April 4th, 70 CE. Granada. Luna. Third Person POV
On the early morning of April 4th, 1588 ships of the Zeon Space Force were deployed to Granada to eliminate the Earth Federation (at least within the Cosmic Era). Under the leadership of Admiral Mikhail Podarov and with Garma Zabi participating, the grand fleet set out to liberate the far side of the moon and obtain total independence for Zeon.
Facing Zeon would be 907 ships of the Earth Federation under Admiral Han Nikolaou. Unfortunately for the de facto leader of the Federal Remnant, there would be no reinforcements from the rest of the moon, either due to a lack of distance or due to fear of death in battle against Zeon that kept the fleets in port. In order to make up for the severe numerical disadvantage, Nikolaou spread his fleet in a huddled manner of a 50 kilometer radius in a sort of dome around Granada.
The reason for the formation was to limit the firepower and advance of Zeon. While the lunar cities were designed to sustain heavy damage from incoming asteroids, and potential crashes of ships, there was only so much damage that could be taken and the crashing of hundreds of ships along with nukes had the potential to destroy Granada. With this in mind, Nikolaou hoped to force Zeon in a siege to buy time for the much hoped for Alliance intervention or for an opening to be created for the fleet to destroy the Zeon advance.
Fortunately for Zeon, Podarov had forseen the strategy beforehand and had planned Melies to take the formation into account.
When the Zeon fleet arrived onto the battlefield they arrived in three separate fleets. The fleets together would encircle Granada with each individual fleet being formed in the shape of a crescent to spread the ships apart. This was done for three reasons, the first was to cover as much ground as possible, the second to reinforce sections of the blockade that were under threat, the third was to bait the Federation into trying to create an opening, drawing them away from Granada.
As the Zeon fleet created their blockade, the Magellans and Salamis' of the Federation opened their megaparticle canons to destroy as many Zeon ships as possible before they could set up an adequate Minovsky defense. The Zeon ships would return megaparticle fire, though they would unfortunately not be able to return in equal kills for the already established megaparticle density surrounding Granada.
The exchange of Minovsky particles went on for nearly forty minutes as Zeon got into formation and the Federation maintained its grounds. Casualties at the beginning were minimal with Zeon taking on 26 ships destroyed and 37 with varying forms of damage in return for 11 Federation ships destroyed and 21 suffering damage.
When the Zeon blockade got into formation a game of chicken began between the two fleets with each side daring the other to move first. Megaparticle exchanges occured every couple of minutes with squads of Zaku and saberfish being sent into the no-man's land to hopefully create a breakthrough. In the no-man's land between the two fleets, the first and last great dogfight between Zeon and the Federation would occur. For the Federal Remnant they would learn a painful lesson on mobile suit warfare that was nearly on the same level of suffering as Uroboros and Pezun.
FF-S3 Saberfish. Ryu Jose.
Never again. If Ryu Jose somehow lived to see the end of this battle he would never again enter a goddamned sweeptstakes competition for the rest of his life. Anything that Ryu would gain would be from his own hands, not the luck and fate that lead him to being transported to the Cosmic Era.
In early June Ryu had entered into a sweepstakes competition that he had seen in a sports magazine that he was subscribed to where the winner would get a one week all expenses paid vacation to Granada. While Granada was no Hawaii, it was still a center of wealth and luxury as the rival to Von Braun and a week off from his duties in the Space Force to live in complete luxury would be a blessing to Ryu.
Ryu had entered the contest, though it was mainly out of boredom and wish fulfillment as dozens of scratch tickets had shown his lack of luck before. To his complete and utter surprise, Ryu had won the contest and would now be able to have a good time on the far side and hook up with some Lunarian babes.
He would forever curse the Space Force for placing the end of his tour in late September, for it was on the first week of October that Ryu decided to begin his vacation, which tore him to the Cosmic Era away from his friends and family.
