"If there is one great tragedy about the Battle of Solomon, is that it's existence was unable to prevent the Battle of Pezun. Under any normal circumstances, the dozens of strategic and tactical nuclear explosions initiated by Dozle Zabi at the battle should have been detected by long-range satellites and communications in L1 and Luna. The existence of not only multiple nuclear detonations at the supposedly ZAFT asteroid, but fusion detonations, would have then given EASC great pause and doubt of Pezun being a "ZAFT" stronghold, calling off the operation and preventing the battle from occurring.
Unfortunately for the East Asian Space Force, Dozle Zabi's liberal usage of Minovsky particles prevented any detection of nuclear explosions outside of L5, with Zeon itself being completely unaware of the battle taking place until communications were re-established with Solomon. If Zum City was unaware that nukes had been launched, then it would be impossible for East Asia or the rest of the Alliance to notice as well.
While Dozle Zabi made the correct tactical decision to create a heavy Minovsky density to protect Solomon and the 2nd Fleet due to having no knowledge of ZAFT's capabilities beyond their being populated by Coordinators and the N-Jammer, such a decision would lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths in the Battle of Pezun, both East Asia and Zeon.
Of course, cynical military historians will probably state that even if Dozle did not use any Minovsky particles at Solomon, then East Asia would have still launched an attack on Pezun due to some bizzaro justification on how the nukes were elaborate tests or the battle itself was some sort of internal conflict for ZAFT. While I would like to believe that this would be highly improbable, the rather irrational and out of touch personalities that dominated the leadership of not only East Asia but the greater Alliance, both within and outside Blue Cosmos, would make such a case sadly realistic."
-The Forgotten Member: East Asia's role in the Earth Alliance." by Satoshi Yang. CE 116
April 2nd, 70 CE. 1350. L4. Third Person POV
In deathly ignorance the titanic East Asian fleet of 2600 ships made their way on a direct course for Pezun with the intent to nuke the "ZAFT" fleet that threatened L4.
In accordance with the plan, Admiral Tang Wei contacted Admiral Lutjens and told him that they would be reinforcing the L4 cluster to defend them from ZAFT, all in the belief that Lutjens was desperately keeping up a lie of being an officer of Zeon to protect his weakness.
In response to the communication, Lutjens acknowledged the East Asian movements and wished them the best of luck on their operations, being completely honest and unaware of the deceit that he had been trapped in.
Convinced that they had fooled the "Coordinators", Tang began the next step of the trap, to send 400 Azure mobile armors, 60 of which were armed with nuclear weapons, and send them to a "ZAFT" pocket to test the nukes and wipe them out. For the 400 pilots selected, it was a virtual suicide mission whether ZAFT or Zeon. Still, the pilots willingly went to their near certain deaths as they believed that success would be the first step in avenging their brothers and sisters lost in Earth orbit, along with their hundreds of millions of countrymen suffering on Earth.
The Azures set course for a fairly lucrative target, 22 Musais and 7 Chivvays, a task force that was on the edge of the security perimeter surrounding Pezun.
As the Azures flew closer to their target, confused panic swept through the fleet at the provocation. The Rear Admiral in charge of the task force desperately demanded the Azures to back off as they were violating Zeon sovereign space, while at the same time asking Lutjens for permission to fire. Lutjens did not give permission in return as he believed this to be a misunderstanding and he did not desire to start a conflict with a nation that had not existed two days ago. Lutsjens sent several transmissions to Tang, asking for him to take control of his mobile armor, but all he got was silence in return.
At this point the task force admiral began deploying his Zakus while spreading particles and preparing megaparticle canons. Unfortunately for the admiral, it was too late.
As soon as the Azures got in range, they launched a massive barrage of hundreds upon hundreds of missiles with the nukes clustered in between. Due to the Minovsky particles just barely beginning to spread, the Azures radar worked perfectly with the missiles dumb AI locking onto the ships.
In eighty seconds after launch, the missiles found all of their targets with dozens of tactical nuclear explosions lighting up the Lagrange point. All ships were vaporized with what little remnants being nothing more than twisted scraps of steel.
Only a handful of the task force's Zakus would survive, with all of them being gunned down in short order by the Azures, making the massacre complete and total.
Among the East Asian fleet, the communications burst with loud cheers and hollers of victory, the entire fleet being jubilant over their gambit having apparently worked with undeniable proof that the "Coordinators" did not have N-Jammers, leaving them open to attack.
Unfortunately for East Asia, they had not waged war on ZAFT, but instead launched a brutal massacre of a fleet of the Principality of Zeon. The East Asians had marked their own graves.
ZSFS Ares. Wilhelm Lutjens.
"EARTHNOID SCUM!" Howled Admiral Wilhelm Lutjens in the most vile black venom. It was a sentiment that was shared by hundreds of thousands of Spacenoids across the fleet as they had just watched over three thousand of their comrades in arms be wiped out in an instant by a surprise attack launched by the East Asians that they had supposedly made peaceful first contact with the day prior.
