Gundam: From Piece to Player

Karma thought of something and started to laugh too... He understood this mentality quite well. It took Wakham about a decade to slowly rise from a graduate to the commander of the Federation Army, but in the three years when he had the best chance to reach the top, he was defeated by a kid like himself.

Giving in is like surrendering, admitting that everything you've trained and learned in the past half of your life has been a failure.

"It's not impossible."

"Huh?" Haiwen was also startled.

"I'm talking about sand table simulations of warfare; don't even think about military operations."

Karma originally intended to keep the Federation troops, including Wakham, here for life, and even turn them into his own people.

But then I thought, if they could transmit what they saw and heard here back to the Federation Army... especially to the Federation, which might descend into chaos in the future, it might be even more useful.

It's like planting seeds.

Chapter 231 Education and Amnesty

"Kalma Zabi agreed?"

"It's just a simulation exercise; you're not going to be issuing me a gun."

Her former subordinate's name was Shirley Allison, and her real name was Captain Tatiana Dia.

He has now been appointed as the director of the "re-education" base.

At that time, the terrifying artificial intelligence infiltrated the flagship Whack-a-Warken by mimicking her, and Karma Zabi thus completed the hijacking of the Whack-a-Warken in this unexpected way.

Although I was indignant, I still found this method of warfare terrifying when I looked back on it afterwards.

If this can be done on an operational spaceship, what about a stationary military base or naval port?

If the Space Alliance wants to do this, then Federation pilots won't even have the chance to board a mobile suit.

As for Shirley, rumors circulated within the prison that she was still a mimicry robot, and they were all somewhat afraid of her.

In practice, this former spy was indeed a man of few words...

"Wahken, seize this opportunity to say what you have to say. This is a rare chance."

"……I see."

Hua Ken took a drag of a cigarette, the screen went black, and he was driving a small engineering MS.

This cigarette was obtained by exchanging consumer coins, which can be earned simply by working.

This is an unnamed asteroid mine.

The exterior has been sealed off with a dome, and the so-called labor actually involves excavating using these small engineering mobile suits, each 5 meters high, with tasks set by AI.

No one cares about them on weekdays; they are not disciplined or punished for slacking off, and there is no internet in this place.

They are brought to this place at 8 a.m. every morning, there is a food truck at noon, and they finish get off work at 5:30 p.m.

Anyway, a spaceship will pick them up every day after get off work.

However, if everyone can complete their work within the area defined by AI, they can earn consumer coins.

At first, he and his men set up a display, counting stars on this mineral asteroid... But after two months, the monotonous scene became unbearable for some officers, who turned into scabs.

At first, the officer corps was able to unite and teach the scabs a lesson.

But as time went on, Huaken lost control from behind the scenes, and half of the officers started working... Eventually, everyone was mobilized, and the re-education base did indeed keep its promise and rewarded them.

Besides that, there is another place where you can get spending credits.

It's an evening study session. As long as you complete the assignments successfully, you'll receive a little bit of spending credits every day.

People started attending the evening study sessions, initially with critical mindsets... but gradually, the officers who had attended began to have their thinking skewed.

Many people were exposed to information they would never have encountered in their entire lives.

Fifty years of history that were subtly concealed by the federal government and never mentioned in textbooks.

Most of the time, classes are taught by AI, but on weekends, a female teacher named Aisie teaches social activities... This teacher's English accent is clearly from North America, and I don't know why she's associated with this group of asteroid belt Zeonians.

The social activities class wasn't just lectures; it involved high-intensity interaction, such as debates, which, according to the officers who returned, were quite interesting.

The topics are incredibly imaginative, for example:

"What do you think can be done to make the Federation better?"

"How do we solve the problem of corruption within this deeply entrenched organization in the federal government?"

People naturally discussed it, and the history teacher did not deliberately deny the Federation... There are probably no standard answers to these questions.

Even if Hua Ken didn't attend the class, he could understand that this was "correct".

Being able to discuss these things is essentially a manifestation of democracy, something that isn't something that can be discussed freely even within the Federation Army.

However, Warken still maliciously incited some of his subordinates, and some officers raised topics such as "Is Zeon just?" and "Slaughtering half the population of the Earth Sphere for national independence" during the activity class... He wanted to embarrass them by doing so.

It would be even better if the opponent could break through the defense.

This is because it means the other side cannot find anyone willing to support the argument.

However, Wakham underestimated the enemy's capabilities, or rather, the diversity of prisoners in the base.

For this topic, we were even able to find a few Zabi supporters. According to Professor Aisie, these were spies who were caught during the purge of the Zabi faction in Axis, and they are also undergoing reformation.

It was definitely not an act, because the moment the other person opened their mouth, their "smell" was terrifyingly strong, which gave them away.

Enemies meeting are bound to be extremely hostile.

This means that the debaters on this topic are not keyboard warriors who engage in online arguments, but rather people who may have risked their lives in the Battle of Loom.

The debate escalated from a mere exchange to a physical fight.

Even Ms. Aisi couldn't control the situation, shouting, "Don't fight, don't fight!"

Due to the numerical disadvantage, several Zabi were nearly killed, but the guards eventually rescued them and took them to the hospital.

