Mobile Suit Gundam Technical Manual, Volume 1: Gundam Wing
Gundam Wing Mobile Suit Development History
Topics covered:
1. Mobile Suits
2. Beam Weapons
3. Gundanium
4. Mobile Dolls
5. Zero System
Mobile Suits
Mobile Suits are nearly as old as colonies themselves. When man took his first steps into space and started building new structures in the heavens, it was clear that new tools would be needed to perform the construction. Mobile Suits evolved from early motorized spacesuits and spacecraft manipulator arms. The term *MOBILE in Mobile Suit is actually an acronym for "Manipulator Order Build and Industrial Labor." Whether humanoid or pod-shaped, early mobile suits were any mechanized craft or suit that had the ability to perform complex manipulations. While Mobile Suits were originally intended for use in space, it was soon discovered that their versatility was easily adapted for terrestial use as well. The new Earth-bound MS became more humanoid in shape, as "legs" allowed the large machines to become truly "all terrain."
Soon it was discovered that when equipped with the latest weaponry, Mobile Suits surpassed existing combat vehicles, and the various countries of the United Earth Sphere Alliance began developing their own models. Behind closed doors, the Romefeller Foundation began construction on what was to be the ultimate Mobile Suit. Their creation: The Tallgeese. While superior in every to conventional MS, the Tallgeese ultimately failed as a weapon because its motion capabilities was beyond ordinary human bounds. The scientists who built it completed a test run, but the project was ultimately abandoned in favor of the easily piloted and mass-produced Leo.
Several of the scientists who worked on the Tallgeese project were not prepared to give up their research entirely. They continued to improve on existing MS technology, creating what would eventually become Wing Zero, the model upon which the Gundams were based.
They called their new project "Gundam" because it was made from an experimental new alloy called "Gundanium." The scientists broke away from OZ, but the legend of a next generation, highly efficient Mobile Suit lived on through the years.
If the Tallgeese is the ultimate MS in "form," the Wing Zero model was to be the ultimate MS in "function." The scientists who created Wing Zero realized they were creating something so complex that it would be impossible to control. It would not only be fully articulated, but it would be fitted for use in space or on ground with equal ease.
OZ continued to refine the MS process, lowering costs and increasing productivity, causing new developments in MS technology to stagnate. The loss of the Wing Zero team and the resulting loss in creativity didn't hurt the pocketbooks of OZ and its parent company, the Romefeller Foundation. In those years of constant, bloody warfare, there was a constant demand for arms from all sides and the Foundation was glad to provide.
That's not to say that all new MS development ceased within the Foundation. New MS were created for specialized environments: Tragos for land, Aries for air, Pisces and Cancer for sea, etc. Nearly every military vehicle could be replaced by an equivalent, superior, MS.
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The Alliance (under Foundation manipulation) created new conflicts solely for the purpose of creating new MS and expanding their area of control. The MS made domination of the colonies a simple task, and soon the colonists were under Alliance control. It wasn't long before the colonists began planning their independence. One distinct advantage the colonies had over the Earth-based Alliance is that Gundanium, the alloy needed to make Gundams, can only be created in space. MS made from Gundanium have a distinct edge over over anything in the UESA forces, so the Gundam units became the lynchpins of Operation Meteor, the colonies' plans for retaliation. Using the knowledge they gained from working on Wing Zero, the five scientists began working separately on five unique Gundams.
*Note that the acronym only accounts for the MOBIL in MOBILE Suits. It is possible that the "e" was later added because MOBIL Suits were in fact highly mobile in addition to being MOBIL. (Your webmaster finds this rather amusing.)
Beam Weapons
Beam weapons are the most advanced weapons used by Mobile Suits. While beam weapons can be built for ordinary MS, they are especially powerful when made from Gundanium. The complex alloy allows charged particles to reach heat temperatures which would incinerate ordinary metals. The Buster Rifle, which the Wing Gundam carries, charges all particles in a 150 meter radius, creating a maelstrom of hot plasma. The gun's convergence ring concentrates the energy into a single devastating beam capable of destroying a battleship in a single blast.
The Beam Sabers (including the Scythe and Glaive) use the same principle as long range beam weapons, only instead of projecting beams of charged energy, they contain the beam in a continuous arc, even underwater. The ionization field surrounding the beam causes any matter it hits to become super-charged, effectively ripping it apart.
There is no armor capable of defending against beam weapons. The Gundanium alloy used in Gundams' armor and the Planet Defensors of the Mercurius and Virgos is highly heat-resistant and virtually immune to corrosion, but it's still not immune to beam attacks. It does, however, create an "anti-field" that repels beam attack to some degree, reducing the damage delivered, but not stopping it outright.
The best way to stop beam attacks is to avoid them entirely, and for that task, no other MS is as adept as Gundam Deathscythe Hell. Its Active Cloak can confuse visual sensors and the Hyper Jammers can block other readings, making it invisible to radar. The Cloak also helps disperse the charged particles of beam attacks.
