GUNDAM 0080: WAR IN THE POCKET
Mobile Suit
Gundam 0080: Story
In December of UC 0079, the One Year War is almost over, and the defeat of the Principality of Zeon by the resurgent Earth Federation seems inevitable. The Reah Republic of Side 6, hitherto neutral, quietly begins negotiating a security treaty with the Federation and allows the Federal Forces to station defensive garrisons in its space colonies. Meanwhile, at a secret arctic base, the Federal Forces are developing an improved version of the mobile suit Gundam to hasten its imminent victory.
The North Pole
The Cyclops Team, an elite Zeon special forces unit, is dispatched to Earth to destroy a secret weapon being developed at the Federal Forces' arctic base. Captain Steiner and his men launch an amphibious assault and overrun the base's defenses, but the Federal Forces are able to package their weapon onto a camouflaged space shuttle and send it into space. Steiner's mission ends in failure, and one of his men is killed trying to stop the shuttle launch.
Libot
The space colony of Libot, located at the neutral Side 6, has thus far been spared the horrors of the war. To children like eleven-year-old Alfred "Al" Izuruha, the war is a remote and fascinating spectacle, and he and his friends spend their time doodling mobile suits and collecting military paraphernalia.
To settle a bet, Al sets out to obtain evidence that the Federation has its own mobile suits. Since his father works for a transport company, Al is able to wheedle his way into Libot's spaceport, but his video camera records only images of mysterious cargo boxes being unloaded from a space shuttle. On the way home he bumps into his former neighbor, Christina "Chris" MacKenzie. After joining the Federal Forces, Chris has spent the last few years on Earth, but has now returned to Libot.
The next day, a genuine mobile suit battle breaks out inside the colony, as Zeon invaders clash with the Federal Forces garrison. Al follows a damaged Zaku to its crash site and meets its pilot, novice pilot Bernard "Bernie" Wiseman. Bernie barters his rank badge for Al's video camera, and is then retrieved by the retreating Zeons.
Granada
The Zeon forces return to the lunar base of Granada. Here, the cargo boxes in Al's video footage are identified as being the same ones launched from the Federal Forces' arctic base. The scheming Colonel Killing assigns the Cyclops Team to infiltrate Libot and locate this secret weapon, which they speculate may be a Gundam designed for use by newtype pilots. In response to the Cyclops Team's request for a skilled pilot to replace their lost member, Killing instead assigns them the hapless Bernie. Steiner briefs Bernie on the mission plan and introduces him to his teammates, Mikhail "Misha" Kaminsky and Gabriel Ramirez Garcia.
Operation Rubicon
While the Zeons make a diversionary attack on Libot, Bernie pilots a transport ship containing the disassembled mobile suit Kaempfer into the colony. He is met by the disguised members of the Cyclops Team, who transfer the parts to a warehouse for reassembly. En route, they are spotted by Al; recognizing Bernie, the boy follows the Cyclops Team to their warehouse and demands to join them. After Al tells them where he saw the boxes, he is given a Cyclops Team insignia and made an honorary team member. But in fact, the insignia is bugged, and Bernie is assigned to spy on Al and make sure he doesn't tell anyone about their activities.
Seeing Bernie hanging around Al's house, neighbor Chris assumes he's a burglar and beans him with a baseball bat. Al explains that Bernie is his secret half-brother, and a repentant Chris invites them in to have tea with her parents. The next day, the Cyclops Team get rid of Bernie and Al by sending them out to find the hiding place of the Federal Forces' secret weapon, while Steiner obtains the same information from a local Zeon spy. Unexpectedly, Bernie and Al succeed, and return with pictures of the experimental Gundam. After being chewed out for his risky conduct, Bernie takes Al home and says goodnight to Chris.
Finally, the Cyclops Team complete their preparations. Though Steiner now realizes that Killing has set them up, and is only using them to confirm the presence of the Gundam, he goes ahead with the suicide mission. While Misha uses the reassembled Kaempfer to distract the colony's defense forces, Steiner, Bernie and Garcia infiltrate the secret base disguised as Federal Forces soldiers. Al sneaks into the Federal Forces base just in time to see the Cyclops Team's ruse degenerate into a bloody firefight, in which Steiner is mortally wounded and Garcia kills himself in a vain attempt to destroy the Gundam. Arriving to duel the Gundam, Misha is likewise killed, while Steiner dies in Bernie's arms.
The Final Solution
Receiving word of the Cyclops Team's failure, Killing orders a more extreme solution to the Gundam problem. Assassinating his commanding officer and seizing control of the Granada base, he plans to make an example of Libot by attacking the colony with nuclear weapons. If the Gundam is not destroyed by Christmas day, the colony will pay for its dealings with the Federation with utter annihilation.
Learning of Killings's plan, Bernie at first decides to flee the colony. When Al urges him to stay and fight the Gundam, Bernie reveals the bugged insignia and the other deceptions to which the Cyclops Team subjected the boy. Al tries to warn the police, but they remember his earlier escapades and laugh him off. Fortunately, Bernie has a last-minute change of heart, resolving to take on the Gundam in order to save Libot and its inhabitants. He and Al repair Bernie's crashed Zaku and plan a battle strategy. On Christmas eve, Bernie gives Al a farewell video message, looks in wistfully on Chris and her family, then prepares himself for tomorrow's mission.
On Christmas day, Al and his mother meet his father at the spaceport. Al's father recounts how, while in transit, he witnessed a battle between Zeon and Federation fleets... a battle which ended with the surrender of a Zeon ship laden with nuclear weapons. Al realizes that the threat is resolved, but he doesn't reach Bernie in time to stop him setting off to fight the Gundam. A running battle ensues, in which Bernie lures the Gundam away from the colony's urban area and into the forest where he has set his traps. Al races onto the battlefield just in time to see Zaku and Gundam destroy each other. Bernie is killed, and, from the cockpit of the Gundam, Federation medics lift unconscious test pilot Chris MacKenzie.
Conclusion
A few weeks pass. The war ends, and the Reah Republic formalizes its security treaty with the victorious Federation. Al watches Bernie's farewell message, then says goodbye to Chris as she heads back to Earth, promising to give her regards to Bernie. Al's school, damaged by the Kaempfer's attack, re-opens, and the principal delivers a speech about the costs of war and their duty to strive for peace. As a grieving Al breaks down in tears, his confused friends try to console him, assuring him that a bigger, better war is sure to come along soon...
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