With their arrival delayed under Admiral Singh's orders, Operation Uroboros began at 0600 Colonial Standard on April 1st. Once the ZAFT fleet positioned themselves in Earth's orbit, the first phase of Uroboros would begin with the deployment of the N-Jammers towards Iberia, France, and the British isles. 100 Nazca and Laurasia class vessels broke away from the main fleet to guard the freighters that would drop not only the N-Jammers, but the mobile suits of the 1st Terrestrial division that would act as the vanguard for Africa's invasion of Gibraltar.
Much to the dismay of Admiral Singh, the Alliance Orbital Fleet did not arrive to meet the ZAFT forces at the time Uroboros would begin. This was due to the delays of evacuating the ships that were filled with numerous Newtypes, the shifts causing a two and a half hour delay which pushed the arrival of the Alliance fleet from 0500 to 0730. While the delay of the Alliance forces did allow for the Gibraltar invasion and the beginning of Western Europe's energy collapse, it also had the potential drawback of forcing Alliance space vessels to withdraw from open combat with ZAFT, preventing ZAFT from fully exploiting the N-Jammers to eliminate substantial portions of the Alliance Space Forces before they were able to replace their fission reactors.
Fortunately for Singh and the fleet under him, the Orbital Fleet was led by a bloodthirsty brute of Blue Cosmos. One who would not let ZAFT "Defile Earth" and would rain down nuclear fury for the Coordinators daring to damage the blue and pure world.
The coming hours would make this sentiment one of the most ironic in history.
AFS Woodrow Wilson
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN WESTERN EUROPE HAS GONE DARK?!" Barked Admiral Booth in a highly unprofessional and loud tone.
The high volume of the outburst caused many within the bridge of the Wilson to slightly wince, though any temporary pain was quickly forgotten by the ominous meaning of the communication officer's statement.
The Lieutenant that gave the news turned towards the Admiral with his body slightly shaking, fear overwhelming him both from the Admiral and what was being displayed on his screen.
"Sssi-ir! What I mean is that not only have all communications networks across Western Europe, from Lisbon to Paris, have been completely turned off, but the region itself has quite literally gone dark. It's still a bit before sunrise, but from a visual standpoint alone all the urban lights have been completely turned off. I can't read any power signatures throughout the region."
Various gasps of horror could be heard throughout the bridge of the Wilson. It appeared that what just occurred was no mere invasion to seize a Mass Driver. Rather, ZAFT had somehow created a weapon to disrupt the energy grid of multiple nations.
"Has ZAFT unleashed nuclear weapons on Europe?" Admiral Booth asked. He knew that somehow, most likely through the racetraitor filled Eurasians, ZAFT had managed to acquire nukes. Siegel Clyne had made a public statement after Junius Seven that any future nuclear attacks on the PLANTs would grant a retaliation against the lunar cities, a partial reason for the political deadlock of the past six weeks.
'Those Patchworkers weren't just content with Copernicus, now they want to wipe out all life on Earth.' Thought Booth with fury.
"No sir, I'm not reading any fallout or spikes in radiation across Western Europe. Whatever ZAFT unleashed, it's not nuclear in nature." The communications Lieutenant replied.
"Could it be some sort of super EMP?" the CIC Lieutenant Commander thought aloud.
"If the PLANTs were able to launch a bio weapon throughout the Earth sphere mere hours ago, then anything is possible. No matter what trick they may have up their sleeve, we will not allow it to stand. Send a message to the fleet, we will continue forward with the operation and shall stop ZAFT at all costs. Their fleet shall be obliterated for violating Earth. For the pre...For the Alliance!" Booth said, nearly shouting Blue Cosmos' motto, a few members of the bridge crew taking careful notice.
'What the hell does it matter anyway? At this point we've been entirely vindicated.' Booth thought. Not only did the Coordinators unleash two bio weapons to eradicate the human populations, but they also unleashed a WMD to destroy any remnants of civilization on Earth.
To Booth, this was proof of the evil of the genetically enhanced, how George Glenn's spawn must be eradicated and sent to the lowest depths of hell. An action that he would gladly perform with his own hands.
ZAFT Vincent Ogé.
"Those idiot Naturals fell for the trap." Said Malcolm Dupree, a wide smile adorning his face at news of the Alliance fleet charging head on to meet their ZAFT counterparts.
