Gundam Seed Intervention (SI Story)

[Illuviar]

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny. They belong to their respective copyright owners and publishers. This work is not created with any commercial aims.

Phase 13: Political entanglements

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Part 3

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Penthouse
Princess Hotel
London
Atlantic Federation

Looking at London from up high, it could be easy to conclude that the City had prospered through the Reconstruction Wars and the upheavals that followed. As far as he could see through the tinted widows, neon glowed, reflecting from gleaming towers, giving the impression of a well to do city. People on the streets were happy, often celebrating the latest victories in the war, and why shouldn't they? With ZAFT and their allies kicked out of Spain instead of marching into France and thus closer to the Channel, Britain was safer than before or at least that was what the local news channel were busy screaming at anyone willing to give them the time of day.

The same could be said about the United Kingdom, which hasn't been particularly united or happy for decades now – to an uninformed observer, it would appear that it had fully recovered from the political and economic upheavals of the past age. Such an impression wasn't entirely unfounded. In the years leading up to the Reconstruction Wars and the formation of the large supranational alliances which fought said wars, Britain had been growing incredibly uneasy with the European project, especially once it became clear that the Russian Federation would be joining sooner or later, thus reshaping the geopolitical landscape even worse than the turbulent unification of the North American continent under a single banner.

Konrad Schmidt learned while attending one of the best private schools on the continent, before both his father and grandfather sat him down and proceeded to explain some important details that no one would be teaching in public or private schools for decades to come if ever. Those interesting and vital details for the future CEO included Britain's brief flirt with right wing ideologies that were in no small part responsible for their eventual departure from the former European Union and how the British suddenly found themselves alone and isolated in a world tearing itself apart. He learned how LOGOS', which had been a much smaller organization back then, took full advantage of the chaos, how they nudged Britain in the Atlantic Federation's orbit and thus ensured it would become a dagger pointed at united Europe, thus guaranteeing increased military spending in the aftermath of the latest war that should have ended all wars but didn't.

That particular scheme along with carefully arranged saber rattling and blowing of hot air by politicians on both sides in LOGOS' pockets were incredibly helpful in the growth of the organization and it was directly responsible for the tremendous amount of soft and hard power it wielded these days. Unfortunately, along the way the goals of certain portions of LOGOS shifted and not just because they were apparently infiltrated and subverted by their own attack dog, Blue Cosmos… something that led directly to today's meeting.

Britain's prosperity hung on a single tenuous tread – their strategic usefulness to the Atlantic Federation, which crumbled with PLANT's independence and the shift in priorities it caused. When the Earth Alliance became a reality, the United Kingdom's military situation against the Eurasian Federation suddenly became untenable. Most elements of the AF's Atlantic Fleet were recalled to cover Panama and the eastern seaboard of North America, leaving the UK protected by the forces stationed on the islands and their own currently anemic navy, which was a far cry from the force that once upon a time ruled the waves. To rub salt into those freshly opened wounds, protection of the islands now few upon OMNI Enforcer Naval units which were for all intents and purposes elements of the Eurasian Navy on secondment to the Earth Alliance.

In theory all that was for the good, after all the two most powerful members of the EA were best of friends and allies these days. It was too bad that members of the British government didn't necessary agree and the LOGOS members who had their primary seats of power on the islands actually knew the truth. A truth that one Lord Charles Tennyson, the CEO of BAE Industries, the largest and most powerful defense contractor in the United Kingdom, was all too happy to regard Konrad with.

The two of them had only a few things in common and seldom saw eye to eye. They were both CEOs of powerful elements among Earth's military-industrial complex, they were members of LOGOS, obviously, and something much more rare – they were patriots too, or at least saw themselves as such, a rare and undesirable trait among their fellow LOGOS colleagues.

Tennyson sat in an antique ebony chair facing away from the large windows making up the face of the hotel and glumly drank sixty years old Scottish whiskey. The man had already been tipsy when Konrad arrived escorted by his heavy security detail, who were now busy waiting outside watching warily their host's people, who were eager to return the favor. They exchanged empty platitudes as expected by people in their positions, though it was plain to see that Charles was in no state to even put up a facade of politeness as one usually expected. Konrad managed that, biting down his distaste for his colleague and sat down on a nearby armchair.

"Three days ago, I was in Detroit, attending a LOGOS meeting neither you nor any one of our other Eurasian members were invited. Those of our Asian colleagues who could attend were present as well." Tennyson began.

Years of rubbing elbows with politicians, rivals and even longer thriving in the cut-throat world of corporate business, which in his case was somewhat tamed by his membership in LOGOS, served Konrad well in keeping his face schooled into a polite mask of disinterest. Inside, he seethed, because no one of his contacts had bothered to report about said meeting. That meant one of two things, Schmidt's "good friend" Charles was bullshitting him, or his contacts in North America were compromised. Konrad knew what he would have preferred to be true, however simply dismissing his host's words would be anything but wise.

Schmidt made a 'go on' gesture and intently watched Tennyson for any tell he could catch.

"Blue Cosmos are going to win the next presidential election, that's a foregone conclusion. Their public wing is solid, well respected and has the full backing of LOGOS' members in North America." Charles began. "Even now, they continue to pay lip service to tolerance, even though their deniable assets have been stirring up more trouble than ever, while their people in all levels of government are overlooking it when possible."

That was old news. It wasn't even a public secret that there were two Blue Cosmos entities in existence – the now largest and most powerful party in the Atlantic Federation, which had "sympathetic" organizations in practically all countries on Earth who supported similar ideals about preserving and saving the planet, humanity and its genetic purity, though pointedly disavowing any violent actions against those poor Coordinators. The other Blue Cosmos, was the acknowledged and officially disavowed fanatic fringe who were officially responsible for all the violence against Coordinators and the political rivals of the political party.

The trick was that even LOGOS, the people who crafted Blue Cosmos into what it was today through their backing, until recently didn't know when the fringe ended and the proper party began. That was a grievous failure in Konrad's mind, especially when it became clear who was the true leader of Blue Cosmos and who exactly was his best friend, confidante, kindred soul and arguably most powerful man within LOGOS, not to mention an utter bastard.

While the signs were there, in hindsight anyway, no one bothered, no one wanted to look too closely and tarnish a good thing. After all, even for an organization as powerful as LOGOS, it wasn't every day that they found themselves gaining control of a whole continent and with it, possibly the most powerful member of the Earth Alliance with all that entailed. However, that bright future failed to materialize, didn't it? Because even as Blue Cosmos was about to lock down its control over the Atlantic Federation, they were no longer LOGOS' people. If anything, to an extent it was the other way around these days and people like Lord Djibril were eager to ensure that North America was merely the first step. That was Konrad's greatest fear, something that until recently was little more than a fever dream born from his hatred towards both ZAFT and especially the people who provoked them into desperate actions like mass deployment of N-Jammers on Earth.

Unfortunately, as it turned out, it wasn't an unfounded fear…

"Djibril and his buddy Azrael now have full control over LOGOS in North America. Our South American members are either on board or they have been replaced with more reasonable people." Charles sneered. "At least that's how Azrael gleefully put it. They intent to fully consolidate their power base in North America first, while financing and supporting the Blue Cosmos daughter organizations all around the world. Once that's done, PLANT and ZAFT are going to be their primary targets. You, Konrad, my large pain in the ass, along with your friends in Europe are going to be their secondary targets. Once LOGOS is fully on board with the program, they'll be using everything – political, economic and military means to bring Earth under their banner so they can realize their vision for the future." Tennyson finished his drink and saluted Konrad with the empty glass. "For a Blue and Pure world." He chuckled in derision. "The Eurasian Federation is going to be their primary opponent on Earth, they're convinced of that after the way your government has been glorifying a Coordinator on live TV as of late. Unless your government sees the light, sooner or later it would be war and it will be these islands I love so much that will have to weather the brunt of your retaliation while Azrael and Djibril stay safe in North America, pulling the strings like two big fat spiders lounging in the middle of their net!"

"You are telling me this why?" Konrad asked lightly, while his mind raced. One possibility was that he wouldn't be leaving the penthouse alive if Charles had anything to say about it. In that case, Schmidt would have to rely on his security and hope for the best. Otherwise, well war did make reluctant allies. Was Charles about to really break up ranks, or perhaps was this an elaborate sting operation so to speak?

"That's the question, my friend, isn't it?" Tennyson stood up, swayed on his feet and went to the nearby table, where he picked up a half empty whiskey bottle and filled up his glass. "Do you want a little pick me up, Konrad?"

"I'll have an answer first, thank you very much."

 

[Illuviar]

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny. They belong to their respective copyright owners and publishers. This work is not created with any commercial aims.

Phase 13: Political entanglements

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Part 4

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Diplomatic Committee Office
Aprilius One
PLANT

Eileen Canaveral sat behind her desk, dividing her attention between the latest missives from PLANT's allies on Earth, a data-pad showing the latest diplomatic note from the Eurasian Federation and her three guests. There were no major surprises there – the African Community once again confirmed their dedication to the war, yet deftly pointed out that without additional support, in the form of both material and additional modern ZAFT forces, they were unlikely to hold off an all out Eurasian assault, especially one spearheaded by the new hardware the enemy was experimenting with. The Oceania Union had similar requests, however in their case they didn't need more troops, instead critical elements necessary for the construction of modern electronics and power cells, and if at all possible computer systems and sensor suites suitable to be mounted on the newest wet navy units they were busy building and nearing construction. In similar vein, Canaveral's contacts in South America were proudly requesting more weapon shipments to continue the fight against the AF troops occupying the continent, and hinting that some Mobile Suit units or even attempts by a friendly navy to break the AF blockade wouldn't go amiss.

All those were part for the course, especially after the recent disasters. The Eurasian note too, which was requesting a restoration of formal diplomatic contact so certain matters were to be discussed, matters like the Eurasians holding the children of multiple Supreme Council members, Eileen herself included.

Those messages, the later in particular, were the reason why she was currently hosting a few of her colleagues on the council. Ezalia Joule and Yuri Amalfi had arrived together shortly followed by Orson White, the man who supervised the creation of the Neutron Jammers, and as of late, the newest addition to the Supreme Council. He was here for strictly professional reasons and thus was the first one to deal with.

"Dr White, you have the answers we requested?" Eileen asked after they were all done exchanging pleasantries.

"Yes." The aging man answered gruffly. He was a first generation Coordinator, something that his age made obvious. "While we've put self-destructs on the N-Jammers deployed to Earth to ensure our enemies couldn't retrieve one intact and thus risk them reverse engineering them or worse, finding a counter-measure faster, that isn't the case on most of our ships. The Military Committee disagreed with the necessity deeming it too dangerous after couple of incidents, and that coupled with the victories they did win thanks to our work, means the odds are good now Earth has reasonably intact N-Jammers to play with." White sent a disapproving look at the two Military Committee members, who met his gaze without a waver. "As you should know, we do have a counter-measure for the N-Jammer, the so called N-Jammer-Canceller. The good news is that it's construction requires some extremely rare and expensive materials as well as cutting edge electronics, which means even more resources Earth is strapped for. Even if the Naturals figure out a counter, it would take time for them to deploy it and even then it would be in limited numbers, especially considering they'll have to divide any produced units between their military and industrial needs."

"Am I to understand that we should be safe in that regard in the short term?" Councilor Amalfi asked.

"Should is the operative term here. Say what you will about the Naturals, they have orders of magnitude larger population, which means that even if on average our scientists are better, they have more and the odds of finding a few exceptional ones among them are greater. I can't say for sure how long it would take them to reverse engineer the N-Jammers, partly because I can't know what kinds of samples they have to work with. We did need a working prototypes we understood before we could even begin working on a counter, on the other hand, they were under the effects of our units for months and could at least study the effects." White shrugged. "All I can give you is wide ass guesses. It might take them months, it might be years. On a brighter note, I'll be reporting during our next Council meeting that we're finally making good progress in our figuring out practical miniaturized particle accelerators. We should have the first prototype production runs ready for deployment and field testing within two months on the outside and full production set up to begin between two and a half and three months. The captured samples from the G-Weapon project and work on examples of Earth's linear cannons were invaluable of cracking the problem."

"That should give us an edge when or if Earth begins to deploy in numbers units protected by Phase Shift armor." Councilor Joule mussed. "As I understand it, we're far from being able to produce said armor outside of the laboratory at this time?"

"We'll have enough for a couple of test units done over the next few months. A good way to mass produce the armor is still eluding it. We're sure we'll be able to solve the problem given enough time and resources. We have the latter, the former however?" The Doctor shrugged helplessly. "That's for our military to buy us, isn't it?" He pointedly looked at Eileen's other two guests.

"That's less than ideal, however nothing that we didn't expect." Amalfi allowed. "Do you have something else for us that can't wait for tomorrow, Doctor?"

"Anything of note I've already sent to your people or I just told you." White grumbled, making it plain for everyone to see that he considered his presence nothing less than a waste of his time.

That was too bad. As a member of the Supreme Council, now his primary job was to deal with the political side and make sure his people in the various R&D divisions he was supposed to represent had what they needed and focuses in fields that would benefit the war effort. Anything else could wait for when PLANTs continued survival was guaranteed.

"Thank you for your time, Dr White. I appreciate your input. We'll see you again, tomorrow." Eileen flashed him her best disarming smile, earning herself more grumbling.

The old man stood up, shook his head and made his way out. When the door closed behind him, the three other Council members let out quiet sighs of relief.

"I can scarcely believe it that he's actually an improvement considering his predecessor." Joule muttered with a grimace shared by the other two. The Professor White replaced on the Council was a major pain to deal with and worst of all, wasn't interested at all with doing his duties as a Councilor. "Why did you need this information today, Eileen?" Ezalia inquired.
"I need to reassure our allies that the EA won't be regaining their full industrial capabilities in the foreseeable future and that our N-Jammers still work. And I need to know the odds of that being true in order to better craft our response and prepare diplomatic contingencies if our assumptions turn out wrong." Not to mention, said knowledge might prove useful ammunition for tomorrow's Council meeting. "That however isn't why I called you two in here. I'm just surprised that Zala isn't in attendance as well."

"He is very busy right now. Our recent setbacks forced us to re-evaluate certain assumptions and the way we've set up and ran ZAFT. There are… deficiences that need to be straightened out ASAP as well as certain attitudes that have to be curbed before we risk another full on fleet engagement with Earth."

"So the rumours that we lost in no small part because our commanders have grown arrogant and too sure of themselves hold more than a hint of truth?" Eileen snorted. How predictable. There was a silver lining to this, at least in theory. The superiority complex rife through the newest generations of Coordinators, though certainly present among the older ones as well was something of a concern, especially considering the headaches it often caused to the members of PLANT's Diplomatic Committee. To no one's surprise, their allies on Earth were much less eager to cooperate when they had to deal with arrogant bastards acting like the Naturals were dirt below their feet. That's why the troops, diplomats and engineers stationed permanently at the allied nations on Earth were as carefully chosen as possible not to exhibit certain undesirable traits. The same couldn't be said for the average ZAFT trooper, especially the all too young boys and girls who had to be pressed into service through intense propaganda efforts and peer pressure.

"We're dealing with it as well as we can given the circumstances." Ezalia eventually answered. "You called us about our children. Spill."

"The Eurasian Federation wants to reopen diplomatic channels. They've suggested returning certain civilian personnel rescued by their military, including Ms Clyne. Reading between the lines, they want to distance themselves from certain actions conducted by their allies." Eileen began.

"That's good, isn't it?" Amalfi leaned forward.

"Yes and no. They've made one thing crystal clear, using the usual diplomatic language. While the Eurasian Federation has no intention or interest in persecuting Coordinators or following in the footsteps of certain radical factions within their allied nations, they will continue to conduct the war to the best of their ability until they've recovered the infrastructure and thus investment of resources they put in the Colonization project."

"That's unacceptable!" Amalfi snapped.

"Yet it is as expected. They want and need their colonies and space based industry back." Ezalia grimaced. "Even if Blue Cosmos did us all a favor and died tomorrow, the war would be far from over. Can we use this to string them along, exchange prisoners, perhaps try and drive a wedge between the members of the Earth Alliance?"

"In theory. Neither the Eurasian Federation nor the Republic of East Asia were thrilled by what happened at Junius Seven. They do want their colonies back, in one piece. Unfortunately, the same can't be necessary said about the Atlantic Federation and with Blue Cosmos set up the win the next presidential elections in a landslide in no small part thanks to our actions…" Now it was Eileen's turn to grimace. "The bastard who nuked Junius Seven will have one of the most powerful alliances on Earth under their full control."

"That might be a boon, surely? If they show their true faces, or if we can help them expose them…" Ezalia suggested.

