OZ-13MS Gundam Epyon

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The OZ-13MS Gundam Epyon was a transformable mobile suit seen in the Gundam anime television series New Mobile Report Gundam Wing.

[edit] OZ-13MS Gundam Epyon

The Gundam Epyon ("epyon" being the Greek word for "next") was developed and built by former OZ leader Treize Khushrenada during his exile at his estate in Luxembourg. With copious amounts of information on the five Gundams that were sent by the colonies to battle OZ, and the OZ-00MS Tallgeese, Treize created his vision of the perfect warrior's mobile suit. The Gundam Epyon followed Treize's lofty martial philosophy to the letter, featuring nothing but close to melee-range weaponry. The Gundam Epyon did not have any projectile-firing long-range armaments whatsoever, making it ideal for the more noble duelists that Treize held in a higher regard than "cowardly" soldiers who only fought at range. (There is possible speculation as to whether or not Epyon carried a long range weapon. In the final episode, Wing Zero fires its vulcan cannons at Epyon while they both fly through the corridors, vulcan fire is then returned from Epyon's direction. There were no other suits in the area, so it most likely came from Epyon. However, since vulcan guns in the Gundam universe are strictly close-in defense weapons (especially anti-missile weapons), the intention still stands. For lack of a better explanation, fans attribute the inconsistency to an animation error.

The Gundam Epyon was armed with only two weapons. The first weapon was a "heat rod"; a long segmented whip-like projection that is housed in the shield mounted on the Gundam Epyon's left forearm. Although the heat rod can be retracted into the shield it is usually just left extended. In its deactivated state the heat rod can be used as a grappling weapon, wrapping around opponents to pull or throw them or to disarm another mobile suit by knocking their weapon out of their hands, or as a minor melee weapon to deliver glancing blows. But the heat rod, when activated, becomes super-heated, turning it into a deadly tool capable of slicing through enemy units.

The Gundam Epyon's second weapon was its beam sword, which was stored in a rack on the side of its right hip skirt armor. The Gundam Epyon's beam sword was one of the most powerful conventional melee weapons ever used by a mobile suit. Instead of having a self-contained power supply like standard beam sabers, the Gundam Epyon's beam sword was connected directly to the Epyon's ultracompact fusion reactor via a power cable that ran from the bottom of the beam sword's hilt to the rack on its skirt armor. This gave the Gundam Epyon's beam sword an inexhaustible power supply, as well as making for an incredibly powerful weapon.

The Gundam Epyon was also capable of transforming into a mobile armor mode, which bore a striking resemblance to a two-headed dragon. This form greatly increased the Gundam Epyon's already considerable speed and maneuverability, and even made it capable of atmospheric flight, however this form also rendered both of the Gundam Epyon's weapons unusable until it transformed back into its mobile suit form.

Another feature of the Gundam Epyon was its "ZERO System", which was also used in the XXXG-00W0 Wing Gundam Zero. The ZERO System allowed the pilot to interface directly with the machine's combat computer, which was constantly sending ever-changing information and battle data back to the pilot. This link between man and machine had the potential to create a bizarre, and possibly fatal, side effect where the pilot could be over-whelmed by visions of possible futures constructed by the computer and the pilot's own thoughts and fears clashing. However, a pilot who had the fortitude to conquer the ZERO System would know the path to achieve victory. It should be noted that the "ZERO System" used by the Epyon was not exactly like the one used in Wing Gundam Zero. Where the ZERO System used in Wing Zero seemed to be part of the cockpit, the similar system used in Epyon was confined to a helmet inside the cockpit. This helmet covered the face of the pilot completely, and so the pilot would only see what was shown to them by the helmet. A bonus of this helmet would be the ability to pull it off in case the system was too much to handle, where as one could do no such thing with the cockpit of the Wing Zero. This system was later copied by Zechs and incorporated into the Virgo II Mobile Dolls where they could all be controlled by a single person from the safety of the Libra.

The Gundam Epyon would be personally given to Heero Yuy by Treize Khushrenada when Heero came to Treize's mansion during an attack by the Romefeller Foundation to crush those still loyal to him. Heero would later trade the Gundam Epyon to Zechs Merquise in exchange for the Wing Gundam Zero. Zechs would keep the Gundam Epyon for the remainder of the war, personally leading the mobile doll troops of White Fang, and single-handedly destroying the space fortress Barge. The Gundam Epyon would later be disabled in a duel against Heero Yuy's Wing Gundam Zero during the Eve Wars, and Zechs Merquise was presumed dead after destroying the main reactor of the Libra super-weapon with the crippled Gundam Epyon.

[edit] Specifications

[edit] OZ-13MS Gundam Epyon

Manufacturer: Treize Khushrenada
Operators: White Fang, Sanc Kingdom
Dimensions: head height: 17.4 meters
Weight: empty 8.5 metric tons
Equipment: ZERO System combat computer/pilot interface in cockpit
Armaments: beam sword, directly powered by generator via cable, stored in rack on right hip armor, hand-carried in use; shield, mounted on left forearm, mounts heat rod, retractable
Pilots/Affiliation: Zechs Merquise (White Fang), Heero Yuy (Sanc Kingdom)