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

Chapter 75 Zeon Ace!

"Lieutenant Colonel Eric, how long will it take for reinforcements?"

"We're on our way soon, just hold on a little longer!"

Captain Zaku, who was hiding behind the building and changing the magazine, almost fainted when he heard this.

They had been fighting fiercely for almost several hours. If both sides had not been fighting in the urban area and had not started to consider civilians, they might have died by now. However, the reinforcements were still preparing.

The distance between the two sides can be reached by Zaku in an hour and a half, but now you are still on the road.

"Lieutenant Colonel, we have retreated to the third line of defense. If you don't come, our brothers will be doomed!"

"Hold on a little longer, Sato Taro!"

Lieutenant Colonel Eric, sitting in his gray Zaguri, paused and continued.

"Hold on a little longer, it will be fine soon, I promise!"

"I see, sir, you will take us back, right?"

"Yes, I will take you back!"

At this moment, the Zaku cluster led by Lieutenant Colonel Eric has completed its assembly, and using the colonial satellite as cover, it is advancing from the space below the satellite towards the spaceport of Satellite No. 17.

Behind the lieutenant colonel was a disguised cargo ship of the Zeon Defense Force, which was converted from an Arcana-class cargo ship. Of course, if someone familiar with spaceships saw this ship, they would shout in surprise.

"How can Zeon drive the Musai-class upside down?"

In fact, the Musai-class light cruiser equipped by the Zeon army is an improved version of the Arcana-class. After the mission is completed, this disguised cargo ship will also return to the dock for transformation. At that time, it will be able to transform from a civilian ship into a military warship.

"Listen carefully, our mission is to find a way to sink or damage a Federation warship and force their troops on the colony satellite to retreat. The enemy's anti-aircraft firepower will be very swift, so everyone be careful!"

"Understood, sir!"

"Okay, let's go!"

As the Zaku moved along the bottom of the colony satellite, the radar on the Federation warship quickly detected its movements.

"A high-speed moving target has been detected, approaching our forces at high speed below the satellite!"

"Where is the escort squadron?"

"Here we go!"

"Tell them to be careful!"

Carter looked at the seven or eight blue spots on his side and the large area of ​​red spots on the opposite side, and felt a little uneasy.

"Where is Macharius?"

"On Ship No. 1, refueling is underway!"

"Let him go out once he's replenished. Don't attack. Just protect the fleet's defense network!"

The FFS3 Swordfish fighter equipped by the Federation Army is a very good high-speed fighter. Its high speed and the quadruple 25mm cannon and missiles it carries are very threatening to the Zaku, but it cannot be compared in terms of instantaneous braking and other aspects.

Soon, the Swordfish and Zaku that were escorting the fleet engaged in a firefight. At a long distance, the Swordfish fighter group fired all its missiles in one breath.

At this moment, the Zeon people were still treating the rice grains that could interfere with weapon scanning, locking, and even observation as a secret weapon and had not put them into use. Therefore, the Swordfish's missile attack posed a great threat to the Zaku, even though the Zaku cluster quickly dispersed and tried to intercept it with a 105mm barrage.

But after the flashes of explosions, four of the dozen or so Zakus were destroyed, and two or three others suffered collateral damage.

But after the missile exchange, the Swordfish also entered the range of the Zaku. Under the precise attack of the Zeon elite pilots, two Swordfish were unable to dodge and were directly destroyed, and three were damaged and had to detach urgently and withdraw from the battlefield.

The remaining three Swordfish fighters used all their strength to barely hold back the four Zakus, and the two sides began a difficult fight.

"Lieutenant Colonel, leave this to us, you go first!"

Most of the Zakus that stayed behind to fight the Swordfish were previously injured. They blocked the Swordfish fighters that were rushing left and right for the friendly forces led by Eric, allowing them to pass through the interception and charge towards the Federation fleet.

Two Salamis cruisers have deployed in battle formation in front of the Columbus-class. This artillery warfare cruiser, which can be regarded as a model worker of the Federation Army, is equipped with 203 single 50mm, 6-caliber mega particle cannons, 57 triple 2mm close-in machine guns, 57 twin 6mm machine guns, and 2 quadruple large anti-ship missile launchers. Coupled with the advantages of low cost and simple structure, the Federation Army has equipped more than ships at once. It can be said that this is the biggest nightmare of the Zeon army in recent years. Countless Zeon generals have been unable to sleep at night because of the qualitative change brought about by this huge number.

