After Admiral Chen had made first contact with Wilhelm Lutjens and the greater Zeon 3rd fleet, he had sent the transcripts of the conversation as well as information that Zeon had transmitted to them of the Universal Century to East Asia's premiere lunar base, the Maginus lunar base. While the East Asian lunar command was highly skeptical of the claims that Admiral Chen made, there was little evidence to directly contradict the Admiral's claims of a new nation being transported to the Cosmic Era, not to mention the sheer impossibility of such an infrastructural project for the previously carefully regulated PLANT. After some minor debate, East Asia sent its data to its Atlantic, Eurasian, and South African allies to inform them of the latest development.
Calls ran back and forward between the Alliance based with intense discussion over the veracity of these claims and whether or not they should send a fleet to Zeon. Outside of the threat of hundreds of space colonies within L2, there was also the sudden appearance of nine lunar cities on the far side, with transmissions to the near side asking for a Von Braun and Earth Federation seeming to further fuel the legitimacy of Zeon's existence.
All was set for a peaceful first contact between Zeon and the Alliance, and had the insertion been made days ago, such an event might have occured. Unfortunately for both parties, The April Fools Miracle occurred hours before Uroboros.
When the Orbital fleet survivors came back from the Battle of April Fools, they spread tales of the impossible, how the Coordinators had unleashed a mysterious weapon that had completely halted the nuclear fission process within the Alliance's reactors. This caused the ships to be left adrift and powerless and ZAFT proceeded to destroy each ship and mobile armor by the thousands. A few survivors also shared tales of war crimes, of how ZAFT had gleefully fired on hundreds of escape pods and shuttles of the Alliance, the survivors only remaining alive due to sheer luck and lack of ammunition. Of course, some of the survivors were Blue Cosmos members who would've gladly committed the same crimes if there was no N-Jammer, but that was irrelevant in the here and now.
With the indisputable firsthand account of hundreds of thousands of survivors, the Alliance command quickly fell into a terrified hysteria over the impossibility of Coordinators somehow managing to defy the laws of physics. All warships were recalled to the Lunar bases to serve as defensive emplacements to make sure that the Lunar cities would make a grand last stand against the Coordinator menace while Earth suffered from lack of power. The lunar engineers were also quick at work on converting as many ships as they could to chemical rockets for propulsion so that they could have some maneuverability in battle and not be sitting ducks, completely open to the GINNs.
A grave consequence of the existence and lack of knowledge of the N-Jammer as the cessation of any attempts to make contact with Zeon. To the Alliance, if ZAFT was somehow able to defy physics itself, then surely they could create hundreds of colonies with no resources and plant two stealth fleets with asteroids at L4 and L5? Decades of fear against the enhanced came to its worst as most Alliance members assumed that anything was possible by these superhumans who could seemingly bend reality to their whim. A tragic result from this would be hate crimes committed against Coordinator personnel or civilians within the lunar cities, thousands of casualties breaking out on the first day alone.
To the Alliance, Zeon did not and never existed, it was all an elaborate rouse by ZAFT to get the Alliance to drop their guard down and strike at their most vulnerable. While there were a good number of flag officers who were still open to the idea of Zeon's existence, they were a shrinking minority with those at the very top assuming a Coordinator plot.
Had the Alliance fleets stayed at their bases then maybe something could be salvaged before it was too late. Unfortunately, events within Maginus set in motion the second half of the First Contact War, the Battle of Pezun.
April 1st, 70 CE. 2000 Colonial Standard. Maginus East Asian Lunar Base. Third Person POV
"Let the record show that I, General Park Dae-Woo, strongly object to this asinine plan which is nothing more than the greatest strategic blunder of this war and a massive waste of hundreds of thousands of our men!" Shouted vehemently General Park Dae-woo, the only Korean, as well as non Han-Chinese, member of East Asian Space Command (EASC) the body of flag officers who held direct command over East Asia's space deployments in the Earth sphere. General Park was head of the People's Liberal Army Lunar corps, a subdivision of the ground force dedicated to infantry and mechanized operations on the moon.
The plan that Park so strongly objected to was the deployment of 2300 ships to the "stealth fleet" located in L4 and have them attack the fleet and the fortress. While such a plan was suicidal with the N-Jammer (as survivors were quick to referring to the mysterious ZAFT superweapon), it was a belief of the majority of ESAC that the stealth fleets weren't equipped with the N-Jammers, which was why they were desperately claiming to be this "Zeon", a lie to get them prepared for the installation of the N-Jammer and for their stealth systems to work at full capacity.
To make sure that they wouldn't run into any ships with the N-Jammer, a simple test would be conducted. A flight of over 2,000 mobile armors would be sent to the stealth fleet while being presented as a patrol to make way for a fleet that is supposed to go en route to the L4 colonies. These MA's, the Azure-class, would then choose a stealth ship or collection of stealth ships, and fire dozens of nukes at the vessel. If the nuke went off, then the fleet was to attack and annihilate them with a major portion of East Asia's nuclear stockpile. If not, then they would retreat to the moon.
"We have too many unknowns on the Coordinators to simply waste away over a quarter of our remaining fleet on a wild and childish gambit. If the stealth fleet does have access to N-Jammers, then our men will be marched to their deaths on a manner so foolhardy that it would make Mussolini look like the second coming of Sun Tzu. Even if there are no N-Jammers, the numbers are simply too great for an engagement in battle without the deployment of a majority of our fleet as well as our allies. We would need over 10,000 ships just to get a victory." Park said.
"What do you know about space battles Park?" An Admiral barked.
