Chapter 51: Continuous Battles

Li Boyong was awakened from his sleep by the alarm, and he scrambled up and rushed out of the tent.

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"

"ZAFT MS units are here."

"Where are our MS squads?"

"Hurry up and get out there!"

The surroundings were noisy but not yet chaotic. Li Boyong quickly ran to his unit, stepped on the Strike Dagger's boarding ladder, and entered the cockpit.

While starting the unit, he used the loudspeaker and squad channel to call his squad.

About ten seconds later, responses came from the three subordinates in the squad channel: "Lieutenant, we are also preparing to board our units; they will be ready to start in a moment."

"Very good, 3rd MS Combat Company MS squad, sortie!" Li Boyong nodded. The three rookies were quick and hadn't been affected by the chaotic scene; it seemed his Commander skill had played a role.

"It's a night battle; don't get too far apart, or we'll be picked off one by one."

Li Boyong warned them and led the MS squad toward the attacked position.

He remembered that there was a camouflaged early-warning position there. The ZAFT forces must have wanted to raid the MS camp, and they had judged the direction correctly, but fortunately, they were discovered by that early-warning position.

Looking back at the MS camp behind him, there were still no MS units coming out. It seemed they would have to rely on these four units for now.

Li Boyong thought for a moment. In such an unclear situation, it was better not to rush over to support. Anyway, as long as they held out until the main MS force reacted, the enemy would naturally retreat. As for the brothers at the early-warning position, they could only pray for themselves.

"All units, switch to night vision and prepare to engage at the terrain depression ahead."

The four Strike Daggers dashed to the position Li Boyong indicated and aimed their guns at the early-warning position.

Li Boyong nervously observed the situation there with night vision. Come to think of it, this was his first night MS combat, so it was inevitable that he felt a bit nervous.

After waiting for about twenty seconds, two enemy silhouettes appeared in his field of view.

Li Boyong looked closely at the shapes and cursed, "Damn it, isn't that a BuCUE?"

The two BuCUEs clearly detected Li Boyong's MS squad and fired a dozen missiles at them for fire coverage while accelerating their charge.

"All units, shields up, fire together! Don't let the BuCUEs charge up!"

The four Strike Daggers raised their shields, hard-tanking the rain of missiles, and used their beam rifles to force back the two charging BuCUEs.

The two BuCUEs had already extended their beam sabers, but seeing the dense fire from Li Boyong's MS squad, they had no choice but to retract them and retreat.

However, hard-tanking a wave of missiles wasn't without cost; the shields and left arms of two Strike Daggers were destroyed.

"Don't panic, there's still some cover here. Get your guns ready and hold the line. No matter how good the BuCUEs' mobility is, they won't dare to charge head-on."

Seeing the squad getting restless due to the damage, Li Boyong quickly tried to soothe them.

The facts were just as Li Boyong judged; the two BuCUEs swayed back and forth, engaging in a mobile shootout with them, but they didn't dare to get close.

The two BuCUEs were held up by Li Boyong's side for a moment, and the follow-up ZAFT forces for the night raid broke through the early-warning position and caught up.

"Damn it, haven't the units behind come out yet?"

Looking at the CGUE and three GINNs rushing out behind the BuCUEs, Li Boyong didn't know what to say about the pig-teammates in the rear.

But retreating in this situation wasn't realistic; once they retreated, they would be shot in the back by the BuCUEs.

They had to hold on...

The ZAFT follow-up forces began to suppress Li Boyong's side with fire, trying to cover the BuCUEs' advance.

"Hold on, fire, fire!"

Li Boyong shouted meaningless orders to slightly reduce his psychological pressure.

Fortunately, the position he had chosen on the fly did have some terrain advantage, and the four Strike Daggers managed to withstand the ZAFT attack.

One BuCUE did charge up under the cover of its teammates, but Li Boyong made a decisive move, drawing his saber and charging forward with his shield.

Although he was knocked over by the charging BuCUE, his beam saber stabbed firmly into the BuCUE's cockpit.

The two sides exchanged fierce fire for another three minutes. Li Boyong's side was ultimately at a disadvantage in numbers, and the two Strike Daggers that had lost their shields were hit one after another; the pilots didn't respond.

At this critical moment, the MS camp in the rear finally showed some movement, and MS squads filed out one after another.

Seeing that they couldn't gain any advantage, the ZAFT side retreated.

Due to the obstruction of Li Boyong's squad, the ZAFT night raid was declared a failure.

Counting the battlefield at dawn, ZAFT lost one BuCUE, while the Alliance lost two Strike Daggers and an early-warning position.

Anyone with eyes on the Alliance side could see that if it weren't for the heroic fighting of Li Boyong's squad, the losses last night would have been far greater.

The brigade command specially sent a commendation for Li Boyong's wise command, but he couldn't be happy at all because he had lost two subordinates, two student soldiers who always laughed and treated him like an older brother.

Watching the logistics personnel carry the bodies of his two subordinates out of the wreckage of the units and into body bags to be transported to the rear.

Thinking of the words he had said about definitely bringing them back alive, Li Boyong felt a wave of depression.

But no matter how bad his mood was, the battle on the Victoria battlefield continued, and the 3rd MS Combat Company, having lost two Strike Daggers, still had to participate in the day's fighting.

The battle on the 17th was exceptionally fierce, as if to retaliate for last night's raid, or perhaps they had judged something from the ZAFT forces' actions yesterday.

Under the cover of heavy artillery, the Alliance launched a mass charge toward the ZAFT defense line, once breaking onto the cliff and engaging in melee combat with ZAFT MS units, but they were firmly pushed back by the ZAFT forces. The anticipated lack of supplies for the ZAFT forces didn't appear; it seemed they had been tricked by the enemy commander.

Li Boyong still steadily led his subordinates to charge in the second or third line of the main force, not letting his head get hot just because he had lost two subordinates.

Throughout the day's fighting, he just found an opportunity to ambush and shoot down a ZAUORT, completing the system mission and getting a battle merit point; the rest of the time he was just tagging along.

The battle on the 17th ended, and the ZAFT forces retreated urgently at night.

On the 18th, the Alliance advanced, occupied the cliff, and simultaneously advanced toward the next ZAFT defense line.

On the 19th, the defensive battle continued, and the 3rd MS Combat Company got half a day of rest.

On the 20th, the 5th MS Composite Brigade advanced and was ambushed, suffering heavy losses. Li Boyong shot down a GINN in the battle but lost another subordinate. By now, the 3rd MS Combat Company had only one Strike Dagger left, along with several combat support vehicles and a few logistics personnel.

That night, the 3rd MS Combat Company received temporary member reinforcements, all deployed from surviving squads that had lost their captains.

On the 21st, the heavily damaged 5th MS Composite Brigade was pushed back by the ZAFT forces. Although they fought tenaciously, they were still no match and were forced to retreat. At the same time, the 5th Composite Brigade lost 70% of its Strike Daggers and was unable to advance further.

In the battle that day, Li Boyong fought bravely, shooting down a GINN and simultaneously cutting down that CGUE Assault Type, earning five battle merit points.

Thanks to Li Boyong's fierce fighting and the destruction of the enemy commander's unit, the decline of the entire army was halted, giving the 5th MS Composite Brigade a chance to retreat. But he also lost a large number of subordinates that day, and the 3rd MS Combat Company existed in name only.

On the 22nd, the Eurasian Federation units in the rear took over the position of the 5th MS Composite Brigade and continued to launch an offensive, while Li Boyong was ordered to lead his unit to the central battlefield of the northern front. ===== CHAPTER 52 =====