List of Cosmic Era locations
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This is a list of fictional locations from the Cosmic Era (CE) timeline of the Gundam anime metaseries.
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[edit] Locations in space
[edit] Aprilius One colony
Aprilius One is a PLANT space colony and the capital of the PLANT Supreme Council. This is due to the fact that April 1 was the birthday of George Glenn, the first Coordinator. Because of this it is a major attack target for the Earth Alliance during both wars with ZAFT.
[edit] Armory One
Armory One is a PLANT constructed after the end of the First Bloody Valentine War. Located at Lagrangian point 4, it is used as a ZAFT military arsenal and is where the three mobile suits ZGMF-X24S Chaos, ZGMF-X88S Gaia, and ZGMF-X31S Abyss are stolen by Phantom Pain.
[edit] Artemis
Artemis is an asteroid fortress in Earth orbit at Lagrangian point 3,[1] in the possession of the Eurasian Federation.
While Artemis's location is considered strategically worthless, the Eurasian forces nonetheless protected it with a lightwave barrier known as the "Umbrella of Artemis". This defense gave Artemis a reputation as an impregnable fortress, until the stolen GAT-X207 Blitz exploited its one shortcoming. Since the power requirements of the lightwave barrier are immense, the "Umbrella of Artemis" is only activated when enemy forces were sighted. Thus, the Blitz used its Mirage Colloid stealth system to slip inside the radius of the shield unnoticed, and then destroyed the lightwave barrier generator, enabling ZAFT forces to attack. Afterwards, Commandant Garcia of Artemis contracted with the noted mercenary faction Serpent Tail for defense, in order to maintain Artemis' reputation (and also to acquire one of the Astray prototypes.)
[edit] Boaz
Boaz is a ZAFT military asteroid, which was once an Earth Alliance Republic of East Asia station called "Nova". It was destroyed by the Earth Alliance with nuclear missiles after they have acquired the Neutron Jammer Canceller technology.
[edit] Debris Belt
The Debris Belt is a huge ring of various junk, like old satellites, empty tanks, destroyed space ships and mobile suits and even the remains of destroyed colonies (for example, Junius Seven), which came into the range of Earth’s gravity.[1] Because of the gravity, parts of the belt sometimes spiral inwards and fall on Earth. In CE 71, the Archangel enters the Debris Belt to get water supplies (which they get in form of huge ice blocks). This was also when the escape pod holding Lacus Clyne was brought on board the Archangel. In CE 73, Phantom Pain, the Earth Alliance special forces in the Girty Lue, attacks the ZAFT ship Minerva inside the belt. In Gundam SEED Astray, the Junk Guild searches the Debris Belt for fixable space ships or mobile suits to sell.
[edit] DSSD Troya Station
DSSD Troya Station is a space station that was built by ZAFT, but now belongs to the DSSD and is used for research on the Stargazer project. The external Laser Transmission Station Apollon A also belongs to this station. When the GSX-401FW Stargazer is completed it's new propulsion system called "Voiture Lumiere" is tested near this station. The station is largely destroyed when the Phantom Pain special forces attack it.
[edit] Graveyard
The Graveyard is a makeshift space colony within the Debris Belt, cobbled together from the remains of various spaceships and space stations within the belt. The Graveyard was inhabited by a community of craftsmen who practiced mostly forgotten arts, until they were nearly wiped out by pirate raiders. The last survivor was Un No, an eccentric old swordsman who trained Junk Guild tech Lowe Guele and gave him the Gerbera Straight mobile suit katana. Un No died in late CE 71, rendering the Graveyard uninhabited.
[edit] Heliopolis colony
Heliopolis was a neutral space colony and territory of the Orb Union, it is also the home to Kira Yamato and his friends. Located at Lagrangian point 3,[1] the Heliopolis colony was used as a secret base by the contractor Morgenroete to develop and build the first Gundam class mobile suits. For this reason ZAFT attacked it, stole four of the five prototypes and destroyed the colony in the battle that ensued. As a result of collateral damage, the entire colony collapsed. Numerous lifeboats filled with civilians were able to evacuate from Heliopolis, resulting in much less civilian casualties than the Bloody Valentine Tragedy on Junius Seven. Heliopolis appears to be an "Island Three" type O'Neill Cylinder colony.[citation needed]
Heliopolis was also the site where Morgenroete secretly constructed Orb's own prototype mobile suits. During ZAFT's attack on Heliopolis, Rondo Ghina Sahaku took Gold Frame along with the Duel's hyper bazooka and escaped. Red Frame and Blue Frame were later recovered by Lowe Guele of the Junk Guild and Gai Murakumo of the Serpent Tail after the battle.
