PLANT
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PLANT | |
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| Led by | Siegel Clyne |
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In the Cosmic Era timeline, PLANT is the name of a type of Space Colony, as well as the independent nation that these colonies eventually formed.
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Technical Information
Each PLANT has the appearance of a large hourglass. The disc-shaped areas at the two ends make up the living area of the colonies, with each disc having a diameter of ten kilometers. These discs rotate around the central hub, thus providing artificial gravity for the inhabitants. The two discs are anchored to the central hub by a 30-kilometer long central shaft, as well as a network of high-tension strings and a high-speed elevator running from the center of each disc to the hub. The hub is also connected to external mirrors, which reflect sunlight into the living areas, and external docks for incoming space vessels to dock.
Overview
The PLANT homeland is located at Lagrange 5 and made up of twelve "cities", each incorporating ten colonies for a total of 120. These cities are named for a month of the Roman Calendar (i.e. Aprilius, Junius), with the colonies of each city numbered from one to ten (i.e. Januarius One, December Eight). Each city has a scientific or industrial specialty which are as following:
| City | Speciality |
|---|---|
| Januarius City | Basic and applied microengineering |
| Februarius City | Basic and clinical medicine, biochemistry, molecular biology, applied somatology |
| Martius City | Aerospace engineering, shipbuilding |
| Aprilius City | Astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology, space planetary science, space life sciences |
| Maius City | Applied mechanical engineering, basic and applied metallurgy, applied materials engineering, robotics engineering |
| Junius City | Basic and applied agricultural science, social engineering |
| Quintilis City | Basic and applied chemistry |
| Sextilis City | Basic physics, theoretical physics, particle physics, higher-dimensional physics, mathematics |
| September City | City Electronics, information engineering, artificial intelligence engineering, information science |
| October City | Social sciences |
| November City | Multipurpose practical industrial engineering |
| December City | Elementary education |
After the first Bloody Valentine War, a single new colony is built at Lagrange 4, which is a ZAFT military colony known as Armory One.
Government
The government of the PLANT cities is the PLANT Supreme Council on Aprilius One which was originally formed to deal with the UN directorate of PLANT-sponsored nations, and their military is the Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty or ZAFT for short. The PLANTs are described as one nation by some characters, but they are in fact several different nations (each PLANT city can be considered an independent nation) united in their common heritage and the need for protection. The word "PLANT" is actually sometimes used to referred to all the PLANTs as a whole (again as if they were a single nation), and the term ZAFT is also used to (incorrectly) describe the PLANTs.
History
The concept of the PLANT-type space colonies was first proposed by George Glenn, the first Coordinator, while he was examining Evidence 01 at the Zodiac research facility. Construction of these new colonies eventually started at Lagrange 5 in CE 38 with funding coming from the Atlantic Federation, the Eurasian Federation and the Republic of East Asia. The acronym of PLANT at this time stood for Productive Location Ally on Nexus Technology, and as the name suggested they were built primarily as manufacturing and research facilities. In CE 44, the first ten PLANT-type colonies were completed (later known as Aprilius City) and began to serve as large-scale production sites, although they were prohibited from making their own food.
The PLANTs eventually became home for the growing Coordinator population, who fled growing persecution on Earth. Nevertheless, the PLANTs became a target of terrorist actions against Coordinators, which only strengthened the dissatisfaction of their population, who didn't have their own government. In CE 50, the Zodiac Alliance was formed by Siegel Clyne and Patrick Zala to strengthen the independence of PLANT, but the group was suppressed by the sponsor nations.
In CE 53, George Glenn was assassinated and the PLANT Supreme Council is formed, with a representative of each city. As anti-Coordinator sentiments grew, most Coordinators living on Earth left for the PLANTs. During this time, the sponsor nations stationed their military forces at the PLANT homeland while at the same time making more profit from PLANT-produced goods. While terrorism against Coordinators continued, the Zodiac Alliance grew in strength and is reformed as the Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty under the leadership of Patrick Zala.