"It might work, in theory. However, unless we can decisively shift the balance of power our way, both in reality and in public perception, it is highly unlikely that the Eurasian Federation for example would seek terms. They just won multiple battles against us. Why should they seek to end the war when now it seems that they might actually be in a position to achieve their war goals?" Canaveral pointed out. "And we all know that unless the war turns for the worse, even entertaining the idea of handing back a handful of colonies, much less all those financed and built by the Eurasians would get us sacked at best, thrown out of the nearest airlock without the benefit of a space suit at worst."

Glum silence followed that truthful statement.

 

[Illuviar]

AN: A glimpse of things to come and some more world building.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny. They belong to their respective copyright owners and publishers. This work is not created with any commercial aims.

Phase 13: Political entanglements

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Interlude: Class VII

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Gagarin Air Force base
near Ural
Russian Federation
Eurasian Federation

For decades, the primary Air Force training facilities in the Eurasian Federation were situated in central Russia and even Siberia for a few practical reasons. The place was relatively empty, which meant that the odds of particularly reckless or unlucky trainee slamming a plane or worse, a Mobile Armour into a residential district at supersonic speed were practically non-existent. The remote location provided certain other bonuses as far as the instructors were concerned – there were far fewer distractions compared to a base stationed closer to civilization, which in practical terms meant much less temptation to go out to a nearby town, have some fun, drinks and most importantly potentially embarrass the service.

At least that was why my fragmented memories of the past told me during a long and boring train ride that got me and my fellow instructors from Switzerland to a rather familiar place. Gagarin base either by chance or design, was the same place where one Delkatar Veil, the original one, had his own practical pilot training.

Those bases served a few other purposes as well. They were a vital part of the defense rings surrounding the Urals, which had been honeycombed by more than a century and a half of digging, tunneling and very eager efforts to turn them into a series of fortress complexes and industrial nodes first by the long defunct Soviet Union, later the Russian Federation that arose from its ashes and nowadays the Eurasian Federation. They were also a stark reminder that being sent to freeze your balls or tits off in Siberia if you fucked just enough not to end in prison and later kicked out of the service, was very much something that command could do to you.

Luckily for us, late spring in the general vicinity of the Ural mountains was rather pleasant. Sun shone, engines roared and the train that brought us there finally reached its final destination. The reason we had to subject ourselves to said ride was simple – it took time to get everyone slotted for initial MS training in place, which in turn meant that there was no point in wasting fuel and transport capacity by ferrying us on board the relatively few cargo planes large enough to carry a MS on board. As a bonus, the long ride allowed us to get over a lot of necessary paperwork and homework pertaining our new assignment, including building a preliminary SOP for MS training, one we would be putting to the test soon. We only had to oversee the unloading and settling down of our Mobile Suits before meeting the base commander and right after that, our trainees.

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On rare occasions, Morgan's glorious beard caused him a spot of trouble. Like now, when his carefully trimmed blond mustache spotted a thin dark stripe of coffee or what passed for it out there in the wilderness that was central Russia. The middle aged tank ace was still trying to wrap his head around how he found himself stuck in an air base of all things in the middle of nowhere. One moment he was with what was left of his unit in Spain, in the next, his Captain arrived at the maintenance depot bringing marching orders still hot from the printer. Space age or not, the military still loved it's bureaucracy and paperwork, often requiring a very much physical copy for most orders when possible. Once upon a time, some gullible bastards might have thought that the military fully embracing the computer age would cut down on paperwork, instead shifting much of it into electronic format merely increased the volume which every officer and NCO had to deal on a daily basis exponentially, with the only silver lining being that nowadays most forms were relatively easy and fast to fill up. It was just that there was a never ending supply of the damn things.

Outside of combat it was rare for even a Lieutenant like Chevalier to enjoy some piece and quiet without being swamped by the paperwork necessary to keep his unit working. The reason was obvious of course, right now he was an officer without troops to command, stuck into a chair force base of all things, waiting for his brand new trainers to arrive. It didn't help that there were precious few tankers and IFV driver types around, because most of the people Morgan had to rub elbows with for the past few days were fly boys and girls. At least there were no squids, which was a blessing. Tensions were already high after sticking a bunch of people, many of whom had an inflated sense of self-importance, in one place and ordering them to wait.

Chevalier took another sip of the sludge that did a particularly bad job of masking itself as coffee and wiped his mustache with a low rumble of discontent. He was a tanker, damn it! Why the brass didn't invest in properly designed modern tanks instead of sticking him with those crazy fly-boys in Mobile Suit training, he would never know. Give him and his buddies a few platoons of new tanks with all the necessary bells and whistles and he was sure they could kick ZAFT and their Community ass-kissers right out of Africa! No stompy giant robots needed!

Unfortunately, the people around here sharing the sentiment were few, and they all earned themselves some vicious nasty looks from the chair-force people. Really, whoever thought about this shit had to be some REMF with little to no contact with the real world…

A commotion near the entrance of the large briefing room got Morgan's attention and he looked that way, focusing his cool blue eyes at the new arrivals. He whispered a curse and got to his feet fast when he saw the top brass making their way in, followed by a curious mismatched group in Navy and Chair Force uniforms.

"General on deck!" An enthusiast shouted and everyone else got up and at attention.

"At ease. Sit down, shut up and keep your eyes and ears open." The General rumbled in clear English spoken with a distinct Russian accent. "You're all deemed among the best in what you do within the Eurasian Federation." The General began. "Tank commanders, IFV drivers, pilots." he nodded at the three distinct groups formed within the room, "Most of you are decorated veterans with significant experience, others," another nod followed, this time to the smallest group containing a few terribly young boys and girls who looked like they should be still in high school, "are the most promising members of our various military academies who scored highest on aptitude test for piloting Mobile Armors and Suits. You're all here to learn from the best we have, and once your training is complete, you will form the Eurasian Federation's first Mobile Suit Corps. Your instructors are proven veterans, the only people in the Earthsphere who took on the worst ZAFT could throw at them and won, conventionally…"

Only now Morgan paid proper attention to the General's entourage and both his eyebrows did their best to hide in his hairline when the faces of those people registered. He knew some of them, by reputation if nothing else. Hell, everyone on Earth knew them by now. For weeks now, their faces had been plastered all over the TV, what was left of the internet, newspapers and recruitment posters all over the planet.

The second living bearer of the Legion, and the only one in active service, that crazy French girl who had paparazi constantly chasing her ever since the parade in Geneva, a tall, thin teenager with a hair that had no place in the military, who was another media darling… Those were the ballsy bastards who dropped out of high orbit right on top of Gibraltar and held it for hours against everything ZAFT and the Community could throw at them until relieved and thus ensured that Operation Retribution succeeded beyond everyone's wildest dreams. This might actually not be a complete waste of time, Morgan decided.

 

[Illuviar]

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny. They belong to their respective copyright owners and publishers. This work is not created with any commercial aims.

Interlude: The Neutron Jammers

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PLANT's invention of the Neutron Jammers and their consequent deployment a few days after tragedy struck Junius Seven reshaped the strategic outlook in the Earthsphere. This new technology changed the way modern war was fought and in one fell strike shifted the balance of power firmly in ZAFT's favor.

First, we'll look at the tactical effect of the N-Jammers, which for most intents and purposes was twofold. The primary function of the device, preventing nuclear fission, removed both tactical and strategic nuclear weapons from consideration. Yet, ironically enough, that function of the device was the least impactfull and least relevant for the war effort. The reason is simple, as nasty and scary as nuclear weapons are, for decades humanity had a cleaner yet no less deadly alternative within it's grasp – kinetic impactors, which if shaped and constructed properly could erase stationary targets both on Earth and in space. This is relevant because even as ZAFT neutralized the nuclear arsenals of all Earth powers, it merely removed one way for the Earth Alliance to strike at the PLANT colonies with a deadly effect, arguably the harder avenue to actually deliver deadly ordnance to the heart of the young nation. For as long as the Alliance retained mobile space assets, it also retained the capability to launch a saturation kinetic bombardment towards the relatively fragile and unable to dodge colonies. The same was true for ZAFT, who had access to large asteroids brought in for mining among other assets available to be weaponized, which explains the unofficial agreement between the two sides reached shortly after the combat debut of the N-Jammers… In a nutshell, ZAFT would decline to use WMDs on Earth and her remaining space infrastructure and the EA would not commit itself on delivering a saturation KKV bombardment aimed at the PLANT colonies…

The second, and arguably more important, tactical effect of the N-Jammers was a mere byproduct of their operation. They disrupted communications and most sensors in the area of effect, with said effective jamming practically petering off only at the relative fringe of the field. This effect proved fatal for multiple Earth fleets and battle groups, who heavily relied on networking to greatly increase their combat capabilities. In practical terms, the N-Jammers meant that every ZAFT pilot and ship would face groups of barely coordinated Earth Mobile Armours and at the start of the war, comprehensively crippled ships that lost all but emergency life support. Those were soft targets easily slaughtered by Coordinators piloting units with better performance than the aging EA MA, instead of swarms of Moebius units which were for all intents and purposes acting as hive-mind, and even worse whole battle groups using sensor fusion and coordinated defenses to make any attack runs without heavy capital ship support a suicidal affair.

Similarly, the strategic effect of the N-Jammers once deployed was primary twofold. First, it gave ZAFT nearly uncontested control of the Earthsphere beyond Earth's atmosphere, an achievement build upon the shattered wrecks of multiple EA fleets. Second, once ZAFT managed to mass deploy N-Jammers to Earth, they comprehensively shattered the EA's energy networks and ground it's industry to a halt while governments and their militaries desperately scrambled for response. It was only the EA's successful deployment of a Cyclops system on the Moon during ZAFT's first assault upon the Ptolemaeus base that bought Earth desperately needed breathing room and convinced PLANT's leadership that it might be safer to bring the war down to the surface of the homeworld, where their allies could help them bring the war to a swifter conclusion, instead of risking more men and material in a second potential trap…

=GSI=

Interlude: N-Jammer-Cancelers

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The Neutron Jammer Canceler is the one know proper counter for the N-J effect. Said device was first developed by PLANT scientist in pursuit of retaining their access to fission power while safeguarding their ships and colonies from further nuclear attacks. Originally, the team lead by Dr White, who oversaw the creation of the Neutron Jammers themselves held high hopes for a device which could locally counter the N-J effect. The best case scenario and secondary aim of the program was to give ZAFT the best of both worlds – protection from nuclear strikes, unrestricted access to fission power and clear communication lines between N-Jammer-Canceler equipped units, while subjecting any enemy force daring to engage a ZAFT battle group to the full brunt of the N-J effect.

Unfortunately, while PLANT did create a device, which could locally shield from the N-J effect and thus regained access to fission for power generation and nuclear weapons, the holly grail eluded them. It would be true that a Mobile Suit or a warship effected by N-Jammer-Canceler would be able to use fission, however it would do nothing for the scrambled sensors and communications right outside the field. In theory, said drawback could have been mitigated by ships and mobile weapons flying close enough, something that in practice meant that they had to be nearly close enough for their hulls to touch – a suicidal prospect in battle.

Nevertheless, the advent and spread of the N-Jammer-Cancelers did offer a boon to those who could build and deploy them. Thanks to these devices, ZAFT's ships could continue to rely on nuclear reactors for power, making those ships significantly more robust platforms in combat. In contrast, Earth had to hastily retrofit and fill up their warship hulls with fuel to provide energy and propellant for their naval units, which in practice ensured that almost any weapon strike that penetrated the armor would prove crippling or outright fatal.

Secondary, later in the war ZAFT was able to field the first Mobile Suits equipped with miniaturized nuclear reactors and N-Jammer-Cancelers providing those units with practically unlimited power and combat endurance governed only by life support.

 

[Illuviar]

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny. They belong to their respective copyright owners and publishers. This work is not created with any commercial aims.

Phase 13: Political entanglements

=GSI=

Part 5

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Panacea Research Center
Aprilius One
PLANT

For weeks now, Gilbert Durandal drove himself into his work, spending every spare moment left from running his pharmaceutical company into research. What he worked on was of a particular personal interest for him and his lover, Talya – the inability of them to have children. Really, it was an overhead conversation he overheard in his corporate HQ that caused him to dig deeper and ensured he got little to no sleep for almost two weeks straight.

The fear that Talya managed to get herself killed until she got back to PLANT a few days ago didn't help in that regard. Neither did his preliminary findings based on a lot of test, simulations and calling up favors to get into certain government databases usually someone like him would have no interest or need to browse.

Birthrates among second, and especially third generation Coordinators were sharply falling off, or so the data suggested. How much of it was caused by the disruptions surrounding PLANT's independence, the persecution Coordinators faced down on Earth and wanting to establish a security net for their families when they escaped to the safety of the colonies before trying for children and the war, instead of something deeper and more concerning was still very much in the air. Yet, among thirty samples from volunteer third generation pairs he managed to get his hands on, twenty seven wouldn't be able to have viable children between each other baring a miracle.

Gilbert and Talya were among that number and he wasn't looking up to telling her that when they managed to see each other next. The only possible way for that to change would be extensive genetic modification of both sperm and eggs up to the point that any child they had would be as close to them biologically as the average adoption and it was all because of the genetic modifications they enjoyed in the first place that made them incompatible. Durandal sorely hoped that the samples he currently had access to were loaded, merely a high number of unlucky couples. That hope died when he crosschecked them among each other, which only proved that among the thirty men and women, only eight could have viable children if matched just right. While the sample size was too small to make a reasonable conclusion for Coordinators in general, the trend was more than concerning, not just because of the war in general, but because all of the men and women who died recently. Thousands might not sound like much, however those who perished in space were among some of the best PLANT had and their population had never been particularly high in the first place.

Gilbert needed more samples, more data, because if he was right, not only this war had to end, soon, but the hatred between Coordinators and Naturals too. Because on a hunch, simulations between the samples he had and data he had on record from his grand-parents indicated that there might be no issue for third generation Coordinators to have children with Naturals. No more than anyone else anyway.

Durandal left the lab in a hurry. He had to call in more than a few favors and make damn sure he had his conclusions right. He had to call in a few of the researchers he trusted most to double and triple check it too, just in case. Because if he was right? He had no idea what he would have to do, neither how to tell the truth to Talya.

=GSI=​

Presidential Palace
Geneva
Switzerland
Eurasian Federation

Mariah Duboa sat behind her desk, absent-mindedly tracing the edge of the large antique desk she and her predecessors have been using for couple of decades now. Currently, the only things covering the polished wood were a closed thin laptop and a stack of signed documents waiting to be copied and distributed across various archives.

The President's two guests made themselves comfortable in their seats across the desk and they couldn't have been more different from each other if they tried. Vanko Borodin, the ancient bastard somehow looked both distinguished and utterly forgettable, possibly something to do with spending decades as a spy, spymaster and more recently, Director of the Federal Information Service, the overriding organization that kept the various civilian intelligence services of the EF under its umbrella. Beside him sat a much younger, charismatic and energetic man, Foreign Minister Luis Alpizar, who was one of Mariah's closest political allies and the chosen successor of one of her retired mentors.

"It's not often the two of you request a meeting." Duboa examined Luis' aristocratic features for a moment, before her gaze moved from the veteran diplomat to focus upon the spymaster. "Especially together."

"What each of us has to tell you is related." Borodin grumbled, making a good impression of a particularly irate bear disturbed during its slumber. "We do have a spotty picture pertaining certain events." He gave Mariah a pointed look.

"Veil's theories? Do we have some corroboration we can make a good use of?" The President's spine stiffened. No one had been particularly thrilled when the first warnings about the AF leadership being even less trustworthy than usual, if not particularly treacherous because of Blue Cosmos influence came from the ONI asset on the Archangel.

At any rate, that warning, and the confession that the ONI assets attached to the Archangel and Artemis got from Minister Allister did point FIS in the right direction. The EF intelligence services were working on overdrive ever since, however there wasn't much useful evidence they could find on a short notice. The fragmented nature of communications on Earth since the war began didn't help matters. Even at the best of times it could take time and effort for spies to safely rely anything they had discovered without unduly risking to blow up their cover.

"First, I'll tackle ONI. Our own vice-director is currently the only one alive high placed member of the organization we're reasonably sure hasn't been compromised by Blue Cosmos elements or whoever is pulling their strings if Allister is to be believed. What's more, a closer look and data analysis of the actions of their known members and various figures among the military-industrial complex indicate some concerning trends."

"It's confirmed then?" Duboa asked.

"Only one of the ONI vice-directors is currently unaccounted for, either dead or in hiding. The rest, including the new director of the agency are either known or suspected Blue Cosmos sympathizers. Those who weren't are dead or retired over the past few months. We expect that this trend will repeat itself within the AF at large after their presidential elections."

