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

Chapter 107 Photos, Captures, and Upgrades
"victory!"

When the military reporter Hinzpitt hurriedly rushed from Moscow to Baikonur by helicopter, the blocking force of the 2nd Brigade of the Zeon Army had been completely wiped out again by the Baikonur defenders.

When Pete's helicopter landed on the outskirts of the battlefield, four federal soldiers were crawling with difficulty on a fallen Tiger, carrying a star-crescent flag covered with traces of smoke and fire, and even several bullet holes.

This Tiger was besieged by three GMs and was stabbed several times by beam sabers. Even the pointed horn-shaped antenna on its head was twisted into a pretzel.

After being beaten to death, the fallen tiger fell on the wreckage of the HLV, which was only half left after being blown up, and lay on it at an angle with the support of the latter.

This then gave the Federal infantry a path to climb.

Surrounded by thousands of soldiers, four federal soldiers carrying military flags struggled to climb Tiger Mountain. They set out from the foot of the mountain at 8:04 in the morning and successfully reached the summit at 8:08.

Then, they worked together to support the military flag and inserted it. The flagpole was inserted into the monitor on Tiger's head. A huge crater was made here by live ammunition, which was just enough to fit half of the flagpole.

So, Pete immediately raised his camera and took a picture of this scene. At this moment, the sun was shining on the flag fluttering in the wind. Behind the flag were three Jims standing on the ground. Four Union soldiers were struggling to grab the flagpole and try to raise it. Under the wreckage, countless Union soldiers were saluting the flag.

"Great, this is what I want to take, this is the best photo!"

Pete was so excited that he kept pressing the shutter button. Afterwards, he took many classic photos, which were later included in the "Collection of Old Photos of the One Year War". The flag-raising photo he took, known as the Dawn of Victory, even won him the Pulitzer Prize.

But what made him sad was that he failed to take pictures of the secret weapon of the Federation Army this time. Although everyone already knew about the existence of the Gundam, there were almost no photos leaked. This time, Pete arrived despite the danger after hearing that the Gundam was deployed in Baikonur.

Fortunately, there were many other things to shoot at the scene. The mobile suits called Jim were equally majestic and powerful. When the 11th Armored Regiment passed the battlefield and returned to the base, Pete also saw the words "Revenge for Sydney" written on the command tank and took a huge close-up of it.

What Pete didn't know was that when he took the photo of the flag-raising, Macharius was actually at the scene, but he was searching among the seized documents to see if there was a Tiger operating manual.

Because of the Federation Army's rapid artillery fire, the landing point of the Zeon drop corps was dizzy from the long-range attack, and did not even think of checking the messy landing point. Perhaps they thought about it, but the Federation Army's attack speed was too fast. In short, when the Federation Army occupied the landing zone, they found a lot of good things that were not serious from the ruins.

Including several Tigers covered in dirt, vehicles that had not yet been assembled, and even a rather luxurious fuel-powered sedan. After interrogating the prisoners, everyone found out that this car was actually the personal car of the commander of the Second Brigade, but now, this thing has become Macharius's.

However, he only took a few glances at it and asked someone to drive the car back to the base to send it to the Gabro exhibition. He himself climbed onto the tiger in the ruins to test the performance of this thing.

"Unfortunately, I still can't fly!"

After getting the Tiger's operating manual, he sat down without caring about the dirt on the ground, and quickly flipped through the documents in his hand.

At this time, Nagase Ying, his adjutant and wingman, felt that Macharius, who was reading seriously, looked like a student in school.

"So, he really only needs to read this book once?"

Seeing Macharius reading seriously, Nagase Ying then whispered to the Red Dragon team members beside him.

"Yes! Just wait and see!"

As a student in the second batch, Nagase Ying had heard of the legend of Macharius, but had never seen him in person. But now, she has seen him!
Macharius quickly flipped through the manual and threw it at his feet.

"Okay, kids, it's time to witness a miracle!"

Then, under Macharius's operation, the Tiger really stood up again.

Compared to the Zagun's cockpit, which could be described as a watch shop, the Tiger's layout is obviously much neater. Most of the instruments have been integrated, so there is no need for dazzling instruments to distract the pilot's attention. In addition, the comfort of the cockpit has also been improved.

Of course, the improvement of these software is not very effective. As long as the abstract left-hand finger cannon and the 120mm Zaku machine gun are not discarded, the Tiger is still not a completely new machine. It can only be regarded as some kind of enhanced modification of the Zaku.

"By the way, should we send all these machines to Gaburo?"

"That's right. The gentlemen from the Ordnance Department are waiting!"

"Giving them all away seems a bit excessive!"

Macharius controlled the machine and circled the battlefield several times, then spoke.

"We should have kept half, maybe even more!"

"Why keep this thing? We're not without robots... Wait, you're not planning a false flag operation, are you?"

Andre looked at Macharius sitting in the cockpit, and then he understood.

