"Out of all the victims of Operation Uroboros, by far the most tragic and ironic would be that of Scandinavia. The United Nordic-Baltic Kingdom of Scandinavia was perhaps the furthest thing PLANT had to an ally on Earth, even greater than Orb due to the nation's strict policy of total neutrality. Since George Glenn's revelation, Scandinavia had heavily embraced Coordination as the future, being the second-highest standard of living for Coordinators before the war, with only Orb being above Scandinavia. While the Kingdom did sign the First Turin protocol, it was laxly enforced and repealed by the Scandinavian Supreme Court in 19 CE as a violation of human rights. Scandinavia did not sign the Second Turin Protocol and in the fifty years since the first, had maintained a consecutive policy of inclusion for Coordinators despite many changes in governance. Strict Civil Rights and anti-hate laws had been passed for Coordinators, genetic augmentation was enshrined as a right of privacy in the Scandinavian Constitution. Scandinavia had a population of 4.9 million Coordinators on January 1st 70 CE, the most out of any nation on Earth and 6% of the total population.

While the Zala Clique of ZAFT claimed that Earth in entirety had scorned and persecuted Coordinators with the goal of extinction, Scandinavia was an exceptional refuge where a future of Natural-Coordinator coexistence was possible. Scandinavia was the dream, a dream that turned into a nightmare thanks to the actions of ZAFT.

Scandinavia would experience the most immediate effect of the N-Jammers with the disruption of radar and halting of nuclear engines that powered the modern passenger and freight plane industry. 38 planes would crash over Scandinavia with 5,486 people dead. Along with the many other effects of immediate N-Jammer disruption such as the halt of power for hospitals, spike in traffic collisions, immediate industrial and domestic accidents, and various other unnatural occurances; an estimated 50-80,000 Scandinavians would die on April 1st. Unlike the Atlantic Federation and East Asia, Scandinavia had no ability to prepare for the coming storm due to being within the longitude zone of Eurasia, making it a first victim alongside Eurasia and South Africa.

If there was ever a blessing for Scandinavia at the time, it was that Norway and Sweden would be completely unaffected by the N-Jammers due to being outside of their range. Outside of a major influx of 4 and 9 million refugees respectively into the Kingdoms, life would continue on for the two nations, allowing them to restore power to the rest of the Kingdom by the beginning of fall and use their industry to maintain a survivable quality of life for Scandinavia along with limited aid to the British Isles and Eurasia. The placement of the Capitol within Oslo due to the election of Norwegian Queen Agnes I in 55 CE would ensure that the Scandinavian Parliament would operate uninterrupted, preventing total martial law over Scandinavia.

Both Finland and Denmark would temporarily suffer national blackouts before a restoration of power on Aprils 3rd and 6th respectively. The greatest issue for the two nations would be a collapse of welfare and resource distribution due to the flooding of both nations with Eurasian refugees. Denmark would fiscally implode due to playing host to 21 million refugees over the course of the war, most of which would force their way into the Danish border in the first month of Post-Uroboros. Finland would far much better due to the lack of development in Northern Russia, with them only being burdened with 3 million refugees. The number of immediate Uroboros deaths for both nations over the course of April would be limited to an estimated 41,000-43,000. While a technical act of mass murder, it would be a blessing for the two nations in comparison to the Baltic's suffering.

Despite the Baltic Duchies of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia being member-states of Scandinavia, all three suffered as if they were states of Eurasia. The Baltics had fallen victim to Eurasian neocolonialism with the Treaty of Stockholm in 6 CE which formed relations between Scandinavia and Eurasia along with preventing annexation of Scandinavia for its inclusion of Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia after their secession from the European Union during the Great European War. One of the many provisions of Stockholm was the prohibition of energy transfer from the rest of the Kingdom to the Baltic Dutchies. This act was done with the intention of making the Baltic Duchies completely dependent on Eurasia for electricity and natural gas. In a time of war Eurasia could cut off energy with the flick of a switch and steamroll the Baltics while in peace they could use their energy monopoly to gain economic hegemony over the Baltics and perhaps prompt secession from Scandinavia and annexation into Eurasia.

While the provision was met with outrage at the time, there was nothing that Scandinavia could do due to the threat of destruction at the hands of Eurasian tanks and jets. The adoption of total nuclear fission for Scandinavian energy policy made Stockholm's effects practically non-existent outside of the reliance on natural gas during winters. Thus by Bloody Valentine the prohibition of energy transfer to the Baltics was a non-issue with only the Scandinavian Right and Far-Right occasionally blasting it as proof of Eurasian Imperialism. This would unfortunately be the Baltic's ruin after Uroboros.

