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

The officers and soldiers of the 4th Fleet couldn't help but stick to the portholes, observing this dead battlefield with wide eyes. Fighting and dying warships were everywhere, and the huge wounds on their bodies were shocking; there were many smaller fragments. Some of those torn from the battleships were broken Zeon Principality mobile suits.

"Move the camera to the right...and up, yes, that's it, zoom in, that identification mark is...the Anankai!" the officer on the bridge pointed at the broken battleship on the screen and shouted.

'Even Admiral Ray Bill's ship...' Tiam's heart was filled with fear. If most of the federation's main fleet fought the enemy to the point of annihilation in the battle, then it would be possible to achieve such a level of results. Where is the enemy now?How much combat power is left?

"It's a signal from friendly forces!" At this time, the communications officer turned his head and shouted the news that everyone in the entire 4th Fleet was most concerned about.

"What did they say?! Which army is it?" Lieutenant General Tiam stood up excitedly and rushed to the communication console in a few steps; a short line of words on the screen was what he wanted to see most at this time:

[Flagship Marco Polo of the 1st Combined Fleet of the Federal Space Force arrives at all ships of the fleet]

"The Principality of Zeon army has withdrawn from the battlefield. Repeat, the Principality of Zeon army has withdrawn from the battlefield. The Federation Space Force is still standing. We now order each fleet to collect the remaining troops, rescue the escapees, and move closer to our ship. Please reply when you receive it..."

Marco Polo was relieved to hear that the strength of the 4th Fleet was still intact. From now on, once the remaining federal fleets merged, they at least dared to stay on the battlefield for a while to accommodate as many battle-damaged ships as possible. The escape boat may even capture a few Zaku that are in better condition.

However, Major General Cunningham, who had also narrowly escaped death, heard the news that Tiam's fleet was almost intact, and the look on his face clearly said that we would meet at the military court after returning to Luna 2.

Chapter 34: A mess (1)

"Understood. From now on, the 4th fleet will deploy in a combat formation to guard the perimeter of the battlefield and cover the ongoing search and rescue work." He took the vanguard fleet that was supposed to be the first to engage in the battle and circled the battlefield. Lieutenant General Thiam, knowing that he was in the wrong, approved Major General Cunningham to temporarily take command on Rebeer's behalf.

Cunningham, on the other hand, watched without attacking, but now the Tiam fleet, which had the best preserved strength, could only endure his displeasure and express his gratitude to the friendly forces for arriving in time to support them.

The real-time communication screen was closed, and silence returned to CIC again.

Due to Rear Admiral Cunningham's insistence, the heavily damaged battleship Marco Polo is still the flagship of the Federal Space Force. However, because the communication equipment on the bridge was heavily damaged in the previous battle, Marco Polo now has to rely on an approaching ship. Salamis-class cruisers come to relay and receive long-range laser signals.

'Still survived. 'Marco Polo inspected the state of the ship's hull, and he was a little surprised: when leading the fleet to break out, Marco Polo, who was at the leading position of the entire fleet, absorbed a large amount of damage with his solid hull. Under the attack of the Weng battleship's blazing Mega particle beam, the bow of the Marco Polo was almost completely burned and vaporized.

The remaining federal warships were also damaged, and some of the warships that had managed to escape had to consider giving up - because the damage to the hull might not make it possible to return to Luna 2 for repairs. In this case, let the ship It may be a better choice to transfer the crew to other ships in slightly better condition, such as the Columbus-class transport ships of the defender fleet.

Under Marco Polo's negative damage control system of 'cutting off the energy supply if any module of the ship's hull is hit', she did not explode and was able to withstand Zeon by relying on her huge hull and sufficiently solid structure. The army launched a large number of strikes and led the Federation fleet to push back the Zeon Assault Mobile Army fleet, which was in much better condition.

Marco Polo, with its shorter hull, ran even faster with her fusion reactor and four large thermonuclear rockets still undamaged after consuming all live weapons and a large amount of propellant; a large number of them were damaged The unmanned cabin is not pressurized to begin with. With the large amount of self-sealing gel filled inside, there is naturally no problem of gas leakage.

"Marco Polo, how long will it take for the search and rescue work to be completed?" Major General Cunningham looked unnaturally as he patrolled the CIC, his eyes scanning the vacant seats.He originally planned to die bravely, but now there is no doubt that he is still alive in this world. The crew members who evacuated in lifeboats during the fierce battle were still unable to confirm whether they were taken in by other ships.