'Once an Earthnoid always an Earthnoid, fucking trash.' Thought Lutjens, sneering loudly over the crime inflicted upon Zeon. It appeared that no matter the timeline, those who had their souls weighed down by gravity would always seek to crush the Spacenoids under their boot and heel. In his contact with East Asia, Lutjens had done nothing but act in the most diplomatic manner that he could think of, staying within the near space of Pezun and respecting East Asia's sovereignty surrounding their colonies. Despite his cordial demeanor, East Asia had sought to do battle with Zeon and launch a first strike through nuclear fire, going for WMD's straight from the get go.
Deep within Lutjens, a small part of his conscience had chided him for his anger as Zeon would've acted similarly within Prussian. Lutjens did his best to shake off the dark thoughts and focus on the task at hand. Prussian was a horrific plan, but it was a brutal necessary to secure their independence from the Federation by crippling their presence in space. Here Zeon was the clear victim, and as such they must inflict justice as swiftly and harshly as possible to avenge those lost in the surprise attack.
"Raise Minovsky density to combat levels, deploy all Zaku squads throughout the fleet! Battlegroups Alpha through Kilo, commence megaparticle barrage to soften their numbers!" Lutjens barked in rapid succession to respond to the outbreak of battle.
Within seconds his orders were broadcast through the fleet with his words becoming action as the over 1200 ships began to implement the command. Dozens upon dozens of green megaparticles raced across the field and began to strike the vanguards of the East Asian fleet, many hitting their mark while a few completely destroyed their targets.
The East Asian fleet began to fire back as well, though their lack of long range through their plasma beam canons meant that their hit ratio was less than Zeon's. This would slightly be offput by the missile and railgun compliments which were being used to their fullest due to the lack of high Minovsky density at the current point.
Acting quickly to formulate a strong counterattack, Admiral Lutjens pulled up his command console and analyzed the battlefield to find any potential weaknesses within the East Asian fleet while making sure that no blind spots for Pezun were being presented.
To Lutjens' surprise, he found the East Asian fleet to be extremely thin, with several dozen formations being spread out over a thousand kilometers instead of bunching up in a tight and compact line as the Earth Federation Space Force would have done. Such a tactic would've been the logical course of action as it would allow East Asia to best press their numerical superiority and overwhelm the 3rd fleet through overwhelming firepower through a distance, eliminating a plurality or possible majority of the fleet before they could create a heavy Minovsky density or deploy their Zakus to rush into the East Asian fleet.
Unknown to Lutjens, the East Asians were deployed in such a manner in response to Operation Uroboros. A majority of the casualties on the Alliance in that battle had been due to their tight formations which allowed ZAFT ships and GINN's to take out dozens of ships in a single strike. Here their lines were thin with dozens of flotillas and taskforces so that the death of one would not mean the destruction of the entire fleet.
Seeing as how his enemy was deliberately dividing itself, Lutjens' brain began working rapidly to come up with a clever ploy that could keep the East Asians isolated and separated despite their numerical superiority.
After half a minute of thinking, a concrete plan formed for Lutjens with him typing it in a flash on his console. Seeing his mental gymnastic's on the computer's display made Lutjens heavily confident in what he had created, sure that it would lead Zeon to victory.
With his heart set, Lutjens began relaying a new set of orders.
"Transmit message to the entire fleet, Sierra through Yankee are to be deployed to Pezun and act as its shield. Vice Admiral Malishev is to take take command of what is to be hereby dubbed the 'Pezun Fleet'. Tell Molenshav that he is to engage in turtle defense and from there act as he sees fit.
Alpha to Romeo are to head ninety six degrees in pursuit of Bogey 50, the enemy formation which I have highlighted at the center." He said, clarifying to his communication officer what he had meant by sending him the data on the command console to his terminal. After quickly looking over the packet, the officer gave an affirmative that he had been understood.
"Alpha through Romeo which shall be known as the Mars Fleet, is to proceed to Bogey 50 in a spindletop formation no greater than fifty kilometers wide and twenty kilometers high. All ships are to maintain 5% Minovsky density at all times, which is to rise to 10% once we reach within forty kilometers of Bogey 50.
Once we begin spindletop formation communication shall be tight so from there on we are to undergo relay communications. Mobile suit teams are advised to act with full autonomy as they see fit on the battlefield.
Men, to quote a wise and ancient King, we may not have started this war, but we shall sure as hell end it. SIEG ZEON!"
"Sieg Zeon!" The bridge crew of the Ares shouted in affirmation, hundreds of replies shouting the same to words within the next couple of minutes as confirmation.
After roughly twenty-five minutes of organization, the Pezun fleet began to make its way to guard the asteroid while the Mars fleet began their march towards East Asian lines.
Among the numerous historical feats that would be performed that day, the greatest of the Battle of Pezun would be an act that would be studied by military officers of the Cosmic Era for generations as a viable strategy to win against a numerical superior force, the Lutjens maneuver.
PLSF Wuhan
When the Zeon 3rd fleet had split into two, Admiral Tang had moved quickly to respond. Believing that with nukes in play that any sort of numerical superiority would grant East Asia a quick and decisive victory, he had sent a third of his fleet to target the Pezun Fleet and the base itself, while the remaining 2/3rd's would take on the incoming spear that was Mars Fleet.