Like most of Eurasia, the Baltic Duchies of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia suffered under complete and total power loss after Uroboros. The lack of electricity besides a few scarce emergencies sources with said sources running out quickly and being unable to meet even a fraction of the populace's needs caused the mass dissent into anarchy for the Baltics. With only the local law enforcement and five divisions of the Scandinavian Army to keep control, only a few zones within the major urban areas were relatively safe with the rest of the Duchies left to fend for themselves. The situation would be made worse by the influx of Eurasian refugees who sought to use the Duchies as a method of escape towards Norway main Scandinavia. Over 10 million Russian, Polish, and Belarusian refugees would arrive within the Baltic Duchies by July. Unlike Denmark and Finland who could attend to the most basic needs with the quick resumption of energy, the refugees in the Baltics would mostly be left to fend for themselves and rely on local charity due to the needs of the Scandinavian military to distribute resources first towards Scandinavian citizens.

It was in this dark time of chaos that mass violence began to break out among the Duchies. While Scandinavia preached to be a progressive humanist nation that strove to be a "post-racial society", for the people of the Duchies who had suffered for centuries under the Russian-led boot and who had further been restricted by Eurasian demands, with the current crisis being caused by Eurasia in both the denial of power and their war with ZAFT, nationalist bigotry was at an all-time high. Tens of thousands of hate crimes were reported to take place against Eurasian refugees with countless more undoutabdly going unreported. In response many refugees struck back to either defend themselves or extract revenge, only fueling tensions and violence. Race wars were quickly becoming the norm as mobs in both rural and urban areas of Scandinavians and refugees would form, battle it out, and quickly disperse upon the arrival of the Army. The only group who was safe from systemic persecution were the Poles, with the Baltics seeing the Polish as brethren in suffering due to Poland's long history of defiance to Moscow within Eurasia along with a lack of hatred from their fellow refugees, with identifying as Polish quickly becoming a life saving act for many refugees.

It's difficult to describe the situation as ethnic cleansing or genocide as many Eurasian politicians have been quick to condemn Scandinavia after the war since despite the intensity, a look at overall statistics and estimates of the situation show 4-6% of the total Baltic and refugee population actively engaging in such hate activities based on reports by the Scandinavian military and police. There are many well-documented cases of compassion between both communities, and between a heavy majority of both groups, most simply kept to themselves and tried to survive. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that some form of ethnic violence took place during this time as 40,000-50,000 Baltic Scandinavians and 60,000-80,000 Eurasian refugees died due to what has been identified as racial violence.

Fortunately for the Baltics, relief would eventually come as by June 6th the Scandinavian Army Corps of Engineers had managed to restore power to the entirety of the Duchies. It ensured that in the absolute worst case scenario that the Baltics would not go to winter without power, but for many it was too little too late as by that point 265,000-275,000 Baltic Scandinavians and 310,000-370,000 Eurasian refugees would die from causes outside of ethnic violence. While the inability to deal with the situation was undoutadly of little fault on Scandinavia, to many of the Baltic situations, it was felt that their Kingdom had abandoned them. This would prompt a surge of nationalism that would turn the Baltic Independence movement from a fringe ideology to a mainstream school of thought, leading to the Baltic Independence referendums in 76 CE.

Lastly of importance in regards to Scandinavia during the Uroboros period of the Great Solar War is food and medicine scarcity. Scandinavia was an import nation with 87% of its domestically consumed products coming outside the borders of the Kingdom. Its main trading partners of Eurasia and the Atlantic Federation ceased all non-essential trade with Africa and Oceania focusing on keeping resources in for the war effort and the export-heavy Equatorial Union had to focus on its citizens and the immediate needs of their neighbors. Scandinavia was never a breadbasket and while it was a foremost producer of pharmaceuticals, the materials needed to produce such drugs largely came from Eurasia. It was only thanks to Scandinavia's active practice of the Helgars system, with the mass storage of survival resources in hundreds of depots across the nation, that Scandinavia didn't automatically collapse. Unfortunately, budget cuts and the belief that war would never occur between Eurasia and the Atlantic Federation prevented the Helgars Depots from being at full capacity, with only an average of 15% storage used, giving a majority of Scandinavian citizens the provision of basic needs, but leaving millions to suffer in poverty. By October 1st, a total of 730,000-750,000 Scandinavians and 1.4-1.7 million refugees had died of varying causes. Were it not for the existence of Zeon and the aid that they would provide to Scandavia, it would be a great question if the United Kingdom would survive by the year 80."

