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

"There can be about 25 Tiramis-class cruisers and 113 Antietam-class cruisers..."

"This data is calculated as of December 12st, Lieutenant General Cunningham."

Cynthia added another sentence in Lieutenant General Cunningham's ear.

"Well, not bad," Lieutenant General Cunningham nodded, with approval in his eyes, but his mouth remained stern:

"However, the construction quantity of the Antietam class is still insufficient. In the next battle, we must consider the continuous attack missions and the large-scale deployment of weapons such as mobile suits. Sufficient transport and supply ships are indispensable. "

"Then what do you mean...?"

The officer from the Ship Engineering Bureau looked a little confused. In his opinion, according to the current plan, nearly two thousand mobile suits can be deployed.

'Isn't this enough? ' He thought to himself.

"Before December 12, the number of new Antietam-class auxiliary aircraft carriers must reach 15; other transport cargo ships must also be built in greater numbers."

Vice Admiral Cunningham reported a somewhat exaggerated figure, which made the officers of the Naval Engineering Bureau suddenly widen their eyes, and the other accompanying engineers and technical officers could not help but crane their necks in surprise.

"Even if the Antietam class can be constructed in a modular manner and the overall production difficulty is relatively low, this still..."

"After this batch of ten Marco Polo-class battleships is completed, there will be no need to continue to build the main ship. It should be possible to free up some shipyards and manpower, right? I will coordinate the allocation of materials..."

Lieutenant General Cunningham turned around, looked at the logistics officer in front of him who was frantically swiping the tablet in his hand, calculating the possibility of completing the construction task, and said with conviction:

"You can do it."

"It's doable, Lieutenant General Cunningham." Cynthia whispered in Cunningham's ear.

"Uh... yes!"

Seeing him accepting the mission, Vice Admiral Cunningham relaxed his expression, stepped forward and patted the Ship Engineering Bureau officer on the shoulder, and said in a softened tone:

"If you work hard and ensure the smooth completion of the shipbuilding plan, you all will be indispensable. You are the behind-the-scenes war heroes outside the battlefield."

After saying that, Lieutenant General Cunningham stopped paying attention to the face of this logistics bureaucrat and turned around to leave.

"Congratulations, Commander Cunningham!"

……

"Bah - 150 ships, that's easy to say!"

A technical captain threw the cigarette box against the wall and bounced back; in the weightless state, the cigarette box floated back and forth in the small smoking room two or three times before being caught by another hand.

"Hey, don't waste cigarettes, we don't produce this stuff ourselves; and be careful what you say, be careful of the trouble coming from your mouth!"

The officer who also belonged to the Ship Engineering Bureau raised his index finger and made a silent gesture in front of his mouth; then he quickly leaned down and opened the gap under the seat.

A small monitor has been pulled out artificially, and the working status indicator light and power indicator light on it are both off.

"Don't worry, this smoking room is a place where we can talk casually."

The technical captain blew out a ring of smoke, which dispersed chaotically in the air.

However, the officer from the Ship Engineering Bureau was still worried. He picked up the monitor and shouted a little guiltily:

"Cynthia, Cynthia?"

No one responded.

Then he breathed a sigh of relief, raised his body again and lay down on the back of the seat, crossed his legs, and took out a cigarette from the cigarette case.

"Look at how cowardly you are."

The technical captain opposite smiled and shook his head, and then took a deep breath of cigarette before saying:

"Artificial intelligence, Cynthia, is just like that; it's just a system of equations. You don't care what's in this system of equations. You provide it with a few input values, and it tinkers with it and spits out a few output values ​​for you -"

The technical captain smiled disdainfully and reached out to fan away the diffuse smoke in front of his eyes;

"——As long as you properly manipulate the input given to it, you can make it play around."

"That's what you management resources consume. You just judge the priority subjectively and give it to whichever project you say will be given priority. But once the boss asks, you still have to adjust according to the boss's wishes?"

The officer in charge of the management of the shipbuilding project retorted, then lowered his head and lit the cigarette in his hand, and continued:

"There are cameras installed everywhere in our factory, and the entire construction process is monitored; Cynthia can collect data herself, observe who is slacking off in work, judge our production efficiency, and then rush to set a deadline."

"Then it's really not easy for you," the technical captain sitting opposite nodded, "150 ships, you have to work in three shifts, and you have to add the Marco Polo-class battleship construction dock, right?"

"That's for sure. In short, the deadline is very stuck, but you can't say that this amount is completely impossible."

"Ugh--"

The technical captain was also affected by the sad face of the officer in charge of building the ship, and sighed together.

Smoke rose and fell between the two middle-aged men. After a while, the officer in charge of shipbuilding spoke again:

"You said - to what extent can this artificial intelligence replace humans? What jobs are irreplaceable?"

"Haha, if you're worried about this, why don't you give your report template to Cynthia and let her learn from it?"

The technical captain on the opposite side laughed loudly and pressed the butt of his cigarette into the soft sand in the ashtray.

