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

At the airport south of Seattle, four Midea transport planes roared to land and parked steadily at the end of the runway. Not far away, the outline of the white base parked on the shores of Lake Washington was clearly visible.

"It's... Captain Brad, I am Lieutenant Matilda Ajan of the 113th Transport Squadron. I have been specially ordered by Admiral Rebel to send supplies and deliver the latest orders."

"Is this the order from Admiral Rebel? I understand. All the officers and soldiers of our ship are here to express our sincere gratitude and welcome your troops to board the ship."

Thanks to the detailed damage reports submitted by Platinum several times through the channels of troops behind enemy lines and the Alaskan Front, when officials at all levels of the Federation Army got the attitude of General Rebeer that he attached great importance to the White Base, these reports information can be used immediately;

The supplies brought by Lieutenant Matilda this time can be said to be very targeted. The nearly one thousand tons of supplies mainly include maintenance spare parts for Gundam and other mobile suit bodies and their weapons and equipment, as well as various non-standard equipment needed to repair the damage on the White Base. Universal parts.

The tall, dashing female officer with short orange hair, led by Amuro, who looked shy, stepped onto the bridge of the White Base; since it was rare for outsiders to board the ship, they usually The various crew members taking turns on duty are now gathered on the bridge.

"Welcome aboard, Lieutenant Matilda."

Under the influence of habit, Brad, who still had the rank of second lieutenant on his shoulders, was somewhat changed. He sat calmly on the captain's seat and extended his hand to return the favor to Lieutenant Matilda;

On the battleships belonging to the Space Force, many institutional habits are inherited from the Navy. The captain is the supreme commander on his own ship. Unless he is the commander of his own fleet, senior officials of other military services, no matter how high the military rank, do not need to have the following level status.

"Captain Blade, is this the legendary battleship that shot down Karma, the commander-in-chief of the Zeon Earth Attack Force, the backbone of the White Base? It's really hard to imagine."

Lieutenant Matilda glanced at the young faces on the bridge and said with some emotion; most of these young people have not even reached the standard of adulthood, but they have made great achievements. A feat that most troops cannot achieve.

'Is it the new humans... or is it the work of artificial intelligence? '

Matilda glanced lightly at the camera in the corner of the bridge ceiling;

Although it has not been stated in the publicity materials released to the public, the young man responsible for piloting the Gundam, named Amuro, has caused a lot of confusion due to his driving level that is completely incompatible with the MS driving age and training he has received. related discussions;

As for artificial intelligence, the design purpose of intelligently controlled weapons itself includes minimizing the fluctuations in combat effectiveness caused by the influence of human abilities and performance levels; and Lieutenant Matilda, who is responsible for copying combat data, , and is also well aware of the existence of platinum.

"There were also many luck factors, and we have to thank many friendly forces for their help, but it was indeed a quite thrilling journey."

"Captain, you are humble. This is the list of supplies for this time. Please sign and confirm."

"Okay, I will come and confirm after the platinum is counted at the Gnaku. With these maintenance supplies, it is estimated that the White Base will be able to fly long distances in the atmosphere in a few days and return in a detour. It’s Gabro.”

Captain Blade's mood fluctuated a bit. Lieutenant General Kruger of the Federal Army, in order to thank the White Base team for their help in the battle, graciously allowed the White Base to choose from the army's supply ammunition for general use. Materials and maintenance tools can also be borrowed;

Although if you want to make the battleship look like new, you still need to return to a specialized large-scale shipyard for repairs. However, considering that the hull of the White Base has not suffered structural damage, it is now generally reorganizing its combat power, sealing the shell, and repairing the engine. The design speed can still be achieved.

Lieutenant Matilda was stunned when she heard this, and then said with some hesitation:

"Hmm...return to Gabro? Captain Brad, then I have to remind you to be mentally prepared. This is General Rebel's order."

