Regardless of how the Atlantic Federation felt about watching the drama unfold only to realize they were the target, Athrun's campaign to conquer the British Isles did not proceed as smoothly as expected.
Although the Earth Alliance forces in Western Europe had been thoroughly worn down by Reid's maneuvers with the troops from the Old Capital Base of the New Misurugi Kingdom, leaving them unable to support the British Isles, and the Paradise Island Base was blockaded by the Gran Chaos, preventing its forces from venturing out recklessly, Athrun's direct assault on London—the central city of the British Isles—faced unexpectedly fierce resistance from the surrounding cities' defensive forces, which were larger in number than anticipated.
It was evident that, from any external perspective, the military preparedness of the British Isles was woefully inadequate for the times. However, as one of the two pillars at the founding of the Atlantic Federation, its significance in the eyes of the Federation was perhaps greater than imagined.
When the air raid sirens blared, the residents of London were caught off guard. It wasn't until they saw a red Mobile Suit leading countless drop pods descending from space that the populace realized their city was under attack.
The leading red Mobile Suit was the new Justice Gundam, the Immortal Justice Gundam, manufactured by the Armory.
Athrun had been responsible for the defense of the L4 region for several months. Initially, he sortied in the Justice Gundam that Reid had returned to him. However, the Justice Gundam was, after all, a two-year-old Mobile Suit. Although Reid had upgraded its cockpit to a panoramic cockpit and replaced its electronic systems and sensors with newer models, it still held little advantage against the Mobile Suits of the East Asian Republic.
This was partly due to tactical differences, as the East Asian Republic eschewed heroism. Even the Mobile Suits piloted by aces were, at most, given custom paint jobs and minor performance tweaks. Instead, the East Asian Republic focused on elevating the performance of every Mobile Suit in its main MS Unit above the average standard. Take the Windam, for example.
The East Asian Republic's Windams included both Freedom and Justice variants, whose performance was not far inferior to Athrun's Justice Gundam. Moreover, by the later stages of the conflict, over fifty of these units had been deployed, accounting for both operational and destroyed units.
This approach was even more extreme than ZAFT's development of nuclear-powered mass-produced prototype Zakus. It could only be said that once the technology was mastered, the East Asian Republic's underlying strength came into play, making it a formidable adversary. They would produce a few units of any high-precision weaponry to test their effectiveness, and if the results were favorable, mass production would be arranged immediately. After all, few among the populace complained about the nation's high military expenditures.
Even so, while the performance of the Freedom and Justice Windams approached that of the Justice Gundam, their pilots still fell short. In close combat, against Athrun in serious mode, they could only prolong the engagement slightly.
In Athrun's view, the most troublesome aspect was that even the standard mass-produced Mobile Suits of the East Asian Republic were of slightly higher quality than those of the other two nations in the Earth Alliance.
The East Asian Republic's Windams were not painted in the standard blue-and-white color scheme but were modified to a black-and-white scheme for distinction.
(Image sourced from external website.)
Of course, as a mature and reliable mass-produced model, the East Asian Republic did not extensively modify the Windam to the point of drastically increasing its cost. The primary modifications were focused on the Windam's head unit and backpack.
This East Asian Republic space-specialized Windam has three times the communication range of a standard Windam, with its cameras boasting maximum anti-interference capabilities and immunity to flash grenades, while its thrust output reaches 1.5 times that of a regular Windam.
In terms of armament, the East Asian Republic slightly modified the beam rifle to allow it to mount a "bayonet."
Essentially, it's a beam saber directly attached to the rifle barrel, which can also be detached and used as a handheld beam saber when needed.
However, most East Asian Republic pilots prefer to use it as a bayonet, as flashy maneuvers are meaningless for average pilots on the battlefield—mastering straightforward thrusts and slashes is sufficient.
The original waist-mounted point for the beam saber can now accommodate other small-scale armaments, typically jet-propelled armor-piercing grenades and flash grenades.
This East Asian Republic-specialized Windam is truly a Mobile Suit capable of going head-to-head with the Zaku Warrior, even holding a slight advantage due to its superior mobility.
Even if outmatched, firing a flash grenade can buy enough time to escape.
Thus, in the initial battles, aces like Athrun, Yzak, and Dearka were often tied down by Freedom/Justice Windam units, while other regular forces achieved a casualty ratio of 1:1.5.
It's worth noting that the East Asian Republic vastly outnumbers ZAFT, and continuing this way would simply wear them down through attrition.
Later, Athrun resorted to deploying the Meteor for wide-area AOE attacks during every sortie to curb the East Asian Republic's offensive.