The so-called false flag operation refers to a type of covert operation, specifically an action that misleads the public into thinking that the operation is carried out by another organization by using its flags, uniforms, and other means.

To put it bluntly, it is special operations!

Just like special forces would wear enemy uniforms and sneak behind enemy lines to carry out assassination, blasting, and sabotage missions.

These original Zeon mobile suits were in very good condition when they were captured, and even the internal communication codes were not erased. If the cockpit was closed, no one would be able to tell the identity of the person driving the machine.

"I'll contact Colonel Eugen right now!"

Soon, the communication from Colonel Eugen, who was commanding in the rear, was transferred to Macharius via radio.

"I've already reported this to the higher-ups. Gaburo told us to keep them and just send the rest back to them!"

"Let us watch and stay?"

Macharius held the communicator, then looked at the tiger behind him and then smiled brightly.

Colonel Eugen asked uncertainly in the command post.

"You should send a few intact ones to Gaburo, right?"

Macharius smiled but said nothing.

"You will definitely give it to them, right?" Afterwards, the Jaburo base received countless Zaku and Tiger wreckages. Although most of these wreckages were just missing limbs and had holes in the cockpits, and although some of the wreckage could be repaired by removing some of it, since they could do that, why did they still need intact mobile suits?
The Ordnance Bureau immediately found Gop and complained harshly. The latter had no choice but to issue another order, which allowed Media to send back three intact Tigers and six Zaku 2Fs. As for the rest, Macharius formed a new false flag squadron, which included three Tigers as combat troops, two Tigers as spare parts, six Zaku 2Fs and another six spare Zakus. As for the remaining machines, Macharius left them to Eugen.

Because he planned to use the captured weapons to patch up and strengthen the infantry that had not yet been equipped with mobile suits. These Zakus would be painted with the Federation Army's livery and then delivered to the base defenders for use.

Of course, this is only temporary. Once the spare parts are consumed, or there are extra GMs to supplement the defenders, these Zakus will be kicked out of the combat ranks. Of course, scrapping is impossible, and there are engineers waiting to take over. After all, if this thing is not used for combat, it is also great for civil engineering!

The tiger sent to Gabro was quickly subjected to various tests by the technicians of the Ordnance Bureau. Then, standing in front of the dismembered tiger, the technicians of the Ordnance Bureau gave their own reports with certainty.

The Zeon army's current Tigers still haven't surpassed the performance of the GM, but considering the opponent's technical capabilities, the Tigers will soon be improved and upgraded. By then, in terms of performance alone, the GM may be surpassed!

"New Mobile Suit!"

Gop was also overwhelmed after reading the report. The federal army, which was now frantically expanding its military, had an astronomical amount of food consumed by its soldiers every day. On top of that, they also had to develop new mobile suits. It was no longer possible to describe it as spending money like water. It was more like he had filled the deck of the Himalayan aircraft carrier with printing machines and had these machines print money into the water at that speed.

But even if it costs more money, Gop will not be stingy with these things. However, even with the previous mature experience in manufacturing the new Gundam, it will take some time. Before that, the only one the Federation Army can rely on is the Jim, which has basically completed the expansion of production capacity.

Fortunately, Jim took into account the redundancy of subsequent upgrades and improvements at the beginning of the design. In fact, the most important core of many machine upgrades is the rice furnace placed inside the machine.

The more powerful the rice furnace, the more powerful the weapons it can drive and the more powerful the output. Therefore, when designing, Macharius reminded Timley to make the space for the rice furnace larger, so that in future upgrades, the larger furnace can be placed and the original body can still be used, which undoubtedly saves a lot of money.

Now, these designs have greatly facilitated Jim's improvements.

The first thing that Gabro Base took out was the RGC80 GM Cannon for medium and long-range fire support, because the RX-77-2 Guncannon also faced the problem of being too expensive, and the twin-linked mega particle cannon also faced the problem of not acclimatizing to the earth's environment, so a scaled-down version of the fire support machine was naturally very necessary.

In this way, it can form a medium-to-close combination with the Jim, and another advantage of using the Jim's body is its high portability. Because of the same specifications, the Jim's repair parts can also be used for the maintenance of the Jim Cannon. In this way, on the battlefield, logistics only needs to supply a single part.

The second model being tested at the Gabro base is the sniper-type GM, RGM-79SP, which has enhanced fire control and search devices, as well as improved protection and power.

The Franz EF-KAR98K 75mm live-fire rifle that Macharius had previously requested to be developed unexpectedly received praise from many GM pilots. Although it was a live-fire weapon, it was sturdy, reliable and powerful.

In addition, the new beam sniper rifle has also entered the testing phase, so a mobile suit specializing in long-range and firepower is also indispensable. Moreover, the Sniper GM is not an improvement in a specific aspect compared to the ordinary GM, but an all-round upgrade with a new power reactor, which can enhance additional armor protection and provide higher-power detection and search equipment.

