Chapter 112: Gihren's Final Ambition
"What should we do? There are signs that Sector S is about to be breached."
Upon receiving news that her subordinate, Char, had retreated, Kycilia found it hard to remain calm.
To be fair, Char had delayed the enemy for quite some time. However, in Kycilia's view, the costly Zeon flagship should have achieved more significant results.
Unfortunately, General Revil had realized the immense threat the Zeon posed to the Federation fleet the moment it appeared on the battlefield, and he dispatched Amuro to deal with it.
Kycilia, who had supported Gihren's strategy for the sake of Zeon's broader interests, now found herself genuinely worried about the outcome of this battle.
But Gihren, in contrast, appeared completely confident.
"Kycilia, have you heard of Hitler?"
Gihren wore a rather pleased smile as he stared at the command room's screen, where lights flickered constantly.
Every flash of light represented the end of at least one life.
"Hitler? Wasn't he from a long time ago? Why bring him up now?" Kycilia was visibly confused.
"That was the last question Father ever asked me—he called me Hitler's tail or something like that."
At that moment, someone approached and whispered something into Gihren's ear.
Gihren nodded in satisfaction, then stood up from the command seat, gazing at the Federation forces on the screen with a look of disdain.
"I am not Hitler's tail. He failed in the end, didn't he? My ambition far surpasses his."
He then turned toward everyone in the command room.
"Begin charging the Solar Ray System! Notify all allied forces along its path to retreat within ten minutes. The Solar Ray will secure our victory!"
Kycilia's eyes widened in shock. The Solar Ray System? Wasn't it stationed back home and rendered inoperable?
Unless—
A side screen suddenly lit up, projecting a floor plan of A Baoa Qu Fortress. At the center of the "mushroom stalk" structure, a marked area began displaying a fluctuating percentage—indicating a charging sequence.
Gihren had actually constructed another Solar Ray System within A Baoa Qu!
Although it was smaller in scale, at this distance, it could still inflict devastating damage on the Federation fleet.
This was Gihren's trump card against the Federation's onslaught.
Kycilia instantly understood. Based on the data displayed, this single shot could potentially destroy 30% of the Federation's front-line forces. With such a blow, Zeon could use the fortress and its remaining forces to push the Federation back entirely.
However, the Federation hadn't been idle.
Though they hadn't discovered the Solar Ray, their sheer numerical advantage allowed them to press the attack. At the very moment Gihren gave his order, the Federation had already advanced their frontlines to the key defensive point—two Dolos-class supercarriers.
Faced with these massive carriers, boasting overwhelming numbers of mobile suits and firepower, the Federation employed close-range ship-to-ship combat tactics and successfully destroyed one of them.
The second Dolos was now under siege.
If the Federation took it down, Zeon's outer defense perimeter would collapse.
Yet, the Federation noticed something odd.
Zeon forces began retreating hastily, even abandoning mobile suits without retrieval, desperate to pull back.
It was clear they feared something.
By backtracking the routes of the fleeing Zeon forces, the Federation dispatched scouts toward A Baoa Qu, trying to uncover what was happening.
Seven minutes before the Solar Ray was set to fire, the Federation finally discovered Zeon's ultimate weapon.
The entire battle shifted focus in an instant.
The Federation fleet immediately reoriented itself.
With only seven minutes remaining, the massive fleet couldn't fully evacuate in time. While units directly in the danger zone began retreating, forces from other directions surged forward, forming a spearhead aimed directly at the Solar Ray.
Simultaneously, Zeon forces gathered around the cannon, careful to avoid its central axis. Both sides knew that this was it—the decisive moment.
But what was Eli doing at this critical juncture?
Unfortunately—or perhaps fatefully—Eli was inside A Baoa Qu Fortress itself.
This went back to an earlier encounter.
Back then, when Eli's EZ-SR had charged at the Gundam mobile suit that had been sniping him relentlessly, his beam saber slash was blocked.
The Gundam pilot, Breniss Ox, decisively threw aside his beam rifle, gripping his beam halberd with both hands to stall for time.
However, Breniss Ox underestimated the power of a Gundam running the EXAM system.
Realizing the danger, he quickly retreated, fearing he'd be crushed under the Gundam's overwhelming output.
This system… he'd seen it before—on the Efreet Custom, piloted by Zeon's "Knight of Zeon," Nimbus Schterzen.
Breniss Ox, once a member of Zeon's first training corps, had even mentored Nimbus and remembered his close-combat preference well.
Nimbus' mobile suit had a similar system to boost performance temporarily.
But alas, Breniss Ox had heard that Nimbus had recently been shot down while piloting a stolen Federation suit—defeated by a GM unit equipped with the same EXAM system. The GM was destroyed in the process as well.
Nevertheless, Breniss Ox now had a strategy for dealing with this Gundam.
"He can't maintain this mode for long. Everyone, keep your distance and cover me with ranged fire!"
Though known for his sniper skills and his reputation as a one-shot killer, Breniss Ox now charged forward, brandishing his beam halberd to face the Gundam head-on.
Rather than letting others take this risk, he chose to face it himself.
A yellow and a pink beam blade clashed violently before bouncing apart.
"Tch, time's running out!"
Eli cursed under his breath, narrowly dodging a beam shot from behind.
Time was against him.
More than half of the EXAM system's activation period had passed. If he didn't break through soon, the system would shut down, leaving his Gundam severely underpowered.
To make matters worse, his mobile suit wasn't unscathed—its left leg thruster had been grazed by a beam, rendering it inoperable. The left foot's thruster was also overheating.
The neurofeedback system intensified Eli's emotional state, pushing his movements to become increasingly reckless and aggressive.
While this made him unpredictable, it also meant he'd eventually slip up, giving Breniss Ox an opportunity.
Eli knew this—but frustration gnawed at him.
"Didn't I swear I wouldn't be consumed by hatred?"
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