Gundam, but from the Ground Alliance to the Human Alliance to the out-of-control servitor

"Remind me after I inspect the place. Have you completed self-checks on other systems?"

"The self-inspection progress has been completed. There is no risk in sailing now. The person in charge of the maintenance work has also been confirmed."

Brad, who once again assumed the role of captain, turned his head to look at the two young soldiers who were surprised but could not find a chance to interrupt, and calmly ordered:

"Amuro, then go to the hangar to confirm the status of the Gundam. Then you will need to rely on the Gundam's activity to sail across the Zeon army's blockade. That Char may not have given up yet; Sera, you Let’s go to the bridge first and get acquainted with Platinum.”

Upon hearing his name, Bai Jin raised his forearm slightly and waved his hand as a greeting.

"Yes, Captain Blade!"

Amuro and Sera saluted again, stood up and grabbed the automatic handrails on the bridge, and walked towards the hatch of the White Base;

"Then, I will also wait for you on the White Base. Finally, welcome back to the ship, Captain Brad."

Platinum also leaned over for a moment, and then disappeared.

"Pegasus...Platinum?"

In terms of age, he is only less than 5 years older than Amuro. It is also the first time for Brad to take on such a key position as captain of a ship. He stood there without knowing what he was thinking, and felt a little uncomfortable. He touched his chin shyly.

……

About a few hours later, the boarding bridge extending from the pier on the left separated from the White Base; the heavy mechanical support arm on the berth slowly pushed outward, moving the White Base into the harbor channel .

"All the required officers and soldiers on the ship have arrived and are on duty. Facial recognition confirmation has been completed, Captain Brad."

In a highly alert military base like Luna 2, even if the reluctant volunteers on the White Base have some thoughts of escaping the war, Cynthia, who is almost everywhere, can easily let them sink their thoughts deeply. The earth is buried in the heart.

"Is this the last check before departure, Platinum?"

"Yes, how does it feel to actually perform your duties as a captain for the first time, Brad-Captain?"

Or because there are not enough regular crew members on the White Base, even with Platinum's assistance, Captain Brad is still worried about many things, and he has to go through them in person before confirming them;

Although this is not an easy job, it seems that Captain Brad is very happy with this responsibility.

He did not respond to Bai Jin, but slightly raised the corner of his mouth:

"Advance at slight speed on both sides, White Base, attack!"

Chapter 19: Set off again

"White Base, attack!"

Platinum naturally stood behind Captain Brad's seat, broadcasting his order to the whole ship in the form of a radio, and at the same time sounded the whistle when setting sail——

Although it is a space battleship, many of the rituals and rules are indeed inherited from the navy of the past.

"Captain Brad, the control tower at the port has also sent a communication."

Bai Jin turned his head and glanced at Brad, who seemed a little excited, and said in a calm voice:

"'I wish your ship a successful mission and a long-term military operation; the heat source decoy will be launched as planned to cover your ship's operations. From: The First Combined Fleet of the Space Force, flagship Marco Polo', how should we reply, Captain Blade?"

Although this congratulation was also sent by another self, this does not prevent Platinum from taking advantage of this and deliberately shaping a concept of 'us' to quickly integrate into the team on the White Base.

"Just say..."

Brad touched his chin. Maybe he hadn't noticed the difference before, but now, he suddenly realized: it was the same calling 'Captain Brad', asking him for advice and asking him for instructions. , the feeling can be so different.

"...Thank you for your helping hand. I am very grateful for the care you have received these days. I also wish your army to achieve greater success in the coming battles."

"understood."

Sera, who was sitting in the correspondent's seat nearby, immediately had highlighted instructions pop up on the screen in front of her, prompting her step by step on the operations she should do at this time.

'Hmm...I still know what to do at this level. '

Sierra frowned slightly, but as soon as the words came to her lips, she found that the guidance displayed on the screen deviated from what she thought was the correct operation, so she was unable to say the words.

'Adjust the communication channel, send the active signal, along with the identification code signal, and then switch the transceiver to passive reception mode again...'

Perhaps it seems that Serra can achieve the same goal with just one operation; but in a strict organization like the army, every seemingly 'redundant' operation process has a bloody reason behind it.

The wide hull of the White Base emerged from the surface of Luna 2 little by little, and smoothly sailed out of the base's port; outside the main gate, several Salamis-class cruisers on guard patrol missions got out of the way. The harbor road.

