Gundam, but from the Ground Alliance to the Human Alliance to the out-of-control servitor

"...According to statistics inside and outside the ship, 53 Zeon Army infantry have been killed, and the remaining number is estimated to be about 15. More than half of them escaped directly outside the ship, and the rest are still hidden inside the ship and are being cleaned up."

"okay,"

Captain Brad calmed down and issued the order:

"The enemy Zanzibar-class, the threat from the sky has been resolved, speed up, raise the altitude, avoid allowing the enemy's ground troops to try to fish in troubled waters and board the ship again; and...confirm the safety of each crew member, count the casualties...then Tell me immediately."

"Got it, Captain Blade."

……

"Huh, huh..."

Selah Mars held a pistol and hid in a corner of the passage. She didn't dare to stick her head out, so she could only listen carefully for suspicious footsteps.

'Is that... the one just now...'

Sera thought in her mind in surprise, she seemed to see the face of an old friend, but meeting her under such circumstances was something she had never expected;

"Boom, boom, boom."

It was reassuring, but at this moment, it was the heavy footsteps that Sera couldn't tell whether she wanted to hear, that sounded from behind her; it was four 'Cyclops', followed by a gun-wielding crew member, Approach from behind Serah.

"Miss Serra, are you okay?"

"I...I'm fine, it's very..."

"There are Zeon soldiers lurking ahead, right? Don't worry, Miss Platinum is already aware of the situation. The passages on the upper and lower floors have been blocked by us. The Zeon guys can't escape this time."

The crew members confidently clapped their chests and talked to Sera, but they felt as if they were rooted to the ground and did not dare to go any further. Together with Sera, they watched the four 'Cyclops' cleanly throw out a shock bomb, and then Rush out of the corner of the passage.

"Hand your gun and don't kill, surrender immediately——"

In order to prevent the anxious Zeon soldiers from causing greater damage in the ship, Platinum did not reject the method of persuading them to surrender, but this group of Zeon soldiers seemed to still have some backbone.

"Surrender to heartless machines? Never! Even humans have a will of steel!"

A middle-aged man's voice was roaring. Unfortunately, he has no will, but he is still flesh and blood."

Then, accompanied by the footsteps of the 'Cyclops' rushing forward without hesitation, a burst of messy gunfire sounded, and finally a dull explosion, which brought an end to the commotion in the White Base.

In the background, Platinum added another item to the end of the list of cabins that needed repair.

Chapter 83: Assessing the situation (1)

"He looks a little embarrassed, but his momentum is like that of a warrior who has fought a hundred battles."

Admiral Ray Bill stood by the window, watching the once again scarred white base passing by at low altitude along the coastline;

On the horizontal deck of the ship, the wounds left during the gun battle with the Zeon Army's Zanzibar-class mobile cruiser were clearly visible, but the Gundam standing on guard in front of the open hangar door at the bow of the ship, and the Federation Army's air defense entering from the air When entering a controlled area, confirm the orderly identification procedures——

All prove that this is by no means an army that hastily fled back after losing the battle.

"Although the Federal Army has never made it clear, someone asked me before about the possibility of equipping the Pegasus-class assault landing ship to the Army. However, when I reported the cost and construction period of a single ship, the Army's logistics general turned pale with fright. ”

Behind Admiral Raibil, several space army staff members joked quietly while there was no one around, and at the same time, they flattered General Raibil without leaving any trace:

"This is one of the cores of the 'V Plan'. At that time, the Earth Army guys refused to share the research and development funds, and now they want to pick the peaches; and it is not enough for the Federation Army to have Pangpan-class and Chongcha-class land battleships, and they also want to Are you putting your hands in the air?"

"Hey, the Earth Army has been talking about the unification of the three armies for so many years, but in fact they are not doing their own thing. But now I think the Army has this idea of ​​merging the other two armies."

