White Base
| First appearance | Mobile Suit Gundam Ep. #01, "Gundam Rising" |
|---|---|
| Affiliation | Earth Federation |
| Launched | UC 0079 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class | Pegasus |
| Registry | SCV-70 |
| Maximum speed | Mach 12 (atmospheric flight) |
| Fighters |
RX-78-2, RX-77, RX-75 FF-X7 × 6, FF-X7-Bst × 2 |
| Auxiliary craft | Gunperry transport plane × 1, launch shuttle × 2 |
| Armaments |
580mm dual main cannon × 2 Dual-barrel mega-particle cannon × 2 Front missile launcher × 24 Back missile launcher × 6 |
| Defenses | Anti-aircraft machine gun × 36[1] |
| Propulsion | 16,000 tons × 4 × 2 |
| Power | 404,525 kW / 550,000 hp |
| Mass | 68,000 tons |
| Length | 250 metres (820 ft) |
| Width | 110 metres (360 ft) |
| Height | 97 metres (318 ft) |
The SCV-70 White Base (ホワイトベース Howaito Bēsu), called The Trojan Horse (木馬 Mokuba) by Zeons, is a fictional spaceship from the Japanese science fiction anime series Mobile Suit Gundam. It serves as the mothership of the protagonist crew members and the famous mobile suit Gundam. Various spin offs are designed after it, including a whole class of ships called the Pegasus-class assault carrier, and it has inspired ships in the sequels like the Argama class in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam and Archangel class in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED.[2]
Development
The White Base is designed with a 3 plane view method by Kunio Okawara, however, it is not specially designed for the anime series Gundam, it was actually a salvaged design from the anime Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3.[3] The idea of having a space carrier from the director Yoshiyuki Tomino is partly inspired by the earlier science fiction anime Space Battleship Yamato, in which he claimed to be a fan of.[3] It was intended to be in a more realistic black colour, but was changed to white by the order of Sunrise, similar to the colour change of the main mecha Gundam was changed from a grayish white to white, red, blue and yellow. Director Tomino showed great disgust in the colour change, also noticing the unrealistic non-aerodynamic design of it after the show was on air, said in an interview that such design would never appeared in the real world, since it would be a sitting duck from fighter aircraft. Tomino still held a grudge 10 years after the show aired and stated in an interview in Newtype 1989 April issue that the imaginary enemies of Gundam are Sunrise, sponsors and television stations.[4] This ship also appeared in the Kodansha Pocket Encyclopedia series, listed as spacecraft carrier(UchuuKubou, 宇宙空母).[5] The Zukai Uchusen The space ship listed it the 6th fictional spaceship(and 3rd in anime) after the Imperial Star Destroyer, Millennium Falcon, Enterprise, Macross and Spaceship Yamato, and the ship that made the Pegasus Class of ships famous.[6]
Special onboard systems
As summarized for general readers, Chapter 4 of Zukai Uchusen, which is the chapter dedicated for famous fictional crafts, stated the White Base utilize Minovsky Physics to support a semi-anti gravity system called Minovsky Craft to fly in the atmosphere, which it ejects Minovsky particles to create a kind of hovering effect.[6]
Fictional history
At the outbreak of the One Year War, the Dreadnought-oriented Earth Federation Space Forces was caught completely by surprise when the Principality of Zeon deployed the agile mobile suits against their fleets. The Federation military quickly realized that they would also need mobile suits if they were to have any chance of victory, and instituted the famed Project V in order to develop a mass-production mobile suit design. The Federation also realized that their existing line of warships lacked mobile suit transport and support capacity, and thus desperately in need of designs capable of mobile warfare. A new revolutionary warship class exclusively designed for MS combat and support was born—the Pegasus class. One of the first Pegasus-class ships to enter service was the White Base.[6]
Launched in September UC 0079, the White Base was immediately sent to retrieve the Federation's new mobile suit prototypes from Side 7's secret research facility for field-testing. In the middle of this mission, the ship unexpectedly found herself tailed by a Zeon special combat unit led by Char Aznable. When the Zeon forces launched surprise attack on the colony, heavy casualties were inflicted among both the colony's civilian population and White Base's regular personnel. In the middle of the battle, civilian Amuro Ray activated the RX-78-2 Gundam unit in sheer desperation and repulsed the Zeon attack. The surviving crew and the civilian refugees then boarded the White Base and went on a long journey to plagued by Zeon hostilities.
