A/N: sorry for the wait. My sources told me the Seed movie was back, and that kinda messed me up. I also got addicted to Halo which is why the Hammering Nails chapter hasn't dropped. Halo stuff shows up in it, so I kinda had to keep rolling with the punches.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The past couple of days have been hectic to say the least. We had to hide the existence of the Astray's. They were too similar to the G weapons for propaganda purposes. They are going into cold storage until further notice. Not only that, but they played up my kill count in order to justify the defeat of the G weapons. I'm now as far as propaganda is concerned an Ace pilot.
In good news, however, we've had a massive uptick in applications for the military. Apparently my ass whooping of two ace pilots, and two ships was enough to make people want to fight for our homeland. They want Jegans through, which is infuriating. The Den'an is by all rights a better unit.
Apparently, being the most obvious mobile suit made me propaganda relevant. Who would have thought?
It's been trying to get these people to understand how advanced technology works, but it's been a fool's errand. I've been forced to consider modifying the Vigna Zirah or Vigna Ghina style command unit into a more Jegan looking unit, which honestly sucks. There are reasons the Jegan stopped being used, and just aesthetically making it similar would just lead to me being dissatisfied with the final product.
"Sai, are you finished the analysis of that CGUE's corpse?"
This response came from Deep Samuel Morris. He's two meters tall and has the largest handlebar mustache I have ever seen, it's thicker and fuller than my hair.
"Why even bother, Morris? The thing is using hydraulics. Fucking hydraulics. Nothing here is special beyond questioning how the made it even stand up. It's possible that the battle damage messed up our forensics…"
"Doubtful, what we're seeing seems to match up with the data we've been pulling from the captured vessels and the spare parts within."
This guy was Angus Takahasi. He didn't really stand out, he was just sort of there. He is the most average human possible. He was also a half coordinator, so he at least had something interesting on his file. Half coordinators are rare because people for some reason can't help being racist against each other over an elective medical procedure.
"Thanks again for doing the spare parts check for me, Angus."
"No problem."
These two are among my best students in the mobile weapons team. According to their files, both worked on the Astray project, but given what I've learned they must have done very little given how similar some of the designs are. Maybe they worked on the hand plugs and battery tech? I know those were based on preexisting Orb designs.
I still need to do the report, though.
"Anyway, From what I can tell, this thing is too back heavy to stand without thruster assistance. At least based on the leg structure, massive back skirt and the giant backpack and Mohawk. The weapon systems aren't that different to the actual GINN. The gun had a different ammo type. That's it. Oh, and it had a shield I guess, but we captured a GINN with a shield, so that's not very impressive. The CGUE can just be filled away as a command GINN and you wouldn't really notice that as an error in practice.
In actual correctness, though, it's about as different as a Zaku and Goof. So, more or less developed from the same base, but different enough for classification. Except instead of being high performance, it's more of a marginal improvement."
"Can you stop with your weird references to things which don't have documentation yet?"
Have I not documented every One Year War design yet?
"Dr. Morris here's the TL;DR, The Zaku is basically the most basic bitch mass production unit possible. The Goof is a high performance close quarters ground unit. That's the fairest comparison, but it misses how minimal the improvement of the CGUE really is. A polite way of summing all of this up would be saying the CGUE is legally distinct from a GINN in the same brand toothpaste and off brand toothpaste are different. Different packaging but all the same crap underneath."
"Honestly, kid, I'm really starting to wonder if the PLANT sponsor nations put lead in the PLANT drinking water."
"A legitimate question, Angus. What I'm wondering is why the hell they bothered putting this into production when the orange one you brought up before is a similar upgrade performance wise but shares way more parts with the standard GINN? The factories that would have needed to be completely retooled for the most marginal upgrade in the history of mankind could be doing something actually useful, like outputting more GINN High Maneuver type parts or something."
"So how long until we're finished with this? I don't think there's a single thing that can be learned from these ghetto machines."
"Well, we can learn what not to do when designing new machines. There is also some things to be learned about coordinator reflexes compared to natural ones given how they change controls based on the weapon being used. That could give us a leg up on… Nevermind."
"I get ya kid this crap is taxing, I'll call Gina and tell him we're done with the ZAFT equipment. Dear God, I could use a drink."