Then, Matilda handed the order letter in the confidential document bag into the hands of Captain Brad. Brad opened it and took a look, and couldn't help but work hard with his fingers to collect the edges of the order letter. He was wrinkled, and his expression immediately became serious.

"Captain Brad, did you say anything above?"

Miley Yasu asked when he saw Brad's expression was different.

"Next, we will continue to fight as an independent force..."

Before Captain Brad finished speaking, Platinum's figure suddenly appeared on the side, and at the same time a quiet female voice sounded:

"The number of transported materials has been checked, and no one is missing. Captain Brad, there is even an extra towel and a water bottle. It is suspected that the operator at a certain stage in the process left them behind."

"Yes...Miss Platinum, can I call you that?"

Lieutenant Matilda looked at the white-haired girl who suddenly appeared on the bridge with interest. Although her transport fleet flew between various war zones every day and she had heard about the intelligence of the Intelligent Control Corps, she had not personally communicated with the federal army. This is her first time interacting with artificial intelligence.

"It's your fault, Lieutenant Matilda. I have just been informed of the update of your intelligence authority. Please forgive me for not being able to greet you as soon as you board the ship."

Platinum looked at the female officer in front of him and conducted a vague information retrieval in the background; although the experience of the White Base and the current war situation on earth were quite different from the plot that Platinum knew, it still seemed like this Lieutenant Matilda was responsible for the supply work of the White Base——

There is no need to discuss pure coincidence, but the inevitability of fate means that Lieutenant Matilda may have some kind of interpersonal connection with Admiral Ray Bill, allowing her to gain additional trust to undertake this confidential task.

"Then, please confirm the order and hand over all the combat data of the White Base and its mobile suit to me."

"Lieutenant Matilda, please insert the key hard drive you obtained."

Platinum raised a hand and guided Matilda to the external port on the console in the bridge nearby.

This command-issuing system was proposed by Director Fanel, who was still perfecting his own AI whose expected performance was no less than that of the Ogas system, when he was impatiently urged by his superiors;

The command authority of the Ogas system is, on the surface, based on the list of control authority personnel in the local system database and the external multi-factor human identification system;

On the current battlefield, it is obviously unrealistic to maintain a permission list that is common to the entire federal army and updated in real time via the Internet;

Therefore, when Lieutenant Matilda, who is not on Bai Jin's local identification list at all, wants to issue instructions to Bai Jin, she must have a 'letter of introduction' to allow Bai Jin to confirm her identity and the authority she can exercise.

Naturally, this 'letter of introduction' was generated by another Ogas system under a series of technical requirements put forward by Director Fanel, and contained an instruction key file containing identity information and corresponding authority levels, and was stored in the form of a hard disk. to pass on;

Although Director Fanel’s original intention was to use this method to decipher how the Ogas system’s control authority information is encrypted——

However, he still found nothing in the garbled-looking key file after unzipping it, even if he could confirm that the key file was indeed transferred accurately between the two physically isolated Ogas systems. information.

As for the reason, it is naturally the generated key file, which does not carry any information. It is of course impossible to crack it; it is just that when the Ogas system in local area networks is asked to generate a key, it will act like @ in the background. Everyone will make an announcement and let them know.

Platinum pretended to show a progress bar on the screen, and continuously refreshed a series of fabricated process confirmation messages on the lower console; after a while, she said to Lieutenant Matilda:

"Instruction confirmed, source of authority: Chief of General Staff, General Ray Bill, compressing and copying combat data, please wait..."

Among the people present, only Amuro knew something about computer programs, but at this time, his attention was probably attracted by Lieutenant Matilda, who had a curvy figure and an excellent figure; as for the others, , with an expression on his face that lamented the wonders of technology.

"Is this enough? Then there is also an instruction to transfer control of the system?"

"The affiliation has been changed. The current unit to which the system belongs has been changed to the 'V Plan' Technology Development Headquarters, and the direct command unit has been changed to the 'Great Flood' Operation Joint Operations Command; the relevant agreement is being updated."

