The lights of the launch bay fell upon my Zaku once more, and I saw as dozens of mechanics in exo-suits approached Ramos and me. They would be performing the initial examination of my Zaku and determining just how much damage I had sustained in the fight. The mechanics wouldn't do anything until I made a request to Yoshida. For now, they would just watch and scan at a distance in case I had to leave again before repairs could be complete.
On my HUD, my Zaku's left arm was solid red from the forearm to the hand. The wires passing electrical currents from the cockpit to the hand must have been damaged. As I looked at the damage indicator, my thoughts were drawn to the moment it had been damaged. Two Saberfish pilots had attempted kamikaze attacks on my Zaku, and one had been successful.
Why? What had driven those pilots to give up their lives in attacks that they knew wouldn't even kill me? Didn't they want to live?
Surely, in their last moments, their survival instincts must have been screaming at them, yet I sensed no hesitation or attempt to divert when the Saberfish struck my Zaku's arm. Could it be that some other drive overpowered their survival instincts? No, that should have been impossible. There was nothing stronger in the human mind than the desire to live.
I let a harsh breath out through my teeth. I couldn't rationalize the things I had witnessed out on the battlefield, so I decided to distract myself.
With a button press, Yoshida popped up on my HUD and I said, "How long will it take to repair the two Zakus completely?"
After a moment of considerate thought, Yoshida said, "It will take thirty minutes to fix Ramos's Zaku and at least two hours to fix yours, Commander. I have to warn you that fully repairing your mobile suit might be impossible until we return to Solomon Base or Zum City. If the damage is deeper than we think it is, we'll have to completely replace the superstructure, and we don't have the custom parts for that here."
I paused for a moment before saying, "Could you just cannibalize Vultee's machine? Fundamentally, our Zakus are identical, right?"
Yoshida blinked in shock. "Yes, we could do that, but doing so could increase the repair time for Oracle-2 by more than a week."
"He's not gonna be using it for the rest of the battle," I said with a shrug. "Take whatever parts you need from Vultee's Zaku."
A few minutes later, Ramos and I floated through the airlocks and entered the observation deck. Once we entered the atmosphere of the Gidoru and removed our helmets, I said, "Now that's what I call a successful mission. Everything went absolutely perfectly on our end."
Ramos squinted in confusion. "What do you mean, perfectly? Wouldn't it have been better if our mobile suits weren't damaged?"
"No, you're not getting it yet, Ramos," I said with a smile. "The damage is the best part. Now we won't be sent out on any more missions until our mobile suits are fully repaired. If there's another sortie to attack the retreating Feds, we won't have to deploy."
That really was the safest course I could have taken through the Battle of Loum. I was in my mobile suit through the part of the battle that was most dangerous for the warships. Now that the Feds weren't shooting at the Zeon fleet, I could spend the rest of the battle in the safety of a Gwazine-class battleship.
"I appreciate that you're trying to keep us alive, Commander, but I thought you were shooting for the Zeon cross. At this rate, it seems like Char Aznable and the Red Wolves will be the only ones getting the award," Ramos said.
"Remember, Ramos. We took out the enemy flagship," I said with one finger raised.
"That was the Jormungand," Ramos said with a frown.
I had momentarily forgotten that Ramos was operating on an entirely different set of information than I was. The Jormungand wasn't supposed to take out the enemy flagship. It was the intention of the high command for the Jormungand to just sit on the rear lines for the entirety of the fight.
With a knowing smile, I said, "We'll see how the conversation with Cpt. Singh goes."
A voice came on over the ship intercom, saying, "Lt. Commander Dogwood, Ensign Ramos, please report to the pilot briefing room immediately."
"Speak of the devil," Ramos muttered.
Over the next few minutes, Ramos and I traveled to the pilot briefing room. It always struck me as strange that there was so much distance between the observation deck and the briefing room. For some reason, the pilot briefing room was located near the core of the Gidoru, making me wonder if its location was meant to increase the survivability of those within the room.
When we entered the briefing room, Captain Singh was watching a recording of our sortie on his podium-mounted computer. In the recording, the destroyed and melted form of the Ananke glowed brightly. Uh oh. That wasn't a good sign.
Singh sighed deeply before saying, "Let's start off with the positives of your mission. Oracle Squad eliminated eight warships through direct action and one flagship through indirect action. You have dealt a deep blow to the Federation today, gentlemen. You are, without question, some of the greatest soldiers Zeon has to offer. Congratulations."
Ramos grimaced, and a sardonic smile appeared on my face. Trying to keep my tone stable, I said, "I get the sense there is a pretty significant 'but' coming, Captain. Let's hear it."
"But…" Captain Singh said with a dark look in his eyes, "it wasn't supposed to happen this way. As stated by Vice Admiral Dozle, one of the primary goals of this battle is to show the absolute technological superiority of the Zaku. The success of the Jormungand will seriously hinder that goal. You wouldn't be privy to this information, Dogwood, but you should have told me about your intentions with the Jormungand. I don't want to do this, Lt. Commander, but I'm required to recommend that the Internal Affairs Division charge you with reckless disregard of the chain of command."
Ramos's eyes widened in shock before he said, "You're going to court martial him for destroying the enemy flagship!?"
My eyes twitched at the mention of a court martial, but I was otherwise able to keep my poker face. There was no way they were really that mad about my use of the Jormungand. Zeon cared way more about killing Feds than they cared about the chain of command.
I held my hand up and said, "Quiet, Ramos."
Cpt. Singh said, "You misunderstand, Ensign Ramos. This isn't a court martial. Not yet, at least. Officially, I'm just making a recommendation for a charge that would carry a maximum penalty of a month in prison."
The idea of spending a month in prison was strangely soothing to me. I would be able to stay away from the front lines for a good portion of the war.
"I understand," I said quietly.
The ship intercom came on, saying, "Prepare for turn and acceleration in thirty seconds."
As all three of us floated to nearby crash harnesses, I looked over at Cpt. Singh and noticed with some concern that he looked incredibly confused. The Gidoru turned hard to starboard and then burned at 1 G for more than a minute.
"Why did we just change our heading?" I asked as Cpt. Singh got out of his crash harness and floated over to the podium. He read a message written on his computer, and a look of terror appeared on his face.
"The second Federation fleet is moving to attack Side 3."