"Head over to the other viewing area overlooking the G weapons and see how Mordred and Rossana went with their latest examinations of how the Atlantic Federation failed miserably. We'll meet you over there once we've made our calls and locked everything up."
"Do I have to? The tech there is just a ghetto Zanny with beam weapons made by the guy who thought the Zakrello was a good idea."
"Ha ha, oh god, that thing, we all had a good laugh at that fuck up."
"We sure did."
"Anyway, Sai yes you have to. Don't worry, at this point we're only interested in the Blitz's stealth system. It MIGHT be useful one day, unlike everything else on those oversized paperweights."
"Alright, I'll go and give everything one final look over". The walk will at least give me a moment to think about all the projects I have to work on.
Making export models sure is tough when everything I know how to make is so much better than military standard. I've had to push back so many plans because of the modernization of our military. The first plan we came up with was to make something based on one of the really bad mobile armors except smaller and cheaper, but well, that hasn't exactly happened. The Zakrello had a beam weapon and was so ugly we didn't think anyone who wasn't blind would buy it, so that got axed early in planning. It was also deemed too underperforming and a space only unit, which we could only reasonably sell to the Alliance, which is a bad idea considering recent events. I mean, we could try selling to the more unaffiliated space colonies, but most of those were massacred early into the war. The current plan people have been talking about is producing a battery powered RB-79C Ball, since we could probably build it on the same lines as the MAW-02 Ball. I'm just unwilling to let that happen because that would, well, make me look like an idiot. I have professional standards, even if they seem non-existent at times.
It would be smarter to try and guarantee their safety more directly, in order to push ORB into a spot of more political prominence in the greater Earth Sphere, and even the Martian Sphere.
Mars needs help in these trying times. Most of the supplies the different nations and groups are supposed to be sending have been cut off by the war. It's only the neutral nations which are holding up our end of the bargain right now. International cooperation, my ass.
"Documentation, Start working on creating a Wings of Light system or other advanced propulsion system for a freighter. A year to go toward Mars is unacceptable."
They gave me a voice memo system to keep my better ideas together. It helps a lot with keeping myself on track. I needed it after the battle, I kept getting distracted by how shit certain operating systems were. Seriously, the GINN would change controls dependent on what weapons it wields. WHO THE FUCK DOES THAT???
I need to calm down, once I'm finished all this I'll finally be able to hang out with everyone. Think happy thoughts. Think of the Victory 2, think of the Victory Hexa, think of the Gun-EZ.
Oh, it's Gina again, what does he want now?
"Gina? What do you need?"
"Its Mina". Oh. "As for what I require from you. It has come to the attention of our fathers that a resource intensive boondoggle could be a very useful tool for ending the war by humiliating the pro war elements of the Alliance, mainly in the Atlantic Federation."
Do Gina and Mina only own a single outfit between them? Seriously, its gone from funny to plain creepy.
"They seem to be doing plenty of that on their own. I mean, the G Weapons suck on every level imaginable." Every level.
"I couldn't agree more, nonetheless, is there anything you can give me that I can pass on to our fathers? I don't need it right now, just a basic outline within the next few days should keep them satisfied."
"Has anyone told you about something called a Zakrello? We were considering developing a machine for export"
"HA HA HA HA! HA! HA! Oh yes THAT! That will be perfect Dr Gatsby and Dr Takahashi mentioned it in one of the reports he gave, we all had a laugh at that old thing! Just make a smaller version with Armor Schneider Combat Knifes and a railgun when you have the time."
"Given the Earth Alliance has beam weapons, I assume the railgun is meant to make them waste even more time redesigning it to use a beam canon? Which given how incompetent they are will cost them a fortune and take months." She just nods. "Ok, well, have a nice day then."
What a weird interaction.
I still need to get that report on the stuff in the G weapons. I mean, it's not like we need that much information on them. The basic 3 units share like 70% of their parts with the Astrays, so it's not like we don't comprehend most of the design already. We are only really interested in the frame mechanisms in the 303, the Mirage Colloid system, and the Phase Shift armor.
