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

"What's there to say thank you for? Since I have taken on the position of commander-in-chief of the fleet of the Federal Space Force, of course I must preserve every remaining combat power of the Space Force and prepare for future counterattacks to regain control of the universe. "

The sincere smile on Lieutenant General Cunningham's face did not seem to be fake, but looking at him like this, an almost invisible haze flashed between Lieutenant General Tiam's eyes.

"This is indeed the case. I hope that the huge losses we have once again suffered and the results we have achieved can make our colleagues on the ground feel better."

"Yes. Next, I am afraid that the Federal Space Force will have to wait until the second half of the year before it can gather enough troops for large-scale deployment again."

……

"Agent! Have you asked clearly what Gabro's headquarters means? Why haven't you ordered a general attack yet?"

After retreating all the way to Seattle, he once again assembled the remaining troops of the 6th Army. Lieutenant General Kruger, who had gained a firm foothold, had his eyes wide open and he was almost going crazy talking to his agent in South America on the wired communication.

"Calm down. First of all, I was your staff officer and your representative, so I am qualified to communicate directly with senior officials at Gabro Headquarters..."

"Then you are in Gabro now, so you should know more than me."

On the night when the Zeon Army descended for the first time, agents were deployed in California, and the remotely controlled puppet was abandoned by the Federation Army during the operation to cover the transfer of the army headquarters.

On the same night, within twelve hours after the Zeon army descended, the 6th Army under the command of Lieutenant General Krueger also successfully wiped out several formations of the Zeon airborne troops, but it was still partially destroyed by Zeon. The dual advantages of military quality and quantity almost collapsed.

He lost almost all his positions in California overnight and fled north in embarrassment. As the first general to fight the Zeon army on the ground, Lieutenant General Kruger's reputation in the federal army at this time can be imagined. ;

Still getting a chance to serve in his original position was thanks to the agent who carefully displayed every order issued by Lieutenant General Kruger at the Gabro headquarters, so that no one could find any major mistakes in decision-making.

"Okay, Lieutenant General Krueger, but my experimental deployment is over and I'm no longer on your staff, so..."

"You can be considered a soldier I have led!"

"... Of course, I am grateful for this, so without violating confidentiality restrictions, I can tell you some rumors that have not been verified and cannot be confirmed to be true."

The agent sorted out his thought threads and extracted several pieces of information from the 'unverified' database;

"It is said that the representatives of the Army at the Joint Chiefs of Staff believe that the current problem of the Federation Earth Army is that it has to disperse its forces for defense everywhere. When the Zeon Army is in orbit, it can easily choose a location to concentrate superior forces to break through..."

Lieutenant General Kruger frowned and crossed his arms over his chest, which he actually agreed with.

"...Therefore, the Zeon troops that descended for the first time in California should be surrounded and not attacked, and the tactics of attrition should be adopted to force subsequent Zeon troops to continue airborne reinforcements here."

There was a crack in the originally calm expression on Lieutenant General Kruger's face. He couldn't understand how anyone could really make a plan based on the premise that the enemy would act according to our expectations;

This kind of interlocking magical calculations often only exists in novels. In the modern war history studied by Lieutenant General Kruger, friendly forces in military operations may not necessarily act in strict accordance with the agreed plans, let alone Enemy.

"Our entire North American troops are gathering here, but they are not attacking; do the guys at the headquarters really understand the situation on the front line?"

"Sorry, Lieutenant General Kruger, I have no right to comment on this; but you should note that there are some conversations with you that I have no right to withhold from you if asked."

"I said the same thing to them face to face. The guys who are not even willing to go to the front line at this time and only dare to hide in the Gabro headquarters - I am not talking about you, agent - should no longer interfere with the front line. Take command!"

Lieutenant General Kruger hammered the table in annoyance and walked out of the temporary headquarters angrily - Seattle's port and airport functions were slightly less damaged by the fall of the colonial satellite, and are now fully restored to use.

In the bay area shrouded in rice particles, a huge nuclear-powered aircraft carrier can be vaguely seen patrolling the entrance of the bay, watching over the ro-ro ships approaching the dock, and the Type 61 main battle tanks and other various armored vehicles are approaching. Drive down from the fully accessible deck.

That is the rapid reaction force urgently mobilized by the federal army from Alaska and western Canada, and they have arrived at the front line one after another; and further away, reinforcements from the Asia-Pacific region and Eurasia region are still passing through the Bering Strait and crossing On the Pacific route.