[edit] Jachin Due
Jachin Due was a resource satellite that was converted to a military space fortress by ZAFT forces.
The First Battle of Jachin Due took place on April 17, CE 70, when the Earth Alliance ordered its 5th and 6th fleets, stationed on the moon, to attack PLANT and were intercepted by ZAFT forces from the resource satellite.
After this battle the PLANT Supreme Council decided to convert the entire asteroid of Jachin Due into a defensive base. Jachin Due was perfectly suited for this purpose: the size of Jachin Due allowed for ample construction of command bays and service docks and still being able to withstand massive bombardment; its location, in close vicinity of PLANT, was strategically placed between PLANT and any attacking force.
Later Jachin Due became the base of operations for the GENESIS project, and was eventually destroyed in the Second Battle of Jachin Due.
The word Jachin is the name of one of the mighty pillars of the Biblical Solomon's Temple.
[edit] Januarius and December colonies
During the failed attack on Aprilius One, the misguided beam originating from the Requiem superweapon destroyed four Januarius PLANTs, causing massive civilian loss of life. Januarius 4 crashed into December 7 and 8 and these two colonies were also destroyed in a matter of seconds.
[edit] Junius Seven colony
Junius Seven was an agricultural PLANT-type space colony, one of the PLANT's few sources of food that did not have to be imported from allied nations on Earth.
- The "Bloody Valentine tragedy" marked the opening of hostilities in the first war between the Earth Alliance and ZAFT.
- On Cosmic Era February 11, 70, the Earth Alliance and ZAFT were already at war, although no major actions had taken place. On that day, the Agamemmnon-class carrier Roosevelt, covertly loaded with a nuclear missile by a group of Blue Cosmos members within the Earth Alliance Forces, left the Ptolomaeus base on the Moon, headed for the "Junius City" area of the Zodiac Alliance for a show of force. In mid-flight, authorization was given by the Atlantic Federation for Roosevelt to use the force she was intended merely to show. On February 14, during a fierce battle between the defending ZAFT ships and the Roosevelt and her escorts, a nuclear missile was fired from a TS-MA2 Moebius mobile armor and hit Junius Seven. The blast caused the colony to break apart, killing 243,721 Coordinator men, women, and children. The act of mass murder is what became known as the "Bloody Valentine incident" after the date. "Remember Junius Seven" became one of the rallying cry of pro-war Coordinators, especially of PLANT Supreme Council Chairman Patrick Zala, whose wife Lenore was killed in the attack.
- Because of the sudden war thereafter, the wreckage of Junius Seven was left intact until the Archangel, desperately low on supplies especially on water, gathered what they needed from the debris of the colony and paid their respects to the dead in the form of origami flowers. Later, when a ceasefire was declared following the Second Battle of Jachin Due, a formal peace treaty between the Earth Alliance and the PLANTs was signed onboard a ship near Junius Seven. The wreckage of the colony was preserved as a war memorial.
- In CE 73, a group of veteran ZAFT extremists, attached PLANT Flare Motors all over the colony's remains, harnessing solar wind to send it on a collision course with Earth. Despite heroic attempts by ZAFT forces to destroy the colony and defeat those extremists before it fell on Earth, their attempts failed and the shattered pieces of Junius Seven rained down on Earth, causing massive devastation, including the destruction of Rome, Athens, Montreal, Philadelphia, and Shanghai.
The Blue Cosmos/Logos-led Earth Alliance used the terrorist attack as an excuse to make impossible demilitarization demands to PLANT and to eventually declare the Second Bloody Valentine War.
[edit] Liteiria colony
Liteiria was an O'Neill "Island Three" colony which was not affiliated with any nation. Like the Orb Union, Liteiria accepted both Naturals and Coordinators into its population, and sought to create a society where humans of all genetic types could live together in peace. Deciding that this goal could not be accomplished within the Earth Sphere, the people of Liteiria secretly hired the Junk Guild to install a massive thermonuclear pulse thruster on their colony so that they could move it to Jupiter, far beyond the reach of any Earth-based conflicts. While its strategically irrelevant location had previously caused both ZAFT and the Earth Alliance to ignore Liteiria, when they learned about the colonists' intentions an Earth Alliance fleet was dispatched to the colony. However, Junk Guild techs Lowe Guele and Liam Garfield and Serpent Tail mercenaries Gai Murakumo and Elijah Kiel fought off the fleet and allowed Liteiria time to escape.