Only one of those makes sense for the Alliance to use, and it's the Colloid. That didn't need power, and it was something genuinely unique to the unit as far as I know. It also doesn't fuck over the pilot, given how bad the OS was from what I heard.
The Phase Shift armor isn't helpful if you can't fight back. Surviving hits would be a decent strategy if the suit didn't need to power its armor like it's a budget beam shield or something.
I don't even want to get into how fucking stupid the Aegis is. I'll commend the Alliance for figuring out how to make a transformable machine on their first try, but they probably forgot you need to train the pilot for both forms if you don't modify the OS to compensate for the form change.
"Do you have the report on the G weapons ready, Rossana?"
"Yes."
I believe she worked on the joints of the Astray series or something. I don't know, I didn't really pay attention to what these people worked on once I realized most of their work is just a copy and paste of the G weapons. Appearance wise, Dr. Admiraal is vaguely attractive in the same way every coordinator is vaguely attractive. It's hard to think that though, a lot of coordinators suffer from this same face syndrome because their parents all chose similar DNA modifications and they were all in extremely similar environments.
"Just walk me through the flaws which aren't the unusable operating system. Unless it has to do with GATX-303, the OS there should be analyzed due to its transformation."
"Well, the Duel, Buster, and Strike are by themselves just the same machine with different weapon and armor placements on top of the frame. The Duel is the most generic mobile suit with 75 mm CWIS, two beam sabers, a shield and a beam rifle. The Buster has a multiform weapon, but no CWIS or Beam saber. From some simulator tests, we confirmed the CWIS were removed because they would damage the head sensors."
Mordered Gatsby, the final scientist. I only remember her because she was involved in the hand plug design. While not exactly impressive or novel, in comparison to everything else I know of current mobile suits, it's the most impressive thing we have done.
It also helped that Mordred was the most stereotypical British woman I have ever seen, I have never seen her drink anything exept tea. She isn't even related to anyone British, She just looks like it and has a super posh nobility sounding name. It's wild.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"The head sensors would be damaged if the Buster had CWIS in the head."
"Why? Is it being jostled around by the recoil, or is the sensor made of really weak materials?"
"It has a very fragile construction, why they didn't move the CWIS to somewhere like the arms, however, is anyone's guess."
"Continue on with the rest of the units."
"The Strike only has Knives and CWIS as weapons it has 100% of the time. The Packs we captured, however, did include interesting weapons like a large laser sword, beam boomerangs, and a rocket anchor. That was the sword pack. The other two are one which grants limited gliding on earth and has two beam sabers attached to it which is the one they decided should have the shield and beam rifle and one which is a big Vulcan and two launchers strapped to the shoulder, and one massive beam weapon."
"Beam boomerang? What a strange choice for a military unit. On a mobile fighter, yeah that would fit alongside stuff like the god finger or rose bits, but on a military unit? Do we have any real information on the Phase Shift from these three?"
"It appears that having phase shift armor requires direct connection to the suit's power supply, and a variation on construction which can't be easily done while also keeping the laminate armor."
"Are you sure about that?"
"I'm 70% sure."
Note to self, prove Mordred and Rossana wrong.
"Ok, lets move to the GATX-207. The mirage colloid, how does it work?"
"Well, there are nozzles which release it, and then it gets powered by the suits battery to create the stealth effect."
"Wait, the Stealth is powered?"
"Yes, it comes from the same battery which powers the phase shift armor, so it can't be used at the same time as the phase shift armor."
"I want to be angry, but at least the stealth isn't terrible. It's a lot better than having the armor only work with power. Stealth gives more advantages than surviving attacks.
Anyway, do you know why the stealth and phase shift can't be active at the same time?"
"Because the designers disabled that ability due to high energy consumption."
"Did they include extra batteries like on the Buster?"
"No."
"What were these people smoking when they let that happen?"
"I'll look into that myself then. Anything else interesting?"
"The blitz's shield is also a beam rifle, and has phase shift armor."
"It can drop the shield, right?"
"Yes."
"So they could make the shields use phase shift then. Why wasn't it on the others then?"
"Probably because the shields were only meant to block beams. They're all made of lament armor like the hulls of our ships and coated with a form of anti beam coating. It's worse than the version you provided us, though."
