March 31st, 70 CE. 11:20 P.M. Colonial Standard. Atlantic Federation Ptolemaeus Lunar Base. Norman Smith POV
"Nobody can tell ya; There's only one song worth singin', They may try and sell ya, Cause it hangs them up to see someone like you. But you've gotta make your own music, Sing your own special song, Make your own kind of music even if nobody else sings along."
With a tired groan and eyes fluttering wildly, Lieutenant Junior Grade Norman Smith of Zero Squadron woke up to the sweet sounds of Mama Cass, ripping him from his temporary slumber and back to the war.
"Time to get back to work." Norman said to himself. He looked to his clock, and sighed in relief that it was 11:20, a full forty minutes before the mandatory squad briefing at midnight from Commander Lindgren. After dinner he had went straight to his quarters and was determined to get at least four hours of sleep before the briefing. Since the war began his hours of rest and been few and far between, and as such he was determined to get any amount of sleep before returning tot the battlefield, which was something that Norman suspected would be soon.
Seeing that his roommate wasn't present, Norman quickly dressed out of his current shirt and shorts and into the standard dress of the Atlantic Federation Space Force, vanilla white with just a hint of black and grey. Once he was fully dressed, Norman spent some time checking his messages, news updates, along with scrolling through some forums that he regularly visited. With his minor check on his online social life complete, Norman stepped out of his quarters and made his way to the briefing room where the pilots of Zero Squadron would be informed about their newest assignment.
For the first five minutes Norman moved silently through the halls of the Ptolemaeus lunar base, casually engaging in some people watching as he walked diligently towards his destination. As he was walking, Norman noticed that alongside the usual number of Atlantic white, there was an increasing rise of Eurasian slate grey, East Asian Navy Blue, and even South African green were becoming ever present throughout the base. It was a sight that would've been impossible over a year ago, yet here they were, their fellow allies moving freely through what was supposed to be the Atlantic Federation's bastion on Luna. Norman didn't know whether to be proud of this spirit of international cooperation, or afraid of the repercussions of letting potential enemies and rivals gain information that they could exploit after the war was won.
'Oh well, at least we have Atlantic servicemen stationed at East Asian and Eurasian bases so it's a somewhat equal tradeoff.' Norman thought.
Norman's lamentations on international relations were interrupted when he felt a slap on his back, followed by the distinct Texan drawl of one of his squadmates.
"What's up Normie?" Asked Lieutenant Junior Grade Enrique "Rick" Seguin, a friend of Norman's who had entitled him with the nickname of "Normie" on the first day of Zero's squadrons formation, a nickname which he had begrudgingly become to accept.
"Steel, regolith, some ships and mobile armor depending on our position." Norman replied dryly, earning a chuckle from Rick.
"You aint exactly wrong. How come you never went into comedy with your wit?" Asked Rick playfully.
"Well someone has to stay within the squad to save your ass from GINN's." Norman once again replied dryly, Rick rolling his eyes in response.
"I have more kills than you." Rick said, a statement that was backed on the record.
"True, but you also take far more damage than me. Ever scratch I take i take you get a gunbarrel blown to shreds."
"You have to be a gambler on the battlefield if you want to take as many of the enemy out as possible. You're far too conservative and as such you'll only get one or two kills at most when the battle is done. This is a war of attrition, and the more ZAFT suits we kill, the quicker this war ends."
"It's better to chose strategies that keep your comrades alive. What's the point of victory if ZAFT claims five armors for every suit." Norman said, though he realized he may have taken a bit too far when he saw Rick's face become somber, eyes filled with hatred and sorrow over the memories of the many comrades they've witnessed lost in their battles. Zero Squadron may have had the most victories of any unit in this war, though all of them came with a high price that saw most of their battlegroup either damaged or destroyed. "Sorry." Norman offered.
"It's okay." Rick said shaking his head. "It's fine to feel that way, I just think it's better to take out ZAFT pilots before they shoot back. We're the only pilots in the entire Alliance who can take the suits on individually, we should do so at every opportunity, save the tin cans from having to fire a single shot." Ricky said, referring to the Moebius MA's that were quickly showing themselves to be far less battle proficient in combat than all the simulations had predicted them to be. Before the war, being a mobile armor pilot was a sign of prestige, now it was a sign of an early death sentence without sufficient skill and luck.
The sudden morbidity of the conversation caused the two pilots to go into silence, their walk being quiet for the next forty seconds until Rick restarted the conversation in a more hopeful tone. "I think the briefing will point us into a new path for the war, where we can end the fighting soon."
"Why so optimistic?" Norman questioned with suspicion. "Washington has been forcing us into a phony war since Junius Seven..."Norman's statement caused a brief resurgence of awkward silence due to the Nuking-That-Must-Not-Be-Named, an event that tore the civilian population of the Federation into two camps on the issue, and was the source of several intense fights within the AFSF over whether Junius Seven was the perfect response or completely over proportional. "Except for Victoria neither side has many grand plans and it will probably continue for the next month. Unless you have some high cousins in Washington."
"Please." Rick rolled his eyes once more. "If I had family in Washington then I wouldn't be a pilot. No, the thing is I was chatting with some communications officers-"
"More like flirting with communications officers. Was it Beverly again?" Norman asked, Rick getting a look of slight offense on his face.
"First of all, I was talking with a group of guys, second of all, Beverly has someone waiting for her on Earth, unfortunately. Anyway the point is I was chatting with communications, and they told me that something big is about to happen in the Earth sphere. Right now they're tracking over 800 ships heading to Earth orbit and 200 heading for the moon. They're probably going to try another Victoria, or maybe they'll go after Panama, who knows."
While Rick didn't state it, Norman knew the reason for his optimism. "With 3/4th's of their fleet away from the PLANTs, ZAFT is exposing themselves wide open and forcing the Alliance to get back into the fight. The war's going to end in a few months and it's all because Patrick Zala is a suicidal idiot." Norman said, with Rick nodding in agreement.
