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

Chapter 86 New Year and New Machine
Although he was rumored to be a bad person, Amuro did not really hate Macharius.

"So, what do you want me to do?"

"First, sign this!"

Colonel Carter handed the other party a document, and then held the document to prevent him from opening it.

"I'm telling you in advance, once you open it, you'll have no choice. Now, if you want to quit, there's still time!"

"I, I'll join in!"

Amuro hesitated for a moment, but still resolutely pulled out the confidential document. After opening it, he looked at the consequences of the leak, and then his face turned pale.

"Jupiter Fleet?"

"Yes!"

"So, if I leak the secret, my whole family will be put on the Jupiter fleet and won't be able to come back until five years later?"

"To be exact, only you!"

"Your father, an important scientist in the Federation, is not among them!"

"What if they ask?"

Amuro was referring to his friends.

"Just say you're driving an excavator at the Federal Army base!"

Macharius thought for a moment and added.

"However, this will only be kept secret for a year or two, and there's no need to hide it after that!"

"I see. So, what should I do next?"

"I'll give you three hours to finish reading this book!"

Then, Timley placed another manual on the table.

"Guncannon Operating Manual?"

Amuro was about to ask something else, but he saw that his father had left, and only Macharius was left in the room. The latter had slumped down on the sofa in a disheveled manner, and had taken out his game console.

You have two hours and fifty-eight minutes!"

Seeing that Amuro had not taken any action, Macharius immediately reminded him.

"Don't let me look down on you, boy!"

"Just watch!"

Amuro was full of questions, but he could only open the manual and concentrate on memorizing its contents.

Afterwards, the only sounds in the room were the clicking of handles and the rustling of pages. The orderly who came to bring snacks and tea to the two of them even tiptoed carefully.

And when the time was up, Amuro just closed the pages of the book.

"finish watching!"

"Remember?"

"more or less!"

"Then come with me!"

Macharius took the man directly to the training ground, and then walked past the pilots in a swaggering manner.

"Make way, please make way!"

"Conte, I brought you a new person!"

When he saw Captain Conte standing outside the simulator, Macharius shouted loudly.

The latter turned around upon hearing this, and his expression immediately changed when he saw Macharius and Amuro behind him.

"Don't tell me it's this guy!"

"Yes, you guessed right?"

Captain Conte felt bitter in his mouth. How could the hard training he and others had gone through be insignificant in the face of other people's talents? It was okay with just one Macharius before, but now there was an even smaller one. What? Was the Mobile Suit Training Camp a training base for geniuses?

"Well, welcome, little brother!"

Although he felt sad, the captain adjusted his mentality in time, welcomed Amuro, and then vacated a simulation cabin for Amuro to try.

"What happened? Why are there so many people gathered here?"

As the captain was waiting to see Amuro's performance, suddenly, a voice came from the back of the team. Captain Kant's eyes immediately lit up and he walked towards the person who spoke.

"Captain Jung, you're early!"

"Captain Conte!"

The person who came was a pilot belonging to the Luna II Guard Fleet, Denis A. Jung. Like Conte, he was an extremely outstanding elite pilot, but Jung was the second batch to come for training.

"What's going on?"

Jung asked in confusion.

"The kids are messing around, and I can't stop them!"

Captain Conte pointed at Macharius at the other end of the simulation cabin with a rather helpless tone.

"That guy brought a half-grown kid with him, saying he can surpass all of us. Now he's preparing to use the simulator. Do you believe it?"

"I believe!"

"I………"

Kant turned his head and saw the other person looking at him with a smile.

"Captain Conte, although I've only been here a short time, I'm still familiar with the story of the Red Dragon, especially the story of your bet!"

"Hey, this is boring. How about we make a small bet?"

"Okay, ten bucks, I bet that kid is better than all of us!"

So, Conte had no choice but to turn around and leave. He wanted to take advantage of the arrival of these newcomers to have some fun, but he didn't expect that these people were full of calculations!

"Don't be sad. When the third group comes, you can go and trick them!"

Jung patted the other person's shoulder and pointed at the simulator.

"Look, that thing is activated!"

Captain Conte turned his head and saw that at this moment, in the simulator screen, the training Guncannon had stood up shakily.

Then, under the control of the young man, it began to stagger forward, but its wobbling appearance made people nervous with every step, fearing that it would fall. But after staggering for more than ten steps, the situation changed!

The movements of the Guncannon became more and more stable. After a while, it went from walking slowly to running fast, and finally, it even jumped into the air.

"Oh oh oh!"

The surrounding federal pilots cheered thunderously when the hatch opened, which made Amuro blush. When he walked out of the crowd, these pilots did not forget to touch his head and pat his shoulders to show their approval.