Because of the use of violence, Director Tatiana used military management methods for the first time, putting all those who had committed the act into solitary confinement—the reason being that using violence was wrong no matter what.

This event also made Wakham gradually understand that the Zeons in the asteroid belt were fundamentally different from the Zabi family—he understood this very clearly without even needing the later founding broadcast.

Then, about a year later, news of a pardon came—presumably because they had stayed there for too long, the Federation was unlikely to pay the bill, and the staff working at the base also needed to be transferred.

In order to liberate each other, the Space Alliance decided to "send" them back.

The thought of seeing his family and going home in the future made Huaken, who was still "resisting," completely a minority.

It wasn't for any other reason than wanting to see Kalmar Zabi again, and he firmly believed that one day the other party would find the time to deal with this troublesome situation.

April 1st, April Fool's Day... is a public holiday for the Space Alliance.

Wakin quickly received the news that Kalma Zabi had finally arrived.

When Hua Ken walked out onto the second-floor corridor, he could hear countless shouts of "Your Excellency" and "General" from downstairs. He recognized some of the voices and they were all being repeated.

These guys have completely disgraced the federal military in their pursuit of so-called "amnesty."

When Wakken came down the stairs, he saw the young man in a uniform suit with a confident smile on his face... It was hard to associate him with the sharp-witted young general in military uniform during the One Year War.

“Commander Warken?” Karma sized him up, then glanced at the eyes of the captured Union officers around her. “Long time no see. May I shake your hand?”

“Thank you, Chairman.” Hua Ken took a deep breath and still extended his hand. “In any case, thank you for providing these resources after our capture and for treating us, the defeated prisoners of war, with such leniency.”

"It's nothing. Actually, the Zeon army's earliest predecessor was the army of the Side 3 colony under the Federation. Going back to the very beginning, I almost joined you, but Commander Tiam wouldn't allow it," Karma joked.

Chapter 232 The Best War Museum

After exchanging pleasantries for a while, Karma and his accompanying officials had the prisoners of the expeditionary force taken onto the buses.

This was part of the original tour itinerary.

The bus moved slowly along the roads of Luna II. Looking at the city's infrastructure inside Luna II, Wakana finally couldn't help but ask Kalma, who was sitting in the passenger seat:

"Chairman, what are your ambitions?"

"So what do you think my ambition is? To go back to Earth and establish a human empire? To become an emperor?"

"Please enlighten me."

“Your question is too broad. There are many things I want to do, the first of which is social experimentation… I want to create the new society that Founding Father Zeon Deikun envisioned, where all people become the masters of the Space Federation.”

“That’s just empty talk,” Wakney said in a low voice.

"Huaken, do you know who the boss of your Federation is?"

Hua Ken opened his mouth, but couldn't say a word.

“I won’t beat around the bush. I’ll give you a real-life example so you know who the true masters of your Federation are—Ricardo Mathernas was your Federation’s first prime minister, and then his grandson, Ronan Mathernas (the father of Unicorn Rilidi), is the chairman of the Immigration Council, known as the ‘Shadow Cabinet,’” Kalma said. “He genuinely cares about the Federation and is one of your Federation’s shareholders.”

"Tiam is the security director, and you, Warken, are just a company's security supervisor. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"So, does Your Excellency intend to defeat them?"

"Hmph, I don't need to take them down... Most of your company's employees don't treat the company (Federal Republic) like their own home at all. They're all embezzling and skimming off the top. Your Speaker is the one who's really willing to risk his life to save the company. After all, you employees can always find another new company in the future, but he can't. If the company goes bankrupt, they'll be in danger. They might even be dragged to the guillotine by the employees as a pledge of allegiance to the new company."

Waken felt uneasy after hearing this; he sensed that Karma's words had a hidden meaning...

"In short, every company (organization) in the world has a boss. I want the Space Alliance to be an organization where most of its citizens are either bosses or potential bosses. No one can steal benefits from this organization that don't belong to them, and every penny earned has its reason." Kalmar put this principle into the most vulgar language.

As a Federation elite, Wakken possesses the ability to draw inferences from one instance to another: "You left Zeon because you didn't want to be the boss, right?"

"You should ask Red Comet about that. The Republic of Zeon is definitely better than the Principality of Zeon, and I believe that, but I don't like that country because it always brings me disgusting memories."

Having said that, Hua Ken no longer harbored any resentment towards the other party.

Their expeditionary force was more like a band of robbers, lacking any sense of righteousness.

But if there's anything to be unwilling about, it's probably the pointless pride that comes with losing.

The electric bus traveled for 40 minutes before entering Trantor, the core hub of Juneau, a town in contrast to the small town where these prisoners of war were located.

High-rise buildings have been built in this place, small helicopters carrying people fly in the sky, and electric vehicles travel quickly on the ground.

Green plants are everywhere in the city, lush and verdant. Under the soft sunlight of the colony, the streets and neighborhoods are bustling with activity.

However, because it was much more spacious than the cramped colonies, it did not feel oppressive.

The bus stopped in front of a spherical building marked "War Museum". The building covers an area of ​​about 6 hectares and is more than 50 meters high. Even if Wakney is a layman, he can tell that the building cost a lot.

"Didn't you want to have a simulated battle with me? The museum happens to have complete facilities, so I'll take you on a tour of the tourist attractions as well."