Admiral Ray Bill showed a smile, but did not let the staff continue chatting and flattering;

"This is not only due to equipment such as battleships and mobile suits. Weapons still need to be used by people to play their intended role. The ordinary Pegasus class may not be able to do this. Come on, let me see it. A hero of our Union Army."

"——Salute to Chief of General Staff Rebil!"

Captain Brad led everyone on the White Base to stand in a row and salute Admiral Ray Bill; after some pre-scene drills, Captain Brad finally woke up the White Base. The memories of the crew members receiving recruit training on Luna 2;

It is a pity that Captain Blade may indeed have no chance of being a serious regular army:

Before Admiral Ray Bill could raise his hand in return, the three smallest crew members on the White Base, Kaz, Coates, and Jika, took advantage of Frau Poe, who was in charge of the care, to accidentally escape from Ray Bill. He ran in front of him, running towards the long-lost land.

This episode scared the guard behind Admiral Ray Bill to the point where he almost drew his gun, but Ray Bill didn't pay much attention to it. After all, the question of why there were so many underage children on this battleship still had to be settled in the end. to the head of the Union Army.

Rebel smiled kindly at Captain Brad, who looked embarrassed, and said:

"The White Base is truly a unique and legendary force."

"No... I can't take it seriously. We were originally scheduled to conduct battleship trials and retrieve the Gundam series development units under testing from Side 7 and return to the Gabro headquarters. However, there were so many twists and turns and it was far behind schedule. It's really shameful. .”

Captain Blade had been mentally prepared, but was interrupted by the three children jumping in front of him, and Frau chasing after him, and his face suddenly became a little uneasy again. .

"It's not your fault. It's better to say that under such circumstances, you can still achieve such an impressive record. It is really a model for our federal army; here, you can have a good rest."

As he spoke, Ray Bill's eyes swept across Brad's face and locked directly on the next person in the queue——

"Are you Amuro who is responsible for piloting the Gundam?"

"Yes, General Rebel."

Rebel looked at Amuro Ray with great interest, and after a while, he finally said with emotion:

"When I was your age, I was thinking every day about how to fool the teacher with my math homework, but you are already an excellent MS pilot. It is true that since ancient times, heroes have been born, and a new generation has replaced the old ones. ah."

'Newcomer...kind?' '

This statement was initially only used as a propaganda tool by the Principality of Zeon to shape the identity of the residents of the universe, stripping away those external abilities, such as 'keen insight', 'excellent intuition' and the like. :

The two core points are that firstly, new humans were born among people who migrated to the universe and adapted to completely different living environments; secondly, new humans have special abilities that old humans did not have, or in other words, new humans are stronger than old humans. .

This kind of rhetoric with obvious racial supremacy should be completely abandoned in the Federation, which at least openly adheres to the values ​​of pluralism; but Admiral Ray Bill's strange wording attracted Amuro's attention, and he felt that Ray Bill That's what Bill seemed to mean.

But before he could think about it, Admiral Ray Bill turned around and walked back; the accompanying federal officers began to greet the crew of the White Base to leave the ship. In the conference hall on the shore, Admiral Ray Bill also Continue to explain the situation to them.

The White Base, under Platinum's automatic control, flew towards the nearby Federal Space Force's overhaul dock.

Relying on policy support and government subsidies, at least in the defense industry, Europe still retains a considerable number of production facilities, but it is still criticized in terms of personnel efficiency;

If it's just maintenance, and the technical team coming from Gabro's headquarters will provide guidance, they can still handle it - probably.

Platinum thought with great uncertainty before the reactor that entered the overhaul state shut down and shut down the system.

Here, under the nose of Admiral Revier, no one would embarrass the crew of the White Base. They could also enjoy a meal provided by the local Italian federal army canteen in a wider and more open space on land for the first time in a long time. delicacies;

However, after Admiral Ray Bill met with the crew of the White Base with satisfaction and announced the next plan, he left in a hurry. He still had the next event to rush to——

"...Then let us all join together to congratulate Admiral Ray Bill, who has led us to victory, for his long and healthy victory!"