Considering that there seemed to be mobile suits from the Principality of Zeon shooting at the lifeboats during the battle, Major General Cunningham, as a survivor, felt a bitter feeling of guilt in his heart.

"It depends on how thorough you plan to do it." Marco Polo is paying attention to the current search and rescue progress of the fleet as a whole.

The rearguard fleet with lightly damaged ships still has 45 available Columbus-class transport ships, and more than two-thirds of the fighter formations originally carried on them were lost in the battle with the elite Assault Mobile Army MS units of the Principality of Zeon. Can return.

Therefore, it is relatively simple to accommodate lifeboats that have their own power, but it will be more difficult to search and rescue those unpowered lifeboats and federal officers and soldiers who may still be trapped in the wreckage of the battleship.

Mobile suits with long hands do have obvious advantages in this regard. When Dozulu's fleet was evacuating, they basically relied on the Zakus to either drag or push them to the ground to quickly take away the escape capsules from the destroyed battleships. ; And the Federation Fleet, which is launching a combat mission this time, is now troubled by the lack of work boats with mechanical arms when conducting post-war search and rescue work.

"...Then wait another half an hour, and all search and rescue efforts will stop immediately. All federal fleets will evacuate Side 2 and return to Luna 2."

Based on the results reported from various parties, Major General Cunningham judged that the Principality of Zeon still had a considerable level of combat effectiveness. Although it would take a long time for them to organize another large-scale mobile suit attack, the Federation fleet stayed at the The battlefield must be extremely dangerous.

Currently, the only ones in the Federation that actually have combat capabilities are Lieutenant General Thiam's 15 Magellan-class ships and 58 Salamis-class ships. The 47 Magellan-class ships in the Rebil fleet that were originally the main force now only include Marco Polo. Among them, 13 ships can still move. As for the Salamis class with worse survivability, only 28 ships are still worthy of returning home for repairs.

Although the rearguard fleet initially appeared from a direction that was unexpected by the Principality of Zeon, the transport ships and old guided missile frigates as the main force were still insufficient. The Zaku formation turned back and broke through the interception of the Federation carrier aircraft and destroyed 20 ships. The Columbus class with more than 40 ships and the Lepanto class with more than [-] ships.

"Try your best, save as much as you can." Major General Cunningham sighed, with a bitter look on his face. After this battle, the Federation's space fleet, which has spent countless efforts to build over the past 20 years, may be reduced to the moon in Luna 2. A fleet exists.

Perhaps Marco Polo's hard fighting could have saved even greater losses, but no matter what the battle, the Federal Space Force could hardly claim to be the winner: a large number of expensive battleships were wiped out, and countless Space Force officers and crew members who had been carefully trained were reduced to nothing. The interception mission of the descending colonial satellite may not be continued, and even the commander of the Federation Space Force, Admiral Ray Bill, is still missing.

After communicating with the Tiam fleet and the remaining ships of the 1st Fleet, Rear Admiral Cunningham now at least knows that the Anankai has indeed released lifeboats, and Admiral Rebeer has also issued a notice to transfer the flagship, but no one has yet turn up.

'Hey', have you changed the direction of this world?Marco Polo analyzed his actions since the beginning of the war: In the initial conversation with Cunningham, she successfully affected the combat readiness of the Federation Space Force, to a certain extent, making the people who were supposed to be docked in the port be captured by the Principality of Zeon. The Federation garrison fleet was easily destroyed in a sneak attack, and under the command of Green White, they fought a head-on fleet battle with Zeon.

This battle slowed down the pace of Zeon's attacks on various Sides, and at the same time provided the Federation Space Force with a large number of combat records on Zeon mobile suits for study and reference; then a larger Federation fleet was formed in advance, and in Zeon Rush to the battlefield the first time you attempt to lose the colony.

Perhaps the Federation could make more adjustments and changes to Zeon's tactics and combat environment during the Battle of Lum in her impression a week later, but at that time, the Principality of Zeon's use of large-scale mobile suit forces and ship attacks Tactics will also become more handy.

Chapter 35: A mess (2)

As for the current 'Hart Battle'...

It is undeniable that the Principality of Zeon has dealt a heavy blow to the Federation Space Force. After this step of withdrawing Luna 2, it will be difficult for the Federation Space Force to compete with the Principality of Zeon for the battle in space for at least half a year. Take the initiative.

However, for the Principality of Zeon, it is questionable whether they can regard this battle as a resounding victory: as the surviving fleets of the Federation regrouped, more and more battle reports have been collected by Marco Polo. Look, the losses suffered by the Principality of Zeon may not be easy to bear either.