Before Ryu had any time to properly mourn what he had lost, MP's had shown up to his hotel stating that by order of Han Nikolaou, that he was to be drafted into the Lunarian Fleet, a necessity due to the hundreds of pilots who didn't make the trip.
Ryu could have refused, with how the battle turned out he would only stay in prison for a couple of days then be free to do as he pleased, leading to a very different outcome for the Asian-Latino. However, Ryu couldn't find the heart within him to disobey orders. He had always enjoyed his time as a pilot within the Space Force and was planning on going career. With all of his social connections no longer existing, all Ryu had left to live for was the Space Force. If he died then maybe he could go to heaven and see his family later, if he lived then he would find some new purpose in life to try and move on from the Universal Century.
Plus, Ryu had always had a strong distaste for Zeon. So if he was going into battle, then at least he would be doing so protecting the Lunarians from the Fascist Zeeks.
This was what he was doing right now, flying with dozens of other Saberfish over the Lunarian plains and craters to do battle within Zeon. He was a part of four wings of Saberfish who had been chosen to create a hole in the enemy lines. They would do so with tactical nukes that were spread among a squad of Sabers. Ryu's job was to escort the nukes to the target and then return to the fleet. It was a decent plan, but there was one small problem.
"Duckb-...ron this is Duckbill Lea-...in on enemy formation...Zakus coming up left fl...formation Alpha Four." Said the voice of Duckbill leader, the commander of the squadron that Ryu was in. Unfortunately his voice was extremely disconnected with heavy static, Ryu could barely make out his statement despite the leader being only five kilometers ahead.
'Go to hell Minovsky.' Ryu thought angrily. The Ukranian's discovery of the particle had completely changed the face of space warfare and the Space Force had to spend hundreds of billions in new communications and radar equipment to try and compensate for the change in fighting. All Saberfish were supposed to have been updated to provide good communication with CAG and commander, but apparently the new models were either trash or Ryu's Saberfish hadn't been fitted right.
"Duckbill Leader this is Duckbill Five, can you please state your orders again?" Ryu asked, desperate for some confirmed information so that he wouldn't screw up. Looking at the Minovsky counter he saw that they were at 57% density, things were only going to get worse from here.
Before Ryu could get a reply, his visual sensors confirmed the arrival of thirty of Zeon's Zaku models. The incoming mobile suits forced the formation to try and spread out to dodge the incoming spread of bazooka rockets and machine gun shells.
"Break! Break! Break!" Ryu heard a feminine voice screaming in the intercom. Ryu performed a barrel roll and let loose a stream of flares to mask his position and throw off any potential incoming missiles.
Undertaking a gambit, Ryu then descended his Saberfish and glided across the Lunar surface, then swinging his Saberfish to head for the rear of the Zaku formation. Ryu's hope was that the Zakus would be too focused on the group of Saberfish above and he would escape by flying under them with his black and white starfighter blending in with the moon's regolith.
It seemed that there were a few other pilots who shared his line of thinking as Ryu found himself being surrounded by eight of his fellow comrades.
"Sir, what are your orders?" Asked a pilot near him with a presumably Slavic accident. Ryu wanted to say that he was no officer, however they were in the middle of the heat of battle and victory did always favor the bold who seized initiative.
"Target the most dense pocket of Zakus. We need to clump together before firing so that our missile barrage will be increased and we'll have higher chances of hitting. Once you pull the trigger pull away towards L2 and we'll regroup with the nuke party." Ryu said. Fortunately he received Rogers from all of his wingmates so his orders had gotten through with the Minovsky density.
The Saberfish dis as he told with the nine starfighters flying tightly in a rough diamond formation. Upon seeing five Zakus together, Ryu did his best to get a missile lock and told his wingmates to fire. Everyone complied and within ten seconds the unsuspecting Zakus were fired upon. Three were destroyed instantly in the wave with one being heavily injured and the fifth escaping.