[edit] Mendel colony
Found at Lagrangian point 4,[1] Mendel is an Island 2 type colony abandoned due to a viral outbreak. It became the temporary base of operations for the Three Ships Alliance in the waning days of the Bloody Valentine War. Prior to being abandoned, Mendel was home to the research laboratory of Dr. Ulen Hibiki, one of the leading researchers in genetics - it was here that the Ultimate Coordinator project was conducted, as was the creation of clones of industrialist Al Da Flaga, father of Mu La Flaga. In addition to the Three Ships Alliance, there is a small team of ZAFT researchers operating at Mendel, trying to recover samples of George Glenn's DNA that were stored at the research facilities there. During a battle between Earth Alliance and ZAFT forces, Gai Murakumo and the rest of the Serpent Tail crew use the colony to lure a GINN High Maneuver Type I away from the battle to capture it.
It should be noted that the Mendel colony is quite appropriately named after Gregor Mendel, a 19th century Austrian monk who is often referred to as the "father of genetics". His experiments studying the inheritance of traits in pea plants laid the foundation for our modern understanding of genetics.
[edit] Mobile Space Fortress Messiah
The Mobile Space Fortress Messiah is a ZAFT space mobile fortress built from a hollowed former mining asteroid some time after the first war. PLANT Supreme Council Chairman Gilbert Durandal headed to this base after he left Earth and from there commanded the attacks on the Earth Forces's Daedalus lunar base and the Requiem superweapon. The base is capable of movement, and is equipped with a Neo-GENESIS laser (a smaller variant of the large GENESIS weapon which was used in the previous war) and very strong beam shields. Quad beam-cannon turrets act as point-defences. At the end of the second war it was attacked by the Three Ships Alliance and at the end of the battle was heavily damaged by Kira Yamato's ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom and the Support ship Eternal. It was destroyed when it crashed on the moon.
[edit] Locations on the Moon
[edit] Arzachel Lunar Base
The Arzachel Lunar Base, located in the Arzachel crater, is the Earth Alliance lunar base after the destruction of the Ptolemaeus Lunar Base in CE 71 and the headquarters of the Earth Alliance space fleet. The Earth Alliance launched its first attack on PLANT during the Second Bloody Valentine War from this base. In CE 74, the 8th Earth Alliance Mobile Fleet was stationed here, and was instrumental in distracting the ZAFT forces during the Requiem superweapon attack on PLANT. However, after Durandal's speech of his Destiny Plan, ZAFT used the captured Requiem weapon to destroy the base, killing the president of the Atlantic Federation in the process.
[edit] Copernicus City
Copernicus City, located in the Copernicus crater, is the first city built on the Moon. The construction begins in CE 10 and two years later it is opened for civil inhabitants. It also serves as a provider for the raw materials for the space colony program.
Athrun Zala and Kira Yamato both attend a preparatory school in this city and meet here in CE 61.
In CE 70, Copernicus City is chosen by the United Nations as the site of a final round of peace negotiations between Earth and PLANT. However a terror bombing on February 5 kills the senior leadership of the UN and PLANT representative Siegel Clyne only survives because his shuttle has a malfunction. PLANT is blamed for this incident and a full scale war follows.
In CE 74, ZAFT agent Sarah leads an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Lacus Clyne by manipulating Meer Campbell. Meer was in Copernicus City on close watch after she is revealed as an impostor of the real Lacus Clyne. Sarah was posted as her bodyguard.
Supplemental material mentions that Orb stationed two Izumo-class battleships in Copernicus City, the Susanoo and Tsukuyomi, which serve as base for their squadrons of MVF-M12A Murasame transformable mobile suits.
[edit] Daedalus Lunar Base
The Daedalus Lunar Base, located in the Daedalus crater, served as the main headquarters of the Earth Alliance's space forces. Unlike the Ptolemaeus Lunar Base, it is located on the dark side of the moon. The Requiem superweapon was constructed here.
In CE 74 Lord Djibril, the last remaining Logos member, intended to use Requiem to wipe out the PLANT Supreme Council in Aprilius One. The attack failed but instead destroyed several other PLANTs. After the attack on the PLANTs, the Minerva attacked the base and destroyed the control room for Requiem before it could fire again.
[edit] Ptolemaeus Lunar Base
The Ptolemaeus Lunar Base is the main base of the Earth Alliance in space, which is located inside the Ptolemaeus crater on the Moon. It was established in CE 35 by the Atlantic Federation to oversee the space colonies. When the war broke out it became the headquarters of the Earth Alliance's space fleet from where they launched their attacks on PLANT.
The base was destroyed in CE 71 on the last day of the Bloody Valentine War, by ZAFT's superweapon GENESIS.
