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

Chapter 64: Brewing Discontent
"Good morning, Julian!"

"Good morning, Mr. Li!"

In a small shopping street located in the 6th block of the Side9 colony satellite, Julian, a boy of only twelve years old, was strolling on the street with his little sister who had just learned to walk on his back. When the merchants around him saw him, they would greet him warmly and even give some snacks to the two lovely children.

"Julian, you're taking your sister shopping again!"

"Julian, take this cake and eat it!"

At this moment, Julian would very politely take the food and feed it to his sister in small bites. After all, this was a rare fresh food for the two siblings.

After all, if they go back home, they have to deal with all kinds of canned food. It's not that their father, Mr. Chris, is incompetent, but that he goes out early and comes back late all day and has no time to do housework. All he can do is buy the house full of these durable and easy-to-process instant foods to ensure that the two children are well fed.

Moreover, Mr. Chris really loves his children, except when he is dealing with some of his friends. Every time at this time, Chris will give Julian a look, and the latter will obediently carry his sister and leave the house.

This is not because Mr. Chris has any special hobbies, or that he wants to do something shameful for adults. In fact, what he wants to do is indeed shameful.

Mr. Chris, in addition to being a space engineer, is also a member of the side6 independence movement organization.

Therefore, those friends who came to his house were not strange people, but members of the independence movement organization. They came here mainly because Mr. Chris's house was big enough for everyone to gather here and plan big things.

This kind of thing naturally had to be kept secret from the family, especially the two children. However, it seemed very strange to the neighbors. Mr. Chris often didn't come home, so why did he bring five or six strong young men with him when he came home, and even kicked his children out of the room? Obviously, there was something wrong!

As a result, the neighbors felt even more sorry for the two children.

As Julian carefully fed his sister the cake, he looked at his own house. The curtains of the two-story building were drawn. He didn't know what his father and his friends were doing. He just hoped they would leave quickly so that he could go back to his room and continue reading comics.

Inside the room, Mr. Chris and several adults ranging in age from twenty to forty were gathered around a table, listening to a high-level directive from Zeon.

"Everyone, our next task will no longer be a small-scale operation. We will launch a large-scale operation to completely seize Side6 from the control of the Federation!"

The person who read out the instructions was an adult with a heavy Zeon accent. He called himself Lawrence. He was also the organization's military advisor and international correspondent. Since the organization was founded, he had come all the way from Zeon to Side6, ready to contribute his own strength to the independence of Side6.

Over the years, this special envoy has obtained a lot of good things for the independent organization, including Zeon-style weapons, explosives, and even large pieces of gold bars. Relying on these things, the independent organization has become bigger and stronger in Side 6. Not only has it launched many attacks against the Federation Army, it has even bribed many people from the colonial government.

It can be said that the rapid development of the independent organization in recent years is inseparable from the other party's contribution. Even Chris bought this big house, which is considered a mansion in the colonial satellite, with the assistance of the other party.

Therefore, independent organizations dare not slack off on the instructions conveyed by the other party and generally implement them firmly.

As for whether the Zeon people who funded them have official Zeon background, the independent organization will not delve into it. Even if they do, so what? These days, the only ones who dare to go against the Federation in the Earth Sphere are the Zeon people!
As for why independent organizations oppose the Federation, it is actually very simple. To put it bluntly, it is still about interests. When the Federation was creating colonial satellites and settling space residents, it provided space residents with a lot of preferential conditions, such as fifty years of tax exemption, low-interest or even interest-free loans, etc.

Because of the support of these policies, space residents are willing to leave the earth and live in space. But now, the federal preferential policies have expired. Space residents can no longer enjoy tax exemptions and low-interest loans, and even have to pay back money to the federal government. This naturally caused dissatisfaction among many people.

They have not paid taxes for the past fifty years, and now they want to continue not paying taxes. So, naturally, there is only one choice!
Seize control of SIDE and force the federal government to recognize their independence. In this way, the residents of the universe can establish their own autonomous government and avoid being exploited by the Earth Federation.

"But, Mr. Lawrence, if we want to seize control of the colony satellite now, isn't it a bit difficult?"

The speaker was Mark, the head of an independent organization, a councilman from Side 6 who had studied in Zeon and even married a Zeon woman. There were many people like him who were paid by the Federation but were working against the Federation.

His purpose of wanting to establish an independent organization was very simple. When he went to study abroad in Zeon, he met the arrogant and domineering Dekin. So, Mark thought, if Dekin could become a king, why couldn't he turn side6 into his own independent kingdom?
Thus, such an organization was born, and with the strong support of Zeon, Mark was pushed into an important position in the colonial government. Now, knowing that he is just one step away from achieving his great cause, Mark is both worried and happy.

“Difficult, why is it difficult?”

"Our organization still lacks enough fighters, doesn't it?"

Mark scratched his head. Although their organization had about several thousand members and hundreds of thousands of potential supporters outside, there were still very few actual combatants. Usually, their attacks on the federal army were limited to shooting from behind and blowing up the walls of the federal army base.

It would be better to expect the girls in the red-light district to drain all the federal soldiers than to expect these people to engage in fierce street fighting with the federal army and then eliminate those federal soldiers.

"Don't worry about that. President Kilian and Director Kycilia know about our predicament. They have decided to send a volunteer corps to Side 6 to help us. So, you don't have to worry about the battle at all!"

"Volunteer Corps?"

“How big is that?”

"In the early stages, there will only be one squadron!" "One squadron?"

The disappointment in Mark's eyes was beyond words. With such limited manpower, they couldn't even defeat Side 6's own garrison, let alone the federal army!
"That's not just any ordinary squadron. It's a squadron equipped with brand-new technology and weapons, capable of defeating an enemy hundreds of times its size!"

