Save the Day Program, once again. (Gundam IBO/Satisfactory SI): Chapter 19

Joint Economic Bloc Military show, New York, SAU, Earth, P.D. 318.

Nadi Yukinojo Kassapa, the head of FICSIT Inc.'s Maintenance and R&D department, felt very nervous as he fiddled with the tie and tried not to stick out between the rows upon rows of businessmen, influential men and women, and representatives of the Economic Blocs and Gjallarhorn.

And yet, unlike what he felt, his two bosses were busy preparing.

“How are things looking?”

“Optimal. The suit is ready for all scenarios. I have also reconfigured one of our factories to start production the moment we start getting the orders. As for the weapon, it has been stress tested and is ready for launch.”

“Good.”

Nadi watched as his CEO, David Thornton, the guy who suddenly appeared out of nowhere more than three years ago and has become someone intricately linked to Mars’s economy leaned back into his chair, watching the guy on the stage from Arbrau talk about some kind of next-gen Mobile Worker that was electric and worked on remote power transmitted through Microwaves instead of the built-in Hydrogen engine like the current-gen machines.

Given the lack of enthusiasm that Nadi could see in the many forces gathered here, it was clear that this guy’s idea was not going to take off any time soon.

Which made sense since his system was far too complex and was not worth the money for something as basic as a Mobile Worker.

Especially since the market has been dominated by FICSIT’s H-Type Mobile Workers for the past two years.

The sheer versatility of having arms and being able to lift heavy weights due to its tread system made it very popular on Mars and even in the Jupiter Sphere and Earth, so much so that the H-Type has become the go-to Mobile Worker for any company that wants to make a profit.

Although the sales on Earth are relatively low due to the manipulations of the market by the native companies.

Even then, the past three years that his boss had spent on the red planet had been a time of great economic boom for Chryse and Mars as a whole, bringing a great deal of wealth and scrutiny in equal measure to the people of Mars.

Over two dozen mining facilities across the planet that mined all kinds of minerals and ores, ten factories that produce various things ranging from every-day stuff like batteries, screws, and simple electronics, all the way to military and industrial equipment like Mobile Workers, Improved Kinetic weapons, Starships, and even a low orbit space station that is still under construction.

The thing that spooked the competition was that this number was ever increasing with new factories and mines popping up every week.

And all of this is only on Mars. Counting the various factories, industries, schools, orphanages, PMCs, Shipyards, and other industries spread across the solar system, including a freaking Mining Colony that had just begun construction within the Asteroid Belt, it could be said with confidence that FICSIT Inc. already rivals the wealth and power of a few dozen colonies on its own.

Under Ms. Ada and Mr. David’s management, FICSIT Inc. has become such a force that, these days, it is spoken of in the same breath as the four Economic Blocs of Earth, bringing great pride to the natives of Mars along with increasing the standard of living for every Martian and beyond who were once envious of those born on Earth.

However, not everything is sunshine and rainbows for the company since there were many, many attempts made by various forces, including Gjallarhorn, to curb them in the cradle and stop them from becoming too strong.

Fortunately for FICSIT, and unfortunately for these forces, every record of every move made by FICSIT is shown as being completely above the table and fully compliant with all kinds of laws, even those laws that Gjallarhorn itself had forgotten over time, making it nearly impossible for anyone to use any kind of legal loophole to attack the company.

Illegally, there had been many physical attacks and assassination attempts made on both the CEO, his employees, and others, while there were also several attempts to bomb his factories, industries, or outright perform an orbital bombardment and claim it to be a ‘Training Accident.’

However, David Thornton and Ada Monica were always one step ahead of such things and curbed such attempts before they were even made. Sometimes using their contacts, sometimes using proxies, and sometimes, taking the fight to the enemy personally.

Nadi still remembers the day more than a year ago, when two Gjallarhorn warships appeared out of nowhere above FICSIT Inc.’s HQ in Chryse, clearly aiming for an orbital bombardment run on a civilian population.

And then, just as they were about to begin, ten unknown warships appeared just as silently, surrounding the two ships.

