Battles of the PACT Arm

PACT-ZOCU War

Crossdown Corridor

Although most fleet actions between PACT and ZOCU forces took place at the "front lines" near the terminus of the PACT Arm catapult network, ZOCU deployed many raiding vessels to the flanks, striking deep into PACT space along lesser used starways to disrupt logistics, lines of communication and shipping. Especially early in the war, ZOCU technological advantage and carriage of mobile suits gave their light units significant tactical advantages and allowed them to overwhelm patrols and convoy escorts alike. Such commerce raiders used two routes to infiltrate PACT space from their home ports. The more heavily used of these was known as the Crossdown Corridor, a pair of starways extending from the vicinity of Ophen and Choson that ultimately terminate at Crossdown. Early in the war, ZOCU raiders inflicted serious losses all along the catapult lanes until changes of practice with stricter and heavier convoy escort began curbing their success.

Raid on Crossdown

Following the failure of the invasion of Kanon, PACT made a concerted and renewed effort to defend lines of communication in view of securing the still ongoing invasion of Choson. In addition to tighter patrols and stronger convoy escorts, PACT command effected fortification of the key gateway world of Crossdown. A sparsely inhabited system, the dominant feature of Crossdown was a massive space station of posthuman origins, the eponymous Crossdown Station. Although the system itself was navigable, Crossdown Station itself had been an exclusion zone up to that point, being defended by a highly sophisticated autonomous defense system. Through some unknown means, PACT intelligence were able to acquire security keys that spoofed the IFF procedures of the station, allowing vessels supplied with the top secret codes to dock freely. Crossdown was quickly converted into an impenetrable star fortress hosting flotillas of patrols that soon made penetration of PACT supply lines highly dangerous even with a cloaking warship.

Roboworld Run

The second route into PACT Space was known as the Roboworld Run, a starway stretching from Heaven's Shore and skirting the Redstone Gap near the notoriously xenophobic and eponymous planet of Roboworld. Compared to the Crossdown Corridor, it was longer, more convoluted, less direct, and exited uncomfortably close to Earth. Although some captains opted for it, it was mostly a route by which certain members of PACT supported insurgency action on the ZOCU world Heaven's Shore as a strategic diversion. Later in the war, as patrols from Brazilian-held Crossdown Station