Although Dr. Timre was busy with work, he was actually paying attention to the situation here. After seeing Amuro successfully complete the action by controlling the simulator, he accidentally wrote the wrong word.

"Amuro!"

At this moment, Tim Lei really wanted to go over and give his son a big hug.

Captain Jung was comforting Captain Conte.

"Looks like we won't get a second Gundam!"

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"

The captain cried so sadly.

"But the third channel might have a chance, as long as Macharius doesn't go looking for someone!"

Then, Jung saw Captain Conte wipe away his tears and regain his fighting spirit.

"How was it? Did I do okay?" "Not as good as you. I only took an hour!"

Although Macharius also felt that he was the chosen protagonist fed by God, he still had to pretend to be in front of the other party.

And Amuro really believed it at this moment!
"You, are so powerful?"

"How can I discover your talent if I'm not strong enough? Come on, I'll take you to try out my machine!"

With the foundation of the Guncannon in hand, driving the Gundam was naturally a piece of cake for Amuro. After coming out of the cockpit of the prototype Gundam, Amuro was quickly attracted by the red dragon on the right shoulder of the prototype Gundam and a series of shoot-down marks on the left shoulder.

"Are these symbols shoot-down signs?"

"Yes!"

Amuro's eyes turned complicated as he looked at Macharius. At this moment, he still couldn't understand the meaning of taking someone else's life.

"Will I be like you one day in the future?"

"If possible, I'd rather just stain my hands with blood so you don't have to bear all this. But that day is still a long way off. Now you just need to drive this and provide data for your father. Maybe you won't even have to wait until that day, and no one will have to do these things!"

"So, Mr. Macharius, what are you fighting for?"

Macharius handed the other party a bottle of juice, then took a sip of the drink in his hand before slowly answering.

"The first time I killed someone was in Zeon. A group of assassins wanted to kill the guests. In order to survive, I took up a weapon. If you want to ask why I fought, it was because I wanted to save more people!"

Amuro didn't quite understand what Macharius said, but he felt the weight of it.

"Then let me help you!"

Afterwards, when Amuro returned to school on Monday, he was questioned by his classmates. After being asked several times, he told them impatiently.

"I was called to drive the excavator!"

And his friends actually believed it.

"Does Mr. Macharius also drive an excavator?"

"Of course, he's the best driver on base. He can even fry a steak with a spatula!"

As a result, everyone was even more astonished and even wanted Amuro to demonstrate it to everyone.

But unfortunately, every weekend when they wanted to go find Amuro, he had already gone to the Federal Army base, and he had to go to school on weekdays, so until the war broke out, no one had the chance to see Amuro driving an excavator.

After Amuro spent more than a month of weekends at the base, 77 finally came to an end.

Perhaps because it was approaching the New Year, the tense atmosphere in the universe had faded a lot. All sides, and even the Zeon mainland, were preparing for the New Year. On the last day of 77, Dr. Timley presented the first New Year's gift to the base.

Taking Macharius's prototype Gundam as a sample, some details were readjusted, and the paint job was changed to the classic red, yellow, blue and white, and the new RX-78-2 Gundam made its grand debut.

The design data of this new Gundam is not much different from the original Gundam. Both use the same system, the power reactor has the same power, the maximum ground speed is 165 km/h, and the sensor detection range is 5700 meters.

As for armament, according to Dr. Timre, most of the difficulties with the beam rifle have been solved. All that is left is continuous testing, and it will be officially put into service by mid-78. Therefore, at this moment, this No. 100 Gundam uses the same mm machine gun as the Macharius No. Gundam.

As for melee weapons, it is no longer a meteor hammer. The designers also know that this thing is really not easy to use, so they modified the thermal axe used by Zaku and used it as a temporary replacement. After the beam saber completes the final test, it can also be quickly equipped.

When the Federation pilots saw this brand new machine, they were naturally jealous, and some even wanted to exchange various things with Amuro for the right to use it.

"Amuro, I have a really nice magazine with a beautiful older sister in it. I'll give it to you, but let me drive your mecha for a few days!"

Then, this guy was dragged to a corner by the military police and other pilots and beaten up!
"Using pornographic magazines, you're really embarrassing, Amuro, I have lollipops..."

Faced with temptation, Amuro's will remained firm. He declined the other party's kindness one by one, and then said that his body had been reserved by his eldest brother.

"Macarius said he would open it on an even-odd month basis!"

However, the pilots are not without new machines. When producing accessories for the prototype Gundam and the original Gundam No. 2, the factory also produced a lot of unqualified parts. These parts are not unusable, but they do not meet the strength requirements, so they are unqualified.

Therefore, Timley's research team used some spare parts to piece together three lower-grade mobile suits for the base. These three machines were naturally very funny compared to the two real Gundams. For example, due to insufficient accessories, two of the machines had Guncannon heads, and one machine lacked a backpack, but for these pilots, it was enough.