"I may not serve on a warship on a daily basis, but what I do know is that 5,000 of our best ships were obliterated by 900 ZAFT vessels with minimal losses. We have only won victories in this war through overwhelming numbers, therefore it is ludicrous to not send a force of at least a 10 to 1 ratio against a force of 1278 ships with seemingly more advanced models than those at orbit." Park replied, a strong line of logic that few could deny. "L4 is strategically useless. The loss of that point is worthless compared to the loss of one of our lunar cities. We must retreat and concentrate everything we have here. We evacuated L1, therefore we should evacuated L4."
"Perhaps you want to retreat like a coward Park because you hold sympathy for your Nationalist kin?" The same agitator questioned with a sneer, a grave insult to Park that gave great pause and disapproval to even the most diehard Chinese nationalists within the room.
"HOW DARE YOU! I have served my country proudly for over thirty years, my father fought the Seoul regime to create a unified East Asia! Yet you dare to question my allegiances-"Park said, fuming greatly with his face turning red over the racist accusations, only to be interrupted by the head of ESAC, Fleet Admiral Wei Gang.
"Settle down General, your superiors and equals hold no doubt of your loyalty and service to the nation, it is just unfortunate that some choose to hold onto the past and overlook the virtue and character of their fellow man. A lesson that will be reminded later." Wei said, eyeing down Park's agitator who slithered into his seat under the pressure.
"As for your objections General, L4 is not strategically useless. While the homeland and the colonies proper are populated by outstanding citizens who are loyal to the state and would dare not betray their kin, the criminals and vagrants of L4 are proven Ultranationalists who would overturn the enlightenment of the Cosmic Era and degrade us back to the backwards days of Anno Domini. The L4 cluster was created to give these vagrants land to start new lives while preventing them from spreading their dangerous sedition to corrupt citizens. If ZAFT decides to conquer the L1 colonies, we have nothing to fear because they are populated by good citizens who will never cooperate with the Coordinators. If they conquer the L4 colonies, they shall create a puppet state which shall act as a mouthpiece to promote secession and the dissolution of the Republic. Therefore, it is of the upmost national security that we eliminate this stealth fleet before an invasion begins." Said Wei, completely oblivious to the racial hypocrisy that he made in defending Park as well as vilifying those within the L4 colonies.
"Even so, like I said sir, it would be best to engage in this battle with overwhelming numbers. As we cannot send the entirety of the Space Force to a single battle, can we not call on our allies for help?" Park pleaded, wanting to desperately use any logic to avert, or at least heavily edit this foolish action.
"We have tried to contact our allies, however they refuse to adhere to the terms of the Alaska Declaration and would rather protect their own cities than act as true members of the Alliance. While South Africa's decision is understandable, Eurasia and the Atlantic Federation refuse to see our need, calling L4 a strategic waste. Just goes to show you that despite the diplomat's honey words, the West shall always seek to dominate and overpower us just as they have been doing for the last three centuries." Wei said.
Along with the military downsides to such an operation, the Atlantic Federation and Eurasia would never choose to engage in such an operation to protect the L4 Ghettos as they were referred to by the Earth sphere at large outside of East Asia. It was one of the greatest criticisms of East Asia in their decision to deport tens of millions of Japanese and Koreans to the colonies, people who they dubbed as subversive Ultranationlists who sought to destroy the nation. It was a symptom of East Asia's structure and how China and the Han came to dominate the nation. In return, East Asia was a vocal critic of Eurasia's subjugation of the Middle East, while claiming the Atlantic Federation did far worse with their Native Americans in the past.
Noticing how the conversation was shifting and not wanting his heritage to be brought into play as questioning his loyalties, Park accepted his defeat begrudgingly, though fortunately it appeared that he wasn't the only one opposed to the plan one way or another.
"While I am not opposed to the creation of such a plan persay, I do not agree that it should be implemented without the approval of President Zhang. It has been six hours since we last had contact with him, and I would advise against taking any drastic operations without his approval or an understanding of the current succession and leadership for the nation." Said the commanding voice of Fleet Admiral Shen Guozhi, the man in charge of East Asia's lunar fleet and the highest ranking officer under Wei in ESAC.
At age 66, Shen was one of the oldest flag officers within the People's Army and one of its first innovators in the space combat doctrine that arose in the thirties. He was a conservative strategist who held his cards close to his chest and only struck in overwhelming force and firepower when he had manipulated the situation to his complete advantage. This set him at odds with the ambitous and brash Wei, who had been promoted over Shen as head of ESAC due to heavy political influence as concerns over Shen's age, making the two great political rivals.
During the entire course of this meeting up til now, Shen had been the most vocal in recalling the fleets to the moon and formulating a defense of their bases, a natural bias considering his position. Inwardly, Shen fully agreed with Park and found the notion of the L4 cluster as some strategic necessity as ridiculous. It was also due to his long-hidden personal beliefs of the existence of the whole L4 cluster being a backwards waste of taxes that only served to increase Nationalist sentiment instead of reducing it. Time and money going into the cluster could've been spent better developing East Asian Luna or social programs that would eliminate old prejudices.
Due to Shen bringing up the argument, as well as how politically correct and factual it was, Wei did his best to suppress a groan and formulate a response. "While it is imperative that we of course follow the directives of President Zhang, these are extraordinary times in which decisive action must be taken now to end the threat of the Coordinators. We cannot sit around and wait for the President and Beijing to respond when East Asia is suffering from a lack of energy, we must move swiftly to preserve the nation. This is why, unless contact with the President is re-established at midnight colonial standard, then I shall declare Heaven's Fall." Wei said, bringing about stunned looks from the rest of ESAC while Shen glared slightly.