While the Alliance had so far undertaken an unexpected 5 to 1 ship ratio in relation to combat with ZAFT (figures for mobile weapons usually ranged with 5 to 10 mobile armor per mobile suit), in the end the Alliance was able to achieve a majority of victories so far in the war through sheer numbers with the exception of a few isolated skirmishes and the infamous tie that was Yggdrasil. While the Alliance most certainly could've end the war by now, they chose not to due to political bickering of the past six weeks as well as fears of the dreaded kill ratio. If ZAFT chose to send half their fleet for an earth operation, then the phony war would end and the Alliance would jump in on the PLANTs when they would be at their most exposed.
"I'm assuming that since we haven't been deployed immediately, that an OMNI battlegroup has already been sent and we'll be going after Lorentz or the PLANTs?" Norman asked, with Rick nodding along silently.
"I bet you twenty bucks that the Commander is going to send us to Lorentz. I hope so, I don't want to be in L5 when the invasion happens. After Junius Seven, I don't think ZAFT is going to accept an unconditional surrender. It's going to be a Berlin scenario, and I won't be surprised if a few colonies get nuked in the process." Rick said, his tone once again becoming somber. While Norman knew that his friend was no progressive on Coordination, at the same time he was no Blue Cosmos recruit. He never publicly condemned Junius Seven and had never once displayed any feelings of anti-war sentiment, but sometimes Norman felt that Rick never had his heart entirely in the fight, that he just wanted the war to be done with and that was all. It made him wonder how many years Rick intended to stay in the service.
"Whatever happens, happens. We'll do our duty and fight for the Federation." Norman stated, bringing assurance to Rick and largely letting the topic of nuclear warfare be a distant hypothetical that Zero squadron would hopefully not be involved in.
After another minute of walking the two made their way to the briefing room. Inside the room was half full, the various pilots of the international unit casually engaging socially until the Commander arrive. Up in the front row, both Norman and Rick saw a familiar blond Quebecois hotshot sitting by his own, completely relaxed with his eyes closed and back laying downward to the edge of the seat.
"Hey Mu, surprised to see you show up early. Finally bother to get an alarm clock?" Rick greeted to Mu La Flaga, the most talented member of Zero squadron as its highest scoring ace.
"Well let's just say that I'm in a good mood today, and I don't want to risk the Commander making me run on base. And for your information, I have an alarm clock, it's just that life always likes to present me with detours whenever I try to reach my destination." Mu said calmly.
"Ah yes, because as we all know the Ptolemaeus Base is just filled to the brim with old ladies crossing the street and stray cats who need to be rescued from trees." Norman said dryly, referring to two of Mu's many excuses when he ran late, causing both Mu and Rick to laugh.
"What can I say, I'm an outstanding citizen." Mu said in a bit of self-deprecation, fully aware of his habitual tardiness, yet caring little to correct it. "By the way Rick, sorry about Beverly."
"Oh dios mio, it was just a passing interest, I wasn't obsessed." Rick complained to the amusement of his fellow pilots. Both Rick and Norman sat down, with Norman to Mu's Left and Rick to Norman's left.
To Norman, Mu La Flaga was an enigma. When he had first joined the squad, he came off as a slightly arrogant brat who thought he was above all others like he was some Coordinator. It turns out that Mu did have the skills to back up his arrogance, with him trashing everyone except the Commander in the simms, then overtaking the Commander after a few weeks. Fortunately, once the Squadron got to know Mu they saw him as a relaxed and carefree spirit who was fun to hang around and would always have your back. In many ways Mu was a paradox. He was a slacker who skirted military protocols as much as he could, yet was a pilot with miraculous skills who went above and beyond to protect his squadmates in battle. He was a chatterbug who was the life of the party, yet was highly closed off on his life and refused to about anything of his past before the Academy. He was insanely street smart, yet the furthest thing from a scholar (though Norman took this due to a lack of effort rather than capability in his point of view). Mu may have been pretty strange, though there were few pilots within the squadron who didn't have a quirk about them, and so long as Mu kept up his skills and did his duty, Norman would trust him with his life any day.
The trio continued to chatter on for a while, with the briefing room slowly being filled by the rest of the squad, until at last Commander Lindgren arrived with Lieutenant Commander Madon.
"Attention!" Mu shouted, with himself and the rest of the squadron rising to their feet in salute. Lindgren returned the salute momentarily.
"At ease." The Commander said, allowing the Moebius Zero pilots to sit down. "Pilots, this war just got highly complicated really fast, and it looks like thanks to ZAFT's strategic ineptitude, it will arrive to an end sooner than later. In the past week, Eurasia has given us intelligence of a potential ZAFT operation within Earth orbit, one that will far surpass the scale of the Victoria landings. These reports would become true as earlier today, over 1000 ships, a majority of the ZAFT fleet, left L5 with a majority heading to the destination of Earth Orbit, while a splinter force is making its way to the moon, most likely to reinforce Lorentz. While an OMNI battlegroup has been formed to take care of Orbital Fleet, that still leaves the ZAFT forces in Lorentz and L5, which have been drastically reduced and now split apart from one another. We shall take the former, and within the next 48 hours embark on an operation to once and for all destroy the Lorentz base."
"Twenty bucks." Rick softly whispered to Norman in reference to his previously commented bet.
'But I didn't even agree.' Thought Norman.
"We all know what this means people, with ZAFT escalating the fight, Alliance Command has decided to take off the kids gloves and we are now back on total war with ZAFT. With our enemy divided their forces and spreading them throughout the Earth sphere, we shall be able to strike them one by one and end this war by summer. Here's how we are going to-" Commander Lindgren would not be able to finish that sentence, as at that exact same moment the clock struck midnight, and a miraculous event that would forever change human history would occur.
In one moment, the entire Squadron was fine, in the next an agonizing pain tore apart the souls of the majority of the squadron, forcing most to collapse on the floor, Norman watching as both Mu and Rick slammed forward on the steel surface, both moving as if they were having in the middle of the seizure. Up on the officer's podium, Norman saw Lindgren catch Commander Madon before he fall, the latter hollering as if he were being tortured, clawing at his own hair like a madman.