"I wouldn't say it's intelligence or genes that made them act that way. Without proper information, in their point of view, we just committed the instantaneous mass murder of three hundred million people. It's obvious that they would rush to meet us to avenge those they think lost and prevent such an event from happening in the rest of their nations." Singh said.
In the end, all that mattered was that the Alliance would continue with their attack, presenting ZAFT with a prime opportunity to weed out their presence in space.
"Send a message to the fleet, all ships are to engage the Mariana Plan. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th fleets shall take position to flank the Alliance vessels. If the Alliance fleet shifts to meet any pincers, then we corrections is to be made at once. They must not engage until the 1st has made contact. Lastly, N-Jammers must not be active until the Alliance fleet is within the 40 km mark. For ZAFT!" Singh shouted at the top of his lungs.
"FOR ZAFT!" The bridge crew responded in kind.
Earth Orbit 7:00 A.M Colonial Standard.
With the Alliance fleet still a half an hour away from the ZAFT forces, Admiral Booth decided that it would be in the Alliance's best interest to have the first strike. An order was given for a grand sortie of Mobile Armors to launch in order to weaken the front lines of the ZAFT fleet so that they could be eliminated completely once the Alliance vessels could get in range.
Currently the ZAFT fleet was divided into five components. One was the orbital drop fleet filled with a collection of freighters for Uroboros and the warships guarding them. The second, or rather the 1st fleet, was the main battle fleet of 500 vessels that was currently on a direct course with the Alliance Orbital fleet. Three more fleets of 100 ships each were moving to flank the Orbital Fleet, the 2nd being on the galactic west of the Orbital fleet while the 3rd and 4th were on the Galactic East of the Orbital fleet.
Peculiarly, the 2nd-4th fleets were not attempting to close the distance with the Orbital fleet, rather trying to gain as much distance as possible from the Alliance vessels. As such, Booth directed the Mobile Armors to 1st fleet as they were the most immediate threat. At the same time he ordered the fleet to close the distance between each other in order to prevent portions from being picked off from ZAFT vessels, unaware that he was completely falling into the trap that Singh had laid out.
3,000 Mobile Armors launched from the various Alliance ships and began to make their journey to ZAFT lines. From the Atlantic (and South African Mobeius), to the East Asian Azure, and the Eurasian Valkyrie, hundreds of pilots from different nations and all walks of life raced to meet ZAFT head on and eliminate them to save the Earth.
After six minutes, the Mobile Armors were within range of the ZAFT fleet with hundreds of Nazca and Laurasia ships firing their anti-MA ammunition, along with scores of missiles, to thin out the approaching Armors. While dozens were eliminated, the Armors continued forward, their motion akin to a swarm of angry wasps that had their nest disturbed.
At 0709, the Mobile Armors made contact with both the ZAFT ships and their GINN compliments.
ZGMF-1017 GINN. Heine Westenfluss.
If anyone within ZAFT attempted to say in front of Heine that the Natural Mobile Armors were worthless trash, he'd walk right up to them, and punch them in the face while saying they were full of shit. It was a bit of an overreaction sure, but it was an ample one to describe how Heine felt in this situation when he and the other GINN's of the 1st fleet were surrounded by Mobile Armors.
While each of the Sponsor Nation's Mobile Armors were obviously weaker than a GINN on an individual scale, when you grouped Mobile Armors together in pure numbers they were a frightening locust that could barely be dealt any damage to. This was mostly due to the intricate CIC network that each of the Mobile Armors were locked into, allowing instantaneous communication and sharing of data feeds to every Mobile Armor currently in deployment. So long as there was numbers, any individual MA could rely on five or six of their brothers and sisters to come for support and corner any ZAFT vessels or suits.
It was thanks to this that Heine was blasting his GINN's thrusters into maximum acceleration, intricately dancing between the various ships of the fleet's frontline in order to avoid fire from his pursuing Moebius compliment. Every second Heine would shift to the side or change direction to make sure that his mobile suit could never stay in one spot. It was a performance almost impossible for any Natural, but for Heine he had his genetically enhanced vision and perception to guide him through the exertion that he was currently facing.
When Heine traveled under the underbelly of a Laurasia ship, his immediate sensors showed his six Moebius pursuits no longer following him due to the Laurasia's anti-air capabilities along with a fellow GINN. Now having a potential to strike back, Heine shifted his suit and launched the GINN upwards in a motion that would make it appear to somersault over the Laurasia. Bringing his rifle to take careful aim, Heine spotted two Moebius Armors near him that practically had their backs turned to the GINN, and unleashed fire. His 76 mm rounds tore apart the practically paper thin Moebius', claiming the two in quick succession before their comrades had any time to react.
