On January 13, 0079, the Principality of Zeon Defense Force, the main fleet of the Space Attack Force departed from L5 Solomon Fortress.

The goal is SIDE5 'Rum'.

The next battle of Rum is probably the most important battle in human history, and in the author's detailed account of everything that happened in this battle, please let me give me a general description of the two sides in this battle, the three important strongholds, and the general situation of the four armies.

This battle was later known as the Battle of Rum.

It was a turning point in the year's war, marking a turning point for the weakened Zeon Wehrmacht to achieve total superiority over the Earth Federation Army.

The two sides are, of course, the Duchy of Zeon and the Earth Federation.

【Duchy of Zeon】

First of all, on the part of the Principality of Zeon, the great results of SIDE1, SIDE2, and SIDE4 ignited the enthusiasm of the Zeon people, and people reveled all night to boast of Zeon's victory, and the 'surrender' of the three SIDES (after careful propaganda and guidance, people's attention was focused on the brilliant results and the endless heroes, and the actual huge casualties were not well understood) was regarded as a proof that all the people of the universe were united to defeat the oppressor.

Just like the Continental Congress of 1774 and 1789, the scattered peoples of the colonies gathered under the same ideal to rebel against the tyranny of the home planet.

What a righteous and glorious thing this is, and it is a righteous act worth giving your life for!

In this atmosphere of overall frenzy, a very small number of questioning and calm voices were muffled, and the ensuing attack on SIDE5 was rendered by Zeon's propaganda department as 'the last battle against the Earth Federation', 'The fate of the principality, the great cause of independence, fight here!'" ’。

Television played the speeches of Commander-in-Chief Killian over and over again, the slightly innovative independent broadcasters made documentaries of the heroes who had achieved great results in order to compete for ratings, and the newspapers published editorials as if they were mass-produced.

Since January 3, the Zim News has been carrying the announcement of the Marshal's Office as the front-page headline every day, and the Muzo Libre newspaper has spared no expense to invite big-name editorial experts to write a headline titled "Declaring War on the Earth Federation!" 》:

Now, when the people learn that the Duchy has declared war on the Earth Federation, they are not only terrified, but also full of blood and excitement. I look forward to the two billion compatriots of Zeon, whether they are fighting on the front line or producing in the rear, everyone has the spirit of dedication to the country and writes their own magnificent chapter for the glorious history of cosmic independence!

The citizens of Zeon sent their hearts to the front, the girls turned their love for the heroes into various ornaments and amulets, and the children, organized by their teachers, wrote letters such as "I will become a soldier in the future" on various colored paper, and then packed them with candy and other things donated by nearby residents, and these things were sent to the front line as quickly as possible and delivered to the officers and soldiers on the front.

After learning about the support of the people in the rear for the army, the morale that had been somewhat depressed due to the brutal massacre of various SIDES was slightly restored, and except for some people, they were self-hypnotized because they betrayed the people of the universe, defected to the Federation, and joined the war. Everything is the fault of the Earth Federation', such an idea has become mainstream on the surface, but everyone knows that the belief that once there was a crack will not be reunited, and the trend of thought that doubts their own righteousness has also begun to spread in the army, if Zeon has been victorious and does not mention it, once the battle situation is unfavorable, or even just a stalemate, no one knows what the consequences of this trend of thought will be.

【Earth Federation】

On the federal side, the heavy losses caused by the British War weakened the control of the federal government, and the G3 group, the ruling core of the Earth Federation, as the party with the most serious losses in the British War, gradually lost control over the small countries and inferior powers in the federal countries, and the ensuing response to natural disasters and famine relief and other work involved most of the energy of the Earth Federation.

In this case, the federal government's control over the federal army has also been weakened, especially after Rebier's arbitrariness and unauthorized order for the space army to take off without permission, the authority of the federal government has to be said to have been weakened a lot in the space army, although Rebier's move is completely out of public intentions, and objectively it is not for personal power, but the decline in the federal government's control over the army caused by his choice is also objective.

This does not seem to be evident at this point, and if the war ends in a short time, the federal government will be able to reassert its authority smoothly.

But no one knows what the consequences will be in the future.