"If I don't give it to her, she can still get the report I submitted before - besides, it really saves me a lot of trouble."

"Then you deserve to worry about it, but I advise you not to think too much. We are not newly recruited conscripts. We have established organizations - if I have to say which profession cannot be replaced, artificial intelligence will not be responsible, at least not Are you going to jail for humans? Haha."

"You boy."

The officer couldn't help but laugh, and pressed the exhaust button to clear the smoke in the smoking room.

Chapter 4: Hide and wait (4)

"Cynthia, what's next on the schedule?"

After inspecting the progress of fleet reconstruction, Vice Admiral Cunningham felt obviously relaxed.

"Lieutenant General Cunningham, next the Space Force Technology Development Bureau and the Mobile Suit Research Group will report to you on the current progress and demonstrate the current version of the GIM Space Combat type mobile suit named RGM-79E."

"RGM-79E? I've heard it before, right?"

"Yes, Lieutenant General Cunningham, as early as June this year, we received the original design parameters of the RGM-6 Jim mobile suit from the Gabro headquarters, combined with the previous reverse research on the captured Zaku, and Zani’s design experience for technical verification——”

Hearing Zani, Lieutenant General Cunningham frowned slightly.

That is not a successful design. It is a product of the MS R&D team on Luna 2 trying to integrate the Zeon technology reverse-engineered from the Zaku with the Federation's early MS development plan and the technical results of the RX plan. .

From the most direct result, Zani's performance is not as good as the Zaku II type that Zeon has been mass-producing and equipping troops for more than a year. It is even inferior to the Zaku I type that Zeon started producing four years ago.

However, Lieutenant General Cunningham still had to endure the protests from the Federal MS pilots and pinched his nose to give Zani the mass production instructions;

Although the performance of this type of mobile suit was worrying, when the Zaku captured by the Zeon army in the early stages of the war were gradually exhausted, he had no choice;

Moreover, the optimization of mobile suit mass production lines and the standardization of maintenance work are not something that can be established in a short time. If the equipment is not prepared early, even if a mobile suit with sufficient performance is developed by the time a large-scale counterattack is about to begin— —

It was too late to produce enough quantities to equip the troops.

"——Then, in August, we received another RX-8 from Gabro Headquarters, a mobile suit design drawing called Gundam. The performance of this model is comparable to that of the Zaku II type of the Zeon Army. It’s a crushing advantage.”

"I've seen this before, but as a piece of equipment the size of a fighter jet, the cost of that aircraft is unimaginably high."

"Mainly because the body's armor materials, micro-fusion reactors, and armaments all adopt a large number of new designs, and the extremely high development costs must also be taken into consideration——"

"Gundam, I understand a little bit why this machine can bring such inspiration to the soldiers of the Federation Army;"

Cynthia sighed in the background. It can be said that the clones of the Ogas system have so far controlled various traditional weapons of the Federation Army and fought against the mobile suits of the Zeon Army, whether in the universe or on the ground. They have seen it a lot. ;

Even if unmanned weapons have no morale constraints and will never retreat, the poor battle loss ratio cannot be completely restored.

For example, in the universe, even the Salamis-class cruiser, which has a reputation for poor survivability, has a single-ship cost that is far higher than that of the Zaku. If the training and pension costs of hundreds of crew members on the ship are also taken into account, The gap is even greater.

At this time, if a mobile suit developed by the Federation can appear, and even directly surpass the Zaku in all aspects of performance, and can suppress the Zaku with one enemy and many enemies, which originally required the numerical superiority of the Federation to defeat the enemy, then it will indeed be a miracle. An exciting thing.

"——Our Luna 2 MS research team only borrowed some of its designs and equipment applications. The original design concept of mass production and equipment for troops will not be forgotten."

"That's perfect. Weapons that cannot be mass-produced and put into service have no value at all."

Lieutenant General Cunningham nodded, but when he thought about it, the report from the previous days flashed through his mind again, and a slight complaint against Zablo's headquarters rose in Lieutenant General Cunningham's heart.

The Gundam, which has excellent performance, has completed the production of the first batch of prototypes last month. Next, it is time to start various technical tests——

But this was neither done at the Gabro headquarters on Earth nor on Luna 2 in the universe; it was done at the unfinished Side 7 colonial satellite group, which was on hold and should theoretically be in a neutral state. .

And the reasons, of course, are confidentiality and security;

After all, the Federation Space Force stationed on Luna 2 is still engaging in small-scale battles with the surrounding Zeon army blockade fleets from time to time. For example, the MS Zani developed in the early stages of Luna 2 was naturally also attacked by the Zeon army. A crash occurs.

It would be fine if a machine with poor performance like Zani was captured. It might confuse the Zeon army's judgment on the development progress of the Federation mobile suit; but an epoch-making machine like the Gundam is much more expensive, so I'm worried. Can't afford the risk.

