Orb Union

The Orb Union (also known as the United Emirates of Orb) is a South Pacific island nation in the Cosmic Era timeline. It is based on New Zealand, Australia, and Papua New Guinea.

"Orb will not attack another nation, will not allow another nation to attack them, and will not intervene in the conflicts of other nations." – Motto of Orb

Overview
Orb is a nation whose territory encompasses several islands to the east of New Guinea. The official name of the mainland is Yalafath, where the Orb capital, Olofat, is located. Despite its small size and lack of natural resources, Orb has considerable industrial and military power. This is due to an abundant supply of geothermal energy thanks to its numerous active volcanoes, access to advanced technology, and laws granting nondiscrimination to Coordinators, which causes several Coordinator scientists to live at Orb. In the past, it was a settlement to a large number of Japanese immigrants. The official language is Japanese. The Island nation itself controls its own Mass Driver, called "Kaguya", the space colony Heliopolis, which serves as a resource satellite, and also another space military satellite Ame-no-Mihashira. Because of Orb's relative political and economic stability and stance as a neutral nation, it is known as the "Land of Peace."

Government
Orb's government consists of both an elected legislature and an aristocracy of five noble families (most notably the Athha, Sahaku and Seiran families), who once ruled the island nation. The leading member of the Orb government is the chief representative, with the most famous being Uzumi Nara Athha. The five families, however, do not always agree on political matters, which caused some of these families to violate decisions of the chief representative.

Military
Though only composed of groups of islands, Orb has a substantial military, capable of holding itself against an attack of the two most powerful militaries in the Earth Sphere, OMNI Enforcer and ZAFT, although only for a short amount of time. Orb gets most of its weaponry from the local Morgenroete, Inc., which is one of the world's top producers of advanced weaponry. Morgenroete is located at Onogoro island, a small island to the south which is under control of the Orb military.

Orb's naval forces are composed of Aegis-class cruisers, Kuraokami-class destroyers and led by the Takemikazuchi carrier. In space, Orb controls a small fleet of Izumo-class battleships, which are among the most powerful space warships in the Earth Sphere. Orb also controls an army of Mobile Suits, which include the early MBF-M1 Astrays and the later produced, transformable MVF-M11C Murasames. There also exist several variations of these suits, among them versions designed for use in space.

Orb Military Ranks and Uniforms
Orb's military ranks are structured similar in hierarchy as the OMNI Enforcer.

Commissioned Officers
 * Admiral
 * Rear Admiral
 * Captain
 * Commander
 * Lieutenant Commander
 * Lieutenant
 * Lieutenant Junior Grade
 * Ensign

Noncommissioned Officers
 * Sergeant Major
 * Master Sergeant/Sergeant 1st Class/Sergeant
 * Leading Private
 * Private 1st Class/Private/Recruit

History
The origins of Orb are so far unclear, although it is known that the small island nation was formerly ruled by five noble families. Orb exists as early as CE 30, since it was in this year, during which the nation began construction of the Kaguya mass driver and the space colony Heliopolis. In CE 58, Uzumi Nara Athha became chief representative of Orb and it was also in this year that construction began on the space station Ame-no-Mihashira.

Bloody Valentine War
When the first war between the Earth Alliance and PLANT broke out, representative Uzumi declared the nation neutral in the conflict in February 8, C.E. 0070. Nevertheless, the Sahaku family used Morgenroete's resources on the Heliopolis colony to assist the Atlantic Federation in constructing five mobile suits that can be piloted by Naturals and a massive ship called the Archangel. However, the data used in constructing their Mobile Suits were used in constructing Orb's own prototype Mobile Suits, the Astray Gold Frame, Astray Red Frame, Astray Blue Frame, Astray Green Frame and parts for the Astray Mirage Frame. Unfortunately, ZAFT caught wind of EA's construction and attacked the colony. Only four of the units were captured though; the last one, the GAT-X105 Strike, remained under Alliance control. After the battle, the entire colony imploded, though its population was evacuated. The Gold Frame would fall into the hands of Rondo Gina Sahaku, the Red Frame would end up in Junk Guild possession, the Blue Frame in Serpent Tail and the Green and Mirage Frames MIA.

En route to Alliance headquarters JOSH-A, the Archangel was under heavy attack by ZAFT forces. Their fight moved closer to Orb's borders, prompting its navy to ward them off. However, Representative Uzumi Nara Athha decided to allow the Archangel to be hidden in Morgenroete after hearing that they had his adoptive daughter, Cagalli Yula Athha on-board. He later negotiated with the Archangel's commanding officers, requesting that they give copies of the Strike's combat data to be adapted to their M1 Astrays. With Kira Yamato's help, they were able to give their M1s the ability to be piloted by Naturals. The Orb navy then secretly escorted the Archangel so it could make a safe trip to JOSH-A.

