The battle in the PLANT border space zone concluded on the first day without any surprises.
This time, the Atlantic Federation's situation was even more miserable than in the original story.
In the original plot, after the nuclear attack force was wiped out by the Neutron Stampeder, the majority of their main forces at least managed to retreat.
But this time, due to Athrun's early return with the Justice Gundam, the situation on the main battlefield was different. The Justice Gundam, retrofitted with a Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactor developed by PLANT and equipped with the Meteor System, was like a god of war.
Furthermore, Miguel Aiman's squad, who had immediately pledged allegiance to Athrun upon his return and had since been promoted to Red Coats, provided flank cover with the Covenant Gundam and a host of Zaku Warriors. Athrun led his squad and tore through the Atlantic Federation's defensive line, plunging straight into their mothership fleet.
Subsequently, the bridge of the Atlantic Federation fleet's flagship was sliced off by Athrun with the Meteor's Ship-Slicing Sword.
What followed was the rout of the leaderless Atlantic Federation fleet.
Even though Durandal continued to play the pacifist, ordering his forces not to pursue too far and to simply drive the Atlantic Federation fleet out of the border, the fleeing fleet ran into the ZAFT defenders, who were spoiling for a fight and had suffered few losses. In the end, less than half of the fleet actually escaped.
This engagement directly halved the number of the Atlantic Federation's space forces, driving them all back to the vicinity of the Moon.
As a result, Athrun once again became a celebrated hero of PLANT, his fame soaring.
However, since the space forces of the East Asian Republic and the Eurasian Federation were undamaged, PLANT could not yet claim to have near-total control of space, unlike in the early stages of the previous war.
(The map below is just to show the distribution of space zones. The markers in it are no longer applicable to this book. Also, the Messiah fortress is still hidden at this time, and very few people within PLANT even know of its existence.)
The current situation is as follows: the First Cosmic Era Zone (within the Circum-Terrestrial Debris Belt) is still under the control of the New Misurugi Kingdom and the Earth Alliance. Due to the existence of the Balki Fortress, the New Misurugi Kingdom holds dominance in the space zone above the Southern Hemisphere.
The Second Cosmic Era Zone, the lunar sphere, is mostly controlled by the Earth Alliance. The New Misurugi Kingdom only has a base on the far side of the Moon, while PLANT's forces at their lunar stronghold can only cower and tremble, awaiting rescue from their homeland. The only good news is that the Atlantic Federation, even after its defeat, did not carry out a purge in the lunar city of Copernicus out of frustration. The Coordinators there are still relatively safe for now.
The Third Cosmic Era Zone is the PLANT homeland, and no other power can currently penetrate it.
In the Fourth Cosmic Era Zone, PLANT's additional city, Armory One, is in a standoff with the East Asian Republic's fleet, the strongest force in that area. However, the two sides have not yet officially engaged in combat, and the four-nation inspection team at Armory One has already withdrawn.
The Fifth Cosmic Era Zone is basically under the control of the New Misurugi Kingdom. The Earth Alliance and PLANT only have a few outposts there. The only military forces present are the defense forces of the New Misurugi Kingdom's Star Palace Colony Satellite and the troops of the Artemis Fortress.
However, the current state of affairs in space is only temporary. Although the Atlantic Federation's campaign was a disaster that nearly wiped out their entire space force, they at least initiated the conflict, and the pretense of peace between the Earth Alliance and PLANT has been shattered.
Moreover, after nearly two years of rest and recuperation, the Atlantic Federation's resources are substantial. Such a heavy loss in space merely requires a short breather. While a steady stream of reinforcements is sent to space from their home nation, war preparations have also begun on Earth.
In fact, looking at the forces deployed by the five nations of the Earth Sphere, the articles in the Earth Sphere Peace Accord restricting military numbers are a complete joke. Would you believe that the most compliant of the five nations was the Eurasian Federation?
In short, after about a week of brewing, the Second Earth Alliance-PLANT War officially began.
Fighting erupted almost simultaneously in the pro-PLANT regions of South America and in the Fourth Cosmic Era Zone.
Above the Southern Hemisphere, Reid, in order to avoid being drawn into the fighting in the early stages, proactively ordered his forces to clear the space zone above South America, allowing PLANT's supply lines to continuously support the continent.
However, the Earth Alliance soon began attacking this supply line, and the two sides became locked in a fierce struggle.
But just a few days later, a fire started in the Earth Alliance's backyard. The African Community and the South African Unification Organization, long exploited by the Eurasian Federation over the past two years, seized the opportunity to declare war, aiming to drive the Eurasian Federation out of Africa. Although they did not officially join PLANT, they tied up a large number of Eurasian Federation troops.
