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

Chapter 212 Supply Drones and Promotion
With his time in Zeon drawing to a close in December 1979, Makarius received official orders to return home. The Federation Army Headquarters required him to arrive at the Gabro headquarters in mid-December to participate in a new round of commendation ceremonies, and then travel to London to participate in the New Year's parade.

After all, he is the Federation's number one ace pilot, having shot down more enemies than the second and third combined. Coupled with his impeccable political background, the parade without him is like cooking without salt—utterly tasteless.

However, for Makarius, enjoying watching others participate in military parades did not mean he enjoyed participating in them. When he first entered the Armored Forces Academy, their principal had a sudden inspiration and organized a military parade during the school's anniversary celebration, specifically requesting that Makarius, the most skilled soldier in the entire academy, serve as the lead tank in the tank formation.

Thus, Markarius, who was used to speeding up at three times the normal pace, was forced to grind along at a normal walking pace for a whole month. But an order is an order, and he had no choice but to obey.

He wasn't the only one participating in the parade; every combat hero who had received a medal of honor from all branches of the Federation Forces—land, sea, air, and space—had to participate. And all combat units that had received collective commendations had to participate, so the Red Dragon Battle Group couldn't escape it either.

The veterans also complained, saying they should have spent more time on this and given everyone more demobilization pay. But despite their complaints, once the rotation order was issued, everyone packed their bags faster than anyone else.

Before leaving, Markarius made a point of visiting Tsunami Heavy Industries' new factory. After all, this company was established under his management, so it was only right to show concern.

This wasn't driven by profit considerations, but rather by a principle similar to not putting all your eggs in one dish. Markarius had many ideas and plans for the future development of mobile suits, but lacked a means to monetize them. Although, given his position, it might seem better to start from the Naval Strategic Research Institute, the Federation Army was not a monolithic entity. The massive army was mixed with various factions. While the Naval Strategic Research Institute wouldn't be like the capitalists of the Lunar Merchant Guild who would try to profit from both sides, considering the secrecy of the technology, a streamlined small group would naturally be better.

It must be said that the Matsunaga family's strength is not to be underestimated in order to develop to this point. After receiving personnel and equipment from Giannisk, they completed the relocation and resettlement of the factory in just one week. They have even begun the final testing of the equipment. Once completed, they will be able to resume production.

"We have already received orders for 5,000 space robots, and production will begin the day after tomorrow. We expect to complete the first batch of production within a month!"

An elderly engineer with gray hair proudly introduced the man to Makarius and Ramball behind him.

As the first company established by the new Zeon Republic, Tsunami Heavy Industries naturally attracted the attention of the Republic's government immediately. At that moment, they also had the space robot technology that the Republic's government urgently needed, so they placed a large order right away.

As for the urgently needed space robots, they were naturally used for the cleanup of post-war ruins and hazardous materials. This was also written in black and white in the Treaty of the Republic of Zeon. Although the One Year War was short, it was extremely fierce and the battlefield was very large. The entire Earth Sphere was a battlefield where the two sides fought each other.

However, the main battles broke out at their respective key points, but this did not mean that other space domains were safe. In fact, the Federation and Zeon deployed a large number of space mines in these dark space domains to block each other's routes.

Now that the war is over, all of this naturally needs to be cleaned up in order to restore civilian shipping routes. The Federation can use specialized ships to clean up, but most of the Zeon warships are sunk. Although there are also a large number of disarmed Ogres, they still need to be piloted. Using space robots eliminates this concern. By using wireless or wired remote control, a single robot can clean up a large area of ​​space, so even if it is damaged, there is no need to worry about casualties.

In addition to the production of robots needed to manufacture satellites, it is foreseeable that Jinlang Heavy Industry will not have to worry about orders for the next few years; the only concern will be insufficient production capacity.

But producing only space engineering robots is not what Makarius wants; what kind of heavy industry is it if it doesn't produce military products?

"I hope that you can use the space robots you are currently producing as a blueprint to design a supply drone that can provide resupply support to mobile soldiers from a greater distance!"

As a pilot, Makarius naturally knew the pain points of a mobile suit. Due to various restrictions, ordinary mobile suits had limited ammunition and fuel, and had to leave the battlefield and return to the mothership for resupply during prolonged battles.

This takes a lot of time, and due to design issues, when Federation mobile suits are carrying out support operations, they usually deploy supply modules to operate outside the ship. Those huge support modules are fully loaded with ammunition and fuel, which looks dangerous, but in reality, they are not safe at all. Once attacked by the enemy, the consequences will be extremely tragic.

In fact, something similar happened during the Battle of Abaoa, where the Federal Army suffered dozens of casualties. The soldiers inside the warships were alright, but the maintenance crew working outside the ships were blown to pieces.

Marcarius naturally hoped to prevent such situations from occurring. If a drone that could detach from the warship under its own power and carry a full load of standard-capacity supplies were designed, it would naturally reduce the workload of maintenance personnel and also decrease the probability of accidents.

In reality, there are generally three situations in which mobile suits need support in outer space. The first is that the mobile suit is intact, but it is out of ammunition and food, and it needs to be resupplied so that it can return to the battlefield immediately.

The second scenario is when the aircraft is damaged and out of ammunition and supplies. In this case, the aircraft needs to enter the mothership for repairs.

The third scenario involves a machine that is severely damaged and unable to move independently, with the pilot unconscious and requiring external dismantling. In this case, the pilot also needs to return to the mothership.

When the first, second, and third scenarios occur simultaneously, the workload of maintenance personnel will increase significantly. However, if we have the drones that Markarius envisioned, then in the event of the first scenario, friendly mobile soldiers only need to retreat a distance away from the center of the battlefield and wait for the friendly drones to arrive and resupply them.

