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

Is the intelligence in Chapter 277 true?
"What a wonderful place! It's just a pity it doesn't belong to us!"

Looking at the azure planet before him, Delaz, sitting in the command seat wearing his general's coat, couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

"If the operation against Britain had succeeded, we probably wouldn't be here!"

The adjutant standing nearby couldn't help but speak up as well.

"Yes, so it's such a pity that it didn't succeed!"

Diraz tapped his fingers back and forth on the armrest of the seat, his tone full of resentment. At this moment, he felt more and more that not going to save Dozru was the right decision.

After all, if it were me, Operation Britain might have succeeded long ago!

"Sir, we are approaching Earth orbit!"

"Hmm, haven't you spotted the Federation's orbital fleet?"

"No, shall we continue exploring?"

"Let's advance a bit further and figure out what the Federation forces are up to. With such a large-scale deployment, they can't possibly not react!"

"understand!"

"Commander, enemy spotted on starboard. Confirmed number: Federation Forces orbital defense fleet!"

"Isn't this quantity a bit off?"

Looking at the reconnaissance footage, Diraz suddenly frowned.

Although the Earth Orbit Defense Fleet is not the Federation's most elite main fleet, its status is still considerable. At this moment, only about thirty ships are blocking the way for the Delaz Fleet, including only one of each of the new Alexander-class and Birmingham-class ships.

"Is it a trap?"

"It's also possible that we really did manage to mobilize some of their forces..."

The adjutant's words startled Delaz. Could it be that his plan had really succeeded, and the orbital defense fleet had indeed divided its forces to support the moon as he had predicted?

Then, shouldn't the rescue plan be carried out?
Although the Federation fleet still outnumbered his own by a factor of two, Delaz was confident that he could maneuver through the enemy's interception network, but this conflicted with his plan.

"Could it be that the operation on the moon is going smoothly? Is this all Anaheim Electronics has?"

"No, it could also be a trap. Ask the rear guard if there's anything unusual!"

"The rear guard reports everything is normal; no Federation troops detected!"

"Sir, the Federal forces are approaching and are expected to be within effective firing range in five minutes!"

"Commander, please make the decision!"

"Switch to battle formation! Scatter rice grains, release mobile suits!"

After a moment's thought, Diraz made a decision: since the Federation Army was cooperating, there was no problem with him modifying the plan.

"Enemy fleet is switching artillery formations and releasing mobile suits! Rice grain concentration is rising!"

"Sir, should we order the firing?"

On the flagship of the orbital fleet, the Federal Navy captain, standing ramrod straight, gestured with his right hand, which was gloved in white.

"No, get closer. Opening fire now might alert the enemy. Order the mobile suits to move out first! Since this is just a drill, make it look convincing and buy the brigadier general some more time!"

"understand!"

As the Federation's newest battleship, the Birmingham-class, although built for political purposes and not enhanced with mobile suit carrying capacity (maximum capacity of only thirty mobile suits), features new fire control equipment that gives its guns an effective range far exceeding that of the older Magellan-class battleships. Combined with optimized firepower deployment, the captain of the Birmingham can even guarantee that a single volley of fire can obliterate a Musai-class battleship.

If it weren't for the need to draw the attention of the Delaz fleet, the Birmingham-class ship would have already opened fire. But now, even though the enemy was already within range, the gunner could only move his fingers and wait for the order to fire.

At this moment, both fleets deployed their battle formations in near-Earth orbit and released all their mobile suits and carrier-based aircraft.

"Let me see just how powerful the Federation's new warship really is!"

"Fire!"

The Gevard, carrying Delaz, was the first to sound the alarm in the skirmish. Once within range, this most powerful Zeon remnant warship in the Earth Sphere unleashed a salvo at the Federation fleet.

The bright particle beams instantly illuminated the dark universe, leaving behind incredibly clear streaks of light.

The streak of light shot through the center of the Federation fleet like a sharp arrow in an instant. Although it did not hit anything, the high-energy reaction still caused the warships' sensor alarms to go off.

"These guys haven't gotten much worse at artillery, but coincidentally, we haven't either!"