Heine then shifted his rifle to target a third Armor, which was currently attempting to shift itself to lock on him. This action would end in failure with Heine striking the Armor down. A fourth Moebius would be taken out by the guns of the Laurasia, while a fifth would be cleaved in half by the second GINN that had distracted their attention. The sixth Moebius, which had been at the edge of the fight, had quickly retreated once their comrades had gone down.
"Goddamn Test Tubes!" Heine heard over the open communications channel, causing him to emit a small sigh. It seems that the one Atlantean or South African pilot they left alive would be the most bigoted. An unfortunate irony that had probably played out several times already in this short war.
"Thanks for the Assist!" Heine said to his comrade.
"No problem. I'm going to stay back with the Laurasia, it's my ship. Go out there and kick some ass for me would you?" The second GINN responded in a female tone.
"Sure." Heine said. Racing back into the fight to hopefully find his teammates and have them group together. His last kill had brought up the number of MA kills that Heine had today to 16. While it was an impressive count in the short timespan of the engagement, it didn't feel enough to Heine as already his GINN had caught a number of ZAFT vessels destroyed on radar, while the number of mobile suit husks that filled the vicinity were beginning to rise by the minute.
Seeing two of his comrades engaged with a mixture of Azure and Valkyries two kilometers ahead, Heine pushed his thrusters and speed to join the fight.
Earth Orbit
The first thirty minutes of what would later be dubbed as the Battle of April Fools, or the Second Great Orbital Battle, occurred in a manner that was not too dissimilar to previous engagements. While ZAFT had the advantage in quality, many of their units would be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers that the Alliance displayed. In the first half hour of the battle, 273 GINN's would be lost while 18 Nazca and 11 Laurasia ships would be destroyed. The main factor that prevented the ZAFT casualties from rising higher was due to the spreading out of the ZAFT 1st fleet, an action which prevented ships or GINN's from being grouped together and thus forced the Alliance MA compliment to divide their forces. These losses were not without compensation though as near 1800 Mobile Armors were eliminated. At 0725, the Armors fled back to Alliance lines in order to rest, repair, and rearm for the next phase of the engagement.
Until now the ZAFT fleets were fortunate enough for the Earth vessels to be too far away to do any proper damage beyond distant missile volleys, most of which were easily countered by ZAFT's own missiles thanks to the sheer distance between the two forces giving them enough time to return fire and defend themselves. While the Orbital fleet had thousands of tactical and strategic nukes at their disposal, they were too far away and ZAFT's forces were too spread out to allow for a decisive nuclear strike without the Alliance sacrificing most of their nukes for a fraction of the ZAFT forces. As such, Booth decided to keep his nukes in check until they were able to force the ZAFT fleet to condense together, allowing for a few major strikes to wipe out most of their forces.
Unfortunately for the Alliance, they would never get the chance to play the nuclear card. For as they came ever so close to firing range, the full horrors of the N-Jammer was about to be unleashed upon them.
ZAFT Vincent Ogé.
While it pained Singh's heart to lose thousands of soldiers of ZAFT within near minutes, it was a necessary sacrifice that had to be done in order to keep the Alliance unaware for as long as possible until they could spring the N-Jammers.
'Years from now, they shall become martyrs and heroes, eternal examples of how a Coordinator should be.' Singh thought remorselessly.
When the Alliance ships where a minute within the 40 kilometer line, the trap was activated.
"All ships, launch all available mobile suits and unleash them upon the Orbital Fleet. 2nd, 3rd, and 4th; the final stage of Marianas is now complete. Good hunting." Singh said.
"Activate the N-Jammer!" Malcolm ordered.
Within mere seconds, hundreds of N-Jammers across the fleet came to life, making the act of nuclear fission an impossibility. From this point on, thanks to the radio jamming of the Jammers, the ZAFT fleet would be in a near state of communications silence, any long-range transmissions needing to be done through flares or a telephone line of laser communications from ship to ship. It mattered little though, as each ZAFT ship was specifically trained to operate under high autonomy, making each vessel a deadly killing machine that needed to only follow the guidelines set for them.
