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

Chapter 301 The Northern Song Dynasty Treasure Pot That Was Scammed

"Sister Harman, why are you opposing Mark Bay's plan?"

Upon returning to her chambers, Minerva looked at Haman, whose face was pale, and then cautiously asked him a question.

"I'm not against the plan, I'm against him as a person!"

Hamman rubbed Minerva's head. She still strongly agreed with Mark Bay's plan. If it were someone else or another officer in the Royal Guard, Hamman would have nodded without hesitation, because they would have actually carried out the mission.

But Mark Bay is different. His purpose is not pure. Rather than carrying out this mission, he hopes to use the mission as an excuse to take control of the advanced equipment that Axis currently possesses. Otherwise, he could have used those modified Musa and Chebe, but instead he set his sights on the Gwaban-class battleship Gwazan in Harman's hands.

This ship, which can be seen as an upgraded version of the Gwabun-class, is currently Axis's most powerful warship, embodying countless efforts of the Axis technical team. Therefore, Harman does not want to hand it over, at least not until Axis obtains a second Gwabun-class.

Therefore, despite having already made a promise to the soldiers in the mess hall as regent's representative, Haman still intended to delay further.

Because Martian Zeon is also building battleships of the same class for Axis, and the delivery date is just around the corner. Moreover, the ships will be delivered along with their crews, which represents Martian Zeon's full support for Axis.

In return, Hamman was also using Minerva's personal seal to frantically distribute medals to the Martian Zeon, and even bestowed a bunch of titles upon them.

This move might not mean much to the Federation, but to the Zeon army, which was already accustomed to the principality system, it was like a sweet drink. After all, during wartime, everyone shed blood and sacrificed their lives for fame and fortune.
However, Harman was also very careful about the prestige of the titles. He had many lower titles, such as baron, but he would not easily grant higher ones.

Axis even crafted a batch of metal titles using local minerals and distributed them as family heirlooms.

It can be said that Haman's move was quite good. By using Martian Zeon, he successfully strengthened his own power. After all, Martian Zeon was more willing to acknowledge a princess who could only be a mascot at the moment, rather than a veteran general of the principality. Naturally, they were more resistant to the attempts of other factions to win them over.

After struggling and pushing to the limit for nearly a month, Harman finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Because Axis's first mature version of a transformable mobile suit, AMX-003 Gaza C, has finally completed all testing, and the new Gewabang-class built by Martian Zeon has also begun to enter service. Although the former is only about to begin mass production, and the latter's crew has not yet been trained, resulting in limited combat power, at least the tiger skin has been set up.

"Now we can agree to Mark Bay's request. Also, contact the Toto family for me!"

Harman's eyes burned with fierce fighting spirit. After being tormented by those two bastards, Mark Bay and Enzo, for so long, it was finally time for her to retaliate.

While the alliance of the opposing side is certainly a headache, she is not without allies in Axis!
For example, the Toto family, a powerful family in the former Principality of Zeon. Although this family is not well-known, it holds a very high position in Zeon because they were close comrades-in-arms of Commander-in-Chief Gihren in the past. Of course, their close relationship goes beyond that, because the Toto family once adopted a boy, and this boy has many connections with Gihren.

Of course, the specific details were unknown to the Zeon leadership, or rather, some people knew but kept it very secret. In short, no one dared to inquire.

When the duchy fell, the Toto family followed the evacuating troops to Axis and once again became key advisors to the old regent.

Although Haman did not want the Toto family to become too entangled with the power center of Axis because of this connection, the Toto family was also an important member of the Gihren faction. Therefore, communicating with them could effectively undermine the alliance between Mark Bay and Colonel Enzo.

Harman's move to undermine the family's power was indeed very effective. She only met with the head of the Toto family a few times, but it immediately made Colonel Enzo feel threatened. After all, he did not have absolute power in the Gihren faction.

