Although Shinn's act of saving Stella was born from good intentions, rescuing an enemy soldier and returning her, thereby exposing his own side, was an offense worthy of a court-martial in any nation's military.
Yes, Reid was certain the Atlantic Federation would soon dispatch troops to search the ruins.
The drugged-up new Three young aces weren't the sharpest tools in the shed and would probably think Shinn was just a civilian trying to escape.
But that Neo Roanoke, who was completely different from the original, would definitely see that something was amiss.
Not long ago, that area had been a combat zone. Moreover, it was in the direction of the ZAFT camp, a key defensive area for the Atlantic Federation forces.
How could an ordinary civilian cross the army's defensive lines and wander into these ruins? From the Atlantic Federation's perspective, this person was either a scout from ZAFT or a PLANT spy from within their own city.
As Reid predicted, upon hearing the report from the new Three young aces, Neo Roanoke immediately mobilized ground troops to enter the ruins and capture the person.
However, Neo Roanoke judged that this person was likely a spy developed by PLANT within the city, and a recently recruited one at that, given how exceptionally unprofessional he was. He had actually rescued a little girl who had no business being in the ruins in the middle of a mission.
Therefore, Neo Roanoke wanted to capture the boy named Shinn and follow the trail to root out the spies in the city.
Fortunately, Reid and Shinn were quick to act. Flying away without stealth would have been the most foolish move, so Reid had Shinn pilot the mobile suit, carry the GN Capacitor, and walk out of the city on foot under the cover of a Stealth Camouflage Cloth.
This way, although the GP-08 (Phantom Rose) α was exceptionally conspicuous from the ground, it couldn't be visually detected from the air.
As for the ground troops coming to search, Reid prepared to set up an ambush.
With the Obscurant Umbrella System, Reid's GP-08 (Phantom Rose) β was now a ghost in the city.
Besides, Automated Mines could be directly exchanged for in the G-Coins shop.
So, Reid didn't plan to reveal his mobile suit prematurely. Instead, he littered the Atlantic Federation army's inevitable path with mines.
Since the objective was to capture a human-sized target in a complex urban environment, deploying MS would be like using a lion to catch a mouse in a rock crevice—time-consuming and inefficient.
In this situation, a ground mobile force of armored cars and jeeps was more suitable.
But for these two types of vehicles, hitting a mine powerful enough to destroy even a lightly armored MS was no different from taking a direct hit from a heavy cannon.
So, when the pursuit team had advanced less than five hundred meters into the city, the lead vehicle was blown sky-high by a mine that popped out from the roadside. The vehicles behind could only slam on their brakes.
It wasn't that the Atlantic Federation forces were careless. They had probably just passed through this road during the day. Who knew there would be Automated Mines on the roadside now?
The Atlantic Federation now just wanted to know how ZAFT had managed to place mines at the entrance of their own camp. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to sleep at night, wondering if the next mine would be placed in front of the house they were sleeping in.
Thus, the Atlantic Federation military convoy immediately retreated and began sending soldiers into the city to clear the mines manually.
At the same time, they reported the situation to the rear. The exceptionally unprofessional spy was no longer the priority. The patrol personnel for this section of the road had to be thoroughly investigated; there had to be a traitor among them.
The Atlantic Federation army spending half the night interrogating several innocent patrol teams was none of Reid's concern.
Seeing that the Atlantic Federation was bogged down by the mines and their ground troops wouldn't be able to enter and find the GP-08 (Phantom Rose) α anytime soon, Reid withdrew.
Afterward, Reid considered that Sting had told Shinn to run east, so there would likely be pursuit forces in that direction as well.
Therefore, Reid led Shinn around to the south of Bogotá and found another set of ruins to lie low in.
This time, Reid didn't dare let Shinn go out to scout alone again. The two of them slept directly inside the mobile suit until the next day. (The Artificial Intelligence in the mobile suit would control small robots to stand guard outside.)
Thanks to Reid's antics the previous night, neither the Atlantic Federation nor ZAFT launched an attack in the morning.
The Atlantic Federation wanted to rest a bit more, while ZAFT was purely afraid of an ambush, given how much the Atlantic Federation had been stirring things up in the ruins in front of them last night, and didn't dare to attack rashly.
However, after a morning of reconnaissance, the ZAFT side discovered that the Atlantic Federation seemed to have just played a meaningless "empty fort" strategy against them. Thus, they launched another attack around noon.
By this time, Reid had already taken Shinn to the edge of the battlefield in the jungle to watch the show.
Reid observed the battlefield from an ultra-long range through the GP-08 (Phantom Rose) β's sniper scope, searching for his target.