"And they didn't include the laminated armor on the suits themselves because?"
"Cost and the engineering challenges, most likely?"
"Ahh yes, cost, bane of all military designers.
Anyway, GATX-303. The Aegis. What about its frame? Is it made any differently. Specialized material or something?"
"No, it's just constructed very differently. It's overengineered to do as many transformations as possible."
"So, is it their version of moveable frame, then? Do you have a simulation of its transformation?"
"Yeah, right here."
"This thing is closer to a RX-110 Gabthley than a Zeta. Why does it label the folded in claws as a separate mode?"
"I have absolutely no idea. It's probably not the mode they planned to launch from the Archangel. If it was, the Archangel designers didn't get the memo. We've taken a look at her wreck, nothing indicates the Aegis was meant to launch in mobile armor mode even if that makes more logical sense than launching as a Ms transforming, transforming again to Mode 3, then transforming back to cruise mode to go home. At that point, you could have just made a new mobile armor and saved yourself a ton of time and money."
"That's weird though, none of the thrusters really change in placement across its two forms, and it doesn't hugely affect the center of mass or anything. Just tilt the sideskirts a bit, and its basically doing the exact same thing as attack mode."
"Gundam, These things are technically speaking Gundams. They would be high spec given the environment they are operating in when not including us."
"Fine, The Aegis Gundam does have a competent weapon loadout, and has commander level communications capability, so it's not the worst thing in the world."
"It can only use 50% of its ranged weapons in each form. Cruise mode has no combat ability. This thing has both a massive beam cannon and 4 beam saber claws in attack mode, and the battery isn't noticeably better. This transforms into 3 forms, and is the only idea of its kind. Both MA forms don't conform to the standard moebius design or any major spinoff of it. The OS is factually worse than the other G weapon's sorry excuse for an operating system. The side skirts are the main thrusters, which inhibits ground combat. This thing can't even fly, which is half the fucking reason you would want it to transform."
"At least it has close combat capabilities."
"Having an advantage over the buster isn't a good thing. Buster at least has a unique idea in the multiform weapon, and has extra batteries to deal with the excess load. And the buster does technically have a shotgun."
"What should they have done?"
"Pull a Sazabi and mount the Scylia in the torso…
Wait, no, these retards couldn't pull off head vulcans half the time. There is no way that would have worked with their utter lack of any programming skill.
They should have just ditched the MS form, as crazy as that sounds. While eventually it would be less useful once they lucked into a good OS, it would actually have worked with the situation the Alliance is in right now. Just replace most of the MS exclusive parts with extra batteries, and you have a semi competent Mobile Armor."
"In theory, the X300 frame could be used effectively if you redesigned the whole thing."
"In theory, the Gaza-C isn't a piece of shit, but only if you redesign the whole thing which, by that point, isn't a Gaza-C. The frame in its current state is a dead end unless you want to sell something to an idiot…"
"So you're saying industrial sabotage?"
"More likely corporate sabotage. Do we have a list of Alliance weapons developers and manufacturers currently based out of or with branches in Detroit?"
"No, but Gina might. Is it urgent?"
"It doesn't matter for now. We just need to keep up security on our designs."
"Well hello there boys, sorry I'm late."
Huh? Oh Angus Takahashi, Deep S Morris finally got here, and they brought the smug bitch everyone here has been complaining about since I gave my first lecture. I think her name was… Jessica or something. Or was it Misha?
"Erica Simmons lead engineer of the Astray project, you could even call me th…"
"So you're the idiot that thought the Alliance Gundams were worth copying?"
"Excuse me?"
"What did I say that was so strange?"
"The… Everything?"
"Well, you were the software engineer. The software of your project required my intervention. You were the one holding back the rollout of the Astrays. Hell, even if you had completed the Astray OS before I got involved, this project still wouldn't have been worth it. I've seen the documentation. The only thing we gained from the G Weapon transaction was tacit approval to make cheap knockoffs. We gave them the enhanced batteries, we gave them laminate armor, we gave them the Positron Cannons, for the chance to build objectively worse mobile suits. For fucks sake, we kept the diagnostic systems inside the bottom of the feet! That was the one thing that should have been fixed. Did you not check how we would need to store our brand-new weapons in ships, because guess what? They need to be upright to use our catapults correctly! How did you store the Astrays on earth?"
