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

Chapter 172 Macbeth's Decision
"Nani, Yuri's army headquarters was destroyed by Apsaras?"

At the Baikonur base, Lieutenant General Mark Bay, upon receiving the latest battle report, was struck by the news as if by a bolt from the blue, nearly causing him to drop the flask he was holding.

"Damn Kinnias, damn the red dragon!"

No one took the bright red lightning bolt emblem on Apsaras seriously, except for the greenhorns who had just enlisted. But that was precisely why Mark Bey felt a thorn in his side, a fishbone stuck in his throat, making him uneasy.

He still remembered what Macarius had said when they met in Antarctica!
"I'm so sorry I couldn't find you on the battlefield!"

"Put the base on high alert, activate all air defenses, and have the fighter wing on standby 24/7. Also, move the offices to the underground bunker!"

Holding his prized porcelain pot, Mark Bay gave orders to his adjutant.

He was genuinely afraid. It wasn't that he was particularly afraid of death, but rather that he was terrified of dying in a humiliating way, like Yuri, who was shot to death in his own headquarters. That would be a huge irony for him. Mark Bay hoped that even if he died, he would die a glorious death in front of thousands of soldiers.

Of course, it would be even better if he didn't die.

"That damned federal killer!"

Thinking of this, Lieutenant General Mark Bay couldn't help but feel a little sad. He had worked his way up to his current position through scheming and plotting, and had been working under Kycilia for countless years, like walking a tightrope.

Now, they're the ones who're paralyzed with fear by a hothead...

Besides his own safety, Mark Bay had to consider many other things. The appearance of Apsaras, while not exactly changing the mode of warfare, certainly made the Zeon forces feel less secure than before. The bombing by the Federation Air Force was indeed terrifying, but those planes could only find their targets under the interference of the grain of rice.

Moreover, these conventional bombers would not be able to operate at a high intensity, and their round trips would take a considerable amount of time. But Apsaras is different. Although this mobile fortress, manufactured using Mifly technology, is far more complex in terms of structure than a bomber and requires more maintenance personnel, its advantages, such as high speed and the fact that it does not need to consider ammunition issues, are unmatched by conventional bombers. If the Federation forces allow this thing to maintain regular patrols over the battlefield airspace, then the Zeon forces in the entire theater of operations will not be safe.

After all, once the target is exposed, that deadly beam attack will descend from above at any time, and the Zeon army's current technology and equipment have almost nothing that can deal with it!
"Damn it, we finally got to wait for the new mobile suits to be produced!"

The new mobile suit that Mark Bay mentioned refers to the MS-09 Dom, which was only recently finalized. This mobile suit is completely different from any Zeon mobile suit before it, and can even be said to have undergone a revolutionary change. It was once considered by the Zeon military to be able to save the precarious war situation.

Its speed, agility, and maneuverability are enhanced by a thermonuclear air cushion propulsion system. The lowest part of its legs and waist protrude outwards to form a skirt-like shape, beneath which are multiple high-thrust thermonuclear jet engines, allowing the mobile suit to hover near the ground. Using this structure, the Doma can reach a top speed of 240 km/h.

In addition to speed and mobility, it is also equipped with a spread beam cannon for close combat on its chest. Although the power is low, if used properly, it can cause unexpected damage to the enemy. In particular, Zeon has specially developed a high-performance H&L-GB03K 360mm giant rocket launcher for it, which is much more powerful than the 120mm bean gun used by the Zaku.

However, the problem was that the research on the mobile suits started too late. The North American Front was completely wiped out before the weapon was even released, while the European Front, although it waited until the factory produced the mobile suits, had very little time to train the pilots in the conversion between different types of mobile suits. As a result, the factory has produced a lot of mobile suits but not enough pilots to operate them.

To make matters worse, the arrival of Apsaras meant that the Zeon forces, who already had little time for machine conversion, were now practically on the verge of a slow death.

"We can't retreat any further!"

