Requiem

Requiem
Requiem (レクイエム, Rekuiemu)
Usage
Designer	Earth Alliance
Manufacturer	Earth Alliance
Operator	Earth Alliance OMNI Enforcer Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty Kingdom of Foundation
Technical Specifications
Functional Purpose	Orbital All-Aspect Strategic Cannon Energy Beam Superweapon
Form of Discharge	Energy Beam
Real World
Appearances*
Television	GSD: #44 - Episode #50

“	And now, Chairman Durandal. I shall play you... A REQUIEM FOR YOU AND YOUR KINDS!	”
—Lord Djibril

Requiem is a powerful super weapon introduced in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny.

Technical Information

Designated as an "Orbital All-Aspect Strategic Cannon", the whole system used to make Requiem functional is composed of several parts, positioned over the whole Earth Sphere. The first part is the cannon itself, which is built at the Daedalus Lunar Base on the dark side of the moon. The cannon itself is rather huge and fires a pale green energy beam. The second part are a number of beam deflecting relay stations positioned at important locations in the Earth Sphere. These relay stations were built from abandoned Island 3-type space colonies with their end caps removed and outfitted with large Geschmeidig Panzer arrays. These stations are controlled from the Daedalus base and positioned in every direction needed. If a beam is fired from the cannon, it enters one such relay which bends the beam to another relays and so on, until it hits it designated target. Using different combinations of these arrays, Requiem can be fired at targets anywhere in the Earth Sphere. Requiem has five relay stations in total, named "Station One", "Gounod", "Fauré", "Czerny", and "Fourier". The beam itself is so powerful that it can destroy anything in its path or be used as a giant beam saber to cut through whole space colonies.

Due to the importance of every part of the weapon, the emitter itself and the relay stations are protected by a large number of Mobile Weapons, Positron Reflector-refitted Drake-class ships along with its reinforcement fleet, and three Positron Reflectors placed at the main shaft protecting the main cannon.

When the Kingdom of Foundation reactivated the superweapon in C.E.75, it created new, thinner relay rings equipped with Mirage Colloid Stealth Systems to make them difficult to detect.

History

Requiem, designated as an "Orbital All-Aspect Strategic Cannon", was the most powerful weapon in the Earth Alliance's arsenal. Built at an unknown point of time after the First Alliance-PLANT War, the system remained inactive until the latter phase of the Second Alliance-PLANT War.

The result of the Requiem's first shot

After Lord Djibril escaped from Orb to the Daedalus base, he intended to use this new superweapon to wipe out the PLANT Supreme Council along with the PLANT's capital Aprilius One. However, one of the relay stations, Gounod, was discovered by a ZAFT task force led by Yzak Jule shortly before Requiem was fired. Battle damage to Gounod slightly altered the trajectory of the beam, and as a result, Requiem missed its intended target. Instead, the beam directly hit and destroyed Januarius 1 through 4 and caused December 7 and 8 to collapse, leading to the deaths of over a million Coordinators. Afterward, the Joule Team destroyed Gounod, but Requiem's design was such that other stations could still be used to aim its beam at PLANT. In response, ZAFT launched a heavy attack on one of this relay stations (which was strongly protected by the Earth Alliance forces) while the Minerva attacked Daedalus in order to destroy the cannon itself. While Rey Za Burrel and Shinn Asuka destroyed the Mobile Armors that protected the base, Lunamaria Hawke snuck into the base with the ZGMF-X56S/γ Blast Impulse Gundam and destroyed the control room just before Requiem could be fired again.

Afterwards, ZAFT took control over Requiem and used it to destroy the Alliance's remaining lunar base at Arzachel as well as a vast majority of their space fleets. It was shown during this time that the Requiem's beam emitter was equipped with Positron Reflector units. However, it is unknown if this is part of the original EA design, or if it was a new addition by ZAFT. Just before the next shot could be fired at Orb, Requiem was destroyed by the ORB-01 Akatsuki Gundam and ZGMF-X19A ∞ Justice Gundam when both units destroyed the main energy core.

Requiem's destruction in the manga, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny: The Edge is altered as Athrun would battle with Shinn's ZGMF-X42S Destiny Gundam before snagging the latter's "Arondight" Beam Sword and sending the sword and the ∞ Justice's Fatum-01 into the core to destroy the weapon.

Requiem is reactivated by the Kingdom of Foundation in C.E. 75 as a weapon to obliterate any nation not willing to implement the Destiny Plan and to destroy Compass. It was first fired against the Eurasian Federation's capital of Moscow, annihilating it completely. It was then intended to fire at Orb's capital of Olofat next, but was redirected at the last second in an attempt to destroy the LHM-BB03S Millennium. The Requiem was finally destroyed by Shinn Asuka using the ZGMF/A-42S2 Destiny Gundam Spec II equipped with the A-GXQ754/V2 Zeus Silhouette.

Gallery

Requiem plan displayed on Djibril's monitor

A monitor showing the status of Requiem

Illustration of Requiem's range

Beam Cannon

View from above, through relay station Faure

Relay station

Relay station Gounod

Station One

Requiem firing

Requiem's beam being deflected

Requiem's beam passing through one of the relay station

Requiem's beam piercing through a PLANT

Requiem's beam slicing off the lower part of a PLANT

Requiem's Positron Reflectors

Requiem's Positron Reflectors blocking "Lohengrin" Positron Blaster Cannon blasts

Requiem control room at the Daedalus lunar base, moments before being destroyed by the Blast Impulse

Requiem's destruction

Notes & Trivia

• The names, given to four of the relay stations, are all from music composers who composed requiem masses, a religious music work for the dead, usually played during funerals.
• The relay stations are converted closed-type O'Neill I-3 colonies, similar to the ones used for Gryps 2 in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam.
• According to the Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom novelization, the PLANT were unable to safely dismantle Requiem's power sources, so it was given permission to use the power source as an extra means of powering the PLANT.

Appearances

Television Series

• Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny
  • PHASE-44, Lacus Times Two
    • First Appearance
  • PHASE-45, Prelude to Revolution
  • PHASE-48, To a New World

References

Station Gounod Glossary Plus File (1) (Official Gundam Fact File 130)