July 6th, 0070. Battle Colony Five. Principality of Zeon. Kaiser Gihren POV
With our consolidation of the Social Democrats and pretty much everything that I had in my domestic agenda either complete or in the process of being worked on, I had a lot of free time to myself for my most important goal as an insert, upgrading Zeon's military.
While in my opinion Zeon was on a track to something far better than canon, my efforts so far have had mixed results to say the least. That was not to say that I encountered any hard failure, rather, I think I may have been a bit overambitious and a little bit optimistic on some fronts. The main feature of this was my plans for Zeon's ships.
Now on paper everything I had planned for the new classes were quite alright. On paper. However, when the classes were put into simulations by the Space Force, it was quite clear that my designs were first drafts and that I was more or less going for what was possible rather than what was practical.
To start off with, while the Defiant class was a pretty good stealth ship in operation, it was absolutely crap as a mobile suit carrier due to its structure and size, with it also being crap at a troop transport for spec ops forces. So I had to scrap the defiant and build a new class of ships entirely that was based mostly on the Garencieres from Unicorn, though far larger at 227 meters with a height of 265.
While the new Comanche class as I termed it sacrificed a lot of its personal offensive power that the Defiant had, in return it had the capacity for four mobile suits and a large enough armory to equip an entire platoon of Marines for special missions. It was the jack of all trades, though most importantly it did its job of stealth well. The Comanches would be my silent birds of prey throughout the solar system, striking with brutal force and leaving like it was never there.
My second biggest flaw of the ships that I had designed was the amount of railguns, missile launchers, and beam weaponry that I had installed. In my moment of weakness I went too overboard with trying to fit as many as I can to make each ship a platform of death, ironically making myself a bigger proponent of the Big Gun philosophy than the Federation. If I didn't want crap ammunition logistics, I had to remove some emplacements from all of the ships and focus on its primary role as a carrier. As much as I wanted each ship to be a force on its own, at the end of the day it was always mobile suits that won wars.
Lastly, and perhaps the biggest flaw on all of the classes was just the sheer amount of suits that I had placed in each vessel. I was way too optimistic and my projections crammed as many mobile suits as possible that made them a parasite on resources and impractical for battle. As such I had to downscale them with the Musais now holding 9, the Zanzibar 12, and the Dolos 120. They could hypothetically fit more, though this would only be for battlefield emergencies and not on standard deployments.
Once the issue of ships were solved, the rest of the armament went by without issue, by now our conventional forces were now roughly on par with OTL's 21st century NATO in terms of firepower and technological prowess. Even now new concepts from UC and the Miracle were pushing them to the forefront of future arms development.
While the Federation would win in a conventional battle through sheer numbers, we would make any victory a pyrrhic one. All that was left was to produce a strong mobile suit corps, and we could have our independence.
The only issue that laid with the direction of Zeon's military now was mobile armors. I knew from canon that every mobile armor that Zeon produced was an absolute monster which could wreck the enemy. Yet at the same time they were in the end nothing more than glass canons which were destroyed by angsty psychic teens that eliminated a machine that could've had its resources used to produce a whole company of mobile suits.
Right now I wanted to hold the issue off until the foundations for the Space Force was laid down and our Army was no longer the Wehrmacht in space. Once a base was laid then I could be experimental all I wanted and see just where the true worth of mobile armors lied.
All I was doing right now was getting the Val Varo into the prototype stage (though sadly Minovsky's tests have shown that the Val Varo is too small for stable beam production, meaning the Val Varo-I had to use rail and heat weaponry while the Varo Varo-II is going to be two or three years off) and the Hidolfr. If there was one thing from IGLOO that I wanted to work, it was the beautiful sniper tank which could've been the perfect game changer at Odessa.
Right now within the confines of Battle Colony Five, Dozle and I were about to witness a simulation battle which would put to the test my most far out there doctrine that if successful, could revolutionize warfare and keep infantry as a relevant force within the Universal Century. The powersuit.
While mobile suits could lay waste to the battlefield, there were simply some problems that required a more specialized touch that the hulking mecha couldn't handle.
Mobile suits could capture a city but could they occupy it and clear every block without annihilating the infrastructure? Could mobile suits be effective weapons against insurgencies while preventing terrorism? Could they be used discreetly behind enemy lines to destroy the enemy without a trace? Could they board space ships and capture VIP's carefully? Could they infiltrate heavily armed compounds and accomplish a multitude of missions in small spaces and tight walls?