-Cosmic Apocalypse by Todd Cain. Published 106 CE

"When it comes to the occupation of South America during the Great Solar War, two statements are made. The occupation was either an invasion of South America by the Atlantic Federation in an act of war, or it was an allied occupation that was meant to purely protect Atlantic strategic interests under a temporary period with few permanent damages or effects. Since the end of the war the debate over what had occurred had been intensely played out across the Earth sphere with one's answer being dependent on one's opinion of the Atlantic Federation. Through my research of contemporary Atlantic Federation government, intelligence, and military documents, my response to which action took place is yes.

To provide context for how the invasion came to be, it's important to briefly summarize the history of relations between the Atlantic Federation and United States of South America to the Great Solar War. In many respects, it was the Atlantic Federation who was responsible for the creation of the USSA through the South American War of the Unification War. Since the election of Ron DeSantis in 2021, the late United States abandoned its post-WWII foreign policy of internationalism to revert back to exclusive focus of the Monroe Doctrine. With the success of the Mexican War in the 2020's with the elimination of the Mexican Drug Cartels, the United States expanded its interventions across the Americas with further interventions in Colombia and Haiti. The rise of the Neo-Bolivarian movement also coincided with a shift of the majority of Latin America towards the United States thanks to extensive American uplifting of the Latin American economy and support of Neo-Bolivarism. The final nail in the coffin for the formal creation of the USSA would be the Reconstruction War. With both Eurasia and China preoccupied on regional wars, the final consolidation of Latin America would occur with the Cuban and Venezuelan Wars where the Castro and Maduro regimes would be overthrown through a U.S-led coalition. Both the Atlantic Federation and United States of South America would be born in 2052, the last year before the conversion towards the Cosmic Era.

For the first half of the Cosmic Era, both the Atlantic Federation and South America would maintain a "Special Relationship" that has often been compared to the historical American-British relationship that lead to the Atlantic Federation, causing some belief that in the far future that a "United States of the Americas" would be born. The two nations were each others highest trade partners with hundreds of millions of Atlanteans and South Americans crossing the borders every year for commerce and tourism. The education sectors of both nations cooperated intensely with many of the great advancements of the early 1st century being done by Atlantic-South American teams. Cultural influencers, athletes, and entertainers were heavily popular and influential in both nations. The Atlantean military was the sword and shield of South America, allowing the nation to abstain from holding an active military and spending tens of Trillions of tax dollars in the Cold War. The crowning moment of the Special Relationship would be the creation of the Panama Mass Driver, with hopes prior to the Forrester administration of Atlantic support of a South American colonial program.

Unfortunately for the Special Relationship, it would soon start to break and strain. The reason for this? Coordinators.

While the Atlantic Federation was socially an Anglo-Conservative state, South America had been firmly Catholic-Progressive since its inception. While there were many regions of the country where Coordination was highly unpopular, most particularly in Central America, the Andes, and Urban labor among the coast; support for Coordination had nearly always been held at a plurality since the early 30's. The Legal practice of Coordination across most states of South America and South America's firm rejection of the Second Turin Protocol significantly shifted relations with many Atlanteans condemning South America for their toleration, culminating in President Forrester's rejection of support for the planned creation of a South American lunar and L1 space colony by 66 CE.

While relations between the two nations would never turn outright hostile, mainly due to the extensive economic, cultural, and personnel ties between them; relations between the two governments turned cold with an increasing number of both populations seeing the other as hostile powers.

While both Washington and Buenos Aires became hostile to one another, on the surface they continued to maintain amicable relations as to take radical action now would signal a major economic recession for both nations. The restriction against hard action was more pronounced on Buenos Aires who could not afford to undergo militarization or a realignment in foreign policy without fear of action undertaken by the CIA.

South America's policy of lukewarm disapproval towards the Atlantic Federation would come to a halt with the election of President Raul Santos in 64 CE. Santos was an Atlanticphobe who was in major support of Coordination due to his three Children all being second-generation Coordinators through marriage with his Coordinator wife Alicia. Knowing that he could not take direct and dynamic action against the Atlantic Federation for fear of retaliation, Santos practiced a policy of slow distancing in regards to the Federation with the gradual raising of tariffs and regulations towards Atlantic goods, shifting trade and investment with other nations of the world, more closely cooperating with the other Superstates diplomatically to build up an eventual coalition, and manipulating South American media to adopt a more anti-Atlantic stance. While Santos was not total successful, he did begin a gradual shift away from the Atlantic Federation that might have been entirely successful if his hypothetical successors continued for another decade or two. Had South America never abolished its military in the Constitution or had Santos been successful in reinstituting the armed forces, then perhaps South America could have joined Oceania and the African Community as ZAFT's allies in the Great Solar War.