"THEY'RE MASSACRING US! IT'S A TRAP"
"NO! I'M NOT GOING TO DIE TO SOME GODDAMN TEST TUBE!"
"ENDYMION'S LOST, WE HAVE TO EVACUATE COMMANDER!"
Norman, along with a small minority of his fellow pilots, heard these screams and many others take place from the numerous victims of the sudden seizures, most of whom acting like they were in the heat of battle or were hollering about themselves dying or witnessing another person being killed.
"FUCK YOU ZAFT! This is for Norman!" Norman heard Rick shout his name, proclaiming it like he was about to avenge him, even though he was standing right next to him.
The only one who didn't seem to be hollering like a maniac was Mu, who was curled up and crying uncontrollably, his right hand reaching out, desperate to grab something that was not there. "I'm here Murrue, I'm never going to leave you again, I promise." Mu whimpered, a sight that Norman never thought he would see.
Norman stood frozen, panicking over the sight before him, a great irony for a tested veteran who had never once succumbed to pressure during battle. However, what was taking place before him felt unnatural, wrong. "What the hell is going on?!" Norman shouted, a question that nobody had an ability to provide an answer for.
Little did Zero Squadron know that what they were experiencing was an act that would soon be experienced by hundreds of millions from two worlds. It was an event that would radically change human history and leave the Cosmic Era unrecognizable from before. It was the April Fools Miracle.
March 31st, 70 CE. 5:50 P.M. Western Atlantic Standard. Allster Family Plantation. Manassas, Virginia. Atlantic Federation. Flay Allster POV
In the kitchen of the Allster residence, a young girl with flaming red hair sat at the kitchen table, head laying down next to an opened history textbook, "The Atlantic Federation: A Modern History" lying beside her on her left. To her right was a glass of a fruit smoothie that was entirely empty, and within the rest of the kitchen was little else except the vast quantities of food and cooking materials, while the small kitchen tv was on at a low volume, it was currently playing a reality dating show that Flay would've normally been glued to, were it not for herself being bored out of her mind at the current moment, leaving the tv as nothing but static to her ears.
Flay groaned,"Why do I have to study this nonsense? It's useless on the job market and most of the information is irrelevant to know." She asked rhetorically. There was no one at the moment to offer company, the only other occupants of the manor being some of her family's servants, who were all busy doing jobs in other places at the moment. Flay had tried to get her best friends, Jenna and Sasha to come over so that way they could study together, and hopefully drop it after a while and then move onto actually exciting activities, but unfortunately her friends had rejected her invitation and said they had other plans at the moment.
While Flay was far from failing student, she was nowhere near an honor roll at the same time, having average to poor grades in her core subjects, math being the only exception where she at least got low A's, while she shined in electives that she had an active interest in such as drama. While she had already got accepted into her dream college, UCLA, and already had major plans for a fashion degree, she had few final exams that she was exempt from which meant that she had to cram on the books if she was to still keep her GPA high and retain her acceptance.
History was always a rough subject for Flay as she found the concept of having to remember past events that had no relation to her extremely tiring, many times in history class saw herself fall nearly to sleep on the sheer doldrums of the experience. On average Flay made low B's in the class, the main reason for this was because despite the subject being worthless into her mind, Flay put in a decent amount of effort in order to keep up appearances for her father. It would be nothing but a complete embarrassment for the daughter of the Deputy Secretary of State to be unable to remember the Presidents of the nation or the laws and major events of the past seventy years. Her father did a wonderful job at helping to teach her when he could, though the taxing duties of his post made contact between the two increasingly scarce in recent years, the recent war with the Coordinators only driving that contact into near-nonexistence as George Allster had to be constantly present within the State Department or traveling in order to help keep the Earth Alliance running smoothly.
'Stupid ZAFT. Why are they fighting a war they can't win?' The answer was pretty obvious to Flay, to impose their superiority upon Naturals even after they got to create their perfect society in space.
Flay was really glad that there were hardly any Coordinators left in the Atlantic Federation. It was just impossible to have superhumans live with normal people when the supermen would always dominate and crush their neighbors in the end. As a young adult Flay had to fight hard to get into her college of choice against countless students across the nation, herself sadly suspecting that her father's influence was the sole reason she got in. If Flay wasn't born into one of Virginia's most distinguished political dynasties, then she would be a nobody who would never accomplished anything in life. If she was a Natural in a world of Coordinators, then she would be less than worthless in a gene pool filled to the brim with perfection.
Flay's melancholy was interrupted when she heard the sound of footsteps enter the area. She lifted her head up from the table to look towards the kitchen entrance, her mood rapidly transforming in a complete 180 to joy, her father George Allster was standing at the entrance, briefcase in hand and wearing a light blue suit, apparently coming home from work when Flay hadn't expected him at all.
"Daddy!" Flay shouted with the excitement of a child, running up and jumping into her father, giving him a great bear hug. "Why didn't you tell me that you were coming home from work? Did you eat yet, can we have dinner together? Let's watch a movie later." These and countless other comments ran from Flay's mouth, her speech only slowing down when she slowly noticed an increasing amount of sorrow and regret on her father's face.
"Hello sweetie, how was your day?" George Allster asked, a tone of hesitation in his voice.
'He's avoiding the questions.' Flay thought sadly, a situation that she had experienced multiple times once again coming to fruition. 'Then again, why should I have expected today to be different.'
"Fine." Flay simply answered, her voice having lost the energy she had previously held seconds ago.
George looked over at the kitchen table, seeing the half opened textbook. "Flay were you studying for your finals, or were you studying for your finals?" George asked.
"I was studying, I promise!" Flay swore, though she neglected the fact that she had barely finished a chapter and didn't get much progress beyond it. "Daddy, you are staying home for tonight, right?" Flay asked, puppy eyes starting to form as she silently begged her father to stay, if only for a little while.
A heavy sigh from George was all the answer that Flay needed. "I'm sorry Flay, I had to come home to get some drives from my office, I came by the kitchen to get a small drink before I headed back to the Department." George explained, his sad tone showing that if he would've clearly liked to spend the night with his daughter if he had the opportunity.