Heaven's Fall was a contingency crafted in 46 CE where in case of nuclear war on Earth that eliminated civilian and military leadership on the planet, then martial law would be declared by ESAC with the PLA Space Force taking direct control of East Asia's colonies. The contingency also conveniently made Wei the acting president.
While what was now occurring didn't exactly fall under the scenario, it was of near equal destruction that Wei could legitimately implement the contingency and claim it was a necessary good.
Surprisingly to Wei, Shen gave his assent, "Of course Admiral. However, should contact be resumed with the President before then or after, then command will naturally revert to civilian control as it was meant to be." Shen said neutrally.
"Of course!" Wei responded, eyes narrowing suspiciously with him being unsure what the crafty old man was up to. Whatever the case, with his rival backing down, then surely Heaven's Fall would be implemented with no trouble, which after a small discussion of how Heaven's Fall would be taken effect, the rest of the Admiralty and Generals present gave their assent or choose to abstain.
Before Wei could discuss in further detail of the operation to eliminate the stealth fleets, he was interrupted by Admiral Chen whose attendance was taken through a video chat displayed on one of the ESAC council's many monitors, along with a handful of other officers.
"Admiral, during the presentation I noticed that my fleet was absent in the plans despite our close proximity to Pezun as they call the asteroid. What is to be our role in the operation?" Said Chen, who after the beginning of the discussion had chosen to quietly sit down and observe the proceedings, of which he disapproved greatly.
"Do not worry Admiral, we have forgotten about your ships. As the defense of the L4 cluster is what this operation is all about. As such, your ships are to remain in a defensive perimeter around the colonies and are to stay there during the battle. However, Admiral Lin is going to be given operational authority over you and should the battle proceed well, then he shall request reinforcements to deal with the remains of the stealth fleet. If the stealth fleet is to be found with N-Jammers, then you are to retreat to the moon as any battle were to become unwinnable." Wei said.
"And the L4 garrisons?" Chen said, feeling nauseous about abandoning the Army to the Coordinators.
"As we are unable to organize a large scale evacuation at this time, then they are to remain in place and continue with their duties. After the scenario where your fleet withdraws, they are to remain and create a defense against a Coordinator invasion. Hopefully when such a possibility arises, we shall have refitted our fleets with chemical rockets and shall directly prevent an invasion from occurring." Wei said optimistically.
Chen frowned, not liking this plan one bit due to the sheer misplaced enthusiasm involved as well as so many guiding assumptions when dealing with the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers. There was also another factor of the entire plan that made Chen uneasy, one that could make any part of this operation the greatest mistake that East Asia would make in its history.
"But sir, what if Zeon is real. If they are-" Chen never got to finish his sentence as he was meet with a combination of sneers and disapproving groans from his fellow officers, with Wei responding to him with disapproval.
"Zeon being real? Don't tell me Admiral that just because you were the first to speak with this Wilhelm Lutjens that you believe this fantasy garbage? The Coordinators have proven themselves to manipulate physics, but there is no possible evidence or reason that an entire nation of Spacenoids transported themselves to our timeline, especially one with a history as unrealistic as the nonsense that they came up with. Earth Federation, a fiction that our people would never give consent to! It's revisionist garbage meant to mock the Alliance and its role in the Reconstruction War! What's next, Orb has Cthullu at their beck and call?
No Admiral, it is a fiction meant to hide their weaknesses as their systems failed before they could strike on the L4 cluster as they did the planet. The Coordinators have shown that they can stop nuclear fission, now anything is possible, especially the construction of hundreds of secret colonies and stealth fleets. You are to cease all notions of entertaining this fiction and face reality, that is an order!"
"Yes, Admiral." Chen said in a low and defeated tone while a few of his contemporaries snickered and made jokes about the man they thought of as foolish. One officer who Chen did not notice partaking in this was Admiral Shen, who throughout the conversation had kept a poker face and had not outwardly shifted one way or another on the argument.
"Unless anyone else would like to further indulge in ZAFT's fiction, then let us resume with the planning." Wei said.
The next couple of hours would see the finer details of the attack laid out, with Shen and his allies at first giving continued opposition, then shifting gears to giving complete control of the lunar defenses to Shen so that they would separate themselves completely from Wei and his gambit, something that Wei choose to unknowingly approve of. With a majority of officers in approval of the attack, Shen announced his departure to coordinate with the rest of the Alliance on lunar defense to formally distance himself from the current planning and thus Wei. After Shen left, a steady stream of officers followed until 2/3rd's remained when Wei gave his final approval, then later declaring Heaven's Fall.
Thus, the foundation for the Battle of Pezun was set into motion.
April 2nd, 70 CE. 0430 Colonial Standard. Solomon. Dozle Zabi POV
In the previous day since landing within this new world, Dozle Zabi had been hard at work trying to organize the 2nd Fleet while also getting his bearings on just where the heck he was.
Conversations with his father and siblings at Zum City, talking to Admiral Lutjens at Pezun, along with a communique from some nation called Orb had revealed that Dozle was in some new reality called the Cosmic Era. It was a timeline where humanity never underwent a third world war, where Earth was never unified into an Earth Federation, where humanity barely left its mark on space and most people remained on Earth. Zeon Zum Deikun was a name that meant nothing to the people of the Cosmic Era. While Zeon may still be physically within the Earth sphere, in practically they were now above an alien world.