Under the unified command of the artillery chief, all of Birmingham's forward-facing main guns responded in the next instant, and a denser and brighter particle beam flew back along the original path.

"Get out of the way quickly!"

Delaz knew the threat was high just by looking at the conspicuous particle beam, but his warning came a second too late. A Musai-class ship near the Gevadian was immediately hit by the dense particle beam, and the entire ship was torn to shreds almost instantly, followed by a secondary explosion.

"Sir, the Dagger has sunk!"

"I see it. Fleet, maintain maneuverability, create distance, don't panic. The enemy is just lucky. As long as we move..."

Before Diraz could finish speaking, a second barrage of artillery fire from Birmingham hit him in the face once more.

The bright particle beam left a clear flare on his retina, and the violent shaking of the warship almost made him fall off his chair.

"Loss confirmed!"

"Gevadant hit on port!"

Diraz glanced at the panel beside him and saw that, on the ship's top-down view, the outer deck area on the port side was flashing red light continuously.
This means that those compartments were severely damaged and are on fire!

“How did you do that?!”

Diraz had not expected that in less than five years, the Federation's offensive capabilities would have advanced to such an extent. The two sides had only exchanged two volleys of fire when Diraz suffered such losses.

"Something's wrong, something's wrong!"

Diraz felt something was strange. At the same distance, Gervadyn's hit rate was so low, but the enemy was fast and accurate. This meant that the opponent's effective range was farther than he had imagined!

"The Federation forces are deliberately showing weakness to us!"

"Immediately order the fleet to release smoke! Emergency turn!"

Should we retreat?

"It's a trap!"

Diraz shouted at his adjutant without any hesitation, "Retreat immediately and disengage!"

"But our mobile suits have only just engaged the enemy..."

As soon as the adjutant finished speaking, he saw on the radar screen in front of him that a large portion of the green signal representing his own people had disappeared.

"Retreat immediately and send a signal!"

The Zeon fleet, which was engaged in a firefight with the Federation forces, soon received the latest orders. To ensure that the orders were clearly understood by all personnel, the Guvaden used various means, including communications, electro-optical signals, and even spammed emergency signal flares for retreat as if they were free.

"Damn it, we've been exposed!"

Seeing the Delaz fleet turning around by releasing smoke, the Federation commander slapped his thigh. Although he had ordered the Birmingham-class ships to slow down, these guys were clearly not professional enough. Two salvos had turned the Delaz fleet into a panicked bird.

"Have the mobile suits hold them off!"

"Send a telegram to the commander: the plan has been exposed. Tell them to speed things up!"

In the central region of the central route between the Moon and Earth, Delaz mistakenly believed that another part of the Earth orbital fleet supporting the Moon was speeding along here, and in the center of the fleet, the two Birmingham-class ships were particularly conspicuous.

"That bastard Diraz is way too cautious!"

Wearing his commodore uniform, Markarius sat on the command seat at the back of the bridge, looking at the electronic map in front of him, and then began to complain.

"Anyone who's survived this long wouldn't be careless, but I'm curious how we got exposed!"

Slightly to the right and above Markarius was the seat of fleet commander Woken, who was closely monitoring the entire fleet's course to ensure their interception would catch the fleeing Delaz fleet in the nick of time.

The attack by the remnants of Zeon was actually within the expectations of the Federation Command. The only thing the generals did not expect was that the enemy would launch their attack not on Earth, but in space.

Dozle was on trial on Earth, while the remnants launched a massive attack in space. Yet Earth remained unscathed. Was that even possible? Even the most foolish Federation officer could see that this was a diversionary tactic.

The Federal Command then turned the tables on them, diverting most of the new elite forces of the orbital defense fleet away from Earth's orbit.

The subsequent movements of the Delaz fleet confirmed the command's assumptions. As a result, the main force, which was originally making a detour, sped off, preparing to make a large detour and outflank the Delaz fleet from behind.

However, the friendly forces' cover in the face of the complex luring and dragging the Delaz fleet into near-Earth orbit was not good enough, allowing the enemy to discover the Federation's actions too early.

