[Hathaway's Flash] Vol.02 Ch.03

Chapter.03
Valiant

　As though it were escorting the Valiant that Hathaway Noa and the others were aboard, there was another ship. The Ceelack, an old mineral carrier that had been converted much like the Valiant had. Both ships sailed south in the Timor Sea along the Besar Islands. 

　This wasn't, of course, the extent of their support for the entire continent as two other ships were deployed to the south. Both ships acted as carriers for the mobile suits and the Base Jabber and Galcezon that supported them. 

　"From the Ceelack, Galcezons are ready to launch." 

　The Captain of the Valiant, Brinks Wedge, rolled up the front of his shirt once the crew finished confirming the signal with flags. 

　"What about Hathaway's Gundam?!" he called out.

　"Hathaway! Are we sending out the team from the Ceelack?"

　Iram Masam, seated in the XO's seat, forgot to wipe the sweat from his brow.

　"Please do. Julia's getting a little jumpy!"

　"Aye, aye, Captain!"

　Iram turned around.

　"Make it so."

　"Yes, sir!"

　The Captain fumbled for his hat, looking less like a captain without it, as he began to flap it back and forth towards his chest with flag signals still in hand. There was no air conditioning on the bridge either, and a hot breeze hung in the air.

　They were still in the gap before the rainy season, so it was still infuriatingly humid. This could also be considered as part of even more phenomena caused by global warming, and it was everyone's current state of mind that made them feel that way. 

　In the organization known as Mafty, as evident with the Captain's attire, there was no distinction between rank and duty, so if the time were to come in the future when Mafty would need something like ranks, then it would mean even more unfortunate times. 

　By sunset, Hathaway and his mobile suit forces would arrive at their target, Oenbelli, and see the battlefield that Kimberly's forces were mopping up for themselves. Then, depending on how things played out, they might also engage with mobile suits from that same unit. 

　Moreover, should they find themselves bogged down by such an engagement, reinforcements from Kenneth Sleg's Circe squad, who succeeded Kimberly's, might even arrive. In truth, the army deployed in Oenbelli was a group that was unaffiliated with Hathaway's Mafty. Regardless of that, they were undoubtedly part of the anti-Federation government movement. 

　Ignoring them was not an option.

　More importantly, Earth Federation Forces' mobile suits were deployed to cover the entire South Pacific region. If they failed to strike a blow to these forces and stop the Circe reinforcements, it would hinder their future operations of purging Federation government ministers. 

　A lone Galcezon launches with two Messer Me2R on its back from the Ceelack. 

　VOOOOM!

　Two more Galcezon rose vertically from the forward deck of the Valiant in a similar fashion. A total of six mobile suits were launched. Despite this, the Valiant and Ceelack still had one combat team each. 

　"Julia, please hurry!" thundered Hathaway as he rose from the seat in the cockpit of his Gundam with the roar of the Galcezon overhead. 

　"I know, I know! I'm done!"

　The mechanic, Julia Suga, wore a leather belt with a set of maintenance tools tucked into her denim shorts, said finally, standing up on the waist of the Gundam.

　"You're still--?!"

　Hathaway said, looking up at her, swallowing the words he was about to say as he flitted his gaze to the instrument readouts on his console panels. Julia leaned her tanned upper body over the cockpit, putting a screwdriver back into the belt on her waist. 

　"I told you to at least put on a T-shirt!"

　"Never mind that! Don't say I didn't warn you about this reckless ass op!"

　She didn't seem to care that her bosom, which seemed to flaunt her fitness, was practically in Hathaway's face. 

　"If we can do it before enemy reinforcements arrive, then we have the added benefit of keeping their eyes off ours."

　He looked up to meet her no-nonsense expression, trying not to let his gaze linger on her chest.

　"Look, I get that, but we can we afford to play the 'whoever strikes first wins' card?"

　"We'll be fine."

　"And the enemy is likely thinking that too, plus they have the strength to back up that logic." 

　"I know, but until I see for myself what happened to the private army that gathered in Oenbelli, I can't decide what we'll do next. Also, you should at least put a shirt on so those precious tits don't get injured."

　"I really hate that archaic notion that only men can go topless, you know. We've been doing this for a hell of a long time. Besides, guess they're not all that bad then!"

　Julia lithely stood up, slipping out of Hathaway's sight. At that moment, her young and perky nipples flashed across his eyes. 

　"Purge the attachments!" he shouted on a line to the bridge and deck crew.

Katung! Clang!

　The sounds of falling metal rang out below his feet. Above him, the triple-layer shelter closed, his cockpit seat now surrounded by a panoramic visual display. His gaze followed Julia's fit form as she bounded down to the deck. He knew she was right. He turned to face the console panels as the prone Gundam suit began to slide toward the Valiant's stern.

　CHOOOM!

　Hathaway's surroundings were replaced by a swirling spray of water followed by an underwater landscape. The Gundam had slid down the rail, legs first, into the sea. 

　"?!"

　All of it was nerve-racking. It was his first time being underwater in a mobile suit. Despite that, the vortex of the main engine's plume prevented him from seeing the scenery of the surrounding sea. The cockpit shook erratically up and down, side to side, in the white bubbling seawater. As he conducted a systems check on each section, the Gundam sank deeper and deeper, to a depth of almost thirty meters. 

　The barrier functionality of each section seemed to be intact. Submerging the Gundam as he had done was the quickest and easiest way to check if it was fully airtight, not to mention the barrier's functionality.

　"Great."

　Julia and her team went without sleep to work on it, and their results certainly showed. He gave them a silent thank you and slowly brought up the thrust on the main nozzles, propelling the Gundam forward. At the same time, he was also satisfied that the shield and beam rifles on both arms proved resilient enough to withstand the external pressure. 

