Mobile Suits

Mobile suits is a category of humanoid vehicles designed mainly for military use, although civilian mobile suits exist. They are typically very large, human shaped mecha controlled by one pilot and are built to operate in a wide variety of environments while keeping their pilot safe from harm. MS can vary greatly in their design, purpose and complexity, from the mass produced "Zaku" suits to the one-of-a-kind Gundams.

Common and famous Mobile Suits

There are hundreds of different mobile suits in the universe, some more successfull and well known than others. Bellow are links to articles detailing some of the more notable types of MS:

History

21th Century

Mobile suits can trace back their origins to the very simple loading mechs of the early 21th century; small exoskeletons more worn by the user than piloted. These were (and still are) used by workers in construction, shipping and warehouses to handle bulky and heavy items that are too heavy for a unassisted human. As technology advanced and the need for stronger loaders grew, so did the mechs, until they were sizable vehicles piloted by one or more crewmen. Loader mech development stagnated at this point, as larger mechs where simply not needed or to clumsy to by useful. They did however see limited military use as mobile artillery platforms in terrain that tracked or wheeled vehicles could not easily traverse but here to the technology of the time hampered the use of mechs for anything more than rear guard work.

The Calamity War

Towards the end of the 21th century advances in industrial servos, human-machine-interfaces and most importantly vehicle sized fusion power plants had reached the point where large military mechas where at last feasible. The mega-corporations pionering these developments did so in secret, hoping to capitalise on the tensions between the nations of Earth and their colonies on Mars and beyond, all while being the first to field these new weapons of war. The first true mobile suits to see military use were the Proto-Zaku´s of Mars based Zeonic Heavy Industries in the mid- to -late Calamity War These pre-production prototypes were soon replaced by the venerable Zaku Mk1 and were used to devastating effect on Earth´s UN forces who were at the time completely equipped to face this new threat.

Earth based Anaheim Electronics responded by presenting the UN with their own mobile suit design, the legendary Gundam, a series of one of a kind mobiles suits based on the same advanced power core and control system. More advanced in every way than the Zaku´s of Mars, the Gundam frames were outrageously expensive and time consuming to construct and so were never mass produced (unlike the Zaku, which were built in the thousands). Only 5 Gundam frames are known to have been built during the Calamity War , each one saw extensive use by the UN to fight and eventually push back the Martian forces. While the losses on both sides of the war marks the conflict as a decisive loss for both sides, many agree that in the mobile suit war was won by Earth when Anaheim Electronics launched the GM mobile suit, a mass produced, cheap and all-purpose suit based on the Gundams, but more comparable to the Zaku. With both mass produced GM´s and elite Gundams in their roster, Anaheim (and by proxy Earth) came out the clear winner of the mecha race as the war came to an end. Had the war continued however, it is not impossible that Zeonic Heavy Industries would have developed a Gundam of their own, they did not lack the knowlage or ambitions, as much later designs would prove.

Dream Century

In the years after the war MS development continued for some time, refining and repurposing mobile suit designs into peacekeeping roles. Mobile suit technology made its way into civilian industries as well, advancing power generation, communication and medical fields with the lessons learned. To late to fight in the Calamity war, hundreds of Zaku Mk II´s were mothballed in storage across the colonies of former Mars as they were no longer needed. These old suits and their derivatives would become the favored tool of rebel groups and militias around the human sphere for the coming century.

The Gundams that survived the war were kept in working condition and occasionally modernised by the Earth-Mars Federation , but with no need for them and the destructive power of Gundam feared by the politicians in power, no new Gundam frames were built after the Treaty of Luna .

In the late 0090s of Dream Century few new mobile suits models are mass produced, the relative peace of the human sphere having lead to less military spending and a large focus on a smaller number of more flexible mobile suits in the Federation. The vast majority of military MS are variants of the GM-34 and Zaku Mk II, but these are showing their age even with extensive upgrades. With the federation favoring the GM-series of suits, the Zaku has become more and more a symbol of spacenoid independence, as its seen extensive use by The Alliance of Zeon and later by the Neo-Zeon splinter groups.

Those new MS being produced are one-off or small production specialist units, designed for specific groups or use cases. A prime example of this are the myriad of MS produced by Anaheim Electronics for use in dueling. Often much more advanced than their military counterparts, but lacking functionality and endurance required by a professional military, they are nevertheless impressive mobile suits made to be as much a work of art as warmachine.