Gundam: From Piece to Player

At the critical moment,

The beam rifle was shattered by the incoming impact—in deep space, Alice reappeared piloting the Zda backpack, holding an old object—a large-caliber live-fire anti-ship rifle from the One Year War.

When all other weapons were helpless against this large MA, he remembered that this old-fashioned live-fire sniper rifle came in handy.

The next shot pierced precisely through an I-field generator hidden in the armor gap, like a precise scalpel.

Seeing this, Cupid unleashed another full-power version of the Mega Particle Cannon, which finally shattered the opponent's defenses and struck the machine.

Seeing this, the enemy's Gaplan ceased its fighting and, by separating its damaged parts, regained its flight posture and accelerated away.

Karma then noticed that the Federation troops who had been nearby had started to flee at some point.

So, the actions just now... were merely to force our retreat?

Tactically speaking, the objective was indeed achieved.

Karma thought for a moment and then sent a laser communication to the white Gaplan that had flown away and was now just a small dot.

At this moment, Gaplan is in autonomous driving mode.

At this moment, Du had already taken off her shoes, bent her legs, and placed her bare feet on the driver's seat. With her eyes slightly closed, all she wanted to do was sleep.

In laser communications, the phrase "Give a thumbs up to a respectable adversary" is used.

Du couldn't help but smile wryly.

On the battlefield, there is no such thing as respectable or unrespectable; there are only the dead and the survivors.

---

In the outer reaches of SIDE6, the battle ended after the Federation withdrew.

Meanwhile, the destroyer HMS Marceau and HMS Ireland were cruising side by side.

After the battle, Karma did not avoid seeing her allies; she boarded the ship to meet old friends and acquaintances.

The other party also arranged afternoon tea to entertain us.

Blake, Amro, Håkan, Cadot, and Camus were also present, as were engineers like Aston Naeger; the atmosphere was quite harmonious.

“I’ve heard about you from my friends on the moon, Brigadier General Blakes.”

"How can I compare to you? Your name is known to everyone."

The fact that Brex, the original founder of the AEUG, has been rescued is indeed beneficial to the regularization of the Lunar Army and the improvement of its combat capabilities.

"Is Mr. Galio very famous?" Camus asked indifferencely from the side.

"You'll find out, Newtype kid."

While the adults present remained silent, Camus, relying on his Newtype abilities, read the name that struck fear into the hearts of all, and immediately opened his mouth but could not utter a word.

She looks completely different from the one on the poster... Could it be that she had plastic surgery?

As for who piloted the black mecha, Karma attributed all the credit to Alice... Anyway, it wasn't exactly a lie, and telling the truth would have caused some trouble.

After all, I won the battle in the end... I heard that Camus also gambled quite a bit.

Naturally, they also began a debriefing (and blame-de-score) meeting on that remarkable battle.

"I watched Alice's combat footage. Have you ever encountered such a powerful enhanced human before?"

“No.” Amuro shook his head. “The pilot is one thing, but I also have to say that the GP series is outdated. The Federation’s new generation of MS designs has many merits.”

Looks like you care quite a bit, Amuro. You never used to blame the machine's performance.

“If anything, it’s strange that my abilities didn’t work on them at all,” Camus said from the side. “It’s not quite the same as the feeling of ‘not being able to read’ that you guys, Mr. Gallio, were talking about. I was ‘unable to understand’.”

“As for questions about the New Human profession, you’ll have to ask Grand Master El in Shangri-La,” Kalmar said. “I don’t know whether to marvel at the progress in biotechnology or lament the disaster that the collapse of morality has caused to humanity.”

“It’s cruel,” Cardo said, “but these man-made tragedies still need to end.”

Amuro nodded as well.

Kalmar did not comment on this, but he disagreed with them on how enhanced humans handled problems.

Since humans have already been modified, the solution is not to immediately eliminate them, but to collect and examine their data, thereby enriching our knowledge of human modification research.

Take today's events, for example. Essentially, it's about an ordinary, modified human who managed to survive being attacked by two powerful Newtypes and a veteran Zeon ace.

Don't these delicious sea urchin roe have any value in being eaten?

Chapter 256 The Cure for Federal Corruption

The enhanced human girl we captured was turned into popsicles by Karma.

As for when it will be unfrozen, that will have to wait until he launches a surprise attack on the Federation's enhanced human research institute.

Mr. Asuka set a bad example for everyone. He was incapable but still tried to save people. When he couldn't save them, he started complaining and looking for someone to vent his frustrations on. This was truly clownish behavior.

“Mr. Galio, what are your plans next? Are you coming with us?” Håkan asked.

"I'll stay here for a few more weeks, then go to Shangri-La, and then visit the Federal headquarters in Rumm."

Hearing that Karma was wandering around the Earth Sphere as if it were his own home, everyone present couldn't help but admire his arrogance.

"Do you know Master Anna El?" Camus was still a child, and he clearly couldn't keep anything to himself.

