By Cima barely escapes from the Gwaden‘s bridge as Gato smashes it and people are blown out into space. As the Solar System II prepares to fire, Bask orders Sinapus to have the Albion work with Cima’s forces to defend the mirrors. Sinapus disagrees, and Bask gets angry and asks Sinapus if he’s refusing to follow orders. Gato leads the Zeon who are loyal to him in a strike on the Solar System II. The EFF and the Cima fleet prepare to stop him. Cima leaves the Gwaden in her Gerbera-Tetra and destroys the ship. As the colony approaches, Bask orders the Solar System II to fire. Gato finds and destroys the control ship, which causes the Solar System II to decrease its effectiveness The blast destroys several Zeon ships and damages the colony, but it isn’t destroyed. The colony approaches the mirrors, and Bask has his ship perform evasive maneuvers and sideswipe another ship. The colony slams through the Solar System II and breaks it in half. On the Albion, Nina steals a Core Fighter IIFb and heads for the colony. Kou destroys the Lili Marleen and attacks Cima. She manages to cause him some damage, but her Gerbera-Tetra is impaled on the beam cannon of the Orchis, and Kou fires it and destroys her. On the colony, Gato makes the final course corrections for the colony’s target. Nina shows up and attempts to convince him to stop. He tells he he’d hoped she’d forgotten about the time they were lovers on the Moon. He wonders if she will be the only true witness to Stardust. She grabs his gun and is about to shoot him, but Kou shoots him from behind. Gato manages to pull the lever and cause the colony to move toward its new target.
Nina then holds Kou at gunpoint and helps Gato escape because she doesn’t want either of them to kill each other. Gato punches Nina and gives her to Karius to take to safety. Gato and Kou leave the colony and engage in battle again. Gato’s Neue Ziel destroys Kou’s beam cannon and grabs hold of the Orchis so that Kou can’t eject from it with the Stamen. As the Albion retreats, Bask orders the remaining mirrors of the Solar System II to fire again, despite the fact that there are many EFF ships in the line of fire. The beam fires and misses the colony, but destroys many ships. It also hits Gato and Kou, covering them in a blinding light. Nina watches helplessly from Hasler’s ship. The colony enters the Earth’s atmosphere and slams into the United States. Kou looks for Gato, and he disconnects the Stamen from the ruined Orchis. He sees Bask’s ship and wildly shoots at it. The EFF order Gato and his forces to surrender, and Gato tells his men to head for the Axis fleet. Gato continues attacking and slams the nearly destroyed Neue Ziel into a Salamis class ship. The Axis fleet leaves Nina behind in a Hohsenka shuttle and returns to Axis. Afterwards, Kou is court-martialed and sentenced to one year of hard labor. To combat the returned threat of the Zeon, the EFF creates the Titans: an elite military task force whose purpose is to hunt down the Zeon and other space rebels. Jamitov is placed in command, with Bask as his right hand man. Bask gives a speech about the creation of the Titans, and most of the Albion‘s crew become Titans. Monsha, Bate and Adel watch as the new experimental GM Quel is worked on as a testbed for future mobile suits. The conspiracy in the EFF erases all evidence about Operation Stardust and the Gundam Development Project. With all those records gone, Kou is set free and returns to test piloting duty in the United States at the Oakley Base. In his new work, Kou is reunited with Nina, Maura and Keith.
Well, that was one action-packed conclusion. Despite the deaths of Delaz and Gato in the epic battle, Operation Stardust is a success in destroying the Midwest of the United States. The conspiracy in the EFF gives rise to the Titans, and this sets up the Earth Federation as the antagonists in Zeta Gundam. Bask shows just how vicious he is by firing on friendly ships. This is even before he gets all his power as a Titan. The one thing I didn’t like about the series finale was the whole Kou/Nina/Gato thing. I still insist it’s a cliché idea and shouldn’t have been used. We also never got any insight into Gato’s feelings, or his relationship with Nina. In the end, he’s just a blind believer of Zeon ideals. Also, Cima’s betrayal is never really explained, nor is this conspiracy within the EFF. Despite these flaws, I’d say this series serves its purpose as the prequel to Zeta Gundam by filling in some of that seven year gap.
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