from the side.

"Tsk, got careless..."

Putting too much attention on the Zaku Phantom, suddenly having two mobile gunbarrels destroyed, and then facing the siege of two enemy units, the situation suddenly became somewhat unfavorable.

In the rock belt, the maneuvering exhaust flames and firepower of the three units crossed into chaotic trajectories; the death struggle continued.

On the other MS battlefield, the Minerva's MS unit, ambushed by the Three Stooges, lost two GuAIZ R in a short time, leaving only Luna Maria's ZAKU Warrior and Shinn's Impulse to face the siege of the three Gundams, struggling to hold on.

"The Minerva... was ambushed?"

In this situation, they received the return telegram from the mothership, but Shinn and Luna simply didn't have the ability to shake off the three Gundams and could only deal with the enemies in front of them while secretly feeling anxious.

And from the moment the Minerva was ambushed, it had been in a passive state of being beaten. It was thanks to Shihe and Rey holding back the Phantom Pain's MS unit that the Minerva didn't suffer a fatal blow.

The rain of rocks kicked up by artillery fire on the asteroid's surface, although limiting the battleship's navigation, also made it impossible for the Lesseps' artillery fire to hit directly.

The Minerva was lingering on its last breath, and Li Boyong was also lingering on his last breath.

"Hey, hey, hey, Athrun that kid is so good at playing the Ginn? And so good at rock battles?"

Having had all the remaining mobile gunbarrels shot down by the Ginn suspected to be piloted by Athrun using the rock environment, Li Boyong couldn't suppress his complaints.

"You don't need to enter SEED mode just to fight me!"

Another thrilling crossfire, Li Boyong was forced to use an evasion command, but his right leg was still hit by two live rounds.

Although there was no explosion, the attitude control thruster on the right leg was already sparking and had lost its function.

Facing a disadvantage, Li Boyong simply detached the backpack, let the backpack continue to fly toward the Ginn, and then blew up the backpack to create an explosion, subsequently hiding in the rock belt.

Since he couldn't beat them, he had to become a Voldemort; the dictionary of an old schemer didn't contain the word "deadlock."

"Be careful, this guy is also a veteran of rock battles, probably experienced the last Great War just like me."

Losing the enemy's trail, Shihe reminded him immediately.

"But we can't drag this out any longer; the Minerva needs our help."

Rey heard this and felt somewhat anxious, reminding him quickly.

"I also want to go support the Minerva quickly, but if we disperse now, we'll fall right into that guy's trap."

Shihe interjected.

"But if we continue to be dragged on like this, the opponent's goal will also be achieved."

Rey pulled the control stick, piloting the Zaku Phantom to circle toward the Lesseps that was attacking the Minerva, attempting to help the Minerva get out of trouble.

How could he let Gil die in a place like this!

"Wait!"

Shihe reminded him quickly, but Li Boyong's reaction was faster than his.

He had a fairly accurate grasp of Rey's psychology, knowing that the opponent would be unable to resist attacking the Lesseps because of his anxiety over the Minerva's predicament.

After hiding, he calculated the route and drifted ahead to the vicinity of the route to the Lesseps to set an ambush.

Sure enough, Rey fell for it. Li Boyong piloted the Dagger and rushed out, his beam gun firing in rapid succession.

But Shihe's reaction was also very quick; when Li Boyong rushed out, she provided shooting support immediately.

The result was that Li Boyong blew up the Zaku Phantom's backpack and right arm, but he himself had the beam gun in his hand swept away, and the head monitor seemed to have been hit by a stray bullet. The monitor in the cockpit lost its vision briefly, then barely recovered, but seemed to be flashing static constantly.

This was a bit painful. He was a bit arrogant this time and didn't honestly wear the pressure-resistant suit and pilot helmet, just a regular helmet.

In the current situation, if the monitor was completely broken, he wouldn't be able to be a "True Man" again, open the cockpit door, and fight the enemy head-on.

Fortunately, it seemed barely usable for now, so he quickly piloted the unit and hid.

Although he failed to shoot down the Zaku Phantom, causing this level of damage should mean it couldn't return on its own.

In that case, the Ginn would also be dragged here, unless the opponent didn't care about the Zaku Phantom's life or death.

The MS battle on both sides fell into a complete stalemate, and as for the ship battle, the Minerva was in a desperate situation, seemingly doomed.

But it was in such a situation that the Minerva's Captain, Captain Gladys, listened to Athrun's suggestion in the VIP seat, used all the firepower on the starboard side to bombard the asteroid, and then used the shock of the explosion to break out of the predicament of being unable to move while covered by rocks, launching a counterattack against the enemy in one go.

Major Ian saw this and quickly ordered the helmsman to evade urgently; the red ion stream of the positron blaster cannon grazed the starboard side of the Lesseps.

The two equally scarred battleships passed each other, but neither seemed to have the strength to continue attacking the other.

If they continued to fight like this, even the winner would probably find it difficult to get out of this rock belt.

Therefore, both sides tacitly fired return signal flares at the same time, indicating that they would stop fighting.

On the ZAFT side, they couldn't continue to let the head of state and the Orb representative continue to take risks.

And the Phantom Pain side naturally didn't want to continue entangling. Although they lost some manpower, compared to the gains, weren't those three Gundams worth it?

Seeing the battle stop, Li Boyong breathed a sigh of relief and piloted his unit back.

Over there, Shihe also hurriedly pushed Rey's Zaku Phantom back. Since just now, she hadn't received any response to her calls to Rey, which made her somewhat worried.

The Lesseps successively accommodated Li Boyong's Dagger as well as the Chaos, Abyss, and Gaia Gundams, then left the sector and returned to the Moon Base.

However, Li Boyong knew very well that news would soon come that the wreckage of Junius Seven had left its stable orbit and was falling toward Earth. Probably, the Lesseps would have to make a trip there by then.

If that thing fell down, he really didn't know how many people would die...

Unfortunately, he, who had known about it for a long time, couldn't issue an early warning.

All he could do was use his authority as a Phantom Pain commander before the mission to bring three extra Meteor Breakers on this ship. Of course, the style was a bit different from the one on the ZAFT side, and the function was slightly inferior, but it could still play a certain role.

It could be considered the limit of what he could do his best to achieve.

Of course, what kind of judgment would need to be made at that chaotic scene would depend on the situation.

Otherwise, if he went to help out of wishful thinking and was attacked by the ZAFT army instead, it wouldn't be good.

Soon, the world would begin to stir. ===== CHAPTER 244 =====