Chapter 51: Brilliant Sunshine Exists Only in the Past

"That comfortable armchair, the warm plaid carpet, the trigger that was never pulled in time!"

The leading vehicles of the charging Zeon armored convoy opened the rear troop compartment doors. Following this, Zeon cadets carrying small rocket-assisted flight backpacks and anti-tank rocket launchers jumped out from the back of the vehicles. The twin nozzles of their backpacks ignited, releasing blue exhaust trails that propelled the cadets shooting up into the sky.

"A bright day, existing only in dazzling dreams!"

The mortar unit commanded by Garma rapidly moved into firing positions. The artillerymen began adjusting the gun elevation angles and calculating firing data, while mortar shells were pulled one by one from the ammunition racks.

"My blood type is on my cuffs!"

The Type 61 tanks, which had been lying quietly in ambush inside pre-dug firing bunkers for a long time, slowly rotated their massive dual-mounted turrets. The fire control channels located on top of the turrets began ranging the targets, while the fire control computers calculated the ballistics at high speed!

"The bugle call is inscribed on my lapel!"

The Zeon scout looked with utter confusion at the Federation garrison, which showed only a few lit lights and no signs of human activity. With no other choice, he broke radio silence to report to the rear.

Yet as he adjusted the frequency, he heard someone singing.

Curious though he was, the scout quickly skipped past the channel and reported his discovery.

"Oh, the Federation forces must be under martial law too!"

Char, flying in the sky and looking at the Federation base just a stone's throw away, suddenly felt a wave of unease in his heart. But with the arrow already nosed on the bowstring and having to be fired, he could only comfort himself by thinking that the Federation forces had probably transferred all their combat strength to Zum City, causing the garrison troops to shed their usual lax demeanor.

Having completed all pre-firing preparations, Garma stood in the command vehicle, grabbed his communicator, and was just about to give the order to all vehicles when he was interrupted by a nearby guard.

"Mr. Garma, someone is singing on the radio channel!"

"Who violated regulations?"

Garma was already tense, and now his anger flared. A Zeon cadet nearby turned on the loudspeaker.

"Wish me luck in the battle! Wish me:"

"Who is this?"

While Garma was still trying to figure out whose slightly familiar voice this was, the door of the command vehicle was pushed open.

"Mr. Garma, shall we open fire?"

"Fire!"

"Do not get lost in this wasteland!"

Amidst the low humming, Garma swung his right hand down fiercely. Immediately afterward, the dull, distinctive sound of mortars launching came from outside the vehicle, drowning out the singing coming from the radio.

"Do not linger in this wilderness!"

Dozens of 120mm mortar shells traced curves across the pitch-black night sky, descending upon the pitch-black Federation garrison. The next second, centered around the headquarters building, the camp erupted in bursting flames!

"Please bless me in the battle!"

A Zeon artillery observer was still stretching his neck to check the impact points of the shells when he suddenly heard a roaring sound behind him.

"What are these people doing? I haven't even calibrated the impact points yet, why did they open fire?"

He turned his head, only to see a bright fireball erupting from the artillery position not far away!

"What is going on?"

Garma, standing at the firing position, looked toward the very edge of the encampment. Originally, a 120mm self-propelled heavy mortar vehicle had been parked there, but now, that vehicle had vanished, replaced by crackling flames and a massive crater.

"What happened to vehicle 6-3?"

"I don't know, it must have been a barrel explosion..."

Before the friendly soldier at the adjacent mortar position could finish speaking, a flash of light cut across the distant horizon. Following that, two glowing points, glowing with distinct white light generated by friction with the air, came roaring through the air.

"Damn it!"

Then came another violent explosion. The twin high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) shells from the volley fired by the 61A2 tank mercilessly crushed the ammunition-laden vehicle. The fierce explosion caused even other Zeon soldiers hundreds of meters away to feel the tremor of the earth, as a raging shockwave carrying rolling heat surged in all directions.

"Enemy attack! MBT!"

At this moment, someone finally noticed the Red Dragon One firing in the distance. Responding to that heart-rending scream was the third round of bombardment!

"How is this possible? The Federation forces have set an ambush!"