"that is……"

From the moment it sets sail, it is necessary to stay next to the Gundam in the Gnaku as much as possible and perform combat readiness duty. Amuro, who is ready to go out at any time, looks at the screen in front of the cockpit;

"...The MS I saw in the training simulator before was Jim E."

In order to prevent Amuro, who has to be on call all the time, from getting bored, Ms. Shirogane said that when on the ship, the image from the camera outside the ship or the cloud entertainment center on the ship can be connected to the display in the cockpit of the Gundam.

"Well, I have been fighting hard to protect the White Base, and I will continue to rely on the combat power of the Gundam for future missions. Consider it a thank you gift. If you have any other ideas or needs, you can tell me!"

'That's what Miss Platinum said, although I feel inexplicably that she doesn't really want me to trouble her; it feels different from Miss Marco Polo's personality;' Amuro thought.

The four are exactly the same. The chest and shoulders are painted in conspicuous red, while the rest of the parts are white. The appearance is obviously different from the Zeon-type Zaku. It is a mass-produced MS model, standing on the upper bow of the Salamis-class ship. .

"...Next, we will lead your ship out of the minefield all the way to the edge of Luna 2's control area."

The Salamis-class sent out a communication, and the main engine was ignited accordingly, getting ahead of the White Base; the leader of the four Jim-Es skillfully squatted slightly, and then suddenly kicked off first;

The nozzles located on the legs of the machine body and the propulsion backpack on the back lit up, and tens of tons of thrust were instantly exerted on Jim's body, which was much lighter than Zaku, and accelerated rapidly, flying around the White Base. .

"That action is..."

Amuro's eyes widened for a moment. Although it only happened in an instant, the natural and smooth movement of leaving the ship gave him an inexplicable sense of familiarity;

"...The mysterious user named 'A'."

Amuro thought about his last simulated battle, the mysterious Federation regular pilot; he tightened his hand on the joystick slightly——

"Although it's a simulated battle...it does feel a little different from sitting in the cockpit of a Gundam..."

Amuro thought about it. After returning to the cockpit of the Gundam, he seemed to have a feeling that everything was under control. This was something he could not experience in the simulator:

"Is it the sense of crisis brought about by actual combat?"

'But even so, I haven't done enough, so whether it's to defeat that Char or that 'A', I still have shortcomings... I will definitely catch up with them! '

Amuro secretly made up his mind.

After a period of peaceful navigation, the White Base passed through the mines, reconnaissance satellites, and guard space stations scattered around Luna 2.

After more than half a year of tug-of-war consisting of a series of small-scale encounters, the Zeon Army's 'Primus' fleet, responsible for blocking Luna 2, carried out close-range forcible reconnaissance or harassment missions with increasing frequency. Come lower and lower.

After all, the gravity front now located on the surface of the earth, tens of thousands of miles long, is a bottomless pit that constantly swallows up the mobile suit production capacity of the Principality of Zeon and the lives of pilots:

Anyway, storming the Luna 2 Fortress has long been proven to be impossible. Fighting deep into the home ground of the Federation Army, with the increasingly proficient use of mobile weapons by the Federation Space Force to which Luna 2 belongs, the risk has become higher and higher.

The replenishment priority of Commander-in-Chief Kilian's personal guard and the lowered troops is naturally the highest, followed by the direct troops under the eyes of Kycilia, Dozlu and others, and the 'Primus' fleet orbits far away on the moon. The unlucky guy at the other end of the track——

It’s impossible not to learn to live on a budget.

……

On the radar screen of the White Base, in several other directions not far away, obvious heat source signals that were the same as the tail flames of the White Base lit up.

"Captain Blade, this is it; get ready to accelerate into the descent orbit."

Unlike Side7, which is very close in an astronomical sense, it is still difficult for a large fleet to escape the detection of the Zeon army from Luna 2 directly into low-Earth orbit;

Therefore, if we want to escort the White Base back to Earth, the size of the fleet is too large, which will undoubtedly alert the Zeon Army, and even directly lead to the main fleet of the Zeon Army, which is very unnecessary;

A small fleet, including a few Salamis-class ships, would not be able to provide much protection; the escorting Salamis-class ships would need to cross the blockade again and return to Luna 2, which would be risky.

Therefore, the Luna 2 garrison only provides deceptive inducement as a cover, and the White Base will return to the state of single-ship operations, from concealment, or in other words, very uneconomical channels in terms of propellant utilization efficiency, submarine Return to Earth.

In the bridge of the White Base, Platinum displayed the expected descent trajectory on the space map on the bridge dome.