"cheers!"

The Western Route Army Joint Command Headquarters for the Federation Army's Operation 'Great Flood', which spanned the entire Eurasian continent, was established in Rome. At this time, in this magnificent hall, the generals of the three Federation Earth Armies were celebrating the operation. A staged victory.

Before launching this offensive operation, no matter how succinctly the operational staff analyzed it at the meeting, saying, "The Federation has ten victories and Zeon has ten defeats," few of these senior officers had any confidence in the offensive. [-]% confidence:

The reason is very simple. If the strength of the Federation Army could really crush the Zeon Army, how could they be allowed to airborne at will, so that they still occupy nearly one-third of the habitable land area on the earth's surface?

Fortunately, the Federation Army, which was gradually mobilized, was like a flood against the Zeon Army's Eurasian and African front, which although the average quality of its individual soldiers was much higher, was still unable to get rid of its extreme dependence on orbital airdrop material supplies. The Zeon army's battle line;

It wasn’t that the Zeon Army didn’t have units that stubbornly held on to their positions, and it wasn’t that there weren’t units that took advantage of the coordination loopholes between the various offensive units of the Federation Army and launched a beautiful counterattack. However, more than a week after the operation began—

The harder the Zeon army fights, the easier it is for them to find themselves on the verge of running out of ammunition and food, being attacked from multiple sides by the Federation army, or even completely surrounded;

The previous confrontation line between the Federation Army and the Zeon-occupied area has been completely broken by the offensives launched by the Federation's huge army in turns; the Zeon Army's orbital airdrops cannot be guaranteed to be accurately delivered to Zeon requesting supplies due to poor communications. On the head of the Wengjun unit;

On the ground and in the air battlefield in the atmosphere, the Zeon Earth Attack Force, which had difficulty maintaining the initiative it had in the early stages of the war, often found it difficult to always arrive at the prearranged airdrop in time as planned in the previous descent operations. landing field.

"...The achievement of such great results in this operation still relies on the full cooperation between all branches of our Earth Army, as well as the unity of our officers and soldiers, who are determined to stop the tyranny of the crazy Zhabian family-"

Admiral Ray Bill said some polite words helplessly, and he was somewhat dissatisfied with the extravagant style of the top brass of the Federal Army in the European Theater of Operations; even if he was in the Space Army before, the atmosphere there was not such an opening celebration. The venue and beverage expenses alone would cost as much as the budget of several Type 61 main battle tanks.

But now is a good time for him to take advantage of his firm stance of counterattack and prove it in practice to win over people's hearts and expand his influence; in addition, he was already in Europe before the start of the 'Great Flood' plan. Many people have been offended here in the war zone;

"-But we must also note that Zeon armies such as Rommel's Army in North Africa and Yuri's Army in the Arabian Peninsula still maintain a considerable degree of combat effectiveness and fighting will. The rotation and rest of our army's troops, As well as the forward extension of the logistics supply line, we must treat it with caution..."

However, the Federation officers in Europe do have reason to be happy; after all, throughout the midsummer season from June to August, the Zeon Army has always regarded the occupation of Europe as a key operational goal, which has brought considerable pressure to the Federation forces in Europe. ;

But now, the Zeon Army's frontline bases in Asia Minor, Crete, Tunisia in North Africa, and Morocco have been wiped out by the Federation Army under the 'Great Flood' plan. What's left is that the Zeon Army can retreat to The question is where to stabilize the defense line; Europe's security is already at ease.

Therefore, not only the officers of the federal army were present, but also the federal parliamentarians, politicians from European constituencies, and big businessmen who took orders from the federal army were taking this opportunity to move around each other to explore the rumbling federal tank, and to pick up the pieces. Where to continue driving down.

