List of After Colony technology

This is a list of fictional technology from the After Colony timeline of the "Gundam" anime metaseries.

In the After Colony timeline there are generally few explanations about the technology, as the series focuses more on character development. Most technology is assumed to work in at least similar fashion to the mobile weapon technology from "Gundam"'s Universal Century.

Gundanium Alloy

One of the central elements of Gundam Wing's mobile suits is the use of Gundanium Alloy. What makes Gundanium so incredible is its properties: it is practically immutable, highly heat-resistant, and electrically neutral. These properties combine to produce a material that is extremely hard to damage, lending to the Gundams' atmosphere of invincibility and intimidation. Additionally, heat and beam weapons produced using Gundanium are much stronger than similar weapons made using traditional titanium, thanks to its extremely high melting point allowing it to produce hotter and therefore stronger beam energy. Gundanium is very rare and hard to make, since it requires the use of super-heated plasma and nanomachines, and very few people know exactly how to make and refine it. Further, it is said that Gundanium can only be produced at Lagrange points under zero-gravity conditions, putting a very powerful tool in the hands of the colonial rebels. To a certain extent gundanium served as a character shield that kept mobile suits with important characters in them from being completely destroyed. Prime examples include when Trowa was in the OZ-13MSX1 Vayeate and it survived a shot from XXXG-00W0 Wing Gundam Zero's buster rifle without being "completely" vaporized, despite the fact that that weapon was capable of reducing entire space colonies to clouds of debris. Another example is when Wing Gundam (used by Lady Une at the time) was blasted with the battleship Libra's main cannon. Although the Gundam was heavily damaged with its lower torso blown off and rendered inoperable, Une was uninjured.

There is a common misconception that Gundanium is nigh-invincible; this has been disproven by several instances in Gundam Wing and Endless Waltz where the Gundams were damaged, usually by beam weapons. However, this has also led to the supposition that Gundanium is especially strong against solid weapons, like traditional machine guns (as is the similar alloy Gundarium, from the Universal Century). This second theory may have some truth to it: according to the novelization of Gundam Wing, a physical impact roughly equal to the force of a train travelling at 120 kilometers per hour while towing ten-plus transport cars would be enough to easily destroy Gundanium. This is also covered in the series where Heero attempts to destroy the Wing Gundam with three naval torpedoes detonated simultaneously, although no exact figures are quoted and Heero was apparently trying to activate the Gundam's disarmed self-detonation device.

Gundanium's name is actually an acronym; it stands for Genetic on Universal Neutrally Different Alloy. The suffix -nium was added to distinguish it from similar alloys being made on Earth. In the After Colony Universe, the word "Gundam" is derived from this acronym (GUNDAnium Mobile suit). Despite this fact, not every mobile suit made with Gundanium is a Gundam (examples: Vayeate, Mercurius).

In an Easter Egg of the Series, Gundanium is referred to as "Gundarium Theta" which would make it an eighth-generation descendant of the Lunar Titanium used on the original RX-78-2 Gundam of the Universal Century, although the two series are canonically unrelated.

Planet Defensors

The "planet defensors" are small disk-like drones that can be separated from mobile suits, and can arrange themselves to deploy an electromagnetic forcefield that would protect the mobile suit. The OZ-13MSX2 Mercurius mobile suit was developed as a testbed for the planetary defensor system by OZ. The Mercurius's was so strong that it was even able to block a shot from Wing Zero's buster rifle, although a subsequent shot could penetrate the weakened shield. The defensors were carried over into the OZ-02MD Virgo mobile doll (though it appeared less powerful then one used by the Mercurius), which combined features of the Mercurius with some from its offense-focused counterpart, the Vayeate. A Virgo on its own can only generate a shield that protects from fire in one direction (as one Virgo only carries four defensors) - however, three Virgos working in concert can deploy their defensors in a globular shield, as can the Mercurius (which carries ten defensors.) OZ later developed an advanced variant of the Virgo, the WF-02MD Virgo II, which carried eight defensors per unit; this machine was stolen by the rebel group White Fang and is often associated with them.

Capable of defending against both projectile weapons and particle beam weapons, older laser weaponry was deployed that could penetrate the field. However, the reason the lasers were no longer in use was due to extremely rapid overheating in combat, often leading to the weapon exploding in the Mobile Suit's hands. Planet defensor fields were also breeched by melee attacks, suggesting that it takes a certain amount of force (either constant, like a weapon attack, or focused like a laser) to break through the field.

The ZERO system

The ZERO (Zoning & Emotional Range Omitted) System is a technology for interfacing the brain of the pilot with the mobile suit's computer (comparable to the Universal Century's biocomputer in the F91 Gundam). Only two known mobile suits were ever equipped with this system, the XXXG-00W0 Wing Gundam Zero and the OZ-13MS Gundam Epyon. The ZERO system decreases the pilot's reaction times as there is no need for traditional visual interfaces. Furthermore, thanks to the advanced computations performed by the computer, the pilot can become aware of future outcomes and possible courses of action that can be taken to achieve total victory or total defeat. However, due to this direct brain interface, as the human brain cannot process the raw data, the system will cause the pilot to vividly "hallucinate" the possible paths that the pilot can take; as the pilot tries to figure out what is going on, the system can overload the brain with too many statistics and estimated values, causing temporary insanity. Examples of this include when Quatre Raberba Winner used the Wing Zero and went on a rampage throughout the colonies, and when Heero Yuy first used the Epyon in battle and went berserk, killing every soldier on both sides. However by the end of the series both Heero and Zechs "master" the ZERO system allowing them to properly use the data that the system gives them.

Later during the White Fang conflict, Gundam pilot Heero Yuy and White Fang leader Zechs Merquise developed a modified version of the ZERO system that was derived from their respective Gundams. They were given to Gundam pilot Quatre Raberba Winner and White Fang supporter Dorothy Catalonia so that they could lead their respective forces with their maximum potential strategic abilities. Heero installed his into Quatre's XXXG-01SR Gundam Sandrock (which Quatre would later remove) and Zechs developed his into a helmet for Dorothy to use to control and coordinate the movements of mobile dolls in combat from inside the battleship Libra.

Mobile Doll system

Developed by OZ's Colonel Tsuberov, a loyal supporter of the Romefeller Foundation at OZ's Lunar Base, the Mobile Doll System uses a powerful computer system equipped in a mobile suit that allows it to act on its own without a human pilot. Through this method not only would it help prevent Romefeller from sacrificing the lives of their pilots, but it also would prevent them from using poorly skilled pilots in battle. The Mobile Dolls were deadly in battle, because they had faster reaction times than human pilots. However one of the Mobile Dolls chief opposers was OZ's leader Treize Khushrenada who felt that the Mobile Doll system would make humans unnecessary for battle, and therefore render battles useless. After the White Fang seized control of the Lunar Base, the modified ZERO System that the White Fang leader Zechs Merquise had developed allowed Dorothy Catalonia to employ the system in controlling the Virgo II's Mobile Doll target programming and tactics during battle. One other variation is that when the Gundam Scientists who remained as prisoners in the hands of OZ and later the White Fang rebuilt the OZ-13MSX1 Vayeate and OZ-13MSX2 Mercurius into Mobile Dolls. Both of these suits Mobile Doll AI system were equipped with battle data from Trowa Barton and Heero Yuy from when they previously piloted these suits, and were later single-handedly destroyed by Duo Maxwell.

References

[http://www.gundamofficial.com/www_ac/gw/glossary/technology.html Gundam Official] - contains technologies.