In addition to the tremendous revelation that they somehow had been transported across space and time, three and a half years to the past based on the Gregorian calendar, Dozle had also been experiencing...paranormal sensations. It sounded strange to say, but Dozle did not know any other way to describe what he had been experiencing in the past day.
First was his conversation with that ginger girl, one who freaked out and spouted nonsense about how he and Zenna were dead, then disappeared into thin air. At first Dozle had thought the event to be merely an illusion, yet throughout the day he felt some sort of strange sixth sense awakening within him. He first noticed something off when he a sensation akin to a bolt of lightning strike him, then seeing the image of Char Aznable, Garma's best friend, in clear agony and calling out for someone, then the image flickering out. Across the day hundreds, if not thousands of similar events occurred with Dozle seeing people across the fleet, mostly mobile suit pilots, flare up and then blimp out within moments. This occurred roughly at the same period that most of the fleet returned to consciousness, almost everybody except for the odd case within Solomon and every other ship by now returning to duty.
Another bizarre event that occurred to Dozle was how several hours after he had awaken and had a private dinner with Zenna. During the middle of their meal, Dozle had collapsed upon the floor from feeling a strong pressure on his body, as well as hearing what appeared to be millions of screams being directed at him. At first Dozle feared the worst, that he was either suffering from a heart attack at his young age or was somehow going through another event. Fortunately, this time he wasn't transported to another timeline and remained by Zenna's side, the screams slowly but surely fading away to distant whispers after several minutes. The Doctors had said that nothing was physically wrong with him, though this time they checked with the rest of the Solomon and the fleet and apparently a few other people, including Char Aznable, had experienced similar pains to him at the exact same time. It was also at that exact same moment that satellites picked up Europe and Africa going completely dark, an overall ominous sign.
Dozle had no idea what was going on and he hated every second of it. It felt like every second he was in some sort of twisted horror movie, one where supernatural events would strike him at any moment, yet instead of being haunted by some phantom, Dozle was instead haunted by what he felt to be the souls of his fellow man. It was fortunate for the young Zabi that Zenna was there to comfort him in these times, with him also tempting to reciprocate as Zenna had shown similar, though far weaker symptoms. Whatever was happening, Dozle could only hope that it would end soon.
At the moment Dozle was in his personal quarters in Solomon, speaking to Admiral Matthew King, the De Jure head of the 2nd Fleet though beneath Dozle thanks to his position as head of the Space Attack Force (Something Dozle had heavily mixed feelings on).
After he had awakened from sleeping with Zenna, getting some much needed rest, Dozle had checked upon the events of the new Earth sphere. Satellites picked up some sort of great battle in Earth orbit between presumably this new ZAFT and the Earth Alliance, while most of Earth had gone dark and lost all power. PLANT was still refusing to answer Solomon's transmissions, making Dozle fear that something terrible was happening that could be a threat to this new humanity and Zeon. He had initiated a conversation with Admiral King over whether or not they should send a small fleet to PLANT to force a first contact. They were almost at an agreement, when Zenna came in and alerted them that satellites had faintly picked up a fleet of 130 ZAFT ships making their way to Solomon.
Right now Dozle and King were trying to figure out if this was an offensive move or some sort of gunboat diplomacy. Zenna sat next to Dozle's side and occasionally gave her input, for earlier Dozle had given her the job of analyzing the limited information of the Cosmic Era sent to them by the East Asians to figure out who their new neighbors were.
"There is no question that this is anything but a hostile act Lord Dozle. PLANT has refused to respond to all of our communications on all channels so far, showing a complete disregard for diplomacy. By now most of the new Earth has completely lost all power, showing that they have access to some sort of extraordinary superweapon that can knock out the Earthside energy grid. Satellite imagery of the orbital battle site shows thousands of husks of Alliance ships. These Coordinators are showing themselves to be brutal warmongers that want to wipe out any presence within space that is not theirs. It doesn't matter if we are a nation that has not existed two days ago, they shall strike at us to secure the Earth sphere for themselves." King argued, a train of thought that Dozle had no evidence to immediately counter with.
"While I don't doubt that the destruction ZAFT has inflicted upon the Earth sphere is of a terrible scale Admiral, I don't think that ZAFT would go this far. By all accounts, their leader is a progressive who champions coexistence with the Naturals, simply wanting to genetic persecution to stop and for the PLANTs to be left alone. While they were most likely preparing for a retaliation of the nuking of their Junius Seven colony, I would think that they would have accomplished such a thing with wiping out Earth's energy, forcing Earth's nations to sue for peace. They didn't use nukes in their battle, and they haven't made a move to eradicate the near side lunar cities as well as the colonies of L1 and L4." Zenna reasoned, playing devil's advocate so that they would give ZAFT the benefit of the doubt and not launch an attack.
"From what I have read of their history Lady Zenna, even with the presumed bias of the East Asians, it sounds that the Coordinators had a far worse times than we Spacenoids. While the Spacenoids have been abused and oppressed since the beginning of the Federation, we never had to worry about being exterminated by Earth. We were willing to nuke and gas Sides 1, 2, and 4 to obtain independence. Who's to say ZAFT would take a further extreme and prevent any possibility of the Naturals presence in space." King said, bringing a chill to both Dozle and Zenna at the casual mention of the now defunct Prussian.
King had been one of the few officers who had been in on the draft, and while he was not opposed to the usage of nukes and gas, he had only wanted to do so in limited strategic strikes against individual colonies that were both heavily pro-Federation as well as key centers of economic and industrial power, not the mass obliteration of the Sides that Gihren had envisioned. One of the few positives that made Dozle easy about being in a new timeline is that Zeon was De Facto independent, and with no Federation there was no need for Zeon to have the blood of billions on its hands. However, Dozle feared that if either ZAFT or the Alliance were to attack Zeon, then Gihren would call for Prussian to be inflicted upon their space colonies. A far smaller loss of lives, though just as terrible.
