April 1st, 70 CE. Solomon. Lagrange 5. Dozle Zabi POV
As far as potential deaths went, Dozle Zabi would later remark that his last minute in the Universal Century was far from one of the worst case scenarios that he could've found himself in. While he was still a young man who fell victim to a cosmic phenomena that he had no control over, his last moments were spent with the love of his life in his arms, both spouses at peace. To Dozle, that would've been a far better way to go out than having his body be obliterated in a Zaku while engaging against the enemy.
Contrary to Dozle's expectations, instead of ending up in the afterlife with Zenna and those who served under him, Dozle instead would wake up in what seemed to be mere seconds to his perception. Regaining consciousness in a manner that felt similar to receiving the worst hangover possible, Dozle slowly began opening his eyes, his eyelids opening and closing in several seconds of daze, before staying open with Dozle finally resuming complete conciousness. Slowly moving his head left and right, his external senses still trying to recover in the aftermath of complete shock, Dozle took note of his immediate surroundings. While it appeared that the command center took no interior damage with the walls, floor, cieling, and various stations and electronic equipment being intact; all around Dozle lied multiple bodies in what seemed to be a state of unconsciousness, or fearfully, death. With his senses returning to him, Dozle felt mild pressure upon his body. Looking down, he saw his wife Zenna, lying seemingly lifeless upon Dozle's chest and torso.
'No, please no. Whatever happened, do not take her away from me!' Dozle internally pleaded.
Now fully awake and alert thanks to a small shot of adrenaline, Dozle positioned himself to seat upward thanks to his back against the wall, carefully moving his hand to Zenna's neck to check for a pulse, his fingers experiencing a slight tremble during the activity. Fortunately, his worst fears were removed when he felt a strong pulse from Zenna, with him further being reassured by observing Zenna's body slowly rising and falling in steady breath.
"You're safe my love." Dozle said gently, giving a light kiss to Zenna's temple while slowly stroking her blonde hair with his massive hands. So long as his wife was by his side then Dozle could endure any attack that came at his way, even some strange chemical or biological attack that the Feddies just concocted.
"This is impossible. How are you two alive?" Feeling as if a bolt of lightning had made contact with him, Dozle's attention was broken away from his wife at the sound of a soft feminine voice a few meters away from him.
Dozle looked away from Zenna and towards the unknown person, his body shaking and livid at what he thought to be the assassin who attempted to kill him and his wife.
"How dare you try to kill my wife, the men serving under me, and myself in such a cowardly attack! You-"Dozle's questioning stopped when he got a good look at the person behind the voice, someone whose presence brought great confusion to Dozle. Instead of facing off with some sort of Federation operative, what he instead found was a small, petite teenage girl. She had light orange hair and green eyes, her outfit consisting of a white shirt, black pants, and a purple shawl.
Observing her face, Dozle was surprised to see the young girl to be highly frightened, looking upon Dozle and Zenna as if she was looking at ghosts. Her entire body was trembling and tears were forming at her eyes.
"Am I dead, is this hell?" The young girl asked in a whimper. The girl's question disturbed Dozle greatly. Not only did she think that she was deceased, but to think that she was in hell? What could this young girl have possibly done to be deserving of such a fate?
For some strange reason, Dozle found himself wanting to do nothing else than to rush to her side in give this girl a hug, to tell her that she was alright and everything would be okay.
"No, you're not dead or in hell. You're within the space fortress Solomon. My name is Vice Admiral Dozle Zabi, Prince of the now independent Principality of Zeon. Who are you, how did you make it to the command center? Why are you on this asteroid in the first place?" Dozle asked.
While he did not know every single man and woman who served at Solomon, he knew that there were no teenage civilians who were present at the base. If this was some sort of assassin sent by the Federation, then they were either desperate or just plain horrible at espionage these days.
In response the girl began to cautiously walk back, a look of pure horror forming while a couple of strands of tears were falling. "This isn't real, this is a dream. It has to be." She stated, as if her presence here was an impossibility, one that Dozle partially couldn't argue with.
Gently laying Zenna down, Dozle got up and tried to approach the girl slowly, herself desperately scurrying away and trying to put as much space between the two as possible.
"It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just as lost as you are and I only wish to make sense of what is going on." Dozle said, reaching his hands out to show that he meant no harm, something that did little to nothing to reassure the frightened girl.
"I know I look pretty mean and scary, but I wont bite. Do you have any knowledge of the attack that just took place? If you cooperate I can guarantee your safety and help you get back to your family."
Dozle's words failed to provide any comfort to the girl, who seemed to be growing more hysterical by the second. "No, you're not real, you're dead! You were killed by Amuro Ray on Christmas Eve at the Battle of Solomon. I saw the footage, I watched you die."
Her words gave Dozle great pause and caused him to stop in his footsteps. This girl was stating information that was entirely untrue and had never happened, yet she said it with such fierce certainy that she must've believed it to be fact.
'Battle of Solomon? Christmas Eve? Amuro Ray?' Dozle thought.
"I'm not dead, I'm right here, talking to you. What's this Battle of Solomon? A state of war doesn't exist yet between the Federation and the Principality. Who are-"
"Dozle? Who are you talking to?" Dozle's questioning was broken by the voice of his beloved, who was now awake behind him. Dozle looked towards the lying Zenna, immense relief and joy present on his face.
"Zenna! You're awake! Zenna, I don't how but this girl somehow made it to the command center and she's claiming that-" Dozle looked away from Zenna and towards the girl, trying to present her to Zenna, only to find himself waving to empty space. Just as she appeared out of thin air, the girl disappeared without a trace, leaving no indication that she was ever here.
"Hello?" Dozle asked, only to be met with stark silence.
"Who was she?" Dozle softly said, completely unaware that he had just met with his future daughter, and that this would not be the last conversation that they would have across time and space.
April 1st, 70 CE. Parliament. Zum City, Side 3. Principality of Zeon. Gihren Zabi POV
On the floor of the Parliament, Gihren Zabi stirred, life slowly breathing back to the son of Degwin and heir to the Principality. With an exhausted groan, Gihren became awake and looked out to the scene in front of him. Almost the entirety of the legislative assembly was either passed out or strongly to come to as Gihren was, no one looking to be healthy and alert. What Gihren was seeing was strange to him. Whatever biological or chemical attack that had just taken place, it was the perfect method for the Federation to wipe out Zeon's leadership in one decisive stroke and eliminate its independence as it was born. Yet instead of sending ECOAS or some black ops force to finish the survivors off, Parliament was left in isolation. Perhaps whatever weapon the Federation used was so effective that they thought there would be no survivors. Yet here Gihren was still breathing, along with dozens of others in his immediate viewpoint.
