Gundam, driving a mass-produced machine will change the world

Eli was surrounded by darkness, lying on the back of the Zaku cockpit with his eyes closed, resting.

From the outside, all the markings on this Zaku have been erased, only half of its shoulder shield remains, and its only weapon is a heat axe. At this point in time, you could buy a Zaku in much better condition on the black market or from recyclers, suitable for engineering modifications or as a private collector.

But there was no other way; Eli and his men didn't have much time. Even the Roo Trading Company, if they were to bring in a Zaku from nearby, would only be of this caliber. However, considering that Eli would be appearing as a remnant of Zeon this time, it would be strange if they actually managed to get a fully armed Zaku.

Is this old guy leaking?

Xiaolin's voice came through the communicator.

"No, it's perfectly airtight; you could throw it directly into space."

Eli opened his eyes, reached up and pressed a few buttons on the top of his head to check the machine's condition. Despite its somewhat pitiful appearance, the Zaku's internal condition was actually quite good.

Yes, Zaku is currently passing through a river in this area. It has been slowly navigating from Tokyo Bay before finally arriving in Hanoi to wait silently.

The only bridge in this area capable of supporting MS passage is right above Zaku's head.

"But is it really okay? The way to drive a Zaku is completely different from the Federation's."

"Don't worry, there's no such thing as adaptive gear change for me. But you, are you alright? You're the leader of Karaba."

Not only Eli, but Kobayashi and another Karaba pilot were also waiting in the river in their Zaku. The three mobile suits were under the bridge, waiting for Nagim's arrival.

The difference is that the other two Zaku are equipped with long-range firepower, one with a Zaku machine gun and the other with a rocket launcher.

"Aren't you still Ander Tek's leader? It's all the same."

As Kobayashi spoke, his hands were already gripping the control stick of the Zaku. Ironically, the Karaba, whose main members were Federation veterans, relied on the Zaku as its primary force for quite some time in its early days, so Kobayashi was quite familiar with the Zaku. He just hadn't expected that Eli, who had been piloting Federation-type mobile suits from the very beginning, would have such confidence.

"coming soon."

The voices from the observation team outside silenced Eli and Kobayashi, who immediately sat up straight in the driver's seat, their hands already on the control stick. Soon, the sonar picked up intermittent acoustic signatures—the signal that Jim was approaching.

Soon, the sound subsided, and instead, the schools of fish that had been patrolling around Zaku hurriedly left the area—Jim had already come up above them.

"action!"

Without Eli's command, the last Zaku activated its single-eye monitor, raised its rocket launcher, and fired a rocket directly upwards!

In the violent explosion, the bridge collapsed, taking the GM that was walking on it with it and plunging straight into the water! The GM reacted quickly, drawing its beam rifle in the process, and its head-mounted Vulcan cannon had already begun firing at a fan-shaped area in front of it without any line of sight, trying to buy itself more time.

This set of maneuvers was not only standard, but also reflected his highly skilled driving technique as a Titans pilot.

But he was facing Eli.

GM's head was cleaved in two by a heat axe swinging from above, and its Vulcan cannon immediately went silent. The GM quickly reacted, its beam rifle already activating its thrusting attack.

Damn Zeonians, at least one of them needs to be replaced!
"boom!"

The Jim didn't puncture anything, but the cockpit was punched in the torso, and the driver inside unsurprisingly passed out.

Eli reached out and grasped the GM's beam rifle in his hand. Thanks to E-PACK technology, even a Zaku could activate this beam weapon simply by pulling the trigger.

As for the interface protocol? They really think they're remnants of the Zeon regime?

The water surged and bulged, and then three Zaku jumped out of the water one after another. Kobayashi and another Zaku landed on the road, while Eli found a building and jumped directly to its top floor.

The moment they landed, the single-eyed monitor swept to the right and focused on a helicopter. It was the newspaper plane that was tracking Jim, and it was clearly still reeling from the fact that "one Jim got off and three Zakus got on," and was still circling around.

