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

Chapter 63 Working hard!

"No, no, pay attention. When starting, don't use 100% power. Increase it slowly, starting from 60%!"

"Remember, when you're jetting, the output from both nozzles must be balanced, otherwise you'll end up spinning and flying!"

In the study room on one side of the dormitory building, dozens of students were crowded together, asking Macharius about various problems they encountered.

At this moment, the lights-out signal had been blown for a long time, and the other personnel in the base had fallen asleep peacefully, only the test pilots were still working late into the night.

Ever since Macharius made his debut that day in the prototype Steel Cannon, the others had become incredibly excited, as if they were on drugs, and began studying and practicing desperately, preparing to compete for the few remaining Steel Cannon spots.

To this end, these guys get up earlier than the chickens and sleep later than the dogs. In order to make up for their own shortcomings as much as possible, they even line up outside the door before Macharius gets up. Even if Macharius wants to go to the toilet, they will take the time to ask outside.

A normal person might be annoyed by such a tail that cannot be shaken off, but Macharius was not. He did not feel impatient at all and even gave up his lunch break and normal sleep at night to give extra lessons to other pilots.

"Boss, you are..."

Yudin was awakened by the sound of Macharius pushing the door. He and Macharius had been roommates for many years, so he was naturally very familiar with each other's footsteps.

He looked at the luminous clock on the bedside table and found that it was already 3:30 in the morning, and there were only two and a half hours left before he had to get up.

"Go to sleep!"

Macharius patted the sleepy driver, then lay down on the bed without even taking off his coat, and fell into a deep sleep the next second.

Then, at exactly five o'clock, Macharius woke up from a deep sleep. He first covered Yudin with a blanket, and then walked out of the room again with his manual.

At this time, in the study room, many people were already sharing their experiences with each other.

"Um, Krini, how long have you slept?"

Some pilots who left early were a little surprised when they saw Macharius appear.

"About an hour and a half, not bad. Do you have anything else to ask? Come on!"

"No, no, no, you need to sleep a little longer. It's already been a week, and you haven't even had ten hours of rest in these seven days!"

A space army officer with the rank of major waved his hand to stop the people around him, and then ordered Macharius to go and rest in an imperative tone.

"I've rested enough, so I'd better take a look at you first. With this level, when can we start the actual machine drill?"

"If we have to tire young people like you to death to complete the actual machine operation, then I would rather go back to flying fighter jets!"

"Please, go back to sleep!"

The major sighed helplessly and spoke to Macharius in an almost pleading tone.

"Okay, then I'll go back to sleep!"

Seeing that others also insisted, Macharius had no choice but to turn around and go back to the dormitory.

Half an hour later, he opened the door again and walked in.

"Okay, I'm going to sleep again, let's continue!"

Then, when the others were going to train on the simulator again, Macharius went to the hangar. The technicians led by Timre had already processed and rebuilt a steel cannon and modified it according to what Macharius said. Now, they were waiting for him to give a second feedback.

When Macharius arrived at the hangar, he saw a transport flatbed truck carrying a mobile suit covered with waterproof cloth.

Then, as the tarpaulin was removed, the modified Guncannon appeared in front of Macharius.

This is a brand new Guncannon that has been modified specifically for the purpose of training mobile suit pilots, or rather, it should be called a training Guncannon!

It removed the extra weapons that were hardly used and the extra armor plates added to increase protection, which made the body thinner and the weight greatly reduced.

In addition, and most importantly, the cockpit of this training Guncannon has been changed the most. The original single-person layout has been changed to a two-person layout with the instructor on the top and the student on the bottom. The advantage of this is that if the student makes any mistakes in the operation, the instructor above him can kick the student's butt with his size 43 shoes.

Of course, the upgrades and improvements are not limited to these. When Macharius sat in the cockpit, he found that the space in the cockpit was much larger than before, and the layout of the internal environment had also changed a lot.

"Looks alright, then. Come run a lap with me! Gangganongsang!"

Macharius inserted the activation key with familiarity, and then this mobile suit teaching aid, which was painted yellow and had the words "teaching only" written on its abdomen, rushed out of the hangar at a flexible speed that was different from the old prototype Guncannon.

Afterwards, the federal troops in the base saw a yellow mobile suit running and jumping around the outskirts of the base like a wild dog on a breakout.

Moreover, no one knew who did it, but when Macharius was trying to control the mobile suit to make a boxing move, a very exciting music suddenly came from the base's loudspeakers.

As soon as Macharius heard it, he knew it was the classic accompaniment of the movie Rocky, so he became even more excited!
After running around the base for more than ten laps, a total of nearly sixty kilometers, he stopped and drove the machine back to the hangar.

"How did it feel this time?"

Before he could stop, the ground crew gathered in front of the cockpit again, ready to meet the pilot.

And what Macharius gave the ground crew in response was a thumbs-up.

"As a teaching mobile suit, it's already qualified!"

Macharius took off his helmet, which was a little wet due to heavy sweating, and threw it aside. Then he took the energy drink handed to him by the ground staff and drank it in big gulps.

"But compared to the Zeon mobile suits, there's still a big gap!"

It's not that Macharius wants to boost others' morale and destroy his own prestige. As a mobile suit that focuses on fire support, the Guncannon can only be said to have solved the problem of the Federation Army from scratch. If they want to completely suppress Zeon, they need more powerful and advanced mobile suits to fill this gap.

Therefore, Macharius could only be a diligent workhorse, constantly providing Timre with his own test data as a reference for research and development.

His devotion was so intense that everyone at the base was stunned. Colonel Carter was forced to intervene and force Macharius to rest. "Is the food in the cafeteria bad lately?"

