VICTORY GUNDAM
Mobile Suit
Victory Gundam: Story
150 years after the start of the space colonization program, and a century after the emigration program was halted so that the favored elites could remain on Earth, the migration of mankind into space is at last nearly complete. The Earth Federation has transferred its base of operations to the moon, leaving the battered planet to heal the damage caused by human abuse. Only a handful of legal residents remain on Earth in a few designated residence areas, with the odd illegal resident hiding out in the wilderness.
With its task of space colonization and population management essentially completed, the Federation has become weak and impotent. After the successful defiance of the Crossbone Vanguard (see Gundam F91), the Federation has continued to slide into irrelevance, and the spacenoids have become progressively bolder in their agitation for independence.
The Zanscare Empire
In UC 0149, a radical political movement seizes power at Side 2 and establishes the independent Zanscare Empire. While saintly Queen Maria Pia Armonia is the empire's spiritual leader, the totalitarian Gatie Party effectively rules in her name, spreading its brand of religion through terror and military force. The Federation is too weak and conflicted to muster an effective response, but a civilian resistance movement called the League Militaire recognizes the threat and begins arming itself to counter the Zanscare peril.
In UC 0153, the true battle begins, as the Zanscare Empire sets out to turn the restored Earth into a homeland for the true believers. Zanscare's elite Yellowjacket force invades the planet, setting up an advance base at the Eastern European city of Largane. Meanwhile, Zanscare's mighty space fleet sets out to overwhelm neighboring space colonies. The last hope for resistance lies with the League Militaire, whose underground factories in Eastern Europe are manufacturing a line of state-of-the-art mobile suits to combat the Zanscare forces...
Point Kasarelia
Near the city of Woowig (known today as Prague, Czechoslovakia) lies a forest region called Point Kasarelia, which is home to two young illegal residents. Both thirteen-year-old Usso Ebbing and eleven-year-old Shakti Kareen have been left here by their parents, and together they wait patiently for their families' return. Their peaceful life is interrupted when Yellowjacket forces enter Kasarelia, pursuing League Militaire pilot Marvette Fingerhat. Becoming entangled in the battle, Usso helps the injured Marvette escape and captures one of the Yellowjacket mobile suits, booting enemy ace Cronicle Asher into the lake.
Usso soon puts his stolen mobile suit to use in the defense of Woowig, as the city is attacked by Yellowjacket forces searching for the League Militaire's hidden factories. Usso rescues his friend Katejina Loos from the devastated city and returns to Kasarelia. Here they join forces with Marvette, the rest of the League Militaire's Camion group, and a trio of refugee children from Largane. Together they make their way to the resistance fighters' underground factory in Kolin, where the new mobile suit Victory Gundam is being manufactured. Usso covers for the injured Marvette by becoming a Victory Gundam pilot - a decision that further incenses his friend Katejina, who already blames the League Militaire for the destruction of her home town.
Becheyne
The location of the League Militaire's factory is soon discovered, and they begin a hasty evacuation. In the process, Cronicle captures Katejina and the leader of the Camion group, the latter of whom is then executed in a grisly televised guillotine ceremony. The remainder of the Camion group flee, with the Yellowjackets in hot pursuit. Usso and Shakti try to go back to Kasarelia, but they're now targets for the Yellowjackets, and their only safety lies with the Camion group. And what of the captive Katejina? Fascinated by her captor and the Zanscare philosophy, she quickly becomes Cronicle's willing helpmate.
The mysterious leader of the League Militaire directs the Camion group to rendezvous at the Federal Forces' Becheyne base. They're joined en route by the League Militaire's elite Shrike Team, an all-female team of mobile suit pilots commanded by Marvette's old flame Oliver Inoue. Arriving at Becheyne, the reunited League Militaire members borrow transport planes from the Federal Forces and resume their journey by air.
Arti Gibraltar
The League Militaire members arrive at the Arti Gibraltar spaceport in Spain, from which millions of people were launched heavenwards during the heyday of space colonization. The Yellowjackets seize control of the city of Gibraltar, triggering a fierce battle and killing several of the Shrike Team pilots. Amid the melee, Cronicle and Katejina manage to launch in a space shuttle. They set a course for the nearly-complete orbital attack satellite Keilas Guilie, where they are welcomed by station commander Tassilo Vago.
Hot on Cronicle's heels are Usso and Marvette, who hijack a space shuttle and launch into Earth orbit. Meanwhile, having borrowed a mothballed space cruiser Reinforce from the Federal Forces, the rest of the League Militaire crew follow Usso and company into space. As two of the refugee kids have stowed away aboard Usso's shuttle, the third prevails upon Shakti to smuggle her aboard the Reinforce, and the entire cast are thus relocated to space.
Hiland and Keilas Guilie
In Earth orbit, Usso and friends encounter a Zanscare patrol ship and rescue the child hostages aboard it. These liberated captives turn out to be children of the crew of the solar power satellite Hiland, taken hostage to force their parents to provide power to Keilas Guilie. Usso and Marvette return the children to Hiland and settle in to await the arrival of the Reinforce.
En route to Hiland, the Reinforce is attacked by Zanscare forces, fending them off with some help from Usso, Marvette, and a second League Militaire ship. During the battle, however, Shakti and her fellow stowaway are blown out into space and captured by the Zanscare. They are taken back to Keilas Guilie, where Cronicle and Tassilo discover that Shakti is in fact the long-lost daughter of their holy figurehead Queen Maria, and Chonocle is dispatched to take Shakti back to the Zanscare Empire's home colony. As soon as Cronicle leaves, the League Militaire forces launch an attack on Keilas Guilie and captures the satellite.