"Why is it so quiet?" Gihren asked himself in a low whisper. Once again if this was an attack then there would surely either be noises of a battle outside of the Parliamentary chambers, or there would be emergency services such as the Royal Guard and Capitol police rushing to contain the situation and help any survivors. Yet aside from some low groans there was complete silence.
Gihren rolled up his sleeve and looked at a wristwatch. According to the timer, merely twenty minutes had passed since Degwin had signed the Declaration. Twenty minutes and no response?
'The Federation probably attacked all of Zum City. Still, why did they send no one off to finish the job?' Gihren thought suspiciously.
With his immediate safety secure, Gihren then tried to see how his family had made it. Looking towards the podium where Kycillia and Garma sat, he could find neither his only sister nor his purple haired half-brother. Most likely they had attempted to escape with the Royal Guard when the attack took place and fell victim when they were outside of the balcony, a rather fortune thing so that they did not fall to their deaths. Kycillia's fate held little care to Gihren, but he at least hoped that Garma made it out okay. He was the only one in the family who still loved and cared for him openly these days. Garma cared for him while Dozle and Kycillia looked towards him with suspicion and hatred respectively, while many times Gihren felt that his own father looked down upon him with disappointment, refusing to see how Gihren's vision would be the best path for mankind, forcing Gihren to fight for every scrap of influence and power instead of being granted it as his natural successor.
'Kycillia may leave me, but she would never leave father and he would not leave me to rot.' Gihren thought, deducing that Kycillia was either still incapacitated or on her way. Gihren could still comfort himself in the knowledge that Degwin cared for him on some level, even if it wasn't the close bond that they used to share several years prior.
Speaking of, Gihren looked down and spotted the Sovereign lying down half a meter before him, his glasses out of his hands and tossed to the side while Degwin's signature cape was slightly ruffled. Rushing down to Degwin with the little energy that he had gained, Gihren checked his father's pulse. He found a steady heartbeat and could hear a soft wheeze in his breathing, a condition caused by his obesity and age.
Gihren let go a breath that he had been holding and sighed in relief at the confirmation.
"The dream of Zeon is still alive." Gihren said to himself with his eyes closed. When he opened them again, he fell back startled as his environment changed and he was no longer within the Chambers of Parliament, rather within the throne room in the Royal Palace.
"What the hell is going on?!" Gihren yelled. This must be some hallucination brought on by the attack, it had to be! People didn't just transport themselves several kilometers into an instant.
When Gihren took in his surroundings, he found something more bizzare. At the center of the room on top of the throne was his father Degwin, and standing before Degwin was...himself? Gihren's other looked to be presenting Degwin with some form of documentation while a large monitor was in the background. The two appeared to be conversing, but Gihren could not hear due to the distance between himself and the scene on the throne.
Deciding to indulge himself until this hallucination was over, Gihren walked over to the scene on the throne. With each step he was able to hear about what the two were speaking of.
"Gihren, are you familiar with Adolf Hitler?" Said "Degwin".
"Hitler? You mean from the Middle Ages?" Said the second Gihren.
The comment from his counterpart caused Gihren to stop in his tracks with bewilderment. The whole conversation was bizarre for him. Firstly the fact that his father would ask him if he knew of Hitler. While Gihren cared little for history as his father did, he was not so ignorant to be unaware of one of humanity's most influential figures. Gihren even had a few books of Nazism and found their rise to power to be an inspiration in his planning for the consolidation of his power within Side 3. Hitler may have lost the war, but he had absolute control over his nation with no domestic force being able to unseat him until his death, something that Hitler admired and tried to repeat with the Zabi dictatorship.
The second strangeness of the conversation was that the second Gihren stated that Hitler was from the Middle Ages, something that Gihren knew was completely false. The Middle Ages were at the turn of the second millennium in the old Anno Domini calendar, not the 20th century which most referred to as World Wars Era. Why would he ever make such a ludicrous statement?
"Yes, a dictator, completely out of touch with the rest of the world. You seem to be following his footsteps." Degwin said.
"Is that so?" said the other Gihren.
This statement caused Gihren to be increasingly more puzzled. What could his father have possibly been referring to? The upcoming Operation Prussian? Sure the Operation may be genocide, Gihren had no shame in admitting such, but it was completely different to Hitler's Holocaust. Hitler had wasted resources killing millions of loyal citizens and potential allies due to asinine and artificial notions of race. Gihren was eliminating the Federation's presence in space while wiping out the corrupted Spacenoids who still clung to Earth's gravity and were beyond saving. Hitler's actions were done for petty delusions, Gihren's would cement Zeon's control of the Earth sphere and eliminate the Federation, leaving the chosen Spacenoids of Zeon to guide humanity towards their future.
"I established the Principality as a means to unite the Zeons and make the Zeon ideal a reality. But now.." Degwin said.
"Hitler's follower has managed to lead the nation to a dictatorship." said the second Gihren.
"Together with Kycillia." Degwin confirmed
"Yes, just as with the Federation a democracy will only promote weakness. People will only end up destroying each other, as they have done so in this war. I'll be victorious. See for yourself how a Hitler follower fights this war. I depart, to take my command at A Bao Qu." The second Gihren said, then leaving down the stairs and making to exit the throne room.
Gihren watched his copy walk out of the room. "Pathetic." He said, scoffing under his breath. Hitler may have been a man whose rule Gihren admired in many respects, but at the end of the day he was a failure whose precious thousand year Reich had been reduced to twelve. Gihren Zabi was a man who refused to follow anyone, much less a two centuries dead failure who shot himself in foot numerous time and squandered away the world when it nearly capitulated before him.
Gihren would not follow Hitler, he would go far beyond him. While Adolf Hitler would fade away with time an obscure footnote in human history, Gihren Zabi would be the man who set humanity on their chosen path to claim the galaxy as their rightful domain. All future generations would look towards Zeon as the shining city upon the hill, a city that was created by Gihren as its architect.
Gihren looked towards his hallucination of a father, who to his horror seemed to be looking back.
"Gihren?" He said.
"Wha-" Gihren blinked and within seemingly moments the scene shifted back to Parliament, where Gihren was looking back at his real father who was finally awake.
"My boy, are we dead?" Asked a dazed Degwin, with Gihren laughing back in a bit of mirth.
"No father, the Federation has not claimed us yet." Gihren said, reaching out his right arm which Degwin took, helping the Zabi patriarch to get back up on his feet.