Multiple cheers erupted on the comm with everyone feeling that they had received a kill. Almost every Saberfish did as Ryu told and broke off to get away from the battle, except for a lone cocky pilot who broke off in an attempt to claim more kills, only to be killed within seconds from a sniper Zaku.
Ryu tried his best to get a visual of the situation and did not like what he saw. All around the battlefield there were an increasing number of Saberfish hulls either floating into deep space or crashing into the lunar surface. Outside of the three Zakus that they had killed there were few other destroyed Zakus that were dotting the landscape. Ryu could notice a dense pocket of Saberfish struggling to escape, which he assumed was the nuke squad and their immediate protection.
Ryu ordered for a regrouping with the nuke squad, and his squadron would have done so, however a flash of lightning had entered his consciousness, forcing him to narrowly dodge an incoming round while one of his nearby wingmates was not so lucky and exploded. Ryu turned and saw the same survivor of the Zaku team he had fired upon, a yellow one, pursuing them with three others.
Knowing that they would be dead meat if they could not fire back, Ryu volunteered to act as bait, "All units, I'll try and redirect their fire to buy time for an escape. If one or two of you guys would like to join me then that would be great. The rest of you go with the nukes and make sure they reach their targets."
To his surprise he found two other pilots willing to make the ultimate sacrifice alongside him, the others darted out into deep space, making calls of well wishes and good luck before they sadly left their comrades to go for the nukes.
"Fire missiles so we can scatter them." Ryu ordered. He did so first with a firing of his missiles on the yellow one and the closest Zaku next to them after he did so he fired rounds from his 25 mm machine gun. None of the missiles hit with only a few of the machine rounds barely grazing the Zakus, but that was okay because they weren't meant to kill, just separate the Zakus.
The other pilots followed suit, with Ryu unaware that his awakening as a Newtype had directed them on how to do so with brief mental images of what he had planned. Just as Ryu had hope four, the four Zakus had scattered away.
Ryu focused his attention on the yellow one and his comrade. Feeling pretty good today about his ballsy stunts, Ryu decided to go for another one and instead of firing on the Zakus, he charged straight ahead with his Saberfish set on a straight collision course for the green one.
Ryu had observed the Minovsky counter and noticed the density rising to 63%. If he tried to fire from a distance then he would get nothing but misses. Therefore he needed to get close as possible so that the Minovsky particles could interfere as little as possible and he could get a clean shot.
To the sight of the Zakus, it looked that Ryu was suicidal and going in for a kamikaze. The two fired on him with the green one panicking and moving to escape Ryu's line of sight and get a better position to fire unmolested. This worked for Ryu who had to only dodge the accurate fire of the Yellow Zaku. Pulling off some of the best flying from his life, and being added by powerful new senses that alerted him to doge at specific points, Ryu got to his target. Coming in at a close 20 meters, Ryu fired a salvo of eight missiles, hitting their target dead on and creating another dead Zaku.
"Fuck Yeah!" Ryu whooped in glee. Unfortunately his celebration was short lived as the yellow Zaku had finally hit its mark, with a score of rounds hitting Ryu's left wing and tearing most of it apart.
"So this is how I go." Ryu said with a heavy air of sadness. While it was hypothetically still possible to survive with a broken wing, the Zaku would likely want to finish the job for its comrades, and with hardly any Saberfish nearby there was no garuntee that Ryu could be rescued to make a crash landing.
Realizing that these would be his last moments, Ryu resolved to at least take down one more Zeek with him.
Ryu spinned his machine rightward multiple times in an attempt to get the perfect position. Fortunately his adversary was none the wiser and kept moving forward in a straight line, which was fine for Ryu. With new instincts telling him when to move, Ryu at a precise moment pushed his thrusters to maximum acceleration and headed for a straight course to the Zaku.
It was not an easy endeavor and the off-balance of the Saberfish made the journey hell with Ryu growing increasingly nauseous. However through skill and a damn good amount of luck, Ryu followed through.