Santos' most divergent act which would set in motion the occupation of South America was his secret support of PLANT and ZAFT. The support would begin in the year 68 where Siegel Clyne traveled to Buenos Aires incognito and secretly pleaded for assistance in PLANT's independence movement. Santos like Oceania President Owen McMahon would be highly swayed by both humanitarian and geopolitical reasons. To Santos, it would be a major black eye for the nation that was most heavily anti-Coordinator, making the Earth sphere a safe place for Coordinators like his children. A successful independence of PLANT would also severely weaken the Atlantic Federation's power, providing Santos and South America the ability to become fully independent and break off the Special Relationship with the Atlantic Federation.

Over the next two years South America would provide covert aid to PLANT through the smuggling of critical resources that were prevented from being imported due to the Sponsor Blockade along with the South American Department of Technology covertly aiding ZAFT scientists in the creation of its mobile weapon technology. The pivotal moment for South America's fate would come on February 18th, when Siegel Clyne made his grand call to action to the nations of Earth to stand up to the Earth Alliance in addition to his pledge to never surrender or give up independence. Santos would secretly pledge support to ZAFT through a communique that stated that when ZAFT secured complete space supremacy and could ensure that South America would not be invaded by the Atlantic Federation, that South America would join the war as an ally through an embargo against the Atlantic Federation and the allowance of ZAFT to base itself within South America with free clearance to the Panama Mass Driver.

Unknown to Santos, his communication was intercepted by the CIA who had thoroughly infiltrated his staff. Recently declassified documents have revealed how after the beginning of the Sponsor Blockade, the CIA instituted a long-term sting operation against Santos for support for ZAFT. While they were never able to uncover the true extent of cooperation, they knew that some level of a relationship officially existed between South America and PLANT. What they needed to take action was a smoking gun that could justify hard Atlantic action to implement a power change while not making the world more sympathetic to Coordinators or breaking the relationship with the Sponsor nations. Santos' pledge to enter the war was just the cover they needed.

On February 19th, Atlantic President Andrew Wallace announced to the world that he would be enacting the Hemispheric Defense Clause of the Atlantic-South American Defense Treaty. The clause stated that when the Atlantic Federation was in a state of war, that the Atlantic Federation had a right to mobilize its military for a continental deployment to South America to protect the nation from hostile invasion to either conquer it or use it as a method of invading the Atlantic Federation. During nominal peace time South America played host to the Atlantic 14th and 15th Army, the Marine 5th Division, the 23rd Air Force, and the Atlantic Navy's 8th and 9th Division. The activation of the Hemispheric Defense Clause saw South America be reinforced by five field armies, the 14th Fleet, and the 24th and 25th Air Force.

Technically the act was entirely legal by the Defense Treaty, to many South Americans it felt like their nation was just invaded. For the next two weeks soldiers of the Atlantic Federation would reinforce the existing bases across the continent and take control of key strategic points to either prevent a hypothetical invasion or neutralize it as quickly as possible. Mass protests broke across the continent as tens of millions of South Americans took to the streets to protest what felt like Atlantic Imperialism. While there were a number of violent incidents, heavy riots were prevented due to most South American citizens feeling powerless to do anything. In Buenos Aires, Santos and many members of Congress condemned the action as being against the will of the South American people, but they could do little besides shout at the Atlantic leviathan, with Santos only able to hope that due to heavy international condemnation and rising unpopularity within the Atlantic Federation over the war, that Wallace would be forced to leave.

Santos' hopes would be for naught when on March 5th, President Wallace in a press conference revealed evidence that showed to the world that the CIA had uncovered a plot by South America to join ZAFT in the war with an open invitation to take over the Panama Mass Driver along with the basing rights to launch an invasion into Mexico and the Caribbean. By the next day Wallace's declining popularity which had firmly sat at 41% shot up 16 points. Spontaneous anti-South American demonstrations, most of them involving Blue Cosmos members, filled the streets of the Atlantic Federation. Hours after his press conference, Wallace oversaw an emergency session of Congress which saw the passing of the South America Resolution which authorized the Atlantic Federation Armed Forces to take any and all necessary steps to remove the "Santos Regime" and "restore rightful democratic rule" to South America, basically replacing the lawfully elected government with an authority that would be pro-Atlantic Federation.