"Gihren! Father!" The two eldest Zabis looked towards the center aisle where Garma was running towards them, tears of joy on his face as he collided with Degwin and gave his father a hug, one that Degwin reciprocated with his favorite son. Behind Garma, Gihren saw Kycillia following slowly with her pistol drawn, scanning the room for threats. There was also a single Royal Guardsmen who was shadowing the two, something that told Gihren that the rest of Kycillia and Garma's detail had yet to make it.
When Kycillia had reached her brothers and father, Gihren noticed his sister give him a disturbed look. This went far beyond their usual spats, with Kycillia observing Gihren as if she was looking him to make some sort of attack, as if he would strike her down at any second. This confused Gihren greatly. While he did enjoy their silent struggle as Kycillia was one to always keep him on his toes, Gihren would never physically assault his sister, especially right after they both fell victim to an attack by the Federation.
"Kycillia." Gihren greeted her neutrally, deciding to wait and see how she would act.
"Gihren." She returned with just as equal of a lack of emotion, not revealing any hint of her current thoughts. "I suppose you are going to chide me for allowing this attack to take place at the Declaration." Kycillia said, most likely a verbal test to gauge how he would act towards her.
While Gihren's first instincts were indeed to blame her for what had taken place, what had just occurred was far beyond a simple slip in security. Kycillia may not have been as skilled as he was, but he respected her enough to know that she was nowhere near incompetent to allow such an attack to occur of such an unprecedented magnitude since the Laplace bombing. "Whatever agent the Federation would concocted, it has gone far beyond conventional biological warfare and was most likely distributed using recently created methods. I can't blame you for not preparing for something that did not exist. Besides, it appears that the Federation was too incompetent to succeed if we have the freedom to carry out a conversation presently." Gihren said.
His response seemed to provoke a surprised reaction from Kycillia, with the spymaster temporarily dropping her cold facade and showing confusion before she quickly reverted to her resting face.
Gihren shook his head, whatever Kycillia was thinking he would deal with it later, for now he had to see to the families safety and bringing swift retribution to the Federation for their heinous attack.
He turned his attention to Garma and Degwin, with Garma surprising his eldest brother with a hug, one that Gihren awkwardly attempted to reciprocate with a light pack on his back.
"When Kycillia and I woke up, we looked down the balcony and saw you two lie limply. I feared the worst and thought that both you and father had died. The damned Federation! To attack us just as we declared independence. Do you think that they launched an attack on Solomon and Pezun? What if they launch the same weapon against Dozle and Zenna?" Garma asked with great worry.
"It'll take a lot to kill a Zabi, Garma. If we are all alive then Dozle and Zenna must be too. If they dare to strike against Solomon, Dozle will bathe their fleets in nuclear fire. What we must focus on is getting directly to the bunker and securing order in Zum City if the rest of the colony has been hit, or Side 3 if they dare to strike against the entirety of our nation." Gihren said, with Degwin nodding in agreement.
"Before we do so, we must organize an evacuation of the Capitol district and secure the members of Parliament and cabinet ministers. Our family is not the totality of the government and I will not allow the Federation to decapitate the legislature." Degwin said. Internally Gihren scoffed at the notion, Parliament and the party were beneath the Zabi family and they existed nothing more as tools of the dynasty. The survival of the Zabis was paramount above all others, not elected politicians who were entirely replaceable.
It seemed that Kycillia had also agreed with him as she begged father to hurry to the bunker since as Sovereign his life was important to all others. Degwin refused, with Garma siding with their father, and after a minute of bickering a small compromise was agreed where the Zabis would wait until a fair amount of the Capitol Police regained consciousness to handle the evacuation. When such a time occurred, the Zabis would evacuate with the Royal Guard.
It took a further twenty minutes, though eventually there was enough of the Police who had resumed duties for there to be an organized evacuation, allowing the Zabis to swiftly evacuate to the Royal bunker which lied underneath the Palace. Using an underground maintenance tunnels which had been closed off to the public and converted to allow for an emergency exit of the Royal family, the four Zabis were able to reach the royal bunker with swift time. When they had arrived, the Zabis entered into the bunker's command center where they would be able to connect to the Defense Forces network and coordinate a defense of Side 3.
What Gihren and the rest of his family discovered was a situation that they could never have imagined. Domestically the situation looked to take a turn for the worst. Not only was the Capitol attacked, not only was Zum City attacked, but every single colony within Side 3 seemed to be a victim of the attack. Scattered news reports showed the few reporters who had regained consciousness depicting scenes of cities that looked straight to be from an ancient horror film. Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands in the cases of public rallies for the Declaration lied motionless in the streets. Those who had awaken were trying desperately to tend to their friends and loved ones.
While the physical infrastructure appeared to be intact, there were a few signs of major vehicular accidents taking place, most likely due to people falling asleep at the wheel. Some broadcasts even showed footage of crimes of vandalism and looting being committed in the absence of law enforcement. Communication networks with colonial police departments and the garrisons featured several men and women trying desperately to mobilize their few available troops to restore order.
As bad as the situation within Side 3 was, it was nothing compared to the impossibility that was being presented to the Zabis. From what their long-range satellites were reporting, not only was Zeon in the midst of collapse, but it appeared that the entirety of the Earth sphere had transformed within the past hour. Sides 1 and 4 had been replaced with bizarre constructs that appeared to be giant hourglasses that acted as colonies. The near side lunar cities along with Loum had been greatly reduced in number. Sides 2 and 6 had been reduced to seven colonies along with one derelict one. The only places in space that appeared to be physically unchanged was Zeon itself, the far side lunar cities, Side 7, along with Solomon and Pezun.
Getting into contact with Dozle and him confirming that both Zenna and him came out relatively unscathed was by far the only good news that the Zabi family had received in the last hour. However, Gihren noticed during their brief conversation that Dozle appeared to be greatly disturbed. Not directed towards him like Kycillia, but more of a haunted look, yet he refused to inform his family of what had occurred in the base beyond falling into unconsciousness and observing a few of his men act hysterically.
When they had broken off communication with Dozle so that he could take stock of what was occurring in Solomon and the 2nd Fleet, a deathly silence settled over the Zabis. Garma would be the first to break the ice.
"Our scanners...they have to be wrong, surely? The entire Earth sphere can't have just changed itself overnight, surely this is an element of the Federation's attack, to not only launch a bio weapon at our people but to hack our satellites and leave us completely blind." Advocated Garma.