Enzo then quickly betrayed Mark Bay, seeking only to solidify his existing position. Mark Bay was caught off guard by the betrayal of his ally, and coupled with the trump cards in Haman's hands, he successfully used the pretext of forming a task force to trap himself.

"Since Lord Mark Bay is so keen on forming a task force, then you shall be appointed as its commander!"

Upon hearing Minerva speak in such a childish and innocent voice, Mark Bay couldn't help but feel a wave of dizziness.

I'm fighting the Federation army, is that true?

"General Mark Bay, do you have any complaints?"

Harman chimed in.

Now that she has given Mark Bay the warships he wanted, as well as the personnel and supplies he needed, he should take action. After all, he seemed quite impatient before.

"I...I have no objection!"

Mark Bay even considered smashing his Northern Song Dynasty treasure pot at this moment, but now that the die was cast, what could he do?

But Harman's revenge went far beyond that. She also used the pretext of replenishing Mark Bay's combat strength to propose giving Enzo's mobile suit pilots to Mark Bay. Although the number was small, less than a hundred, these were all veterans who survived the One Year War. Perhaps during the One Year War, they were just rookies, but after several years of hard training in Axis, they were able to grow into qualified veterans.

Even in terms of fighting spirit, they were more tenacious than Federation veterans of the same level. After all, no matter how harsh the simulated environment, it could not compare to real hell. Federation pilots had comfortable barracks and delicious meals, but what did the Axis pilots have? Nothing! Colonel Enzo was helpless in this regard. After all, this was a military conference, and he couldn't throw a tantrum. Moreover, Mark Bay, whom he had betrayed, was also eager to seek revenge.

However, Haman still gave Enzo a chance by taking away half of his skilled pilots, so that he wouldn't be left with no one.

As for Mark Bay, Haman didn't intend to kick him out and send him to his death. After all, causing trouble for the Federation was something that had to be done. Therefore, Mark Bay's advance fleet was also strengthened. A large number of Garibaldi from the Axis garrison's inventory were transferred over. In addition, Mark Bay's own strongmen, a small number of warriors, and mobile suits such as Dovatz, etc., they could be considered to have a mobile suit force of a relatively high standard and size.

The emergence of the Warrior was largely thanks to Mark Bay, as the Warrior eliminated the Strongman in the competition. Therefore, Mark Bay disliked the Warrior. However, Axis still lacked excellent mobile suit designs, especially a high-performance mobile suit like the Warrior. So, after Haman took power, the production line for the Warrior was re-established.

And seemingly to spite Mark Bay, the newly produced Warrior mechs were all allocated to Mark Bay's forces.

This caused Mark Bay to lose his temper quite a bit. Later, he found a use for these warriors: he transferred the troublesome pilots in the army to fly warriors, while his own subordinates continued to use strongmen.

However, Macbeth was not an old-fashioned person. On the contrary, he was an expert in arms production. Otherwise, he would not have been in charge of leading Zeon's arms production. Therefore, he still incorporated the advantages of the Warrior mobile suit to improve the Strongman.

Now, the lances wielded by the powerful mechs under his command are no longer just ordinary melee weapons; they also function as beam rifles. Although their power and range are not as good as regular beam rifles, they can largely make up for the shortcomings of powerful mechs.

Although Mark Bay disliked those warriors, he didn't send them to the battlefield. His technical team made some improvements, including strengthening the power reactor, adding extra armaments, and even strengthening the mobile suits. Important parts were replaced with titanium alloy, which is similar to the Federation's GM material. As for Gundam Nim alloy, Axis's production capacity was limited and was used to build newer mobile suits, so it was impossible to give it to the warriors.

Of course, besides these main combat mobile suits, there are also quite a few auxiliary mobile suits, such as reconnaissance Zaku, sniper mobile suits, and even two GMs that Axis took with them when they fled the Principality. These were captured by the Principality of Zeon on the battlefield and were originally intended to be exhibited on the mainland.