"I've never felt happy driving a Guncannon!"

Captain Conte said this to the others as he boarded the so-called ordinary Gundam (the name given by the pilots themselves).

However, this happiness did not last long, because these three aircraft were actually used as temporary training aircraft for pilots. If those parts had other uses, they had to be dismantled and returned.

But that's good enough!

Of course, it was not just the Federation that received New Year's gifts. In the Principality of Zeon behind the moon, the Zabi family, who had been busy producing armaments for a long time, also received their gifts.

"Your Excellency, Your Excellency the Führer, Your Excellency Kycilia, Your Excellency Dozle, this is the secret weapon we prepared to attack the Federation Fleet!"

The Zeonic leader brought out the new Zaku 2, also known as the MS06C, which has nuclear strike capability, as requested by Kycilia.

Compared with the early Zaku 2, the C-type is more bloated. This is because it has three layers of composite armor made of radiation-proof materials installed in front of the cockpit, and anti-radiation liquid is added between the armor to absorb radiation and reduce damage to the driver.

These improvements have brought the weight of the entire machine to a full 2 tons. Compared to the early Zaku , its speed has naturally decreased, but its armament has been comprehensively upgraded.

Because the destructive power of the early 105mm machine gun could not satisfy the troops, based on the 105 machine gun, Zionic designed a new machine gun with no major changes in appearance, but the caliber was increased to 120mm.

In addition to this new gun, the most important weapon of the Zaku 2C is the 280mm rocket launcher it is equipped with. The ammunition fired by this weapon is no longer conventional anti-ship rockets, but nuclear warhead rockets!

After the disastrous defeat of Side 6, the Zeon side realized that it was very difficult to destroy a Federation warship with conventional firepower of 280mm rockets. It was necessary to hit the opponent's core area repeatedly to cause damage.

But after replacing the nuclear warhead, only one shot is needed to paralyze the Salamis-class cruiser, and the Magellan-class battleship can be disabled with just a few more shots.

In order to ensure the satisfaction of the top management, the person in charge of Zeonic not only took out the holographic image of the C-type Zaku, but also took out the damage simulation video they had conducted on the Federation battleship. When they saw the Federation battleship in the video being reduced to ashes by the Zaku's nuclear bomb salvo, Kycilia's body began to twitch with excitement, and Killian's eyes were shining with gold, and he stood up directly from his seat.

"Okay, okay, this is what I want!"

"If we put production into full gear now, how much can we produce by this time next year?"

"About 1,500!"

The Zeonic leader calculated for a moment and then reported a number.

"Fifteen thousand? Not enough, not enough, I want double it!"

Killian waved his fist and spoke loudly.

"Double?"

The person in charge was sweating profusely. Zeonic was going to produce not only Zaku, but also other military supplies. These 1,500 units were already its current production limit. Whether it was the production line or the skilled workers, they would not be able to produce them in a short time!
"I'm not negotiating, I'm giving orders!"

"I understand. Then, I need the cooperation of the Führer's Guard!"

"No problem, you'll get it!"

In addition to mobile suits, new plans have also been put forward for various improved warships. Next, all we have to do is drive the warships into the shipyard and carry out improvements step by step.

After reading the news about armaments, Gihren held a military meeting and summoned all the military generals in Zeon to prepare to announce his latest orders.

"Everyone, we've received the latest intelligence from the Earth Federation. Those shameless Earthlings are about to increase military spending in fiscal year 78 to support the Earth Federation Army's military reforms. Currently, the Earth Federation is stepping up the production of various armaments to prepare for the war with Zeon!"

"Therefore, in order to ensure the Principality's victory in the war, I have decided to declare the Principality to begin war mobilization!"

"Start now?"

"Isn't this a little too early?"

"Shouldn't we wait a little longer? The fleet improvements haven't even started yet..."

"Is this the prince's order?"

The Zeon generals were also shocked by this sudden order.

War mobilization is not something that can be done with just lip service. Once war mobilization begins, all resources within a country will begin to tilt towards the military. The production and life of residents and the operation of the country and society will be greatly affected, and these impacts will cause great turmoil in society.

Moreover, once the mobilization is initiated, there will be no turning back. All everyone has to do next is to prepare. If the mobilization is to be cancelled, it may even lead to the subversion of the country. Therefore, the generals seem uneasy.

"boom!"

As the noisy sound buzzed in, Dozle, who had been silent all this time, suddenly slammed his fist on the table.

"Everyone, we are out of time. Once the Federation unleashes their war machine, we have no chance of winning!"

"So, now, this is the only way!"

"We must start mobilizing!"

(End of this chapter)