Project PHAETON 11 (Patreon)

Commissioned by RoyalTwinFangs

Project PHAETON

Chapter 11

-VB-

So hopped up on their own nationalistic pride and ego, they saw the mere idea of resistance as an insult and grievous sin that couldn’t be forgiven. 

So Hatte fell, but it wasn’t enough that they destroyed all resistance. They wanted it known to all of humanity that such “insult” would not be forgiven or forgotten. 

In the span of less than a week, the colonial government fell. Most of the Island Iffish’s residents lay dead. Zeon didn’t spare anyone. Or rather, they didn’t think to spare anyone. They gassed the entire colony without a second thought as to the consequences. After all, who would know? 

The plan was to use Island Iffish colony as a literal battering ram against the Earth Federation. Once the colony got dropped on their military headquarter, it wouldn’t matter that Zeon had killed everyone aboard the colony.

But people did care. And they did know. 

Despite the fact that war was supposed to be a confusing mess where unreliable information proliferated everywhere, a single “news agency” came through.

Inter-League Network, or ILN, was an already existing news network that sought to connect all members of the Phaeton League. It was a fledgling thing with barely a dozen employees and barely scraping by the grace of House Caelum’s subsidies. This wasn’t because the ILN had some sort of special connection or anything like that. It was simply one of many businesses that the First House subsidized on their own. 

Of course, subsidies didn’t come without strings attached. 

And House Caelum came calling with a disgustingly juicy and tragic story for them to share. 

The network got their most emotional and empathetic announcer to read the prompts and view the footage captured by House Caelum’s satellites and embedded spywares inside Island Iffish itself. 

---

Kate Euphezia sat in her chair with her mouth gaping open and tears streaming down from her face. 

The video rolled on mercilessly, showing her and the rest of the League the last moments of a small orphanage. 

Of the children crying, screaming, and begging as they fell over in pain as a near colorless gas swept over the orphanage and the rest of the colony. 

Those sounds all quieted down to whimpers and twitches. 

And soon, even those sounds disappeared. 

The video stopped with just one child’s face in its frames: a young girl staring blankly with her head rolled to the side and blood dripping from her nose and mouth.

It took her more than five minutes before she got a hold of herself, but even then, she was not okay at all. 

She should not have accepted this position.

---

Despite how ill-fit she had been for the segment, her reaction to the travesty aroused similar feelings in many people.

The ILN broadcasted this segment live not just to all League but also the Earth Federation… and the Principality of Zeon itself. 

On Earth and its colonies, Iffish became the rallying cry of an outraged nation who watched their siblings and relatives die on TV. A confused nation disbelieving of the war declaration suddenly found a voice as one, and so eleven billion shouted out as one. 

IFFISH NEVER AGAIN!

On the various League colonies, any favorable view of Zeon died. Those who refused to let such favorable views die were shown the door. The divided League united under the horrors they had been slapped in the face with. Island Iffish had nearly half a billion people in its main colony, which was more people than the entirety of the Phaeton League! Now, Zeon had shown itself to be an existential threat because if they were willing to kill off that many people for trivial reasons, then what would they do to the League? This was no longer just a “unrelatable war” but genocide that they had to stop. 

And on Zeon itself? People who hadn’t known about what their soldiers were doing watched appalled as their nation repeated history’s worst war crimes against humanity. The secret police suddenly found themselves swamped with work as previously loyal citizens and figures began to question their country and themselves. And when more than half of the population began to question these things, the secret police couldn’t afford to round them up all and “reeducate” them. But the fools certainly tried. 

House Caelum learned about the actions of Zeon’s secret police, but chose not to talk about it. 

Noctis wasn’t sure how to feel about that. 

As his father’s heir, he sat in and gave his opinions on his father’s executive decisions (at least while he was still in League space), including on the materials broadcasted by ILN. So when Father chose not to broadcast Zeon’s own crime against its people, he questioned it. 

“Why, Father?” he asked curiously from the privacy of his quarters in the Saloren while en route to Earth. Yes, the entirety of the 2nd Ceres Guard was en route to support the Earth Federation with additional freighters that they were “protecting” for “humanitarian aid.” And if the prickly and proud Zeon saw fit to attack them, then they would pay. 

Father looked bored and busy at the same time. A common state of being for those who took on tedious work.”Because it doesn’t matter if we reduce the number of people we paint as wrong or not bad. It will only serve to confuse the soldiers on the frontlines on who they should shoot or not shoot.”

“Wouldn’t that put civilians in danger?”

“Son, civilians are always in danger in war.”

“... But isn’t it immoral?”

“Immoral,” Zeyus hummed. “I suppose. But my responsibility is not to all of humanity or civilians, only those who hold themselves loyal to my family first and the League second. And morality has a place in the battlefield, it comes after active combat, not before it. Which means that as far as I am concerned, my orders to all House soldiers to not engage in extracurricular activities is enough to fulfill what little moral actions I need to take.”

Noctis frowned at his father’s pragmatically cold statement which he spoke with the same energy and boredom as when he spoke about whichever dumb policy that a member of the League was about to enact and ruin themselves with. 

