Chapter 155: The Navy's Embarrassment Brings in the Space Forces!
"Huh? We're not heading back to Torrington Base?"
Gis looked a bit puzzled after learning that the White Chaser was slowly descending toward the California Base. He turned to ask Kou Uraki beside him.
The two of them were eating in the ship's mess hall.
"I heard the Gundams will be coming here later too," Kou replied casually, eyes still glued to the tablet in his hands. He was analyzing data on his modified GM as he spoke.
"Will we be allowed to disembark later? I could really use a drink."
Gis glanced over at the tablet in Kou's hands, then gave up on probing further. Instead, his thoughts drifted toward how to soothe the trauma he was feeling.
Even though he'd mentally prepared himself as a pilot, seeing the enemy's mangled remains on his first sortie had been hard to stomach.
What he needed now was alcohol—and maybe some company from a beautiful woman.
"Don't even think about it. We're still on Level 2 combat alert."
Just then, Arcadia walked over and joined them at their table.
"Huh? Why?" Gis asked.
"Because the next test involves aquatic equipment. As a precaution, we need to patrol the target sea zone," Arcadia replied.
Gis collapsed into his seat. "Come on... damn Navy!"
"Hahaha, you'd better not let anyone else hear you say that. This is a Navy base, after all," Arcadia said, laughing.
The California Base was actually a cluster of 29 separate facilities, jointly supporting the Navy and aerospace research operations. It was also the largest naval shipyard of the Earth Federation.
Gis immediately fell silent and focused on eating.
"By the way, Kou, Gis—have you two considered joining Undertaker?"
"Huh? Us?" Gis looked up instantly, and Kou also gave a puzzled look.
"The two veterans under my command are planning to retire after this testing mission. They're talking about opening a barbecue joint or a bakery back in their hometowns," Arcadia explained.
Though the squad had only been newly expanded a year ago, with Zeon remnants becoming increasingly inactive on Earth, it was understandable that those two long-time soldiers—who'd been fighting since the One Year War—wanted to retire.
"You two are still green, but rather than bring in two elite replacements who'd need time to integrate, I'd rather just bring you on officially."
Arcadia's tone made it clear he was serious.
Kou straightened up immediately, exchanged a glance with Gis, and was about to give a loud, formal reply—
—but Arcadia held up a hand to stop them.
He stealthily pulled a metal flask from his pocket and motioned for them to hand him their cups.
"Whiskey?"
Kou looked into his cup at the dark amber liquid, sniffed lightly, and immediately understood.
"It's oolong tea," Arcadia said.
"Huh? It totally looks like—"
"Oolong tea."
Gis tried to protest on behalf of the poor drink, but seeing Arcadia's unusually stern face, complete with shadows and dramatic lines, he swallowed his words.
"Well then, to a long life for you both."
The three clinked cups and downed their drinks.
"Didn't someone just say they wanted to drink...?"
"It's fine. A little won't hurt. Just don't get drunk, and the captain will turn a blind eye."
Arcadia tucked the flask back into his jacket and resumed eating.
Soon after, he led his squad aboard the SFS and flew to the designated testing area. They repeatedly swept the sea with phased-array radar to ensure there were no mysterious and irrationally stealthy submarines lurking about.
Of course, the Navy had already conducted quite a few anti-submarine operations like this.
But the Navy's incompetence had become a well-established fact...
Lately, reports of Zeon remnant attacks showed that over half were amphibious assaults from the sea.
The Navy's response? "Sorry, our bad. Please give us funding to develop new equipment, or we won't be able to fight the Zeon remnants."
While some of that was an excuse to keep their positions under the guise of fighting remnants, it was also true...
Once Arcadia's team confirmed no Zeon presence, the anti-submarine work was handed over to naval vessels, and the mobile suits returned to the White Chaser.
"Half-crew rest mode. No one is allowed to disembark! Pass it down—once this job's done, drinks are on me."
Captain Paolo stuffed the bottle deeper into his coat as he issued the order to scattered cheers.
The White Chaser crew didn't have to wait long. The silhouette of the Albion appeared in the western sky, descending steadily.
Some of Undertaker's members, including Eli, were aboard that ship.
The MSs on the Albion currently included two captains—Io and Sanders—and their machines: a custom-type GM, a GM Cannon, and two Gundams.
However, for this particular test, Eli had no intention of piloting the GP04.
Since the GP04 was designed primarily for space combat, all it needed for the underwater test was basic airtightness.
The real focus was on the aquatic equipment developed for the GP01 by Anaheim.
During this period, Nina and her Anaheim team had already finished installing the underwater gear.
This new equipment—based on aquatic-type Gundams and GMs—was meant to be mass-producible and capable of underwater combat just by equipping it, without needing dedicated aquatic MSs.
Clearly, it was another project competing with the Hachishu development concept.
The California Base seemed to be taking this test seriously as well—they'd even transferred an aquatic-type Gundam to the base below specifically for this.
"But would the Navy really be that generous...?"
Let's not forget—the Navy wasn't proposing new equipment out of a desire to enhance combat strength. They were aiming for more military funding from the Federation Council.
If Anaheim actually succeeded in producing universal underwater equipment, the Navy's justification for budget requests would collapse.
"Well, it's not like they're going to commit treason or anything," Captain Sinapus shrugged, thinking Eli was being overly paranoid.
But he didn't see the change in Eli's expression the moment he said that.
"Crap. Is it too late to deploy the Aquatic GM Excellence Type instead?"
Eli's face twisted into an odd expression.
Because when it came to underwater combat, the GP04 was worse than a regular GM (Nina facepalms).
When Eli met with the commander of this local base, he even went out of his way to scan the man's tag.
Only after confirming there were no labels like "traitor" or "collaborator" did Eli finally relax, wondering if he'd just been overly sensitive.
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