Chapter 271: Supporting Suez (Part 4)

The ZAFT military began to attack. First, the heavy artillery of the Gazuutes conducted covering shelling at extreme range. After causing a certain degree of suppression on the Alliance's defense line, two squads of BuCUEs launched a probing attack on the Alliance's defense lines in the two river valleys in a loose formation.

The artillery position temporarily constructed by the Alliance began to counterattack. After the BuCUEs entered the range, the bunker guns and the Dagger Ls deployed on the front line also began to counterattack.

The two squads of BuCUEs began to maneuver to evade, occasionally using the cover of some rock pillars in the river valley.

After advancing a certain distance, at the cost of slightly damaging two BuCUEs, they probed some fire distribution of the defense line, and then the BuCUEs began to cover each other and retreat.

After the BuCUEs retreated for a distance, the main guns of the warships in the rear began to bombard.

The roar of shells whistling through the sky rang out, and a few seconds later, they landed on the Alliance's defense line. The Alliance side wasn't stupid either; the MS that could move had already changed positions, but the field artillery that couldn't move quickly was destroyed in large numbers.

The bombardment lasted for five minutes, and the MS unit of the ZAFT military began to attack again.

This wave of offensive invested quite a lot of troops, with BuCUE squads with high mobility as the vanguard, and quite a few GuAIZ Rs also joined the offensive.

The Alliance MS began to re-enter the defense line and counterattack. At the same time, the hidden fire points that were not exposed in the first wave of attacks began to weave a new defensive fire net.

For a time, the battlefield began to become lively, and beam guns, live ammunition machine guns, railguns, and rockets all issued their roars.

The battle lasted for a period of time, and the BuCUE unit that led the ZAFT military attack shrank back again, followed by the heavy bombardment of the mother ship's main guns.

In this way, the ZAFT military, which did not occupy a numerical advantage, fully utilized the mobility of the BuCUEs and the cooperation of the mother ship's heavy artillery, consuming the combat power of the Alliance military on the defense line bit by bit.

Feeling that this wouldn't work, the Alliance military had to take off Dagger L formations equipped with flight packs from the stronghold in the rear.

Relying on the air superiority, the Alliance military temporarily stabilized the defense line.

"This fight is quite lively."

Li Boyong, who was eating melons on the bridge of the *Dominion*, was not in a hurry to sortie at all.

Don't look at how lively the fight was now, but in fact, it was mainly based on probing and consumption, and it was far from the official contest.

However, judging from the situation on the scene, the Suez stronghold military seemed to have been forced to use quite a few reserve combat powers. Although the air combat Dagger L formation achieved some advantages, the ZAFT side clearly wouldn't have no equipment.

"Detected a large number of mobile suit shadows at 10 o'clock, this is... ZAFT military's DINNs and BuCUEs, DINN quantity nine, BuCUE quantity nine," the radar operator reported.

"10 o'clock direction... should be the air support from Gibraltar."

Li Boyong touched his chin: "What response does the garrison have?"

"This... the garrison's air combat Dagger L unit is retreating and re-forming," the radar operator reported.

That meant there was no response, so the river valley defense line would be in danger in the next wave of ZAFT military attacks.

"Dominion main gun ready, MS team sortie ready," Li Boyong was not in a hurry to go to the front line this time, "Wait for the ZAFT military to start attacking, then the *Dominion* will immediately climb to a height sufficient to cover the river valley, and after one round of fire coverage, the MS team will sortie."

"Understood." The captain received Li Boyong's order and began to issue specific instructions according to his operational intent.

Soon, the air combat Dagger L formation of the stronghold garrison began to turn to meet the ZAFT military air combat unit in the 10 o'clock direction.

The ZAFT military in the river valley below took the opportunity to launch a new round of attacks.

But soon, the figure of the *Dominion* slowly rose from behind the ridge on the right side of the river valley.

Two Gottfried beam main guns and one Valiant electromagnetic cannon began to cover the charging ZAFT military, and then the MS team led by the Strike Noir filed out of the hangar, landed on the right side of the river valley, and launched an attack on the flank of the ZAFT military.

After releasing the MS team, the *Dominion* immediately began to retreat.

Not long after, that area welcomed the shelling of the ZAFT military, but it was a pity that except for flattening a few mountains, nothing was hit.

And the MS formation composed of six Gundams began a performance show

Under the cover of the Verde Buster's firepower, the MA-form Gaia Gundam charged into the ZAFT military line like a one-man army, followed closely by a two-machine formation consisting of the Rosso Aegis and Nero Blitz.

The two sisters, whose fighting style was high-speed assault combat, stirred up a dance of swords amidst the GAU-R units.

Behind the three Gundams was a medium-range fire support squad consisting of the Strike Noir and Blue Duel, one in the air and one on the ground.

"Seriously, the fighting style of this pair of sisters really wastes the performance of these two machines."

Piloting the Verde Buster, Shams Couza complained about the Xia sisters' combat style.

"But I think it looks great; the feeling of tearing a Coordinator's machine to pieces like that must be wonderful."

Couza's lover, Mudie, who was piloting the Blue Duel, refuted her boyfriend's assessment.

"I don't disagree on the 'looks great' part; it's as pleasing to the eye as their usual sword dance practice," Couza laughed, while simultaneously piercing a BuCUE that was trying to ambush the Gaia with a single shot.

"You lecher, you must watch them often." Mudie narrowed her eyes dangerously.

"Well, it's hard not to be curious," Couza said, laughing it off, then shifting the blame, "After all, it's rare to see Sven interested in anything other than the stars. The sisters' sword dance is the first thing besides the stars to hold Sven's gaze."

"Our Sven has actually become enlightened." Mudie exclaimed, her attention diverted, "Could it be an attraction between poker faces?"

"In the middle of a battle, be quiet," Sven's calm voice rang out.

After a pause, he noticed that the Gaia seemed to have pushed too far forward, "Second Lieutenant Stella Loussier, you are too far forward."

"Ahhhhhhh!"

Responding to him was Stella's slightly fanatical cry; the little airhead had quite a bit of potential as a berserker during combat, clearly having gotten carried away by the heat of the moment.

With the support behind unable to keep up, the Gaia Gundam gradually tended toward being surrounded.

Sven knew it was bad and hurriedly contacted the bridge of the Archangel. Li Boyong also noticed the situation and connected directly to the Gaia Gundam's communication. Under Li Boyong's personal order, Stella finally obediently retreated a little.

Ten minutes later, Li Boyong saw that the flanking attacks of the six Gundams had successfully stopped this wave of the ZAFT military's offensive.

He issued an order to Sven to retreat to the Suez Garrison defense line.

"Are we not going to pursue the victory?" the captain of the Archangel asked from the side.

This captain was from the Space Force, and although not entirely ignorant of combat within the atmosphere, lacked a sufficiently profound understanding of this kind of tug-of-war siege.

Li Boyong smiled upon hearing this, "This is just the beginning; the ZAFT commander is clearly looking to fight a siege war based on attrition and tugging."

"Then isn't the opponent afraid of our gun emplacements being built first?" the Archangel captain asked, puzzled.

"Once this ship arrived here, the opponent had no need to be anxious," Li Boyong replied, "The current situation is that whoever gets anxious first loses."