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

Chapter 188 The Solomon Express
With the catapult activated, Makarius's mech no longer needed to slowly rely on its own thrusters for initial acceleration. The moment the mech flew off the warship's deck, he adjusted the power to the maximum, operating it smoothly and seamlessly, without losing any speed.

Two large liquid hydrogen propulsion boosters emitted dazzling light, comparable to warship engines. When Markarius flew out from the friendly formation, many radars identified it as a large missile.

Only after the organism flashed past them did these federal soldiers react.

"It's a Gundam! How awesome!"

Those in the Federation army who were familiar with Makarius were even more envious.

"That bastard tricked me again, but only he could handle such terrifying power!"

Although not deployed immediately when the war broke out, Marcarius, with his incredible speed, became the first Federation mobile suit to engage the Zeon forces, aside from the assault boats, while his allies on the front lines were still behind him.

Looking at the densely packed images of Zeon soldiers on the screen in front of him, Makarius couldn't help but feel his heart beat faster.

"That's the romance of men!"

After a quick scan of the Zeon army's formation, Macarius immediately identified a suitable breakthrough point. He then subtly twisted his machine, changing its orientation.

The fire control system went online, the weapon safety was disengaged, the particle cannon began to charge, and then, without hesitation, Makarius pulled the trigger.

The two 380mm rocket launchers mounted in the shields on both sides of the machine fired two heavy rockets. Then, with a slight wiggle of the control stick, the large particle cannon mounted on the machine, which had completed its energy charging, fired a purple particle beam that landed directly on the front hull of a Musai-class ship.

Like a patient being disemboweled in an operating room, the particle beam irradiation completely melted the turret and even the armor on its upper and lower parts, paralyzing the warship and rendering it unable to move. At this moment, two rockets arrived too late. The gunnery department, which was already offline, had no ability to intercept them. The surviving Zeon crew could only watch helplessly as the rockets drew closer and closer until the warship exploded with two more bursts of light. Then, the Musai-class ship broke apart from the front, like a chocolate bar that had been broken open.

Marcarius, who had achieved the first kill, had not even entered the Zeon army formation yet.

"Gundam, it's a red dragon!"

Amid the terrified shouts of the Zeon forces, the G3 Gundam, having just completed its attack on the Musai-class, resumed firing, still firing two rockets simultaneously. However, this time, Macarius did not use the particle cannon to attack the battleship. After the main cannon finished charging, he simply pulled the control stick from right to left, and the five Rick Dom units guarding the second Musai-class were destroyed in this barrage.

Although these Zeon pilots were scattered, from Markarius's perspective, who was approaching at a high angle, they were still on an approximate plane. Even if they weren't, the aftershocks of the particle cannon could still damage them.

Zeon's counter-attack artillery fire kept exploding around him, but this did not affect Macarius's operation. He manipulated his machine to sway gently, and then used a 39 to leave the artillery fire behind.

After completing the 39 maneuver, he continued circling, waiting for the right moment, and fired two more rockets at a Musai-class ship that was firing at him.

"Deploy the interception barrage! Stop those two rockets!"

Captain Zeon on the bridge shouted at the top of his lungs.

The Musai-class and the surrounding Zeon mobile suits could only shift their firepower to intercept the two rockets. In that instant of shifting firepower, Markarius, who had completed the charge of the particle cannon, maneuvered his machine into a half-S-shaped maneuver. The twisting purple particle beam was like a long sword, once again slicing through several mobile suits and the bridge of the Musai-class.

"That guy is too fast, and his weapon has a long range. There's no way to take him down in a long-range firefight!"

"Stop covering the fleet with the mobile suit units and move forward immediately. Even if you can't contain him, force him away from the fleet. That particle cannon poses a great threat to our forces!"

The commander of the Zeon fleet at the front immediately gave the order.

Upon receiving the order, one after another, the Leviathans, Zaku, and others took off without hesitation, detached from the warships below, and rushed towards Macarius.