At the same time that Zeon was sweeping the various SIDES, a large number of refugees poured into the earth, some of them received the news in advance and left, and some of them were the residents of the agricultural satellites such as SIDE1 and SIDE4 who were lucky enough to survive after the Zeon sweep was completed, although Zeon quickly sent officials to SIDE1 and SIDE4 to organize the resumption of production, but the ruling vacuum that appeared during the handover of the Zeon fleet and officials, and the overwhelming shortage of Zeon dispatched officials, The population of each SIDE is rapidly depleted, and the people of the universe, who are terrified by the Zeon massacre, are looking for all possible means to escape to Earth.

Although it was only a small fraction of the pre-war population of SIDE1, SIDE2, and SIDE4, according to post-war statistics, more than 100 million people were exiled to Earth in the first month of the war, and these populations increased the burden of federal relief.

It is worth mentioning that in addition to the general public, a considerable number of the garrison troops in each SIDE have fled to the earth, or colonies such as SIDE6 and SIDE7 that have not been affected by the war for the time being, although the garrison army itself has no combat effectiveness, but these fugitives have maintained a strong fighting spirit because of their revenge, and the federal side has re-recruited these people and concentrated on the Luna II fortress for training, they cannot participate in this battle, and even because of the possibility of a quick victory for the Earth Federation Army, Until the end of the war, they could not avenge the Zeon army.

But no one can say what the future holds.

【Earth Federation Space Force】

Now that we've talked about the situation in both the Principality of Zeon and the Earth Federation, let's turn our attention to this battle and the armies that will be involved in it.

At the heart of this battle is the SIDE5 'Rum' colony in the L1 Celestial Domain (Lagrange Point 1) on the Earth-Moon route, as the core of the Earth's orbital economy, Rum has the most prosperous economy of all SIDES, and because it is sandwiched between the Earth, the Moon, and the various SIDES, it has incomparable strategic significance.

From the beginning of its construction, it has been based on finance, trade, material circulation and tourism, and when it was built, there were already 4 colonies in operation from SIDE1 to SIDE4.

On the eve of the outbreak of the war, SIDE5 has become the core of the human economic circle, for example, it is to bring together all the important economic cores such as New York, Shanghai, Hong Kong, London, and Paris.

Because of this, SIDE5 is a place that the Federal Army cannot give up no matter what, and it is not too much damage to Zeon, who has consciously contracted its economic tentacles before the war, but for the Federation with a big business, the loss of SIDE5 can make the Federation's already very fragile economy due to the British War completely die, and the Zeon Defense Army's attempt to use this place to carry out the Second British War also makes the Federal Army, or more precise, the Federal Space Army, unable to sit idly by and watch the fall of SIDE5.

As the only SIDE among the SIDES that still has the Federation's main fleet stationed, SIDE5's political stance is undoubtedly naturally inclined to the Federation, but Zeon, as the largest manufacturer in the universe, also has a constant economic relationship with SIDE5, so after the war, the SIDE5 colonial government has not stated which side it wants to join.

It wasn't until news of the Second Battle of Britain reached SIDE5 that the fear of the destructive power of the Zeon locust swarm, as well as the concessions and persuasions received from the Federation, prompted the SIDE5 government to make up its mind to join the side of the Earth Federation.

While asking the garrison Federalist ground forces to participate in the suppression of the pro-Zeon elements, they formally requested relief from the federal government, or more precisely, the federal forces, and after receiving the request, General Rebier quickly arranged for the Third Fleet of Thiam, which had been defeated in the British War, to be stationed in SIDE5, where they were originally stationed, and the SIDE5 government opened all the airports and handed over all defense to the Thiam's Third Fleet.

In addition to the Tiam's Third Fleet stationed in SIDE5, the Earth Federation Space Force also participated in this battle, which is the Combined Fleet of the Federation Space Force led by General Rebier, which is called the Combined Fleet because this fleet is composed of two main fleets of the Federation Army.

One is the Second Fleet of the Federal Space Force led by General Rebile himself, because it stays in the Chabro base under the gravity well all the year round, so it gets an alias of the Chabro fleet that I don't know if it's a scorn or a nickname, although the name doesn't sound very good, but as General Rebill's direct fleet, the combat effectiveness of the Second Fleet is undoubtedly guaranteed.

The other is the low-orbit defense fleet originally stationed at the fortress of Luna-2, commonly known as the First Fleet of the Space Army, after receiving the assembly order from General Rebeer, they handed over the defense of Luna-2 to the Fifth Fleet (Lunar Fleet) that was defeated from Granada, and went to low orbit to rendezvous with General Rebeer's fleet.

