Patriot-112: Hey everyone! Yes, I know another new fic, but this time a crossover between two of the best MS Gundam Eras: Universal Century and the Cosmic era! Of course, this will mainly focus more in the Cosmic Era. And with me today are my good friends and fellow Gundam Otakus!
117Jorn: WAZZZA!
DragonKnightRyu: UNLEASH THE GUNDAMS!
Takeshi Yamato: IKU ZE! :D
Ron the True Fan: (Rolls up in a Merkava MBT) Hoi-oh, everyone.
Prologue
New World & A New Beginning
UC 0079, December 31st
A Baoa Qu
…Near the end of the One Year War
Explosions erupted, as the ships and mobile suits of the Earth Federation and the, clearly defeated, Principality of Zeon, traded blows with one another. The entire area around the vicinity of the last Zeon Stronghold was a like major expensive fireworks show.
A Zeon MS-06II Zaku II traded blows with an RGM-79 GM with it's heat tomahawk, which the Federation mobile suit blocked with it's shield before retaliating with it's beam saber and swiped at the Zaku, hitting the torso, which sliced the machine in half before it exploded. The same thing happened with all other combatants in the area, with a Zeon MS gaining a victory while a Federation MS gained a victory.
Needless to say, it was a stalemate.
While this was going on a small Zeon fleet of one Zanzibar Kai-class Mobile Carrier, and 7 Musai-class Late Production Types light cruisers, all colored in the tan colored paint scheme of the Zeon Marines, were not engaging in the battle. In fact, they were moving away from it.
On the bridge of the Zanzibar Kai-class, the Lili Marleen, a woman sat in the Commander's seat, with dark olive green shoulder blade length hair, dark eyes wearing a red Zeon Commander's uniform, with a trench coat worn over it. Said woman's face was currently in a scowl as she gripped the armrest of her chair in a vice like grip.
'I can't believe this… first the gassind at Side 2, then that bastard Gihren turned Mahal into that damn Colony Laser, and now that son of a bitch who set me up put all the blame of that massacre on me and fled to Axis!' she raved in her mind, as every thought made her hate the very nation she swore to protect more by the minute.
Standing next to her chair was a man with a sleeveless version of the Zeon military uniform, with short silver hair tucked under his cap, and black eyes standing at an imposing 6'3, with a very muscular build. Captain Detlof Kossel looked at Cima with an understanding look, knowing that the entire crew of the Cima Fleet felt the same way. "I know how you feel, ma'am," he said. "But right now we gotta focus on getting out of A Baoa Qu airspace before the Feddies spot us."
Cima sighed as she closed her eyes for a moment, as if to try to put aside her enraged thoughts against the Principality before she opened them, recomposing herself. "You're right," she said. "Though we don't have many options… we return to Side 3, we will likely be held accountable as the War Criminals of the gassing during the one week battle, if - or rather when the Feddies take Grenada, we'd be tried and executed." She then narrowed her eyes. "And we can't make it to Axis like this - and even if we could, I'll be damned before I go crawling back to that spineless asshole."
The Captain sighed but nodded, knowing where she was coming from. However before he could speak, one of the Operators spoke up. "Ma'am, we have a ship approaching our starboard bow!" he said. "IFF reads it as a Gagalu-class of the Takeo Fleet."
Cima's eyes blinked at that. "The Takeo Fleet?" she said, and turned to the Communications officer. "Contact that ship!"
The Officer nodded and a few minutes later a face appeared on the viewscreen, which was a man about the same age as Cima, and appeared to be as tall as Detlof, with brown hair, and green eyes.
"Commander Garahau, this is Captain Victor Xavier of the Persephone. I've been sent by Commander Sutura Takeo to lead you to our rendezvous point," the Zeon officer said, much to the surprise and confusion of the bridge crew and Cima.
"E-excuse me?" she asked sounding stunned. "What are you talking about?"
"Vice Admiral Takeo realized that A Baoa Qu is a lost cause at this point," Captain Xavier said, "She's recalled her fleet, and is pulling out of the battlespace with the Artemis Fleet." The captain then smirked a bit. "Then she saw your ships were evacuating as well, and decided to let you join us to our Rendezvous Point."
Cima's eyes widen in shock at that, which was shared by her crew.
"B-But… surely she would've heard what happened at…" she said but Xavier cut her off.
"It's best if you heard from the Admiral herself, Commander," he said. "She'll explain her reasons better than I can. Just follow us, and we'll take you there. Don't fall behind," and with that, the Captain cut the transmission and the screen went blank.
Cima and the rest of the bridge crew of the Lili Marleen looked on in shock and surprise at what had just happened, and were in silence until Detlof spoke. "Your… orders, Ma'am?" he asked.
The commander of the fleet was silent for a few moments, before she turned to look at her XO, her face in a serious frown.
"Inform the rest of the fleet… we're following the Persephone and rendezvous with the Takeo and Artemis Fleets," she said, her tone telling Detlof she did not want to hear ANY argument and just do it.
Said XO blinked before turning to the helmsman. "Helm, come about! Follow that Gagalu! Comm, inform the rest of the fleet! We're rendezvousing with the Takeo and Artemis Fleets! Move it!" he barked, and the bridge crew went into a frenzy as they carried out the order.
Detlof then turned to Cima, whose face was calm and barely showed any emotion. But he could see in her eyes that the Zeon Marine Commander was curious of why one of Zeon's most decorated officers wanted them, the Cima Fleet, to join them.
Several Hours Later
Outside Principality & Federation Territory
It had been a while since the Cima fleet fled A Baoa Qu, and followed the Persephone to the rendezvous point they spoke of. They journey was in silence for most of the time, no forms of communications since they did not want to risk the Federation finding their position and attempt to finish them off.
However, the fleet of ships eventually came across an odd sight that the small Gagalu-class ship had lead them to, which Cima and the Captain looked at with surprised glances. "A Bernal Sphere-type?" Cima spoke out loud. "Haven't seen one of those since forever…" And she was right, as before them was what appeared to be an old Bernal Sphere Island-1 Colony in the distance, one of the first types of colonies constructed before most colonies began using Island-3 O'Neill Cylinder Type colonies, mostly because they were capable of holding more people. Because of that, many Bernal Sphere colonies were abandoned or just never completed, with only a handful still being used to this day.
"I heard those things were older than the Stanford Torus Island-2's," said Detlof. "But what's this one doing all the way out here?"
Cima had the same thoughts as she looked at the colony in front of them. She could also see multiple lights that signified ships near the Bernal Sphere, as they took formations around the colony.
"I'm not sure Detlof…" she said. "But I get the feeling Vice Admiral Takeo and Admiral Artemis are gonna give us the answers soon."
"Ma'am, we're receiving a message from Vice Admiral Takeo's Flagship...it's the Midolo." the communications officer said in surprise, causing both Cima and Detlof to blink.
"The Midolo? I thought she was still under construction back on Granada," the XO said in shock while Cima's eyes widened a bit.
"She was…" the Marine MS pilot said, clearly surprised that the third of the Dolos-class was here, and under the command of Vice Admiral Takeo.
"Patch it through," the captain said, and the Communications officer nodded as he carried out the orders. A few moments later, the front screen showed the image of the bridge of the Midolo, with all of the bridge crew at their stations. However sitting on the command chair was a woman who appeared to be in her 40's, yet at the same time appearing as though she hadn't aged away from her 20's with shoulder length red hair and bright emerald green eyes, wearing the black and dark green trimmed version of the Zeon naval uniform complete with the rank pins and insignias of a Vice Admiral of the Zeon Navy.
"Commander Garahau," The female Vice Admiral said with a nod of acknowledgement and a small smile. "Glad to see you and your Marines got here in one piece."
Cima, as well as everyone else onboard the bridge of the Lili Marleen stood at attention and saluted the Admiral. "Admiral Takeo, ma'am!" she said. "It's an honor to meet you, thank you for letting us join you."
Vice Admiral Sutura Takeo smiled as nodded. "At ease, and it's alright, Commander," she said. "Unlike some people I can think of, we don't leave comrades alone to fend for themselves."
Cima, although stunned, couldn't but feel grateful. "T-Thank you Admiral. No offense, but, I have to ask, why did you send the Persephone to lead us here? I thought, giving my public reputation, that you wouldn't..."
"Take you in?" she said. "Nasha Artemis and I knew you were set up at Side 2." Cima's eyes - as well as the eyes of the others on the bridge - widened as Sutura continued. "We discovered what Gihren had planned at the last moment before you began the operation. When we failed to warn your forces in time, we tried to gather evidence to prove your innocence, but unfortunately that bastard Gihren covered his tracks well." Sutura paused for a moment so she could sigh before she continued. "Anyways, even though we could adequately prove your innocence, we tried to find something we could use against Gihren to help you out… unfortunately the war took a turn for the worse as we all know, and we had bigger things to worry about - namely when Gihren turned Mahal colony into their new Colony Laser. We couldn't stop him, but we managed to get the people of Mahal to be sent here to Laputa Colony at the very least, including the families of your men."
Many of the Bridge crew gave out sighs of relief at that news, including Cima as well, knowing that her people, her REAL people, were safe and are living in a new home.
