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

Chapter 88 For Whom the Bell Tolls
"Captain, we're just suppressing some hungry people. There's no need for us to go out, right?"

After the training team's mobile suits arrived at the outskirts of the satellite, they immediately began to deploy alerts. In fact, there was nothing to defend. Zenquem was located in the heart of Zeon and was surrounded by its own defense lines. No enemy could break in here at all, of course, assuming asteroids were not counted.

Therefore, the pilots actually just drove their mobile suits to the designated position and then stood there for a while. As for the main force of suppression, it was still on the Papua-class!
"Shut up, this is just to make you see blood!"

The commander of the mobile suit unit scolded in a cold, emotionless voice.

"Stay in your designated spot and don't blame me for being rude!"

At the same time as the mobile suit units were in position, several Papua-class transport ships also rushed into Zenquem's spaceport and then dropped a large number of fully armed presidential guards.

"Sir, those people are just too hungry. They are not the enemy!"

When the local officials of Zenkwim saw the murderous presidential guard, they were also stunned. Then they understood something and stepped forward to try to reason with the guard commander.

"No, if you dare to start a riot, you are no longer a qualified Zeon citizen!"

The commander of the guard completely ignored it and even executed the chief executive and his deputy for dereliction of duty, on the grounds that they failed to do their job well and caused the riot.

Afterwards, Char's mobile suit unit was also dispatched to the interior of the satellite.

"Let these mobile suits take the lead!"

"Do you want to load your weapons with live ammunition?"

"No, load the tear gas. These people are still useful. Kill some of them, and the remaining ones will obey!"

"How kind!"

Looking at the tear gas ammunition sent by the logistics department, Char said with a sarcastic tone.

"Why, you feel sorry for these damn guys?"

Gaia, who was wearing a green pilot uniform, also had a sarcastic look on his face, but it was directed at Char.

"I didn't expect our little blonde girl to be so soft-hearted. Do you want to cry? Uncle Gaia will get you a tissue?"

Char ignored the latter and turned to walk towards his own machine. The expression on his face became fierce after he turned around.

At this moment, large numbers of citizens are still crowded outside the spaceport. In order to find a way to disperse these people, the municipal department of Zenquem has turned off the temperature control of the satellite. At this moment, large flakes of snow are falling on the ground. These teams, which are mainly composed of elderly women and some children, can only light a bonfire temporarily and then share the only hot soup in the cold wind.

This was their last food. After the mobilization, the food rations of Zenkwim residents had been reduced to the lowest level of 800 calories, and were mainly composed of whole grain bread and canned food. Fresh meat and vegetables were almost extinct, not to mention candy and dairy products.

Even its domestic water and electricity consumption has been subject to extremely strict restrictions, and the residents of Zenkwim have even begun cutting down green plants inside the satellite for fuel.

Some old people were reluctant to drink this hot soup and gave it to the women and children who were unable to work. However, due to the cold temperature, the soup quickly turned into an ice lump during the pushing and shoving. But this way everyone had something to eat. They broke the ice lump into small pieces and distributed it to everyone, who held it in their mouths.

"Mom, I want to eat cake!"

A little girl was holding an ice cube in her mouth, leaning in her mother's arms in a daze, her face red from the cold.

"Okay, in a few days, when my brother gets his rations, Mom will make you a cake!"

Her mother held the child tightly in her arms, then gave a very forced smile. The little girl believed it and happily fell asleep quietly in her mother's arms.

Her mother just wiped away her tears silently. In fact, as a conscripted soldier, most of the rations allocated to the little girl's brother were deducted as various taxes, and only a small part of them could eat them.

Moreover, the white sugar and eggs needed to make cakes are also listed as military supply controlled resources and will not be distributed as rations at all.

And in this cold state, the Führer's Guard began to take action.

The gate of the spaceport slowly opened, and some citizens looked at the steaming passage and couldn't help but smile with joy.

"It seems that Prince Dejin still hasn't forgotten us!"

An old Zeon soldier who had lost an arm was about to take a step, but the next second, the smile on his face froze.

Teams of the Führer's Guards, equipped with riot gear and warm clothing, quickly moved out under the cover of armored vehicles, followed by the huge mobile suits.

Then, a huge encirclement net was opened, surrounding the bewildered hungry people.

"According to the orders of the Imperial Palace, suppress anti-Zeon elements!"

Without warning, a Zaku used its machine gun to fire a tear gas canister at the open space in the crowd. Then, the other Zakus followed suit. Soon, the entire venue was filled with rising smoke and crying crowds.

"go ahead!"

The defeated crowd fled in all directions, with the riot shields and batons of the Führer's Guard behind them. For a group of women and children, even resistance became a luxury. Some veterans who had served in the army took out their past certificates and medals, trying to stop the ferocious soldiers. However, when the latter saw words such as "Muzo Republic" written on the former's certificates, they beat them even harder with their sticks.