Half of the Azures had been deployed and were moving in a grand pincer attack to hopeful keep the Zeon fleet contained and away from the East Asian lines while long-range bombardment would seal the victory. The closest East Asian flotillas and task forces began plasma volleys while the more distant groups of ships used their rail guns, hoping that kinetic momentum would allow them to hold onto target.
On the bridge of the Wuhan, a East Asian battleship of the Beijing-class, Senior Captain Huang gave off a deathly glare.
'Burn in nuclear fire you space monsters.' He thought in cruel pleasure, feelings of ecstasy climbing as he watched a series of nuclear explosions at the rim of the Mars fleet.
A two decade long member of Blue Cosmos, Huang was one of the organization's many plants within the East Asian fleet. While East Asia's Naturals as a whole were heavily against Coordination, they were not as bloodthirsty as large segments of the Atlantic Federation, many leading politicians advocating for a violent cleansing of Coordinators to create a blue and pure world.
It was the job of Huang and his fellow BC officers to subvert and radicalize East Asian command so that one day they would become stalwart Natural crusaders. After Operation Uroboros, Huang was confident that such a future was well on its way with their victory at Pezun hopefully pushing the remnants of the Beijing civilian government alongside EASC to escalate the situation so that the Bloody Valentine nuking would be repeated dozens of times.
While Huang was slightly concerned that the Zeon fleet seem to be headed towards his way after initially heading on course towards the center of the fleet, he felt confident that the 150 tactical and strategic nukes within his group would be enough to destroy the spearhead, allowing his men to fall back and be reinforced to meet the Coordinators head on.
When the Mars fleet got within fifty kilometers of Huang's group, he gave off a Cheshire grin, his greatest contribution to the cause about to take place.
"Began total missile bombardment onto the enemy. After our missile pods are cleared begin a withdrawal to 200 klicks to the rear. Recall all mobile armor units and hail the Sonbong and Ye Ting to have their groups unify with us." Huang ordered.
He waited several seconds in heavy anticipation, the continued existence of the Coordinators in front of him being pure agony to the bigoted officer. Half a minute passed, but no missiles were launched.
Huang's mood quickly soured into fury, veins popping out of his head while he stared down the weapons officer with death in his eyes, "Lieutenant, why did you DISOBEY MY ORDER?! Defiance during battle is treason with the punishment of death!" Huang yelled, silently grabbing hold of his holstered pistol in case his subordinate was some vile race traitor.
Shaking, the Lieutenant stammered in response, "Senior Captain, I am trying to comply with your order but I am unable to get a lock onto the enemy ships. Radar is malfunctioning completely and all visual images are filled with static at best."
Huang's rage turned to horror as the situation eerily felt familiar to the effects of the N-Jammer at the orbital massacre. However, the N-Jammers had absolutely no effect on visual targeting, which was the only reason the Alliance got any semblance of casualties on ZAFT in the first place.
"Impossible, how could those cockroaches have improved their superweapon in less than a day. Of course they could improve it within a day, their superhuman monsters." Huang said in a low whisper, losing all semblance of his previous composure now that the enemy had gained the upper hand.
Huang's state turned to total confusion as on the viewscreen of the bridge, he saw a couple of nuclear explosions dart across the battlefield both near the approaching fleet and of the battle taking place next to Pezun. This confirmed that the enemy either didn't have N-Jammers or they weren't working.
"How?" Huang asked, though he would never receive an answer as within seconds he along most of the Wuhan would be vaporized by an incoming megaparticle barrage, dozens of beams turning the ship into little more than twisted scrap.
In less than a minute the Wuhan group was completely obliterated, their surviving mobile armors meeting the fate of complete destruction through quick strikes by the Mars' fleets Zaku escorts.
While East Asia outnumbered Zeon in the battle 2 to 1, the separation of their fleet into several dozen independent groups turned the tide against them as the Battle of Pezun was not two fleets facing off against each other, rather it was two titanic Zeon fleets conducting dozens of battles against isolated and trapped East Asian ships wherein each engagement saw Zeon outnumber the enemy by at least double digits.
This was the beauty of the Lutjens maneuver, gaining numerical superiority despite being lower in pure mathematics.
MS-06C Zaku II Johnny Ridden
With his ship the ZSFS Guadalcanal being part of Taskforce Tango, Johnny Ridden was one of the hundreds of Zaku pilots within the Pezun fleet who had to face off against the breakaway East Asian forces.
At the moment Vice Admiral Molenshav had elected to have X-Ray and Yankee stay behind to hug Pezun and spread particles. The purpose of this was to aid Pezun in covering the asteroid's immediate airspace in near total Minvosky density so that it would not be hit by East Asian fire, a high probability due to its status as a stationary target. As such, Sierra through Whiskey was sent to fight the East Asian forces straight on, a lopsided fight in ship numbers that was fortunately helped by the East Asian's strange insistence to keep as much space between each other as possible.
Thanks to this, the Pezun fleet was able to take on the isolated pockets head on with the destruction of two pockets already occurring. The Pezun fleet was at the moment charging towards a third, with Johnny dashing through the battlefield alongside his squadron to take down as many East Asians as possible, their eyes set on one of what command presumed to be their carrier class.
'How the hell could this have happened, are these people truly so awful that they'd fire on a nation that didn't exist two days ago?' Johnny lamented.