However, due to the unfavorable situation in the battle, there was no time to exhibit these two mobile suits, so they were left in the port warehouse. When the Zeon fleet retreated, in order to scavenge all available resources, they also took these two GM mobile suits with them.

Over the years, these two GMs have developed many malfunctions. Since Axis doesn't have their spare parts, the Zeon engineers have no choice but to install the spare parts they have on hand.

Thus, these two oddly matched Prisoner GMs came to be, using everything from Zaku shoulder armor and Warrior shields to Ricci's machine gun.

Although some Zeon officers suggested using these two mobile suits as target practice for new recruits, the two oddly shaped GMs were preserved for combat purposes.

Of course, these conventional mechs alone are not enough to be the vanguard fleet's trump card, so Axis also prepared another mech for the vanguard fleet.

Named AMX-002 Luv Jeru, this was no ordinary mobile suit, but a prototype heavy mobile armor for space combat. The plan to manufacture this machine had existed since the One Year War. After the Zeon forces' defeat, Zeon engineers who fled to the asteroid Axis created this mobile weapon, which was the most advanced at the time. It was equipped with high-output thrusters and an I-field generator, capable of nullifying enemy beam weapon attacks, making it a true weapon of choice for Axis's final battle.

This mobile suit was originally prepared for the defense of Axis, but now that the Federation forces are not on an expedition and new mobile suits have entered service, this mobile suit has become dispensable. After all, Axis does not lack this defensive force now.

However, this machine is also quite good for offensive purposes, as it has four shoulder-mounted MEGA particle cannons, one abdominal MEGA cannon, two wrist-mounted wire-controlled mechanical arms, four hidden secondary arms (with beam sabers, which can also be used as MEGA particle cannons), two six-tube small missile launchers in the side skirt armor, two two-tube large missile launchers in the side skirt armor, five rear skirt armor MEGA particle cannons, and one rear skirt armor twelve-tube micro missile launcher.

Such a bizarre weapon configuration was naturally intended to be used to launch destructive attacks on enemy forces. Moreover, this mobile suit was originally prepared for Char by Axis personnel, because he had piloted a mobile suit like the Zeon in Abaoa Sky and had an outstanding track record. With him piloting it, the enemy attacking Axis would surely not return.

But now, Char Aznable has no trace, so handing Luvigel over to Mark Bay can be considered a way to reuse a piece of trash.

After all, at this moment, there are not many mobile suit pilots as outstanding as Char in Axis. Perhaps the new human pilot unit formed by Haman has such outstanding pilots, but Haman would never hand them over to Macbeth!

It can be said that, within their capabilities, both Axis and Martian Zeon provided the advance fleet with the resources they could, including a brand-new Gwaban-class battleship, plus several Chibe Kai and a dozen Musai Kai-class battleships. The size of this force was comparable to that of the One Year War. Not to mention, in order to carry enough mobile suits and related production facilities, Martian Zeon also provided a number of large transport ships.

Many of these ships were converted from colonial vessels. Although their protection and speed were average, as colonial ships, they had ample space to accommodate equipment and production facilities, as well as a large number of soldiers.

With a considerable number of veteran pilots and crew members, as well as reinforcements recruited from Mars, Mark Bay now truly has the qualifications to go elsewhere and establish himself as a king.

However, given that the ecological niches occupied by human activity have been filled, there's not much room for Mark Bay to become a mountain king, except perhaps Jupiter, but the living environment there is even harsher than Axis.

Therefore, Mark Bay now only has one option: to lead his army back to Earth!
"Damn it, Harman!"

Faced with this outcome, Mark Bay could only swallow his anger. He had underestimated his opponent. Thinking of this, Mark Bay couldn't help but feel some resentment towards Kycilia, after all, it was she who discovered Harman's talent and brought him to his current position.

"This is a pot from the Northern Song Dynasty!"

Now that things have come to this, Mark Bay could only sigh like this!

(End of this chapter)