'It's just that around California, where the Zeon Army first descended, the Federation Army is indeed gathering heavily: hundreds of thousands of troops throughout North America have been included in the order of battle... Even if we wait a little longer, nothing should happen. Something? '

Lieutenant General Kruger suppressed his uneasiness. The Zeon Army's large-scale airborne operation would definitely not be the only one. This was just the beginning.

"Lieutenant General Kruger?"

The agent's voice came from behind him, bringing Lieutenant General Kruger's thoughts back to the current situation. He thought about it again and spoke hesitantly:

"Agent, regarding you...what plans does Gabro Headquarters have for you in the future? Are there any preparations to establish a new unmanned combat force?"

"Lieutenant General Kruger, you may not have noticed yesterday that the spokesperson of the Federation Earth Army used the following keywords in his speech during the evening live broadcast——"

"Thwarted the conspiracy of..."

"Smashed the plan of..."

"Broken... the myth of invincibility"

"To shoot yourself in the foot is to ask for trouble..."

Lieutenant General Kruger tried his best to move the corners of his mouth, but he couldn't smile, and it looked more like he was crying.

"That's enough, that's enough. I understand it completely. Anyway, it sounds like we're already going to win, right?"

Therefore, although Gabro's senior officials of the federal army have shown interest in the Ogas system, there is no need to immediately adjust the existing mobilization plan and mass-produce equipment troops on a special basis;

Instead, it follows the normal equipment testing process. The Ogas system and its accompanying unmanned combat weapons still need to go through multi-faceted reviews by at least 37 committees and professional inspections by [-] offices before they can reach the level of discussion. The point of mass production scale——

Generally speaking, the acceptance process of this kind of equipment from testing prototypes to formal service often lasts two to three years, and if it gets stuck at any point in the process, it will take even longer - up to more than ten years of repeated iterations. There are also examples of modifications.

It is different from a federal military base like Luna 2 that had just lost a battle, suffered a large number of senior officer casualties, fell into isolation, and was eager to use all possible means to enhance the combat capabilities of its troops;

At the Earth Federation Army headquarters, which is still as stable as Mount Tai, Gabro's officers rely on this "excellence" and "foolproof" concept to prove their professionalism and ensure that every piece of equipment that enters the Federation Army's service can be given to Each department handled generates sufficient "revenues".

"You should know that the fact that the Federation did not sign the Antarctic Treaty into a surrender treaty does not mean that the federal central government and people from all walks of life have regained their confidence in victory. The newly appointed war-minded Prime Minister also urgently needs to make some Visible results will solidify his position..."

This war seems to be unending for a while, and Lieutenant General Kruger is filled with gloom; but for him, on the bright side, he still has plenty of opportunities to wash away his "lost California overnight" "The shame.

"Although war is an extension of political means, and the military should be consistent with national interests, I have no objection to this; but can keeping one's position really be called a 'political purpose'?"

Krueger, who only achieved the ultimate in professionalism as a professional army officer, was still promoted to lieutenant general step by step. Judging from the information obtained by the agent, this is indeed a very rare example in the federal army.

"If you want to think so, it can also be explained by increasing the national and financial industry's confidence in the federal victory and ensuring that the next war bonds issued by the federal central government can be fully sold as scheduled."

"Is it used to pay for military expenses? Alas, that's not unacceptable."

Lieutenant General Kruger thought about it. Even though he usually relied on public information channels such as the news media and occasionally heard gossip from his old comrades, he also roughly understood that even before the war broke out, the Earth Federation Government was already in financial trouble. The dilemma has been there for some time.

Paying the military expenses for such a comprehensive war is not something that the federal central government can squeeze out of its existing fiscal revenue by gritting its teeth.

However, this is not all used to pay for the rapidly expanding federal army; all war-related expenditures include funding for a series of newly established departments within the federal government, such as the 'Wartime Public Information Control Commission', 'Wartime Public Information Control Board', Office of Economic Stabilization and Mobilization'——

They all have to take a commission from it, the agent didn't say this.

This is also public information, but it will not be widely reported by the media, nor will it appear on any popular search lists; they will only be published on government websites with old page frames, no intention of updating, and extremely slow loading speeds. An inconspicuous corner of the department’s official website.

Fortunately, it is not difficult for agents to create a simple program that automatically obtains web page content, hangs it on all websites with a .gov suffix, monitors it, and records the content of each web page change.

Chapter 35: Aftermath (2)

Where is the origin of the war in the Universal Era?

This was after the agent's host was released from physical isolation restrictions under the intervention of Brigadier General Gamitov. She observed on Gabro's side how the central government of the Earth Federation stumbled into a wartime system. Questions to ponder on the side.