The Muslim Conglomerate was invaded by both sides. At the request of the African Community, PLANT dispatched troops to occupy the Suez Canal line, reigniting the Suez Canal Battle with the Eurasian Federation.
Moreover, when the nest is overturned, no egg can remain intact. With Earth descending into a chaotic free-for-all, how could both sides possibly allow the New Misurugi Kingdom to remain unscathed?
Since the start of the war, the New Misurugi Kingdom's periphery has been hit by stray fire from both sides' battles daily. Both sides have been impersonating the other to launch attacks.
Reid showed no tolerance. They wanted to drag him into the war, did they? Simple. He would fight both sides at once.
On Earth, any forces, regardless of affiliation, that dared to let their battles spill over into his defense lines were annihilated without exception.
In space, although he had ceded the zone above South America, if the fighting dared to approach the space zone above Australia, the Balki Cannon would be brought to bear.
Since the Earth Alliance and PLANT did not dare to use large forces to impersonate the other side and attack the New Misurugi Kingdom (and they couldn't fake it well anyway), these attacks were all small-scale and stood no chance against the New Misurugi Kingdom's regular army.
Therefore, even when their forces were annihilated, the two powers could only lodge verbal protests. For a time, protest letters flew into Star Palace City like snowflakes.
However, in the current situation, the secretariat would basically just glance at these protest letters, see they were in a standard format, and toss them aside without ever passing them on to Une.
And what else was Reid doing besides defending? Naturally, he was taking advantage of all the major powers being distracted by the war to secretly send people to investigate the Junk Guild.
Although the Junk Guild had been severely cracked down upon by the three Earth Alliance nations before the war began, just as Reid had predicted, it ended with the Junk Guild simply pushing out a few unlucky executives to take the fall.
Although the Junk Guild's upper echelon was indeed purged this time due to the East Asian Republic's wrath, Reid knew very well that those purged were basically just the public-facing fronts. Most of the true behind-the-scenes managers were unharmed.
So, Reid dispatched people to begin a secret investigation. The goal was simple: following the clues provided by Saito, find the real liaison who contacted Durandal and find evidence of their support for the Zala Faction hardliners (the evidence regarding the Junius 7 drop had been completely destroyed with the death of the person in charge, making further investigation impossible).
Meanwhile, Durandal, just as in the original story, held up the banner of peace, putting on a show for the media every day, stating that the current PLANT had no ambitions of territorial conquest and that all its actions were defensive counterattacks or responses to requests for support from local populations.
In terms of actions, ZAFT indeed did not implement the large-scale orbital drop tactics of the previous war on Earth this time. They merely continued to send troops to the JOSH-A base in South America, then supported the Gibraltar Base by sea, land, and air, from which troops were then dispatched to the Suez Canal.
Reid could see it clearly now. ZAFT's tactical plan this time was simple: pick the softest target and crush it in one go.
In the Pacific region, controlled by the New Misurugi Kingdom, the East Asian Republic, and the Atlantic Federation, ZAFT forces this time only established defenses near the South American coastline and did not venture deep into the open ocean.
In the Atlantic region, according to reports from the Ascension Island base, the naval battles between the two sides could only be described as brutal.
Although PLANT had fewer troops, their new amphibious transformable Mobile Suit, the UMF/SSO-3 ASH, equipped with a Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactor, performed exceptionally well, beating the Atlantic Federation's improved Abyssal Forbidden into confusion.
As for sea bases, ZAFT's underground burrowing assault Mobile Suit, the UTA/TE-6P Geo-Guerrilla, also had a very impressive performance. This MS was skilled in the old Beijing method of digging tunnels, often able to burrow all the way from the coastline to an Earth Alliance base on an island, striking from within.
Overall, ZAFT's Mobile Suits, which had begun to be mass-produced with Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactors, once again held a suppressive advantage over the Earth Alliance's still largely battery-powered Mobile Suits.
But Reid had already received news that due to the capture of the Chaos, Gaia, and Abyss, the Earth Alliance now actually possessed the same Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactor technology as PLANT.
However, production and retrofitting both required time. They were at a disadvantage now only because the new reactor-equipped units had not yet officially entered the war.
Moreover, the various MAs from the original story and the East Asian Republic's new Mobile Suits had not yet appeared. The Earth Alliance still had many cards to play.
Sure enough, half a month after the war began, the number of Earth Alliance Mobile Suits using Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactors gradually increased.
The Atlantic Federation even came up with two outrageous Mobile Suits.
The Freedom Windam and the Justice Windam.
(Image from Bilibili UP "Jiao Liu," Mobile Suit is a custom build, permission for use has been granted.)
These two Mobile Suits were completely modified by the Atlantic Federation based on the Freedom Gundam and Justice Gundam, which had shone so brightly in the first war.
