April 2nd, 70 CE. ZAFT Yamaga Soko.
To understand how the tragedy of the Battle of Solomon took place, it is important to understand the man who directly caused it, ZAFT Whitecoat Keishiro Fukuyuma.
Keishiro Fukuyuma was a man filled with great personal anger and hatred caused by a long life of tragedy. Originally born in Japan, his parents were collaborators of the East Asian government who were among the few native elites of the islands after its annexation into Japan. Wanting their offspring to have the same level of success in life as George Glenn, the Fukuyuma's genetically modified Keishiro and his younger brother Haru to become a Coordinators. At first life was good for the family as they prospered in the aftermath of the Reconstruction with Keishiro being a prominent stock broker in Beijing, while his younger brother Haru became a simple farmer, enjoying the peace of the Japanese countryside to the urban lifestyle that dominated East Asia.
This all changed in the forties and fifties as anti-Coordinator sentiment began to rise tremendously within East Asia, only the Atlantic Federation acted as a worse nation for Coordinators to live. After the S2 outbreak, associates of Keishiro who were jealous of the Coordinator's financial wits and success used their political connections to have Keishiro be deported to PLANT as a subversive agent of the state who was manipulating corporations for his own personal benefit. What was even worse was how Keishiro's parents were exiled to the L4 ghettos due to them being held as responsible for Keishiro's "dissent" for causing his Coordination. Keishiro would never see his parents again, both dying in a violent altercation with the garrisons in 61 CE. The only bright spot of this whole episode would be Haru voluntarily moving to PLANT with Keishiro to support his only remaining blood.
As the years went by in PLANT, Keishiro became increasingly hateful of the Naturals who had exiled him to space, joining the Zodiac Alliance and becoming one of the first leaders of ZAFT within Patrick Zala's wing. Keishiro taught Coordinators to defend themselves with force and on occasion would lead violent attacks on UN peacekeepers who occupied PLANT until 58. As Keishiro was radicalized, his brother Haru remained a rather mild individual, believing much like Siegel Clyne that a peaceful coexistence could be maintained with the Naturals.
Over time the two brother's relationship strained with Keishiro delving himself further into developing ZAFT while Haru lived a quiet life in Junius Seven as a farmer. Tensions would climax in New Years of 70 CE where a disagreement over the possibility of ZAFT conducting a war with the sponsor nations concluded with Keishiro storming out of Haru's residence and cursing his "Natural lover" brother.
For the next six weeks Keishiro refused to speak with Haru despite his younger brothers attempt to speak with him. Then Bloody Valentine happened, the Alliance within an instant taking away Keishiro's younger brother along with his sister in-law and niece, with Keishiro never apologizing for his actions, he believed that Haru died with the impression of his brother hating him.
The immense grief and guilt over his brother's death sent Keishiro into a short depression, only for his sorrow to turn into raw hatred and anger for the Naturals that murdered his last remaining kin. Keishiro swore that he would get justice for Haru and ensure that no Coordinator would ever be oppressed by the backwards Naturals ever again.
When Keishiro got the assignment to command the fleet for Operation Midnight he was ecstatic. Operation Uroboros proved the supremacy of Coordinators with the N-Jammer dealing apocalyptic strikes on the battlefield. Keishiro resolved that he would wipe out the stealth fleet and conquer their asteroid to be used by ZAFT, all in the name of his brother's memory.
When Dozle Zabi transmitted a communication to the ZAFT fleet, Keishiro was at first confused and for a short period scared that this was actually a neutral third party that they were confronting, only for his feelings to dive into rage. In Keishiro's mind, the Alliance dared to craft some bogus fiction about their stealth fleet being from another world where they were oppressed space colonists. To top this fiction off with a grave insult, they claimed that this world had no Coordinators, a paradise for Blue Cosmos and a goal they actively pursued through genetic cleansing on Earth.
For Keishiro this was one of the most disgusting actions that the Alliance could ever perform, a slap in the face on the victims of Junius Seven like his brother. Not once did the whitecoat ever consider that Dozle Zabi was telling the truth, that he really was a man from another world who wished to initiate peaceful first contact.
Suffering from years of persecution, Keishiro Fukuyuma gave the order to fire on the Solomon fleet in an act that he saw as a righteous vengeance for the wrongs inflicted upon all Coordinators. Keishiro Fukuyuma did not fire upon an Alliance fleet, instead he fired upon the Principality of Zeon, an act that would cement Fukuyuma in eternal infamy and greatly alter Zeon's destiny.
Solomon. Dozle Zabi.
"DAMMIT!" Roared Dozle Zabi, stomping his right foot on the ground in a fit which caused a low vibration to carry through the metal floor. While Dozle Zabi was a proud patriot who would gladly wage war in service of Zeon, he was also a man who wanted all who served under him to return to their homes and families alive. If a peaceful first contact could be made then that would be the greatest victory for Dozle.
Dozle had done everything he could to clearly state who he was, what Zeon as a nation was, and the incredible circumstances that led them to this new timeline. He had not been vague in the entirety of his dialogue and repeatedly made clear Zeon's desire for peace with PLANT and to establish diplomatic relations.
Despite his behavior, the ZAFT fleet in front of him either didn't believe him or just didn't care and opened fire upon the fleet. On Solomon's gigantic monitors in the command center, Dozle had watched as a couple dozen ships exploded instantly from contact with conventional and beam weaponry. His eyes swelled with tears at the thought of his failure and thousands of sons and daughter of Zeon dying in seconds.
'No, I didn't fail them, those superhuman scum murdered them for no reason!' Dozle thought, anger eliminating his grief.
He had done everything by the book in initiating contact. There were hundreds of thousands of witnesses who could testify that his actions were benign and Zeon showed no aggression in the initial confrontation. All the blood that would be shed today was on ZAFT's hands, not his.
"If the Coordinators want to dig their own grave then we shall gladly help them on their way to hell!" Dozle shouted to all within the command center. Various shouts of agreement met his words.
"Transmit to all ships that Plan 6 shall commence. The fleet shall be divided into taskforces Alpha through Zeta with battlefield command falling to their respective admirals. ZAFT may have started this war, but we shall sure as hell finish it. Sieg Zeon!"
"SIEG ZEON!"
MS-06C Zaku-II. Char Aznable.
There were many times in the past couple of years where Char Aznable wondered if the path he was taking on his quest for justice was the right one. While he knew that his goal of eliminating the Zabis was righteous, there were moments where he wondered if serving as a mobile suit pilot for the Principality was really the best method. Would it not be better if he gave his services to the Federation and struck down the Zabis as a servant of their most hated enemies instead of in the public service to the Zabis?
Thoughts like those were quick and fleeting. While Char hated the Zabi family with a burning passion, he had no love for the rotten Federation that exiled a majority of humanity to the colonies to suffer lives of poverty and stagnation. It was a great monolith that his father fought against to his dying breath. The existence of Degwin and his foul spawn did not erase the evils of Earth.