The Zaku fired its machine gun, punching numerous holes in the Saberfish but Ryu kept on going, his machine moving on pure willpower and fortune at this rate. When Ryu got close enough to the Zaku, he tilted ever so slightly to the left, with his Saberfish's remaining wing headed straight for the cockpit.
"For the Federation!" Ryu shouted in what he thoguht to be his last words. The wing struck true and hit the cockpit, cutting the enemy pilot in half. Unfortunately for Ryu, at the last second the pilot had switched to its heathawk, with the axe striking down on the nose of Ryu's Saberfish, just barely missing the cockpit.
With this strike and his wings gone, Ryu's saberfish was nothing more than a meteorite at this point. Using his last moments to roar at the battlefield defiantly, Ryu crashed into the lunar surface, blacking out upon contact.
EFSF Brazzaville. Han Nikolaou.
While he projected an image to the crew and the rest of his fleet as a calm and cool leader, inwardly Nikolaou was furious and growing more frustrated by the minute at the lack of success on the battlefield.
'Where the hell are you Renee?' Nikolaou asked himself for what felt like the hundreth time. While communications with the female admiral had revealed a successful opening of relations with the Atlantic Federation, a nation composed of North America and the British Isles which appeared to be the dominant superpower of this era, she so far had great failure to convince them to intervene due to their fear of their rebelling colonies. The news was difficult for Nikolaou to swallow as even the sight of an approaching Atlantic Fleet could be enough to ward off Zeon and preserve the Federation's independence.
Fortunately for him the battle seemed to be going in one of the best case scenarios, though there had been great difficulty and setbacks as well. So far the Zeon fleet had been unable to penetrate Federal lines with Nikolaou keeping up a strong defense. Ship casualties so far were in the dozens with a majority coming from megaparticle fire, though for every ship lost it appeared that the Federation was able to either destroy or heavily damage one from Zeon.
With the stalemate continuing, the battle looked to be determined in the great dogfight between Saberfish and Zaku. Nikolaou had ordered for several nuclear sorties to be launched, and so far only a couple of nukes had successfully hit their targets with most being eliminated along with a majority of Saberfish, quickly eliminating most of Nikolaou's fighters with him soon to be forced to halt all offensive flights. Zeon had unleashed their own nukes, but for some reason Nikolaou couldn't fathom, they were using them very conservatively, only using them at the edges of the Federation fleet to push the ships in and prevent any advances, forcing the fleet to be even more densely concentrated then before.
Han found it rather stupid as nukes were supposed to be used in a blitz attack to decimate enemy lines, if the Zeon were handicapping himself then that was all right to him.
"Sir, Minovsky density is at 95% and we will soon reach full Minovsky density within ten minutes." Said one of the Brazzaville's operators. Nikolaou acknowledged the update and looked at the greater battlefield with a frown. Minovsky particles were one of the worst things to ever come out of Zeon as it turned back space warfare from the pinpoint long-range style that it was intended to into a rather close and personal battle reminiscent of the second World War.
'At least here while we may not be able to fire upon them, they cannot fire upon us.' Nikolaou thought, happy that the stalemate would continue and that the Remnant's chance of survival would increase with each passing second.
What Nikolaou did not know was that the near total Minovsky density was what Zeon intended, and that by being stationary he was playing right into their hands. For the Admiral he would not live to regret it, as soon his life, and the greater battle would come to an end.
MS-06C Zaku-II. Garma Zabi.
When Garma had made up his revision to Melies, he did so with his strategy revolving around a single set of mind, "Keep the Federation boxed in." While his strategy would never work in deep space unless Garma had overwhelming numbers, the Remnant's decision to station themselves above Granada to protect the city had allowed Garma to present an alternative to Podarov's previous plan of going in guns blazing and overwhelming the Federation through brute force, to turn Minovsky particles against the Federation.
