California Base

California Base
California Base (キャリフォルニアベース, Kyariforunia Bēsu)
Data
Location	Earth (North America)
Usage	Military base
Builder	Earth Federation Forces
Controller	Earth Federation Forces Principality of Zeon
Miscellaneous
Manga	Aggressor
Game	Mobile Suit Gundam: Zeonic Front

California Base is a location from the Universal Century timeline.

Overview

California Base was a massive Earth Federation Forces naval installation composed of 20 large bases on the Californian coast, made up of more than a dozen different naval, aerospace, and weapons development facilities. The California Base was home to the Federation's largest naval yards.

History

During the Principality of Zeon's Earth invasion, it is captured on March 13, U.C. 0079 during Zeon's second Earth drop operation, and became the Principality's major terrestrial base. After Zeon captured it during the One Year War the facility was retooled to produce Zeon submarines. After Operation Odessa, the turning point of the war on Earth, the remaining Zeon forces expended much of the base's fighting strength in a failed assault on Jaburo. The California base was recaptured by the Federation on December 15, U.C. 0079. It ended with the destruction of the experimental EXAM suits, the Blue Destiny unit-1, piloted by Yuu Kajima, and the MS-08TX(EXAM) Efreet Custom, piloted by Zeon Ace Nimbus Schterzen. This battle also lead to the truth about the EXAM system. The base's assembly lines were used to produce eight RX-77-4 Guncannon II units in the last month of the war.

At California Base, Lt. Agar piloting RX-78-6 Mudrock Gundam saw its service in an attempt to prevent the Midnight Fenrir Corp from using an HLV to leave Earth near the end of the One Year War - that battle left the RX-78-6 severely damaged, and the Federation determined that it was not feasible to repair the unit. At the same time the Midnight Fenrir were left stranded and unable to have an effect on the remainder of the war outside of guerilla actions.

Notes & Trivia

• California Base does not refer to any one single base on the West Coast of the US but rather a collection of bases of varying sizes and reach which, together, formed a powerful stronghold for Zeon power projection during the OYW.
• For the aforementioned reason, this is also why despite Mobile Suit Gundam Side Story: The Blue Destiny, Mobile Suit Gundam: Zeonic Front, and Mobile Suit Gundam - Zeon MS Boys: The War of Independence all having an "Assault on California Base" the cast of each story never meet each other (besides Blue Destiny and MS Boys) because they are really depicting different parts of California Base being assaulted at the same time
• Zeon largely used this base to escape from Earth after Odessa had fallen presumably for it's size compared to Kimbareid Base in Africa and, Hughenden Fortress in Australia, which are shown to launch one HLV for take off at a time, and Southeast Asia which comparably had a Zanzibar launchpad
• There is no "Operation California" allegory to Operation Odessa, when California Base was retaken the Zeon could not form the kinds of defensive lines they formed at Odessa thus it was more a fighting retreat on Zeon's part than a real offensive campaign on the Federation's part