Here he was not fighting against the accursed Federation which he had sworn to do battle against for Zeon's independence, instead he was fighting against people from another dimension who decided to nuke them in a surprise attack despite first contact seemingly going so well.
'Even the damned Feddies had more honor than this crap.' Whatever their reasons for the despicable attack, all the East Asians here would either at the end of the day be dead or prisoners if Johnny had anything to say about it.
Not having any clue about the general layout of the enemy ships, Johnny decided to go for an obvious blindspot and weakness by aiming for the engines. Using his Zaku's speed to push past the ship, Johnny then activated his verniers and swerved the Zaku to face the rear of the ship, firing several rounds of his machine gun as the momentum of his acceleration pushed him past the ship and increasing out of range of the ship's AA guns.
Once he was a couple of kilometers away, Johnny pushed his verniers to full throttle to make another attack run. This time Johnny grabbed a sturm faust from his Zaku's rear, and taking aim he launched the rocket straight at the dead center of the ship, causing an intense explosion which with his earlier shots destroyed the carrier's drive.
In quick succession after using his sturm faust, Johnny switched back to his rifle and unleashed several dozen rounds upon the side of the ship, at the same time dancing his Zaku up and downward to avoid any incoming fire.
Just as he passed the ship, Johnny felt a bolt of lightning surge through his body, causing it to tense in high alertness. In an impossible sense of awareness, Johnny swerved his Zaku and pushed it back several meters. This allowed him to narrowly survive an incoming Azure which had charged Johnny straight on with its barrels blazing. The mobile armor pilot was either suicidal or incredibly brave.
Whatever the case, Johnny's close evasion allowed him to keep track of the mobile armor and fire it without fear of retaliation, the last rounds of his magazine tore the Azure into shreds.
"How the fuck did I know that was coming?" Johnny asked himself. Ever since the event strange things had been happening to him. When he was unconscious he saw some sort of vision of him fighting on multiple battlefields over a period of several years. When ZAFT attacked the Earth Johnny, along with thousands of others in the fleet, had felt immense pressure on their pain, as if they experiencing the sufferings of millions.
Then, as the battle began, Johnny's mind and body felt a state of incredibly clarity and awareness, himself sensing multiple events across the battlefield in a manner similar to what had just happened.
These events caused Johnny's mind to drift to a topic that Kycillia seemed to be obsessed with at great length. From what he had remembered on her tales of the Flanagan Institute, it seemed that Johnny had all the symptoms of being a Newtype, the chosen Spacenoids that were proclaimed by Zeon Deikun to be the next step in humanity's evolution.
'But Kycillia said Newtypes were born that way and I didn't experience anything like this until after the event. Did coming to the Cosmic Era make me one?'
Whatever philosophical ramblings Johnny wanted to explore, a sensor alert of a nearby Zaku explosion brought his mind back to the battlefield. For now he had to focus on surviving and eliminating the enemy. Whatever questions he had about his possible status as a Newtype he could ask when he met Kycillia again, another reason to return alive to his fair princess.
For the next three minutes, Johnny worked together with his squadron to completely eliminate the carrier and its escorting mobile armors. During this time Johnny had racked another three mobile armor kills and had landed the finishing shot on the carrier before it collapsed, marking his first ship kill of the battle.
With all visual signs of the battlefield being moped up, Johnny began to return to his ship to rearm when his newfound powers began to kick in again, alerting him to a nuclear explosion of a Musai that was seventeen kilometers to his right.
Cursing East Asia for what was not the first and definitely not the last time that day, Johnny ordered his squad to head out and eliminate the East Asian attackers, himself charging as soon as he finished the transmission.
Moving past the fiery wreck of the Musai, Johnny spotted at least eleven Azures who were preying upon the survivors like vultures. Two Zakus were all that was left from the ship, which soon turned into one Zaku as one made exploded right as Johnny arrived while the other attempted to make a desperate last stand with an anti-ship rifle.
Low on ammunition and wanting to rely on the Zaku's superior speed, Johnny grabbed his heat hawk and turned it on. The Azures were so focused on the lone Zaku that they were oblivious to Johnny's incoming presence. This gave Johnny the element of surprise with him slicing two Azures in consecutive order. This tore the Azures attention off of the surviving Zaku, with the arrival of Johnny's squad further decimating their ranks.
Flying circles around the Azures, Johnny killed another Azure and used the remains of the armor as a temporary shield to block the incoming fire of one of its comrades, pushing the armor to it and then circling around the rear to slash his heat hawk through the machine. Just as the fight was dying down, Johnny received another flash, kicking his verniers to reverse and just barely avoiding several canon rounds with two lightly scrapping his Zaku's chasis.
Johnny turned his Zaku towards what appeared to be the last Azure and was about to confront it, only for the Azure to be shredded by an anti-ship round. Johnny moved his Zaku's camera and found it came from the surviving Zaku.
After making sure that there were no more East Asians left, Johnny glided his Zaku towards the survivor and initiated skin touch.
"The names Lieutenant Junior Grade Johnny Ridden, I'm the squad leader of the Guadalcanal's Zaku compliment. I take it you're the last of your ship?" Johnny asked.