"Thank you, Admiral…" she said, clearly relieved, but then became curious. "Where and when exactly did you find the Laputa Colony? Bernal Sphere types are a rare sight."
Sutura smirked at that. "Family Inheritance," she said. "Laputa Colony was built by one of the earlier colony construction corporations, and Laputa was completed originally part of Side 3. But when CMC put a focus on Closed-type Island-3's, so did they, and Laputa was left half-finished… then my family came along, and we finished the construction. When the Republic was formed back in 0058, Laputa became a fort for the Colony Republican Guard, and later on for the Zeon Elite Force. Though most of Side 3 didn't know Laputa really even existed, which made this a perfect Redoubt incase the homeland fell. It's been the home port for both mine and Nasha's fleets and our families ever since then, and it's also been a refuge for supporters of the Deikun family after Gihren began his purges."
Cima was astounded by this. She had no idea that there was a secret colony hidden right under Gihren's nose and he didn't even know about it.
"And now… it has become a home to your fleet, as well," Sutura said as she smiled. "Welcome to Laputa, Rear Admiral Garahau."
Cima blinked at that. "Excuse me?" she said, and Sutura chuckled.
"Since we're technically no longer under Principality control, we're basically a new nation," she said. "By the time the war is over, the Principality will likely be dissolved and replaced by a Republic the Federation can have under their thumb. So obviously we need more officers who know not to make the same mistakes the Zabi family made. Which is why, as of now, I am promoting you to Rear Admiral, of the New Zeon Republic Fleet."
The whole bridge was shocked by this, most of all Cima, as her mind was wrapping around the thought that she was just promoted to Rear Admiral. She, shakily, saluted Sutura, as a smile formed on her lips
"T-Thank you, Ma'am!" she said, and Sutura nodded.
"Consider it an apology for not stopping Gihren sooner," she said, before the alarms started going off.
"What's going on!?" Cima demanded.
"Shit! Ma'am, we have a large fleet of Feddie ships coming up from behind! Scanners indicate at least 85 ships total!" said the CIC officer.
Cima cursed as she looked at the video screen. "It looks like we brought you more trouble, Admiral," she said. "The Feddies followed us here."
Sutura shook her head. "No, it's not your fault," she said. "We assumed the Federation would find this place… we just hoped it would've been later, or after we've moved the colony somewhere further from the Earth Sphere. Get your fleet in formation with ours, and we'll work out a battle plan." Cima nodded and turned to the Helmsman. "Helm! You heard her, take us in and take position among the other ships! Comm, advise the other ships to do the same!" she ordered, and the fleet began to move into formation with the other ships.
Federation Fleet
Pegasus-Class Flight II, Blanc Rival
"Zeon forces ahead ma'am! Large enemy fleet is in orbit around the Bernal Sphere-type colony," said one of the operators sitting on the overhead operator station. "The eight additional vessels are moving to join the rest of the fleet."
Sitting in the Captain's chair below the operators was a woman in her thirties with long brown hair which was tied in a loose ponytail over her right shoulder, and dark blue eyes wearing the standard federation Captain's uniform. The woman sighed as she straightened up in her chair "Looks like following them paid off," she said. "Alright, Reiko, send a message to Grey Phantom, we're preparing to engage the Zeon Fleet. The 4th and 9th Fleets will arrange in standard battle formation, and begin launching Mobile Suits."
"Roger that, Captain!" said the Communications officer, a woman with long dirty blond hair tied up in two short ponytails and greyish blue eyes wearing the blue federation uniform, as she began sending the message.
Trisha Hohenheim then looked out at the large Zeon fleet in front of them. More specifically on the ship she recognized as a Dolos-class Super Heavy Carrier. However, this one was more modified as it appeared to be more maneuverable, less cumbersome, and launching Mobile Suits of different models out of it's catapults much faster than the two other ships that were destroyed not that long ago. Her eyes narrowed a bit. They may have the Zeon slightly outnumbered by 12 ships, but the Zeon have them outnumbered by 30 mobile suits.
Needless to say, it was a pretty much even fight.
Of course, she and the Commander of the 4th Fleet, one Leon Trumpner, were under orders from the Assembly to at least try to negotiate a surrender. However, she knew the chance of the Zeon surrendering was VERY slim. It had only been a few hours when they heard word of the Principality's surrender on the moon base of Granada, and they were sure the fleet and colony in front of them didn't know about it.
She sighed, knowing the majority of the Brass is made up of complete utter idiots. Heck, the Admirals in charge of her fleet and Leon's were attending that damn sham of a surrender ceremony, while she and her compatriot were given de facto command until they returned.
"Hail the flagship of the enemy fleet," Trisha said to Reiko. "Let's see if we can pull this off without any violence, even though its unlikely."
Reiko nodded. "Yes, Ma'am - huh?" she said as she blinked, looking at her terminal. "Ma'am… the lead Zeon ship is hailing us, its on an open channel directed at us."
Trisha blinked in surprise, but nodded "Patch it through," she said. Reiko nodded as she did so, and appearing on the front view screen of the Blanc Rival appeared the image of a woman in a Zeon Vice Admiral uniform. Trisha went through a mental list, and realized the person before her was none other than the famous Zeon Vice Admiral Sutura Takeo, one of the top Admirals of the Zeon Navy, second only to the Zabi Family commanders. She was also one of the few Women admirals in Zeon.
"Federation Fleet, this is Vice Admiral Sutura Takeo onboard the Midolo," the woman said, confirming Trisha's suspicions. "We ask for you to leave this airspace, as it no longer belongs to the Principality of Zeon, nor shall it belong to the Federal Forces."
That made the entire bridge crew, as well as the entire Federation fleet to blink in surprise.
"We do not wish to fight you, so we ask that you return to your territory in peace. But, if you do attack us, we shall not hesitate to respond in kind."
Once the shock wore off, Trisha glanced at Reiko, who nodded as she activated the Comm on their end. "This is Captain Trisha Hohenheim, of the Federation Carrier Blanc Rival," she spoke. "Acting Admiral to the 9th Federation Fleet. Excuse me for sounding confused, but… what do you mean you do not answer to the Principality?"
The image of Sutura smiled a bit. "A pleasure to meet you Captain Hohenheim," she said. "As I said, we of the Laputa Colony no longer wish to serve the Principality or the Zabi Family. They have tainted the Spacenoid independence movement. We wish to follow the ideals set not by Degwin Sodo Zabi or his children, but rather those of Zeon Zum Deikun. We wish to start anew, as the New Republic of Zeon."
Now that threw the entire bridge crew for a loop, as Trisha was gaping like a fish, with her expression shared with other members of the Blanc Rival and the two Federation Fleets as a whole, seeing that this group of Zeon were moderates compared to the Hardline Hawks of the Zabi family, and their followers. She was brought out of her shock when her CIC officer shouted.
"CAPTAIN! One of the 4th's Pegasus-class ships is readying its weapons! It's the Ikaros!"
"WHAT?" Trisha shouted. "Captain Trumpner didn't give any orders, did he?"
"The Captain's as confused as you are, ma'am!" the CIC Operator said. "He's trying to contact the Ikaros, but it's ignoring all contact! The Ikaros Captain is just saying he's not believing the Zeon's lies!"
Trisha gritted her teeth at that. "Stupid Earth-Born Elitist baka!" she shouted.
On the Midolo
On the bridge of the Midolo, since this was being broadcasted on an open channel, everyone in the Zeon fleet overheard what was happening in the Earth fleet. Sutura sighed for a moment. "Well, at least it's just one Earth Elites ship, and not the whole fleet," she said, before turning to the Midolo's Comm Operator. "Send a message to the Asarum, tell them to fire their Mega Particle Cannons… but try to avoid absolutely destroying the ship."
The comm operator nodded as he sent out the orders. Moments later, one of the two Gwazine-class Battleships within their combined fleet moved out of formation, its Mega Particle Cannons charging and moving to take a shot at the Ikaros.
At the same time, said Pegasus-class was charging its own Mega Particle cannons as it attempted to fire at the Asarum.
Then as one, the two ships fired. The Asarum and Ikaros fired their respective Mega Particle Cannons at one another, each intending to take out the other quickly. However something happened that neither the Federation nor the Zeon expected. The two Mega Particle blasts headed towards their respective targets, however the blasts themselves were almost perfectly aligned with one another, and when the two blasts connected with one another, rather than simply passing through one another, the two beams collided in a massive wave of sparks and and energy which flew in all directions.
"What the fuck!?"
What the hell is going on!?"
"Is this some kind of chain reaction!?"
Theses were the multiple questions flooding through the comm waves, as Sutura stood up from her chair and watched. "What the hell…?" She whispered as she watched the spectacle that no one has ever seen before.
However, before any questions could be asked by either the Zeon or the Federation, suddenly a ball of light appeared at the center of this mess, which quickly began to expand larger and larger, growing in size at an astonishing rate. Before Sutura, or anyone could issue an order to move or anything, the light engulfed both the Zeon and Federation fleets, and the Laputa Colony, and for everyone engulfed, the world went blank.
