Oracle Squad fired out of the Gidoru and began burning away from the 1st Combined Fleet of Zeon seconds later. I expected to feel a decrease in acceleration with the mobile worker attached to my mobile suit, but my speed had actually gone up. Yoshida's mobile worker was a bit lighter than my Zaku's arm. The center of mass of my mobile suit was off, but I was able to adjust relatively easily.
I flicked a few buttons on my HUD, charting a course for the Great Degwin. With a deep grimace, I noticed that it would take fifty minutes for us to reach the flagship even at full burn. We wouldn't have a chance to reinforce the Great Degwin until twenty minutes after their battle began. The flagship would need to hold its own in a battle against 28 warships until we arrived.
Typically, I would have been aghast at the incompetence of the Zeon military and wondered what idiot had decided to keep the flagship tens of thousands of kilometers away from the main fleet. In this particular case, however, I happened to know who was at fault, and I knew that this wasn't due to negligence.
Gihren Zabi, Supreme Commander of Zeon, wanted his father dead. He had ordered the Great Degwin to hold back at such a distance that the 1st Combined Fleet of Zeon would not have time to reinforce the flagship if the Federation decided to attack the Zeon homeland. The official story was that the Great Degwin was observing at a distance to increase morale, but I knew the truth.
"Course set," I said into comms. "Begin burning toward the Great Degwin immediately."
"Yes, sir," the men of Vanguard Squadron said.
Suddenly, another source was added to the call without my input. I had the authority to reject calls from anyone one level above mine on operational priority, so there were only a handful of people who could have sent the call.
A new name was added to the list of the call's participants.
Fleet Commander: Vice Admiral Dozle Zabi.
"What are you doing, Commander Dogwood!?" Dozle shouted angrily into the commlink. "The course you've set for my father's flagship isn't the fastest possible route! You can arrive five minutes earlier if you burn for longer!"
I wanted to shout obscenities at the Admiral. Did the words "full operational command" mean nothing to him? The fact that he was completely wrong did nothing to abate my anger.
"Sir, may I have permission to begin burning toward the Great Degwin before responding?" I asked.
"Permission granted!" Dozle shouted, and I was starting to wonder if he ever spoke at a normal level.
"Go!" I shouted as I opened the throttle as wide as it would go without removing the limiters.
Immediately, my back was pushed hard against my chair, and a distinct feeling of discomfort filled my body. That many Gs wasn't enough to put me into g-LOC (g-force induced loss of consciousness), but pulling them for several minutes couldn't be good for my health.
"Vice Admiral Dozle, sir. Your recommended course wouldn't leave us with enough propellant to fight the enemy. We'd be sitting ducks after less than a minute," I said, straining against the Gs. "Degwin and Garma would be better served by combat-effective Zakus, even if they arrive a few minutes later."
A wordless, pained grunt came from Dozle's side of the call. I recognized that pained sound. It was the sound I wanted to make every time I pulled an unhealthy number of Gs.
"Excuse me, sir? Are you in a Zaku right now?" I asked, shocked at the thought.
"Of course I am," Dozle said painfully. "My mobile suit is one of the only custom Zakus in the fleet, and my family is in danger."
Dozle had a perfectly functional custom Zaku this whole time!? If he really wanted to increase our chances of success, he would have just let Vultee use his mobile suit!
"Please let us use the original plotted course, Admiral Dozle," I said.
"Uh, yeah," Dozle said, and I could hear a distinct haziness in his voice. "We'll do that."
"Vice Admiral," Char said over the commlink. "The effects of g-force are worse in particularly large men. Are you suffering from any reduced vision or drowsiness?"
"Mmmh," Dozle grunted angrily. "I'm fine. The colors of my cockpit are starting to become dimmer, but I can handle it."
Vultee cut in, saying, "That's called 'graying out' Admiral. If you keep going, you'll black out and lose all vision."
"I don't need to see. I just need to keep pressing the accelerator until the end of the burning period, right?" Dozle said obstinately.
"Unless you pass out completely," I said. "My recommendation as a pilot is for you to reduce your acceleration to 4 Gs."
"My vision… I can't… see," Dozle muttered. "Reducing acceleration… now."
We held that burn for another minute before Dozle Zabi's name disappeared from the call. In truth, he was by far my favorite Zabi. He was a well-meaning idiot who cared about his family, and the world needed more of those.
The acceleration period ended, and we began floating through space at a frankly absurd velocity. If we didn't decelerate, we'd probably end up somewhere beyond Pluto's orbit.
"How's everyone holding up?" I asked.
Everyone muttered a quick affirmation, though the only person I was actually worried about didn't respond immediately. I knew the professional pilots would be able to handle the Gs, but I was concerned for my WSO.
"Yoshida?" I asked.
"I'm fine," Yoshida said cheerily. "Sorry, I wasn't sure if we were supposed to respond in a certain order."
I let out a sigh of relief before moving on to the next subject.
"Lt. Gaia, did you find the defenses available at Side 3?" I asked.
"Yeah," Gaia said, and I could hear the annoyance of a soldier who had just learnt that his superiors had done something monumentally stupid. "In addition to the emplaced colonial guns, they have six Zakus under the command of Captain Ramba Ral and a grand total of two warships."
"Six Zakus and two warships!?" I said, reiterating Gaia's statement with profound shock in my voice. "The Zeon homeland is protected by a single squadron of mobile suits!?"
"Everything else is in the fleet or Solomon Base," Lt. Gaia said. "They said there might be more in reserve somewhere, but those are the only machines that can deploy right now."
"Okay, thank you," I said, groaning and burying my face in my hands. I figured that Zeon had over-committed to the Battle of Loum, but I didn't know they had committed EVERYTHING to the battle.
After another equal deceleration phase in the opposite direction, we reached the location of the Great Degwin. More than a dozen warships engaged with the Zeon flagship, and an uncontrolled fire blazed throughout the damaged ship.
At first glance, I could tell that the flagship was doomed.