Project PHAETON 17 (Patreon)

Commissioned by RoyalTwinFang

Project PHAETON

Chapter 17

-VB-

It was only after that a full seventh of the Earth’s population had died from direct impact and another fifth were beginning to suffer its effects that the Earth Federation would bring their full naval might to bear. 

Disgusted by the federation leadership’s incompetence that went full circle into full malice, General Noctis Caelum pulled his fleet back to focus on the actual humanitarian crisis that no one else but his father had anticipated. 

And then the Battle of Loum broke out in the defense of Loum when the Principality of Zion attacked. 

-VB-

The Earth Federation Space Force 2nd Space Fleet headed by Johann Abraham Revil stood arrayed against Zeon’s incoming fleet. Under this fleet, he had 50 Magellan-class battleships, 175 Salamis-class cruisers, 400 frigates, destroyers, and corvettes of various classes, and 300 support ships not involved in direct combat. They also had 200 RX-77-02 Guncannons, though these weren’t meant to be used in space combat and lacked the appropriate jet thrusters for good maneuverability. 

Against this massive fleet, Zeon had brought many of their naval assets together to form the Combined Fleet. Their navy’s size had grown in response to their poor showing against the League years prior. Under Admiral Dozle Zabi, they deployed 10 Gwazine battleships, 60 Chivvay cruisers, 40 Musai cruisers, and 75 Jicco missile frigates. They made up for their lack of numbers in capital ships with their mobile suits: 400 Zaku I’s and 3,000 Zaku II’s. 

The Earth Federation force had long since been made aware of the mobile suits, however, which was why there were so many lower tonnage frigates, destroyers, and corvettes; they had not been outfitted to fight against Zeon’s capital ships but equipped with enough rapid acquisition point defense to shoot down the mobile suits. 

The battle … did not begin with a shoot out. Both sides had long since seen the other before they even met in the battlefield. 

The battle began with a pre-battle conversation between Dozle Zabi and Johann Abraham Revil. 

---

“... Radio contact from the federation, admiral,” one of the bridge officers spoke up before looking over their shoulder. “ID states General Ravil.”

Dozle Zabi blinked in surprise before looking down at his console. He typed away the commands to show communications, and indeed, right there in the center of the screen, was a handshake request for direct communication from none other than the General Revil.

The chief commander of the Earth Federation forces. The man in charge of guarding the corrupt and vile heart of humanity. 

Dozle accepted the call. There was no hologram or screen, only audio.

“Admiral Zabi,” an old man’s voice came through.

“General Revil,” he greeted the man. “It’s an … honor to converse with you.”

“And I you, I suppose,” the general replied with a hoarse chuckle. “... I must ask if you had a direct hand in what happened on Earth.”

Dozle closed his eyes. When he opened them, he answered honestly. “I did not. I knew about the plan, and it was carried out by fleets and divisions not under my direct control. To fight you after dealing such a blow is … dishonorable.”

There was a moment of silence before the general answered. “I see. I am both glad and sad that you were not involved and that you found it to be such.”

He understood what the general was getting at. If he had been in Revil’s shoes, then he would also be upset that he was not fighting someone who had committed such atrocities upon his people and also glad that there were honorable men on the other side. He would also be upset that he would not be facing off against those responsible for the atrocity. 

“Was this necessary?” 

Dozle paused.

“... Had the federation been led by people such as you, General Revil, then no. It need not have,” he replied quietly but loud enough that everyone, including Revil, could hear. “But the federation was led by those who have been encroaching upon our independence underneath the surface. The federation was too large, too heavy, and too … present for our independence to continue. We would have not been able to do anything to stop you.”

“I see.”

There was another moment of silence. Heavier and deeper than before but present nonetheless. 

“Then I hope you survive this battle, admiral. It would be better if good men and women lived instead of evil men and women surviving.”

“You, too, general.”

And the call came to an end. 

---

A full hour after their brief conversation in which they both lamented the state of the solar system, the first cannons fired. 

Close to two hundred Twin Mega Particle Guns roared out into space from the Zeonite fleet.

The federation forces, knowing but not having been prepared for that level of assault right off the bat, took heavy damage as green explosions erupted all over the fleet. 

They fired right back at the Zeonites, their pink particle beams slicing into the bleak darkness of space. 

Pink explosions rocked the Zeon fleet. 

As they exchanged fire with one another, it became very clear who was winning.

Federation ships possessed both more cannons and a narrower cross section that gave them both offensive and defensive advantages compared to Zeon’s bulkier and more carrier-oriented ships. 