Kycillia shook her head in disagreement, "I think it's about time that we stopped blaming the Federation for this. There is only so much that Earth can do with finite resources. Launching a bio attack to strike two billion Spacenoids, the capabilities to launch those attacks instantaneously within hundreds of colonies, taking control of tens of thousands of satellites to present false information, all of this is humanly impossible. It would take years, if not decades of planning to launch an attack of this scope and preparation. For all that we blame the Federation, why have they not taken action yet? It is the perfect moment to destroy the Principality, yet the only signs of the Federation presence in space are the far side fleets, all of which have been laying idly at Luna. I may not be able to explain this, but I have no doubts that the Earth Federation cannot possibly be behind the events that have just taken place."
"Still, even if there was no bio attack, even if our satellite readings are correct, what exactly does this mean? Hundreds of satellites cannot go missing and be replaced with entirely foreign constructs. From the looks of it, it looks as though most of the Lagrange points have been replaced." Garma said.
"Or perhaps we have been transported to another world." Degwin softly said to himself. His children looked to him in equal bewilderment, prompting him to continue in elaboration.
"When I was young, your grandfather gave me a collection of Japanese literature from his youth, mostly manga and light novels that he had procured during his years in Japan. A good portion of these stories were of the "Isekai" genre. Isekai is Japanese for different or another world. As the name says, these stories typically featured a bland young adult male who was whisked away to a fantasy world where they would partake in tales of wish fulfillment meant to bring about a sense of escapism in the reader. Most of these stories were pretty bland and had poor writing, though I held an obsession with them in my teenager years, especially with how harsh life was in the colonies back then.
Within all of these stories, there existed a common trope for how they would start out with. The protagonist along with their friends occasionally would be partaking in a mundane everyday activity. Then they stumbled upon an otherwordly element that when they made contact with, they would be whisked away with a bright light to an exotic land with little semblance to their homes of Japan. Thus their adventures and the story begins.
Think back to how this all started. Gihren had just finished reading the Declaration, he presented it to me, and I made the signing. Literally moments after, this bright white light infects our vision, we fall into unconsciousness. When we wake up, we not only find the entire nation to be inflicted, but for the Earth sphere to be transformed into an unrecognizable state." Degwin said, finishing his explanation.
His three children looked at him with bewilderment, "Father. Are you saying that Zeon has...been transported to another world?" Kycillia said, disbelief tracing every word that came out of her mouth.
Degwin shrugged his shoulders in response, "I know what it sounds like, and what I've said is most likely nothing more than the ramblings of an old man brought about by memories. Yet at the same time, can any of you come up with a logical explanation for this fantastical event that had just taken place? Can you truly explain with zero doubt what has just been inflicted upon Zeon or why the Earth sphere outside of Side 3 looks to be a completely alien world." Degwin asked, being met with awkward silence in response.
Seeing that trying to make sense of what had happened would lead them nowhere, Gihren attempted to take charge of the situation."Whatever has happened throughout the Earth sphere it is none of our concern. What we must focus on is restoring order within Side 3, provide aid to disaster areas, and ward off potential attack from the Far Side fleets. Once Zeon is secure, then we can solve the question of what's wrong with the Earth sphere." Gihren said, with Degwin, Garma, even Kycillia nodding in agreement.
"Father, I implore you to invoke the right to declare martial law as Sovereign. Every civilian government within the colonies is most likely incapacitated. We must mobilize the Army to restore order while tasking the Space Force to defend our borders." Kycillia advocated, Degwin nodding in return.
"It shall be done. I shall send word for total mobilization and to place a travel embargo on all civilian shipping. If any civilian or Federation vessel crosses into L2, they shall be detained until the situation is over or dealt with as hostiles. Zeon has been independent for an hour. Let us make sure it continues to stay independent for several generations instead of days."
April 1st, 70 CE. ZSFS Ares. Wilhelm Lutjens POV
When Admiral Wilhelm Lutjens had started his day, it had been a simple one. All he had to do was to simply ensure that in the aftermath of the Principality's Declaration of Independence, that the Federation Fleet located at Side 2 would not launch an attack at the Homeland, as well at to watch for any suspicious movements of the Federal fleet towards the moon and Side 3.
So far the job had been performed easily enough. There was no indication on long range scanners of the Federal Fleets moving from their docks in Hatte, and the mood within Side 6, the Republic of Riah, was generally favorable to the Declaration with multiple outbreaks of pro-Zeon demonstrations within the colony. Just like Zeon in the aftermath of the Dawn Rebellion led by Garma Zabi, Riah had become the second Spacenoid nation to break further away from Federal control by declaring domestic sovereignty over their Side in the Riah Revolution, or the April Uprising as it was known throughout the rest of the Federation. An achievement created two years ago through covert Zeon support. Wilhelm had taken this as a good sign that if war were to break out within the next few months, that Riah would join Zeon as an ally and declare total independence as well.
When Gihren Zabi had read the Declaration, Wilhelm's heart beat strong and proud like any true Spacenoid. After decades of oppression, after the assassination of Zeon Zum Deikun, the sanctions and embargoes that the Federation had placed under Zeon for the past two years, they would finally be independent and free, no longer having to answer the call to Earth.
When Degwin Zabi signed the Declaration, the entirety of the Ares, the Gwazine-class ship that was Wilhelm's command and flagship of the Third Fleet, had broken out into immense celebration with Wilhelm even being able to hear the cheers and jubilation from the bridge.
However, just as Zeon was undergoing its greatest and most triumphant moment in its history, it seemed that Wilhelm's world was coming to an end. An impossible white light engulfed Wilhelm's vision and covered the bridge with the intensity of the sun. Wilhelm heard a couple of his men cry out in immense pain and agony, while he felt a great wave of exhaustion overtake him. Wilhelm had feared the worst, that somehow the Federation had sneaked biological weapons to his ship and the rest of the fleet as punishment for daring to break away from the oppression of gravity. He tried desperately to stay conscious, only to fall into darkness.
When Wilhelm had come to, it appeared that a mere twenty minutes had passed since he had lost consciousnesses. What Wilhelm had awaken to was chaos the likes of which he had never been prepared for. Across the fleet, tens of thousands of personnel had apparently been inflicted with some sort of case of mass hysteria, many screeching about deaths or great tragedies which did not happen yet. Wilhelm had experienced this himself when his CIC officer woke up crying and howling like a banshee, the young man muttering constantly about some strange thing called a Gundam.