　The main sections of the mobile suit had to be capable of withstanding the pressure of depths of up to several hundred meters, as this was a weapon for close combat, making it fundamentally different from aircraft and other various weapons. 

　Resistance from the seawater caused irregular vibrations in the cockpit, a flaw resulting from the complete ignorance of hydrodynamics with the suit's design. Nevertheless, Hathaway made sure the Gundam could withstand the vibrations before rising out of the water. 

　The atmospheric pressure difference between outer space and where typical human life goes on is only one. Still, underwater, the external pressure one is subjected to easily numbers several tens of that. This is what prevented man from expanding into the sea and why it was possible to construct colossal structures in space. 

　Of course, temperature difference and radioactivity were problems in space for mankind, but solving these problems and shirking off gravity to move into space was much cheaper than fortifying against crushing external atmospheric pressures.

　The Gundam's head emerged from the water, splitting a spray to either side, its wake leaving a white trail that gradually exposed the Gundam to the air. Water that seeped into various sections of the suit sluiced out in dozens of streaks.

　The Gundam gained speed, hurtling forward as though it were on water skis. Its wake turned into a white curtain, and a number of small rainbows appeared as it changed direction. Then, as the Gundam's feet left the water's surface, it shot up all at once, following the Galcezon gathering in the sky above. 

　It didn't take long for the haze hanging over the surface of the sea to hide their forms as they slipped away into the eastern sky. 

　"..."

　Keria Dace gazed forlornly at the sight, trying to shake off her lingering doubts as a cruel thought crossed her mind. 

　"This op is one where there's no guarantee that Hatha will make it back." 

　Long after the four suits were out of sight, Keria made her way up to the bridge. As one could expect, she couldn't help but confirm whether what she thought was true. 

　"Masam."

　Keria felt the stagnant air of the bridge settle as she looked over Iram Masam's shoulder, keeping her gaze fixed on Captain Wedge.

　"What is it?"

　On the display in front of Masam, intel coming from the radio room and the occasional data captured by the radar were relayed. Staring at his nearly brown shoulders, she asked, "Hathaway didn't say anything about his being a dangerous op, did he?"

　"They always are," his shoulders shook as if he were laughing.

　"It's just that the ones we're up against are on a completely different level than usual." 

　"That's how it always is on the battlefield. This time is no different." 

　Masam knew how she felt, but he couldn't sugarcoat it for her. He went on.

　"The Gundam? Now that's something different. He'll be fine with it." 

　Iram gave Keria a light slap on her rear.

　"I know, it's just... The Circe squad has a similar type of mobile suit equipped with Minovsky Flight, don't they?" 

　"Hathaway won't lose against that, even with the Gundam inadequately equipped."

　He turned to face Keria, his face glowing with sparkling white teeth.

　"Right."

　She was disgusted by how unfulfilled she felt to be the one to bring up such a topic of conversation. Padding Iram's sweaty shoulder, she moved to address the Captain, who'd been stealing glances at her. 

　"Captain. I've discussed this with Masam. I'd like to be put on a surveillance mission somewhere other than here, please."

　"...? Yes, well, I'll consider it. We might even be able to fly you into Darwin, isn't that right, Masam?"

　Masam gawked at him with a face that said nothing of the sort had ever been mentioned to him, but after seeing the Captain's wink, he replied.

　"Of course, sir." 

　The Valiant began to change course, heading into strong headwinds that seemed to blow away any lingering doubts in Keria's mind. 

　"Oh, come on! Someone's gonna get hurt if you don't pick this stuff up off the deck!"

　Having heard Julia Suga's shrill voice, Keria looked down at her brown, fit body.

　"Must be nice to run around topless without a care in the world..."

　Even as the words crossed her mind, she realized she was simply feeling jealous. 

　The Valiant and Ceelack had to move onto the next point where they'd accept support, and then onto the next, and the next, and so on, all to resupply both manpower and supplies. 

　Thus was the fate for Mafty, which lacked sufficient manpower. 

　Though, at the same time, it was also a necessity of the times when long-distance radio communications were unusable due to radio interference from Minovsky particles. Therefore, several possible rendezvous points had to be established in advance for replenishment. 

　Despite being aware of the futility of such an approach, at least three levels of rendezvous points were assumed. 

　Inherently, combat maneuvers have to deal with this level of risk, but odd as it may be, in an era of vast radio and computer intel gathering, people have often forgotten this and have neglected to take proper precautions. If one places too much trust in our intelligence-gathering abilities, they ignore instances that do not fall within the scope of those parameters. If they believe there is a supply system that can rapidly respond, they forget to consider just how the system responds in reality.

　And so, when it was brought up that the system had triple comms to deal with any unforeseen eventuality, it seemed all but foolproof. The end of the old century was a chaotic era of information chaos. In a place called Vietnam, there was a skirmish between an army with modern equipment and local guerrillas, and everyone believed that the troops with the fancy equipment would win, but the results were just the opposite.  

　Moreover, the guerrillas had, in fact, switched over to modern tech at some point in their victory. Despite that, their opponents failed to understand what was really going on and continued waging war, believing in their modern-day military formations employed in the early stages of the war, and thus lost the battle. 

　The dangers of modern times lie in the systems that support such convenience. So long as these systems are in operation, there is no shortage of examples of how man has become less imaginative in the face of a crisis. 

　Space colonies were built, at least in part, with such examples as a guiding model, though the advent of the Minovsky particle made people even more cautious. 

　The Valiant and Ceelack broke off from one another, each sending the other signals via Morse code, praying for the other's success before turning their bows towards their next mission point. 

　The Valiant slowly drew near the soft shadows cast by the Besar Islands, leaving barely any wake behind on the thin, glue-like surface of the sea.