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GNMA-002 Regnant
Model number: GNMA-002
In response to growing unrest in the third world and elsewhere in the Earth Sphere, the Earth Union began to take a much more aggressive stance in stamping out militant and rebel forces inside its jurisdiction as well as in foreign territories as well. By UC 240, the military development labs were already drawing a significant portion of this new counter-insurgency funding which had, in turn, created growth in mobile weapons design not seen since the Guild War period. While a fair number of weapons were created that would be well-suited for low intensity combat and counterterrorism operations, the Union's military-industrial complex saw to it that a whole slew of combat systems that were more suitable for full scale war would see the light of day as well. The Regnant, the most impressive mobile weapon ever fielded by the Earth Union, represented the apex of this questionable military spending. The enormous mobile armor was developed using combat data from the similar Empruss, another heavy assault armor designed in the late UC 230s, thus cutting down on the length of its design cycle. At first glance, the Regnant and Empruss are extremely similar to one another, and internal sources within the Union's contractors and production plants have gone as far as to suggest that the Regnant is what the Empruss "should have been" from the beginning. Compared to its predecessor, the Regnant maintains a similar profile and weapon systems, but also features a host of new features to increase its combat ability. Foremost is the transformation system, which allows the Regnant to reconfigure its body into a more humanoid shape that is better suited for close range, anti-mobile suit combat. The original production series featured a mobile suit-sized head protected by a large hood-like canopy; this was later discarded in favor of a simpler, bulbous design incorporating a large mono-eye in the cranium to supplement the GN-X-style sensors in the face. The mobile armor's spindly legs cannot support its own weight under gravity, and are primarily intended to act as additional maneuvering and balancing surfaces to enable more complex and quicker turns and adjustments. Further, the mobile armor has received a drastic increase of available power thanks to doubling of its GN drives, bringing the total up to four. Two are used exclusively for propulsion and installed in the wing roots, while two more are positioned in the mobile armor's bulbous rear hull to generate particles for its power-hungry beam weapons. The biggest and most notable improvement in combat capability is seen in the improved GN field, which can repel any mobile suit-portable weapon and even some warship-grade cannons, providing the Regnant with a nearly perfect shield against enemy weapons. As with the Empruss, the Regnant's wings are not used to provide lift, but are simply massive particle storage tanks to increase the mobile armor's combat endurance. Similarly to the Empruss, the Regnant is armed with a massive GN beam cannon as its primary weapon. In addition to featuring a higher destructive power, the Regnant also benefits from improvements in GN field technology that allow the mobile armor to literally "curve" the beam as it's fired, which can be used by creative pilots to attack an enemy from unusual angles. The hyper particle launcher, as it is now known, can also be fired while the Regnant's GN field is active, making attacking the mobile armor even more precarious for the enemy. Most of the Empruss' secondary weapons have been deleted and replaced with different or improved versions: two large GN vulcans are installed in the Regnant's forward body for local defense, while its arms now host a battery of GN missile launchers for use against highly mobile enemies. The arms still host an egner whip taken directly from the Empruss for use in arresting and immobilizing enemy mobile suits, but the sinister-looking claws crowning its arms are self-contained GN fangs utilizing a control system taken from the Main Intelligence Directorate's confiscated GNMS-type mobile suits. Each fang is armed with firepower similar to a mobile suit's beam rifle, which can also deploy a long beam spike for use in a melee attack; the fangs are designed to be operable while still attached to the Regnant's arms, providing it a further measure of close-range combat capability. Finally, the Regnant possesses monstrous physical strength thanks to the size of its limbs and the available power output from its GN drives, which can be used to literally dismantle lesser mobile weapons that it can get its claws on. Because the Regnant shares the same external dimensions and can make use of docking facilities designed for the Empruss, many of the teething problems that beset its predecessor have already been addressed, allowing it to quickly be fielded to combat units that have already operated that unit. The Regnant's improved performance combined with the Empruss' already high production cost has prompted the latter to be withdrawn from service so that its components and GN drives can be reused in newly produced Regnants, a move which has caused surprisingly little criticism among field officers. Considering the Regnant's numerous improvements and combat capabilities, it's not difficult to imagine why.
Attack mode detail Cockpit Detail view (production type) Detail view (prototype) GN drive detail GN fangs and egner whip GN missile launcher Head detail (production type) Head detail (prototype) Normal mode detail Rear view, attack mode Rear view, normal mode |
