Technology & Combat Characteristics
The Eternal is a space warship built by ZAFT to specifically support the nuclear powered ZGMF-X09A Justice Gundam and ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam, and has special facilities for maintaining both mobile suits. It is lightly armed, with only a single beam cannon, a pair of twin rail guns, numerous CIWS, and countless batteries of defensive missile launchers. Additionally, the Eternal carries a pair of METEOR units, optional armed module for the the Justice and Freedom Gundams, which can also function as gun turrets for the ship when not utilized by the two mobile suits. The ship can outrun the "Nazca-class", making it the fastest warship in ZAFT.
Armaments
- Beam Cannon
- A single beam cannon mounted in front of the bridge.
- Twin Rail Gun
- Equipped on both sides of the bridge.
- A large number of CIWS guns are mounted across the hull of the ship. As with most other ships, these guns are primarily for defensive purposes, such as intercepting incoming missiles and enemy units.
- Missile Launcher
- A large number of missile launchers are mounted across the hull of the ship. As with the CIWS, these launchers are used primarily for defensive purposes.
History
Soon after completion, the Eternal was stolen by Lacus Clyne and Andrew Waltfeld and used by the Clyne Faction during the rest of the First Alliance-PLANT War. Together with the Archangel and the Kusanagi, the Eternal formed the Three Ships Alliance, an independent force that successfully ended the war.
After the war, the Eternal was hidden in an asteroid, and Andrew Waltfeld and Lacus Clyne secretly immigrated to the Orb Union. Later, during the Second Alliance-PLANT War, after Andrew and Lacus returned to space, the two reunited with some of the remaining members of the Clyne Faction, including Martin DaCosta, who had been commanding the Eternal in their absence.
Eventually, a ZGMF-LRR704B GINN Long Range Reconnaissance Type located the Eternal, forcing it to flee its asteroid base in order to draw ZAFT forces away from the mobile suit factory also concealed within the base. The Eternal approached Earth as Andrew fought the pursuing ZAFT forces in the stolen ZGMF-X88S Gaia Gundam, until Kira Yamato arrived in the MBF-02 Strike Rouge to assist. During the battle, the outdated Strike Rouge was badly damaged, resulting in Kira coming aboard the ship and being presented with the ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom Gundam, which he used to defeat the Eternal's pursuers.
After the Earth Alliance was more or less defeated by ZAFT, the Eternal, together with other ships of the former Three Ships Alliance and Orb, tried to stop PLANT chairman Gilbert Durandal from taking full control over the Earth Sphere. The group successfully stop him and brought an end to the second war.
Gallery
Notes and Trivia
- The default captain of Eternal in Super Robot Wars J is Andrew Waltfeld, with Lacus Clyne as a swappable sub-captain, and Martin DaCosta as a support character. In this game, the Eternal does not have the CIWS, nor is it able to deploy, link with or store the METEOR units. In other games such as Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 and installments subsequent to J the Eternal does retain these features.
- If measured by the METEOR units stored at the bow and one assumes the 99.46 metre length per METEOR unit, the resulting ship length appear to vary greatly between 447.57 to 745.95 metres (about 4.5 to 7.5 METEOR units long) depending on the official art used, far greater than the published length of 300 metres.
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