While having a good fraction of his fleet falling victim to some sort of chemical attack was horrible news on any given day, the worse part was how in the initial reports that were still flooding in, a disproportionate amount of those inflicted were pilots. On the Ares, twelve of the Zaku pilots reportedly had fits of hysteria and "visions" of some sort of future. While the Third Fleet in its crippled state could still reasonably come out on top against a Federal attack, the loss of so many key personnel and pilots would cause casualties to unnecessarily mount up.
Well, that would be if there would be a Federal attack.
Once Wilhelm had taken stock of the Ares and a good portion of the fleet, his comms officer alerted him of something greatly disturbing, the fact that the colonies of both Sides 2 and 6 ceased to exist. In their place was a mere seven open-type O'Neil cylinders that were the entirety of a human presence within L4, a complete reversal from the hundreds of colonies that used to occupy this Lagrange point. Outside of a fleet of around three hundred ships guarding the colonies, none of which followed traditional Federation class design, the Lagrange point was completely barren.
Long range scans showed that this bizarre phenomena was not only within L4, but throughout the entire Earth sphere. In L5 where there should have been Sides 1 and 4, there were instead 120 colonies that followed some sort of bizarre hourglass design. How the hell such constructs could operate was completely unknown to the Admiral and his bridge staff. Side 5 was drastically reduced from several hundred colonies to a couple dozen. The lunar cities on the near side were reduced from 17 to 11. Pezun's satellites also showed that traffic within the Earth sphere was considerably lighter than usual, almost as if a large majority of intrasphere traffic vanished.
The only good news that existed, and part of how Wilhelm kept his sanity as endless questions were being created every minute, was that contact was made with both the Homeland and Solomon. While Side 3 had been afflicted with the same sort of biological attack, the royal family had made it through relatively unscathed and were working quickly to restore order. Wilhelm was also able to contact Lord Dozle, and while the two were not able to converse long, Wilhelm was able to confirm that Dozle Zabi shared the same confusion that was plaguing him, with Degwin's second son trying desperately to investigate just what the hell were the cylinders that had replaced the Federation's bastion in space.
With the whole world having been turned upside down and colonies vanishing and materializing by the thousands, Wilhelm decided to get to the bottom of this bizarre mystery and reach out in contact to the unknown fleet and colonies that cohabited L4 with the Pezun Fleet. Fortunately for now the fleet had not made any moves to attack Pezun, and if Wilhelm was to prepare his fleet to recover from the bio attack, then he needed to stall time and engage in diplomacy with the unknowns. Hopefully he would find out just who the hell had replaced both Hatte and Riah and if they were lapdogs of the Federation.
After Wilhelm had sent his message, it had gone unanswered for forty minutes. Wilhelm had feared that the unknowns had completely ignored him and had given up on contact, until his comms officer alerted him while he was in the middle of reading a directive from Zum City.
"Admiral, the unknown fleet is hailing us. The source of the transmission appears to come from a 'hammerhead' in the center of the unknown fleet." Said his comms officer, Lieutenant Janette Hu.
Putting down his data pad at his side, Wilhelm looked towards the comm station, "Have we established a visual connection?" He asked.
Janette shook her head, "No sir, it's radio only. Without knowing the telecommunication frequencies used by the unknowns I won't be able to establish one." She apologized.
Wilhelm waved her concern off, "It's alright. Just wanted to see the face of whoever the hell this is. Patch the conversation to the bridge's speakers. All of you deserve an answer just as much as I do." Wilhelm ordered, picking up his chair's phone to personally engage in conversation with the leader of the unknowns, Janette complying with his order in the meantime.
"Unknown fleet, this is Admiral Wilhelm Lutjens, Commanding Officer of the Zeon Space Force Third Fleet and Commander of the Space Fortess Pezun. Are you able to read us?" Wilhelm asked, desperately hoping that this would be a peaceful exchange without shots fired right after.
A small silence followed Lutjens, with the entire bridge of the Ares engulfed in an air of high unease and tension. Fortunately, they soon got a response.
"To the officer named Admiral Lutjens, this is Admiral Chen Baoyi PLASF 9th Fleet. We here you loud and clear on our end." Said a monotone voice on the other side. While a momentary relief filled the bridge of the Ares, confusion soon entered its occupants when they had heard the term PLASF, completely foreign to the crew with no knowledge of any Federation groups with the same name.
'PLASF? What could that possibly mean? Some special warfare branch that the Feds cooked up?' Wilhelm wondered.
"Greetings Admiral Chen. Could you please state your identification and who you are affiliated. What exactly is this PLASF?" Wilhelm said.
Wilhelm could hear what sounded like an insulted scoff on the other end, as if Wilhelm was somehow in the wrong.
"I should be asking you that question, Admiral Lutjens. You and your fleet are infringing on East Asian sovereign space. Since our nation would never employ a German as a flag officer, then you are not part of the People's Liberation Army. Are you some sort of stealth fleet with the Atlantic Federation? Eurasia? Or is this some kind of ZAFT trick?"
Before Wilhelm thought it would be impossible to get any more confused on the current state of affairs. Now he felt like a migraine forming from the sheer nonsense that this man was spouting. His bridge crew appeared to be sharing the same feeling. He could hear his conn officer say audibly, "What the fuck is a ZAFT?"
Tightening his grip on the telephone, Wilhelm hoped desperately that some sense would come to light within the next couple of minutes. "Pardon me Admiral, but what do you mean East Asian space? The only two nations that exist within Lagrange 4 are Sides 2 and 6, Hatte and Riah. East Asians may make up a substantial demographic of Spacenoids, they are not the majority in any of the Sides. This Atlantic Federation, Eurasia, and ZAFT, do not exist, either in space or on Earth. And the People's Liberation Army was nuked to oblivion in the Third World War along with Communist China. Tell me Admiral, why is there only seven colonies within this entire Lagrange point and who do you work for? If this is a Feddie trap, my men will not fall for some amateur deception!"
The response that Wilhelm got was one that was extremely aggressive, telling him that he must have pissed off this "Chen" incredibly, "The People's Republic of China and the Liberation Army was not nuked to oblivion in the Reconstruction War, we achieved victory with the reunification of China and the integration of Japan and Korea, reforming into East Asia. How dare you insult our history with revisionist nonsense! East Asia has always held sovereign control of Lagrange 4, this Hatte and Riah are nothing but foreign terms that do not exist. Why would there be hundreds of colonies when there has always been seven? Just who do you serve?!"
