Wathort Colony rotated once every two minutes. Those standing inside of the colony experienced the spin as a comfortable artificial gravity of 1 G. To those floating outside of the colony, the speed of Wathort's rotation was terrifying. The outer walls of the colony moved at 960 km/h at any given moment, so the mobile suits of Zeon had no choice but to attack the end points of the colony where the effects of the rotation were minimized.
The rotation was relatively minor this close to the colony's midpoint, but it was still significant enough that the layout of the battlefield swapped completely once every minute. As I floated in space a hundred meters away from the gargantuan face of Wathort, it rotated at a slow but persistent pace. Every gun within my sightline was dead, though I knew there still must have been hundreds of particle cannons on this side of the colony.
Slowly, I descended down to the edge of Wathort and magnetized the bottoms of my Zaku's feet to the metal of the colony's hull.
"Oracle Squad, regroup near the wreckage of the particle cannon I just destroyed," I said over the commlink.
"Roger!" Oracle-3 shouted into his microphone.
"Yeah," Oracle-2 said, though he sounded annoyed at the prospect of disengaging with the enemy.
Within seconds, Vultee and Ramos converged on my position. Both of them had clearly taken hits from the anti-ship turrets, though their armor was still holding up. It was clear that a few more hits like that would take somebody out of the fight.
"Vultee, Ramos, status report!"
"Good on ammo, and my systems are all working just fine," Vultee said. "I haven't killed a single thing since we got here, though." The disappointment in his voice was obvious.
"My ammunition is 20% depleted," Ramos said. "Systems are green."
"As for me, my ammunition is 55% depleted," I said, though a flurry of activity cut off the rest of my sentence.
The space above us was lit up once more with tracer fire, and we all ducked down for a moment before we realized that the bullets weren't aimed at us. They were shooting at something that was attacking from nearby.
Lt. Iria Solari's voice came through our commlink, saying, "There's no way. Did the Feds suffer some kind of power outage, or did you guys already kill all the particle cannons in this quadrant?"
Based on her tone, I could tell that it was a legitimate question. In hindsight, her confusion was understandable. With our custom Zakus, we were able to reach Wathort more than a minute ahead of the Red Wolves.
"Yes, ma'am!" Vultee said, and I could tell from his voice alone that he was saluting.
"Can the Red Wolves eliminate the remaining guns in this quadrant? It would be difficult for my squad to get back to a good firing position," I said.
"Of course, Lt. Commander," Iria Solari said. "We'll clean up while you move on ahead."
Move on ahead? What was she talking about?
Just as I had that thought, the face of Admiral Yuri Kellerne appeared on my HUD. I groaned as Kellerne said, "Don't be like that, Commander Dogwood. I think you're gonna like this new mission."
I jumped as I realized that this wasn't another recording. The wing commander of all mobile suits in the 1st Combine Fleet was talking to me directly. Why?
My fingers shot to my forehead in a swift salute, and I said, "I apologize, Admiral Kellerne! I didn't think you would call me directly!"
Yuri Kellerne chuckled in a good natured way before saying, "Normally I wouldn't, but you won the race. Good job."
"Race?"
"Yours was the first squad to touch Wathort Base," he ducked off screen for a moment before coming back with a thick sheaf of papers. "Oracle Squad, Oracle Squad," Kellerne said as he flipped through the papers. "Here it is. Oh, that makes sense. You guys are in custom Zakus made by Ginias Sahalin."
A small group of Federation Saberfish flew overhead, and Oracle-2 immediately started shooting at them with his rifle. One of the fighter jets was hit, and it immediately dissolved into a hail of shrapnel. The ragged metal dispersed in all directions, striking two nearby Saberfish in its wake.
"Thank you for the congratulations, Admiral," I said, unleashing a torrent of 60mm bullets in the direction of the remaining Saberfish, "but I would like to know the significance of this race. What happens now that we won?"
Oracle-3 took out a Saberfish with its Vulcan Gun, but the remaining Saberfish were able to rake Ramos's machine with a fusillade of 25mm bullets. Those rounds were strong enough to destroy tanks, but they did little more than scratch the paint on his Zaku.
Kellerne smiled brightly. "Since you won the race, you get to be the first one to attack Wathort's spacedock. Your new orders are to enter the dock and destroy everything in sight. Go earn yourselves some iron crosses, boys."
"Yes, sir," I said, saluting Kellerne again. As the video cut, my face tightened in distaste. Iron crosses? Seriously? I was never going to be fully comfortable with the aesthetics of Zeon.
"New orders from the brass," I said after switching my comms to Oracle Squad's channel. "We're going to attack the spaceport." As I spoke, I destroyed the last attacking Saberfish. The fighter jets' 25mm cannons were really weak, but they would be enough to damage our cameras.
"It's time for my rifle to shine!" Vultee shouted as he lifted his ZMP-47D 105mm MG into the air.
"Are we really going to do this?" Ramos said. "The spaceport isn't a valid military target! That's a war crime!"
Had he really not yet figured out that the G3 Gas killed everyone inside of Island Iffish? It was a bit late for that complaint.
"Shut it, Ramos!" I shouted into the commlink. "The brass isn't listening right now, but everything we say during the mission is recorded and reviewed later by Captain Singh! Do you want to be court-martialed!?"
"Well, maybe I…" Ramos began to say, and I really didn't like where that sentence was going. Before he could finish, I cut him off.
"Oracle-3! I order you to stand guard outside the spaceport while Oracle-2 and I complete the mission objective! Understood!?"
"Yes, sir," Ramos muttered. The lingering sense of discontent remained in his tone, but at least I got him to keep his mouth shut.
"Come on, Vultee," I said, and Ensign Vultee's Zaku followed me into the spaceport.
Two custom Zakus flew into the spaceport of Wathort Colony, and it immediately became apparent that they weren't ready for us.