When the N-Jammers turned on, the Alliance Orbital Fleet, which was mere moments ago racing towards ZAFT at full speed, seemed to die within seconds. For hundreds of cruisers, battleships, and carriers; their nuclear reactors and drives were killed instantly, ceasing all motion beyond the kinetic thrust forced upon them by Newton's First Law. While the ships had an emergency power system that gave them enough energy for life support and weaponry, they had no way to change their course beyond the minor tugs of their thrusters. This would not be enough force to alter their course, leading many to head straight for ZAFT lines on a death sentence.
Around twenty seconds after the activation of the N-Jammers, hundreds of Nazcas and Laurasias that made up the first fleet began to open fire on the Alliance vessels. Bright green beams along with the yellow flashes of conventional kinetic rounds danced their way across the battlefield, hitting the Alliance ships within less than a minute. Without any option to turn a different course, dozens of ships were either destroyed or heavily damaged in the first volley.
After continuing to fire for another minute, the 1st fleet stopped, signalling the thousands of GINN's at their side to fly straight at the enemy with the intent to kill. At the same time the 1st fleet launched a missile barrage directed towards the Alliance ships. The sensors of the GINN's allowed the ZAFT MS pilots to avoid the missile trails and seemingly escort them as they made first contact with the enemy. When the distance was closed, hundreds of missiles found their marks, while the GINN's unleashed themselves upon the Orbital fleet, like a school of hungry sharks tearing being presented with a grand feast.
While the 1st fleet engaged in battle, the 2nd and 3rd fleet closed in on both flanks of the Orbital fleet, while the 4th fleet made a grand trip to the rear of the Orbital fleet. Within this dense pocket, there would be no escape. All members of the Alliance would either die, or survive through a miracle.
AFS Woodrow Wilson
"FUCKING PATCHWORKERS!" Admiral Booth cursed at the top of his lungs, not caring one bit about who heard him using the slur. At this point if anyone objected he'd personally shoot them for being race traitors, fortunately no one on the bridge seemed to join the sentiment, as everyone was freaking out over the loss of power and their nuclear drives going dead.
Booth had just been informed by engineering that the issue was not some sort of electrical interference with their power systems, but that they could not get their nuclear fission drive to work, at all. The reactor itself was perfectly intact and all systems should be working normally, but they could not get the uranium atoms to split apart.
Somehow, not only did the Coordinators concoct a plague that was on its path of killing tens of millions of Naturals, but they had managed to defy the laws of physics and keep the atom together. It was a scientific impossibility, one that could only come from the foul and insidious mind of the genetically altered.
'And those goddamn hippies say there's no difference and they're still human!' Booth thought angrily. This was why the Coordinators needed to be wiped out, if they could create WMD's that simply said "Fuck You!" to the natural laws of the world, then what hope did the Naturals have of ever rising out from oppression and standing as equals. NONE!
"Is there any way we can broadcast to the rest of the fleet?!" Booth asked, desperate to get some sort of control of the situation, even if it was to lead the fleet back to Luna so that they could avoid being massacred.
"I can only send a direct radio message to the nearest twenty ships, and even then it's going to be extremely weak and hazy. Laser communications are still open, and I have several from the fleet asking for new orders sir." The communications Lieutenant said warily, his body shaking with apprehension over the situation that they were now facing themselves in.
Seeing as how he and the ships of the vanguard had little escape over the upcoming operation, Booth sighed and began to accept his fate. He would most likely die today, his death brought about by the space monsters breaking reality and embarking on their campaign to exterminate the Naturals of the Earth sphere. His only option was to try and use what little time he had left to coordinate a breakaway and make sure that any ships that were not affected could escape back to the moon. Hopefully after the atrocities committed today by ZAFT, the Alliance would wake up and pull the kid gloves off, deploying the fleet to destroy every single PLANT until L5 was an empty region of space.
"Send a laser message to the fleet. All ships whose fission reactors have been shut down are to release their Mobile Armor and have them group up with the rest of the fleet. For ships affected like ours, we are to make a last stand and send every single round that we have towards the Coordinator lines-"
"Sir, we are unable to get a lock on the ZAFT vessels." Said the Lieutenant Commander in charge of the Wilson's weaponry, breaking Booth's momentary charisma. Booth was tempted to get a harsh glare to the Commander, but gave up. It wasn't his subordinate's fault, it was that damn superweapon.