As such, Char vowed to himself that his duty as a mobile suit pilot was never to the Principality or the Zabi family, rather to the nation of Zeon and its people. After all, once he eliminated the Zabis someone would need to take the reigns of power and guide Side 3 back to the guiding light of Contolism. It was only after every Zabi drew their last breath that Char Aznable would die and Casval Rem Deikun would return to reclaim his father's legacy.
So what if he killed in the Principality's wars? He was doing such deeds as a son of Zeon, both his father and the nation. Nothing he did as a pilot was in service to Degwin the traitorous snake.
Such sentiments were present currently as Char rode off to battle against the mysterious ZAFT that he had just learned of hours ago, a military that was serviced entirely by superhumans created through genetic augmentation.
For the first time since his orientation at the Academy, Char felt truly proud to be a pilot of Zeon. This ZAFT had committed an unwarranted act of aggression and killed thousands of his brothers and sisters in arms, their deathly cries still ringing in Char's soul. Today Char would fight a righteous battle to protect Zeon from a superhuman menace, a duty he gladly enjoyed.
Char began this duty by firing three rounds from Denim's anti-ship rifle that he had borrowed from the Chief Petty Officer for the initial volley. With his Newtype potential soaring to new heights, Char could feel himself surging with greater powers that could possibly be on Lalah's level. This allowed him to launch a psychic probe that gave him a rough understanding of the schematics of the ZAFT ships, and with it came their weak spots.
Wanting to start off his part with a bang, Char fired the first two rounds towards the bridge of a blue destroyer, this completely shredded the bridge and killed most of the destroyer's officers.
Char's third round was aimed towards the hanger entrance with a large hole tearing into the opening with the catapult bearing great scars, though it was still operational for all intense and purposes.
To Char's great disappointment, his shots didn't tear the destroyer apart and cause a collapse of the hull as simulations had shown with Federation Magellans and Salamis'. This meant that either this new universe used stronger materials, or ZAFT was just really good at engineering their ships. It made sense for a military of superhumans, not to mention their designs followed Zeon's philosophy of practicality in space combat versus the Federation who bizarrely modeled all of their ships off of the wet navies of the Second World War. It was a sign that showed how the Federation's souls still clung to Earth's gravity, while the Spacenoids of Zeon progressed forward in the march of time, free in the great void of space.
'If the anti-ship rifle is this effective than my bazooka will hardly make a difference.' Char grimaced.
Denim had offered his rifle to his commanding officer before the battle as there were no guarantees who the armor of the enemy mobile suits would hold up and Denim thought it would be of much better use to his superior officer. Char had declined though by stating that he preferred to stick to reliable methods with his favored bazooka combat. Now he had to change his plans on the fly.
Handing the rifle back to Denim, Char gave a new series of orders.
"Denim, you take command of the squad and focus on eliminating this destroyer. I'll take care of the MS escorts and then proceed to continue the diversion on my own." Char said. While he wanted to continue onward and tear a hole through the enemy fleet, this would be a good opportunity to test the Coordinator's MS and see if they were superior to the Zaku or not. This would allow Char to decide whether he should play it safe or employ his usual sense of high risk.
"Lieutenant, are you sure you should go alone?" Denim asked with great worry.
"I can handle it by myself." Char replied, using his tone to indicate the matter was final with Denim blurting a affirmative. While Char had grown to become rather fond of the pilots who served under him, they were nowhere near his league and Char couldn't sense any recently developed Newtype potential in them. They would only slow him down in combat, something that Denim fortunately agreed upon.
With no objections, Char kicked his verniers into full thrust and surged onto the battlefield with his soon-to-be infamous triple speed. Using his Newtype perception to allow him to act clearly in short time, Char switched to his bazooka and fired a round towards the destroyer's front turret, destroying it completely and allowing his mean to have an easier time in eliminating the ship.
Having moved past the destroyer in a flash, Char began to circle back around, turning his comms on an open channel as he did so.
"Is that all you superhumans can dish out? Clearly your genetics mean nothing if us Naturals can take our your ship in a couple of shots." Char said with artificial malice laced in his voice. This statement was not due to any real hatred of Char, rather as an attempt to rile up the enemy and get them to charge at him recklessly, Char using his limited and recently learned knowledge of the Cosmic Era to mock them.
Thanks to his ignorance of how deep the Coordinator-Natural divide had become, Char had no idea of how his taunt was very effective to say the least. It caused three GINN's to charge at the red Zaku while the other three had to deal with Denim's squad as well as incoming fire from a couple dozen Musais and Chivvays.
Using his Newtype senses to guide him, Char fired two shots from his bazooka. The first hit the lead GINN dead center near the cockpit, heavily damaging the chasis and threatening the pilot to be sucked into space. The GINN attempted to retreat to the back while also moving rightward so that his comrades could cover for him, though unfortunately for the Coordinator Char had fired his second shot with his Newtype foresight, hitting the cockpit dead on and killing the Coordinator instantly, causing the GINN to collapse.
The sight of their comrade being killed by a Natural mobile suit filled the other two GINN's with rage and caused them to fire their machine guns wildly to Char along with a small collection of rockets.
Pushing his acceleration to its limits, Char raced towards the GINNs. However, instead of charging head on or firing at them, Char proceeded to fly around them in circles akin to a dance. This only served to further enrage the Coordinators with Char filing the last round of his magazine towards the burning destroyer as more fuel to the fire.
Unfortunately for them, this was precisely what Char was planning. For after a while they had to stop and reload, and in those precious moments of weakness, Char launched his attack.
Coming forward at the GINN's in a style that would soon gain infamy as "Char's Charge", Char burst through the battlefield in a straight line, aiming for the center of a GINN and firing two shots. While the second GINN was not destroyed completely like his partner, the suit was heavily crippled with its head and left arm knocked off while severe pressure caved in the cockpit area.
The third GINN attempted to life its heavy blade to strike Char at melee, Char had already accounted for this. After firing his two rounds, Char had placed the bazooka on his Zaku's back and then activated his heat hawk. When he was more than halfway in closing the distance, Char leaned back and kicked the vernier thrusters on his Zaku's feet. This forced caused Char to gradually slow his acceleration until he was in close contact with the third GINN.
While the remaining GINN attempted to defend himself with a swing, Char had countered with a perry, the heat hawk slightly burning the blade with the heavy struggling to keep up. This allowed Char to launch a cracker barrel at point blank to the GINN, with him pushing his verniers to accelerate upward. The GINN was caught completely by surprise and flinched with damage to the arms, letting go of its heavy blade.
This gave Char an opening with him reversing his suit's position in a 180 and launching himself at the GINN. He raised his heat hawk above his ZAKU, and used it to slice the GINN right down the center, killing the pilot by turning him into charred bits.
A Newtype flash kicked in for Char and he turned his Zaku around to focus on the second GINN, which had regained its machine gun and fired at Char. Fortunately for him, the GINN's aim was wildly off course due to the reliance on the secondary camera which was being distorted due to the increasing Minovsky density on the battlefield.