In CE 68 and 69, PLANT and ZAFT began to strengthen their independence by producing their own food and creating their own armed forces, which used the newly built Mobile Suits, who eventually drove the armed forces of the sponsor nations out of PLANT homeland, effectively making PLANT an independent nation. The relationship between PLANT and Earth declined over time and when the senior leadership of the United Nations was killed in a bombing at Copernicus city, the Earth Alliance is formed, who declared war on PLANT on February 11, CE 70.
On February 14, CE 70, the space fleet of the Earth Alliance fired a nuclear warhead at the Junius Seven PLANT, destroying it and killing 243,721 innocent civilians, in what later became known as the Bloody Valentine Incident. This started a full fledged war known as the Bloody Valentine War between the two nations. PLANT however was mostly spared from further attacks, thanks to its deployment of Neutron Jammers, which prevent the use of nuclear weapons and reactors. However when the plans of the Neutron Jammer Canceller fall into the hands of the EA, they launch a massive nuclear attack on the PLANT homeland, which is prevented from hitting any colony thanks to the efforts of the Three Ships Alliance. On September 27, CE 71, the Bloody Valentine War eventually came to an end.
Afterwards, construction of new PLANT-type colonies resumed with a least one new colony built at Lagrange 4 known as Armory One. It was also after the war, that the acronym of the word PLANT was changed by the citizens of PLANT to People Liberation Acting Nation of Technology to reflect their independent status.
After the fall of the debris of Junius Seven in CE 73, the Second Bloody Valentine War between PLANT and the EA broke out, which resulted in another massive nuclear attack on the PLANT homeland. This attack was however thwarted by the prototype Neutron Stampeder. In CE 74 Lord Djibril attacked PLANT with the superweapon Requiem in an attempt to destroy Aprilius One. However because of the intervention of the Joule Squad the beam misses its target and instead directly hit Januarius 1-4 and caused December 7 and 8 to collapse, leading to the death of hundreds of thousands of Coordinators.
ZAFT
ZAFT is a military organization and the official military of the PLANT colonies. Unlike the Earth Alliance's OMNI Enforcer, ZAFT is a militia made up of civilian volunteers, and thus has no formal rank structure. Instead the "ranks" of its members are distinguished by the colors of the uniforms, while people in leading positions are referred to as "commander" and "captain." Most ZAFT forces are organized into independent teams which are named after their commanders. Since nearly all ZAFT members are Coordinators, they are able to fight the numerically superior EA forces on equal grounds, thanks to their superior physical and mental abilities. ZAFT is controlled by the PLANT Supreme Council, with its members reporting directly to the chairman of the National Defense Committee. The headquarter of the military is the ZAFT military station, a large cylindrical space station in the PLANT homeland.
Ranks
Captain: Title, with which officers in charge of a particular military vessel, such as battleships, land carriers, or submarines, are addressed with.
Commander: Title given to people who are in charge of one of ZAFT's teams, which are frequently formed, dissolved, and rearranged. The team is identified by the name of its leader, hence "LeCreuset-team", "Zala-team", and "Joule-team". A commander will usually be given control of one or more vessels, whether space, land, or sea-based, and/or a number of mobile suits. He or she will be responsible for developing the appropriate strategies to use those resources to carry out the tasks assigned to him or her by the chairman or high-ranked military officers.
Uniforms
As stated above, military achievements and ranks of individual persons are shown by the color of their uniforms.
Green: Worn by common soldiers, technicians, or mobile suit pilots.
Olive: Worn by soldiers in ground combat situations.
Bright Green: Worn by mechanics only.
Red: Worn by elite soldiers or mobile suit pilots, typically the top graduates from ZAFT's academy. Although they are respected, soldiers who wear red do not necessarily have higher positions than their green-clad comrades. In many respects though, Reds fill the same function as non comissioned officers in a traditional military. While Lunamaria Hawke wears a pink miniskirt, it seems to be her own custom touch, as other female elites like Shiho Hahnenfuss and Riika Sheder wear uniforms identical to male ones.
