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

"boom!"

The armor-piercing shell-piercing projectile that looked like a steel needle streaked across the sky, easily penetrating through the armor of the airborne tank made of lightweight materials, tearing apart the flesh and machinery in the middle, and then exiting from the other side.

The Federation infantry fighting vehicle in the rear used the 20mm Vulcan cannon on the vehicle to draw a line of fire, cutting the Zeon infantry who poked his head out of the crater and held the rocket launcher into two pieces.

The Zeon infantry's infiltration assault could not shake the Federation's mechanized troops advancing in a strict formation.

"But, commander, look at the friendly forces on our right!"

A panicked Type 61 tank fell out of the smoke grenade fired from an unknown direction. It knocked down the friendly mechanized infantry and continued to retreat without caring.

Zeon's heavy self-propelled mortar shells flew through the air and landed in the formation of federal infantry accompanying the tank charge behind them. The splashing shrapnel cut open the bodies of the federal infantry like wheat, destroying those infantry who were still alive. their morale.

The commander's field of vision was filled with the flames of gunfire, and from time to time, rockets trailed smoke trails across the battlefield.

'Maybe it was the order from above to retreat, but I was the only one who didn't hear it? '

The commander of the Type 61 tank casually used his coaxial machine gun to sweep the machine gun fire point of a Zeon infantryman, but when he looked at the surrounding friendly troops who seemed to be retreating one after another, his heart began to beat.

"Commander, this is a signal to retreat!"

In the fog in the distance, no one knew who fired a flare with blue light.

"The communication conditions do not allow us to confirm the situation... Since it is an order from above, then we... also retreat. Zeon guy, just wait for me!"

The commander reluctantly sent a signal to the driver, so the Type 61 tank blew its whistle to signal the surrounding friendly mechanized infantry, and began to reverse the vehicle and retreat.

……

The commander of the 17th Armored Brigade sat on his jeep with a displeased look on his face, driving past the withdrawn federal main battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, counting the remaining troops;

The soldiers of the federal army supported their injured comrades, jumped out of the armored vehicles, and hurried to the field hospital; but more soldiers had their bodies intact, but their eyes were full of confusion:

They didn't know how Zeon's troops hid under the craters that looked like the surface of the moon, and they didn't understand how they retreated in confusion——

Especially now that the entire armored brigade has regrouped, the soldiers were surprised to find that most of the familiar faces they had lost contact with during the battle were still alive.

However, the armored brigade commander's face became darker and darker as more and more federal troops retreated back to their starting positions.

"So after losing less than 2% of the troops, you all ran back?!" (Note [-])

The brigade commander jumped out of the jeep, with a stinky face, and yanked open the door of the command vehicle, letting the fully opened door hit the car body on the other side, making a 'bang' sound.

In the car, a dozen middle- and lower-level federal army officers who had just followed the troops looked ashamed and sat around the situation map with their heads lowered, saying nothing.

Chapter 19: Desert Storm (3)

The brigade commander strode into the command vehicle and slapped his hand on the table.

"You're not saying anything, right? Then first, the first battalion commander, tell me what's going on?"

"I saw the second heavy equipment battalion responsible for breaking through from the middle suddenly began to retreat, and I hurried over to respond..."

The battalion commander explained stammeringly.

"Me...me too. I was worried that the Zeon army would attack from the center and separate our left and right wings, so I quickly broke away from the Zeon army."

The third battalion commander also echoed.

"What about the commander of the second battalion?"

The brigade commander looked at his subordinates who were shirking responsibilities with each other, and his expression became increasingly unkind.

"Brigadier Commander, Second Battalion Commander..."

The officers looked at each other and said hesitantly:

"I heard that the second battalion commander was shot and killed by a Zeon sniper when he exposed the tank turret for command."

Apparently the thread in the Federation brigade commander's mind snapped, and he opened his mouth to get angry; at this moment, a communications soldier outside the door hurriedly ran into the open door of the command vehicle.

"Brigade commander, we have connected the phone line! The commander is looking for you..."

The correspondent watched awkwardly as all the officers from the brigade gathered here. Then he half-stepped back to the door and knocked on the door.

"Your Excellency, Brigadier Commander, Lieutenant General Kruger hopes that your advancement will go well. According to the plan, you should have arrived at the vicinity of Edwards Air Force Base by now... But it seems that the status of your troops is not good?"

The agent's voice came directly from the player in the command vehicle, and the brigade's current combat data was also directly read by her through her superior authority.

"Uh……"

A drop of cold sweat ran across the brigade commander's forehead.

"Lieutenant General Kruger is curious as to what foiled your armored brigade's offensive..."

