Celestial Being (mothership)

Template:Infobox/Mobile Weapon Ver.2Celestial Being is a mobile asteroid space-colony/mobile fortress for Celestial Being to use for deep space travel in season 2 of Mobile Suit Gundam 00; the ship ended up in the hands of Innovators, as Ribbons Almark's personal base and the container for Veda. After the end of Season 2, it ends up in the hands of the Earth Sphere Federation as a MS production facility and later used to defend Earth in Mobile Suit Gundam 00 The Movie: A wakening of the Trailblazer.

Technology & Combat Characteristics

Colony-class Deep Space Mothership Celestial Being was one of Aeolia Schenberg's shadow projects; the exact origins of its creation is unknown. CB didn't know of its existence until the Innovators revealed the vessel in the final conflict against A-Laws. The ship was meant to be an ark, to house humanity, led by Innovades, and the 5 GN Drives for deep space exploration. Celestial Being was also intended to protect and salvage humanity if hostile alien life was ever encountered; it's intended design was never realized as Innovators took the ship and converted the asteroid base into a mobile fortress, an Innovade production facility and battleship for their shadow operations. However, the ship's full capabilities aren't fully understood.

The forward section of the ship was built within a hollowed-out asteroid to present a guile against enemy detection. The ship has special shielding to protect the insides of the ship from harmful cosmic rays. On the rear end, the tail area was furnished with a GN Drive mount and there was a plan to use the original GN Drives as the power source of the mothership if needed to. There is one slot on each of its 3 wings and 2 slots at the center to account all 5 drives. The function(s) of the slots aren't fully defined, but it is thought that a perpetual source of energy would be useful in a deep space journey beyond the solar system, which is one of the functions of the original drives and the reason(s) on why its perpetualness is so vital in its design.

For offense and defense, it is equipped with an unspecified number (approximately dozens) of 20m grade GN Lasers throughout the rock side of the ship to defend itself against projectile weaponry and ward off MS attacks. However, its most powerful weapon is a large 80m grade GN Laser. Installed over a large rail ring, Celestial Being's sides have a full 360° rotation to fire a large particle beam, powerful enough to vaporize an entire battle fleet. Unfortunately, the laser was designed to only vertically rotate and no horizontal movement; it's an exploitable weakness that was never corrected. Without a firing solution on its sides, the 80m grade GN Laser can't be used in combat. The rear section is weaponless and depends on other units to help defend it; the ship was designed to compensate its own weaknesses.

The mothership itself was fitted with large production facilities to construct almost any kind of technology, however, it was given a particular focus on advanced mobile units. A series of massive bays were built to allow mass production and deployment of mobile suit (MS) units into battle as well as for storage of resources and materials. The ship can also mass-produce Innovades and MS units for the clones to pilot. If necessary, the ship can sortie a massive combat force that can overwhelm any pre-existing military force to attack and defend itself.

For systems, the mothership has its own optical camouflage system to completely cloak it in the darkness of space until needed for combat. The ship was completed before the perfection of GN Field technology; it doesn't have a particle shield for defense. Although available for use by the time the Innovades had control of the ship, it was never installed and heavily relied on its camouflage to avoid detection and its asteroid rock mass to absorb physical damage. While it has GN T Drives that can utilize Trans-Am, it was never used in any situation; it's unclear why such a system was never used. However, it might have to do with the ship's power systems.

The mothership itself has very high GN particle requirements to power itself and its weapons. To compensate for the lack of true GN Drive(s), six GN Drive Taus were installed as one large particle cartridge system. Whenever a GN Drive Tau ceases to generate GN particles, the cartridge system quickly replaces the drive with another and recharges the empty ones while the current one is in use. With this system installed, it fully compensates for the lack of a true GN Drive in battle. The interior of the base is also heavily defended by automatons. While operated by Innovators, the whole mothership is delegated by Veda. Should Veda be compromised, the base can't be fully utilized.

