Sayla Mass - Aboard White Base

Aboard White Base

Born Artesia Som Deikum, she is the younger sister of Casval Rem Deikun and the only daughter of Zeon Zum Deikun, the founder of the Republic of Zeon. Originally a medical student on Side 7, Sayla is almost immediately recruited as a soldier, and set to the task of watching over the civilian refugees. With the near total lack of experienced personnel to defend White Base (most original crew members were killed in the Principality of Zeon's attack on Side 7), Sayla first serves as acting captain Bright Noa's communications officer and later as a combat pilot.

Soon after joining the ship, she repeatedly looks for her "older brother Casval" (better known as Char Aznable, a Zeon ace pilot flamboyantly known as the "Red Comet"), and takes every opportunity to learn information about him and make contact. When Bright picks up a suspicious briefcase (later revealed to be full of gold bars) intended for Sayla late in the series, he confronts her and she admits her true identity as Artesia, asking Bright to distribute the gold to the ship's crew. Bright shows great sympathy for the amount of emotional distress she has secretly borne alone throughout the show.

During a battle against Zeon commander Ramba Ral, Sayla steals the Gundam to make contact with Char, and is heavily battered in combat against Ral's troops. Reaching the battle area with Guncannon, Amuro immediately rescues her from the assault. Though Sayla is disciplined for the incident, Bright and Mirai both recognize Sayla's latent abilities and she is assigned as Amuro's co-pilot with the G-Fighter (Core Booster in the movie).

During the battle at Solomon, Sayla senses her brother's presence and interferes in Char and Amuro's duel, and is almost killed by her brother. This indirectly results in the death of Lalah Sune, her brother's Newtype subordinate and romantic interest, at Amuro's hands.

During the battle of A Baoa Qu at the end of the original series, Sayla finds Char and Amuro dueling in a fierce sword fight. Worried over the safety of both of them, she breaks the two apart. A series of explosions then separates the three of them. Sayla returns to Char, who wishes to find and kill Amuro in vengeance for the loss of Lalah. But upon her reminder of his initial objective of vengeance upon the Zabi family, Char changes goals, telling Sayla "young Amuro is calling you", fondly informing her that she is an adult and instructing her to become "a good woman", before leaving to assassinate acting Zeon leader Kycilia Zabi. Sayla (through Amuro's telepathic guidance) escapes A Baoa Qu, and is reunited with the White Base crew.

In contrast to the television series, in the radically different version of director Yoshiyuki Tomino's novelization, Sayla becomes romantically and sexually involved with Amuro, even going so far as to ask him to kill her brother for the safety of the greater good; he refuses. However, Amuro is later killed in action, and telepathically sends the message to Sayla that she "made him a man," and wishes "he could take her with him"; she hears his voice while swimming in the Mediterranean Sea in the final scene, and knows that "Amuro is with her".