The agent's voice was obviously calm, but it made the commander of the 17th Armored Brigade feel a sense of approaching crisis.

The combat records of this brigade do not provide much effective information except for the mission arrangement before launching the attack and the sudden start of communications to confirm the situation with the withdrawing troops after a period of time.

The agent's grasp of intelligence and data still relies on human input, so the combat report of the 17th Armored Brigade has not yet been uploaded, so she also lacks understanding of the situation on the front line.

"...Is it a Zeon mobile suit? Don't worry. As the first mechanized unit of our army to engage in a head-on battle with the Zeon army, Lieutenant General Kruger will not blame you. He only hopes to know more about the situation. "

Lieutenant General Kruger was indeed very agitated now;

After the combat operation begins and each unit enters a maneuvering state, there is little information fed back to his command post. This kind of waiting with nothing to do is crucial to the step-by-step progress to today's status in a highly information-based army. For Kruger, it was simply torture.

"Ah, yes, yes, Zeon's mobile suits are very threatening, and I know it very well; but I haven't fully confirmed the situation yet, but the attacking troops did panic under poor communication conditions..."

The brigade commander hesitated a few words of correct nonsense, then turned to look at the subordinates beside him——

While gesticulating, he silently made several mouth movements:

"Get back to your troops, shame on me, and prepare to organize the next attack tomorrow morning."

Those battalion and company-level officers, as if they had been granted amnesty, ducked around the brigade commander who was answering the phone one by one, and ran out the door with the vague impression that Zeon had another mobile suit that was even more threatening.

"Then, I look forward to your further and more detailed report after understanding the whole situation of the battle. I won't disturb you anymore, Your Excellency, Brigadier Commander."

The agent cut off the call and turned to Lieutenant General Kruger, who was listening quietly with one ear raised;

"The advance of the 17th Armored Brigade was not smooth. They collided head-on with Zeon's troops, General Kruger."

"Yes, it's a head-on collision. This is already the best unit I have."

The brigade headquarters, armored reconnaissance battalion, three heavy-armed combined battalions, plus a self-propelled artillery battalion, will have 90 main battle tanks, 200 infantry fighting vehicles, and a total strength of nearly 5000 people when fully equipped;

Not to mention that there is a National Guard mobile brigade near the 17th Armored Brigade that is about to converge.

Lieutenant General Kruger was trying to figure out the intentions of the Zeon army. He was imagining an enemy who could conduct reconnaissance from the universe and had considerable intelligence on the Federation Earth Force before the battle broke out, but at the same time was extremely confident and bold;

What kind of offensive would such an enemy launch?

"Zeon's attack plan is also very bold - is there any news about the 47th Mech Brigade stationed nearby?"

"So far, we have not received any enemy encounter reports from the 47th Motorized Infantry Brigade."

Affected by the tsunami, the urban clusters, ports, and airports on the coast now have no military value. The goal of the Zeon army should still be to eliminate the local federal garrison, and at the same time occupy the roads and railway hubs leading to California...

Lieutenant General Krueger thought.

"General, do you need to change your plan?"

"No, changing the plan under the current circumstances will only cause confusion in execution. You can coordinate with the 17th Armored Brigade and let the long-range artillery directly under the group army also participate in the attack, so that they can break through the enemy in front of them as soon as possible."

As the headquarters of the entire group army, under the interference of rice particles, it either cannot receive feedback from subordinate units, or even if it does receive feedback, the headquarters far away from the front line cannot make appropriate responses.

'No wonder various independent units and things like directly affiliated special forces are so popular in the UC era. '

Agents think all the time, 'If I were to take over this position, what would I do...' Questions like this;

Now that long-distance wireless communications on the battlefield are completely blocked by rice particles, not much can be done if we only stay at the level of the Army Headquarters——

The coordination of a large number of troops under his command completely relies on rigid combat plans. Once the situation changes, there is no room for overall adjustment. We can only rely on the tacit understanding among front-line commanders to cooperate.

[It is not enough to only influence the center of human society, it must penetrate deeper into the grassroots...]

Although it may actually have nothing to do with Brigadier General Motenko's command, he still did not hesitate to take credit for repelling the federal offensive, and then brag about it in front of the Zaku Squadron who came to support.

"So you said the federal force is three times our own...?"

"It has been repulsed under my command!"

The loss of nearly [-]% of the armored vehicles did not affect Brigadier General Motenko's complacency; he put his hands on his hips, puffed out his fat belly, and raised his neck unconsciously, as if looking at people with his chin——

This body type puts off those strong and serious Zeon officers.

