June 18, CE70, 01:29 AM – The sudden yet perhaps inevitable Nova defense battle came to a temporary halt.
Why say "temporary halt" rather than "conclusion"?
Because the situation developed with dramatic twists.
General Zheng, commander of the East Asian Army, seized an opportunity for victory and decisively mobilized reinforcements freshly replenished from Earth—forces he had originally not intended to deploy.
Faced with this endless stream of fresh East Asian troops, immediately thrown into the fray upon reaching space, the ZAFT Forces found their morale plummeting to unprecedented lows.
After all, no matter how formidable Coordinators might be in combat, as long as they remained carbon-based lifeforms, fatigue would forever be an insurmountable hurdle.
When ZAFT soldiers looked around, all they saw were enemies glaring at them with fury—especially as those enemies charged forward, heedless of their own lives, ready to spill blood and sacrifice everything.
It was only a matter of time before their fighting spirit shattered completely.
Then, the utter annihilation of the left-wing fleet struck the Coordinators like a hammer blow, leaving them dazed.
From that point onward, the trajectory of the entire battle became clear: the ZAFT fleet, trapped within the overwhelming encirclement of the East Asian Army, seemed doomed to destruction.
Even as the desperate ZAFT Forces struggled, the East Asian Army—never lacking in courage or willingness to sacrifice—had already firmly tightened the noose.
The First Strike Fleet, having annihilated the Coordinator left-wing forces, also moved in to reinforce the encirclement.
But the drama lay precisely here...
Unbeknownst even to the ZAFT fleet's own commanders, a sudden wave of Coordinator reinforcements arrived.
First, three high-speed Nazca-class battleships appeared sporadically.
Then, scattered Laurasia-class and Nazca-class vessels arrived in succession.
And behind them, even more ZAFT warships were surging forward in full force.
Thus, though the East Asian Army's encirclement held firm, casualties among their ranks skyrocketed—especially among the freshly deployed ground reinforcements who had not even had time to rest.
Their casualty rates reached horrifying levels.
Faced with this situation, General Zheng, after considering intelligence reports from scouts and the information department—and upon receiving the cabinet's advisory on the next steps—made the decisive call to abort the annihilation operation.
He chose instead to loosen a section of the encirclement, taking what gains they could while letting the rest escape—those they couldn't finish off were simply lucky.
"Amateurs will always be amateurs," General Zheng remarked in the Nova Resource Satellite command center, waving the intelligence report in his hand.
Chief of Staff Jiang, staring at the screen where ZAFT warships continued to gather in ever-greater numbers, showed no trace of anxiety—even as the enemy fleet's size surpassed the concentration seen during the previous Endymion Battlefront.
Back then, Coordinators had massed such overwhelming force that they compelled the combined armies of the Atlantic Federation and Eurasian Federation to resort to the humiliating "scorched-earth" tactic just to repel them.
Glancing at the document still being flicked in General Zheng's hand, Chief of Staff Jiang's expression was one of pure amusement.
"Chairman Patrick and Chairman Clyne are locked in a fierce dispute."
"This forced the Chairman to relay the situation here to the entire ZAFT Forces in the form of a combat report."
"Allowing captains with discretionary authority to decide for themselves whether to provide reinforcements."
"Hahaha, what a ragtag approach—trying to draw a tiger but ending up with a dog."
Chief of Staff Jiang's implication was clear to those who understood.
Since ZAFT Forces were newly established and lacked systematic military theoretical education beforehand, their command structure currently only extended to the captain level—effectively one warship per unit.
Their usual combat operations involved deploying warships and letting them independently determine attack targets and battle plans. After all, the entire cosmos was their enemy—any target was fair game...
This was also why Creuset later launched an attack on the neutral nation of Orb's satellite without hesitation.
Only when organizing large-scale operations would Chairman Clyne and Chairman Patrick jointly issue a call to arms, gathering sufficient military strength.
This resulted in excessive authority for lower-ranking captains, compounded by their close daily interactions with their subordinates—reminiscent of the private armies of old.
Fortunately, ZAFT Forces were still in their early stages, and the external threat posed by the Allied Forces remained significant. Otherwise, every captain would be a warlord in their own right.
But even so...
"A military organization in its ascendant phase is at its most formidable during this time."
"Despite their various internal issues, their combat capabilities remain assured."
General Zheng finally stopped tossing documents aside and walked up to the screen, scrutinizing the enemy warships still en route.
"Isn't this exactly the case now? Despite the discord among their leadership, the mid-ranking officers still have their wits about them."
"Except..."
One moment he was praising the enemy, the next General Zheng couldn't help but laugh.
"You, you..."
Pointing at his old partner, Chief of Staff Jiang immediately understood his meaning.
The issue lay in their lack of unified coordination.
As the supreme military commander, Chairman Patrick himself had no idea how many warships would come to reinforce them, so he didn't inform the frontline commanders. Meanwhile, the reinforcing warships assumed their allies knew they were coming.
Compounded by the pervasive neutron jamming in space, which prevented long-distance communication between warships, a series of missteps led the enemy fleet commander outside Nova Resource Satellite to make an erroneous initial judgment.
"Neither Chairman Patrick nor Chairman Clyne anticipated our preemptive strike."
"Nor did they expect us to achieve victory so swiftly."
With a sudden shift in tone, General Zheng, despite the victory, began discussing a hypothetical defeat.
"If our forces had failed to encircle and destroy the left-wing fleet, the enemy commander would never have mobilized the right-wing reserves."
"And if their right wing had remained static, I wouldn't have deployed our newly arrived reinforcements either."
"What do you think the battle would have looked like under those circumstances?"
Silent, Chief of Staff Jiang gazed intently at the increasingly formidable enemy forces outside.
"A stalemate. Our forces and theirs would have been locked in a deadlock."
"This situation will continue until the enemy sends large-scale reinforcements. By then, to ensure the survival of our main forces..."
"We'll have no choice but to either retreat or deploy additional troops."
"The Nova Resource Satellite defense line will become a meat grinder for both sides."
"Endlessly consuming our flesh and blood."
"Indeed." General Zheng nodded and pulled out a personnel file.
"Without him, the left flank wouldn't have ended so quickly."
"Then this battle would have become a case of 'a reed striking a wolf'—both sides afraid."
"We could still win and intimidate the enemy, but it would all be built on a blood mill."
"Piling up victory with human lives."
"Hmm." Noticing the file his old comrade had produced, Chief of Staff Jiang sighed.
"I can already imagine the consequences of the outcome you described—the entire L4 space sector engulfed in war."
"Multiple Colony Satellites destroyed, civilians' safety compromised."
"And we... couldn't even call dying in battle atonement."
"But we had to fight then. Better to fight early than late—at least there was still a chance early on. Later, there'd be none."
General Zheng's eyes were unusually complex.
"Thank goodness we won instead of losing!"