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

Chapter 228 The Plan is Finalized
"DiDi, DiDi..."

As Makarius was reviewing restricted documents from the intelligence department, his communicator rang again.

"?"

"Still not asleep?"

A sprightly, sharp-eyed old man then appeared on the screen in front of Makarius.

"No, there's something I want to know, and I can't sleep!"

Marcarius cracked his neck and then asked the other person a question in return.

"But you, a general of the Federation Army, why are you making inter-space communications with me so late at night instead of sleeping?"

"I miss you, is that not allowed?"

General Kinklini leaned back in his large chair, took a sip of hot milk from his cup, and then spoke in a reproachful tone.

"The war is over, but you're still running around. I gave you a break, but you didn't even come home to visit. Instead, you're taking a few young girls around. Your mother even complained to me about it!"

"Yes, Your Excellency General, I will go home to check on things as soon as I get back from side 7!"

"Just going home to visit?"

"I've come to see you again, is that alright?"

"That's more like it. So, did you find anything?"

King grunted contentedly twice, then inquired of Makarius.

"There wasn't much, and the information was very mixed, so our people couldn't figure out the detailed information about the Nanyang Alliance?"

"Not yet. The team sent by the Military Intelligence Bureau is making very little progress there. It's really strange. Those bald guys organized a tight blockade in a very short time. Our people can't even start to gather intelligence. Some teams have even been discovered by the locals and then detained!"

King muttered a few words of dissatisfaction. The Federation did have some oversight of its member states, but the problem was that the old Nanyang Alliance and the current Nanyang Alliance were completely different things.

The former Nanyang Alliance was just an ordinary political entity. Its defense, foreign affairs, and economy were all handled by the Federation. The entire region was a well-known tourist destination with abundant tourism resources and rare mineral deposits. In addition, with agriculture and fishing, the standard of living in the Nanyang Alliance was not bad.

During the Battle of Britain, the Southern Alliance was somewhat affected, mainly because a large amount of satellite debris was scattered around its region. Although the large pieces of debris were destroyed by the local federal air defense forces, a small number of fragments still caused some damage.

After the federal army was fully mobilized, the Nanyang Alliance also shouldered its responsibilities as a member of the federal government, supplying a large amount of military food, fuel, and personnel. However, after the war ended, everything became strange.

To be precise, the so-called Order Church emerged in less than a few months before it quickly squeezed out the local Buddhist niche and became the object of faith for a large number of people.

And those monks were transformed into the Order of the Monks!

However, the Federation was also powerless to intervene in this situation. According to the Constitution, religious affairs within the Nanyang Alliance were to be handled by its own government. Therefore, as long as the Nanyang Alliance government did not speak out, the Federation could not intervene.

Lei Fanhu is the young monk who has come into the Federation's view at this moment. In a very short time, he has become a guest of honor of local dignitaries. In the end, he was even directly elected as the chief priest of the Order Church. It can be said that he has risen to the top in one step.

Subsequently, the South Pacific Alliance undertook part of the post-war debris cleanup task. The reason for delegating these tasks was not because the Federation was lazy, but because the scope of the One Year War was so vast that the Federation alone could not clean it up. Moreover, the Federation's main task was to rebuild the colony satellites, and before the reconstruction, the debris floating on the Lagrange points had to be cleaned up.

The area cleared by the Nanyang Alliance was not large, but it was quite varied. Considering their religious activities, the Federation also hoped that they could hold religious ceremonies for the fallen soldiers on various major battlefields to comfort their spirits.

Therefore, whether it's a Lagrange point or Abaoakong, you can see their busy figures.

In order to allow various organizations and political entities to do more work, the Federation also allows them to handle the war debris in their respective areas of responsibility.

Actually, this is where things started to go wrong!
While both organizations are involved in clearing rubble, the personnel from Side6 only collect the rubble in better condition and transport it back for repair.

Despite this, the Side 6 security forces still managed to snag several Salamis-class destroyers and hundreds of mobile suits.

Those in poor condition would be simply packaged up and handed over to middlemen for processing by the Side6 staff.

But the Nanyang Alliance was different. Their cleanup crews were like locusts, slowly devouring the war debris until it was completely clean. Then, most of the mobile suit wreckage was transported back to Earth, where their domestic technicians would try their best to piece it together.

In a very short time, the Nanyang Alliance built a mobile suit force of over a hundred units from scratch. Its main force was Zani, named RRf-06, which was pieced together from the wreckage of Zeon and Federation mobile suits.

Although these aircraft were cobbled together and their performance and armaments were mediocre, their numbers continued to grow. In addition to Zani, the Nanyang Alliance also recovered some Tigers and Dede flying pedals.

These actions naturally caused unease within the Federation, and the Military Intelligence Bureau and the Central Intelligence Agency took this opportunity to continuously send personnel into the Nanyang Alliance through various channels in an attempt to find out the other party's purpose.

As King said, the intelligence gathering environment was extremely harsh, even comparable to that of Zeon after the blockade. However, unlike Zeon, Federation agents did not expose themselves in Zeon's daily lives, but in the Southern Alliance, many agents were caught in the crossfire in their daily lives, as if the entire region was monitoring them.

"Kid, can a Newtype do this?"

"Sure, but I can't do it. At most, I can tell if someone is malicious, but I can't tell if they're a spy!"

"That's really strange!"

"So, you couldn't find any information about Lei Fanhu?"

"That guy was a research subject of the Federal Research Agency, but somehow he escaped the agency and appeared in the Nanyang Alliance, but most of the data has been erased!"

"Then why can't the federal government arrest him under the pretext of apprehending a wanted criminal?"