Dodging the incoming rounds, Char moved forward with his Zaku and slashed the GINN in a diagnol manner from the top left, destroying the third suit and pushing Char halfway to becoming an ace.
Char looked to his men and smiled when he saw that not only did all of them survive, but they had killed the enemy mobile suits and the destroyer had now been completely killed.
Satisfied that his subordinates were okay for now, Char made his way to a large piece of debris from the destroyer and use it as a kickoff point to launch himself towards ZAFT lines at three times normal speed.
Thus began the debut of the Red Comet in the Cosmic Era. While his first battle would be greatly different from his intended descent into legend that he was destined for at Loum, it was just as glorious.
MS-06C Zaku II. Miguel Gaia.
'Now this is a damn good war!' Gaia thought, grinning wildly as he raced across the battlefield with his best friends and teammates.
While Gaia knew that there was a high likelihood of a war breaking out with the Earth Federation, there was no excitement for him in the potential of conflict since he knew that with the Zaku, Zeon would obliterate the Federation's Space Force and win the war within a week or two. Not that it was a bad thing persay as a quick and total victory with few casualties was always the best case for Zeon, but such a war would prevent the Black Tri-Stars from earning any hard glory in the battle or pushing themselves to the limit.
Such a scenario was one that was underway right now as Zeon had entered into conflict with this ZAFT, not only the only military in this new timeline with mobile suits, but made of superhumans as well. A strong performance here would push the Tri-Stars to the pinnacle of the MS corps and make them the undeniable kings of the MS corps.
When they set off into battle, the Tri-Stars settled on a strategy of primarily focusing on eliminating the enemy ships as a first and moving on the mobile suits second. While Gaia would love to go into individual combat against these Zaku ripoffs, the officer in him knew that the best way for Zeon to use its numerical superiority was to eliminate the ships in quick fashion and swarm the surviving suits with thousands of Zakus. This would allow for a quick and relatively painless victory while conferring total destruction upon the enemy.
This strategy had been successful so far with the Tri-Stars eliminating a destroyer, now moving onto one of the many green frigates that made up the majority of the enemy.
The Tri-Stars darted across the battlefield towards their prey, using their verniers to make adjustments to their position every five seconds so that they would not be stuck on a linear course for the enemy to fire upon them.
They managed to reach the frigate quickly and with good fortune there were no mobile suits currently acting as escort, this allowed the Tri-Stars to get to quick work.
Ortega made the opening volley by firing each round in his bazooka's magazine towards the top turrets of the frigate, each round hitting dead center due to his emerging Newtype abilities allowing him to guide the shots with spatial awareness.
With the heavy hitters of the frigate being quickly eliminated, Gaia used his anti-ship rifle to fire two shots towards the bridge, hitting its target and tearing apart most of the front end of the frigate, as a consequence also eliminating the forward railguns as a consequence.
His comrades shots allowed Mash to get the opening he needed to come in close to the frigate, using his titanic custom heat hawk to slice the frigate's hangar bay into dozens of pieces.
With a few more shots from Gaia and Ortega, with Mash doing most of the heavy work by making several cuts to the shit, the frigate was completely destroyed into debris and stardust.
"Who's going to get the kill credit Gaia?" Asked Ortega with mirth filled in his voice.
"Mash did all the lifting so this one goes to him. Don't worry Ortega we'll let you have the next one." Gaia said, Mash whooping in glee while Ortega supplied a playful groan as Gaia had killed the first ship.
A flash surged into all of the Tri-Stars, with the trio sensing the approaching presence of three GINNs, headed their way to avenge their fallen comrades.
'Alright, one for each of us.' Gaia thought with a Cheshire grin. In the end, he didn't truly care who came out on top. So long as his brothers in all but blood made it out alive and kicked ass, that would be good enough for Gaia.
"Mash, take the right, Ortega left, and I'm dead center. On three! One, two, THREE!"
"JET STREAM ATTACK!"
ZAFT Georges Danton. Talia Gladys.
'I am going to die. I am going to die today, right here, right now.' Talia thought in severe fright, tightly gripping on both of her armchairs while slight shakes carried through the Blackcoats body periodically.
It was only thanks to the constant reminder of her subordinates being present on the bridge that Talia didn't visibly freak out. She revolved to do her best to stay visibly calm and collected as long as possible to present an image of a Captain who was resolute in the face of probable defeat. This would allow the Danton's crew to continue their duties without their morale collapsing, hopefully allowing them to return home.
'William, will I never see you again?' The increasingly likely possibility of leaving her only child alone in the world as an orphan terrified Talia. She knew at this point that barring a miracle that ZAFT had lost the battle. All she wanted to focus on was surviving and returning home to William so that he would not lose his mother so rapidly after his father had been murdered.
If she was in charge of the fleet, Talia would have issued a retreat a minute after the N-Jammers had turned on. After the ZAFT ships had fired the first shots against the stealth fleet, everything had been going downhill rapidly in a clusterfuck that would probably give Uroboros a run for its money.
Not only did all of the stealth ships not lose power when the N-Jammers activated, but they had nuclear propulsion and were actively moving across the battlefield, a general encirclement being formed around the ZAFT formation from which the windows of escape had been closing every minute.
Somehow, not only did the Naturals manage to create some sort of wonder stealth tech and park a fleet of 1300 and an asteroid in L5, they managed to defy the N-Jammer despite the very same weapon being used to decimate the Alliance Orbital Fleet and knock out most of Earth's energy, all of this within the span of little more than 24 hours.
'Unless this isn't the Alliance and this truly is the might of Zeon.' A dark voice inside Talia's head whispered. While the existence of Zeon would be a convenient excuse for the disaster that ZAFT was suffering from currently, it was a scenario that Talia wanted no possibility of being true. If it was true then it meant that ZAFT had fired upon a neutral nation of fellow colonials that had only existed within the Earth sphere for a little more than a day. That would make them unwarranted aggressors, little better than the monsters of Blue Cosmos who launched a nuke towards Junius Seven and taking Eric for her.
With their overwhelming numerical inferiority, the tide of the battle had lied within the stealth fleet at the opening moment. Thousands of bursts of strange pink positron beams flew across the battlefield along with a small collection of missiles that occasionally made their appearance. Strangely the enemy refused to use conventional ballistics or rail weaponry, opting for positron attacks.
The positron weaponry of the stealth fleet was heavily unusual as unlike most beam weaponry that acted as thermal energy, these seemed to carry some sort of kinetic properties. From the limited footage that Talia saw of her fellow ships being destroyed, the beams would tear a linear path through the ship and upon exiting on the opposite side of entry, would continue forward for several kilometers until breaking apart. These new type of beams was the cause of several close calls for the Danton with Talia constantly forcing the ship to adjust its course on a ten second basis in order to avoid getting hit by stray beams.
