Gundam: From Piece to Player

"Fire, 5 rounds."

The Type 88's 30mm twin-barreled anti-aircraft gun silently fired five armor-piercing rounds in space. The rounds penetrated the concrete wall and pierced the low-level Corsair mobile suit behind it.

This immediately triggered an explosion.

"Okay, take one down!" Hartman shouted excitedly.

[At a 65-degree angle, 50 meters away, it hopped over and drove into the factory building on the left front.]

【clear】

Hasawi did as instructed immediately.

"180 degrees, 75 degrees of elevation, something will be falling from the sky later, we'll set it up."

“Received,” Hartman replied.

While sending out brainwaves, Karma spoke in words, saying that the Type 88 tank crashed head-on through the wall, and the special tracks used on the asteroid rock layer pressed countless small holes into the hardened ground.

A pirate mobile suit fell directly from the roof of the iron shed factory, probably intending to launch a surprise attack.

What greeted him was the constant barrage of fire from the anti-aircraft guns. The Luna titanium alloy armor-piercing rounds pierced through the thin armor on the bottom of the Corsair MS, turning the pilot into a pulp.

Next, the 7-ton primary MS crashed heavily to the ground. In reality, this thing weighed only one-fifth of the Type 88, but its volume was three times larger.

Two mobile suits are coming together, they're ambushing us up ahead, reverse!

Hathaway shifted the tank into reverse and backed out through the gap created by the collision from behind.

[16 degrees, elevation angle 20 degrees.]

[275 degrees, elevation angle 20 degrees.]

The two enemy mobile suits, due to their impatience, couldn't resist rushing in and were shot down one by one by the anti-aircraft guns that had been set up in advance.

In 4 minutes, Hartman took down 4 mobile suits while driving an 88 anti-aircraft vehicle. Although he had carried out defensive missions and repelled pirates before, this was the first time he had ever felt this good.

No, it should be said that it was this "captain's" incredible predictive ability, as well as Arnold's excellent teamwork with him.

Even without waiting for the air force to arrive, we could wipe out this group of pirates.

But then Arno started shifting gears, swaying left and right as he accelerated towards the side, then constantly swung the steering wheel, causing the nearly 35-ton vehicle to spin and drift rapidly on the ground.

Hartmann, the gunner, felt a bit nauseous... What's wrong? Why is Arnold driving like a madman?

The next second he knew the answer. A thick beam of mega-particles swept across the ground, leaving a trench 4 meters deep. The Type 88 narrowly dodged the weapon.

"Release the freezing smoke grenade."

Hartmann, with his attention fully focused, threw two smoke grenades into the air, creating two white clouds of smoke above the vehicle. Then he heard the engine below stop.

Something pierced through the smoke, kicking up a 10-meter-high cloud of dust on the ground.

Hartmann thought to himself, the opponent is firing blindly... there's a possibility that I might get hit, and if I do, I'm really done for.

It's the MS's 60mm Vulcan cannon... For ground vehicles, the Falcon circling in the sky has always been their natural enemy. Against real MS, anti-aircraft vehicles are still very vulnerable.

Hartman quickly cooled down from his earlier excitement, barely daring to breathe, afraid of emitting too much heat and attracting the other party's attention.

Lucifer Carousel circled overhead in his wildebeest, and the "little car" hiding in the infrared smoke below certainly gave him quite a surprise.

The other two primary mobile suits were locked in a fierce battle with the remaining five anti-aircraft vehicles on Kint's side, and this little vehicle managed to take on four enemies at once, but that was the end of it.

Although the Wildebeest I was piloting was completely outdated, it was still a genuinely famous aircraft of its time... It had a number of glorious achievements in the 80s, so it shouldn't be so bad that it couldn't even take down an anti-aircraft vehicle. That would be a laughing stock.

Five minutes have passed now. The worst-case scenario is that the airborne early warning system will arrive in two minutes. I need to take care of this guy within one minute, and then use another minute to complete the final sabotage.

Just four minutes ago, Lucifer fired a long-range MEGA particle cannon at the digging needle, but because it was trying to burrow into the ground and had extraordinary strength, only its outer armor came off.

It did not fundamentally damage the problem.

The original medium-sized mobile suit was designed to be used to place explosives on its surface and then destroy it through close combat; now, it can only be destroyed at close range using the Wildebeest's beam weapon.

Lucifer set the beam weapon to close-range machine gun mode and patiently waited for the smoke to dissipate, revealing the outline of the anti-aircraft vehicle.

When the beam machine gun fired at full power, the dense beam swept across the ground, and the anti-aircraft vehicle's turret flew up several meters high like a "human-killing spacecraft".

"What a pity, you had the potential to become the Wittmann of the Universal Century."

Lucifer sighed.

The machine suddenly received a lock-on warning—indicating that it was being irradiated.

where?

Damn airborne early warning drones… How did they get here so fast this time? Having dealt with these drones before, Lucifer instinctively manipulated his mobile suit, turning his head towards space.

However, they failed to notice that on the ground where the smoke had cleared, two people in spacesuits were lying prone, clearly having been thrown out of the vehicle.

Meanwhile, Karma stood on the edge of the crater, firmly locking the infrared sight onto the Wildebeest's massive back thrusters, which were spewing out intense blue flames.