"Unfortunately, we had just finished destroying one of their cruisers when that squad came out of nowhere and blew the ship to kingdom come. Most of my squad was unfortunately within the hangar so they were caught in the blast radius. I'm afraid I'm all that's left of the Trier. Name's Lieutenant Breniss Ox."
Johnny frowned at the information. While the Zeon space force had expanded rapidly in the past few years and was gargantuan in size, it was a close-knit brotherhood of millions of men and women all dedicated to the cause of Zeon's independence. Johnny had a few good friends on the Guadalcanal and the ship as a whole was somewhat of a family. For this Lieutenant Ox to have lost them all in an instant must have been the devastating experience.
"Sir, I can't bring back your comrades, but what I can do is give you a promise that if you come with us back to the Guadalcanal then we'll help you kill as many East Asians as possible. Those Earthnoid bastards will wish they never laid a hand on the Trier." Johnny said.
Johnny received a low laugh on the other end, "Sounds like a pretty good deal to me Ridden. Permission to come aboard?"
"Granted. Since you're my superior in rank would you like to take command of the squad?"
"I appreciate the offer Lieutenant but it's your squad they'll work best under your lead. Just consider me a helpful stowaway who wants to land a hand."
"If you insist sir." Johnny said, wanting to make sure that there'd be no conflict of authority. With the confirmation, Johnny and Breniss went to the Guadalcanal to resupply. It was in this moment that the Crimson Lightning gained one of his closest friends.
MS-05B Zaku I. Ramba Ral.
As part of Lutjens' strategy for dealing with the enemy, two mobile regiments of Zakus from the Mars Fleet would be sent off independently to take out nearby flotillas and taskforces that could act as reinforcements for the Mars fleets targets. The purpose of this was so that once the Mars fleet was finished in eliminating its target through overwhelming firepower in megaparticle canons, it could continue on to face its next target with little opposition.
Through dumb luck, Ramba Ral's squadron was chosen to become one of these regiments, which at the moment was engaging 17 East Asian ships and their mobile armor pilots along the right flank of the Mars fleet.
'If this is how the East Asians are against the Zaku then it makes you wonder how the Federation would've fared.' Ramba thought, firing a rocket from his bazooka near point blank to an unsuspecting Azure, causing the mobile armor to explode with Ramba then traveling to assist two Zaku-I's and a Zaku-II to eliminate an enemy battleship.
Going into battle Ramba thought the Admiral's plan was rather reckless in using the Zaku regiments to deal with entire enemy groups alone. However, it seemed to be paying off handsomely as the mobile armors were being swatted down in quick succession by the Zakus while the enemy ships laid helplessly as sitting ducks against the mobile suits with little to no protection against mobile suits.
This was quite apparent when Ramba was able to fly multiple circles around the opposing battleship with little to no risk of damage. His fire along with his comrades proceeded to tear apart the ship with its destruction being total in less than two minutes.
Once the ship was destroyed, Ramba helped to destroy a nearby cruiser with the kill marking the virtual end of the engagement as all nearby East Asian ships were either destroyed or on its way there.
As Ramba attempted to make his way back to the Chivvay he was based on, his screen was lit up as he saw a handful of Zakus a couple dozen kilometers in front of him get disintegrated in a nuclear explosion.
"How many nukes do these fuckers have?!" Ramba asked in rage. So far it seemed that the main cause of death for his fellow soldiers of Zeon was a demise by nuclear fire as hundreds of nuclear explosions had been inflicted upon Zeon lines since the start. In their assaults on the enemy nukes had been withheld on the regiment as it would have been a waste to launch one for mobile suits alone. It seemed however that the survivors had no restrictions and sought to take down as many Zakus as possible.
'I swear it's like they emptied Luna II's stockpile and decided to launch some fireworks.' Wanting to avenge his fellow pilots, Ramba scrambled to meet their killers as quickly as possible.
To his surprise, it seemed that he was met with only one mobile armor, the single ship wielding the power of the atom.
"I'll send your GINN straight to hell space monster!" The pilot barked over the radio.
Another nuke was launched towards Ramba, though the audio had given enough time to easily evade the missile's trajectory, itself going further into deep space.
"This is a Zaku boy! A Zaku!" Ramba yelled over the open comm, speeding far past the Azure and then firing his bazooka toward the mobile armor. It hit the armor dead center with a small nuclear explosion being created. Fortunately for Ramba his Zaku's shielding protected him entirely from the radiation.
"Why the hell did he call me a GINN?" Ramba asked himself in puzzlement. Shrugging the matter aside, Ramba made course towards the fleet for resupply. With fatigue starting to set in, Ramba began to daydream of a certain blonde beauty.
ZSFS Ares. Wilhelm Lutjens
In the past hour and a half it seemed that Wilhelm's plan had gone off without a hitch. The main factor that allowed his success was his usage of Minovsky particles. While his ships had maintained a consistent level of 10% in its immediate area, the close formation of the spindle caused the particles of hundreds of ships to group together into a massive cloud that covered the fleet at all times. While communications were hell at the moment, it allowed for a near perfect cloak to protect the fleet from East Asian sensors, ensuring that their fire would completely miss.
