UC will eventually reach the stars

"There shouldn't be any problems with the tolerances, right?" Rachel smiled wryly when she heard that it was manufactured by Luna 2. After all, they had received a batch of products from the Federal Army Headquarters when they were in Southeast Asia before. To be honest, the quality was hard to describe. The tolerances of many parts were very large. This would never happen at Ye's Heavy Industry. If such a waste of materials occurred, the engineers in charge of manufacturing and safety inspection would be hung in front of the factory gate by Ye Ning.

When Rachel heard that Luna 2 had manufactured the parts itself, she immediately recalled a period of time when the Federation Army's logistics mechanic, Ye's Heavy Industry, and the engineers of Dawn Heavy Machinery Manufacturing Company had reached a rare agreement.

With the appearance of this batch of parts, Ye Yun understood why 20 Ground Gundams could be produced (by the way, is there really only 20 Ground Gundams in the UC now? It looks like it's almost 40). The production line at the Federation Forces headquarters really had some serious problems.

To solve this problem, Ye Ning simply sent some engineers from Ye's Heavy Industry to the Federal Headquarters to adjust the details of the production line and supervise them in conducting some trial production. Then... then they couldn't leave, so Gao Pu simply made these engineers sent by Ye Ning permanent residents.

In short, after all the trouble, the MS parts coming off the production line at the Federation headquarters are now of acceptable quality. However, for some reason, the various war zones still prefer to obtain parts from Yeh's Heavy Industry and Dawn Heavy Machinery Manufacturing.

"Find someone to try it out immediately. Test all high-consumption parts in the first batch..." So, Ye Yun pondered for a moment and nodded. After all, this matter was directly related to life and death. The biggest difference between space and the ground is that there are Zeon mobile suit units operating near Luna 2, and the possibility of being ambushed is very high. Ye Yun didn't want to gamble on whether his subordinates would have any good luck when they were ambushed by Zeon.

“Okay…” Rachel looked miserable. This was obviously a big project, and to be honest, it might be quite annoying.

"Doris, go help." Ye Yunkongjian glanced at Doris, who looked like she was about to burst out laughing, and decisively added insult to injury.

"Pfft..." Now it was Rachel's turn to laugh out loud. Great, everyone gets a hard job, and no one can escape it! That's fair.

"Ye Yun... I didn't offend you, you bastard!" Doris waved her fist at Ye Yun. This job of inspecting parts was never a good one; it required extremely careful and tedious operations.

"You can bring in the mechanics here to do it. After all, their counterparts on the ground have suffered a lot." Ye Yun shrugged. When they were unpacked, all the parts looked shiny and fine, but once they were installed on the machine and started running, it was a different story.

At first, the self-test was fine, but during use, all sorts of strange malfunctions would soon appear, which made the Federation's mechanics start to suspect that the machine's spirit was unhappy! However, when some parts wore out, the mechanics replaced them with parts produced by Yeh's Heavy Industry or Dawn Heavy Machinery Manufacturing Company, and then there were no problems at all.

The mechanic is about to explode with rage!

We're already busy enough! And you're adding to our troubles?!

After this wave of chaos, both the Federation's logistics mechanics and the pilots preferred to use parts produced by Ye's Heavy Industry and Dawn instead of parts produced by the Federation Army Headquarters Chabro when maintaining their short swords.

"But we'll talk about that later. Let's go check out the transport ship that's going to be assigned to us." We settled our own things in, then rolled our eyes at Rachel and Doris.

Because they needed to carry as many short sword parts as possible this time, Ye Yun and his group's luggage had been compressed to the limit. All clothing, including underwear, would be prepared by the space military upon arrival in space; they were only allowed to bring a small suitcase.

However, the ladies still managed to bring some personal care items, since their salaries as Ye Yun's senior assistants were enough for Rachel and Doris to buy themselves the most premium products. So their luggage almost exceeded the standard for this mission.

Rachel and Doris even set their sights on Gao Long and Ye Yun... and because Ye Yun was a high-ranking officer, they were more lenient with him. In fact, of the three suitcases labeled with Ye Yun's name, only one actually belonged to him.