Nadi still did not know what they did. The only thing he knew was that everyone onboard the Gjallarhorn ships had died a gruesome death without even a single shot being fired by anyone.

All in all, the company has garnered such a reputation that, nowadays, nobody dares to go against them in any way.

As the guy on the stage finally went away, it was time for FICSIT to make their presentation, making Nadi get up from his seat under the gaze of the other businesspeople and head to the stage.

Mentally rehearsing all the lines that he had crammed into his skull under Ms. Ada’s strict teaching, he finally reached the podium as his boys behind the curtain got ready to show off.

What followed was boring and bland speech that he had somehow managed to not forget, which was a necessity since such formalities were part of the game for all businesses.

However, Nadi could not help but let his excitement leak into his voice as he finally got to the part where he would introduce the beauty hidden behind him.

“-With that, let me introduce you to the very first Mobile Suit developed and manufactured in-house at FICSIT Inc.”

“Introducing, The Zaku-Frame!”

At his cue, the curtains dropped and revealed the beautiful monster that Nadi and his boys had poured their heart into developing under the management of Mr. David and Ms. Ada.

Its olive green and black armor gleamed under the sun as its mono-optic glared down at the crowd with a baleful light.

And yet, despite the crowd’s sudden wariness and panic, noting happened, which made the various forces gathered in the place look confused.

Nadi grinned in genuine amusement as he saw this reaction.

“As you people might have noticed, given that none of the electronics in this place have shut down yet, this Mobile Suit is not powered by an Ahab reactor. Instead, it is powered by a proprietary Generator powered by Fuel which is also FICSIT patented technology.”

“And before you people question its capabilities given the lack of an Ahab reactor, please look at this footage.”

Nadi clicked the button on the remote, showing footage on the screen.

In the video, a few Gilda-Frames were arranged in a strategic formation, sweeping the surroundings with their guns held in a professional manner.

However, in the blink of an eye, one of the six Gilda-Frames was cut in half by a superheated axe, causing the pilot to eject out of the frame.

The sudden attack caused the rest of the Gilda-Frames to turn towards the threat, but the newly revealed Zaku-Frame was in a league of its own as it zipped across the battlefield, easily cutting through the Nanolaminate armor of the Gilda-Frames with its axe and boosting out of the range of the guns before the other Mobile Suits could even process what was happening.

Within a matter of one minute, six Gilda-Frames were completely annihilated in this training exercise, showing how powerful this new machine was.

The crowd watched with a dumbfounded expression as an indicator at the corner of the screen showed the fuel gauge of the Zaku-Frame, showing that it had merely used 2% of its fuel in the entire confrontation.

Nadi grinned at their expression before speaking further.

“As you just saw, just because it works on liquid fuel does not mean it is weaker than the average Mobile Suit. In fact, from the video, you might have realized that this frame is optimized for taking on several enemy suits at once. Combined with its fuel efficiency, which helps it run for three days non-stop if used in low-output mode, or one day of high-output mode, its thrust systems, which are also FICSIT proprietary technology, which makes it nearly twice as fast as a regular Mobile Suit, and its heated axe, another FICSIT invention which we have named ‘Heat Hawk’, and a 20mm machine gun, The Zaku-Frame are designed to be a cut above your regular Mobile Suit.”

Instantly, the crowd burst with excitement as question after question was thrown his way, making him continue grinning before he raised his hand, silencing the crowd.

“We cannot answer all your questions just yet, but I will answer some of them right now. First, this mobile suit will be available for purchase starting next month. Second, as it runs on fuel and can be used in cities or urban landscapes, the possibility of it being used for nefarious purposes is high. As such, we will only be selling to registered businesses and individuals. We will also be logging their full information with every unit sold so that we can keep track of where the machines are going.”

Watching the pandemonium, Nadi turned towards his boss, who nodded in satisfaction.

One thing was for certain. After today, FICSIT’s name would spread across the solar system and so will its influence.

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MS-06C Zaku:

Heat Hawk: