Why would I join the army if I can’t drive a Gundam!

Chapter 338 Profit-Driven Merchants

"Is the information true?"

In the luxurious office of the Gevadan flagship store, Mark Bey, who had been swirling a glass of cheap red wine for a while, looked up at his adjutant.

The latter nodded solemnly and then spoke.

"This is a message from our friends on Mars, and it has also been cross-verified in Anaheim!"

"Yes, that's what you call professional. You can't trust just one source of information, because that could be a trap set by the enemy!"

Mark Bay swirled his wine glass triumphantly, then laughed.

"I'd like to know how our old friend is doing?"

"Well, the intelligence didn't mention much about that, but according to information from Anaheim, Brigadier General Makarius Skriny has been reprimanded by Gabro, and now the entire Federation Army has begun to be mobilized!"

This time, Mark Bay didn't just smile; he burst into laughter, laughing so hard that tears were almost streaming down his face. He was doubled over with laughter, and even his secretary couldn't help but laugh along with him.

"Tsk tsk tsk, poor young man, a prodigy, always successful since joining the army, but he stumbled at this crucial moment. It's alright, hopefully he can learn from this experience!"

"You're right!"

"So, what else did Anaheim have to say?"

That's all the communication was, but they said they would provide us with more support later!

"Hmph, more support, see? This is the true face of those lunar merchants!"

Mark Bay wasn't as happy as his adjutant had imagined. Instead, he gave a heavy snort and put down the glass of red wine.

"They won't do unprofitable deals, and they don't have any long-term investment vision; they only think about immediate profits..."

Mark Bay was naturally quite resentful of Anaheim, because his fleet had lost its entire logistics fleet in the previous attack by Makarius. Although those transport ships had no defensive capabilities and were slow, making them seem like a burden, they were crucial to the operation of the entire fleet. The weapons, ammunition, fuel, food, spare parts, etc. they carried were, in short, combat power.

After the transport fleet was destroyed, the Mark Bay fleet had to live a very frugal life. Even the training of mobile suits had to be done sparingly. The propellant consumed by a single mobile suit might not be much, but the propellant consumed by hundreds of mobile suits would be an astronomical figure. The fleet itself and the supply points it had established simply could not meet this demand.

Therefore, Mark Bay hoped that Anaheim could replenish their logistics fleet, or at least transport an equivalent amount of supplies. After all, he hadn't failed to pay them; during their previous meeting, he had showered Anaheim with gold coins. It was only natural that they would ask for more supplies now.

But Anaheim made all sorts of excuses and prevarications, saying things like the weather was bad or that Mr. Tom, the head of logistics, was on his period. In the end, he simply stated that the Union Army had sent countless spies to monitor them, so the supplies Mark Bay needed simply couldn't be delivered!
As a result, Mark Bay lived a very frugal life. He couldn't bear to drink the few good wines he had left, because they were all used up when he gave them to his men to send them off. In fact, there wasn't enough wine at all, so they even mixed in some inferior wine.

The wine that Mark Bay is putting in his glass now is the kind of cheap liquor you can find at John's Supermarket in any random city in the Union. It's not that the quality is that bad, but it doesn't match the status of Lieutenant General Mark Bay.

This stuff is what corporals and privates drink, just like the cheap cigarettes that ordinary soldiers smoke. As a general, you deserve expensive red wine and cigars!
But since he had nothing else, he could only use this thing to satisfy his craving.

The adjutant was in a similar situation. It wasn't just Mark Bay who was struggling financially; the mid-level officers were even more affected. For example, they had to conserve water by washing their face, then their bottom, and then their feet. They also had to conserve paper, as they used to have three sheets of toilet paper to wipe their bottoms, but now they could only take one. Not to mention, the amount of salt in the canteen food had been reduced by half.

"But at least now, Anaheim can provide us with support, can't it?"

"So that's what makes me angry. Before, they kept making excuses because they couldn't see the value in our investment. But now that they know we've caused the Federation a huge loss, they're rushing to invest. And we have no choice at all. If Giannis were still here, we wouldn't be in this situation!"

"How about we try Axis again?"

The adjutant thought for a moment, then spoke.

"After all, when we left, they were also mobilizing all their forces, so they must have already amassed a powerful force, right?"

"The time spent going back and forth is enough for us to fight another year-long war!"

"Ah, if only they could fly Axis over here!"

"Stop thinking about it. Now, go and draft a list for me, write down all our material needs, and send it to Anaheim!"

"what?"

The adjutant was taken aback. "What? Now they're begging us! Give them a good squeeze!"

"As ordered!"

The adjutant nodded, then turned and left. Mark Bay was clearly in a much better mood. He then happily hummed the Zeon Space Force anthem, and as he hummed, he casually picked up a wine glass and took a big gulp of wine.

"Damn, this tastes awful!"

"Gudu!"

Although he complained, Mark Bay still drank it down obediently, after all, even with this cheap red wine, the fleet was running out of supplies!
And what Mark Bay said was indeed true. Anaheim had increased his investment in them. After receiving the list of supplies from his adjutant, Anaheim began preparations without saying a word. Note that this did not even include the support Anaheim was going to provide to them.

Anaheim was able to make such a large-scale preparation because neither Makarius nor the Federation was paying attention to the moon. After all, the Federation fleets throughout the Earth Sphere were being mobilized in a hurry, and Anaheim was also preparing support forces for the Federation. So, they could take this opportunity to prepare for the remnants of Zeon as well, since the Federation wouldn't notice anyway.

Of course, this was just Anaheim's own idea. In reality, the Military Intelligence Agency had been keeping a close eye on Anaheim. After all, all the losses and reprimands were staged by the Federation military's high command. In fact, the mobilized fleets were just conducting a long-distance military exercise according to the pre-arranged plan, taking the soldiers to the desolate dark universe for a month before returning.