Now Wilhelm was starting to get angry. Instead of giving clear answers, this man was spouting fiction and trying to gaslight him into believing some sort of psuedo-history. "Like I have said before, I am an officer of Principality of Zeon. Two hours ago Lord Degwin declared independence from the Federation, so we are no longer bound to gravity's tyranny as the other Sides. I do not know what kind of trick you are playing at Earthnoid, but if the Federation dares to fire on Pezun and violate our sovereignty, we will retaliate and see the total destruction of your fleet, these new classes will make no difference on the battlefield."
"The Federation? We are not the Atlantic Federation, we are soldiers of the Republic of East Asia. So you are an Atlantic fleet that has gone rogue and declared this Zeon nation? While I do not wish to fight a nation outside of ZAFT, we will not tolerate traitors within the Earth Alliance." Chen said.
At this point Wilhelm was completely flabbergasted, desperately wishing for this sick comedy show to come to an end.
"What do you mean the Atlantic Federation? No such state exists on Earth, the only one I am referring to is the Earth Federation, not some sort of Alliance. Pezun and the fleet alone are not Zeon, Zeon is Side 3. The guiding light of the Spacenoids who shall liberate the Earth sphere from Federal rule. If you do not come with a clear answer in the next minute, then I shall end this farce of communications and consider you and your fleet a hostile force. Your ships will be stardust before you try to get within fifty thousand kilometers of Lagrange 2."
Instead of replying back with more nonsense, Wilhelm was met with dead silence on the other end. He had thought that the call was over and was about to signal for an end to the conversation when Chen spoke again.
"Lagrange 2? The hundreds of colonies that appeared, they belong to this Zeon?" Chen asked.
"Of course they-"Wilhelm's response was cut off when the precise meaning of what Chen had asked hit him. He asked about the hundreds of colonies that appeared, just as these seven colonies and unknown fleet of no known design appeared out of nowhere to the 3rd fleet. Within the Admiral's mind, gears started turning as all the information that he had just received was starting to come together. L4, the hourglasses within L5, the decrease in lunar cities, shrunken traffic, existence of completely unknown nations, an alternate history.
Having read a few science fiction novels of a similar scenario, Wilhelm was starting to formulate a hypothesis that he thought was impossible. "Admiral Chen, I am going to say a series of words. Once I am finished, I want you to say if they have any meaning to you."
"What kind of game is this?" An exasperated and tired Chen asked.
"Please, for the sake of both of our fleets, comply with my request Admiral." The "East Asian" Admiral gave his assent.
Wilhelm then said a series of words that should have been common knowledge to any true Spacenoid, "Universal Century. Zeon Zum Deikun. Contolism. Newtypes. The Zabi dynasty. Minovsky Physics. Earth Federation. The Laplace Bombing. The Unification Wars. Jupiter Energy Fleet."
"None of those words make any sense to me." Chen confirmed, filling Wilhelm with a great amount of dread.
"Admiral. I have one last question. What is today's date?" Wilhelm asked, holding his breath.
"What?"
"What is today's date? Not just the month and day, but the year."
"April 1st, Year 70 of the Cosmic Era." Chen said. The bridge of the Ares became so silent, that one could hear a pin drop.
"Today's date is October 1st, Universal Century 0078. To borrow an old quote Admiral, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."
March 31st, 70 CE. 11:59 P.M Colonial Standard. SS Raifuku Maru. Third Person POV.
With a permanent population of seven and a half million people, their core territories on Earth being a small collection of islands in the Pacific, and sole ownership of a single space colony and station within the Earth sphere, the nation of Orb was not one that the average denizen of the Cosmic Era would consider to be a power in space, especially when greater superstates such as the African Community, South America, and Equatorial Union were all denied a spot in the Earth sphere. While Orb was no threat through their physical possessions alone, they were a power through the financial capitol of a few select corporations that were the lucky innovators by being some of the first corporate empires in space.
One of these was Fuzan Shipping, an interstellar shipping company owned by its titular head, Shigeru Fuzan, head of the House of Fuzan, one of the Five Great Families of Orb. Shigeru's father, Hayato Fuzan, was one of the first to recognize the vast economic potential that located in the stars, and as such he created Fuzan Shipping to act as the facilitator of trade between Earth, Luna, and the colonies. After all, what was the point of space colonization if you couldn't get the resources of space to Earth and vice versa? Modeling itself in a manner similar to the shipping pioneers of Fedex and UPS, Fuzan Shipping would come to dominate intersphere trade, owning 25% of all space trade throughout the solar system.
One area that Fuzan Shipping dominated was trade between Earth and Mars, the long trek between the two planets and the lack of hard investment from the superstates on the fourth rock allowing Fuzan to own a near monopoly on trade between the two spheres. If the nations of Mars needed resources that could not be produced in the planet, they would receive it from Fuzan.
One ship that took part in this great exchange was the SS Raifuku Maru. She was a large, blocky, rectangular freighter at 1.5 kilometers, built to endure the great ten week journey from the Earth to Mars, ensuring that billions of dollars of goods made the safe journey between worlds. The last year was an extremely profitable one for the Raifuku Maru, mostly owing to the high demand of Martian rare metals by the PLANTs, the orders of which generated a fortune for the ship with large bonuses to its crew.
At the moment the ship was about to enter L2, signalling its return approach to the Earth sphere after ten weeks of travel from Mars. The ship's crew had been able to make the long journey through the usage of cryotechnology, keeping them unconscious for two months while the first and last week of the journey had the crew active in order to make for a clean and safe return.
On the bridge of the ship, Captain Kazuma Hara sat within the center on the captain's chair, relaxing blissfully as he gazed out on the ship's monitor to the distant but approaching moon. This most recent trip had been a great success with the ship having a profit that was millions of Yen higher than the expected goal. Within a couple of days after docking at Heliopolis, he would return to his family at Yalafath and spend some well deserved vacation time that he had been saving up. If all went well for the next year, then the aging Captain would be able to retire and spend the rest of his days growing old and content with his wife on the shores of the Pacific. It was a great time to be alive to Captain Hara, this current war between the Alliance and PLANTs be damned.
As the clock struck midnight in colonial and Greenwich mean time, Captain Hara witnessed his own two eyes an extraordinary event that few humans from the Cosmic Era would've had the pleasure of seeing outside of a recording. One moment, the space before him was vast and empty with nothing laying between the Raifuku Maru and the moon. The next a bright light engulfed the entirety of the Lagrange point, almost as if the sun had transported itself to the far side of the moon. After several seconds of intensity, with the Captain and the three other members of the bridge crew present shielding their eyes, the light receded itself. While the Lagrange had seemed to visibly still be the same, in the distance Hara could see what appeared to be blips.