A tactical nuclear explosion occurred on the fringe of the spindle, claiming a Chivvay with the visual sensors of the Ares capturing the grim moment for a few seconds.
'Well almost.' Lutjens thought sadly.
Practically the only factor that gave the East Asians a bone left in the fight and allowed them to take so many Zeon lives was their swarm of nukes at disposal. While Lutjens had not refrained from nuclear usage with dozens of tactical and strategic nukes being used by Zeon so far, it seemed that for every Zeon nuke there were twenty East Asian nukes that were returned at minimum.
'What the hell is with this timeline, not even the Federation was this nuke crazy.' Lutjens thought. From his conversations with Chen, it seemed that the Alliance had been extremely weary on using nukes after Junius Seven, not they were using so many nukes that it made the Soviet-NATO exchange in WW3 look tame in comparison.
"Continue firing the megaparticle canons, I want to see the East Asians turn into Stardust!" Lutjens yelled, doing his best to motivate his crew to continue their best.
Within a couple of minutes his wish was granted as the enemy that they had faced, a total of 32 ships, had been completely obliterated with the few mobile armors left being moped up by hundreds of Zakus. After the first few engagements were the remaining Azures had launched suicide missions with nukes to take out as many Zeon as possible, the fleet's Zaku pilots learned to not take the mobile armors as a joke and to be as brutal in combat as possible.
"Sir, the fleet to our rear is changing position, it seems they are headed in entirety for Pezun." His sensor officer alerted.
The data was sent to Lutjens were it showed an estimated 800-1000 ships abandoning the immediate battlefield and headed for the asteroid, most likely to overwhelm it in numbers and bathe the base in a nuclear shower.
Grunting at the move, Lutjens did his best to adapt, "Send a transmission to taskforces Echo, Hotel, Mike and Quebec with orders to detach and engage the remaining survivors to our galactic north. The rest of the fleet is to shift directions and chase after the rear enemy."
Within ten minutes his orders were carried out with the majority of the Pezun fleet giving pursuit of their numerically superior foes while the detachment began to form together to take the remaining pockets head on.
So long as Pezun held then the Battle would be a sure Zeon victory.
MS-05B Zaku I. Ramba Ral
Unfortunately for the breakaway portion of the Mars fleet that Ramba was apart of, it seemed that the East Asians had finally realized that their disunity would become their death. While the Mars fleet was busy reorganizing, the East Asians had retreated and coalesced their units into a single fleet that was near equal in size to the breakaway taskforces.
Was this meant was that instead of the swarm rush that Zeon had been utilizing until now, a more conventional battle was taking place with the Zeon and East Asian ships facing each other down in lines reminiscent of Napoleonic warfare. Plasma and Minovsky beam weaponry danced across the field with East Asia adding in missile and railgun barrages. While the Minovsky particles caused a majority of the firing to miss, a few met their targets and casualties began for Zeon.
While the normal strategy would be for the Zakus to infiltrate enemy lines and eliminate the enemy ships in quick order, the high amount of nuclear MA's caused Ramba and his colleagues to focus on wiping out as many Azures as possible. If just a single one broke Zeon lines then it could easily mean one of their motherships facing death by nuke.
Mobile suit and armor engaged each other in an epic clash by the hundreds. The engagement was a brutal sign of the Cosmic Era dogfight, a deadly tango across the great vaccum of space where any second death could strike at a pilot.
In the midst of all of this carnage was Ramba Ral, using only his heat hawk for fear of a stray round causing friendly fire. Like a horseback knight of the Middle Ages, Ramba was a fierce cavalry that cut down all Azures who stood in his way. Over time his kill count of the engagement easily grew into the double digits. This caused many of the Azures to shift their attention to Ramba alone in a desperate bid to overwhelm him in numbers. While the Azure pilots thought of themselves as dragons of space, before them stood a terrifying demon, no a blue giant that crushed all that stood in its way.
With so many East Asians focused on Ramba, this freed up dozens of Zakus to rain down fire upon the enemy. In the course of twenty minutes, most of the mobile armors were cleared from the battlefield, the remainder being hunted down or retreating to the safety of their ships in a desperate bid for a safe haven.
With little danger from the enemy mobile armors, the Chivvays, Musais, and the occasional Gwazine unleashed devastation upon the East Asian lines. Towards the mark of the second hour of the Battle of Pezun, the first surrenders began as over a dozen East Asian ships, knowing that no help would come, transmitted their defeat to "ZAFT" in hopes for mercy from the presumed Coordinators.
Here Ramba's role in the First Contact War would be paused momentarily as the breakaway ships were too far to reinforce Pezun. On that day, Ramba Ral began his rise through the ranks of Zeon and so marked the beginning of House Ral's redemption.
MS-06C Zaku-II Johnny Ridden
So far it seemed like Johnny's decision to invite Berniss into the squadron was one of the best he ever made. While Johnny was not someone who could be described as arrogant or boastful, before the Battle of Pezun he saw himself as one of the best mobile suit pilots within all of Zeon, a claim that he could easily back up with action. As good as Johnny was however, Breniss seemed to be of an equal or even higher footing with the slavic spacenoid easily earning the ace moniker on the battlefield.