Platinum explained to Lieutenant Matilda with a friendly and convincing chuckle.

"Oh - if someone else, for example, an accident occurs and someone from the Zeon Army obtains this key hard drive, will they also be granted the corresponding permissions?"

Lieutenant Matilda asked curiously;

"Of course not, unless the Zeon Army can clone a person who is exactly like you, Lieutenant, and replace you without any trace; otherwise the enemy will have no chance of connecting to the key."

……

After the White Base received the order from Admiral Ray Bill, the last bastion of the Federal Space Force in the universe, the Luna 2 Base, also received the order from Admiral Ray Bill.

"Lieutenant General Cunningham, this is the latest shared intelligence and orders from Gabro headquarters in October."

"Well... the exchange of information has become more and more frequent recently."

"Because the mass-produced version of the GM E-type has begun to be installed in patrol fleets in batches, our army has deployed the GM E-type in a total of 23 encounters with the Zeon army's blockade fleet, and the total battle with the Zaku II F-type The loss ratio reached 1:1.43, and our army was slightly inferior; but the enemy's blockade was already unsustainable."

In the office of Fleet Commander, Vice Admiral Cunningham, Cynthia routinely reported various information collected on Luna 2.

"After all, there is a difference between the driver's proficiency and experience. It's good to be able to do this."

"Yes, there are also encounters with different performance. It is suspected to be an improved version of Zaku. However, overall, the pilots of the MS unit generally reported that the performance of Jim is superior. In individual encounter cases, our army also We did achieve a beautiful result of 3:0.”

"What about the 'Loyal Wingman' system?"

For now, Luna 2 is still in the state of MS pilots and other aircraft. However, as batches of Jims come off the production line, this state will soon be reversed; it is difficult to obtain in terms of manpower In the supplementary Luna 2, the number of people with the potential to pilot a mobile suit is limited.

"After the introduction of new combat records, it is already in the final stage of overall system debugging. The current project has submitted an application to enter the combat-ready state and is under review."

Lieutenant General Cunningham flicked the information screen in front of him, scanned the lines of text, and said:

"Send a message to the Equipment Department and ask them to review it carefully. The loyal wingman system will then enter the actual combat test stage."

"Do you mean to follow Admiral Revil's order to dispatch a small cruiser fleet to low-Earth orbit to wait for opportunities to harass and sneak attack the Zeon army's orbital bombardment/transport fleet attack?"

"This opportunity is rare. Since it is to cover Admiral Ray Bill's large-scale offensive on the ground, we at Luna 2 cannot stand by and do nothing."

Chapter 68: Multiple paths go hand in hand (1)

"What is the current readiness status of the fleet, Cynthia?"

Lieutenant General Cunningham, the current commander of the First Combined Fleet of the Federation Space Force and also responsible for all military affairs of the Federation Forces in the universe, asked Cynthia, the central control AI of the Luna 2 base;

In the first three months of the war, the Federal Space Force suffered heavy losses in three large-scale fleet battles:

First, Lieutenant General Green White's 3rd Fleet, as well as other ships of the 5,6,7th, [-]th, and [-]th Fleets stationed on Side that participated in the joint performance and review, were attacked by Zeon forces in orbit around the moon. The attack that followed the declaration of war caused heavy losses to the Federation Space Force fleet;

Immediately following the British plan to prevent the Zeon army from dropping colonial satellites on the earth, and also waiting for an opportunity to defeat the fleet that the Principality of Zeon had spent ten years building a military force, in Side 2 Hart, the Federal Space Force led by Admiral Ray Bill The 1,2,4,8st, [-]nd, [-]th, and [-]th fleets once again fought fiercely with the Zeon army for half a day——

However, one of the commanders, Rebil, was still captured. The commander of the 4th Fleet, Tiam, who had not encountered the Zeon army, and Rebil's deputy, Cunningham, led about one-third of the remaining fleet to withdraw to Luna 2 and gave up. The end of space control in low-Earth orbit.