January 1st Cosmic Era 70
Between Lagrange Point 4 & 2
"Are those idiots at Command actually TRYING to start a fucking war?!" Captain Ronald Pinkerton, of the Atlantic Federation's Federal Space Force, said as he tossed a clipboard that had a paper containing his orders at a bulkhead.
"Sir, our orders don't exactly state-"
"Read between the lines, Commander!" Ron shouted, "Those Blue Cosmos backed assholes are trying to start a war with the PLANTs!"
His XO, a woman from the Republic of East Asia, narrowed her eyes. "And you don't approve." She said.
"Genetic engineering doesn't make you NOT human," Ron said. "It doesn't turn you into another fucking species. The morons of Blue Cosmos don't realize this." As you have no doubt guessed, Ron was a moderate: he was not supportive of genetic engineering, but he could care less if it was used by others. It was their right and no one else's.
There was something else he was fond of saying: 'Coordinators are superior in almost every way but one. They haven't gotten rid of the fucking stupid gene. They enhanced THAT in plenty of people'. "I'm tempted to say 'fuck you' and open fire on the 2nd Fleet." He said, and his XO looked at him in surprise.
"Sir, they're our allies!" she said. "And-"
"Half the ships in that fleet are carrying nuclear weapons." Ron said, "And we BOTH know who they're being pointed at, Commander." Ron smoothed out his uniform as he got out of his chair. "You have the bridge, Commander," he said. "I'll be working on a way to contact and warn ZAFT in order to prevent a nuclear holocaust without deserting and betraying my country."
"Yes, s-" The Commander began, before a point of light appeared outside the Nelson-Class battleship's visual range, keeping Ron from leaving. "Der Terful?" He asked, speaking in German at first. "What the FUCK is that?"
The Commander looked at it as well, and shook her head "I don't know, Captain." She said.
"Turn us toward it," Ron ordered. "And put the ship at Condition One. Prep our Mobius MAs for combat. Do we have a location where that light came from?"
The sensor operator checked the map. "Given the distance and brightness of the light sir," he said, "I'd say it's originating from around the abandoned L4 Colonies, at max speed we should be able to arrive there in 10 to 12 hours."
"Then we have our heading," Ron announced. "Set course to L4 and let's see what's going on over there."
Lagrange Point 4
Lili Marleen bridge
Cima groaned a bit, as consciousness finally returned to her "Shit… fuck…" she muttered as she tried to stand back up, "What the hell happened…?" She looked around, and saw she was still on the bridge of the Lili Marleen, and saw the rest of the crew of the bridge were also beginning to come around.
She placed a hand on her head as she tried to remember what the hell happened. The Pegasus-class and the Asarum opened fire at the same time with their Mega Particle Beam cannons, causing some kind of chain reaction that resulted in a large ball of light that consumed them, the Federation Fleet, and the Colony. Her eyes snapped open as she remembered the Feddie Fleet in front of them and looked outside the Bridge windows.
Outside, she could see the Zeon - or rather New Zeon fleet outside, most of the ships floating around almost lifeless, but a few were beginning to show signs of life as lights were flickering back on. She could also see the Laputa colony right behind them, still intact from the looks of things. And then she saw the Federation Fleet, a fair distance away from them, and apparently in a similar boat they were in: ships were drifting with only a few showing signs of movement and life.
She also saw all the Mobile suits of both sides that were launched were also floating around, but were quickly moving about.
She then turned to her Comm officer who was just waking up.
"Comm, contact the Midolo." she ordered and the officers, while still a bit dizzy, did what she said.
"Admiral Cima, what the hell was that light?" Detlof grunted out as he stood up from the ground.
"I have no idea," Cima said, shaking her head. "All I remember are the Mega Particle cannon blasts colliding and this happening." She then looked at him. "Get me a status report of the Lili Marleen, I need to know who's hurt and who's not, and whether or not our ship can still fight! And get status reports from our Musai's and see if they're alright!"
Detlof nodded as he moved to follow her orders. "Ma'am, I've got a line with the Midolo," the Comm Operator said. "Patching it through now." Vice Admiral Takeo's face appeared on the main monitor, clearly shaken up.
"What in hell's name was THAT? I don't think that was supposed to happen," she said, and Cima frowned a bit in confusion herself.
"I'm no expert in beam weapons, ma'am, but I believe you're right." said the Zeon Marine Commander turned Admiral. "I'm already checking on the rest of my fleet to see if anyone is alright or not."
Sutura nodded. "I am already getting reports from the rest of the fleet, as well," she said. "It doesn't appear we have any major casualties yet… but everyone is pretty confused."
"And the colony?" Cima asked.
"Also getting similar reports," she said. "Just minor damage from the look of things. Do you have eyes on the Feddie fleet?"
"Yes Ma'am," Cima said. "It looks like they're in a similar situation as we are… orders?"
Sutura's eyes narrowed as she appeared to look out a window, and a few moments passed before she spoke again. "Contact the Blanc Rival, and see if they need any assistance," she said, shocking Cima.
"Admiral?" She asked. "Are you sure? They were just about to-"
"That woman, Trisha, seemed like a competent one," Sutura said. "She was willing to negotiate with us… and we may need her help now more than ever." She looked at the newly promoted Rear Admiral. "Look at the stars, Cima," she said. "They're not the same as before, they're all out of place. And Laputa was a single Colony… tell me, where did that second colony come from?"
Cima blinked as she looked out the window, and her eyes widened as a short distance away she could see a second space colony not to far from them! Similar in design to a Bernal Sphere, yet radically different from anything made in the Earth Sphere. There were also numerous asteroids around the colony as well, and unless her eyes were deceiving her, she made out what appeared to be additional similar colonies not too far away either. "What the…?" she said.
"I'm just as confused you are, Cima," Sutura said, as that's the only honest answer she was gonna give. "But I think it's best we regroup, and contact the Federation Fleet. I'm already recalling all Mobile suits back to their ships."
Cima was silent for a moment before nodding. "Understood..." she said, and her CIC officer spoke.
"Ma'am, something else is wrong," the man said, and Cima turned to him. "I'm not getting a lot of Minovsky Particle interference, there's barely even any static."
Cima was shocked as one thought entered her mind. 'What the hell is going on here?"
Meanwhile, on the Blanc Rival
On the Blanc Rival, Trisha had thankfully already awakened from whatever had happened, and was already shooting out orders to both Federation fleets to bring in some order. "Get word to all ships to get reorganized!" She barked, "I want any casualty reports now, and I want all mobile suit teams on standby! And get in contact with Christina's team and tell her to get to the Ikaros, and keep that idiot from firing at the Zeon again!"
Reiko did what she was told and gave out the orders as the two Federation Fleets got themselves reorganized. It was not long until she heard from Reiko.
"Captain, Christina's Team is reporting..." the Comm Coordinator said, until she paled. "T-The Ikaros' bridge windows were blown out and the bridge crew were all vented out into space!"
Trisha sighed for a moment, closing her eyes. Though she didn't mourn the loss of that Earth Elite captain, she doubted the entire bridge crew was behind his decision, and now they suffered because of his idiocy. "Once all ships are accounted for, prep an engineer team to repair the Ikaros's bridge," she said. "We're going to need every ship we have."
"Ma'am, we're picking up another transmission from the Zeon Flagship," Reiko said. "They're… asking if we need any assistance?"
Trisha looked at Reiko with a raised eyebrow. "Come again?" she said.
"Admiral Takeo is asking if we need assistance," said Reiko, looking just as confused.
Trisha could only blink as she looked at the fleet, and gave a tired sigh. "Contact the Zeon and tell them… assistance accepted," she said. "Their ships may approach, and we will not open fire unless they fire first."
Reiko nodded as she began to send the message, and Trisha sighed as she sat back into her seat. 'This was suppose to be a simple mission,' she thought, 'Then this shit happens… what did I do to deserve this?'
A few Hours Later
Roughly four hours later, both the New Zeon and Federation fleets had managed to become reorganized, and both the commanders of the Federation and Zeon fleets agreed they needed to find out what the hell was going on, and agreed to - for the time being - a temporary truce between them until they can figure out their bearings. After discovering that the new colony they had discovered was apparently abandoned, both sides agreed to use this colony as neutral ground between them so they could discuss what to do next.
As both Zeon and Federation soldiers searched the colony for information or anyone who still lived there, the two acting admirals of the Federation and the leaders of New Zeon decided to meet with one another face to face to discuss the future of what should be done. Which was why Rear Admiral Cima was now standing with Vice Admiral Sutura, Admiral Nasha Artemis, General Aren Takeo, and the chosen Head of State for the Laputa Colony, Prime Minister Hector J. Monroe, now stood together in the docking bay, where they awaited the shuttle carrying the two Acting Admirals of the Federation Fleets to arrive along with the few guards they brought with them armed with ZMP-40 Submachine Guns, Zeon versions of the infamous MP-40 used by Germany in WWII.
Admiral Nasha Artemis was a woman who almost looked as though she were in her late twenties, but the look on her face spoke that she was older than she looked. She had black hair and brown highlights, her eyes a kind but fierce brown, and wore a black and brown Zeon admiral uniform.
