By The Albion leaves Earth’s orbit and heads through the shoal zone of wrecked colonies on their way to the lunar base of Anaheim Electronics. Nina makes romantic advances on Kou, but he’s so dense and focused on the GP01 that he doesn’t notice. Nina tries to explain to him that the GP01 isn’t modified for space and is useless until it is upgraded. Out in space, Keith flies around in his GM Cannon II and is attacked by Monsha’s GM Custom. Monsha reminds him he has to look at all directions in space. Keith detects enemies nearby, and Monsha explains to him that they are friendly forces. The Salamis class cruisers Yulin and Nashville join the Albion in the search for the GP02A. Nearby, the Musai class ship Peer Gynt carrying Gato heads to Delaz’s secret base at the Garden of Thorns. The Zanzibar II class ship Lili Marleen commanded by Cima Garahau nearly slams into them as it flies by. Gato meets with Delaz at the Garden of Thorns and expresses his dislike of Cima. Delaz explains that if the Zeon are to return, they need to have a strong army in addition to the GP02A. When the EFF fleet is detected nearby, Cima volunteers to destroy them. She tells Gato that she is giving him a break and that he can use the spare time to polish his Gundam. Nina and Maura take a shower, and Maura asks Nina why she’s being so cold to Kou and not giving him the data. Kou gives Nina his data at the cafeteria, but she’s in a bad mood and gives him attitude. Monsha shows up and only makes things worse by asking to be the GP01’s pilot. Nina agrees that he has more skills than Kou and should be the pilot. She says if she knew Kou was so pigheaded, she wouldn’t have allowed him to the pilot. Kou runs off in anger as a battle alert is sounded.
Keith and Monsha prepare to launch in their suits. The Albion receives a message from Jaburo, but it is drowned out by a message from Delaz that is being broadcast to the entire Earth Sphere. Delaz explains the crimes of the Earth Federation, including a massive military build up following the peace treaty at the end of the One Year War. Delaz shows the GP02A as his prime example, because it’s existence alone is a major violation of the Antarctic Treaty. Cima’s ship sends out five Gelgoog Marine suits, which begin attacking the Albion. Monsha, Adel, and Keith all launch in their GM Cannon IIs and GM Customs. Kou wants to take the GP01 out, but he is told to use Burning’s GM Custom. Meanwhile, Monsha chases a Gelgoog Marine and gets pulled away from the ship. Cima sees her men aren’t doing well and launches in her commander’s type Gelgoog Marine. She attacks the fleet and destroys both the Yulin and the Nashville. Kou prepares to head out in the GM Custom, and he suddenly changes his mind and takes the GP01. Nina tries to give him a disk with the combat data, but he ignores her. Kou launches in the GP01 and immediately has trouble maneuvering in space. A Gelgoog Marine tries to pick him off, but Kou destroys it. That gets Cima’s attention, so she begins attacking him. Her ruthless assault nearly destroys the GP01 and injures Kou. Despite Cima’s constant attacks, the GP01’s armor holds out and survives. Burning breaks out of his cast and saves Kou with his GM Custom. Kou tries to land, and Burning tells him to just eject and forget about the GP01. The heavily damaged GP01 crashes into the Albion‘s hangar, and Nina rushes to the severely injured Kou, glad that he is alive. Delaz concludes his broadcast by declaring war on the Earth Federation with the chant: “Sieg Zeon!”
Kou’s a bad boy. He’s so dense that he can’t see Nina is attracted to him, which in turn gives her mood swings and makes her moody. Eventually he’ll probably realize it, but he’s stupid to not see it now. I wonder why she suddenly has fallen for him, when before now they barely spoke. Delaz finally returns and makes his intentions clear. In this episode, we are also introduced to the scheming Cima Garahau. She bears an uncanny resemblance to Milia Fallyna from Macross, and she even flies like her too. Speaking of Macross, her entrance with the near collision in space is very reminiscent of Kamjin Kravshera, who did almost the same thing. By the way, if you look very closely when the Jaburo brass is watching Delaz’s speech, you can spot that goggled doer of evil, Zeta Gundam‘s own Bask Om.
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