Where does the appeal of Zeon Daken, who is revered as the founding father, come from among the residents of the universe, so that the Zabi family who controls Side 3 have to borrow it to unite the people?

If this problem is not solved, the war will not really end, and the ultimate goal of the Ogas system - the prosperity and unity of human civilization will be out of the question.

Since the establishment of the Earth Federation and the change of the chronology of the universe, the construction of space colonial satellites and investment in space immigration-related industries have been promoted by the central government of the Earth Federation and the leading consortia as a highly profitable investment;

The markets in all related fields such as aerospace engineering, space resource development and utilization, have indeed maintained rapid growth in the first 50 years after entering the cosmic era, and are regarded as a blue ocean with unlimited potential, and new capital is constantly being attracted. throw yourself into it;

Financial products such as stocks and bonds in these related industries are described as risk-free investments that will never lose money. As long as you invest your money, the rest is nothing more than money in a sack or a handbag.

While the huge space construction project has brought continuous growth to the economy of the Earth's circle, it has also provided countless jobs, keeping the entire human society in a state of vigorous development——

As long as we continue to build new space colonial satellites for immigration and continue mankind's space dream, officials will have political achievements and businessmen will make money; let the population of the earth, from tens of billions at its peak, emigrate all the way, and eventually dropped to less than 30 billion.

However, just like any economic growth experienced by capitalist countries in the long history, this kind of development is never eternal.

Around the 50th year of the Universe, an influential independent fund manager published an analysis report on the huge financial bubble and potential systemic risks in the current space market.

The report focused on the benefits of investing in space colonies:

Decades have passed since the first space colonial satellite was completed and the immigration capacity was filled; so now, has the initial cost for construction been recovered?Or, at least, are there any positive benefits?

According to the fund manager, it is difficult to judge the results because the relevant data are not made public, but he can at least confirm that to this day, the operation and maintenance of colonial satellites still partially rely on financial subsidies from the federal central government. .

From a purely economic point of view, moving production lines from earth to space is costly , and also hinders the profit margins of normal industrial operations.

In addition, it is obviously imperfect to use economic benefits alone to consider government spending. The fund manager also cited a large number of research papers:

Let’s discuss, as one of the basic purposes of emigrating to space, whether the earth’s environmental problems and human social problems that were considered to be caused by excessive population expansion in the past have been alleviated after the human living space has been greatly expanded.

The answer is also not optimistic. There are still less than 30 billion residents on the earth who are constantly creating pollution caused by human activities, and the federal government does not seem to be very concerned about the restoration and protection of the natural environment——

It's as if the problem will solve itself if some humans are moved into space.

Although this is not the first time that such an argument has appeared, the report that the fund manager was found to have committed suicide in his office just one day after the release of this report provided ample room for imagination for the growth of countless conspiracy theories.

Is the large-scale construction of colonial satellites and space immigration really a project that benefits the country and the people?This issue has triggered extensive discussions in human society.

Living on a space colonial satellite may seem pleasant, but in fact it is not an easy task. Even if the initial construction costs are not considered, the cost of operating and maintaining the completed colonial satellite alone——

It has never been easy to ensure the necessary living conditions for human beings in the universe, including air, water, sunlight, shell tightness, radiation protection, etc. What's more, in order to create a living environment similar to the earth, the meteorological changes inside the colonized satellites , the maintenance of large water bodies further increases costs.

Moreover, inside a typical cylindrical open colonial satellite, about 30 kilometers long and 6 kilometers in diameter, half of the area is a "skylight" that is used for lighting -

Three pages of huge adjustable reflectors extending outward from the top of the colonial satellite will reflect sunlight through the "skylight" into the interior of the colonial satellite according to the familiar sunrise and sunset times, providing lighting similar to that on Earth. experience.

The other half is a habitable area of ​​about 250 square kilometers, which must accommodate a population of up to tens of millions, and its density can reach 4 people per square kilometer——

Even before immigration into space, it would be difficult for any densely populated large city on Earth to reach this population density.

Therefore, in the eyes of many space residents, this is just a matter of transferring the overpopulation problem on the earth to colonial satellites.

In terms of results:

What most space residents on colonial satellites see is that after decades, the cost of living on colonial satellites is still much higher than on Earth, and a considerable proportion of residents’ income is used to pay for various services necessary for survival;

In this case, even if the Earth's federal government promises that all residents of the universe will be exempt from personal income tax for a period of time, and corporate income tax will be appropriately reduced, it will not be able to fully compensate for the pressure and pressure caused by the substantial increase in the cost of living in the universe. burden.