The only reason why Talia along with what radar picked up to be an estimated 2/3rd's of the fleet, still continued to survive, was that the stealth ships refused to concentrate their firepower on eliminating the fleet as a whole, with most ships holding their fire and moving across the battlefield in what appeared to be a geometric trap meant to prevent any route of escape from forming.
The only reason Talia and the Danton was able to survive was due to her decision to keep all of the GINN's close to the ship as an escort. This proved to be a lifesaving decision as while dozens of GINNs were destroyed quickly by the enemy MS, the retention of the Santiago and Mckinley teams caused the enemy to come towards them and allow the Danton to provide limited support fire. While this allowed the Danton to claim three ships and over a dozen mobile suits at minimum, it came at the cost of of Santiago's men with Greencoat Megan McKinley also lost, half of the Danton's GINN's wiped out.
Currently Talia was trying to best lead the Danton towards the rear where hopefully they could barely escape to the PLANT's and be protected by any possible reinforcements that were on their way. Chasing the ship was three green cruisers whose beams were getting too close for Talia's liking.
"Tyrone, why isn't the enemy being turned into Stardust?!" Hector growled towards the weapons officer, his usual poise being slowly ripped out due to the high stress of the battle.
"I can't get a stable visual lock on the enemy sir! Whatever the fuck kind of supertech the enemy has, it's absolutely tearing apart visual with the quality of the feed being hazy at best. Whenever I can get a clear image, it'll last a second maybe two, and even then it may not be on mark at that second. It's like trying to spear for fish in a polluted lake, a matter made worse by those cruisers shifting their distance!" Tyrone yelled in response, the Greencoat under heavy pressure to perform under these extraordinary circumstances.
What was supposed to occur in the battle was that the GINN's would eliminate any enemy sorties sent against the ship and then force the enemy to play defense around their vessels, allowing the Laurasias and Nazcas to take clean shots at the enemy with little fear of danger. Unfortunately the Danton's three living pilots were struggling to prevent the enemy MS from getting close to the ship, leaving the enemy a free hand to fire upon the Danton in a deathly ironic reversal of ZAFT's hopes.
"Is there anything you need to deal with the situation?" Talia asked Tyrone, willing to give him anything for a minuscule hope of shooting back at the enemy.
"Ma'am, what I need is for one or two people to take care of the forward canon and CIWS. That will allow me to place all my attention on the ship's beam and rail turrets, making it easier to take quick reaction shots and hopefully land a hit on the enemy." Tyrone said. Due to the designers of the Laurasia and Nazca class focusing on using as little personnel as possible in its crew, one person had to take up the job of many traditional positions, which was why the Laurasia's weapons compliment was slaved to Tyrone's station. While this was usually no problem thanks to his enhanced intellect and perception, the enemy jamming made his work absolute hell to fulfill.
"Captain, if I may allow the CIWS and canon functions to be transferred to my console. At this point I'm just a second brain and mouth for you and this will allow Tyrone to do his job easier and strike our pursuers." Hector offered.
Talia grimaced slightly as while she valued Hector's work as XO and wanted to rely upon him to evaluate the overall tactical and strategic picture, at this point there was nothing too grand Hector could offer in either and him taking on half of Tyrone's work would allow for more focus on striking back instead of running away and shooting blindly into the dark.
Reluctantly, she nodded her head. "Do it." Talia ordered, Tyrone and Hector furiously typing away at their consoles to set up the system before they were hit.
Watching a Nazca explode in a great distance away on the monitor, Talia sank back into her chair and a rising depression was kicking in. She couldn't help but wonder if this was how the Alliance felt when they unleashed the N-Jammer, trapped in a horrific slaughter with no hope for victory due to the impossible breakthroughs in science.
Less than an hour ago, ZAFT had marched into battle high and mighty with the expectation that only total victory could occur. Yet here and now they were being massacred while barely making a dent into the stealth fleet.
As all signs of escape were shrinking by the minute, Talia began thinking of using one of the last possible options that she had. A move which in any other battle would be unthinkable and looked down upon by her peers as cowardice.
If Talia was to become a pariah within PLANT, she would gladly receive her damnation. It was a far better fate to dying a pointless death in a battle which was predetermined.
Talia Gladys would soon have no choice but to surrender.
Solomon. Dozle Zabi.
Sitting regally upon the CO's chair in the command center, Vice Admiral Dozle Zabi observed the battle taking place before him with contentment in the current course, and pride in those who served under him.
Fortunately despite their usage of some pseudo-science super weapon that had something to do with interfering with the process of nuclear fission, it appeared that ZAFT's arsenal was hardly beyond Zeon's ships and Zakus. While there was probably a variety of differences between the two militaries, so far they seemed to be on a roughly similar level of quality, though Dozle liked to believe that Zeon was the superior force. While this close gap might be a point of issue in any other engagement, the 10 to 1 numerical superiority that Dozle had allowed the battle to be carried to a destined Zeon victory.
It was not to say that there were no grievances for Zeon in the ongoing engagement though. Ever since the heinous first strike ZAFT inflicted upon Zeon, Solomon's sensors could detect a ship suffering destruction at seemingly once or twice every minute. CIC also gave a rough estimate of two to four hundred Zakus being destroyed with hundreds more suffering from varied levels of damage.
It wasn't the statistics alone that weighed down upon Dozle's heart, but some otherwordly phenomena that was currently present. At the same time that a Zeon ship was destroyed, Dozle felt a soft weight tug down upon his chest. It wasn't anything serious enough to give cause for him to fear for his health, rather the unnatural sensation felt as if constant minor pains that refused to cease, as if he was being pelted continuously with paint ball pellets to his heart.
Resolving not to waver in his energy and collapse under pressure in the safety of Solomon while hundreds of thousands of Zeon patriots were risking their lives to defend their nation, Dozle persevered and continued steadfastly in coordinating the 2nd Fleet through the rising Minovsky density through micromanagement in baton communication that allowed for weak spots in the emerging trap to be filled and holes in the enemy to be exploited with ruthless retaliation.
What Dozle did not know was that his demeanor was not important solely for the sake of preserving morale, but that it was becoming a vital part of the continuing battle. With his Newtype potential awakening in the extraordinary and dynamic conditions of the battlefield, Dozle's latent abilities were beginning to be seeded with the fleet experiencing a weak but united spiritual coordination by their commanding officer and prince. It was a technique that when properly matured and studied, would become to be known as battle meditation.
Dozle's cool state was interrupted by one of Solomon's communications officers, "Lord Dozle, 95% of the fleet is now in position and the final stage of Plan 6 is ready to proceed."
Tightening his right fist in excitement, Dozle stood up and gave his next command in a theatrical manner.
"Transmit the codeword Ypres to the fleet and deploy half of Solomon's reserves to help with the cleanup operation. Within the next two hours total victory shall have been claimed. Sieg Zeon!"
"Sieg Zeon!" Shouted the command center in a firm reply, with Dozle sitting back in his chair with a large smirk on his face.