Black: Worn by the vast majority of officers, including most ship captains. This is also the color worn by the ZAFT's military bureaucracy.
White: Worn only by those who have distinguished themselves with considerable military achievements. Officers who wear this uniform were often once ZAFT Reds and now lead elite teams or command important military vessels. This is a distinction similar to how Generals have different star ratings, but is in its own way unique.
Purple: General/Member of the PLANT Supreme Council, or space navy task force commanders, or officers otherwise above black-garbed ship captains and garrison commanders.
Custom Color Uniforms: Anyone in the ZAFT army that proves him or herself in combat are allowed to have a custom colored pilot uniform. These pilots have no distinct rank but are usually better than their counter-parts. For example, Rey wore a white pilot suit, however he was not above the command of Talia and still had to follow commands like regular green uniform soldiers. Another example is Andrew "Andy" Waltfeld. He was known as the Desert Tiger, and wore a special tiger-stripped Orange pilot suit, while fellow submarine commander Marco wore the regular green uniform. Andy was above the command of most other commanders and generals at the time. Usually, the custom uniforms also came with a custom suit. Heine had an orange colored ZAKU Phantom and GOUF Ignited to match his pilot suit, Lunamaria remained with her Red uniform and had her ZAKU repainted in the same color and hue. Andy had a special BuCUE armed with fangs and claws made to match his "Tiger" outfit and an orange colored LaGOWE, complete with Beam "Fangs" and claws. Both Yzak and Rey had a Purple-ish white pilot suit and a identically colored GOUF and ZAKU Phantom respectively. Nearly all FAITH members have their own custom colored suits (both Pilot and Mobile Suit). Typically, pilots who wear green or red uniforms wear the matching color of pilot suit.
FAITH
FAITH (Fast Acting Intergrate Tactical Headquarters) is an elite special forces unit of ZAFT personnel that have remarkable war records and certain character traits. They are appointed by the PLANT council or the Chairman, only to whom they are answerable to. FAITH members operate outside the regular command structure of ZAFT and are allowed to plan operations and give orders on the battlefield as they see fit. FAITH members wear badges resembling a white wing emerging from a golden elliptical orb.
Known members of FAITH include; Heine Westenfluss, Athrun Zala, Talia Gladys,Shinn Asuka, Rey Za Burrel and Henri Eugenie.
Technology
ZAFT has over time developed several unique and powerful technologies, which gave them advantage over the EA forces. They also have their own weapons producers, which include Martius Arsenals and Maius Military Industries.
Mobile Suits
ZAFT was the first military force to develop and use mobile suits, with the first mass-produced mobile suit being the ZGMF-1017 GINN. This suit gave ZAFT forces a tactical advantage over the EA forces, which used the outdated TS-MA2 Moebius mobile armors. Thanks to this fact, ZAFT was able to fight the numerical superior EA forces to a standstill, while also conquering portions of Earth, thanks to new MS developed for use in Earth's different terrains, like underwater, desert or air based MS. While ZAFT MS were at first only equipped with shell-firing weapons and conventional missiles, they soon created beam weaponry after their forces were able to steal four prototype mobile suits developed by the Atlantic Federation. Thanks to this technology, ZAFT created advanced new mobile suits like their first series of Gundam-type suits and the ZGMF-600 GuAIZ MS.
After the first Bloody Valentine War, ZAFT continued to create new and advanced mobile suits, which was especially shown in their creation of the Second Stage Series set of Gundams or the "New Millennium" series. They also developed the Deuterion Beam Energy Transfer System, a new type of energy distribution technology to recharge MS batteries.
Vessels
ZAFT over time developed several different types of vessels to use in space and on Earth. Such vessels include Nazca-class and Laurasia-class warships in space, Lesseps-class (Replaced by the Compton-class) and Petrie-class vessels on land, and Vosgulov-class submarines at sea. ZAFT also created the large Gondwana-class carrier, the largest spaceship in the Earth Sphere, as well as the advanced battleship Minerva, which was capable of fighting the EA's Archangel-class on equal terms, granted that even if the Archangel was older than the Minerva, it still received further modifications.