"Blue Cosmos will be consolidating power, that much was a given." Luis grimaced. "The way they're doing it or we suspect they'll go about it is most concerning however. It's one thing to remove members of the previous administration from power, something like this however… That's one of the major selling points of democracy, it allows people to lose elections and not fear for their lives. The same goes when a new administration overhauls the top echelons of either the military or intelligence agencies if they don't meet their standards!"

"Unfortunately, what we're primary seeing so far are mostly concerning trends that aren't really out of the ordinary for large corporations. It's the hints of close cooperation between what should be rivals, especially among various defense contractors, both within the Eurasian Federation and abroad that is more concerning. As far as Blue Cosmos themselves are concerned, there isn't anything new of consequence. We've been watching them closely domestically ever since their ideology became a big thing across the Atlantic. We can't have one of the largest political parties in North America have undue influence in our own backyard after all."

"Not to mention that the ideology of their radical wing hints too close to comfort of some things that better stay buried for good." Luis hummed. "The reason why we're both here has less to do with the Atlantic Federation and whatever they're trying to pull off this time around. The primary diplomatic issues entangled with our intelligence apparatus are centered upon ORB. It's a public secret that their Chief Representative stepping down due to Heliopolis was merely a smoke screen." The Foreign Minister nodded at the spy. "Both news coverage and data from our friends in the FIS confirm that Athha has been visiting ORB's Prime Minister, his brother, practically every day since he 'retired' from politics."

"In practice nothing changed, which is why I haven't been angrier at your failure to bring them on board. After all, for all practical intents and purposes, ORB has been anything but neutral in this conflict." Duboa stopped at that.

"Strictly speaking, they're following the principles of armed neutrality, however we all know that nowadays doing so is at best a polite fiction." Luis sidestepped an old argument between them.

"Cagalli Attha's capture and exposure in aiding terrorists within the Community is likely to be enough to bring down her father and his neutrality focused faction. In the short to medium term we expect political shift within ORB, the only question is if the faction favoring us or PLANT will emerge on top. My people are monitoring the situation and with your permission, Madam President, we're planning certain operations which should shift the probabilities in favor of the Earth Alliance supporters." Borodin said.

"When you have the plans ready, bring me the summaries. If you can convince me, I'll give you the green light. Luis, I want you to press as hard as prudent. We need ORB on our side, their Mass Driver alone is going to be invaluable. At the very least, if they join us, ZAFT will have to expend assets to neutralize them, instead of it being the other way around. Ideally, any such arrangement will be kept quiet until ZAFT finally strikes at Panama and pays the price for an attempt to neutralize the Mass Driver there."

 

[Illuviar]

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny. They belong to their respective copyright owners and publishers. This work is not created with any commercial aims.

Phase 13: Political entanglements

=GSI=

Part 6

=GSI=​

Supreme Council Chamber
Aprilius One
PLANT

The Supreme Council was in full attendance and everyone had their eyes locked on the National Defense Committee. Many of those looks were anything but friendly.

No surprises there. Most of the plans and conclusions Zala had to present were a far cry from the regular reports of crushing victories or the Naturals hiding in their holes that characterized many such meetings until Heliopolis.

"Can we afford to send that much raw resources and hardware to Earth, especially when most of it won't be used by our people?" Jazek asked.

"The resources aren't issue." Patrick explained. "We're set up to mine and refine more raw resources than our existing industry could handle. Since the beginning of the colonization program at least a part of the mining production was meant for Earth so the Naturals won't harm the environment any more that it already was and in the long run it was increasingly cheaper than what they could effectively mine across most of the planet. Our domestic bottleneck remains our population and industrial capacity, primary the former. Theoretically we could support our allies on Earth both with significantly more raw resources and military hardware than we've been making available until now."

"Why didn't we?" Dr White asked.

"Because even before the war we were making money hand over fist by selling resources, limited military and industrial hardware to both our allies and Earth as a whole. That's what in large part paid for our military and overhauling PLANT to be as self sufficient as time and resources allowed." Councilor Canaveral explained. "If providing such a care package to our allies is feasible, I'm all for it. The recent setbacks unsettled some of them, and while the Community makes all the right sounds to indicate that they're still on our side and would remain committed until either a victory or the bitter end, they did take heavy loses against the Eurasians. Loses it would serve us best to replenish as well as we could."

"That's the Defense Committee's recommendation." Zala repeated.

Surprisingly enough, the vote that followed was unanimous in support.

"The motion passes, we'll increase support of our allies on Earth as much as feasible." The Chairman declared. "Next, item on the agenda, how does the National Defense Committee suggest that we counter the recent military reversals?"

"In the short term, the overall strategic situation in space hasn't changed. PLANT is safe barring the Naturals going genocidal with the use of saturation kinetic strikes. You are all briefed on what losing the orbital means and are aware of the consequences. Our primary objective is retaking them. The question is what goals ZAFT should pursue afterwards. We have three different plans to propose for approval." Zala began. "First, after the recent defeats we suffered, do have a single silver lining. We no longer need to assault Panama ASAP. The supplies our enemies shuttled to the Moon would allow their forces to last for six to eight months at a minimum even if we completely cut off the Earth Alliance's remaining space assets from any resupply from planet-side and keep it that way. The reason why this is of a limited benefit is the fact that the defense of Panama ties down a significant amount of the Atlantic Federation's best ground forces and wet navy so they aren't available to deploy against us and our allies on Earth. In light of the losses we suffered recently, we in the Defense Committee see it in our best interest to play for time in the short term, replenish our losses, upgrade our hardware so we would be better positioned to face Earth's Mobile Suits once they begin mass production and most importantly, strengthen the position of our allies planet-side. This is partially achieved thanks to the Council's agreement to offer increased aid to said allies."

"Isn't this play straight in the enemy's hands? The longer the war drags, in worse position we will be." Chairman Clyne spoke sharply.

"It does, at least in theory. We aren't proposing to stop any and all offensive operations, on the contrary. We have three plans for strategic offensives that will weaken the Earth Alliance in the long run, which will culminate in an assault on Panama to neutralize the Mass Driver there." Zala stated. "First however, we need a clarification on ORB's status. One of the plans is a currently a contingency in case that they either openly join the Earth Alliance or this Council decides that their actions to date constitute grounds for military retaliation. In either case, we will need to neutralize ORB's Mass Driver in order to deny it's use to the enemy. The most currently relevant part of the plan is a limited campaign targeting ORB's space assets, which will deny them both resources and industrial capacity. This component, dubbed Angel's Tears, will aim to capture said assets if practical, destroy them if not. Obviously, activating this plan will require a Council vote."

As expected, Patrick's words ignited a fire-storm. They also promptly divided the Council between those who believed that for almost all practical intents and purposes ORB had thrown their lot with the EA and was already and enemy, and the Councilors who were against increasing the scope of the war even further. After nearly an hour of debates and fielding questions pertaining Angel's Tears, the Council remained dead-locked and Clyne had to table the discussion for the time being so they could be briefed on the other two plans for strategic offensive.

"The second plan is to feint launching Operation Split Break, which is the code name for our assault on Panama, and instead strike at JOSH-A, the supreme headquarters of the Earth Alliance in Alaska. Neutralizing that facility will not only decapitate the enemy's military but serve as a severe blow on their combat and industrial capabilities. To the best of our knowledge, JOSH-A isn't merely an important command node and a military base but a large industrial node as well, one dedicated on military production."

More debates followed, and unsurprisingly, changing the target of Split Break did gain much more support.

"Before we put it to a vote, what about the third option?" Clyne inquired.

"It is arguably the most controversial. Needless to say at this time we aren't considering a further escalation of the war in the realm of using strategic weaponry, otherwise Operation Crown would be more palatable. In a nutshell, it is a direct strike against critical nodes of Atlantic Federation and Republic of East Asia power generation nodes aimed at further disrupting their industry. What makes Operation Crown controversial is that if we conduct it conventionally, it will be virtual suicide for the units we will drop in order to neutralize the targets…"

The Council chamber fell silent for a couple of seconds before almost everyone began shouting at the same time, demanding answers.

 

[Illuviar]

AN1: While my muse isn't cooperating with GSI, lately I've been on Battletech binge, and this idea wouldn't leave me alone. It's basically an OC based on the BT CYOA, who ends up with GSI Veil's memories and as it would be immediately obvious, a huge ax to grind with the Capellans... I hope you'll like this and it could tide you over until my muse cooperates and I can write the next GSI update.

AN2: Another brain-bug that won't leave me alone laterly. This one is inspired by a Battletech fanfiction I've been reading recently and the fitzgeraldofspace's CYOA, which I used as framework for this story idea. As always, I appreciate feedback.

Disclaimer: I do not own Battletech, Gundam Seed, or Gundam Seed Destiny. They belong to their respective copyright owners and publishers. This work is not created with any commercial aims.

Chapter 1

=Exile=

Part 1

=Exile=​

1 January 3015
Ávalon City
New Avalon
Federated Suns

Medicine and alcohol don't mix at the best of times, even if you have a good excuse to indulge in either. In my case, I both had more than a good reason to drink myself into oblivion and at the same time, more than excellent one not to risk fucking myself more than I already was. The later was a tiny form cuddled into my side, into all the blankets so only a mop of a curly black hair was visible. That explained the chill I felt, which was probably what awoke me combined with a pounding headache and the distinctly unpleasant sense of my gut rising in revolt after last night. I tried to glare at Mia, the little blanket-thief, which only served to exacerbate my headache.

I shook my head at my little sister and got off the bed as slowly and carefully as I could in order to avoid disturbing her, then ghosted to the bathroom and closed the door behind me. A liberal application of cold water served as a shock to the system and a decent substitute to a kick in the pants. Only then I allowed myself to stare in the mirror.

The face that stared back was both painfully familiar, yet utterly wrong, and it wasn't the very visible scars along my chin, around my eyes, neither the deep lines going from my temples to hide under my short black hair. It was the big expressive eyes, small demure, perhaps even cute nose, and a heart-shaped face that until I went under the knife of those Liao butchers used to be pretty enough.

It was a female face and the scars did nothing to hide that. Another clue came in the form of a pair of small firm breasts and the lack of certain equipment. Yep, not a dream. Well, that wasn't quite right. Hopefully, almost everything that happened over the past few days was a dream, a very vivid and realistic hallucination borne from a bad combination of drugs and cybernetic implants.

While I stared bleakly at my mutilated face, which along with all the scars covering my body ensured that I could scarcely go anywhere incognito, I wasn't sure I could bring myself to believe such a pleasant lie, no matter how much I wanted to. My mind briefly went back to the drug-enhanced debriefing, which was part of the deal ensuring my protection as a political refugee from the Capellan Confederation, and more importantly, Mia's safety. It was supposed to be a more or less routine interview, a relatively easy and painless one considering that I was more than eager to collaborate. After everything, sticking it to the Capellans, and House Liao in any way I could, well that sounded like a nice bonus. I was even looking for the debriefing because of that, silly me.

I shook my head, struggling with my headache, and nearly collapsed on the toilet seat. Ever since the debriefing, my body felt off, it's balance was both right and wrong at the same time, and I had trouble because a part of me expected that my limbs were longer. That was merely one more unintended consequence from the interrogation, and when all was said and done, a side-show really. The big one? I didn't want to think about it, thus the unwise drinking last night with my minders. It was New Year's eve after all, and say what you will about the bastards, they agreed that I really needed to get smashed.

Another groan escaped my lips, one of the few parts of my face that didn't bear any trace of everything I've been through in either life I could recall and I closed my eyes, hoping that my head will stop feeling like a division of Battlemech played football with it last night. Note to self, don't go trying to out-drink MIIO bodyguards. While it's perfectly doable thanks to my implants, after they've been drunk under the table there might not be anyone willing to come in and talk me off from draining as much of the bar as I could. I vaguely recalled drinking enough hard alcohol to knock out at least a squad of troopers and implants notwithstanding, I was a relatively small woman nowadays.

That by itself was part of the trouble because ever since that be-damned debriefing I could remember being a man too, one not from around here at that… and even thinking about that royal mess made my headache spike. That's why once I was done in the bathroom, I skulked back to the bed and before I could think things through, gently unwrapped Mia from one of the blankets, before cuddling her half-asleep form and becoming dead for the world again.

The next time I awoke, I felt a lot better. For a few long, glorious moments, I could barely remember the nightmare of the last few days, then it came back with a vengeance. Memories of battles in a scale unseen from the "good" days of the Second Succession War, memories of fighting, and more importantly dying at least twice before being brought back with cybernetics not at all dissimilar to those stuck in me right now. Memories from a different life. If I was religious, or at least a spiritualist, I might have considered reincarnation, as impossible as it sounds. Being raised in the Capellan Confederation, with a crazy scientist as a father, well the only "spiritualism" that was not heavily frowned upon was the belief that House Liao was for all intents and purposes divine. I could recall buying the party line hook line and sinker as I was younger, though all that ended when my bastard of a father volunteered me to be a test subject for his projects. All in the name of the Chancellor and all that rot. Fuck Liao and fuck that fucking father of mine, I cursed in the safe privacy of my mind. My arms instinctively held Mia closer while I forced myself to relax. A few mental exercises helped in that regard, exercises that came from my second, impossible set of memories.

Mia stirred at that point. She squirmed in my arms, turned around, and scrunched her tiny nose, which was one of the few features we shared.

"Sis, you stink." She grumbled, twisted around, and hid her face in the covers.
"Message received loud and clear," I mumbled, ruffed the munchkin's hair, and unentangled myself from the blanket, heading towards the bathroom. Another shower was necessary. I frowned at that though. I got a shower when I came back last night, right?

Another note to self, no more drinking, like at all.

A cold shower later, I was wide awake and sitting in front of a mirror built around a set of cupboards, right above a very well-stocked make-up table. Makeup. As far as part of me was concerned, ensuring I looked as stunning as I could when I wanted to anyway, was the natural order of thing. Why wouldn't like turning heads? At the same time, part of me had no bloody idea what to do with any of the make-up supplies. My head hurt trying to reconcile the two sets of conflicting memories. On the bright side, my arms knew what they were doing, and soon I had a light make-up which made me feel a little bit better about all the scars I could see mutilating my face. The less said about the rest of my body, the better. No more light, almost see-through summer dresses for me… unless I wanted to scare the crap of anyone who came nearby anyway.

Fuck Liao, fuck the Capellan Confederation, and fuck father, the treacherous bastard!

All right, Delliah, get yourself in hand girl, and stop cursing like a memetic sailor or you'll slip in front of Mia. Seeing my face in the mirror didn't help in that regard so I got up and got myself properly dressed for the day, not that there was anything to do. After the debriefing, we were practically under house arrest, primarily for our protection. The bright side there was that no one tried to take Mia from her possibly very crazy older sister, because if that happened, I don't know what I would have done. Then I had to go get plastered, painting myself in a very negative light, fuck me. I shook my head again, trying to find something to think about that wouldn't anger me further or try shoving me deeper into depression.

I moved away from the wardrobe and snorted when I saw that Mia had stolen all the blankets, again, and had properly cocooned herself. She was my little rock, the only reason I kept going. At the same time, there was a part of me that didn't even recognize her, no more than it recognized my face or anything else about my life. Just like I didn't recognize all those memories of war… and arguably much better life before it erupted. That strange Terra I remembered it had been relatively peaceful for decades before the war began. The life I remembered, growing up as a man no less, in the Eurasian Federation, a state that I was pretty sure had never existed on our Terra… or perhaps it did and Capellan education, even good one, was even more full of bullshit than I suspected… No, bad Delilah, that way lies even more madness and that's not what you need!
My eyes refocus on Mia's sleeping form. This… it was too long, too vivid to be a nightmare. What did it leave? Perhaps I've snapped, hopefully not, but well… It was the most plausible explanation, though for Mia's sake I hoped not. After all, with the Capellan butchers, chief among them father, rummaging through my head and the rest of my body, sticking all kinds of cybernetics inside, who knew what they fucked up. Or perhaps it was the drugs I had to take to ensure that my body didn't reject all the metal and kept working more or less properly with it inside, which was another can of worms that I didn't want to think about.

Well, those were options one and two. Number three, and that rubbed me particularly wrong, well it was reincarnation, in which case probably it was a combination of the drugs and the implants that somehow jolted loose memories from a previous life. That was almost
plausible or would be if what I could remember was from our history anyway.

It didn't help that according to those memories our world was nothing more than a fiction, a game! Frankly, I didn't want to go there, ever. Part of me wanted nothing more than to awake from this nightmare, be blithely ignorant, and make a new life for Mia and myself in the Federated Suns.