Dozle took his right hand and lightly squeezed onto Zenna's right. A short look was shared between the two spouses, one that conveyed Dozle's assurance to Zenna that he would not allow for Gihren's nightmare to be inflicted upon this new world. It was a feeling that was passed both in body language, and unknowingly through a developing Newtype bond.
"My wife is right Admiral King in that we have nothing obvious that proves without a doubt that ZAFT shall attack, however, we shall not let our guard down and leave ourselves vulnerable to a surprise strike. As they say, it is better to be prepared for nothing than to be unprepared for the worst. While we will not cease our attempts to contact PLANT, at the same time the fleet shall take on a defensive position around Solomon with all ships and pilots ready for battle." Dozle said, King showing his satisfaction towards his stance with a slight smile over the monitor.
"I agree with your sentiment Lord Dozle. I would suggest that we have a conference with the admiralty within the hour in order to come up with a basic order of battle." King said, with Dozle nodding.
"It would also be quite prudent if we ask father for both reinforcements from the home fleet and a supply convoy to restock Solomon. Position them between L2 and L5 so that way it won't alert ZAFT, but they'll still be in a position to aid us should a battle commence and provide relief for the base and any damaged ships in the aftermath." Zenna propositioned.
Just as Dozle had felt many times before, he was thankful that he had married such a brilliant and amazing woman. Dozle showed this by lightly kissing Zenna on the cheek, flustering Zenna slightly while eliciting a warm chuckle from King.
"You're right Zenna. They still have hundreds of ships that we have no track of, and it wouldn't hurt to reinforce Solomon in a victory, or launch a strike on those hourglasses in the worst case scenario." Dozle said, causing a pink hue to grow slightly more on Zenna's face at the praise.
"If that is all, with your approval then Lord Dozle, I would like for us to converse with the rest of the Admiralty at...uh 0530." King said, momentarily lapsing due to Zeon being forced to switch to this new colonial standard as their military time, causing nearly half a day to be wound back on the clock, something that would most likely mess up many a Spacenoid's sleep cyle for the next couple of days.
"Of course Admiral." Dozle responded.
King then saluted and was about to cut off the call, only to remember something and then continue. "Lord Dozle, if a battle does commence, you won't go out in your custom Zaku-II would you?" King asked, slight apprehension on his face at what he felt was great foolishness on his superior leading from the front in a mobile suit.
"Of course! My men need me to fight alongside them and so I must join the sortie." Dozle exclaimed, causing worry to start forming within Zenna over her husband leaving the safety of Solomon.
"Dozle..." Zenna warned only for King to beat her to the punch.
"Lord Dozle, while your ability as a Zaku pilot is no doubt among the greatest within all the fleet, and I would not object if this were a Federation fleet, we are facing a fleet of unknown technological ability, crewed by supermen of genius intellect and Olympic strength, and we are facing an enemy with mobile suits, of which we have no data to compare if the Zaku is superior." King argued.
"But we outnumber them 10 to 1, surely any battle will be a quick victory? This timeline hasn't even discovered Minovsky physics! With the usage of particles on the battlefield they will be helpless." Dozle countered.
"Once again, if this was a Federation fleet of 130 Magellans and Salamis' then I would agree. However, this is a fleet that is compose of superhumans with a superweapon within their arsenal that was able to knock out the Earth's energy grid, which from what little information we know is reliant on nuclear fission. There are simply too many unknowns for this battle for you to risk your life within a Zaku, even with the Royal Guard at your side. While you would surely kill a couple of ships and maybe a dozen mobile suits, we have thousands of pilots who are ready and able to do the same job." King said.
"Please Dozle, Admiral King is right, we simply don't know who we would be fighting against for you to risk your life in a Zaku, especially if their mobile suit is superior. What the fleet needs is for their commanding officer and prince to lead them in a secure position to dictate both tactics and strategy during the battle. There is no dishonor staying at Solomon and no one would think any less of you." Zenna pleaded.
"If anything Lord Dozle, most of the Admiralty and Captains would expect you to lead from Solomon and would be shocked to hear you go into battle." King concurred.
This angered Dozle slightly, "This isn't some hiss fit for glory, I don't care if I don't get a single kill so long as I share the same hardships as my men. It's the principle of duty! I can't just-"Dozle said, about to continue before the words of the mystery girl from earlier.
"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."
While such a statement was false, the girl before him had uttered it with the upmost conviction, that what she saw was the truth and that seeing Dozle alive was just outright impossible. Not only this, but she said it in the past tense, meaning that in some Christmas in the future, Dozle had died in a battle for Solomon, slain by some man named Amuro Ray. To her this was most likely history, a statement just as equal as stating that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor or that the Nazis lost Stalingard.
While Dozle wanted to believe it was nothing more than a delusion, the events of the past day with his new and strange sixth sense, as well as the reality that they were now in the past in a different timeline, really made anything possible. So could that girl have been from the future? A future where Dozle had died in a war?
"Dozle, are you alright?" Dozle's train of thought was broken by his wife's gentle and heavenly voice, Zenna shaking him to try to get him to focus once more. Dozle grimaced slightly as he probably worried Zenna by making her think he was having another episode.
"I'm fine Zenna, I was just thinking...and you two are both right. It would be foolish of me to risk my life without concrete information on our hypothetical enemies. I'll stay in Solomon and take command." Dozle said, surprising both Zenna and King as they were sure they expected a fierce fight from Dozle.