However, in a real war, aces don't just charge in from the start. It wasn't a breakout or annihilation battle, so the main forces on the battlefield at the beginning were still the grunt units of both sides.
The current situation was that the sky was a battlefield for Windams and Babis, while on the ground, Dagger Ls plus three Gells-Ghes were fighting various Zaku Warriors.
Unlike the first time, although ZAFT's grunt MS still held a slight performance advantage, this advantage was very small. The Atlantic Federation outnumbered ZAFT by more than thirty percent, and this slight performance edge was long since nullified by their numbers.
So, in the air, the Windams equipped with jet striker packs quickly gained the upper hand over the Babis.
On the ground, the flightless Zaku Warriors (they could actually achieve brief air superiority, but their mobility during that time was negligible, making them complete targets) could only trade shots with the Dagger Ls on the ground while facing the three Gells-Ghes, which could deploy Positron Reflector Beam Shields.
But because air superiority was temporarily controlled by the Atlantic Federation, the Zaku Warriors also had to handle anti-air defense, so they too were being suppressed.
However, the reason ZAFT was now able to push back the front line and force the Atlantic Federation to defend the city was certainly not decided by grunt units.
Soon, Blazing Tigers, with their superior performance and flight capabilities, suddenly took off from the jungle on the eastern flank, catching the Windam forces completely off guard.
The Windam forces in the sky were quickly cut off and scattered. If left alone, they would surely be annihilated.
The Atlantic Federation was also prepared. Two Zamza-Zahs flew out from the rear base. Two volleys from their M534 'Gamzatov' Multiple-Arrayed Phase Energy Cannons drove away the Blazing Tigers that were cutting up the Windam forces, rescuing them.
But ZAFT was just waiting for these two units to appear. The Galaxy-type Tigers, which Lunamaria had introduced during Lacus's rough tour of the ZAFT camp yesterday, charged straight at the two Zamza-Zahs.
There were four of these Galaxy-type Tigers, the personal machines of four Coordinators.
So they soon met their old adversaries, the Exass Aegis and the Chaos Gundam.
You ask where the Gaia and Abyss were? Those two units couldn't fly, so they were naturally supporting the ground battle.
And the Minerva's Heine team also appeared on the ground to deal with the attacks from the Gaia and Abyss Gundams.
So, the real ace combat situation on the battlefield was four Coordinators in the sky piloting Galaxy-type Tigers, fighting a combination of the Exass Aegis, Chaos Gundam, and two Zamza-Zahs.
Meanwhile, on the ground, the Heine team was fighting the Gaia and Abyss.
If this was the deployment, Reid could understand why the Atlantic Federation had been pushed back to Bogotá in defeat.
In the sky battle, it was clear that only Neo Roanoke had the ability to fight a Coordinator head-on, but holding off two of them was his limit.
Meanwhile, Sting, piloting the Chaos Gundam with two Zamza-Zahs against the remaining two Galaxy-type Tigers, was on the back foot.
It was obvious that Neo Roanoke had found a way to counter the enemy's mind-reading predictions.
If Reid could hear the conversation with the Coordinators fighting Neo Roanoke at this moment, he would find them saying:
"You've endured so much abuse and experimentation, why do you still fight for the Atlantic Federation!"
Apparently, Neo Roanoke's method of countering the mind-reading was to think about the experiments he had once undergone and share his psychological trauma with these Coordinators.
And whenever these Coordinators wanted to predict Neo Roanoke's attacks, they had to read his mind, so they had to take in all this trauma.
But Sting clearly didn't have Neo Roanoke's ability to pilot his mobile suit while thinking about other things.
So he was being toyed with by the two Coordinators opposite him. If it weren't for the fact that the Zamza-Zah was operated by a three-person crew, preventing the Coordinators from predicting its attacks by reading a single mind, and that the Chaos's aerial mobility was superior to the Galaxy-type Tiger's, Sting would have been shot down long ago.
However, Reid could also roughly see that this so-called Galaxy-type Tiger didn't have much of a performance difference from other custom Blazing Tigers equipped with Minovsky Reactors.
Although it was heavily armed, its overall performance was likely weaker than ZAFT's five next-generation Gundams, which was the main reason why Neo Roanoke could still barely hold off two of them.
But the ground battle was not so optimistic. The Gaia and Abyss Gundams were no match for the Minerva team led by Heine.
Heine's technical skill was superior to the second-generation Three young aces. He alone could tie down both machines. With Rey and Lunamaria in their custom Zaku Warriors, they could naturally send the Gaia and Abyss scrambling all over the field.
