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

Chapter 320 Mistaking a Bow for a Snake
"Oh no! The Federation forces have attacked!"

"Shut up, I already know!"

At Herbert's base, he had already felt the violent tremors, and coupled with the intense communications over the radio from the squad that was going to intercept the enemy, an ominous premonition immediately arose in everyone's hearts.

"Alert squad, how many enemies are there?"

"How many? An entire army group, and damn it, there's that weird-looking machine too. Damn it, he opened fire! Unit two, get out of the way!"

Outside the asteroid, a Rik Zaku (a Rik Daimyo's mobile suit with a Zaku head inserted) holding an MMP80 machine gun was crouching on a piece of rubble, weakly firing upwards.

In front of the barrage he unleashed, a Z Gundam bearing the unicorn symbol sped past in its fighter jet form. This was the Z Gundam piloted by Amuro Ray. Below his attack path were the wreckage of two Zeon mobile suits that had been torn to pieces.

The high speed and heavy firepower of the Z Gundam blasted the Zeon mobile suits' bunkers into tiny fragments. After taking down two overconfident mobile suits, Amuro skillfully maneuvered his machine and charged toward the last remaining mobile suit.

The remnant pilots didn't have time to say anything more to their allies in the base; they simply replaced the magazines on their MMP80s and continued firing at Amuro.

The live tracer bullets were clearly visible in space, even constantly passing by the Z Gundam. Some of their trajectories seemed to be within reach of the mobile suit, but that tiny distance felt like an insurmountable chasm.

The Zeon pilot was unable to maintain a stable fire control lock on Amuro. The enemy's red and white mobile suit was like a bolt of lightning, leaping and bounding through the dark universe until it unknowingly rushed into the face of the remnant pilot.

The remnant pilots, having run out of ammunition, frantically dropped their weapons and were about to draw their melee weapons to fight back, but the strange-looking fighter began to transform just as the two aircraft were about to make contact.

Before the remnant pilot could react, a massive steel foot stomped firmly on his machine's chest.

Under the violent thrust, the Z Gundam stomped on the remnant mobile suit, deforming it completely. Even the pieced-together head monitor of the mobile suit was blown off by the impact.

"what!"

The remnant pilots screamed in despair, but the suddenly deformed cockpit caused everything to go black in the next moment.

While Amuro was destroying the machine, a large number of riot GMs had already bypassed him and launched an attack on the remnant base.

However, none of these GMs had a high-powered beam rocket launcher to clear the way, so these riot control GMs had to do it themselves, albeit with great difficulty.

Specialized heavy explosives were skillfully installed on the outer wall of the base by the pilots operating the riot GMs. Then, the riot GMs near the blast area pulled the shields on their secondary arms in front of them to block the blast fragments.

Since they are all elites, the riot control GMs of these Federation pilots are equipped with higher specifications than those of ordinary military units. The remote-controlled auxiliary arm can also help them better exert their combat power. However, although the remote-controlled auxiliary arm is useful, it is relatively fragile and prone to malfunction. Therefore, ordinary soldiers should not even think about installing this thing on their mechs.

The creativity of ordinary soldiers is beyond the imagination of commanders and maintenance personnel. Give them a rifle and a bayonet, and they'll play with them to death. Giving them a spare arm would be a waste!

After installing the explosive device, the pilot immediately pressed the detonation button. The directional explosive was then detonated by the fuse, unleashing unparalleled penetrating power and destructive force.

The next second, accompanied by countless pieces of rubble and a fleeting flash of light, a large section of the base's outer wall was cleanly blasted out by the explosion.

The federal troops immediately followed suit and rushed into the breach.

"Get on the evacuation ship immediately! Everyone evacuate right now! Quickly notify friendly forces in other compartments, this place can't be held!"

After the annihilation of the guard squad, the Zeon commander, who was trembling with fear and had a frequent urge to urinate, quickly abandoned his plan to hold out. There were hardly any combat personnel left at this base. Originally, there were still a dozen or so pilots and some repaired mobile suits, but a banquet hosted by Mark Bay directly drained all the combat power. The three mobile suits outside were the only usable mobile suits in the entire base.