"Captain, what was that?!" Asked a highly worried connsman.
"I have no idea. No such natural phenomena exists, so I would have to guess that the Alliance or PLANTs was testing some sort of weapon." Hara hypothesized, inflicting a small amount of horror onto the bridge. To a large majority of Orb, having grown up in a state of pacifism where their nation's motto was solely about how they would not get involved in war, the idea of any armed conflict in the modern period made them sick to their stomach. It was already bad enough that the Big Three had extended their arms race to the once neutral and peaceful outer space, but they had exported their bigotry to the genetically enhanced to the Earth sphere, causing the PLANTs to revolt to obtain their freedom.
When the crew of the Raifuku Maru had learned about the outbreak of what was being called the Bloody Valentine War, it had filled them with a great amount of disgust towards the Alliance for choosing to launch a nuclear strike on a civilian colony, with the ship's Coordinator crew loudly cursing the Atlantic Federation for their hatred. To Captain Hara, the outbreak of the war would be a tragedy even if such a horrific warcrime was not committed. No matter which way the war ended, the possibility of long term co-existence between Naturals and Coordinators reached near non-existence.
"Whatever has happened, I will not have this ship take any part in it. Mr. Ogawa, turn this ship's vector to L4 and have us make for Heliopolis at once. While I would've liked to have the ship stop at Copernicus, we will not be caught up in whatever escalation is taking place." Hara ordered, though visibly grimacing on the prospect of entering through East Asian space.
While Uzumi Nara Attha liked to present Orb as a progressive nation which welcomed everyone and anyone with open arms, almost all citizens of Orb held a high amount of hatred and distaste towards East Asia. It was thanks to the imperialism of East Asia that the first generation of Orb was exiled from their homeland after its brutal conquest, only surviving thanks to the great wealth and ingenuity of the Five Great families. Hara himself had been a baby when he and his family left their ancestral homes on Okinawa to Chinese rule. He was well aware of many cousins and distant relatives who still suffered under the oppression of East Asian rule, only a lucky few were able to survive and escape to join his family in Orb.
For the next hour the Raifuku Maru continued its way to Heliopolis after Hara had alerted the crew of the "military test". While there was some minor apprehension, the crew who were awake at the current time went on with their schedules, feeling safe that neither side would dare attack on Orb and violate their neutrality.
Around one o'clock, Hara was about to end his shift and go to sleep, when he was asked by his communications officer, a young female Coordinator by the name of Amane Miyata to come to her station as he was heading out.
"Have you heard a distress signal Miyata-san?" Asked Hara.
She shook her head as he approached, with Hara being surprised on finding a great deal of fear and apprehension on her facial features. "No Captain. However, I've been scanning long-range communications within the Lagrange point and have conducted scans of the region as I was curious to what that light was. What I've found...well I'm not really sure what I've found to be honest."
A frown formed on Hara's face, "Why was I just now alerted of this?" He asked.
"Because sir, what I'm seeing and hearing should not exist within L2. Not only have I been picking up a major spike in communications which goes far beyond the current levels within Ls 1,4,5 and the moon, but I've detected not only an impossibly high amount of spaceships within the Lagrange, but several hundred colonies that did not previously exist hours ago." Miyata said.
Hara looked at her incredulously, "Hundreds of colonies? That's impossible, not even Earth has the resources to..."Captain Hara became dead silent when Miyata typed on her console and pulled up several images of what appeared to be closed type O'Neil cylinders, colonies which were never implemented by the nations of Earth. Around each colony were dozens to hundreds of ships of varying sizes. What was most worrying to Hara was one image that showed a large asteroid shaped like an cone which was surrounded by hundreds of ships of some foreign military design.
"Are you sure that these images are really of what's present within Lagrange 2?"
"Do you believe I am lying to you Captain?" Miyata asked, insulted at the connotation.
Hara shook his head, "No, it's just physically impossible. We swung by L2 two months ago and none of this was here. The Alliance could not have built these colonies, it would have taken their entire fiscal budgets. Why would they even-"Hara was interrupted when a beeping noise came from Miyata's station, signalling a direct communication to the Raifuku Maru.
"Audio only sir. It appears to be coming from four hundred kliks galactic west within the Lagrange point."
"Play it." Hara ordered. Miyata did as ordered, and within five seconds a gruff masculine voice filled the speakers of the bridge.
"Unidentified ship, this is Commander Edgar Cruz of the ZSFS Brunswick. Please state your name, identification, port of origin and destination." The bridge crew frowned at the statement, the ship hailing them acted like a military vessel, but to their knowledge none of the nations within the Earth sphere used ZSFS as a moniker. The closest that came to mind was ZAFT but they named all their vessels starting with ZAFT itself, unless they changed it in the time that the Raifuku Maru was gone. Yet why would the PLANTs be in L2?
Under Hara's orders, Miyata initiated contact with the ship. "Brunswick, this is Captain Kazuma Hara of the SS Raifuku Maru, an Orb intersphere freighter under the ownership of the Fuzan Shipping Corporation. We are on a return trip from the Martian sphere and seek to head to Heliopolis in L3." Hara responded.
"Raifuku Maru, we have no records of a corporation called "Fuzan Shipping" and no such colony named Heliopolis exists in Side 7. Please state your true identification within the next minute or else you shall be interred as suspects of the biological attack on the Principality."
Hara's jaw dropped open at the barrenness of this Commander Cruz's statement. Not only did they claim that Fuzan Shipping did not exist, but they also stated that Heliopolis did not exist, when it was highly famous within the Earth sphere as the only colony of Orb.
'What's this Side 7. What Principality?' Hara wondered in bewilderment.
"Captain, this is the vessel that is hailing us." Miyata said, putting a video feed on the main screen of the bridge. Hara found himself staring at a large green warship that did not follow the designs of ZAFT or the Earth Alliance. It was a long vessel with its primary featured being three gun turrets on a narrow and thin mid-section leading from the main body to a bridge. While the bridge itself was also connected to two engines on the port and starboard sections of the ship. It was a strange design to the eyes of Hara, though oddly enough it reminded him of images of the Imperial Japanese Navy that his ancestors served in.
"Commander Cruz, I'm afraid I do not understand your statement. What is this Side 7 that you speak of, it is no area that Heliopolis identifies with. Once more, what is this biological attack that you speak of and what Principality? Orb is a nation of noble Emirates while Scandinavia is a Kingdom."
