Chapter 10

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"Captain, the Strike Gundam is ready to launch. But is that kid really okay?" When Xiao Ran entered the bridge again, he heard the lazy yet heavy voice of the maintenance crew uncle over the intercom. Xiao Ran's entrance also made Murrue turn her chair. Seeing the questioning look in his eyes, Xiao Ran nodded slightly.

"No problem. Now we can only trust that kid." Murrue sighed in relief at Xiao Ran's action and began to give orders: "Prepare the sword equipment. Have him use the sword equipment to launch. We can't cause any more damage to this satellite."

"Understood, Captain." The maintenance crew uncle replied.

"This is really frustrating. We can't attack, but they can do whatever they want." Mu pouted, using a mocking tone.

"Wait!" Xiao Ran walked to Murrue's side and shook his head slightly: "I don't know what the sword equipment looks like, but in this situation, are you going to have my student break through the firepower network of seven enemy MS and go cut them down? Do you think that's realistic? This is clearly a defensive battle, and close combat equipment isn't suitable."

"Kira used the cannon equipment before, which is for long-range firepower suppression. It's too powerful and causes a lot of damage to the satellite. The sword equipment you're talking about is for close combat. While it won't damage the satellite, it won't be a match for so many MS. Since we can change equipment and have both long-range and close combat options, there's no reason we wouldn't have mid-range equipment with higher mobility."

Xiao Ran frowned slightly as he spoke, his tone confident. His words left everyone on the bridge momentarily stunned.

Mu stared at Xiao Ran in disbelief, then shook his head and got back to work. Bickley turned to look at Xiao Ran with a highly suspicious gaze, as if suspecting something. Murrue, however, looked at him deeply and then reconnected to the hangar: "Sergeant Madoc, prepare the air combat equipment for the Strike Gundam."

"Ah, changing to air combat equipment again? Understood, Captain."

Bickley stood up abruptly, shouting angrily: "This is the bridge, and we are in combat. Unrelated personnel, please leave."

"I won't entrust my life to someone I don't know. Miss Ramius, if I were you, I would now aim the main gun of the ship at the hole Kira created." Xiao Ran said indifferently, then turned and jumped into the fire control room, sitting down next to Mu, completely ignoring Bickley's murderous glare. He asked Mu casually: "Is there any shooting weapon I can try?"

"Uh..." Mu opened his mouth in surprise, turning to look at Xiao Ran. Finally, he gave in to Xiao Ran's serious gaze and quickly handed him control of a Balkan cannon (a real weapon on the Archangel, a machine gun mount that has destroyed missiles multiple times in the anime).

After finishing, Mu wiped the non-existent sweat from his face, thinking: "There are sixteen Balkan cannons in total. Letting him operate just one shouldn't be a problem, right?"

"Mu, Lieutenant!" Bickley shouted when she saw Mu's actions. Mu could only shrug helplessly at her. Seeing the commotion escalating, Murrue covered her face and said weakly: "Bickley, Lieutenant, that's enough. We don't have time to argue."

Bickley glared at Xiao Ran, then reluctantly nodded: "Yes, Captain."

Murrue took a deep breath: "Gottfried, aim at the outer wall breach. Clint, load 7-12, 19-24. Bickley, Lieutenant, you decide the firing time. Mu, Lieutenant, you'll manually control the Baryant."

"Gottfried, aim at the outer wall breach. Clint, load 7-12, 19-24." As Bickley repeated the orders, the preparations were completed in an instant. The bridge fell into an eerie silence until the voice of the maintenance crew sergeant Madoc came over the intercom.

"The Strike Gundam is ready, Captain. When should he go out?"

"Thanks for your trouble. I'll decide the launch time. Kira, can you hear me?"

"I can hear you." Kira's voice sounded, but it didn't seem to be in good condition.

Murrue, however, had no time to worry about that and said directly: "Follow my launch order."

"Understood." Kira's voice came softly, and then there was silence.

Time passed slowly, one second, two seconds, three seconds. The bridge and the entire Archangel fell into silence. The brief silence made Xiao Ran's heart beat wildly.

"Beep! Beep! Beep!"

The urgent alarm suddenly sounded, tightening the nerves of everyone present. At the same time, Bickley saw the flashing dots on the bridge's display, and a loud, decisive voice announced the start of the battle.

"Gottfried, fire! Clint, fire!"

Following Bickley's orders, the Archangel's two main guns simultaneously fired four green beams of death. The beams shot out into space through the hole in the outer wall. Although they were aimed, the four beams still expanded the hole Kira had created by nearly half. Beyond that, only a faint spark could be seen at the hole.

"Confirmed, one enemy destroyed. It's a ZAFT mobile suit."

"Only one?" Xiao Ran, who was currently sitting in the control officer's seat, felt a bit disappointed.

"Kira, now!" As soon as the Archangel's first wave of attacks ended, Murrue quickly spoke to Kira.

"Understood. Kira Yamato, Strike Gundam, launching!"

Xiao Ran turned his head and watched the air combat Strike Gundam on the large screen in the bridge, finding it incredibly dazzling. He silently thought: "Kira Yamato, the strongest Coordinator, everything depends on you."

...