Nuclear technology
ZAFT has consistently proven itself to be on the cutting edge of nuclear technology, producing the Neutron Jammer, the Neutron Jammer Canceller, and the Neutron Stampeder to deal with nuclear weaponry. Other nuclear technology include nuclear reactors for their mobile suits, granting them virtually unlimited operation time and the more advanced Hyper-Deuterion Nuclear Reactor. The most powerful nuclear technology created by ZAFT was GENESIS, a huge gamma-ray cannon, capable of annihilating a whole fleet or rendering a planet uninhabitable. Over time, three versions of this superweapon were developed. It should be noted however, that ZAFT itself never used the "classic" nuclear missiles which are used by the EA forces.
History
Origins
The organization which would one day become ZAFT was originally formed as the political alliance known as the Zodiac Alliance to peacefully fight for the rights and independence of Coordinators. It was created in CE 50 by Patrick Zala and Siegel Clyne but their organization was suppressed by the nations controlling PLANT at that time, forcing the group to go underground. Over the years, the ZA remained active and attracted more followers. In CE 65, the name of the organization was eventually changed into its final name "ZAFT", with its members eventually becoming the dominant force in the PLANT Supreme Council. Three years later, following the Mandelbrot incident, ZAFT was reorganized under Zala's leadership and became a military force using mobile suits. In the next year, the ZAFT forces prove their strength when they use their MS forces to drive the military of the sponsor nations out of the PLANT homeland.
Bloody Valentine War
When the first Bloody Valentine war (aka EA/Plant War) was started in February, CE 70, ZAFT was able to repel the first attack of the EA forces but one of the colonies, Junius Seven, was destroyed by a nuclear attack. Following this event, many young Coordinators joined ZAFT to fight against the EA and ZAFT was eventually able to start an invasion of Earth. Nevertheless, the war reached a stalement at the beginning of CE 71. At this time however, the Alliance rolled out its first own mobile suits, although most of them were stolen by ZAFT who quickly incorporated the new technology into their MS series. In the first half of CE 71, several major battles occurred which caused ZAFT to eventually withdraw from Earth. The greatest disaster for their forces were the huge losses in the Battle of JOSH-A, although ZAFT was able to destroy the Panama Spaceport, which forced the EA to first attack the neutral Orb Union and finally the Victoria Base to get their hands on a Mass Driver. During mid CE 71 Patrick Zala, who blamed all Naturals for the death of his wife in the Bloody Valentine Incident, became leader of not only ZAFT but also of PLANT and effectively removed the moderate faction of the PLANT Supreme Council. Zala planed to wipe out all human life on Earth, eliminating, he believed, Naturals who were the cause of all warfare and establish Coordinators as the master race, a "new humanity". Following a huge space battle in the vicinity of the ZAFT asteroid fortress Jachin Due in September CE 71, the first war ended.
After the war
Following the disastrous losses in the war, ZAFT began to create a new series of mobile suits and other technologies, to strengthen their weakened forces. Over the span of two years, ZAFT rolled out several new mobile suit series to replace their aging GINN suits, as well as new ships. Among the new MS series were the ZGMF-601R GuAIZ R and the more advanced ZAFT Armed Keeper of Unity. In terms of ships, the replacing of Laurasia-class vessels through Nazca-class ships was continued, while new ships like the Gondwana-class carrier and, more importantly, the Minerva were rolled out. On Earth, the more powerful Compton-class land battleship was rolled out.
Second Bloody Valentine War
Following the Junius Seven colony drop disaster, the Earth Alliance demanded that ZAFT demilitarize and its government disperse; the obvious refusal resulted in the second war between ZAFT and Earth in four years. However, since not all factions on Earth were interested in a war, ZAFT had some advantages this time. Earth support for ZAFT greatly increased after PLANT Chairman Gilbert Durandal's famous anti-Logos/Blue Cosmos speech that was broadcasted throughout the PLANTs and Earth.
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