Gundam SEED: Tales of the Cosmic Era by sgt.noOB

Author's Note:

This fanfic is to write upon some of the battles in Gundam SEED and SEED Destiny that are not touched upon or mentioned in-series, but their dates are listed on Gundamofficial and GundamWikia and are thus treated as part of canon. They are therefore based upon actual happenings in the Cosmic Era universe, but the events within them are open to interpretation.

Chapter 1: Victoria's Memories

CE 70 March 8th, Stable Orbit over South Africa, Earth

Morning 05 45

A fleet of twelve Laurasia-class frigates, escorted by ten Nazca-class destroyers, slowly moved into position. Under them, the Earth continued turning on its axis, and the continent of Africa came into view.

"This is ZAFT Operation Command to all units. The operation will be commencing in thirty seconds," the operator's voice sounded out over the general intercom, a clear beacon in a sea of radio signals. "All drop units take your positions."

Another voice interrupted the procession. "OMNI fleet detected at eight thousand kilometres from the Survive, bearing one-three-eight at a twenty-degree decline from the centre of the fleet axis. Counting eighteen Drake-class escorts, nine Agamemnon-class carriers, and twelve Nelson-class battleships." A short pause in the channel, then "Mobile armor launch from all OMNI vessels have been detected. Survive and Black Dragon has both confirmed usage of OMNI fleet attack pattern zero-zero-four."

"This is ZAFT Operation Command to the interceptor fleet. Prepare for anti-ship and anti-mobile armor combat. I repeat, prepare for anti-ship and anti-mobile armor combat. Fleet Alert Alpha Red has been declared. All Laurasia-class frigates are to continue with the drop operation; once complete they are to assist the guard fleet in repelling all enemy forces from this region."

The Nazca-class destroyers leapt forward as their powerful engines propelled the lightweight destroyers to meet the fleet head on, the ships aligning themselves into an arrowhead formation. Mobile Suits began streaming from their frontal catapults. Specks of light from the thrusters of mobile suits and mobile armours met in space, and explosions began to dot the darkness of space.

The Survive opened fire, and the Alliance fleet answered in earnest. The fleet battle was as every bit as fierce as the battle in between mobile suit and mobile armor as both fleets closed to within seeing distance of each other.

"This is the Pride of Aprilius, we have taken heavy damage to the engines and are unable to maintain a stable trajectory; I repeat, we have-"

"Survive, down! No escape pods detected!"

"Second wave of mobile armors approaching our mobile suits! Third wave of mobile armours en route for the fleet!"

"This is Espada Squadron, we are commencing an attack run on the Alliance fleet-"

A stray missile streaked past the bridge of the Laurasia-class frigate Seventh Heaven; its captain averted his eyes at the explosion, and reached for the ship's comm unit. "This is Orbital drop Command to ZAFT Operation Command," his rough voice sounded out. "Orbital drop is clear to engage."

"Roger Orbital Drop Command. Orbital drop commencing in 5…"

"4…"

"3…"

"2…"

"1…"

"Orbital Drop commence," the rough voice sounded out for the last time on the Orbital Drop Command channel. "Good luck, warriors of ZAFT."

CE 70 March 8th, Victoria Spaceport, South Africa, Earth

Morning 05 54

"Contact with the first layer. Deceleration at Mach Four," the operator's voice for ZAFT Ground Operation Command sounded out over the orbital drop squadrons' general-use channel, with slight static marring the quality of the sound. "Angle is good, 28 seconds until cool-down enforcement. Commencing clip control."

"Alpha One to all units," a male voice said, "approximately four layers confirmed." He exhaled and inhaled again, slowly. He felt vibrations throughout his whole body as the ZAFT-made orbital drop pod for mobile suits forced a path through Earth's upper atmosphere. The cockpit thermometers jumped upwards by another six degrees Celsius from a whooping fifty-nine.

"Bravo Two," another voice with a slight drawl joined the squad channel.

"Charlie Three," a softer voice reported, with a hint of hardness to its quality.

"Delta Four," a baritone voice emerged over the static of the comm unit.

"Contact with the second outer layer confirmed," Alpha One reported. "Let's show those bastards what we've got in store for them."

The red-hot air streaming from the side of the pod slowly dissipated, and Alpha One watched the thermometer as the cockpit temperatures decreased steadily.

"Exiting outer layer," Alpha One continued. "Deceleration at Mach zero-point-nine, stopping cool-down. Position is ideal."

Alpha One gripped the mobile suit's control sticks tighter. "May the heavens smile upon us," He checked the numbers displayed on the screen. "Landing coordinates confirmed."