"That's easy. I'll bring that old bastard here in a bit, and then you'll see!"

"Marcarius, you are now a general!"

Upon hearing this, Hua Ken knew that this guy was going to pilot that mobile suit again!

"What's wrong with being a general? Before becoming a general, I could pilot mobile suits, but after becoming a general, I can't pilot mobile suits anymore. Does that mean I was a general for nothing!"

Hua Ken was at a loss for words to refute this guy's fallacies and heresies, so he could only roll his eyes.

"Then when you go on an attack, take a guard squad with you!"

"Sir, you really don't trust my skills!"

"It's better to be safe than sorry. You're the Federal Army's darling now. If something happens to you, no one can bear the responsibility!"

"Understood, I will bring the guard squad as you command!"

"Well, that's pretty much it!"

Although that's what they said, when the main force saw the Delaz fleet fighting and retreating, Waken's order was not to order the mobile suits to attack.

"Notify all ships to open fire as soon as they enter firing range!"

Subsequently, the two Birmingham-class destroyers quickly broke out of the main fleet and led the fleet behind them to launch a salvo at the Delaz fleet.

"Enemy spotted on port! They've opened fire!"

"Emergency evasive action!"

The blinding particle beams that came from the left mercilessly swept through the Delaz fleet. In this round of bombardment, two more warships that had been damaged in the previous exchange of fire were hit. The bow of one Musai-class ship was sliced ​​open, while the other Pazok-class transport ship was torn apart by the fire, turning it and its crew into a pile of space debris.

The Zeon fleet only had a handful of ships that retaliated, and they were incredibly lucky to manage to graz an unfortunate Salamis.

However, the Salamis was unharmed and immediately broke away from the fleet after being hit, preparing to return to its base. The remaining warships pounced on it like tigers descending a mountain.

"Half of the rearguard mobile suits will intercept, and all ships will move to maximum speed!"

Seeing the enemies surrounding him from the left and right, Delaz was so anxious that he developed blisters in his mouth. After a brief moment of thought, he could only issue this order: overload the entire fleet's thrusters, sacrificing the thrusters' lifespan for a short period of acceleration.

"Don't worry about the spaceship engine. It doesn't matter if it explodes. We can find another way when we get back to base. But if we die here, then we'll have all sorts of options!"

In the face of life and death, the remnants no longer cared about protecting their equipment. Whether it was the spaceship or the mobile suit, they all forced themselves into extreme conditions, squeezing out every bit of power, just to survive being surrounded by enemies who numbered nearly six times their size.

"Marcarius, lead the mobile suits into action. You know what to do!"

"As ordered!"

Upon receiving the sortie order, Makarius leaped into the bridge elevator like a schoolboy just out of school. Inside the hangar, his professional team was already prepared. As soon as Makarius jumped out of the elevator, his pilot uniform was already waiting in the hands of several maintenance crew members. Just like changing tires in a race car, with the help of everyone, Makarius put on his pilot uniform in just over ten seconds.

"NT1 is ready, but this is the first time that funnels have been used in actual combat, and we are not sure how effective they will be in a war environment!"

Chief Engineer Kiyoshi Sakaki stood at the foot of the crimson Gundam, instructing his subordinates to conduct final checks on the machine while speaking to Macarius, who was leaping down from above.

"It's alright, I don't expect this thing to be able to kill all the enemies!"

Makarius signed his name on the data panel and then jumped into the cockpit.

"Great! I can pilot a mobile suit again!"

Then, the cockpit door closed, the full-screen display turned on, and looking at the open hatch at the front of the hangar, Makarius skillfully maneuvered the machine onto the catapult.

"Calling dispatch center, NT1 Gundam, requesting deployment!"

"Roger that, sir. Have a pleasant hunt!"

"grateful!"

Marcarius stretched his neck, and the next second, the catapult under NT1's feet propelled the machine forward.

After a brief, narrow launch tunnel, the view before Makarius suddenly opened up.

"NT1 Gundam, Macarius Skriny, sortie!"

(End of this chapter)