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Seto Kaiba

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  1. Seto Kaiba
    Unfortunately, it's unlikely we'll see the VF-24 anytime soon since it is rather uber and used principally by the federal New UN Forces, who seem to be rather averse to poking their oars into these small regional conflicts... The VF-31 would be the only 5th Generation VF in the New UN Forces inventory that doesn't have a direct connection to the YF-24 in its development... in the sense that if you drew a geneological "family tree" of VFs it would be the only one separated from the YF-24 by more than one step since the VF-31 is a heavily modified and economized YF-30. Instead of being directly derivative of the YF-24, it's a derivative of a derivative of the YF-24. Essentially, instead of YF-24 -> Prototype -> Final as in the case of the VF-25, VF-27, YF-29, and YF-30, it'd be: YF-24 & YF-29 -> YF-30 -> YF-31 -> VF-31. Well, we have... but in Master File. SMS Uroboros was using the YF designation as a way to game the law requiring them to disclose the specifications for the fold dimensional resonance system. Under the YF classification, it was considered to still be a prototype under active development, which exempted them from having to disclose the complete specs (presumably because a prototype would be expected to still have its specs changing reasonably often). Since Richard Bilra was using the Uroboros branch as his own private lab to test all manner of ways to break through fold faults, which would be an enormous boon to his business if he could find one that he can exploit on a large scale, he naturally wanted to keep it somewhat secret and thus gamed the system to avoid disclosing the new technologies SMS had developed for as long as possible.
  2. Seto Kaiba
    ... I suppose so, yes. I thought my pets were badly behaved... All we know of the Earth/Federal New UN Forces' 5th Generation fighter - presumed to be designated VF-24 - is that the YF-24 program was successfully revived by Shinsei Industry in 2055 as the YF-24 Evolution and that the final prototype was approved for adoption and mass production by the New UN Forces in 2057. Once the Federal New UN Forces decided on adopting the YF-24 Evolution as their next main fighter, a redacted version of the specifications were shared via the Galaxy Network to the various New UN Government members and swiftly became the basis for all other 5th Generation VFs including the VF-25, VF-27, YF-29, and YF-30.1 Indications are that it is uber as all get-out, and that the only emigrant-produced fighter able to rival it for performance is the YF-29[A] Durandal.2 The prototype is known to have beat a mixed unit of 12 VF-19s and VF-22s supported by 6 air-to-air specification QF-4000s singlehandedly in testing. 1. The VF-31 Kairos and Sv-262 Draken III are the only 5th Generation designs not known to be directly descended from the YF-24 Evolution spec. It's unknown what the Sv-262's relation to the other 5th Gen designs is, and the VF-31 is indirectly descended from the YF-24 given that it's an economized YF-30, which directly descended from the YF-24 and YF-29. 2. The YF-29B Percival doesn't count, because it's an improved YF-29 produced for the federal New UN Spacy Special Forces unit Havamal and as a result counts as a federal forces VF.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    I remember the Macross Chronicle coverage of the Octos destroid says that manufacturing was resumed under UN Government control, but I do recall a few mentions of the Sv-51 being allegedly used during the First Space War. Magdalena Zielonaska in Macross the Ride claims that her Sv-52γ Oryol was (pre-modification) a Sv-51 which her grandfather had flown in the First Space War. There was also that Variable Fighter Experimental Requirements Review column in Character Model magazine back a little bit after Macross Zero had ended (Spring 2004 issue, IIRC) which was a featurette about the UN Government using captured/surrendered Sv-51s for competitive benchmarking purposes. Probably thinking of the above-mentioned VFERR article in Character Model then? There are a few factoids that would let us make educated guesses. We know there are fuel lines throughout the wings, so it's fairly logical there would be tanks there too, joined by flexible pipe segments to accommodate the bending of the wing. Assuming the Sv-51 was designed to be retrofitted for space use with thermonuclear engines, there are likely larger tanks inside the engine nacelles, since thermonuclear engines use fuel as coolant as well during space operations. To draw on Master File, as long as the Sv-51 has more than 5,400L of internal fuel capacity, it's officially one-up on the VF-1, and given its size that doesn't seem unreasonable at all given that we're talking an aircraft that is substantially larger and noted to be roomy enough that it can easily be retrofitted with equipment designed for the VF-17.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    Simply, with the exception of the VF-0 and Sv-51 that needed to be larger for practical development reasons, the early VFs were developed around the assumption of having to fight alien infantry who were projected to be ~10m tall based on examination of the SDF-1 Macross's interior spaces. It only became apparent that the alien forces also used mecha once the first battle of the First Space War broke out and humanity encountered the Regult for the first time. By that point, the 1st Generation and early 2nd Generation designs were set and well into development, so the assumption didn't start getting properly corrected until the 3rd Generation. Dian Cecht, or rather Dian Cécht, is an Irish/Celtic deity from pre-Christian Gaelic Ireland. He's a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann and the god of healing. Not sure why they would name a defense contractor for a god of healing, unless the specialization in combat robots is a reference to one of Dian Cécht's most famous feats, providing King Nuada with an artificial arm of silver that could function as a normal arm.
