Cima Garahau

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Cima Garahau
Mobile Suit Gundam character
Cima Garahau with her Zanzibar-Class Cruiser "Lili Marlene"
First appearance	Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, Episode 5
Last appearance	Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, Episode 13
Voiced by	Mari Mashiba (Japanese) Carol Stanzione (English)
Profile
Age	35 ^[1]
Date of birth	UC 0048
Date of death	UC 0083
Nationality	Principality of Zeon
Information
Allegiance	Principality of Zeon [Pre-MSG 0083] Earth Federation [MSG 0083]
Rank	Commander
Mobile weapons	MS-06 Zaku II [Pre-MSG 0083] MS-14 Gelgoog Marine, AGX-04 Gerbera Tetra [MSG 0083]

Cima Garahau (シーマ・ガラハウ, Shīma Garahau^?) is a character in the fictional Universal Century timeline of the Japanese Mobile Suit Gundam science fiction franchise. She is a principal character in the OAV series "Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory". Her backstory is given in a Japanese audio drama "Mayfly of Space". A very short excerpt from this radio drama was animated as a bonus on the second DVD of "Gundam 0083" released in the United States. She is voiced by Mari Mashiba in both the series and the radio drama, and reprises her role in the G Generation series of tactical role-playing games.

[edit] History

As seen in the excerpt, Cima began her career in the Zeon military as a MS-06A Zaku II pilot, serving during the horrific events of the One Week War. During that period, she was involved unknowingly with the gassing of a colony - it was not until after the G-3 nerve gas was injected into the Side 5 colony that she and the soldiers involved realized that they had just committed a war crime. According to the audio drama, Cima was later promoted to the command of a Zeon marine detachment, which she manned with fellow residents of her home colony of Mahal.

The final days of the One Year War were especially hard on Cima and her crew. First, the Mahal colony was the one which was selected by Gihren Zabi to be converted into the Colony Laser - thus Zeon rendered Cima's unit homeless. Then, as if to add insult to injury, when the asteroid base Axis offered amnesty to Zeon forces as the Principality collapsed, her former commander (who had ordered the use of nerve gas) used Cima as a scapegoat - pawning off the crime onto her shoulders and fleeing to the relative safety of Axis while the Cima Fleet (as it would come to be called) consisting of the Zanzibar-class cruiser Lili Marleen, six or seven Musai-class cruisers, and about 30 Gelgoog Marine mobile suits were forced to spend the next three years operating in Earth space as pirates. During that time, Cima's attitude towards Zeon hardened, to the point that she no longer held any love for her homeland, but only a desire for revenge.

When Aiguille Delaz developed the plan known as Operation Stardust, he approached Cima as he had need of the manpower that the Cima Fleet could provide - that said, Delaz did not trust Cima, for good reason. Cima, upon receiving the offer, planned her revenge - she would seem to accept Delaz's plan, but would ultimately betray him, aiding the Earth Federation in crushing what seemed to be the final gasping breath of the Principality. Unfortunately for Cima, the involvement of the crew of the Albion would be her undoing - their untimely involvement during a covert meeting between the Cima Fleet and the Federation's battleship Birmingham, carrying the Inspector General, Admiral Green Wyatt, resulted in the loss of the Operation Stardust plans and the death of Albion's senior pilot, South Burning, would harden the young pilot of the RX-78GP01Fb Gundam "Zephyranthes" Full Vernian, Kou Uraki, against the Cima Fleet and its commander.

In the waning days of Operation Stardust, Cima finally acted overtly, seizing the Delaz Fleet's flagship Gwaden and executing Delaz on the bridge. Unfortunately, the Albion crew arrived at the site after stealing the mobile weapon RX-78GP03 Gundam "Dendrobium", despite the orders of the Earth Federation forces, the Albion crew treated Cima's fleet as an enemy, and so Cima was forced to defend her fleet with the recently received AGX-04 Gerbera Tetra mobile suit. However, she soon confronted Uraki in combat, who was now piloting the RX-78GP03. The agile AGX-04 was no match for the raw power of her sister mobile suit, and Cima's short, tragic life was ended when her mobile suit was impaled on the mega beam cannon of the RX-78GP03 and it was fired at point blank range.