Why would I join the army if I can’t drive a Gundam!

Chapter 106: Give me a message!
The three squadrons of the Red Dragon Team then deployed an attack formation with three GM tanks, two Type 61 tanks, and one Type 74 air-cushion truck per team, and pressed forward from three directions in one go.

Also taking action at the same time were two battalions of mobile suits from the garrison, a regiment and two battalions of tank units, infantry assisting in the attack, and artillery in the rear. The Federation Army had completely crushed the Zeon Army in terms of combat strength.

"Die, die, you bastards!"

The pilot of a Zaku 2F roared and raised the 120mm machine gun in his hand, firing at the GM battalion attacking not far away. Next to him was a Majla tank trying to find the range of fire. This was also a new equipment designed by the Zeon army for combat in gravity environment.

But it is obvious that the designer must have taken too many hormones since childhood, so he designed such abstract equipment. The appearance of the Magellan tank looks to have a good bullet-proof shape, and with a 175mm main gun, it should be a powerful equipment, but in fact, the turret of this tank is fixed and cannot rotate.

In order to compensate for the problem of fixed direction, Zeon designers creatively invented the Majella's flying turret, allowing the 175mm cannon to detach from the vehicle body and stay in the air for a short period of time.

At this moment, Majla's crew could not find the shooting angle due to the problem of firing range, and could only watch the Zaku firing. So, the commander and gunner in the turret immediately remembered this function.

The Zaku pilot heard the sound of a jet beside him, then turned the monitor and saw a huge cannon flying up, and then fired a shot.

A ball of metal sparks immediately burst out from a Jim's shield, causing it to shake, and then only a huge dent remained on the shield.

"Well done, one more shot!"

The Zaku pilot couldn't help but exclaim in admiration, after all, it was bigger than the one in his hand.

But before Majie could fire the second shot, a beam of light came from a distance and directly evaporated the entire turret.

Before the smile on the Zaku pilot's face froze, a second beam of light shot out and pierced his shoulder.

"You damn cowards!"

The pilot angrily tried to stand up, but several shells flew over again and hit his legs, causing the plane to stagger and kneel on the ground. Then, a third beam of light pierced through his cockpit.

"Keep going, kill them all, leave no one behind!"

Captain Jim, with steam still coming out of the muzzle of his gun, took another step forward, while not forgetting to scold his men.

"Unit 2, you just missed the target!"

"My bad. I haven't used the beam rifle much, so I'm not very skilled. I'll get better after a few more!"

"You'd better get proficient quickly, or go back to firing live ammunition!"

"No!"

Jim's pilot wailed. He was used to using a beam rifle that could shoot whatever he pointed at. Who would still like to use live ammunition?
"Shut up, there are enemies ahead, open fire!"

The Federation pilots now have a clear understanding of the tactics of the Zeon mobile suits, so when they advance, their speed will not be very fast, but they will be able to ensure that they can connect and support each other.

In this way, when the Zeon mobile suits habitually pour out their firepower and then charge with their melee weapons drawn, the Federation Army can eliminate the enemy at a long distance as much as possible.

This is not because Jim's close combat ability is weak. After all, close combat is riskier than long-range firing.

On Macharius's side, after seeing him appear on the battlefield, some Zeon mobile suits, unwilling to accept defeat, launched a direct counterattack from the front.

Although the number of mobile suits counterattacking was small, less than a squadron, half of them were new mobile suits. Obviously, the Zeon pilots were still very optimistic about the power of the Tiger.

"Red Dragon! Kill him!"

After launching a charge from the ruins, the Tiger pilots directly increased the horsepower to the maximum, and while firing with the 120 machine guns in their hands, they began to accelerate and try to close the distance.

"Pay attention to the opponent's whip and left hand. The whip can be electrified, the left hand is a cannon, and the opponent's heat sword is in the shield! Also, the cockpit is not in the chest, but in the abdomen!"

Macharius quickly recognized the tiger rushing in the front. He still remembered the opponent's retractable electric whip. Of course, he didn't think it was that powerful. He even felt that it was not as good as the flying tiger's Gatling shield.

Without hesitation, when the roaring Zeon pilot appeared in his sight, Macharius raised his gun and fired. The particle beam immediately penetrated the opponent's shield and then cut through the opponent's body.

Behind him, Nagase Ying and Yu Ding simply stopped and fired at the Zeon machines from a distance with their beam rifles.

The crossfire of the three mobile suits destroyed most of the Zeon machines before they came within a hundred meters, leaving only the last two damaged Tigers rushing forward.