While Earth's scientific community along with the near defection of Trenov Minovsky brought to light the reality of Minovsky physics and their many potential uses to the Federation, they did not think as broadly on the subject as Zeon did. When finally acknowledging Minovsky physics, the Federation was only concerned with two aspects, replacing their fusion reactors with the more effecient Minovsky reactor to allow for greater power output with less consumption of Helium-3, and to create Megaparticle canons to add more firepower to the vast Federal Armada. While the potential for Minovsky particles as a communication disruption was acknowledged, no one besides a few innovators such as General Revil had thought of the full implications of such a technology. To the Federation, the vast distances of space would make a full radar and communications death impossible and as such they could still use big gun tactics and their starfighters.
Such a lack of total foresight was clearly shown here. While the Remnant fleet was indeed protected from megaparticle and nuclear attacks from the Zeon fleet, the Remnant still acted like their battleships and cruisers operated at peak capacity and that their starfighters would operate more or less the same despite the obvious reality that they were now crippled. The same could not be said for the Zaku whose performance now rose even further due to the reduction of threats with no automatic targeting systems to destroy them with ease.
This was how Garma foresaw the best plan to involve the least amount of casualties. Box in the Federation and once they were as blind as bats unleash the Zakus with no opposition to do as they please. Then with the enemy commanders dead, the Federation would surrender and cease to exist.
Garma desired this plan not only to conserve as many Zeon lives as possible, but out of a small desire to save the Federation rank and file. While he viewed the flag officers with disgust as leaders who were slaves to Earth that desired to continue the fight and oppress the Lunarians despite the Federation ceasing to exist, the common man and woman of the Federation were merely poor souls who had been weighed down by gravity and indoctrinated their entire lives to believe that Zeon was some great evil and that the Federation was a perfect democracy who could do no wrong.
These people didn't deserve to die because their leaders refused to accept reality. While Garma acknowledged that many of the enlisted and lower officers would have to die in his plan anyways, at least here the numbers would be far lesser than before and those who survived could start new lives in the Cosmic Era.
Thankfully many would due to the appearance of his plan working. With the high Minovsky density the AA fire of the Magellans and Salamis' could not even scratch them without either a lucky shot or grave error on the part of a Zaku pilot. With most of Saberfish having been eliminated in the dogfights in no man's land, even their pitiful resistance would not be present against the onslaught of Zabis.
Once Minovsky density reached near one hundred percent, Garma sortied with hundreds of other Zakus, Eric fighting alongside him with his personal team, charging head on to take out the leaders of the Federal Fleet.
Just as Garma has wished for, they had targeted the Magellans one by one. Garma's custom green and red Zaku was able to effortlessly tear into each Magellan that he had encountered, his each shot of his bazooka being a critical blow while Eric tore into the weak spot of the Magellans with his 120mm machine gun.
To Garma the experience was something similar to the Mariannas Turkey Shoot that he had read about in the history books, an enemy with decimated air power acting as little more than target practice for the victors to have their way with. At first Garma felt a rush of exhilaration, with each shoot being one of passion as he laid waste to the Federation and did his part to liberate the Lunarians.
Over time however, Garma felt this sense of gratification and ecstasy begin to slowly dissipate until it was gone completely, like the withdrawal from a particularly intense high. Garma had faith going into the battle that Zeon would achieve victory no matter the cost, with his first kill acting as confirmation for this belief. With little to no chances of his life being threatned and the numbers of Federal ships destroyed climbing, what was taking place did not seem like a battle to Garma any more, rather a form of extermination long after the threat had passed.
Thankfully for Garma, the death did not have to go on longer. Just as he had predicted, morale had dropped and soon the Federal guns had begun to stop firing. On his fifth ship that Garma had encountered, he had received a form of surrender from the Magellan's captain. Garma could hear a couple of more surrenders make their way through the heavily jammed radio, and through his Zaku's monoeye the flares of the ballistic rounds and purple and yellow flashes of each side's megaparticle canons gradually ceased to dart across the lunar landscape.
