FFMH-Y101 Eternal is a ZAFT-built space warship from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (C.E. 71), commissioned as a dedicated support ship for the nuclear-powered Justice and Freedom Gundams. The design was so specialised that only one hull was ever laid down, and the class is named after her.
What it does in the story
The Clyne Faction takes her the day she is completed, 1 July C.E. 71, with Lacus Clyne and Andrew Waltfeld in command, and escapes to the Mendel colony. There she joins the Archangel and the Kusanagi to form the Three Ships Alliance, and serves as mothership to both Gundams through the Battle of Mendel and the Second Battle of Jachin Due.
What makes it different
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She is laid out for two specific Gundams.
The workshops and hangar spaces are built around the Justice and Freedom rather than a general complement of mobile suits. Two hangars and a single catapult is the whole flight deck, which is what a tender for a pair of machines looks like.
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She outruns ZAFT's fastest class.
Four large thrusters and six small ones push the hull past the Nazca-class. That is the requirement driving the design: a tender that cannot keep station with the Freedom has no use in the role it was built for.
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The main gun cannot train sideways.
The beam cannon sits in front of the bridge on a fixed mounting, so the ship aims it by turning the hull and only the barrel elevates. The pair of twin rail guns behind the bridge cover the arcs the main gun cannot reach.
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Two METEOR units ride in the bow.
She carries a pair of Mobile suit Embedded Tactical Enforcer modules for the Justice and Freedom. When the Gundams are not docked to them, the units stay aboard and work as gun turrets.
How big is it?
- Overall length: 300 m on the published spec sheet, with the METEOR modules adding to the bow silhouette
- EX Model 1/1700: roughly 17.6 cm, the scale the 2005 kit is released in
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Frequently asked questions
1. Is the Eternal a ZAFT ship or a Three Ships Alliance ship?
Both, at different times. ZAFT built and completed her in C.E. 71, the Clyne Faction took her the day she was finished, and she spent the rest of the first war flying with the Three Ships Alliance.
2. Where was the Eternal between the two wars?
Hidden inside an asteroid, alongside the Clyne Faction's concealed mobile suit factory. A GINN Long Range Reconnaissance Type found her in C.E. 74, and she had to run for Earth to draw ZAFT away from the factory.
3. How does a ship carry a METEOR unit?
The modules are stored at the bow and dock to the Justice and Freedom in flight. Docked to the ship instead of a mobile suit, they serve as extra gun turrets, which is how she fights when neither Gundam is out.
4. Does the Eternal appear after SEED Destiny?
Yes. She is upgraded and kept in reserve after the second war, then reactivated as the flagship of the PLANT Intelligence Division under Yzak Joule in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom.
Background sources: FFMH-Y101 Eternal — Gundam Wiki
