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

Chapter 266 With good weapons, one stands tall.
Despite knowing that he was being used as a pawn, Delaz couldn't argue. After all, whether they liked it or not, they had to fight the Federation to the death. In this context, the support from Axis was naturally very important!
After all, the Delaz fleet is no match for Axis in terms of equipment development and technological production.

Fortunately, the Mambo sent by Mark Bay not only had personnel and technology, but also some equipment. Although it wouldn't be enough to make the Delaz fleet manufacture armaments like dumplings being dropped into boiling water, it could still manage to supplement the required armaments in small batches through a combination of manual and mechanical teams.

As for smelting armor materials, that's even simpler. There's plenty of remnant from the One Year War that's been recovered. Anyway, the Federation doesn't have any recycling platforms to collect them. Those secondhand companies can just go to the battlefield and clean it up. Of course, the battlefield has actually been cleaned up by the Federation, mainly to recover weapons and ammunition. Although there might be some leftovers on the battlefield, it's not enough for recycling groups to get as many mobile suit weapons as cabbages.

But over the years, the Delaz Fleet has accomplished what it couldn't during the Principality era: they finally threw the Zaku's notoriously bad 120mm bang-bang cannons into the trash heap. Now, all the old mobile suits in the Delaz Fleet have been replaced with various brand-new, 70% new, or even 50% new MMP80 machine guns.

Although the Zaku's 120mm pom-pom cannon was criticized by pilots for its poor accuracy and armor-piercing effect, this was not a problem with the weapon itself. After all, it was designed to be multi-purpose, so multi-purpose ammunition had to take into account various factors.

However, it is normal that the 120mm cannon was not very effective in the later confrontation with the Federation's armor-piercing ammunition. This is why the Zeon military industry continued to develop the 90mm MMP80 machine gun, because the latter is specialized in armor-piercing.

However, this also led the Zeon pilots to feel that the armor-piercing effect was sufficient, but the multi-purpose ammunition was not enough, so they added a grenade launcher to the MMP80.

The Federation does the same thing; in fact, they even developed a special under-mounted triple grenade launcher for the MG79, which Federation special forces pilots like to carry in close-quarters combat.

As for beam weapons, the Delaz Fleet doesn't have many. In fact, some of their Richard Domos no longer have the ability to use chest-mounted diffuse beam cannons due to a lack of sufficient high-precision parts. The beam rocket launchers used by those Richard Domos are also mostly out of commission, since they were never very effective to begin with. The pilots of the Delaz Fleet simply threw those modified from the Musai-class main cannons, which took ten minutes to charge before firing a single shot, into storage.

Instead, various types of rocket launchers were used: 360mm, 280mm, with magazines, and single-use. After all, these rocket launcher fleets could produce and replenish themselves, and did not require maintenance of beam weapons. Moreover, the dust scattered in space in the Reef Space Zone was a major challenge for the maintenance of weapons.

In summary, the fact that the Delaz Fleet has survived to this day is not just due to good luck; its strength is equally indispensable. The fact that the officers and soldiers of the entire fleet can make realistic adjustments to their equipment to ensure combat effectiveness shows that Delaz himself has outstanding military leadership skills!

With the help of the Axis advance team, the Delaz fleet quickly completed the upgrade and transformation of a squadron of Riku Domos, turning them into Riku Domos Type 2.

Compared to the original, the main improvements of the Type 2 are a thrust-enhancing device that significantly increases acceleration and attitude control fine-tuning equipment added to improve maneuverability. Five nozzles are concealed inside the rear skirt armor, providing ample thrust. Due to the significantly increased thrust of the thrusters, the leg structure is also larger, and the armor design has been slightly altered. Because the improvements in power greatly increased fuel consumption, Zeon engineers also installed an additional external fuel tank on the rear of the mobile suit, doubling its range.

Of course, improvements to the fuel tanks were also a requirement of the Delaz fleet. Considering the fleet's own supply and security capabilities, these mobile suits sometimes had to operate independently without the protection of the mothership, making long endurance essential.

But the weapons are still the same ones. The Axis vanguard is not Santa Claus; they have their own strengths and weaknesses.