Another part of me was a ball of rage I kept under as tight control as I could manage, and it wanted nothing more than to tear strips from those who hurt me until there was nothing left from them. I wasn't sure who I loathed more, daddy dearest, the Capellan Confederation as a whole, or House Liao. Depending on the mood it could be either.

Then there wast the new part of me, who was appalled at the way the Inner Sphere tore itself apart during the last few centuries, and the less said about what it thought as far as what happened to Terra and the Terran Hegemony was concerned the better. Damn it, part of me was now apparently Terran patriot of all things. I didn't want to go there either. Various stray thoughts, generally centered around plotting that I wouldn't have thought about before didn't help my case!

I glared sulkily at the floor, feeling confined, trapped. It has been three or was it four days now since my debriefing and if anything, my head was even more of a mess than it was during the immediate aftermath.

A knock on the apartment's door startled me, briefly bringing me out of my funk. What did my minders want, because it couldn't be anyone else? I stalked towards the door, falling into a combat stance, something I wouldn't have known how to do a few nights ago, ready to spring into action.

"Miss Veil, we need to talk." I recognized the gruff voice of one of my minders, Mr. Smith, almost certainly not his real name.

I went to the door and opened it while placing my body to the site, in case of unpleasantness. It was Smith all right – he wore a replica of his favorite suit, a dark blue one, which wasn't too cheap, neither expensive enough to stick out in most of the City. I blinked at that though, which came from left field.

"Yes?" At least he had bloodshot eyes, so he hadn't fully recovered from last night's drinking. Good. Misery loves company.

"There has been a complication concerning you and your sister." The middle-aged operative explained in a hushed tone.

I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Not from our side, I'm glad to report, Ma'am." His smile was either genuine or the next best thing. "It regards your father. By all accounts he is dead, and well…"

I stood at the door, gaping like a speared fish. The bastard was dead, or was he?

"Extrapolate." I hissed and went out into the corridor of the safe house, closing the door behind me.

"I'm not clear on the details, however, my boss is reasonably sure Ricardo Leng is dead, which brings me to the reason I'm here this early Ma'am. Your father left you an inheritance and arranged for it to be delivered to you through one of the more respected lawyer firms on New Avalon."

Alarm bells rang in my head.

"It's a trap."

"The possibility has crossed our minds, Ma'am." Smith nodded, then looked around. "It might be better to continue this conversation in the cafeteria. You look like you could use a hot cup of coffee and a bite to eat. Besides, what we'll be discussing is not exactly secret."

"It isn't?" I looked at Smith as if he just spouted a second head.

"Walk at me and I'll explain what I've been briefed on. Lisa will be around momentarily with breakfast for your sister."

I nodded at that. Lisa was one of our minders, well, Mia's minder anyway, and the vibe I got from her was of a soldier, not a spook. The vibe I got over the last few days anyway. Before that? She merely appeared like a nice older lady, which shows what I knew… know, whatever.

While walked towards the cafeteria downstairs, Smith briefed me. "In short, while you were recovering, a lawyer firm contacted our government about Leng's last will or at least the part that concerns you."

That much-made sense, kind of. The way we ended up on New Avalon ultimately became public enough, as well as the fact that we were now officially under the protection of House Davion. The media circus around what little had been released about what happened to me was the primary reason I did my best to stay away from any source of news for weeks now. In a saner world, the publicity surrounding our situation would be kind of a shield by itself. Here and now? It was a dagger pointed at our throats if we ever lost House Davion's protection.

"As far as I know, they're clean and the inheritance is real enough. Given the circumstances, we're aware of most details and I'll be briefing you about them over breakfast." Smith continued without losing a beat. If he noticed my deer-stuck-in-the-lights expression, he said nothing about it.

"It's a trap, it has to be."

"That's why we proceed carefully. As far as this being a trap, well it's possible. Liao isn't the most stable of people or Houses in general." My minder shrugged.

I snorted at his words. What a charming and polite understatement that was.

We got to the cafeteria, finding it almost empty. Jane, my other minder from last night was here, nursing a coffee. She had a large pot on the corner table she preferred, along with three trays loaded with food. Lisa was here too, coming our way carrying Mia's breakfast. I smiled at her in gratitude, a gesture she returned with a kind, motherly smile of her own.

"I'll look after the little one, don't worry, Delilah," Lisa promised and headed upstairs.

We sat on Jane's table and I couldn't help it but look envious a the curvy, taller woman. Where did the Feds find them? Almost every woman I met since I arrived on New Avalon was taller than me, damn it! The red-head raised a well-sculptured eyebrow my way then gave ma a betrayed look. At a closer examination, she did appear to be worse for wear after last night. Good, more misery to make my company.

"You have no right to look this chipper," Jane grumbled in a raspy voice, which for once didn't sound like melting honey.

"There are a few fringe benefits of all the stuff stuck in me," I grumbled and my covetously grabbed at the coffee pot. It was hod, black, and very strong. I poured myself a cup and absentmindedly made it navy special – with enough sugar that when I put the spoon in it had little trouble staying vertical in the center of the cup.

Jane's eyebrows tried to hide in her shoulder-length sensible hair, while I looked questionably at her. She merely nodded at my coffee and I shrugged.

"Mr. Smith, you were saying?"

"Well, legally, everything appears to be in order, at least that's what our lawyers told my bosses' boss." My minder shrugged. "Not my department. We'll have a trustworthy lawyer come to meet you later today to go over the details with you before you meet your father's lawyers if you wish to."

"We have it on good authority that you'll want to meet them," Jane added.

I took a sip of the coffee, which was like a kick in the butt, thus just right.

"You don't say." I gave her a less than amused look.

"Don't glare at the messenger, Delilah." Jane chided.

"The good news is that you're rich." Smith continued. "How much, well you'll need to see our lawyer and if you want, contact an outside one to consult as well."

"What do you mean I'm rich? We got here practically only with the clothes on our backs and that was really what the dropship crew could spare." My eyes went back to Smith, while my mind struggled to make sense of this.

"Eat. Drink your coffee and when you're thinking straighter we'll continue." Jane declared, then shushed Smith when he tried to protest. I was getting the vibe that he was like a kid with a piece of news they couldn't wait to share, something very odd as far as he was concerned in my experience.

I silently followed Jane's advice. Say what you will about her, she almost always spoke sensibly, just like Lisa.

After polishing off my breakfast and topping it with two Navy Specials, I felt more alive than I've been in days or so it seemed. Even my churning mind got a bit more peaceful.

"Now we can continue." Jane allowed.

"Well, I'll get the possibly unpleasant part first. You're right to worry about a potential trap. Part of the inheritance is a sealed case that arrived this morning. It is DNA locked and it is currently being examined as we speak. The recommendation from above is to get a blood sample of you and then use a drone to open it at a secure location in case it's a Maskirovka special or something in that vein."

"Sensible." I didn't comment on the fact that this way MIIO would know what the case contained before me. If I was properly paranoid, I would say that I might not get to see anything particularly important from that case, not a heartening though, then again it wasn't like I wanted anything from my bastard of a father. On the other hand, if my benefactors told me that it was a good idea to go along, it wasn't like I had much of a choice.

This didn't make for a happy Delilah.

"From what we gathered, Leng has sent you a lot of hardware, probably recovered from the SLDF cache…" Smith trailed off when I stiffened.

The same cache where he found the implant's schematics, or the implants themselves, I wasn't positive on which, before he volunteered me as a guinea pig. It was an honor, it was for the betterment of the Capellan Confederation and what the Chancellor would wish, he told me. I even believed him before they began cutting me… I shuddered at the memory and closed my eyes, trying to get away from it.

Jane hissing something at Smith got me back into the real world, where I found myself rubbing my hands around the scars over my bones. I blinked in confusion. This was the fastest I recovered from
a flashback and there weren't even drugs involved.

Then I remembered… my other memories, this wasn't the first time I now recalled being cut up, though at least the last time it had been to save my life. That was another mind-fuck by itself. Until recently, the implants, what father did to me, it was only pain and betrayal. Yet, now they were something that I felt made me strong as well, they were a second chance.

Honestly, I didn't know how to feel about that, beyond the obvious – even more shit than I needed tons of therapy over.

"Sorry about that." Smith sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck and refused to look me in the eyes.

"Anything else?" I bit off. "How did he do it anyway?"

"We aren't sure. We now know which ship is carrying it and I can assure you, Ma'am, that everything will be checked with a find-tooth comb before you have to go anywhere near it if you want to in the first place."

"That's good." I nodded in relief. "You still want me to meet the lawyers?"

"That would be required, yes. Otherwise, there might be legal complications."

"You might have a good case to sue us otherwise," Jane smirked.

"Whut?" Really? It wasn't like any of us lacked the knowledge of my particular situation.

Seeing my confusion, Jane frowned, then rubbed her forehead.

"Delilah, we've been over this before. We aren't the crappies. We aren't going out of our way to screw you for fun." She spoke in a soothing voice.

I've had that conversation before and I didn't believe it then, just like I didn't buy it now.

Jane cursing the Capellan Confederation under her nose? That being genuine I could buy.

 

[Illuviar]

AN: To get ahead of a a few possible questions, the reason for the meeting at the end of the update concerns Deliah's debriefing, the contents of her inheritance and the fact that it wasn't handled in the most appropriate of ways, even if it was done due to understandable security concerns.

Disclaimer: I do not own Battletech, Gundam Seed, or Gundam Seed Destiny. They belong to their respective copyright owners and publishers. This work is not created with any commercial aims.

Chapter 1

=Exile=

Part 2

=Exile=​

1 January 3015
Avalon City
New Avalon
Federated Suns


A few hours later, Lisa had to pry a grumpy Mia from my side, who wasn't happy that I was going out without her, even if it was supposed to be for a short while. A tray of fresh chocolate cookies finally got her attention, proving that Lisa had learned how to bribe and distract the little ball of energy properly. The downside was that when I came back I would be dealing with the horror that was Mia on a sugar high, but that was a problem for another time.

Smith and Jane led me to an underground garage where an armored car waited for us along with the rest of my security detail. These were new, relatively young, and very much fit boys. Their suits did little to hide their light armor underneath or what I was pretty sure were sub-machine guns. We pilled up in two-car and left the safe-house, heading for one of the many government compounds on New Avalon. It was nearly an hour ride, though we spent most of that time making sure that tracing us back to Mia would be very hard, something I appreciated, even if the waiting made me more and more nervous.

Finally, we arrived, parking in another underground garage, build under a tall skyscraper that was all glittering steel and glass. My minders led me to an elevator and a fast ride later, we pilled up into a conference room, where a middle-aged blond woman stood at the far end of a polished wooden table. She looked at us, her blue eyes peering over a rimless glasses, and smiled.

"Ms. Leng?" She stood up, and of course, she was taller than me! What did they feed women on New Avalon with?!

"Yes?" I asked warily.

"I'm Linda Hayes your appointed lawyer, Ms. Leng, nice to meet you." She smiled brightly.

"Hi?" I smiled back awkwardly.

"Please have a seat, we have a lot to discuss and a short time to do it." Lisa sent my minders a dirty look even as I walked around to the table to sit beside her at the chair she offered.

"How much were you told about the situation we're dealing with?" Hayes asked.

I told her what little I knew, which earned my minders a second dirty look. While this was a nice show, it didn't change the fact that I was going to get fucked in a way I most certainly wouldn't enjoy. The only questions were how and why the charade.

"This is so irregular it's not even funny, but needs must," Hayes grumbled. "We can confirm that at least part of the inheritance you're about to receive is genuine. The liquid assets anyway. A brief meeting with Mr. Leng's lawyers a few signatures and you'll have about a hundred and sixty million C-Bills to do as what you wish. My recommendation would be that the first thing you do is hire an outside lawyer to advise you as well and ensure no conflict in interests when the disposition of the rest of your inheritance, is concerned." Hayes looked me straight in the eyes. "You'll need that, I can assure you, Ms. Leng."

I just stared at the woman and I was sure my mouth hung open. A hundred and sixty million? From my bastard of a father? Whut? Does not compute.

"I'll need details, Ms., or is it Mrs. Hayes?" I inquired as to if it was the most logical thing in the world.

"I'm happily married, Ms. Leng." For a moment, Hayes' smile softened a bit, before she was all business again. "Considering your situation, the Federated Suns government managed to get access to information about your inheritance, though I note for more details we'll need to meet Mr. Leng's lawyers in person later today. In short, there is a Monolith en route to New Avalon, which will be inspected before it could approach the planet due to security concerns." Hayes paused, letting me digest the news.

A Monolith? Weren't those the largest jumpships like ever? How did my father get his hands on one? Why?

"Yours and New Avalon's security, Delilah." Jane pipped up, and that was a third dirty look Hayes threw at my minders.

"That's the reason why you need competent legal representation. Certain parties would like to get their hands on your inheritance, besides the C-Bills anyway, and you should at the very least get a fair deal." Hayes continued. She noticed my expression, which I was pretty sure was one of slack-jawed disbelief, and sighed at me. That was going a lot as of late. Ever since we arrived at New Avalon.

"What does the Monolith carry?" Somehow I rallied up the courage to ask and properly shut my mouth afterward.

"Well, the jumpship itself is very valuable. It's cargo too. What we have listed are four Jumpship coming along, an Overlord, a Mule, Triumph, and Union…"

I recognized only one of those names, Overlord, those were the distinct egg-shaped ships you could see on practically every movie nowadays. That one at least was big. Yeah, I could see how someone might want all that hardware. Then it dawned on me.

"What do they carry?"

"That's almost as interesting as the Monolith." Hayes shrugged. "A lot of Battlemechs, Aerospace fighters, and support equipment."

"Roughly a battalion worth of hardware, currently unknown makeup and condition," Smith added. "We'll know more after your Monolith is inspected."

"How long will it remain my Monolith?" I asked even if I should have known better.

"That's why you need a lawyer." Hayes pointed out.

I bit the inside of my cheek, feeling like screaming at the charade. As if anyone would let me see, much less keep any of this mythical hardware. It wasn't like I would have any idea what to do with it anyway… My head tingled at that thought. A Battalion with Aerospace support. I had an idea or two about what could be done with such a force.

Or a dead man's memories stuck in my head pointed at that direction anyway. The prudent course of action was obvious – get rid of this complication in order to not offend my benefactors at whose mercy I was, and more importantly, Mia was. Yet, there was an uncalled for treacherous thought – what I could do with such a force, how much trouble I could cause to the Capellans?

That was my anger speaking. It wasn't something that a young woman like me should ever think about, or worse, contemplate acting on. It wasn't the done thing, my upbringing told me. At that thought, a nearly overwhelming wave of rage hit me. Fuck it, fuck father and the horse he rode on!

I took a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm down, while my minders looked warily at me. While strictly speaking they weren't supposed to be during such a meeting, they were here both for my and Hayes' protection. Among other things, my damn implants made me a combat cyborg, one who fortunately didn't know how to fight. Or at least, I didn't until that infernal debriefing. Now? I had a recollection of learning hand-to-hand combat among other things, though I had no idea if I could put it to good use. For one thing, Veil was taller, broader, what would have worked for him wouldn't necessarily work for me.

It didn't bear thinking about what would happen if Lisa triggered something in me without adult supervision so this was as much for my protection as for hers.

"I'm as well as I could be under the circumstances." I exhaled slowly. "So daddy dearest made me a millionaire and sent me enough hardware for a small mercenary outfit," I concluded.

"This sums it up. And a certain case which is still undergoing testing for anything truly unpleasant." Hayes nodded in agreement.

"Your government want's the hardware, all of it," I stated the obvious.

"Well, until a few days ago I would have said that it wasn't like you could use it so selling it at a fair market price would have been your best bet, Delilah." Jane shrugged. "After that, you could use all the C-Bills to live your life, recover and get Mia the best education and security money could buy on top of what you're getting as guests of the Federated Suns."

My minders were briefed about my debriefing, at least those two were. Which was the reason why Smith has been giving me speculative looks over the past few days when he had been simply coolly professional since we met for the first time two months ago? Thinking about it, Lisa, my Lisa, or well, Mia's Lisa, had been doing the same however until my mind dragged it to my attention just now, I hadn't been particularly observant lately.

"What? Are you curious about what I can do in a fighter's or a Mech's cockpit?" I shot back.

"I am and it shouldn't surprise you, I'm not the only one. However, first, you need to recover and straighten up this inheritance business. Doctor's orders." Smith shrugged.

"Do I dare ask?" Hayes appeared less than amused. "Are you trying to recruit the poor girl?"

"I'm merely curious!" Smith rose his hands in surrender. "At worst, Ms. Leng might visit a simulator or two if she so desires, but only after her doctor tells us it's safe to do so."

