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

Chapter 90 Countdown!
"Death to Killian, death to the Zabi family!"

A young man who was no more than a teenager held up a Molotov cocktail in his hand, staggered over the piles of corpses on the ground, rushed out of the alley in front of him, and prepared to throw the Molotov cocktail at an armored vehicle.

But when he rushed out of the alley, fierce automatic gunfire sounded instantly, smashing him to pieces.

The Molotov cocktail in the boy's hand fell to the ground, but it did not break, it just rolled to the side.

Then, when the machine gun on the armored vehicle turned to the other side, an elderly woman rushed out from the previous alley. She tremblingly raised the fallen Molotov cocktail and trotted towards the armored vehicle. When the crew reacted, the other party had already gotten close to the armored vehicle.

The machine gun opened fire again, killing the old woman, but the Molotov cocktail in her hand had already flown out and landed on the hood of the armored vehicle.

"These damned unruly people are really crazy!"

Several soldiers of the Führer's Guard in the armored vehicle immediately rushed out of the cabin and tried to put out the fire on the vehicle, but the next second, the explosion sounded not far away and made them give up the idea. They hurriedly put on their weapons and tried to retreat to their original position.

On the way back, the ground was also littered with corpses, and the corpses of civilians and Wehrmacht soldiers were piled up on top of each other. The burning armored vehicles could occasionally make crackling sounds of ammunition exploding, and everywhere you looked, there were houses and vehicles destroyed by mobile suits.

"This is fucking crazy! Everyone in this place is fucking crazy!"

The commander of the crew looked at the ruins around him and spoke hysterically to his men.

The residents of the Zenquem satellite were indeed crazy, because in the short history of the Principality of Zeon, no one had ever dared to raise such a clear-cut slogan against Zabi, nor had anyone dared to take such unwavering action.

On August 78, UC, after Kilian Zabi declared a general mobilization across the country, the Zenquem colony, which had been repeatedly suppressed, once again erupted in a massive uprising. The scale of this uprising was even larger than the previous riots combined.

The composition of the personnel involved in the uprising was also extremely complex, ranging from ordinary citizens, to city government officials, to workers in colonial communes, and even Wehrmacht troops stationed in Zenquem. In particular, a Wehrmacht battalion that was originally stationed here to assist the Führer's Guard in carrying out suppression tasks had completely defected and thrown itself into this massive uprising.

The cause and effect of this uprising were sown during the first riot.

After suppressing the first riot in Zenkwim, the Principality's government directly regarded the entire Zenkwim as an unreliable area, and all supplies to the area were reduced to the lowest level, which is the same level as the labor camps supplying the asteroid belt.

This made all Zeon civilians in Zenquem the target of malicious punishment. At the same time, the satellite's energy supply was also reduced, so that the entire satellite only had two hours of lighting a day, just like prisoners in a prison enjoyed two hours of fresh air.

In addition, the Principality's government has imposed an extremely strict curfew on Zenquem and continuously drawn local manpower to fill the labor shortage in the asteroid belt.

You should know that those who originally mined here were all kinds of prisoners detained by the Principality, mostly adult males. A considerable number of them were former political prisoners of the Deacon faction. They had enough knowledge and could skillfully operate space machinery and various tools. But even so, the death rate of workers was still around 30%.

As mobilization began, all these adults were included in the conscription scope and were transferred to the labor camp as second-line auxiliary troops. As a result, the labor force to fill the gap became a large number of women, children, the elderly and the young in Zenkwim. They had no skills and did not have enough food to fill their stomachs. They suffered continuous casualties during the dangerous mining operations, and the death rate once reached 70%.

When the local officials of Zenquem were ordered to deliver labor to the labor camp and arrived at the mining base in the asteroid belt, they were naturally shocked by the heavy figures and were speechless.

Even with the continuous withdrawal of manpower, Zenquem's situation was still not much better. The President's Guard stationed there directly regarded the entire satellite as their hunting ground and began to commit crimes unscrupulously.

Their crimes were so numerous that even the Wehrmacht stationed there could not bear to watch.