The White Base first landed at Luna II, home of the remaining Earth Federal Space Force fleet, where she was promptly seized by the base commander, who proceeded to interrogate the crew, militia and civilian survivors on board. In the middle of this interrogation, Char, searching for the White Base, led an infiltration attack on Luna II by mining the port entrance. White Base managed to escape from Luna II, and sailed next for Earth under the command of a young Bright Noa.
Upon making contact with the Federation's Earth Forces under the command of General Revil, the White Base was drawn into a battle in the ruins of Seattle, in which they shot down a Zeon Gaw-class heavy carrier containing Garma Zabi (who was maneuvered into an ambush by Char).
The White Base then proceeded to meet up with Revil's forces that were assembling for Operation Odessa. Along the trek through Asia, the White Base was hunted by a Zeon special forces unit under the command of Ramba Ral. Eventually meeting up with the Federation forces, the White Base participated in Operation Odessa, helping to break the back of the Zeon forces on Earth. White Base then restocked and refueled in Belfast before traveling across the Atlantic Ocean to Jaburo.
White Base arrived and docked at Jaburo, the Federation's main base and mobile suit manufacturing facility located underground in South America. Unfortunately, they ended up leading Char's Mad Angler unit to Jaburo, at which point he attempted an infiltration, which was repelled.
Following the failed Zeon raid on Jaburo, the White Base was re-launched into space, re-designated the 13th Autonomous Mobile Squadron, and sent to Side 6 in a diversionary move aimed at drawing off Zeon forces from Solomon. This mission would solidify the fame of White Base as Zeon's worst nightmare, as this single ship managed to surprise everyone by repeatedly knocking out heavyweight Zeon fleet commanders. Additionally, the unrivaled performance of Amuro Ray (including the televised Side 6 battle where he took down 9 Rick Doms within merely 3 minutes) earned the ship crew the nickname "Newtype Corps". With much of Zeon's attention being fixed on hunting down the "Trojan Horse", the Federation gained crucial strategic time to complete the deployment of its new Vinson Plan space armada, together with their new RGM-79 GM mass-fielded. After eliminating the Conscon Fleet, the White Base rendezvoused with the remaining ships in the space force, and participated in the Battle of Solomon and in the Battle of A Baoa Qu.
During the battle at A Baoa Qu, the White Base became a rally point for the surviving ships in Admiral Revil's fleet after Gihren Zabi unleashed the Solar Ray, a gigantic colony laser. Assisted by other ships, White Base spearheaded an assault against one of A Baoa Qu's S defensive lines. During the battle, White Base sustained critical damage and was forced to crash-land into a space port of the asteroid stronghold, and immediately became a hotspot for hostile assaults. The grounded White Base was eventually destroyed from intense enemy attacks, although its entire surviving crew evacuated the ship in time.
See also
References
- ↑ "Gundam Official: White Base". Bandai America, Inc. Archived from the original on April 18, 2009. Retrieved July 25, 2009.
- ↑ Otona no Gundam Perfect, Nekkei Entertainment
- 1 2 Gundam Century Renewal Version, Kishosha, 15 March, 2000, ISBN 4-87777-028-3
- ↑ Newtype magazine 1989 April Issue
- ↑ 講談社ポケット百科シリーズ(1981)
- 1 2 3 Zukai Uchusen by Shomyoji Kenso/Morise Ryo, Shinkigensha (2007)