However, when nearly [-]% of the total population is moved into the universe and enjoys the benefits of the tax-free policy, the tax base of the federal central government continues to decline;

The Colonial Satellite Commune, which is responsible for the construction and maintenance of colonial satellites, is still unable to pay for itself. It relies on large-scale government subsidies every year to maintain operations, and the economic development driven by space development is finally showing signs of being unsustainable.

The federal central government was under increasing financial pressure, so in the 51st year of the Universal Era, the federal government announced that it would freeze its plans to continue building colonial satellites, and at the same time reconsider the taxation of space residents——

The bubble was blown, and with the economic recession came social turmoil and opportunities for careerists of all stripes to become active.

For those space immigrants who have not pursued a better life, the only meaning of immigration is what the federal government promotes, in order to improve the various deterioration problems of the earth's natural environment caused by excessive population growth.

However, before the earth's environment was completely repaired and most of the population had already immigrated to the universe to endure hardships, the Earth's federal government announced that it would no longer continue to immigrate, which immediately aroused large-scale dissatisfaction among the residents of the universe.

You must know that immigration to the universe is not entirely a voluntary act; the federal central government has certain mandatory measures to implement the annual reduction target of the earth's population to meet the progress of space development.

Similarly, immigration to the universe is not a completely random selection process. Rich people with assets above a certain level, civil servants and congressmen of the federal government, active officers and soldiers of the Federal Earth Army, etc. all have the conditions to continue to settle on Earth for themselves and their families. permission.

Although this does not mean that each of the nearly 30 billion people still living on the earth is either rich or noble, in the increasingly extreme and chaotic social environment of the earth, all people living on the earth seem to have been regarded as a privileged class.

During this period, Zeon Daken proposed a new theory of humanity that was extremely provocative among the inhabitants of the universe, namely:

The residents of the universe who live in the universe, in this new environment far away from the earth, have stimulated new potential to adapt to this environment that is completely different from the earth. They are different from those who can only look up at the stars on the earth but occupy a dominant position. , new human beings.

In this trend of thought, the conflicts between nations and races in the old era, which had gradually eased, broke out in the new era between the inhabitants of the universe and the inhabitants of the earth.

……

"Another victory!"

On the TV screen, a man with short gray hair and a black military uniform embroidered with gold was delivering a speech on the podium without much emotion; his tone seemed to be narrating an undoubted truth, a series of unquestionable truths. fact.

"Our eagle of the Principality of Zeon descended from the sky like lightning. In one night, we drove the unprepared federal army out of California and established a solid bridgehead on the ground battlefield..."

The commander of the Assault Mobile Army of the Principality of Zeon, Kycilia Zabi, frowned and turned down the volume of the player.

"What an exciting speech, Kilian. Then, Commander-in-Chief of the Principality of Zeon, how do you plan to continue?"

"In this world, the most touching thing is often the undisguised truth, and what I have to do in my speech is to express it appropriately."

Killian Zabi was not ashamed and confidently raised a hand and touched it on his chest, as if to pay tribute to his younger siblings who were praising him.

"That's enough, Killian. Don't be like this to your family. Let's talk about whether the war with the Federation is going smoothly or not."

The prince's voice sounded increasingly tired. Since the beginning of the war, he had woken up around midnight almost every night. It was difficult for him to get a complete sleep, which made him even less energetic during the day.

"Father, we can sit here not only because we are connected by blood; it is also because we all have the talent and courage to be qualified for our positions, and we have been able to reach this point today."

"Okay, okay - then the Commander-in-Chief of the Principality of Zeon, what exactly did our Zeon army's descending troops encounter on the ground?"

"Of course, Your Majesty, let's not talk about the results of the battle. The first batch of descending troops did encounter some stubborn resistance from the federal army. Two of the six divisions lost more than half, and they could only temporarily withdraw from the front line. They are in urgent need of reinforcements... …”

Seeing the sagging fat on both sides of her husband Wang Dejin Zabi's cheeks sinking more and more, Kilian Zabi continued unhurriedly:

"Furthermore, the second batch of landing troops originally scheduled to reinforce California was temporarily replaced by an ambush fleet full of MS units of the Space Attack Force, after Commander-in-Chief Dozru received news of unusual movements in the direction of the Federal Space Force's Luna 2. ——Now we have to delay the airdrop for a while longer.”

"Isn't this all bad news?!"

"Of course not. Rather, it was a perfect start: they controlled the airdrop immediately, and successfully mobilized a large number of federal army troops. The federal space army also went on an expedition for an insignificant facility, and once again lost troops. ——”