Before the Resolution was finalized, Santos had attempted to flee Buenos Aires, but his motorcade was stopped by a mob of Blue Cosmos supporters who were furious that their President had betrayed them to ZAFT with plans to go to war against the world's most powerful military. Ironically, Santos would be saved from lynching by relief by a motorized unit of the Atlantic Army, though through his "saving" he would be placed in "Atlantic hospitality" and upon the passing of the Resolution, arrest with Santos being placed in a brig on the ANS Richard Nixon to prevent rescue. Most of Santos' cabinet, staff, and a majority of the South American Congress would also be placed into arrest as enemies of the Atlantic Federation. Technically the Atlantic Federation and South America were never in a state of war and were still allies, but overnight South America had become conquered by the Atlantic Federation.

With the coup being bloodless and mostly justified, opposition to the occupation within the Americas and the greater world largely dropped. In the Atlantic Federation, the occupation of South America switched overnight from a controversial topic to a righteous move to protect Atlantic sovereignty. The occupation became heavily supported by the rest of the Alliance, while through the rest of the world save for the African Community and Oceania were silent, with the latter two still openly condemning the occupation in what was a heavy foreshadowing of their coming alliance with ZAFT. While there was still significant opposition to the occupation, the army of protestors had dropped from tens of millions to millions and with the Atlantic military largely behaving themselves and the few incidents of violent confrontation ending in complete defeat for South American rioters and wannabe revolutionaries, South American society had seemingly accepted the occupation for now.

The next three and a half weeks would be a rather awkward and tense time for South America. After the news of Santos seemingly selling out to ZAFT had settled in, life soon continued on as normal with businesses and schools continuing operation. Many accounts from this period tell of a heavy anxiety and fear present in the populace, worried about what would come next from the Atlantic Federation while many were starting to question if the current fate of their nation

Unfortunately for South America, despite being a victim of the Atlantic Federation and its leaders secretly agreeing to a future alliance with ZAFT, it was still selected as a target for Operation Uroboros. To ZAFT, so long as South America remained under Federation occupation, especially with Atlantean control of the Panama Mass Driver, it was a threat to ZAFT's security and an asset to the Atlantic war effort that needed to be taken out. Fortunately for South America, out of the nations of the world, it had invested the most into renewable energy due to the strong Ecoist movement that arose within South America at the end of Anno Domini. A majority of South America's energy was unaffected thanks to the extensive Brazilian hydroelectric network along with large solar and wind arrays in Central America and Northern South America. However, the situation was still grim for South America as the states that lied within the former nations of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and Bolivia would lose nearly all of their power, causing many states to be entirely without power and anarchy to reign with only the "invading" Atlantic troops to install order. By late May South America had reestablished the entirety of the national power grid, though it was only 2/3rd's of its maximum output due to the redirection of a third of renewable energy to Southern Mexico by the Atlantic Federation.

When usage of the N-Jammers over South America was approved by the PLANT Supreme council, it was expected that being forced to suffer under Uroboros would incur a mass revolution across South America which would tie up a heavy amount of Atlantic resources and force the Atlantic Federation to sue for peace. While spontaneous insurrections and acts of terror towards the Atlantic armed forces and South Americans aligned with or pro-AF did occur, they fell far below the expected projections of ZAFT. The reason was that to many of the people of South America, Atlantic propaganda of PLANT being a Coordinator Supremacist nation who sought to dominate the Earth was proven correct. While many South American states banned coordination and there were whole counties and cities that were practiced institutional discrimination towards Coordination, there were many more states and cities were Coordinators could live in peace and prosper. South America's government had recognized PLANT's independence and promised an alliance when the time was right. In return for this PLANT dropped the N-Jammers and hundreds of millions of South Americans suffered without electricity and essential goods. Anti-Atlantic sentiment did not disappear overnight, but many moderates who could have been converted to a revolution walked away from PLANT in disgust over what they saw as Blue Cosmos' propaganda coming true.