Mobile suits could do none of these things, only infantry. With the exception of ECOAS whose brilliance in spec ops were that they were the only Federal unit to use actual combat fatigues, infantry was heavily neglected by all factions of the Universal Century and was nothing more than an afterthought as bodyguards.
That would not happen under my leadership in this Zeon, no sir.
"So we send the video to Jaburo, make some bullshit documents to and recordings within the Defense Department to sweeten the lie, and about a year later we'll have the Federation spending billions on the worst tanks in human history."
I laughed hard at Dozle's idea, not at the pitch itself but at the images of Jaburo wasting billions of taxpayer's credits over a hunk of junk.
"While I do appreciate your initiative brother, I'd have to run it by father and a couple of flag officers. While we would be screwing with Jaburo, at the end of the day it'd come down to spending millions of taxpayer's money and I don't want the construction of any prototypes to give those idiots bright ideas." I said, Dozle nodding his head slightly in understanding.
What Dozle had told me was a plan to construct a couple of the canon Magellas that I had thankfully rejected, make some fake program centered around them to make it look like it would be our main battle tank, and have Jaburo desperately try to copy it with the intention of stealing "Zeon innovation". Considering the Army's love for the T-61 and its double barrel design, the success of such a plan was far from unlikely.
"I really owe you one Gihren for directing me to that Weiss kid. He literally seemed like the only tank designer with some common sense. I know Zaku's will be the mainstay of all of our branches, but tanks will be important as long-rage support and having our men go out in that machine would be a death sentence. I mean seriously, a flying turret? That's going to get more people killed than a regular tank from the sheer recoil!" Dozle ranted.
"I know, unfortunately you just can't help it when we haven't had a real war for the past half century. No need for innovation when you're fighting against desert warriors with AK's and the occasional bomber."
Dozle's disgust of the Magella made me incredibly curious on just how the hell it got approved in canon, though I concluded that it was just another aspect of Gihren's asinine armament policy. He may be a political genius, but Gihren was an idiot when it came to logistics and design. I'm sure as hell no Napoleon, but I'm at least competent enough that I know not to start a fruitless corporate war in the middle of a struggle for independence. Genocide was far from the only aspect in which Gihren was a space Hitler.
"Thanks again for making me in charge of quality control Gihren. The buildup would be pointless if we just turned a blind eye and let engineering abominations like that tank see the light of day." Dozle said.
"Lord Dozle, are you perhaps referring to Zeonic? When I heard the word abomination that company was the first thing that came to mind." An old Slavic voice pipped in.
Dozle and I turned around to see a grizzly Polish Jewish man dressed in a dark brown suit and red tie walk towards us. I approached him and offered a hand.
"We were actually referring to the Army, Doctor Zimmad, though if the test here is a success then there will be one contract that won't be in Zeonic's possession."
"An investment not made in Sakomoto's pocket is a wise investment for all of Zeon." Said in light mirth Doctor Arthur Zimmad, founder and CEO of the Zimmad Corporation.
When I began working on creating the Miracle I had to pick and choose on which domestic corps I wanted to include in the fold or leave to dust. While Zeonic was always a safe bet with the reliable Zaku, Zimmad's creation of the Dom, Hygogg, and Zudah made them too valuable to simply throw to the curb. So far the decision to have two mobile suit and engineering corporations brought into the inner circle of the Zabis was paying off.
When it came to their respective fields, Zeonic and Zimmad were practically night and day. Zeonic was primarily concerned with heavy manufacturing and structural engineering with an intense focus on creating the infrastructure for an industrial economy. They did a lot of public works, colonial construction, debris clearing, ship and auto manufacturing, you name it. Both the Principality and the corporate world had a plethora of fixed contracts with Zeonic that were vital to the national economy.
Zimmad went in a different route with a focus on catering to the average consumer and the individuals of an industry rather than taking macro projects. They dominated light manufacturing and when I introduced the concept of 3-D printing, Zimmad took the 21st century models and transformed them into UC powerhouses that could create products at a far more rapid pace with larger designs. This turned Zimmad overnight into the king of plastics and catapulted them into the Fortune 500.