As they closed ranges, the federation fleet poured out more of their firepower from their cruisers and battleships while their smaller warships waited behind them. 

The Zeon fleet, on the other hand, fought back hard, closing the distance by paying it with steel and blood, all to keep their mobile suit carriers behind them safe. 

But they did eventually close the distance, and unleashed the Zakus. 

They came out in thousands with the majority of them carrying limited ammunition anti-warship weapons like the dumb fire bazookas and more standard mobile suit machineguns. 

They burst into action, crossing the final one or two kilometers of space between the two fleets and opened fire into the federation fleet. 

And that’s what the federation navy had been waiting for. 

Hundreds of small warships - frigates, destroyers, and corvettes - emerged from the fleet’s rear and fanned out so as to not cause friendly fire. Armed to the teeth with both old and new point defense systems and weapons, they were a mobile suit’s worst nightmare: a dedicated anti-mobile suit force. 

And both of these new forces opened fire upon each other.

Without the mobile suits to gun them down, the federation battleships and cruisers continued to devastate the numerically inferior Zeon capital ships. 

That was when the Red Comet showed up.

His Zaku, painted red unlike the others, flew out from the Zaku formations as they exchanged fire with the smaller warships. Instead of trying to destroy the nimbler frigates, destroyers, and corvettes, he led a small strike team and chose to strike at the battleships. 

With bazookas and Zaku machineguns and the help of his squad, he destroyed one battleship. And then two. 

His actions inspired others to do more than simply duck and weave against the smaller warships, and close to three hundred Zakus broke off from the main engagement to attack the capital ships. 

That was enough to distract the federation warships from concentrating on the savaged Zeon fleet, which was just barely close to breaking. 

The Zakus, led by the Red Comet, First Lieutenant Char Aznable, shifted their attention to the capital ships and devastated them. 

Eventually, General Revil decided to call a retreat, using the point defense heavy smaller warships as rear guards while his still functioning larger capital ships pulled out to Side 5. 

---

Zeon celebrated. 

They had won, forcing the federation to run.

Of the 225 main capital ships, the federation lost 20 Magellans and 90 Salamis. Of their 400 lighter warships, they lost close to half. By the standards of the past and present, this was a crippling defeat for the federation. Worse, this battle proved that mobile suits that they were hesitant to copy and improve upon had been the decisive factor. This was shown in the near total survival of the RX-77-02 Guncannons; of the 200 of them deployed, only 32 had been lost because even a limited maneuverability of a mobile suit was leagues above the maneuverability of warships and fighters, which had allowed them to survive attacks that would have crippled or killed them simply by … sidestepping. 

For his loss, Revil would be censured. Because, of course, the federation’s leadership didn’t want to take responsibility for their actions that led to this battle’s defeat. 

And as much as it was a Zeonite victory, it was not a decisive one. In fact, it was very close to pyrrhic. The battle had been extremely costly for the Zeon Combined Fleet and particularly harsh for the mobile suit force. Of their 110 mainline warships, they lost 8 of 10 Gwazine battleships, 38 of 60 Chivvay cruisers, 31 of 40 Musai cruisers and 55 of 75 Jicco frigates for a total of 132 out of 185 participating warships. 

They lost all Zaku I’s. They also lost 2,300 Zaku II’s. This left the Zeon Combined Fleet with just 700 mobile suits. Worse, their factories could not produce mobile suits fast enough to replace these losses within the next half decade, never mind a year, and they couldn’t produce them fast enough because more than a third of the internal components of the Zakus, both I and II, had come from federation manufacturers, the very people they were now at war with.

Revil did not know this. 

Dozle did. It was why he would go on to stand before his family and declare that they needed a decisive victory against the federation to bring them to the negotiating table, one that could overshadow the atrocity committed against Earth itself. 

He wouldn’t be ignored… but the difference between how far they took his advice and ignoring him outright would not have been too far off. 

Because as much as they wanted to focus on the federation, a new threat was coming for them. 

House Caelum and its Black Banner sailed toward their home.

And Lord Zeyus Caelum had a lot to say about Zeon.

-VB-

As much as Zeon suffered in space, this was not the case for their ground forces already on Earth. 

Having arrived days after the colony drop and within hours of the Battle of Loum, Zeon’s ground forces landed all over the planet but were concentrated in South America where federation military’s headquarters were. Though they could not find it in orbit or crush it with the colony drop, Zeon still needed it gone. 

And so, they landed with close to 2,000 Zaku II’s and 400 Zaku I’s.

So began the single longest campaign of the war. 

Operation London Fire. 

Burn enough of the continent, and they’ll find Jaburo.