General Aren Takeo, the husband to Vice Admiral Sutura Takeo, looked just as old as his wife, but stood an inch taller than her, and wore the dark green version of the Zeon Army uniform. He had short military crew cut black hair, and dark crimson colored eyes, and had a small scar running down the left side of his face.
And finally, Prime Minister Hector J. Monroe was a young man who looked to be in his mid to late twenties, and had short ear length blond hair and brown eyes, wearing a more civilian styled version of the Zeon uniform, colored white and gold.
"This is all getting weird to me," said Aren as he stood next to his wife. "Just a few hours ago it looked like we were about to blow each other apart, now…"
"We're working together to solve a common problem," said Nasha just as the shuttle came into view.
"Yeah…" Sutura said. "I suppose Life is never simple, is it?"
The shuttle entered the colony hangar, and it softly landed on the surface of the floor. A few moments passed before the door of the shuttle opened. The first to come out was a team of five Federation soldiers in Normal Suits, who were armed with Federation M72A1 bullpup assault rifles, who had them out but not raised.
A few moments passed before the first one to leave the shuttle was Trisha Hohenheim, however she was quickly followed by a man who appeared to be in his 30's and stood at 5'9 with short dirty blond hair, and his eyes hidden behind a pair of black sunglasses, wearing a Federation Navy Jacket over his Federation uniform.
The two floated down toward the group of Zeon officers, the zero-g helping them land softly in front.
The two gave salutes to Sutura who returned it.
"Vice Admiral, I'd be lying if I said this didn't feel weird to us," Trisha said honestly.
Sutura, as well as the others, chuckled a bit lightly. "Believe me, Captain," she said, "the feeling is mutual, but all things considered let's just be thankful none of us are part of the more… radical aspects of our governments."
Trisha nodded as she motioned to the man next to her. "This is Captain Trumpner, acting Admiral of the 5th Federation Fleet." she said causing the four Zeon Commanders to raise an eyebrow in confusion.
"Where are the actual commanders of your fleet?" Aren asked. "If you're just acting Admirals…"
Trisha gave a sigh at that.
"Our actual Commanding Admirals were absent, preparing the surrender ceremony when we picked a group of your ships heading away from A Baoa Qu," she said, while Cima sighed.
"I knew we should've covered our tracks better…" Cima muttered.
"It wasn't your fault, Admiral Garahau," Sutura said. "We knew the Federation would find us sooner or later, and I doubt any of us knew that this mess would happen."
Everyone nodded, until a beeping sound was heard and Aren picked up a hand-held radio.
"Report..." the General said. A few moments passed before he blinked. "Wait, what?" he asked, getting the attention of the others. "Where? Hang on, what could it-" he paused again before his eyes widened in surprise before he sighed. "Fine, we'll check it out. Just hang in there." He turned off the Radio and groaned.
"What is it, Aren?" Sutura asked, as her husband looked at her.
"Elric's team discovered… something in the colony," he said. "They said it was some kind of Lab, but… they just said we had to see it for ourselves."
The whole group blinked before nodding as they left the dock and head to a group of Sauropeltas that took them through the city of the colony.
The officers frowned at the state of the city, as it appeared that it suffered some kind of war.
It didn't take long as they arrived at what looked like a five story building, and Sutura's eyes narrowed at the name by the entrance.
"GARM R&D?" she asked, more to herself. She then noticed some of the Zeon soldiers who were standing outside looked like they were about to throw up.
"Captain Elric?" Aren said to one of the soldiers. "What happened?"
Answering his request, stepping forward was a man who looked to be in his twenties, and stood at 5'11 with golden colored eyes like a hawk, a muscular build, sandy blond hair in a braid, wearing the standard Zeon Battle Dress Uniform complete with a ZStG-47K Assault Rifle over his shoulder. "General Sir," Captain Todd Elric said with a short salute. "We found this building a half hour ago and… we found some pretty damn messed up shit in there sir."
"It must've been something if it got you that pale, Captain." Aren said, looking at the building. "What is it?"
Todd sighed as he motioned them to follow. "If you don't think you can stomach it, don't come in," he said. "Believe me… it ain't pretty."
The group all blinked at that, but didn't question as they followed Edward into the building. Cima, though she didn't know why, felt a chill go down her spine. And it was a feeling she knew all too well.
'This feeling… I haven't felt this since… Side 2,' were her thoughts, as they finally entered a room,and the group's eyes widened at what they were seeing. "What the hell…?" Trisha muttered.
Inside, there were rows of large cylindrical iron tubes each bathed in what appeared to be some type of liquid, each one with a terminal next to them, all of them still apparently active. Each terminal displaying what almost looked like a fetus. And that was not all, as they also saw what appeared to be glass tubes with a more clear image, of what was clearly very deformed fetuses.
"What the… fuck is this?" Leon muttered as he looked at what was inside.
It was then Todd brought to their attention a folder in his hand. "Apparently, this place was the site of a Genetic Experiment called the Ultimate Coordinator Project," he said, as Sutura took the file and opened it, looking at the contents of the folder.
"Ultimate… Coordinator?" Cima said breathlessly as she looked at the cylinders.
"Yes," Todd said as he sighed. "They wanted to make some kind of… super-human, a human with enhanced brain capacity, strength… all to make some kind of perfect human. It was lead by a one Ulen Hibiki." He gestured around. "As you can see… these are the 'failures' of his project. Infants born with defects and deformities, aborted fetuses all in order to create one Ultimate Coordinator… from what we gathered, Ulen used an Artificial 'Iron Womb' to create an Ultimate Coordinator… and he used one of his own unborn daughters as a test subject."
"What?" Nasha demanded with a horrified look. "H-His own daughter?"
Todd nodded "Yes… he removed one of his two twin daughters from his wife before they were born, and put her in an Iron womb, to make this… Ultimate Coordinator. According to these notes… he basically planned to manufacture life."
The Zeon/Federation officers were appalled and disgusted by that, as Trisha looked back at the Cylinders. All of these dead fetuses… never given a chance, due to one man's desire to become god.
"H… How could anyone be this cruel?" she said, as traces of tears appeared in her eyes. "Th… they're just babies!"
"I was as shocked as you were," Todd said. "But apparently, the project started off with good intentions… notes from Ulen's wife, one Via Hibiki, was that they were trying to find a way to cure the sterility of Third-Generation Coordinators."
"Huh?" Aren asked with a raised eyebrow. "Third-Generation? What do you mean?"
Todd sighed again, "Look at the notes… specifically the dates." He said, and Sutura looked at the documents, and saw the dates, and rose an eyebrow.
"CE 54?" She said out loud, "What the heck does CE mean?"
Todd shook his head "We ran through the computers of the colony… its called Mendel Colony from what we uncovered," he said, "It stands for Cosmic Era… Ma'am… this sounds crazy but… we are no longer in the Earth Sphere as we know it. Here, there is no Universal Century… we are in another universe."
The Officers were all shocked by that. Unable to believe what the Captain just said.
"Are you serious?" Nasha said, and Todd shook his head.
"I wish I was bull-shitting, but I'm not," he said. "We looked through the history books we found, and found out the Anno Domini Era didn't cease until the year 2025. Which was about 70 years ago according to the calendars here… unfortunately, we don't have much knowledge on what has happened since CE 55, since that is when this colony was abandoned. There hasn't been any updates since then."
"Why was the colony abandoned?" Leon asked, once he finally got over the shock that they were no longer in their universe.
"According to the official colony reports, the colony was hit by Gamma Rays which resulted in making the colony unsafe," Todd reported. "But apparently, it was false. As reports of Scientists here at the GARM R&D said it was a group called Blue Cosmos… it turns out that in this universe, the Earth Sphere isn't divided between the Earth and Spacenoids, but… because of Genes. Coordinators are humans who have improved physical and mental attributes thanks to early genetic modifications in the embryonic stage, giving Coordinators a distinct advantage over those born Naturally. However this Earth is heavily split because of this, starting the rift between Naturals and Coordinators. Blue Cosmos was once an environmentalist organization… but now it appears they've transformed into a government-funded terrorist organization who want to purge their 'Pure and Blue World' from 'Coordinator Filth'."
The respective officers all frowned at the sound of that. Todd sighed as he continued.
"Of course, Coordinators also looked down on Naturals, calling them inferior, and boasting that the Coordinator is the next stage in human evolution… which it is not," he said, shaking his head at the stupidity. "Thus the two had knives at each others' throats as Blue Cosmos terrorists terrorized or killed Coordinators, with the Coordinators doing the same. The data we collected suggests the Coordinators have their own set of colonies under construction in Lagrange Point 5 of this universe, but… we have no idea if they're still there after all this time."
"What is wrong with this universe?" Sutura muttered shaking her head. "Conflict over how someone was born? This is insane!"
Aren nodded in agreement with her, as did the rest.
"If this kind of conflict is still going we need to do something about it," said Leon. "These people need a good kick in the ass!"
Sutura was about to respond to that, until a Zeon soldier ran into the room, before stopping and saluting.
"Sirs - Ma'ams! Sorry to interrupt, but we found something!" the soldier said hurriedly.
