UC will eventually reach the stars

“Hmm! That’s an ambitious idea.” Rebil nodded. For a soldier, hanging up the head of the enemy leader to atone for his sins was a pretty good idea. “So, what are Ye’s Heavy Industries’ preparations?”

“Aside from the lack of military armor plates, they’ve managed to gather production components for 120 MS units. The production line is almost ready. As long as we give our approval, Ye’s Heavy Industry is confident that we can deliver more than 500 MS units by July, including subsequent improved models.” Gao Pu lightly tapped the table. He had been quite impressed by Ye Ning’s confident and excited expression at the time. Little fox, your ambition is truly great.

“This is truly a big move.” Rebil’s eyes became more serious. “Why are they willing to gamble? After all, although we have indeed suffered some losses in small-scale battles, large-scale fleet battles are not what they imagine.”

“Cost, ship maintenance cycle, attack investment, and historical background.” Gough sighed. “In the old Western calendar, aircraft carriers replaced battleships. He believes that in the future, mobile suits will become the new ‘dive bombers and torpedo bombers’.”

"..." Rebil's eyes held a hint of admiration. "It's a pity I didn't get to meet him. Since the GAT-00 Leo you tested wasn't his finished product, what's the finished product called?"

"GAT-01 Short Sword".

"A short sword? That sounds good."

Chapter Fourteen: The Fall

“This is…” Sera looked up at the sky, where crimson points of light hung high in the sky.

"Ah...yes, the Federation space fleet's final interception failed, the main area of ​​Side 2."

"Iphishu Island..." Aina stood beside Sera, her eyes also fixed on the red dot in the sky. Having grown up on a space colony, they felt a particularly complex mix of emotions about this. "Zeon and the Zabi have completely gone mad."

Ye Ning looked up at the sky. "The latest news is that, thanks to the relentless attacks of the Federal Fourth Fleet and other counter-attack forces, the colony satellite has just disintegrated and broken into three pieces." Ye Ning looked up at the sky, a hint of sadness in his eyes.

"Will the damaged area be smaller this way?" Sera looked at the crimson spot of light, without looking down.

"No, no. According to my calculations, because the colony satellite is too large, the falling debris cannot be burned up by the atmosphere. Therefore, after the disintegration... the debris will cause huge damage to the entire Earth Sphere. Even if Chabro escapes the disaster, it will be a more widespread and devastating blow to the Earth Sphere. In fact, because of the disintegration, the disaster will spread to many places throughout the Earth Sphere."

At this point, Kinias paused for a moment, "Although they failed to achieve their goal of destroying the Federation headquarters in Chabro, they did significantly weaken the Earth Sphere's production capacity. Moreover, post-war disaster relief will consume a lot of the Federation's resources, and the number of people killed will directly weaken the Federation's human resources. In terms of objectives, Zeon succeeded."

"Because of this bastard's nonsense, when you set up Shuguang Heavy Machinery Manufacturing Company, Ye's Heavy Industry's establishment of a large-scale industrial cluster in the mainland to support it can be considered a blessing in disguise! But damn it!" Ye Ning clenched his fingers as he crossed his arms, looking at the increasingly crimson light in the sky, his voice becoming even colder.

"I suddenly understood why my brother shouted that he wanted to hang the heads of everyone in the Zabi family on the SIDE2 wreckage. There are tens of millions of people on this satellite, how could they..." Ye Ning closed his eyes as he said this, his chest heaving rapidly, clearly indicating that intense emotions were brewing within him.

“The Zabi family has always been gamblers. As long as they can succeed, they don’t mind putting other people’s lives, their own lives, on the table, no matter how many… as long as they can win.” Kinias said emotionlessly, “The best chance to stop them has passed, and it’s too late to say anything now.”

"Ah, too late!" Aina took a deep breath. "The emergency evacuation orders have all been issued. Although my brother's calculations suggest we won't be hit by a large amount of debris, we still need to be prepared. The sun will rise as usual tomorrow, and what we need to do is make the Zabi family and Zeon pay for what they've done!"

“Yes, the grudge against the Sakhalin family can also be settled at the same time.” Ye Ning reached out and patted Kinias on the shoulder.

Kinias raised his hand and pressed down on Ye Ning's palm. "Ah, it seems the backpack development project needs to be accelerated. We can make the Federation stronger, and make the Zabi family lose even faster!"

