Why would I join the army if I can’t drive a Gundam!

Chapter 132 Land Warfare King, Forward!

"Young man, stop working and take a breath!"

Ignoring the voice behind him, Julian, dressed in a Zeon uniform but with the insignia of the Undead Legion hanging on his body, continued digging his cover until the voice behind him sounded again.

"It's no use. The intensity of the Federation's artillery fire is too much. Even if you dig for another week, this bunker still won't hold up!"

Upon hearing this, Julian deflated like a punctured balloon, dropped his pickaxe, and slumped to the ground.

"Drink some water!"

Then, an old man with gray hair handed Julian a heavy kettle.

"Uncle, do you think we can really survive?"

Julian took a few small sips and then returned the canteen. Until the next supply arrived, which was of unknown timing, each cannon fodder soldier in the undead unit had only this canteen of water and a few old compressed biscuits as rations.

"Let fate decide, but as long as you stick close to me, you'll definitely survive!"

Julian felt a sense of relief seeing the other person's smiling face, and then he thought of his sister.

Initially, because of his father's identity, the family could only board Zeon's ship to go to Side 3. They thought that the family could be reunited there, but unexpectedly, they, as members of the coup organization, were thrown into labor camps in the blink of an eye. After the outbreak of war, Julian and his father were both assigned to the undead army, while his sister was forced to stay in Side 3.

The family was thus separated, and even after the Earth landing operation began, he and his father were also forced to separate. Fortunately, most of the cannon fodder in his unit were in the same situation as him. They were all forced to become members of the undead army, separated from their wives and children, and some even lost their families.

It's not that no one has thought of resisting, but the price is extremely high. The undead army even has a hierarchy. Those Zeon soldiers or citizens who came from Zeon and were exiled here for various reasons still have the opportunity to return to their original location. They have no choice but to make contributions. So what could be easier than reporting the discontent of those cannon fodder soldiers?

Once arrested by the Führer's guard, these cannon fodder would face punishments more terrifying than death.

Therefore, the cannon fodder of the living dead could only obediently follow orders. Although being cannon fodder meant death anyway, for them, living even one more day was a luxury.

While the two were resting, a commotion arose from the rear of the position, and soon they heard cheers.

"The officers above know we've been working hard, so they've brought us some good food and drinks!"

Then, large buckets of pork ribs were brought up. Before the lids were even opened, Julian could already smell the aroma of meat that he hadn't smelled in a long time.

"Don't just eat, take out your lunchboxes and pack more food!"

"This is the only meal we'll have!"

The old man muttered to himself.

Their daily supplies were naturally not good, so the fact that they were able to eat this meal was definitely not because the Zabi family had a change of heart, but because the Federation army was about to launch a counterattack. In a sense, this meal could be considered their last meal before their execution.

Julian didn't care about any of that. He filled his lunchbox to the brim, then turned around and went to fight with other soldiers for ribs in the bucket. He ate until his stomach was so full that his head rolled back in his eyes before he finally stopped.

Even if he's going to die, he wants to die with a full stomach!
After eating and drinking his fill, Julian had the strength to dig his bunker even deeper. This time, the old man didn't say anything, but just continued to squat in the trench, looking around as if he wanted to remember everything.

After nightfall, just as the old man had said, no more supplies were delivered to the front lines, not even ammunition. On average, the cannon fodder soldiers had less than two magazines of bullets, let alone anti-tank weapons.

Fortunately, everyone had eaten a full lunch, so no one was hungry at the moment. Some even had diarrhea because they hadn't had meat for a long time. It seemed that everything was slowly passing by.

Then, Julian, who was sleeping in the trench and dreaming of reuniting with his family, suddenly felt as if he were flying.

"Kid, wake up!"

When Julian opened his eyes again, he saw an old man with a black face and filthy body digging something in the mud with several other cannon fodder soldiers.

Upon seeing Julian awaken, the old man immediately flashed a set of white teeth.

"You little rascal, I thought you were going to abandon your sister!"

"Uncle, what happened?"

Julian felt tinnitus, dizziness, and weakness all over his body; for a moment, it even felt as if his soul had left his body.

"You little brat, you almost died, you know that?"

The old man looked extremely relieved.

At exactly 1:00 AM on May 7th, at the Union Army's Salt Lake City Front Command, Brigadier General Richard, the theater commander, slammed his baton heavily onto the electronic map.

"Start the attack!"

Subsequently, the Federation artillery units launched a comprehensive barrage against all Zeon strongholds and defensive lines that had been identified in recent days.

The densest barrage of shells naturally landed on the front-line positions held by the Living Dead Division.

The heavy artillery destroyed Julian's bunker, burying him and several nearby undead legion soldiers in the mud. If it weren't for the old man's strenuous efforts to dig in the mud, Julian might have been buried alive in his sleep.

Even after they were dug out, they had nowhere to go; all they could see were rising flames and flashes of light.