[edit] Locations on Earth
[edit] Carpentaria Base
The Carpentaria Base is the first major base of ZAFT on Earth. It is located in the Gulf of Carpentaria on the northern coast of Australia, a PLANT-aligned territory. On April 2, CE 70 the disasembled parts of the base were dropped from the orbit and after 48 hours the foundation of the base was laid. The base was completed on May 20 and from this base ZAFT attacked other parts on Earth. On August 8 the Earth Alliance starts Operation 8.8 to capture the Carpentaria Base. However with the end of the war and after signing the Treaty of Junius, the Carpentaria Base, along with the Gibraltar Base, stays as one of ZAFT's bases on Earth.
[edit] Gibraltar Base
The Gibraltar Base is the second major base of ZAFT on Earth. The Gibraltar land formation was captured by ZAFT on May 25, CE 70 after the First Battle of Casablanca and soon after construction of the base started. From this base ZAFT attacked Europe and Africa. On July 24, CE 71 the base is attacked by the Earth Alliance and ZAFT is forced to leave the base and withdraw from Europe. However after signing the Treaty of Junius the base is returned to ZAFT as a permanent Earth base.
[edit] Giga-Float
Built by the Earth Alliance for civilian use, the Giga-Float is a gigantic artificial island, which carries a fifty-kilometer-long mass driver. The Earth Alliance obtained the help of the Junk Guild to build the Giga-Float, which would, after its construction, remain constantly on the move. The Mercenary Group Serpent Tail were also hired by the Earth Alliance to protect the Giga-Float until its completion. As the Giga-Float was nearing completion, Rondo Ghina Sahaku took the incomplete, upgraded Gold Frame out to attempt to destroy the Giga-Float. Lowe Gear's Red Frame engaged Gold Frame, and was severely damaged. Gold Frame left after being engaged by Gai Murakumo's Blue Frame, equipped with underwater combat equipment. The Giga-Float was subsequently repaired and completed.
[edit] Gulnahan Ravine
The Gulnahan Ravine is a strategic pass east of Suez, which is the only point in the area passable by large vehicles such as land battleships. The Earth Alliance created a fortification known as the Lohengrin Gate in the middle of the Gulnahan Ravine. This base was named for its primary armament, a "Lohengrin" positron blaster cannon. This powerful weapon allowed the Lohengrin Gate to destroy any ZAFT forces that attempted to pass through the ravine. In addition, to protect the Lohengrin cannon, the mobile armor YMAG-X7F Gells-Ghe was stationed at the base. The Gells-Ghe's positron reflector shield was able to block any weapon in the ZAFT arsenal, even the battleship Minerva's "Tannhäuser" positron blaster cannon. However, the Minerva was contacted by Gulnahan native Koniel Almeda, who informed them of a cave system in the ravine, unknown to Alliance forces. These caves allowed ZGMF-X56S Impulse pilot Shinn Asuka to bypass the Gells-Ghe and destroy the Lohengrin. ZGMF-X23S Saviour pilot Athrun Zala took advantage of the distraction presented by Shinn's assault to disable the Gells-Ghe in close-range combat, and allows ZAFT engineers the opportunity to study its positron reflector to be used in the newly developed mobile suits.
[edit] Heaven's Base
Heaven's Base, located in Iceland, is the Atlantic Federation military headquarters of the Earth Alliance, after the destruction of JOSH-A. After their existence was revealed to the world, Blue Cosmos leader Lord Djibril and the other surviving members of LOGOS took refuge at Heaven's Base. The base is defended by a large complement of mobile suits and mobile armors, as well as five GFAS-X1 Destroy mobile suits and the Nibelung anti-aircraft cannon, which can shoot down mobile suits descending from space. A combined fleet of ZAFT and renegade Earth Alliance soon approach Heaven's Base and demand the surrender of LOGOS, but Djibril instead launches a preemptive attack against the approaching fleet. After the Destroy units are defeated, Heaven's Base is overrun, but Djibril flees by submarine to the Orb Union.
[edit] JOSH-A
Joint Supreme Headquarters Alaska, JOSH-A (pronounced Joshua) was the central command center of the Earth Alliance after the fall of Victoria. The base was constructed by the two main powers of the Earth Alliance, the Atlantic Federation and the Eurasian Federation.
The JOSH-A base was destroyed in the Battle of JOSH-A by a Cyclops System, secretly installed under the base by the Atlantic Federation itself. While most of the base personnel are from Eurasian forces, after luring the ZAFT forces into attacking the base, the Atlantic Federation ignited the self-destruction Cyclops System, managing to 'kill two birds with one stone'. The attacking ZAFT force was mostly wiped out and the base itself was totally annihilated. This event tilted the inner Earth Alliance's balance of powers mostly toward the Blue Cosmos-controlled Atlantic Federation, who used it to rally the Earth against ZAFT and the PLANTs by manipulating the media into believing ZAFT was responsible for the base's destruction.