Because of Yuri's death, Mark Bay is now the supreme commander of the Earth Zeon forces, and his order to the front lines is to stop the retreat and hold their ground.

"Now that things have come to this, the idea of ​​preserving our strength is meaningless. Continuing to retreat will only lead to two outcomes: either we will be annihilated on the way back, or we will be pursued and surrounded by the Federal Army and then annihilated!"

"Baikonur Base is currently the most important and only remaining launch base of our military. It shoulders the important task of continuing to replenish the mineral resources of the homeland. Therefore, the longer you hold on the front line, the more mining output the homeland can obtain!"

"Does the command see our soldiers as less important than the mineral resources?"

"Of course, even without you, Zeon can still arm an army of a million, but without these mineral resources, what will the mainland use to manufacture warships and mobile suits?"

Mark Bay glared fiercely at the group of Zeon commanders in front of him. Anyway, these troops weren't his own, so what if they were lost?

As for the other side not obeying, he has plenty of ways to deal with it. The front-line troops are currently being sustained entirely by the Baikonur base. Not to mention, this is currently the only base in the hands of the Zeon forces in the Earth Sphere that has the capability to launch. Even if the front-line Zeon forces want to retreat, they will have to ask the base's HLVs if they will be able to transport them!
"In fact, holding your ground is only my initial requirement for you. After you have stopped the Federation army's advance, each unit should immediately launch a counterattack!"

"This is impossible!"

The Zeon generals stared in disbelief at Mark Bay. What did he take the war for? Afternoon tea? Could he just reach out and grab a pastry if he wanted one?
"Without intelligence, without firepower, and without manpower, how can we fight back against the Federal Army?"

"Because you didn't, the Federation Army won't expect us to launch a counterattack. As long as we launch a surprise attack, we will definitely be able to slow down the Federation Army's offensive and buy more time for the base!"

"Don't worry, I will ensure that all of our fighter jets and bombers will be deployed to provide you with cover. In addition, my squads that have mastered the piloting skills of the new mobile suits will also be deployed to provide you with support as much as possible!"

Even if the Zeon troops at the front were unwilling, they had no choice but to obey Mark Bay's demands. After all, they had no other options. Ahead lay their own menacing allies, behind them were vicious enemies, and beneath their feet were towns filled with malice and uncooperative civilians. Even if these Zeon troops wanted to break away, they had no way to do so.

Thus, the retreating Zeon forces had no choice but to halt at their commander's command and begin to use all available resources to establish a defensive line in an attempt to stop the Federation forces' advance.

Although Mark Bay’s tactic sounds disgusting, it is actually not very effective. Without various equipment and materials, what kind of defensive line can soldiers build with just entrenching tools?

The retreating Zeon forces lost most of their artillery, and those few remaining were facing a shortage of ammunition. The Federation forces, however, were in a completely different situation. The local people, eager to welcome liberation, would provide the Federation with any intelligence about the Zeons. After frantically expanding production capacity, even the most ordinary Federation infantry units could now be assigned several GMs. Combined with the tanks and other armored vehicles they already possessed, this gave the Federation reconnaissance units a considerable breakthrough capability.

When the Federation reconnaissance units at the forefront clashed with the Zeon forces holding their ground, the Zeon soldiers found it difficult to use trap tactics to encircle and annihilate these reconnaissance units. Even if they managed to break through and wipe out the reconnaissance forces, they would suffer significant losses due to enemy fire. Subsequently, the two sides engaged in point-to-point, face-to-face contact in a near-offensive posture. The cost of this contact was a surge in casualties. After the North American Front was annihilated, the number of Zeon forces in Europe was only around 400,000. After a series of offensives, by the time Macbeth took over command, the remaining Zeon forces numbered only around 300,000.

During the retreat, the Zeon army suffered around a thousand casualties per day, but after the offensive began, this number increased tenfold.

