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

Chapter 260 The Wind Rises in Axis
"Kill, kill, kill!"

"Speak louder, didn't you guys eat yesterday?"

As Char prepared to go to work as usual, the Axis Youth Army, which had been formed for several months, was conducting its daily combat training at the Starport Wharf to his left.

About a hundred underage children, aged between eight and fifteen, wearing ill-fitting military uniforms, were being controlled by several fierce-looking veterans. They were putting on their most ferocious appearances, practicing their punches meticulously, while shouting "Kill! Kill! Kill!" in their childish voices.

The passing Zeon soldiers were already used to this scene. After all, Axis didn't have the capacity to set up any schools or after-school programs at the moment. Since these children had come to Axis with the adults, they should also contribute what they could.

Actually, it's already quite good that they can practice combat and learn to shoot here. Those over fifteen years old have already been learning how to drive and maintain mobile suits from the Zeon engineers!
Although Axis has a harsh environment, it is still a small industrial base of Zeon. Due to its geographical location, it has a certain industrial production capacity. Therefore, using the simple tools available to the locals, Zeon engineers took the lead in creating an engineering mobile suit based on the original Zeon Orgrimmar, namely the AMX-001 Gaza A.

Those young people, riding in these machines, followed their elders to carry out various space operations. Under these extreme conditions, they also grew a lot. Although their technical skills did not advance by leaps and bounds, they were already capable of handling ordinary jobs.

In reality, not all minors have to take on such work; at least not in Minerva Zabi. However, as one of the most prestigious members of the Aksisi army, Minerva's life is not necessarily that good.

After all, her mother, Serena, the girl from Side 4 who was taken advantage of by Dozru, had already passed away.

It was only after Zeon and the Federation went to war that she understood the meaning of what Makarius had said back then. Although her family did not die in the destroyed Side 4 thanks to Dozle's protection, the loss of her hometown and friends still caused her great physical and mental trauma.

When Minerva was born, it was also the time when the power struggle within Zeon was at its most intense. Because of concerns for the safety of his wife and daughter, Dozle did not even dare to let Sena and Minerva live in Zum City, and could only move to Solomon Fortress. At that time, Sena's health had already begun to deteriorate.

Then came a series of defeats: Solomon fell, Dozru was captured, and Sena could only drift along with Minerva until they were covered and boarded a ship bound for Axis.

The long journey completely broke down Sena's already weakened body, and she passed away less than a year after arriving in Axis, leaving behind her three-year-old Minerva.

After that, the task of taking care of Minerva became the responsibility of Haman Kahn, the daughter of Regent Maharaja. However, Haman was just a minor girl and even had to preside over the work of the Flanagan organization. Fortunately, Lalasin had some experience in taking care of children and could help out, which prevented Minerva from leaving with her mother.

Looking at those young soldiers, Xia Ya felt a mix of emotions but couldn't say anything. He could only turn his head and continue walking towards his office.

Upon arriving at his room, before he could even turn on his computer and start working, a series of dark shadows flashed past the room's viewing window.

Those are the mobile suits recently produced by the Axis army, and they have now been delivered to the pilots for adaptation training.

Char looked up out the window and quickly spotted a white figure. The figure looked like a medieval knight, holding a huge lance in one hand and a shield in the other.

Opposite him was a mobile suit with an equally peculiar design, its head adorned with vertically arranged feather crests, and its head monitor firmly protected in the center by mask-like armor.

At this moment, the two machines are engaged in a fierce attack drill.

The former is naturally the first fully-fledged Strongman to be put into production after the Axis army reorganized its military, while the latter is the experimental machine Garibaldi, which was jointly developed by the Zmad Company and the Zeonnik Company in the later stages of the war.

This mobile suit was designed with the goal of surpassing the Warriors. In fact, due to copyright issues related to the use of the technology, it even caused the two companies, Zmador and Zeonic, to undermine each other. As a result, this mobile suit was only used for initial testing at Zeon's asteroid base, and the results left the Zeon pilots extremely disappointed.

