Support ship Eternal

This article is about a fictional ship class from the Cosmic Era timeline of the anime Gundam metaseries.

The Support ship "Eternal" is a space warship in the ZAFT forces designed during the Bloody Valentine War specifically to carry the advanced ZGMF-X09A Justice and ZGMF-X10A Freedom mobile suits, and possibly some of the other units in ZAFT's first Gundam mobile suit line. "Eternal" is designated FFMH-Y101, assigning it in the High-Speed Mobile Frigate category, parallelling the "Laurasia"-class mobile frigate and "Nazca"-class high-speed mobile destroyer. In addition to hangar space for Freedom and Justice, the Eternal also carries their heavily-armed METEOR support units on a pair of external docking clamps, where they can be used as turrets while not in use by the Freedom and Justice.

Design and construction

The "Eternal" is a space transport warship, designed by ZAFT specifically to support the advanced ZGMF-X09A Justice and ZGMF-X10A Freedom mobile suits, plus the two METEOR support units designed specifically for them. The ship is equipped with a single launch catapult on the top side for launching the mobile suits, and a pair of pivoting clamps near the bow (one on each side) for the METEOR units. The pivoting clamps allow the METEOR units to serve as turrets for the Eternal, when not in use by the Freedom and Justice.

It is also possible that the ship would have also housed the (at the time incomplete) ZGMF-X12A Testament and the ZGMF-X13A Providence (other units in ZAFT's first Gundam line) if the ship had not been stolen. The other unit in ZAFT's first Gundam line, the ZGMF-X11A Regenerate, was almost twice the height of the average mobile suit - far too big to fit in the Eternal's hangar.

The Eternal is lightly armed - mounting only a single heavy beam cannon turret, a collection of CIWS defensive weapons, and a large array of missile launchers. While the METEOR units are docked though, they can serve as turrets with their full weaponry - this greatly increases the Eternal's firepower. Her main weapons are her impressive mobile suits, and she has hangar space to support at least six such mobile suits. The lack of firepower may also be the reason for her relatively high speed.

Only one ship of this class, the FFMH-Y101 "Eternal", is known to have been built.

In service

Although the "Eternal" was designed and constructed by ZAFT, they were never able to put her into service - she was stolen soon after completion by Lacus Clyne and Andrew Waltfeld of the Clyne Faction, in defiance of the genocidal stance that PLANT Chairman Patrick Zala was taking in the war.

After being stolen, the "Eternal" joined the renegade Earth Alliance vessel Archangel and Orb Union vessel Kusanagi, forming the Three Ships Alliance - a faction dedicated to preventing attacks on civilians and ending the war. With them, she helped to end the Bloody Valentine War, with the "Eternal" and her mobile suits defending the PLANT colonies from an Earth Alliance nuclear attack and defending Earth itself from the GENESIS superweapon.

After the Bloody Valentine War, the "Eternal" was hidden in an orbiting debris field, inside a cloak of rocks attached to the secret factory "Terminal" - named after the organisation headed by Lacus Clyne that now possessed the "Eternal". Terminal is a covert organisation of military and political moderates from every faction, the Earth Alliance, the Orb Union, and ZAFT, that grew out of the Three Ship Alliance following the end of the first war. Andrew Waltfeld and Lacus Clyne secretly emigrated to Orb, leaving the ship under the command of its XO, Martin DaCosta.

After the start of the Second Bloody Valentine War in CE 74, Andrew Waltfeld and Lacus Clyne returned to the Eternal and oversaw Terminal operations, including the obtaining of three prototype ZGMF-XX09T DOM Trooper units and the ZGMF-X88S Gaia, as well as the factory operations - the completing and upgrading of the DOM Trooper units, and the construction of the ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom, ZGMF-X19A Infinite Justice and at least one METEOR unit.

After a fact-finding mission to the abandoned Mendel colony, Martin DaCosta's shuttle was spotted by a ZGMF-LRR704B GINN Reconnaissance Type which follows him and locates the "Eternal", forcing it to flee its asteroid base in order to draw ZAFT forces away from the Terminal factory. The "Eternal" approaches Earth, intending to orbital drop the (currently pilotless) ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom and ZGMF-X19A Infinite Justice towards Orb should the ship be lost. Andrew Waltfeld launches in the ZGMF-X88S Gaia, and then Kira Yamato arrives in the MBF-02 Strike Rouge via an orbital booster to assist. When the outdated Strike Rouge was badly damaged, Kira was taken aboard and presented with the ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom, which he uses to quickly disable their pursuers (three Nazca class destroyers and over twenty ZAKUs and GOUFs.

In the last battles of the Second Bloody Valentine War, Lacus led a number of ZAFT and Earth Alliance vessels loyal to Terminal in an effort to destroy Requiem's 1st Relay Station and prevent Requiem's use to destroy the Orb Union. In the subsequent Battle of Messiah, she and the Strike Freedom managed to heavily damage the Mobile Space Fortress Messiah as well as destroy its Neo-GENESIS superweapon, which led to the "Messiah"'s crash to the moon and its destruction.

Related development

* The external design of the LHM-BB01 "Minerva", ZAFT's first post-war battleship, was largely inspired by the fossil of the "winged whale", Evidence 01, which was recovered by George Glenn on Europa, while the armaments and design features were inspired by the designs of the "Eternal" and "Archangel".

External links

* [http://www.mahq.net/mecha/gundam/seed/eternal.htm Mecha Anime HQ: "Eternal"]