But Anaheim was unaware of all this; all they saw was Makarius requesting support and the Federation forces mobilizing.

After putting in so much effort, Anaheim naturally displayed the audacity of a top-tier arms dealer. A top-tier arms dealer is one that profits from both sides, supplying arms to two different companies.

On the one hand, they prepared a large amount of supplies for the large dock ships to be assigned to the Federation Army and the GP03d Dendrobium, and on the other hand, they provided a huge amount of military equipment to Mark Bay. It is only because Anaheim has a large system that it can support both ends without interference. If other military industrial companies wanted to do this, they might have to consider expanding their production capacity first.

Driven by certain psychological factors, Anaheim's support for Mark Bay was unprecedented and unparalleled; it wouldn't have been a problem for them to send Anaheim a signed commendation from General Killian.

Because what they gave Mark Bay could no longer be called commercial aid; it was more like the Zeon logistics department replenishing supplies and equipment for the front lines.

To reassure Mark Bay that he could fight the Federation forces to the death, Anaheim Electronics used its mobile suit production line in Grenada to produce a full sixty Garibaldi β mobile suits for Mark Bay's fleet. After all, this was the only post-Zeon mobile suit they had a mature production line for. As for the source of the mobile suits, they came from Macarius's Pezen Combat Technology Center.

In addition to the mobile suits, Anaheim also provided a batch of beam rifles similar to those used by the Warriors, as well as rocket launchers with slight modifications in appearance. They even produced a considerable number of MMP80 machine guns, all of which had production lines in Grenada.

In addition, there were a large number of spare parts, various large components needed for warships, and simple manufacturing equipment that allowed the Macbeth fleet to produce its own armaments in the Reef area.

The purpose was to enable the Mark Bay fleet to have the ability to fight and wear down the Federation forces for a long time. Needless to say, the consumable supplies prepared for this purpose were even more abundant. Anaheim even prepared a container of underwear for the soldiers!
In addition, the Grenada officials even prepared a group of technicians for the Mark Bay fleet. These technicians had served in the Zeon army and Zeon military enterprises during the One Year War. After the One Year War ended, they became employees of Anaheim after Anaheim acquired Zeon assets. Now, they were all going to return to their old professions.

These veteran technicians had no complaints about these arrangements; in fact, many were eager to try them out, since not everyone was willing to accept the negative impact of defeat.

In particular, a group of middle-aged technicians in their thirties and forties, although they may be content with the status quo, when their inner passion is ignited, they will also unleash a fighting spirit to the death, just like those young men!
Just like Kado, who was beaten to death by Macarius and might now be reincarnated as a three-year-old child.

Of course, this was not the most significant support Anaheim had prepared, because while these technicians could resolve the fleet's concerns about the rear, they could not solve the fleet's immediate problems.

If we were to name the enemy that gives Mark Bay the biggest headache, it would certainly not be the Federation's new Rakelam-class battleships, nor the Birmingham-class battleships. What would give him the biggest headache would be the Federation's ace pilots and Gundam mobile suits.

Although Gundams and ace pilots are not indispensable in large-scale wars of attrition, having them can achieve a synergistic effect greater than the sum of its parts compared to ordinary conventional forces.

Seventy percent of the Zeon army's defeats on the battlefield were inseparable from these Gundam mobile suits. It was these mobile suits that triggered a chain reaction, making the already precarious battle situation even worse. The defensive lines that were set up should have held off the Federation army for several months, causing them to lose tens of thousands of soldiers. However, with the support of the Gundams, the Federation army was able to break through the Zeon lines with less loss and in a shorter time.

The most outstanding among them was none other than Makarius, who is known as the red dragon who rides on the grave of Zeon and breathes fire. Every major defeat suffered by the Zeon army was his doing.

Even now, despite having been humiliated by this guy, Mark Bay is still troubled by his presence. He even hopes that the Federation can learn from Zeon and simply shoot an officer like Makarius who has made a mistake.

Anaheim had also considered this issue, so they prepared a gift for Mark Bay: two mobile suits that, while seemingly unrelated to Gundam, were actually based on Gundam but with different designs.

One of the mobile suits was the GP04 Gerbera Gundam, manufactured by Anaheim Electronics for the Federation. The other was the RX-098 Prototype Rik Dias, a new mobile suit developed by Anaheim Electronics to counter the MK2 Gundam and the Z Gundam.

During the development process, the former was canceled by Anaheim due to a conflict in positioning with GP01 Jade Curtain. However, the Grenada R&D department was very dissatisfied with this, because in their view, the performance of this machine was outstanding. So they secretly manufactured it again, but made many modifications to it in order to cover their tracks.

Especially in terms of appearance, since the Federation's Gundam mobile suits have very distinctive V-shaped antennas and dual-eye monitors, this mobile suit was directly changed to the Zeon style in order to avoid the Federation's knowledge. The color scheme was also changed from mainly blue and white to all red, except for the cockpit, which, due to the use of Federation technology, looks similar to the style commonly used by the Federation.

As for the machine's performance, there's no need to elaborate. This thing is a Gundam. If an ace pilots this machine, he can charge into the enemy lines and wreak havoc. With such a machine, if Macbeth can find a skilled pilot, it would be a huge boost to the remaining forces' combat power.

As for the second mobile suit, the RX-098 Prototype Rick Diaz, this thing is even more remarkable. It is another Gundam mobile suit manufactured by Anaheim that combines the technical characteristics of Zeon and Federation. In terms of positioning, just like the MK2 Gundam, it can be regarded as the foundation work for Anaheim's transformation towards a completely new design concept.

The fact that Anaheim Electronics was able to pull out these two machines shows just how much they've invested!
(End of this chapter)