About twenty minutes into his sortie, Garma barely received a confirmation signal from Admiral Podarov that the battle was over. While there was more than likely a few isolated battles still raging as he could occasionally see a few lights flash in the distance, more than likely the near total of the remaining Federal fleet had surrendered. With a monumental victory of this kind, the rest of the Federal Remnant would be soon to follow. After the end of the Federation, the far side of the moon would be liberated and Zeon would be forever independent, tearing off the last shackles of the Universal Century and beginning their new life in the Cosmic Era.
Once the official surrender occurred, Garma and his squadron flew across the battlefield to check for any Federals who refused to surrender and give help to any Zeon who needed saving. The overall mood of the squad was heavily jubilant, with each member getting at least one kill and the prestige to say that they took part in the end of the Federation. If the Great Degwin suffered no damage, then it would be a perfect personal victory in Garma's book.
After a thorough check of the battlefield, Garma was about to head back to the Great Degwin, until his Zaku picked up a faint signal that was coming from the lunar surface.
FF-S3 Saberfish. Ryu Jose.
When Ryu awoke he felt like he had just had the worst hangover in his life, far worse than that one Mardi Gras celebration that he swore to never spoke of again. His body ached all over in great pain and soreness, his head felt like it had just been sucker punched by a steel fist, and his vision was blurry for several seconds.
Ryu had no idea if he was dead or alive. While many in the past had survived crash landings on the lunar surface, with the absolutely abysmal state of his Saberfish and the unlikelihood that either the Fleet or Zeon would devote resources to rescue him, he definitely should have been dead.
Ryu looked upwards and saw a figure towering over him.
"God?" Ryu asked in a tired slur.
He was met with a laugh, "I'm afraid not. I was able to postpone your meeting so you'll have to wait a while to reach the clouds, or whatever you believe." Said the man in response.
As Ryu's vision started to become clearer, he noticed that he was still in his cockpit. Although from looking around it seemed to be paractically the only thing he had of his Saberfish and for what its worth barely holding control panel had been smashed and most of the canopy had been ripped open. Cuts had been made along the metal of the cockpit that looked to be scars made from a wild beast. Regolith was scattered throughout the cockpit in the form of dust, all things considered, he was pretty damn lucky that his body wasn't impaled and he didn't bleed to death.
Ryu looked to his supposed savior and noticed two things. The first was that a portion of his visor had been patched with a few pieces of space tape, meaning his rescuer had not only saved his life by finding him, but prevented him from dying of asphyxiation. Another observation was that his rescuer was not wearing a Federal normal or pilot suit, rather a purple and black pilot suit warn by Zeon.
"So, we lost the battle?" Ryu asked with a tone of heavy defeat. Such a scenario had to be the case as there would be no reason for a Zeon pilot to remain behind to rescue him in their defeat. Also, unless this person was suicidal, insubordinate, or the biggest bleeding heart on this side of Luna they would not try to save Ryu in the middle of a battle.
"I'm afraid so, the battle ended a while ago and I was on my way back to my ship until I picked up your distress signal. It's quite a lucky thing actually, with this Minovsky density I should have easily missed it, but it seem's lucks on your side today." The Zeon said in mirth, hoping to cheer Ryu up.
Silence ran between the two for a while, with Ryu having no idea just what the hell to say to this man who had saved his life even though the two would have killed each other just a short while ago. "If it means anything, when your fleet surrendered a large majority of it was intact. A lot of your wingmates may have died but I'm sure there's some friends of yours that made it." He said, having no idea that Ryu was never meant to be a part of the far side fleet and didn't have any friends here.