"The Zabi family is in power now. Why are you showing off Muzo's credentials? I know you're the remnants of the Deiken faction who haven't been completely wiped out!"

"You can't do this. I've shed blood for the prince, I've stood guard for His Highness, you can't do this to us!"

An old soldier who had fought with the Federal Security Police when the Zabi family took over the regime and was left with many scars watched his ID being knocked away. He pushed away the guards who were trampling on his ID and searched for his ID in the mud, but the next second, a stick fell on his head.

Before the veteran lost consciousness, he only saw a Zaku standing far away, with the weapon in its hand raised high and the muzzle pointing upwards.

"Char, why don't you fire?"

"Sorry, Captain, my gun jammed!"

"Go to the back for repairs!"

The mobile suit commander was naturally a little wary of the relative that Dozlus had sent in, so he did not force him to clear the problem on the spot. Instead, he asked him to go to the rear to find maintenance personnel to handle it. This way, he could be considered doing a favor.

This kind of use of force to suppress the hungry people, especially the unarmed women and children, would be fine if no one pursued the matter afterwards. But if someone did, I would inevitably be pushed out as a scapegoat.

Then, more favors can also lead to more paths, instead of like this...

The commander saw Gaia firing non-stop. He had already used up one magazine and was still firing the second one. A pale arm could be seen under the magazine he threw at his feet. At this moment, a shell casing thrown from a 120mm machine gun killed a woman who was running away with her child in her arms.

Seeing this, even the commander felt disgusted. They had promised to show up for the justice of the space residents, but now, aren’t the people who died under their guns the space residents?
Under the rampage of the Zaku, the march was quickly suppressed, the rioters were dispersed, the disabled, the sick, and the weak were arrested and imprisoned, ready to be publicly tried and shot on a later date, and those laborers who were still able to work were taken on spacecraft and prepared to be sent to the asteroid belt, because the laborers there had been incorporated into Zeon's zombie army, so new people were needed to replace them.

And their houses were also destroyed under the feet of Zaku.

A riot that affected tens of thousands of people ended at the painful cost of thousands of casualties and nearly 10,000 arrests.

Char was walking on the street. At this moment, the temperature system under the control of the Head of State's Guard had returned to normal. The snow had turned into running water and flowed into the sewer little by little.

The smell of blood and gunpowder in the air was still pungent, and even the bloodstains on the ground had not been washed away. Corpses after corpses were covered with white cloth and gathered in the open space waiting to be burned. Then, Char stopped.

He had just stepped on something weird.

When he removed his boots, a medal covered with a layer of black mud that smelled of blood appeared in front of him.

Then, Char took off his gloves and wiped off the mud bit by bit, only to see the abbreviation of the Muzo Republic on the back of the medal.

"Wait!"

Holding the medal, Char called out to two women who were carrying the corpse. They were pale and ragged, and were also participants in the riot.

Char walked forward and ignored the two shivering men. Instead, he lifted the white cloth covering the corpse. An old soldier, whose head was covered in black, and it was impossible to tell whether it was blood or mud, lay quietly on the cloth, looking emaciated.

Char placed the medal back on the old man's chest and waved his hand.

"Let's go!"

Afterwards, the body was also carried to the gathering area, where several flamethrowers were already waiting. When the last body was delivered, the flamethrower pulled the trigger.

The roaring fire dragon immediately devoured everything, and raging flames rose up. At this moment, Char heard a strange bell sound coming from not far away.

He turned around and saw a Zaku pulling up a church bell tower like a child playing with a toy, then swinging it in his hand.

The endless sound of bells then drifted in all directions.

"The knell of death?"

"Dang-dang-dang-dang..."

As soon as the school bell rang, and before the echo of the teacher's goodbye had even faded, Amuro, carrying his schoolbag, disappeared in the corridor. His speed even scared the teacher who was coming down the stairs.

Frauber also wanted to ask Amuro to go to her house to eat curry rice after school. She specially bought beef and other ingredients, but unfortunately, Amuro's actions were far beyond her imagination.

"Are you really that interested in driving an excavator?"

Flauber put her hands on her hips and looked at Amuro's friends. They looked at each other in confusion and nodded.

Kathy Ting, who has blue hair, added.

"Of course, the joy of driving an excavator is beyond your imagination!"

Of course, if Amuro heard their conversation, he would probably laugh. The reason why he ran so fast was mainly because Timre promised him that he would give everyone a super surprise this Friday!

So, Amuro was running with all his might.

When he arrived at the base, he saw a large group of pilots gathered in front of the hangar door, whispering about something.

When they saw Amuro appear, everyone burst into cheers.

"Okay, everyone is here, we can open the presents!"

"Go, go, go! I bet it's a new mobile suit!"

"I think so too. I even dreamed last night that we were all driving Gundams!"

Everyone squeezed into the hangar and looked around, but saw nothing.

"Crini, where's the new mobile suit you were promised?"

Captain Jung shouted to Macharius who was standing on the high ground.