They also had a heavy involvement in toys, electronics, power tools, and small vehicles. About a month ago Zimmad had showed off a drone line that could have the potential to completely revolutionize colonial packaging. While Zeonic was a traditional pillar of the Zeon economy that served as a foundation for our industry, Zimmad was catching up and with every punch sent their way from Sakomoto and Hoth they sent one back with just as equal force.
Right now Zimmad was focused on getting into the mobile suit game, with a desire to one up Zeonic by creating specialized environmental suits. Right now they were working on the Zudah to act as the mainline Space Force unit, and I heard word of concepts being laid down for what appeared to be a Gouf.
Today wasn't about mobile suits though, it was about the powersuit and how it could be the much needed salvation for infantry in the Universal Century.
"Not to worry my Lords, we have performed hundreds of tests on the powersuit and every time it has exceeded our expectations and then some. While it's not the super soldier that you presented to us Lord Gihren, what we have today shall serve as a strong foundation to push ground warfare into the Universal Century proper." Zimmad assured.
I gave a strong smile, "I have every faith in your abilities Doctor. You have never let us down before, and I have no expectations of today being the first.
Content that his flattery had been succeeded, Doctor Zimmad led Dozle and I to take our seats in the observational room where we would watch the test squad of Marines perform numerous tasks with the power suit to show just how far their limits could be pushed.
Along the way I did my best to inquire about the Zudah, a topic which seemed to make Zimmad visibly uncomfortable with multiple assurances that he would let me know as soon as they had a working prototype, one that in his words would exceed not only the current Zaku but any hypothetical Zaku-II.
In return I told him to take as much time as he needed and only present me the final product when the Saturn engine lived up to the hype and had a 0% malfunction rate. I didn't have anything concrete to figure out how to get the engine to not explode spontaneously, but hopefully Zimmad's overall greater success and lack of life or death pressure in their rivalry with Anaheim wouldn't lead to anything rushed. If the Kshatriya could exist, then I had faith in the Zudah's eventual success. At the very least, failure would give Zimmad enough experience to push them to the Dom, my hopeful main unit on Earth.
Before the simulated battle could begin in proper, Zimmad brought up a display from his computer to show up the powersuit's specs.
"My Lords, I present to you the first ever Powersuit, straight from the realms of fiction to reality, the Spartan!" Zimmad said in a theatrical manner.
Ironically for the name, the Spartan Powersuit mostly resembled the ODST's from Halo, though this seemed to be a pure coincidence on Zimmad's part as this was one area where I never interfered too much, and sadly Halo never existed in this timeline due to Microsoft's early buyout by Anaheim along with the lack of a proper multiplayer console.
"The Spartan is an incredible work of art made thanks to the ingenuity of not only the man and woman of Zeonic, but the key involvement of Doctor Mitchum and his associates who were crucial during its development as contractors. Using both our current line of augmentations and the mobile suit as inspiration, we were able to create the powersuit as the first true exoskeleton.
Firstly let us start off with the materials. The powersuit is made from a new alloy of super steel ceramic composite, allowing for the traditional super steel to be produced at a cheaper price with a more malleable composure. While it is admittedly weaker than traditional super steel, the powersuit is still extremely durable against traditional small arms and low-grade explosives, making any enemy outside of something extreme as a tank or mobile suit nothing for our soldiers to fear.
The backbone of the powersuit is its intricate exoskeleton system, which from the super steel composite is able to take incredible pressure with the ability to lift six metric tons. The speed of the average powersuit user is also dramatically increased to 60 kilometers from hour, making our soldiers leap past even the mightiest of Olympians. With data collected from our current generation of augmentations, we were able to create the exoskeleton with an integrated dumb AI system that based off of communication with the nervous system can react near instantaneously to any outside stimulus.
Speaking of AI, we have the second main feature of the Powersuit in its helmet, the battlenet system which when integrated in its HUD, can provide real time information from nearby satellites and observational systems to give gigabytes of potential data on the battlefield and opposing enemies, a virtual computer within the helmet. While operational time within an area of high Minovsky density will lead to the loss of the battlenet, the HUD has an autonomous computer which will be able to provide basic information on the environment and help soldiers to make the best tactical decisions they need.