  5. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah, that's the one detail about the Sv-52 that is presented consistently across all sources... that the Sv-52 was supposed to be an upgrade to the Sv-51 that included thermonuclear reaction turbine engines. It's not even clear if any Sv-52s were actually built, due to the Alliance folding shortly after the Sv-51s were first put into practical combat service. Macross the Ride kind of comes across in two minds about it, asserting that some units may have survived the First Space War in underground bunkers in Eastern Europe but then contradicting it by saying that Magdalena Zielonaska's Sv-52 is actually a heavily modified Sv-51. Other sources suggest the Sv-52 was never completed before the Alliance disbanded. Master File took both views with a middle-of-the-road approach to the question, asserting that the Alliance did begin construction of the first lot of Sv-52s but had to stop because they were unable to secure key components including the all-important thermonuclear reaction turbine engines and the incomplete airframes were retrofitted back to Sv-51 specification using available hardware. I disagree. Presuming the Sv-52 is using a mostly unmodified Sv-51 airframe, the sheer amount of space in the substantially larger airframe of the Sv-52 should enable it to carry a substantial amount of fuel. The Sv-51's problem is that, for the internal volume it has, it wasn't enough to provide a long operating time when the fighter's engines were burning jet fuel. Likewise, the VF-1's issues with a limited onboard fuel capacity stemmed from its size being deliberately constrained to a battroid mode that was approximately the size of a Zentradi. The Sv-51 is so much larger than a VF-1 that it should have no problems accommodating enough internal fuel to match or exceed the capacity of a VF-1 Super Valkyrie using just its internal tanks. After all, we're talking about a plane that is quite literally twice the size of the VF-1. Y'never know... there are some books that have shown the VF-1 using FAST packs in atmosphere... and a few games as well. The amount of thrust to get airborne is there, but it'd handle like a cow in a supermarket trolley. Probably little different from the ones the Sv-51 had... just equipped with thermonuclear reaction turbine engines or rockets rather than conventional turbines. The Sv-51's got more underwing pylon stations, so it shouldn't need as much modular armament mounted in boosters. They're related in a VERY indirect, roundabout fashion... but one that contains absolutely no spoilers. The account we've had of the connection indicates that the team that developed the Sv-154 and Sv-262 was founded by one of the Sv-51's lead developers (Alexei Kurakin) who wasn't really all that invested in the Anti-Unification Alliance's goals and had defected back to the UN Government once the Alliance officially folded. He was taken on by Stonewell/Bellcom and subsequently attached to the VF-X-4 program during its space trials on the moon. He and his Stonewell/Bellcom team survived the First Space War's end by being on the moon, and he later became one of the co-founders of General Galaxy. During his stint as one of the heads of GG's development staff, he used his authority to create a special development team called the SV Works that was focused on VF vs VF combat as a core design concept (SV standing for Slayer Valkyrie or Slayer of Valkyries). After he died, the SV Works team didn't fold, and was later sold off to the Epsilon Foundation subsidiary Dian Cecht, who was providing things like ships and fighters to a number of governments and organizations including Windermere IV's government. So, basically, the only real connection to the Sv-51 is the design team that produced the Sv-154 and Sv-262 was founded by one of the developers of the Sv-51. Anti-government sentiment has basically nothing to do with it, since the SV Works team was founded by a developer who defected to the UN Government and who did most of his work for the UN Government. Windermere IV's Kingdom of the Wind purchased the Sv-154 Svard while it was still very much a member of the New UN Government. It kept the Sv- designation because the design is not one that was adopted by the New UN Forces in any capacity. Windermere IV's local NUNS garrison used the VF-171 and VF-22, and the Aerial Knights were sort of a stand-alone formation retained out of tradition and a sense of national pride, and operated in concert with the New UN Forces before the war of secession in 2060.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    It does appear to be a distinct class of ship, and the one frame of reference for it that keeps cropping up is that its height is roughly equal to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai (~830m). That would make it somewhere in the vicinity of 1/2 of a Macross's size.
