Chapter 45: The Zim Unlimited Fighting Championship!

"Damn those Federation bastards!"

Watching the Federation riot-suppression forces tightly surrounding the streets with high-pressure water cannon carriers, the Fuhrer's Guard watching from the shadows were grinding their teeth in absolute fury. There was nothing they could do—their ranks had been betrayed from within!

The few members of the Fuhrer's Guard who had previously intercepted the convoy were originally acting on superior orders to stir up trouble. But after the estate was burned to ashes and the others noticed these men hadn't returned, they sent out a search party, only to find their brothers' corpses hanging from the trees, long dead and rotting! Those bodies didn't even have their clothes left; enraged Zeon civilians had even torn off their underwear.

By the time the Fuhrer's Guard managed to retrieve the bodies, intending to report the incident for merit and request compensation for the victims' families, the Federation suddenly dropped a bombshell announcement: these dead guard members were actually Federation agents who had heroically sacrificed themselves to cover the delegation! This left the Zeon people dumbfounded. *Wait a minute, whether these people were Federation agents or not, didn't we know? Everyone who makes it into the Fuhrer's Guard is a pure-blooded, die-hard Zeon independentist—the kind who would gladly strap bombs to themselves and take a Terran down with them. And now you're calling them Federation spies?!*

This was the ultimate insult!

Not to take into account that this stunt severely damaged Gihren's trust in the loyalty of the Fuhrer's Guard. After all, a leak had just happened not long ago, and now Federation spies had popped up. If Gihren was told the Fuhrer's Guard was completely innocent, he wouldn't believe it for a second!

Right now, the families of Major Mars and his subordinate accomplices who had fallen in battle were packed up and shipped off to the decompression chambers overnight. By now, they were probably thoroughly chilled, their bodies stiff as boards. Internal vetting within the Fuhrer's Guard had also been initiated, and barring any accidents, another batch of unlucky bastards from the Guard would be packed up and hauled off to the asteroid belt for mining over various fabricated issues. After all, fierce internal struggles existed within the Guard as well!

Those wandering the streets right now belonged to the faction slated for purge. Though they had done nothing wrong, who told them that Mars was one of their own?

To redeem themselves, these members of the Fuhrer's Guard had already received new orders: disrupt the Federation's suppression operation and throw fuel onto the fire of this riot.

"Are you ready?"

The Guard commander looked at his subordinates. They were all draped in thick overcoats, beneath which heavily loaded rifles were concealed.

"Ready!"

Seeing the Federation forces pressing forward into the crowd on their side, the commander gave his men a subtle glance.

Immediately afterward, just as the Federation troops habitually opened fire with bean-bag rounds and tear gas to disperse the crowd, several gunshots rang out from within the Zeon civilian throng.

Following closely, screams erupted from the Federation lines.

Though their vision was obscured, the marksmanship of the Zeon side wasn't bad. Several Federation soldiers were hit; some collapsed to the ground, their fate unknown, while others could still move and scrambled desperately to retreat behind cover with the help of their teammates.

"Snipers! In the crowd! Spread out, find cover!"

Though lacking recent combat experience, routine training allowed these Federation soldiers to react swiftly. An armored vehicle directly turned its chassis sideways, blocking the middle of the road to provide cover for the Federation troops rescuing their wounded.

"They're falling apart! Charge!"

Seeing the Federation forces descend into such chaos, the Zeon civilians howled as they prepared to pounce and beat a drowning dog. The armored vehicle's water cannon tried its utmost to hold them back to no avail, and the Federation commander could only frantically call for reinforcements. But to everyone's utter shock, just as the civilians lunged onto the vehicles, another deafening blast echoed from behind them. A flash of light erupted, and a blinding glare burst from the front of the water-cannon-firing armored vehicle. Instantly, the entire vehicle burst into a roaring blaze, and several Federation soldiers tumbled out, screaming and rolling in agony with flames clinging to their bodies.

"A bazooka?"

The Zeon civilians were stunned too. Because the armored vehicle was destroyed, some of them—those standing closest to the combat machine—were also injured.

"Who did that?!"

The civilians turned toward their rear, only to see several figures hastily fleeing. Their fanaticism vanished entirely in the wake of this sudden explosion, and some of the more clear-headed Zeons simply turned and bolted straight home.

The surviving Federation troops, after doing their best to treat the wounded, had no choice but to hurriedly climb aboard a second armored vehicle and retreat. To their dismay, as they passed an intersection, another rocket-propelled grenade came screaming through the air.

"Sir, we are under attack from all directions! The assailants are equipped with automatic weapons and anti-tank firepower, and they have zero regard for our mingling with civilians!"

"The Zabi family sure is ruthless!"

Ougen furrowed his brows deeply. He had already established his command post and a temporary operational base at the Zum City spaceport. At this moment, dense clusters of red 'X' marks had appeared on the holographic electronic map before him—these were the locations where Federation forces had encountered attacks. The Federation troops dispatched everywhere to suppress the unrest were acting as if they had entered a maze, taking hits from all sides, and their losses were far from negligible.

The attackers cared not a whit about casualties on either side. They would even actively select densely populated areas, using the crowds as cover and human shields to attack the Federation forces at will. Their methods were a mixed bag: aside from conventional sniping, there were anti-tank missiles, and most sickening of all were the improvised demolition devices handcrafted by Zeon combat engineers.

These large explosives, originally developed for asteroid mining operations, were compact and easy to carry. The Fuhrer's Guard would stuff them into backpacks and toss them from afar right into the faces of the Federation troops. The blast could directly cripple an armored vehicle, and the vast majority of Federation casualties were inflicted by this very contraption.

"Pull our men back! Prepare the infantry fighting vehicles and tanks for action!"

Watching the chaotic chorus of voices overlapping on the radio channels, Ougen finally issued the order he least wanted to give.

"Old friend, you better think this through. The Parliament won't be easy to answer to. If worse comes to worst, we should petition the Space Force Command first!"

The deputy commander beside him wore a tangled expression. Though the Federation Parliament had issued the suppression order, not a single specific detail had been provided. This meant that if anyone had to take the blame and face accountability for this operation later on, the fall guy would be Ougen!

"No petitions. There's no time for that. My men are bleeding and dying out there. If they want to assign blame, let them ask—our old boss isn't someone they can easily push around!"

"Understood! Then I'll throw caution to the wind as well!"

The deputy commander slammed his peaked cap onto the desk, reached over, and picked up his tanker helmet.

"Today, we're going to give those damned Zeon bastards a real hell of a fight!"