By the start of the Heliopolis conference, 2.2-2.4 million South Americans had died of various causes. Technically, South America had entered the conference as a neutral, yet it had been brutally assaulted by both sides of the conflict and was in the midst of a military occupation while half of its nation was without power. The Atlantic Federation may have committed the occupation with noble goals of guarding their southern flank, but with an invasion of ZAFT never coming, all they had done was bring pain to South America while using it as a resource pump to contain their own crisis. The only hope for the South American people was that their chosen diplomats would not act as mere puppets of the Atlantic Federation and somehow be able to use the wild card of Zeon to secure their freedom and recovery. By the end of Heliopolis, South America would secure both of these, yet it is undeniable that it never should have been put in a situation of survival."

-Facts and Fabrications of the Great Solar War by Sasha Reiss. Published 123 CE.

April 11th, 70 CE. EU Capitol. Equatorial Island. Singapore. Equatorial Union. Third Person POV.

One of the many commonalities between the Universal Century and the Cosmic Era was the prosperity of Singapore. While the city-state had suffered briefly during the Malacca campaign and the Battle of Singapore of the Great Asian War which saw the Chinese Navy attempt to take the city to control the straits of Malacca, with the successful defense by the Equatorial Coalition marking the turning point of the war, since then Singapore had retained its pre-war glory and went beyond to be one of the most advanced and wealthiest cities in the world. The Singapore of the Cosmic Era was even more successful than that of the Universal Century due to the lack of heavy space development and its position as the capitol of the Equatorial Union.

With Singapore there were two post-war developments which would make the city famous among the rest of the world. The first was its mega skyline with the creation of two additional ground levels on top of the current city skyline which rose the territory of Singapore up above the Earth 1.4 kilometers. The second was the creation of a series of artificial islands off the coast that either served government work or were used as pleasure islands for the city's rich and tourists.

One of the many artificial islands that were created was Equatorial Island, a 27 acre island modeled after the United Nations plaza to serve as the capitol of the Equatorial Union, with the EU Capitol containing all of the agencies and bureaucracy of the Equatorial Union. Unlike the other superstates of the world, the Equatorial Union was not a true federal state or even a nation, rather it was a supernatural alliance which operated as a De Facto Confederation, giving near total autonomy and sovereignty to its members while the Equatorial Union handled military, foreign, and trade affairs.

Up on the top floor of the Capitol building within the Suite of the Secretary-General, two of the EU's highest were locked in a conversation that would change the fate of all the members of the Equatorial Union. One of the duo was Garav Chivakula, the Secretary-General of the Equatorial Union who hailed from India, the other was Foreign Secretary Sreya Khan from Pakistan. The two had grown up together as close family friends due to their family's political dynasties being close allies across the border with both of their fathers playing a major role in the detente and thaw between India and Pakistan. During their teenage years, the two had blossomed politically and had developed similar ideologies with both being Nationalists who wanted to one day unite their nations to create a greater India, while at the same time working with the other nations of the Equatorial Union to dismantle the Cosmic Era world order dominated by the big three. When Garav became Secretary-General of the EU in late 64 CE, he choose Sreya as his Foreign Secretary to help further their plans with the two being some of the most powerful figures in the EU.

Originally the two had wanted to manipulate the crisis and later war between the Sponsor nations and the PLANTs to allow for the Equatorial Union to finally enter into space with its own colonization program. With the existence of Zeon, Garav had developed a new strategy which he believed would best help the EU throw off its shackles and finally turn it into a dominant alliance while also furthering the prosperity of its members, currently he was sharing the radical plan with Sreya.

Sreya lightly sipped a cup of earl gray tea as she sought on one of the office's couches while Garav had stood near the window, giving his presentation on how he would best act in the current political environment and ensure the Equatorial Union's prosperity. At first she had heavily fought against the radical plan, thinking it too risky and not within the EU's best interest. Eventually Garav managed to sway her to his side, but she was still highly skeptical.

"While you do have me convinced my friend, I highly doubt that the Security Council is going to approve. Discounting potential public outrage and backlash from the Alliance, it's going to take a lot just to pass a majority to get this alliance of yours through."

Instead of reacting negatively, Garav simply nodded to Sreya's criticism and continued to look out the office window, admiring the serene beauty of the surrounding Indian Ocean. "I understand your criticisms Sreya, and under normal circumstances I would call this plan ludicrous, but these are extraordinary times and I believe I can use this world's chaos to commit extraordinary deeds."

"Still this isn't Orb or East Asia, we live in a democracy, not to mention that not only would you have to convince the council, but you'll have to convince the legislatures of our member-states to approve as well, and that's if you don't get recalled for going beyond what's expected of your post. They'll call you a dictator, someone who wants to revoke the soveriegnty of our nations." Sreya warned.