These two fleets, no matter which one they are, are equivalent to the size of the entire Zeon Wehrmacht combined, and the two together have twice the number of warships in the entire Zeon army, not to mention other auxiliary warships, such as the Columbus-class transport ship converted from an escort carrier, and a large number of Swordfish fighters.

Just as the idea of a fleet of such a large size that anyone felt powerless against the Zeon Army, optimism spread through the fleet, and everyone felt that the Zeon fleet was vulnerable and clamored to make Zeon pay for its atrocities.

With the exception of the commander of the fleet, Admiral Rebeer, the most famous general in the history of the Federation Army, received the report of General Thiam in the British War, and after learning the news of the total destruction of the Fourth Mobile Fleet, he did not mean to underestimate Zeon.

Although Rebier did not make a big deal about it because he could not discourage the confidence of the officers and soldiers, but merely summoned the commanders of the various units and asked them to be more vigilant, he believed in this army that he had created by himself.

The Zeon Army may have some powerful new toys, Rebir admits this, and he has focused on and promoted the long-stagnant Plan V, but the war is never won by a few cutting-edge weapons, victory requires the right weapons, and all the officers and men are united, Rebiel has full confidence in his fleet, the Federation Space Force is incomparable to the rotten Federation Army in the past, whether it is the quality of the crew, the armament of the fleet, and the ability of the officers, this fleet will defeat all enemies, and became the cornerstone of the new Federation after the disaster.

On January 14th, the Second Fleet entered the universe and successfully rendezvoused with the First Fleet in low orbit near Luna-2.

【Defence Force of the Principality of Zeon】

Unlike the two Federation fleets that attempted to rendezvous at SIDE5, the Zeon fleet had no intention of merging from the start, not because of the feud between the two heads of Zabi's family, Lieutenant Admiral Dozru Zabi and Rear Admiral Jisilia Zabi, but for tactical reasons.

For the specific tactics of the Zeon Army, please allow me to sell it here, because you can see the full picture of the tactics of the Zeon Army in the following chapters.

Here, we will only briefly introduce the two units of the Zeon Defense Force, namely the Space Assault Force and the Assault Mobile Army, where they are.

After clearing SIDE4 and then SIDE1, the main force of the Space Attack Force returned to Solomon Fortress after this brutal act, and there was a short two-day break here.

On January 15th, after learning that the Rebil fleet had successfully completed the rendezvous with the First Fleet, the main force of the Space Attack Force set off from Solomon Fortress and headed straight for SIDE5.

On the other hand, it was the Assault Mobile Force led by Major General Cecilia Zabi, which had not encountered strong resistance from the beginning of the war, and when the Space Assault Force had worked hard to carry out the British operation and played an inglorious role in the subsequent purge operation, the Assault Mobile Force led by Cecilia took the moon without much effort.

The Fifth Fleet, which was originally stationed on the moon, was called back by Luna II, and retreated after only a short delivery with the Assault Mobile Army, and the only resistance to the Assault Mobile Force was a small number of Lunar Garrison troops with low combat effectiveness, and later declassified programs claimed that there was Jicilia's influence in the retreat of the Fifth Fleet, because she was the former head of the Zeon Intelligence Service, and until the end of the war, she had even more influence on the Zeon Intelligence than that of Killian Zabi, She made this point because her control over the cities on the moon was unbreakable throughout the war.

However, considering that the Federation Army originally had a plan to recall the Fifth Fleet and make it responsible for the defense of Luna 2 when the low-orbit fleet participated in the decisive battle against Zeon's main force, the author believes that even if there is really a handiwork of Cecilia among them, it can only be said to be a coincidence.

All in all, as a key point in the Battle of Rum, the Moon fell into the control of the Zeon Army so easily, and in later analysis of battle examples, the fall of the Moon is generally considered to be the decisive factor in the defeat of the Federation Army in the Battle of Rum.

The Space Assault Force in Chabro, and the Assault Mobile Force on the Moon.

Sandwiched between two armies, stationed at SIDE5. The Third Fleet of Tyam, which suffered heavy losses in combat power.

Following the lunar orbit, the Combined Fleet of Rebir rushed here at full speed from near Luna II.

The four armies are about to fight the largest and most tragic battle in the history of mankind in the Rum Universe.

But before we talk about the bloody war of the soldiers, let's turn our attention back to SIDE5 a few days ago, and start with the pro-Zeon demonstrations in SIDE5 and the experience of a certain girl.