Shortly before the outbreak of the Gryps Conflict, the Earth Federation Forces' Titans branch was hard at work developing its own mobile weapons in secret as part of its goal of subjugating the Earth Sphere. One of their earliest and more revolutionary designs was the RX-178 Gundam Mark II, based loosely on the well-known RX-78-2 Gundam from the One Year War. Although designed as a general purpose mobile suit, the Gundam Mark II was intended to be a highly capable unit under gravity and atmosphere - specifically, when fighting inside space colonies. Three prototype units were constructed at the Titans' base at the Gryps colonies, with plans to mass-produce the Mark II already in the works.
The main technical advancement introduced with the Mark II was the "movable frame" construction concept. Up until that point, almost all mobile suits were built on the "monocoque" construction concept - with the external armor serving as a "shell" that supported all of the thrusters, joints, hydraulics, fuel tanks, et cetera, that were stored inside. The movable frame concept turned this design philosophy around; the Gundam Mark II was built around a skeleton-like frame, with all thrusters, fuel tanks, weapons and so forth mounted on the frame, and minimal amounts of armor applied to those critical areas that needed protection. With the advent of portable beam weaponry, a mobile suit was typically destroyed with one or two well-placed shots regardless of its armor; therefore, it was decided that otherwise useless armor would be sacrificed for lighter weight - and thus greater speed and maneuverability. When word of the Mark II's development reached the underground Anti-Earth Union Group movement, its leaders decided to move openly to capture one of the prototype mobile suits. Not only would this serve to give the AEUG access to the movable frame technology, but it would allow them to openly prove to the entire Earth Sphere that the Titans - now developing new war technologies - had other plans for the otherwise independent-minded space colonists.
On March 2, UC 0087, AEUG Captain Quattro Bajeena (the incognito Zeon ace pilot Char Aznable of the One Year War) led a team of Rick Dias mobile suits into the Gryps II space colony to gather reconnaissance data and - if possible - capture one of the "black Gundams." Luck would be with Captain Quattro, as a young boy named Kamille Bidan would find himself in dire straights with the Titans... and being a mobile suit construction hobbyist, soon at the controls of one of the Gundams. With a newfound ally in the boy, Quattro would manage to capture all three Mark II prototypes. However, the Titans were not so willing to give up their prototypes, and the first days of the Gryps Conflict would focus on who would own the three mobile suits. In the end, the AEUG would come out the winner of the prizes: Unit 02 was heavily damaged in combat; Units 01 and 02 were disassembled and shipped off to the AEUG-supporting Anaheim Electronics Company's lunar factory for study; and Unit 03 would be repainted in a more traditional midnight-blue-on-white color scheme and remain in the hands of new AEUG recruit Kamille Bidan.
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11 years, 4 months ago
11 Dec 2012 15:06 CET
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