“I’ve seen her in the newspaper, so I guess I know her,” Kalmar thought to himself. “This is my wife, whom I love.”

Beneath the veil of a mind-blocking device, Camus read minds and discovered:

"I don't know if I know them or not."

What does this mean? Although he recognized every word, Camus couldn't understand the meaning of the message for the moment, and was working hard on the listening comprehension questions.

Karma, of course, had no idea what the mind blocker had disguised his inner thoughts as.

He then heard Håkan continue speaking:

"What a pity... We need to return to the lunar base to update our equipment and familiarize ourselves with operations. We've been fighting continuously for over a month, it's time for us to rest."

They must be about to hold a high-level meeting, which means the Moon People's policy needs to be finalized.

Is it to maintain this superficial harmony with the Federation while engaging in underhanded tactics... or to continue increasing investment in piracy and causing trouble in the shipping lanes while maintaining peace?

The Federation is currently suffering greatly from various attacks by so-called "space pirates" along its shipping lanes.

Hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, in Rumm.

"General, here is the battle report submitted by Colonel Basque. The Emergency Mobile Force was ambushed on the outskirts of SIDE6 by the Space Alliance's Night Raven and the pseudo-pirate Three Musketeers. Although they fought a fierce battle, they did not lose any warships, and most of the mobile suits survived."

Tianm reviewed the battle report, while his advisor carefully considered his wording.

The Three Musketeers are a recently emerged group of "pseudo-pirates," and to the Federation forces, they are a more terrifying presence than the real pirates.

They are called that because they don't make a living by robbery.

They represent the probing and provocation launched by various secret elite groups within the SIDE against the Federation, whose control over the universe is gradually weakening.

They also attack regular army transport ships, which can be described as lawless.

Their tools of the trade—MS that were even more powerful than those of a regular army—were also used in their crimes.

You can find out by asking AE.

What? You're asking why the federal government doesn't send people to keep a close eye on AE?

This brings us to the topic of bribery... AE's ability to operate with such impunity is largely due to the bribery within the federal oversight departments.

Officials who are unwilling to compromise their integrity are often "reassigned" to other positions.

Even if you replace all the people involved, after a few years you will find that those who were originally honest have become corrupt, because an underground criminal network has gradually formed.

Even after the One Year War ended, Tiam was still able to use the knife in his hand and the Luna II scandal to suppress AE.

Six years after the war ended, the Federation did not recover; instead, its elites discovered that its prestige had declined over time.

The more you struggle, the weaker you become.

Why can't Tianm do what he did before?

Because if that were the case, it would become a military government.

If everything is done with "knives" (force), it will evolve into warlordism... It's better not to change it, at least it won't become a tool for some people to seize power.

There is a type of soldier in the Federation Army who is completely ignorant of politics and naively believes that extreme violence can solve problems such as corruption and injustice—this is a rather dangerous tendency.

During his time away from the center of power to recuperate, Tianm also tried to find a solution to the Federation's problems within the Earth Sphere.

It's somewhat ironic.

The antidote he finally found came from a young genius girl who had once belonged to the Order of the General of the Principality of Zeon, Gihren—she was said to have been a member of Gihren's brain trust.

Deacon's son ultimately succeeded in the coup, largely because the young girl was involved in central decision-making.

He was stripped of all his identities and left Zeon, almost as if he had been expelled from public office. He eventually moved to the border colony of Side 2 and went into seclusion.

She then used her savings to rent a small apartment and supported herself by charging high consulting fees.

Although she was initially considered a fraud, her reputation spread among the privileged class after a large business owner successfully saved his company with her help, attracting many business owners and high-ranking officials to consult her.

The former asked about his future prospects, while the latter asked about his career path.

Finally, Tianm decided to give it a try and asked for advice... After paying a deposit of 20 herts (20% before success, 80% after success), he decided to ask for advice.

This female strategist began to offer reform proposals to the Federation—possibly the largest organization in human history.

After hearing this, Tianm suddenly understood.

First, there is the military centralization and rapid response system... This is also the fundamental reason why Tiam is now proposing to establish an emergency mobile army, namely to push the Federation Army to shift from a "tool of repression" to a "crisis response system".

This means weakening the military equipment of the Federation's side garrisons and directly replacing their old mobile suits with new ones.

Under the crisis response system, the emergency mobile force can extinguish localized fires of separatist armed groups as quickly as possible, preventing a chain reaction of insurgency across different sides.

And there was little resistance to its implementation.

Secondly, Tiam rationally knew that this was the right thing to do, but emotionally he could not accept it, and he also knew that there would be great internal resistance from the military in implementing it.

—To make political concessions to the Republic of Zeon, without expecting to reclaim it by force.

Instead, they resorted to sweet talk... using trade agreements, resource procurement, and technological cooperation to make SIDE3 "rely" on the Federation's economy again.

For other SIDEs with separatist tendencies, a template of "high degree of autonomy + federal troop presence and subsidies" can also be introduced.