  7. Seto Kaiba
    In a word, "you said it". With the largest (command type) Zentradi being around 13m tall, an 18m+ tall battroid isn't going to fit gracefully (or at all) into a stolen uniform the way the ~13m tall VF-1 battroid did.
  8. Seto Kaiba
    It's hard to say, since there is no official or useful information available about the actual Sv-52... to the extent that we can't say with any certainty that one was even built in the official chronology. Macross the Ride's Sv-52 is not an actual Sv-52, it's an imitation of one that is (at least according to its owner) an extensively modified and modernized Sv-51 that belonged to her grandfather. The Variable Fighter Master File coverage alleges that the Sv-52 was never completed, and that the partially complete Sv-5ss got diverted into immediate service after being retrofitted for conventional turbofan jet engines as the Sv-51Ω. I would expect that the fact that the battroid is over 18m tall would've been a significantly more serious problem with attempting to mug a Zentradi soldier for his clothes and disguise the battroid with them.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    Well, there are a couple reasons... Fully-autonomous AIs are still somewhat limited. Their limited processing power and procedural logic makes them unable to behave in an unpredictable fashion the way an organic pilot can. They're also necessarily limited in their ability to select and prioritize targets to prevent the AI from causing friendly fire incidents and the like. Consequently, most drones are run semi-autonomously instead to get around those problems and legal restrictions on autonomous AIs. The hardware and software necessary to produce a truly unpredictable AI is notoriously flaky, prone to generic "insane AI" behavior after developing self-preservation instincts, and totally illegal in the bargain. People haven't forgotten the havoc that occurred when a complete nutcase obtained said hardware on the black market and installed it in a virtuoid idol that promptly went insane and took over Macross City, the SDF-1, and Earth's defense grid. Semi-autonomous drone systems are vulnerable to jamming, as demonstrated to great effect in Macross Frontier's first episode. Basically, the advantage of a Project Stella cyborg would be that you get all the advantages of a fully-autonomous AI fighter but without the legal hassles or stability problems. The program doesn't seem to have borne fruit, though.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    They're production block numbers. Like real world militaries, the UN Forces and New UN Forces designation system includes production block numbers to distinguish minor equipment improvements between production lots at the manufacturer. Their designation system is modeled principally on the United States tri-service aircraft designation system, so block numbers come after the variant letter if you're giving an aircraft's full identification. One area where they differ is that the US often counts up by tens (10, 20, 30, etc.), while Macross tends to count block numbers by ones (1, 2, 3, etc.). The VF-171 Nightmare Plus is unusual in that, like the equally unusual F/A-18 Hornet, it uses roman numerals for its block numbers. Block I for the VF-171 was the 2048 initial production type flown by Ozma Lee in his flashback, and the first version adopted. The Block II version is a 2055 update to the VF-171 that appears in Macross Frontier and Macross Delta. Block III, or specifically Block IIIF, is the 2059 upgrade from the Macross Frontier movies that roughly corresponds to the VF-171EX but without the modification of the cockpit and nose section that gave the EX variant the "hero" bubble canopy.
  11. Seto Kaiba
    Project Stella was a Macross Galaxy fleet cybernetics experiment to mass produce combat-ready veteran pilots from individuals with no combat experience using a special version of the Valkyrie control implants that confer ace-level skill by taking control of the subject's body part-time. Maris Stella from Macross R was the proof-of-concept technology demonstrator for the program.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    I wanted to keep the number down, given that the Macross Quarter-class just barely out of the testing phase in the timeframe we're talking about... and also probably a good deal more expensive than the priciest conventional warship in the New UN Spacy's fleets, the Uraga-class escort battle carrier. The Island Cluster-class is a 5th Generation emigrant ship design, it wouldn't have existed yet in the timeframe we're talking about WRT the hypothetical fleet's launch. The Macross-11 type still needed the logistical support ships. Squadron organization's a bit different in the UN and New UN Spacy, given that their lowest level of organization is a platoon made up of 3-4 aircraft. As a result, squadrons are a bit larger at 15-24 aircraft apiece. Carriers also aren't quite as capacious, as they're carrying supplies to keep fighters operating in space in the long term and also have to make room for their own fuel stocks and an array of essential systems oceangoing ships don't need. Your typical space carrier (the Guantanamo-class) has enough space for about 50 aircraft (2-3 squadrons worth), and the larger and rarer Uraga-class has enough space for 75 aircraft (3-5 squadrons). (Then, of course, you've got the other extreme... the Macross-class and Battle-class ships with space for several hundred fighters divvied up among multiple carrier air wings. A ship like the Battle Frontier having enough space for 30-50 squadrons.) It's a medium bomber and mobile anti-warship turret.