"Just attempt to fire with a visual lock, we have hundreds of ships deployed here, one of us is bound to hit the Coordinators by pure luck, and unless they can somehow screw Newton's First Law, all of our kinetics can still make contact." The closing distance also meant that beam weaponry was more than fair usage, though it also meant that they could be shot at as well.
"Total nuclear freedom is authorized by my command. Also transfer command of the fleet to Admiral Tao as the next in-line." Fortunately the East Asian Admiral was at the rear lines, and as such was most likely able to avoid his ship being impacted by the unknown superweapon."
The communication Lieutenant typed in a frenzy at the fastest pace in his life, "The message has been sent.
"Good. Men, today is a good day to-" Admiral Eugene Booth would never get a chance to finish his last words as a black and purple GINN shot itself to several meters in front of the Wilson's bridge, then firing with its 500 mm rifle to completely destroy the bridge, killing the men aboard through the massive round's shrapnel.
ZGMF-1017 GINN Hilda Harken
Greencoat Hilda Harken beamed a wide satisfied smile as she eliminated what reports claimed to be the flagship of the Orbital fleet, therefore incapacitating the Alliance vessels and giving ZAFT another piece of total victory.
Nearby her teammates Mars and Herbert were also at work. Mars was using his GINN's missiles to help Hilda destroy the Nimitz-class Carrier, while Herbert was using both his 76mm rifle and sword to eliminate the scurrying Mobile Armors that were fleeing the dying wreck. With a few more shots from her rifle aimed towards the center of the ship, and Mars' assistance, the carrier exploded with its hull collapsing and soon becoming nothing more than a scurrying wreck.
Fortunately for Hilda, her elimination of the bridge made the ship kill hers, something that her teammate groaned about playfully over the radio.
"Come on Hilda, that ship was mine and you know it." Mars lightfully complained. He already had three ship kills, two Drakes and a Nelson. The carrier was Hilda's fourth, while Herbert had only managed two Drakes. In the end though with the dozens of Mobile Armors that they eliminated together, they would all be definitive aces by April 2nd. And with how Hilda had eliminated the flagship, their rise to Redcoats was assured.
"Don't worry, I'll let you handle the next one. Or maybe we should let Herbert have a chance to play catch up." Hilda said. At the same time Herbert had climbed up to join them with his having eliminated the last of the Wilson's armors.
"You know you guys wouldn't get your kills if I didn't clear the way for you with the Armors." Herbert complained. Even now with the N-Jammer eliminating the Armor's communication networks that made each one little more than a headless chicken, they were still quite deadly based on raw numbers. Since the N-Jammers activation, Hilda had seen a fair number of GINN's go down with their pilots, a sign that even with the power to keep the atom intact, that Naturals were still a force to be reckoned with.
While Hilda enjoyed the small break in the atmosphere, she didn't want her wingmates to get completely relaxed and leave themselves open. They still had a mission to perform after all. "Guys, how much ammunition do you have left? I still have eight rounds." Hilda asked.
"Six missiles and two clips." Mars said.
"Five clips." Herbert replied.
Hilda looked around the battlefield, then settled her gaze upon an East Asian cruiser which was doing its best to push itself away from the ZAFT fleet with its thrusters. Currently there seemed to be neither Mobile Armors or GINN's surrounding the lone ship, making it perfect prey.
"Let's finish off the East Asian ship, 23 degrees from your positions." Hilda said, allowing both her wingmates to be alerted of their next target. Afterwords lets head back and reload." Hilda said, both Mars and Herbert voicing their agreement on the comms.
Within her cockpit, Hilda smiled at the ongoing course of the battle. While she wasn't out for the blood of all Naturals, she believed that they had to eliminate as many ships today as possible in order to send a devastating morale blow to the Alliance. The sheer size of this defeat combined with the elimination of Earth's energy grid would force them no other choice but to surrender. Then they could all go home, and Hilda's family could live the rest of their days in the peaceful PLANTs, her nephew growing up in a world of love instead of hatred.
"Alright boys, let's get to work, ZAFT isn't paying us by the hour." Hilda shouted, producing smirks on both Mars and Herbert. "On my mark-"
"JET STREAM ATTACK!" All three shouted, launching themselves back in the fight once more.
From this day forward, these three Coordinators would enter into the halls of legends as the Black Tri-Stars.
ZSFS Cerberus
"GAauaAh!"
With a heavy bolt and cold sweat pouring form his body, Lieutenant Miguel Gaia shot up on his bed, awakening from his Newtype-induced coma.
"Those goddamn thieves stole our name!"