To make matters worse, after attacking Yuri's command post, Apsaras, just as Mark Bey had predicted, began to launch surgical-like precision strikes against Zeon's logistical and command nodes.

Within two days of Yuri's death, Apsaras destroyed twelve Zeon ammunition depots, command posts of more than three regiments, and also evaporated nearly forty freight trains and hundreds of trucks.

This directly led to more than two brigades of Zeon troops being forced to abandon their positions and continue their retreat due to supply problems, as they had used up their last drop of fuel and fired the last bullet from their guns.

Mark Bay was powerless to do anything about it. He could only turn a blind eye to the losses, like hiding his head and exposing his backside, and continue to send his troops to the front lines.

Despite the heavy losses suffered by the frontline troops, Mark Bay's plan was quite successful, judging from the fact that the Federation forces slowed their advance toward Baikonur Base. At least he was able to buy a few days of time to transport the minerals, but at the cost of the collapse of the entire Zeon army.

After realizing that the Zeon army had changed its tactics, the Federation forces also made corresponding adjustments, assembling a large number of mobile units separately and then having these mobile units carry out large-scale infiltration and outflanking maneuvers, while the slower-moving mechanized units in the rear began to devour the isolated Zeon positions one by one like whales swallowing them whole.

In less than ten days, the Zeon army lost nearly 200,000 troops, most of whom were killed in such encirclement battles. After crushing the main force of the Zeon army, the Federation army's advance towards Baikonur Base resumed, from over a thousand kilometers at the beginning to only two hundred kilometers at the end.

Apsaras's strike range gradually extended to the Baikonur base. Under the almost insurmountable attack, the Zeon forces' resource extraction in the former Central Asian country came to a complete standstill, because the transportation routes and oil pipelines connected to the mines were all blown to smithereens by Apsaras.

"Sir, all the cargo has been loaded!"

"There's nothing left, is that right?"

"Yes!"

Mark Bay clicked his tongue as he looked at the list of documents handed to him by his adjutant.

"It's a pity it was too fast, but based on the work we've done so far, those minerals should be enough to keep Zeon fighting for another three years!"

Of course, none of the subordinates who heard this asked where the confidence to fight for another three years came from.

"Well then, it's time for us to leave!"

Lieutenant General Mark Bay had no intention of remaining on Earth as a defeated general to be captured or killed. In fact, he still had a place reserved for himself in those heavy rockets and spaceships loaded with minerals.

But he had no intention of leaving just like that.

"Then, we can now make contact with the Federation forces!"

Then, Santa Claus, who had already reached the Baikonur base, made a special communication with Zeon on his flagship. Looking at the old acquaintance in front of him, both Reibille and Macbeth felt a mix of emotions. After all, they had met not long ago, but at that time, their situations were completely opposite.

"So, you're planning to surrender unconditionally to our army, Lieutenant General Mark Bay?"

"surrender?"

Holding his antique teapot with an air of confidence, Mark Bay then flashed a bright smile.

"Of course not, I'm here to negotiate, Your Excellency Rebil. I demand that the Federation Army immediately cease its attack on our positions!"

"Why?"

"Because I have a ballistic missile loaded with a nuclear warhead!"

Mark Bay tapped the table, and then, in the lens in front of Rebil, a nuclear bomb appeared ready to be launched.

"Do you think this warhead can stop Baikonur's Zeon forces from being annihilated?"

"Of course not, but if I can take an innocent city with me before I die, I have no objection!"

"I see. Then go ahead and launch it. Let's see if this missile can take off, shall we?"

Rebil tilted his head as well. He really didn't believe that one nuclear bomb could stop the advance of his million-strong army!
"Alright, but then I'll have to change my target. I think the Federal Army troops at the front would be a good target. What do you think?"

Rebil did not answer, but outside his office door, several staff officers had already begun to run frantically. They needed to immediately notify all front-line troops to prepare for defense in case the Zeon forces were desperate and decided to use nuclear weapons to attack the front-line units.

(End of this chapter)