[Hathaway's Flash] Vol.02 Ch.04

Chapter.04
Pass-Through Canal

　"The way things are going, I'll end up hopelessly selfish. There's no guarantee I'll ever see Gigi again, and I've been cold to Keria."

　Hathaway felt a heavy lump in his chest and felt he deserved it.

　However, Hathaway believed.

　To him, there was little doubt that he'd see Gigi Andalucia again, so, until that time, he could not afford to act rashly. Her beautiful yet captivating good looks and personality made him vaguely sure of it. 

　Maybe there was even a twinge of devilish nature for such thoughts to go through Hathaway's mind. He was still young, after all. 

　Hathaway and his team were flying between the two islands at an altitude of about one hundred and fifty meters, the same altitude they started on. Despite flying across the straits, their view of the islands in the distance remained flat and unchanging on either side. 

　The light undulations and the coastline moving farther and nearer as they moved made their task of checking for obstacles in case of emergencies dreary and tedious.

　However, once out of the narrow channel and into the Clarence Strait, despite just being an inland sea, a wide sea spread before them to the east. Bringing their altitude down lower, they immediately made for their destination of Oenbelli.

　If the Kimberley Unit assembled at Oenbelli were anticipating the arrival of Mafty and his men, they would not have expected an incursion from this direction. They would instead expect an approach using the mountain range to the east of Oenbelli as a shield. For that reason, Hathaway and his people chose this route for their incursion.

　Although Oenbelli lies just tens of kilometers from the coast, it lies below sea level; a dangerous direction to infiltrate from, with its distant view.

　They passed two hundred kilometers of sea in less than ten minutes, entering the wetlands leading to Oenbelli.

　Hathaway moved his Gundam to the front of the Galcezon.

　"Recon. Also, consultation and combat."

　Hathaway gave the ready-for-battle sign to each of the mobile suits clinging to the Galcezon.

　They saw what appeared to be the remains of several roads cutting across the land.

　A few more seconds passed.

　"?"

　Hathaway saw wisps of smoke from the ground as they flowed past.

　It could have been dust from cars.

　He saw some houses; they were no illusion.

　"It's Oenbelli."

　Beyond the greenery that adorned the reddish-brown earth, Hathaway spied the silhouette of a cluster of buildings.

　The town's name once called Oenpelli in the old century, is believed to have been changed to Oenbelli when the Federation government's immigration authorities misspelled the name when they typed it into their computers when registering it during the space colony emigration era.  

　"?!"

　Hathaway watched as the pursuing Galcezon ejected their Messers as it gained altitude, then further lowered the altitude of his Gundam.

　The head-mounted recon video camera started up.

　"!"

　Choom!

　He thought a missile had been launched. The sound passed.

　The private military forces assembled here were not supposed to have mobile suits, so the mobile suits that appeared could only belong to the Kimberley Forces. 

　"!!"

　Hathaway fired several long-based missiles toward the flash of light racing at him from the left. A huge fireball blossomed several meters above the surface when the flash intersected with the streaks of white, thread-like smoke. 

 　The remains of the town of Oenbelli had long since drifted behind them, leaving a desert landscape spreading out beneath them.

　Hathaway brought the Gundam around sharply, bringing the town into view once more.

　"!"

　The pursuing mobile suits seemed to have gained altitude. 

 　Even as he saw the Galcezon and six Messers charge into the mountains behind, Hathaway fired a barrage of missiles mounted behind his shield. It should be effective against pursuing enemies, but there was no time for him to check. 

　The Gundam accelerated, quickly gaining altitude, and put up a sand barrel barrier against the homing missiles. A myriad of led particles provided a barrier against missiles and high-performance bullets. Deployed too early, and they'd serve no purpose against a second or third onslaught, though for starters, it was effective with a rate of roughly fifty percent.

　In the case of the Gundam, there would be a final barrier, but Hathaway knew that, at that moment, there was no need for it.

 　As the Gundam lost altitude as if it would slam into the gently sloping mountainside, Hathaway saw several fireballs billowing beneath him. 

 　By the time the glow faded, the sun had already set behind the horizon.

　As he was retreating, Hathaway converted the video footage he had taken to still images, comparing them to the map of Oenbelli. The Gundam approached a gently rising mountain range and descended into a creek two mountains over.

　There, three Galcezons carrying the returned Messers landed closely together on the gently sloping plain of the waterless riverbed.

　The Gundam landed in front of Galcezon 1 and inserted its finger into a small attachment on the bridge.

　Through the windshield, its captain, Raymond Cain, gave an OK sign, and the Gundam's computer transferred the images it had acquired to Galcezon 1's computer. 

 　While that was underway, Hathaway climbed down to the bridge of the Galcezon, using a rope in front of the cockpit.

　"Yo."

　Gawman Nobile opened a hatch in the ceiling, and Hathaway slid through it and onto the bridge.

　"Where do we stand?"

　"Hmph!"

 　The pilots, led by Emeralda Zubin, were looking at printouts of the images analyzed by Galcezon 1's computer.

　"We must leave now; the private military forces deployed in Oenbelli are nearly wiped out."

　"Total annihilation?"

　"See for yourself."

　Emeralda handed one of the printouts to Hathaway.

　"What is this!? Bodies?"

　"What else could they be?"

　In the blurred image, numerous dead bodies could be seen.

　"Kimberley must be panicking because Kenneth is here. If not, they wouldn't have done this to a group of people who might as well have been unarmed."

