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

Chapter 149 A Belated Children's Day Gift for Karma
"Enemy attack!"

Amidst the Zeon pilots' heart-wrenching screams, Amuro's original Gundam fired the first rocket, blasting an armored vehicle, suspected to be a command vehicle, to smithereens.

Then, he fired the remaining three rockets at several infantry firing positions in the distance.

Below the whistling rockets was the Red Dragon charging at the forefront.

Marcarius raised his shield to protect himself, then raised his right hand and fired two grenades at the Zaku land combat vehicle furthest from him.

After firing the grenades, he activated the right-side thruster of his machine, making the G3 make a smooth stop and left turn. Then, a dense barrage of tracer rounds grazed past his machine.

Makarius also took the opportunity to lift the MG79, and although the machine was moving at high speed, the muzzle remained steadily pointed at his target.

With a flash of gunfire, several armor-piercing rounds were fired, piercing through the Zaku ground combat unit that was using its shoulder shield to cover its firing while turning sideways.

After taking down the Zaku, Makarius continued speeding, his gun barrel shifting to the left again, where another ground-based Zaku was located.

However, what the other side was holding was not a machine gun, but a 175mm recoilless rifle, a weapon for mobile soldiers converted from the main gun of the Magella tank, and it was quite powerful.

Upon seeing the G3 Gundam charging towards him, the Zaku pilot reacted quickly, raising his rifle and pulling the trigger at Macarius.

Seeing his shell successfully hit the enemy and create a huge cloud of smoke, the Zaku pilot couldn't help but cheer. After all, in his opinion, nothing could withstand the direct fire of this cannon.

But the next second, the G3 Gundam burst out of the smoke at full speed, the machine itself was intact, except for a very obvious bullet hole on the shield on its left hand.

"how is this possible?"

The Zaku pilot's eyes widened, but the next second, his machine began to tremble violently. With the roar of metal clashing, more than a dozen large, smoking gun holes appeared on the chest of the ground-based Zaku.

There weren't many ground-based Zakus defending the Dabude class, but Macarius only managed to take down three of them; the rest were destroyed by others.

Meanwhile, Amuro was focused on clearing out the surrounding infantry. His rocket launcher whistled through the Zeon infantry's outposts, leaving the armored vehicles and fortifications unable to withstand the precise strikes of the 380mm rocket launcher. Amuro showed no mercy to the enemy, directly blasting the bunkers and the infantry behind them into the air with rockets.

At this moment, the Dabude-class ships finally realized that enemy mobile suits had appeared around them. However, the Dabude-class ships did not have the capability to carry mobile suits, and their defensive firepower consisted only of two self-defense turrets with a 180-degree field of fire below the bridge.

After Makarius eliminated the enemy in front of him, he immediately rushed towards Daboud. Just as the two self-defense machine guns on his side turned their muzzles, Makarius fired the third grenade from his MG79.

When the smoke cleared, all that remained beneath the bridge was the shattered, broken half of the turret base.

After destroying the defensive turret on this side, Macarius immediately maneuvered his machine into a leap and jumped onto the back of the Dabude-class. Then, he pressed the muzzle of his rifle directly against the defensive turret on the other side and pulled the trigger.

Then, the half of the self-defense turret exploded like popcorn, scattering shattered human remains and twisted metal parts all over the ground.

After rendering Dabd's last means of self-defense ineffective, Makarius then thrust his gun into the outside of the Dabd-class's towering bridge.

"Now, choose: will you be defeated by me as a lackey of the Zabi family, or will you lay down your weapons and surrender obediently?"

Upon hearing Makarius's words, the Zeon soldiers on the bridge all turned their gazes to their commander, an unassuming middle-aged officer who was clearly well-regarded by his subordinates, as there were three or four people blocking his way.

Seeing that the other party remained silent, Makarius sighed.

"Nagase!"

At his call, Nagase Hotaru, controlling her sniper GM, jumped onto the back of the Dabude-class ship, then drew her beam saber and pressed it against the glass on the outside of the bridge.

As soon as she presses the switch, the high-temperature plasma will instantly burn the entire bridge to nothing.

"I surrender!"

Seeing that the unopened saber had already cracked the glass, the Zeon commander helplessly raised his hands and then spoke through the public channel.

"Get all your men down here. If I find any malicious damage to this ship, you can all wash your necks and wait to die!"

