[Hathaway's Flash] Vol.03 Ch.06

CHAPTER.06
PINPOINT DEFENSE

　When Lieutenant Lane Aim activated the console panel to launch the Penelope, their hangar suffered a direct hit. The miscalculation stemmed from the fact that his suit, anticipating close-quarter combat, stood erect in its mobile suit form.
　As the weapons depot succumbed to catastrophic detonations, the hulking unit lost balance and toppled over.
　"Damn!"
　The inert shock absorbers offered no mercy to Lane, who was flung with jarring force against the visual display, fracturing its crystalline surface.
　In the absence of battlefield chaos, such an event vexed Lane, making him wonder if the Penelope was an unlucky piece of machinery.
　Yet, the maneuverability the Penelope demonstrated when sinking the Valiant mirrored every motion they'd planned during the space tests.
　"I won't let that Mafty do as he pleases!"
　Despite lacking any personal encounter with the shadowy figure known as Hathaway, Lane found himself nursing a bitter resentment toward the young man.
　"Talking all high and mighty."
　That's just it.
　A mere civilian, blissfully ignorant of the tribulations faced by military structures, a misguided youth warping the noble tenets of liberalism. Such was his assessment. The carefree demeanor the figure showcased added to the mounting irritation Lane felt.
　The mere thought of being bested by the youthful pilot of a faux-Gundam was enough to trigger a resurgent wave of humiliation. Yet, the conventions of combat dictated that a pilot would seldom, if ever, voice such audacious declarations to an adversary, which allowed Lane a sliver of composure.
　"If everyone lived as they pleased, the world would plunge into chaos."
　While it would be appropriate to raise the issue of the excessive freedom exercised by the massive federal government organization, Lane, as a soldier, didn't entertain such thoughts.
　A young man himself, moreover a mobile suit pilot, Lane found enough fulfillment merely carrying out his duties. His heightened abilities as a pilot left little room for him to view the concept of the organization as an enemy or let his thoughts wander too far.
　Hence, his foes took human form, sometimes manifesting as Kenneth and Gigi.
　With the manipulator still functional, Lane's first course of action was to right the suit's precarious tilt and fire up the main engine.
　Despite Penelope's sturdy construction designed to withstand her own colossal weight, the mechanisms governing the transformation to flight form hinted at potential malfunctions.
　No matter. With no immediate plan to switch forms, Lane dismissed it as the engine roared to life.
　"Moving out!"
　Lane's instinctive call to the deck crew echoed in the empty hangar.
　BOOM!
　The monstrous explosion from the besieged weapons depot closed in from behind, violently jolting the suit.
　"Damn it!"
　Boosting the output of the Minovsky Craft and main nozzle, Lane deployed the exhaust gases to dispel the billowing smoke enveloping the suit, widening his field of view.
　WHAM!
　The detonation of the right depot launched a cluster of missiles into the air; their flashes seemed to skewer his own suit.
　VROOM! WHIRR!
　The Penelope streaked along the runway, narrowly avoiding the airport structure, escaping the destructive reach of their own missiles' blast.
　"Damn! There's turbulence?!"
　Identifying the unpleasant shudder convulsing the cockpit as unrelated to flight, Lane compelled the Penelope to break free from the ground, hot on the tail of the leading Gustav Karl. The rest of the mobile suits dispatched earlier began scattering to their designated positions.
　That was the combat procedure for Gustav Karl's jump flight.
　"...!"
　Although Lane's Penelope had taken flight later than planned, hardly a minute had elapsed since the airport bore the brunt of a direct assault.
　Yet, the wannabe Gundam remained conspicuously absent.
　"It's him! Why?!"
　Lane pondered over the possibility of an object with a mobile suit form capable of flying at sonic speeds.
　"The whole suit seemed engulfed in light, didn't it?"
　His mind flashed back to the silhouette of the Xi Gundam, streaking past the airport, the fiery battle where the Gundam had shot him down, and the discussions during Penelope's painstaking development.
　A beam barrier.
　This innovation involved the emission of a beam altering waveforms in the suit's path, scattering atmospheric resistance, and allowing it to breach the speed of sound. In Penelope's case, the technology had yet to be perfected, yet it could already break the sound barrier.
　"He's perfected what we've only begun..."
　The threat lay in the organizational problems underlying technological development. However, it was the sense of being outpaced technologically that left Lane cursing his circumstances.
　"The second wave... Which way will the mobile suit team targeting the ministers come from?"
　Aiming the Penelope toward the sea, Lane primed all the weapons on the suit for instantaneous launch. If he could engage in close-quarters combat, the speed difference would be negligible.
　"Why was the invasion so easy?"