The trigger was pulled.

Where is the enemy?

Lucifer looked around, but couldn't find the "airborne early warning system." The missile had already roared in and slammed into the blue nozzle of the wildebeest's tail.

The blast wave generated by the nuclear fusion reactor detonation impacted the ground.

But in Hartmann's eyes, the man who put down the rocket launcher was not swayed by the terrible explosion at all.

He had clearly accomplished a remarkable feat, yet he remained calm.

Just as unquestionable as when he issued the order.

This is probably not just a simple officer; he should be a member of the Space Alliance, or perhaps a general from Zeon who participated in the One Year War.

"All done, you didn't fall, did you? Let's go," Karma said.

"Okay..." Hartman couldn't shake the image from his mind.

But Hasavi's understanding was different.

Compared to his past aspirations, the battle he just fought gave him a new understanding of Karma Zabi.

Just like in the past, they were clearly at a disadvantage.

By taking continuous action and reflecting on the problems, the situation was gradually changed, and eventually, the outcome was turned around.

As the nation created by this person, Hathaway also came to understand the national spirit of the Space Alliance... This is the fundamentalist "new humanism".

Even the brainwave abilities that the other party possesses are not innate talents, but rather abilities acquired through hard work.

However, the brainwaves transmitted by the other party caused Hasavi's lofty image in the other party to crumble slightly.

[Hasavi, I was pretty awesome just now, wasn't I?]

【sharp.】

Isn't he handsome?

【…】

Did you record it properly with a video camera? I want my best friend to brag about it.

Chapter 383 Governing Space Pirates and Reusing Obsolete Weapons

The air marshals were like justice delayed, arriving at the scene 13 minutes after the incident.

The signs of battle at the scene startled Sergeant Watt, the destroyer sergeant of the 303rd Airborne Early Warning Squadron.

Of course, what's even scarier is yet to come.

A message came from his subordinates: a kind citizen named Kalma Zabi had invited him to come over for a talk.

Could it be an imposter? I've heard that 3D image spoofing is very sophisticated these days.

Arriving at the mining area by small boat, he saw the shuttle ship bearing the Deep Space Industries logo—it was fast and equipped with missiles. His subordinates stood somewhat nervously on the outside; in a daze, Captain Watt felt his job was about to be abandoned.

Inside the spaceship cabin was a movable square table, and the important figure who had only appeared on television and in documentaries before was now standing right in front of him.

"Commander Watt of the 5th Airborne Patrol Group reports to Chairman Kalma!"

"Without the adjective 'face'... I am no longer the chairman; I am now just an ordinary citizen of the alliance."

"You are the eternal chairman of the alliance."

"Okay, please sit down."

Watt sat down uneasily as a young man poured him tea. Was he a secretary or something?

“你们是10:03接收到求救讯息，10:16才抵达的现场？花了13分钟才抵达的事发地点？”

Knowing that the other party was testing his professional skills, Watt quickly replied, "Yes, we immediately sent our destroyers over after receiving the signal. We happened to be patrolling the edge of the airspace we were responsible for, so the round trip was equivalent to crossing the entire defense sector."

"Did you encounter pirates before you came here?"

"No, but there was contact with a cargo ship."

Do you think the cargo ship might be connected to the pirates who attacked this place?

"Sir, I cannot guarantee anything, but I think it is unlikely. The cargo ship with the number N15007 is a very common cargo ship, and the crew members are all citizens with ID cards. Pirates are usually criminals and outlaws in the gray area."

"Based on the pirates you've captured, what motivated them to do this kind of work?"

Watt hesitated for a moment, but then spoke up under Kalmar's "speak freely" attitude.

"Your Excellency, when the Space Alliance was first established, you led a migration and immigration effort that resulted in the execution of over ten thousand criminals. Some of these criminals, whose crimes did not warrant the death penalty, faced discrimination in the Alliance's employment process..."

"What I mean is that businesses inevitably view them with prejudice, and these problematic citizens quickly fall behind normal citizens in terms of economics and lifestyle. And now, the pirates who are active are basically the descendants of criminals."

"In your opinion, is it possible to wipe them all out at once?"

“That’s not very realistic, sir,” Watt said. “Even with a laser cannon, it would be difficult to achieve.”

"What about the fortress expansion method? We'll expand the safe zone bit by bit, in a grid pattern, over ten or twenty years. That should be enough to gradually grow the safe zone."

Watts nodded: "This might require sustained investment... It might not be suitable from a cost perspective."

“Cost is one aspect, but if you only talk about cost, it's like running a country like a black-hearted company. Black-hearted companies will try to optimize and reduce the value of employees in order to improve efficiency and profits. Can a country optimize and reduce the value of disabled people, the elderly, and vulnerable groups?”

Kalmar said, "But from an objective point of view, it is unrealistic to completely ignore the economy. It's like war—people always say that war requires sacrifice and bloodshed, but that doesn't hold true in the Space Alliance. Laziness in thinking leads to a surge in the cost of action, and the same applies to the problem of piracy control."

Watt nodded repeatedly.

I breathed a sigh of relief. It seems you're just here for research, not for optimization... That's different from what was advertised.