The maintenance department can then free up space and energy to deal with the second and third scenarios. In fact, this supply model can not only be used to support mobile soldiers, but also fighter jets.

Of course, the prerequisite for realizing the above ideas is that mobile suits and fighters can quickly receive combat readiness supplies, that is, the so-called modularity, which was bound to be difficult before the One Year War. However, now, with the Federation Army's upcoming new military reforms, the multi-functional needs of mobile suits are naturally a top priority. Referring to the Warrior's backpack system and the improving E-CAP energy box system, there is sufficient technical support to realize Macarius's ideas.

Of course, this is not something that can be accomplished with a click of the mouse; it requires a high level of control over the drone. However, since Zeon is currently clearing away the ruins of war, we can confidently conduct tests and improvements.

As for the technology, Makarius wasn't worried. Although these old engineers looked to be in their fifties or sixties, their technology was still up-to-date. They were the ones who racked their brains to defeat Gundam during the war, and now, although the goal had changed, their pursuit of technological progress remained the same.

As Makarius and the engineers got more and more engrossed in their conversation, Kenjiro Matsunaga and Rambara couldn't help but feel that the future was bright. After all, if the project were to actually come to fruition, given the current size of the Federation Army, it would be another order that would sustain them for many years. In the past, the Federation had been crushing Zeon, but now the situation might change, with the Federation being crushed by Zeon.

In some ways, this is something the Zabi family has dreamed of for many years but has never been able to achieve!

Of course, besides the supply robots, Makarius has many other ideas, including brand-new mobile suit missiles, but these are too sensitive for Tsunami Heavy Industries. It's better to focus on drones first!
After finishing his business at Tsunami Heavy Industries, Markarius was able to return to Gabro with peace of mind. In any case, the Federation and Zeon had resumed normal communication, so communication was not a problem. If anything happened, Zeon could find a way to contact him!

Subsequently, the Red Dragon Battle Group, carrying ships from the 13th Independent Fleet, officially embarked on its journey home. As they passed the Abaoa Sky Fortress, Makarius noticed that most of the Federation warships gathered there were gone, clearly returning to their respective bases according to their organization. Now that there were few remaining enemies on Zeon's homeland, those Zeon remnants who were still active were more likely to launch attacks on the Federation in other regions. Returning to their respective bases would also allow them to better guard against such a situation.

However, this does not mean that the Federation will abandon the two space fortresses, Abaoa and Kimmy Island. The Federation forces will continue to be stationed there. After all, with these two fortresses in their possession, Zeon is like a fish on a chopping board. If any situation arises that attempts to violate the war treaty, the Federation forces can respond immediately.

Then, on December 9th, the shuttle carried by Macarius arrived at the Gabro base. The Federation troops on board the shuttle were initially disoriented by gravity after a long period of space activity, but they quickly adjusted.

The Gabro base is still bustling with activity, though it's not quite what it was during the war, when it resembled a noisy military camp. Every day, large numbers of transport planes took off and landed, constantly unloading personnel and supplies before sending them to various war zones.

Now, the sky above Gabro is unusually clear. The launch trajectories of warships can no longer be seen, nor can formations of aircraft fly by in combat formations. There is no longer any worry about Zeon forces launching an attack from the sky. In the area of ​​the base near the sea, you can even see male and female soldiers in swimsuits leisurely sunbathing or playing beach sports.

Seeing this scene, the Federation soldiers who had returned from space finally felt that peace had truly come to the world. However, it would take some effort to get them used to this kind of life.

It takes time just to make people remember that gravity is everywhere, because many people still subconsciously act according to the rules of space in their daily lives, resulting in many things being broken, and some people even habitually jumping from heights and breaking their legs.

Fortunately, having a cast on his leg and sitting in a wheelchair wouldn't affect his medal award; in fact, some pretty female soldiers would even help the unfortunate injured guy push his wheelchair.

But in any case, the most eye-catching person in this award ceremony was Makarius!

When the Federal Army officer in charge of awarding the medals removed Makarius's lieutenant colonel rank and then pinned on a brand-new colonel rank, the entire hall erupted in applause and cheers.

Because everyone witnessed a legend: the youngest colonel in the history of the Federation Army was born. At this moment, Makarius was only nineteen years old.

But no one questioned the prestige of this colonel, after all, the numerous medals on Makarius's chest and around his neck spoke for themselves.

The British Campaign Medal, the Battle of Loum Medal, the Battle of Baikonur, the Battle of California, the Battle of the Black Sea, the Solomon Islands, the Abaoakun Islands—he fought in all the major battles of the entire war by himself. Such an existence cannot be described as mere luck. Many Federation soldiers who knew Makarius already described his existence as a living legend.

After all, being able to survive a fierce battle is enough to be called a hero, but to survive to the end unscathed, to make the enemy suffer terribly on their own, and to even kill high-ranking enemy generals multiple times, is something that people usually only see in storybooks.

Now, such a person is standing right in front of them, and with the existence of the Federation's invincible Gundam, the two combined have already created an extremely profound storyline. From now on, Makarius is destined to become a character that many people can never avoid in their memoirs.

There are even rumors that high-ranking federal officials are considering making a movie or TV series based on him for publicity.

But this is how Makarius explained the rumors to his friends who came to ask.

"Instead of filming me, I'd rather film the comrades who fought alongside us. I was just lucky to survive, but there were many heroes who didn't live to see the war end. To me, they are the legendary figures who deserve to be celebrated! That's my answer!"

(End of this chapter)