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Captain Global sighs as he looks at the other people in the video conference. Admiral Hayase, Misa's father, is on the line from Earth's surface from a UN Spacey office in Paris. Admiral Britai is calling from his flagship, as are Kamjin and Lap Lamiz from theirs, the alien visages of all three adding variety to the screens before him if nothing else.
"So, how are the arrangements for the patrol circuit from Dakar to Azadistan coming along?" Global asks.
"The conventional weapons and Destroids are going to have to stay in and around Dakar, but everything else should be able to stay on the move to provide protection to the VIPs." Admiral Hayase says.
"Good enough, the plan was to protect the conference itself anyway. The quick response force?" Global says as he turns to Admiral Britai.
"We've marshaled the designated forces. Hopefully they'll be enough to deal with any sudden Wulgaru attacks." Britai reports.
"We can only hope. What about the forces we sent to Mars?" Global asks Kamjin and Lap Lamiz.
"We received a message from Vice-Commodore Golgono shortly before this meeting that they all arrived safely." Kamjin says.
"And the Martians are treating them with their usual hospitality." Lap Lamiz adds.
"At least one thing looks like it'll go right this month. How are the new Variable Fighter designs coming along?" Global asks.
"The VF-19 is a high-performance machine as expected, but some of the pilots are saying that it's hard to control properly in high-speed maneuvers due to that. The VF-22 is usable without the brainwave interface from the YF-21, but given how high-spec it is even without that, it's probably going to be relegated to special operations for now." Admiral Hayase says.
Global sighs as he looks over a report.
"And the proposed warship designs?" He asks.
"Still in development, and no timeline on when they'll be finished. We have the technology to build another ship like the SDF-1, and the Battle-class Macross ship is certainly doable, but we just don't have the industrial capacity to make one on our own without also sacrificing our ability to make a sufficient number of Variable Fighters at the same time. Putting the VF-19 and VF-22 into production is already causing enough problems as is." Admiral Hayase says regretfully.
There's not much more to the meeting after that, and after everyone signs off, Global opens up the proposed blueprint for new classes of Macross-type ship.
Quarter Class and Island Class, huh? If we can ever make more than one a month without going into the red, we'll have no problem dealing with the Wulgaru or Zentraedi. Global muses to himself hopefully. Consider this a mix of an IC post and OOB.
FORCE ASSESSMENT: THE ORDER OF THE BLACK KNIGHTS (April 0087)
Ground Forces
25 x Garrison Troopers - Generation 1 Mechanized Company [1P, 4M]
Rear-echelon Britannian soldiers equipped with machine guns and rocket launchers. Suited for occupation, area defense, and not much else.
20 x Combat Troopers - Generation 2 Mechanized Company [1P, 4M]
Front-line soldiers of the Imperial Britannian Army with modern weapons, body armor, and vehicles. Useful for taking ground and holding it.
Aerial Forces
4 x FF-S3 Saberfish Wing - Generation 1 Aircraft Wing [1P, 2M]
The venerable Federation aerospace fighter, modernized so as to be somewhat relevant in the present day. Armed with vulcans and missiles.
5 x FX-550 Skygrasper Wing - Generation 2 Aircraft Wing [1P, 2M]
A relatively modern aerospace fighter armed with vulcans, missiles, and a light beam cannon to give it some extra punch.
Mobile Weapons
60 x RPI-11 Glasgow - Generation 1 Mobile Suit [1P, 1M]
Britannia's classic 4th-generation Knightmare Frame. Woefully behind the times now, but still combat-capable. Equipped with a machine gun, a turret-mounted anti-personnel gun, and a pair of Slash Harkens mounted in the chest.
40 x RPI-13 Sutherland - Generation 2 Mobile Suit [1P, 1M]
Effectively a modernized version of the Glasgow, the 5th-generation Sutherland is the mainstay of the Britannian mobile force and still does the job in sufficient numbers. Equipped with a pair of forearm-mounted stun tonfas, an assault rifle, a chest-mounted machine gun, and two chest-mounted Slash Harkens.
5 x RPI-210 Union Flag - Generation 2 Mobile Suit [1P, 1M]
A Britannian Mobile Suit that lost out to the Sutherland and was then mothballed when the Bedivere came out, the Union Flag is a transformable machine designed for high-speed suborbital combat. Armed with a rapid-fire linear rifle, a "defense rod" shield, a chest-mounted machine gun, and a sonic knife.
1 x RPI-210E Union Flag Custom - Generation 2+ Mobile Suit [2P, 1M]
Pilot: Graham Aker
The Flag Custom has been upgraded far beyond the specs of the baseline unit, with most of its limiters imposed for pilot safety removed. A "wild horse" in the same vein as the Tallgeese, this machine is only controllable by its designated pilot. Armed with a prototype linear rifle, a defense rod, a chest-mounted machine gun, and a pair of sonic knives.
23 x RPI-216 Twilight - Generation 3 Mobile Suit [2P, 1M]
The Black Knights' 7th-generation mass-produced Knightmare Frame is the Twilight, formerly the Tasogare. Based off of the Zangetsu, the Twilight is a sophisticated high-spec machine designed for swift, decisive battles and equally expeditious withdrawals. Its primary weapons are a Hadron Repeater on its left arm, which fires either single or tight three-round bursts of spherical red energy, and a Wave Impulse Sword, which is sheathed in a Radiation Wave effect and produces destructive pulses of energy upon impact.
It is equipped with a Radiation Wave Barrier, a cutting-edge Gefjun Net and Chaffsmoke Dispenser for maximum stealth and concealment, a quartet of Slash Harkens mounted on the elbows and knees, and an integral Air Glide System with foldable wings. Unlike the bland color scheme of the Gekkas, the Twilight is painted primarily black with dark red trim, giving it a sinister aspect.
1 x RZA-3F9 Tristan - Generation 3 Mobile Suit [2P, 1M]
Pilot: Gino Weinberg
The Tristan is a transformable high-speed 7th-generation Knightmare Frame with a Knight Fortress jet mode. It mounts a massive pair of Slash Harkens that can combine to form an energy cannon, a pair of MVS polearms, and a pair of high-caliber vulcan cannons that only deploy in its Fortress mode.
1 x RBK-002/F1F Guren Mk-II Test-Type - Generation 3 Mobile Suit [2P, 1M]
Pilot: Kallen Kozuki
The newest version of the Guren Mk-II is actually an experimental prototype mounting an all-new Radiation Wave Surger with long-range and area-effect modes. Much of the rest of the unit is unchanged, aside from various performance tweaks, and a new round of upgrades is likely in order.
1 x RBK-00/0A Mirage - Generation 3 Mobile Suit [2P, 1M]
Pilots: Lelouch vi Britannia, C.C.
Prince Lelouch's personal unit is just as anomalous as the masked man himself. Capable of transforming into a submersible aerospace Knight Fortress form, the Mirage possesses unmatched tactical and strategic flexibility. The unit has a unique double cockpit, allowing the prince's bodyguard and advisor, C.C., to pilot it, while Lelouch handles the special systems.
It is capable of deploying a comprehensive Absolute Defense System of interlocking energy shields using its integrated Druid System supercomputer, allowing Lelouch to conduct battles with minimal personal risk. It also mounts integrated Hadron Cannons, knee-mounted Slash Harkens, and a Phase Transition Cannon, which can be fired to create either a single penetrating ray or a scattering blast of dozens of lesser beams. The former effect has, against the prince's wishes, been dubbed the "Zero Beam."
1 x Z-01P Lancelot Diamond - Generation 3+ Mobile Suit [4P, 1M]
Pilot: Suzaku Kururugi
The elite unit of the former Britannian Special Corps, the Lancelot Diamond (formerly the Pyre) has undergone multiple rounds of upgrades to remain on the cutting edge of Knightmare Frame technology. Now equipped with leg-mounted Blaze Luminous shields, an Air Glide Wing, and a Super VARIS rifle, it is the most advanced Mobile Suit in the Black Knights' arsenal, but Rakshata thinks she can do even better...
2 x RBK-06/XF1 Twilight Victory - Generation 3 Mobile Armor [10P, 1M]
Pilots: Zero Murasame, Leila Raymond
Taking a page from the Sutherland Sieg, the Black Knights' 3rd-generation Knight Giga Fortress is actually an external support unit for the RBK-06 Twilight Knightmare Frame, with which its pilot can eject in a pinch. The Victory KGF is a huge machine, principally equipped with a pair of Wave Impulse lance-type Slash Harkens, whose trajectory can be controlled mid-flight with pulses of Radiation Wave energy, as well as an underslung Variable Hadron Cannon, which can be fired in either Beam or Scatter mode for concentrated or dispersed fire.
It also mounts two six-tube missile launchers which can fire either Chaffsmoke or Gefjun Net projectiles, as well as four linked-fire Hadron Repeaters for close-in defense. It boasts the same defensive systems as the Twilight: a Radiation Wave Barrier, a Gefjun Net, and a Chaffsmoke Dispenser. While the Victory has the same black primary color as its Twilight controller unit, its trim is a bold orange.
1 x RYH-01 Texas Mack - Generation 2 Super Robot [10P, 1M]
Pilots: Jack King (Texas Mack), Mary King (Hat Machine), Spot (Pasture King)
It's a cowboy robot. It has giant revolvers, a giant repeater rifle, and a huge cannon that's stored in a coffin for some reason. It has a flying robot horse piloted by a dog. Yes, it can ride the horse. The hat is also an aerospace fighter and a shield. Its pilot's voice is practically a military-grade weapon in its own right. That's Texas Mack.
Naval Vessels
4 x Drake-class Cruiser - Generation 2 Cruiser [10P, 2M]
Formally an "escort ship" in Britannian parlance, the Drake-class is a versatile aerospace cruiser with torpedoes, missiles, and light beam guns. Its weak armament is largely compensated for by its complement of Mobile Suits, which it can deploy from its four linear catapults.
3 x Dragon-class Submersible Carrier - Generation 2 Surface Cruiser [5P, 2M]
Formerly the Kokuryu-class, the Dragon-class is a foreign-built submersible carrier designed to silently and steathily convey and deploy Knightmare Frames where they're least expected. Having briefly served as the Black Knights' headquarters until the Shrike's completion, it is now a secondary asset that nevertheless provides them with a surprising degree of operational flexibility.
2 x Nelson-class Battleship - Generation 2 Battleship [20P, 4M]
A heavily-armed and -armored brawler of a battleship, the Nelson-class is equipped with multiple twin beam cannons, missile and torpedo launchers, and anti-air guns. It can field a sizable complement of Mobile Suits from its internal hangars and launch them via its pair of linear catapults.
1 x Shrike-class Flagship - Generation 2 Flagship [???]
Captain: Jeremiah Gottwald
A truly all-environments vessel, the Shrike (formerly the Ikaruga) can traverse the sky, the vacuum of space, and the depths of the ocean with equal ease. It has a surprisingly large carrying capacity, owing to its reliance on an anti-gravity Float System, and is the beating heart of the Black Knights' operations. It is capable of providing fire support through its integrated armaments: Slash Harkens, Radiant Wave missiles, medium and heavy coilgun turrets, and two Heavy Hadron Cannons mounted in the bow.
It's not quite the peak of tourist season in Chile, since it's the region's fall rather than its summer, but the weather is warm and clear, the sands are white and hot, and the water is a brilliant blue. The entire pristine length of the beach has been taken up by several thousand individuals from all walks of life -- Japanese, Britannian, Spacian, various expatriates, and other oddities. All of them united with one goal: to defeat the Holy Britannian Empire as it currently stands.
Well, two goals. Right now, everyone's also looking for a little R&R. As such, there are huge grill pits, food stands, and an entire local tourist economy mobilized to provide for the Black Knights' impromptu excursion to the most beautiful beach in Chile.
The Eleventh Prince of Britannia, the famous guerrilla leader and insurrectionary formerly known as Zero, Lelouch vi Britannia, is currently lounging on a beach chair beneath a big purple umbrella, wearing black swim trunks and matching flip-flops, reading a book on his handheld tablet. He is accompanied by nearly a dozen beautiful women, as usual, including several new faces whose stoic expressions are somewhat belied by their sleek one-piece bathing suits. One of the women, a lanky redhead, leans over a bit.
"Lelouch, are you sure this is a good idea? Uh, I mean, Your Highness..."