Earth Orbit
From the instant ZAFT activated the N-Jammer, any hope for the Alliance to come away with a victory was completely wiped out. Barring a miracle on the same scale as the April Fools Miracle that brought Zeon into the Cosmic Era, the battle would be an assured victory for ZAFT.
Without their nuclear reactors to help them move, hundreds of Alliance vessels became sitting targets for the incoming onslaught of GINNs. Six weeks of accumulating turmoil over the Bloody Valentine tragedy was released within seconds as hundreds of GINN's unleashed their various firearms onto the Alliance vessels. With Alliance CIWS emplacements being entirely run by automatic guidance systems linked to radar, there was little to no direct opposition from the ships due to them being unable to lock on the GINNs. Most who did take a direct hit were able to shrug it off due to the GINN's sturdy armor, while a few unfortunate Coordinators would see their lives lost due to arrogance and ill luck.
Without a communications link to the rest of the fleet, the Mobile Armors scurried about the battlefield as little more than scared chickens running away from a pack of coyotes. Very few of the Alliance pilots present for Operation Uroboros had any battle experience in this war, while six decades of peace within the Earth sphere and the nonexistence of any previous space war made most MA pilots completely unprepared for the quick and harsh style of space warfare. This made them easy targets for their genetically enhanced opponents, who took a relatively easy time in slowly and methodically eliminating the metal hornets that danced around them. Some ZAFT pilots killed out of duty, others did it with a high sadistic enjoyment as payback for the decades of oppression that Coordinators have suffered.
The only positive for the Alliance vessels struggling to survive was how the extremely close distance allowed them to shoot back at ZAFT with little time to evade. Just as Admiral Booth predicted, while they would be unable to hit cleanly with their radar down, the sheer quantity of hundreds upon hundreds of energy beams, missiles, and kinetic rounds would be able to hit a number of ZAFT vessels, even by pure luck. While most of the ZAFT 1st fleet were able to escape unscathed, there were dozens who were hit. For some, there was little more than minor scrapes, for others, there was serious damage with hull breaches around the ship. An unfortunate few would see their ships destroyed instantly, while the damaged were being swarmed by Mobile Armors who were trying to take as many Coordinators down with them as possible.
While the vanguard of the Alliance Orbital fleet was being massacred in a manner that would make the Battle of San Jacinto look like a Mexican victory, the rest of the fleet desperately attempted to escape to Luna. In these actions, around 700 ships would be able to leave the battlefield without heavy damage. Unfortunately, the other ZAFT fleets that Booth had neglected in his focus on the 1st soon closed in, creating a tight pocket around the Orbital fleet from which there was no escape of the effects of the N-Jammer. Within an hour, all of the ships of the Orbital fleet were caught in the trap, thousands of vessels having their fission reactors shut off completely.
Wanting desperately to break out, Admiral Tao ordered for the fleet to focus all of their firepower and efforts on a single weak point of the 3rd fleet to create a pocket from which they could hopefully escape to Luna. Unfortunately, the minute acceleration of the thrusters kept them moving at a snail's pace in comparison to the fast pace of the ZAFT vessels. Any holes that were created were quickly filled up. The totality of the ZAFT forces unleashed their firepower on the Alliance, while swarms of GINN's made the pocket their playground as they were quick to decimate anything that belonged to the Alliance.
ZGMF-1017 GINN Heine Westenfluss
With the last shots of his magazine, Heine destroyed the Eurasian battleship before him, various explosions occurring across the hull while a number of flames were popping and then going out due to the lack of oxygen in the void of space.
The destruction of this battleship would mark Heine's fifth ship kill during Uroboros, a stark climb from the total two ship kills that he had made in the six weeks prior.
'If every other pilot did half as good as I did then the Alliance fleet should be well on its way to complete destruction.' Heine thought. Sure the battle was not without its risks as Heine had personally seen a few of his comrades get killed, but with each ZAFT pilot that was brought down, it appeared that ten ships and dozens of Mobile Armors took their place.
From the destruction of the Eurasian vessel, Heine could faintly see through his suit's camera a small grouping of three lifeboats that were being launched out before the ship collapsed. Heine was about to ignore these boats and find another target, only for him to then watch as each of the lifeboats were fired upon after the other, resulting in the deaths of everyone aboard.
Swerving his mobile suit to meet the source of the warcrime, Heine found the fire coming from a GINN that was positioned a couple hundred meters to his left. The GINN had not stopped firing and continued to empty every last round to make sure there were no survivors.