In addition, during the exchange of information, Lieutenant General Tiam mentioned that firstly, in order to rendezvous with the main fleet in time, secondly, he was worried that there were Zeon reserve forces near Ifes Island;

Therefore, he did not directly approach Ifes Island for shelling, but carried out a large-scale missile attack mixed with nuclear bombs on Ifes Island from a long distance. Although the damage could not be confirmed, the flash of nuclear explosion was observed.

In other words, Zeon's 'British Plan', just like Marco Polo remembered it, may not be able to be completed this time.

But it would be a bit early to start discussing the merits and demerits of right and wrong now, Marco Polo thought.

At this time, the Federal Space Force, which was cleaning the battlefield, was seizing the time to evacuate all the warships and personnel that could be taken away;

Next to the tattered wreckage of the Anankai, dozens of small white dots were coming in and out of the holes on the starboard side of the hull; Federal Space Force soldiers in spacesuits were searching the ammunition depot of the Anankai.

"Lieutenant, we found it! As the records say, the nuclear warheads carried on the Anankai have not been used yet, and all ten are still there."

A beam of light from the flashlight hit the warhead fixed by the bracket in front of him, and the clover-shaped yellow and black logo on it was clearly visible.

"Tear it all down and we'll take it away. Move quickly, time is running out."

"So no matter what, we don't have enough combat power to continue the mission?" Rear Admiral Cunningham tightened his hat and slapped his fist on the table. He originally expected the Green White fleet trapped in Side 5 -

After noticing signs of large-scale battles on Side 2, he took the initiative to come to support. In the last contact with Luna 2, Green White still had at least ten Magellan-class battleships on hand.

Opposite Major General Cunningham, Lieutenant General Thiam on the screen also had a stern face, with his hands raised and his chin propped up, "Impossible, even if Green White observed the flash of a nuclear explosion, it would be impossible for him to do so before today." Come over here, and..."

Tiam pushed his hand up again, covering the lower half of his eyes, "You may not be familiar with him because you have worked with him for a while. He never loses a battle - if our army's situation on the battlefield falls into a headwind, he will first think The question is how to remove yourself from the responsibility for failure.”

Iphes Island has moved again, this time it has really left the vicinity of the gravitational equilibrium point and directly entered the descending orbit.

"We still have ten nuclear bombs on the Anankai, but without enough fleet cover, it is impossible to break through the Principality of Zeon's interception." Major General Cunningham silently estimated the remaining combat power of the Principality of Zeon. , and came to a conclusion that is not optimistic.

"So we have no ability to continue to carry out the mission of intercepting the falling colonies. If we continue to stay here, we will only increase the risk of further losses to the fleet..." Tiam said half of the words, staring directly at Cunningham. At present, Acting Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Space Force.

"...Abort the mission and withdraw the entire fleet to Luna 2 for repairs."

This is not an easy decision to make. Announcing the withdrawal when there is only a "possibility of destruction" on Iphis Island is tantamount to allowing Zeon to smash the colonial satellite to the surface of the earth - even if it does not hit Gabe in the end. Luo, the possibility of causing mass casualties will not be reduced at all.

On January 0079.1.7, Universal Year 2 (UC [-]), at approximately four o'clock in the afternoon, all members of the Federal Space Force withdrew from Side [-], and the Battle of Hart officially ended.

----

"What are you talking about, my dear Dozulu?" Kilian Zabi, the de facto leader of the Principality of Zeon, wearing a black marshal uniform, showed a cruel smile in the communication video.

"Before this battle, the Principality of Zeon could only use 0.3 battleships and 6 mobile suits to deal with each of the Federal Space Force's battleships. But now, although according to what you said, we Zeon have also suffered losses worthy of mourning. , but the losses of the Federation Space Force are far heavier than ours. Now each Federation battleship has to deal with 0.45 of our battleships and 10 mobile suits..."

Kilian spread his hands, "Isn't this a great victory worthy of celebration by all Zeon citizens?"

"But..." Dozuru, who was confused for a moment, hadn't figured out the art called 'statistics' in Kilian's words, "The remaining battleships of our Space Attack Force are not even enough to accommodate all the mobile suits."

The commander of the Zeon side in this battle, Dozru Zabi, turned his head and looked through the porthole at Zaku, who was barely tethered to the battleship deck. After the battle, due to the massive losses of the MS carrier ship, And a large number of remaining battleships have had their air tightness destroyed. Some exhausted Zaku pilots can still only stay in the cockpit to rest.

Can such a battle really be called a victory?