Upon hearing Makarius's words, the Zeon soldiers on the Dabude-class ships immediately surged out of the bridge as if springs had been installed in their buttocks, without even waiting for the commander's order. However, the Zeon captain was not angry. Instead, he followed them and scrambled out of the ship's hatches. Then, according to their rank and gender, they lay down on the open ground on the riverbank.

"Yudin, have the 29th Armored Division send some artillery over!"

"Oh, aren't we leaving?"

"Why are you retreating? This thing is still intact. Let them send some people over to take over!"

Marcarius tapped the mostly intact armor of the warship and then spoke.

"Don't we still have the Zeon army's maps? Let them bomb those places one by one according to the coordinates!"

"I understand!"

Yudin immediately relayed the situation to the main force in Yamaguchi. Upon receiving Makarius's message, the 29th Armored Division immediately loaded an entire artillery battery of its personnel onto two emergency reinforcement Gunpla transport planes and sent them to Makarius's side.

These artillerymen, who usually only operate self-propelled guns, couldn't stop smiling when they saw a land-based warship available for their use. Although they couldn't operate anything else, they had no problem getting the two twin main guns of the Dabude-class to work. Moreover, just to be on the safe side, the artillerymen brought the Zeon prisoners who were originally on duty to the side for on-site training.

To keep these guys in line, Makarius drew his beam saber and plowed a gash in the ground in front of the prisoners as a warning. Realizing that the Red Dragon was not joking, the Zeon people immediately became very cooperative, telling them everything they knew. They even couldn't help but take matters into their own hands because they were worried that slowing down the progress would turn them into roast ducks with the beam saber.

Then, two hours after the artillery arrived, the Dabude-class ship finally roared once again.

However, this time, its target was no longer the Federation forces at the mountain pass, but the Zeon 3rd Regiment in front of them.

As the shockwave crashed into the forest, instantly destroying a vast swath of vegetation, the Zeon troops advancing on the mountain pass nearly wet themselves. The attack from such a large-caliber heavy artillery piece was terrifying; the shockwave alone could send people flying. Then, with the coordinates corrected by the Federation forces at the front, a second salvo landed squarely on the Zeon troops' heads!

Commander Zeon was also surprised that in the blink of an eye, an armored company that was standing on the side of the road had vanished. The tens of tons of Majera tanks outside the blast point were as if they had been punched, flipping over and turning into turrets on the ground. As for the infantry, most of them were gone, leaving only two huge craters on the ground covered with loose soil.

"These guys, don't they know how to destroy equipment?"

The Zeon commander was furious. He had no idea how the Federation forces had managed to seize a Dabd-class ship right under their noses and now use it to bomb them.

However, the Zeon commander did not dare to retreat on his own; he had to report to headquarters.

As a result of this request, his troops were hit by two more shells!

This time, several mobile suits were bombed. Although these Zakus were consciously positioned far away, the distance of the shells was too great. Two salvos destroyed four more Zakus and even blew one Zaku to pieces, its head flying into the air and then falling back down. It also smashed a Marder infantry fighting vehicle into a pancake.

Moreover, since the coordinates have been locked, the bombardment by the Dabude-class destroyers will only increase in speed.

Then came the third and fourth rounds. The Third Regiment had completely lost any desire to attack. All the soldiers and equipment were trying to disperse to the forests on both sides of the road, but even so, the shelling continued to cause losses to the entire regiment.

Even so, the Zeon front command still did not allow the 3rd Regiment to retreat. They demanded that the enemy continue to hold out, and that the headquarters would send reinforcements to retake the Dabud-class.

"What you need to do is take back Yamaguchi, Colonel. Don't forget what we are fighting for!"

"If that's the case, why don't you put on a helmet and come to the front lines to take a look?"

"I will be there if necessary, but for now, you must resume the attack immediately!"

Then, the Zeon frontline commander abruptly hung up the communication, and even made sure to request the California base to urgently dispatch a Fat Uncle transport plane to send a team of Führer's Guard soldiers responsible for overseeing the battle to the Third Regiment.

What Commander Kegeon didn't know was that just after he hung up the communications, another round of shelling from the Dabude-class destroyed the antenna vehicle of the Third Regiment, completely cutting off the entire regiment's ability to contact nearby friendly forces.