"Uhh, standing upright?"
"How the fuck are you going to do diagnostics when the floor is covering all the required ports?!?"
Mordred spoke up "Angus, please tell me you recorded that."
"Yes."
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POV Kuzzey Buskirk
"Hey Kuzzey good to see ya, I guess that just leaves Sai, and then we'll all be here."
Ha, Sai Argyle. The talk of the town. The hero of Heliopolis.
Also known as my best friend.
Miriallia spoke up. "Do you think he'll show up? He's been really busy ever since…"
"Ever since our closest brush with death?"
"Kuzzey what the hell?"
"Think about it, Sai basically saved our lives. He saved everyone. Without him, there wouldn't have been any time for the rest of the defense to muster properly."
It was a dark thought, but it was true. Heliopolis wasn't known for having great defenses. At least not until Sai designed those new Ball things. Without those, or Sai's mobile suit…
"Don't get hung up on the 'what ifs,' Kuzz. Focus on the now. Like all the new games my parents bought me Atomic Master, Celestial Mercenary, Strife of Stipulation, Bombard of Heroics, Chamber and Apocalypse, Resistance and Evil, Bluehunt, Cyberspace, Castlechase and Bodymind."
"They really named a game Bodymind?"
"Look, all the good franchise names were taken back in the AD."
"It's a shame we can't play with people outside Heliopolis."
"What are you talking about, Mirallia. Imagine the lag of trying to play against people who are on the opposite side of the Earth. The ping would be atrocious."
"Sorry I'm late guys. I finally met the woman responsible for all my migraines for the past fortnight."
"Flay?"
"No. I'm talking about a coworker."
"Yo, Mr magic science man. Find a way to delete ping, so I can play online gamers with Earth people."
"Sure? What brought this on, Mirallia?"
"Wait really?"
"If we get really technical, quantum computing and communication tech has been around for a while. It's just too expensive for commercial use. We could totally rig something up in a bunch of routers to fake being inside the homeland or whatever."
"Okay, I did not expect such a detailed answer, what about you guys?"
Tolle and I just looked at her and shook our heads.
"Sorry, I tend to get into detail when it comes to tech now. It's been my new thing ever since they made me teach engineering."
"You teach? Since when? We knew you did the whole TA thing for the professor, but this is news to me at least."
"It's military stuff."
"Ahhh, well, are there any cool secrets you can tell us?"
"Hmmmm just well let's just say you don't need to worry about another attack given how incompetent everyone else is, hell one guy could probably defeat half of the Earth Alliance with a big spoon." They're that bad, how haven't they lost yet?
"Um Guys? Can we just play the game now?" Huh I kinda forgot Kira was here.
"Is that Celestial Mercenary? Heard it was pretty good, wanna play that?"
"Sure."
I wasn't familiar with that game, so I picked up the case. Celestial Mercenary is a 3rd person shooter multiplayer action adventure game in the same vein as ancient titles like GoldenEye 3000X, Narbacular Drop 3 and Half Life 0. So, It's really only fun with friends.
"Ok then, we've all got the game booted up, let's do this!"
We played for about thirty minutes where Tolle and Sai kick our assess. I mean Kira tried but Miriallia was just not doing well at this game at all while Tolle was just unstoppable. Then just after we took a break and Miriallia went to the bathroom, someone knocked on the door.
"I'll get it guys"
"Hi guys, Sai invited me here, how is everyone?" Oh, it's Sai's girlfriend.
"Flay?" Uh, Kira, why are you saying her name like that?
"Was I not supposed to invite her?" Sai whispered to me.
"Hey Kuzzey how's it been?"
"Alright, you?"
"Great! What about you Tolle?"
"Doing great! Me and Sai have been wiping the floor with these guys in Celestial Mercenary."
"Cool! And um I don't remember your name?"
"K-Kira".
"Yeah, Kyle."
"And thanks again for inviting me, Sai! Best Boyfriend ever!" And now they're hugging, and Kira looks like someone told him his robo-bird died.