Several children under the age of ten were caught by the Führer's Guard for stealing food for their families and were hanged in the street. Then, in order to set an example, the secret police ordered the mothers of these children to parade the bodies of their dead children throughout the satellite for public display.

On the eve of Kilian's announcement of a general mobilization across the country, the entire Zenkwim had actually become a large concentration camp.

So, when the general mobilization order was issued, Zenkwem's last stand began.

With the assistance of the garrison and police, tens of thousands of rebel troops quickly opened the armory and obtained a small amount of weapons and ammunition. The Führer's Guard was also wary of the citizens of Zenkwim. Even the confrontational response of the local Wehrmacht troops during the Führer's Guard's law enforcement made them wary of the former.

Despite having only a small amount of weapons, the rebels still launched the next attack. At the same time, they also received support from the entire satellite. From white-haired old people to young teenagers, a large number of people gathered together, which quickly expanded the size of the rebels to hundreds of thousands.

At the same time, those residents who did not directly participate in the uprising also supported the uprising in their own way, digging out the last bit of food hidden in their homes; taking out the ancient gunpowder weapons used by their fathers; and providing the rebels with the intelligence they knew.

An elderly barber with no other skills set up his stall, which he had not used for decades, and provided free haircuts for the rebels. A girl who had studied painting took out her only remaining paints and drawing paper to record the last images of the rebels.

After the assembly, the insurgents, short of food and ammunition, under the leadership of a few military commanders, launched a siege on the presidential guard inside the satellite.

The President's Guard is rampant in the satellite and naturally knows how annoying they are, so their bases are built on high ground or other places that are easy to defend and difficult to attack inside the satellite.

Moreover, these bases have extremely complete defense measures, ranging from automatic sentry weapons, power grid protection, and other fire support measures.

Under the solid defense line of the Führer's Guard, the rebels were naturally beaten to a pulp, but no one retreated. They knew that there was no way to retreat in the entire satellite, and they had to fight to the death or die without dignity.

Thus, under the suicidal offensive that was almost like a sea of ​​people, the defense line of the Führer's Guard was finally shaken. When the supporting firepower was overheated and a firepower gap appeared, the rebels went all out, tore through their defenses and attacked the base of the Führer's Guard.

However, the several Zaku II mobile suits of the Führer's Guard later became an insurmountable wall for the rebels. Fortunately, the Wehrmacht garrison was equipped with anti-tank missiles. With the support of these weapons, the rebels were able to drive the remnants of the Führer's Guard from the satellite. Afterwards, without time to mourn the dead, the few surviving local officials in the shattered official residence used the still-functioning communication equipment to issue a declaration of independence to the entire Earth sphere.

The statement announced that Zenquem had separated from the Principality of Zeon to become an independent country and hoped to return to the rule of the Earth Federation Government. At the same time, it condemned the Principality's intention to fight with Gihren Zabi, opposed the Principality's foreign policy towards the Earth Federation, and accused the Principality and Gihren's secret police force of brutally persecuting satellite residents.

This news was like a bomb dropped into the water, causing the entire globe to boil.

Although the Principality of Zeon government immediately cut off the entire satellite's communications from the outside, a large amount of video, photos, recordings, documents and other information was still circulated.

Especially the video footage of the riots, the footage of the Führer's Guard's mobile suits indiscriminately firing at the unarmed rebels directly became the cover of all social media.

Public opinion within the Principality of Zeon was in a suffocated state for a while. After learning about the situation, Prince Dekin angrily smashed Gihren's head, but in the current situation, even his reputation was unable to save the situation.

Therefore, the Principality Government could only order all combat troops to be on level one combat readiness and stationed in key satellite locations across the country to deter the villains. At the same time, the main force of the President's Guard was also mobilized with the intention of quelling the situation in Zenquem as quickly as possible.

To this end, the Führer's Guard even mobilized nearly a hundred brand-new Zaku 2s to forcibly break through the Zenquem spaceport with thundering force, and began to brutally suppress all local residents indiscriminately.