Plan 6 had been a strategy that Dozle had concocted where they would use the overwhelming numbers of the 2nd Fleet to surround the ZAFT ships with the 2nd taking on the formation of a cube so that all six spatial areas of movement could be guarded. With the ZAFT fleets being pushed closer into a tight pocket, the 2nd Fleet would launch its tactical nukes in a heavy volley that would be disguised with its conventional missiles. Within seconds the remainder of the ZAFT fleet would be obliterated and the survivors either forced to surrender or picked off one by one.
It was rather fortune for Dozle that so far ZAFT had not responded in kind with any nuclear weapons. Dozle did not know if they had some strange fixation on fighting honorably or a phobia of nuclear warfare imprinted upon them from Bloody Valentine, but whatever the case it was their loss and Zeon's gain.
While Dozle considered himself an honorable warrior, he would happily use any tool that granted him the power to claim victory for Zeon and minimize casualties for his men. Like NATO under the command of George H.W Bush, Dozle would unleash the power of the atom to wipe out the enemy and protect his nation. It was his duty as a Zabi, nothing more and nothing less.
MS-06C Zaku II. Anavel Gato.
Since the battle had begun there were countless times where Anavel Gato was grateful that his liege and commanding officer Dozle Zabi had decided to stay within Solomon instead of taking command from the Valkyrie or personally sortieing in his custom Zaku-II. While Dozle's skill as a pilot was greater than Gato's and his presence on the battlefield would act as nothing but a boon for the 2nd Fleet, Dozle's participation would force Gato and Shin to constantly act as his escorts to fulfill their primary mission as his bodyguard, an act that while Gato would gladly fulfill, would leave him exposed and open to several attacks. With Dozle taking command from Solomon, Gato was free to act as he saw fit on the battlefield alongside Shin. An absolute necessity considering the enemy that they were fighting.
While Gato considered ZAFT's MS to be inferior to the Zaku from his experience, the enemy pilots seemed to make up for the tech disparity in great skill, most likely thanks to their genetic augmentations.
While many of ZAFT's wheat and chaff were cut down in the opening minutes of the battle due to the swarm of Zakus present in the first wave as well as the pressure of dodging hundreds of Minovsky beams, a core of enemy pilots, most likely the elite among these superhumans, remained and continued to do as much damage as possible to the 2nd Fleet.
While there was no doubt that this battle, barring a miracle on the scale of the Insertion as his fellow Spacenoids were calling the event that transported them to the Cosmic Era, would result in a Zeon victory, the strength of the enemy allowed the battle to be prolonged at increasing intervals, causing thousands of Zeon to meet their deaths as ships and Zakus alike went down in a hideous blaze.
Zeon would surely win, but it would come at a cost that should not have been possible with their numerical superiority. It was due to this great skill of his foes that Gato could afford nothing tethering him down. Fortunately he had Shin at his side where with his natural talents they were able to tear through the battlefield and destroy all who stood in their way.
Unlike other emerging aces such as the Black Tri-Stars and Char Aznable whose actions were focused on individual prestige and gaining as many kills as they could on their own, Shin and Gato acted in more support roles, leading the charge of a handful of squadrons from the Solomon mobile regiment against the ZAFT fleet so that the rest of the 2nd could take formation for the final blow.
So far Gato and Shin had been performing incredibly on the battlefield, their superb skill combined with coordination from their fellow pilots allowing them to swarm and eliminate the enemy within minutes. However, Gato had to admit that most of his success was far from his ability alone. Together with his comrades, including some who had tragically been killed prior in the engagement, they had softened up the enemy while a third of Gato's kills had been delivering the final blow instead of totally destroying the enemy on his own. One could not fight a war on their own, a lesson that was being heavily imprinted on Gato with what he had seen within the course of this battle.
Right now Gato and Shin were flying through the battlefield along with two dozen other Zakus, scurrying to try to make contact with nearby mobile suits and have them retreat to a safe position away from the enemy vessels. There were less than five minutes until Ypres was completed with the tactical nuke barrage that they would fire upon ZAFT. While the Zaku could handle the spike in radiation, it was impossible to shield oneself from being in the direct blast radius. In order to minimize any chances of friendly fire, Gato and Shin had to personally scout and warn other pilots to retreat, a necessary act thanks to the high Minovsky density that was increasing with each minute.
Gato was observing Shin make skin contact with another Zaku when he felt a flash course through his body, electrifying his nerves and alerting him to an incoming danger despite the lack of activity on his Zaku's sensors.
"Shin, punch your verniers! Evade hard right!" Gato warned on the comlink. While the message was slightly fuzzy, Shin heard it completely through an unintentional psychic projection that Gato had created in duress, narrowly dodging an incoming beam along with the fellow pilot he was talking to, a green beam barely missing them by meters.
Gato shifted his Zaku by sixty degrees and punched his verniers to full acceleration towards an enemy mobile suit that could barely be made out due to its pitch black paint coating. While the Zaku's green paint seemed an odd choice in space, it was a practical necessity in order to help pilots distinguish one another in times of combat with high minovsky density. It seemed that the enemy held a similar idea with the exception of this custom machine.
Through his Newtype senses, Gato could see an image of the mobile suit carrying some sort of giant beam canon, desperately attempting to place an aim on Gato while charging it up for another attack.
Not wanting to give his foe a chance, Gato lined up his bazooka and took two shots. The GINN avoided the two rounds with ease, though Gato didn't mind since he was counting on it.
With the GINN still holding onto the charging beam canon, it could not change weapons quickly or fire cleanly at an incoming target. This allowed Gato to change to his heat hawk quickly and come in close for a melee attack. He raised the heat hawk above his Zaku's head and launched it in a downward position, the GINN pushed the beam canon towards Gato, sacrificing it to allow him to escape.
While Gato's Zaku was just barely able to escape untouched thanks to his reflexes and a warning flash, the explosion blinded his monitor in a bright light for six seconds. This allowed the GINN to change to a heavy sword and attempt to attack Gato, only to come under fire by an incoming Shin who gave suppression with his 120mm machine gun.
Shin's fire caused minor damage to the GINN and forced him to retreat, allowing Gato to recover from his temporary blindness and charge forward with his heat hawk. With the GINN focusing on trying to dodge Shin, he had momentarily forgotten about Gato, giving him an opening to deliver a killing blow to the cockpit.
Shin maneuvered his Zaku next to Gato, initiating skin touch. "Good work there Gato, if you're lucky then you might be a double ace by the end of the day." Shin said with slight warmth. Shin was already one with eleven kills while Gato was slightly behind with eight.
"Thanks. Not how I expected to become an ace, though eliminating five mobile suits is a far more worthy achievement then taking down five Saberfish." Gato said, Shin muttering a slight agreement.
"We've run out of time. Ypres is about to start in two minutes so let's get out of the blast radius now." Shin said in both a suggestion and order. Not wanting to get nuked, Gato agreed and followed Shin out of the blast radius at full speed. While he was not religious, Gato said a silent prayer hoping that no Zeon would get caught in the blast.