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Perks
Pushing The Envelope [400CP – Discounted Traveler]
Compared to other professions, Mobile Suit engineering isn't the hardest thing in the world. That comes from decades of refining technology in a field where progress has been forbidden for hundreds of years and you end up spending your resources simplifying and refining the tech you already have. But when what you have isn't what you need, people call on you. Breaking the paradigm is your specialty, and you find great success when pushing things in a direction that is unusual. Maybe you'll be the first to create true transforming suits in this timeline, or maybe you'll revive some of the ancient nanotechnology that went into creating the Mobile Armors. Whatever it is, it'll be interesting.
Geirail Frame [Free]
Somewhat of a middle step between the more specialized and high-performance Graze Frame that was derived from it and the powerful Valkyrja Frame it was based upon, the Gierail Frame is the epitome of a general purpose military suit. While the Rodi and Hexa Frames are excellent all-purpose suits for the purpose of salvage and heavy lifting applications that Mobile Workers are simply not suited for in addition to combat, the Geirail was engineered with military purposes in mind. It is somewhat lighter and faster, though not nearly to the extend that the Graze is, and very easy to use.
It also carries a somewhat strange advantage- They are an excellent suit to use if someone wants to remain anonymous. After Gjallarhorn moved on to the Graze platform, only a few Geirail Frames were kept for the purpose of training new pilots, and they were repaired with parts taken from the old prototype test beds that had their registration deleted. Take any Geirail Frame and attempt to match it's Ahab Wave Frequency to the database and you'll get... nothing. No owner, no pilot, no company, no nothing.
Structural Armor and Nanolaminate Armor Coating [200cp] (One Free All Except Imports)
What the average person probably doesn't realize about Mobile Suits is that the thick armor they wear isn't actually what stops the bullets and the thick blows that are delivered to them on a daily basis. No, those armor pieces are more accurately padding. They're ablative armor pieces designed to crumple under blows without compromising the Frame underneath. What actually allows the armor to take multiple heavy impacts, artillery shots and more is actually the paint on the armor. I'm serious.
Nanolaminate is a material that is applied to Mobile Suit armor only millimeters thick, but provides enough structural stability to avoid denting from incredible amounts of force. What's more, it actually grows slightly stronger when it's under pressure, which is why when paired with the gravity-generating Ahab Waves generated by a Mobile Suit's Ahab Reactor, it grows stronger depending on the output. A Gundam Frame – with it's additional reactor – will have perceptively stronger armor than- say, a Graze- despite the fact that the Nanolaminate on both is identical in composition and thickness.
Despite it's prevalence as the coating on Mobile Suits and on ships, that isn't to say that Nanolaminate is CHEAP- plastic crack is still cheaper, with the prices getting jacked up by the manufacturers based on demand. White is the cheapest of them all since the primary buyers – Gjallarhorn and paramilitary groups – don't want to paint their Mobile Suits in highly visible colors and instead go for green, purple and blue.
You can choose any color scheme you want for your Mobile Suit, however.
(Obscenely bright metallic pink)
Basic Thruster Suite [25CP] (Free Geirail-Series Frames)
Part of the Graze's famed ease-of-use comes from leaving this feature behind on it's predecessor the Geirail Frame. Instead of the two (or four with the backpack) basic thrusters the Graze uses, this is a suite of nominally powerful thrusters mounted all over the Frame- back, legs, knee, inner elbow, name a body part and there's a thruster there. While this gives an incredible amount of turning power and boosting in space, the pilot needs to be careful they don't let the thrusters get in the way of normal operation.
Melee Weapon [25CP] (One Free)
A long handheld melee weapon or a short forearm-mounted melee weapon of some description. Since Nanolaminate Armor makes it difficult to destroy or even disable a Mobile Suit's internal mechanical components, it is considered most effective to just bludgeon the cockpit under the pilot dies or passes out from the shock. For this purpose, blunt smashing weapons are preferred, though a blade can be very effective if aimed at armor gaps and piercing weapons can be effective if aimed at weak points such as the cockpit. While durable, it's not as physically strong as Nanolaminate Armor is, and has a nasty tendency to break if too much force is exerted, although really- if you're just trying to kill the pilot, the sword doesn't really NEED to stay perfectly straight, does it? (Comically large Spoon)