Lawrence said with a proud tone.

"So, you just need to cooperate with us. The entire Side 6 garrison is nothing to worry about!"

"So, what do you need us to do?"

"First, we need a legitimate reason. So, Mark, your organization should issue a declaration of independence that day, declaring the establishment of an independent nation. Then, in the name of the new nation, request assistance from the Principality of Zeon!"

"It's that simple?"

"Of course!"

Lawrence raised his eyebrows. This was the disadvantage of supporting agents. These guys had their own plans. He couldn't just tell them directly that the Zeon army was ready to go and was just waiting for a reason to appear!
"So, what does the Principality of Zeon want?"

Mark is no longer the young man who had a serious filter for Zeon, especially when he was studying abroad, the leader of Zeon was not Dekin, but Deiken. Although he later achieved what he has today with the help of the Zabi family, he is not a pure puppet, and he has always been on guard!
"We just need a little help. Don't worry, Zeon won't covet Side 6's resources and population, nor will they annex Side 6. We just need to use the name of Side 6 to purchase some supplies for the principality!"

Kilian Zabi is certainly not a selfless internationalist fighter. These days, the only thing that can move him is profit, and the only thing that can drive him to action is profit.

The reason why so many benefits were offered to the independent organization of side6 was purely because the finances of the Principality of Zeon collapsed again!
Although there are many problems within the federal government and corruption is common, the masters of the earth have some clear understanding of the situation. In fact, these civilian officials are more disgusting than the military.

After the conflict at Zeon's military academy, the Federation and the Zeon government seemed to have each made concessions, allowing the matter to be resolved peacefully, but in fact, the federal government has always been thinking about settling scores later!
When Macharius was seconded to serve as a mobile suit pilot, the federal government launched a new round of sanctions against Zeon. The severity of this round of sanctions had a great impact on the lives of powerful people such as Gihren.

Including agricultural fertilizers, seeds, even normal food, raw materials needed for food production, additives, etc., these items closely related to daily life are on the sanctions list. The Zeons want to bake bread, but they have no yeast, and they want to brew beer, but they have no hops.

Because of these things, the small and pitiful agricultural area of ​​Side 3 cannot produce them at all and can only rely on imports from the earth, but now, they, like table salt, have been included in the federal sanctions list.

Most importantly, the federal government also dispatched a naval patrol fleet to crack down on smuggling operations outside the Side 3 space.

You know, in the past, Zeon's black market has always been an important supplement to the normal business model, because there are no goods for sale in the regular market, and even if there are, they are extremely expensive due to currency issues.

Therefore, the black market has become a daily consumption place for ordinary residents. Here, Zeon residents can buy wine from Sicily, beef from Texas, rice from East Asia, etc., plus the ration coupons issued by the Zeon government and items brought by relatives serving in the army. Their lives are not impossible to live, at most they are a little hard and tiring.

But now, the black market trade has suffered a severe blow from the federal fleet. Those selfish goods have been blocked outside the space domain by the fleet, and the goods on the black market can no longer be replenished.

Prices in the market also began to rise wildly. In the past, a kilogram of ordinary white bread mixed with nuts and plenty of sugar cost five hites, but now it has become fifty hites, and the price continues to rise.

As for why it is not Zeon Mark, it is because the Zeon Mark has collapsed long ago, and 500,000 Zeon Marks cannot even buy a piece of bread.

Meat has long since disappeared. Most of the smuggled meat is supplied to the military. What ordinary residents can buy is synthetic meat made from various scraps, animal blood, and flour. Now, these synthetic meats are sold at sky-high prices.

If only ordinary people were unable to eat enough, the situation could still be suppressed, but the Zeon dignitaries would also be unable to enjoy the best wine and taste those luxury goods, which would be terrible news.

And don’t even think about the Federation lifting the sanctions. These sanctions are the Federation’s response to Zeon’s impatience to get at the table for dinner.

Therefore, Zeon now has only two choices. The first is to break off relations with the Federation and go to war directly. The confidence for this choice comes from the fully formed Zeon mobile suit force. At present, the entire Zeon army has equipped more than 05 MS1 Zaku 1s, and this number is still growing. In another timeline, the total number of Zaku s produced by Zeon from start to finish is only more than .

To some extent, this is also one of the reasons for the deterioration of Zeon's finances, because the military pressure from the Federation is much greater than that in another timeline, and the failure to seize the Federation's heavy hydrogen forces the Zeon government to use funds to purchase heavy hydrogen on the market to manufacture power reactors for mobile suits.

However, after careful consideration, the option of going to war was ruled out because the Zeon army currently lacks a sufficient number of tactical nuclear weapons. If it cannot gain an advantage in the first place and force the Federation to sit down at the negotiating table when the war breaks out, then Zeon itself will be in an irretrievable situation.

Since we can't go to war, we can only find another way.

A neutral side where civil unrest breaks out is naturally the best choice, because in this case the Federation Army will not intervene immediately, but will leave it to the side garrison to resolve. Therefore, as long as Zeon acts quickly and establishes a fait accompli before the Federation Army reacts, the Federation will have no choice but to accept it.

Moreover, because Zeon did not occupy the land of the neutral side, the Federation Army naturally could not fight back, because this was the internal affairs of the neutral side. Therefore, if the Earth Federation did not want to be protested by the various sides again, it could only do nothing.

In this way, Zeon can get a neutral window that is neutral in appearance but actually leans towards itself. Then, through this window, it can bypass the federal sanctions to trade and thus alleviate domestic problems!
　Speaking of which, I feel that the beam spear in Jim's hand is much cooler than the beam sword. In addition, I didn't find the Zeon currency, but since the prototype is based on the German III, I installed a Mark.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)