　That was now of the utmost importance. The crux of the matter revolved around tactical response.
　Yet, as he pondered this, the name Gigi Andalusia surfaced in his thoughts.
　"Did our fortune change when she was captured by Mafty at Ayers Rock?
　He attempted to dismiss the idle rumors circulating about Gigi being a harbinger of fortune with a shake of his head.
　"That's pure fiction."
　Nevertheless, since Gigi's disappearance, an unsettling feeling of turmoil had swept through the entire Circe Unit. Lane was quick to pin this on the inept Federation government bureaucrats, burdening the unit with an endless list of responsibilities.
　They were disrupting the natural flow of luck.
　However, upon their arrival in Adelaide, Kenneth, to Lane's surprise, was swiftly promoted, and he seemed to exercise a fitting level of command.
　"Kenneth didn't seem like he was being controlled by Gigi..."
　Yet, he couldn't ignore the growing sentiment that things were headed for the worse. Lane questioned whether what he had experienced at Ayers Rock was an influence exerted by Gigi. However, he swiftly dismissed it,
　"That's right. Only hard facts shape reality."
　In defiance of his own intuition, Lane drew this conclusion.
　"Could a solitary wannabe Gundam have brought the mighty Federation government to its knees with a single air raid?"
　Lane's gaze drifted back toward the city.
　"Damn!"
　He realized he had taken a hit.
　Beyond the thick veil of black smoke rising from the airport, Lane discerned another shadow darting forward.
　"Has the tide of fortune turned in Mafty's favor?"
　He was aghast.
　He had naively anticipated the second wave to emerge from the direction of the imitation Gundam.
　Multiple mobile suit silhouettes were conducting a pivot in the city center, raining down destruction near the Festival Center. The faint glimmer and illumination of the explosions, insignificant in the vastness of the ensuing chaos, served as a stinging reminder of Lane's oversight.
　Gawman Nobile's squadron was orchestrating the assault on the Festival Center.
　"Damn it!"
　The four leading Gustav Karls, while mindful of the sea, spread out, oblivious to the turmoil unfolding within the city.
　"The city! It's under attack! Behind us!"
　As Lane screamed, he maneuvered his unit ahead of the Gustav Karls.
　Although they were within communication range, the dense static of Minovsky particles, a byproduct of the fierce combat, muffled Lane's cries.
　Due to the Penelope's movement, which was advancing on the enemy shadows while ascending to a 500-meter altitude, two of the Gustav Karls began to alter their course toward the city.
　"Will I make it?"
　Lane cried out as he beheld the whitewashed, smoke-covered edifice of the Festival Center, now reduced to a pile of rubble amidst the explosions and smoke.
　Lane fired a missile in a desperate attempt to draw the four Mafty mobile suits hovering above the city out of his attack range. While Federation Forces' mobile suits were forbidden from engaging in combat within the city center airspace, Lane was in no position to heed such constraints.
　The flare of his missile prompted two of Mafty's mobile suits to initiate evasive maneuvers.
　"You impudent--
　Lane managed to annihilate one of the Messers with his initial volley.
　Bagoom!
　The shockwave enveloped the city, with buildings directly below the explosion vaporizing and melting away.
　Despite the Penelope's Minovsky Craft capabilities not being inferior to the Gundam's, the shockwave propelled it too far east, causing its turn to take longer than expected.
　"Kuh..."
　Lane regretted pushing the throttle too much. The suit was still vibrating intensely, frustrating him. His inexperience was glaringly evident when he failed to lure the enemy units out of the suburbs to take them down.
　"Domest's been hit! Pull back!"
　While maneuvering his own unit buffeted by the reactor's pressure wave, Gawman Nobile bellowed a retreat order, calling off the attack on the Festival Center.
　"There!"
　However, to buy time for his comrades to disengage and deal with the new threat, Gawman aimed his Messer eastward.
　Simultaneously, the other three Messers concealed themselves amidst the cityscape left in ruins by the explosion and commenced aerial dogfights with the pursuing Gustav Karls. The Messers and Karls engaged in a unique combat style, launching themselves from building shadows to trade beam rifle shots.
　"Wha--!?"
　Gawman spotted the unwieldy Penelope charging towards him against the backdrop of the distant, low-lying mountain ridgeline.
　"Go down!"
　He unleashed a hail of beam rifle shots.
　"I won't let you retreat!"
　Outpacing the incoming beams, Lane launched a fan-shaped barrage of funnel missiles at Gawman's suit.
　"Tch!"
　Undeterred by the colossal Penelope, Gawman activated his suit's beam saber and charged, seemingly making the missiles swerve around him.
　"Gah!"