"Okay!" The group nodded quickly, and Ye Yun followed them as they floated towards the hangar.

"Wow..." The hangar of the Earth Federation Forces headquarters fortress Luna 2 is a spectacular sight. The entire hangar is filled with giant steel ships. Just one glance at such a fleet is enough to understand the Earth Federation Forces' incredibly terrifying "foundation" (for details, refer to the British Navy's naval review at its peak).

The only drawback was that sparks were flying near many of the giant ships, indicating that intensive repairs were underway. The decisive battle in the L5 airspace, broadly speaking, had a profound impact on the Earth Federation Forces; it almost represented a defeat in a conceptual systemic struggle.

To put it mildly, the Earth Federation Space Force fleet suffered enormous damage. Even now, several months later, a large number of warships are still under repair, and the total combat power of the Earth Federation Space Force has declined by nearly half.

"Is this our warship? It's such a crude and simple design!" Doris looked at her warship drifting past, her eyes showing a hint of surprise.

Because this ship was like a battlefield conversion, with a Magellan-class ship simply and crudely having a hull added around it, the aircraft battleship kicked open the coffin lid and crawled out of the grave!

The Trafalgar-class is classified as a space assault carrier. In other words, it's a frontline fleet carrier that operates alongside the main fleet. It represents a kind of conceptual "experiment" by the Federation Space Forces.

However, this attempt clearly resulted in the loss of Magellan's original ship design, leading to insufficient propulsion, reduced speed, and a host of other problems. Ultimately, it was not put into mass production or underwent major modifications; it was simply left as is after the experiment ended.

“He can carry…60 Swordfish. After conversion, the Federation Space Force believes that he can carry at least 24 Daggers. That’s an incredibly terrifying carrying capacity!” Rachel’s eyes flickered as she looked at the huge hangars on both sides of the Trafalgar-class aircraft.

“But that’s the problem. All the designs are based on mounting fighter jets and assault boats. The hangar, from its size to its tool storage, is not designed for mobile suits…” Ye Yun shrugged. “So this ship has been modified to be barely usable for mobile suits, with a maximum capacity of 12 aircraft and three squads. If we want to achieve a capacity of 24 aircraft, we might need to wait four months for emergency modifications. To be honest, that’s impossible.”

"In other words, this ship is practically our private vessel?" Doris's eyes flickered. Twelve units? Squadron 666, plus Ye Yun and Gao Long, already has ten Daggers! Isn't this ship their carrier?

"Yes, Rebil's meaning is similar. After all, Squadron 666's situation is special, and Rebil doesn't want them to have too much interaction with other Federation MS pilots." Ye Yun sighed. The fact that Sima and the others weren't executed was already a mercy from the Earth Federation, considering their "usefulness." Even if they were deceived accomplices, they were still remembered by millions... there's no need for explanation... it's simply tragic. "By the way... Rachel, you'll be meeting with our trainees later, so get ready."

“Okay!” Rachel nodded without saying anything.

"Wait a minute..." someone suddenly realized something, "So I won't be the only one going to check the parts later!"

"Um... my condolences."

Chapter 71 MS Training Battalion Roster

"Sit down..." Ye Yun, after entering the room, simply returned the salute to the person who saluted him, and gestured to the group of excellent trainee MS pilots of the Space Force who stood up in front of him. They were basically converted from space fighter pilots, so they were wearing standard spacesuits. Ye Yun, wearing a formal suit, didn't look so much like an MS pilot.

"Yes!" The voices weren't very uniform; they were rather scattered.

"To be honest, the Federation Army still treats people somewhat like dirt. I just finished my MS training on the ground and was kicked to the far south of space to build another one." After everyone sat down, Ye Yun tugged at his collar and unbuttoned two buttons, which was a signal of relaxation. Coupled with a joke, it eased the serious atmosphere a lot. Even just to support their future instructor, most of the trainees smiled.