"Young Master Kinias, Miss Aina, Miss Ye Ning, Miss Sera, please enter the shelter." Norres bowed slightly and said to the group. He had been instructed by Ye Yun to keep the group in the underground air-raid shelter until the colony satellite crashed to the ground.

“Okay.” Aina nodded without refusing, and turned to leave the terrace. The others also looked up again at the red dots that were gradually separating in the sky, their eyes flickered, and then turned to leave.

"..." When everyone left, one person stood still.

"Sera?" Aina, who had deliberately lagged behind, looked at Sera, who was still staring intently at the sky, with some confusion.

“…I want to return to SIDED5.” Sera took a deep breath. She felt a primal sense of sin. No matter how you explain it, the government of SIDE3 was named after the bloodline that she inherited. Even if the Zabi family usurped the throne, it couldn’t change the fact that this was the Principality of Zeon. This was Zeon!

"The rescue team Ye Yun mentioned?" Ye Ning looked at Sera. "It's only a matter of time before SIDE5 is attacked. You should go back now..."

“If SIDE5 is destroyed, we’ll go to SIDE6. If SIDE6 can’t accommodate us, we’ll go to SIDE7.” Sera gave a wry smile. “I’m sorry, I know this is selfish, but I think someone has to do something.”

"..." Ye Ning paused for a moment, "Ye Yun has now joined the Federation Army, and he definitely won't have the strength to manage his resource recovery fleet in the short term. I'll make the decision: the entire fleet Ye Yun has built will be yours. All of the Ye family's institutions in space will unconditionally support your operation. This time, it's not for profit, but simply for..." Ye Ning covered his forehead, "I must be crazy. This is correct, but it's a completely money-losing job! But go, Sera!"

Then Ye Ning sighed, "Let's go, let's wait for this damn suffocating container to fall, and then... then we'll do everything we can. Sure enough, I'm still not cold-blooded enough."

"Thank you!" Ye Ning's words touched a soft spot in Sera's heart, who was feeling somewhat sorrowful. "This time, perhaps we need to do something as much as we can." Sera nodded. She knew the general situation of the transport fleet that Ye Yun had set up. There were four medium and small transport ships in total, which could transport about one or two thousand people at a time.

Don't be fooled by the small number of people. On a spaceship, the payload is strictly limited. Air, food, water, space—everything is strictly limited. Even at the maximum load, the maximum is only 20% above the limit.

Of course, the carrying capacity of large transport ships is certainly considerable, but the operating and maintenance costs of large transport ships are beyond what Ye Yun's current small-scale operations can afford. Therefore, it is better to buy more small ships for greater flexibility and maneuverability.

However, this is already a very good start for Sera. The Maas family is not just a small family with a few estates. Diablo Maas had already agreed to let Sera use some of the Maas family's resources.

"Let's go. There's nothing we can do right now, so the most important thing is to survive. Only by surviving can we help more people." Ye Ning turned and walked into the passage. They needed to enter a large underground air-raid shelter that the Ye family had found. After renovation, it had regained its NBC (nuclear, biological, and chemical) protection capabilities and even had a certain degree of circulating protection capability. But that wasn't important to Ye Ning and his group. As long as they could avoid the first possible impact of debris, that would be enough.

In contrast to the others who hid in the basement, Ye Yun, dressed in a Federation military uniform, after roughly confirming that no large fragments would fall nearby, simply ordered all the MS test pilots and their accompanying soldiers to hide in the trenches dug near the air-raid shelter, directly watching the entire process of the SIDE2 main island, Iphishu Island, disintegrating, shattering, and falling from the sky.

“Zeon’s bastards…” A group of people listened silently as Ye Yun simply and stiffly recited the basic data of the fallen SIDE2 main island: length, width, height, weight, volume, internal volume, steel required for construction, federal tax revenue consumed, and most importantly… how many people lived on Iphishu Island.

"What are the space fleets doing? They're taking up so much funding, and they haven't done anything?"

"The Fourth Fleet intercepted, but failed, while the main fleet... is preparing for a decisive battle with the Zeon fleet. If they don't win... how many colony satellites are in the sky..."

"So... do they still plan to invade Earth?"

The soldiers were buzzing with discussion. Undoubtedly, Ye Yun had ignited their anger. So, crouching in the anti-artillery trenches, they didn't feel much fear about the upcoming battle. On the contrary, they began to discuss the war that might break out. This wasn't anticipation, but rather the courage to face war head-on.

At that very moment, Gap, who was also sitting in Chabrolli, silently stroked the photo in front of him twice and sighed, "I'm getting old. I can't be like that little brat, shouting and fighting so fiercely."