Although the initial design intentions were admirable—to ensure that this machine possessed superior mobility on land compared to the MS-09 Dom and in space compared to the MS-14A Valkyrie—the designers not only lightweighted the machine and increased the thrust of the propulsion units, but also added small thermonuclear jet engines to its wrists. However, these designs were not based on the actual technological foundations of the time, and coupled with the inherent problems of the "tall, large, and comprehensive" design concept, failure was inevitable.

Thus, the final result was that it was worse than the Warrior on land and worse than the Great Demon in space, which was equivalent to combining the negative designs of two machines. In fact, although the designers tried to salvage it later, it was too late, and the Peizeng Base also fell into the hands of the Federation.

Fortunately, the backup data was preserved, and now the Zeon designers can finally set aside their respective company positions and work closely together. After all, Zeonic and Zmador are now history.

Therefore, based on the prototype Garibaldi, the Zeon designers completed the design of the MS17b Garibaldi and resolved many problems caused by previous company conflicts. Of course, in order to facilitate Axis production as much as possible, the designers did not create any more difficulties in the weapon system and simply used the Warrior's weapon system, including beam rifles, rocket launchers, beam sabers, etc.

Besides Garibaldi, the designers of Axis also presented the MS-09RⅡ Rico Domo Ⅱ, an upgraded version of Rico Domo. In fact, this was also a project that Zeon failed to continue during the One Year War. Although it seems like a rehash now, for Zeon designers, creating these upgraded mobile suits with a foundation is much more reliable than designing new mobile suits without any prior knowledge. At least it allows them to confirm whether there are any abnormalities in the production line, and it is also a test for the steel and other metal products being smelted.

At this moment, watching the two mechs constantly attacking each other, Xia couldn't help but curl his lips, because neither the strongmen nor Garibaldi were included for him. In particular, the strongmen were all painted white at Mark Bay's request, and were nicknamed something like White Porcelain.

Char couldn't help but miss his Red Warrior, but unfortunately, due to Macbeth's interference, the Warrior's upgrade and enhancement were put last. This could be considered a kind of malice on his part. After all, Macbeth had always been fond of strong warriors, but the Warrior had obtained a production license. Now, he naturally wanted to suppress his rivals as well!

After watching the two mechs practice for a while, Xia Ya couldn't help but nod. From his perspective, the pilots' basic skills were very solid, and they had obviously put in a lot of hard work.

Of course, this doesn't mean these pilots are particularly talented; it's just that they were forced into it!

As a crucial component of the counterattack on the Earth Sphere, Axis's mobile suit units are currently among the best-treated in the entire base, but similarly, Regency Maharaja places the strictest demands on them!
Just as the micro-management master retreated to a small island in the southeast and then trained his ordinary soldiers, the Regent treated the mobile suit forces of Axis in the same way. Simulation pods and actual aircraft operation were the two things these Zeon pilots dealt with every day from the moment they arrived in Axis. Even if these pilots were sometimes needed to fly mobile suits to do some engineering work, training was still essential after their missions were completed.

It's fair to say that if they weren't die-hard members of the Zabi family, they really wouldn't have been able to endure this kind of life. After all, the Zeon troops on Axis couldn't go to the city to play when they were resting. Before the residential areas of Axis were built, there weren't even any taverns in the area. The only pastime they could do was to take shuttles to the asteroid belt to look at rocks.

After watching the training, Xia returned to his desk and continued his work. He was now a member of the decision-making body in Axis and had some followers. Therefore, he, a young man, also had to take on some of the daily chores in Axis. After all, Regent Maharaja's health was not very good, and these arduous years had also taken their toll on the aging general.

Since Mark Bay has already taken on the responsibility of being in charge of military production and logistics, Char Aznable can only be a ruthless signing machine.

"There's a gas leak in the residential area, and the armor plates need to be replaced?"

"approve!"

"The experimental department requests the allocation of twenty standard stock units of alloy?"

"Approved!" At this moment, Char was like a ruthless machine, constantly approving documents. In the afternoon, yes, Axis strictly enforced a 24-hour system. Although there was no longer day and night here, the base still tried its best to create a dividing line between day and night by controlling the lights.