Alpha One looked at the picture of his wife and child whom he left behind at the PLANTs, taped to a small empty space on the GINN cockpit's front instrument display. This would be for their sake. He would not fail. "It's time. Let's go!"

"For ZAFT," Bravo Two said.

"For ZAFT!" Charlie Three joined in.

"For ZAFT." Delta Four said, his face locked in an expression of fury, although no one could see him.

The landing pod's locks blew open, and pieces of the pod's outer shell fell apart and away from the four GINNs it housed in its centre. The securing locks to the mobile suits disengaged, and the GINNs fell from the pod's main shaft and brought themselves up to full power.

Alpha One descended across the sky, and around him hundreds of his comrades did the same. GINNs rained down upon Victoria Spaceport, 70.6mm machine cannons blazing, and the Alliance answered with their own missile units, tanks, anti-air vehicles and stationary defences; the air filled with streaks of tracers and missile trails by the thousands. Everywhere Alpha One looked, he could only see bright flashes of light as the anti-air rounds cut through the air.

Alpha One moved the controls, and his GINN twisted its own body to the left to avoid a heavy anti-air round. An explosion filled the screen as he focused his aim on the incoming missile from his left. He turned to the right just in time to see a fellow GINN get hit face-on with a missile; the unit tumbled out of control, pieces of unidentified parts flying off the unfortunate mobile suit. Alpha One saw from the corner of his eye another missile chase after the out-of-control GINN.

Alpha One had no time to spare for fallen comrades. Giving his IFF list the quickest of glances, he saw Charlie Three's signal flash yellow; an indication of damage. Moments later it flashed red, and "Signal Lost" replaced "Charlie Three" on the IFF tab.

Gritting his teeth, he sprayed machinegun fire to his front. Across the sky hundreds of GINNs did the same, and one by one the Alliance positions begun to fall silent. Soon enough, he was on the ground, safe from missiles and anti-air fire, but exposed to other dangers.

Alpha One allowed himself a brief and silent cheer of victory when the operator's voice sounded out again, this time over the general channel. "This is ZAFT Ground Operation Command to all units; incoming reinforcements from Map Point E-4 spotted by Glaive Squadron. They're marked as tank forces. Aquila and Bayonet squadrons are advised to divert their attention to Point E-4 to intercept."

Alpha One winced as a GINN that was landing beside him took a hit from a Linnear Tank to its leg, the explosion causing his unit's screens to fuzz for a moment. Bravo Two's IFF flashed yellow.

Alpha One moved to cover his fallen comrade, firing at the OMNI lines with his rifle. The ammo counter continued counting down as he opened a channel to Bravo Two, and empty shells streamed from the rifle's right ejection port as it spat out the equivalent of cannon shells at sixty rounds per minute, far faster than any Alliance-made light cannon could manage. "Bravo Two! Report your status!"

"I'm fine," Bravo Two replied. "Continue the push! If we take Victoria Spaceport, we can begin on the path to securing the Earth!"

Alpha One left Bravo Two's machine lying on the ground, as the damaged GINN propped itself up with one arm and continued firing its rifle with the other. Alpha One fired the thrusters on his unit, and the GINN skidded across the muddy ground, dodging tank fire and returning the favour with his GINN's machine gun. Ejecting the empty clip, the GINN slammed a fresh one into the gun and continued firing, the bullet trails etching a path of explosions as they stitched a path across the dirt and over the occasional vehicle or pillbox.

Linear tanks started rolling out of the forest and from behind the Alliance line, as though to meet the GINNs head-on. Firing with one hand, Alpha One's GINN unclipped its sword; engaging full burners on its boosters, the GINN jumped up and slammed down hard on the lead tank, and plunged its sword through.

Jumping off as the tank exploded, Alpha One noticed another tank taking aim at him. With his machinegun occupied, Alpha One's GINN threw its sword as fast as it could.

The tank fired.

The round narrowly missed smashing the head unit of the GINN, instead shattering its head fin. Static filled Alpha One's comm unit as the GINN attempted to compensate for the sudden loss in capability to receive signals.

The sword impaled the tank, the heavy blade sinking downwards and continuing to carve up the vehicle. All hopes of retrieving his weapon was lost when Alpha One was forced to retreat further away as more tanks took notice of the GINN. He returned fire, but there were simply too many tanks to destroy them all.

"This is Aquila Leader! Requesting reinforcements to Point E-4; we're out of ammunition and additional enemy reinforcement are-" the voice feed ended in static.