"If your attempt of escape is to play so dumb that you are unaware of reality then I can ensure you Captain that you have failed utterly. Since you refuse to speak in any form of sense, I demand that the Raifuku Maru allow the Brunswick to escort it to the Kudelia colony for interment. Any hostility or refusal to cooperate will result in the Brunswick opening fire. For the safety of your crew, cooperation is essential. Cruz out." The Commander said, cutting off the transmission before Hara could defend himself or try to reason with the unknown ship.
Miyata and the two connsmen looked Hara for guidance, desperate for some way out. Unfortunately barring divine intervention, there were none. The only military capabilities the ship had was a collection of small arms to deal with hostile boarders, criminals, or stowaways. They had no external defensive capabilities, allowing the Brunswick's six canons to easily eliminate them without the fear of retaliation. For now, Hara and his crew were destined to become prisoners of this unknown group.
"Miyata-san, send a transmission to Heliopolis and Ame-no-Mihashira with the sensory data that we have on L2 and the communications log with the Brunswick. Also send a general SOS to Luna and L1. For now we can only play nice and comply with the Brunswick's demands barring any extremes. All we can do now is have faith that Chief Executive Uzumi will be able to negotiate our release." If there was one man they could trust to bring peace and prevent conflict with this unknown group of hostiles, it would be Uzumi Nara Attha.
A/N: Firstly in this part of the chapter we have Dozle having a conversation with future Mineva as well as the revelations of him being a Newtype. Just to clarify first, Mineva was not physically within Solomon and there will not be an ISOT with Gundam Unicorn. At least for this story alone, Zeon will be the only physical nation or group transplanted from UC to CE. Also, Dozle's future conversations with Mineva will not affect the plot of Unicorn so exclusive focus will be on the fused CE timeline. What has happened is CC Dozle talking to canon Mineva. I know I wrote in the first chapter that Dozle would not get an explanation until the day he died, but I will remove that line surely and just so you know him learning of Mineva will not automatically lead to his death. This change will not change anything drastically of the plot I have established, rather it is meant to expand upon Dozle's character arc through the story and the person he becomes in the end.
Next we have Gihren's POV, which was a fun experience to write the inner thoughts of Space Hitler instead of his self-insert. Gihren's journey within the story and his role in events to come is going to be interesting as he has not gone off the deep end yet, especially since he hasn't committed genocide and Degwin is still standing strong to stop his worst extremes. My portrayal of Gihren here is someone who is a monster in the making, yet still has some shreds of humanity deep inside of him that are slowly disappearing. Whether Gihren will adjust to this new world and become a new man or continue his descent towards Hitlerism shall be an important plot point as we move forward. For those who are confused on why Gihren rejected himself as a Hitler follower in his vision, I wrote it as something I saw of being in-character as Gihren would not see himself as being a follower of anyone, rather being beyond all those who came before him. Sure he admires Hitler, but at the end of the day Gihren still sees Hitler as inferior because he failed, a great irony with Gihren's megalomania making him blind towards making the same choices and mistakes.
Also to make a small spoiler to address a question that I'm sure many people will ask, yes, Degwin and his children are all Newtypes. They are Oldtypes in canon and were in the beginning, however their journey to the Cosmic Era has made them become awakened along with tens of millions of other Oldtypes in Zeon, which will present some interesting paths for the Zabi dynasty. Just to be clear, former Oldtypes who were awakened are on average greatly weaker than Newtypes by birth and as such we wont see the Zabis become perfect psychics. The family's Newtype potential is average or below average, except for Dozle who can stand equally with many heavyhitters due to reasons that will be explored later.
Just as we have seen in the last chapter, the Zabis are not the first or last Oldtypes on either side who have been awakened. We'll see plenty of more characters from both universes become Newtypes as the story moves forward in the future. As for existing Newtypes, let's just say they're about to reach past their limits and explore new potential.
Admiral Wilhelm Lutjens is an OC of mine who is partially based on Admiral Gunther Lutjens who was the commander of the legendary Battleship Bismarck. Right now contact has been initiated with Zeon and East Asia, though whether or not this contact shall stay peaceful remains to be seen.
Lastly in the chapter we have the seizure of the Raifuku Maru by the Brunswick, which will be the starting point for Orb's proper insertion into the plot. Throughout Cosmic Crusade, one of my main objectives will be to deconstruct and flesh out Orb to present it as a realistic state that could come into existence instead of the perfect superpower of canon. Orb unfortunately suffers from a case of both poor worldbuilding and lack of worldbuilding, the latter especially being true in its politics with the Orb political system never once being explained beyond vague feudalism, and 2 out of the 5 Great Houses not existing in any SEED materials. Here I intend to rectify that, which I have already started with the introduction of House Fuzan, with its head Shigeru Fuzan being sort of CE's equivalent Woomin Luio. The fifth house that I have created, House Keitamura, will appear later in a chapter with Uzumi addressing his fellow House Heads.
To address a question on the ships that Talia and Rau were on, Talia's ship the ZAFT Georges Danton is a Laurasia as was Rau's ship, the Jin Yuelin. Rau was stationed on the Jin Yuelin solely for Uroboros while had canon proceeded, he would've been stationed on the Galvani at Endiyomon. Also just to let readers know, I am going to make a canon divergence and have both Eurasia and East Asia have their own ships and mobile armor at the start of the war. To me it's completely BS that Eurasia and East would use the exact same weaponry and vehicles as the Atlantic Federation when they were in a Cold War a few years prior. This is only possible if they were heavily running off of a Lend-Lease pact, which would not be possibly outside of light amounts due to the Atlantic Federation suffering the energy crisis and having to supply their own forces.
Just to let people know about the two nations, Eurasia's ships follow the Martian Congressional Republic Navy from the Expanse while East Asia follows the UN Navy from the same show, though the tech is different and have more standardized scales between 200-500 meters. Eurasia has the Scirocco-class as their carriers, the Donnager-class as their Battleships, and a Corvette class as their cruisers but five times larger. East Asia has the Truman-class as their carriers, the Leonidas-class as their battleships, and the Monroe-class as their cruisers. Eurasia also uses the Walkure from LOTGH as their initial mobile armor while East Asia has the Spartanian from LOTGH as theirs, though both fighters are at a 1/4th of their size from the show.
Next chapter shall be the leadup to Operation Uroboros with Chapters 6-7 covering Uroboros itself. Uroboros could technically be considered a station of canon, there will be some very subtle differences here thanks to the April Fools Miracle and the direct aftermath of Uroboros will lead to two events which shall throw canon off the rails and turn CE to new territory. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more!