"I won't waste time with self-introductions. You should know who I am. My resume is the same as what you know. That's right, I was specially recruited, but my combat record is verifiable. I have destroyed 5 Zeon MS so far, ranking 9th in the Federation's total kill count. Your instructor, Gao Long, including yesterday's unlucky guy, has 10 Zaku and 1 Musai-class light cruiser. He's a double ace! Second in the entire Federation!" Ye Yun shrugged. "All the basic movement data for the short sword comes from him and Nores, who is ranked first."

"Oh!" The Federation pilots below, both men and women, cheered. They were so excited that they started banging on the table.

After all, they were pilots, and they all had a bit of a hero complex about them. So whether Ye Yun got in through connections or not didn't matter to them. What mattered was that he was the Federation Army's 9th ranked MS fighter in terms of kills—an ace! That was the biggest point of recognition for them! It was far more valuable than Ye Yun's colonel status!

Not to mention their instructors are currently the second-best in the Earth Federation Forces! If they could learn a thing or two from them, those Zeon guys would be better off dead!

"Quiet down!" Ye Yun made a pressing motion with his palm, and the venue quickly quieted down. "However, right now, there is a very real problem: you don't have enough time to learn. Although you have completed the basic driving knowledge and simulator training, in fact, there are not enough industrial engineers to give you practical training. All the industrial engineers are repairing ships."

Ye Yun spread his hands as he spoke. The Earth Federation Forces had been a long-time customer of Ye's Heavy Industry. So after Ye Yun and Kinias started their business together, they also promoted industrial machines to the Earth Federation Forces. Both the Earth Forces and the Space Forces purchased a batch of these machines, including the latest model of the Industrial Rio.

Of course, Ye Yun was also quite curious as to why the Earth Federation Forces didn't send these Industrial Rio pilots for conversion training. After all, these guys were already used to the Dawn Heavy Machinery Manufacturing Company's driving system, which was theoretically the fastest to train.

Ye Yun didn't dare ask Rebil this question, but instead asked Tiam in a low voice. Tiam didn't hide anything and explained the reason to Ye Yun very straightforwardly. There were two reasons. First, "they are logistics soldiers." Logistics soldiers don't necessarily like going to the front line, and the system is also different. Switching depends on personal willingness. Of course, those who are willing to switch are already in front of Ye Yun.

The second reason: "The Federation fleet suffered heavy losses in the previous phase and has been bleeding continuously." In short, not only has the Federation's wounds not yet been healed, but also because the Federation Space Force is not a real fleet, they have been embroiled in a battle with the Zeon fleet in low orbit. Although the fleet's losses may not be large, today it's one Magellan, tomorrow two Salamis-class ships, the day after tomorrow a Columbus transport ship. Even if they are not sunk, they still need to go into dry dock for repairs. In short, the fleet is constantly losing health.

For example, the entire Columbus transport ship that was originally going to pick up Ye Yun and his fleet was sunk. Of the three Salamis-class light cruisers, two were sunk and the remaining one was seriously damaged. The repair time would be at least a month. And that was only because the last one managed to escape quickly.

Under such circumstances, you tell the Federation Army's logistics department that you want to transfer the backbone of your warship maintenance team to fight?!

Believe it or not, the head of the logistics department will challenge you to a duel! And it has to be a bloody handprint on a life-or-death pact!

No one can stop me from turning you into a mecha servant today.

"However, as you all know, we have sent up a large squadron of MS. Even if we send up a squadron as backup, Luna II now has two squadrons of 32 units for you to use. If there are no unforeseen circumstances, Luna II will also try to produce some on its own."

However, what Ye Yun didn't know was that Luna 2 didn't produce the GAT-01 short sword first, but Industrial Leo. There was no way around it; the maintenance gap was too large. Even if Luna 2 were all tentacle monsters from the Cult of the Machine God, they couldn't withstand such a huge maintenance gap.

I don't know which genius in the logistics department had a sudden inspiration, but since we can forge short swords, we should be able to forge industrial lios! Let's build them first to solve the warship repair problem!