"Well, actually, it wasn't my idea at all. It was Jeremiah's. He thinks we need a... oh, what did he call it... 'post-near-apocalyptic vacation'. Besides, it's a good bonding exercise. And please don't call me that in private."
Kallen, the newly named 'Knight of Zero,' frowns thoughtfully. "Shouldn't we be, you know, fighting Schneizel and Cornelia? Liberating the oppressed?"
"Of course we should, and we will, too. But right now, everyone just dodged a big idol-shaped bullet and achieved their overriding goal, so we could all use a little time to unwind. Jeremiah might be a little eccentric, but he's not stupid. I wouldn't have gone along with the idea if I didn't agree with it."
Off in the distance, a terrifyingly intense game of beach football is being played between one team led by Jeremiah, who's turned down his cyborg parts' output, and another led by the boisterous Jack King, who keeps trying to introduce "Texas rules," whatever those are.
A dark-skinned blonde woman, basking fully in the sun in a scandalously skimpy string bikini, takes a puff from her pipe before joining in. She's currently being fed grapes by several admirers from the engineering department, none of whom look to be in their element while outside. "Quite so, Prince Lelouch. Even the most finely-tuned machine needs downtime for maintenance, after all."
A chorus of yells goes up from a nearby grill pit, as Graham and the Over Flags have apparently turned off the grills' limiters and now six-foot flames are shooting into the air as they deftly cook their steaks for a fascinated audience, which is now standing well away from the epicenter.
A pugnacious-looking woman with a shock of blonde hair yawns and stretches on her beach towel. "This is the first vacation I've had in years." Laila Raymond has loosened up considerably following her acclimation with the Black Knights, further aided by anti-brainwashing therapy.
Suzaku isn't far off, leading an impromptu calisthenics course as he goes through his centering exercises. The Knight of Eleven's in his bathing suit, so the view's not bad, and has quite an audience, including at least 20% of the Black Prince's attention.
There's a chorus of agreement from the other women present, and Kallen subsides.
Lelouch smiles a bit smugly. "See? Everyone agrees. Just relax, Kallen. It's all going according to pla--"
"Lelouch! Hey, Lelouch! I've got that new draft of the constitution!"
The famous terrorist and insurgent drops his tablet, face seized up in terror. "Oh my God, it's Merrybell. Okay, don't panic. Don't panic, Lelouch. We've trained for this." Nodding firmly to himself, he crosses his arms over his chest. "Execute Plan 031!"
Four of the hard-faced women in black one-pieces form up around Lelouch's beach chair, lifting purple-and-gold towels in a protective curtain around the prince. A moment later, the towels drop to the ground. Lelouch, the women, and the beach chair are all gone.
Merrybell comes to a skidding stop near the prince's former hideout, frowning. A young woman with blonde pigtails is just behind her. The Britannian princess makes a 'tch!' noise, arms folded, tapping the rolled-up document in her hand vexedly.
WELCOME TO FORMULA FRONT! THE NUMBER ONE FOR MECH ON MECH FIGHTING SPORTS! I AM YOUR HOST DUNCAN FISHER AND TODAY WE ARE SPENDING THIS LOVELY SUNNY APRIL SATURDAY IN SOLARIS ARENA.
WE GOT DUELS. TEAM MATCHES. CAPTURE THE FLAG. KING OF THE HILL. BATTLE ROYALES. IF YOU CAN PLAY IN A VIDEO GAME OUR AC JOCKEYS ARE LIVING IT!
STARTING UP WE GOT NATASHA KERENSKY STRAIGHT FROM PLANT IN HER AC 'MADCAT' AND MARS' OWN ZEHEART GALETTE IN HIS AC 'ZEYDRA'..."
"Since man knew how to fight they learned how to make it a sport. From boxing and fencing to paintball and airsoft when you added vehicles into the mix you had Destruction Derbies and for the suicidal pilots: Mock Dogfights.
The creation of the Mobile Suit and the Super Robot made mech-based combat sports an inevitability.
And for the LRC an opportunity.
The arena was where they could test their equipment and market it, there would be no shortage of pilots willing to jump into a cockpit for the fame, fortune, and thrill of it ... and candidates that the LRC and MU would headhunt. Many mercenaries like me or military servicemen 'on vacation' used it to keep their skills sharp and settled one or two disputes without getting McGillis or Teiwaz on our asses for stirring shit.
There was money to be made. Streaming, Pay-per-view, gambling, straight-on tickets, hell when I was champion I had merchandise, and even cameos in TV shows.
And sometimes it was a matter of prestige. EVERYONE who joined had to have their machines be fit to Armored Core standards but we had Britannian Guilds who used Knightmares with AC refits like the Lancelot had first, All-Coordinator 'Warrior'clans who screamed shit about 'Freeborns', hell there was even this team of Zentraedi who stayed as giants because they felt more alive throwing hands with second-hand Mazin Brothers and mass production Getter Robos.
But if there was any ONE unspoken rule that Formula Front jockeys followed was that went someone started shit on Mars they'd be some of the first to join the hunt.
Now when the LRC and Martian Union started giving out bounties and rewards? Well ... everyone's lucky that the aliens didn't sign the Geneva Convention."
- Gray 'Legend-Killer' Noton, Formula Front Grand Champion, Ace Destroid Defender Pilot
"Humble Representatives of the Federation Council, I present to you a petition from both the Republic of Japan, in recognition of our status as defenders of the peace via NISAR and as pillars of the global economy through trade, and PLANT, in recognition of it's status as one of the leading powers in space and to begin to bridge the divide this federation has with those who dwell outside the cradle, to be named as new Voting members of the Federation Council, with all the powers and responsibilities that entails.
...Wooh, man, I can't believe I got that in one take, all those guys in fancy suits had me sweating bullets. Well, I guess Diethard was right, anyone with a teleprompter these days can sound like-What? What do you mean I'm still on, I left the podium!...Their's a second mike stitched into my suit? Oh Sh-"
-Shinchiro Tamaki, Federation representative for the Republic of Japan
Gen 3 Mobile Suit, Gavotte - next evolution of the Circle's line of mechs designed by sympathetic earthian intellectuals, yet to receive its earthtone Gaian paintjob
(Transmission made to the Federal Assembly, at the behest of a Pro-Titan Member)
"Honored Delegates, I am pleased to speak you at the behest of Assemblyman Nkomba. I am doing this because there is a matter that desperately needs to be attended to: the performance, or lack thereof of Admiral Wyatt.
Despite recent months, the EFF remains the most powerful military force in the Earth Sphere. Over thirteen hundred Mobile Suits, sixty-six Cruisers, and forty-two Capital Ships. The combined forces of Zeon, including the AEUG terrorists, are projected at having less than six hundred Mobile Suits combined. Double what the Titans possess but less than half of what Wyatt commands. Despite this material superiority, how much has he contributed to not just this war for survival, but the ones against Celestial Being, the Zentraedi, and the Wulgaru?
Nothing. Not so much as a nail has left a Federal Depot to any of the fires burning across the Sphere. Admiral Wyatt has been content to hole himself up in Alaska. The only EFF ordinance that left Federal territory this whole year was stolen by terrorists. And that property was none other than Gundam-class mobile suits, one of which had a nuclear warhead that is still not accounted for! And speaking of nukes, Admiral Wyatt, in one of the few actions he seems to have done all year, detonated a nuclear device, in direct defiance of Federal law, under our base at Jaburo. The Titans fighting there against the terrorists attacking it, were barely able to escape with their lives!
And, yet, despite the inaction of the EFF, not one member of this Assembly's Security Council has moved to call Admiral Wyatt to account for any of these actions or to command him to do anything with a force that could save the Federation, if only it was given the leadership to do so. The late Admiral Jamitov was well aware of this and sought to have delegates in one of the Big Three bring an action before the Assembly. He did not wish to address the Assembly prior to that, as he did not feel he had the authority to do so.
As we speak, my men are now scouring what's left of his bridge to find some part of him, we can bury in his homeland!
Thus, I am called upon to do what he could not! I call upon this Assembly to demand a full investigation of Admiral Wyatt, and the reassignment of the EFF to more effective leaders! Will someone in this Assembly, for the sake of all who have died, and all who are dying, make a motion to bring your armed forces into this war before all is lost!?"
"Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another chess tutorial. I'm Lelouch vi Britannia, Elo rating 2411, and this is Black Prince Plays. On today's tutorial, I'll be switching sides and showing you how you can win as White.
This video is about a simple yet effective chess trap that players of any rating will be guaranteed to fall for. It's a variation of the Tennison Gambit, and I'll show you now why it's so effective.
Start with a standard opening, king's pawn to e4. Black responds with the Scandinavian Defense, queen's pawn to d5. This is Black's first mistake, and the game is already over for them.
The natural move would be to capture Black's pawn; however, in the Tennison Gambit, we'll sacrifice this pawn. Instead, we will play knight to f3. Black responds by capturing our pawn and attacking our knight.
Now we will move our knight to f5, saving the piece and attacking Black's pawn. To defend the hanging pawn, Black plays knight to f6, bringing the piece to an active square.
Next, we will make another sacrifice and move our pawn to d3. Black is already ahead in material, and so they will accept the sacrifice.
Now we can develop our bishop by capturing the pawn on d3. At this point, you have essentially won the game. Black plays pawn to h6, attacking the knight.
What we will do next is move the knight to f7, forking the rook and queen. Black has no choice but to capture the knight with their king and leave it in an exposed position.
We can move the bishop to g6 to check Black. Black can't retreat his king because the bishop is now attacking the entire corridor. As such, Black once again has no choice but to capture with their king.
Black's queen is now exposed after we sacrificed our knight and bishop, and their king is in a vulnerable position. The next move is obvious. We can detonate the 16 high-yield military-grade remote-triggered Sakuradite-derived directional explosive mines we planted ahead of time to attack Black's remaining pieces. However, if you're a beginner at chess, you can use an array of adhesive-secured demolition charges and set them up during the battle instead.
Now, watch very carefully as I push the button at just the right moment to cause maximum disruption among the enemy formation..."
"Humble Representatives of the Federation Council, I present to you a petition from both the Republic of Japan, in recognition of our status as defenders of the peace via NISAR and as pillars of the global economy through trade, and PLANT, in recognition of it's status as one of the leading powers in space and to begin to bridge the divide this federation has with those who dwell outside the cradle, to be named as new Voting members of the Federation Council, with all the powers and responsibilities that entails.
...Wooh, man, I can't believe I got that in one take, all those guys in fancy suits had me sweating bullets. Well, I guess Diethard was right, anyone with a teleprompter these days can sound like-What? What do you mean I'm still on, I left the podium!...Their's a second mike stitched into my suit? Oh Sh-"
-Shinchiro Tamaki, Federation representative for the Republic of Japan
In anticipation of being granted a council seat, the Republic of Japan has prepared a number of proposals for the Federation Council.
Proposal 1. The RoJ motions for a constitutional convention to be called in Dakar at the end of this month, in order to enact a total restructuring of the Earth Federation Constitution, it's mission, and it's relationship to those it governs.
Proposal 2. With ongoing research by the GUND-ARM company proving the legitimate civilian use of GUND tech, and the existential nature of the alien threats facing mankind necessitating every potential weapon be put on the table for consideration, the RoJ motions for a immediate repeal of the Cathedra Accords.
-Proposal 2B. In the event Proposal Two is not passed, the RoJ proposes a alternative motion that creates a exception in the Cathedra Accords for civilian usages of GUND tech.
Proposal 3. With the end of World War Four, the Republic of Japan proposes a immediate repeal of the Yukon Accords, in order to allow the military's of nation states and NGOs such as Super Robot Laws to begin operations against the Vega Zone. This proposal is to be submitted on and suggested to be passed in secret, in order to not give the Vega Zone prior warning to expect such intervention.
Proposal 4. The public release of all Federation Records, confidential or not, pertaining to the assassinations of George Glenn, Heero Yuy, and the 30 Bunch Incident.