Amelia
With the Keilas Guilie crisis resolved, the Hiland crew set off to visit their home colony in Side 2, and the Hiland kids enlist Usso to help them chase after their parents. A medical emergency forces Usso and company to enter the heart of the Zanscare Empire, the Side 2 colony of Amelia, where Usso is briefly reunited with Shakti. At this point, the League Militaire launches an attack on the colony in order to lure the Zanscare Empire's main fleet back to Amelia. Usso and friends rejoin their comrades, telling Shakti to stay behind and look after her mother.
Cut off by the returning fleet, Usso, Marvette and the Hiland kids are forced to enter Amelia once again. Usso and Marvette are captured, and scheduled for execution at a public rally. At the ceremony, Queen Maria preaches love and peace, performs a spectacular feat of mass healing, then is whisked away as the Gatie Party leaders take the stage to preside over the public executions. At the last moment, the Hiland kids show up to rescue Usso and Marvette; thanks to Maria's hints they're able to retrieve Shakti as well. Also saved from the guillotine is Tassilo Vago, who was to be executed for his loss of Keilas Guilie.
Escape from Side 2
As our heroes fight their way out of Amelia, the main League Militaire force returns to launch another attack on the colony. The League Militaire plans to blast the Zanscare fleet with the captured Keilas Guilie, but when the satellite's remote control system is damaged, Usso must enter Keilas Guilie and trigger its devastating cannon himself. The blast wipes out a third of the Zanscare fleet, and the League Militaire beats a hasty retreat.
Fleeing the wrath of the Zanscare Empire, the League Militaire crew proceed to the neutral Side 2 colony of Macedonia and surrender to the local authorities. At Macedonia's pastoral POW camp, Oliver - relieved of his duties as Shrike Team commander by the deaths of all the Shrikes - at last ties the knot with his old flame Marvette. All is peaceful until the arrival of Cronicle and his newly-organized Motorad fleet, whereupon the League Militaire crew bust out of the camp and set course for the moon. Along the way Usso endures a brief but humiliating capture, then receives a powerful new mobile suit, the fabulous Victory 2 Gundam.
Operation Giant Roller
Reaching the moon, the Motorad fleet and League Militaire each dock near the neutral lunar city of Saint Josef. Here Usso is reunited with his long-lost mother, the League Militaire engineer who designed the Victory 2 Gundam, but their joyous reunion is cut short when she is captured by the Zanscare. The Motorad fleet departs the moon to begin its invasion of Earth, and Oliver sacrifices himself in an attempt to delay the enemy fleet's takeoff.
The Motorad fleet descends upon North America to begin its terrestrial rampage, and the League Militaire begins a running battle against the armada of wheeled battleships. Finally, the Earth Federation arranges to halt the Motorad onslaught by negotiating a ceasefire with the Zanscare Empire. On the eve of the truce, the invaders try one last stratagem involving the use of Usso's mother as a human shield. The gambit goes horribly awry, and Usso's mother is accidentally killed just seconds before the ceasefire is announced.
With a temporary truce in effect, the Motorad fleet leaves Earth. The League Militaire crew make their way across the Atlantic back to Europe, from whence they likewise launch into space. Though the Motorad invasion has been stopped, they know the war is far from over.
Angel Halo
Usso and friends make their way to the Hiland solar power satellite, where they join a combined League Militaire and Earth Federation fleet - a fleet led by Usso's father, the true leader of the League Militaire. This ragtag force must take on not only the entire Zanscare fleet, but also their ultimate weapon, the psycommu battle fortress Angel Halo. Using this immense psychic weapon, powered by tens of thousands of civilian "psychickers" and controlled by the supernatural talents of Queen Maria, the Zanscare Empire plans to attack the minds of Earth's inhabitants and carry out a bloodless psychic genocide.
As the League Militaire and Federation forces fight their way through Angel Halo's defenses, the fortress is activated and begins its descent towards Earth. Desperate to avert the coming catastrophe, Queen Maria has herself "kidnapped" by co-conspirator Tassilo Vago. But when the queen uses her powers to call on Usso for help, Tassilo flies into a rage, slays the uncooperative Maria, and is himself vaporized by the grief-stricken hero. Then Angel Halo enters Earth's atmosphere, and the League Militaire, Earth Federation, and Zanscare forces begin a cataclysmic final battle.
Conclusion
Surrendering herself to the Zanscare Empire, Shakti volunteers to take her mother's place, then begins using Angel Halo's own power to disassemble itself. The immense psychic weapon breaks up into fragments, which then scoop up the combatants and their ships and carry them back up into space. Meanwhile, Usso defeats his rival Cronicle and heads into Angel Halo's core to rescue Shakti, only to confront his last enemy - the bitter, hateful Katejina. The showdown between Usso and his estranged friend culminates in a shattering blast, tearing the remnants of Angel Halo apart...
The war is over, the leaders slain, and the soldiers swept off the battlefield by the power of Angel Halo. The survivors of the bloody conflict - Usso, Shakti, their fellow orphans, and Marvette, pregnant with Oliver's child - settle at Point Kasarelia. Then one day, while her friends are visiting the graves of their fallen comrades, Shakti encounters a blind beggar woman trying to find her way to Woowig. Shakti aids the wanderer, but when Usso and the others return, she can't bring herself to tell them what she's seen: this maimed, miserable vagabond was the once-proud Katejina.
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