With verbal confirmation, Flay became entirely dejected, tears starting to well up in her eyes. George saw this and wrapped his daughter in a tight hug, "I know, I know. I wish I could stay here, but something big is happening in the war right now, something that will eclipse...Junius Seven." George said, a slight amount of disgust entering in his voice upon mentioning the nuke that would make Valentine's Day an infamous holiday for generations. "I'm going to be needed at the Capitol to help with the aftermath, so I might not be able to come back for the next couple of days. I can't reveal too much about what's happening, but if everything goes right then the war might end in a couple of months. How about this, when the war ends and everything settles over, we can take a nice long vacation together. We can go wherever you want, on Earth or in space. How does that sound?" George asked, smiling in the hopes that he would cheer his daughter up.
Unfortunately for him, Flay was little reassured by the sudden promise. She knew that whenever her father made a promise that he truly meant it, but most of the time he wouldn't be able to go through with it. Some crisis in the PLANTs, a trade dispute, some sort of space negotiations, etc. Almost always though it had to be something about Coordinators.
'They always ruin everything.' Flay thought.
Still, she could at least indulge in her father's hopes, even if the likelihood of that happening was near zero. "That sounds great." Flay said, putting up a fake smile. "Can we go to-"George Allster would never receive her instant as in that precise moment, Flay was experiencing a miraculous event that was happening to tens of millions of people around the Earth sphere.
Flay's eyes rolled into the back of her head and she lost all sense of balance, falling back and potentially hitting the floor if she wasn't already in her father's arms. Flay started shaking uncontrollably, with whimpers morphing into loud screams as the awakening of her soul brought about a great pain to the young girl.
"Oh my God, FLAY!" George gently laid down her daughter on the floor, doing his best to make sure she didn't receive any physical injuries while she still shook uncontrollably. When she was settled down, George whipped out his mobile phone and called 911. "Hello, my daughter is daughter is having a seizure, she's shaking uncontrollably. I don't know what to do, you have to send an ambulance right now.
While George was pleading with the emergency services to get to the plantation yesterday, Flay's life was flashing before her eyes, literally as she was watching the most major events of her life happen as if she was watching a film. Though a film wouldn't quite be the experience Flay should properly describe it as since instead of watching her life unfold on a two-dimensional screen, she was watching everything take place around her, as if she was an absent observer, unable to interact yet always present.
The strangest part for Flay was that events were happening which she was sure should never took place in her life. She saw herself boarding a shuttle to enter into space, an impossibility considering she has always been on Earth her entire life. She saw herself traveling to a space colony, not the hour glasses of the PLANTs, but an O'Neil cylinder where inside she was met with a tropical paradise. She saw herself attending school, not the college of her dreams, but some technical school, something that didn't make sense considering she had no skills in STEM fields. She saw herself spending time with some unknown boy, an awkward nerd with who she was trapped in a loveless engagement that she had no say in. Occasionally she caught glimpses of some boy of Asian descent, watching her from afar with feelings of love and jealousy. Despite the fact that she never met this boy, seeing him brought about strong feelings within Flay, feelings of anger and hate, yet morphed with love and sorrow.
Flay then saw herself running through the colony, desperately trying to escape a sudden attack on her own as giant humanoid machines traveled throughout the colony, laying death to its inhabitants, two of Flay's companions, once again who she had no knowledge of, having already been claimed. Flay was able to escape in a shelter, awaiting for hours in terror while being isolated in a group of strangers, until they were miraculously saved, the boy who she felt so strongly about yet never met coming as her savior.
The scene then shifted to what appeared to be a bridge of a warship. Despite once again never having been to here, Flay had feelings of familiarity overwhelm here. Flay felt a stronger connection to this place than all the other unknown places, yet it was a strange feeling, as if it were a home that she once had, yet it was one that she despised and was terrified of.
She saw herself drifting into the bridge, a pink girl in a flowing white dress held in her right hand. At first she was incredibly confused on why she was in the company of this girl, though a sudden realization came through Flay.
"Isn't that Lacus Clyne?" Flay asked herself, though no one on the bridge seemed to notice her presence. Flay may have thought that Lacus' songs were a bit trashy, but she wasn't so ignorant as to be unaware of one of the most popular pop singers in the Earth sphere. Why was she on the bridge of a warship with her, a Coordinator?
"I'll kill this girl!" The other Flay shouted, shocking the inhabitants of the bridge as well as the spiritual Flay. "If they fire at my Daddy's ship, I'll kill this girl! Tell them that." The second Flay said with determination. The first Flay was confused, she may not have liked Lacus, or Coordinators in general, but to kill this girl in cold blood? The thing that struck her most was that she said "Daddy's ship", this caused Flay to turn around and look at the bridge monitor, where she saw a Drake-class ship battling with ZAFT mobile suits. Despite never experiencing this, Flay knew that her father was on that ship.
"No, this is isn't real, it's a dream, it has to be." Flay whispered in utter horror. Said dream would turn into an incredible nightmare, when Flay witnessed the ship her father was on explode into flames as a shot from the ZAFT beam canon tore it apart. Flay saw the beam take her father directly in a hanger, incinerating him into ashes within nanoseconds.
"No. No." Flay said to herself shaking her head as tears formed into her eyes. "NOOOOOO! DAAADDYYY!" She yelled in pure terror, feeling her father's death reach out to her and causing Flay to collapse in pure pain and agony.
The pain brought about by feeling her father's death brought Flay back to the present, where she saw her father cradling her in her arms. "It's okay baby, the ambulance is coming and we'll take you to the hospital, the doctors will fix you, okay." George said in a whimper, tears falling down his eyes with the words mostly being said to convince him that everything would be alright.
Seeing her father alive again after she felt him die broke Flay. She flailed her arms wildly at him, trying desperately to hold onto him and never let her father go. "Don't die Daddy! Don't go, don't let the Coordinators kill you! Please Don't Die! Please Don't Die! Please Don't Die! Please Don't Die!" Flay repeated this words in the manner of a mantra for the next minute, disturbing her father as George tried desperately to calm her down and reassure her that he wasn't going anywhere. In the end, exhaustion overtook Flay and she once again fell on the floor, this time blackness consuming her vision, then Flay was at rest.