Enraged at the display, Heine flew to the suit, initiating skin contact.
"This is Redcoat Heine Westenfluss. Pilot, I demand your name, rank, and a damn good reason why you fired on non-combatants!"
A masculine voice on the other end gave a loud 'Tch!' to Heine's request. "Fuck you! Those were not non-combatants, they were either Blue Cosmos or their dogs. I'm only giving them the same mercy that they showed us at Junius Seven. It's about time after decades of being treated as sub-human by those backwards Naturals!"
Before Heine could retort, the GINN that he was speaking to was suddenly hit by a Moebius that shot straight towards the cockpit in a kamikaze strike. Detecting several enemy signatures, Heine kicked his thrusters into a heavy burst, pushing him several dozen meters to the rear while the suit in front of him was hit by a combination of linear rounds and missiles from a squadron of mixed mobile armor, killing the GINN in a fiery explosion.
"BURN IN HELL YOU FUCKING SPACE MONSTERS!" Shouted a woman's voice over the communications channel, joined by a mixture of several voices of varying accents who all gave similar slurs to Heine.
'You just killed the real monster idiots.' Heine thought remorsefully. Most likely they had witnessed the other GINN eliminate the retreating lifeboats, and then concluded that Heine was coming towards him to give him a congratulations after he had already destroyed the Eurasian battleship.
Sighing that he had to engage in what was already a forgone conclusion, Heine readied his rifle and shot straight towards the oncoming Armors, aiming his rounds to hit as many within the cockpit as possible on the first run.
After two minutes, Heine had eliminated all the nearby enemies, eight husks of Mobile Armors floating around him as the surrounding space flashed in a series of explosions and colorful beam exchanges.
Running low on ammunition, Heine headed back to the Giambattista Vico. As he did so, the young German Coordinator felt any excitement from the beginning of the operation be quickly evaporated, being replaced by a large sense of dread and melancholy.
At this point ZAFT had won a complete and total victory, most likely the greatest one-sided battle in the history of humanity. Despite this, thousands of pilots like him and the rest of the fleet still stayed to try to eliminate as many Alliance ships as possible, for no other purpose than to make the body count rise higher with each second.
While he knew that ZAFT had the moral right of the war and that there had to be a number of Blue Cosmos mixed in the opposing fleet, there were most likely tens of thousands of men and women who were simply doing what they believed to be a duty to their nation. Heck, they might have even killed a few Coordinators mixed in the Eurasian units. Countless families would lose precious loved ones today, a good number of them having lost their beloved member well after the point that ZAFT achieved complete space supremacy.
Most likely the war criminal that he had just confronted was not the only one of his kind in their ranks, numerous others probably committing the same or worse atrocities at this very moment. Just the thought that there were members of ZAFT who could get away with actions that made them no better than Blue Cosmos grunts made Heine feel sick to his stomach.
In the end, all he could do was simply fulfill his mission, and hope that all of the death and suffering both here and on Earth would force the Alliance leaders to surrender as soon as possible.
Unfortunately for Heine, this was only the bloody beginning of the most destructive war in human history.
ZAFT Vincent Ogé.
To say that the current course of the battle had exceeded Rahil Singh's expectations was a ludicrous understatement. Going into Uroboros, he had hoped to cripple the Orbital fleet, now it appeared that they were on the verge of completely destroying the Alliance forces.
Right now at current estimates, at least 3,000 Alliance ships had been destroyed, well over half of the fleet while the rest were probably suffering from some amount of damage. If there was a single Alliance vessel that somehow managed to survive untouched it would be a complete surprise to the Indian Whitecoat.
Such a glorious victory did not come without a price however, as after the activation of the N-Jammers there were an additional 35 ships that were unfortunately destroyed by the sheer quantity of barrages from the Alliance vessels as well as some frightening suicide swarms by the remaining Mobile Armors. The Mobile Armors were especially scary to watch as it appeared that with certain death around the corner, pilots were refusing to surrender or retreat and instead do everything to take as many Coordinators with them. Soon Singh had to order at least one GINN to guard every ship, something which he was sure more than a few pilots disobeyed with the convenient excuse of the N-Jammers interfering with communications.
