METEOR

ZAFT’s Mobile suit Embedded Tactical EnfORcer (METEOR) was a mobile weapons platform designed for use by the ZGMF-X09A Justice Gundam and ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam. Although both units were already well-armed, the METEOR units made them the equivalent of a mobile fortress. The METEOR’s extensive armament included four high energy beam cannons, two beam swords and 77 missile launchers located all across the main body. The beam cannons and missile launchers were effective weapons against ships and mobile suits, and the beam swords could slice into a battleship and easily destroy it. As the METEOR units were intended for mobile suits with nuclear reactors, they were equipped with energy batteries. However, two later METEOR units were modified to run on nuclear energy, allowing non-nuclear mobile suits to use them.

The original METEOR units were stored aboard the transport ship Eternal, which was also designed to support the two Gundams. Pilots Athrun Zala and Kira Yamato used their METEOR units near the Bloody Valentine War’s end to prevent another Earth Alliance nuclear attack on the PLANTs. In the final battle in September C.E. 71, Athrun abandoned his METEOR unit to penetrate the GENESIS doomsday weapon, while Kira’s METEOR was destroyed by Rau Le Creuset’s ZGMF-X13A Providence Gundam. The METEOR’s design was also the basis of another ZAFT unit, the 35A/MPFM Multipurpose Flight Module. Just before the start of the Second Bloody Valentine War, two METEOR units were used by Serpent Tail mercenaries Gai Murakumo and Elijah Kiel. During the war’s last battle in C.E. 74, the METEORs again played an important role in the battlefield, this time for Athrun’s ZGMF-X19A ∞ Justice Gundam and Kira’s ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom Gundam.