"Why the hell did a Zeek like you save a Feddie like me? Aren't I the scum of the universe to you people, a man who wants to crush your soul in gravity?" Ryu asked with confusion and desperation. While the logical side of him knew that it was obscenely stupid to spit in the face of his savior, the current situation was just so damn odd and made no sense.
The Zeon lowered his helmet, Ryu's senses becoming clear enough to catch a glimpse of sadness in his eyes. "Don't get me wrong, I despise your government and everything it stood for. The Federation to me is nothing more than a sham democracy designed to be controlled by the elite through their oppression of Spacenoids. However, those who I have hatred towards no longer exist and I'll never get to see the Universal Century again. Unless you were part of the garrisons I highly doubt that you partook in the oppression of Spacenoids. Up to today you were simply a cog in the machine, a man who was indoctrinated to see us as demons for wanting to be free because it went against the wishes of the Earthborn elite. I don't hate you or hold you responsible, you couldn't have known better."
Ryu growled at the words, hating the man's condescending tone and hypocrisy that Ryu couldn't have possibly known better, that his values and heritage were built on lies and manipulation while his side was unquestionably right and just.
Ryu was not naive, he knew that the Federation was not perfect and that the Spacenoids had legitimate grievances against the ruling government. However, just because injustice was present it did not mean that it should be used as justification for authoritarianism and the desire to destroy everything that had been created in the Universal Century, the good and the bad.
Still, he had to count himself thankful that no matter the warped views of his savior, he had enough of a conscience to give Ryu mercy and not place him as responsible for whatever tyranny Zeon saw the Federation as responsible for, something that Ryu did not believe most of his comrades shared.
However, there is one thing that I want to know. Why is it, that after the Federation no longer existed and the Earth in this reality has no bearing to your own, when you were clearly outnumbered and outgunned with your only sovereignty being the rule of a people who wished to join us, did you still take up arms and fight?" The pilot asked. The tone of his question was not one of hate that Ryu expected, but confusion. With the reasons that he pointed out, Ryu could understand from an outsider's perspective how this looked to be a pointless battle.
"Your nation may view the past few days as a blessing, you are now free from the Federation and exist in a new universe where you can have a fresh start with your friends and family. Us on the other hand, we got pulled here against our will and away from our friends and family. With what's going on, we don't really have a reason to live, so it felt natural to just do our duty and serve the flag that's the only thing left of our identity. Not much to it." Ryu said in despair, the reality of his situation setting in more with the defeat of the Remnant not giving him anything else to look forward to.
The Zeon pilot looked towards him in sympathy, "You might not have a reason to live, but that doesn't excuse going into a pointless battle and taking lives when blood didn't have to be spilled. If you didn't have a reason, why didn't you just create your own and make this brave new world your home?"
Before Ryu could respond to the rather profound words, he noticed a shuttle gliding overhead, guessing that it landed near despite the lack of sound or visual.
"Well, it looks like your ride's here. I asked for our Komusai's to begin a general search of the area, so hopefully we'll find most of your remaining friends who are lost on the fields. For now you'll be a prisoner of war until we can get the rest of your fleet to surrender and Gihren can come up with some kind of solution for you people. I can't promise any specifics on your future living conditions, but we'll be mostly adhering to the Geneva Convention if that makes you comfortable."
The pilot motioned for Ryu to exit the cockpit with his hand tightly gripped on a strapped holster. While Ryu wanted to feel insulted, he knew several some people who would try to pull one even in this sort of situation, so some extra security showed that this Zeek had at least some brains, which Ryu could definitely respect.
Ryu climbed slowly out of the cockpit, his body still aching heavily despite the 1/6th gravity, which was most likely the reason that he could even move at all whereas he would probably have been dead if he crashed on Earth. Landing rather ungracefully on the Lunar surface, Ryu gently hopped to the nearby green shuttle, his savior/captor following from behind.
The journey to the shuttle was silent, with Ryu both not wanting to talk and unsure of what to say, with the pilot most likely feeling the same. When they he was about to enter the shuttle, Ryu spoke his peace.