“But shouldn’t we be above that?” he asked again. 

“Above that?” Father snorted. “I have neither the time or patience. If you want to, then go ahead, son, but I expect you to put our family, house and the League before anyone else.”

“Understood.”

“Good. How soon until you are in Earth’s orbit?” 

“Give or take four more days,” he replied. 

Father nodded. “Good. Keep away from their main forces in the meantime unless the 3rd and 4th Guards arrive there.”

“Understood.” He paused. “How are the meetings going?”

Not too long after the first transmissions of Zeon’s war crimes, League’s members got together again. This time, according to his sister, the tone, mood, and direction differed. Whereas before many members wanted to stay out of the war, the majority were too eager to join in.

“It’s going well. Then good luck with your mission, son. Love you.”

“... Love you, too, dad.”

Then they hung up.

Noctis leaned back into his seat and let out a sigh. 

His mission was simple: distract the Zeon space force. On the surface, the mission sounded simple. In practice, it was not. Zeon was not filled with stupid people. If that was the case, then they would not have been able to start a war of this magnitude and depravity. Not wise, perhaps but wisdom and intellect weren’t necessarily linked. Zeon would not blindly chase after his fleet, especially not after the last one-sided thrashing he gave them. 

But that’s where the other parts of the mission came in. 

In this mission, he was to show off House Caelym’s new weapons of war, including the new mobile suits of various roles. By dangling those suits in front of the suit-fanatic Zeonites, it was sure to make them try to chase after them. 

Which was also why the 2nd Ceres Guard had been sent by itself as a vanguard but with a very visible and much slower 3rd and 4th Ceres Guards one month behind them even though they could quickly catch up to the 2nd. By giving the Zeonites a small force they could feasibly take on right now and possibly steal as many technologies as possible before the reinforcement arrived, Zeonites will feel rushed to try to take him down.

Yes. 

His mission was to act as a bait, but by doing so, he would be drawing Zeonite resources away from the battles and atrocities they could be committing. 

Noctis scoffed. 

“For all of your pragmatic cold statements, you were awfully quick to use your own son to bait the enemy, father. All so that less civilians would die to Zeonite guns,” he hummed. After all, if they were chasing him with a force big enough to take down the 2nd Ceres Guard, then the Zeonites was pulling a force of that size away from their battles with the federation or attacking civilian targets. 

Which they have already done on Earth and the Side colonies. 

He gritted his teeth. 

Hatte… That colony was gone. He’d seen the news just as the rest of his crew had. It invigorated them. Convinced them fully that this war wasn’t just House Caelum meddling in someone else’s affairs but doing something for the future of humanity as a whole. 

So he would act as a bait. 

He would fight outnumbered. 

Because he was all for kicking Zeon’s ass. 

His radio crackled to life. “Lord Caelum. We have a Zeon naval squadron tailing us.”

Noctis pushed himself up. “Let’s see what bit the bait.” He walked out of his room and to the bridge. “Do we have ID and IFF on who this is?” he asked as he looked at the Zeon naval squadron keeping their distance from them. It was roughly the same number of ships that he had to face last time, which bode well for him should a fight break out right now. 

“We do, general. It’s…”

-VB-

Garma wanted to spit. 

Oh, wait. This was his command ship. 

He spat to the side, and his spit splattered on the luxurious gold-yellow rug. 

“That fucking Phaeker!” he hissed out.

He recognized those ships! He recognized those numbers. He’s spent years thinking back to the day he fell from being his family’s up and coming member to becoming a “touched in the head” weakling. That’s how his family saw him ever since his loss, which had nothing to do with his abilities! 

Why were they here interfering in Zeon’s war?! 

Oh, wait. It was exactly because Zeon was at war that these fuckers were here.

He gritted his teeth. 

“Shall we give chase?” his second-in-command, an officer chosen for his loyalty to the Zabi family more than his ability, asked. 

Garma nearly glared at the man. “No,” he spat out. “If we give chase, then even with our improved Zaku II’s, we won’t win. They will literally outmass our mobile suits and drown us in numbers.” 

Worse, he was put in charge of a very small force of the wider federation assault force. His squadron merely had three Musai-class cruisers, one Zanzibar-class assault cruiser, two Gunava-destroyers, and two Tetra-class corvettes. Numerically, he had the same number of ships and mobile suits as before. The problem, however, was the fact that just as Zeon’s fleets have received upgrades in the years since the skirmish, he very much expected the Leaguers to have done the same. 

“Call up Space Attack Force command,” he ordered with a long hiss while glaring at the officer who obviously didn’t understand their situation. “We need an overwhelming firepower to take those ships out. I need at least two more squadrons of the same size as mine. Go.”

The officer saluted and quickly left.

Garma turned back to glare at the static image of the 2nd Ceres Guards. 

‘I will not let you defeat me a second time,’ he thought venomously as his hands curled up around his command chair’s armrests. ‘And I will make sure you suffer for the shame you gave me last time.’