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

Chapter 9 Past Memories

"God bless!"

Sitting in the seat of the shuttle, Andre, the captain of car No. 2, heard the quiet prayer of his driver Canard beside him. The latter seemed a little nervous as it was his first time riding.

"Don't worry, brother, this thing is very safe. The probability of an accident is lower than the probability of an accident when you drive a tank. You can rest assured!"

"Really? You didn't lie to me?"

"Definitely not. Did you see the head?"

Canard looked at Macharius, who was sitting in the window seat in the same row. The latter had already unbuttoned his skirt, skillfully opened the footrest under the seat, and asked for a blanket from the flight attendant. It was obvious that he planned to sleep directly to his destination.

"Don't worry, it's safe!"

Macharius emphasized this expressionlessly, then pulled the blanket over his head and closed his eyes.

Seeing his captain so relaxed, Canard also breathed a sigh of relief and tried to fall asleep like the former. But if they lifted Macharius's blanket at this moment, they would find that the latter's eyelids were actually tight.

"You've already lived a new life. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid! Relax, relax!"

Despite comforting himself, the cold and suffocating feeling still crept into Macharius' heart little by little, making him even feel dizzy.

This is not a physical defect. In fact, in his previous life in another world, he was a company dog ​​and took many business trips by plane. He landed safely every time. Even if he traveled through time, it was only because he wanted to rescue the children in front of the dump truck. Although he didn't know why he was brought to the world of Mobile Suit Gundam, it might be because he was carrying the authentic Bandai version he bought from Japan at that time.

He traveled to this world and was born as a healthy baby. Everything was normal until he was thirteen years old. But that year, he followed his mother to the then Principality of Zeon to participate in the construction completion ceremony of the then Zeon Spaceport. They were attacked by terrorists. At that time, the shuttle he, his mother and a group of Earth dignitaries were riding in was hijacked by unidentified terrorists, who tried to ram the spaceport with the shuttle. Although the security tried their best to resist, they were still no match for the well-prepared armed personnel. In the brutal close-range shootout, Macharius picked up the weapon dropped by the security in order to survive, and then opened fire on the swarming terrorists at a distance of almost zero.

In the shuttle that had lost gravity, flesh and blood torn by bullets, the twisted bodies of killed attackers and victims were floating everywhere. The strong smell of blood and the smell of gunpowder from the firing of submachine guns were deeply engraved in Macharius's memory. Dozens of passengers in the cabin huddled in the corner like panicked sheep. Only Macharius, wearing a tattered suit and a bow tie at his collar, was left standing at the door of the crew cabin with a submachine gun that was much larger than him, guarding the safety of his mother and the other survivors.

Then, under the gaze of the survivors on the shuttle, the spaceport that had just been built, which cost countless money and manpower, turned into a flash of fire. Afterwards, the search and rescue team spent two days to find the shuttle from the countless debris floating in space and rescue the passengers on it.

Although Zeon claimed that the perpetrators of that attack were related to the Earth Federation Government, any discerning person could see that it was just another purge. Ever since the Zabi family came to power, the Principality of Zeon had carried out a massive and bloody purge of domestic opposition, the scale of which had once expanded to as much as 200,000 people. The so-called Federation's instructions were just an excuse, and most of the victims were moderate supporters of the former head of state, Deiken. They advocated negotiating with the Federation through political means and had very close economic ties with the Federation. Macharius's trip was also due to the invitation of his mother's collaborator. The existence of these people was intolerable to the Zabi family, who was determined to rule the country through radical means. The explosion of the spaceport was another good opportunity to purge the opposition.

From then on, he had a deep psychological trauma about vehicles like shuttles, although Macharius never showed it in front of anyone, or rather, he always pretended to be indifferent. As the shuttle started up, Macharius's discomfort intensified. It was not until the shuttle passed through the atmosphere that the feeling of drowning and suffocation subsided. Then, he heard the surprised shouts of those around him.

"Ooooh, Earth!"

"So beautiful!"

"Boss, look, look!"

Several trainees and officers who had never been out of the Earth could not wait to unbuckle their seat belts and floated to the window, looking as if they couldn't wait to stick their heads out. As for the others who were used to going to space, they just smiled as if it was normal and continued doing their own things.

At the urging of Andrei and Yudin, Macharius could only pretend to be awakened, lift the blanket, and then look to his right.

At this moment, the outside of the window was filled with endless darkness, but just in the lower left of the darkness, a blue hemisphere that seemed to be covered with a halo squeezed out the chilling darkness. Although the light was not as dazzling as the sun, it still made people feel warm and safe.

"Help me take some photos!"

Floating on the top of the cabin, Yudin, who was lying on the window sill with the people sitting there face to face, threw out his new camera and made a gesture as if he was holding the earth in his palm.

Therefore, Macharius had no choice but to bite the bullet and overcome his discomfort to act as a photographer for the other party. Fortunately, the novelty came and went quickly. Soon, these people got tired of taking photos and started playing with the disappearance of gravity, such as doing 360-degree windmills in the cabin.

But soon, the flight attendant floated over and asked everyone to sit back in their seats and fasten their seat belts, because the space army's orbital defense base had arrived!

As if it appeared extremely abruptly, a huge asteroid equipped with a thermonuclear engine appeared in front of the shuttle. It was about tens of kilometers in diameter. Such asteroids were originally used by the Earth Federation to mine minerals. After hollowing out the minerals inside, they were transformed into various facilities by the Earth Federation. The headquarters of the Space Army, Luna II, also came in this way, but that asteroid was larger, with a diameter of 180 kilometers alone.

Before the shuttle approached the asteroid, it first underwent identity verification. Two FFS3 Swordfish fighters then flew out to escort the shuttle. Then, led by the Swordfish, the shuttle headed towards a large square artificial hatch in the middle of the asteroid.

Two rows of bright laser beams soon shot out from both sides of the wide-open hatch, providing data correction for the landing shuttle. The shuttle pilot was also a veteran, and without any mistakes, with the assistance of the laser, he drove the shuttle into the gate and docked it at the internal docking hatch.

(End of this chapter)