Most of the world's militaries regarded ZAFT as entirely disreputable - undisciplined, disorganized, and ill-trained, dangerous only because of the quality of its equipment and the natural abilities of its personelle.
This judgement had no small basis in fact - for all its firepower, the only armed force available to the PLANTS was, at heart, a militia organization - more civilian than military. 'Spit and polish' was entirely absent, political meddling and neapotism were rampant, orders were regularly ignored, and romantic relationships throughout the chain of command not only accepted, but flaunted!
The ORB Space Forces, fresh from a grueling series of training exercises with their orbit-bound allies, could, had they been so inclined, have informed their fellow soldiers that believing that any of these things made ZAFT less effective on the field was a quite fatal mistake. Its people knew their jobs, and performed them brilliantly - as was only to be expected, in the final analysis, from the best and the brightest of a society which had to be ever-vigilant against the deadly dangers of its surrounding environment - and its regulations and traditions explicitly trusted its personnel to have a better grasp on their own circumstances, duties, and neccessities than any other officer, however senior, who was not present.
So, when the ZAFT supply freighter Coelia had completed the burn inserting it onto its Hohmann transfer from L5 and PLANTS to low Earth orbit, its captain, Lacus Clyne, was well within her rights to decide to brief the commanders of the three combat Teams which had been stuffed into her command's cavernous cargo bays on far more than most militaries would have considered it their business to know.
"Completing this operation quickly is of the highest priority," she told them bluntly. "Our Earthside allies, especially the African Community and USSA, have already made irrevocable strategic decisions which commit them to open combat with the Eurasian and Atlantic Federations - on the understanding that extensive battlefield and logistical support would be available from ZAFT, they have undertaken to gain and retain control of the Victoria and Panama massdrivers.
"Most of ORB and Oceania's forces are also already deployed - for a blitzkrieg offensive against the Republic of East Asia."
Only one of the men listening to her actually had any experience in combat, but all three of them sat straight up when they heard that. "An offensive?" one asked, for the fact that any such thing was planned had been a closely held secret.
"But why aren't they already moving?" another brought up. "If they wait too long, the Republic will mobilize and the window for that will close."
"Because as things stand," Thoms, the veteran, concluded slowly, "the Atlantic Federation has a secure base and half its Pacific Fleet right in the center of ORB's territory."
Lacus nodded. "ORB can afford to fight the Republic straight up, if it has to. But they can't afford to let that lie - it would be suicide. Even just attempting this operation without pulling anything out of their ready forces is a risk."
The first commander let out his breath in a huff and nodded slowly. "Taking out the Republic in this phase of things could cut years off the war."
"And," Thoms pointed out, "Aube has, what, a quarter of ORB's industrial base?"
"Closer to a tenth, I think. But no, that's still nothing they can really afford to lose."
"So this needs to happen and happen now," the second man concluded firmly. "Even if the losses mean ORB has to borrow from Oceania's reserves to keep the place."
Lacus nodded, slow and grim, and the other two officers agreed also.
Not that this is really the same Lacus; I don't think that any kind of military officer training regimen, especially one aimed at Coordinators, would leave a person nearly as naive as she was in canon.
Not to say that her principles will have changed or anything, but the rose-colored glasses are gone, and the velvet gloves maybe a little threadbare.
Ja, -n
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"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"