The two Royal Guardsmen retreated out to the edge of the battle, positioning themselves in front of two Chivvay's in Battlegroup Delta. Right after they had positioned themselves, thousands of missiles had launched themselves towards the ZAFT fleet, which if Gato guessed was down to half of its original force, those alive taking various amounts of damage.
In less than a minute dozens of miniature suns were formed within L5 as the atoms were combined, claiming most of the ZAFT vessels instantaneously.
It was a powerful sight to behold, very few images could combine both beauty and horror as the scene before Gato did.
The Spaniard Spacenoid couldn't help but gaze in awe, until a flash struck and a brief but powerful image popped in his head.
"For the rebirth of the ideals of Zeon, for the success of Operation Stardust. Solomon, I have returned!"
Gato shook his head, trying to clear the image out and focus on the battle. What he had just seen was a memory from some strange dream that he had seen when he was knocked out by the event. It was a surreal experience where Gato had observed himself piloting a behemoth of a white and blue mobile suit. He piloted it into battle at Solomon, though the circumstances were completely different to now with Gato facing on an entire Federation fleet on his own, no Zeon presence in sight. Once Gato got above the battlefield, he launched the mobile suit's weapon, a nuclear bazooka that decimated the Feddie fleet.
That battle wasn't the only thing he saw in his dreams as there were several other sequences that Gato remembered clearly. He saw himself fighting in the same mobile suit against an enemy suit with a similar design piloted by some rookie Feddie, he saw himself retreating with Commodore Delaz from A Bao Qu where a great struggle was taking place, he guided a colony to drop upon the Earth where he had an intense confrontation with the same pilot he had faced before and some mysterious blonde. The dream ended with him launching a kamikaze in a mobile armor against a Salamis, taking the ship's and his life.
It was a surreal experience and Gato had little to no understanding of what he had just seen. Sure dreams rarely made any sense, but this seemed so real, as if he was both experiencing the events and playing them as memories. Most likely his subconscious had dreamed up a war with the Federation due to nervousness surrounding the Declaration. Whatever the case it was most likely meaningless now. The Earth Federation now longer existed and Zeon's independence would now be eternal. Their war was not with the Earthnoids, rather these Superhuman Spacenoids who had fired without provocation.
The nuclear explosions were met with a chorus of cheers from fellow pilots and ships in the area. With their fleet eliminated the survivors were sure to surrender, ending the battle in a glorious victory for Zeon.
"Looks like the battle is over Gato." Shin said through an initiated skin touch.
"Yes and what a great way to finish. To be honest, I think we could've had Lord Dozle join in his Zaku without any worry. While some of the enemy was a challenge, it was nothing we couldn't-" Gato's boasting was interrupted when he suddenly felt a great pressure force itself upon him. This was the most powerful paranormal sensation that he felt since the event and that mysterious cry that spread through the fleet when Europe and Africa went dark.
In those two intense, the feelings that Gato senses were chaotic and mostly fear and confusion. What he felt now was raw hatred, a blinding an terrible malice directed towards Zeon from hundreds of souls from the surviving enemy. While Gato could feel fear and terror mixed in from the rest of the survivors, it was overwhelmed by the mighty loathing that his body was being flooded upon by numerous souls of ZAFT.
In seconds, dozens upon dozens of bright lights were ignited with trails that led themselves to Zeon lines. These mobile suits were coming at full speed, the danger of incoming fire from Zakus and Zeon ships be damned. Gato's Newtype senses could pick up five GINN's accelerating towards them rapidly, disgust and anger overwhelming the souls of these pilots.
Communications picked up a feral animalistic growl that eliminated from one of the GINN's. Despite the high Minovsky density the incoming message was transmitted clearly with no interference.
"WIPE OUT ALL THE NATURALS! EXTERMINATE THEM!"
MS-06C Zaku-II. Miguel Gaia.
Due to their recently acquired Newtype abilities, all three of the Black Tri-Stars had felt with distinct clarity the dark rage that came from many ZAFT survivors of the nuclear barrage by Zeon. It was a chilling experience for each pilot who had never felt anything similar before in their lives.
While each Tri-Star was now a Newtype, they were on the lower end of the spectrum in comparison to the likes of Char Aznable or future legends of the Cosmic Era such as Mu La Flaga and Rau Le Creuscet. Except for a brief flash by Gaia concerning a glimpse of their Cosmic Era counterparts, none of the trio had experienced any visions of the lost future during the transition nor did they feel the terror of the Earth when the N-Jammer was inflicted upon them.
Each Tri-Star did have their Newtype perception aid them in battle, but these were minor pulses of their full potential with each pilot believing until now that it was solely due to their natural skill that they were able to overcome the enemy.
"What the hell was that Gaia?!" Mash asked in great concern as the Tri-Stars flew through the battlefield towards a direct engagement with the remnants of ZAFT.
"I could understand one of us feeling it due to war nerves, but all three of us at the same time? I also don't think that we were the only ones Gaia, I felt other people go through the same thing. This is some straight up psychic shit and I don't like it!" Said Ortega, adding his own two cents.
Gaia could agree with his teammates and felt that something very unnatural was going on. While he never put stock in superstition and would have days ago laughed over the concept of him being some sort of psychic, the fact that they and the rest of Zeon existed in a new timeline meant anything was possible.
"It's a brave new world boys, you all heard stuff like this happening around the rest of the fleet so clearly we aren't the only ones who caught the psychic bug. Moving to a different timeline probably messed with our bodies somehow, but that ain't important. Let's just survive for now and have the docs check on us after we come back home with a win." Gaia said, his confidence calming the other two Tri-Stars somewhat and allowing them to focus on the task at hand.
After another thirty seconds of traveling, the Tri-Stars caught a distant explosion sixty-seven degrees to their position, causing them to accelerate in order to determine what had happened. When the trio arrived they found a Musai on its last legs with fires surrounding the hull and major chunks of the ship floating off as debris.
As they got closer to the Musai, Gaia could make out a small collection of escape pods floating together in a small collection a couple of kilometers from the Musai. The ship's Komusai had somehow survived its mothership's death and was moving to collect as many of its fellow survivors as it could.
At first Gaia was debating on whether or not he should stick with the Komusai until reinforcements arrived or if he should go, until a flash jolted his body warning him of danger. Unfortunately it was too late for Gaia to take any action as he saw a flurry of missiles slam into the Komusai, destroying it completely.
At the same time, several 76mm rounds were raining down on the escape pods, slowly claiming the lives of the survivors one by one in a desperate attempt to ensure that no Zeon would live from the Musai.
Following the tracers position, Gaia, Mash, and Ortega flew upwards in an arc over the Musai to find two GINN's who were using the ship's wreckage to act as cover while they safely massacred the survivors.
