0081: Augusta, Mass Drivers and Man-Made Shooting Stars

[Gelgoog Jager]

I was checking the Gundam wikia some articles caught my attention which seemed to indicate that the Augusta Base where the RX-78NT-1 Gundam Alex was developed, is a different facility from the more commonly referred Augusta Lab. The articles in question:

http://gundam.wikia.com/wiki/Universal_ ... _Locations
http://gundam.wikia.com/wiki/Newtype_Re ... ewtype_Lab

While I know that the wikia is not a very reliable information source, and even these articles have some contradicting information, this reminded me of the Zeon ending of the PS3 MSG Battlefield Record UC 0081, in which the Zeon forces do manage to fire once a mass driver on the moon, which results in the destruction of the Augusta base, something which doesn't happen in the EF ending.

What I would like to ask is if there's any information that may back up the claim that the two facilities are indeed at different locations: Augusta Newtype Lab located on the northern shore of the Clark Hill Reservoir in modern-day South Carolina (as indicated in the wikia) and the Augusta Base possibly located on Augusta, Georgia.

If so, could this mean that the 0081 Zeon ending could actually be canon?

I find the Zeon ending more symbolic than the EF ending, not only because it shows the so far only mentioned Zeon attacks on Earth's surface with mass drivers, as it supposedly happen during February U.C. 0079 (between the signing of the Antartic Treaty on January and the first descent operation on March), but also because of it's relation to the game's story, as mentioned on this board:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/958883-k ... 1/51682681

From what I've been able to tell from story info from gameplay videos on youtube, Deah/Sherry once told Eric the story of the "Suiten no Namida" - a pre-spacefaring legend from an island nation in the past. The legend goes that people used to call shooting stars in the skies "Suiten no Namida" or literally translated as "Tears from Water Heaven" and used to make wishes on them. I'm not sure if it's literally stated in any scene anywhere, but my guess is Eric promised Deah to create a shooting star in the sky that would make their wish for independance for their country (the Principality of Zeon/Side 3)come true. This last line is meant for Deah I think. I'm not sure if Eric knows what happened to Deah as they were taking off.

Thinking about it again, I'm revising the translation. I think Eric was talking to the shot of the mass driver itself, as if it were a shooting star.

Zeon Ending:

"Even though you're a man-made thing, show that you can make at least this one wish come true!"

Comments and questions are welcomed.

[Chris]

If so, could this mean that the 0081 Zeon ending could actually be canon?

Video games aren't part of any official continuity. They may try to fill in some gaps from the anime, but Sunrise doesn't consider them official at all.

[NastyNate]

Ah man I love the zeon ending to 0081. I did not understand a word of it but I was still taken away from the epic scale of just a small band of zieks act of revenge on their loss in the war.

[Gelgoog Jager]

If so, could this mean that the 0081 Zeon ending could actually be canon?

Video games aren't part of any official continuity. They may try to fill in some gaps from the anime, but Sunrise doesn't consider them official at all.

Let me put it in a different way : Could the 0081 Zeon ending have tried to make use of a gap in the canon: the destruction of Augusta Base which lead to the relocation of the reseach that took place there to the Augusta Newtype Lab?

Regarding the attacks with mass drivers during the OYW, is there any information which indicates how many of these mass drivers existed on the moon, where were they and which areas on Earth were the targets Zeon attacked with them?

Also, is there any detailed information on how the Federation Fleets which were still devastated after the Battle of Loum managed to destroy these mass drivers?

[Mark064]

The information from the wikia is *shock* directly copied from the Gundam Official website and I don't see the contradicting info at all. The Clark Hill Reservoir and Augusta, Georgia are only around 30 km apart. But more to the point the information for the Augusta Newtype Labs says the Augusta Base became one of the first Newtype labs. So with that they'd be the same facility. And I'm sure the creators of Gundam 0080 saw the same thing. Before it was a Newtype Labs what was Augusta? A base with some Newtype research going on.

Videogames like to have fun with the what if endings, Gihren's Greed games have shown Zeon capturing the colony at Side 7 and dropping it on the Earth.

[Gelgoog Jager]

The information from the wikia is *shock* directly copied from the Gundam Official website and I don't see the contradicting info at all. The Clark Hill Reservoir and Augusta, Georgia are only around 30 km apart. But more to the point the information for the Augusta Newtype Labs says the Augusta Base became one of the first Newtype labs. So with that they'd be the same facility. And I'm sure the creators of Gundam 0080 saw the same thing. Before it was a Newtype Labs what was Augusta? A base with some Newtype research going on.

I realize that the locations are very close from each other, but that doesn't immediately exclude the possibility of them being different facilities.

I just checked the Gundam Official website and it indeed seems to be the source used by wikipedia. I should note that Augusta Newtype Lab and the Augusta Base each have their own entry.

Ironically if the information from the entry on Augusta Base was just a bit more clear, by either confirming that the research was moved or if the base became the newtype lab, we would have a definite answer, but instead we have an ambiguous statement:

After the war, the base's pioneering research into Newtype weaponry is continued by the Augusta Newtype Lab.

That said, I would be willing to accept that both facilites are the same if we had some confirmation from some other source, or that even if they were different facilities, that both facilities could still exist separately after U.C. 0081.

Videogames like to have fun with the what if endings, Gihren's Greed games have shown Zeon capturing the colony at Side 7 and dropping it on the Earth.

I would love to play a game of that series to check the different IF scenarios, but it doesn't seem likely that they will ever bring them over to the States.

[Dendrobium Stamen]

To be fair, the Federation's use of the phrase "base" seems to be fairly loose: the California Base for example is said to be made up of "more than a dozen different naval, aerospace, and weapons-development facilities" - it's more or less the military equivalent of the University of California, near as I can see from Blighty

As such, Augusta could comprise two distinct facilities which come under the same banner; Augusta Clark Hill and Augusta City, for example. (I'm applying the loose logic of working for a hotel company, where differentiating properties in the same city is fun for naming...)

[toysdream]

The Japanese sources have always been pretty vague about whether the wartime Augusta Base is the same thing as the postwar Augusta Newtype Lab (a vagueness that's faithfully reproduced in the glossary material I wrote for GundamOfficial.com). Come to think of it, I'm not even sure where the wartime Augusta Base was first mentioned - it doesn't seem to be included in the earliest descriptions of the Alex.

For what it's worth, though, whenever the Augusta Base appears in comics they always seem to depict the same buildings shown in Zeta Gundam. I don't know if it appears onscreen in the 0081 game, but that might be slightly more "official" than the doodlings of lazy manga artists.

-- Mark

[Gelgoog Jager]

I might be able to find some youtube videos showing the mission that suppsoedly takes place on Augusta Base to check the facilities, but probably won't be able to do so until the weekend.

Mark:
Would you happen to have any additional information about the lunar mass drivers and Zeon's attacks with them on Earth during February?