"It's a really steep track, straight down to South America?"

"After all, after entering the atmosphere, the propellant of the main rocket is no longer necessary. Just use more and you can reduce some weight, Captain Brad."

Platinum spread his hands, the White Base, as a cutting-edge ship that was finalized and started in UC0078, the year before the war broke out - the Pegasus-class assault landing ship; the so-called "landing" amphibious refers to the interior of the atmosphere. With and outside:

Relying on Minovsky Craft - which you don't have to understand very well - the White Base, which weighs more than [-] tons, can freely enter and exit the atmosphere, and fly in the air within the atmosphere, relying only on its own power.

"Well... let's go then, Mirai?"

Captain Brad looked towards the front of the bridge, where the female helmsman was still reliably controlling the direction of the battleship.

"The direction is clear, Captain Blade, but this track..."

Mirai Hachishu seemed a little hesitant and looked back at Captain Brad.

"...Although I entered the atmosphere in a glider before, it may be a little different, but this descent rate may be too high, so that after entering the atmosphere, it will be difficult to control the attitude of the ship and the landing point."

"Um……"

Captain Brad pondered for a moment before speaking:

"...This is the fastest track, right? It's also to reduce the exposure time to the Zeon military-controlled area, Platinum?"

"Yes, Captain Blade, the ballistic re-entry trajectory is also based on the fact that the ship has its own power and has the ability to float in the air. The requirements for the accuracy of the landing point are not as high as the gliding re-entry. The tracks do make a difference.”

Captain Blade nodded;

"It is still a top priority to return to Gabro Base as soon as possible; I don't know what is going on now, but at least when the White Base set sail from Gabro and ascended into the universe, the surrounding area of ​​Gabro, at least 1000 kilometers away, was owned by the Federation Army. Controlled area, so no need to worry.”

Milai looked at Captain Brad again and said nonchalantly:

"Then I'll follow the advice of professional 'people'."

Then he turned around and said nothing more.

"White Base, move forward at full speed, target, Earth!"

Captain Blade waved his hand forward, and the White Base's hull trembled slightly. Eight large nuclear rockets simultaneously burst out with dazzling blue light, pushing the huge warship to slowly speed up and sail forward.

……

"The refugees were all left behind on Luna 2, and they were a little bored for a while."

Frau Poe strolled in the empty lounge, casually placing the chairs crookedly beside the table back to their original positions one by one; the magnetic buckles installed on the chair legs were attracted to the fixed points on the ground to prevent these harmful The moving displays move randomly when the battleship maneuvers, accelerates and decelerates.

Looking at the tables and chairs that were now neatly arranged in several rows, Frau suddenly felt a little empty, as if he had nowhere to intervene, so he pulled out another chair, sat on it, and laid his head on the table.

The girl spent a large part of her time assisting in taking care of and comforting the hundreds of refugees, old and young, who were stranded on the ship, or helping in the medical room as a nurse;

But now, the wounded, refugees, and the children have all been moved away, and she is suddenly free.

"Everyone is the same, including Amuro. They are all starting to get busy and focus on their own things..."

Even though her identity as a volunteer has been officially recognized, the girl, somewhat rebellious, still chose to take off her collar and epaulettes with military significance, rejecting her status as a soldier.

"I miss those children a little bit..."

But the next second,

"Ah, it's Sister Frau!"

The door to the lounge opened, and three children, two boys and one girl, the oldest of whom were only eight years old, ran over jumping.

"Wait, Kaz, Couz, Jika, why are you three still on the boat!"

"We also volunteer to join the army and defeat the bad guys of the Zabi family!"

"We have nowhere to go."

"Because Sister Frau is still on board!"

The three children happily gave different answers and gathered around. The youngest, Jika, jumped into Fulla's lap;

Frau Bo caught Jika and raised her eyebrows slightly, which was already a sign of anger.

"I said before that it can also be done in the lounge...Platinum!"

"I'm here, Miss Bo..., if you don't want me to match my military rank..."

The projection equipment at the other end of the lounge was automatically turned on, and Platinum's expressionless figure appeared there;

"Excuse me, hardware restrictions, Miss Bo, I can only talk to you from here."

Platinum's voice came from the TV speaker buried in the wall.

"Wow, it's a ghost!"

Platinum suddenly appeared in the lounge in the form of a projection, which seemed to frighten the three children, causing them to hug Flau's legs and shrink behind her.

"Ah...it's okay, don't be afraid, this is a holographic projection, not a ghost..."