"Crack, click—"

Several camera shutters rang out. Under the admiration of many federal army generals around him, General Rebeer, who was surrounded by stars, showed his demeanor of a general who was neither discouraged by defeat nor arrogant by victory. Reporters who were allowed to attend the meeting They captured it; this power and magnanimity can make headlines at a glance.

But then, the atmosphere of the victory celebration gradually got better, and Admiral Ray Bill, the protagonist, disappeared from the well-dressed crowd at some point.

……

"Admiral Rebil, the 31st Army of Cluster B received news from Turkey that nuclear explosions were observed on the front line while pursuing the retreating Zeon army. The specific situation is still being verified."

Outside the banquet hall, go through the corridor and go deeper into a secluded small hall, where is the temporary headquarters set up by Admiral Ray Bill;

Even if it is an occasion like a celebration banquet, Ray Bill still insists on having his communication command team participate together to ensure that he can enter the command state within 3 minutes at any time.

"TA-31, what's going on? Did the Zeon army use a nuclear bomb to cut off the rear?"

Feeling that the communicator on his chest began to vibrate, Ray Bill hurriedly left the wine shop. He picked up a hot towel from the tray held by the agent standing beside him, dipped it on his face, and wiped away the stain on his face. Drunk, he said unhurriedly;

On the solid wood high-end dining table in the small hall, all kinds of finely carved silver tableware and decorative ornaments were ruthlessly swept aside to make room for seven or eight large computer monitors and various cables. They also crawled across the white tablecloth like a swarm of dancing snakes.

"The Joint Command Headquarters cannot confirm the situation now. Due to the interference caused by the nuclear explosion, it is still unable to contact the 133rd Armored Division, which is closest to the location of the nuclear explosion, and the 73rd Air Assault Brigade; it cannot be ruled out that the Zeon Army breached the contract. nuclear weapons."

"[Earth expletive]... uh sorry, General Ray Bill, I mean, please take a look at this."

At this time, a staff officer in the rear yelled and stood up, hurriedly walked over with a tablet computer under his arm, interrupting the agent's reply.

"This is an aerial photo taken by our military's aerial reconnaissance aircraft after the incident. Look at the estimated diameter of the crater and the shock wave range of the explosion. Except for nuclear weapons, no other weapon can achieve this kind of power."

The staff officer showed the tablet to Admiral Ray Bill. Whether it was the mushroom cloud that rose during the explosion or the astonishing range of damage after the explosion, it was exactly the same as the nuclear weapons generally recognized by people.

The agent does not need to stick her head over to look at the screen, the updated information is synchronized directly with her from the background, allowing her to seamlessly access the topic:

"Judging from the impact, it may be difficult for the 31st Group Army to continue its pursuit and complete the task of holding on to the retreating Zeon Army. The commander of the group army is asking the command headquarters for instructions on how to respond. Is it possible to carry out a nuclear counterattack?"

"Well, at this time we have to be cautious. It is meaningless for us to lose both sides with the madmen of the Zabi family. Has the Zeon Army made any statement?"

Chapter 84: Assessing the situation (2)

"...This is what our army has learned so far, Chief of General Staff Raibil?"

Rebir nodded to the agent who was temporarily responsible for explaining the situation, then turned to the senior officials of the federal army who were brought over from the temporarily suspended celebration banquet, clasped his hands, and said solemnly:

"This is the situation. Although it is embarrassing to have an impromptu meeting during such off-duty hours, I still hope that everyone can exchange their views."

"How shameless! What do you mean by saying that the MS nuclear fusion reactor was attacked and exploded? If the micro-reactor can directly explode the power of a hydrogen bomb, we should have directly regarded the deployment of MS on the battlefield as a violation of the "Antarctic Treaty" when we signed it. A nuclear strike from our army!”

"It's too late to say anything now. Things have already happened. This is Zeon's test of our army. If we do nothing, the Zeon army will only become more unscrupulous, right?"