With every action that Breniss took there was zero waste in battle. The Zaku pilot moved precisely and seemed to glide across the battlefield with ease. Every shot that he took landed on its mark with Johnny never seeing any misses. It didn't matter who he faced off against, Breniss always found his mark. Such an example of raw marksmanship made Johnny slightly jealous, for while he was a master at speed with few equals he could never get such precise aiming even with hundreds of hours of practice.
Such accuracy made Johnny wonder if Breniss was a Newtype. Since Johnny had achieved his potential, he had felt dozens of other presences throughout the fleet who were similar or above Johnny in prowress. When Johnny's mind attempted to subconsciously probe Breniss to see if he was like him, he felt nothing in response. If Breniss truly was an Oldtype, then his raw skill alone could make him the best of Zeon's pilots.
With the addition of Breniss to the squad, Johnny had changed tactics to divide his team into two. Johnny and three other Zakus would engage the mobile armors directly and serve as a shield for Breniss and a second Zaku that would serve as snipers to strike down the East Asian ships at a safe distance. Once the mobile armors in the immediate vicinity were cleared then Johnny and the others would join Breniss to finish off the remaining ship. Afterwords they would find a new target and then rinse and repeat.
This strategy had been pretty successful so far with Johnny's squadron sinking a grand total of twelve ships after Breniss had joined. Johnny had no idea how command would calculate ship kills, but if he had to guess then Johnny would most likely have four by now.
Right now Johnny's squad was working on lucky number thirteen, one of the hammerhead carriers that from the influx of transmissions seemed to hold some sort of leadership role in the fleet.
Fortunately for Johnny, one area where the Zaku absolutely excelled against the Azure was at agility. While the Azure was close in acceleration, it was hell for the mobile armor to evade or change direction with the designers clearly relying on strength in numbers rather than the individual skill of the pilot.
This allowed Johnny to easily dodge their attacks, his Newtype senses adding a warning factor that prevented any element of surprise from being achieved.
At the moment Johnny was attempting to finish off one of the last mobile armors. His foe seemed to clearly understand his weaknesses as rather than engage Johnny closely, he tried to keep as much distance as possible and only fire in tight sweet spots where he would circle to target Johnny, then back off to escape.
While it was probably too much to focus on one mobile armor, the seemingly infinite nuclear stockpiles of the East Asians meant that each armor was a potential nuke that could wipe out a Zeon vessel. As such unless the pilot was surrendering, it was best to wipe out all mobile armors within the area.
After wasting several rounds on the armor, Johnny decided to switch tactics and one of his three sturm fausts. Taking careful aim and relying on his newfound powers to act as a silent spotter, Johnny took careful aim and launched the rocket onto the mobile armor's trajectory, killing it on contact.
After Johnny had finished the armor, he felt a flash go through him, and turned the Zaku to face the enemy, only to find it be taken out by a giant anti-ship shell from Breniss.
"Thanks for the save Ox." Johnny said over the open comms, getting a static welcome in reply.
With the last mobile armors getting cleared out, Johnny pulled out his heat hawk and got to work on turning the East Asian carrier into scrap, marking his fifth ship kill of the day.
After another hour, the East Asian fleet detachment at Pezun had their numbers little down to the double digits. With the remainder of their forces engaged with the Mars fleet, some of the more sensible captains began to transmit surrender signals, though a few more erratic Blue Cosmos aligned officers swore to fight to the bitter end.
Just like dozens of other legends, the journey of the Crimson Lightning would begin on April 2nd, Cosmic Era 70.
ZSFS Ares. Wilhelm Lutjens
"Admiral, the last of the hostiles have been eliminated, With the surrendered ships maintaining protocol, the East Asian fleet is no more!" The communications officer alerted, with his proclamation soon followed by numerous shouts of "Sieg Zeon!" to celebrate the final victory.
Reclining in the command chair, Lutjens popped off the helmet from his normal suit and gave off a great sigh, taking a deep with of the ship's air as he did so.
Fortunately for the Mars fleet, they had managed to catch the East Asian reinforcements in time thanks to the superiority of their Minovsky drives, allowing them to continue the same strategy as before and eliminate all East Asian ships one by one until the remaining hundred either surrendered or made one suicidal charge to take down as many Zeons with them as possible.
With the sheer magnitude of East Asian casualties, Lutjens had no doubt that Zeon was officially the dominant power within the Cosmic Era. If this was the best that one of this timeline's Big Three could do against Zeon with a two to one advantage, then the Earth sphere was as good as theirs and Side 3 would reign as the undisputed masters of space from Luna all the way to L3.
'Then again, perhaps victory would be theirs if it was not for the good old Professor Minovsky.' Lutjens thought glumly. While he thought that his leadership was excellent and the performance of his men undeniably exemplary, at the end of the day it was the Ukranian's particles that won the day, their usage being the key to his strategy.
Thinking further about Minovsky physics, it made Lutjens curious why the Cosmic Era had never discovered it before today, or the fact that they never created nuclear fusion.
While their genetics with the creation of Coordinators along with the strange superweapon that knocked out Earth's power pointed to some areas where the Cosmic Era was superior to the Universal Century in science, nuclear fusion was something that was invented well before the Universal Century, the first successful test being in 1999 right on the eve of the Federation's founding.