"Corporal?" Todd asked in surprise. "What is it? What did you find?"
"We… We found something in the basement of the complex," The Corporal said. "It… it's some sort of Cryo Stasis tube, we think."
The group all blinked at that.
"You think?" Aren said, while the Corporal looked a bit uneasy.
"It's... best if you see for yourself, sir," he said as he motioned for them to follow him. After going through several more rooms and scaling down several sets of stairways, they found themselves in a rather dark room - at the moment only being illuminated by several sets of lights from computers. Inside there were three more Zeon soldiers, all of them gathered around a large rectangular object in the center of the room. On the top of the object was window which looked fogged over with ice.
Sutura along with the others all approached the object, and when they were close, the Vice Admiral placed her hand on the window, and wiped the ice away revealing the face of a woman. She appeared to be in her thirties or late twenties, and had long shoulder length brown hair.
"We found her a few minutes ago," The Corporal said. "We've been trying to find out how these systems work, and we think we have an idea as to how this Stasis system works, it's not too different from some of the earlier devices made in our… universe in the early space age. We were about to thaw her out, but we believed it best to notify you before doing so."
Sutura looked at the others before looking back at the woman in the chamber. It was a few moments before looking at the Corporal.
"Thaw her out." she ordered and the Corporal nodded. He approached a terminal, and after pressing a few commands he hit the enter key. The Stasis pod began to hiss as the Cryo gases escaped from the tube. A moment passed before the opening of the pod split apart, and revealed the woman was wearing a white lab coat, and appeared to stand at around 5'11". A few moments passed and the woman didn't move, before her chest began to move as though she were breathing, and a moment later she began to hack and cough from the Cryo fluids still in her throat and lungs. She almost fell out of the pod, but Leon was quick to catch her. "Ma'am, are you alright?" He asked the woman.
The woman's eyes opened, revealing them to a shining amethyst violet. She blinked as she stared at Leon and began looking around, mostly seeing all the armed soldiers.
Leon noticed as she tensed, and spoke again while placing a hand on her shoulder, making her flinch and look at him with wide eyes.
"It's alright, we're not going to hurt you," he said, and waited a moment for the woman to calm down some, before he spoke again.
"W-Who are you?" she asked, in a rather weak voice. "Where… where am I?"
It was Sutura who spoke up next. "You're here on the Mendel Colony. We found you here, inside the Cryo Chamber," she said. "Can you tell us your name?"
The woman seemed a bit hesitant as she looked at the men in the room, before she sighed. "V-Via..." she said. "My name is Via… Hibiki."
The eyes of Sutura, Aren, Nasha, and everyone who heard the woman's name from Todd, all widened in shock.
"Wait… you're Via Hibiki?" Nasha said, and Via got a little nervous and confused.
"Y-Yes… you know about me?" she said, and everyone looked at each other.
"Well… sorta, actually." Aren said, "We… just discovered who you and your husband were, and what he did… just a few minutes ago, actually. My men apparently found your Stasis pod completely by accident." He then looked at her. "But… what were you doing in that Stasis pod?"
Via's face then scrunched in thought as she remembered.
"My hus… Dr. Hibiki, brought me down here, because Blue Cosmos was attacking the laboratory." she said. "They were killing everyone in site indiscriminately."
The others frowned again at the mention of Blue Cosmos, but focused on getting the answer they were looking for.
"Why did your husband bring you down here?" Sutura, but was surprised by the angry look on the woman's face.
"I don't see that monster as my husband anymore! Not after what he did to my daughter!" she said angrily. "And I don't know! He knocked me out before I could ask!" she looked down "The next thing I knew… I was waking up and found myself facing a squad of armed soldiers." She looked at them all, indicating who she was talking about. "Just who are you people?"
Sutura looked at Aren, and the others exchanged their own glances before she sighed. "Ma'am… it's a long story." She said.
But before she could speak, another soldier, wearing a Normal suit with visor up entered the room.
"Ma'am! We have a message from the Midolo!" he said, causing everyone to look at him. "Scanners picked an unidentified signature heading right toward us. Judging by it's trajectory, they believe it's a ship!"
Meanwhile - Outside L4 Colonies
Atlantic Federation Nelson-class Battleship 'Schwartzkopf'
"What in the holy name of fuck?!" Ronald Pinkerton cursed out loud on the bridge of the Schwartzkopf."Where the HELL did that fleet come from?!" His shock originating from the sight before him, at the long believed abandoned Mendel Colony, which no longer looked so 'abandoned' as an entire FLEET of warships he had never seen before - some of which surpassed the size of even the Agamemnon-class Space Carrier, all moving around not just Mendel, but a second colony of the Bernal Sphere type which was present as well.
"I don't know, sir." His XO said, clearly just as stunned. "But we REALLY need to contact Command!"
"Not happening: not until I know who they are!" Ron said. "Open a channel to the closest ship!"
"Trying sir," the Comm Officer said. "But… I'm picking up some weird interference from the area ahead! It's making it hard to establish a decent comm signal."
Ron groaned as he shook his head. "Just get me something - anything!" He said, "We're not going in further until we get-" whatever he was about to say was cut off as suddenly appearing before his ship's bridge zoomed in two Mobile Suits, one of which was eerily familiar to a ZGMF-1017 GINN from ZAFT, while the second one looked very similar to the TMSF-081 Patriot from the Terminal Private Military Company, yet very different at the same time.
"SHIT!" shouted Ron, as he and the Bridge crew jumped in alarm.
The two Mobile Suits didn't do anything at first, however the GINN look-a-like reached out its hand and touched the main hull of the Schwartzkopf, just outside the bridge. "This is Lieutenant Ken Bederstadt of the New Zeon Republic," a voice spoke on their overhead speakers. "To the unidentified ship, we do not wish to fight. Our leaders wish to speak with you. However if you take any hostile actions, you will be fired upon. Do you acknowledge?"
Ron couldn't help but blink at the name of this nation these Mobile Suits belonged to.
"What in the flying fuck is New Zeon!?" he asked, and the other crew only shook their heads as they didn't have a clue. Ron managed to snap out of his shock as he went over to the Comm station.
"Give me that thing!" he ordered and yanked the head-set off the ensign, eliciting an 'ow!' from the bridge crew member. He placed the headset on before he spoke. "This is Captain Ronald Pinkerton of the Earth Alliance Battleship 'Schwartzkopf'," he said. "We will not open fire… however I sincerely hope your superiors have a damn good explanation as to what the fuck is going on here, and where the hell you people came from."
"Copy that, Schwartzkopf," Ken said. "We'll escort you in."
"Sir, do you think this a really good idea?" the XO said, only to wince at the Captain's stern look.
"We need to find out where they're from Commander, and the best way to find out is head straight for the horse's mouth," he said, with finality, not wanting any arguments.
The female commander only nodded her head as the Schwartzkopf was escorted toward the colony and right through the unknown fleet. The bridge were stunned at the different types of ships they were seeing.
Some were reminiscent to their own ships, while others looked like more like ZAFT's. However the main difference was all the mobile suits of two different styles zooming from one area to another. On one side were the machines which appeared more human-like, and were very reminiscent of the Patriot series MS utilized by Terminal. However none of them were using Terminal colors, and there were several designs which looked nothing like something Terminal would make. And on the other side there were mobile suits which looked much more ZAFT-built, with Monoeyes and similar head designs, but they appeared more well armed and armored, and many of the machines looked even superior to the GiNN.
"Man! I've never so many different models of Mobile Suits!" said the Helmsman.
"Yeah, they look like they could give even ZAFT a hard time, and steamroll right over us," said one of the CIC.
"Shut it!" shouted Ron. "Right now we don't have time to gawk at the Mobile suits!"
The Schwarzkopf approached the spherical colony, escorted by the Mobile Suits. Ron wasn't liking this one bit, however. The Atlantic Federation (and its' allies) were getting ready for war with the PLANTs. Numerically, ZAFT was screwed. But ZAFT had Mobile Suits. And Mobile Suits were better than Mobile Armors. "All hands, stand at Condition Two," Ron said. "I'll go meet with whoever these peoples' leaders are. After that, THEN we'll report to command."
"Sir-"
"If I don't report in in four hours, send a message to High Command and then open fire." Ron got out of his chair, then left the bridge. "Take as many of them down as you can."
The XO didn't answer, but nodded her head as Ron left the bridge and headed for the airlock.
In the Zaku
Ken Bederstadt couldn't help but look at the obvious battleship with a critical eye. His first impression being that it looked like an overgrown Salamis-class, only 52 meters longer. However the designs were very different, as he looked at the weapon emplacements of the ship and found it was considerably less armed than a Salamis-class or a Musai-class. Not only that, but a double-check showed the hull of the vessel was… lacking, it did not appear to be as durable as Zeon or Federation vessels. And most importantly, the vessel did not have any Mobile Suit launch bays or catapults from what he can see.
"Unknown Mobile Suits, Schwartzkopf Actual: requesting docking clearance," A voice said on his comm. "Captain Pinkerton wants to speak with whoever's in charge over there."