April 1st, 70 CE. 1:30 A.M. Colonial Standard. PLSF Peng Duhai. L4. Captain Jun Jie POV
When Jun Jie had been assigned to the L4 Cluster as the Captain of the 9th Fleet's flaghship carrier the Peng Duhai, he had been jubilant. While Jie was a proud patriot who would do whatever his nation would ask of him, he was admittedly a man who was far removed from the hawkishness that seemed to fester among most of his fellow officers. Jun Jie was a man who above all else wished for a quiet and peaceful service. Being stationed in the L4 cluster provided that sense of calm stability.
While being stationed in the L4 garrisons was often considered a punishment for soldiers of the People's Army, being stationed in the L4 fleet was considered to be a silent blessing. In L4, the sailors of the Space Force were far removed from the hostile brinkmanship of the Second Cold War that had taken place for the last three and a half decades. Neither the Atlantic Federation or Eurasian Union had a vested interest in L4, content to let East Asia dominate the Lagrange Point. Soldiers in the L4 cluster were also isolated from the growing crisis that was the PLANT cluster in L5.
When the PLANT program had begun, East Asia had sent all of their Coordinators to the PLANTs in order to separate them from the citizens on Earth so that social harmony could be maintained. While there had been some who advocated to have East Asia's Coordinators live in the L4 cluster, it was shot down hard by most of the People's Congress and the ruling Communist party as too radical and dangerous to implement. The entire reason the L4 colonies existed (as publicly explained by East Asia) was to separate Korean and Japanese Nationalists from loyal citizens on Earth. Combining these dangerous elements with Coordinators would be nothing short of a catastrophe for the nation as it was explained in state-propaganda. Though this would've always been an impossibility due to the L4 colonists existing distrust and bigotry towards Coordinators.
Even when the PLANT crisis had dramatically escalated in recent years, life for the People's Liberation Army Space Force (PLASF) had continued on as normal, with the only excitement of their tours of service being the occasional contraband check of passing ships, tailing a Atlantic or Eurasian vessel that veered too close to L4, or the rare pirate that dared to raid on East Asian shipping. Then came the war.
So far most action had been limited to L5 or lunar orbit, though that wasn't to say that there hadn't been any action taking place in L4. In the past six weeks, ZAFT had been attempting to probe the defenses of L4, occasionally sending a flotilla to hunt down isolated East Asian ships or supply vessels, then run away before the full fleet could catch up to them. From what Jun Jie had heard from his superiors, the most likely theory was that ZAFT was testing the fleet so that they could plan for a operation aimed at launching an insurrection inside of the cluster's colonies.
Outside of a minor skirmish with a couple of Nazca class ships, Jie had not seen any action so far in the war. This was something that he had hoped would happen for the rest of the war unless ZAFT really did attempt to support an insurrection among the colonies.
That was until the events of the last twelve hours, then Jun Jie's world slowly spiraled into hell.
It had all started when the 9th Fleet had received word from Eurasian Intelligence that a large ZAFT fleet containing nearly 900 vessels was making their way to Earth orbit. Why ZAFT made the idiotic decision to send more than half of their entire Space Force to be concentrated in one place near Earth escaped Jie. His most likely hypothesis was that after the failure of Victoria, ZAFT was going to attempt to reach a decisive end to the conflict by taking out all of the Alliance's Mass Drivers at the same time. It was incredibly suicidal to Jie with almost zero chance of victory, though if by some divine intervention it were to succeed then the war would admittedly sway in the Coordinator's favor. Upon learning of this grand fleet's target, the Alliance had scrambled to provide some sort of counter strategy and wake up from the phony war that the diplomats had put them in.
Fortunately for Jie, the 9th fleet wouldn't be part of the immediate response fleet with an OMNI-led battle coalition of 6,000 sortieing to meet ZAFT's forces, while the Lunar fleets would dispatch to destroy the Lorentz base while ZAFT was split between whatever was going on in orbit and defending L5. However, a fraction of the 9th fleet, including the Peng Duhai, was chosen by New Beijing to be part of a reserve relief force to help the OMNI coalition should the orbital campaign be botched somehow. This meant for several hours Jie had to split his attention between keeping the Duahi battle-ready at a moment's notice, and participating in coordinating the fleet to plan for the hypothetical relief, plotting all the worst scenarios and how they would help their allies.
While this had been greatly tiring for Jie, it was all part of his expected duties as a servant of the nation, and as such he soldiered through. Besides, when the Alliance obliterated ZAFT both on the moon and in orbit, the war would inevitably end within the next month or two, so it would all be worth it.
Then the...event happened and the war had just got extremely complicated fast.
Jie had been at watch on the bridge at exactly midnight, as such he got to be one of tens of thousands who were able to personally witness one of the brightest flashes of light to ever be observed by the human eye, with a large asteroid and over 1200 ships were planted on the edge of the L4 mere moments after, seemingly appearing out of thin air. With the extensive satellite network that East Asia had in place around L4, it was impossible that an asteroid along with one of the largest individual fleets ever assembled could've snuck into East Asian space, let alone travel across the Earth sphere with no detection.
The sight of so many ships, none of which were East Asian, filled the fleet with high amounts of panic and hysteria. Admiral Chen Baoyi, Jie's superior, had attempted to contact New Beijing as well as the Atlantic and Eurasian bases to see if it was somehow an brand new Alliance fleet that had been equipped with stealth technology. Unfortunately, every member of the Alliance swore that the fleet was not of their own creation. It was a disturbing revelation, though in hindsight they should have known better with the images of mobile suits that seemed to act as some kind of successor to the GINN. Satellite imagery of a similar fleet composition at L5 confirmed what everyone had feared, this was a ZAFT fleet. Somehow without anyone of the sponsor nations knowing, ZAFT had been able to double their space forces with brand new models and stealth technology.