If it was at all possible, Lisa's glare became even less amused and welcoming.

"Children, enough!" I snapped, then covered my mouth and not just because I was the youngest one in the room.

"That's the spirit, girl!" Jane gave me a thumb's up and a brief smile.

Why wouldn't this damn nightmare end?!

=Exile=​

Two hours later, after Hayes and I went through what the Federated Suns knew about my inheritance and a few odds and ends surrounding my alysium settlement within the realm, it was time to meet my father's lawyers.

They were apparently from Speer, Speer, and Ivon, an old and respected law firm on New Avalon. A woman in her mid-fifties wearing a no-nonsense expensive business suit and a much younger man, a few years older than me at most came to deliver me the father's blood money.

Accepting the C-Bills divided into three separate accounts took a bit longer than Hayes implied, however, it was indeed just a few signatures on various documents, which we both went over. The legalese went straight over my head and my new irritating
memories were no help there. After Lisa's nod, I did sign.

I was supposed to be a millionaire now, yet all I felt was numbness.

More paperwork followed, about accepting ownership on the jump and dropships, along with their contents. It was indeed a battalion worth's of hardware, though the precise make-up and models were supposed to be sealed up in the case currently in MIIO's hands.

This was indeed an irregular way to handle things, yet not without precedent or so all three lawyers told me. Jennifer Speer agreed that it wouldn't be amiss to consult an outside lawyer as well before the Federated Suns tried to cheat me out of a fair trade about my physical inheritance. She even bashfully offered her services once our current business was concluded.

I declined of course. They worked for my father, which meant that even if they were straight, I didn't want to have any more interactions with them than absolutely necessary. Perhaps it was paranoid, perhaps it was petty, I didn't care. Damn it, there was a part of me that didn't even want to touch the C-Bills because of their source!

It was early afternoon when we were done with my father's lawyers, which as it turned out was just in time to go see the case he left me, Hayes in tow. I didn't have to pay her, because while she was retained to observe my interest, which I still didn't fully buy, she was being paid for the service by the Federated Suns. It wasn't like I could object, because they were paying for everything ever since we arrived anyway. Nevertheless, it felt nice to have my own money, no matter the source.

Damn it, the source did matter, I thought in vexation.

We rode for about an hour to a different building, Hayes in tow and she was trying to make small talk, caring not that I was being pointedly antisocial while trying more or less futilely to straighten up my head. I knew for a fact that right now I was more of a mess than when we first arrived on New Avalon and I was certainly not a pretty picture then. If it wasn't for Mia, I don't know how I would have held on.

This time around, I had no idea what building we ended up in – we got there through a long tunnel with more than a few twists and turns. We got out in the third underground garage for the day, this time complete with armed and armored guards. So a more secure facility then.

I observed the soldiers, a man and a woman in Fed Suns colors, paying close attention to their equipment. It looked both familiar and alien at the same time.

We passed through a couple of checkpoints until we ended up in a comfortable living room Expy. There was an open metal case on a table in the corner, its contents, primary data-chips laying around. I wondered how much of my inheritance was gone, deemed too important for my eyes.

While I was starring at the case, not sure if I wanted to approach it and see for myself what father sent, the second door leading into the room opened, admitting a pair of large troopers, followed by a man who everyone who spent any time on New Avalon would recognize, that included a willing recluse like me.

"First Prince!" I exclaimed, not squeaked in surprise, merely exclaimed, and fell on one knee as it was the fashion back in the Capellan Confederation.

This was surreal and potentially very bad for me! I just didn't know how or why.

"Do stand up, please, Ms. Leng." The First Prince announced, even as calls of 'Your Highness' echoed in my ears.

I wearily got up, carefully not meeting his eyes, you didn't look a member of a Great House in the eyes, much less the leader or so father hammered in my head for years. I was pretty sure Hanse Davion was examining me critically and was as even surer I didn't pass muster.

"Damn, I saw the pictures and recording but this…" The First Prince muttered before he caught himself up. "Ms. Leng, Mrs. Hayes, please do take a seat we have a lot to discuss."

The First Prince's suggestion was anything but. Naturally, I didn't hurry to a seat, it would be considered a great offense if I did it before he sat. I could feel his eyes boring into me. What he said next, however, came as a surprise.

"Ms. Leng, if I wasn't certain your father was dead, I would be sending the Rabid Foxes to make sure he would be," Davion said with sight and I caught a sharp motion from the corner of my eyes that might have been a head-shake.

The First Prince sat on a nearby chair and only then did I allow myself to sit on the edge of the closest one, still carefully keeping my eyes to the ground. I could feel my supposed lawyer staring at me as well.

 

[Illuviar]

AN: I've mentioned in one of the threads discussing this story idea, that the logical progression for Delilah would be to spent the foreseeable future getting her head straightened out, spoling her little sister and enjoying her newfound wealth. This would logically lead to two primarily options - a time scip of a few years, until she has had time to recover and train, while a limited number of butterflies flap their wings. Second, add another protagonist based on the CYOA who will be mucking up things further while Delilah recovers. The dice being what they were, well let's say I've been cackling and having fun writting this update and planning the next few instalments. I'll probably turn this into it's own story after the next update if my muse cooperates.

Disclaimer: I do not own Battletech, Gundam Seed, or Gundam Seed Destiny. They belong to their respective copyright owners and publishers. This work is not created with any commercial aims.

Chapter 1

=Exiles=

Part 3

=Exiles=

=Delkatar=​

1 January 3015
Avalon City
New Avalon
Federated Suns

I awoke with a pounding headache to the painfully familiar cacophony of arguing siblings. My mouth tasted as if something died inside, and I was pretty sure I was a single child… even if I knew very well that I had four brothers and sisters to look after ever since mum died. I stood up with a groan, my head spinning like a damaged gyroscope, and cracked my bleary eyes. Yep, I could recognize the small relatively small apartment I grew up with. I also knew I grew up in a house back on Earth, not Terra. The fuck?

The familiar arguing grew in volume, which did wonders for my headache. I could recall going out with a few of my fellow cadets last night for a handful of drinks, then coming home just in time to meet the new year with my siblings and most importantly, make sure they weren't up to no good in the few hours I left them without supervision. It wasn't like they weren't accustomed to my presence being minimal ever since April when I got admitted to one of the military universities in New Avalon after busting my ass for years to get a chance for us for a better life.

The only problem with that was the fact that as far as I was aware, New Avalon was a fictional place, and I had never attended a military academy, even though all my memories since April tended to disagree with that conclusion.

Fuck my life, things like these were supposed to be fiction, the kind I've been writing for years now for fun and to chill out, not something that actually happened to poor bastards, much less me. I pinched my arm just in case, which hurt and pointed at this not being a dream. God damn it.

The arguing intensified. I got off the couch and hit the bathroom to get myself properly awake while trying to get a hang on my conflicting memories. A few minutes later I felt better, though I was still trying to wrap my head around my current situation. Nevertheless, duty calls and I went out of the bathroom and walked into the kitchen, where two of my siblings all but screamed at each other, while my youngest sister stared at them with huge eyes, which were already tearing up.

"Jeanne, may I have a word with your brother and sister in private?" I went on one knee and ruffed the blonde curls of my youngest sister while giving a pointed look to my two oldest siblings who had the good grace to shut up, even if they kept glaring at each other.

Jeanne nodded rapidly and ran out of the kitchen.

"Is someone going to tell me what is this racket about and why you two almost made our sister cry by being inconsiderate thick-headed pains in the ass?" I asked in exasperation. Ana and Stephen used to be such nice kids too, then they became teenagers and well, constant pain in the ass. It was saying something that being drilled into the ground while several instructors did their best to pound all the military knowledge of the Federated Suns into my head was almost a vacation compared to being home and dealing with this all the bloody time.

Two sullen pairs of eyes looked back at me, then both of them began speaking in tandem, explaining at length how awful and inconsiderate the other was. While I did love my siblings, this I most definitely didn't miss. I dreaded the day when Mike and Jeanne would get a chip on their shoulders too, especially if they would be anything like their older brother and sister.

Speaking about Mike, he was at the corner of the table, eating a sandwich and nodding his head in tandem with whatever music he was listening to, probably turned to eleven. He had bulky old fashioned headphones on his head and blithely paid no intention to the ongoing circus, which said a lot about his older brother and sister, who were supposed to set up an example and look after him and Jeanie along with the social worker assigned to our particular case.

Situations like these made me wish to graduate early and find myself deployed somewhere far away from New Avalon, while at the same time I dreaded what those four might do if I wasn't around for an extended period.

"Yes, I understand, both of you are awful. Now that we have this squared, can you try to behave yourselves just a little bit? I'm not asking for too much, right?"

Ana and Stephen looked at each other and simultaneously shook their heads in the negative, then glared at each other for agreeing on anything. I wasn't that bad a few years ago, was it? Neither in this nor in the previous life I could now remember.

Frankly, what I was going to do with those two I had no bloody idea.

My dubious salvation came in the form of the doorbell ringing which I went to check while trying to gather my thoughts and figure out how to handle this. My previous life was no help in that regard – no experience with siblings, something I used to regret. Well, now I had decidedly mixed feelings on the subject.

"Cadet Veil?" A Staff Sergeant in field uniform stood on my doorstep, looking critically at me.

"Yes, Staff Sergeant? I'm cadet Delkatar Veil."

"You need to come with me, sir." He handed me a sealed envelope holding marching orders to assist in any way I could with an inquiry. From the academy's Commandant no less. What the fuck?

"I'll be coming in a moment, Staff Sergeant, if that's all right with you. I just need to ensure my siblings don't burn the building or try to kill each other while I'm away." As if to underline my point, Ana and Stephen were already on each other's throats again and I was sure the whole building could hear them.

The senior NCO snorted at that, while I winced and went back to the kitchen to explain that duty called, all the while I was wondering what additional mess I just landed myself in.

The news that I would be leaving much earlier than anticipated didn't go down particularly well. It earned me three glares and waterworks from Jeannie who didn't want to let me go.

A not particularly long drive later, saw me sitting in a secure room at MIIO's public headquarters, which rumor had it dealt with the more mundane parts of their job. A nondescript man entered and when the door closed he sat across the small table from me, studying me carefully.

"May I ask what's the purpose of this exercise, sir?" I inquired warily.

"Coincidences happen all the time Cadet." The man began. "Sometimes they are very useful too. However, people in my business can never afford to trust them."

And that told me nothing. The man frowned, then asked a question that had me staring in shock at him.

"How is the weather in Strana Mechty, Cadet?" He asked, then raised both eyebrows at my reaction. "Huh, this isn't a waste of time then. We do need to talk, Cadet. Obviously."

I nodded numbly, while my mind came to a screeching halt. What the fuck? Really what just happened? How did a MIIO agent know to ask such a question? How did he know to ask it of me of all people, because until just a couple of hours ago I was just a normal Cadet who had his hands full with his siblings?!

=Exiles=

=Delilah=​

"I feel the need to apologize Ms. Leng." Hanse Davion began, sending my mind for a spin.

"My Lord?" I asked warily.

"You should be aware by now," he might have glanced at Lisa, "that the way we're handling your inheritance isn't exactly regular even if the legal and security situations might let my government get away with it."

Yes, I was getting screwed, that much was obvious and expected. The First Prince acting all apologetic? My mind was trying and failing to compute it. That wasn't what members of Great Houses did, much less their leaders!

"At this point, I do know more about your inheritance than you know, Ms. Leng, which for obvious reasons isn't all right." The First Prince sighed. "It is also not all right that I'll be making you an offer you couldn't possibly refuse."

"It's how things are done, My Lord," I muttered quietly.

"And it is very much wrong, however as the First Prince of the Federated Suns too often what is right and what I have to do for the betterment of my nation do not coincide. I'll speak bluntly, Ms. Leng." Davion continued. "Your father somehow got his hands on a Battalion's worth of equipment and if the content of this case is genuine, they're almost exclusively Royal SLDF standard."

I had the vague recollection that what he said was very important, however, in the state of mind I was then and there, well the relevant details eluded me. Besides, what could I do? So I just nodded mutely.

I could feel many eyes boring into me and I head the First Prince sight. "I see that meeting you here and now was a mistake, Ms. Leng." He spoke gently. "Nevertheless, I feel compelled to do the best I could with the and we've been dealt. My government will be buying the majority of your inheritance at a fair market price." The First Prince continued. "However, we'll go over the precise details after your Monolith arrives and its inspection is complete. I'll find the time to meet with you again when you've had the time to go over the contents of the case your father left you and the details of your inheritance. Please do think about what part of it you would like to retain and what you might do with it. There is some room to negotiate."

I nodded again. I could hear his words, and while I understood them, I could honestly say I didn't comprehend what he was trying to say.

"For what little it is worth, I'm sorry for what has been done to you, Ms. Leng. I'm also sorry for the way the debriefing worsened your condition… even if what we learned from it might be invaluable if verified."

I mutely nodded again.

=Exiles=

=Hanse Davion=​

It was rare for the First Prince to hate, if not outright loath something, anything as much as the Draconis Combine after they did to his realm and family. However, House Liao and the Capellan Federation as a whole came a very close second, especially on days like this one. Hanse Davion was accustomed to hard conversations, however this one, which was little more than a one-sided monologue, was particularly unpleasant. He had seldom spoken with anyone broken this much and he was glad for it.

After he left the broken young woman behind, the First Prince turned to one of his aides. "See to it that Ms. Leng gets all the help she needs. Both from NAIS for her particular issues and the best therapy money could buy."

Hanse took a deep breath and slowly exhaling, to keep his temper under control. A few moments later, he was walking towards the garage surrounded by his bodyguards.

"What's the next thing on the agenda?"

"Director Truston is requesting a meeting with you ASAP, sir."

Hanse raised an eyebrow at that. He could think about more than a few reasons why the Director of MIIO would want to see him, yesterday. Considering the circumstances, however… Well, this new year just became even more interesting and surreal.

 

[Illuviar]

For those interested, Battletech Exiles now has it's own thread.

Battletech Exiles

This is a story inspired by the Battletech CYOA . I rolled the dice and decided to see what interesting stories I could tell based on them. This story will feature two protagonists. A female OC, who has access to some memories of my SI from my story GSI and a second SI based on another round of...

forums.sufficientvelocity.com

 

[Battleship_Fusou]

Rereading this story and I noticed that Phase 9 Part 4 isn't threadmarked, just so you're aware.

 

[Illuviar]

Rereading this story and I noticed that Phase 9 Part 4 isn't threadmarked, just so you're aware.

Click to shrink...

Thanks for the catch, it's threadmarked now.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny. They belong to their respective copyright owners and publishers. This work is not created with any commercial aims.

Phase 14: ZAFT strikes back

=GSI=

Part 1

=GSI=​

Central Africa

Endless train compositions snaked through the heart of Africa, passing by rivers, through carefully cleared stretches of jungle, tunnels blasted through mountains, or demolished hills that used to be on the way to the lifeline linking Victoria's Mass Driver with Europe. Nowadays, those modern tracks were solely used by the African Community and currently carried thousands of tons of food and tens of thousands of passengers.

Mitch M'buto was one of the countless people cramped into an old passenger wagon, which fortunately had its air-conditioning still working. Otherwise, the days long journey from Egypt to Victoria would have been pure hell. Mitch was in his early twenties, a recent graduate from one of the most prestigious universities in Africa. Until a week ago, he used to work in a brand-new factory complex in southern Egypt. Ten, the damn Euros bombed it to rubble.

Now, he was en route to ultimately space, where he would be one of the thousands of workers trained to work in vital resource extraction. That way, they would help fuel both the war effort, and hopefully in the future, the rise of Africa to a proper First World status. This was something worth doing, not to mention that at least in theory, all the future space workers would receive excellent wages, a proper incentive indeed. In addition, again, in theory, PLANT should be safer and out of bombing range, right?

It wasn't merely workers the Community was about to provide, but pilots too. In Mitch's own train, there were at least two wagons full of veterans from the fighting in Spain, all headed into space to be trained as Mobile Suit Pilots, the first Community such pilots in fact. That was both an achievement and a sign of the times – so much for the early war propaganda that this conflict might turn to be a short victorious war. If it wasn't for their recent losses, Mitch would doubt that ZAFT would have entered into to such an arrangement. At any rate, it was an excellent one, for the Community anyway.

Mitch was a realist. He knew that the Coordinators in space didn't have Africa's best interests at heart. They had their own, obviously. Nevertheless, they were Africa's best bet to finally claw its way away from perpetual second or even the dreaded third-world status into a sustainable prosperity. That was the reason why the Community backed PLANT in the first place. Well that, and the scars left by centuries of exploitation and then cemented in everyone's consciousness by the outcome of the Reconstruction Wars. This was perhaps the one and only war the African Community would ever fight and maintains virtually universal popular support.