The next day, Kinias received a call asking for Industrial Rio's design blueprints. The Federation Army was willing to pay for them! They were also willing to pay patent fees for every unit manufactured. Kinias did not refuse, after all, it was time for industrial robots to be upgraded after the war, and Industrial Rio was a thing of the past.

Hmm... There was a slight misconception in the middle. By the time Shuguang Heavy Machinery Manufacturing Company had sufficient production capacity and began preparing to develop the next generation of industrial robots, it was already 0082. The market department conducted a market survey and found that the total number of industrial robots that Dilian had phased out exceeded 5000!

Considering the halving of the population and the shrinking market size, it can be basically confirmed that the sales of industrial robots have been directly crushed by this huge number of orders!

The question asked at the time was indeed

The Federation Space Forces, but it was the Earth Federation Forces that got the blueprints, so it wasn't just Luna II in space that was building Industrial Rio, even Chabro was building it!

Because both sides discovered the damn commonality of parts and production lines! If they can produce short swords, they can produce industrial lios! These things are great for repairing airports, fortresses, mobile suits, ships, tanks, transporting cargo, building bases, and more! They're pretty useful, and it seems like they can even be sold later to recoup some costs…

0082 was a year of despair for the marketing department of Shuguang Heavy Machinery Manufacturing Company. They couldn't make ends meet because their biggest customer was now competing with them for market share.

"Report! Colonel Ye!" A girl with long orange-red hair raised her hand high. "I would like to ask a question."

"Please speak... Lieutenant Bianca Carlisle, right?" Ye Yun called out the other party's name with some hesitation.

"Oh! Colonel Ye knows me!?" Bianca looked at Ye Yun with some surprise. Clearly, she was very surprised that Ye Yun could call her by name.

"Let's just consider this a special treatment for beautiful women," Ye Yun shrugged. "But I must say, I've tried my best to remember your names. If I can call you by name, please raise your hand so I can recognize your faces. Disney A. Jung..."

"...Reed Wolff, Charles Gisinham, Franklin Nordonny, Hines Bell, Yazan Gable, Bernard Monshah, Alpha A. Bet, Chap Ed, South Barninger, Terry Sanders..." Ye Yun read out a long list of names, watching as arms were raised, their faces, some young and some composed, were memorized by Ye Yun.

As Ye Yun called out names one by one with his hands behind his back, the conference room, which was packed with over a hundred people, went from initial whispers to complete silence. After all, everyone was slightly surprised by Ye Yun's memory; it was quite difficult for him to memorize the names of a group of complete strangers simply by looking at documents.

"Hmm... Are there any unlucky souls who got called out?" Ten minutes later, Ye Yun frowned and thought for a while before finally asking this question, "Raise your hand to introduce yourselves."

"..." The room fell silent as everyone looked at each other. A minute later, a sudden cheer erupted, followed by enthusiastic applause. Ye Yun called out the names of all of them.

"Alright, now that everyone's introduced themselves, oh, sorry, Lieutenant Bianca, I forgot your question." Ye Yun glanced around and noticed Bianca leaning against the wall with a smile. He suddenly felt a little awkward and said this, which elicited laughter from the crowd.

“No, no, no, I don’t know many of my colleagues either. Thank you for the introduction, Colonel.” Bianca quickly waved her hand, then asked her question, “Colonel, I just wanted to ask which has the advantage in performance, our short sword or the Zaku.”

“This is easy to explain.” Ye Yun took the projection screen controller from Rachel. “Please sit down. This was originally one of the things I wanted to say to encourage you, so just listen carefully now.”

"Everyone, this is a comparison chart made by Dawn Heavy Industry based on the tests conducted on the captured Zeon MS-06F Zaku 2F!" Ye Yun pressed the controller, and the first screen in the PPT was brought up. Next to each of the GAT-01 Dagger and MS-06 Zaku 2, there was a six-dimensional attribute chart.

These six dimensions are: in addition to the three traditional aspects of mobility, defense, and firepower, there are also three other aspects: operating system, cost, and maintenance.