And looking at his stupid look of incompetence and lack of self-awareness, Captain Zaku, who hurried to support, was obviously angry:

'With the wreckage of less than ten Type 61 main battle tanks and dozens of corpses left in front of your position, can you have a federal integrated division with three times your strength to attack?Probably just a scattered unit at the battalion level. '

He couldn't tolerate such an incompetent person occupying a high position in the Zeon army. Captain Zaku turned his back bitterly to the man in front of him who was wearing a brigadier's cape, which made people think, 'Why?', wondering what to do. Expose his lies.

"In this case, Your Excellency, Brigade Commander, where did the federal army retreat? Just let me chase them!"

Brigadier General Motenko was suddenly stuck.

"Uh...well...the federal army has a large number of troops, so we'd better be cautious and stick to our position first, waiting for all the divisions to converge..."

"No need, Your Excellency, Brigade Commander, the MS unit is independent and directly accepts the command of the division headquarters. If your unit is still capable of fighting, please follow us to cover; if you cannot continue fighting, please tell us the federal army Just follow the retreat direction."

Unable to bear to continue the conversation with such a person, Squadron Leader Zaku turned half of his body, picked up the driving helmet on the map table, put it under his arm, and made a gesture of leaving.

"No, wait a minute, then at least wait for our army to repair, and then we can come together when it gets light..."

Brigadier General Motenko stood up anxiously, thinking about another lie to use to make up his lie. He quickly walked up to Squadron Leader Zaku and tried to stop him, but was easily thrown away.

"In that case, your troops should follow my squadron - your troops are very fast. Since the Federal Army's offensive has been frustrated, they must be regrouping now, right? We can't give them such time to attack the Federal Army at night! "

The 12 Cyclops named Zaku stood up one after another, following the retreat of the federal army, and strode forward.

……

"Brigadier! It's Zeon's mobile suit!"

"Yes, yes, that's what it was written in the combat report. It was said that our army saw Zeon's mobile suits on the ground for the first time. We didn't know how to respond, so the offensive was thwarted..."

"No, brigade commander, it's a real mobile suit. The Zeon army is coming!"

It is now past ten o'clock in the evening, and the temporary camp of the Federal Army's 17th Armored Brigade is still brightly lit, and is preparing for the next attack on the starting position;

The troops that had hurriedly retreated from the previous offensive, with extremely poor visibility and completely disrupted wireless communications, gradually retreated to the brigade headquarters where flares were used from time to time to indicate their assembly positions, and were reorganized. .

The ammunition consumed in the battle just now needs to be reloaded, and the fuel of the tank also needs to be refilled;

Although even the craziest Type 61 tank commander only consumed less than half of the main gun ammunition in the battle that just ended, but - who cares?

If there is an empty position in the ammunition depot and there is a lack of ammunition, it should be reloaded. Always be fully prepared before the next attack.

"Oh haha, Zeon's reconnaissance team is here again?"

When the first signal flare indicating enemy encounter exploded in the night sky in the distance, the crew members of the Type 61 tank, who were gathering in twos and threes outside the tank to chat and eat late-night snacks, did not yet realize the seriousness of the problem.

Before the large force of the 17th Armored Brigade launched its first attack, the brigade's reconnaissance battalion had multiple exchanges of fire with Zeon's reconnaissance troops——

Zeon's airborne tanks are certainly no match for the Federation, but they cannot intercept all the high-mobility vehicles and hoverbikes that disperse their assaults. Some of them have rushed to the vicinity of the Federation's starting position before, but they didn't have time to get close. was wiped out.

The tank driver who had set up a small horse on the track yawned and listened for a while, then nonchalantly threw the self-heating bag of military rations into the water, and the pot made a gurgling boiling sound.

"I didn't hear a few gunshots. It's probably been resolved, right?"

So he stood up and knocked on the shell of the tank turret next to him, "Major Parker, why don't you come out and have something to eat?"

No one responded.

"Already fell asleep in the car - being an officer means less stress." The driver shook his head, sat down again, and turned his eyes furtively to Major Parker's officer package.

At the gate of the camp in the distance, several wheeled armored vehicles belonging to the reconnaissance battalion drove out of the position to confirm the situation.

But then, more signal flares were launched into the sky, red representing enemy encounters, orange representing alertness, and green representing safety. The order and interval between the firing of the signal flares did not match any meaning——

Any signal calibrated in the signal bomb manual is not enough to describe the current situation, but the nervous and panic mood of the peripheral security forces is undoubtedly expressed.

"Look, enemy rockets are coming!"

Like a meteor falling from the sky, it spread fear and death to the federal army camp below.

Alarm bells rang loudly on the federal army's position; the federal officer who had just climbed out of the cot held his trousers in one hand and grabbed a soldier who was running past to ask about the situation.

"What happened to [Earth expletive]?"

"I...I don't know either-"