[edit] Lagash Base
The Lagash Base is a secret underwater supply facility maintained by ZAFT in the Pacific Ocean. It supports six enormous submarines that are used to resupply ZAFT's Carpentaria and Gibraltar bases. The base consists of several interconnected dome structures, with docking facilities for the submarines. When the Mars vessel Acidalium is damaged in battle with a Phantom Pain squad in late CE 73, it docks at Lagash for emergency repairs at the suggestion of Isaac Mau, a ZAFT observer aboard the ship. It is named for an ancient Sumerian city Lagash.
[edit] Lodonia
The Earth Alliance's Extended laboratory. Here, members of Blue Cosmos tried to create living weapons to fight with the same efficiency as Coordinators out of kidnapped, and/or undrafted children. Those who weren't competitive enough or couldn't keep up with progress were discarded. In late CE 73, people started seeing trucks and mobile suits move in and out of the area so they alerted ZAFT of this. ZAFT forces then captured the facility and disabled all explosives meant to destroy the lab should it fall into enemy hands.
[edit] Mahamul Base
At the northern point of the Persian Gulf, ZAFT built a base to defend against the Earth Alliance base at Suez. Joachim Ruddle is the commandant of the base.[2]
[edit] Onogoro Island
One of several islands in the archipelago which makes up the Orb Union. Onogoro is controlled by the Orb Union military which holds the ports, fleet, anything military and also by Morgenroete. Morgenroete Incorporated munitions company is located on the island, and its high-security facilities are protected even from satellite surveillance. The 50km long Kaguya mass driver is also located on the island, held together by a mass of smaller islands.
The name Onogoro is derived from an island in Japanese mythology.
[edit] Panama spaceport
The Panama spaceport is another important base of the Earth Alliance. The base is the location of the Porta Panama mass driver, which was developed by the Atlantic Federation and the United States of South America (the later being annexed by the Atlantic Federation at the start of the First Bloody Valentine War). Like the other Earth Alliance spaceports, the Panama base is an important strategic target of ZAFT and after the disastrous failure of Operation Spitbreak, ZAFT launches another attack on the base. Although ZAFT deploys only a small number of mobile suits, the mission is successful thanks to the use of a new EMP-weapon called Gungnir, which not only disables all units of the Earth Alliance (like the new mass produced GAT-01 Strike Dagger) but also destroys the mass driver itself. After the battle, many Alliance soldiers are brutally slaughtered by the insanely vengeful ZAFT troops as revenge for their lost comrades during Operation Spitbreak.
[edit] Victoria Base
The Victoria Base is an Earth Alliance base, founded by the Eurasian Federation and the South African Union in east Africa and the location of the Habilis mass driver. It became one of ZAFT’s major attack targets during the First Bloody Valentine War and the first battle of Victoria took place on March 8, CE 70. This battle resulted in a failure due to the lack of ground units on ZAFT’s side but when the second battle took place, 11 months later on February 13, CE 71, ZAFT was able to capture the base, thus cutting of the Earth Alliance of one of its important mass drivers. After the loss of nearly all other mass drivers on Earth (including the lost of Panama Spaceport), the Earth Alliance launched a full-scale attack on Victoria. Thanks to the newly deployed GAT-01 Strike Dagger mobile suit series, which were deployed in huge quantities, the Alliance was able to capture the base mostly intact with minor damage. Since this battle the large numbers of GAT-01 Strike Daggers played a major role in the remaining war. The base then became the major transport mean for the Alliance to transport personnel, mobile suits (mostly Daggers), materials, and later nuclear missiles after acquired the blue-print data of the N-Jammer Canceller into space. It was here that Alliance troops carried out their revenge on the ZAFT forces for the massacre at Panama Spaceport, killing even the most wounded ZAFT soldiers. In Gundam Seed Destiny it is mentioned to see if Leader of Logos goes there.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Cosmic Era space map (at the beginning of Gundam SEED) (GIF). GundamOfficial. Retrieved on 2007-04-11.
- ^ Joachim Ruddle profile. GundamOfficial. Retrieved on 2007-08-18.
[edit] External links
- Cosmic Era Earth map displaying nations and alliances (at the beginning of Gundam SEED)
- Cosmic Era Earth map displaying ZAFT and Earth Alliance controlled bases (as of February 13, CE 71 [Gundam SEED episode 13])
- Cosmic Era Earth map displaying the Orb Union (at the beginning of Gundam SEED)
- Cosmic Era space map (at the beginning of Gundam SEED)
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