“The cost is not something you need to worry about. You can take a look at the maintenance. The remaining four points—mobility, defense, firepower, and operating system—are what you really need to pay attention to!” Ye Yun gestured for everyone to observe carefully. “Of course, what you are discussing here is basically the data of both sides under standard configuration.”

As for the table, well, Shuguang Heavy Machinery Manufacturing Company shamelessly marked it as having a comprehensive advantage in mobility, defense, and firepower. Apart from mobility and firepower, which are indeed areas where they have a significant advantage, they also have a huge lead over the Zaku II in defense! Such a description caused a chorus of exclamations throughout the conference room.

Chapter 72 The Art of Drawing and Eating Cakes

The data from Dawn Heavy Machinery Manufacturing Company isn't actually wrong. The Short Sword's mobility is indeed slightly better than the Zaku II, but that's only if you don't use a shield! Its defense also seems to be slightly better than the Zaku, even the Zeon forces acknowledge that, but that's only if you use a shield!

Therefore, defense and mobility become a Schrödinger's cat effect! One of them has to be less than perfect...

As for firepower, there's not much to say; the 120mm Zaku machine gun can't compete with the Federation Army's 100mm machine gun and TYPE59 90mm machine gun.

Rumors suggest that the pressure from the Zeon forces' weak armor protection against the short swords and the Zaku's poor firepower has reached the Zeon R&D department. They have begun placing orders to develop machine guns specifically for MS combat. However, at present, the 120mm machine gun, with its insufficient armor-piercing capability, remains the Zeon's mainstay at the front lines, and large-scale replacement may not be so easy.

So after Ye Yun explained the advantages and disadvantages of his own short sword and the enemy's Zaku to them, he made a "shh" gesture.

"For Lieutenant Bianca's sake, I'll show you something good!" Ye Yun's lips curled up. "An experimental video that Shuguang Heavy Machinery Manufacturing Company and Ye's Heavy Industry just completed! Remember to sign the confidential documents at the door later."

"Airspace cleared, release animals allowed." A clear electronic voice rang out in the communication amidst the completely black screen.

"Understood, the nest hatch is open." As the hatch opened, whether it was dawn or dusk, orange light shone into the cabin, and the two short swords reflected a warm glow in the sunlight.

"So beautiful! Wait... look at that Short Sword in the corner!" The group of MS pilots, who had never been to Earth, only momentarily marveled at the scenery before their attention was drawn to the Short Sword in the far left corner. Also kneeling, it was bathed in sunlight, drawing everyone's gaze! This wasn't because its kneeling posture was slightly different from the other two...

"What is that? A thruster? It's huge!" Everyone was buzzing with excitement!

"Rainbow Trout Squad, Endless Battlefield, Deploy!" With the command, two short swords were launched directly from the cockpit. In the air, the short sword used for the camera's view clearly had its thrusters ignited, seemingly at maximum capacity, but still…

"Whoosh..." Bright flames shot out from the back of the huge thruster, carrying the short sword at a speed far exceeding that of another short sword without a backpack, heading straight for a small city in the distance... well... perhaps it should be described as colorful. That's right, it's the training base near the Chuanbei Base, the Earth Federation's "Endless Battlefield".

Within seconds, the short sword with the backpack had disappeared from the camera's view.

The video ended there, but everyone in the room fell silent instantly. What does that mean? Do we even need to ask?

Terrifying acceleration, terrifying top speed, and look at the numerous movable surfaces on its thrusters—its maneuverability at low speeds is probably just as good! What does this mean?

It seems some kind of high-performance monster with ferocious mobility just flashed past them?!

Ye Yun didn't tell them that Nores, who was serving as the test pilot, had descended from the sky that day, using raid tactics to take down a small squad of enemy mobile suits in one go, then crushed the enemy's long-range artillery. In the desperate eyes of the battalion commander of the mechanized battalion who had been beaten, he activated all thrusters, took off on the spot, and swaggered away.

Yes, a high-mobility backpack isn't a flight backpack; it can't give the Dagger the ability to fly. But if you talk to the mechanized battalion commander participating in the exercise about this, he'll definitely fight you! What, theoretically, a single refueling and a maximum range of no more than 100 kilometers doesn't count as flying, right? Come on, let's discuss how far the first human-made aircraft flew! Was it even 500 meters?

answer me!