Ken nodded, "Understood, Schwartzkopf," he said. "Relaying request." He pressed a few commands on his radio, activating the line to the Mendel Colony where the Admirals and Commanders were already at "Admiral Sutura, the captain of the Schwartzkopf wishes docking clearance to the colony. He wants to meet with you and the others."
"Give them permission, Lieutenant." Sutura said, "Guide them to bay 3 of the Mendel Colony, and keep an eye on them. "
Ken nodded at that. "Roger." He said before he switched back to the comm of the other ship "Schwarzkopf, proceed to Bay 3 of Mendel Colony."
"Copy that Lieutenant." The woman said, "Our Captain is making his way to the airlock now." Ken blinked a bit at the female voice.
'Odd, she sounds just like Yuki…' He though '...but she's on the Haddo,' he thought before he shook his head. "Copy that." He said, "Go easy there, there's a bit of debris in there."
"We know that: the colony was abandoned nearly 20 years ago." The woman said, "There was bound to be damage." The battleship entered the port, passing a number of GMs and Zakus until it reached a berth. "Proceeding to dock." The Schwarzkopf slowly came to a stop, then an airlock umbilical attached itself to the port airlock hatch. "We're berthed. All hands, remain at Condition Two. Repeat, all hands, Condition Two."
Meanwhile - Inside the Mendel Colony
Sutura nodded as she put down the radio before looking at her fellow commanders and Via Hibiki, all of them having gathered in the conference room of the GARM R&D building "The Schwarzkopf just docked, and its captain is on his way." She said, "Should be here in a few minutes, but now we need to find out what we should do."
"Its for the best we treat this as a first contact scenario," Aren suggested, "We know almost nothing as to what this Earth is like aside from what we learned from the information here in the colony, so we should be prepared for anything."
"It makes sense," Cima said with a nod, "That ship didn't look heavily armed from the camera footage Lieutenant Ken sent us, it does not appear they have mobile suits but they apparently know what they are if they could identify our machines as such."
Everyone agreed with the Marine Commander, as Via blinked in curiosity at the mention of Mobile Suits, but decided to ask later. It was around a few minutes as Ron entered the room of the GARM R&D building, being escorted by two Federation Marines along with two Zeon soldiers. The others looked at the officer and couldn't help but study the uniform he was wearing. Their thoughts were interrupted when he spoke
"Alright, I'm going to be blunt." The man said, "Who the fuck are you people?" If there was anything they could say about him, it was that he was straight to the point.
"Well," Aren spoke up first after a moment of silence "At least he's straight forward… well, it is a rather long story, Mr…?"
"Pinkerton," Ron said. "Captain Ronald Pinkerton of the Atlantic Federation Space Naval vessel Schwarzkopf. And you?"
Aren smirked. "General Aren Takeo, of the New Zeon Republic Army," He said.
"Vice Admiral Sutura Takeo, New Zeon Republic Navy," Sutura said with a nod.
"Rear Admiral Cima Garahu, New Zeon Navy," Cima said simply, while still keeping an eye on Ron.
"Admiral Nasha Artemis, Zeon Navy." Nasha announced.
"Prime Minister Hector Monroe," Hector said. "Head of State of New Zeon."
"Captain Trisha Hohenheim, Earth Federation Space Forces," the Federation Captain said with a nod.
And finally, "Captain Leon Trumpner, Earth Federation Space Forces," he said, and Ron sighed a bit while ruffling his hair.
"Three things before I start freaking the hell out," he said before he pointed at Aren and Sutura. "In ANY military, marriage between two officers is illegal. Two, the only force I know of that starts with 'z' is ZAFT, and that's an acronym. Three, there IS no Earth Federation. If everything continues going to shit, though, we MIGHT just be seeing something big." He took in a breath before looking at Monroe. "So, can someone explain to me...WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!"
Sutura sighed for a moment as she intertwined her fingers in front of her face. "Captain Pinkerton," she said. "This will sound very strange, I know, but this is the truth… we are still trying to figure out how this is possible, since we are almost as clueless as you are but… we are not from Earth, or at least the Earth as you know it."
Ron's eyes twitched. "And now we look through a glass darkly, wondering what might be," he muttered, causing the others to blink.
"Captain?" Nasha questioned.
"You're describing an alternate universe," he said. "And while I'm not an idiot, considering two of my college degrees were in spatial and temporal mechanics, even an idiot knows that unless you've got a fuckton of energy, you can't travel between universes, so there's no way in HELL you're from an alternate universe. Try again, Admiral."
"It is the truth, Captain," Sutura shot back with narrowed eyes. "And try two Mega Particle Cannons colliding together head-on, causing a chain reaction sending all of us here… you come up with a better solution, Captain."
"You're not from the Earth Sphere: Mars, most likely. And since we don't pay attention to this area of space-" A buzz was heard, and Ron reached into his pocket, pulling out a radio. "Pinkerton. SitRep."
"Sir, we've picked up two ships inbound on our radar," His XO said. "Sensors are still soup, but from the look of things, they're Laurasia-Class frigates. Looks like they came to investigate as well."
"Fucking Christ." Ron groaned "The one thing I DON'T need: someone trying to start a fight! Try to contact them and make SURE that they know we're non-hostile!"
"Understood, Captain."
Ron put the radio away before he looked at the commanders. "Even if you ARE telling the truth, which I really doubt, your governments don't exist here," he said. "Besides, I have bigger problems than dealing with you."
"Like?" Hector asked.
"Trying to keep a firestorm from starting!" Ron shouted, "A war has been brewing for the past two decades, and I think it's damn near ready to be uncorked!"
The others all grew uneasy at that. Sutura narrowed her eyes.
"Does this have to do with the Racial dilemma regarding genetics?" she said, and Ron sighed at that.
"Unfortunately… yes," he said. "At least you seem to know current events."
"Not all," Sutura said, "As we said, we only arrived here a few hours ago. All we know is from the data we found in this colony, which dates back to 'CE 55' before there were no more updates when this colony was abandoned."
"Well, here is a quick refresher," Ron said. "ZAFT, or Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty, declared independence in CE 68, Blue Cosmos members are in the hundreds of thousands forcing any Coordinator in the Earth Sphere to either flee to one of the neutral nations like Orb, Scandinavia, and the Equilateral Union, or move to the PLANT colonies. And after the Mandelbrot Incident tensions are higher than ever. Just last year the PLANT's started making their own food, and the sponsor nations on Earth are not liking it. Hell, just today I got word the PLANT Council almost got blown up by an attack and one of them got killed. BC claimed responsibility, but evidence is pointing to the Sponsor Nations themselves." He groaned. "It just takes one little thing, one thing and it's gonna mean war between ZAFT and the Earth."
The Prime Minister along with the other military officers didn't like that one bit.
"And the U.N. isn't trying to stop this, why?" Hector said in an accusing tone. "Because when we checked the records of this colony, Captain, your Earth still has the United Nations. Care to explain why they're not doing anything to defuse the situation?"
Ron just glared right back. "Because they can't do a damn thing!" he snapped. "Everyone is walking into one of three camps: pro-Coordinator/anti-Natural, pro-Natural/anti-Coordinator and the ones who just don't give two fucks! You can guess which one I am."
"The second?" Aren asked with narrowed eyes, but thankfully Ron shook his head.
"The third, actually," Ron said. "I don't care if you've fucked with your DNA or not. Doesn't change the fact that you are human, first and foremost. Too bad people are idiots when it comes to genetics."
Aren glanced at his wife, who glanced at Hector who nodded. "Then let's try to keep a war from breaking out," Sutura said, as she brought out her Radio. "Asarum, Vice Admiral Takeo here," she said. "We have two new contacts approaching, the Atlantic Federation officer says they are ZAFT Frigates, likely investigating like they have. Move ahead and intercept them, but do not open fire unless fired upon. Try to contact them, and get them to negotiate with us."
"Yes Ma'am," Came the reply, and Sutura nodded as she turned the Radio off. "Hopefully we can end this entire encounter without any bloodshed," she said. "And hopefully they will think twice about attacking a Gwazine-class Battleship."
Ron blinked at that. "Exactly what the hell is a Gwazine?" he asked and Nasha answered while pulling a folder and handing it to the Atlantic Federation Captain.
"The Gwazine-class is one of Zeon's latest Battleship designs, it carries 20 mobile suits, and has enough firepower to hold off fifteen ships of your ship's class," she explained and Ron opened the folder and his eyes widened at the picture and schematics of the battleship and could only say one word.
"Fuck..."
Meanwhile, ZAFT Fleet
Laurasia-class frigates, Shapley & Sagan
Two ZAFT Laurasia-class frigates moved through the vacuum of space, heading toward where the flash of light occurred. On the bridge of one of these ships, the Shapley, a female ZAFT officer, dressed in the traditional black coat, looks out the viewing window of the bridge. The woman appeared to be in her early thirties, had shoulder length brunette hair, looked to be of average height, and had yellow colored eyes.
"How long till we reach the area where that light came from?" she said to one of the bridge crew.
"15 minutes, ma'am."
"Very well," she said. "Keep us at alert status one: whatever caused that flash probably isn't friendly."