Of course, even with those mobile suits and pilots, it's unlikely that this base could be defended, since in addition to the attacking mobile suits, there are many more guard units patrolling the perimeter.

"Herbert, you old geezer, what are you doing? Get over here and get on the spaceship!"

As the lieutenant anxiously counted his few remaining men, he suddenly noticed that the wretched old man had started walking in another direction.

"You can go now, I have another repaired machine that I can start!"

"Are you crazy?"

The lieutenant immediately burst into a tirade of curses.

"You've fixed a hammer, but you only have one arm to use. You have no legs and no head, what can you do?"

"Lieutenant, let's go! The Federation forces are about to attack!"

"Herbert, you old bastard!"

The lieutenant watched as the other person struggled to squeeze through the blast door, which was halfway down due to necrosis and could not be lowered any further, and could only let out a wail.

"Damn it!"

Knowing he couldn't persuade the other person, he could only jump onto the escape ship in a few quick steps and then take off his military cap.

Herbert ran and jumped all the way to his repair workshop, where a heavily damaged Zaku was lying half-reclined on the floor. It was riddled with bullet holes from various weapons. This Zaku was a captured machine that the Federation Army used as a target, and later, because it was no longer of any use, it was disposed of by the intelligence agency and given to the remnants of the party.

Herbert put in a lot of effort, but he only managed to fix the control circuitry for one arm.

"That's enough!"

Seeing the recoilless cannon, which was a modified version of the Magella main cannon, lying on the ground, Herbert quickly jumped into the open cockpit of the machine and then struggled to lift the cannon up.

Without fire control, we could only use the oldest method of visual aiming, and we only had one shell, but that was enough.

Herbert controlled the machine to raise the cannon and aim it at the passageway. Then, he spent a lot of effort aiming. By the time he finished, his sweat had soaked through his dirty vest.

"Then, come on!"

Hearing the footsteps getting closer and closer at the end of the passage, Herbert put his hand on the trigger. Soon, when he saw a blue-black machine appear in his field of vision, he pulled the trigger without hesitation.

"boom!"

With a deafening roar and suffocating bursts of gunpowder, the 175mm shell slammed into the shield of a riot control GM.

"Holy crap!" Jim, the pilot, was also startled, not by the attack itself, but by the noise of live ammunition firing in the confined space.

The cannon shot was powerful, but it was completely useless. Jim's secondary arm shield was only blasted into a shallow crater, and there were no other losses.

When the pilot of the riot GM instinctively opened fire to retaliate, he saw the Zaku lying on the ground, its body ripped open like a dead man, and an old man who had been knocked unconscious by the noise of the cannon fire in the open cockpit.

"Tsk tsk, I'm impressed. If that shot had been fired, it would have been a huge loss!"

"Let the Marines come and arrest them!"

Meanwhile, after Herbert decided to delay the Federation forces (which actually did nothing), the small Zeon ship carrying the Zeon commander started its engines and sped along the dark, man-made tunnel before emerging above the asteroid.

How many of us escaped?

"There are only three ships! Should we wait for them?"

"Damn it, it's too late! Run!"

As soon as the commander finished speaking, a blinding beam of light swept past them, and then Amuro's Z Gundam blocked their way.

Surrender, or die?

Staring at the dark muzzle of the cannon, the commander's escape boat dared not move, while the two ships behind them increased their speed and tried to escape.

Amro ignored them, because just a few thousand meters after the two ships flew away, two standby Metas Kaisers flew over and swiftly shot them down.

"Sir, we have completely taken over the base!"

"Roger that, clean up the battlefield!"

Amuro checked the time. From the start of the attack to the end of the battle, it took less than twenty minutes. If he went back now, the steak pan used to cook midnight snacks for the soldiers in the ship's mess hall would still be hot!
While Amro was clearing out the area, the raids on other outposts were also nearly over. In fact, the raid on Side 6 ended the fastest because, without any mandatory arrests, the machine gunners of the intelligence agency's assault team simply pulled the triggers from start to finish.