Finally, in March of this year, when the Zeon Army used orbital airborne and mass accelerators on the moon to conduct large-scale orbital bombing, the 3th Fleet, which had relatively well-preserved fleet strength, took on the mission of attacking the moon.

Although it successfully destroyed the mass accelerator near the lunar city of Granada controlled by the Zeon army, the fleet itself also encountered the main force of the Zeon space attack force that returned to defend, and suffered considerable losses;

Fortunately, the Antarctic Treaty had been signed at this time, and the Zeon Army's mobile suit units could no longer use nuclear warheads on a large scale like at the beginning of the war. Although the main battleships of the 4th Fleet were scarred, most of them returned successfully.

"Yes... all 43 Magellan-class battleships currently serving as the main force, including 11 automated modifications of Marco Polo-class specifications, have entered a state of combat readiness; the available number of auxiliary Salamis cruisers and Antietam-class aircraft carriers have also They reached 103 and 70 respectively.”

"As a result, the number of escort ships is not enough now?"

Before the war, the ratio of battleships to cruisers in the main mobile fleets of the Federation Space Force was maintained at 1:3. However, cruisers still have more room to play in second-line fleets such as the garrison fleet, so the total number ratio will reach 1:5. about.

"There is nothing we can do, Lieutenant General Cunningham. In the first few battles of the war, even though the Zeon army's mobile suit tactics emphasized concentrating firepower on attacking our battleships, in the end the survival rate of the Magellan-class battleships was still relatively high. high."

Cynthia made a shrug. The construction and operation and maintenance costs of the Magellan-class battleship were far higher than those of the Salamis-class cruiser, but 'the only disadvantage of expensive things is that they are expensive, and cheap things are only worthy of praise for being cheap'.

Even Luna 2 completed more Salamis-class cruisers with a shorter construction period during the war, but encountered the surrounding Zeon army blockade fleet during patrolling, mine-laying/minesweeping, clearing debris and other tasks. During the war, the fragile Salamis class also continued to suffer losses.

"However, there should be a large number of fleets under construction on the earth that are about to take off. And looking at the headquarters, it seems that they are quite confident about capturing the Zeon army's space fortress."

Lieutenant General Cunningham gathered his hands, and the intelligence data of Solomon and Abavakong, two fortresses built by the Zeon Army based on asteroids, were displayed by Cynthia on the large screen on the wall on the side of the office.

Both asteroids are on the order of ten kilometers in size, far smaller than Luna 2, but they are still troublesome for the Federal Space Force fleet; at any time, the mobile fleet and the relatively fixed fortress guns and coastal defense guns are facing each other. Shooting is not worth it.

"The warships planned by the Federal Space Force Headquarters to be completed on Earth within this year include 15 Magellan-class ships, 75 Salamis-class ships, and 6 Pegasus-class ships. They will be based at Gabro Base, supplemented by Gibraltar Base and Wenchang Base. It will be launched from three places; the specific launch time has not yet been determined."

Although in the UC era, many industries on Earth have experienced large-scale relocation to the universe, at least the military industry related to national defense and security is still deliberately restricted by the federal government and remains largely on the surface of the Earth.

This is also the cornerstone of the Federal Army's ability to rearm a force that is ten times the number of standing forces in peacetime in a short period of time.

"As for the Zeon Army's fortress, Lieutenant General Cunningham, there are 'rumors' coming from Gabro's headquarters."

Cynthia lowered her voice slightly.

"Oh, talk about it."

Lieutenant General Cunningham touched his chin and said naturally.

"The Gabro Headquarters has also made multiple attack plans for these two planetary fortresses of the Zeon Army. It is currently suspected that General Tiam's plan has been approved. Although the specific content is unknown, it has been observed that Tiam After that, the general had many contacts with optical instrument manufacturers."

"Lieutenant General Tianmu... He is indeed not a mediocre person, but it is more because Gabro's production lines are complete in all aspects..."

Lieutenant General Cunningham said with emotion.