Once again, Garav nodded. "I expect that I'll face opposition in the hundreds of millions, but if I play my cards right I think I can get the alliance to pass through, and once it does we'll have to let our new friends prove their commitment, with the benefits raising public approval before the blowback rises to official levels. I'm confident that I'll be able to get the Islamic states and Indochina aboard with my plan. If I appeal to their sense of Nationalism and the ability to finally destroy Eurasia and East Asia's hold over us, while breaking free of the Atlantic Federation, along with the suffering of the border states from the N-Jammers, I'm confident that I can at least get talks going, at that point we'll just have to hope that Heliopolis produces the desired results, which I'm confident that we can. They need us just as much as we need them."

Sreya nodded in concession, lowering her empty tea cup onto a small plate and setting it on the nearby coffee table. "Yes, they will need us to integrate into the markets of Earth as will as potential technological gains. Still, can we not do this through friendship and diplomatic cooperation as a sovereign confederation? I'm sure that provided enough time that we can form an alliance by the end of the decade at best. Why do we have to rush things and ally ourselves with the Principality of Zeon? We don't know the full story of what's going on in those colonies and we're talking about a state which embraces Fascist iconography." Sreya warned.

Garav sighed in understanding and turned around, looking Sreya in the eyes with a steel gaze. "I know that this is not an inherently good option. It's a massive gamble which could bring about the end of my political career and ruin my legacy if it goes wrong. Yes, Zeon is a highly suspicious nation with dark holes in their image and a conflicting history. However, if this does manage to succeed, if we stand as their equals and they give us in value just as much as we give to them, this could change everything. No longer will we have to bow before the Washington-Moscow-Beijing Axis. No longer will we be looked down upon as the "Second World", relics of Anno Domini. No longer will we be chained down through gravity and be kept from reaching the stars and fulfilling our full potential and manifest destiny. No longer shall our society exist in mediocrity and mere stagnation. No longer shall we be tools West and East to abuse and throw away.

The Alliance is mortally wounded with their economies dead and space colonies crippled, PLANT is hated by the entire world and will soon be isolated and marked for destruction for their power, Africa and Oceania have made lifelong enemies for meager gains. Before we could only do our best to preserve the status quo through heavy concessions. This is the first and perhaps only opportunity for our nations to break our chains and achieve greatness. If we don't take the radical first step and become Zeon's main partner in the Earth sphere with receiving first access of the Universal Century's fruits, then someone else will. Are we to sit back and let South America rise from its slumber? Will we let those wannabe monarchs in Orb become Zeon's favored pet? Perhaps Scandinavia will finally grow a spine and crawl out of Eurasia's shadow towards the sun of Zeon. If I don't secure this alliance, then our descendants will rot and South Asian civilization will forever be mediocre pets of the rest of the world.

I'm prepared to make the necessary sacrifices, I shall call in every favor I have and I'm willing to go into extreme debt to others to make it work. Yes, the risk is high, but when has history's greatest achievements not been built on the gambles of legends. I'm going to go through with this Sreya, whether or not you're with me. If you stand beside me though, I feel that our chance of success I feel that nothing will stand in our way." Garav pleaded.

Sreya sighed, slumping in defeat. One of Garav's best traits was his speechmaking, where he was able to convince you to do just about anything and make you believe that it was the right call, that it was something that you had to do. It was what helped him to become Secretary-General, just as it helped him secure your cooperation.

"Alright, if we are to do this, we need to do it right. So what's the fine details of your plan?"

Garav smiled, clapping his hands together and bowing in thanks to his friend's joining. "This is how I propose we turn Zeon into our ally."

April 13th, 70 CE. Flanagan Institute. Zum City. Principality of Zeon.

"These test results doctor...you are absolutely positive that the data is correct?"

"110%. I triple checked the tests and the margin of error was .032%. While you have nowhere near the abilities of some of our star subjects, you still display the basic patterns of precognition and telepathy. You are a Newtype my Lady."

"I see. And my family, are they Newtypes as well?"

"So far in my research I have not found any genetic relationship to the Newtype phenomena. Being related to a Newtype does not garuntee you are one, but in our studies on related Newtypes, a majority of cases show the subjects sharing Newtype capability, though once again this is not a garuntee and in nearly all cases there was no equal level of Newtype prowess. I would have to test your brothers and father, though it is more than likely that they are Newtypes. Have they displayed any symptoms?"

"Not that I know of, though I do have my suspicions. Thank you for your services Doctor. I shall ensure that your institution has a blank check. We are going to need the Newtypes if we are to preserve Spacenoid supremacy against the Coordinators."