"Ma'am, we are picking up some really strange readings from the area," the Sensor Operator said. "Some type of interference… it's not ECM, or at least not a type of ECM we've heard of."
"Just keep your eyes and ears open," she said. "No one's been in the L4 colonies for a while now… it can always be a trap."
"Understood ma'am, I- wait, what?" the sensor operator squinted his eyes at the console. "What the heck is… oh shit! Unidentified vessel approaching!"
"What?! Can you indentify?" she demanded.
"It's not in the database!" the Operator said. "And it's MASSIVE! It's bigger than a Federation Carrier!"
"Battle stations!" She ordered "Get the Mobile Suits on the catapult and stand by to fire! But no one fires unless I give the order!" Fighting something like that thing was a really bad idea: while their Mobile Suits could outfight Mobile Armors like the Mobius, and they could hold their own against Atlantic Federation Drake-Class destroyer escorts, larger ships like Nelson-class could easily destroy her ship. Only the six ZGMF-1017 GINNs that her ship, along with the Sagan's own compliment, carried would keep them from getting killed in five minutes against this monster of a ship.
"Ma'am, we're picking up a transmission," The Comm Operator said, "It's from - correction, two transmissions! One is from the large contact, one is from..." The Operator paused in confusion.
The woman rose an eyebrow at his silence. "From what?"
"An Atlantic Federation battleship: IDed as the Schwarzkopf," he said, and there was silence on the bridge.
The Captain looked at the vessel before her eyes narrowed. From the images, it did not look like a vessel that the Earth Forces would make, and the color scheme Red didn't suit the standard of the A.F. If anything, the ship almost looked as if it were Z.A.F.T in origin, however the large golden crest on the 'head' of the ship was not a insignia of a Z.A.F.T. ship - in fact she had never seen that insignia before.
Either way, the Captain wasn't going to jump the gun just yet. "Patch them through," she said. "Keep us on alert though." The officer nodded, as he did as instructed. A few moments passed before an answer came through.
"Attention ZAFT ships! Attention ZAFT Ships!" Said a woman's voice. "Do not, I repeat: DO NOT fire on that ship!"
The ZAFT Blackcoat, Trina Sumeragi Kujo, blinked at the urgent tone in the woman's voice. "Patch me in," She said, and the Comm operator nodded as he typed in the commands. "This is Captain Trina Kujo of the Z.A.F.T Warship Shapley," She said. "To whom am I speaking too?"
"This is Commander Sakura Horaki of the Atlantic Federation battleship Schwarzkopf." The voice said, now identified as a A.F Commander.
Trina though, and recalled the Schwarzkopf from ZAFT intel, and knew who the Captain was "Where is your captain?" She asked.
"Captain Pinkerton is meeting with the leaders of this… fleet." Sakura said, and Trina had heard of the man: one of the few in the At-Fed military not with Blue Cosmos. If anything, he was highly respected by ZAFT, and while he was a Natural, he WAS a very good leader of men, and ZAFT was trying to look into ways to make him defect. Of course, that wasn't happening unless something drastic happened. And with the way things were going, something drastic was going to happen.
She then blinked when she heard what the Commander said. "A Fleet? Are you telling me there are more of these monsters!?" she said unbelievingly.
"It'll be best if you see for yourself. You would not believe the number of ships we've seen," Sakura said, and Trina was feeling more nervous by the minute. If this were from another Earth ship, she probably wouldn't believe them… but she saw the proof right in front of her in that massive ship, and the Schwarzkopf was not any other Earth Forces ship.
"...all hands stand down," she said. "Power down weapons, but keep the Mobile Suits in the catapults just in case." The bridge crew of the ship quickly followed her orders as alarms stopped ringing.
"Ma'am we're getting a communique from the Unknown," said the comm officer, and Trina's eyes squinted slightly.
"Patch them through," she said.
"This is Captain Sirius Vayeate of the New Zeon Battleship Asarum," a male voice spoke on the Comm. "To the ZAFT vessels Shapley and Sagan, thank you for standing down. We shall escort you to meet with the leaders of New Zeon."
"...Understood, Asarum," she said before she hung up the phone. "This is surreal." Still, it was a good chance to find out what the hell was going on, and to find a way to make the Schwarzkopf's captain join ZAFT of his own accord. "Send word to the Sagan, we're following them in… this day is getting stranger by the minute..."
Later - Mendel Colony
"So… let me get this straight," Trina said, as she was in the conference room of the GARM R&D where she was now meeting with the Commanders of the 'New Zeon' and 'Earth Federation' Commanders, and Captain Pinkerton as well. "You people… are from an alternate reality, similar to our own… you left this 'Principality of Zeon' after this One Year War came to an end, and began your New Zeon Republic at your Laputa Colony… then this Federation fleet arrived, you were about to fight, but your… Mega Particle Cannons collided causing a chain reaction which brought you here?"
The New Zeon Republic leadership and the two Earth Federation officer just nodded, and Trina turned toward Ron who only sighed.
"I feel the same as you," the Captain of the Schwarzkopf said. "And unless they give us some kind of proof, I'm still skeptical."
Sutura, along with the others, just sighed. "What can we do to show you that what we're saying is legit?" She asked.
"One, I'd like to see what caused this… trans-universal event. Two, I'd like to lynch the idiots that were responsible. Three-"
"We get it, Captain!" Aren said.
Ron sat back in his chair, then pulled out a paperback book. "And just what the hell are you doing?" The General asked.
"Catching up on my book." He said, "Haven't had too much time to read it. And unless I'm given what I've requested so I can get my engineers to begin making an analysis, my part in this discussion is over."
The Zeon/Federation, and Trina all sighed at that.
"We'll show you the Mega-Particle cannon on the Asuram, on the condition you don't report this to your superiors, who for all I know, a majority of them are Blue Cosmos operatives," Sutura said, her voice neutral as she didn't want the weaponry they brought be used for genocide. "As for the ones responsible… well, that's going to be a problem."
Ron and Trina raised a brow.
"Why is that?" the Captain said, and it was Trisha who sighed.
"One of the Commanding Officers of one of our Pegasus-class Mobile Assault Carriers, the Ikaros, ordered the firing of their Mega-Particle Cannon, which resulted in the New Zeon firing back," the female Captain said with a edge to her tone. "They both fired at the same time, and the two shots slammed into each other, causing a chain reaction."
"The point?" asked Trina, but it was Leon who answered.
"When we came to, we moved to secure the Ikaros before that bastard could fire again," he said, and shook his head solemnly. "Only to discover that somehow, the bridge windows blew out, and the vacuum of space sucked them out."
Ron chuckled, clearly amused. "Retards got what was coming to them, if that was the case." He said, "Besides, my immediate superior is a member of Blue Cosmos, and she's been looking for an excuse to relieve me of my command. Telling her about THIS will make her think I've gone insane and give her that excuse." He snapped the book shut. "And I will NOT let my crew be made to suffer the tender mercies of a Blue Cosmos-influenced captain with delusions of grandeur."
"We understand," Sutura said. "In addition to showing you the Mega Particle Cannons, we can also show you numerous recordings and videos from our Universe. We will also present to you the fully documented history of the Universal Century from the Laplace Incident in UC 0001 to the end of the One Year War in 0079 when we left."
Ron sighed "Well, this should be entertaining, at least." He muttered.
"If you think this is a game, Captain-" Nasha began but Ron cut her off.
"I simply doubt everything you're claiming." He said, "Besides, put yourself in my position: big ass fleet shows up out of nowhere. What would you think? Would you believe their story? Or would you assume that they're from another part of the solar system, and a threat to everything in the Earth Sphere?" No one spoke in an attempt to counter Ron's statement. He had a VERY good point. And he didn't say 'threat to the Naturals'. He said 'threat to everything in the Earth Sphere'.
"At least there's someone in this Genetic Racial messed up universe who is smart at least," said Aren, and everyone from U.C. chuckled at that, while Trina and Ron gave an offended look.
"And what the hell is THAT supposed to mean!?" they said at the same time.
"I think you pissed off the married couple, Aren," Sutura said.
"We're members of two different militaries!" the two said. "The only thing we're married to are our careers!"
The whole filled with the laughter of the Zeon/Federation officers, and the Prime Minister of Laputa, which caused the two to turn red in either embarrassment or anger.
Via watched this with a smile, feeling that somehow these people will end the hatred between Naturals and Coordinators. Her thoughts then turned to her twin children.
'Kira...Cagalli...I hope you are alright..' she thought, until a knock was heard at the door.
"Enter!" said Nasha, and in stepped Todd.
"Sorry to interrupt but one of my men found something back in the basement where we found Mrs. - Formerly Mrs. Hibiki." Todd said, while catching himself at Via's glare.
Ron perked at the name, looked around, and his eyes widened when they landed on Via.
"Via... Hibiki?" the Captain said in surprise. "What in the hell? You're supposed to be dead. VERY dead."
"I know," Via said with a sigh. "I thought I was dead, too, until they revived me yesterday."
Aren looked at Todd "What is it?" He asked, and Todd brought out what appeared to be a Flash Drive. "Flashdrive," he said. "We found it in an old safe in the room."