Under the covert coordination of the federal government, all propaganda machines began to operate, with an entire Federation fleet taking the lead so that the message brought back by Ye Yun's subordinate Gao Long from SIDE2 could be broadcast throughout the universe through all channels. Because the evidence was conclusive, and SIDE2 had just been pushed into space by the Zeon army, almost no one, except for a small number of die-hard Zeon supporters, could deny one fact.

"Zeon, which claims to have started a revolution for the freedom of space dwellers, is now wielding its butcher's knife against them! These murderers shout about fighting for the interests of space dwellers, and then they exterminate them."

"One billion people! At least one billion people. In the first week of the war, humanity experienced the largest civilian casualties in history."

"This is not friendly fire in battle! This is a massacre! Everyone in the Principality of Zeon has more than three lives on their hands!"

Driven by money and power, such propaganda, using footage of the crash of Iphishu Island in Side 2 as background, was broadcast continuously throughout the Federation, and even Side 3 had some circulation on a small scale.

After all, not everyone within Zeon is a supporter of the Zabi family; quite a few people still harbor strong aversion towards them.

Finally, amidst this commotion, the engineering masterpiece built by humankind slammed down on the very home that gave birth to humanity.

On January 16, UC 0079, Ifhis Island broke through the atmosphere and split into three pieces, crashing to the ground. In addition to being hit by one of the pieces, North America also suffered a large amount of debris, resulting in a near-devastating blow.

One section of the ship crashed into the Pacific Ocean, triggering a devastating earthquake and tsunami that nearly flattened the Pacific island nation.

Finally, the portion that crashed into the port of southern Australia physically destroyed Sydney, a major city in southern Australia.

The loss of supplies is negligible, because it is insignificant!

Because the death toll... cannot be counted!

Chapter Fifteen: Rescue and Departure

"Injured personnel, please proceed to the red tents for centralized treatment! Basic supplies can be collected and registration can be done in the green tents. After registration, proceed to the blue tents for temporary accommodation! The Federal Army has begun maintaining order, and all criminal acts will be severely punished!" The message was broadcast automatically in a loop, while staff members wearing Ye's Heavy Industries uniforms were busy setting up tents and organizing young men to help unload cargo from trucks carrying large quantities of goods.

"The federal government people have arrived. They've started opening the war reserve warehouse. Although there's a lot of stuff inside... well... it's better than nothing!" Sera said, nodding to Ye Ning as he walked in.

"You need to get used to it first. Dealing with refugees, dealing with bureaucrats, and figuring out how to control these people. Ye Yun thinks that if you really want to go to space, we need time to coordinate, and you also need some time to adapt to all of this. I think that little rascal said something pretty good: 'After today, you need to learn how to give your dreams to others.'" Ye Ning shrugged and carefully looked at Sera.

To be honest, Ye Ning had also witnessed Sera's changes over the past few days. She had never imagined that a girl with some ideas could undergo such a significant transformation in such a short period of time.

But, well, she's still just a little girl, and compared to Aina... Ye Ning wouldn't agree to that!

“Yes, simply feeding them isn’t enough. To stabilize their emotions as quickly as possible, we need to find them something to do.” Sera nodded, somewhat helplessly. This was a rather unexpected discovery for Sera. Just feeding these refugees wasn’t enough; providing them with work, even unpaid work, would greatly improve their sense of security.

"It's been tough. Ye's Heavy Industry has over a dozen warehouses here. I don't know when that little bastard Ye Yun hoarded so many canned goods." Ye Ning shook his head as he spoke. "In short, he seems to have made quite a few preparations, planning to make a small fortune, but it looks like he won't have that chance now." Ye Ning put down the electronic version in his hand, which contained a series of statistics. Looking at the numbers, Ye Ning felt somewhat puzzled.

“He didn’t just prepare in these coastal cities.” Sera’s eyes gleamed, out of Ye Ning’s sight. “He seems to have several warehouses on Side 5 and Side 6, stockpiling supplies there as well. But it seems he underestimated everything.” Sera took a deep breath. Supplies that could save a few hundred thousand people might sound like a lot, but against a refugee crisis that could potentially reach hundreds of millions, it was utterly inadequate—no, perhaps a drop in the ocean…

“But someone has to do it, right?” Sera looked at Ye Ning with a smile.

"Okay, good luck. I'll do my best to provide you with support by all available resources." Ye Ning appreciated Sera's idea. "It's all about human effort! By the way, when do you plan to go to space? The situation there... is much more troublesome than here."