"YOU GODDAMN BASTARDS!" Gaia cursed, Mash and Ortega saying similar sentiments in their cockpits. Gaia had no illusions that war was a bloody business and up til now he and his brothers had been rather proactive in destroying as many of ZAFT as possible. However, Gaia knew that in war there were wars to be followed and one thing you never did was kill a soldier who had no ability to defend themselves.
There were probably multiple opportunities so far in the battle for the Tri-Stars to completely kill any ZAFT survivors they encountered, either those trying to escape their ships or pilots in husks of GINN's. So far the Tri-Stars had restrained themselves as in the words of Gaia, "There's rules and shit to follow." The survivors were already defeated and presented no threat to Zeon, not to mention that the higher the people captured the better hand Zeon had in peace negotiations.
All of that was now completely moot with the GINN's actions. They had crossed the line and now the Tri-Stars were sure to make them pay.
Mash was the first to take action, pushing his verniers to the limits and positioning his custom heat hawk above his Zaku's head to strike on the GINN that fired on the escape pods.
Hollering like a banshee on the open comm, Mash was too quick for the GINN to react too as it was still lost in killing as many Naturals as possible.
This allowed Mash to get a clean strike without any resistance, slicing the GINN down the middle in a perfect cut.
The second GINN desperately tried to escape by retreating to the rear, firing all of its remaining missiles towards Gaia and Ortega to allow it to escape. These missiles were easily avoided by the two Tri-Stars as they danced around the barrage, Ortega also firing a few rounds of his bazooka to prematurely detonate them.
Lining up his anti-ship rifle, Gaia fired and hit the GINN square in the cockpit. Enraged and wanting more blood, Gaia fired two more rounds, hitting the GINN's head and torso, with Ortega adding a final strike that eliminated the GINN's structural integrity and had it collapse into dozens of pieces of debris.
"I can't believe those superhumans murdered our comrades! Let's return the favor Gaia and send all of them to hell!" Ortega shouted, Mash voicing his agreement.
"Nah boys, we're better than those superhuman fuckers, there's no need to stoop down to their level. Besides, I'm sure after Lord Dozle hears of what happened today, he'll send all of the prisoners to Lady Kycillia's care." Gaia said in a wicked smile.
Seeing four mobile suit trails in the distance, the Tri-Stars waited to confirm if they were foe or friendly, until visual showed them an image that while hazy, was definitively that of three Zaku-I's and a Zaku-II.
Satisfied that the survivors would be tended to, Gaia ordered his teammates to head back into the battlefield and eliminate any resistance that they would find. Unfortunately for the Tri-Stars, the incident they had witnessed was only one of several that took place after the nuking of the ZAFT fleet, a dark stain on ZAFT's image that would hinder Zeon's perception of them for months to come.
ZAFT Georges Danton. Talia Gladys.
The great discipline that the Danton's crew had shown so far in the battle had virtually collapsed when the detection of several dozen nuclear explosions took place across the battlefield.
At first there was nothing but a deathly silence on the bridge of the Danton, not a single peep until Helen Mao, shaking in terror with tears streaming visibly down her face, confirmed that they were not only nuclear explosions, but that they were nuclear fusion explosions based on the lack of fissile remnants.
The N-Jammer, ZAFT's hopeful trump card that would bring the war to a swift end and prevent a repeat of Junius Seven was now useless. The Naturals they had been facing had not only created a stealth fleet, not only had a jamming device that could make all forms of communication and visual detection difficult at best, not only created mobile suits that seemed to be superior to the GINN, not only fielded advanced warships that was equal to a majority of ZAFT's fleet, they had done the impossible and harnessed the power of the sun. Naturals had nuclear fusion.
At this revelation all order had ceased within the bridge with the crew erupting into heavy shouting over how to best proceed.
While Hector was trying desperately to regain some semblance of order, Talia sat frozen, glued to her chair with a blank expression of shock and horror on her face. As despicable as Uroboros was, it was a brutal necessity in order to protect the PLANTs, so that her son William would never suffer the fate of his father and live a happy peaceful life without persecution by bigoted Naturals.
This grand technology that was meant to act as the PLANT's shield was little more than an expensive decoration. If the Alliance could harness nuclear fusion, then the war was over at this point. The Earth had won and now they were about to seek a bloody revenge for the calamity that was Uroboros. There was nothing to stop Blue Cosmos from seeing the entirety of the PLANTs wiped out from existence.
'Unless, it's not the Alliance and this is truly Zeon.' Talia thought.
At first she continued to deny the possibility of Zeon's existence, but with each passing existence she had grown more accepting of the idea as it was the only logical reason to explain what was unfolding, despite the fantastical impossibility for such an event.
If the Alliance had nuclear fusion and was able to equip them to thousands of ships, why did they not equip them to the Alliance orbital fleet to face Uroboros. Why did Earth go dark from Uroboros and not stay fine with nuclear fusion energy? Why did the L5 "Stealth fleet" stay parked around the base and not attack the PLANTs with their fusion nukes, especially when Earth went dark? Why were these mobile suits and Natural pilots superior to the GINN?
All Talia could think of was whys, yet with each new question she found the idea of the Alliance being being the enemy they thought to be ludicrous.
With this epiphany an monumental guilt was forming within Talia's gut over the fact that they had fired upon a neutral nation, though she refused to continue in inaction. She had to be decisive now more than ever to save her crew and ensure they return home.
"Everyone! The battle is lost, we need to-" Talia was in the middle of attempting to rally the bridge with a few officers stopping and looking at their officer, though Talia was unable to continue as she saw a red blur streak across the Danton's view monitor, then second later Talia was jolted in her seat as the entire bridge shook under great pressure. THe lights flickered on and off and shrapnel was being teared off the walls.
When everything had settled, Talia had taken stock of the bridge, attempting to see if everyone had made it out alright. While almost everyone had been unscathed, someone was not as unfortunate as Talia looked to her left in horror with Hector lying dazed in his chair, a large piece of metal striking his head and causing severe bleeding from his skull.
"HECTOR!" Talia screamed, panic rising at the sight of their first officer bleeding profusely. While their physiology allowed Coordinators to suffer greater blows than Naturals and come out alive and healthy, they were only human and blows to the head were just as devastating for them as it was for Naturals. At best Hector had a concussion, at worst he was suffering a brain aneurysm and would die within a minute.
"Louis get the emergency kit and put some pressure on him! Helen, call medical and get someone up here five minutes ago! Helen, open up all communications channel with the enemy!" Talia ordered in rapid succession. With her friend and XO on the verge of death, Talia gained the courage to do what she should've done before the nukes were thrown.
After Helen confirmed that channels were open, Talia spoke as quickly as she could.
"All units aligned with Zeon, this is Captain Talia Gladys of the ZAFT Georges Danton. We Surrender, I repeat, we surrender."
MS-06C Zaku-II. Char Aznable.
"All...Zeon...Talia Galdys...ZAFT...We Surrender...repeat...surrender."
After Char had taken out the GINN guarding the ZAFT frigate, marking his fifteenth kill and making him a triple ace along with the sinking of a frigate earlier, he had reloaded his bazooka and was set on firing on the frigate, making it his second ship sunk out of the entire engagement.