Before the Zeon pilots could use their secret weapons, Macharius already had two swords in his hands, and he cut open the arms of the two machines on the left and right. Then he held the two swords in reverse and pierced the Tiger's cockpit from the back of the machine.

Looking at the disappearing friendly signals, the remaining Zeon pilots who did not choose to challenge the Red Dragon cried out in gratitude. They were not as naive as those young military academy cadets or volunteers. These veterans who survived the Battle of Britain wanted to live well, even if it was just for one more day.

Therefore, the direction they chose to break out was the garrison area of ​​the 11th Armored Regiment outside the base. The terrain here was very undulating, and as long as they got close, there were many bunkers that could protect the aircraft from artillery fire.

As long as they break through here, they can rely on the mobility of the Zaku to escape, but at the same time, only a few mobile suits can escape from here, and the remaining infantry and vehicles can forget about it!
"The Zeons are coming towards us!"

"Confirm the quantity!"

"Seventeen Mobile Suit Gundams! No infantry, just a few jeeps!"

"Okay, okay, I've finally been waiting for this!"

The commander of the Federation Army, with the armored cap badge on his red beret, came out of the combat cabin, raised the telescope in his hand, and looked at the approaching Zaku.

At this moment, the hand he was holding the telescope had deformed the soft outer shell of the telescope, and even his knuckles began to turn white from excessive force.

"Attention all units, remember the manual instructions, follow the squad formation, three vehicles per target, and kill with one strike. Do you understand?"

After hearing the responses from the officers of his units, the commander of the 11th Regiment immediately got back into the tank and closed the hatch.

Although the long-range combat capability of the Type 61 tank was greatly reduced due to the interference of rice grains, there was no problem with the information equipment of the tank. Through close communication between the crews, the Type 61 tanks of the entire armored regiment soon assigned their respective attack targets.

"Team Jim, move!"

Then the regiment commander gave the order to attack.

Then, on the ridgeline on the left wing of the armored regiment, two teams of GM appeared and began shooting at the Zeon people from a distance with their YF100 machine guns.

The roaring machine guns unleashed a dense barrage of bullets, forcing the Zeon mobile suits to move toward the right wing and continuously fight back with machine guns.

But the Zeon's firepower was very weak, with only a few bursts of fire, because they had no extra ammunition at all. These machines were fixed in the HLV when they landed, and they didn't even have weapons. The Federation's artillery bombardment came so quickly that they could only grab a 120 machine gun and run out, without carrying any other spare ammunition.

Soon, two Zakus were hit. Their bodies were riddled with holes from the armor-piercing bullets, and then they staggered and fell down.

"Here we go, tanks, fire!"

Seeing that the Zaku had entered the ambush area of ​​the entire regiment, the commander of the 11th Regiment shouted loudly.

The next second, a violent hurricane blew across the entire ridgeline.

That was the shock wave generated by the salvos of the Type 61 rifles deployed in the ambush position. The sparse vegetation on the hillside was blown all over the place, and even the camouflage nets on several firing positions were blown away.

Dense salvos of 155mm armor-piercing shells flew neatly towards their respective targets. The booklet compiled by Macharius before was now in the hands of every Federation armored soldier. It detailed the attributes and common tactics of common Zeon mobile suits, as well as targeted counter-tactics.

The most important point is that tank units should be deployed in multiple groups to concentrate on attacking the target's weaknesses.

The 11th Armored Regiment faithfully implemented this tactic.

The whistling steel needle flew out of the barrel at a speed of two thousand meters per second or even higher. The warning system on the Zeon mobile suit only responded for one second, and then their bodies were hit by the armor-piercing bullets.

The fin-stabilized armor-piercing discarding sabot round, like a large needle, broke and shattered after penetrating the Zaku's outer armor. Then, countless metal fragments spread out at high speed behind the armor.

The pilots of the eight Zeon mobile suits heard a clang and immediately lost consciousness. In the chest area of ​​their mobile suits, several narrow holes were emitting wisps of green smoke.

"Run!"

The few remaining Zeon mobile suits had no time to conserve ammunition and could only fire while continuing to move toward the right side of the mountainside, hoping to use the ridgeline to cover their escape.

But how could the 11th Armored Regiment give them this opportunity?

With the clang of the loader, the 155mm gun that had completed loading began to rotate again, roaring again amid the barrage of bullets that continued to explode around it.

"11th Regiment, forward!"

After destroying five Zaku 2Fs again, all the tanks of the 11th Regiment, except for a few whose running mechanisms were destroyed by the Zaku's attack, roared out of the bunkers and charged towards the enemy.