“I understand. I’m going to space. Time waits for no one. Survivors in space live for seconds…” Sera felt a tightness in her chest when she thought about this. She didn’t feel any sense of belonging to Zeon, and even felt some aversion to it because of her childhood trauma. At least when the previous head of the Lal family tried to instill Zeon ideology in his brother, Sera never listened.

However, this does not mean that she would not be moved when she heard that "Zeon" had done such a thing, after all... this is the country established by her biological father.

"Yes, that's true. I've already contacted the fleet over there. Luckily, because of the recent outbreak of war, many ship owners are abandoning their vessels." Ye Ning shrugged. The battlefield between the Zeon and Federation forces has expanded to a very large area. Ordinary space transport companies don't dare to go out at all. But if they don't go out... think about the berthing fees, and they still have to support a bunch of crew members. This war is going to last for who knows how long. It looks like it's enough to bankrupt them!

Therefore, many small and medium-sized transportation companies have begun to try to sell off their transport ships.

In the end, Ye's Heavy Industries, with tears in its eyes, bought a large number of small and medium-sized transport ships at a "reasonable" price that even Ye Ning began to feel guilty about (laughing too much can also give you a headache).

The reason for not buying large transport ships is simple: large transport ships are inconvenient to enter many places to carry out rescue operations. Medium-sized ships are often used for medical rescue and transportation missions.

Incidentally, for better rescue efforts, Ye Ning also prepared a batch of "industrial" Leo. Well, it's just that... right now, because they're busy producing short swords, some equipment simply doesn't have time to produce the original Leo components, right? Some "non-compliant" short swords have been installed on these Leo components.

This makes perfect sense!

“Hoo…” Sera took a deep breath, pushed open the curtain and walked out. The city was in ruins. Although it was not directly hit by the debris of the space colony, it could only be described as a mess after being hit by the huge tsunami.

Even so, it was because the land beneath Sierra's feet, even the coastline, was not the first place to bear the impact of the tsunami. The Japanese archipelago, Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, the Philippine Islands, and the islands of Southeast Asia acted like reefs, absorbing most of the impact of the tsunami on the land beneath their feet. But even so, the entire coastline was still a mess in the face of the tsunami.

As for those "reefs"...

You won't want to know what happened.

They are still basically out of contact.

Not to mention the places hit by the shards, which were even more tragic.

So the city, which was devastated by the tsunami, is not so bad now. At least after Ye's Heavy Industries invested resources and manpower, it was able to reorganize its self-rescue efforts, spontaneously begin cleaning up the city, and search for any possible survivors.

This situation caused Sera's hatred for the evil of humanity, which stemmed from war and the fall of the colony, to begin to change. The people in front of her gave her a different feeling; everyone was trying to live, even though some were killing madly.

In a sense, this gave her another reason to go to the rescue, besides the complicated feelings she had because of the name "Zeon"!

"Miss Mas!" Soon, someone recognized Sera. Everyone remembered that this was the girl in front of them who had stepped out of the large group of landing Midia and started organizing them, encouraging them to try their best to save themselves with the support of the federal government and Ye's Heavy Industry.

"Are there enough medicines?" Sera nodded and asked quickly. After a major disaster, there will inevitably be a major epidemic, so it is never too much to emphasize the importance of medicines and disinfection.

“It’s barely enough. All the doctors and caregivers have been mobilized, and now…” The middle-aged man hesitated for a moment, “Miss Maas, you have done your best.”

The critical 72-hour window for rescue has passed, and now almost every survivor found from the rubble is uninjured.

“…I understand.” Sera’s eyes darkened, and she didn’t say much. “Are there any areas that haven’t been searched yet? What equipment do you need? Tell me as soon as possible.” Sera took a deep breath. Her conversation with Ye Ning had ended, and it was almost time for her to head to space. Sera felt that she had to arrange everything that could be arranged before going to space, something she had learned from Ye Ning.

No matter the time, it's better to rely on yourself than on others.

"The Federation has already started distributing disaster relief resources. Apart from the fact that they arrived a bit late, there's nothing to complain about." The middle-aged man shrugged. However, he also knew that the federal government couldn't really be blamed for this. The front lines were still fighting Zeon, and then they encountered such a large-scale disaster. The entire system was in complete disarray. In many cases, it depended entirely on whether there were capable people on the ground to coordinate everything for relief. If the Federation found that there was hope, it would immediately invest more resources. It was cruel, but it was also a reality.