"Fire!"

Then, purple particle beams shot out from the main gun of the Salamis cruiser and hit the Zaku cluster head-on.

"Avoid, avoid!"

Eric was carrying a 280mm rocket launcher and shouting in the communication channel. Although the Zaku looked like a child's toy compared to the Salamis, the lack of interference allowed the Salamis's precise fire control to be fully utilized, and it still achieved a very high hit rate when attacking the Zaku from a long distance.

Although the two Zakus were desperately trying to make omnidirectional maneuvers, their bodies were still hit by the particle beam. The ultra-high-tensile steel armor that could only be hit by a 100mm armor-piercing bullet and had only a hole in it was like paper in front of the particle beam. The particle beam penetrated the vaporized armor very easily, and in a moment it reduced the entire body to ashes.

The Zeon pilot who was hit didn't even have time to scream, which could be considered a kind of luck.

"Keep maneuvering, keep maneuvering at high speed!"

Lieutenant Colonel Eric, known as the Griffin, was also feeling extremely uncomfortable at the moment. As one of Zeon's most elite pilots, he was still just an ordinary person. He could possess such superb driving skills thanks to his hard work day after day.

But this does not mean that he can turn into the Flash and dodge the battleship's bombardment flexibly. In fact, he has already tried his best at this moment, and his brain dare not slack off for a moment, trying his best to find a direction to maneuver in the artillery fire.

The Zeon pilots who were able to follow Eric were also sweating profusely. The high-intensity concentration made their heads covered with sweat, and the adrenaline secreted barely suppressed the discomfort caused by the crazy omnidirectional maneuvers. But even so, there were still some who disappeared in the artillery fire because their bodies could not keep up with the reaction of their brains.

After an extremely long minute, Lieutenant Colonel Eric finally entered the effective range of the rocket launcher, but the artillery fire directed at them became more intense. Not only the particle cannon, but the close-in defense guns on the battleship also began to roar. The dense rain of bullets tore apart the shield in Eric's hand at a glance, forcing him to turn.

However, a friendly soldier behind him did not react so quickly. The Zaku pilot stepped on the thruster to the bottom, and then could not wait to start firing rockets as soon as he was in range. Just as he was aiming, a Salamis close-in weapon system targeted him because he did not make any maneuvers due to aiming.

The roaring and dense barrage of bullets immediately caused the Zaku to burst into flames. The armor was like a piece of iron run over by a high-speed truck, and it shattered in an instant. The Zeon pilot only felt a flash of fire before his eyes, and then there was only darkness.

Although he fired a rocket before his death, the rocket was quickly detonated by the close-in defense artillery.

"I'll go downstairs, and you go upstairs!"

Without time to observe a moment of silence for their dead comrades, Lieutenant Colonel Eric and his friendly forces quickly separated from the barrage of bullets and rushed towards the top and bottom of Salamis. These two areas were considered Salamis's blind spots. The amount of artillery fire that could reach here was limited, and rocket launcher attacks could achieve the greatest effect.

"Die!" Lieutenant Colonel Eric's Zaku finally rushed to the bottom of a cruiser. Then, the lieutenant colonel couldn't wait to raise the rocket launcher in his hand and pulled the trigger at the blue armor clearly visible on the monitor.

As the aircraft vibrated, four rockets flew out one after another, facing the much weaker close-in defense fire, and flew towards the battleship.

The first and second rockets were intercepted midway, but the third and fourth rockets successfully broke through the interception net and slammed into Salamis.

"Prepare for impact!"

The space army soldiers on the battleship only felt a sudden shock under their feet. Although they were fastened with seat belts while sitting in their seats, they still felt dizzy.

"The bottom armor is damaged and a fire has broken out inside the ship!"

"Damage Control Alert!"

After two bright flashes of fire, thick smoke billowed from the bottom armor of Salamis, but the battleship still maintained good control. Ordinary 280mm rockets could not seriously damage Salamis unless they hit the vital points. Only a nuclear warhead could destroy this behemoth in one go.