In the afternoon, after eating two savory rice balls that Lala had made for him and a few slices of compressed dried vegetables, Xia Ya left the office. He still had to go deep into the grassroots to conduct on-site research. In reality, he was running around the entire base, handling all the miscellaneous tasks that needed his attention. If someone was caught slacking off and needed a referee, he would step in. If engineering machinery was damaged and needed to be replaced, he would be responsible for dispatching manpower. In addition, he was responsible for storing the mined minerals, inspecting the freshwater reserves, and almost all kinds of other tasks.

Char was actually quite tired of this kind of life, but he never showed it because Lala would worry about it. So, he went to work with a smile every day and came home with a smile, never leaving the pressure on his lover.

However, Lala actually understood the pressure that Char was under, and she tried her best to share it with him. When Char returned to their small room, simple but warm meals were always served hot, Char's clothes were always neatly ironed, and even the helmet that he hadn't worn in a long time was wiped clean by Lala.

After finishing a long day at work, Xia returned home with his bag and immediately smelled a pleasant fragrance.

"Curry rice?"

"Yes, the production base at the Ministry of Agriculture produced some spices. I didn't know what to make with them, so I made this!"

Lala then placed a small pot of porridge on the table, followed by two servings of potato rice.

"Oh, right, here's a spare rib, someone gave it to me!"

After washing his hands, Xia Ya couldn't wait to scoop a spoonful of sauce onto his rice and start eating. Halfway through, he remembered the meal, took out his briefcase, and took out a tightly wrapped piece of pork rib, handing it to the other person.

Lala took the ribs with a look of surprise and then hurriedly put them into the refrigerator, squeezing them together with the potatoes that were already packed inside.

“Perfect! If we eat sparingly, we can eat this until your rations are issued next month! And we can use the bone to make soup! This bone is enough for several batches!”

Xia didn't say anything, he just silently ate a few mouthfuls of rice.

"By the way, Colonel, are we going back to Earth soon?"

"Who did you listen to?"

"The maidservants around Minerva are said to have come from Haman's side!"

"Never heard of it!"

Xia frowned. This was the first time he had heard such a claim, but if it came from Harman, it was much more credible.

"Being able to return to Earth is a good thing. At least we can get some other seeds or something, and we'll be more comfortable here, right?"

"That's true, after all, I'm already tired of eating potatoes!"

"But potatoes are the most abundant crop at the ecological base, and authentic curry uses more ingredients than that..."

"That's good enough!"

Xia stuffed another big mouthful into his mouth and mumbled something indistinctly.

"It's delicious!"

"I'm glad you like it. Oh, and I've prepared the bathwater. Go take a bath after you finish eating. I've already hung up your clothes for tomorrow..."

Listening to Lala's rambling, Xia was also in a daze. After all, he had longed for such a life for a long time, and he never expected to achieve it with Axis. It was really ironic.

However, in a home like this, even a harsh outside environment doesn't matter!

After recharging at his haven, which he called home, Char began his workday. However, before he could even leave the house, he received a communication from the Axis Regency.

"Colonel, there's an urgent meeting that requires your attendance!"

"Meeting?"

Char was puzzled, but he still changed into his military uniform and quickly rushed to the location.

Other high-ranking officers looked just as bewildered as him; they had all been summoned suddenly, and many were still half asleep.

However, they soon found out why they had been called to the meeting. After everyone had arrived, Regent Malahaja, with a happy expression, walked into the meeting room and announced to everyone that Axis's first new ship, a brand-new Chibe-class high-speed cruiser that was converted from the old Chibe-class but whose combat power was now far superior, had been launched!
So everyone was overjoyed, after all, this was truly good news, and the regent was no stingy man, so he generously gave everyone a small glass of whiskey as a celebration.

Following the celebrations, Regent Maharaja announced another piece of news.

"Given that our military is currently recovering its combat capabilities, I think it's time to send personnel back to Earth Sphere. On the one hand, to gather Federation military intelligence to prepare for a counterattack; on the other hand, to contact other of our personnel who have lost contact and exchange information. What do you think?"

Char, holding his empty wine glass, couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

Sure enough, that day has come!
(End of this chapter)