Sutura nodded before she glanced at a terminal in the room. "Set it up there," she said. "Might as well see what's on it."
Todd nodded as he approached the Terminal, and inserted the Flashdrive into the Terminal. A few moments passed and the large screen in the back of the room flashed to life, and appearing on the screen was a man who looked to be in his thirties with short blond hair and brown eyes, wearing a lab coat.
Though most in the room did not recognize the face, Via's eyes widened before they quickly narrowed. "Ulen," she growled out, surprising the others in the room.
"Is that...?" Cima began, while Via nodded, as the man, now identified as Ulen Hibiki, began to speak.
"I don't have much time… I only have a few moments before those Blue Cosmos bastards find where I am," Ulen said as he sighed. "The first and most important thing I want to do, is to apologize to my family. More specifically, my wife and children." This bit of info caused Via to look at the screen in surprise before he continued. "Via… if you are listening, I am so sorry… for everything that has happened since we started this accursed project… we-...I strayed too far from our original goal. We started wanting to cure the 3rd Generation of Coordinators from Sterility… and it became something we never should have started. I toyed with life, I tried to create something I could never be…"
Ulen shook his head as he chuckled bitterly. "They say people don't realize just how precious life really is until they reach their final moments," he said. "They were right… you were right, Via… all all this time, you were right. Life should not be manufactured like we would have done. This is why I did what I did - why I placed you in the prototype Cryo-stasis tube… no matter what happens to me, regardless of all that has happened… my love for you never changed. You may hate me for all I have done… but knowing you, Kira and Cagalli may live is enough for me to die peacefully."
He then sighed. "I don't have much more time," he said. "Inside this flash drive is all of our research - not just the UC Project, but also our original research on the Coordinator Sterility. I had managed to make some breakthroughs with it thanks to the U.C project… I only hope that you can finish what we originally began Via… Just do me this one thing… live life Via, and don't let this stop you from finding new happiness in Kira, Cagalli and anyone else you might meet."
He looked off of the screen for a moment. "I have to go now," he said. "Goodbye Via… I love you, no matter what."
With that, the screen went blank, and everyone in the room was struck silent, especially Via, Trina, and Ron.
"Holy shit. And I thought he was a cold, uncaring asshole," said the AF Captain.
Trina looked at the At-Fed captain incredulously. "He poured his heart out and THAT'S all you have to say?" She asked.
"Well, at the moment, I care more about this 'UC project' then a man who died almost 20 years ago," Ron said. "He rotted and died long ago: anyone who cared about him should be done mourning long ago."
Quiet sobbing was heard from Via's seat, as tears leaked from the now widows eyes. Leon stood up from his and placed his hand on the woman's shoulder who reacted by wrapping her arms around him.
"That's where you're wrong, Captain." Trina said, and Ron scoffed at the rebuttal.
"And this is why I never got married," he said. "Comforting anyone is not my strong suit."
Patriot-112: And done! And another is coming up soon!
117Jorn: Yep, phew! over 21,000 words! This is intense!
Ron the True Fan: (Holds up M60) And it's about to get more intense.
Takeshi Yamato: Yep. So, what's next Patriot?
Patriot-112: Next up is the Tragedy of Copernicus, and the beginning of the First BV War! But before that, let's show you what exactly the New Zeon and the Earth Federation brought with them!
Cima Fleet (8 ships, 40 Mobile Suits)
1 x Zanzibar Kai-class Mobile Assault Cruiser
7 x Musai-class Late Production Type Cruiser
Komusai II Shuttle
MS-14F Gelgoog Marine
MS-14Fs Gelgoog Marine Commander Type
Takeo Fleet (29 ships, 430 Mobile Suits)
1 x Dolos-class Super Heavy Carrier (182)
1 x Gwazine-class Battleship (20)
2 x Tivvay-class Fast Heavy Cruiser (8) (8)
4 x Musai-class Final Production Type Light Cruiser (4) (4) (4) (4)
6 x Musai-class Light Cruiser (5)(5)(5)(5)(5)(5)
3 x Gagalu-class Destroyer (2) (2) (2)
1 x Jotunheim-class Support Ship
8 x Papua-class Supply Ship (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10)
3 x Pazock-class Supply Ship (20) (20) (20)
Komusai Shuttles
MS-05B Zaku I
MS-05S Zaku I Commander Type
MS-05L Zaku I Sniper Type
MS-06C Zaku II Early Production Type
MS-06F Zaku II
MS-06FZ Zaku II Kai
MS-06F2 Zaku II F2 Type
MS-06S Zaku II Commander Type
MS-06R-1A Zaku II High Mobility Type
MS-06JC Zaku II
MS-07B-3 Gouf Custom
MS-07H-8 Gouf Flight Type
MS-07B-3H-10 Gouf All Regions Type
MS-08TX Efreet
MS-09B Dom
MS-09K-1 Dom Cannon
MS-09K-2 Dom Cannon
MS-09S Dowas
MS-09R Rick Dom
MS-09RII Rick Dom II
MS-09F Dom Funf
3 x EMS-10 Zudah
MS-11 Action Zaku
MS-14A Gelgoog
MS-14B Gelgoog High Mobility Type
MS-14C-1A Gelgoog Cannon
MS-14Jg Gelgoog Jager
MS-17 Galbaldy Alpha
MS-18E Kampfer
MS-19 Dolmel
MSM-03 Gogg
MSM-03C Hygogg
MSM-04 Acguy
MSM-07 Z'Gok
YMS-15 Gyan
YMS-15M Xamel
Artemis Fleet (38 ships, 530 Mobile Suits)
1 x Gwazine-class Battleship (20)
2 x Zanzibar Kai-class Mobile Assault Cruiser (6) (6)
4 x Chivvay-class Heavy Cruiser (8) (24)
5 x Musai-class Late Production Type Light Cruiser (5) (5) (5) (5) (5) (25)
10 x Musai-class Final Production Type Light Cruiser (4) (4) (4) (4) (4) (4) (4) (4) (4) (4) (40)
12 x Papua-class Supply Ship (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) 120
4 x Modified Magellan-class Battleships (Captured) (72) (72) (72) (72) 288
Komusai Shuttle
MS-05B Zaku I
MS-05S Zaku I Commander Type
MS-06C Zaku II Early Production Type
MS-06F Zaku II
MS-06FZ Zaku II Kai
MS-06K Zaku Cannon
MS-06F2 Zaku II F2 Type
MS-06S Zaku II Commander Type
MS-06R-1A Zaku II High Mobility Type
MS-06JC Zaku II
MS-07B-3 Gouf Custom
MS-07H-8 Gouf Flight Type
MS-09F Dom Funf
MS-09R Rick Dom
MS-09RII Rick Dom II
MS-14A Gelgoog
MS-14S Gelgoog Commander Type
MS-14Jg Gelgoog Jager
Total: 73 ships, 900 Mobile suits
5th Federation Fleet (45 ships, 450 Mobile Suits)
1 x Trafalgar-class MS Carrier (72)
8 x Magellan-class battleship (8) (8) (8) (8) (8) (8) (8) (8) 64
3 x Nelson-class cruiser (6) (6) (6) 18
13 x Salamis-class cruiser (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) 78
2 x Pegasus-class Flight IV Mobile Assault Carrier (Grey Phantom refit) (9) (9) 18
20 x Columbus-class transport (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) 200
FF-S3 Saberfish Space fighters
RB-79 Ball
RGM-79(E) GM Early Type
RGM-79C GM Kai
RGM-79GS GM Space Command Type
RGC-80 GM Cannon
RX-77D Guncannon Mass Production Type
RX-78-7 7th Gundam
RX-79G Gundam Ground Type (GM Head version)
RGM-79(G) GM Ground Type
RGM-79SP GM Sniper II
RGM-79G GM Command
9th Federation Fleet (40 ships, 420 Mobile Suits)
1 x Pegasus-class Flight II Mobile Assault Carrier (Blanc Rival) (6)
5 x Magellan-class Battleship (8) (8) (8) (8) (8) 40
15 x Salamis-class Cruiser (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) 90
5 x Fuji-class Transport Cruiser (7) (7) (7) (7) (7) 35
10 x Columbus-class Transport (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) 200
4 x Antietam-class Carriers (12) (12) (12) (12) 48
FF-S3 Saberfish Space fighters
RB-79 Ball
RB-79C Ball Type C
RB-79K Ball Type K
RGM-79(E) GM Early Type
RGM-79C GM Kai
RGM-79GS GM Space Command Type
RGM-79G GM Command
RGM-79SP GM Sniper II
RGC-80 GM Cannon
RAG-79 Aqua GM (Built Later)
RX-77D Guncannon Mass Production Type
Total: 85 ships, 870 Mobile Suits
Combined Total: 158 ships, 1,770 Mobile suits
Patriot-112: And Done! Man that's a lot of hardaware don't you think?
117Jorn: Oh yeah, the Cosmic Era isn't gonna know what hit them!
Ron the True Fan: I'll say...
DragonKnightRyu: The epitome of epicness!
Takeshi Yamato: Indeed.
Patriot-112: Well until next time, Peeps! Sayonara!