Seeing Macharius, who was much thinner than when he reported, Colonel Carter felt his scalp tingling. You know, when Lieutenant General Gop allocated the base funds, he distributed them according to the highest standards.

Therefore, the base's food standards were also set according to the highest standards of the federal army. Many federal army officers who came to report had gained a lot of weight after staying at the base for a few months, ranging from five or six pounds to twenty pounds. But only Macharius lost a full thirteen pounds.

The colonel even suspected that his canteen was withholding rations from officers and soldiers and drinking their blood, which was why Macharius became so thin.

However, after seeing the schedule in Macharius's hand, the colonel knew why Macharius was so thin.

"No, no!"

Colonel Carter slammed the schedule on the table and shook his head frantically.

"Cancel, cancel! All your extra lessons are cancelled, and all tests on the machine are suspended. Get twelve hours of sleep every day to heal your body!"

"Sir, there's no need. I know my own situation very well!"

Before Macharius could say anything, Carter pressed the call bell.

Then, two burly military policemen walked into the room.

"Take Crinny back to bed. You stay outside the house. Don't go out until he gets twelve hours of sleep!"

"Then how do I eat?"

"I'll send someone to deliver it to you!"

As he spoke, Colonel Carter picked up the intercom phone at hand and called the base medical center.

"Arrange two nutritionists for me!"

"Sir, that's really unnecessary!"

Macharius, who was directly held up by the military police, wanted to struggle, but was forced back by the colonel's angry eyes.

"Two more people, bring a stretcher!"

Then, the colonel was still worried and called two more military police over.

Afterwards, the busy federal officers and soldiers in the base saw Macharius tied to a stretcher, and then four military police carried the stretcher to the dormitory building.

Afterwards, the base medical center moved the monitoring equipment directly into the dormitory building, ready to monitor the other party's physiological information 24 hours a day.

Afterwards, the medical center and the cafeteria formed a joint action team, with only one core: how to restore Macharius to his original plump state.

Seeing that Macharius had caused such a big commotion, the federal officers and soldiers at the base had no dissatisfaction at all, and many of them even breathed a sigh of relief.

"Damn it, someone finally got this guy back on the bed!"

The Red Dragon team also felt that their burden was lightened. As the team brought up by Macharius, they had no way of persuading Macharius to take a rest. Although the latter was the youngest, he was the one who had the final say in the team. Once he made a decision, the remaining seven had no choice but to resolutely implement it.

Seeing that Macharius had gone to rest obediently, Colonel Carter did not dare to relax at all, and even reduced the frequency of dormitory inspections from once a week to once a day.

Every time he passed by Macharius' dormitory, he would not forget to check his physiological information to make sure that he was resting. This went on for several days, and the colonel felt that the other party seemed to be really obedient.

So, one day, he suddenly had an idea and didn't plan to check the physiological information, but directly checked whether the other party was executing orders. However, when he opened the door, he found that the other party was still not sleeping, but sitting on the bed, propped up a small table, and revising a drawing.

"Crini?"

The colonel felt a headache when he saw Macharius, who was a little panicked and wanted to hide his things because his secret was caught during the surprise inspection.

Then, he suddenly realized that the other person was clearly not sleeping, so why did the instrument show that he was in a dormant physiological state?
"You mean this test?"

Macharius smiled and shook the wire in his hand, then he slowly lowered his breathing rate. Then the colonel saw that the originally active frequency on the instrument was suppressed.

"So, you still haven't had a good rest these days?"

"No, I'm still taking a rest. It's just that sleeping for too long doesn't make me feel comfortable, so I'll just take a look at this!"

Macharius waved the flexible screen in his hand, and on it was a brand new mobile suit that was different from the prototype Guncannon. Whether it was power, armor, or armament, it completely surpassed the old prototype Guncannon. It could even be said that, to some extent, it surpassed Zeon!

This was the reward for his crazy participation in data collection. Dr. Timley, using the various data he had provided before, finally came up with his final design.

This is the new mobile suit numbered rx-77-1, codenamed "Prototype Gundam"!
These days, when he couldn't sleep, Macharius would look up the data about this mobile suit and kept thinking about what kind of upgrades could be made to it given the current level of technology in the Federation.

There is not much difference in general parameters between this prototype Gundam and the original RX-78-1 in history, especially in terms of power. Both use a rice furnace with an output of 1380kW.

However, there are still some differences in weapons and internal equipment. Since the miniaturization technology of beam weapons has not yet made progress, the only handheld weapons that can be equipped on this weapon are the YF-MG-100 machine gun and a rocket launcher produced by Yashio Industries. As for melee weapons, there is only a meteor hammer, and no beam sword.

In addition, there are some reductions in combat equipment, and the radar and fire control systems installed are inferior to those of the prototype Gundam in another timeline.

However, these can all be upgraded and changed. The most important thing about the prototype Gundam is its armor material!
Because Macharius pointed out the shortcomings of ultra-high-tensile steel, Timley directly added the Luna Titanium Alloy, which is currently considered a valuable item for the Federal Army, regardless of the cost.

Therefore, in terms of protection, there is no difference between the 771 Prototype Gundam and the 781 Prototype Gundam!
"Is this mobile suit so important to you?"

Colonel Carter looked at Macharius, whose face seemed to have finally regained some color, and sighed deeply.

"To me personally, it's worthless, but to this era, it's priceless. Sir, the reason I've been working so hard is so I can sleep soundly in the future!"

Macharius said in a very gentle but extremely firm tone.

　happy New Year!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)