"Thank you by the way, for saving me. You didn't have to save me, we were enemies just a short while ago, and yet you still did. I don't like your nation, and especially its leaders, but if there's good people like you there then it must not be so bad. Someday I hope I show someone the same kindness that you gave me." Ryu said earnestly.
"That means a lot. I'll try and rush the process so that your people can be free soon. I know that this seems like the end of the world for you, but instead of being depressed, try to look at this as an opportunity to start anew. You might find a new family that you would have never had the chance to meet back in UC. Good luck on your travels." The pilot replied.
"Thanks, and good luck with your independence I guess. By the way, my name's Ryu Jose."
"Garma Zabi." The now identified prince of Zeon replied, reaching his left hand out for a shake, with a flabbergasted Ryu responding in a kind out of automation. Completely shocked by the revelation, Ryu had no opportunity to continue the conversation and asked for more, with it being finished completely when a Zeon Marine pushed him inside of the Komusai with a submachine gun pointed at his back.
Once he was inside of the cockpit, Ryu finally had the opportunity to take off of his helmet, doing so with a heavy brief of relief and savoring the shuttle's recycled air, as compared to the failing system of his pilot suit it smelled heavenly.
After a short check up by a medic on the shuttle, with Ryu needing minimal first aid, he was directed to the passenger section where he was restrained inside of a seat with two other Federal pilots like him being held captive.
Ryu turned to the pilot seated at his right, greeting a blonde man about his age. "Hi, I'm Ryu Jose."
"Yazan Gable."
A/N: And thus we have the last light of the Earth Federation be snuffed with a great Zeon victory with their liberation of Granada and soon the greater far side to follow. With Zeon's independence secured, they must now turn to ending their wars with ZAFT and the Alliance, with both sides now becoming aware of Zeon's existence. Just to be clear, with the surrender of the Granada Fleet the rest of the Federal Remnant will not take arms. Whether they will surrender outright however, will be shown in the next chapter when we come to how Renee's dealing with the Atlantic Federation and what the exact actions of the remaining city fleets are.
To some of you it might seem like the chapter was anti-climatic, and I understand if you feel that way. This chapter was never really meant to feature if Zeon would win, rather how they would win as the Federal Remnant needed a miracle or intervention from the Alliance to stand their ground, neither of which were coming. Originally I had intended for more battle scenes with Garma, but as I wrote the chapter I felt it would be awkward and too much of a repeat of Solomon and Pezun, so I had his combat limited since there would be no hard danger or opposition, sorry Garma fans, don't worry he'll get more chances to shine in the future.
What I am proud of and what was my favorite portion in a while was writing Ryu's POV in this scene, with him kicking ass as part of the Federation's last stand. That's right everyone, White Base's Best Boi is now part of the Cosmic Era. For the future I want to have a handful of Federation characters appear as part of the cast to show their viewpoint with this new world and how the Remnant, while defeated, will significantly contribute to coming events. For Ryu I'm going more along the lines of his Origin character as a seasoned pilot where here he got very unlucky and was transported to the Cosmic Era while on vacation. Going forward Ryu will basically be the grunt standin for the Federal Remnant while Renee is seen for the officers, showing how someone from Earth or a Loyalist Spacenoid will move forward in the Cosmic Era and react to Zeon's presence. Ryu will appear more in the future and I'll definitely be looking forward to his battles, especially since he's now a Newtype.
Also yes, the Violator was sent along for the ride. Rest assured Yazan is still an Oldtype, but that doesn't make him anymore dangerous. What Yazan did during the battle and what kind of state he's in will be revealed in the future.
Next chapter will act as a sort of conclusion to Talia and Renee's character arc for the First Contact War, and the end of the beginning with all of the Cosmic Era becoming aware of Zeon's existence. After that will be a reaction arc where each faction shares their first impressions. Thank you for reading and stay tuned for more!