The federal army's preparations for war were not in vain. The thirty-fold gap in national strength was a result of this. It was just that the federal war machine had only just begun to convert this gap into actual advantage.

Not only Gop understood this simple truth, but Dozle also understood it!

So, at this moment, his First Combined Fleet has already fought hard!

After withdrawing from the attack range of the Baikonur base, Dozru's European Front re-established a gathering and landing point on the Dead Sea.

Without the annoying fire interference, the First Combined Fleet's deployment efficiency was greatly improved. The Zeon army almost didn't consider the service life of the equipment at all, and used various equipment to deploy troops without stopping.

Dozle knew that the federal army was already gathering troops to encircle and annihilate his European Front in Central Asia, so in order to increase the probability of victory as much as possible, he had to deploy the entire European Front to the ground in the shortest possible time.

In order to prevent various harassment from the Federation Army, Dozle made a lot of preparations. After the second landing force and the remnants of the first landing force merged, Dozle stopped transporting mobile suits to the ground and instead dropped the Dop fighters developed by the Zeon Army for fighting in the Earth's environment.

This is because the nearly 300 mobile suits currently on the ground are more than enough to deal with harassment from small-scale federal army forces. Coupled with nearly two brigades of soldiers, armored vehicles and artillery firepower, it is more than enough to deal with ground combat.

In fact, the main problem of the annihilation of the First Brigade was the use of tactics. If the troops of the First Brigade could deploy their troops and have sufficient supplies, the federal army in Baikonur might not be able to defeat them.

Therefore, after the subsequent troops landed, they naturally expanded the airdrop area as much as possible and advanced the defense line. This is why the Federation Army in Baikonur did not continue the attack. The Zeon Army had already established a foothold outside the attack range. If the reinforcements from other parts of Central Asia and even Europe did not arrive, the Federation Army in Baikonur alone would not be able to do anything to them.

At this moment, the only forces that could effectively attack the Zeon army were the orbital defense bases that were firing at the orbits and the Federation Air Force units from nearby areas.

On Earth, it is not just the Swordfish that greets the Zeon people, but also a series of fighters such as the Stingray and Arrow. These atmospheric fighters have excellent payload and speed, which greatly interferes with the take-off and landing operations of the Zeon army.

That's why Dozle had to send Dop down.

This fighter can be regarded as another abstract masterpiece of Zeon designers. Because Zeon designers have never actually seen the atmosphere, they cannot build an aerodynamic fighter that fits the earth's environment. They can only use computer simulations, and then create a fighter that completely ignores aerodynamics and flies solely by relying on its strength.

The Dopp was forced to fly using a high-thrust atomic jet engine and a large number of attitude control cursors. It was highly maneuverable, with a maximum speed of Mach 5, but because of this engine and the additional attitude nozzles on the fuselage, its endurance was poor, with a range of only kilometers.

However, because of this design, it has extremely strong combat capabilities in a rice-grain interference environment. Due to the interference characteristics of rice grains, the long-range air-to-air missiles of the Federation Army fighters have basically been scrapped, and the hit rate of long-range fire and locking is comparable to winning the lottery. Therefore, air combat has returned to the close-range fighting state of the past.

After arriving on the ground, the Dopp fighter jets, which had completed unloading, immediately took off and engaged in a fierce battle with the federal army aircraft. Fighter planes were constantly shot down, and pilots from both sides were covered in blood.

This fierce aerial combat bought the Zeon army precious breathing time. As more and more Dopps arrived on the ground, the Federation Army's air offensive had to be suspended, and even the reconnaissance was forced to be interrupted.

Only then did Dozle breathe a sigh of relief.

"Continue the transport and make sure to complete the entire descent plan within two days!"

The Federation Army does not have many troops stationed in Central Asia. Due to the large number of immigrants being transported from outer space, these already sparsely populated areas have become even more desolate, and there is no point in stationing too many troops.

So, more troops are currently gathering from bases such as Odessa, Siberia, and even Europe.

It can be said that the Zeon army's combat plan was very well-planned, but it was a pity that something went wrong during its execution. If it had not failed to capture Baikonur, the entire European Front would have been deployed in place by now!

"Baikonur, we still have to fight!"

Looking at the various transport equipment constantly rising and falling on the track, Dozle sighed helplessly.

This is what landing operations are like. If a launch base connecting the ground and space cannot be obtained, then both the transportation of personnel and the return of resources will be greatly restricted.

Therefore, he had no choice but to hand the report to the Principality Command, that is, Kilian, and asked the other party to hand over the African Front to him and deploy it to the operations in the European region.

"Otherwise, the next phase of the offensive against North America will also come to a standstill!"

"Then give it to him!"

Although Dekin did not understand the specific military deployment, he knew at this moment how important Dozle's mission was. What's more, the mission of the African Front was not that important. If they could take over Europe, would Africa be far behind?
(End of this chapter)