"That thing will have to wait for a while!"

"What about the gift?"

"Isn't it right here?"

"Where is it? I can't see it?"

"Isn't this what it is?"

Macharius pointed to the prototype Gundam's right hand. Everyone looked up and saw a large black gun firmly held in his hand.

"New weapons?"

"No ejection port? Caseless rifle?"

"Guess again!"

“Ohhhhhh…”

The pilots reacted immediately and ran towards the pier stairs excitedly.

"Beam rifle!"

Captain Conte was the first to rush to the upper floor, and then he was almost pushed down by the people behind him.

"Yes, after the painstaking research of Dr. Timley and his research team, the new beam rifle has surpassed the old 100mm machine gun!"

"Doctor, can we each have one of these?"

A technician asked.

"This, this you shouldn't ask me!"

Timley thought about the cost of the beam rifle, then spoke uncertainly.

"You should ask Lieutenant General Gop!"

"That's no use!"

Then some pilots began to wail. As the chief steward of the Federal Army, Gop would definitely save as much as possible. So, such high-end stuff would really be out of the reach of the soldiers.

Macharius could only nod. However, the cost of the beam rifle was actually secondary. The most important thing was that at this moment, the beam rifle was rather troublesome to use because the MEGA particles (the retracting Minovsky particles) that served as the projectile were supplied by the E-CAP or the detachable "E-battery (E-Pack)" mechanism.

Therefore, it is rather troublesome to restock the rifles with ammunition, and special equipment is required for restocking. Currently, only large bases can do this.

However, this issue has naturally received attention. After all, compared with live ammunition weapons such as the YF100 machine gun, beam weapons that rely purely on energy supply put the least pressure on logistics supply.

If the weapon is connected to a power generation device, then there is no need to even consider the supply of ammunition, and only the cooling and launching devices need to be prepared.

As for live ammunition weapons, the ammunition boxes have to be delivered to various locations and then loaded into special magazines by the soldiers. You have to know that the caliber of the weapons of the mobile suits are not small, and loading these things is very laborious even with mechanical assistance.

But now, Macharius just wants to find a target to shoot at!
"Okay, all adjustments have been made!"

"Can we test it then?"

"Okay, that's perfect, Amuro. Your rifle's here too. Let's go and see if there's anything else we haven't discovered yet!"

Then, the pilots prepared to run to the shooting range.

"What kind of shooting range are we going to? This is a beam rifle. You're firing it in a colony satellite. Are you afraid that everyone won't die?"

Colonel Carter was speechless, but there was nothing he could do about it. Many federal soldiers were from Earth, and even on the colonial satellites, they still had many subconscious habits.

The federal officers and soldiers who came from colonial satellites also had plenty of opportunities to go to Earth, and naturally picked up this habit.

Therefore, the 130th Armored Training Regiment once again hurriedly boarded the two Columbus-class ships and sailed out of side 7.

"I've already agreed with the Space Force. They'll tow us a Salamis patrol boat, but we'll have to find the other targets ourselves!"

The Salamis patrol boat that Colonel Carter mentioned was a small near-orbital aircraft that served a long time ago, before the 5060s. Its shape was similar to the spacecraft in the AD period and it was only more than meters long. After the space army began its armament reorganization, these patrol boats were naturally thrown into a corner and gathered dust.

And now, the Space Army is using it as a target, which can be regarded as recycling waste!

Soon, the cruiser Salamis, towing a patrol boat, caught up with Columbus who had set out earlier.

"That's our target?"

Amuro looked at the patrol boat that was twisting and turning like a snake and shook his head.

"what happened?"

"It feels too small. If it's the one in front..."

Before he could finish his words, he was stopped by Macharius.

Then, Amuro discovered that there was a non-commissioned officer of the Space Army standing next to him, who was looking at him with an extremely angry expression.

"You're just a kid. If Conte or Jung had said that, these guys would have hung them over the back of the boat!"

Macharius patted Amuro's shoulder and spoke earnestly.

"Although I really want to try it, this kind of thing should only be discussed in private!"

Soon, the fleet stopped in a space filled with meteorites, and two Gundams flew out of the cabin one after the other.

After seeing the Gundam appear, the Salamis quickly abandoned the patrol boat and ran away, fearing that the two people driving the Gundam might miss the target and affect them!
"These guys, you have to learn to coexist with the beam!"

Macharius wanted to say a few more words to tease the space army, but a group of people floated out of Columbus's cabin. They were all pilots who wanted to witness the power of the beam rifle with their own eyes.

"Stop wasting time and shoot!"

Under the urgent urging of everyone, Macharius could only activate the fire control step by step, then raise the rifle and pull the trigger.

Then, as the machine body shook, a dazzling beam of light gushed out from the muzzle, easily cutting through the patrol boat, even penetrating it from beginning to end!

"Damn, this thing is much more useful than a machine gun!"

Captain Conte then said enviously.

(End of this chapter)