There were more than fifty ships in the Zeon fleet, and the Nordhausen was one of the smaller vessels. There must have been more than a hundred thousand people and hundreds of mobile suits aboard that fleet. It was certainly impressive, but its size was somewhat misleading. This fleet represented a good portion of Zeon's military capacity. Unlike the Earth Federation, it would take us months to replace a single battleship if it was destroyed.
"The power of Zeon is mesmerizing," Vultee said over the radio with awe in his voice.
Ignoring Vultee's statement, I said, "When we're fighting battleships, what do we aim at?"
Ramos spoke first, saying, "That depends. If it's a nuclear warhead, shoot center-mass. If you're using regular missiles, shoot at the bridge or drive cone to disable the ship."
"Drive cone?" Vultee asked. "Do you mean the rocket at the back of the ship?"
"That's right," Ramos said. "Damage to the fusion reactor will force the ship to stop. If you're really lucky, the whole ship could explode."
"Mm," I vocalized wordlessly. "Let's do some loading drills."
I looked over at the shield built onto my Zaku's right arm. Extra rockets for the bazooka had been magnetically attached to the shield. The H&L 25K could hold three rockets in its magazine, and six extra rockets could be held on the shield.
Slowly, I ejected the rocket magazine out of my bazooka and awkwardly loaded the next one. At first, I tried to load by reaching the Zaku's left arm under its right, but the mobile suit wasn't nearly flexible enough for that. After seeing Vultee and Ramos swiftly load their magazines, I realized that I was doing it wrong. The bazooka had to be rotated in the Zaku's hand, which would then allow the left hand to reach the extra rocket magazines.
Once my bazooka was reloaded and the discarded magazine was re-magnetized to my shield, I said, "All right! Maneuverability drills next! Follow me!"
Without warning, I activated my Zaku's boosters and shot toward the fleet. The feeling of maneuvering in space was vastly different than it was on the colony. I felt like I was flying a fighter jet, and the battleships were large blimps that I could easily strafe around.
I did figure-eights around the ships, building up an impressive amount of speed as I went. In my head, I visualized an incoming missile, and I swiftly altered the direction of my acceleration. A big aspect of space combat was that I could accelerate in any direction when I wanted. I didn't have to commit to a particular vector just because my acceleration was going in that direction.
After reaching the other side of the fleet, I brought my Zaku to a stop relative to the ships. Eventually, the other two members of my squad caught up with me.
Shakily, Vultee said, "Can we please not do that again, Lieutenant?"
"It's better to do this for the first time now and not in the heat of combat," I said over the radio.
"Oh, God. Are we going to do this in combat?" Ramos asked.
"You bet," I said. "Let's go again."
When we got back, I was chewed out by Commander Roth again. He shouted at me about putting the whole fleet in danger, but the abuse was strangely complimentary. A few times, he complimented my skill with the Zaku, but he ultimately ordered me to perform all future mobile suit training at least a kilometer away from the ships.
Over the next four days, I spent as much time as possible training with my squad. Whenever Commander Roth would allow me, I practiced 3D maneuvering in my Zaku. The rest of the time, I spent in the training hall exercising my body and mind.
January 8th, 0079
At 1100 hours, I jerked out of sleep as an alarm blared in my room. After three loud blasts, a voice came over the intercom, saying, "Federation fleet spotted. Report to battle stations."
Momentarily forgetting that I was in zero gravity, I jumped out of bed and crashed into the ceiling. God damn it. As soon as this war was over, I was going to stay in a gravity well for the rest of my life.
A few minutes later, I was dressed in my space suit sitting in the Pilot Briefing Room. The other mobile suit squad, apparently named Sparrow Squad, was also there.
"Oracle Squad, it took you six minutes longer to get here than Sparrow Squad," Commander Roth said angrily.
"We were asleep, Commander," Ramos said groggily.
"No excuses. Until the end of Operation British, we will all sleep in our space suits," Commander Roth said.
Everyone from both squads except for me groaned loudly. I was too busy wondering which of us would survive long enough for that new rule to matter.
Commander Roth slammed the podium several times before saying, "Now listen up! You guys are going to launch as soon as we're done here, so I'll keep it quick. All of you will be armed with three nuclear warheads and six normal missiles. Your mission is to fire the nuclear warheads from three kilometers away and then engage the enemy ships at close range with your remaining rockets."
We just had to charge into the nuclear radiation. What a great plan.
I sighed. With the radiation shielding of the MS-06C, I actually would be safer in a cloud of radiation than I would in the Nordhausen. This battle was before the Antarctic Treaty, so both sides would be freely using nuclear bombs and any other weapons of mass destruction. The only way to survive such a fight was to remain a small target that the enemy wouldn't attack with nukes.
The pilot in the seat of Sparrow Squad's leader raised his hand and said, "Sir! I request clearance to use Island Iffish as cover when my squad moves toward the enemy fleet!"
"Permission granted," Commander Roth said quickly.
Usually, that would be a good idea. In this particular battle, however, that would result in more danger than necessary.
"I advise against that action. The enemy fleet's guns are already pointed at Island Iffish. They'll be able to target your squad easily," I said.
"Shut it, Dogwood," Commander Roth snapped. "Lieutenant Strelov has full authority over the field tactics of his squad, same as you."
Putting my hands up in a mollifying gesture, I said, "All I ask is that Strelov take my advice as a fellow squad leader into consideration."
"I will consider it," Strelov said in a tone of voice that made me pity the men under his command.
"If you're done yapping, get to your Zakus immediately!" Commander Roth shouted.
Next thing I knew, I was sitting in the cockpit of my Zaku once more. As the hatch closed, I could feel my heart pumping in my chest. This was the moment. I had prepared as much as I could, but there was always a chance that I didn't survive the battle. That was the nature of war. Any stray shot or piece of fast-moving debris could take me out. I was completely terrified, yet I had never felt more alive.