Additionally, all Mobile Suits under Armory One were subsequently equipped with anti-flash protection to prevent their cameras from being blinded by enemy flash grenades mid-battle, which would leave the Mobile Suits momentarily disoriented.
However, Athrun felt this situation was unsustainable. After approval by the PLANT Supreme Council, it was decided to quickly assign Athrun the latest Gundam model, to be produced by Armory One.
Due to the urgency, a complete redesign was out of the question, so the overall design followed that of the Justice Gundam.
For the frame, there was clearly no time to develop the Phase Shift Armor frame originally used for the Infinite Justice. Instead, ZAFT utilized a transformable frame they had developed by studying various transforming Mobile Suit designs from the New Misurugi Kingdom.
Naturally, this frame retained the distinctive features of the original Justice Gundam frame, with exceptionally high flexibility in its limbs.
In terms of armament, since the Starlight Transmitter for the Justice Gundam's backpack was not yet fully developed, Armory One equipped this unit with ZAFT's highest-performance thruster at the time—the experimental DF2Mk3 "Sky Thruster." It was also compatible with the Destiny 00 System, with the backpack modified into slanted wing cutting wings. The aircraft equipped with a beam ram could separate from the main unit.
This thruster served as the prototype for the Immortal Justice Gundam's thruster in the future animation, Compass.
However, having researched Minovsky Particles, ZAFT naturally also studied I-Fields.
Thus, ZAFT developed a primary I-Field Generator, though this technology was far less mature than beam shield technology, and the equipment was bulky, preventing large-scale deployment on Mobile Suits.
Nevertheless, Athrun's current Immortal Justice Gundam is equipped with one on its Destiny 00 aircraft. However, this I-Field is used to envelop the fuselage, providing immunity to a certain degree of beam attacks while also enhancing cutting capability during impacts by applying the principles of UC Beam Shield technology.
The most significant modification of this new Immortal Justice Gundam was its backpack, while other armaments remained largely unchanged. The only additions were the beam shield deployment function installed on the shield and the MMI-S2M5/X Type Leg Beam Blade "Calcitra" mounted on the legs. When activated, it formed a beam blade between the knee and the sole of the foot.
The reason this Mobile Suit was ultimately named the Immortal Justice Gundam was actually because the manufacturing supervisor was a rather fervent member of the Zala Faction. The intended meaning behind the name was that the will of the Zala family would endure forever.
Of course, Athrun was unaware of the manufacturer's subtle intentions. He thought "Immortal" meant "never to be shot down," so he agreed to the name.
However, the Immortal Justice Gundam's performance on the battlefield lived up to the word "Immortal." The performance of the Sky Propulsion Unit was better than expected, instantly creating a significant gap in mobility compared to the Freedom/Justice Windam. This directly led to situations where, if these two models encountered the Immortal Justice Gundam and didn't flee, they would be swiftly destroyed.
Moreover, increasing numbers proved ineffective. The firepower advantage of the Freedom Windam was almost nullified by the beam shield. Even with ambushes from behind, the I-Field on the Destiny 00 System ensured that ordinary beam rifles caused no damage.
Unable to contain Athrun, under his leadership, ordinary Windams were easily torn through, forcing the East Asian Republic's forces in the L4 Colony Cluster to retreat repeatedly. Eventually, they had to abandon the siege of Armory City and shift to a standoff.
Now, this Immortal Justice Gundam descended upon London, braving anti-aircraft fire.
After landing in London, Athrun cruised in MA Mode, quickly neutralizing several anti-aircraft artillery positions. Looking down at the chaotic crowds below, he spoke over the team comms:
"First to Third Squads, proceed directly to suppress the government building. Fourth and Fifth Squads, seize the television station and immediately announce to the British Isles that London has been occupied by us. Seventh to Twelfth Squads, conduct reconnaissance in the surrounding cities. The rest, come with me.
Remember, swiftly eliminate any resistance you encounter, and try to avoid harming civilians as much as possible."
The troops Athrun brought were all his trusted forces from Armory, including many veterans who had retired and gone into seclusion after the original Zala Faction's downfall but had now returned to service.
Thus, their actions were remarkably efficient. The squads assigned by Athrun easily dealt with the blocking forces.
Due to the suddenness of the attack and the fact that the London municipal government never imagined they would be assaulted, there were no Mobile Suits in the city—not even tanks or small missile launchers.
The most powerful weapons encountered by the three squads along the way were man-portable anti-aircraft bazookas.
However, upon reaching the government building, the First to Third Squads did not capture a single high-ranking municipal official.
The London municipal government had a long history. Although it had undergone multiple renovations, the secret escape tunnels beneath it were never removed.