After the fall of the Innovators, the ESF moved into Celestial Being and reaped the spoils of war. The ESF discovered Veda still lying within its room, as well as the remaining Innovades running the facility. The ESF also found the remains of mobile suits and mobile armors from the Battle of L2 and made use of them in the development of next-generation mobile suits. Because much of the facilities aren't understood to the ESF, they allowed the surviving Innovades to continue their maintenance over the ship under supervision. Unknown to them though, Veda and Tieria Erde secretly assists CB once again.

Veda is now under Tieria's influence and he continues to provide assistance to CB and has his own personal hidden facilities, where he can clone a body for himself to use and manufacturing facilities to create his own Gundam if needed. It's unclear did the ESF ever discover these hidden facilities or realize they never had full control over Veda to begin with. However, CB was content on leaving the ESF in the dark to attain as much info about their activities to passively observe their activities.

By near the time of the ELS Conflict, the new ESF government adopted a more pacifist policy of reducing arms; some or all of the 20m Laser Cannons of the Celestial Being were removed to begin the process of turning the Celestial Being into a frontline space station/development facility as opposed to the vessel being an actual battleship. However, how much has changed upon the ship and its full secrets remain unclear. Overall, it was one the largest and most powerful secretly developed ships of CB.

Celestial Being Spaceship Rooms

note: look at gallery to reference images

• Outer Wall - This is the base of the engine section of the rear of the hull.With 3 pillars, it is a structure that mounts 5 GN drives at the center.

• Mobile Suit Hangar - Where the Celestial Being developed GNZ series machines are lined up. This is where the large number of Gagas were kept.
• Dock - Because it is a huge ship, a dock for vessels is also established at the hull side. It can even easily store Ptolemaios 2.
• Passageway 1 - With its size fit for humans, it is used as a passage for [human] movement aboard the ship. This is the place where Lyle finished Saachez off.
• Passageway 2 - A passage that links together the parts of the ship, but is close to an image of an "air lock". This is the place where Saji and Louise took refuge.

• Passageway 3 - A passageway for movement that is in every place in the ship. Each of them are installed with air locks, and is kept air tight.

• Large Passageway - A large passageway that appears to be intended for transportation of mobile suits. This is where the fierce battle between the Arche and Cherudim took place.

• System Room - The place that can be said to be the central part of Celestial Being. Using Veda, it manages the controls of the ship.

• Veda's Location - One of the core Veda terminals that is arranged in many parts of the world, including another one at the moon. There one is located inside this ship.

• Living Room - The place where Ribbons' Innovades are on stand by. It looked like it was some place on earth, but in reality, it was inside a space ship.

Armaments

• 20m GN Laser

A large number (several dozen) of these weapons are mounted accross the hull of the ship. They are used as anti-aircraft interception lasers to fire upon incoming enemy units and counter incoming ordnance through auto control.

• 80m GN Laser

A powerful particle cannon built as the most devastating weapon of the Celestial Being. The cannon is capable of vaporizing an entire enemy fleet or clearing an asteroid field in seconds. For effective use of the weapon, a rail ring was built onto the mothership so that the cannon can easily shift into various positions to fire upon enemy targets and evade enemy fire. The cannon itself can only fire at its sides at a full 360 rotation. It uses a specific GN Drive Tau(s) cartridge as an energy source that is replaced after each shot. In the movie it is shown to be able to purged from the vessel in case of emergency, for example when undergoing assimilation by the ELS.

Special Equipment & Features

• Optical Camouflage

History

Origins

Not much is known about this mobile space colony. Ribbons suggested that the ship itself wasn't his creation, but one of Celestial Being's shadow projects left behind by Aeolia Schenberg. Aeolia believed that if humanity encountered intelligent life outside their solar system who might be hostile to them, Celestial Being would be their best defense.

Gundam 00F

Celestial Being also appears in the final chapter' of Gundam 00F, when Hixar and his Gundam Sadalsuud Type F encounter another Hixar and Grave in a Black Sefer Rasiel Gundam. While, Fon Spaak battles Black versions of the original Gundams' Astraea, Sadalsuud, Abulhood and Plutone. Which he takes down single handledly by himself using Trans-Am, but Bring Stability managed to escape toward Celestial Being. Fon Spaak land on Celestial Being to search for Veda. Once he found Veda and talks to Ribbons.