However, a few weeks later, the Alliance's mass driver at Panama was destroyed, so they were in desperate need of one to help resupply their bases in space. Director Muruta Azrael of the Defense Committee suggested that they take Orb's Kaguya mass driver, under the pretense that as a nation of Earth, it should be standing with them against "mankind's enemy." Because taking either side would make enemies for Orb, the government announced that they will oppose the Alliance's ultimatum. As the civilian population is evacuated elsewhere, the Orb military is assisted by the defecting Archangel, who had survived the destruction of JOSH-A, in opposing the Alliance. However, after two battles, it was obvious Orb couldn't win, so Representative Athha helped Orb's remaining forces, including the Izumo-class battleship Kusanagi and the Archangel, escape to space. He and many other high ranking politicians stayed behind to destroy the mass driver, ultimately sacrificing themselves. However, the Alliance later was able to recapture its mass driver at Victoria. Orb eventually became a protectorate of the Atlantic Federation.

In space, the Kusanagi and the Archangel joined forces with the stolen ZAFT warship Eternal to form what would become known as the Three Ship Alliance, which would play a critical role during the end of the war. When the war came to an end, the members of the Three Ship Alliance moved to Orb under assumed aliases and Cagalli became Orb's Chief Representative. When the Treaty of Junius was signed, the national boundaries of Orb were restored to their pre-war state.

Second Bloody Valentine War
By the time of the Second Bloody Valentine War, the Seiran noble family managed to usurp the Parliament and violate Orb's neutrality with predictions of a repeat of the Atlantic Federation's attack on the Union. As a result, Orb entered the Earth Alliance. However, the Seiran family was unable to gain the full support of the military, which remained loyal to the Athha family, including Captain Todaka of the 2nd Defense Fleet and the military became weakened as a result of its low opinion of the Seirans resulting in lack of motivation to fight and morale. Chief Representative Cagalli Yula Athha was abducted soon afterward by her brother and the crew of the Archangel during her wedding to Yuna Roma Seiran, the son of Prime Minister Unato Ema Seiran. Despite his personal sentiment, Todaka was promoted to Colonel and chosen to lead the Orb expeditionary fleet in the nation's first active support of the Alliance. This effort ended in a disaster at Crete, when the flagship Takemikazuchi and most of the other ships present were sunk by Shinn Asuka in his ZGMF-X56S/B Sword Impulse. Colonel Todaka ordered the Takemikazuchi abandoned and remained behind to go down with his ship. After the Battle of Crete, many of the surviving members of the Orb expeditionary fleet joined the crew of the Archangel, including Todaka's second in command Amagi, who became the Archangel ' s new executive officer.

After Gilbert Durandal's speech about Logos and the attack on Heaven's Base, Lord Djibril fled to Orb where he met with the Seirans. Durandal ordered ZAFT to attack the country in hope of taking Orb down in the process of eliminating Logos. However, due to the Archangel's intervention, Djibril escaped and ZAFT forces withdrew, as there was no longer any reason to continue their assault. During the battle, the Seirans and many Orb politicians were killed, giving Cagalli the chance to regain her position as the leader of the Orb Union. Afterwards Orb, together with the Kingdom of Scandinavia and the Atlantic Federation, resisted Durandal's Destiny Plan and thus the now ZAFT-controlled Requiem. Orb was then created as the target for ZAFT since it was the last nation that presented a major threat to the Destiny Plan as the Earth Alliance lost most of its military power. Orb sent its three Izumo class vessels to assist the Archangel and any dissident fleets against the Destiny Plan. After Requiem was destroyed and Durandal killed, Orb made peace with PLANT.

Athha family

 * Cagalli Yula Athha
 * Homura Athha
 * Uzumi Nara Athha
 * Kira Yamato

Sahaku family

 * Koto Sahaku
 * Rondo Gina Sahaku
 * Rondo Mina Sahaku

Seiran Family

 * Yuna Roma Seiran
 * Unato Ema Seiran

Commons

 * Sai Argyle
 * Miriallia Haw
 * Murrue Ramius
 * Ledonir Kisaka
 * Juri Wu Nien
 * Asagi Caldwell
 * Todaka
 * Mayura Labatt
 * Erica Simmons

Trivia

 * In the novelisation of the Gundam Seed series, the title of the third volume "Country of Peace" (平和 の国 Heiwa no Kuni) refers to Orb. Also, Orb is given this nickname (the land of peace) in the title of the 25th episode of the anime.
 * The US release of Gundam SEED Destiny uses Naval Ranks when it comes to military in space ships.
 * Orb Union is the reminiscent of the Sanc Kingdom from Gundam Wing due to their pacifistic ideals.