Garma stood dumbfounded in the command vehicle, his binoculars slipping from his hand and hitting the floor without him noticing. It wasn't until the third mortar vehicle exploded and the thick, pungent smell of gunpowder hit his face that he finally snapped back to reality.

"Change the firing coordinates! Quick, quick, quick! Take out that bastard!"

"There's only one vehicle! Where is the anti-tank squad?"

The Zeon cadets were elite troops as well, and under the sudden ambush, they quickly rallied. The mortar vehicles originally intended for shelling the Federation base immediately pivoted, preparing to concentrate their firepower. At the same time, more than a dozen wheeled armored vehicles guarding the artillery roared to life, carrying the limited anti-tank squads as they charged toward the Federation tank that had just opened fire.

"Please bless me in the battle!"

Roaring mortar shells landed around Red Dragon One. The shockwaves blew away the camo netting draped over the tank, and shrapnel hammered against the armor with a clanging din.

Yet this feeble assault could not shake the armored vehicle in the slightest. Amidst Macarius's humming, the tank's engine roared, its wide tracks groaning as they crushed the trembling grass beneath. Under the illumination of nearby fires, the tank's turret slowly swung toward the approaching armored convoy, and a 150-millimeter cannon spewed a ball of fire!

A Zeon armored vehicle was moving at high speed when a fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS) round—commonly known as a steel dart—slammed mercilessly into its frontal armor. Under the massive kinetic energy, the vehicle's fragile armor was punctured as easily as a sheet of draft paper. The unbroken projectile tore straight through the driver, took the commander sitting behind him along for the ride, and finally punched through the rear armor without encountering the slightest resistance, burying itself deep into the dirt.

That armored vehicle staggered forward for dozens of meters like a drunk office worker before coming to a halt. Then, the rear troop compartment door dropped, and several Zeon cadets, their faces covered in a mixture of blood and flesh, scrambled out of the vehicle on all fours.

After completing the first shot, Macarius swiftly swung the turret toward his pre-locked second target, sending a second APFSDS round howling into the enemy hull.

This vehicle was likewise easily penetrated, but the penetrator shattered upon piercing the target, sending a massive cloud of metal fragments tearing through the bodies of everyone inside like countless flying knives.

Just as the second armored vehicle was destroyed, the main gun finished reloading. Without a moment's hesitation, the barrel swung toward the third vehicle.

"They're being slaughtered!"

Garma could only watch through his binoculars as those armored vehicles futilely fired their autocannons at the tank. Their mortars simply could not catch up to the enemy, whose flexible movement patterns suddenly made Garma's body stiffen with realization.

"Does that vehicle have any markings?"

"I can't see! It's too dark! I can't see anything!"

While his subordinates were struggling to return fire, the mortar vehicles Garma had deployed in another direction were also destroyed.

"What is going on? Just how many enemies are there?"

"We only spotted two MBTs so far!"

"Damn it!"

Garma's heart sank to rock bottom. He dared not imagine what kind of fate awaited them if his side failed.

And Macarius's slaughter continued!

As he fired his seventh shot, Macarius's tank finally drew close to the remaining Zeon armored vehicles. At long last, as the tank rolled over the burning wreckage of their comrades, the enemy gunner caught sight of the markings on the turret.

"It's the Red Dragon! It's the Red Dragon!"

Amidst hysterical screams, the gunner slammed his thumb down on the firing button. The armored vehicle's 20mm autocannon began unleashing a fierce barrage at the main armor of the Type 61. Under the rapid fire, the barrel of the automatic cannon quickly heated up and turned glowing red.

Jets of flame and sparks ricocheted in all directions across the armor plates. Yet the enemy seemed entirely unconcerned; abandoning return fire, they mercilessly rammed straight ahead.

Under Garma's watchful eyes, the massive bulk of the Type 61 ruthlessly crushed the body of the armored vehicle, turning it into a pile of scrap metal.

"What is going on? Why is the Red Dragon Team here? Weren't they heading to Zum City?"

Garma finally remembered why that singing voice had sounded so familiar!

"Why is Macarius here?"

But no one was left to answer Garma's question.