And the one rushing in the front was the regiment commander's car, and on its turret, a series of slogans were written in blood-red paint.

"Revenge for Sydney!"

The remaining two Zakus had no ammunition left. Although they still had two thermal axes, the pilots had lost the courage to fight. They used their hands and feet to control the machines and tried to climb up from the right side of the ridge.

But when they were halfway up, dozens of white smoke rose into the sky again. Those were the Queen anti-tank missiles of the infantry unit.

"Damn Earth!"

The Zeon pilots in the cockpit were at their wit's end. They didn't even have the propellant to start the jet. At this moment, they could only sit slumped in the cockpit and use the last few seconds to look at the blue sky.

Then, the sound of the Queen's missiles exploding continued to ring out.

One hour and twenty-two minutes was the survival time of the 1st Brigade of the Zeon European Front after arriving on Earth. 3,200 infantrymen and 220 mobile suits were completely wiped out by the attack of the Federation Army.

In the end, only a few military doctors and nurses from the field hospital and a small number of wounded soldiers were captured from the entire 1st Brigade.

"Welcome to Earth, you bastards!"

As the Federal infantry escorted the few remaining prisoners out of their positions, a Jim, alertly guarding the surroundings, suddenly stopped. The cockpit opened, and a young Federal pilot leaned out and began to curse. Besides him, a number of soldiers from Sydney and other space colonies gathered around, joking and cursing at the dejected prisoners.

The military police escorting these prisoners could only surround the prisoners despite the oncoming saliva to prevent them from being shot by some excited guy.

"This is the person the intelligence department wants. Everyone calm down!"

"Calm down, why are you letting these bastards live? My whole family died in Sydney!"

Just as the situation was about to get out of control, suddenly, a deafening cannon shot interrupted everyone's actions.

"Disperse! Return to your own troops!"

Macharius held up a semi-automatic sniper rifle and gave orders to the crowd below.

When the federal soldiers saw that it was a red dragon, they reluctantly dispersed.

"Thank you, sir!"

The military police commander was so relieved that he didn't even bother to wipe the saliva off his face and expressed his gratitude to Macharius's body.

"Don't worry, I have something else to do!"

Macharius walked out of the cockpit, landed on the ground, and pointed to the prisoners.

"Are there any officers?"

"Have!"

Soon, a Zeon infantry second lieutenant with no arms and his head wrapped like half a dumpling was pulled out by the military police.

"Give me this guy, no problem!"

"Of course, no problem! But you'd better try not to kill the prisoners, it will damage your prestige!"

"Who said I was going to kill the prisoners?"

Macharius knocked on the prisoner's head, scaring him so much that he knelt on the ground trembling.

"I'm going to let this guy go and have him deliver a message to Dozle for me!"

"Then it's up to you!"

The military police commander immediately looked at the unfortunate prisoner with pity. He didn't know whether this guy would be killed by the Zeon people, but that had nothing to do with him anymore!
The prisoner was then taken to the outskirts of the base, where Macharius pointed out the Zeon landing point and handed him a broken motorcycle.

"Give this handwritten letter to Dozle for me!"

"As you command, I will bring it to you!"

The prisoner was so frightened that he almost knelt down before Macharius. He took the handwritten letter tremblingly, then got on his motorcycle and ran away without looking back.

"I hope this guy doesn't get killed by his own people!"

"What did you write to Dozle?"

Nagase Ying asked curiously.

"Yeah, we want to know too!"

The federal army officers who were watching the fun also nodded.

"I told him to send more heads. This number of people is not enough to feed us!"

Macharius said with a smile.

Of course, there was more to his letter, but the content was pretty much the same.

"Alright, take this time to rest, we still have a battle to fight!"

The Zeon second lieutenant rode his motorcycle fearfully along the paved road toward the direction of the billowing smoke on the horizon. Fortunately, apart from encountering some unattended herds of cattle, he did not encounter any danger along the way. Even the Zeon defenders at the landing point of the 2nd Brigade did not fire at him. They simply searched him and took him to see the commander.

"You said the First Brigade is finished?"

"Yes, sir. After we were surrounded, the brigade commander told us to fend for ourselves and then committed suicide. Then the federal army launched a swift and fierce attack on us. We were completely powerless to fight back!"

The commander of the Second Brigade was a skinny Colonel Zeon. After listening to the second lieutenant's report, he gave a wry smile.

"Even then, I was still being ordered to keep attacking and take Baikonur!"

"Why, you're worried that the First Brigade's death wasn't heroic enough, so you want us to send another wave?"