However, those three Gells-Ghes were probably newly arrived reinforcements. So when the Gells-Ghes began to support the Gaia and Abyss, the battle turned into a disadvantage for the Minerva team.
In short, as Reid saw it, if this battle continued at its current pace, the Minerva team on the ground would be defeated before the battle in the sky was decided. So ZAFT would probably still be unable to break into Bogotá today.
Moreover, Reid noticed that while the Atlantic Federation's Windam forces continued to engage the Babis, they were forming up and moving the battlefield towards the Phantom Pain Unit and the Coordinators. Someone was clearly commanding them. It looked like they were preparing to have the regular troops support the Phantom Pain Unit with a synchronized beam missile barrage, though it was unclear whether they would support the sky or the ground forces.
So Reid decided not to wait any longer. If the Atlantic Federation won this battle today, only heaven knew when ZAFT would be able to organize another attack. Reid didn't want to waste several months in South America.
So Reid said to Shinn,
"Shinn, prepare to assault. Your target is the Exass Aegis. Along the way, you can take out a few Atlantic Federation units to show your allegiance. But if ZAFT forces attack you, don't hesitate. Counterattack and shoot them down immediately."
Hearing this, Shinn saw his chance to redeem himself. He immediately said excitedly,
"Mr. Chairman, leave it to me."
With that, the GP-08 (Phantom Rose) α threw off its Stealth Camouflage Cloth and accelerated at full power, charging straight for the Exass Aegis.
Reid, watching Shinn casually discard the GN Capacitor and Stealth Camouflage Cloth, could only fire a shot to destroy both items for him.
At this moment, both the Atlantic Federation and ZAFT paused their fighting due to the appearance of the GP-08 (Phantom Rose) α.
The situation was the same for both sides: a completely unmarked, unknown mobile suit had charged into the battlefield at incredible speed. Until they knew if it was friend or foe, everyone naturally went on alert to observe the situation.
However, Shinn quickly declared his allegiance as per Reid's orders. As he charged, he casually blew up several Windams.
The ZAFT side was a bit stunned. Talia immediately asked the CIC,
"It's attacking the Atlantic Federation... so that mobile suit is on our side? Quickly check the thermal signature records. Is it a test unit from one of the labs?"
Neo Roanoke, watching the GP-08 (Phantom Rose) α charge straight at him, could only purse his lips and complain inwardly,
"Tch, ZAFT still has new models for reinforcements. This is going to be trouble. But let me test your mettle first."
Then, Neo Roanoke ordered over the team channel,
"Windam squadron, intercept that new ZAFT mobile suit that just appeared!"
At Neo Roanoke's command, all Windams not engaged with ZAFT forces immediately pounced on the GP-08 (Phantom Rose) α.
However, a MEGA Particle Beam as thick as an MS's wrist shot out from behind the GP-08 (Phantom Rose) α, aimed straight at the approaching Windam squadron.
The particle beam drew a single stroke in the air like a beam saber. At least twenty Windams were sliced in half by the beam, instantly exploding into a series of fireworks in the sky.
At that moment, the GP-08 (Phantom Rose) α, now wielding its Long-Beam Multifunctional Anti-Ship Sword, burst out of the smoke from the Windam explosions and swung a horizontal slash at the Exass Aegis.
However, the moment Neo Roanoke saw the MEGA Particle Beam, he knew there was more than one unknown enemy; there might be a sniper-type unit behind them.
Facing an unknown sniper while remaining in MS Mode was tantamount to suicide.
So Neo Roanoke immediately transformed his mobile suit into MA Mode and ascended, incidentally dodging the GP-08 (Phantom Rose) α's horizontal slash.
The pilots of the two Galaxy-type Tigers fighting the Exass Aegis were none other than Orphee Lam Tao and Shura Serpente.
Seeing their prey being stolen, they were instantly displeased.
Orphee Lam Tao directly contacted the Minerva, asking,
"Minerva, have you identified that unknown mobile suit? Is it one of ours?"
Meyrin was frantically searching through the data. Faced with Orphee Lam Tao's pressing question, she could only reply with sweat beading on her forehead,
"No, there's no thermal signature data for this mobile suit in the system. I can't find it at all."
Hearing this, Talia immediately ordered,
"Designate the unknown mobile suit as a third-party force, but don't attack it just yet. Orphee, Shura, since someone is helping us tie down the enemy, you two go deal with the Chaos Gundam and those two Zamza-Zahs."
--Enjoying the story? Want more chapters? Check out my Patreon and support me for 40+ advance chapters.
Just search for "LegendaryTL" on Patreon!"
Thanks!