Gabrona's huge underground base under the rock formations was originally designed and built even if a full-scale nuclear war broke out on the earth. It can still produce complete and systematic military equipment and rebuild the Federation in the nuclear wasteland. This level of purpose.

In comparison, the ships produced locally on Luna 2 are already versions with reduced configurations on many systems. Even so, once the inventory of materials that cannot be produced locally on Luna 2 is exhausted, it will still be Faced with the problem that the production line cannot be started.

Under this circumstance, facing the Zeon Army's asteroid fortress, Lieutenant General Cunningham really had no more feasible ideas besides continuing to think about the Luna 2 nuclear arsenal.

"What is the current status of MS production equipment? I heard that when the White Base briefly stopped at Luna 2 for maintenance, the people in the equipment research and development department studied the Gundam carefully."

"The MS production line on Luna 2 has begun to officially operate. Together with part of the pre-production parts inventory, it can reach the expected output of 12 MSs per day. The total output has exceeded 100, and the mass production machine Quality control has also been recognized by the army.”

Cynthia then generated several charts in real time on the screen, showing Lieutenant General Cunningham the changes in Luna 2 MS production over time;

In fact, when the White Base carrying the Gundam arrived at Luna 2, the Jim-E space warfare model developed by Luna 2 itself had already been continuously improved and produced several pre-production batches for testing;

By the time the White Base completed repairs and supplies and left Luna 2, the Salamis-class responsible for guiding and escorting the White Base was already carrying a nearly final version of the Jim E (RGM-79 E block- 15).

"One squadron per day? It seems that by around November, there will not be enough MS pilots on Luna 11."

"It may not even reach November, Lieutenant General Cunningham. Currently, a total of 11 reserve pilots with MS piloting qualities have been screened out from former space fighter pilots and other force members on Luna 2, but currently there are only about 750 People can complete all combat training subjects."

The flexibility and mobility of the MS far exceed that of traditional vehicles or aircraft. A pilot must not only handle the three-dimensional movement and three-axis rotation of the MS in the three-dimensional space at the same time, but also consider all parts of the body, including the hands and legs. Internal movement and main weapon pointing;

It can be said that the upper and lower limits of the machine's performance can vary widely. For those who are not good at it, even if they use the simple operation mode provided by Cynthia, which comes with a large number of preset built-in linked actions, it is still difficult to complete the training subjects;

Some of the evasive moves that a pilot as powerful as Amuro made during the battle had been directly copied by Cynthia and stuffed into the preset movement library.

"Then...the 'Loyal Wingman' plan was launched."

Lieutenant General Cunningham nodded. Considering the large-scale counterattack that the Federation Army will launch next on the ground, it is obviously unrealistic to expect the support of precious talents like MS pilots from the earth; besides, there is weightlessness in the universe. In this environment, the control of MS is still very different from that on earth.

The 'Loyal Wingman' program was born to deal with these problems; Lieutenant General Cunningham realized early on that the MS control itself was quite automated -

For example, the bipedal walking mechanism does not require the driver to personally control the swing of the two legs of the MS when running, jumping, or stopping to stand still. It only needs to give the corresponding action instructions, and the rest of the body's control system will supplement the details on its own. , down to the control parameters of each motor.

So what if we go one step further and simply save the MS pilots?

The 'loyal wingman' is an unmanned aerial vehicle controlled by an autonomous control system that was completely trained with the assistance of Cynthia and based on the operational data of many MS pilots, including Amuro.

Compared with the manned version, the drone only made changes around the driving unit, replacing the modular driving seat and control console with additional computing units and cooling systems, and removing some parts that took into account human endurance. Set performance limits.

However, the manufacturing level of computer hardware is indeed a major negative factor limiting the use of drones on Luna 2. In the past, military computers often emphasized reliability under various extreme conditions rather than pure computing performance;

And it is true that the military factory on Luna 2 cannot produce computer hardware that represents the highest technical level of the Federation.