"This is ZAFT Ground Operation Command," the operator sounded out again. "Request Trebuchet and Katana squadrons converge at point E-4 to back up Bayonet Squadron. Sabre Squadron, please move to Point R-3 to reinforce Pike Squadron in breaking the line."

"This is bad," Delta Four said, joining Alpha One at his side. "We're being overwhelmed. Slowly… but surely." He pounded on his GINN's dashboard. "Dammit! The Naturals are just throwing bodies at us because they can afford to!"

"Keep your cool," Alpha One said. "I have a plan worth trying. We break west, circle around and smash their lines, and continue on to break their tank formation at E-4 from the back." Alpha One's GINN held its rifle with both hands. "I need you to inform Spatha Squadron of the plan first. They're located at Point G-1, directly where we need to pass through. Go!"

"Aye si-" Delta Four's sentence remained unfinished as a railgun round smashed through the unit, throwing it off balance. Alpha One roared into the team channel as he was forced to boost away. Missiles slammed into the fallen GINN, and the resultant explosion cratered the nearby ground, with several tanks flipping from the blast.

Alpha One turned to see more tanks and missile units roll out of the forest. F-7D Spearhead VTOL fighters zipped through the skies overhead, dropping bombs and firing missiles. Alpha One saw a group of GINNs fire upwards to meet the new airborne threat; a valiant effort, but ultimately too little. Three Spearheads plummeted to the ground, and the rest unleashed a missile hell on the GINNs. Alpha One watched in horror as the group of five GINNs simply vanished in a multitude of explosions that engulfed the mobile suits as a raging blaze would engulf a fireman.

A shrill alert brought Alpha One back to reality; ducking the railgun round that whizzed overhead, he picked up a fallen rifle from the ground, shook the still-attached GINN arm off, and began to spray as much fire as he could in all directions. Activating the boost, Alpha One's GINN took off at high speed towards Spatha Squadron's position, to put into form his one hope at getting out of this deathtrap alive.

He did not notice the tank until it was too late. The GINN, crafted to be a masterpiece in space, was just not fast enough on Earth even with full boost on and skating across the ground. Alpha One felt the teeth-rattling explosion throw his GINN to the ground as the railgun round penetrated the GINN's thruster pack. The initial impact followed by the GINN turning head-over heels several times over blurred out Alpha One's vision, and by the time it cleared enough for him to see the joystick again, a dozen missiles impacted onto the fallen GINN, blowing its internal components to hell and caving the cockpit in. Alpha One gasped in pain as the GINN's internal components burst through the cockpit and grinded his legs into mincemeat, as well as wrenching his left arm so far back that it tore itself from his body, the pilot suit ripping itself.

Amidst the blinding pain and gasping for every breath, Alpha One reached out, with his free hand, for the photo of his family.

He did not hear Spatha Leader getting shot, his last words on the general channel telling all forces to beware of flanking manoeuvres. He did not hear about the Alliance crushing the ZAFT soldiers at point E-4, and the desperate cries of ZAFT soldiers as they tried to stem a tide they could not hope to stop. He did not hear Bravo Two yell in fury, and see his teammate's IFF change from yellow to red. All he concentrated on was getting to his family's photograph.

He never made it.

Alpha One's GINN exploded, and its armour and parts shattered into thousands of flaming pieces amidst the fires of an explosion. The burning wreck that was left behind did not abate in its flames until the battle ended, when a sudden rain doused the battlefield in grey.

The first Battle of Victoria was a complete loss for ZAFT, and a terrible lesson on how war on Earth would be a totally different ball game from space dominance.

Five-hundred and fifty ground troops from ZAFT paid for that lesson with their lives that day. There were no survivors.

Afterword:

The Battle of Victoria was ZAFT's first attempt to gain a foothold on Earth, which failed thanks to the Earth Alliance's overwhelming planetside strength, and a lack of the specialized land units ZAFT would deploy later on during the SEED series.

Word had it that ZAFT launched the attack to secure food supplies from Earth, although the Alliance had over-exaggerated the need in their report of the incident. Regardless, the failure led to Operation Uroboros, a three-stage plan to set up proper ZAFT bases, cut off the Alliance space forces from the ground forces, and finally saturating the Earth with Neutron Jammers, leading to the infamous April Fool Crisis tragedy.

A clip of a ZAFT landing can be seen in the first episode of the series; I've used that as help in writing this chapter.

wow, pretty detailed, I like, I like. I think I'ma start posting up my novel and fanfic as well > (sadly fanfic is bigger than my novel) just to make sure (once again I like to play it safe) doesn't have to be strictly gundam related does it?

nope