The survivors of these undead legions could only huddle in their rudimentary, ineffective defensive lines, desperately waiting for the Federation's artillery fire to cease.

This was the most agonizing part for these cannon fodder soldiers, because they never knew when a shell would fall on their heads. During the nearly three-hour bombardment, people went mad, screaming as they rushed out of their bunkers, only to disappear without a trace in the flash.

Julian could only curl up in the old man's arms, sobbing and screaming until his throat was dry and he could no longer make a sound.

After what felt like an eternity of three hours, Julian, now indistinguishable from a mud-covered man, couldn't even stand up. He could only use his broken rifle as a crutch and try to poke his body out of the ruins.

When he poked his head out, he found that everything around him had disappeared. The minefields, barbed wire, trenches, and battle trenches had all been replaced by steaming shell craters. You could grab a handful of soil and mold it into a handful of iron pieces.

Before he could do anything, the ground began to shake violently again.

"call out!"

Someone fired a flare into the sky, and the next second, in the sudden light, the survivors of the undead unit on the front line saw an endless torrent of steel sweeping towards them!

Then, the Zeon artillery, finally realizing what was happening, began a sporadic counterattack, with shells constantly falling on the Federation forces' ranks. Tanks would occasionally come to a stop engulfed in flames, and mobile suits would be blown to pieces every now and then.

But these artillery bombardments seemed utterly ineffective against that massive torrent. For every tank destroyed, two new ones would take its place; for every mobile suit that fell, three more would leap over its body. In the blink of an eye, the vanguard of that torrent had crushed the front lines of the undead army.

Then, sporadic, weak gunfire rang out on the position, but this feeble sound could not stop anything. Then, the location where the gunfire started would be covered by heavy fire one after another.

"Julian!"

The old man had already taken off his military uniform at some point. He slapped Julian hard across the face, waking him up.

"If you want to survive, follow my lead!"

Then, Julian saw the other man take off his military uniform, leaving only a vest and shorts. Then, the old man knelt on a conspicuous high ground and raised his hands.

"Hurry up, do you still want to live? Do you still want to see your sister?"

As if waking from a dream, Julian immediately followed suit and knelt down, then raised his hands high.

However, to their surprise, the Federation's attacking forces completely ignored the two who had surrendered. One Type 61 tank even bypassed them and drove towards the rear positions.

After that, there was nothing left in front of them but endless dust and rumbling sounds.

Despite knowing about the Federation's offensive and making thorough preparations, the Zeon forces still couldn't withstand the blow when the Federation unleashed its armored fist.

Before the war, some people said that the ratio of national strength between the two sides was one to thirty, but the firepower comparison on the battlefield has long exceeded that ratio.

Moreover, the Federation forces released a massive amount of rice grains before launching the attack, regardless of the cost, which greatly disrupted the Zeon forces' firepower deployment.

Then, under the assault of more than six armored divisions, the Zeon army's so-called Great Basin defense line was easily torn apart as if it were an A4 sheet of paper.

"Damn it, they're everywhere!"

"Then fire everywhere!"

A Zeon mobile suit regiment stationed behind the Undead Legion's defensive line put up a fierce resistance for less than five minutes before being overwhelmed. Nearly half of the Zaku were sent flying by countless armor-piercing bullets before they even had a chance to fire a shot.

The two Zeon infantry divisions that were stationed along with this mobile suit regiment on the defensive line disappeared into the torrent without even making a ripple.

Under the dual interference of rice grains and artillery fire, the communications situation of the Zeon command was worse than ever before, with a large number of wired communication lines destroyed, making it impossible for the Zeon command to dispatch troops to reinforce the front line.

In contrast to the Zeon forces, the Federation forces received prior warning before launching their attack.

"Your communications may be constantly jammed, which will prevent you from contacting friendly forces in a timely manner, but that doesn't matter. You don't need anything. Just advance according to the planned battle plan. Don't worry about where your allies are. Just make sure there are any Zeon soldiers in front of you. If there are, take out that son of a bitch and keep moving forward!"

Therefore, the only task for the attacking Federation armored forces and mobile suits at this moment is to keep advancing until the Zeon forces' defenses are completely destroyed.

Behind the six armored divisions advancing at the front, the remaining Federal armored forces continued to advance along the gaps opened by the enemy, then turned to the flanks to widen the gaps and encircle the enemy's rear. Just like the blitzkrieg of the Earth era, the armored forces at the front only needed to penetrate and annihilate the enemy left behind, and the task of encircling and annihilating the enemy left behind was naturally handed over to the following forces.

By the time the Zeon command finally restored communication with the front lines, their defensive lines had already been breached by six divisions of Federation armored forces, creating four gaps.

Now, a steady stream of Federal Army reinforcements are pouring out of these four gaps. If these gaps cannot be plugged, then the collapse of the entire defensive line is only a matter of time!
"Mobilize armored units for a counter-attack!"