Without Eli's prompting, Kobayashi raised the Zaku machine gun on his vehicle and fired a few shots into the sky, scaring the helicopter away.

This place will soon become a battlefield, and Eli wants to minimize the impact on ordinary people.

The Titans reacted quickly. Less than five minutes after the three Zaku were in the area, a Swordfish flew in from the direction of the base in the city and launched missiles at Kobayashi.

Kobayashi first used movement and shoulder shields to protect himself from the missiles. Seeing that the opponent had pulled up its nose and he was out of the opponent's firing range, he turned around and used the Zaku machine gun to destroy one of its wings. The Swordfish spun and fell from the sky, leaving a parachute slowly descending.

In such a short time, Minovsky particles have spread throughout this area, just like during the One Year War, the threat of fighter jets to mobile suits has been significantly reduced due to radar interference.

"coming."

Standing atop the building, Eli looked up at a Median mobile suit in the sky, undoubtedly transported directly from the city base. The Swordfish that had just flown in was likely there to conduct preliminary reconnaissance and create opportunities for the subsequent mobile suit forces to enter the battlefield.

Sure enough, the Midia flew straight through the sky, and behind it fell three GMs!
Unfortunately, these three machines were not Eli's target.

"Buzz, buzz, buzz"

Three shots, three hits. The three GMs were crippled in mid-air and could only crash to the ground or onto residential buildings. No further action was needed; the pilots inside were knocked unconscious by the impact of the fall and could no longer fight.

Eli's display of combat prowess was truly terrifying to the Titans. The Mediar even increased its altitude again to avoid being attacked. Inside the Mediar, another sniper GM was on high alert, intending to coordinate with its teammates for aerial sniping, but instead, it became the one being sniped!
"New reinforcements have arrived, but the base outside the city is still not active."

Eli frowned as the observer in Karaba remarked. Ultimately, it was because there were only three Zaku units present, and they hadn't caused any greater damage; therefore, the Federation military still considered the forces at one base sufficient to handle the situation.

More pressure needs to be applied.

"laugh--"

Missiles trailing long plumes of flame flew from the coast and headed straight for the base in the city! At this moment, the staff in the port were all looking on in astonishment as a container ship on an ordinary cargo ship was constantly launching missiles.

These missiles, of course, achieved little success; the air defenses of a single base could easily have taken them out. However, this meant that the base was temporarily unable to launch and deploy troops to attack Eli and his forces again under poor air conditions. Therefore, a base outside the city finally took action; a three-plane Midia formation had left the runway and was heading towards the city.

After ordering the observers next to the base to retreat, Eli jumped down from the building, smashing the pavement as he turned to look at Kobayashi's Zaku.

"Give me all your weapons, and you can retreat first."

As Eli spoke, he reached out and took the Zaku machine gun that Kobayashi handed him. Soon, another Zaku also handed him its rocket launcher. Eli first hung the Zaku machine gun on his lower back, then took the rocket launcher with his left hand, still holding the beam rifle in his right arm. Finally, he secured the thermal axe to the half-destroyed shoulder shield, and Eli was ready to fight.

Behind him, two Zaku tankers had already been launched back into the water.

Eli, fully armed, slowly moved into the shadows of the building. Urban warfare and field warfare are fundamentally different, and in an attack of this magnitude, the Titans were absolutely required not to cause excessive damage to the city.

Therefore, actions such as suppressing enemy positions with artillery fire and destroying bunkers are absolutely unacceptable. The Titans will only engage the enemy with low-powered beam rifles and close-range beam weapons, just like the few Rem units in the Battle of Torrington in the Unicorn.

"coming!"

Eli raised his head, his gaze piercing through the obstruction of the machine, quickly capturing the three GM IIs that were falling.

Yes, unlike the less heavily armed bases in the city, the bases outside the city have been upgraded with GM IIs, which is not good news for Eli.