At that moment, the final two Zeon armored vehicles suddenly burst out simultaneously from the left and right sides of the slope. Accompanying them were over a dozen infantrymen—these Zeon cadets were the last anti-vehicle force left in Garma's hands. As for the rest, they were either dead or injured, or had abandoned their anti-tank rocket launchers, left to watch the tank's movements in helpless despair.

"Take him down! Take him down! Take him down!"

The drivers of the two armored vehicles had floored the gas pedals, pointing their noses squarely at Red Dragon One with clear intent to ram.

Yet Macarius completely ignored the two armored vehicles. He knew their firepower could not inflict any damage on him; even if the commanders' optics on the turret were smashed, he still had backup and even mechanical sights he could rely on.

On the contrary, the anti-tank rockets wielded by those infantrymen could pose a threat to the lower glacis and the side and rear armor of the Type 61.

Therefore, he very decisively fired two high-explosive fragmentation shells consecutively at the emerging infantry!

Those brave Zeon cadets hadn't even managed to set up their rocket launchers before they were swept away by shrapnel, falling in rows. They had just jumped out of the armored vehicles and had no time to deploy.

Afterward, to prevent anyone from playing dead and launching a surprise attack, Macarius even swept the fallen targets with a burst from both coaxial machine guns.

This sweep actually caused one Zeon cadet, whose leg had been shattered by shrapnel rendering him immobile, to sit upright. He had intended to play dead until the tank passed and then open fire, but he never expected that flesh torn to shreds by bullets would splatter across his face.

Struggling to sit up, he grabbed a nearby rocket launcher, preparing to fire. But the very next second, a shell struck his exact location!

Following the explosion, nothing remained on the ground save for a steaming crater.

At that moment, the Zeon armored vehicles had already rammed forward. To the drivers' shock, just as a collision seemed inevitable, the tank suddenly slammed on its brakes. It was too late for the drivers to evade, leaving them with no choice but to crash into each other.

"Red Dragon Two, how is your side doing?"

"Elimination in progress. The enemy artillery has lost its combat capability!"

On the other side, launching the surprise attack on Garma was naturally Andrei's tank. With Macarius drawing all the attention, those mortar vehicles had all exposed their vulnerable rears to Andrei. Thus, from the safety of his bunker, Andrei mowed down every target before him as easily as shooting at a shooting range. Now, nothing remained over there except roaring flames and the crackling sound of secondary ammunition cook-offs.

"Mr. Garma, let's get out of here!"

Several guards, their bodies covered in blood and their uniforms stained with the smoke of battle, desperately pulled Garma, dragging him down the slope. Garma was so shocked by the massive casualties among his men that he had lost the power of speech and movement. All his vehicles had been destroyed within mere minutes, and of the hundreds of cadets he brought, fewer than a few dozen remained—and that number was dwindling rapidly.

"Go find Char!"

At this point, the survivors of the guard unit had no idea what else to do. They only knew that this was a trap; the Federation forces had planned everything in advance, even knowing that the cadets would launch a sneak attack. Therefore, they had set up an ambush here, annihilating all their heavy firepower using nothing more than crossfire from two tanks.

The only people they could count on now were the vanguard troops led by Char. The other side should still have some usable armored vehicles, which ought to be enough to evacuate them from the battlefield!

However, when these cadets, covered in dust and scrambling under the cover of gunfire echoing endlessly behind them, crested the slope before them and finally caught sight of the Federation garrison, they discovered that it was ablaze with cannon fire as well.

"Char's vanguard unit shouldn't have this much heavy firepower, right?"

"Maybe it's captured Federation equipment!"

The men tried to comfort themselves this way, but deep down they knew: if their own side had walked into a meticulously prepared ambush, how could Char's side possibly be unprepared?

"No! No! No!"

Climbing up to a vantage point where they could overlook the garrison's gates, the guards eagerly raised their binoculars to search for the figures of their own men. But all they saw were the flaming wrecks of their newly issued wheeled armored vehicles scattered about, alongside the dismembered corpses of Zeon cadets littered across the ground.

As for the combat inside the base, it had already been compressed into a single building. Clearly, the rearmost vanguard unit was now surrounded there, and the sounds of gunfire were merely the Federation forces finishing off the last remnants.

"What... what should we do now?"