"Excellent, excellent!"

This is Delaz's evaluation after watching the simulated battle between the upgraded and previous versions of the Great Demon. In fact, he can't wait to try out the effects of this squadron.

"General, is it a bit too risky to use only one squadron?"

Char, acting out of goodwill, then asked the question.

"If it were a fight against the Federation Army, that might be the case, but who said I'm going to fight the Federation Army?"

Diraz gave a smug smile, and then called over several officers.

Soon, a Musai-class cruiser, its original green exterior now adorned with colorful camouflage patterns, arrived near the Gwadian. Char glanced at the cruiser and noticed that the Zeon markings on its hull had disappeared, replaced by a large pirate skull. Below the skull, several different ship shadows were painted in white. Judging from their shapes, they weren't warships; they were likely ordinary civilian vessels.

Clearly, this Musai-class ship had been converted into a pirate ship and had obviously been wreaking havoc on the space route for some time. Although Char despised this behavior, he said nothing.

Delaz, completely oblivious to Char's expression, was still assigning tasks to several Zeon officers when he turned to look at Char.

"Colonel, would you like to see how my men hunt in space?"

"hunting?"

"Okay!"

Char nodded, and then, led by several Zeon officers, he boarded the Musai-class cruiser named Blackbeard.

"Colonel, it must have been a long time since you've ridden in a Musai, hasn't it?"

The captain of the Blackbeard, a Zeon officer with squinty eyes and a round face, touched the clean and tidy armor of the ship beside him, which was somewhat old, and said.

"Yes, it's been a long time. It looks like you've taken very good care of it!"

"Yes, after all, this is our only home!"

"By the way, Major, what's the situation with the hunting you mentioned?"

You'll see soon enough!

The captain said nothing, but directed his subordinates to send two Dom IIs into the hangar, and then fix the other two units to the hull of the warship. Because the space of the Musai-class was limited, it could not accommodate four Dom IIs. However, the pilots did not say anything, and even played rock-paper-scissors outside to decide whose unit it was.

Soon, the ship was ready to set sail!
Subsequently, the Blackbeard entered the Reef Space Region along another route that Char had never seen before. After circling the endless asteroid belt for nearly a day, the Musai-class ship quickly sailed out of the Reef Space Region.

Then, the Musai-class ship raced through the dark universe. Looking at the route map on the bridge, Char immediately realized where these guys were headed.

"You're going to side 6?"

"That's right, Colonel, Side 6 is a great place. Those unscrupulous merchants are rolling in money. When the brothers are short of food and clothing, they come here to make a killing!"

The squinty-eyed captain laughed heartily, and his subordinates beside him joined in the laughter, appearing quite proud!
"Didn't the security forces in Side 6 engage with you?"

"When we fought them, those guys couldn't even walk properly, yet they tried to block our way. Every time, we had to wait until the brothers finished their work before they came over!"

Char didn't know what to say upon hearing this. After all, there was a sense of cause and effect involved. Everyone knew about what Zeon and Side 6 had done back then. Although the coup failed, the other side didn't dare to offend Zeon and continued to secretly maintain trade with them. He wondered if the Side 6 officials, who were attacked by pirates disguised as remnants of the Zeon, regretted what they had done with Zeon back then.

Of course, Blackbeard didn't just steal randomly; he had a purpose. Char watched as Blackbeard found a place near the Side 6 space zone and stopped the ship. Then, several Zeon soldiers in civilian clothes pushed out a shuttle from a corner of the packed hangar, and with forged documents, flew towards the Side 6 satellite constellation.

“We also have our own troops stationed there. They regularly screen suitable targets and then pass them on to our personnel in the shuttle. Once the targets have left, we launch our operation!” “What kind of targets are they?”

"For ships transporting fuel, raw materials, and industrial facilities, it's best to choose those owned by the colony itself, as they have little security. However, it's best to avoid those from Earth and lunar cities. If you do, the Federation forces will come and sweep through the former for weeks, while the latter have more security, especially the lunar merchant guild's transport ships, which will secretly cram two or three mobile suits into the cabin!"