That knowledge didn't prevent Mitch from feeling utterly alone stuck in a small metal tube racing through the desert at high speeds, while surrounded by utter strangers. He wasn't the most open of persons and found his serene indifference at the situation at odds with the eager anticipation or nervousness of those he traveled with. As far as he was concerned, work was work. On the ground, in space, it didn't matter as long as he had to primary deal with machines and not with people. The fact that said work could help get his nation and family a better future? That was a very welcome bonus and what really mattered.

Mitch looked through the window at the clear sky covered by endless sparkling stars, wondering why was he still awake in the predawn hours. Not that it mattered, they had almost a whole day of travel before reaching Victoria. While in theory the trains could move faster, there were cargo trains moving slower in front of them, loaded to bursting with food and food supplements.

As it turned out, Mitch was at the right time and place to be among the first civilians on Earth to notice ZAFT's relief fleet arrive in orbit. Of course, he couldn't see the ships themselves, however there was no mistaking the hundreds of cargo pods they released to destinations all over Community territory in Africa. Dozens, soon hundreds of new stars appeared in the skies above Africa and began their swift descent through the heavens, leaving fiery trails behind.

=GSI=​

CIC
Laurasia class frigate "Retribution"
en route to Ame No Mihashira

A fifteen ship strong Task Force completed its deceleration burn and quickly turned around to face their target, flying towards it at a relatively slow speed. With no N-Jammers active in this part of space, long-range sensors had no trouble recognizing when The Pillars of Heaven's small defense force scrambled to stand between them and the station.

"Captain, we're detecting two Battleships, Izumo class, three escorts, Katana class, multiple weapon satellites, three dozen plus… and they're launching Mobile Armors. No sign of Mobile Suits so far." Commander Grayson reported from the tactical station. "Tagging the Battleships as Aggressor One and Two, the Katanas are Intruders One to Three. Thirty-seven plus Turtles, twenty-eight plus Raptors and counting…"

Captain Talya Gladys experienced a pang of unease at the composed words from her tactical officer. One of the numerous reforms hitting ZAFT like a hurricane was a brand-new unified system of designating both friendly and enemy units. While this was admittedly a welcome change, it was another sign of the times and how the colonies had to change because of the war.

No, because of the recent defeats. Nothing really changed while ZAFT was busy reaping victory after victory against a technologically outclassed opponent. Now that Earth demonstrated that it could win even when outclassed, well things ha to change. Fast.

"This is Rear Admiral Charles Hacket from ZAFT to Ame No Mihashira control. You're to stand down and prepare to be boarded for inspection. PLANT will consider any hostile actions on your part as a confirmation that ORB is officially backing the Earth Alliance in breach of your nations claimed neutrality. In that case, my orders are to neutralize you as a threat. I say again…" The Task Force's CO reiterated his message.

This whole operation was designed as a deliberate heavy-handed slap in ORB's face. Unless whoever was in charge of their station surrendered his command without a shot, this was all but certain a prelude to escalating and broadening the war even further… at least on paper. In practice, ORB already supported the Earth Alliance with anything but direct military cooperation, likely in order to avoid retaliation. Heliopolis and the infamous events in Africa were proof enough.

For good or ill, the Supreme Council apparently had its fill of this charade and decided it was high time ZAFT did something about it. Gladys didn't have to wait for a long time for the station to send an agitated response.

"Admiral Hacket, this is Rondo Gina Sahaku, I'm in charge of Ame No Mihashira. I can't comply with your request. ORB is a neutral nation and Ame No Mihashira is a civilian facility! We have no part in your war, and we want no piece of it. However, if either the Earth Alliance or ZAFT conducts hostile actions against us, we will defend ourselves to the best of our ability! Think about what you're doing, Admiral! Your actions are in breach in any and all international norms and laws!"

"Neutrality your nation breached on multiple occasions, Mr. Sahaku." The Admiral's voice didn't waver. It was frigid, emotionless and implacable like a glacier. "You will have your forces and defenses stand down and surrender Ame No Mihashira into ZAFT custody, so we can make certain you aren't using it to build more weapons for the Earth Alliance. If you do not comply with my demand, I will employ any means necessary to neutralize your station as a threat to my nation. You have three minutes to order your forces to stand down."

"Captain, we're receiving instructions from the Flagship. We're to launch Mobile Suits and activate N-Jammers. Unless the ORB forces surrender, we're to implement Case Able in three minutes." The Communications officer reported. Michele Lin was a terribly young, green out of the academy girl. By all means, she should have been worrying about boys, or girls depending on what she liked, and school, instead of serving on a front-line warship.

"Thank you, Junior Lieutenant. Inform the Flag that we've heard them loud and clear." Talya offered the girl a brief reassuring smile. "CAG, launch Mobile Suits, prepare to execute Case Able."

The six Laurasia frigates would target the enemy battleships with extreme prejudices, while the Nazkas would neutralize the Katanas, then concentrate on the weapon platforms, all the while, the N-Jammers would rob the ORB forces of many networking advantages they would have enjoyed otherwise.

Due to harsh lessons learned the hard way, there would be now reckless Mobile Suit charges this time. More than half of those units would remain back in order to safeguard the Task Force from potential kamikaze attacks. Meanwhile, the rest would only engage the enemy after long-range fire has wakened them.

For all she knew, this was an overly conservative plan caused by the shock from Operation Stardust. Tanya couldn't say for sure. What she knew for certain was that ZAFT could no longer reliably expect their Mobile Suits to cheaply win the day.

 

[silentorphan]

Thanks for the catch, it's threadmarked now.

Click to shrink...

Unfortunately, threadmarks are organized according to when the OP makes them, not when the posts themselves are made. For example, clicking on the "back arrow" threadmark button for this snippet takes the reader to Phase 9, Part 4 instead of Phase 13, Part 6. Going "reader mode" also displays it out of order. 😒

 

[Fimconte]

Threadmarks do be fucked.
Part 2 of BT sidestory is in main threadmarks + the phase 9 kerfuffle.

I'm not sure if OP can fix or if it needs mod help.

 

[Illuviar]

Threadmarks do be fucked.
Part 2 of BT sidestory is in main threadmarks + the phase 9 kerfuffle.

I'm not sure if OP can fix or if it needs mod help.

Click to shrink...

It should be fixed now. I had to create a threadmark index to properly edit them.

 

[Fimconte]

That did the trick.

 

[Illuviar]

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny. They belong to their respective copyright owners and publishers. This work is not created with any commercial aims.

Phase 14: ZAFT strikes back

=GSI=

Part 2

=GSI=​

EF Aerospace Forces secondary command center
Urals

Three months. That's how long the preliminary plans said we needed. Three months to prepare logistics and pre-position whole army groups. That long to refurbish, repair and restock damaged naval vessels and build additional amphibious landing ships. Time for special forces and spies to run wild within the African Community. Some of them had to go in position around Victoria and short-circuit any attempts to demolish the Mass Driver before we could get heavy forces there. Others had an equally important function – locate where ZAFT had their not active N-Jammers in Africa because the only two places on Earth enjoying the benefits of nuclear power were the Community and the Australians. Still, there were multiple devices ready to go online in case of a massive invasion or even a hint of nuclear deployment. We needed those neutralized, at least the ones in range of the locations we would be invading to maximize our advantages at the point of contact.

We needed that time to train Mobile Armor and Mobile Suit pilots, time for our industry to build more squadrons of Dragon MA, and the first production run of what would become our mass-produced Mobile Suits.

As importantly, we ideally needed ZAFT to actually reinforce the Community, as much as they could afford, because that would allow us to engage and destroy a significant number of their forces here on Earth, where their advantages were somewhat mitigated, especially compared to fighting them in space.

Further, we needed time for our scientists to reverse engineer and build our versions of ZAFTs communication and sensor suites, which would make fighting them under the effects of N- Jammers a less one-sided affair by itself.

We needed time.

ZAFT wasn't necessarily going to give us nearly as much time as we hoped for.

In fact, during my second excursion away from shaping the best aerospace pilots and vehicle drivers we had into proper Mobile Armor and Mobile Suit pilots, ZAFT not only retook the orbitals, unopposed on behalf of them bringing a big ass fleet, they immediately began landing supplies and reinforcements in Africa. That was the good news. Ground stations and our remaining satellites detected an exchange between a decent-sized ZAFT Battle Group and ORB's Pillar of Heaven station.

This was less than ideal development. Just like politically speaking, ZAFT walking into the trap that is JOSH-A would be a double-edged sword for everyone involved. That was what my extensive debriefings with all kinds of spooks firmly pointed at.

It was one of the reasons why for at least two days each week I would be stuck in the base under the Urals giving my feedback on the strategic planning the brass was busy with for the future. For some reason, said brass believed that I might have valuable insights not only about the deployment of Mobile Suits and Armors but about how either ZAFT or Blue Cosmos might jump… even if my debriefings should have told them everything I knew on the latter points.

Frankly, so far my contribution was to stand at attention, do my best not to offend the brass, and keep my mouth shut unless directly asked a question. Technically, rubbing elbows with this many high ranking officers and not making a fool of myself could be a boom as far as my future career was concerned. Practically, I believe that my time would be better spent as a part of the training cadre for our MS program.

Now, if I had to be honest to myself, there was a lot to learn about logistics if nothing else, while attending endless planning sessions. Undoubtedly, this experience would be useful in the future, if I lived long enough to be promoted away from frontline combat.

In the meantime, well…

"Lieutenant Veil, what's the status of our MA and MS units?" General Kerenski demanded.

"As of yesterday, we have fifteen operational Dragon MA units. One operational Dragon MS Command Unit, one prototype Astray unit, one operational Blitz Gundam Prototype." A paused briefly to take a breath. "Two fully operational Hyperion prototypes and one which should be fully operational by the end of the week. We also have several more or less intact captured ZAFT Mobile Suits, however, we lack trained pilots who could use them properly as construction units much less during combat operations." I paused again. "Only the Dragon units and the Blitz are going to be useful for carrier deployment. The other units have limited to no ability to deploy from wet navy vessels unless we're talking about amphibious assault ships." Because the only reason to ask me this was a potential intervention at ORB.

"Duly noted, Lieutenant. Is it feasible to reinforce ORB at all in the first place?" General Kerenski inquired.

"Our naval units would have to either fight or bypass the enemy forces at and around Taiwan. If we don't neutralize the hostile long-range strike capabilities there, any aid we send can find itself trapped between multiple hostile forces." One of the few wet navy officers in the room explained.

"The same is true for Air Force intervention. Anything we send will be detected long before it could enter the strike range of any possible targets and will have to pass a gauntlet of enemy air, ground, and sea-based assets. Possibly both on the way in and back home."

"If the Earth Alliance is to aid ORB, our Atlantic Federation allies are best suited for the task. Elements from their Pacific Fleet would have to face much less resistance either on the way to Orb or back."

"I'll inform the President about the situation." General Korolev announced and left the large planning room.

=GSI=​

CIC
Laurasia class frigate "Retribution"

"Time's up. All units, you're about to receive targeting solutions from the flag. Commence railgun bombardment until we're in range to execute Case Able." Admiral Damian Hacket's voice echoed across the silent bridge.

"Comms, rely on the flag we've heard the Admiral loud and clear." Captain Gladys said.

"Aye, Skipper. Confirming orders received."

A few seconds later, the tactical plot updated with red lines designating the new firing lanes.

"Mark." Admiral Hacked announced.

"Tactical, weapons free."

The Retribution rumbled lightly when her heavy railgun emplacements opened fire. While the Lauaraisa frigates were a bit older design than the Nazkas, they were the principal warship in service within ZAFT. They had orders of magnitude larger firepower and were in theory tougher than the fast destroyers that until recently were meant to replace them. After the debacle that was Operation Stardust, a change of priorities ensured. After all, ZAFT could no longer be sure that their Mobile Suits would be sufficient, and because of that the plans to focus the fleet almost exclusively on the fast Nazkas with their larger potential MS carrying capacity, if they were fitted for it, died in orbit of Earth. Rumor had it that a new class of warship was in development, one that had its focus shifted from a primary carrier role to full-fledged carrier/battleship hybrid. Possibly inspired by the success of Earth's Archangel.

Three minutes before the fleet could enter the effective firing range of the ORB units, there was still no proper response from the uppity Earthers. Only pleas, threats, and cites international norms that no longer mattered.

The ZAFT Task Force spent that time filling certain approach vectors with high-velocity steel. Talya smiled, seeing the Admiral's game. He was limiting the maneuvering space of the enemy by filling the space surrounding the fleet with railgun slugs. Shaping the battlespace, it was called, she recalled from her all too short days in the naval academy. She could see the bombardment already affecting the enemy.

The long-range sensors of the fleet showed ORB's Mobile Armors pack up closer to their motherships. They were keeping formation instead of accelerating for a kamikaze run, which was another boon. If this continued, when the two fleets engage each other, the enemy Mobile Armors might be still packed in close enough to their carriers to ensure proximity kills by any beams or railgun slugs that missed their intended targets. In contrast, ZAFT's Mobile Suits were spread around their fleet, flying in a defensive formation.

Now the only question was if ORB would throw in the towel or if they would fight. Either way, they would have to openly choose which side they backed in this war and that Talya thought, was the point of this whole exercise.

 

[Illuviar]

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny. They belong to their respective copyright owners and publishers. This work is not created with any commercial aims.

Phase 14: ZAFT strikes back

=GSI=

Part 3

=GSI=​

CIC
Laurasia class frigate "Retribution"

The only answer ZAFT received from the ORB installation was a litany of threats centered around this grave breach of diplomatic norms. As if diplomacy mattered very much when Earth's superpowers already wanted you all dead and were already in the process of bullying everyone neutral to join them, Gladys thought.

Diplomacy died with the bombing on the Moon and the Junius Seven atrocity. All ZAFT and PLANT had left now were to fight for their survival and such trifle things like neutrality on paper while supporting the enemy was no shield at all.

"Case Able." The Admiral's harsh voice echoed within the quiet CIC.

"Able, aye," Gladys confirmed. "Weapons execute."

A light tremor transmitted through the deck when the frigate's missile launchers went into a rapid-firing mode. The same happened across the whole task force. Under most circumstances, at this range, doing so would mean wasting missiles. However, while space was big and the enemy still distant, the ORB squadron had to remain roughly between ZAFT and the facility is guarded. Further, it had to remain within the effective weapon coverage of the weapon platforms surrounding the Pillar of Heaven. While that made them enemy slow and sluggish, the ORB forces would enjoy the benefits of their networking until ZAFT could get closer. This, in turn, would mitigate the effect of conventional missile bombardment.

Case Able didn't call for a conventional missile duel. Instead, it staggered salvos in a pre-programmed pattern until there would be a huge swarm of missiles heading downrange. A mobile fleet at this range would be able to sidestep such an onslaught. ORB's squadron and fixed defenses had no such option as long as they wanted to protect their charge.

By the time the missiles entered the effective range of the enemy's defenses, there had been nearly four hundred of them. ZAFT's N-Jammers just covered the Pillar of Heaven, and it's defenders as well, just as planned.

Meanwhile, the two opposing forces didn't stay idle. Missiles flew both ways, Mobile Armors and Suits flew ahead to intercept the incoming ordnance, and particle beams lashed from extreme range. Nearly thirty GINNs flew in the wake of the missile swarm, eager to come to grips with the enemy, while a second group screened the ZAFT fleet and did their best to shoot down as many of the incoming missiles far away from the fleet. The remaining Mobile Suits flew in formation with their mother ships, left as the third line of defense.

The long-range duel took its toll. Here and there an unlucky Mobile Suit or Armor ceased to exist when touched by capital ship weaponry that missed its intended target. An unlucky Nazka fell out of formation sliced nearly in half, by the primary weapons of an ORB battleship. Moments later, an enemy escort blew up when it unwittingly flew in the way of a railgun barrage. Multiple ships suffered glancing blows, opening decks to space, burning crew, and destroying weapon emplacements.

Then the missiles struck.

ZAFT's Mobile Suits proved to be the better point defense unit. Their larger number and that of the fleet they defended was telling as well – they could put up a much stronger volume of fire against the incoming ordnance. They could also shift their approach vectors from a direct approach to one that would pass by the Pillar of Heaven until they could turn around and decelerate. This ensured that several degraded missile salvos couldn't properly reach them.

ORB's squadron wasn't that fortunate. Their Mobile Armors and escorts formed a wall in front of the battleships and launched everything at the incoming swarm. The timing was such that they just entered effective weapon's range of ZAFT's fleet at that moment, which used the distraction to a devastating effect.