The most important thing when creating the powersuit is to make sure that no environment could inhibit its movement. To achieve this we have the Da Vinci vernier system which allows for near unrestricted movement in all combat scenarios, with its specialty primarily relating to urban combat and space warfare. The principle is based off of our existing normal suit verniers, though instead of a heavy backpack a total of eight verniers can be found near the joints. The suit does have the downside of necessitating small propellant tanks so as not to make its wearer a walking bomb, though with conservative vernier usage it should be of little issue.
Lastly is the degree of customization that can be found on the powersuit, allowing wearers to enhance it to their personal tastes of the needs of missions without compromising the standardization into the powersuit's production. Alongside the standard weapons for equipment, the powersuit allows a variety of add-ons such as power tools, grappling hooks, a dart system, field surgery kit, or a mobile computer for intelligence. At best right now only one or two items should be brought along so as not to clutter the suit, though improvements are possible in the future for some of these features to be added on permanently in new models or for new room to be made in the carrying of items."
After a few more minutes of explaining the suit's intricate details, Zimmad signaled for the start of the mock battle to begin, where we would watch a squad of Marines take on a variety of tests to show the powersuit's strengths and limits.
Not only did the suit met all of my expectations, it exceeded them and then some.
Watching the live feed from the colony's various observational cameras along with the HUD systems from the Marines showed a scenario that in many ways felt like a futuristic FPS game, only far more brutal with a high amount of efficiency that could hardly ever be replicated in a mere game.
From what I had been told, the Marines taking part had trained with the powersuit for the past month, but to me it seemed like they were veterans for years. Maybe it was just their inherent skill, perhaps they had a couple of Newtypes with them, or maybe it was just the suit itself; regardless these Marines were able to perform of a high quality that most spec ops units set as their goals.
Almost all of the tests were immense successes with nearly every enemy sent their way being blasted through. Attacking company of infantry? Wiped out without a scratch. Defending a building from an advancing company? They could've breezed their way through Stalingrad. Hostage scenarios? No sweat. The only problems they ran into were with the mechanized units, with some casualties starting to begin while the appearance of the Zakus managed to wipe out the squad.
Even with the Zaku's there was still great accomplishments to be had. When the first Zakus came out, the squad was able to take out one while damaging two before being wiped out. While the Zakus were able to improve to the point that they could wipe out the entire squad easily without losing a suit, in a real battle against incompetent feddie grunts, we could possibly see whole units wiped out.
No longer did the infantry have to engage against mobile suits in suicide missions with bazookas. Now they had they had leveled the playing field and had a fighting chance.
When the battle was done, Zimmad looked incredibly pleased based on our reactions, especially with Dozle appearing to be in near ecstasy from the excitement of watching the footage. While I didn't have any doubts that he would stay within the MS corps, it probably wasn't too unlikely for him to place an order for a custom powersuit for some "personal testing".
Applauding at the great performance, I got up and shook Zimmad's hand strongly.
"Well Doctor, I think I'll have to increase our family's shares within Zimmad tomorrow. Thanks to your company's contributions, there is no doubt that the Principality's sovereignty shall be well protected in the coming years." I said, the good doctor looking like he was on cloud nine.
If I am to ensure that Zeon shall emerge victorious in any future conflict against the Federation, then I must do more then building better mobile suits. Zeon had far better mobile suits throughout the entire war, with suits like the Gelgoog and Zeong far surpassing the original Gundam. While advanced mobile suits would give us the advantage, they would not win the conflict entirely. A conventional war must be fought through conventional means after all.
Let the Federation throw as many GM's towards us as they want. For me, I have my Space Marines.
A/N: Hi everyone, Kaiser Chris back with another military chapter much like you guys have been asking for the past couple of months. Here Zeon is building up its infantry to bring them into the space age. With its new Space Marines they shall go far and wide and change the face of UC warfare from an entirely different story than canon. While I know that some people may be disappointed in the lack of detailed or long combat scenes, I was really struggling when writing this chapter as I found mobile suit combat more engaging to write, and it's really hard to get infantry warfare done correctly when there's dozens of point of views. There will come a time when we have a proper battle chapter with the point of space marines in powersuits, it just won't be today. Next time we shall focus on Zeon's colonization of Mars and the people involved in the Principality's mission of settling the fourth planet. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more!