"Many thanks my Lady. By the beginning of the Cosmic Era's second century, Deikun's dream shall become a reality."

A/N: Hello everyone, Kaiser Chris here and welcome to another chapter of Cosmic Crusade, this week covering the Neutrals and how they are faring so far. Due to feedback and a critical look at previous chapters, I wanted to make something different beyond, "Wow, the world is changing and this Zeon is pretty scary", so I decided to focus on two historical excerpts for Scandinavia and South America to flesh out worldbuilding and provide a watsonian reason in particular for South America's occupation, and then present the big development of the EU in narrative form.

For Scandinavia, we have here one of the more tragic victims of Uroboros, a nation that was fully accepting of Coordinators yet still suffered due to the loss of the N-Jammers. While Scandinavia is far better off than the Alliance, there are still hundreds of thousands of dead due to lack of resources and issues with refugees, with the economy going over and Nationalism on the rise. Scandinavia won't be too important in the greater story, but I do want to explore the nation somewhat as a sign of just how much the war and Zeon is killing the status quo in the Cosmic Era. Also for those who are familiar with the map of the Cosmic Era and may be confused, the Baltics are part of Scandinavia along with Denmark in my version. In my history of the Cosmic Era, the Baltics joined Scandinavia before the Reconstruction War to avoid being annexed into Eurasia through force as they saw victory against Eurasia to be impossible. Denmark was initially part of a federalized EU that fought against Eurasia in the Reconstruction War, but when Berlin fell a coup took place in Denmark that had them surrender to Eurasia in exchange for joining Scandinavia.

Next we have South America, who I had plenty of fun in fleshing out the history. In Seed, South America is heavily irrelevent as the occupation of South America is not brought up once in the anime and is pretty much never mentioned outside of Edward's backstory, with him not being too heavily affected and the occupation and revolution never being directly shown. Here I decided to fully flesh out why the Atlantic Federation choose to occupy South Ameica the week after the war began, which was a mixture of Plan R 4 and the Tonkin Gulf Resolution which resulted in a coup to get rid of a potential ZAFT ally. So there is some legitimacy for the Atlantic occupation, though as you'll see in later chapters, the intended endgame was far from benign. I also decided to make South America majority renewable energy after some research on how the continent is one of the greenest in energy production, as well as to justify why the Atlantic Federation would send millions of troops to occupy it when its own nation is starving and collapsing, because they needed South American power to survive. Whether or not the occupation will continue will be answered at Heliopolis.

Lastly we have the Equatorial Union, a nation which might as well not exist for how they are absolutely never mentioned in Gundam Seed. Here, I decided to make the EU instead of a proper nation a confederate alliance which is a mixture of NATO and America under the Articles of Confederation. To me, this feels like the most realistic version of the Equatorial Union as I highly doubt that all of the nations that compose it would agree to enter into a union where India would basically dominate as the majority of its population, not to mention the inherent conflict of religion, ethnicity, and language. I didn't go too into the lore of the EU or what happened from Uroboros because both of which will be heavily featured later and for now I wanted to introduce the main concept that will be important later, the EU seeking an alliance with Zeon. This Alliance, proposed by the Secretary-General who along with the Foreign Secretary are OC's of mine, is not done out of moral reasons or because the EU thinks that Zeon is such a great and wonderful nation, it's being done through pure pragmatic politick in the hopes that allying with Zeon will cause the EU to be uplifted to the most powerful state on Earth and break them apart from being a playground of the Cold War . Like many of the other nations presented, the EU is a product of heavy Nationalism in the early Cosmic Era which has deeply scarred its national psyche, causing decisions like this to occur with a chance of success. Whether or not the Zabi's will be receptive, and if such an alliance would work, will be shown later.

Lastly, I know I said that I had two more chapters to go, but after feedback and review I decided to cut the next planned chapter of content to quicken the pacing. The next chapter was intended to show leftover views to show the immediate effects of Urobors; mainly Talia's, East Asian prisoners, Renee and Federal Remnant, and Mu. None of these POV's were immediately relevant or critical to the plot, so I decided to display each POV later on in the story. Next chapter will be the last of the reaction arc as we return to the Zabi's and see their ultimate plans for the Earth sphere. Small preview, next chapter will be one of the most important of the entire story as it shows what hard actions and plans Zeon is going to take which will shift the entirety of the plot and decide which path the war and Cosmic Era goes. So be ready for that.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more!