Battle at Lagrange 2

During an all-out battle between Celestial Being, Katharon, the ESF coup d'état faction and the A-Laws, a massive particle beam came from out of nowhere, destroying one Katharon ship and the majority of the A-Laws' fleet. The source was soon revealed: a massive asteroid fortress containing Veda within. Ptolemy 2 immediately set a course to take down the fortress and retake Veda. However, Celestial Being was very well defended with GN lasers, including one large laser, Automatons and the GAGA Forces. Nevertheless, Ptolemy managed to find a docking port, only to be swarmed by Automatons. Luckily, Tieria Erde managed to locate Veda's core, where he confronted Ribbons, only to be shot multiple times.

With Celestial Being close to losing the battle, Setsuna.F.Seiei activated Trans-Am Burst, engulfing the entire battlefield in highly dense GN particles, disrupting the Innovades' quantum brainwaves and granting them to those who didn't have them. This evened the odds, especially when Tieria, having merged with Veda, remotely activated Seraphim Gundam's Trial Field, deactivating all of the Innovades' MS. Thus, Celestial Being, essentially Veda, is returned to the esteemed organization.

After the battle, Celestial Being remained in the dark side of the Moon, where Tieria/Veda would wait until the coming dialogue with other life.

Eventually the Earth Sphere Federation took over the Celestial Being colony ship, where they discovered, the GRM Gundam, Gaga units, and Regnant. They plan to use the technology acquired there to further develop their armies.

Movie

In 2314, the Earth Sphere Federation Army has taken control of the facility as well as the Innovades that serve the ship. It's also used as a launch base and factory. During the ELS conflict, Brigadier General Kati Mannequin uses it as a command ship as she directs the Earth Sphere Federation Army during the defensive final battle of the conflict. To do this, the ESF-Army uses a large-scale control room to coordinate their forces. The 80m GN Laser became the most powerful weapon available to the human side before it was specifically targeted by the ELS and then purged from the Celestial Being by the ESF-Army. The Celestial Being was already in the process of being assimilated by the ELS before the conflict was ended by Setsuna F. Seiei.

Pics Gallery

Celestial Being 80m grade GN Laser

GN Drive [T] Cartridge System

Gundam 00 - Celestial Being - Lineart

Celestial Being (A.D. 2314)

Celestial Being (A.D. 2314)

Celestial Being, partly assimilated by ELS

Celestial Being's starship docks (A.D. 2314)

ESF-Army Command Center, forward view

ESF-Army Command Center, rearward view

ESF-Army Command Center attacked by the ELS

80m GN Laser cannon firing (A.D. 2314)

80m GN Laser cannon attacked by the ELS

Celestial Being Mothership seen in Gundam Build Fighters Try Island Wars

Celestial Being firing it's 80mm GN Laser (GBFTIW)

Celestial Being System Port

GN Laser Strafing

Celestial Being's 20mm Grade Laser

Celestial Being Mothership engages with 20mm Laser

Optical Camouflage

Notes & Trivia

• The firing scheme of the Celestial Being is similar to the GENESIS and later Neo-GENESIS from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny respectively. The "Celestial Being" has to change its GN Tau Drives after it fired a shot, where as GENESIS had to change its mirrors after firing.
• The Celestial Being makes an appearance in Gundam Musou 3 as a location of some of the game's battlefields and also during a cut-scene that mimics the 00 Raiser's Trans-AM Burst scene of S2.
• The Celestial Being shows up in Gundam Build Fighters Try Island Wars as one of three weapons summoned by the Scramble Gundam to stop the Build Fighters. Shia Kijima and Kaoruko Sazaki barely deflect it with the Gundam 00 Shia Qan［T］ and YMS-15KRT02 Gyancelot.

Articles & References

External links

• Celestial Being on MAHQ
• Celestial Being on mike-s-6 live journal