"Well then, I'll take my leave Lord Dozle." King said, giving off a salute and then cutting off their exchange, Dozle's computer monitor returning to its normal black screen.
"Dozle, are you okay?" Zenna asked with great concern. Dozle had never given her the full details of his exchange with the girl earlier, merely stating vaguely that he was seeing things.
Dozle got out of his chair and went behind Zenna's, wrapping her body in great warmth and comfort to help calm her. "I am my love, it's just...later on after we deal with this unknown fleet, I would like to speak in private with you on something I experienced earlier. It is nothing of immediate concern, just trust me for know and stay at my side when the confrontation starts."
Zenna settled back into Dozle's embrace, deciding to trust her spouse. "Okay, just please promise to be open and not hide anything from me."
"I promise." Dozle said, placing a light kiss on Zenna's temple. "We'll get through this crazy world my love, one way or another." After sharing a small exchange of kisses to calm both Zabis down, Dozle called Shin and Gato into his quarters. If he wasn't going to head personally into battle, then his guard and two of the best pilots he knew would take his place and bring victory to Zeon.
Such was how the White Wolf and Blue Tiger would make their legendary debuts.
April 2nd, 70 CE. 1100 Colonial Standard. ZAFT Georges Danton. Talia Gladys POV
When Talia had reported the existence of the stealth fleet back to the homeland, she should have known that there would be a good chance that she would enter into battle against it. The sending of a majority fo the fleet to Uroboros along with the ships at Lorentz made the probability quite high. Whether or not her ship simply had the luck of the draw, or if it was specifically chosen as one of the first to report the asteroid and its fleet, she had no idea.
Whatever the case, here and now Talia and the dozens of ZAFT personnel on her command were about to head into battle against the Alliance's new stealth fleet.
The fantastic results of Operation Uroboros with the insane 50 to 1 kill count ratio helped to set Talia's mind at ease for the coming operation. Stealth tech or not, the new ships would be worthless when they were depowered and stuck dead in space with the N-Jammer.
As for the unknown mobile suits, Talia hoped that whatever similarities that it had to the GINN were only physical and that the enemy cyclops' were of an inferior design, not to mention operated by inferior Natural pilots who until the past six weeks most likely had no experience in any kind of mecha.
Yes, the battle would go well with ZAFT capturing a new asteroid and the threat of these stealth fleets extinguished, while Talia would go home to her son William, staying by his side after the war ended within a month or two after the Alliance signs a treaty.
When they were ten minutes away from the operation time, Talia began firing orders. "Deploy all mobile suits. Keep the Santiago team within a five kilometer radius of the ship. McKinley and her men have to go ahead to proceed on twenty-five kilometers ahead of us and wait for operational time to head on the offensive." Talia said, her CIC officer relaying her orders.
Among ZAFT captains, Talia was considered a rather conservative leader due to her tactical style relying on half of her ship's mobile suits to stay and hug the ship while the other half engaged the enemy and only fired upon targets of weakness rather than attacking full in strength. Talia liked to work best in groups with other ships and followed orders to a letter though she rarely took the initiative in battle. It was traits like these that would most likely keep her in place as a Blackcoat, something Talia was perfectly okay with as she had no higher ambition at the moment.
Hector also decided to join in the fray, "What's the nearest ship formation with the highest density?" He asked, trying to find a target for the Danton to fire upon.
Greencoat Helen Mao responded, "Sir that would be a pocket of four cruisers 23 degrees off of starboard and nine hundred klicks and closing." She said.
Without any knowledge of the names of the new stealth classes, ZAFT had divided them into simple call-signs. The great red ships were dreadnoughts, the middle greens were cruisers, and the small reds were frigates. Since there were none of the Alliance's traditional ships present, then there wouldn't be any confusion with say a Drake or Nelson.
"Good, then aim all turrets on those four and fire when Admiral Fukuyama gives the order." Hector said.
"Also try to find three more pockets that we can aim towards after their destruction. In battle you can never pause or have a moment's rest." Talia added, with Hector nodding along.
Much like Uroboros, Midway had the fleet spread apart as far as possible to make sure the N-Jammer's effect was far and wide. This meant that the Danton was alone in their immediate struggles, and outside of some minor cooperation from nearby ships and suits, they could only rely on themselves to confront the great fleet before them. A seemingly more difficult effort than Uroboros as unlike the previous operation, this fleet's commander choose to spread out their forces horizontally with great space between them, most likely due to data from the Alliance survivors of the battle.
For the next two minutes Talia continued to plan with Hector on how to meet other nearby ships or respond in case of being fired upon, until their session was broken upon by the Danton's weapons officer, Greencoat Tyrone Maxwell. "Captain, something's wrong with the visuals. I don't know how to explain it, but the image is...foggy and there's some minor distortion." Tyrone said.
Talia frowned at the weird information while Hector floated out of his XO chair and towards Tyrone to personally verify his statement. After typing various commands on the console, Hector let off a low grunt. "He's right Captain, not only is visual breaking apart, but it appears that the radar of the enemy ships is flickering in and out."
"Flickering?" Talia questioned.
"Yes flickering. It's not like with the N-Jammers were radar simply can't pick up anything outside of a short radius, it's flickering off and on even though at this range and without the N-Jammers on it should still be in position. It's like...it's like a fishing bobber that's going up and down the water, that's the closet thing I can compare it to." Hector said with slight apprehension.