"Yes, yes, that's it!"

As Marcarius watched the Zeon mobile suit sweep towards him like a tornado, he became even more delighted.

He casually fired the last two rockets, and then the two fixed 380mm rocket launchers completed their mission and were discarded by Makarius.

The two rockets he fired last even took down another unfortunate Zaku.

"That guy's out of weapons, everyone charge!"

A young Zeon pilot shouted excitedly as he watched the rocket launcher drift past him.

It was his first time on the battlefield. Although he had little experience, he was full of fighting spirit. When he saw that the enemy had lost their weapons, he immediately shouted excitedly. Then, ignoring the orders of his captain behind him, he charged forward with a roar.

Then, the Zeon pilots noticed that the Federation mech, which was climbing into higher space, suddenly changed its orientation, from facing away from them to facing them.

Makarius looked down at the Zeon mobile suits that were climbing alongside him, then pressed the fire control lock. Subsequently, a dense array of triangular symbols were fixed on all the enemies within his sight.

Then, he pressed the trigger on the handle.

Next, the four cluster missile pods located on both sides of the shoulders of the G3 Gundam were ejected. Then, with the missile engines ignited, the missiles burst open their hatches and flew toward their respective locked targets under the propulsion of the vector engines.

"spread!"

"Spread out!"

The Zeon pilots who were chasing Macarius finally understood why the other side was pretending to be waiting for them.

The four missile pods fired 96 cluster missiles in one go, the dense missiles leaving white trails and weaving a deadly net.

And those Zeon mobile suits are the prey!
Despite the Zeon pilots' best efforts to escape the lock-on, the missiles were faster than them.

Then, amidst the desperate cries of the Zeon pilots, bright flames burst forth in the dark space.

After the explosion was over, most of the hundreds of mobile suits that were chasing Macarius disappeared, more than fifty were destroyed, and the remaining half were all severely injured and in terrible condition. A considerable number of the mobile suits were even blown to the point of being unable to move.

At that moment, Makarius accelerated his attack to the maximum and charged back.

"Don't run!"

After pressing the main cannon to charge, Macarius raised the beam rifle and fired two shots in quick succession. The two intact Zaku units immediately exploded into fireballs. At the same time, the particle cannon also completed charging again. Macarius pulled the machine again and swung the beam like a lightsaber at the moment of firing, destroying several more Zeon units.

As the G3 Gundam descended rapidly at high speed, it drew its beam lance with its free left hand. Then, as it swooped down, the Macarius lance swept horizontally, cleaving two more mobile suits in half.

At this moment, he had already cut through the Zeon mobile suit formation from top to bottom. Then, he stepped on the rudder to make his machine spin rapidly, and then the thrusters were at full power again, allowing him to charge back from below the Zeon formation. Five seconds later, the particle cannon completed its charge again, and the Sword of Death reappeared, randomly taking down a bunch of unlucky Zeon pilots.

Despite still seemingly holding an absolute numerical advantage, the Zeon mobile suits chasing Macarius were now in complete chaos. Whether they were surviving veterans or new pilots, no one was thinking of fighting that nightmarish machine anymore. Their attacks couldn't even make a ripple in front of it. On the contrary, the purple particle beams that appeared every five seconds would cause any mobile suit to disappear into them as soon as the beams lit up.

At this moment, these Zeon mobile suits were burning up their propellant and fleeing in the outward direction, with officers roaring as they tried to regroup their troops.

But he was immediately betrayed by his own people.

"Fuck Zeon, you idiot! Go die fighting for Zeon!"

A Zaku swung its heat axe and slashed directly at the officer's Rick Domo, but before he could even draw his sword, the next second, a burst of light gun fire turned both machines into twisted scrap metal.

When Macarius broke through the Zeon army's formation again, he discovered that only large swathes of wreckage remained floating silently in space behind him.

