Ra Cailum

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Ra Cailum

Fast Facts
Ship Type	Battleship
Class:	Ra Cailum
Launched:	Universal Century 0093
Ship Fate:	Unknown, presumed decommissioned
General Characteristics
Displacement:	Unknown
Length:	487 meters
Beam:	165 meters
Draft:	Unknown
Armament:	2-barrel main gun x 4 2-barrel secondary gun x 22 missile launcher x 6
Mobile Suit Complement:	8
Mobile Suit Contingent:	RX-93 Nu Gundam x1 RGZ-91 RE-GZ x1 RGM-89 Jegan x6 Mini Mobile Suit unit x?

In the fictional Universal Century Gundam universe the Ra Cailum (also spelled Lar Karium, both pronounced Ra-Kai-Lam/ラ・カイラム) was the flagship of the Earth Federation's Londo Bell unit, and the first ship of the Ra Cailum class. The ship was constructed to make use of mobile suits, and thus is similar to its predecessor the Irish-class battleships. The Ra Cailum is also one of the largest space battleships ever launched by the Federation, and these ships would remain in service until the Federation's disbandment in UC0223.

[edit] Ship History

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The conclusion of the Federation's civil war and the defeat of the Titans had brought the colonial space separatist movement to a virtual fever pitch, and when the first Neo-Zeon War ended it was decided that a new organization should be created to inspect the colonies for left over dissents and revolutionaries. The force created for this job was called Londo Bell, and they did inspect the colonies, but unlike the Titans they were much more humane in their inspections. This task force was first to receive the new Clop class cruisers and they also received the first battleship of the Ra Cailum class: Ra Cailum.

The Ra Cailum was the largest battleship built to date, and it was adopted for use as a flagship by Captain Bright Noa. The Ra Cailum would also serve as Amuro Ray's ship when he became a part of Londo Bell, which brought the MS contingent aboard the Ra Cailum to seven Mobile Suits and one Gundam. The Ra Cailum was also the first Federation ship to make use of the Base Jabber, a mobile suit sled that increased the range of Mobile Suits placed on it by providing them with an external fuel force to travel from one point to another; the Base Jabbers on the Ra Cailum were used to move Mobile Suits into battle so they would not burn up their internal fuel on the flight to engage enemy forces.

The Ra Cailum saw its first war action on 3 March UC0093, when the ship responded to a new Neo-Zeon movement under the command of Char Aznable. In company with the three of the Federation's Clop-class cruisers, the Ra Cailum raced to the scene and the Second Neo-Zeon War began in earnest with the battle for Fifth Luna. Although the ship and its Mobile Suits fought valiantly, they failed to prevent the drop of Fifth Luna and the asteroid collided with Lhasa, Tibet. Although damaged by the battle, Bright Noa order Ra Cailum to super-impose herself between the Neo Zeon forces and a disabled passenger shuttle that had wondered into the combat zone. When the battle died down the shuttle captain and his passengers abandoned the disable shuttle and were taken aboard the Ra Cailum as refugees; among those on the shuttle were Bright Noa's son Hassaway, Vice-Foreign Minister of the Earth Federation Adenauer Paraya, and his daughter Quess. Adenauer Paraya—under orders from the Earth Federal Government to establish contact with the Neo Zeon leadership for purposes of negotiation and outranking Captain Noa—commandeered the Ra Cailum and ordered it to sail to Side 1's Londonion Colony in order to meet with Neo Zeon representatives.

The Ra Cailum arrived at Side 1 shortly thereafter and docked in the Colony's spaceport. Here the civilians from the shuttle disembarked, and the ship's officers and crew enjoyed a brief shore leave while dockworkers hustled to get the battleship repaired, refueled, and restocked with supplies for its next operation. In particular, Ra Cailum 's bow had been blown off during the battle and had to be reconstructed from scratch. Meanwhile, the negotiations between the Federation and the Neo-Zeon reach a conclusion: The Neo Zeon would surrender all of their warships in exchange for the Astriod Axis, which they purchased from the Federation with gold bullion. This seemed suspicious to one of the Federation's accountants, and he informed Bright Noa of Char's purchase and—fearing the worst—arranged for the Ra Cailum to receive 15 nuclear warheads. Armed with the warheads and the information of the purchase Ra Cailum and her task force set sail from Londonion on 12 March UC0093 to pursue the Neo Zeon forces and ensure that they disarmed. Unfortunately, Londo Bell mistook ship-like balloons for the Neo-Zeon fleet, which enabled the Neo Zeon fleet to capture Luna II and Axis with relative ease. Amuro Ray eventually saw through the balloon deception, and explained to the officers aboard the battleship that they had been tricked, and that the Neo Zeon already had control of Axis. Bright Noa ordered Ra Cailum to speed for Axis, but the Londo Bell forces arrived to late to stop the reactivation of the engines.

As soon as Noa's ships were in range of Axis Londo Bell forces opened fire on the Asteroid, and a massive battle for control of Axis erupted between the Londo Bell fleet and the Neo Zeon fleet, leading to the loss of several mobile suits. Bright Noa opted for the use of the nuclear missiles, but Ra Cailum's attempt to destroy the asteroid with the nuclear weapons failed. With time running out the battle subsided as Londo Bell's senior officers and Mobile Suit pilots reconvened aboard Ra Caium to prepare for one last ditch effort. Their plan called for the destruction as Axis' tail thrusters, which would cause the asteroid to miss earth entirely, but if that failed then Ra Cailum would have to close in and launch Mini-Mobile Suits (MMS) to infiltrate Axis and plant powerful explosives. The resulting explosion would split the Astriod in two, causing it to miss earth entirely. Wasting no time Ra Cailum's Mobile Suit squad re-launched.

The attempt to destroy the tail thrusters on Axis ended up failing, so Ra Cailum closed in on the Asteroid to allow a number of MMS to land on the Axis and plant high explosives, as per the plan. Despite murderous losses incurred by the Londo Bell forces the MMS unit succeeded in placing the explosives, and the resulting blast split Axis into two pieces, the latter of which was still headed for earth. Amuro Ray, through the use of his Nu Gundam, prevented the last piece from colliding with Earth, thus bringing the battle for Axis to a close.

It is not known what became of the Ra Cailum; as it is not seen past the movie Char's Counterattack. It is presumed that the ship was not sunk during the Second Neo-Zeon War, leading to speculation that it may have been decommissioned.