5. Since the beginning of this year, Federation forces have lost no less then seven different Gundams, the most advanced battleship ever created by human hands, a solar powered superweapon, along the entire Jaburo base that allowed it to weather the One Year War via a nuclear self destruct mechanism illegally installed without the knowledge of any Federation civilian leadership and used without it's authorization. Federation research labs have been caught conducting human experimentation with the aim of creating slave soldiers taken against their will. In the past month alone, one Federation paramilitary organization carried out a illegal invasion of the member state known as Egypt with no orders from a body capable of making that decision or even forewarning, and carries out a occupation to this day. The lines of communication for even the most important matters possible have utterly broken down between military and civilian leadership, with only a chance onboarding briefing by the UN Spacy requested by the RoJ revealing the long known extent of the Zentraedi threat.
It is clear that Earth Federation state apparatus has been allowed to go completely rogue, acting without the knowledge or consent of any of it's member states even against the very laws we mandate, and this must end. As the first step towards this, the RoJ proposes a full, comprehensive audit of all Federation Departments and affiliated NGOs be undertaken immediately.
6. The RoJ proposes Rear Admiral Halburton be promoted to be the provisional head of the EFF and Inspector General until a permanent replacement is chosen during the Constitutional Convention, in recognition of his years of meritorious service and loyalty to the ideals of the Federation.
"Frankly, it's high time for some changes in the Earth sphere. We're under a greater threat than ever from aliens, and I mean the real aliens, not what certain late night news channels will call anyone who's had their genes touched up a bit, and where is the Inspector General? Blowing up our own Federal military HQ! Zeon threw an entire colony at the place and couldn't do it, now the good Mr. Wyatt does it for nothing. I'm sure a certain regent is going to be very happy with his decision, let me tell you."
"While PLANT cannot in good conscience agree to a blanket approval of an experimental technology historically known for its test subjects' numerous deaths and even more crippled for life, we are at least open to the possibility for ethical routes of refinement. The Federation meanwhile has been allowed to go completely rogue with numerous secret projects that upon review of available records have not been made apparent to the Federation Council, echoing a complete lack of willingness to be accountable to its member-states. Rear Admiral Halburton's record in contrast is one of meritorious service and personal integrity. Now more than ever, the Earth Federation forces needs a man of such qualities to lead the fight against the invaders encroaching upon the Solar System instead of sitting complacently at headquarters."
"This is President Li Lin, of the Far East Republic."
Lin, wearing her black pilot suit and strapped into the cockpit of her Tao Tie, watched as the flight crews aboard one of the Republic's battleships prepared the green-coloured machine for battle, carefully loading the physical shells for its gravity cannon, checking the combat drones and corrosive missiles before the launch. Under normal circumstances, Tao Tie was supposed to see deployment up north, against monsters, not humans, not even hated invaders like Zeon soldiers. (but to many Spacians, the Federation was the hated oppressors, and that was the root of the whole problem, wasn't it)
Still, the circumstances were what they were, and neither the Republic, nor anyone else, was in any position to be intentionally pulling its punches in a war that would, ultimately, decide the fate of the entire Earth Sphere, and perhaps beyond.
She returned to speaking, making a statement that may or may not even see release, if any of them survive the coming battle, or if at least her machine's computer system does, final words of a leader and a soldier.
"...I know that many people might be shocked by the coming news, about the Zodiac Alliance, about me agreeing to work together with PLANT, and about our repudiation of the Earth Federation, a project that our ancestors helped create as they worked hard in the name of a fairer, more equal society, built in response to the injustices of the toppled Confederation.
Let me make this clear first, then - I am doing this because I am fully dedicated to the project that is the Earth Federation, and feel that I only have the right to do so precisely because it is the creation of our ancestors, something that we have helped build and are therefore now in position to judge. It is our responsibility, and to ignore its failings rather than to mend them solely because acknowledging them is painful and inconvenient would be a grave injustice to them, and everyone else since their time who gave their lives in order to defend that dream - dream of humanity reaching out into space, dream of creating a prosperous and peaceful Earth Sphere.
Instead, space colonisation became a tool used to punish and divide, forcibly relocating those considered inconvenient, even entire ethnic groups, away from Earth; the dream had been betrayed, turned into a scourge used to lash at humanity. This gave birth to resentment, and this in turn allowed something like Zeon to take root, a movement that would eventually kill millions upon millions of its fellow Spacians in its efforts to strike back at Earth. That Zeon remnants are still at all welcomed among the space colonies even after events like Operation British, where the colony's entire population was gassed to use it as a giant munition, says a lot about just how deep those fractures are.
If we let things be as they are, it does not matter how many victories the Federation forces can win; the same conflict will reignite again and again, and our children and our children's children will be fighting resurgent Zeonic armies and other Spacian groups, until one or the other or both finally choke on their resentment and die in apocalyptic flame that will turn Earth Sphere into a burnt-out husk. What we need to do - what the Earth Federation needs to do - is to find a way to create another path, to mend those fractures and create a new international order that both the people of Earth and space could accept and live in with dignity. Our cooperation with PLANT is intended as the first step towards that goal, to reform the Federation into something closer to the dream that its founders hoped for and intended.
Even on Earth itself, after the horrors of One Year War, the Federation was so desperate for peace that we were willing to ignore even most shameless injustice; so many parents left to bury their children, so many cities destroyed, so many sacrifices made in the name of victory that after being told that Zeon surrendered, nobody could swallow asking for even more. Japan and Philippines, members of the Federation and independent nations, became sacrifices in the name of that elusive "peace". Earth was finally at peace and prosperity could return, even as their people were being gunned down in the streets. Could something like that be called a just peace, or even true peace at all?
Even for us, in the Far East Republic, it was all too easy to say that we were busy fighting the monsters that the war awakened, that we could spare neither energy nor attention towards something happening so close to ourselves, even when dead bodies started washing up on our beaches.
The rise of Celestial Being and their demands made me think about those concepts, about 'unjust peace' and 'just war'. A peace built upon the constant sacrifices of others that you merely turn away from in order to benefit from them, something that you can treat as 'not your business' and turn away, pretending to not see the corpses, just so you can still claim to be at peace, to love peace. But nothing good can come out of this sort of warped, hollow love.
I understand that many are cautious about politicians calling for war in the name of justice, however. History is full of suspicious characters finding excuses to send others to their deaths for their own benefit and dressing it up as 'justice'. Yet, sometimes, like now, there is no other path, because turning away from violence in the name of preserving peace is what led us to this point. Pacifism is a beautiful ideal, but if that ideal results in idly watching the cruel deaths of tens of thousands, is it really achieving its goals?
We cannot use military force for our own profit, but we also cannot turn away from the suffering of others and calmly count our money as it flows in. I say this as I plunge my nation - the nation and the people that trusted me with my power - into war, precisely because of what I've seen during the One Year War. I was once a soldier; now, I will fight alongside my fellow citizens again, not content to just tell others to risk their lives for me and my decisions. Perhaps it might be foolish for the leader of a superpower, but trying to be calm and sensible and practical made us reach this point.
However this war ends, whoever wins and champions their own vision for Earth Federation and humanity, our history in the coming years will be written in burning blood."
The sirens grew louder, alarm lights warning of imminent combat as the allied armada approached Tokyo, PLANT mobile suits raining down from the skies.
"...well then. The time has come. President Li Lin, signing off."
The Horn of Africa had become a chaotic battleground in the past month. Mashymre Celo's wild ride from Kilimanjaro, to South Sudan, across Ethiopia and now into Mogadishu, had been pursued by no less than three separate Earthian armies - the Titans, the AEU's Specials, and the Benerit Group's Special Security Force I - stymied by the confounding tactics of the Rose Knight, who got lost attempting to find the Indian Ocean, and led them all on a merry chase through the Ethiopian highlands. Constant skirmishes between the Earthian forces, Celo's task force, and local anti-Federation militias encouraged by the chaos to strike out at colonialist powers had sapped the strength of all groups, and left tensions running hot throughout Africa.
However, all things must come to an end. In less than a month, Axis's Rose Knight has solidified himself as a local legend on par with ancient kings, but his Lady Haman needs him beyond the moon. Unfortunately, as he and his erstwhile allies have consolidated around the Heavy Lifting Vehicle launchpad in Mogadishu, they find themselves running out of time and options.
"We're against the wall here, Mashymre," one such ally says. "The locals aren't buying Benerit's propaganda, but it doesn't matter if they shelter us once the special security forces and the Titans get here. They'll glass the city before they let us escape."
"Indeed, Mr. Olcott," Mashymre replies. "I'm afraid I've dragged you and your crew into a last stand."
Olcott shrugs. "It's not like Somalia has a ton of spare HLVs lying around. It's leave with you, or never make it into space. Our contact was pretty clear this was our only chance."
Mashymre nods. "However, if we're to spare the people of this city from the Titans' depradations, we need a plan."
"My...contact actually had a suggestion," Olcott says, almost having to drag the words out of himself. "He seems to think it's one you'll like..."
Outside the city, an armed siege camp is quickly springing into existence, Benerit and Titans hovercraft swarming around an AEU forward operating base in a flurry of effort to try and coordinate a joint effort to do the one thing none of the factions could manage single-handedly in the past weeks: stopping the weirdly charismatic Zeke and his band of misfits and guerillas crawling out of the woodwork to support him.
This effort is represented in microcosm by the meeting of two men: Buran Blutarch, the most tired man in the Titans Autonomous Corps, and Senior Colonel Treize Khushrenada, who despite all the chaos happening in the Earth Sphere right now, took it upon himself to lead the Specials contingent hunting Mashymre personally. This being an AEU base originally, Treize has naturally had some tea served on fine china, to calm Col. Blutarch's nerves, if nothing else.
Buran sighs, and begins. "Your Excellency, we've got him cornered. Between the two of our groups and the Benerit rent-a-cops, we've got more than enough to storm the city and wipe out his transports, if not the whole group. I understand he's got a bunch of local militia with him who all of our commanders will be happy to be rid of, too."
Treize doesn't answer immediately, sipping his tea and looking out over the coastal desert towards his quarry.
"How many casualties do you suppose, Colonel?"
"...quite a few. More on our side if I don't deploy Murasame, more on the locals if I do."
"I see. And that sort of calculus is what led you to destroy Jaburo?" Treize asks.
"I'm not responsible for that lunatic Wyatt--"
"But you did give the order, in your authority as a member of the Titans Autonomous Corps, did you not?" Treize asks, turning to look at Buran. "I'm not here to point fingers, but I do believe that a time is coming when the Earth Sphere is going to demand more accountability from its protectors. Certainly a time is coming when its soldiers are going to demand more unity from their commanders. And besides, have you taken a careful look at what the 'militia' units they're loading onto that HLV are?"
"Hm? Half a dozen stolen Desultors, at last report."
"Yes. Six mobile suits, and eight berths that aren't being used by Axis Zeon," Treize replies. "Two heads unaccounted for...and very carefully concealed. If you send your precious Psycho Gundam out, we can't be sure of the pilot's safety any more than we are the city's. No, in this case, Colonel Blutarch, I have an idea, and I'm going to ask you to trust me."
It comes as a surprise to both sides when Mashymre Celo's demand for a duel is accepted immediately by Senior Colonel Treize. Mostly by their allies thinking that they're both ridiculous. This is, after all, a war, not a renaissance faire. But the idea resonates between the two men, and both are happy to discuss formal terms, standing half a kilometer apart in the flatlands along the Somali coast, Treize in a Tallgeese unit, and Mashymre in his personal unit, the AMX-103 Hamma-Hamma.
"Mr. Celo. It's an honor to meet you on the battlefield," Treize begins. "I have a simple proposition. We spare our men and the civilians of this city by settling our differences personally, mobile suit to mobile suit."
"You're a man after my own heart, your excellency," Mashymre replies, enthusiastically. "In the name of the honor of Lady Haman, I accept your challenge!"
The two men, lost in time as they are, begin their fight almost immediately. Both units have their own handicaps: Treize cannot use the Tallgeese to its fullest without pulping his ribcage, of course, and the Hamma-Hamma's quasi-psycommu wire-guided weapons are unreliable at the best of times, let alone under gravity. As such, the duel quickly devolves into a fencing match, with both units sacrificing their aces in the hole to match skill against skill, beam saber against beam saber, in a match that would make even the students at Asticassia jealous.
"Why are they streaming me this?" Nika Nanaura asks as she hides in a bathroom to watch the Permet-line footage of the duel. "I don't even like watching Suletta's matches..."
Her only clue is an extremely rude animated sticker from whoever is running the stream (it's Sophie).