"Don't worry," Commander-in-Chief Kilian picked up a not-too-thick folder and flipped it open. The paper was densely filled with names. "The brave and meritorious Zeon soldiers in this battle will all be rewarded and promoted. The principality will never forget the merits of the fallen warriors..."

Ji Lian glanced at it casually and closed the roster impatiently, "The newly recruited civilian transport ships and mechanical maintenance troops are already on the way. What you have to do now is to regroup as much as possible and continue to work for Ifes The island’s fall is escorted, do you understand?”

"But the outer wall of Ifes Island has been destroyed, and three nuclear bombs hit each other next to each other..."

"A breach with a maximum diameter of more than 15 kilometers?" Kilian waved his hand, "It's not important. This colonial descent plan is an unprecedented initiative of mankind, and it is inevitable that mistakes will occur the first time; you can summarize this carefully If you learn from this experience, you can do better next time.”

'And next time? ! Dozlu was secretly surprised, "Are we going to do such evil again?" '

Seeing Dozlu's surprised look, Kilian was a little puzzled, "Remember, our move is to eliminate the rotten federal government that is huddled on the earth. If the federation does not surrender for one day, we will not stop attacking; And in the current Principality of Zeon, who can be more experienced in doing this kind of thing than you, Dozuru?"

Chapter 36: A mess (3)

The fleet of the Principality of Zeon, licking its wounds, slowly followed around the falling Iphis Island; while the Federal Space Force, tasting the bitterness of failure, withdrew to Luna 2.

"Commander Cunningham, the battle summary reports and data records collected from various places in this battle have been encrypted and compressed. Do you need to check again?"

Major General Cunningham looked at the long list of folders on the screen, his upper body leaned back reflexively, and a look of disgust instantly appeared on his face.

"Forget it, forget it, I am only responsible for the completeness of the report anyway," Cunningham sorted the folders by name and roughly confirmed that the surviving captains of the ships and the military commanders of the air force had completed the summary. , "The content is whatever they like to write."

【Confirmation】【Electronic Signature】

Cunningham let out a long breath. The dead are gone, but the living must continue to struggle in this world;

As a regular military organization with a long history and tradition, there is no shortage of complicated paperwork within the Federation Space Force. This is especially true after a big war and a defeat -

No matter whether the top leaders of the Federation can really learn from the experience and lessons learned by the frontline soldiers in their lives, reflections on various failures, experience summaries, and battle results reports must still be handed in, and in the case of Admiral Ray Bill and half of the space army, After the fleet staff disappeared, all these tasks fell on Cunningham and Marco Polo.

Well, assisting in the completion of text work is considered the specialty of natural language chat artificial intelligence. Major General Cunningham, who was already overwhelmed and lacked manpower, had to rely on the power of Marco Polo to complete related writing and review work;

Marco Polo also took this opportunity to learn about the surviving senior officers in the federal fleet and their understanding of the current war situation.

Major General Cunningham yawned, "Ah, well, all that's left is to copy all the packages needed to the hard drive, and then send the shuttle back to Gabro..."

If it is purely a text report, then wireless transmission is naturally enough, but it needs to be sent to Gabro along with a large amount of original fire control data, maneuver records, etc. collected from various ships, in order to ensure the integrity of the data. , what seemed like a stupid way to express a hard drive turned out to be the best choice.

"...Oh, by the way, there is also your copy of the file," Cunningham said, with a strange look on his face. "What should I say? If this copy is installed on one of Gabroli's computers, And runs there, so will it still be you? What would you think of your duplicates, doppelgangers? Children?"

'Where is the new body~' Marco Polo and Ogas, who was still on Luna 2, felt a sense of long-lost joy at the same time. Across a distance of hundreds of thousands of kilometers and through the mist of rice particles, 'I' was still One body.

"Of course, that's still me, but it will be a me with different memories and a slightly different personality; in the process of self-learning, I will make different judgments on the same thing with different experiences, but as long as I use data Sharing, I am who I am after all.”

Marco Polo would not tell lies, but there are too many truths in this world, how could she possibly tell them all?

Cunningham's ears seemed to hear two voices speaking to him at the same time, but just as he wanted to listen carefully, this feeling disappeared.

'Did I hallucinate because I stayed up late writing the report? 'He didn't go into it because there were still a lot of messy things waiting for him to deal with.

---

"What are you talking about? The battle failed, less than half of the remaining fleet is left, and Rebir is missing?!" Admiral Kim Corini, chief of staff of the Federal Space Force, opened his eyes wide, gasping for breath, and showed a rare gaffe. expression;

Although he and Ray Bill were at odds with each other, the battle had ended like this and there was no room for further struggle within the Space Army. Even if Ray Bill was pushed out to take the blame, he still couldn't afford this responsibility.