"Kill that guy, what is CIC doing? The bottom barrage is too thin!"

The captain roared his orders.

"Sir, the enemy is getting away from us!"

"what?"

Upon hearing this, the captain of Salamis looked at the huge holographic map under his feet, and saw that the last two Zakus that had just launched an unsuccessful pincer attack on them (two more were destroyed in the process) were rapidly moving away from their firepower network.

"They're targeting Columbus!"

The captain suddenly realized it!
"Turn immediately..."

"An unidentified spacecraft has been spotted. It's the Musai class!"

Before the captain gave the order to pursue, the radar operator began to report again, and then an icon representing a battleship appeared on the map again.

The captain was immediately caught in a dilemma, but soon the response from the Columbus class relieved his worries.

"Sir, the Columbus-class has released our mobile suits and is engaging the Zeon mobile suits at triple speed!"

"Turn to 255, prepare for fleet battle!"

The captain of Salamis breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that. As soon as he saw the triple speed, he knew who it was. With the opponent there, even if they couldn't kill him, they could at least hold back the two Zakus that were obviously piloted by elites. They could then take advantage of their firepower and attack the Musai-class. After they dealt with the opponent's warships, it wouldn't be too late to return to support their allies!

"Lieutenant Colonel! We're the only ones left!"

"It doesn't matter, as long as we destroy those Columbuses..."

Lieutenant Colonel Eric looked at his remaining ammunition. He had only used half of the magazine for his machine gun and had twelve rockets left. As long as he shot accurately, it would be no problem to destroy the four transport ships. The only thing he was curious about was why Salamis didn't chase them!

"Wait! Marco, get out of the way!"

When Eric turned his attention back to the front, he immediately noticed a rocket emerging from the darkness and heading straight towards them.

Then, the lieutenant colonel shouted a warning and raised his 105 machine gun, firing a short shot and detonating the rocket.

"What's attacking us?"

"Federation Mobile Suit!"

Lieutenant Colonel Eric's eyes swept across the dark starry sky, and then he saw an irregular bright spot moving in the darkness.

"Above us, rockets are coming, get out of the way!"

The two Zakus quickly changed direction and avoided the second rocket, which made Macharius a little annoyed.

"Is this the strength of the Zeon Force's ace? I've truly underestimated everyone!"

Then, relying on the new type's intuition, he fired the remaining two rockets. After replacing the ammunition bay of the bazooka that had run out of ammunition with a new one, Macharius pushed the thruster lever to the top and operated his prototype Gundam to kill the two Zakus.

The two rockets fired one after the other were quickly discovered by the Zeon pilots. The pilot of the gray Zaku reacted the fastest, raised his hand and fired, exploding the two rockets again.

And that's what Macharius wants!

His prototype Gundam burst out directly from behind the explosion and appeared above the Zeon mobile suit.

Then he aimed at another green Zaku and pulled the trigger!

"Marco!"

While Eric was warning his allies, he also fired rockets at Macharius. The latter reacted and tried to make a Z-shaped maneuver in space with the Zaku to avoid the rockets, but Macharius fired four shots in a row, directly blocking his movement. After dodging two rockets with difficulty, the green Zaku failed to dodge the third one and was hit directly, turning into a brilliant firework.

After firing the rockets, Macharius simply threw away the empty canister and quickly operated the machine to reverse and change direction. At the same time, he opened fire with the Vulcan cannon on his head, blocking all the rockets fired by Eric.

Seeing the other party's skillful shooting skills, Eric guessed that this guy was the federal soldier who killed nine of his men that day!
"Eric Manfield!"

He was the first to break the silence and introduce himself in public communications.

"Char Aznable!"

"You think I've never heard of the name Char?"

Eric was furious, and he was serious!

"Okay, my name is Shirou Amada!"

The other party was stunned for a moment, then replied.

"Your skills are excellent, Shirou Amada, but unfortunately, you met me!"

"Really? That's great! Do you want me to reward you with a Lolita mom?"

"asshole!"

Eric didn't want to talk anymore. This guy just kept talking nonsense. It was so annoying!
(End of this chapter)