Eventually, the duel comes to an end when, in spite of the limitations of the wired beam gun system on the Hamma-Hamma, Mashymre manages to entangle the Tallgeese's legs and blast the thruster unit off its back in one, half-accidental move. The fact that the Tallgeese's beam saber swung less than a foot away from Mashymre's cockpit at the same time goes unnoticed by anyone except Mashymre and Treize themselves.
"Well fought, Rose Knight. Name your terms," Treize says.
"Truthfully, this duel was all the satisfaction I needed," Mashymre says. "But for the honor of Lady Haman, I request that my men and allies and I be allowed to leave Earth peacefully, and that Benerit and the Titans spare the city from any reprisals against us."
"You have my word, sir. And if I may make a request, as the defeated party - remember the honor of the Specials if you should engage any of my troops at Artemis."
"Of course, your excellency. It's been a pleasure, but I must be going."
Later
"Yes. Dawn of Fold is away. I had to let Mashymre go too, so the Titans are angry, but there's not much they can do right now. It's OZ or Blue Cosmos, and they've spent the last quarter ignoring them. Besides, I like Mashymre. I feel like the three of us could have quite the elegant party. Yes, I know he's a Spacian fanatic. I'm about to sit down and rewrite the Federation Charter with Patrick Zala, what's your point? Just make sure your Gundams get where they need to go, and I'll take care of all the other ones. Yes. Thank you. Always a pleasure speaking to you, Prince."
In an unknown section of space, a small launch docks with an unknown space station, disgorging a man who shouldn't be there to speak to a man who shouldn't, probably, exist.
"You're early, Master Corner," a voice says over inter-normal-suit comms. "I was expecting you'd be in Dakar for the summit right now."
"We need to accelerate a few plans," Foreign Minister Corner replies. "Britannia's imploding, and all the vultures are making their moves now. How close are you to breaching Layer 7?"
"We're just about there. We only need Layer 5 to release the Thrones, though, and I had that a week ago."
"They already have their orders. There's a special message I need to send, though, and we haven't got the Sword of Wisdom online yet."
"Of course. Tell me where to point the angels' wrath..."
The Battle of Boaz
A month after the largest atmospheric action since the One Year War in the Second Battle of Tokyo, the largest armed space force in Earth's history - even including Solomon and A Baoa Qu seven years ago - assembles at PLANT's orbital defensive lines. Long range telemetry confirmed the worst fears of mankind's various intelligence apparatus's - an enormous force of Wulgaru making a beeline for the Earth Sphere, on an intercept course with the orbital PLANT colonies specifically. The Zodiac Alliance, still flush from smashing Britannia's colonial hold over the West Pacific, gather their forces to defend the Earth Sphere at Boaz satellite, a former resource satellite purchased, appropriately enough, from the Far East Republic after the One Year War, and retrofitted into the outer of PLANT's two defensive lynchpins in the intervening years. The ZA is assisted in this efforts by the bulk of the United Nations Spacy, including the floating fortress Macross, which is dwarfed only by the massive form of the GDF headquarters, Star Rose, which has shifted from the L4 colonies to anchor the other end of the defensive line opposite Boaz.
Arrayed against them are the forces of what is clearly three entire Wulgaru fleets, color-coded as they are in green/black, orange/blue, and blue/black, Wulgaru numbers dwarfing the human fleets with their horde of space fighters. The most pressing threat, however, is the pure white super robot at the Wulgaru's vanguard.
"Attention, lamata," a voice says in halting standard English over open communications. "I am Jiart, prince of the Wulgaru Pan-Galactic Empire. I understand it is your custom to offer surrender to an inferior force before engaging in battle. This is not something we Wulgaru do. You will be destroyed in our shikaara regardless. However, I speak to you now in appreciation of your quality as prey. This will be most entertaining."
"Just once," Kouji Kabuto grumbles from within Dai Mazinger, "I want to fight an enemy commander that isn't a smug gloating prick."
The battle is joined in a furball of fleet action immediately. ZAFT and the Global Defense Force are in the center-thick of the fight immediately, with 3/4 of Team Rabbits fighting alongside Athrun Zala and his squad to form a countercharge against the rushing vanguard of Wulgaru fighter-craft. While humanity has brought its best and brightest, it's clear that the Wulgaru are relying on their superior numbers and apparently-infinite supply chain, choking space with single-pilot craft, cruisers, and battleships. The massed enemy forces are fortunately well within the tactical expertise of UN Spacy, having long adapted to similar Zentradi swarm tactics, and ZAFT's coterie of aces backed up by FER super robot firepower make highly effective ship-breakers, holding the Boaz-Star Rose line tightly.
In the middle of it all, the White Devil, Prince Jiart's unit, cavorts at speeds sensors can barely follow, let alone the eye, his blades cleaving through e-carbon and luna titanium with abandon and precision until they're finally stopped by Super Alloy Z as Dai Mazinger, Getter Robo Go, and Neo Getter Robo attempt to bodily remove him from the front lines.
"So this is the pinnacle of your evolution?" Prince Jiart asks. "Promising. Let's see what you can do."
His next attack passes between the Go Get-machines as they separate for an Open Get attack, and he's forced on the backfoot to parry rocket punches until he finally slips around and kicks off Mazinger to avoid long-range supporting fire from Team Rabbits.
"How is he moving this fast?" Suruga complains as another sniper shot goes wide.
"I'll tell you when we've had time to analyze all this data," Kei observes. "It's like his machine is moving in sync with his every thought!"
Tamaki Irie, for her part, just whoops as she makes her own high speed pass and succeeds at damaging a lot of fighter craft and not Jiart's mobile weapon.
"I never thought I'd say this, but we could really use Izuru and Asagi out here..."
Further back from the fight, aboard the Godinion, Izuru and Asagi are making the same argument to Captain Suzukaze and their hangar crews.
"Absolutely not" is the captain's response. "Your refits aren't done, and it'd be suicide to go out there in a machine working at any less than a hundred percent."
"With courage, I can give a hundred and ten...no, a hundred and twenty percent!" Izuru insists, to which the captain gives an exasperated sigh.
"Who let you hang out with the super robot pilots? Reality doesn't work that way, Izuru. I--"
At that moment, panicked shouting erupts over the GDF comms as Jiart catches up to Gold 4 and sends Suruga careening into Dai Mazinger at high speed.
"Captain...I was chosen to lead Team Rabbits...so let me lead."
Reluctantly, she nods.
The arrival of the half-upgraded Blue 1 and Red 5 doesn't immediately turn the tide against the superior Wulgaru commander unit, but they do give him things to think about other than wearing down the Earthian super robots. As the battle drags on and ammunition and reactor power are depleted, however, it becomes clear that nothing can keep up with the enemy commander, until suddenly, during an onrushing attack, something comes over Izuru, and Red 5...changes.
Izuru manages, through whatever the hell it is that's happening, to keep up with Prince Jiart through a massive barrage of attacks that takes only seconds, with his altered AHSMB's systems eventually failing to keep up with the pace of the fight and something important burning out. Jiart actually seems to have the same problem slightly later, and retreats after being dissuaded from a parting coup de grace by a Getter Beam.
Even as he flies away though, amidst the burning ruins of his invasion fleet, he extends his cockpit's viewport to give Izuru a parting salute.
The Prince and Izuru are both surprised to learn that humans and Wulgaru look, apparently, identical.
Wulgaru Pan-Galactic Empire
Invasion Fleet wiped out...for now
Global Defense Force
Mobile Suits: 8 Gen 2, 7 Gen 2+ Destroyed
Super Robots: 1 Gen 2 (Gold 4), 1 Gen 3 (Red 5) in the shop again
PLANT
Mobile Suits: 20 Gen 2, 12 Gen 2+, 4 Gen 3 Destroyed
Cruisers: 3 Gen 2 Destroyed
Battleships: 1 Gen 2 Destroyed
UN Spacy
Mobile Suits: 8 Gen 1, 17 Gen 2, 1 Gen 2+, 1 Gen 3 Destroyed
Cruisers: 1 Gen 2 Destroyed
Battleships: 2 Gen 1 Space Destroyed
Meanwhile, on the other side of Earth's Moon, another huge, running fight is ongoing between forces more human in nature, with the AEU's Artemis station forming a lynchpin in the defense against the incursion of Axis Zeon, along with a small force of ZAFT mobile suits spared from PLANT's defense and a group of unlikely allies in the form of the Titans. While the latter aren't thrilled to be fighting alongside Coordinators from PLANT, or even the AEU's Specials, the presence of their charismatic newly-promoted leader Paptimus Scirocco keeps the tensions in check, and the advanced mobile suits aboard the Jupitris are a welcome addition to the forces arrayed against the entire military force of Axis Zeon.
While the Battle of Boaz was a single climactic clash against an invading force, the Battle of Side 3 was named such by soldiers and the media because it ranged over the whole range of the Republic of Zeon throughout the course of April, with Artemis Station and Axis Colony presiding over either end of a chessboard of constantly shifting possessions and repossessions of colonies. With even Side 3's population divided on the subject of their allegiance, and neither side of the conflict willing to engage in the unrestricted warfare so typical of the One Year War or the Titans' earlier controversies, the engagements are mostly limited to attempts to control open space around the Republic's colonies, with municipal governments happily swearing allegiance to whichever side can put the most warships around their colony that day. The Republic of Zeon's government itelf falls to a bloodless pro-Axis coup early in the month, with Republic Prime Minister Darcia Bakharov, author of the Principality of Zeon's original surrender eight years ago, imprisoned by the radicals and held hostage pending a potential execution for "treason".
Active fighting in the area is, relative to the numbers involved, mostly defensive and conservative, with Axis's mobile suits forming disciplined cordons and giving ground only to later envelope and destroy incoming Federation warships, and the Zodiac/Titans/Federation coalition focusing on the defense of Artemis Station and the occasional daring raid with advanced prototypes led by the likes of Scirocco or the newly-arrived-from-Africa Morgan Chevalier, which are effective at wearing Axis down, but do little to gain control of space. In the end, Axis's overall superior numbers, as well as expert exploitation of lingering respect for the Principality's legacy, give them the edge in taking and holding colonies, but around a quarter of Side 3 remains under effective Federation-aligned control.
In the end, the most strategically salient event in this meatgrinder comes from a coincidence, or so it seems, of timing. The suddenness of Axis's original attack, and the delay of the AEU's response due to the logistical nightmare of the Battle of Tokyo, had trapped Duke Dermail Catalonia and several other important AEU political figures aboard Artemis Station until they could be extracted by the Special Mobile Suit Corps - a daring blockade run would be needed to bring the trapped figures home in a similar manner to the wZERO unit's (albeit accidental) rescue of Relena Darlian from Tokyo. However, things would not go as well for Catalonia as for the late foreign minister's daughter, as the controversial Romefeller Foundation head found his shuttle and escort ambushed, first by Rakan Dakaran of Axis and then, while the Specials under Lady Une were fully engaged with fighting him, Celestial Being. The old Duke did not even have a chance for dramatic parting words before the winged heavy beam artillery Gundam vaporized himself, his retinue, and 1/3 of Patrick Colasour's Tallgeese Flugel after a noble but ill-considered interception attempt.
The other strategically salient event was, of course, the movement of the mostly-played-out resource satellite MO-I from the Side 3 parking orbit to elsewhere in the Earth Sphere, but while this was noted, its significance would not become apparent until later...
Advanced European Union
Mobile Suits: 6 Gen 2, 2 Gen 3, 1 Gen 3+ Destroyed
Mobile Armors: 4 Gen 1 Destroyed
Cruisers: 3 Gen 2 Destroyed
AEU maintains control of Artemis
Duke Dermail Catalonia KIA
PLANT
Mobile Suits: 5 Gen 2 Destroyed
Titans Autonomous Corps
Mobile Suits: 16 Gen 1+, 7 Gen 2 Destroyed
Cruisers: 2 Gen 2 Destroyed
Axis Zeon
Mobile Suits: 30 Gen 1, 26 Gen 2, 12 Gen 2+ Destroyed
Cruisers: 4 Gen 1+, 2 Gen 2 Destroyed
Axis Zeon control of Side 3: ~75%
Celestial Being
No Casualties
The False Meteor
The immediate response to the movement of MO-I, given the Zeonic history of attempted and successful usage of similar-sized colonies and satellites as gravity-assisted weapons during the One Year War is a panicked scramble of the already heavily engaged armed forces in orbit to attempt to intercept it, as well as reconnaisance to attempt to figure out where and if a colony drop was to be attempted. Both of these were cut short, however, by the intervention of Celestial Being - or at least, someone very similar to Celestial Being. ThreeunknownGundams appear in the way Celestial Being often does and combine to fire a truly massive particle beam that splits the mining asteroid in two in a single, sustained shot. Later forensic analysis concludes that this weapon uses the same exotic particles as Celestial Beings' other Gundams, although the color is red rather than the more typical green.