Listening to the squinty-eyed captain explain the industry's inner workings with such familiarity, Xia's subordinates were all dumbfounded. After all, they had dealt with pirates quite a bit in the past, and now, they had all become pirates themselves. Wasn't this a bit...?

Less than a day and a half after the Blackbeard had been lying in wait in the dark, it received intelligence from the shuttle that a transport ship loaded with high-grade alloys was about to set sail for Loom.

"Okay, let's do this!"

"But doesn't this ship belong to the Lunar Merchant Guild?"

"Yes, it's true that the Moon Merchant Guild's transport ships are hard to seize, but that doesn't mean we won't. Besides, we're here to pick on the toughest nuts to crack!"

With a wave of his hand, the squinty-eyed captain ordered the Blackbeard to set sail. They needed to seize the ambush position, so they naturally needed to make arrangements in advance.

After Blackbeard arrived at the ambush site, the squinty-eyed captain immediately ordered the warship to switch to low-power mode and turn off all external lights, disguising himself as an inconspicuous space meteorite.

Before long, a standard civilian transport ship, twice the size of the Musai-class, appeared on the Blackbeard's radar.

"Scatter the rice grains!"

The first particles released are always the Minovsky particles. As the concentration of these particles gradually increases, the transport ship named Little Pony Pearl soon discovers something is wrong.

"Captain, the concentration of rice grains in the surrounding area is rising!"

Upon hearing the crew's report, the captain of Little Pony Pearl couldn't help but swallow hard. Those of them who were in the transport business were very clear about the various events that happened on the waterway. The sudden appearance of large patches of rice grains on the route was definitely a sign that someone was waiting for a lucky winner!

"Have the guards get ready, find a way to send a message to headquarters, and also activate all-channel calling!"

"Who to call?"

"Who else could it be?"

The captain was so angry he almost laughed.

"Calling the Federation patrol fleet, calling the Side 6 security team, calling anyone who can help us!"

The captain didn't turn around. According to usual practice, those pirates like to lie in ambush at the 6 o'clock position of the transport ship. So, if the transport ship turned around now, it would be like offering itself up to them. It's better to go all out and charge forward!

They are not far from the side 6 space region at the moment, and the emergency call signal may be received by the security forces. As long as they can hold on until then, everything will be alright!
What's more, we also have this!

The captain glanced at the cargo hold and saw huge tarpaulins being torn off one after another from the steel giants in front of rows of densely packed and secured cargo. These were the security forces of the transport ship, a squad of three GMs (One Year War model) (currently, only the Federation Forces use a squad of four units).

A team of three retired military personnel was busily starting up the aircraft. The captain had confidence in them, after all, they were carefully selected by the company from the job market!

Soon, the pilots completed the start-up and self-check process of the aircraft in a methodical manner. Then, after confirming that the fire control system was normal, Jim grabbed a shield with no markings and a 100mm machine gun on a shelf and jumped out of the cargo hold.

"Saber Two, watch the left flank; Saber Three, you keep an eye on the right flank!"

Jim, the lead pilot in charge of security, quickly directed his teammates to form a search formation and clear a path for the transport ship.

Meanwhile, the Blackbeard had caught up with the transport ship that was moving at full speed. Seeing the marker on the map getting closer and closer, the squinty-eyed captain waved his hand.

"Turrets One and Two, proceed as planned!"

"Fire!"

Then, four blinding green particle beams suddenly burst forth in the dark universe, grazed the sides of the advancing transport ship, passed over Jim's team ahead, and finally disappeared into the darkness.

"They're right behind us!"

"Shut up, I saw it!"

The captain's anxiety finally subsided; they had indeed encountered pirates.

Jim's squad was also somewhat flustered by the sudden artillery barrage.

"Captain, should we go back to protect the transport ship?"

Just as Jim was about to speak, Sabre III noticed an unidentified red signal appearing on the aircraft's radar.

"Enemy mobile suits are ahead of us?"

Sabre No. 3 quickly raised his shield and set up his gun, his eyes fixed on the airspace ahead, but it was completely silent.

"You're not in front, you're above us, you idiot!"

Then, the lead pilot's exasperated voice came through the channel.

"The enemy has four units. Prepare to engage!"

(End of this chapter)