The rebels fought to the death and refused to give up an inch of ground. The two sides engaged in fierce street fighting inside the satellite. However, due to their equipment disadvantage, the situation of the rebels took a sharp turn for the worse after the few captured mobile suits were destroyed and the anti-tank missiles were used up.

The rebels had no means to fight against the mobile suits and could only use simple earth-made explosives and hand-made incendiary bombs as weapons. After the few national defense army and police forces were wiped out, the only ones left in the resistance were women, children, the elderly and the young, white-haired old people, and orphans who had lost their parents in their teens. They were like moths to a flame and were dissipated in a meat grinder.

When the mobile suits of the Führer's Guard slaughtered the rebels indiscriminately all the way to their last stronghold, the thousands of women and children who remained there committed suicide by burning themselves in front of their eyes.

And this is the final message from those who rebelled.

After the rebels were completely killed, only one in ten residents of Zenkwim remained.

The tragedy of Zenzem also shocked the federal government. On the second day after the Führer's Guard began to suppress the uprising, the federal fleet stationed on Luna II received an order to hold a naval review to express its protest against the tragedy of Zenzem and demonstrate the military strength of the federation.

Faced with such a fierce reaction from the Federation fleet, the Zeon army also made a corresponding counterattack, assembling all fleets and conducting live-fire exercises in public space.

At this point, any discerning person can see that the war between the Federation and the Principality of Zeon is a foregone conclusion!
At this critical juncture, Xiu Yashio, the head of the Yashio family, a local noble family in the Earth Federation and the ruler of the huge military-industrial group Yashio Industries, secretly arrived in Zeon and held talks with the Matsunaga family, a local powerful family in the Principality of Zeon, seeking the possibility of avoiding the outbreak of war.

Although the meeting was held in secret, it was not concealed from the government of the Principality of Zeon. Dozle even attended the meeting as a representative of the Zabi family.

As a general, Dozle admires the efforts made by the Yasu and Matsunaga families for peace. He also knows the consequences of war. The damage caused to Zeon's homeland just by preparing for war is shocking, and the extremism of the army makes Dozle even more worried.

But the decision-making power has nothing to do with him at all, and he cannot influence the development of the situation.

During the negotiations, a small-scale riot and mutiny broke out among the Zeon troops stationed in Zim City. They attacked the Matsunaga family's manor and killed the head of the Matsunaga family.

If Dozle hadn't stepped forward to stop this army, perhaps no one in the entire venue would have survived.

"Your Excellency, they are betraying the country!"

The mutiny commander's eyes were red because he was too excited. He was gasping for breath and spoke to Dozle with gritted teeth.

"The Duchy government will naturally handle that. It's not your turn. Yet, you took matters into your own hands and openly attacked the nobles of the Duchy in the capital. Are you planning a rebellion?"

Dozle's roar made the excited soldiers tremble.

"We are only trying to save this country. If this is a crime, then I am willing to die as a token of my guilt!"

Afterwards, the mutinous commander and his non-commissioned officers committed suicide in front of Dozle, and the remaining soldiers gave up resistance and allowed themselves to be taken away by the military police.

But it was no longer possible to continue the talks, and the last glimmer of hope that could prevent the outbreak of war was completely destroyed.

Subsequently, in November, Zeon announced a complete interruption of the flow of personnel, information, and materials with the Earth Federation and other colonies.

Those Earth Federation personnel who were stranded in Zeon's homeland and failed to leave in time, as well as personnel from the side colonies, were all detained by the President's Guard and then incorporated into the second-line auxiliary forces.

After Zeon cut off the three links, the Earth Federation completely gave up its last fantasy and issued a level one combat readiness order to all Earth Federation forces on December 12.

At the same time, the Earth Federation Government also issued an ultimatum to the Principality of Zeon, demanding that Zeon restore the three links, stop the brutal suppression of Zenquem, and release all political prisoners.

However, facing the Earth Federation's ultimatum, Gihren Zabi suddenly fell silent and did not respond at all.

(End of this chapter)