At first, this surprise counterstrike and apparent prevention of a colony drop is met with confused appreciation. However, further analysis of the incident, and an "anonymous" leak to the media, indicades that not only was the MO-I operation meant to be a diversion by Zeon, but that the satellite still had a large complement of civilian laborers aboard, albeit ones who had either willingly or under coercion sided with Axis. The same leaks even indicated that the entire plot was masterminded not by Haman or Delaz, but by Quinze Quarante, an anti-Earth Federation writer who'd fallen out of the mainstream for decades and could be tangentially connected to Celestial Being itself.
In this confusing morass of nonsensical maneuvering by a private armed organization, only one thing was clear to the powers of human space: Celestial Being possessed the firepower to wipe out a space colony if they so chose, and at least three of them did not care about collateral damage or escalation.
Celestial Being
No Casualties
Celestial Being Reputation--
Other Maneuvers in the Earth Sphere
While the Titans occupy the Garden of Thorns and send the bulk of their forces to secure Side 3, the ragged remains of the Delaz fleet make a break, not for Axis's lines where the Titans expect them, but the lunar city of Granada, where the remaining Delaz Fleet battleships quickly overwhelm the small Federation garrison and force the city to give them refuge. Attempting to force the local Anaheim drydocks to service the fleet's ships is more acrimonious, if only because Delaz's cash reserves are almost gone, but enough threats and former Zeonic and Zimmad employees pleading Delaz and Gato's case is enough to at least get them some patch jobs before the inevitable Titans finishing blow.
In a similar, if more benevolent, stunt, Lelouch vi Britannia sends one of his cruisers (and one of his liberated Cyber-Newtypes in a mobile armor) to plead the cause of the Black Knights to the Britannian-aligned space colonies at L4. It's not much of a threat, or a pitch, but Layla Malcal's ability to intercept a stray Wulgaru contingent at least convinces the local military-industrial barons to accept the protection of the Black Knights and their handful of available space-borne troops, moving their assets into Lelouch's column in the ongoing civil war.
By comparison to all of the above, the rest of the Earth Sphere is relatively quiet, with pirates and bandits still poking their heads out to loot amongst the conflict, but less so than usual, and flurries of activities happening in the lunar sphere and Side 7 as Earthnoid forces work on secretive projects that cannot be entirely hidden.
And finally...
The Good Friday Massacre
Jachin Due, the inner defense line of PLANT, had been spared major fighting by the heroic actions of the Zodiac Alliance and the insistent force concentration of the Wulgaru, with the latter sending only token probing forces anywhere else this month. Its garrison forces are not insignificant, of course, and it stands ready to defend PLANT from any other potential attacks.
That is, perhaps, why on the 22nd of April UC 0087, it became the target of the most concentrated strategic attack since the One Year War.
Shortly after midnight zulu, a small flotilla of Federation Moebius space fighters approached the asteroid base, Boaz's twin. The garrison commander, one Natalia Morassim, did her due dilligence to hail the incoming mobile weapons and, getting no response, correctly assumed hostile intent and sortied the garrison mobile suits, while activating the base's defensive N-Jammers. PLANT also received several unexpected defenders, with the remainder of Celestial Being's known Gundams not engaged at L3 showing up in the company of the Serpent's Tail mercenary organization, both of whom immediately began a coordinated attack against the space fighters.
This fight would be, by the numbers, hilariously one-sided, if not for two more factors. The first was another surprise arrival - the same unknown that appeared to fight Celestial Being and the Zodiac Alliance forces at Kaminejima in March, along with its drone escorts, immediately arrived and intercepted Celestial Being's attempted interception.
The second is that the Moebius units were armed with a never before seen weapon. When ZAFT forces saw the remaining Moebiuses launching missiles toward Jachin Due, they assumed they were nuclear warheads - a dangerous ploy, but one that would be stopped by N-Jammers. However, tragically, this was not the case. Perfectly spherical neon-pink explosions tear apart Jachin Due in seconds as the few mobile suit pilots outside the blast radius, Celestial Being, and the mercenaries look on in horror.
Even as his sons tore his empire down to rebuild it in a better image on Earth, the last madness of Emperor Charles bloomed in space, FLEIJA warheads tearing apart a vital link in humanity's defenses, to the tune of joyous declarations from the dying Moebius pilots.
"FOR THE SAKE OF OUR BLUE AND PURE WORLD!"
PLANT
Mobile Suits: 32 Gen 2, 12 Gen 2+, 6 Gen 3 Destroyed
Cruisers: 10 Gen 2 Destroyed
Battleships: 4 Gen 2 Destroyed
Blue Cosmos/??????
Aircraft Wings: 5 Gen 2 Destroyed
Celestial Being
No casualties
Serpent's Tail
No casualties
Next: News from Mars, the Britannian Civil War, the Dakar Declaration, OMNI
Upon receiving the dying declarations of the Mobius pilots, Titan Command denounces the terrorist attack conducted by Blue Cosmos. By doing this they have crossed the line from advocacy group into mass murderers and Titan Command will henceforth treat them as they were Zeonic terrorists.
The Federation and its Titan attack dogs are so consumed by their hatred for Spacenoids that they commit to continuing a brutal campaign of conquest and occupation at Side 3, even as masses of genocidal aliens attempt to destroy humanity. Axis Zeon has experience with these creatures, having fought them repeatedly in the Asteroid Belt, disrupting their operations sunward, until we were compelled to return to the Earth sphere due to the oppressive actions of the Titans. Since then it is no coincidence that alien attacks against Earth and Mars have only intensified. The Titans and most of the Federation do nothing about this, of course.
They do this to oppress not only Spacenoids, but also those of Earth. The heroic Rose Knight of Africa, Commander Mashymre Cello, has recently returned from his daring campaign of resistance against Federation oppression in East Africa. He tells me of the cruel plight the people there face, and their brave contributions in his campaign. The old Zeon saw their struggle as between spacenoids and Earthnoids, but that was a misguided approach. Whether they are of Earth or space, all those oppressed by the Federation are allies of Neo-Zeon.
The member states of the Federation came together to crush the Britannian regime of Emperor Charles not out of some moral concern, but out of political self interest. Though Japan and the Philippines were liberated at the end of the conflict, this was orthogonal to the primary interests of the Federation. The Advanced "European" Union still occupies large portions of Africa, and has been looking to expand further. The Benerit Group operates to exploit vast areas of the globe with near impunity, and were complicit with the Britannian occupation of Japan. The Circle of Gaia, a semi-autonomous terror apparatus of the Federation, has outright occupied Egypt and rules it as their own fiefdom. This is to say nothing of the act of nuclear terrorism by the Titans and EFF forces at Jaburo. The Federation's crimes against the people of Earth outside of a select few Imperial centers are near as long as those against Spacenoids.
When Commander Cello defeated the AEU's top commander in single combat to spare the city of Mogidishu from reprisal, he struck a blow for Neo-Zeon and all its allies. Though the necessities of war have seen him returned to space, we have not, and will not, forget our friends on Earth.
In space, despite the efforts of the Federation and Titans, most of Side 3 has now been liberated. For the first time in years, the people can breathe freely, casting off the chains of the Federation's puppet regime and risk of Titan atrocities. Yet not all have been freed. I call upon the Federation to withdraw from all civilian habitats within Side 3 rather than continue to make them a war zone. If the Federation refuses to place civilian lives out of danger, then Neo-Zeon will be forced to consider conducting non-defensive operations.
"The GDF stands triumphant! When the Wulgaru came to our doorstep at Boaz the GDF did not falter, and proved its worth as the valiant defenders of the Earth Sphere."
On the screen behind Commander Komine, footage of Red 5 fighting off what the media has termed the White Devil appears, before being replaced by GDF Rhinos and GINNs fighting off Wulgaru mobile suits in several impressive displays.
"While there are some that have questions about our effectiveness, I'm sure the events of Operation Lightning Rod have fully put them to rest as we singlehandedly ensured the safety of the Earth Sphere."
A note card falls off to the side of Komine's podium before it is quickly caught and shoved underneath numerous papers.
"...The GDF would also like to extend thanks to the Science Fortress Laboratory, the United Nations Spacey, the Republic of Japan, and the Far East Republic for it's assistance in recent events. Their support was invaluable for ensuring the outcome of the Battle of Boaz."
Komine sighs, shuffling his papers. The screen behind him shuts off.
"Unfortunately, it is with a heavy heart that I must turn our attention to the horrendous events that have happened in recent days. First, the GDF echoes its parent organization in calls for the accountability of Brittania and the Earth Federation for allowing Blue Cosmos resources that enabled them to carry out a destructive attack on the Earth Sphere's defenses. While PLANT reels from this senseless and unnecessary destruction, the GDF will step up to ensure the destruction of Jachin Due does not enable the Wulgaru or Zendrati to capitalize on these events."
Second, the events at MO-I have solidified the Global Defense Force's initial assessment that Celestial Being's lack of accountability has enabled them to carry out destructive interventions that risk the safety of countless civilians in contradiction to the goals they claim to be working towards. Furthermore, Celestial Being's arrogance has resulted in Jachin Due being unable to properly react to the unknown weapons carried by the attackers - if they had chosen to share what information they had and coordinate directly with the base we might not have had to mourn the loss of the brave defenders stationed there. The GDF will be taking stronger measures in order to gain a better measure of the mysteries of this organization, and it is our hope that we can curb the actions of Celestial Being before they cause more incidents similar to MO-I."
-GDF Press Conference Excerpt, Commander Dai Komine.
HECTOR RAMIREZ, INN: We have Koji Kabuto of the Photon Power Laboratory on the line via laser comms. Vice-Director Kabuto, reports tell us that you were at the Battle of Boaz yourself! What's your take on recent events?
VICE-DIRECTOR KOJI KABUTO: Thank you. First of all. Lemme make myself clear, Hector. The use of F.L.E.I.J.A warheads on the fortress of Jachin Due is an unprecedented war crime in human history. It is a perversion of science, which should ennoble and aid man, in the service of appalling inhumanity, as expected of the Britannian Empire and the legacy of Charles zi Britannia.
Secondly, Hector. Earth's defense from threats external and internal can only succeed in unity, not division. A house divided cannot stand, or something to that effect. I call upon the people of Zeon, amongst others, to put aside our differences. We can ill-afford another Good Friday. The bravery and dash of Side 3's fighters is something I can attest to myself, having fought in the One Year War.
LRC STATEMENT ON THE BATTLE OF BOAZ
The League of Ruling Companies pays it's respects to brave men, women, and non-binary soldiers who gave their lives defending Boaz. Any and all of their dependents will expect Veteran discounts of any LRC member or affiliate stores.
Those personnel wounded in action can expect their immediate medical expenses and their recovery and therapy needs covered.
LRC-MU JOINT STATEMENT ON THE GOOD FRIDAY MASSACRE
The LRC and Martian Union offer condolences to the victims of the terrorist attack on Jachin Du.
And wholly condemn the actions of Blue Cosmos and jointly recognize the organization as a hate group and terrorist organization in nature.
Effective immediately any and all businesses and persons connected to Blue Cosmos are declared blacklisted under Martian law and LRC charter. Neither the LRC or Mars will do business with BC affiliates and any assets of BC Affiliates will be seized and confiscated as potential criminal evidence and resources.
Unlike Benerit Group we are clear in our opposition to discrimination based on race or place and circumstance of birth.
My name is Muruta Azrael. You know me as a vociferous defender of the Earth, and perhaps the bearer of a minor noble title from the once-proud Holy Empire of Britannia. As the Empire has fallen into disarray after the assassination of its last great Emperor at the hands of his ungrateful spawn and a conspiracy of its so-called 'peers', the treasonous, megalomaniacal AEU and FER, I and many others have renounced our titles and national citizenship to become patriots of the true Federation. A united Federation. A human Federation.