The colonel sighed helplessly and then said.

"I understand. Next, you can take the HLV back!"

"Sir, what about the handwritten letter?"

"Leave it to Lord Dozle!"

The colonel didn't want to know what was written there. He just wanted more specific orders and instructions. If they wanted to attack, he would be given more troops. If they didn't want to attack, he would have to move his position away from Baikonur again.

Then, before the intermittent artillery fire from the federal army fell again, the lieutenant finally got on the HLV and returned to space with a group of wounded soldiers.

And the moment the HLV flew into space, all the Zeon soldiers in the cockpit burst into enthusiastic cheers. They were like redeemed souls who escaped from hell to heaven alive.

The lieutenant was then transported to Dozle's flagship by shuttle.

"Your Excellency General!"

"You have worked hard!"

"This is the letter that Red Dragon asked me to give you. He said if I tell you his name, you will definitely read it!"

Looking at the letter with the Zeon military logo on both the header and footer, Dozle laughed at himself.

"This guy, even the letter paper is ours!"

The lieutenant didn't dare to say anything and could only stand aside silently, waiting for Dozle to finish reading the letter.

Then, Dozle leaned back on the chair and looked at the ceiling in deep thought.

"So, you've even thought of this situation, right?"

Dozle was silent for a moment, then picked up the letter and began to read it again.

"Thank you for your hard work. Afterwards, return to Zeon and recuperate. I will complete the discharge procedures for you!"

Dozle didn't say anything about revenge. He could see that the spirit of the lieutenant in front of him had been completely destroyed. He had lost his qualifications as a soldier. Retirement was the best arrangement for him!

Then, he solemnly put the crumpled letter into his notebook.

"What is the current situation of the Second Brigade? When will the reinforcements be redeployed?"

"We'll be able to launch the first batch of HLVs in about half an hour! Right now, the Second Brigade is only under enemy fire. We estimate that the enemy won't launch a second round of attacks!"

"Then the second round of attack must have begun!"

Dozle glanced at the map, then clicked on the location of the Aral Sea.

"Send a message to the Second Brigade, have them continue to retreat. For now, ignore Baikonur and advance towards Aralsk. We need a safe base!"

Almost at the same time as Dozle's order was issued, the federal army, which had completed its rest, once again launched an attack on the landing assembly point of the Second Brigade with the Red Dragon Team as the spearhead under the cover of long-range artillery fire and air force bombing.

The Second Brigade made a bold move, leaving behind one-third of the brigade's combat troops to defend the city to the death, while the rest of the troops accelerated their withdrawal from the front line and advanced towards the Aral Sea in the west.

After abandoning all the baggage, the speed of the Second Brigade immediately increased, and Dozle directly changed the landing location of the second batch of troops. This time, the second batch of troops successfully landed on the ground with the loss of less than a dozen HLVs, and afterward, they completed the reunion with the first batch of troops that landed.

Dozlu has figured it out. Since Baikonur cannot be taken for the time being, he will not take it for the time being. The most important thing is to send the combat troops to the ground as much as possible and accumulate enough troops and supplies.

As long as the entire European Front is sent down, the Federation Army will never be able to drive the Zeon Army out of the Earth in one go!

However, before that, he had to swallow the bitter fruit of failure.

When the sun rose again the next day, a communication was sent from Baikonur and flew to the entire earth.

The Federation Army stationed in Baikonur wiped out the Zeon Army's ground forces of over 5,000 at the cost of less than a hundred casualties, destroyed over 350 mobile suits and 500 vehicles, captured hundreds of Zeon soldiers, and seized over 20 mobile suits and over 100 vehicles, in addition to countless ammunition, food, and other military supplies.

For a moment, the entire Earth sphere was in turmoil again, because in a sense, this was the first comprehensive victory achieved by the Federation and Zeon since the war, especially the dazzling loss ratio. The Federation army only lost more than 30 mobile suits, and most of them could be repaired.

The wreckage of the Zeon army's destroyed mobile suits were all within the Federation-controlled area and could be considered a total loss. This was a significant blow to the European Front.

After all, the entire European Front currently has only 1,700 mobile suits, and a quarter of its strength has been wiped out, which is enough to force the Zeon Command to change its subsequent combat plans.

In fact, Dozle was already considering whether to withdraw the African Front and add it to the European Front. He had a hunch that the entire Central Asia to Eastern Europe region would be an important area for fighting between the two sides in the next few months. With the current strength of the European Front, it was obviously not enough to compete with the subsequent reinforcements of the Federal Army!
(End of this chapter)