"Get all the reserves moving! This is a matter of life and death!"

Although the number of infantry was insufficient, the Zeon command still had a number of mobile suit units equal to that of the Federation forces. When setting up the defensive line, the Zeon commanders naturally took into account the threat of Federation artillery fire. Therefore, there were not many mobile suits deployed on the defensive line, only seven regiments in total. Including various scattered independent units, they were indeed inferior to the Federation forces.

Commander Kogeon deployed more mobile suit units and his most valuable armored units to the second line, all for this moment to launch a counterattack against the Federation forces.

So, as the sun slowly rose from the horizon, the two massive armored groups launched an extremely fierce attack.

Infantry and artillery became secondary at this moment. On the battle line, which was tens of kilometers wide, there was only the roar of tank engines and the clanging of metal as mobile suits stood on the ground.

Dense beams of light, roaring machine guns, beam sabers, thermal swords and axes—all visible weapons intertwined at this moment.

A Magellan tank roared up and launched its turret into the air. The gunner spotted the approaching Federal Army troops in mid-air. Then, with the roar of artillery, a flash of fire appeared on the glacier of a Type 61 tank, and the tank's speed involuntarily slowed down.

Then, Majella repeated the same tactic, continuing to fire and hitting another GM, shattering its abdominal armor and causing it to lose control, wobbling and crashing onto another tank not far away.

After taking down two targets in succession, the Federation forces quickly retaliated. Amidst the dense barrage of bullets, Magella's turret landed safely, but a Zaku next to it was hit by a rocket, the force of the explosion sending it flying and landing askew on the ground.

Then, another rocket whistled down and blasted the turret into pieces.

The turret was destroyed by a GM carrying a rocket launcher. Its pilot excitedly aimed at the next enemy vehicle and fired another rocket.

Seeing the rockets hurtling towards it, the Zaku Ground Combat, which was targeted, immediately used its 20mm Gatling gun to create a barrage of intercepting rockets. But as soon as the first rocket was destroyed, more than a dozen rockets came hurtling towards it at the same time, destroying the Zaku Ground Combat.

Zeon commanders thought their second-line reserves would be enough to hold off the Federation forces' attack, but they overlooked the much larger number of Type 61 tanks. If it were just a simple battle between mobile suits and tanks, Zeon might have been able to hold the line, but at this moment, the two sides were roughly evenly matched.

Thus, this massive tank formation became the final straw that broke the camel's back. The Zeon army's Magera tanks were insufficient in number. Although their firepower was fierce, they could not withstand being outnumbered. In the exchange of fire, the Mageras were completely outmatched. Subsequently, they were surrounded by more Type 61 tanks. After these Mageras were destroyed, the remaining mobile suits were caught in a pincer movement.

"Enemy mobile suit, firing range 2200, armor-piercing rounds, fire!"

After being equipped with twin 155mm tank guns, the Type 61 no longer needs to worry about whether it can penetrate the target. The high-speed armor-piercing rounds are enough to cause fatal damage to the body of the Zeon mobile suit.

Despite the continuous destruction of Type 61 mobile suits by the Zaku's counterattacks, Zakus also fell to the Type 61's artillery. In the constant encirclement and suppression, the strength of Zeon mobile suits was gradually suppressed by the Federation forces until the former could no longer withstand it.

As more and more Federation mobile suits are liberated, the pressure on the besieged Zeon mobile suits is increasing. Each of them has to face attacks from several Federation mobile suits, and there are even Type 61 tanks sneaking up from behind. Zaku pilots are constantly being killed by the enemy due to mistakes made in their haste.

Finally, with another cannon shot, the last Zaku, with a large hole still emitting smoke from its chest, fell to the ground unwillingly. Its head, which had been brutally torn off by the GM, was mercilessly crushed into a flat iron disc by another Type 61 tank.

"Report to headquarters: Our troops have achieved their designated objectives!"

The Zeon commander had not expected that his reserves would be wiped out so fiercely at the breach in the defensive line, nor had he imagined that it would be the Federation tank force that would help the mobile suits turn the tide of the battle.

In reality, he couldn't care less about that now. With the defense line breached, the Federation forces only needed to launch a flanking maneuver to wipe out the remaining friendly troops holding the line.

"Send a message to the California base immediately. We need support. Order all units that can still be contacted to abandon their positions immediately and retreat at full speed before the Union forces can close the encirclement!"

The commander collapsed to the ground, powerless. With the Great Basin defense line breached, the Zeon forces had virtually no defensible positions and could only retreat all the way back to the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This meant that half of the Zeon forces' significant gains since the Second Sudden Falls had been recaptured by the Federation forces!

That's why he was in a hurry to withdraw his troops, because he still needed manpower to hold the Sierra Nevada Mountains. If the Sierra Nevada defenses were to fall again, then the Zeon forces would have to consider how to defend the California base!
(End of this chapter)