However, before he could fire Char heard the heavily distorted audio that the captain of the ship, this Talia Gladys presumably, was attempting to surrender to him.
While the communication was barely eligible thanks to the high Minovsky density which was now reaching 70%, there was enough legibility to clearly show that the frigate before him was surrendering.
After he had heard the message, a dark part of Char's mind told him to disregard her attempt and then eliminate the ship entirely. While capturing a frigate was a noteworthy accomplishment, destroying it would be even bigger and further Char's rise to power within Zeon. This would bring him closer to the Zabis outside of his "friendship" with Garma, while at the same time giving him some hard power within the military that could allow him to reach out to old Deikun Loyalists to lay the foundations for a coup against the Zabi's and the restoration of either the Republic, or a new Principality under Casval Rem Deikun.
Besides his lust for power in his quest for revenge, Char also wanted to fire upon the ship as he had heard from a passing Zaku-I squad that they had witnessed a few enemy mobile suits executing Zeon escape pods. This was an abhorrent crime in Char's eyes and made him want to settle the score against these superhumans.
There was no one else within the area, and Char could always claim that Minovsky interference made the message intelligible or that he hadn't received it at all, though he would unfortunately need to do some slicing of his Zaku's computer to get rid of the small transmission.
'Are these people really deserving of such a fate? After all they are Spacenoids like us?' A voice of consciousness within Char spoke, causing him to lower down his bazooka.
Char had not been able to get a full understanding of the Cosmic Era, and he highly doubted that even Degwin or Gihren were aware of the exact history and nature of this new timeline, but what little information he read showed that ZAFT was fighting a war of independence against an Earth Alliance, a collection of nations that had constructed the PLANTs and had oppressed the Coordinators living there through authoritarian economic manipulation and brutal killings of its civilians, a situation that sounded eerily familiar to Zeon's past.
While Char was not comfortable with the idea of Coordination as it went against his father's path for human evolution with Newtypes (a phenomena that after today would likely be publicly acknowledged and confirmed), these Coordinators were still humans who suffered under the tyranny of Earth's gravity and were exiled into space to live lives of misery and poverty. When the PLANTs gained a semblance of self-reliance and prosperity, the Alliance cracked down further and fought to keep them under the heel of their boot, just like Zeon and the Federation.
Char had no idea why this ZAFT acted so appallingly today and fired upon Zeon without provocation, though perhaps it was not due to an inherent evil of their genetics, rather racial radicalization or the PLANTs suffering under crooked tyranny in leadership like the Zabis.
Whatever the reason, the battle was won and Zeon stood victorious. While this ship may live, they would have absolutely no impact on the war effort and soon Zeon would bring those responsible to justice. Besides, capturing a ship singlehandidly was still an impressive feat was it not?
Char moved his Zaku close to the presumed bridge of the ship, raising his bazooka in a cautious pose to eliminate it should they try anything rash. His Zaku moved to become meters away from the ship, so that Char would have as clear communications as possible and he could destroy the ship with no chances to miss should the worst happen.
Char opened up all of the Zaku's communication's methods and contacted the ship.
"To this ship's Captain, presumably Talia Gladys. I am Lieutenant Char Aznable of the Zeon Space Force. Depower your weapons and cease your acceleration. As of this moment you are now prisoners of war of the Principality of Zeon. Refusal to comply will result in your destruction." Char said, hoping the message got through clearly.
Eight seconds passed until Talia Gladys responded, "Lieutenant Aznable, thank...accepting our surrender. We...comply momentarily. I request...stay with us so that we are not fired upon by..."The message ended though Char had once again understood her words with his intuition.
"Acknowledged, will stay with the ship until relief arrives. I repeat, I will stay with the ship until relief arrives." Char said, the lack of response being a hopeful sign that they would comply.
For the next four minutes Char stayed with the Georges Danton, an uneasy quiet passing between the ZAFT frigate and the red Zaku-II. While Char was able to flag down a mixture of Zaku's I's and II's, from their word and the lack of beam weaponry or explosions brightening up the battlefield, it seemed that the battle had just ended with the rest of ZAFT either eliminated, surrendered, or being mopped up by the hundreds of Zakus and ships within the area.
Thus marked the end of the Red Comet's debut. On this day Char Aznable became a name of fear and awe as the ace of Zeon who had the most kills in MS to MS warfare, a title that he would hold for significant period of time until events later in the year gave rise to the first generation of true aces, progenitors of mobile warfare that would be upheld as the golden standard of pilots for generations to come.
On April 2nd, 70 CE, the First Contact War began with the Battle of Solomon, a Zeon victory that had wiped out nearly a tenth of all ZAFT forces and turn L5 from PLANT space to a contested Lagrange point, nearly overturning the success of Uroboros if it weren't for the actions of both the Zabi dynasty and PLANT supreme council in the days to come. The second half and in many respects the great climax of the First Contact War would begin, with the Battle of Pezun and the greater L4 campaign.
A/N: Now we conclude the Battle of Solomon, the opening of the First Contact War between Zeon and ZAFT/Earth Alliance and the bloody introduction of Zeon into the Earth sphere.
This chapter was by far the largest chapter of Cosmic Crusade and it's also my favorite that I have written yet as we have diverged from canon wildly with the battle marking the first MS on MS fight of the Cosmic Era, the paths of all three powers diverging wildly from here.
Since this is my first proper non-canon battle, please give constructive feedback on the combat and tell me how much you enjoyed it. This will be a taste of the greater war to come in Gihren's Glory and there will be plenty more battles like this in the future.
To address immediate and important plot points, Anavel Gato is a Newtype. He's roughly on par with canon Char while all of the Tri-Stars are among the lowest tiers of Newtypes with Gaia being the strongest among them. Dozle has displayed incredible potential in the battle, but he is still immature in Newtype development with a long way to go and there are plenty of Newtype heavyweights on all sides that are at his level or above him. Char is right now the highest scoring ace during the battle with Shin, Gato, and Gaia close behind in that order in 14 for Shin and Gato and Gaia tied at 12. Full statistics of the battle will be revealed later but let's just say that while it's a major victory for Zeon, it's not the best case scenario for them and Solomon along with Pezun is going to reveal some deep flaws within the Zeon war machine. Lastly Talia is now currently a prisoner at Solomon for the time being. Her greater fate will be addressed in near future chapters, but let's just say that while Dozle isn't going to be bloodthirsty towards the prisoners, his view of ZAFT has been tarnished greatly by them firing the first shots and several instances of executing unarmed and escaping Zeon combatants.
Next chapter which I garuntee will not happen after Gihren's Glory 43, is going to be a short focus on Garma's first contact with Orb and how he's dealing with the Raifuku Maru crisis. After that will be the Battle of Pezun, then the general fallout of the battles and both ZAFT and the Alliance realizing of Zeon's hard existence.
Thanks for watching and stay tuned for more!