Xiao Ran didn't know how the next period of time passed. He only knew that Murrue and Bickley issued one order after another, and Mu cursed repeatedly. The ship roared and shook time and again. At some point, the wound on his right shoulder, which had been treated, began to reopen and bleed, and he even bit his lip until it bled.

At this point, he wasn't just controlling an insignificant Balkan cannon; he was also responsible for the Baryant's attack aiming assistance. Mu, who was originally in charge of this task, only took over to help when the main gun was cooling down.

The battle had already lasted for several minutes. The satellite's surface was in ruins, and the hole in the outer wall, which was originally just one, had now become several. Of the five ZAFT mobile suits, only one had been destroyed at the beginning. In the following minutes, Kira had managed to destroy one during a break in the battle, and Mu had destroyed one with the main gun. The remaining two ZAFT mobile suits were still launching fierce attacks on the Archangel.

If not for Kira's single mobile suit drawing the attention of the Saint Shield Gundam and Duel Gundam, the Archangel, known as the "unsinkable ship," might have been sunk on its first appearance. Even without the participation of the Saint Shield and Duel, the situation on the Archangel was not optimistic. The ZAFT mobile suits had nearly broken through the firepower defense and reached the bridge several times. If not for the fact that the satellite was in space and the farther from the ground, the less gravity, allowing the Archangel to perform a direct roll, Xiao Ran might have died several times.

Although he knew that the effectiveness of a warship against mobile suits was not significant, Xiao Ran had not expected it to be so disadvantageous. After experiencing the battle, he realized that the scenes in the anime where a single main gun could hit several mobile suits were highly unlikely in such a small-scale battle. In a dogfight, it was almost impossible.

The warship's turning was slow, and its instantaneous burst was inferior to that of a mobile suit. Its flexibility was extremely poor. The fact that it could handle several ZAFT mobile suits was purely due to the Archangel's superior performance. Perhaps in the future, with more experience, the crew of the Archangel would find it easier to handle, but not now.

Xiao Ran's mind was numb, but when he saw a ZAFT mobile suit launch a high-explosive missile again, he reflexively operated the Balkan cannon to start firing along the missile's path. Don't blame him for being too nervous; he had just experienced the feeling of a missile exploding at close range, which was absolutely not pleasant. The shock waves from the explosion made him dizzy and disoriented. Even with the missile destroyed, the Archangel might have suffered significant damage if it hadn't been.

Of the four ZAFT mobile suits that had initially broken into the satellite, one, which Kira had destroyed, did not carry D-class equipment. The others carried super-explosive weapons designed to destroy fortresses. Each ZAFT mobile suit could carry four such weapons, totaling twelve. Each weapon could cause significant damage to the satellite, and the additional holes were caused by these weapons.

As if it had been arranged, the ZAFT mobile suit that Mu destroyed, like in the anime, launched all its missiles before exploding. And it launched more than in the anime, with four missiles hitting the satellite's main axis, nearly causing it to collapse. If the main axis were to withstand another similar attack, the satellite would definitely collapse, and this time was not far off.

As for Kira, at the beginning of the battle, he seemed a bit flustered and even powerless. The Archangel's main gun provided multiple assists, but with little success. After several dangerous moments that even made Murrue cover her mouth in shock, no one except Xiao Ran knew that the Strike Gundam seemed to be driven by a different person. The mobile suit's actions changed dramatically, becoming decisive, calm, and swift. Kira destroyed the ZAFT mobile suit by cutting it in half with a beam saber and even damaged the Duel Gundam's shield.

Seeing the missile getting closer to the Archangel, having already entered more than half of the Balkan cannon's dead zone, even the somewhat numb Xiao Ran became terrified, shouting as he forcefully operated the cannon: "Hit it, you must hit it!"

At this critical moment, Bickley abandoned the locked ZAFT mobile suit, stood up, and shouted: "Full left rudder, 45-degree ascent, evade!"

At the last second, the missile narrowly missed the Archangel's side, and Xiao Ran couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. He quickly switched the Baryant to manual operation mode and aimed at the enemy mobile suits flying around. At some point, the clean control panel had been stained with a flowing red.

Suddenly, Xiao Ran felt a series of vibrations in his left wrist, and a voice without emotion echoed in his mind:

"Main mission one completed. Safely escape from Heliopolis within eight hours. Mission completion rating: S."

"S-rated mission completion increases rewards by 50% and grants 2 gold treasure chests. Additional rewards will be settled after the mission. This rating can be cumulative."

"Ding, this world is a group new player mission. New players can receive a one-time early reward settlement. This qualification is only valid for new player missions. Do you want to settle the reward early: 2 gold treasure chests?"

"Main mission two issued. Within ten days, choose to join a faction in this world and learn mobile suit operation skills to reach D-level within a month."

Hearing the voice in his mind, Xiao Ran almost jumped up. An S-rated mission completion was enough to make him ecstatic. Just as he was about to claim the reward early, he heard Bickley shout in shock: "No good, the missile's path is the satellite's main axis!"

"Boom!" A loud explosion made Xiao Ran involuntarily shudder. No, the entire Archangel trembled, rolling in all directions without reason. Just as he stood up, Xiao Ran caught a glimpse of the apocalyptic scene inside the colony. Then he suddenly felt weightless, his head ached, and he blacked out.

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