Word of this new development spread through the fleet like a wildfire and a state of chaos was on the rise.
Had it just been the addition of these two mysterious ZAFT stealth fleets, then maybe Jie could feel even the tiniest sense of calmness. Outside of the stealth tech, the new ships had mobile suits had to be of a similar quality to their known predecessors, which meant that all the 9th Fleet had to do was wait for lunar reinforcements and they could eliminate this new fleet and nuke the asteroid base to oblivion. Unfortunately, the appearance of these stealth fleets weren't the only bizarre occurrence at midnight. At the same time, thousands of personnel scattered throughout the fleet had experienced some sort of mass seizure, thousands of varying ages, genders, ranks, occupations, had at the same instant collapsed in fits of mass pain. The intensity of this event varied throughout each person, to some it was mere migraines and to others they howled as if they were being tortured. While Jie had not witnessed this phenomena personally, there had been nine individuals on the Duhai who had been inflicted by this mysterious malaise.
With the appearance of two stealth fleets and some unknown disease spreading around, order was starting to collapse completely and Jie was being confronted with officers and enlisted personnel on an almost minute basis, everyone demanding answers for what was going on. Unfortunately, Jie was just as lost as the rest of them. For the past hour, Jie had been desperately trying to keep some semblance of order on the ship, preparing them for a potential conflict against the unknown fleet while Admiral Chen had been busy contacting New Beijing and L41 to try and get some sort of series of orders on how to next proceed. What worried Jie was that this had taken over an hour, when Chen was usually proficient and his calls only lasted ten to twenty minutes, that meant that something big was going on, Jie fearing that the war had just taken the turn for the absolute worst case scenario very fast.
Fortunately Jie would get some answers soon, as he was called to Chen's cabin for a personal briefing, presumably to let him be the first to fill him in on what was going on.
Jie had made it to Chen's cabin, buzzing on the intercom to let it know that it was him. "Sir, this is Captain Jun reporting as ordered." Jie said.
The door opened with a light woosh and Jie was let inside, seeing Admiral Chen sitting at his desk, a bottle with clear liquid sitting on his desk along with a small shot glass. The sight caused a great amount of concern to fill Jie. While he had seen the Admiral drink, it had only been in official officer's parties and in meetings with fellow admirals of the fleet along with flag officers from luna and the colonies, and the occasional politician or intelligence boss that made their way to space. Never once in private had Jie seen Admiral Chen consume alcohol in private when there wasn't a need, meaning that there was something really bad going on.
"Take a seat." Admiral Chen ordered, then pulling up a second glass and filling it up slightly with what Jie observed as Mijiu when he got close enough. The reason that Chen was able to do this without the Mijiu floating in several drops was due to the unique design of both the bottle and the glass, with the bottle having a tiny hole from which the liquid would pore out, that would pour into another small hole that was located on a cap on top of the glass, one that would only open when the cap made contact with the bottle's top, this way the glass could still be used, but one had to drink out of it with a straw or from a small opening in the manner of a child with a sippy cup. Of course one could consume liquor in space when it floated, a rather popular method for the enlisted that Jun may have partaken in a time or two.
Knowing not to disobey his superior, Jie took the glass and slowly drank out of it. He sat down on the chair, holding himself in place by connecting the seatbelt located on it.
"Captain, how has my ship been in this past hour?" Admiral Chen asked, starting off the conversation.
"To put it bluntly sir, the crew is in a state of constant anxiety and near panic. Word is starting to spread of the new fleet, and the simultaneous seizure of so many of our fellow sailors has many whispering of some sort of bio-weapon in play. The crew are doing their duties, but they'll need answers soon or else morale will break down completely and we may have a mutiny on our hands." Jie informed. A mutiny was the worst possible scenario when the unknown fleet could come out and attack them at any time, the capabilities of the new ships still being complete unknowns.
As a credit to many years of his service, Admiral Chen took in the information calmly with no outward signs of panic, despite the fact that the fleet he led was near to breaking at any moment. "I'm afraid I must take responsibility for keeping the fleet in the dark, but I'm afraid that this war has gone in a new and bizarre direction that we could have never anticipated. I've been trying to find answers, but even the barest hints have been giving me ten questions in this past hour, and by the end of the day, I don't think we'll still get a fraction of the greater picture. As the Atlanteans say, 'Shit just hit the fan', which was why I wanted to wait so long to at least get some semblance of a direction." Chen explained. Jie was hating where this conversation was going, a knot forming in his stomach as his worst fears were beginning to materialize.
"First off, let me share the good news. Doctor Wang has sent me a report confirming that there are no signs of a bio agent anywhere within those afflicted with the seizures, or anywhere within the ship. If ZAFT, the Nationalists, Atlantic Federation, or Eurasia is behind this, then they've done a damned good job at their latest work. It is possible that there is a bio-weapon and we are unable to detect it, we aren't a first class hospital after all, so we'll need to send the patients back to the lunar colonies if we want to get definitive answers, though that might not be necessary considering...developments. So far only one of the patients has become conscious again, though questioning has been inconclusive. The person in question is an MA pilot, and after he came through apparently he acted as if he was afflicted with PTSD, even though he's fresh from the academy and hasn't a single hour of hard combat. He's just been whimpering non-stop about 'dying at the hands of ZAFT', probably some kind of nightmare. This Captain, is all the good news that I am about to share with you." Chen said.
Jie's fists tightened, he found himself swiftly consuming the Mijiu and wishing for more shots. "Admiral, you said that sending the patients to the lunar colonies would not be necessary?" Jie ventured.
Chen nodded at his question. "Observant, that's what I like about you Jun. Yes, it won't be necessary, this leads me to my next piece of information, which may or may not depending on how this develops, may be the least of the bad news. The seizures that have struck our fleet, we are not the only victims. The colonies that we are guarding have seen hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of cases spring up across the seven colonies. Not only has this inflicted the army, but also the Koreans and Japanese. I wasn't able to get into contact with any of our generals, but from what little I was able to gather, riots have arisen in every street at a scale and brutality never before seen. We may be seeing the beginnings of a war, an outright rebellion the likes of which unseen since Japan's Reconstruction."