　Raymond glared at another printout.

　"I wonder if we'll be there in time. They're ready over there, aren't they?"

　Hendrix Hiyo, the captain of Galcezon 3, spoke from the back of the room.

　"Odds are about fifty-fifty. We can do it. And there's this too. These guys are heading towards Jabiru."

　Emeralda held out the printout she was holding to the group.

　"Ahh? The self-proclaimed Mafty's Army?"

　Hathaway saw the marked items on the printout and understood them to be a significant number of vehicles.

　"I see that Mafty's Army still has quite a bit of firepower."

 　"Who shot this?"

　"I did. I had the highest altitude."

　Rod Hein, the pilot of Messer 7, looked over with a smug face.

　"You saw it firsthand?"

　"Well, no, I didn't, but..."

　"According to the computer analysis, at present, there's no mistake. The number of people Kimberley has killed is in the thousands."

　Raymond checked the computer printout against the printouts from the other Galcezon captains.

　"Are you absolutely sure?"

　Harla Morley, the pilot of Messer 6, looked over Hendrix's shoulder, her slender cheeks trembling.

　"There's what looked like a tent village on the outskirts of the city, but it's been wiped out too. There are hundreds of bodies everywhere."

　"I understand, but this will be a head-on fight."

　Hathaway gave the order.

　"That's what we're here for."

　Gawman and the others seemed to respond with glee.

　"Pursuit is incoming. Can we fly?"

　"You bet we can!"

　Emeralda's voice came in from afar; she was already outside.

　The cause for Hathaway's uncertainty was that there Oenbelli's original residents might have survived, and he feared that if he did not make contact with the military forces gathered there, he would not be able to get any further information.

　However, the computer image analysis showed that hardly any buildings remained intact in Oenbelli, and the town was nearly deserted.

　They were able to identify ten enemy mobile suits and knew that they would be able to capture some of the group deployed there.

　The only way to get more accurate intel would be to capture Oenbelli.

　"It's going to be difficult. We're not going to attack in the dark, are we?"

　Hathaway looked at his pilots, and all of them were steeled and ready for a fight.

　Mafty's usual strategies were usually no different from assassinations. Such activities do not leave people in a normal state of mind. Plus, no matter the age, pilots have always thought of themselves as knights. One-on-one combat was their true calling.

 This is the source of encouragement for soldiers, allowing them to surrender to nostalgia.

　"We're good! No worries!"

　"Let's give it a shot!"

　They ran outside, leaving such words in their wake.

　However, less than ten minutes had passed since they landed.

　The time lost was great.

　These actions were what Keria Dace was most concerned about.

　However, Hathaway and Iram insisted on this action from the beginning, partially out of consideration for the feelings of their pilots but also to verify the massacre of tens of thousands by the Kimberley Forces from intel gleaned from broadcasts and amateur radio reports in the area.

　Were they lies or the truth?

　The amateur reports were indeed exaggerated, but they were not lies.

　The Oenbelli tragedy was more than enough to enrage the pilots' sense of justice.

　"The body count is a little more than two thousand,"

　Raymond reported to Hathaway, poking the upper half of his body through the ceiling hatch on the bridge.

　"Mm! Pass that on to the others, too, would you?"

　"Roger."

　Hathaway took the rope and slid into the cockpit of the Gundam, taking off without a pause.

　"!?"

　Signatures from the Kimberley Unit appeared on the display in front of Hathaway at the exact moment the Gundam crossed the mountain ridge.

　His display wasn't a direct projection of the camera footage but rather computer-generated graphics analyzed by the computer. As such, so long as enemy suits were input, they would be displayed accurately on screen.

　Of course, if there were a terrible gleam from the atmosphere, identification would be impossible, but in this case, the information could be taken to be accurate.

　Hathaway ignored it and ascended.

　In the meantime, the three Galcezon also took off, and the Messers on their backs were going into combat formation.

　The head-on mobile suit battle ended in a victory for Hathaway because they had the advantage of having a Gundam, a free-flying Minovsky Craft.

　When six Messers broke off from the Galcezons, and confronted the twelve mobile suits of the Kimberley Forces, the Gustav Karl FD-03, six of them went after the Gundam.

　That was the enemy's mistake.

　The Gundam easily took out three of the Gustav Karls, which were less capable of aerial combat under gravity. Meanwhile, an equal number of Messers and Gustav Karls faced off in the air, but both models of mobile suits could only jump-flight and only managed to waste time skirmishing for several seconds.

 　With the Gundam taking out half of the Gustav Karls, the mobile suits facing it instantly retreated, allowing Hathaway to snipe the remaining Gustav Karls from above as they were engaged in combat.

　It was a one-sided affair, what you would call a "turkey shoot." 

 　When they noticed that their consorts were being taken out, some of the Gustav Karls attempted to retreat, and the Messers took some out. However, in the end, only three managed to escape from Hathaway and his group.

　The Base Jabber supporting the Gustav Karls, the Kessaria, had noticed their allies' disadvantage and had retreated early on.

　This resulted in the three Gustav Karls that escaped losing their mode of transportation, and they had no choice but to retreat by jump-flight.

　"We'll push on to Oenbelli."

　Hathaway gave the order over the radio and moved forward to an altitude of fifty meters.

　The Messers took the rearguard, entrusting themselves to the Galcezons, and followed after the Gundam.