　At that moment, Lane couldn't concentrate on the funnel controls.
　"What the hell?!"
　Evading the funnels, Gawman's suit swooped up from below, resulting in a jarring thud! The damage indicator lit up – the armor on the right leg was compromised.
　Distracted by a new explosion at Adelaide Airport, Lane had failed to keep his focus on the funnels.
　BOOM! CRASH!
　The explosion wasn't due to chain reaction explosives but rather a mobile suit's main engine failing to fully evade and detonating. Caught in the blast wave, the Penelope's speed significantly dropped with a lurch.
　Predictably, the enemy unit which bore the blast at its rear had pulled back to the outskirts.
　Mafty's mobile suit units, having launched the initial assault on the Festival Center, had also strategically withdrawn at the opportune moment.
　"Dammit!"
　A massive mushroom cloud bloomed, seemingly engulfing the Adelaide Airport.
　There it was, just in front of that cloud!
　Lane spotted another Mafty mobile suit unit. These were Emeralda's mobile suits, readying the second wave of attacks on the airport and the Festival Center.
　"Damn!"
　The Penelope unleashed all its remaining funnel missiles in a frenzy.
　Due to his recent error, Lane had zeroed in on the leading machine.
　"I can do this!"
　KABOOM!
　The unit was Emeralda's, but that detail barely registered for Lane. Upon spotting an enemy shadow directly ahead, every fiber of Emeralda's being seemed to dissipate in fear.
　"!"
　Adelaide was once again engulfed by a nuclear fusion engine explosion. Amid the explosive chaos, three Messer units charged headlong toward the Penelope.
　"Nngh!"
　Pushing the Penelope to its maximum capacity, Lane felt the triple shock absorbers of his seat strain against the sheer vibration coursing through his body. Some part of his suit malfunctioned, buckling under the atmospheric pressure.
　Despite this, his beam rifle functioned without a hitch.
　PSSSSHEW!
　Light rings bloomed in the air, the result of colliding beam rifle shots detonating.
　"You're good!"
　As he reduced speed to counter the enemy mobile suit whizzing past, Lane squeezed off a shot from the Penelope's beam rifle.
　BANG!
　The Messer spun in mid-air, trailing off.
　One Messer spiraled mid-air, losing control. But there was no respite. He had to fend off the remaining two Messer units.
　"…!?"
　As he angled for a strike against the retreating Messer, he felt it.
　The presence of that familiar nemesis—the wannabe Gundam—was again palpable in Adelaide's battle airspace.
　"…!?"
　At the same time, Mafty's Base Jabber units—Galcezons—darted underneath the retreating Messers, infiltrating the battlefield in succession. Coordinated teamwork was evident in these suits' maneuvers.
　"…!?"
　In response, Penelope rapidly retreated, seeking refuge in the mushroom cloud looming over Adelaide Airport.
　Despite his youth, Lane was proving to be an exemplary pilot.
　The same could be said of Hathaway, operating the Xi Gundam.
　Instead of pursuing the Penelope—a formidable adversary—Hathaway directed his assault towards the Gustav Karl, who was hot on the trail of the retreating Galcezons. His patience in not chasing after Penelope underscored his understanding of being Mafty, transcending his role as a pilot.
　Partially emerging from the swirling cloud over the airport, the Penelope watched as the Gundam held the Gustav Karls at bay, facilitating its allies' retreat. Lane found himself contemplating the pilot behind the wannabe Gundam.
　Frustration trembled within him.
　Yet, it wasn't the sight of the wannabe Gundam that conquered Lane Aim. His judgment not to recklessly plunge into the fray amidst the overall defensive operation was sound.
　Had he let youthful bravado dictate his actions, hurling the Penelope—whose maintenance was compromised due to the blast—into a face-off with the Gundam, it would have been easy prey.
　Especially if Penelope had gotten entangled in close combat with the mobile suits even momentarily, the nearby Gustav Karls would have joined the fray. The Circe Unit's mobile suits could have been wiped out.
　"Damn it!"
　Realizing Penelope's missile stock was exhausted, Lane descended towards the charred runway of the airport.
　"Has Gigi become the guardian deity of Mafty?"
　He found himself musing on this, pondering whether even a middle-aged man like Kenneth's piety held some weight.
　"Otherwise, even with Mafty's three-wave assault plan, they wouldn't have bombed the assembly hall hosting all the cabinet ministers so easily…"
　Standing before the airport building—scarred by numerous bomb blasts—Lane Aim harbored a humble realization. Encased in his words was the wisdom of those compelled to confront reality, even amidst uncertainty.
　Superstitions or a touch of faith?
　He mused that there might be moments when such elements could shape reality.