"Tyrone, is there something wrong with the computers?" Talia said with great worry. If there was a screwup in either the hardware or software then that could mean the difference between life and death.
"Nothing ma'am. I triple checked before I informed you, and everything appears to be working 100%."
"Have any nearby ships turned on their N-Jammers?" Talia asked. Fukuyuma's plan was to have the N-Jammer's turned off a minute until operation then have them turned on to trap the stealth fleet. It was to give the Alliance the impression that the N-Jammers were of limited stock on not on every ship.
"No ma'am, everyone is following protocol." Said Helen.
This caused Talia to frown further, with a strong feeling in her gut telling her that something was off, but she just couldn't understand what.
"Tyrone, keep on trying to find a bug within the systems until 60 seconds from operation time. Order the McKinley team to come back and stay in escort formation. We'll have the Danton's weapons fire first and if they can't make a clean mark then we'll have the GINN's protect the ship and improvise from there."
The Afro-British Greencoat applied in an affirmative, trying desperately to correct the problem so that his ship wouldn't be a sitting duck. From there an great unease fell over the bridge, a few thinking it was an ill omen to come.
For the next three minutes the ship continued as normal, until Helen broke the peace, "Captain, we're receiving a transmission from the asteroid, it's directed at the entire fleet, I'm sending visual to the bridge." Helen said, a large monitor dropping from the ceiling in response to play the message.
"Who knows, maybe they're scared shitless and offering their surrender?" Hector said crassly, generating a light laugh and grin from Talia and most of the bridge crew.
'If only.' Such an action would be the wisest and most ideal outcome of this battle. Instead of letting hundreds of thousands of their men die in battle, the enemy commander would wisely avoid bloodshed and concede defeat, granting ZAFT the victory as a show of where this war was headed while no families had to lose their loved ones.
The image brought upon the screen showed a figure that brought a great amount of surprise and shock to the Danton's bridge.
To say that the man upon the screen was a behemoth would be quite the understatement. He seemed to be literally chewing the scenery as his body was covering the near entirety of the camera, leaving very little of the background for the ship to observe. He was not large in fat however, rather what seemed to be a gigantic bone structure and muscle with a wide shoulders and torso. He also sported a very menacing appearance with a long ugly face filled with scars from the chin to forehead. Outside of the scars his most noticeable feature was a gray mullet.
It wasn't the body of this unknown man that was the strangest thing about him, rather the uniform that he was wearing. Unlike the traditional blue, white, gray of the Big Three, the man's uniform was bright green, though considerably lighter than the dark green of South Africa. It was far removed from traditional Cosmic Era uniforms with the only distinguishing markings being a set of golden wings on his red collar and an unusual bird-like insignia that was displayed proudly on his chest. He also sported strange golden spikes as epaulets on both of his shoulders.
To Talia, the uniform appeared to be either that of a Fascist from the 20th century, or derivative from some cliche science fiction. The former was a greatly disturbing idea, while the latter was more comedic. Talia had no idea how right she was on the first guess.
"Attention ZAFT vessels, I am Vice Admiral Dozle Zabi, commanding officer of the Solomon asteroid Base and of the 2nd fleet currently stationed here. For the previous day I have been attempting to contact both your fleets and PLANT in desperation, yet you have ignored my calls. I wish to send you one last message in the hopes of avoiding bloodshed, though I warn you it is a tale that would seem highly ludicrous upon first hearing." Dozle Zabi said.
"What does he mean by attempting to contact the PLANTs?" Hector asked Talia in a low whisper.
She shrugged her shoulders in response, "I have no idea. Whatever it is the Supreme Council probably dealt with it." Talia said, though the wording of such a phrase brought great unease to Talia and the greater bridge.
"My men and I are not aligned with the Earth Alliance or its member-states, the Atlantic Federation, Eurasia, East Asia, or South Africa. Rather we are members of the Space Force of the Principality of Zeon. Such a term is most likely incredibly alien to your ears, that is because in many aspects it is. For you see, over twenty-four hours ago my father, our great Sovereign Degwin Sodo Zabi, declared our nation's independence from the Earth Federation, on October 1st, Universal Century 0078."
The bridge of the Danton got so silent that you could hear a pin drop. What was supposed to be a simple operation was quickly unraveling into some bizarre twilight zone.
'What the hell is he talking about? Is this some sort of twisted distraction to get his men ready for battle?' Talia thought gloomy.
"When my father declared independence, the Principality, a collection of several hundred colonies within L2, the far side lunar cities, Solomon, along with the Pezun base and its fleet in L4, were somehow transported across space and time to this timeline called the Cosmic Era, which by the Gregorian calendar is three and a half years from where we came from.
In our timeline called the Universal Century, a third world war broke out which unified the world into the Earth Federation, with the Federation beginning a great campaign of colonization to send most of humanity to space to relieve the overhyped environmental burdens on Earth. By 0078, there were nine billion of us Spacenoids who resided in great colonies within the Lagrange point, the Principality of Zeon, of which two billion reside in Lagrange 2, is a great nation that was founded by its namesake, Zeon Zum Deikun as a nation to uplift ourselves form the tyranny of Earth and begin new lives where we shall rule ourselves and spread throughout the stars in a new age of enlightenment for mankind.
Outside of the heavy political differences that came within a one world government, there are many societal differences between the Universal Century and the Cosmic Era. The first of which is that there was never a George Glenn and as such there is no concept of Coordination. While gene therapy still exists and is legal, it has never gone so radial in enhancements and modifications as your people currently have. There are no Coordinators in Zeon, only your so-called Naturals. Despite our genetic differences, we of Zeon feel sympathy to your plight as we both share years of suffering brought against us by an Earthborn elite. While we have no wish to actively intervene in your war of independence, my father has expressed a desire for cordial diplomatic relations to be created between Zeon and PLANT so that we may coexist within the Earth sphere."