In the ensuing storm of particle and anti-matter beams, detonating missiles, and walls of point defense fire, the twenty-five remaining GINNs flying straight at the enemy remained nearly unnoticed. Two squadrons of ORB Mobile Armor peeled off from their anti-missile duties to meet them. A handful of captured damaged ZAFT suits launched from the Pillar of Heaven and staggered towards the chaotic battlefield too.

Ten GINNs flew straight at the MA trying to intercept them, while the rest divided into groups of two or three and went straight for the ORB battle line.

At that time, ORB's squadron received a dual hammer blow of missiles, and heavy beam strikes, and railgun slugs. One moment their escorts were spiting their defiance at the oncoming storm, in the next they simply ceased to exist along with nearly a third of the Mobile Armors formed alongside them.

It wasn't a one-sided massacre. A Nazca died, speared by the primary weapons of a battleship, and a Laurasia followed, cut neatly in two by positron beams which proceeded to immolate the Da Vinci, which was lost with all hands. A second Laurasia, the new Copernicus, lost her hangar then fell out of formation when two missiles slipped through the last-ditch defense fire to strike her near the engines.

Eight GINNs lived long enough to flush their heavy anti-ship ordnance at one of the ORB battleships, while the other two were singled out by the remaining ZAFT fleet. A brief staggering exchange of fire followed. The whole fleet singled out ORB's flagship, consigning her to a violent fiery death. The Mobile Suits left a second battleship burning wreck, even though they paid dearly for their success. From the GINNs that executed the attack run, only two would survive the battle.

At that point, the second group of ZAFT Mobile suits arrived to mop up the remaining ORB Mobile Armor and weapon emplacement, while the sole remaining enemy capital ship had to duel a whole fleet. She managed to cripple another Nazca class before succumbing to overwhelming firepower.

In the fur-ball that followed, the handful of capture Mobile Suits ORB could field were little more than an afterthought.

"ORB installation Pillar of Heaven. Your defense forces have been destroyed. Surrender unconditionally, or we will be compelled to storm the facility." Admiral Hacket's voice thundered.

"Signal from the Flag, Captain. After we swing past the station and ensure the destruction of it's fixed defenses, we're to flip around and begin deceleration burn until we're on station at the Pillar of Heaven."

 

[Vianca]

Oops, stupid ZAFT, they involved Orb.
The remaining neutral countries might thus also enter, as ZAFT enemies, then.

Are those colony moving engines still with Pillar Of Heaven?
Red (& Blue) Frame had to defend them when they where delivert to the colony that bought them in order to move towards Jupiter and thus escape the whole clusterfuck.
Check the wiki pagea of Red, Blue & Gold, including their pilot wiki pages.
I can't see those kinda engine to be fast construction jobs, with that kinda size.

Try countering such a masive station, with (a) engine block(s) meant to move a even more massive station.
If those engines are far enough along to be used, then they could go ramming speed and try to get the station far enough from Earth, before it's destroyed, if they can take a few ZAFT ships with them...

Lets be real, Orb can't risk a orbital drop, no matter the cost, the Pillar Of Heaven is located straight above Orb, since it was to be meant as the upper stage of a Orbital Elevator.
The Orb Commander only has three choices, self destruct, try to run or give up and risk ZAFT is going to drop the station anyway.
Best to call them out on this and then try to run.

 

[Illuviar]

Oops, stupid ZAFT, they involved Orb.
The remaining neutral countries might thus also enter, as ZAFT enemies, then.

Are those colony moving engines still with Pillar Of Heaven?
Red (& Blue) Frame had to defend them when they where delivert to the colony that bought them in order to move towards Jupiter and thus escape the whole clusterfuck.
Check the wiki pagea of Red, Blue & Gold, including their pilot wiki pages.
I can't see those kinda engine to be fast construction jobs, with that kinda size.

Try countering such a masive station, with (a) engine block(s) meant to move a even more massive station.
If those engines are far enough along to be used, then they could go ramming speed and try to get the station far enough from Earth, before it's destroyed, if they can take a few ZAFT ships with them...

Lets be real, Orb can't risk a orbital drop, no matter the cost, the Pillar Of Heaven is located straight above Orb, since it was to be meant as the upper stage of a Orbital Elevator.
The Orb Commander only has three choices, self destruct, try to run or give up and risk ZAFT is going to drop the station anyway.
Best to call them out on this and then try to run.

Click to shrink...

Seriously, what gives people the idea that actually neutral nations would jump in the EA lap over ZAFT attacking ORB at this point? To anyone really neutral, ORB looks like people who use the neutrality card as a shield while being anything but. While nations might use this as an excuse to enter the war, it would be by no means the real reason.

At this point those engines should be months from completion at absolute best. We're relatively early in the war right now, especially considering I'm using more realistic time scales leading up to the later stages when the EA managed to mass deploy MS at the later stages of the war. It takes time to train pilots, build their MS and get them to space, likely a lot longer than saw in the anime.

Mind you, ZAFT has no intention of doing a colony drop. What the Admiral said in an earlier update is their primary goal - to make sure that the station isn't producing weapons for the EA, because after Heliopolis and Cagali getting caught red-handed no one trusts ORB's platitudes.

It should be noted that the one really relevant neutral nation on Earth left as far as ZAFT and PLANT are concerned, was ORB due to their small space navy and their Mass Driver. Practically speaking, every single other neutral nation joining the EA in the war means little. ZAFT can win the war either on the ground or in space.

The EA can lose the war either on the ground or in space. However, merely driving ZAFT from Earth by no means mean that the EA will win the war in space.

 

[Illuviar]

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny. They belong to their respective copyright owners and publishers. This work is not created with any commercial aims.

Phase 14: ZAFT strikes back

=GSI=

Part 4

=GSI=​

Command center
Pillar of Heaven

Rondo Gina Sahaku shook in fury, caring not who might observe him. This war, this inevitable war had been the next best thing to a direct divine intervention in his favor! While the EA and ZAFT tore each other to pieces, ORB and the Sahaku family were in a position to profit greatly. Even what happened on Heliopolis could be of use. That disaster paved the road for a change of leadership within ORB, a change that was now inevitable after what happened in Africa.

With every passing day, Rondo Gina and his sister came closer and closer to realizing their ambition. First, control of ORB, followed by influencing the war towards a beneficial outcome. With the state-of-the-art military at their disposal, the EA and ZAFT wrecked by the conflict, ORB and the Sahaku family would have the future within their grasp. There would have been no one in a position to credibly oppose them!

"Sir, our defense perimeter is gone! ZAFT ships and Mobile Suits will fly by within minutes! We're already ineffective weapons range of them!"

That shout drove Rondo Gina from his daydreaming. He plunged straight back into the unpalatable reality. ORB's Space Forces were annihilated. While the station had several point defense weaponry, it was meant to deal with the odd stray shot that might come it's way. The place had never meant to be a fortress and lacked the heavy armor and defenses needed to survive a dedicated assault. Still, considering it was intended to be the top of an orbital elevator, Ame No Mihashira was massive and built tough anyway. That at least would buy him some time, though how that might help, Rondo wasn't sure.

"Keep all entrances sealed. Get them covered by heavy weapon teams." There were a few of those among the station's security forces, surely? They wouldn't be able to do anything but buying a bit of time. That would still better than simply watch a lifetime's efforts go down the drain, right? "Secure the Morgenroete facilities. I want all relevant scientific and engineering data purged. Do we have enough explosives to destroy the factory complex and the completed parts for our Mobile Suits?"

Rondo Gina would be damned if he left ZAFT profit from his hard work!

"Sir, we don't have anything able to damage a Mobile Suit once they're inside the station. Besides, putting up a credible fight risks us going the way of Heliopolis…" A familiar Captain had the gall to contradict him.

Rondo glared at the officer who was in his late forties. This particular bastard wasn't one of his people, neither one of the many people on the station owing their position to the Sahaku family. Instead, he was a career military, loyal to ORB first, the government second. That man was a pain in the ass Rondo had been trying to transfer back to Earth for months now.

"We're not letting ZAFT take control of this station intact." Rondo Gina nearly snarled. "Booby trap the entrances if you have to. Get any explosives we have to the Morgenroete complex, make up some if you have to! I want those production lines knocked out of action!"

Caring not for small-minded men and their foolish notions, Rondo left the Command Center, paying no attention to the crew who carefully didn't look at him. He had to get to his office and purge his files. No matter how well encrypted they were, they had to go. There were too many signs pointing to his and the Sahaku family's goals in there to let them fall into anyone's hands!

=GSI=​

When Rondo Gina Sahaku left, Captain Gregory Smith breathed a sigh of relief. That bastard was a politician through and through. Not the decent sort either. Smith wasn't able to gather conclusive evidence to get the bastard indicted, especially considering the political power of the family. Nevertheless, he was all but certain that Rondo Gina had his hands all over the tragedy at Heliopolis. These days it was a public secret in many circles that the Sahaku's were among those who backed Morgenroete's deal with the Earth Alliance. As a consequence, they all but invited ZAFT to strike at Heliopolis.

Unfortunately, anything the Captain could get so far was circumstantial. To a casual observer, Rondo Gina appeared at someone at the wrong time and place… or worse, a patriot who was over there to investigate what Morgenroete was up to, then managed to salvage something from the disaster!

That was bad enough. The lost battle that just saw ORB's Space Forces annihilated was much worse. Unfortunately, for once Smith couldn't directly blame the Sahaku bastard for refusing to surrender the station without a fight. That said, he had no problem blaming Rondo Gina for picking a fight they would lose and might see Ame No Mihashira destroyed, thus imperiling everyone on board.

"The station Commander had one good point – we shouldn't reward ZAFT's act of war by handing them Morgenroete's factory intact. Get all civilians into the shelters. The bulk of our security forces will oversee the evacuation and cover the civilians in case ZAFT, have lost their minds and do something regrettable. I want everyone with explosive experience to grab anything they can that goes boom and head for the factory complex. They're to sabotage it to the best of their ability without risking causing damage to the station or civilian casualties."

Smith paused to take a breath and gather his thoughts.

"Someone patch me through to the ZAFT Admiral. I'll try to negotiate a conditional surrender."

=GSI=​

CIC
Laurasia class frigate "Retribution"

"Captain, we're receiving a transmission from Ame No Mihashira in the clear.

"This is Captain Gregory Smith from ORB's Defense Force, Acting Commander of this station. I'm willing to negotiate a conditional surrender of my command. ZAFT forces, please respond."

"Finally…" Gladys muttered.

"Signal from the Flag, we're to continue on our course, perform a rotation and decelerate according to plan. Half of our deployed Mobile Suits are to remain in formation. The rest will secure an entrance into the station, so we could deploy marines without ORB interference. We're not to fire on the station without an explicit order."

"Orders received. Tactical, I want firing solution upon any weapon systems we can detect on the station, do not fire without order. Helm, keep the current evasive pattern."

With a bit of luck, Ame No Mihashira would now surrender. Doing so would spare a lot of headaches to everyone involved.

 

[Illuviar]

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny. They belong to their respective copyright owners and publishers. Th story is not for sale or rent.

Phase 14: ZAFT strikes back

=GSI=

Part 5

=GSI=​

CIC
Laurasia class frigate "Retribution"

Captain Gladys's eyes only briefly flickered away from the main tactical plot, displaying what was happening. Most of the fleet was decelerating hard, aiming to enter a holding pattern with Ame No Mihashira. Mobile Suit units were about to reach the station's main entrance and secure it any moment now. Meanwhile, shuttles with marines were also decelerating on vectors that would allow them to reach the primary docking area shortly after the advance party. Some damaged ships hung back, undergoing emergency repairs and acting as hubs for SAR efforts. A squadron of fast destroyers raced forward or decelerated, redlining their engines so they could attempt SAR on the handful of ORB hulks drifting away from the station.

Chatter from various sections was a distraction, soothing Talya's nerves a bit. Her ship was blessedly intact, though the same couldn't be said for the rest of the fleet. Glancing blows, and the odd missile strikes had destroyed weapon emplacements and seared sensor clusters. Communication antennas and laser emitters were little more than slag. Particularly devastating blows had opened the compartment to space, killing unlucky crewmembers.

Despite the painful casualties, this victory eliminated Earth's only "neutral" relevant space force. At this time, only the AF fleets hiding at the Moon and the remains of the EA Fifth Fleet clinging to their sole remaining colony cluster were left. Now, there would be no more "surprising" interventions from a supposedly neutral nation that gleefully supplied the enemy with war material. That had to be worth all the people who died today, right? Talya certainly hoped that was the case.

"Our shuttles just docked. So far, there is no resistance. Mobile Suits are holding the docking area. There are no warships or other combat-effective enemy military assets left inside," Junior Lieutenant Lin excitedly reported.

Captain Gladys covered a smile while she rubbed her forehead. The kind was painfully eager to please, and at least so far, the war failed to drown her bubbly personality. That was a small win, wasn't it?

"Shuttles and Mobile Suits are deploying within Ame No Mihashira interior. No resistance or civilians in sight…"

The fleet ceased its hard deceleration and flipped, switching to light deceleration to achieve its desired holding pattern. N-Jammers shut down, while weapon systems remained locked on to cold point defense systems. Regular E-war assets blanketed the station. Real-time video came from the ZAFT forces inside, showing the interior of the station and, most importantly, the Morgenroete complex. Smoke rose from various parts of it, and even as shuttles and Mobile Suits rapidly approached, explosions rocketed it.

A few tense hours later, ZAFT marines could secure the complex. Despite ORB's best sabotage efforts, it was obvious that the place had been busy building advanced mobile suits, similar in appearance and design to the prototypes that doomed Heliopolis.

=GSI=​

The battle for Ame No Mihashira was a clear ZAFT victory that did much to rebuild morale among the Coordinators and their allies. Captured fragmented files, technological examples, and material clearly pointed at ORB being on the cusp of full mass production of their advanced Mobile Suit variants clearly based on the prototypes Morgenroete developed for the EA at Heliopolis. ORB's official stance on the matter has never changed. All military production at Ame No Mihashira was meant for their own military forces.

PLAN leadership remains adamant that Morgenroete was building war material intended for EA use, making the station a clear military target...

from the Fires of Heaven: The Perils of Dubious Neutrality, by Catelyn Zephyr

The fall of Ame No Mihashira changed the strategic calculus for both the EA and ZAFT. ORB had the only neutral Mass Driver left on Earth, and PLANT's de facto declaration of war meant it was no longer a trade lifeline for Earth in general and ORB in particular. More importantly, it was now an active target.

This state of affairs is generally described as the prelude for the next stage of the war or the last shot of the campaign that began at Heliopolis and generally concluded with the liberation of Spain. At that point, an ever-deepening rift between the Atlantic Federation and the Eurasian Federation emerged, as illustrated by the EF pulling its forces away from JOSH-A.

The EF continued its military buildup, ultimately aimed at securing or neutralizing the Mass Driver at Lake Victoria. Eurasian military planners aimed for a series of escalating operations meant to dismantle the African Community's military capabilities destroy ZAFT's forces in Africa, and, if possible, capture the Mass Driver.

Meanwhile, the AF further reinforced JOSH-A and Panama. The opening of the ORB front offered the EA command a dilemma, especially after the EF refused to deploy more than token forces to defend ORB and its precious Mass Driver. The AF had to choose between weakening its defenses at either JOSH-A or Panama in order to deploy sufficient military assets to assist in ORB against an expected ZAFT invasion aimed at crippling its military and logistic capabilities.

Earth at War: The planetary campaigns of the Bloody Valentine War; published by Sandhurst Royal Military Academy

=GSI=​

Blue Cosmos offices, Washington DC
Atlantic Federation

Muruta Azrael gleefully watched the latest coup achieved by the Blue Cosmos propaganda machine. They were mere weeks before the elections that would give them control over the Federation when the damned Coordinators, for once, did something useful with their miserable existence. Their attack on ORB's space station Pillar of Heaven was a priceless PR gift. Various flunkies brought him up-to-date data, while Muruta issued order after order, guiding Blue Cosmos' efforts to turn an inevitable victory into virtually uncontested control over the government.

Every right-minded person on the planet was outraged at ZAFT's latest stunt. Guiding that anger to its logical and very useful conclusion was an art that the party perfected decades ago, learning all the lessons their rivals had to teach them and then improving on them.

The best thing in Azrael's mind was that the Coordinators were damned no matter what they did. After recent events, it was inevitable that ORB would come into the fold even if they weren't attacked. Once that happened, their industry, advanced designs, and, most importantly, their Mass Driver would have been invaluable assets for the war effort. Last night, ZAFT's actions made it so, and in the process, made Blue Cosmos' day.