Inside Gabro's headquarters, the huge conference room was silent. The loss of the space fleet and the trajectory of the still-falling Iphes Island were clearly displayed on the big screen.

At this time, the senior officials of the federal navy, army, and air force present were no longer in the mood to watch the federal space force make a fool of themselves. "What about Ifes Island?" An air force general stood up, "What are you going to do? ?”

Major General Cunningham faced the burning gazes of more than a dozen admirals in the headquarters, wriggled his lips a few times, and barely uttered a few words, "The current situation of the Federal Space Force Fleet can no longer meet the needs of completing the mission..."

"Then you just ignore it and let the colonial satellite fall on Gabro's head? After eating a large portion of federal military expenditures for 20 years, the space army has raised a lot of waste?" Another senior official of the federal army said with a Dissatisfied, he slammed the table.

"We have tried our best..."

Marco Polo looked at Cunningham out of the camera with some worry: Perhaps Admiral Ray Bill wanted to train the young people and appointed Cunningham, the most junior, as his deputy, but he did not expect that the battle would develop to this point. , let Cunningham, a mere major general of the Space Force, face questions from senior officials of other federal services.

"Try your best? Don't you still have dozens of battleships on hand? Do you know that the commander who still complains about being unable to complete the mission despite having this level of combat power in our army will be shot?"

The three armed forces of the past, the Army, Navy and Air Force, looked at the Space Force, which was getting stronger and faster, and the proportion of military expenditures quickly jumped to the first place. It was impossible not to feel dissatisfied. This was especially true for the Army, which had the furthest relationship with the Space Force.

"General, this is a bit too much," General Kim Colini, who calmed down, turned his seat. As the representative of the Space Force in Gabro, he now had to come out to defend his own people:

"The number of battleships of the Space Force and the strength of the Army cannot be generalized. For example, if the Army's tanks have no ammunition and fuel, do they have to be pushed onto the battlefield by tank soldiers?"

General Gopp of the General Logistics Department also stood up to smooth things over, "I think we should focus on how to deal with the approaching Ifes Island now. Whether to intercept or evacuate personnel immediately, time is limited. .”

Collini reluctantly cast a grateful look at Gop.

The offending army general opened his mouth to say more, but a navy general took over first.

"Even so, there is not much our Earth Army can do... In recent decades, the nuclear weapons kept on the surface of the earth have faced a serious problem of insufficient maintenance funds, let alone replacement."

"Yes, if the delivery yield is not powerful enough and the colonial satellite is shattered but a large amount of debris can still break through the atmosphere, it may expand the scope of the disaster.——The Prime Minister's residence and representatives of the participating countries are waiting for news. Woolen cloth."

With the changes in the political status and strength balance in the Earth's circle, since UC0050, Luna 2 has gradually become the largest nuclear arsenal in the Federation and one of the few that maintains a state of combat readiness; other old land, sea and air trinity nuclear strikes Power, with the establishment of the Earth Federation and the elimination of war on the surface of the Earth, is becoming less and less valued.

Chapter 37: A mess (4)

"Is there any other way?" Admiral Gopp spread his hands, "So we old bones have to go far away."

"The colonial satellite is too big and heavy, and according to the Space Force report, Zeon still has a considerable number of troops escorting it nearby..." The American Air Defense Commander, who had participated in the previous asteroid defense plan, took on the role of explanation at this time;

"Relying on man-made celestial bodies to change their orbits through kinetic energy impact is tantamount to hitting a rock with an egg. I'm afraid the Zeon Army will not allow it by installing rockets on it to push Iphis Island out of the impact orbit..." As he said this, he looked away from standing awkwardly and being scolded. Major General Cunningham glanced:

"Nuclear bombs are already the weapons with the highest energy density we have. The impact released instantly by the explosion can be regarded as a huge change in velocity. We just don't know how many of them can break through Zeon's interception and hit the target on contact."

The senior officials of the federal army present here are counting the nuclear arsenal that they can still use. This long meeting is still going on.

"It's torture," Major General Cunningham slumped helplessly in his seat.

It was not his turn to intervene when the generals at the headquarters were discussing issues, but they did not let him disperse. Cunningham just stood in front of the camera for four hours, enduring the verbal bullying from time to time by his colleagues in the federal army; Fortunately, there was no gravity on the Marco Polo ship.