The Cosmic Era may not have ever had a third world war, but surely that change in history alone wouldn't prevent fusion from being invented, if anything the hundreds of millions of lives that never died should've ensured a quicker and more rapid proliferation of fusion technology. Such an advancement should've been prioritized considering this timeline's obsession with nuclear power if the thousands of East Asian nukes were any indication.
Whatever weirdness took place, perhaps Lutjens could count it as a hidden blessing as no nuclear fusion meant no discovery of Minovsky phsyics, a concept which even in the Universal Century was a near miracle considering Minovsky being the only one with foresight of the concept. Such a technological path lead to Zeon's victory today at Pezun, and for the next couple of generations would undoubtedly mark them as the premier superpower of the solar system, a status that the Spacenoid nation rightfully deserved after decades of suffering at the hands of the Federation.
Lutjens then began to take off his normal suit and transition back to his regular uniform, until an alert by his sensor officer stopped him dead in his tracks.
"Sir, 300 East vessels closing in at 1500 kilometers."
PLSF Peng Duhai. Chen Baoyi
On the bridge's viewscreen, Admiral Chen Baoyi could do little but stare grimly at a rather depressing sight. When the battle had started, the successful nuclear detonation being the signal for Chen to reinforce as ordered, there were 2600 ships with Chen's fleet making the East Asian forces a near 3,000. Now, four hours in and with the L4 Fleet just barely arriving onto the battlefield, there appeared to be 800-900 Zeon ships left while there were barely somewhere between 100 to 200 vessels left for East Asia, at least those with power on as there were several hulks that had no power and could either be dead completely or simply a crew of survivors who were struggling within cold space.
"We were too late." Said Captain Jun Jie, the younger officer looking away from the viewscreen in shame at the inability to aid their brothers and sisters in arms.
Chen reached out with his right hand and comforted the Captain on his shoulder like a father would to his son, "We were not too late happen, we were simply spared a massacre that would've taken our lives." Chen said.
What the Admiral spoke of was a truth that had been ingrained within the minds of the fleet since the battle started. Even if the fleet they were facing was truly from ZAFT, their performance in the orbital massacre would've ensured that any victory would be extremely pyrrhic at best. If the L4 fleet were to join in now then at best they could claim a couple dozen Zeon ships, but overall their numbers would still remain strong while the L4 ships were wiped out down to a few survivors.
"Is there any way for us to escape? Perhaps we can chart course for Earth orbit and slingshot back to Luna." Jun offered, trying to see some form of survival for the fleet.
"None captain. At our current distance, it will only take a couple hours for the enemy to catch up to us. Our only hope is to run now and hope that the enemy's command is indecisive enough to provide a narrow timeframe for escape." The connsman said, all energy and enthusiasm drained from his voice.
Seeing how decisive their victory was and with sensors indicating a shift to react to their entrance, Chen doubted that the enemy would suddenly become so incompetent to ignore them unless a sudden decapitation of command were to occur within the next minute or so.
"Sir, did we just lose to ZAFT or Zeon?" Jun asked quietly.
"What was that Captain?" Chen asked in return, this being the first vocal questioning of the enemy fleet's identity since they had received their orders from EASC.
"If we just lost to ZAFT and are about to do battle with them, then I can at least take comfort in sacrificing my life to bring down as many Coordinators as possible so that Luna can be protected and the Alliance can come back. If it was Zeon that we lost to however, then we just nuked a new and neutral nation with our forces receiving annihilation in return." Jun said, a soft shack to his voice at the implications the latter statement had.
While his subordinate's words could be seen as demoralizing and out of conduct for a captain of the fleet's flagship, what they did was to help Chen firmly see the big picture and form a conviction that he should have maintained yesterday.
If this was a ZAFT fleet that was facing them, why did they not use their superiority in numbers to eliminate Chen's fleet and take control of the L4 cluster? Why did they take part in such a farce charade when it was a tale of the highest fantasy? Why did they not include their N-Jammers within the new stealth ships and only send older converted freighters to launch the operation to cripple Earth's energy? How did they get so many resources to build two new fleets and grab pop new asteroids into existence?
With each further question, Chen believed, no knew that this was not ZAFT and this was truly Zeon.
Today the Republic of East Asia had committed a grave crime. Chen could only hope and pray that this would be merely a dark stain on his nation's history rather then the beginning of its end.
Realizing fully what he had to do, Chen turned to Jun with a sad smile, "Thank you for giving me clarity Captain. Just know that what I am about to do, I shall take full responsibility."
Before Jun could ask what his superior meant, Chen turned to the communications officer, "Send a transmission to the Zeon fleet. I, Admiral Chen Baoyi, formally surrender the 9th fleet of the People's Liberation Army Space Force of the Republic of East Asia."
Thus, the Battle of Pezun was brought to a close.
A/N: Here we have it folks, the Battle of Pezun. With it comes the end of the first half of the First Contact War and the beginning of the rest of the Cosmic Era finding out about Zeon's existence. Please leave feedback on the battle scenes as it will help me to greatly improve going forward.
The next update will come after Gihren's Glory chapter 46 or 47 and will cover Talia's time as a prisoner aboard Solomon and ZAFT's immediate reaction to the battle. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more!