Although fusion reactors and hydrogen bombs both utilize nuclear energy, the reaction processes are completely different. In conventional battles, it is often the ammunition or propellant carried by the MS that triggers the explosion, rather than the uncontrolled chain reaction of the reactor itself.

"This time it was a nuclear explosion that occurred on our army's advance route. Only a small number of leading troops were killed or injured, but it did not harm the people. Most of them destroyed roads, bridges and other facilities, hindering our army's pursuit, but -"

A federal army general with a drunken look on his face spread his hands, but his eyes showed a fierce look, and he said in a deep voice:

"When nuclear weapons have been used in war, the remaining nuclear weapons still on the launchers and in the warehouse no longer have any deterrent effect. I have said it long ago..."

"Enough, you are going to say what you mentioned before, 'Even if the Zeon army rains down colonial satellites, we will use up the nuclear bombs stored on Luna 2 to destroy the Side 3 mainland.' Such a plan is too extreme. , let us become the victors in the ruins of human civilization?”

In any organization, you can always find some members who are far more radical than the average level, and the Federal Army is no exception. However, in this meeting that took place at the dinner table where the banquet was hastily removed, it was rare to get some recognition. Voice;

"In the final analysis, whether it is waging war, using nuclear, biological, chemical, or large-scale weapons, isn't it the Principality of Zeon that starts the move first? You want to protect human civilization so much, so why don't you tell us where our bottom line should be drawn? Launch a nuclear attack on the assembly points of our troops and fleets? Launch a nuclear attack on the cities of the Federation?"

"Didn't the Zeon side also say that it was just an accident? If it was intentional, then the Zeon army should launch an attack on a larger scale, right? Instead of just appearing on the way to pursue the Zeon European Front Army This is the only case, and this is not the only one that has been retreating steadily in the face of our army's offensive."

"What are the words of a capitulationist? Do you believe what he said about the accident? Commander-in-Chief Raibil, I suggest that the Strategic Air Force be immediately used to carry out a nuclear strike covering the Zeon Army's retreat route. They must pay the price!"

After hearing this, General Rebir couldn't help but raise his eyebrows with a wry smile, and tilted his head slightly to the side. Immediately, a senior federal officer who was good at observing people's words spoke out the refutation on Rebil's behalf:

"You said it quite easily. Let's not talk about how large an area we need to hit to cover the scattered retreating Zeon army. Instead, you pointed on the map. Which member country of the Federation do you want to carry out a nuclear strike? Then you can Go to the Federal Parliament and explain to the members?”

"Then are we just watching like this now? The Turkish troops have been frightened and have stopped advancing. If other Zeon forces follow the same example, wouldn't it allow the Zeon forces to regain their strength and organize defense again? Opportunity?"

Just as the generals of the federal army were arguing with each other, the agent silently walked out of the inner hall again, quietly appeared beside General Rebeer and whispered in a low voice:

"General Ray Bill has contacted the Prime Minister's office. The Prime Minister said that 'the Zeon army triggering a nuclear explosion on Earth must be condemned, but the Federation army launching a nuclear attack on Federation soil is even more intolerable'..."

Listening, Admiral Ray Bill nodded slightly and hummed from his nose;

No matter what the generals here think, the final plan to launch a nuclear strike must require the approval and authorization of the federal prime minister. The nuclear counterattack implemented by the Space Force's Luna 2 at that time was essentially an illegal use, but the main battle The current government currently has no intention of pursuing the case.

"...In addition, the Prime Minister would like to ask you whether the Federal Space Force is now capable of carrying out a retaliatory nuclear strike on Zeon's mainland, and then prevent the possible restart of the Zeon Army as the price of tearing up the Antarctic Treaty. Colonial Satellite Drop Plan.”

"Today's space battles have not yet departed from the concept of fleet battles on the ocean in the old era. It takes years or even decades to prepare for a battle of a few hours. The current Federal Space Force is not fully prepared. .”