Therefore, as soon as the municipal officials confirmed ZAFT's airborne assault, they fled through the underground passages. The entire government building was empty, with only a few security guards and cleaners remaining.
Thus, the leader of the First Squad easily occupied the entire municipal government with just four subordinates.
The Fourth and Fifth Squads also proceeded smoothly, seizing London's largest television station and directly announcing the fall of London.
In fact, London could not yet be considered fallen, as Athrun was leading his troops toward the military base on the outskirts of London—the only large-scale military base in the British Isles.
However, although it was called a large military base, intelligence indicated that the Atlantic Federation forces stationed in the British Isles were severely plagued by ghost soldiers—troops existed only on paper. Before the war, there had even been a situation where officers outnumbered enlisted soldiers.
Although the British Isles had conducted emergency conscription after the war to fill the troop shortage, the combat effectiveness of these hastily assembled soldiers, trained for only a few months, was questionable at best.
Initially, Athrun believed the battle would be resolved very quickly—perhaps in less than half an hour, the base would surrender.
But as Athrun led the assault on the base, he only saw a "small mountain" slowly rising within the base.
If Reid were here, he would recognize this "small mountain" at a glance, as it was the Earth Alliance's decisive weapon during the Second War in the anime—the Destroy Gundam.
However, although the Destroy Gundam was a Mobile Suit manufactured by the Eurasian Federation's Addukov Heavy Industries, its production site should have been a secret factory in the eastern snowfields of the Eurasian Federation.
The Phantom Pain Unit, to which Swen belonged, had once carried out a mission to escort a Destroy Gundam—the very one Stella used to destroy Berlin in the anime.
Although the Destroy Gundam was a mass-produced model, even if Reid were here today, he would not have expected there to be one at the base near London.
Normally, at this location, shouldn't this Destroy Gundam have been sent to the Paradise Island Base?
In fact, this Destroy Gundam was indeed under the jurisdiction of the Paradise Island Base.
Although the Atlantic Federation had been badly beaten by the New Misurugi Kingdom, that was due to Reid's "cheating"—bringing advanced technologies from various worlds to catch the Atlantic Federation off guard time and again.
But the Atlantic Federation was not foolish. When they saw Reid suddenly stirring up trouble in the southern part of the Eurasian Federation, they realized things might not be as simple as they seemed.
Especially after news spread that Reid's New Misurugi Kingdom Army, with its tens of thousands of Mobile Suits, had only achieved a swift breakthrough on the first day before becoming mired in a war of attrition.
Unlike the Eurasian Federation, which believed this narrative due to false intelligence spread by its nobles, the Atlantic Federation firmly refused to believe it.
As the nation that had clashed most frequently with the New Misurugi Kingdom Army, the Atlantic Federation was certain that the military forces of the southern Eurasian Federation cities were simply incapable of bogging down the large army personally led by Reid Isaac. Surrendering on sight would be more in line with the Atlantic Federation's stereotypical view of the Eurasian Federation.
Therefore, the Atlantic Federation secretly transferred a significant number of troops to the British Isles, intending to be ready to intervene and rescue the Eurasian Federation after extorting concessions, should they call for help, to prevent the Eurasian Federation from being completely destroyed.
At the very least, if the Eurasian Federation were truly annihilated by Reid Isaac, the British Isles could serve as the first line of defense to block the New Misurugi Kingdom Army's westward advance from Europe toward the Atlantic Federation's homeland.
Of course, to keep this move hidden from other nations, the troop transfers were conducted slowly, and not many forces had been moved to the British Isles so far.
However, as fate would have it, this insurance policy prepared for Reid ended up being encountered by Athrun.
Soon, Athrun received intelligence reports confirming the presence of Atlantic Federation MS units scouting from the directions of Oxford, Winchester, and Ely.
The only good news was that the number of Atlantic Federation MS currently appearing wasn't too large, and no other super-large MS had been detected. His unit could still handle them, though it wouldn't be as easy as originally planned.
Of course, the first problem Athrun needed to solve was the massive MS right in front of him.
Fortunately, Athrun had previously trained in a simulator and fought against the Psycommu Gundam MKⅢ in the New Misurugi Kingdom, so he had some experience in battling super-large MS.
Thus, Athrun immediately commanded over the team's communication channel:
"Except for the pilots of the Blazing Tiger, everyone else disperse and move far away. This type of large MS usually has large-scale long-range attack capabilities, and Mobile Suits with low mobility aren't suited to engage it.
Pilots of the Blazing Tiger, spread out and perform high-speed maneuvering shots. Do not stop under any circumstances."
After speaking, Athrun piloted the Immortal Justice Gundam and charged straight toward the Destroy Gundam before him.
(End of Chapter)