This doesn't count as flying?! So I just got beaten up for nothing?!

In short, when a short sword swooped down from the sky, the impact on the beating mechanized battalion and MS units was no less than that on the Federation recruits who had just arrived at the training ground, facing the veterans' customary welcoming ceremony on the endless battlefield...

A large-scale MS cluster is charging!

Such a charge often shatters the panicked recruits' formation, allowing the veterans to happily drink beer and soda while watching the recruits run laps that evening.

"This is..." To this group of space fighter pilots, this scene might be more than just "being able to fly." In space, these space fighter pilots are far more sensitive to speed than mobile suit pilots! In fact, they are much more sensitive!

They had previously reviewed the performance comparison between the Dagger and the Zaku, and the Dagger's propulsion was superior to that of the MS-06F Zaku F, the current mainstay mobile suit of the Zeon forces!

However, in the footage just now, the short sword looked at the short sword equipped with thrusters, and then disappeared from sight after about ten seconds. At this moment, the group of former pilots regretted most that they were so shocked that they forgot to time it; otherwise, they could probably have calculated the approximate speed…

Lieutenant Baning (whose rank was not found at this time) kicked Bianca under the table, and when Bianca turned around excitedly, he gave her a look signaling her to continue asking Ye Yun questions.

"Colonel Ye Yun, what is this? Is it the latest modified short sword?" Bianca immediately raised her hand, and this time she didn't wait for Ye Yun to call her name before asking the question!

"No, this isn't a modification. It's currently a top-secret Federal Army information. However, since you're about to become MS pilots, you also have the right to read related classified information." Ye Yun deliberately kept them in suspense, shrugging at the eager looks in the eyes of the group of pilots. "The Dagger belongs to Project 'G,' the second phase of development, the backpack system!"

"Yay!" A cheer erupted instantly!

"..." Ye Yun reached out and pressed the controller on his hand. The PPT projected the image. In addition to the huge thruster and the aircraft composed of a large number of movable wings that they had seen on the screen before, two backpacks were also shown. One looked ordinary and seemed to be a sword hilt connected to a canister. The matching medium shield was made with a pointed bottom, revealing a section of the Gatling gun muzzle below. The other one... looked very exciting. A thick tube! A huge energy tube. It was obvious at a glance that this was not a peaceful thing.

"Phase II of Project G, the backpack system, with three configurations: mobility, melee, and artillery, can better suit the pilot's combat style and improve the equipment diversity when forming a squad." Ye Yun's explanation was clear and simple. "And this time, if you perform well, the Federation Army may consider prioritizing the deployment of the first batch of backpack systems at Luna 2 Base to improve the defense situation around the base."

If you perform well... XX will consider giving you priority in this and that...

The above sentence structure is a classic example of a boss making empty promises, and subordinates have a very high success rate in fulfilling them! After all, it's just a consideration, not a promise! So sometimes, you still have to put it in writing!

At least the group of elite Federation pilots in front of them were excited and cheered. Even veteran pilots like Baninger clapped with smiles on their faces.

It must be said that if it weren't for the two people eavesdropping outside the door, Ye Yun's morale-boosting pie-in-the-sky rhetoric would have been very successful.

"Has the backpack system development progressed this far?" Under the trembling gaze of the guard beside him, Rebil crossed his arms, his expression full of amusement. This little guy was truly amusing; he was practically a born general, using his skillful, layered rhetoric to boost the morale of his soldiers to such an extent…

“After all, Ye’s Heavy Industry and Dawn only just obtained the technical data for Operation V. The artillery backpack and sword backpack are still being modified at an accelerated pace. It is estimated that it will take at least another 20 days before they can enter trial production and fully complete the research and development. As for the high mobility backpack, most of the experiments have been completed, and it is estimated that it is not far from small-batch production.” Standing behind Rebil, Gao Yunfei quickly answered Rebil’s question. As a technical officer, he was particularly impressed by this.