While Singh wanted to leave not a single remaining ship left, it appeared that unfortunately logistics would cause him to cut the operation short. Currently from the information displayed on his monitor, the Ogé was currently down to a third of its ammunition. If Singh used his ship as a standard template for the rest of the fleet, it meant that every other ZAFT vessel was suffering the same predicament. At best some would have around half of their ammunition stores left, while some would most likely be down to a tenth at worst.
There was also the ammunition of the GINN's to take into consideration. The mobile suits were created as rapid-deployment weapons that were supposed to decapitate the enemy in a quick stroke. They weren't meant for long engagements like this, meaning soon they would have nothing more than their swords to charge head on against the might of the Alliance.
While it slightly disgusted Singh to think of it in such a manner, he did not have enough ammunition to kill every single Alliance vessel currently trapped within the pocket.
There was also the primary mission of Uroboros, the elimination of the Earth's energy grid to care about. At this current time the freighters for Uroboros were finished dropping the N-Jammers on Western, Central, and Eastern Europe. Along with this, the droppings for Africa were about to be wrapped up with South Africa now being encased fully in the N-Jammer's effects while the 2nd and 3rd Terrestrial Divisions landed at Egypt and Southern Sudan respectively.
Right now the 5th fleet was making its way to cover the Middle East and Russia, beginning the long journey to East Asia and the Americas. With each passing hour they would grow further in distance away from Singh's forces and be open to attack. If the Alliance decided to launch all of their lunar forces, or more fearfully the stealth fleets that they had bizarrely kept near the asteroids all the way til now, then it would be over for Uroboros.
Satisfied for now that he had wiped out a tenth of the Alliance Space Forces and that Europe and Southern Africa's energy grids were being wiped out, Singh decided to call for an end to the battle.
"Send a laser communication to the entire fleet. The battle is to be concluded under my order and we are to group up with the 5th fleet to support them in carrying out the last stages of Uroboros. Any stragglers who stay behind after the next hour will be considered to be in derelict of their duty." Singh ordered.
Malcolm Dupree looked towards his commanding officer with a not very hidden face of disgust, his eyes making it clearly evident that he wanted the battle to continue. Before he could voice his protest, Singh explained his orders.
"The fleet is running dangerously low on ammunition and we cannot leave the 5th unguarded. If we can't eliminate the Orbital fleet, then we shall be overwhelmed by the stealth fleets. Uroboros has to be seen to the end, with the elimination of the Atlantic Federation's energy grid being the final victory." Singh said, hoping that the mentioning of Malcolm's abusive homeland would get him to change his mind.
It seemed to do the trick as Malcolm's face twisted into a resting position that stated while he didn't like it, he would follow orders. "Send the signal flare for a tactical withdrawal. Order all mobile suits back." Malcolm ordered. Satisfied that his XO was compliant, Singh turned to the great task of organizing his fleet and trying to wrangle in any junkies still high off of victory.
By noon Colonial Standard, ZAFT had completely withdrawn the battlefield and made their way to join the 5th fleet in the N-Jammer droppings. By April 3rd, every member of the Alliance would see a supermajority of their energy production completely wiped out within hours, starting the great April Fools crisis that would see the greatest death toll in human history.
When ZAFT withdrew, they left a highly traumatized remnant of a fleet that was completely broken, desperately racing to get to the safety of Luna and away from the space monsters that had screwed physics over and caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of their comrades.
From the testimony of the survivors and victors of the battle, a chain of events would be set into motion that would see the Principality of Zeon make its formal debut in the Cosmic Era, one that would be bathed in iron and blood.
A/N: So once again, while I know that technically this chapter could be canon, there are some subtle changes that will have big butterflies moving forward, with the immediate 24 hours following Uroboros changing the war from canon entirely. So please have patience as I promise that canon is going to be off the rails soon.
One thing that I liked about writing this chapter was that it was my first official war chapter, compared to the battle chapters of Gihren's Glory which are all practiced wargames. In addition, from what I've seen I'm one of the few if only Seed authors who has ever tried to depict Uroboros, which when you think about it must be a pure horror experience for any Alliance soldier. This chapter will help serve as a template to any future large battles both in here and Gihren's Glory so please give constructive feedback so I can give you guys the best written action sections as possible.
Also yes, Gaia and the rest of the Black Tri-Stars are now Newtypes.
Next chapter shall see a few reactions from the Alliance side over the April Fools Miracle and Uroboros, and we'll also see Orb make its first steps towards initiating contact with Zeon. Thanks for reading and hope you had a happy Thanksgiving!