The most realistic answer to the drowning problem is to save the one with the best chance of survival.

The federal government has only so many resources and capabilities, so naturally, it will save whoever survives!

But...would those who didn't receive help really not harbor resentment?

Humans are very strange creatures. Although they generally hate the perpetrators, if others are saved but they are not, they will definitely resent the rescuers. This hatred may even exceed their hatred for the perpetrators.

Sera looked up at the sky. "That's good. I have other things to do now..." Finally, she turned back to Aina behind her. "Could you do me a favor, Miss Aina Sakhalin?"

"?" Having just handed a document to someone nearby, signaling him to call in more machinery, Aina looked at Sera with a puzzled expression. "Sera, is something the matter?"

“Hmm…” Sera suddenly laughed, “I heard you were also on the list to join the Federation Army.”

"?" Aina smiled gently. "Yes, this time, he's really gone mad. I have to keep an eye on him."

"Yes, he's so lucky to have you taking care of him." Sera smiled, stood up, and suddenly gave Aina a big hug.

"Huh?" Aina was puzzled for a moment, but feeling the girl's slightly trembling body, she gently hugged her and patted her back reassuringly, "If you're too tired, come back and rest for a while."

"Thank you, but do you really want me to come back?"

"Hmm... It's okay. If you're tired, come back. Your father is here too."

"Hahaha... Sister Aina, you are so gentle."

"Sera also has a gentle heart."

Chapter Sixteen: Learning Warfare

"Ambushed successfully... Can't the tank units see the mobile suits? What are you doing?! An entire tank platoon was wiped out while it was marching!" William roared angrily into the communicator!

There was no other way. In the battle in this abandoned city, facing the mobile suits operated by skilled pilots who were constantly moving around, the tank units and infantry that were the subjects of the exercise were almost wiped out in an instant. Although some soldiers tried to ambush them a few times with their individual anti-tank weapons, the attack efficiency was simply not good enough.

Putting aside the fact that anti-tank weapons can only disable mobile suits by hitting key locations, they cannot effectively deprive mobile suits of their mobility in other situations. Therefore, in order to gain anti-mobile suit capabilities, the commanders of the Federation's mechanized forces had no choice but to send armored units into the city.

William had no idea that this was the beginning of a true nightmare. Mobile suits roaming and leaping through the city, using their height advantage for observation and aiming, quickly turned and attacked. Not to mention armored units, many times even soldiers could only roughly sense the direction of the approaching mobile suits by the vibrations from their running.

MS (Mobile Suit) doesn't necessarily have to run. If it walks slowly, it makes almost no noise, perhaps not as earth-shaking as a hundred-ton heavy truck coming by. So often, forward reconnaissance teams will unexpectedly encounter MS, like finding love around the corner!

Then it becomes a contest of reaction time and hand speed, but at this point, the mobile suit's reaction time is often faster than that of the armored forces that can pose a threat to the mobile suit.

This isn't a judgment, but a result of actual combat. Even a novice driver could spray a 100mm shell in the face of a Type 61 before it could even point its gun at him. And if luck wasn't on his side and the distance was too close, the Type 61 often had no choice but to try and kill the Dagger before it was shot down.

"Damn it! Damn it!" William frowned. He shouldn't have deployed the Type 61 tanks into the city. He had planned to provide close support across the river on the city's edge, but he didn't expect that Norres, who was passing by, would take out four Type 61 tanks from his tank platoon with just one magazine, without even hindering his subsequent attack on an infantry position in the city.

There's no way around it; for infantry units, or mechanized infantry combat units, these large mechanical units that can unleash twenty or thirty 100mm or larger shells within a 20-meter radius in just a few seconds are simply too deadly.

What's even more deadly is that even though it was a drill, it was exactly the same as what Ye Yun and Sera had experienced before. When humans face such a huge steel giant, it's hard to say that they can overcome their fear and launch an attack smoothly, even if they know that it is their own mobile suit.

Perhaps only veterans who have fought countless battles and disregarded life and death could possess such awareness. But where would the Earth Federation Army, which has enjoyed peace for so long, find such battle-hardened veterans? Even veterans have never seen a 20-meter-tall steel giant charging at them! And this guy even has a 100mm machine gun!

Even though the soldiers knew it was an exercise and the mobile suits were using paint bombs, they couldn't effectively suppress their fear. Therefore, in the exercises so far, the performance of the Federation ground forces could only be described as utterly routed, which understandably infuriated Colonel William!