"What crime?"

"Rape, robbery, theft—just name it!"

"What about the evidence? The other party's current status is quite extraordinary. He has more than a million followers. I don't know what kind of magic that cult has that can attract so many believers. They didn't even give out eggs!"

"So, all we can do now is wait?"

"Yes, taking the initiative will only make things worse unless we have clear evidence. If we act without it, we'll go from victim to perpetrator!" "And then, not only will the space dwellers accuse us of abusing force, but even the Earth's inhabitants will accuse us of using force! Right?"

Markarius closed the folder and then liquidated it.

"Then I think it's fine to let them make the first move!"

"That's what I think too. What a load of rubbish, this monk! If he dares to cause trouble, we'll send a dozen Gundams and thousands of mobile suits at once. Do you think he can stop us?"

"Alright, go and rest now. It's not good for young people to stay up late!"

"Then the old man shouldn't stay up any longer, he should go to bed early!"

"You disrespectful brat, in two days you'd better get ready to report to the Federal Command Academy!"

"By the way, if I become a general, does that mean I can no longer pilot mobile suits?"

"Theoretically, it's impossible! But in reality, it depends on the individual, isn't it?"

Kim pursed his lips and then said.

"If a general can't even do what he wants, then what's the difference between being a general and not being one at all?"

"makes sense!"

Makarius then rose and saluted.

Goodnight, Grandpa!

As the screen dimmed, Markarius got up and left the office. When he returned to his dormitory, he found Nagase Hotaru listlessly reading a flight manual on her cot in her bedroom.

"I'm sorry, Grandpa, I have to stay up a little longer tonight!"

All Makarius could do was apologize to the old man.

For Makarius, the matter of the Nanyang Alliance was temporarily put to rest. After all, he was neither the person in charge nor a high-level decision-maker, but rather a high-level enforcer. The Federation was responsible for deciding who to attack, and he was responsible for deciding how to attack. At present, the Nanyang Alliance seemed quite obedient, so Makarius did not need to rush to deal with that wicked monk.

After all, right now, the most important thing for him is to deal with the new Gundam!
Makarius wanted to finalize the variable framework by 0083 and see the TMS, the so-called variable mobile suit technology, implemented at the same time. Therefore, in the days to come, he would turn into a whip and beat the heads of the Federation's relevant designers, making them throw away all the outdated and conservative designs in their minds, until everyone could truly understand the importance of so-called forward-looking strategic vision.

Of course, before that, it's also important to figure out how to assign funnels to the Gundam!

Because Timree has already decided that he will scale down the Hermes funnels proportionally and then install them on the current Federation Gundams.

When Markarius saw the design sketch, he couldn't help but feel a little flustered. After all, he was the Federation's top ace pilot, so the design sketch was naturally based on his own mech.

Thus, we got the image of a red Gundam with three attack pods mounted on an extra support on its left shoulder.

"It's not exactly the same, but it's definitely similar in spirit!"

Makarius said this while barely suppressing a laugh.

Timree thought the other person was praising the quality of his mecha sketch.

"However, Doctor, this attack pod seems a bit too big!"

Makarius gestured to the scale on the sketch and then said.

"While not everyone has my shooting skills, this round attack pod seems to pose a higher risk of being hit. Someone like Amuro could destroy it in just a few rounds. Could you make it a little smaller?"

"It's not impossible at the moment, but if we start with the design, the progress may be delayed!"

Timre was also dissatisfied with the design, because it was essentially a scaled-down version of Elmes' attack pod, with its size reduced while minimizing the loss of power.

The reason this thing is so round is mainly because, in addition to the attack system, it also has an additional propulsion system and power reactor. Elmes' floating cannons are self-powered and can fight for a long time. This avoids the trouble of frequently returning to the mother ship to recharge and improves the firepower sustainability.

However, for Markarius, maintaining sustained firepower is not the right approach. Based on his current combat experience, mobile suit battles are relatively fast-paced, especially battles between ace pilots. Since everyone is highly skilled, every clash is extremely intense, and seizing an opportunity is enough to defeat the opponent.

"Removing the power reactor, adding an additional attitude nozzle, and then adopting a rechargeable design, I think, might be more suitable for our current military situation!"

Macarius's statement was not without basis. Federation Gundams did not always operate alone. Whenever a Gundam was deployed, there would always be covering forces and warships providing support.

In this situation, supplies were not really a problem. The reason why Elmes fired in this way was mainly because the Zeon army regarded it as an independent weapon and hoped that Elmes would launch an attack on the Federation army on its own, because at that time Zeon did not have the spare capacity to provide it with supplies at any time.

If the Federation forces don't use it, then the power reactor can really be considered for abandonment!

"Then, why not design two series?"

After a moment's thought, Timree offered his opinion: to build two sets of floating cannon systems for testing. The first set would naturally be the round and chubby type like the Elmes, while the second set, as Macarius suggested, would be designed to be more compact.

"So, what design would be best for a rechargeable floating cannon?"

"How about designing it like this!"

Makarius coughed, then picked up the data tablet and began to draw.

"like this!"

Timree took the data panel and saw that Markarius had fired the funnels into a head-mounted boomerang shape. In his design, when not in use, these devices could be mounted on the machine's head, and when needed, they could be swung around to attack the enemy!

"The drawing is quite good, Kliny, but given the size, have you considered where the weapon systems will be installed? Or do you really want this thing to turn into a dart and run into the enemy on its own?"

"That's not a bad idea either. We can use Luna Titanium to forge it, and it can even be used as a dagger when necessary, right?"

(End of this chapter)