Chapter 40: Pacific Ambush Battle (I)

Not long after the Archangel left Orb's territorial waters and re-entered the Pacific, it encountered an ambush by the Athrun Team.

Five MS units riding Guuls took off from the submarine carrier and charged towards the Archangel aggressively.

"There are unit shadows on the radar, it's those five units from before." The scout's report sounded on the bridge.

"All hands, prepare for battle!"

Following Captain Murrue's order, the bridge began to get busy, and the CIC, for which Natarle was responsible, also began to activate various weapons on the ship.

The hangar also received a sortie order. Mula Flaga whistled: "They really came. You guys follow my arrangements just now for the battle. Unit 2, go out first."

"Understood."

Li Boyong sortied in the Sword Strike Unit 2. As soon as he left the hangar door, he began to climb directly.

When the alarm sounded inside the ship, he had already received the system mission.

【Mission】

Destroy three Guuls. (Success reward: 1 Battle Merit Point; failure deduction: 1 Battle Merit Point.)

To be honest, this mission wasn't too bad. It was unrealistic to want to shoot down G-series units, and shooting down Guuls was his goal anyway.

The reward was small, after all, he was shooting down unmanned units. But the deduction for failure was also small, so he didn't care much.

At least it wasn't the mission to shoot down the Beam Experimental CGUE that he had been worrying about. If that were the case, he really wouldn't know what to do...

When Unit 2 climbed to a certain altitude, Mula Flaga's Aile Strike Unit 1 sortied. Immediately after, the Archangel began to spread a large amount of smoke, while the Strike aimed its beam cannon at the enemies outside the smoke on the deck.

After the enemy MS team entered the Strike's range, Li Boyong, who was at high altitude, transmitted the enemy unit positions to the Strike and the Archangel inside the smoke.

A thick red beam pierced through the smoke, grazing the Duel Gundam, scaring Yzak into a cold sweat.

"Scatter, flank around!"

Athrun knew his team didn't have firepower support from a mothership, so to win, they had to approach and surround the Archangel.

At the same time, he issued an order to Shihe: "That carrier-based unit at high altitude is providing shooting data for the enemy. CGUE, go handle it."

"Understood!"

Shihe drove her unit to climb and kept firing at Unit 2 with two beam cannons.

Li Boyong shook and dodged easily, feeling that Shihe's shooting today was particularly irritable and lacked a sense of threat.

While dodging, he still had the spare capacity to provide shooting coordinates for the Strike.

The four ZAFT Gundams fired while flanking towards the smoke.

The Strike hid in the smoke and fired at the enemy units outside, while Mula Flaga harassed the MS units surrounding them from the side. Of course, his target was still the Buster.

"Tch, shaking around."

Dearka, who was flanking, was very annoyed and couldn't help but start counterattacking Unit 1. Originally, his mission should have been to shell the Archangel.

"Yes, yes, just follow me like that."

Mula Flaga started Unit 1 shaking left and right, luring the Buster to the vicinity of the smoke. The Strike seized the opportunity to fire a shot at the Buster at close range, hitting the Buster's Guul.

"Damn it."

Dearka had to maneuver the Buster to jump away, helplessly falling into the sea.

It had to be said that the tactic designed by Mula Flaga, the old schemer, was very effective. In just two minutes of battle, one Gundam had to withdraw from the attack sequence on the Archangel.

Although Athrun and the others were excellent in operation, their combat experience was not as rich as Mula Flaga's, so they were tricked.

"Why can't I hit him?"

The Buster withdrew, and Shihe became more irritable, chasing Li Boyong's Unit 2 and firing continuously, but all were predicted by Li Boyong's rhythm and evaded by maneuvering.

However, under such fierce attacks, his pressure was not small, and he had no time to provide shooting coordinates for the Strike.

Since that was the case, Li Boyong didn't persist in staying at high altitude, used various free maneuvers to dodge, and successfully temporarily got rid of Shihe by using a cloud layer.

The Strike's shelling became less precise, and the Aegis and other units quickly seized the opportunity to get close to the smoke.

The Duel, flanking from the right, prepared to charge into the rear of the smoke screen, but it did not expect the Strike to take the initiative. It turned out that Li Boyong, having briefly disengaged, had seized the opportunity to trade positions with the Strike.

The Strike on the deck couldn't aim at the approaching Duel from the rear, so Kira simply maneuvered the Strike to jump high, rushed out of the smoke, and aimed the beam cannon at the Duel below and behind.

"What?"

Yzak dodged urgently, and he actually dodged it narrowly.

However, after the emergency dodge, he also lost the angle to rush into the smoke and had to let the Guul turn around, attempting to attack again.

"Waited for you for a long time!"

But when Li Boyong gave the Duel's position to Kira, he was already prepared to sneak attack the Duel.

He maneuvered Unit 2 to cut inside and turn around the Duel. After all, the Guul was just a flight device and carried an MS, far less flexible and maneuverable than Unit 2, and was caught by Unit 2's tail.

Shihe, who was chasing Li Boyong, finally found Li Boyong's Unit 2 at this time. Seeing that Unit 2 had already touched the back of the Duel, her shooting in this direction might hit the Duel, so she could only speak out to remind.

"Watch your back!"

"Damn it, when?"

Yzak was instantly shocked. "At this distance, it's that guy equipped with the Ship-Slicing Blade!"

But the Duel on the Guul had no ability to attack backward. Yzak gritted his teeth and maneuvered the Duel to draw its beam saber and turn around to swing.

"Just a Natural, don't be too arrogant!"

However, Li Boyong's target was not the Duel itself. The Ship-Slicing Blade was indeed powerful, but the blade used by the carrier-based unit relied on speed, unlike the Strike, which had huge output in close combat.

And the Duel had Phase Shift Armor. Relying only on Unit 2's speed, it was very likely that the Ship-Slicing Blade would get stuck in the Duel's unit, and Unit 2's structure was not as good as the Strike's. Due to the huge inertia, it was very likely that a disintegration accident would occur.

Before, when he used the Ship-Slicing Blade to split a Zauort in the desert, the Sword Striker had malfunctioned.

So at the last moment, he did a backflip, bypassed the bottom of the Guul, ejected the Ship-Slicing Blade, accelerated the unit's jet, and cut the Guul the Duel was riding in half with one strike.

The Duel that swung backward couldn't break away immediately and was involved in the Guul's explosion. It didn't seize the opportunity to make a final attack on the escaping Unit 2 and fell into the sea after the explosion.

Thus, two Gundams withdrew from the combat sequence.

However, Li Boyong, who was breaking away, was pursued by Shihe. Having just slashed the Guul, he couldn't dodge completely, and the Sword Striker component mounted on the left wing was hit. Fortunately, the main body was not damaged.

"Tch."

Li Boyong had to detach the Sword Striker and accelerate to get rid of Shihe's attack.

Shihe drove the Beam Experimental CGUE and pursued relentlessly. Li Boyong killed the Duel's Guul under her pursuit, which made her already chaotic heart even more mixed with feelings! ===== CHAPTER 41 =====