Right now, we are all fighting for the future of the human race. Not just against the extrasolar aliens called Wulgaru and Zentradi, and not just against the scourge of Spacian nationalism that has killed more human beings than any conflict in Earth's history. No. What we face now is the rotting corruption of a conspiracy centuries in the making. One that has sought to sap humanity of order, of reason, and in the past century, of its very ontological existence as humanity by warping us into a new species entirely.
I speak, of course, of the Coordinator race, their empire in PLANT, and their dutiful enabling puppets in the Advanced European Union and Far East Republic. It may sound far-fetched, my fellow humans, but I assure you that this time, thanks to the noble efforts of informants within the highest echelons of both the Federation and PLANT, there is beyond the shadow of a doubt no question of the conspiracy to topple the Holy Britannian Empire, to rewrite the Federation Charter to place Coordinators as lords and masters over the Natural humans of Earth, and to cast all of humanity's future into the darkness of rule by a secretive cabal.
Being made freely available right now throughout the Permet networks are unaltered, verifiable transcripts of secret meetings of the so-called "Zodiac Alliance" dating back to January of this year, discussing methods to bring about the destruction of a Federation Council state and allow for and condone an invasion of Earth by PLANT's armed forces, an event that happened precisely as discussed just last month. The "liberation" of Japan, my brothers and sisters, was no humanitarian mission, but the well-planned sharp edge of a coup against the Federation itself, instigated by the Coordinator state of PLANT. Even more than that, we will provide evidence of this conspiracy's connection to the Organization of the Zodiac, the namesake and mastermind of this alliance and murderous destroyers of world order since the time of Napoleon!
Even as we speak, the conspirators gather in Dakar to dictate their victorious New World Order, but true Earthian patriots, true sons of the Federation, will not sit idly by. The loyal members of the Earth Federation Forces, concerned citizens, and those who believe in a future for true, Natural humanity have formed a resistance against their plots: we who Oppose Militancy and Neutralize Invasions: OMNI.
Our first objective, completely successful, was to smash the Earth-focused warpower of the PLANT Empire gathered at Jachin Due, utilizing the latest developments in Sakuradite technology. From there, with our power, we will defend the Earth against all invaders: alien, Coordinator, or collaborator. We will not vanish from this world, and we will overcome those who would enslave us! FOR THE SAKE OF OUR BLUE AND PURE WORLD!
OMNI formed as the military arm of Blue Cosmos. OMNI considers itself the legitimate Earth Federation government, pre-emptively rejects the Dakar Conference, and declares war on the Zodiac Alliance as a bloc.
Approximately 1/3 of Earth Federation Forces (under Inspector-General Wyatt) and Britannian Loyalists (under Rau Le Creuset/Rau La Flaga) defect to OMNI. Full numbers to come in stats, I am le tired.
Neither the Chinese or the Coordinators gave them the details. It didn't matter. An LRC-member contractor was hired by the middle men of middlemen to turn a mining rock into relatively defendable rock.
Michigan didn't care either. He and the Red Guns were between jobs. Both Balam and Dafeng were busy selling guns and ammo to both sides of the Britannian Civil War and left their best and brightest killing machines without anything to do.
"And speak of the devil..." he grumbled, "Finally something to do!"
One moment there was nothing on the radar, the next ships from all over orbit were gathering on Boaz? The reason? The fucking Wulgaru. If it had been the Zeeks it would have been better. The sheer face of the Neo-Neo-Nazis when he manhandled their precious Zakus in a Type 61 was priceless. The aliens? Flat-faced. The grunts didn't make a peep and the brass had sticks up their ass as big as Schneider or the Britannians.
He watched. Annoyed. As the battle unfolded before them. The work crews were huddling inside while the Redguns were stuck on the surface of the rock watching the largest battle in space since the closing days of the OYW.
"Michigan." Gun 2 'Nile' spoke, "Some of them have run through the defense line."
"So much for the 'Alliance'." Gun 5 'Iguazu' scoffed.
"Who gives a shit." Gun 4 'Volta' grunted.
"Cut the chatter Maggots!" Michigan barked, "Field Trip just started."
At his command, his machine came online. Liger Tail, hell on four legs. Someone asked why he shoved parts from his old busted MBT into the makeup of his AC. His answer was because it was good luck. And also because he could. Synthetic muscles twitched, hydraulics hissed, fans hummed to keep the heat within the cockpit somewhere between savannah and bakery oven.
Roused from it's sleep Liger Tail's FCS zoomed in on the approaching Wulgaru MS-analogs. It's fusion engine growled. It was hungry. Good.
As his pulse shields flickered online Michigan swept his eyes back and forth. Happy to see that in the corner of his eyes Gun 13 was standing on the other end of the Asteroid. Good.
Boaz's defense turrets blazed, joined by whatever second-line garrison troops that PLANT left their. Despite being shot on the Wulgaru weren't focused on the Coordinators ... they were focused on the Redguns. Outstanding.
There were many, many mercenary units but the Redguns were something else. They were hammers. And Everything was a nail sticking out. In an age where beam weaponry was becoming the norm, they were tossing around bullets, bombs, and an ungodly amount of missiles. Alien energy bolts richoted or ablated, alien claws failed to do anything to scratch the paint .... while AC fists shattered what could be called 'bone'.
With the swing of his Tai-Yang-Shou a dozen Chaos Mines filled the void in front of him with shrapnel, shredding anything but the most armored Wulgaru; his minigun ran dry not long ago popping a whole flight of their ball-like fighters, still a useful club. An alien corette thought it had a chance. It thought wrong. It tried to snipe him from the back, not realizing there was no such thing as a flank for a Tetrapod AC.
Michigan swiveled around, firing a slash harken that hooked the alien and reeled it in like a whaling harpoon. It hit the rock hard, it's crew trying to get it back up just before Michigan landed on it with all the speed and weight of a horseman of the apocalypse.
No graceful dodging, no elegant parries, ripostes, or other maneuvers in that matter. Just brute force and raw grit, born from a man who refused to die and men just as brutal as he.
Their exploits would not be remembered or commemorated. But today? Today they had fun.
The ASHMB is a unique type of robot piloted mainly by the Global Defense Force. Unlike other robots, the ASHMB is constructed using unique technology created by George Glenn and Juria Tsuda before their untimely deaths that incorporates the pilots DNA into the central control system, allowing for a greater connection between the pilot and the machine interface.
The most common ASHMB is the RHINOS line, a general purpose combat unit that operates both in the vacuum of space as well as in gravity environments. The more advanced Rhinos also serve as field testers for GDF equipment before they are filtered to the rest of the GDF's forces.
There are also custom ASHMBs, such as Red 5 and Blue 1, designed with specific roles in mind on the battlefield. For instance, Red 5 serves as a commander unit for a super robot group, while Black 6 operates as a multi-role aggressive unit that simply shoots and kills as much as it can.
Installed on ASHMB mechs is the JURIA System, which allows the pilot's effectiveness in combat to increase in response to its survival instincts and their affinity with the ASHMB itself. If the pilot chooses to flee, the ASHMB won't be able to fight and prioritizes fleeing. If the pilot freezes, then the ASHMB freezes as well. However, if the pilot is determined to fight and live, the potential of the machine skyrockets, and improves as the pilot's will soars. Currently, the full extent of this system, including complete benefit and risk assessments, are unknown, and is currently enabled on higher grade Rhinos as well as Team Rabbits for further field testing.
===========
"His Harmonic Level is still rather high, although it seems to be steadily decreasing over time. It seems to be causing him some fatigue at the moment, although it's hard to tell if some of that is carried over from his injuries."
Suzukaze listened to Lula's report in the infirmary, thinking back to Commader Gato's words in private about the ASHMB.
"The ASHMBs are created from the DNA of the pilot, and have a mind of their own!"
"That's ridiculous!" She said instinctively.
"When an ASHMB awakens," Commander Gato said, ignoring her interruption, "in the worst possible case scenario, it can eradicate the pilot's mind."
"They're that dangerous…"
Gravely, he made one last remak. "We have obtained no less than Prometheus's Fire."
Those last words remained with her hours after the debriefing. Izuru seemed to be returning to normal. But…
"Could you give him a thorough examination?" She said, still looking at the screen.
"Is that an order?" Lula asked, surprised by the question. Because there seemed to be no reason to do anything except just observe for the moment.
"Yes."
=========
UNIT UPDATE: Red 5 (Gen 3)
Red 5 has gained the ability to Awaken. When it does so, it gains an additional set of optics, and blue particles fly out of the unit's wings. Izuru's performance in this state is doubled, however, the integrity of the mech frame has not, leaving it vulnerable to straining joint integrity if Izuru uses this form for too long.
A/N
Lula is the medical office on the Godinion, she shows up to exposit about Team Rabbit's health (usually after combat)
Juria Tsuda is a brilliant scientist who contributed to the development of the JURIA system. Unfortunately, he died at an early age and wouldn't live to see the JURIA system be used to its full potential.
With the Wulgaru efforts for the month focused on a decisive battle at PLANT, and UN Spacy and the Zodiac Alliance (mainly Japan, in the fulfillment of numerous contractual promises accrued to the LRC in the past three months) both sending contingents of war materiel to the red planet, Mars is perhaps the most secure place in the solar system come April. The rather beleaguered Zentradi scouting parties probing the planet have lost enough troops to combat and defections, especially after coordinated UN Spacy response, that individual ships are beginning to signal a willingness for ceasefire. This particular front of the war against extrasolar invaders seems to be winding down for now.
Intelligence gathered from defectors, however, points to the fact that this is certain to change in the future. Grand Admiral Golg Boddole Zer has thus far been content to assess the human and Wulgaru warmaking capacity, but with a prince of the Wulgaru Empire showing up to lead a frontal assault on Earth, and the steadily increasing degredation of his own forces to human "Culture Attacks", the Grand Admiral has, according to defecting officers, realized that he's going to have to sterilize the whole solar system, lest either the Wulgaru succeed in their "shikaara" and reverse their species' long genetic degredation or, worse, the humans prevail and infect the entire Zentradi species with culture.
This revelation is a subject of much debate on Mars even before it filters back to Earth's governments, which it inevitably does. President Bernstein, predictably, believes that continued application of cultural exchange with the Zentradi and a peaceful resolution are the only way forward, while General Fareed is largely ignoring anything other than convoluted plans to exploit the Zentradi's supply chains and hierarchies. Of course, ultimately, Mars's course of action will be determined by what the LRC deems expedient. What is clear is that when the main attack comes, it will be so large that it cannot be contested with conventional warfare alone.
Zentradi Main Fleet
Mobile Suits: 30 Gen 1 captured by UN Spacy
Cruisers: 3 Gen 1 captured by UN Spacy
The Britannian Civil War
Earth's Western Hemisphere spent the month in a state of chaos and confusion, as the Black Knights of Lelouch vi Britannia transitioned from a mission to liberate Japan to becoming the core of the revolutionary side in a civil war for Earth's largest nation-state. Lelouch, ever the chess player, decides that this round, he's playing blitz chess against his older half-siblings for the succession, using his Black Faction's limited resources to mount rapid raids throughout the Empire and exploit the confusion caused by Charles's death, the Sharon Apple Incident, and the ensuing weeks of mass defections. Singular battleships and aces make their way to Australia, Hawaii, and Argentina to raid Britannian forces and find only disorganized local garrisons, outdated Knightmare Frames, and a handful of older model surface ships, with Schneizel and Cornelia having pulled back what they can to focus on the Britannian homelands and the true diehard Purebloods that didn't join them quietly defecting to OMNI.
Suzaku Kururugi liberates what's left of Britannian Australia in a matter of days, finding the Federation installations there suspiciously empty and the civilian populace barely contained by a skeleton force of Britannian soldiers. Graham Aker arrives in Hawaii to sink Britannian naval vessels to find several of them already intentionally scuttled, though his task force does find a fierce dogfight against a royal guard contingent commanded by Luciano Bradley. Marybell Mel Britannia spreads the good word of a kinder (or at least more sensible) empire to the Southern Cone with very little resistance.