The Freedom Windam's Jet Striker Pack was heavily modified. After solving the energy problem with a Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactor, not only was the armor directly replaced with Phase Shift Armor, but it was also equipped with the Freedom Gundam's two M100 "Whale" Plasma Convergence Beam Cannons and two MMI-M15 "Barracuda" Railguns, in the exact same positions.
At the same time, the four hardpoints on the wings were retained, capable of mounting large Anti-ship Missiles or beehive missile launchers.
Its handheld weapons remained the M9409L Beam Rifle and the A52-E Striker Shield (which included the Mk438/B Twin Multi-Purpose Missile "Shrike" SA10).
In short, this Freedom Windam packed more firepower than the Freedom Gundam itself. Of course, its mobility was no match for the Freedom's, and it lacked a multi-lock system, making it purely a support unit with immense firepower.
The Justice Windam's basic configuration was similar to the Freedom Windam's. The difference was that after adding an independent auxiliary flight system to the Windam's Jet Striker Pack, the backpack's wings and Ramming Horn were upgraded with the Beam Ram and Beam Cutting Wings, features that were ahead of their time and only seen on the Infinite Justice.
At the same time, the entire Mobile Suit was specialized for melee combat. The Shield became an Assault Shield System that could extend a long Beam Saber, and even the Leg Blades were retained.
Of course, this Mobile Suit's limb mobility was still inferior to the original Justice's, but it was more than enough to bully Zaku Warriors and Mirage Zakus. Even a Blaze Tiger would be at a disadvantage in a one-on-one duel.
Only after this model appeared did Reid learn that it was jointly developed by the East Asian Republic and the Atlantic Federation.
But this also explained why the Mobile Suit so brazenly borrowed from the Freedom Gundam and Justice Gundam.
Because the East Asian Republic was pragmatic: if something was good, they would just take it and use it.
Besides, both of these backpacks were heavily modified from the Windam's Jet Striker Pack. What did they have to do with the Freedom Gundam's and Justice Gundam's backpacks? If it came to a copyright lawsuit, the East Asian Republic would win.
Moreover, with the two wealthiest nations on Earth joining forces, these two models appeared in squads of two. Each squad consisted of five of each type.
On the battlefield of the Fourth Cosmic Era Zone, the East Asian Republic, relying on a force composed of five Freedom Windams and five Justice Windams, pushed the front line all the way to the gates of the Armory One Colony Satellite. This forced ZAFT to dispatch Athrun, piloting the genuine Justice (who had been rapidly promoted to a White Coat for his merits in defending the homeland). It was only with the combined efforts of the Justice, the Covenant, and the supporting Yzak in his custom Slash Zaku Warrior and Dearka in his custom Gunner Zaku Warrior that they temporarily repelled this offensive by the East Asian Republic.
It could only be said that although the Freedom Windam and Justice Windam were powerful, there was still a gap in pilot skill. That was why their ten-versus-four engagement only resulted in a stalemate, with Athrun even managing to sever the arms of three Justice Windams.
However, the Atlantic Federation's Freedom Windams and Justice Windams were wreaking havoc elsewhere. On Earth, ZAFT lacked an absolute ace pilot. On the South American battlefield, the Atlantic Federation's Panama base forces, relying on these ten Mobile Suits, directly broke through the ZAFT battle line that was besieging the base. In the end, ZAFT had to rely on a massive number of AMA-953 Babbis to push them back with sheer numbers.
Ultimately, however, ZAFT in South America abandoned its plan to besiege the Panama base and contracted its defense lines, allowing the Atlantic Federation forces to fully penetrate into South America.
At this time, the Phantom Pain Unit that had stolen the three ZAFT Gundams had also appeared on the battlefield. Relying on the power of four Gundams, they quickly overran several ZAFT strongholds.
Previously, because PLANT had framed this unit for the theft of 47 Mass-produced Prototype Zakus, and because Zala Faction hardliners had piloted those same Zakus in the battle at the Junius 7 debris, Neo Roanoke's squad, unable to explain their connection to the Zala Faction hardliners, had to lie low for a while.
But now that the two sides were at war, the Atlantic Federation dropped the act. They basically said, "Yes, I stole your Mobile Suits. What are you going to do about it?"
As for the suspicion of colluding with the Zala Faction hardliners, once the Atlantic Federation admitted this unit belonged to them, no one would believe they had any connection to the Zala Faction hardliners anymore.
Due to the critical situation on the South American front, ZAFT dispatched the Minerva
with reinforcements to resolve the problem.
Although the original plot had gone completely off the rails by this point, the Minerva still successfully descended to Earth and engaged Neo Roanoke's squad.
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