Chapter 26: Battle on the Red Sea

The Archangel was pursued by ZAFT's submarine aircraft carrier.

Two DINNs for air combat and two GOOhNs for underwater combat were approaching the Archangel rapidly. The two Sky Graspers set off to meet the enemy immediately after completing maintenance. Mula Flaga, that shameless guy, still hung the Launcher Striker on Unit 1, and Li Boyong had no choice but to sortie with the just-repaired Sword Striker.

And the Strike, because its Aile Striker was damaged in the battle with the Desert Tiger and hadn't been repaired yet, could only shoot from the deck hatch.

After taking off, Li Boyong received the System's mission.

【Mission】

Shoot down one DINN. (Completion reward: 1 Battle Merit Point, failure deducts 1 Battle Merit Point.)

Hmm... another grunt mission that fits just right, it's just that the reward is a bit stingy.

However, considering that completing the mission can unlock the System, Li Boyong didn't care about this small matter. Even a mosquito's leg is meat, isn't it?

Anyway, just get the mission done quickly.

Soon, the two Sky Grasper formations made contact with the enemy first. They started shooting head-on with the two DINNs from the longest distance, but at this distance, both sides could dodge easily, so neither achieved any results.

But after the two sides crossed, the DINNs turned directly and bit the tails of the two Sky Graspers.

"Tsk, this mode again?"

Li Boyong maneuvered the machine to try to break away from the DINN behind him, but didn't succeed. This unpleasant feeling seemed to return to the days of piloting a Mobius and being chased by a GINN in space.

During this time, he had been bullying BuCUEs and Zauorts in the sky, always holding the initiative. He didn't expect that now, facing the DINN for air combat, he would return to the original state.

And besides being careful of the DINN's machine gun strafing, he also had to pay attention to the other air-to-air shotgun equipped by the DINN. Although the effective range of that thing was very short, the killing range was no joke. He had to pay attention to keeping his distance while maneuvering to dodge.

Constantly maneuvering and dodging the attacks from behind, Li Boyong suddenly felt that this mission didn't seem as easy as he imagined.

Hey hey hey, it's too much to give only one battle merit point for this.

Fortunately, after consecutive battles, he was very proficient in maneuvering this Sky Grasper, and every time he could shake the machine out of the opponent's field of vision before the enemy completely locked on.

Because his maneuvering was very tricky, the DINN following behind had to slow down to ensure it could tightly bite the Sky Grasper's tail, which also caused the DINN to be unable to close the distance to the Sky Grasper for a long time. The DINN tried to fire a few shots with the shotgun, but none of them reached the Sky Grasper.

On this side, the two Sky Graspers and the two DINNs were entangled together. The four chaotic trajectories left by the tail smoke in the sky seemed to show no signs of a winner in the short term.

On that side, the Archangel also began to exchange fire with the underwater GOOhNs. To avoid being hit by the GOOhNs' torpedoes, the Archangel very alertly left the water, causing one of the GOOhNs' major killers to lose its use.

However, the GOOhNs could still use their mobility in the water and the high-energy phonon maser cannon on their heads to harass, while the Archangel's armament could not effectively deal with targets at the bottom of the hull.

Kira Yamato, shooting on the Archangel, felt that it was a bit passive, so he maneuvered the Strike to the hangar to grab a rocket launcher for MS and jumped directly into the sea to fight the GOOhNs.

This behavior was indeed a bit reckless. Kira Yamato, who was entering the water for the first time, was also very unaccustomed to underwater combat and was suppressed by the GOOhNs using their mobility. Fortunately, the Phase Shift Armor was a good thing, and the several hits from the GOOhNs couldn't cause any damage.

But this also had a benefit, which was that the Strike helped the Archangel share the pressure, allowing the Archangel to calmly provide fire support to the two Sky Graspers.

Li Boyong seized the opportunity well, taking advantage of the DINN behind him maneuvering to dodge the shelling, and broke away from the opponent's pursuit.

After breaking away from the enemy, he made a turn and flew directly toward the enemy mothership. On that side, Mula Flaga had already begun attacking the enemy mothership.

Mula Flaga was still being bitten by the DINN, but he was also tightly biting the DINN's tail.

Five minutes had passed since the start of the battle. When maneuvering the machine, Li Boyong indeed felt that his reaction speed had become faster.

This was a somewhat wonderful feeling, as if the time sense of one second had been suddenly extended.

Perhaps because this was the temporary improvement brought by the System's Belligerent skill, that feeling of "time being extended" was particularly obvious, giving him a sense of reality that the skill was indeed in effect.

Li Boyong bit the DINN's tail, also causing great pressure on the DINN's pilot. The consecutive shots were becoming more and more accurate, while the Sky Grasper in front was still slippery and very difficult to handle.

In the end, the ZAFT pilot who couldn't bear the pressure had to give up the target in front, slow down and change direction, attempting to let Li Boyong's Sky Grasper pass, and then bite Li Boyong's tail.

But his plan didn't succeed. Li Boyong, whose reaction had been improved, accurately seized the opportunity of the opponent slowing down and changing direction, and the two sides' maneuvering trajectories crossed for a moment.

If the Sky Grasper used missiles or main guns, then such a short time would definitely not be enough for locking on, but using machine guns probably wouldn't cause any effective damage, so Li Boyong chose to eject the Ship-Slicing Blade at this time.

"My battle merit points are in hand."

The huge beam blade directly cut this DINN in half, and the Sky Grasper accelerated away from the exploding enemy machine.

After finishing off the DINN, Li Boyong cooperated with Mula Flaga to pincer the other DINN from left and right.

However, this guy didn't seem to be a mediocre hand, and his combat experience was very rich. Li Boyong's several attacks were dodged by the opponent in advance, and he was almost counterattacked.

After narrowly avoiding the DINN's machine gun strafing, Li Boyong vaguely remembered that there seemed to be a captain-level pilot participating in this battle, probably this guy.

"Damn it, what is the GOOhN team doing?"

The Morassia Captain in the DINN cockpit was caught off guard by the sudden change in the battle situation. Before, he saw that the GOOhNs didn't pose a threat to the Archangel, so after being broken away by Li Boyong, he turned to attack the Archangel.

As a result, he hadn't been able to cause effective damage to the Archangel, but his teammates were finished off by two fighter jets in a short time. This was really beyond his expectations.

Since when could the Alliance's fighter jets pose such a big threat to the DINN?

However, caught in the siege, he had no leisure to complain during the repeated maneuvering and evasion, and instead had the intention to retreat in his heart.

After all, this was just a skirmish during reconnaissance, and his mothership in the distance still had the strength to continue fighting, so there was no need to fight to the death.

"Hey, GOOhN team, prepare to retreat."

He was just about to issue the retreat order, but saw that the two GOOhNs had both lost communication signals.

"Tsk, were they finished off?"

Captain Morassia didn't linger in the battle and decisively retreated. With his rich experience, he successfully retreated out of the Archangel's attack range.

Seeing the enemy repelled, Murrue Ramius didn't pursue. Their main goal was to go to Alaska, and they should try to avoid unnecessary battles.

Failing to keep the enemy's captain machine made Li Boyong feel a bit regretful, but after receiving the return order, he could only obediently park the Sky Grasper back in the hangar.

Fortunately, the mission was completed, and he successfully received the System's prompt when landing.

【Mission】

Shoot down one DINN. (Completed, reward 1 Battle Merit Point) ===== CHAPTER 27 =====