It's Zero himself and his core contingent aboard the flagship Shrike - formerly Ikaruga - that finds the main resistance, with Schneizel and Cornelia's White Faction correctly predicting his attempt to move into the Caribbean Sea through the ancient mountain city at Caracas. It's there that the main battle of this phase of the war takes place - well enough for Lelouch, who'd intended that thrust as a distraction anyway. Schneizel, on the other hand, takes it as an opportunity to try and decapitate his rival claimant, bringing a plurality of Britannia's airborne forces, Cornelia, and the three remaining Knights of the Round in his command besides Luciano to punish Lelouch's aggressive, king-forward strategy.
"Castling exists for a reason, Lelouch. Check."
The unexpected focused resistance presents a major problem for the Black Faction, with Cornelia herself eventually boarding the Shrike after breaching its Blaze Luminous. The Eleventh Prince is saved from capture - or battlefield execution by Euphemia's vengeful full sister - only by the timely arrival of Kallen Kozuki from one side of the battlefield, and two submarines that had originally been directed to Havana from the other, launching a surprise missile attack into the rear echelon of Schneizel's forces. Exploiting fears of a double-encirclement, the Black Faction was able to retreat in good order, albeit not without losses, and with the White Faction solidifying a defensive line in the mountains of northern South America.
All that said, Schneizel's hardened defenses south of the homeland, along with OMNI walking off with much of Britannia's more fanatic soldiers and materiel, have cost him dearly in other areas, with most of Britannia's holdings south of the equator flipping to the Black Prince with less than expected resistance.
The Order of the Black Knights/Britannian Black Faction
Mobile Suits: 5 Gen 1, 4 Gen 2 Destroyed
Flagships: Shrike in dock for repairs next turn
Holy Britannian Empire/Britannian White Faction
Mechanized Companies: 20 Gen 1 Destroyed or Surrendered
Aircraft Wings: 4 Gen 1 Destroyed or Surrendered
Mobile Suits: 20 Gen 1 Destroyed, 7 Gen 2 Destroyed
Subequatorial South America and Australia under de facto Black Faction control
Canada under de facto Blue Cosmos control
The Shadow War
With Britannia's collapse ongoing and the bulk of the world's militaries moving to space (and Celestial Being distracted by lunatics with superweapons), most of the Old World's military conflict is relegated to a low rumble. At least, officially.
Unofficially, the AEU had gotten wind of the OMNI plot before it got off the ground, and had made good on its connections to deniable assets to take the fight to the human supremacist Federation-splitters even before their official announcement. While their main base in Alaska remained inviolate, and the FLEIJA attack on Jachin Due was beyond their reach, the scattered anti-Zodiac forces throughout the EFF's Earthside bases found themselves isolated and targeted by suspiciously well-coordinated mercenary units equipped mainly with AEU surplus mobile suits. Combined with the intelligence efforts of the Romefeller Foundation's own heavy reach within the EFF, several groups of OMNI's defectors met their ends at the hands of PMC Trust mercenaries before they could join their brethren's anti-Coordinator crusade. Concern with state-connected mercenaries performing terroristic acts against EFF bases is entirely silenced by the events of Good Friday, no matter how loudly Mr. "Gary Biaggi" was cackling while blowing up motor pools full of obsolete GMs and Type-61s before that event.
The Zodiac Alliance also showed their preparation in foiling another prong of the OMNI plot in Japan. Leaks from a JOSH-A officer and intelligence disseminated by the AEUG in March successfully warned the Alliance of an attempt being made on the life of Provisional President Hayato Jin - heroic Getter Robo pilot, vociferous radical, and Coordinator. An early plan by the conspirators to level Tokyo Settlement with FLEIJA warheads was scrapped in the concept stages, as not enough had been developed and stolen for that and the planned attack on PLANT, meaning that the assassination attempt was carried out by a cadre of Knightmare Frames stolen from the Britannian evacuation convoys - ironically, in a daring high-speed raid quite similar to what the Black Knights had become known for. The would-be assassins were foiled by the Republic of Japan's defense forces, assisted by the AEU's wZERO unit who, in an act of well-compensated compromise, remained in Japan as a Zodiac Alliance garrison after their mission of vengeance against Britannia was fulfilled. All assassins were killed or captured in a neat defensive operation, which may or may not have involved Benkei Kuruma supplexing a fifth-generation KMF.
Advanced European Union
Mobile Suits: 6 Gen 1 stolen and not returned (15 additional Gen 1 stolen and returned in good working order)
Blue Cosmos
Mechanized Companies: 2 Gen 1 Destroyed
Mobile Suits: 20 Gen 1, 10 Gen 1+, 5 Gen 2 Destroyed
Cruisers: 2 Gen 1 Destroyed
Expedition to Australia
"Lelouch, I have a question."
"Suzaku, I just had my third near-death experience this year. Please keep that in mind when forming your question."
"When you send me here, were you expecting me to do anything about the Circle of Gaia fighting Dinosaurs?"
Lelouch just sighs.
While securing, and perhaps surprisingly actively performing much needed environmental repair work in, the Nile Valley, the Circle of Gaia dispatched a task force of their limited autonomous military to another site of major ecological dysfunction on Earth, Australia, of which most of the continent remained even more of a wasteland than it was before Operation British even eight years after the colony drop. While the Britannian Black Faction secured what little settled territory remains, the Circle of Gaia moved into the blighted Outback, hoping to set up a secure location for research and development of terraforming technologies far away from the ongoing wars between the Zodiac Alliance and the reactionary factions of Earth. What they found surprised everyone, including the people they found - remnants of the Dinosaur Empire, working well away from human eyes and under carefully-constructed atmospheric canopies. Despite the ceasefire ending hostilities at the beginning of the decade, these saurians fired on the Circle of Gaia troops without warning, fighting a running battle while moving their mechasauruses, and whatever their purpose was in Australia, back underground. Having barely two dozen mobile suits at his disposal at the start of the fight, Gaian commandant Emilio Malindar elected not to pursue the Dinosaurs to their home territory, instead focusing on securing the surface and dutifully passing his observations up whatever the hell the Federation chain of command is now.
The Circle of Gaia
Mobile Suits: 3 Gen 2 Destroyed
The Dinosaur Empire?
Mechasauruses: 5 Gen 1 Destroyed
Circle of Gaia secures part of North Australia.
Mini for Dakar and Part 3 with stats and north pole-y things coming I forgot to do the latter but I really want to post this
We, Ourselves Gaian Headquarters, France, AEU, EFF
"Emilio, you were the one who didn't want to fight the ZODIAC. You're the reason we didn't contribute more directly to repel the invasion of those spacian barbarians on our holy Gaia. Not that the organization should be primarily concerned with warfare of course, the mission to Venus is far more important. But still...I've read what conditions were like in Britannian South America, but is your terrorist grudge really enough to make you consider allying with the enemies of the planet? The Black Knights are poised to overthrow the Empire anyway, you should be happy to let the Britannian military and the ZODIAC kill as many of each other as possible."
"I won't trade one Emperor for another. I've been a Number since I was born. If God was real all those Britannian royals would kill each other and South America could join the EFF direct territories. There's no freedom if it means staying under those bastards." The muscular man, a conservation worker before life took him on the journey to forming the core of the Circle's paramilitary forces, tensed and untensed his neck in a way that made Lady Auden shudder internally. "They're just as bad as the Coordinators. Elitist pricks. The Wardens are ready to join our comrades in the fight for a Pure Blue World any time, My Lady."
Auden Dominica rolled her eyes and literally clutched her pearls. "Don't call me that, Marindar. We've known each other too long. Built up the Circle from a mere gathering of intellectuals into a real force in the Federation. Which...is why we can't throw it away on terrorism. Supporting the EFF against ZODIAC, while stretching our charter, would have been well received by an embattled Federation. But now with OMNI...well, let's say not all Gaians are as ready to purge the cosmos of Coordinators as you and your Wardens."
The Brazilian man shrugged. "Half of us are Numbers, the others are war refugees resettled by the Federation. We aren't afraid to be called terrorists."
The French woman stood up from the cabinet she was leaning against and let go of her pearls, instead gesticulating wildly as she struggled for words. "Wardens are only half of the Circle to begin with. The other half still are just...intellectuals. They formulated the nice words, the argument for why its not prejudiced to oppose Coordinators. They understand the dangers of eugenics. Intellectually. But this OMNI thing...besides breaking the law, which is a stretch for a lot the eggheads in the first place, the language seems a touch...genocidal? I always imagined a more...gradual solution to the transhuman problem. Pushing back against genetic engineering, breeding out Coordinators over the generations, you know. But after the Good Friday Massacre, the Circle's anti-Coordinator platform is striking the science and activist wing as a bit...illiberal." The way she looked it was as if the words tasted bad in her mouth.
The Warden laughed harshly at that. "You Europeans, you don't care about bodycount you just don't want to be seen as having bad manners." He shifted and looked away for a moment. "Anyway, its not like I would ever consent to following the orders of a Britannian nob like Azrael. Celestial Being or the damn Coordinators or whoever are welcome to take his head."
"Manners count for a lot in the Earth Federation, especially in the AEU. It's bad enough we emigrated out a lesser Rommefeller because we needed the money from his estate. If we are seen as too friendly to OMNI it won't just be Trust mercenaries you'll be fighting, but the TITANS. And we both know how that would go."
Emilio Marindar scowled at that be let her continue.
"We have to be smart about this. Legalistic even. Instead of letting this push the Federation into the knife that Zodiac has aimed at their back, we can use the OMNI revolt as proof that the Dakar Treaty would be a disaster for the Earth. Humanity simply will not accept such conditions imposed upon itself by deviants who are running roughshod over our sacred planet once again."
"Then let me do my job and clear the Dinosaurs out of Australia. Invite the TITANS to take over Egypt if you're afraid of the Trust or Celestial Being attacking out of revenge, its better than letting OMNI take it. I don't want to play guard dog over civilian cities anyway, we should be rehabilitating the Outback and getting the terraformer ready for space."
"So we're agreed then. The goal is not for OMNI to win control of the Federation, it's to let them die to the last man and woman cleansing the planet of the invaders, while we stay loyal to the Federation and push it in the right direction. And we must not allow any of this to delay the Venus Project."
Marina Ismail is new to being a princess-royal. Frankly, only a questionable plebiscite and the barest connection to dynasties that faded away in the 20th century CE even remotely justifies her position, and she's well aware that she's a deeply naive person who has put all her effort into bringing moral righteousness to Azadistan because realpolitik is, simply, neither something she believes in nor has any interest in practicing.
For all her inexperience and naivete, though, she's well aware that she's in the scariest room on or above the planet Earth when she watches President Hayato Jin stare down Lieutenant Quattro Bajeena meet on "neutral ground" ahead of the Dakar Conference's opening ceremonies.
"Char."
"Hayato. Congratulations on your election."
"Congratulations on escaping Axis with all your parts intact."
"Ah. You heard about that. You probably figured out I'm down here because I prefer this diplomatic circuit to that one."
"Mm. Is there a reason you talked your way onto this ship?" Hayato asks.
"Regardless of what's happened in the past, the AEUG and the Zodiac Alliance want the same thing," Quattro points out. "And with the EFF splitting off into actual terrorists, Commodore Blex wanted to get his foot in the door of the new government that isn't that."
Hayato shrugs, and says nothing to that. He does say, "Blue Cosmos is going to try to kill both of us here, by the way. The AEUG set up for that?"
Lt. Bajeena - whom no one had told Marina was the [mentally censored for blasphemy] Red Comet, apparently - nods. "Frankly, we were expecting the Titans to break first, but between Axis's distraction and their...leadership issues, we've at least pared down the number of problems we're going to have here. You bring Getter Robo?"
President Jin shakes his head. "Just Michiru Wing as an honor guard. We'll have to make due with the local EFF and whatever UN Spacy could spare. You bring anything to deal with those Britannian hell weapons?"
"Hey, we've got a mutual friend who dismantles nuclear warheads for fun, right?"
"If we die here, here's hoping we end up in the same circle of hell, so I can kick your ass for that."
"I'm sure Amuro will beat you to it."
Marina does her best to sit quietly and visualize herself at the Sanc Kingdom restoration ceremony instead of here. Surely that would be less dangerous. She'll have to send her fellow atavistic royalty some flowers.