The information that Dozle Zabi was expressing continued to cause Talia's blood to freeze til it was practically the Arctic. Not only did this man claim to be from another timeline, but he claimed to be from a world where there was no such thing as Coordinators? Where the majority of humanity existed in space instead of the bare one percent that were currently within the Earth sphere.
"This guy is the biggest bullshiter that I've ever heard. I've seen student films with better writing than the nonsense he's spouting." Hector growled right next to her. Talia wanted to agree with him, though there was a small instinct at the back of her brain that kept nagging her, on what if everything this Dozle was saying was right and not some desperate fiction created by the Alliance.
'Are we really making first contact with a nation from another world?' Talia asked herself.
"We have already initiated contact with East Asia and Orb with my family attempting to make general contact with the rest of the Earth sphere. Now that we are free from the tyranny and oppression of the Earth Federation, we have no wish for conflict with our new neighbors and simply wish for our sovereignty and freedom to be respected. I would like to request that diplomats be sent from your PLANT council so that we can establish relations and a long lasting peace-"
"Captain, Admiral Fukuyuma sent us a general message of the fleet. It says that the message playing before us is nothing more than a cheap Alliance deception to avoid the N-Jammer and launch an early strike. All N-Jammers are to be activated immediately and for ZAFT vessels and mobile suits to attack once the N-Jammer is online." Helen interrupted, ending any hope of a peaceful exchange with this "Zeon."
Talia sighed in her chair. She knew that the Admirals orders were factually correct and that the idea of a nation of space colonies being transported across time and space was impossible, though what if it were true? This meant that ZAFT was about to fire on a neutral nation.
'No, it's fake, it has to be.' Talia assured herself. She couldn't disobey orders on hunches and maybes. There was no hard evidence to this man's claims, it was an Alliance trick, it had to be.
"Tyrone, fire on the targeted enemy cruisers, right after the volley the N-Jammer shall be turned on and we shall head into battle." Talia ordered, the bridge and the greater ship heading into combat positions.
Tyrone did as instructed and fired away the Laurasia-class' variety of railguns and cannons. Due to the then unknown Minovsky density, Tyrone's shots were not entirely on the mark. Two Musai's were not hit, one was lightly scathed, though the fourth was hit dead center with most of its beam turrets being destroyed.
With the firing of hundreds of other beams, rails, and shells racing across lines to hit the Zeon ships; along with the deployment of dozens of GINN's who shot into battle to meet the Zaku, the Battle of Solomon had begun.
"I've always found it to be the greatest yet most tragic irony in that Zeon Zum Deikun professed Newtypes as being people who shall understand one another without misconceptions. However, Zeon's entrance into the Cosmic Era, the April Fools Miracle which acted as the awakening for tens of millions of Newtypes, would begin with two bloody battles based off of misunderstanding, both of which laid the foundation for our modern solar system."- I Newtype, by Haman Karn. CE 96.
A/N: First off we have the immediate reaction of the Alliance to the N-Jammers, and them unfortunately assuming that Zeon as a whole is merely a ZAFT plot, thus leading to the Alliance along with ZAFT commencing first strikes on Zeon. In the Alliance's defense, when you witness the Coordinators prevent the splitting of the atom, a scientific impossibility that proves their superior intelligence, it's not so unbelievable that the colonies and fleets that popped into existence are theirs versus the extraordinary concept of dimensional travel. Like Haman said in the end of the chapter, the Newtype Age shall begin with great and tragic misunderstandings.
Within the East Asian meeting, I also wanted to present some of the big players that will be important in the near future as well as how the East Asian military as a whole conducts itself, something which features heavy internal politicking reminiscent of the PRC. Like I said earlier, my interpretation of East Asia is a reverse Co-Prosperity sphere so it definitely isn't pretty, but I don't want to completely vilify them as there are definitely good men like Chen and Jun who just want to serve their country and just have crappy superiors like the Earth Federation. Technically in canon East Asia is morally superior to the Atlantic Federation, and the differences between them and the rest of the Alliance and Cosmic Era nations will definitely be highlighted in later chapters, with the good and bad of East Asia and other nations on full display.
Next we have Dozle conversing with Admiral Matthew King, an OC of mine, and how they plan to respond to the ZAFT fleet. We also have instances of Dozle's growing Newtype potential displayed along with the first effects of his conversation with Mineva, him deciding not to go out in his Zaku-II. This doesn't mean that Dozle has become cowardly or that he'll never go out into battle, rather now he knows that in some future he would dieand as such he wants to play it safe against an unknown force of superhumans with mobile suits and an anti-nuclear superweapon. In the future when he has a greater understanding of ZAFT and the Alliance, there's greater potential for him to ride out into battle.
Lastly we have Talia's thoughts as she enters into battle and how things spiraled rapidly out of a hopefully peaceful first contact to a bloody one. The beginning of next chapter will show why Fukuyuma ordered an attack on Zeon first. For now a state of war exists between Zeon and ZAFT, with the first MS on MS battle about to commence.
I apologize for what I am about to do, but I must leave you guys on a light cliffhanger as I switch my attention back to Gihren's Glory. I will pump out three chapters for there and then after Chapter 43 right the next update which shall be solely focused on the Battle of Solomon. No matter what, I hope to write it before the year's end.
Thanks for reading everyone and stay tuned for more!