Jie looked at the Admiral, horrified with all color draining from his skin. "How is this possibly the least of the bad news?" Jie asked with total fear. What was happening right now, was a nuclear war happening across the Earth, was the entire politburo assassinated, was there some sort of coup?
"I'm not finished." Chen said, his words making Jie extremely nauseous at a fast rate. "Not only were we afflicted, not only was the L4 cluster afflicted, but the lunar cities, and all of Earth has been inflicted with this great calamity. I have seen a few news reports, and it seems that you can find a case of this in every one of the major cities. Order is breaking down and chaos arising. It's far worse than the Type 2 Flu. All of humanity is infected with whatever this virus is, no one is truly safe." Chen said somberly.
Bile threatened to rise at Jie's throat, forcing him to swallow it down so that he could continue on with the briefing. Like anyone else who was of a teenager and older, Jie had lived through the Type 2 epidemic, the flu that had claimed the lives of 250 million people. It was a time of great terror throughout the world, with many fearing that the apocalypse was taking place and this would be the end for mankind. Jie knew several who were infected, and a few who had died. Back then, he didn't believe the claims that this was a Coordinator weapon, but if the world was truly suffering from a new pandemic where millions were struck at the exact same moment, then maybe the Coordinators were responsible for both. They had to be, as there was no one else with the capabilities, but most importantly the intelligence to see such a thing through.
Most of all, Jie feared for the safety and health of his wife, their two little girls, and both their parents who resided within New Beijing.
"Admiral, How is this the least bad news?" Jie once again asked with urgency. Where he not asking his superior officer, he would've likely thrown in a few curse words for good measure.
"Because, as of right now, this new virus has not caused any fatalities besides putting its victims in very unfortunate situations where their incapacitation has put them into dangerous situations. The reason this is possibly the least bad news is because of the immediate threat posed to us. At the same time as this unknown fleet showed up on our doorstep and all of these seizures were taking place, Alliance satellites picked up two new formations in other parts of the Earth sphere. one was at L5, with a fleet and asteroid matching the unknowns staring us off." Chen typed away at his computer, then turning the monitor to give Jie a good look. True to his word, the fleets and mobile suits, were identical to the ones facing them off. The only major difference was the asteroid which had a major difference in composition, appearing in the shape of a star instead of the rough dagger that was facing them off in L4. Though the difference in appearance made sense as asteroids were about as similar to one another as snowflakes were to each other.
"So this is ZAFT's doing. It has to be." Jie affirmed, if the ships appeared in L4 and it was not of East Asian creation, and they also appeared in L5, then the fleet had to be the Coordinators invention. Yet there was also a distinct impossibility that Jie had to keep in mind. ZAFT's current vessels outside of the new stealth ships were converted freighters that were most likely connected with weaponry at the turn of the decade. The new ships that Jie clearly saw were made for one purpose only, war. The fact that both these fleets combined doubled ZAFT's current numbers, and there was no way they would've been able to afford such an economic undertaking without obvious transfers of hundreds of billions, if not trillions of Yuan. That was not factoring in the asteroids either, which had to be carried in from the Belt and would be impossible to miss by satellites.
"It's the explanation I wish we could use, but from the last and most important piece of news I am about to show you, there's no telling just who has been behind these recent developments. At midnight, when all of this was happening, the lunar bases detected a sharp spike in communications on the far side and in L2. Satellites in L2 along with radar stations on the far side took these images, and what they have observed is simply impossible." Chen said gravely.
He typed in a few more commands into his computer, with the old images of the stealth fleets fading and new ones popping up instantaneously. What Jie saw were images of a third fleet, this time with numbers easily exceeding the first two which were centered around a third asteroid that was shaped in the manner of a cone. To Jie's immense displeasure, these weren't the most shocking things that he saw. What really took the cake where images of hundreds of colonies that had never before existed in L2, colonies that when combined would most likely outnumber both the PLANTs and the Earth colonies combined. They were not the traditional open cylinder O'Neils or the hourglasses of the PLANTs, instead these were closed type O'Neils, a design that had never once been put into production in the history of the Cosmic Era. Then there were a few images that especially caught Jie's eye, images of several sprawling lights illuminating an industrial surface that was surrounded by pitch blackness. These were lunar cities, on the far side of the moon, when all of the members of the Alliance had strictly prohibited settlement of the far side in the numerous colonization treaties.
Were Jie anything other than an experienced officer of the East Asian People's Liberation Army Space Force, then he would've most likely been struck with a sudden panic attack due to the sheer shock of the information that he had just been divulged. As it was, it was a miracle that he was still anywhere near remotely functioning.
"Permission to speak freely sir." Jie asked with his voice trembling, Chen nodding silently. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" Jie shouted at the top of his lungs, the exclamation echoing throughout the cabin, but Admiral Chen appearing unfazed with not even the slightest bit of insult at his Captain's outburst. "I can expect ZAFT somehow producing one stealth fleet, maybe even two. But three with three complimentary asteroids as fortresses, a plague that has somehow infected the entire Earth sphere with precision timing, and hundreds of space colonies?! Sir, I took a couple of engineering forces in the Academy, and I wrote a paper on the construction of space colonies and their strategic importance. The construction of even one is a severe strain on the national budget. The construction of hundreds would easily dwarf the entire Earth sphere's annual GDP. Even if these space colonies were somehow hollow with barely anything on the inside, it would still cost tens of trillions of Yuan just to produce. Either I am going through some sort of bizarre nightmare, or this reality as we know it has lost all semblance of sanity!" Jie said, finishing his rant with short breath. Remembering his position, he became extremely flustered and bowed in position to apologize, only to find Chen holding up his hand in acceptance.
"I forgive you Captain for your outburst, as anything less would be disturbing in this situation. At this point I do not know what to make of any of this. There are no logical or possible answers, and the best I can possibly think of is some sort of alien invasion is occurring, an alien invasion. Wouldn't be too outlandish with how much this is becoming some cliche Hollywood film. Unless we get answers within the next minute, I'm at a complete loss on how to organize the fleet."