To say the situation ahead of the Dakar Conference was fraught would be similar to saying that Australia had gotten some odd precipitation during the One Year War. Two factions of the Federation were at war with each other; one intending to use the Conference to rewrite the constitution in the name of peace, cooperation, and mutual respect, and one that would rather see their Pure, Blue World burn than countenance the idea of coexistence with Coordinators or the remnants of Zeon. Dozens of other minor interest groups had hitched their wagons to the Zodiac or OMNI factions for their own ends, like Marina Ismail's delegation for reform in the Middle East, or else distanced themselves from both in the face of potential obliteration for picking the wrong side, like the formerly Britannian, now Icelandic Lord Djibril's "moderate Earth-first" faction.
In practice, however, the opening of the Conference shaped up to be a battle by proxy between OMNI and the Zodiac Alliance - while no national armies of the latter were present, the terroristic attack on Jachin Due and obvious backstab during the defense of Earth from alien invasion had firmly moved the admiralty of the UN Spacy into the Zodiac camp, along with the approximate two-thirds of Federal forces that disavowed Muruta Azrael's and Green Wyatt's new military regime. Joined by the AEUG, who quickly leaped at the opportunity to aid the Zodiac Alliance in enacting their own vision of reforms at the Federal level, the stage was set for the Conference to start not with formal ceremonies, but a pitched battle between the forces of reform and reaction on Earth.
The opening shots are actually not shots at all, but mines detonating propellant stores at the Dakar EFF base by OMNI black ops to knock out an armored division that had declared for the Zodiac Alliance. The garrison itself, along with the perimeter of the Assembly Hall, is rapidly overtaken by OMNI forces in hastily remodeled GM IIs and GM Quels, with Zodiac-aligned forces retreating to rendezvous with the incoming ad hoc flotilla of AEUG and UN Spacy forces, and the political contingents of both factions hunkering down in the Assembly Hall lest either side decide to just blast the building and bring the rule of the Federation Council to an end entirely. With the assent of the politicians aboard the flotilla, Commodore Blex Forer of the AEUG resumed his tentatively-dissolved commission to coordinate the Federation counterattack against the seditious forces of OMNI, initially gaining the upper hand thanks to superior ship firepower and the presence of AEUG aces like Amuro Ray and recent EFF defector Mu La Flaga. However, the playing field was leveled once again with the arrival of OMNI reinforcements - the latest-generation battleship Dominion, and three bizarre mobile weapons that start obliterating GMs and Variable Fighters without pause.
"What even are these things?" Amuro Ray grumbles to himself as he finds his borrowed Dijeh pressed hard by a trio of Gundamtypes - one using another as a waverider to force him out of the air and into cover in a Dakar neighborhood he hopes is as abandoned as it looks. "I thought the new EFF Gundams all got stolen."
"Wyatt has a factory at JOSH-A churning this garbage out," Mu La Flaga replies, himself trying to snipe the enemies out of the sky from the AEUG's kitbashed "Super Gundam" combiner, something he'd gladly accepted on loan after defecting. "Judging from all the cackling, I think he got some leaked Titans designs for the transforming parts."
"That's right, you antique trash! This is the real GAT-X series!" says...Amuro can't tell them apart, honestly. He suspects that the kids piloting these things are some kind of transhumans, even if he's not feeling the telltale resonance of a Cyber-Newtype, and is wondering if it's racist to guess they're all clones.
Amuro and Mu flinch at the same time, their respective extrasensory perception both feeling the flash that warns them to get out of the way of an incoming ambush that, while very close by, lashes out at the OMNI Gundams instead. Casting off camouflage netting, another 42 mobile suits appear out of nowhere - 40 cloaked desert-adapted units, a crested Gundam with a shield, and a red Gundam with a katana that blasts into the air to engage the OMNI trio hand to hand.
"What in the name of Sam Hell are the Maganac Corps doing assisting OZ patsies in Dakar?" Admiral Sutherland - OMNI's ranking officer besides Admiral Wyatt, and one of the chief architects of mass Britannian defection to the cause - exclaims from aboard the Dominion. The ship's bridge officer, Lt. Commander Badgiruel, composes herself by looking out the bridge window and idly noting the terrain there. They are technically in a corner of the Sahara here, so she honestly doesn't think the location is that surprising.
"Technically they're assisting the AEUG and UN Spacy in committing a coup," Natarle replies. "It seems on-brand for the Maganacs, if not their Celestial Being connections, but I don't now why those particular terrorists do anything."
"Get...hail the Maganac Gundam, whoever's piloting it ought to know he's doing Treize Khushrenada's dirty work for free!"
"We're already being hailed, sir. Hold on please."
A surprisingly boyish voice comes over the staticky bridge speakers. "Admiral Sutherland. Are you aware that you're doing Muruta Azrael's dirty work for free?"
The admiral slams the armrests of his chair and leans forward. "And who are you, exactly, who's a political expert?"
"My name, sir, is Quatre Raberbera Winner, Gundam Meister of Celestial Being," the young man replies. "I haven't been the best at that...but I'm also fighting on behalf of all those people whom Blue Cosmos wants to erase, and all the oppressed peoples of Earth who suffer under the rule of the Federation. We do not - cannot - fight for the Zodiac Alliance, but we absolutely will not let Blue Cosmos's world come to pass!"
"Nice speech, kid, but a handful of outdated mobile suits aren't going to turn the tide of this battle."
"I know, sir, I was just tying up your comm lines until your enhanced humans ran out of operating time."
"What t--"
"Calamity, Raider, and Forbidden, all signaling major pilot degradation," Natarle reports, frantic. "Their enhancement regimens are wearing off out there!"
Sutherland grips a command chair arm so hard the brand new plastic dents.
The growing furball of interfaction fighting in Dakar proves indecisive, as the OMNI faction's numbers and seizing of the initiative are countered by the AEUG's experience in asymmetric warfare and the surprise arrival of the Maganac Corps and their pair of unrelated Gundams. Ultimately what tips the balance is, perhaps not surprisingly, UN Spacy's variable fighters, which with great effort take control of most of Dakar's airspace and make airmobile drops in to secure the Assembly Hall in Battroid mode - including multiple trainer Valkyries bearing the VIPs from the Zodiac faction to the hall, resulting in the iconic sight of President of Japan Hayato Jin confidently offering a hand to an extremely frazzled Pricess Marina Ismail as they both exit the cockpit of a Variable Fighter to enter the Assembly Hall.
"Where'd you come up with this idea, anyway?" Quattro asks, jumping down from his own borrowed VF.
"I've been talking to the Martians a lot," Hayato answers vaguely.
The pitched warfare happening outside had the Federation delegates in the Assembly Hall already confused and huddled, with many of them opting to leave the floor for shelter elsewhere, but the dramatically arriving Zodiac-aligned VIPs on the floor and some very creative interpretations of parliamentary rules sees the battle of armies turn into an all-out assault of words, broadcast by Permet to all corners of the Earth and even as far as Mars.
Char said:
I would like to start by asking the forgiveness of the members of this Assembly and of all Federation citizens. We mean no disrespect to you by taking control of this session. I am Lieutenant Quattro Bajeena of the Anti-Earth Union Group. But there is one more thing I must disclose before I say what I came here to say: I have another name. I am the man who was once known as Char Aznable. I come before you today as the bearer of the true ideals of Zeon. Do not think of me as Char Aznable, who served the Principality of Zeon, but rather as the son of Zeon Deikun. Zeon Deikun's legacy has nothing to do with the evil and hatred wrought by the Zabi dynasty. Zeon Deikun did not found the Principality of Zeon! And when we look at those who would seize control of the Federation's capital by force, when we see them doing whatever they please with the full backing of the so-called "OMNI", it becomes apparent that they are more depraved then the Zabi dynasty ever was!
This is not simply a case of material deprivation. Spacenoids have been denied even the simple rights of person-hood, even the figleaf of equality. Most colony charters make no provisions for the self rule of their inhabitants, a state of affairs that has only seen change when such was won through force of arms or Federation distraction by populaces seeking such regardless of the protests of the inhabitants. These protests have been many, with those who wonder why spacenoids would resort to violence having only to look at the fate of those leaders who did not. Heero Yuy's pacifism or the fame of PLANT's own George Glenn, first discoverer of alien life and former mentor of Professor Saotome, did not save them from Federation assassination that is by now a open secret. It is easy to solely blame those who followed Zeon for the horrors of the One Year War when one lives in a fair and free society, where questions of your very personhood are not political questions made without even the possibility of your input. As a man who watched the japanese people nearly be swayed by the Kyoto Oligarchs and their Nationalist puppet regime again, I tell you this, it is not because their is some grave evil that wells in the soul of those who call the void home that one would follow a monster like Gihren Zabi. It is because when you are a occupied by foreign masters who see you as merely resources to exploit in their own enrichment, denied any hope of justice and disdained under the law, you would follow even a madman if it might bring the hope your children would not suffer as such.
In order to create a just peace, the Federation must shed its legacy as a tool of colonial powers, and come together as a unified nation of humanity - ALL of humanity, without the petty rivalries of race, religion, or economic competition that divide us even now. Even Azadistan, far from the great powers of the Earth though it is in power, culture, and literal distance, is guilty of this colonial, zero-sum mindset. We must renounce such petty self-destruction if humanity, if the Earth itself, is to persist into the future.
"It's Commander Rau, please. Move your men back, if you want to preserve them. OZ has taken the field, and we're using the failsafe."
"What do you damn well mean? I didn't order any failsafes, and neither did Wyatt!"
"I think you'll find that my orders say otherwise, sir," Rau Le Creuset says, hefting his stolen GuAIZ's repurposed nuclear launcher. It turns out it's really not difficult to rebuild the operative parts of the GP-02, as long as you have another source of warheads. After briefly considering targeting the Dominion, Rau waits for his instincts to give him the time, and fires a FLEIJA warhead at the Federation Assembly Hall.
...........
And just as he expected, seconds later, the warhead explodes prematurely in its perfect spherical explosion, taking hundreds of thousands of gallons of water and some unlucky fish out of Dakar harbor, but not much else.
"Canard...did we just save the world??"
"No, rookie," Canard Pars says from where he'd spent the Battle of Dakar teaching his pupil the finer points of battlefield scouting and early warning, lowering his Tallgeese's Dobergun. "I saved the world because I'm the god damn Ultimate Coordinator."
Flay bristles in the cockpit of her own mobile suit. "THIS IS EXACTLY WHY--"
"Can it, princess. I'm also lying," he says. "That nuke went up by itself. Someone in your old frat house is playing mind games."
"For the last time, I was never in Blue Cosmos. Just because I agreed with some of what they had to say before they started biting the hand that fed them--"
Canard is already ignoring Flay's insufferable ranting. He'd also gotten a laser communication. Tight beam, from the same origin as that FLEIJA warhead. Someone was trying very hard to get his attention while distracting the rest of the planet. All to tell him one thing.
Mendel Colony. Three weeks from now. I'll make sure HE is there.
Blue Cosmos/OMNI
Mobile Suits: 40 Gen 1, 10 Gen 1+, 12 Gen 2 Destroyed
Cruisers: 3 Gen 1, 2 Gen 2 Destroyed
Anti-Earth Union Group
Mobile Suits: 12 Gen 2 Destroyed
Cruisers: 2 Destroyed
UN Spacy
Mobile Suits: 10 Gen 1, 6 Gen 2 Destroyed
Celestial Being/Maganac Corps
No Casualties
Advanced European Union
No Casualties (Flay imagining killing a guy notwithstanding)
DAKAR CONFERENCE
SPECIAL RESULTS
It's time to re-write the Federation Constitution. With Britannia disintegrating and OMNI having thoroughly lost popular mandate outside of the most diehard Anti-Coordinators on Earth, the winners of the Third Pacific War have a more or less free hand to develop the Federation into a new state, although there will inevitably be friction and dissent when trying to remake the laws of a whole planet.
For the sake of expediency, and the fact that I'm not going to make up actual rules for a constitutional convention, I'm going to make a Discord channel to hash this all out. The founders of this new state are the nation-state members of the Zodiac Alliance, with influential NGOs including anyone who intervened on behalf of these groups.
Non-Player Characters
SATO
African Union Republic of the Phillipines
Middle Eastern Economic Community (name pending) The Organization of the Zodiac (Corner Faction) Celestial Being (Corner Faction)