As a result, of the dozens of remaining members of the gang in the stronghold, only three survived.

Side 3 was no less impressive. The SAT, a special assault force under the Public Security Bureau, swiftly and decisively swept through the enemy lines, killing more than a dozen stubborn remnants. Rambalar even had an unexpected bonus: they captured a member of the Republic of Zeon's parliament on the spot. The latter had come to provide assistance to the remnants and even had a checkbook in his pocket. Unfortunately, the check he had written was burned to ashes before it could be cashed.

"Very good, this should be enough!"

Markarius on the bridge breathed a sigh of relief. After all, sitting in the command position was quite an ordeal. But now that the operation was a complete success, everyone could go back to the fleet to celebrate.

Of course, this will have to wait until the final process is completed.

After cleaning up the battlefield and withdrawing all personnel, equipment, and spoils, the Federation fleets scattered outside the three space outposts immediately turned their gun turrets and began shelling the remnant base ruins.

After being equipped with Hood Corporation's new mega particle cannons, the Rakelam-class still has a pretty good artillery combat capability. Although there are fewer turrets, the rate of fire is higher and the power is stronger, so the theoretical projectile volume is not much different.

At that moment, a dense barrage of particle beams bombarded the remnant base, blasting the asteroids to smithereens.

After completing the bombardment, Makarius immediately ordered the fleet to assemble, and then a Federation transport fleet from side 5 followed the strike battle group.

However, these transport ships weren't there to resupply the fleet; instead, they carried a large number of air defense satellites. These were armed automated defense satellites used by the Federation Forces, slightly larger than an 18-meter-class mobile suit, equipped with three MEGA particle cannons and two missile pods, each carrying 22 missiles. Each satellite was equipped with a camera and sensors at its top and bottom; when the sensors detected an enemy, it would automatically engage and transmit relevant video footage to friendly forces.

Under the protection of the strike battle group, the transport ship began to haphazardly deploy these satellites in various locations throughout the reef space region.

They will then become tiny sentinels monitoring the surrounding space. These satellites, powered independently by solar panels, can operate independently for many years. Therefore, this means that for a long time to come, if the remnants want to remain secretive, they will not be able to pass through here.

Meanwhile, Makarius's strike group continued to wander haphazardly in the Reef Space Zone. If they could find the enemy's tail, that would be great, but if they couldn't, it didn't matter. Being seen by the enemy would be even better!
"Nani?"

Upon learning that a mysterious Federation fleet had appeared in the Reef Space Zone and had been spotted by sentries, Lieutenant General Mark Bay immediately ordered the sentries to transmit the images back. He was curious to see what kind of Federation forces these people were.

Then, the footage captured by the Zaku reconnaissance team was passed to Mark Bay.

Looking at the warships with their indistinct paint schemes, Mark Bay wiped the cold sweat from his brow.

"Thank goodness, there aren't many of these enemies; we can handle them!"

"This ship has a strange name, why is it called the Enterprise?"

Just then, a staff officer pointed to an image and said curiously.

"You translated it wrong, it should be Enterprise!"

Another staff officer quickly corrected him.

Mark Bay froze as he wiped his sweat; the fine beads of cold sweat instantly turned into large drops that trickled down his forehead.

Enterprise, Enterprise—McBaye was familiar with both names, after all, the first time these names appeared in the call signs of the Federation fleet was during the One Year War.

And there is only one person who knows how to use these numbers!
"Sir, is the air conditioning on? Why are you sweating so much?"

"Sir, sir?"

"Someone come quick! Lieutenant General Mark Bay has suffered heatstroke!"

Seeing Mark Bay slump into a chair with a thud, pale-faced and drenched in sweat, the first adjutant beside him was extremely anxious.

Because he had never heard of anyone getting heatstroke in a 26-degree constant temperature air conditioner. Could it be that his superior had been in space for too long and had a genetic mutation?

Looking at his men gathered around him, Mark Bay had no choice but to suffer in silence. He couldn't bring himself to admit that he was too scared to even talk about being exhausted by the enemy. So, he could only admit to having heatstroke!

(End of this chapter)