Even better, Murua got to watch those virtually all spineless pacifists in North America anyone might have deigned listen to, get torn apart by the media. The only thing that could have made this better was if ZAFT also blew up the Pillar of Heaven, but you can't always get everything…

=GSI=​

Plant Supreme Council Building
Aprilius One

Patric Zala sat down, ignoring Eileen Canaveral's grumbling. The Council authorized an attack on the ORB station, and everything ZAFT found at the Morgenroete facility vindicated him. The victory itself was a tremendous coup for Zala after all the painful reversals that came ever since Heliopolis. This success allowed him to push harder for his reforms, proving he knew what he was doing. Mere days after securing the Pillar of Heaven, resistance and grumbling against the reforms within ZAFT fell to a record low. Another victory would cement them, allowing Zala to reforge PLANT's military with the tools he needed to keep all Coordinators safe.

"You have all seen the evidence. Data recovery on captured data drives is still in progress. However, there are already indications that ORB was working with the Earth Alliance," Zala spoke loudly, interrupting Eileen's rant. "Our actions fundamentally changed nothing of consequence diplomatically speaking. As you said, we are still receiving tentative overtures for diplomatic talks from the Eurasians. The Atlantic Federation is about to be fully taken over by Blue Cosmos anyway. From everyone else 'neutral' on Earth, only ORB mattered, and they were already acting against us! We couldn't let them supply the Alliance with advanced weapons with impunity. Doing so would have ensured the death of a tremendous number of our fellow Coordinators and guaranteed a final escalation of the war!"

The other council members looked uneasily at each other. It was hard math, after all. There was a finite number of casualties ZAFT could suffer before they would have no option but to rely on strategic weapons with all that entailed. The recent losses pushed the point of no return closer than it had any right to be. Fortunately, ZAFT was still far from spent, and it would remain that way if Patric had anything to say about it.

"A peaceful resolution of the conflict with the Earth Alliance as a whole is now utterly impossible. As far as our enemies are concerned, diplomacy can now be only instrumental with the Eurasian Federation if they remain willing to talk," Canaveral shot at him.

"Like I said, nothing has fundamentally changed since before we hit ORB last week," Zala countered. "We all know how the elections in the Atlantic Federation will go. There won't be peace with them unless we break military and economically any nation taken over by Blue Cosmos!"

"Nevertheless, the attack on that station opened another front. Now, we have to neutralize or capture ORB's Mass Driver. Do we even have the numbers for such an operation with everything else you've got going?" The Chairman asked.

Sadly, Siegel Clyne did have a point here.

"JOSH-A and Panama are heavily fortified. We can take them out. However, the casualties will be hefty, and what's worse, we will have to primarily rely on our own forces. Our allies will provide naval and air assets, yet the bulk of the ground forces must be ours. Anyway, our African allies will be too busy preparing for the Eurasian onslaught to spare any meaningful ground forces after the losses they suffered recently," Zala admitted. "We also got unconfirmed information that the Atlantic Federation might have built a Cyclops below JOSH-A to use the place as a trap or a last resort in case it is about to fall."

"Did we get that tip from the Eurasians? Clyne asked.

"Yes, which is why I believe their overtures are serious," Canaveral noted.

"It's either that they are attempting to protect the place. You know they're building rocket boosters there, along with all the military material JOSH-A is mass-producing. We have to neutralize that facility, and its location makes it vulnerable," Zala pointed out. "Unfortunately, those very facts make the place a good trap because we have to strike at it sooner rather than later."

"Do you have a solution?" the Chairman asked.

"We launch Split Break like intended. If JOSH-A is a trap, I recommend we shift our conventional forces to neutralize ORB. Due to the nature of the terrain on their islands and the population density, deploying strategic weapons would be an extreme escalation. However, we will be best served in neutralizing Panama's Mass Driver through tactical nuclear strikes. We can hardly afford further losses from Cyclops systems without retaliating with strategic weaponry upon military targets," for a second time in a short while, Zala's words staggered the Council and caused his colleagues to practically scream at each other.

 

[Illuviar]

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny. They belong to their respective copyright owners and publishers. Th story is not for sale or rent.

Phase 14: ZAFT strikes back

=GSI=

Part 6

=GSI=​

Plant Supreme Council Building
Aprilius One

Twelve hours after Zala's suggestion had the councilors screaming at each other, PLANT's Supreme Council reconvened to discuss the path forward. Chairman Clyne would have loved to have more time for tempers to cool down and his colleagues to think things through. However, time was a premium currency, the kind no one could tell him how much he had to spend. Recent defeats in space and on the ground shifted the strategic calculus, making previously unthinkable ideas something PLANT's leadership had to seriously consider as viable alternatives instead of more Blue Cosmos-driven madness.

"Deployment of strategic weapons will be a last resort. The same is true for tactical nuclear weaponry," Clyne drew a proverbial line in the sand, and not just because his daughter was a prisoner in Europe. "That is especially true as far as the Atlantic Federation is concerned," made a sharp gesture to forestall inevitable protests and rumbles of approval. Interestingly enough, Zala didn't look particularly troubled by that proclamation. "We've all lost friends and family at Julius Seven. We all know it was because of Blue Cosmos racists within the Atlantic Federation forces. If there is justice in this world, it will be against them. We might use strategic weapons if we have to use them at all. However, the Atlantic Federation is the one faction within the Earth Alliance that will seize any credible justification we give Earth to escalate the war given the chance. We will not give them such a justification by using nuclear weapons on their territory unless they fully open that Pandora's Box."

Clyne's statement earned him relief and no small amount of angry, yer restrained grumbles. Once again, Zala didn't appear angered or concerned by the Chairman's decision, which made Siegel wonder what the man was up to. Was it because of his son, who was also a prisoner? Did he make that suggestion yesterday because, as a soldier, he believed he had to, even if he didn't personally like or want it?

"I would like for the members of the Defense Committee to remind us what are the primary reasons for us to assault JOSH-A as a critical target instead of focusing on the Mass Drivers. Are there other ways to achieve at least some of the same objectives without throwing our forces into a possible trap?" Eileen Canaver asked. As befitting PLANT's chief diplomat, her poker face showed nothing, and her tone betrayed mere curiosity.

Zala raised an eyebrow in speculation before nodding at Yuri Amalfi. It was disheartening to consider how many Council Members had children now in Eurasian custody. The fact that said children should have been at school, worrying about homework and boyfriends and girlfriends, instead of on the front was a painful reminder of how few Coordinators PLANT had, forcing them to send teenagers into the fires of war.

"JOSH-A is the Earth Alliance's supreme military headquarters. It coordinates EA forces across Earth and in space. The installation contains extensive manufacturing facilities building war materials and a town for the specialists operating said facilities. Taking it out will be a crippling blow against EA's ability to coordinate and further impact their capacity to build weapons."

"Lack of sufficient key rare resources and N-Jammer relater disruption of the power grid worldwide is what noticeably impacts Earth's ability to drown us in material. Even if that wasn't the case, neutralizing the mass drivers not under our control would mean that our enemies could only bring a limited amount of material into orbit. We can more easily interdict such deliveries," Dr. Orson White scoffed.

When everyone looked at him with various amounts of surprise, the scientist shrugged. "What? I've been doing my homework since joining the Council. I am particularly interested in the effect of the N-Jammers my team created. They also disrupt long-range communication across Earth, though by no means make it impossible. The ability of the Earth Alliance to coordinate is already degraded and will remain that way as long as we can maintain a sufficient number of active N-Jammers across enemy territory. I am compelled to ask if taking out JOSH-A will be worth the price, even if the Atlantic Federation is not using that place as bait for us. It is the next obvious target after the Mass Drivers, isn't it? I must make this clear to our colleagues on the Defense Committee, I am not asking if that place is a juicy target that must be hit eventually. I am asking if hitting it will be worth it, especially if it is a trap."

If their pleasantly surprised expressions were anything to go by, at least those questions earned the scientist some grudging respect among the members of the Defense Committee.

"Due to its location and what it contains, JOSH-A is a unique target we can strike at without executing an orbital drop deep into enemy territory. That, or worse, have to fight overland for hundreds of kilometers before reaching any singular installation of a similar value. During and after the Reconstruction War, key members of the Earth Alliance dispersed and hardened their military industries. There are a few targets, such as JOSH-A, and they are all deep within the continental United States or Eurasia. Direct strike at them will be only possible through a massive orbital drop, and we will have to write off all forces we send that way because they will end up cut off in the heart of enemy territory. The only alternative is slow and costly overland campaigns, which is the best way for us to lose the war. We will be playing to the EA's strengths, fighting an attrition war we can't afford to," Zala lectured. "As we've discussed, we can strike many softer high-value targets with orbital drops, which will be worth losing the troops sent to Earth. Those are almost exclusively infrastructure and power generation facilities."

"To summarize, JOSH-A is a unique target ZAFT would love to neutralize, but we can't necessarily afford to do so if the Earth Alliance decided to sacrifice it to cripple our conventional ground forces," Canaver concluded. "Since the war began, diplomacy has been less and less relevant. ORB was a key example – for despite their self-proclaimed neutrality and our constant protests, they built game-changing weapons for Earth, and now we are de-facto at war with them. All major Earth powers on Earth are against us, and there is no real chance for us to gain allies among the smaller neutral blocks. They are too reliant on trade with other Earth powers, or the threat of military retaliation will keep them at bay. At any rate, there is not much space for the war to grow larger."

"That has been a depressing reality since we deployed the N-Jammers. That by itself guaranteed that we won't be earning ourselves any friends on Earth outside of our pre-existing allies," Clyne allowed, wondering what Eileen was up to.

"For the first time since the war began, a major member of the Earth Alliance is willing to talk with us. The Eurasian Federation's recent victories in space and on the ground have put them in a much better strategic position than they were before, and by necessity, ZAFT's focus must be Panama, JOSH-A, or both. Now, ORB, too."

"Our situation in Africa is not very good and will grow worse when the Eurasians are ready to launch their offensive. The African Community is receiving everything we can afford to give them without compromising other facets of the war effort," Zala allowed. In the long run, losing the Mass Driver at Lake Victoria was a realistic possibility when it was rather secure not so long ago. "We are taking measures to ensure the enemy won't be able to recapture the facility at Lake Victoria intact."

"It is a bargaining chip. The position of our African Community allies is another," Canaver countered. "I've been thinking lately about consulting my colleagues. I believe we've been approaching the war effort wrong, especially on the diplomatic front. We've been treating our enemies on Earth as a monolithic whole, and there's some truth to that. The Atlantic Federation is the superpower on Earth and has an incredible influence within the Earth Alliance. However, the war so far has hurt their capabilities badly, and the bulk of their forces are tied up at the Moon, Panama, JOSH-A, or holding South America. Is that a fair representation of the facts on the ground?"

By now, everyone was keenly aware that the diplomats were up to something and wondering what it was.

"It is close enough for government work," Zala smiled thinly and stared expectantly at Eileen.

"The Eurasians want to negotiate, for they have bargaining chips no one else on Earth has. We also have things they want we can bargain with. We also know they've pulled most of their forces from JOSH-A, so they either believe that the Atlantic Federation can hold the place by itself, suspect it is a trap, or don't care about its fate."

"You want to try to negotiate for a separate peace with the Eurasians, cracking the Earth Alliance that way," Ziegel concluded. "It shouldn't work."

"Much will depend on what the Atlantic Federation will be up to after their elections. Blue Cosmos will win; the only question is how much. Our allies in the African Community confirm that the Eurasians aren't exactly thrilled with that certainty, and said notion certainly contributed to them pulling out of JOSH-A," Eileen pointed out. "I would recommend that we focus on Panama and ORB. Suppose ZAFT can neutralize those Mass Drivers without utilizing nuclear weapons? In that case, our bargaining position versus the Eurasians will be that much stronger."

"What do you have in mind?" Zala asked, clearly intrigued.

"How do you see the war ending? If we are losing conventionally while Blue Cosmos has a run of the Atlantic Federation, this Council already agreed we will escalate to a strategic exchange, ensuring the bastards lose as well. The same goes if they are truly mad and try to kill us all. Our one path for a clean military victory is to choke Earth's economy until the Earth Alliance can no longer sustain the war and leaves us in uncontested control of space. Until recently, that plan was working quite well. Now, we must seriously look into other arrangements," Canaver explained. "The Eurasians' primary issue with us is economic, and that might be the way to bring them to the table and do something constructive through negotiations."

"We can't give them back our older colonies, especially any of the industrial ones! Certainly not while the war is ongoing, and if we win, the Eurasians will at best be alone against us and in no position to force us to give them such colonies back…" Siegel exclaimed.

"That's the primary stumbling block to our plan," Eileen admitted. "What can we offer the Eurasians to get a ceasefire and begin serious negotiations for peace first, and what can we give them to end their part in the war. We aren't exactly negotiating from a position of strength with them. Diplomacy is a tool that can save our African Community allies and secure our food supply. If we lose the Mass Driver at Victoria either to the enemy or if we have to blow it up ourselves, food and other deliveries from Earth will be a fraction of the volume we're enjoying now."

Zala and the other Defence Committee members looked at each other. They exchanged quick, terse whispers before Patrik nodded to Joule and looked back at Eileeen.

"Freezing the African front through negotiations and allowing us to shift the bulk of our troops in the region against critical targets will benefit us. That is a course of action ZAFT can back as long as the price we have to pay is acceptable. We understand that otherwise, we will have to pay a price in blood to aid our African allies and, at the very least, slow down a Eurasian offensive towards Victoria," Zala allowed. "If negotiations can at least buy us time, I would recommend focusing on ORB, then Panama, and only going after JOSH-A when we rebuild when we've taken out or control all Mass Drivers on Earth. The downside of such a strategy is the need to attack in the teeth of strong enemy defenses, especially at Panama, backed by powerful intact Earth forces."

No one got to rest anytime soon after the diplomats surprised the rest of the Council. Discussions would go on until late into the night before they could reach a decision.

 

[Warmachine375]

Clyne drew a proverbial line in the sand, and not just because his daughter was a prisoner in Europe.

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Good to see Lacus' father put his foot down and show that just because he is nice, it doesn't mean he's a pushover. He had been in politics and played the game well.

We all know it was because of Blue Cosmos racists within the Atlantic Federation forces. If there is justice in this world, it will be against them.

Click to shrink...

And it did in Seed Freedom movie where Compass had been kicking Blue Cosmos' asses they deserve and it's cathartic.

Will you eventually involve the Kingdom of Foundation led by Aura Maha Khyber and her Black Knight Squad in this story? They would be interesting antagonists that Lieutenant Veil and his comrades will have to deal with.

The fact that said children should have been at school, worrying about homework and boyfriends and girlfriends, instead of on the front was a painful reminder of how few Coordinators PLANT had, forcing them to send teenagers into the fires of war.

Click to shrink...

The cruel reality of Gundam in a nutshell where teenagers with attitude have to pilot giant robots to fight, kill and survive.

I am asking if hitting it will be worth it, especially if it is a trap."

Click to shrink...

As Sir Ian McKellen would say, "We shall spring the trap."

The same goes if they are truly mad and try to kill us all.

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Oh Blue Cosmos are all bunch of Earthnoid madmen so freaking insane even the Titans, Earthnoids themselves from Zeta Gundam will tell them to chill.

 

[Illuviar]

snip

Click to shrink...

Here we see ZAFT's recent defeats come to roost politically - the Defense Committee representing the PLANT military has a lot less political support as a direct consequence. Conventional victory is by no means a reasonable possibility now, even if ZAFT has a lot of advantages, for they can practically lose all their holdings, forces and allies on Earth and still win by outlasting the EA's ability to build and deploy sufficient number of advanced platforms in space to conventionally fight ZAFT's navy and mobile suits. This leads to people seriously considering other options save for fighting to victory or death so to speak, for losing and letting people like Blue Cosmos take over PLAN is not accepbable for the Coordinators, obviously.

The timing and strategic situation doesn't work for Foundation to be a relevant issue for the EF at this time, especially after the debacle in Spain. The last thing ZAFT wants right now on Earth is to poke the Eurasians after that loss, especially at place where the EF should have logistics and military superiority. From what I recall about Foundation, a big reason its "liberation" was possible was because OTL the EF military bled itself white in Spain, then aiding the AF in Africa to take back Victoria. An military hardware ZAFT has as a surplus due to not enough people to use it, is now going to the African Community to replenish their losses and make them a tougher nut to crack for the expected Eurasian offensive into North Africa.

Blue Cosmos, will be more and more of an issue for everyone after the next elections in the AF, and those are going to be very soon in universe.