A Zaku fighting a Jim is a perfect match. A Zaku II fighting a Jim II is suicide.

That means it's Eli; otherwise, the others should be thinking about how to survive the upcoming battles.

This time, Eli did not intend to strike first, but continued to hide among the buildings, aiming his rocket launcher forward.

Even without any support, Eli had the enemy's movements under his control. And when the GM II, shield raised, peeked out from around the corner, Eli opened fire!

A rocket exploded beneath its feet before the GM II could even react. Its legs flashed red, triggering a damage warning, and the machine lost its balance, kneeling on one knee. But the GM II didn't give up. It used its shield to protect itself, raised its beam rifle to calibrate the Zaku, and pulled the trigger.

Eli had already moved his position before that, and the low-convergence beam only hit a building, blasting through cement and melting glass, but posed no threat whatsoever to its original target.

Why didn't you shoot me down just now?

That rocket could have easily hit and destroyed the Jim II on the spot, so the damaged Jim II driver had a question in his mind.

Just as he leaned against the building, panting and staring intently at the roads on both sides, his teammates arrived as reinforcements—

"boom!"

Another rocket exploded! This time, it nearly made the Jim II pilot's heart leap out of his chest, but he was unharmed. Looking at the screen in front of him, he realized his squad had lost a member.

Surround the wounded and attack the reinforcements.

Eli was executing this tactic. The Zaku moved at high speed through the city streets, carelessly discarding its empty rocket launcher and replacing it with a Zaku machine gun, already raised and aimed at the next intersection. There lay the last operational GM-2.

“Da da da da”

Eli fired, but he aimed it at the sky!

The most important aspect of the strategy of surrounding and attacking reinforcements is to maintain constant suppression of enemies from all directions. However, the Zaku, with only one unit, obviously could not do this. After the second Midia dropped the MS squad it carried, Eli's tactics collapsed directly.

Eli didn't care and fired the Zaku machine gun at the landing GM II until it was completely abandoned, just like the rocket launcher.

The three newly arrived GMs all used their shields to block the attack. Things were different now; the Zaku machine guns couldn't penetrate the GM II shields at all. However, none of the three GMs were careless, because this Zaku, for some reason, could use a beam rifle.

Fortunately, according to information provided by the city base, the Zaku's beam rifle can only fire a maximum of two more times.

The three GMs occupied the three intersections respectively, and then advanced together towards Eli's location, eliminating the possibility of being ambushed from the side.

"I hope you have already paid off your loan."

Eli, across an apartment building, aimed at a Jim II on the opposite street. As he apologized to the residents of the apartment building, he fired a shot that pierced the Jim II's chest!
The nuclear furnace did not detonate.

After taking down one GM II in one shot, the Zaku's back thrusters suddenly flashed, propelling Eli upwards! The two GM IIs, already on guard, simultaneously raised their beam rifles and launched an attack on Eli.

The power pipe on the side of the waist was broken.

Eli frowned; the differences between the various models had ultimately cost him. While the external power pipe layout greatly improved space utilization and power transmission, it also brought more driving precautions to the driver.

Upon landing, Eli raised his beam rifle and aimed it at the intersection in front of him, firing before the GM II could even appear. Without waiting to confirm the outcome, Eli maneuvered the Zaku to the side, smashing through a nearby building and sprinting onto another street.

At this moment, Zaku's last weapon, the heat axe, was already in his hands, but it was not directly heated.

It's time to retreat.

Eli is now driving the Zaku rapidly toward the river.

Warning signs suddenly appeared!

Eli pulled the control lever back sharply, which resulted in the Zaku suddenly shifting its center of gravity backward, its legs carving two marks on the road.

In front of Zaku, several beams of light fell almost vertically, scorching unsightly red scars on the road surface.

A mobile suit swept across the sky and then slowly descended in front of Eli.

Without any ranged weaponry, Byarlan appeared before Eli. (End of Chapter)