Beneath his feet, the Zeon fleet, now without the cover of mobile suit units, was still attempting to engage the Federation fleet in a line-of-battle formation.

"The fortress's defenses are finished!"

Dozle, who was directing the battle from the Solomon Fortress Commander Tower, closed his eyes in despair. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn't have believed that a specialized mobile suit could annihilate an entire brigade of his mobile suits in just over ten minutes. And now, the enemy even had the strength to continue attacking the fleet below.

However, in the blink of an eye, two Msay-class, one Chibe-class, and several space fighters were once again removed from the battle sequence.

The Federation Command also noticed the chaos in the Zeon forces. Immediately, more combat troops and ships followed behind Makarius, piercing the Zeon forces through the gap he had torn open like a sharp knife.

Meanwhile, Makarius was still rampaging across the battlefield. Although the heavy engine with extra fuel tanks looked extremely dangerous, it didn't matter to him, who believed that as long as he missed, nothing would happen. The more fuel he had, the longer his flight time would be, and the longer the flight time, the faster he would be, and the safer he would be. So, the more fuel he had, the safer he would be.

Driven by its ferocious power, Makarius was like a long arrow, piercing through the Zeon fleet in one go. Every warship that appeared in his field of vision, regardless of its purpose, was hit by several shots. Whether it was a double-barreled rifle or a particle cannon, he used whatever he had until finally, a huge spaceship appeared in front of Makarius.

"Another Gwajin?"

Makarius never expected to have such a connection with this type of warship, encountering yet another one.

"This is Dozru's Guevaraan?"

Without the slightest hesitation, Macarius directly maneuvered his machine to pounce on the opponent.

"That guy is coming towards us!"

"Where is the guard?"

"They launched the attack together with the main force!"

Captain Guevara was stunned by what he heard. Too many new recruits were a recipe for disaster, especially since the ship held a prestigious position and did not need to be at the forefront of the fleet. As a result, the mobile suit unit on board was full of new recruits, and even the commander was a rookie lieutenant with no more than three weeks of experience.

Seeing that the situation was very favorable, the mobile suit commander of the Gwalan simply led all his men to follow the friendly forces to pursue Macarius. Now, only two Musai-class ships remain around the Gwalan.

"Turn around! Turn around immediately!"

Without the slightest hesitation, the commander of Guvalan directly and decisively ordered the helmsman to turn.

"Sir?"

"We can't afford to lose this ship!"

Seeing that one of the Musai ships had been hit and caught fire, and even half of its engine had been cleanly cut off from the hull, the captain of the Guwalan ship was so anxious that he almost jumped up.

He even kicked the helmsman aside and took the helm himself. Then, in full view of everyone, the huge warship began to turn around.

But Markarius had no intention of letting it go. The fully charged particle cannon immediately aimed at the engine of the Gevaland and then fired a dazzling beam of light.

"The left engine has been hit, and its output has decreased by 30%!"

"Cut off the power supply, seal off the adjacent compartments, close-in weapon system, what are you doing?"

"The close-in weapon system has been destroyed, and that guy is about to open fire again!"

"Impact alarm!"

As another violent tremor came from the rear of the ship, the Zeon crew members on the bridge, even though they were holding tightly to the fixed positions around them, were still shaken to their core.

Then, the bridge lights dimmed, and a piercing fire alarm sounded.

"Turret number one is out of service!"

"The left hangar hatch is out of control!"

"Decks one through seven are damaged and are losing pressure!"

"God, who will save us?"

Captain Zeon, whose head was bleeding profusely from the shock of the explosion, couldn't help but groan.

Just then, a crew member shouted out in surprise.

"Sir, that demon has left!"

"what?"

The captain glanced out the porthole and saw that the mobile suit was indeed disengaging. But before their smiles could even freeze, a beam of light arrived, precisely slicing through the bridge armor and killing everyone.

(End of this chapter)