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When two beam weapons collide in melee combat, the charged particles repel each other, acting as if they were solid. The size, power and speed of the MS becomes the deciding factor in such combat, just like with two humans dueling with swords.
Gundanium
Gundanium is created through the most advanced refining, fusing, and deoxidizing techniques, which are only possible in space. The complex formula was first called **GND, short for Genetic on Universal Neutrally Different Alloy. Later, the suffix "-nium" was added to distinguish that alloy from other similar alloys being developed on Earth. Gundanium was still superior to the competition because of its zero-G creative process.
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While called an "alloy," Gundanium contains many non-ferrous metals and non-analyzed matter, meaning it is not a true metal. It is created in high-temperature plasma that can only form in zero-G. The compound is adjusted in nano-units, a process so precise that it can only be done in gravitationally stable Lagrange Points. The annealing process, which strengthens the alloy, is preformed by electromagnetic rays from the sun. It is even rumored that the nuclei of the atoms themselves are modified within the Gundanium alloy.
While many similar alloys were developed, no other compound is as immutable as Gundanium. The refinement process causes the alloy to become electrically neutral, making it ideal for use with Beam type weapons, and as armor, the material is almost entirely resistant to change. However, the extremely high cost of production makes it impractical for military use.
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Some intelligence indicates that OZ scientists experimented with using Gundanium alloy in MS creation. The very existence of Gundanium was kept secret, perhaps because it was a possible secret weapon for OZ. The five scientists who left the Tallgeese project took with them the knowledge of Gundanium, allowing them to create the Gundams which would later become the bane of OZ.
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The creation of the Gundams took decades of work behind closed doors, due in part to the slow process of manufacturing Gundanium. This is evidence of just how long a process Operation Meteor was, with the Gundams being created before their eventual pilots were even born.
**The acronym GND only uses three of the five descriptive words, thus your webmaster believes the actual acronym is GUNDA as opposed to just GND. With "-nium" added to the end of it, the full word becomes 'Gundanium' which is the exact armor material utilized by Gundam-type mobile suits.
Mobile Dolls
In creation of the Tallgeese, the MS developers believed they had created a machine too sophisticated to be controlled by a single person. The machine, they said, was perfect - it was the human pilots that were the problem. In order to make it a viable weapon, something had to change.
There were two paths that could make Mobile Suit combat a reality:
1) The human pilot would be eliminated entirely, making the MS an unmanned vehicle.
2) The pilots themselves would be altered to make them perform better.
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The former concept developed into the MOBILE DOLL (MD) program, short for MOBILE Direct Operational Lead Labor. Mobile Dolls required an operating system to be installed on the MS, and some sort of command software outside the MS that would feed it orders. They could be controlled directly, or left to their onboard Artificial Intelligence (AI). Operators need not be trained pilots as the AI handles the nuances of control.
Some people saw the creation of unmanned combat MS as a solution to the warfare that long plagued the Earth Sphere. Without the casualities that resulted from traditional combat, the most horrifying aspect of war, death, was all but removed. But the MD was fundamentally a weapon of mass destruction, and when you remove the human element from that destruction, warfare becomes all the more meaningless.
The MD project was funded by the Romefeller Foundation who used MD to take over the UESA. Through the mass-production of MD, they could maintain and expand their command of the Earth sphere without needing to train new pilots. OZ, the group who most relied on manned MS, did not like the move towards unmanned suits, and its leader, Treize, fought against their used by the Foundation. While he proved, at the time, that a human pilot was superior to an AI, development of MD continued.
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The first mass-produced MD were based on existing Leos and Tauruses. The first MS type created as an MD was the Virgo. These were the foundation on which the more advanced Mercurius and Vayeate were based, and later the Virgo II incorporated the best of all worlds, becoming the ultimate MD.
MD reached their pinnacle, becoming a totally efficient weapon of mass destruction which could be built, operated, and destroyed without any human involvement.
Meanwhile, other scientists were working on a system that would allow human pilots to have total mastery over their MS.
Zero System
Zero system was developed to be an interactive interface between a human pilot and a Mobile Suit. The system computes the results of possible courses of action, and the pilot considers these and mentally feeds directions back to the system. What this means is that the pilot knows the results of his actions before he performs them.
The system is programmed to think tactically, and the options that it feeds the pilot might include civilian death or unncessary destruction. It is up to the pilot to guide the system and lend it a conscience, so the relationship becomes a balance of emotion and logic.
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Another advantage of Zero System is its ability to offer physical stimulus back to the pilot, allowing him to feel the strain that the MS is undergoing. This causes great physical and emotional stress on the pilot, but allows for intuitive controls beyond any conventional means. Ultimately, Zero System allows the MS to become an extention of the pilots thoughts and movements.
Due to extreme mental strain on its users, Zero System could never be used on a wide scale. It can literally tear a users mind apart if they are not strong willed. Only Gundams Wing Zero and Epyon were fitted with it, but a modified version was used for the centralized control of Libra's MD fleet.