Of course, what's more important is that the related development and application work of Mobile Suit Gundam is carried out independently and is directly responsible to the initiator of the 'V Plan', Admiral Ray Bill;

Specific management matters are also responsible for a technical major general named Gawain and are not under the command of Lieutenant General Cunningham.

'Can a lonely, unfinished colonial satellite be safer than the heavily guarded Luna 2...'

Lieutenant General Cunningham is still unclear about the considerations of Admiral Ray Bill, who is in charge of the overall situation on the earth's battlefield; but having reached this position, he has to bring in a non-military perspective when considering issues.

"...Forget it, let's take a look at our Jim E."

Lieutenant General Cunningham, surrounded by a group of technical officers and mechanics, walked into a Luna 2 Gnaku;

In the Gnaku, which is about 10 stories high, two rows of red and white mobile suits, like steel warriors guarding the palace, stand face to face on both sides of the Gnaku;

The lifting platform is constantly moving up and down in the Gnaku, allowing mechanics and workers to reach the heads of these 18-meter-tall giants, lift their foreheads, open their chests, and perform final debugging work;

In the middle aisle, trailers carrying various MS parts from heads to arms passed by from time to time. It is not difficult to see that the styles of these parts are slightly different from the 12 complete machines that have been assembled now. They have obviously undergone technical improvements. Iterative updates.

"Lieutenant General Cunningham, this batch of airframes still needs some time to be debugged..."

The head of the MS R&D team was half a step ahead of Lieutenant General Cunningham, turned sideways and said with a smile;

Although in the file recorded by Cynthia, the technical person in charge is only a middle-aged man in his early 40s. Compared with other people who are also model chief engineers in the federal military technology industry, he is not even young. Too much;

But his almost white hair and thin face made him look like an old man.

"Hmm... It seems that the actual machine demonstration cannot be carried out today?"

"I'm extremely sorry, Lieutenant General Cunningham. I really can't let our precious test pilots board these airframes while there are still some faults that have not been eliminated and some problems that have not been solved."

The head of the R&D team carefully observed Lieutenant General Cunningham's face to confirm that he did not mean to be angry.

"Then you should hurry up. After all, every time a real machine is tested, more new problems will often emerge."

"It must be certain that we are making improvements based on the feedback from the last test pilots; and the Jim E is now very close to being ready for mass production."

Seeing that Lieutenant General Cunningham was not here to find fault, the head of research and development of the Jim E model gradually relaxed, straightened his back, and explained to Cunningham:

"The reason why the current level of completion is not high enough is because we have not been clear enough about the mobile suit as a weapon before -"

The person in charge of R&D dragged a whiteboard densely covered with text and schematic diagrams from the side, and quickly waved his arms a few times to erase the technical staff's flashes of ideas, but most of them were unrealistic.

"——What kind of weapon is this?"

The head of research and development wrote the words "Mobile Suit" at the top of the whiteboard, and at the same time drew a stick figure holding a gun in one hand and a shield in the other behind the words.

"It will be a weapon specifically designed to deal with Zaku, the Zeon army."

The person in charge of R&D extended an arrow from underneath the stick figure he just drew, pointing to a hemispherical head marked 'Zaku' with a single red eye.

"We believe that just like tanks on land, they first appeared to support infantry in combat, but eventually developed to the point where the enemy's tanks are the primary imaginary enemy; the same is true for mobile suits."

A big red cross was slapped on Zaku's head by the head of R&D who was gradually aroused by his desire to show off.

"Jim, it was specially designed to fight MS! As the core of the body, the reactor's output is about 30% higher than that of the Zaku. The mass of the body, after a series of weight reduction measures, is only 75% of that of the Zaku."

The head of R&D wrote the numbers on the whiteboard excitedly.

"In this way, Jim's mobility will be significantly better than Zaku; and in terms of firepower configuration, we also use the MG-79 90mm caliber Bullpup machine gun..."

"Hmm... um," looking at the technical staff who entered a state of fanaticism once they got involved in the projects they were responsible for, Lieutenant General Cunningham also fell into a state of nodding along.

"...On the premise that the armor-piercing capability is sufficient to penetrate the Zaku armor, the Bizaku's 120mm machine gun significantly reduces the weight and recoil, allowing the mobile suit to hold it with one hand and shoot."

The person in charge of R&D drew a circle on the machine gun and shield held by the stickman's left and right hands respectively.

"Yes, in terms of protection, we have introduced a hand-held shield that can be pointed in the direction of enemy attack by the mobile suit's mechanical arm..."

"Lieutenant General Cunningham and many MS test pilots, including Major Jung, do have a positive attitude towards this design; they have no objection to the fact that Jim's overall performance surpasses Zaku."

Cynthia whispered from time to time to provide Lieutenant General Cunningham with information from more perspectives, so that even if he did not understand the specific technical details, he could tell whether the developer was over exaggerating Jim's performance.

The head of R&D became more and more enthusiastic as he spoke. Suddenly he turned his head and looked at Gnaku's side, and said excitedly:

"Yes, that's it, look."