As if Chen's answer was being answered from the heavens, his intercom flashed a warning with what appeared to be a call from the bridge. Chen responded quickly, then putting it on speaker to allow Jie to hear.
"Admiral Chen, this is Lieutenant Liu speaking." Said the ship's chief communications officer.
"This is the Admiral, I have Captain Jun with me in my cabin. What is the issue?"
"Sir, we've received a message from the unknown fleet, they've been broadcasting it on all frequencies, but haven't used any PLA or known Alliance codes." This new piece of information caused both officers to bolt upright in attention.
"What is the fleet saying? Are they with us, or ZAFT?" Jie asked, desperate for any kind of information that would shed light on recent events.
"I...I don't know. It's just been a single message on repeat, and the message is being played in English but not with any accent I've heard of. I can't make sense of what the person is saying, however I shall transmit the message directly to your cabin Admiral."
"Do it, as soon as the Captain and I have heard the message, we shall make our way to the bridge." Thankfully both Chen and Jie, like an overwhelming majority of officers in the PLA, spoke English, Chen speaking it fluently while Jie had a bit of an accent tied to his speech. So they would be more than capable of understanding the message.
The Lieutenant replied and within seconds the message was transmitted to Chen's computer. Chen moved his mouse and clicked on a new file. When he had the recording play, a deep masculine voice spoke in English with an untraceable accent.
"Unidentified ships and colonies, this is Admiral Wilhelm Lutjens, Commanding Officer of the Zeon Space Force Third Fleet and Commander of the Space Fortress Pezun. Over an hour ago we have experienced some sort of...event, where we now find ourselves in a Lagrange point completely differing from what had previously inhabited. To the unidentified ships and colonies, I request that you please state your identification and affiliation, and whether or not you serve the Riah Republic, Hatte Autonomous Republic, or the Earth Federation, specifically the Earth Federation Space Force in regards to the unknown fleet. We request that this be done as soon as possible to avoid any incidents. I repeat, this is Admiral Wilhelm Jutjens, Commanding Officer of the Zeon Space Force Third Fleet and Commander of the Space Fortress Pezun..."
Both Jie and Chen looked towards one another, looks of complete bewilderment sporting their faces.
"So...aliens?" Jie offered.
Chen sighed, "We're going to need to finish this bottle."
A/N:
And that's the end of Chapter 3, with our first introduction with the Earth Alliance side of characters. As a whole I'm looking forward to fleshing out and expanding upon the workings of the Alliance and its member-states and how they deal with working with and against each other while waging a total war against ZAFT. I'm aiming for a slightly nuanced portrayal of a divided coalition with a diverse membership of servicemen with differing ideals and personalities versus the monolithic Nazis that Destiny presented them as. We'll take a hard look into both the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Alliance, and see how Earth came to be the way it is in the Cosmic Era.
Both Norman Smith and Enrique Seguin are OC's of mine. With the POD being almost two months before Endymion, Zero Squadron and Mu's relation with its various members will be a prominent POV of the Alliance and many of the Zero pilots will become key players in the war to come. For those who disappointed with Mu's lack of presence, don't worry as I plan for him to be a heavy regular in the POV's to come. The Hawk of Endymion will have his time to shine.
I know that some of you will comment that Flay is not a Newtype in canon, and you are right. Flay was never a Newtype in canon, but she is becoming one in this story, as I mentioned in the last chapter on how several Newtypes were having their powers expanded, and Oldtypes were transforming into Newtypes. Many Oldtypes in both CE and Zeon will become Newtypes in the story, all being side effects of the event that has just taken place.
As for Flay's character section, with her I wanted to go in a unique direction that strays away from the usual fannons that fics like to portray her as being on one of two ends of a spectrum. Either Flay Allster is an irredeemable racist bitch, or she's a purity sue who can do no wrong. For me I want to show what Flay was like as a person well before the events of Heliopolis, mainly a spoiled and sheltered girl who is a heavy product of her environment. Yes she is prejudiced, but she is a citizen of a nation heavily influenced by a genoist KKK, it's honestly quite shocking that almost all of the Archangel was super progressive when the rest of the Alliance was portrayed as extremely bigoted in the anime. Right now without Flay being thrust into a war or watching her father die in front of her eyes, she hasn't been radicalized yet and for the most part is a normal girl. Though where her journey leads is going to radically change from here on, especially with her now being a Newtype. I intend to explore Flay, as well as her father George, very deeply as we progress on in the fic with what I hope is an original and interesting portrayal.
Captain Jun Jie and Admiral Chen Baoyi are both OC's of mine, and are the first glimpses of what life is like for a soldier of the Republic of East Asia, a nation which is essentially an imperialist PRC ruling over a reversed Co-Prosperity sphere. In my opinion, it's an extreme shame that while SEED was the first war Gundam that took place in a multi-polar world, the series quickly became a diet UC with the Earth Alliance being a highly bland replica of the Earth Federation and the only presence of the multi-polar environment being Orb, with Eurasia, East Asia, and the rest of the Alliance, ZAFT's allies and neutrals being completely forgotten and handwaved into subservient lapdogs of the Atlantic Federation or deep enemies, yet all of this being background material in comparison to AF vs. ZAFT with Orb saving the day. I for one intend to look deeply into all of the nations present in the Cosmic Era, with each one leaving their mark on the conflict and being deeply changed by the presence of Zeon. East Asia for one will be a major player instead of off-screen nobodies, and along with Eurasia and South Africa will be just as involved as the Atlantic Federation in the war. Zeon presenting new fates for all of the Alliance members. We'll see more of Jie in the future, as well as other East Asian citizens of various backgrounds and what part they have to play in the greater conflict.
Next chapter we will be getting back with the Zabis and seeing their first reactions, and afterword we'll jump towards Operation Uroboros and how it plays out both in space and on Earth. After Uroboros, the fun begins with everyone becoming fully aware of Zeon, for the better and worse of all sides.
Thanks for watching, and stay tuned for more!