Then, seeing the wreckage of the antenna vehicle, with only three wheels left rolling around on the ground, the Third Regiment simply took the initiative and turned around and ran away.

Since the communications vehicle was destroyed and they couldn't contact nearby units, the headquarters couldn't blame them for choosing to retreat. After all, in a sense, the Third Regiment had already lost its combat capability!

With the withdrawal of the Third Regiment, the Dabud-class forces had no choice but to select new targets. After studying the map for a while, Makarius discovered that after the mountain pass, the Zeon forces' strongholds were basically reduced to field supply points and observation posts, making bombing unnecessary.

After much deliberation, the only remaining target was Sacramento, the closest point to Kalma that the Daboud-class missiles could reach at their maximum range!
"Bomb Sacramento, bomb the army logistics base to the north. The Zeon must have stockpiles there. Bomb there, use up all the shells!"

Makarius certainly wouldn't be so ruthless as to bomb the city directly. There were still many civilians living there. Because the city fell too quickly, the locals couldn't escape and could only obediently become subjects of the Zeon army. The local puppet regime established by Zeon also needed these people to maintain its operation.

Bombing the city directly might have a better deterrent effect, but that would also affect innocent civilians. They already had a hard enough life under Zeon rule, and now that they've finally waited for the return of the royal army, they'd be killed by their own artillery fire. That would be too ironic!

So, what Makarius bombed was a military base north of the city. This used to be a shared army and navy reserve base belonging to the California base group, storing a large amount of clothing, fuel, ammunition and other supplies. But that was in the past. Makarius didn't know what was there now. He only knew that this was the only place left that the Daboud-class bombers could openly bomb!

After being captured by the Zeon forces, this base was converted into a repair base, as it contained a lot of transport equipment, which was convenient for repairing damaged mobile suits and armored vehicles.

When Dabdo began shelling the base, the base was still brightly lit and staff were working overtime. With the Federation's rapid offensive, the number of Zeon equipment losses was increasing day by day. The production capacity of the production line alone could no longer meet the needs of the troops. In particular, the defeat of the Central Group caused the Zeon army to lose a large number of heavy equipment. Therefore, these repair bases had to work overtime to repair the damaged equipment that was sent to them to factory condition.

Then, amidst the rumbling of processing, the sound of shells piercing the air became insignificant background noise.

It wasn't until the technicians working in the factory felt a jolt beneath their feet, followed by the lights above their heads flickering due to the electrical vibrations, that they realized something was wrong. Immediately afterward, the piercing air raid siren drowned out all the noise and commotion.

At this point, the Zeon technicians realized that the base had been attacked. Although the attack landed in a remote location and didn't hit anything, Sacramento was now considered the Zeon army's rear area and the gateway to their headquarters, San Francisco. If Sacramento was attacked, how far could San Francisco be?
As the second round of shelling continued to fall on the deserted open ground, air raid sirens sounded throughout the city, and the explosions ruthlessly shattered the peaceful facade that the Zeon forces were trying so hard to conceal.

Now, after hearing the violent explosions coming from the outskirts of the city, even a blind man would know that the Zeon army's front lines were retreating steadily, and this explosion caused panic throughout the city.

No matter how small the incident in Sacramento was, it could not be hidden from Karma, who was in San Francisco. Soon, the artillery fire from Sacramento was connected. Watching the artillery fire that had no accuracy and was just moving around the base by feel, Karma felt her blood rush to her head and her vision went black.

"Our defenses, how did our defenses become like this?"

"tell me why?"

At this moment, the young commander once again transformed into a desktop cleaning master, sweeping everything off the desk. He glared angrily at his staff, desperately wanting an answer, but everyone remained silent, not even daring to meet Karma's gaze. He could only vent his anger on the desk in front of him.

"Send me troops, at all costs, to take back the mountain pass, understand?"

"Sir, we've received a strange communication; it's a plaintext call!"

Just as Karma was roaring at her subordinate generals, a female adjutant walked into the room quietly with her head down.

"The other side used our communication code, but it did not pass our military's serial number verification!"

"What are they talking about?"

"Sir, you'd better listen to it yourself!"

The female adjutant then switched the signal to the communicator in front of Karma.

Then, a call mixed with a lot of noise came from the instrument.

"Did you hear that cannon fire, Kalma? It's a Children's Day gift from the great Führer Kilian!"

(End of this chapter)