  13. Seto Kaiba
    The problem there is twofold: Thanks to the lack of official publications about the mecha of Macross Delta, the mechanism responsible for concealing the markings and paintjobs of the Aerial Knights and, later, Delta Flight has not been officially identified. It's not even clear if the two organizations are even using the same technology to do the job. The only source I know of that identifies it is a manual from one of the TOMYTEC model kits, which does refer to it as an optical camouflage system. Given the almost total lack of information about the optical camouflage technology (technologies?) used in Macross Delta, it isn't clear if these systems are capable of doing more than what we see them do... concealing a fighter's markings and paint color. There's a good deal of difference between making a fighter appear matte black and making it out and out invisible... What I know of Halo lore you could fit on a paper napkin with enough room left over for a profoundly filthy limerick or three, but to bend light around an individual only blinds them if they're depending on the particular wavelengths being bent for vision. I'm not sure what wavelengths the freaky Predator-faced things see in, but it's entirely possible that if the system is only bending visible wavelengths they could see by infrared or ultraviolet, or potentially using some more exotic form of sensing that isn't impacted. The implementation of optical camouflage in Macross is more along the lines of using holographic projectors to present the illusion of empty space instead of bending light.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    One explicit mention to date... the YF-27-5 Shahar ♀ is noted as having an active [visual/optical] camouflage system and a dazzle camouflage paintjob in addition to the typical active stealth system and passive stealth measures. The optical camouflage was a design choice intended to facilitate its illegal use in black operations for the Macross Galaxy Corporate Army during testing of the prototype fighter and the prototype Stella-series cyborg pilot.
  15. Seto Kaiba
    Well, I'm disappointed... that means CBS is likely to continue trying to crowbar the mess that is Star Trek: Discovery into the Prime timeline despite it being increasingly obvious that it doesn't belong there. It's a near-perfect fit for the Kelvin timeline, but all of its xenophobic undertones and Burnham and Lorca's highly flexible morality and "ends justify the means" attitude towards the law is definitely not consistent with what we've seen of other Federation Starfleet crews of the era like Captain Robert April, Christopher Pike, James Kirk, etc. It wouldn't even be consistent with the nascent Federation Starfleet under Admiral Jonathan Archer almost 100 years prior when the Federation couldn't afford to be that holier-than-thou. For my money, the biggest problem is that it's a prequel allegedly set in the prime timeline. If this were in the Kelvin timeline, it'd be no harm no foul because that timeline is a LOT more militaristic and paranoid thanks to the Narada incident, Khan's shenanigans, etc. and was only just getting on its feet and starting to really look at what it'd become around the time Discovery was set. On reflection, it's so weird that Burnham would cite a Vulcan precedent for shooting first when it came to Klingons... she could only be referring to the strategic doctrines of the Vulcan High Command. How the hell did Burnham get the idea that the doctrines of a deposed and disgraced Vulcan government that was overthrown because of its rampant, amoral militarism and involvement in all manner of religious and social bigotry was a role model? There is no way in hell that Ambassador Sarek, a post-Surak Vulcan, was teaching her that the High Command's doctrines were diplomatically sound.
  16. Seto Kaiba
    OK, that's enough to work with... so, a 3rd Generation emigrant fleet centered on one or more City-class habitat ship with logistical support vessels and a military escort detail of approximately 180 warships and 2,600 combat aircraft. Fleet composition-wise, I think I would skew somewhat closer to the Macross-5 fleet composition with fewer dedicated logistical support ships and more City-class ships with the attendant Battle-class supercarriers. I also think I would probably tend to use a greater number of Ghosts as first-responders to minimize losses of manned craft while feeling out potential threats. All told, it'd probably look something like this: 60x Northampton-class stealth frigate (standard type) 20x Northampton-class stealth frigate (air defense type) 10x Northampton-class stealth frigate (radar picket type) 10x Northampton-class Gefion-subclass stealth light carrier 20x Osaka-class1 stealth cruiser 40x Guantanamo-class Advanced ARMD 20x Uraga-class escort battle carrier 4x Saratoga III-type stealth escort carrier 1x Macross Quarter-class variable space carrier 3x Battle-class space stealth attack carrier w/ 3x City-class habitat ship 1x Three Star-class factory ship 2x Sunnyflower-class agricultural ship 1x Hollywood-class amusement ship (w/ Galaxy Network transciever) Given that the stated timeframe would put us right in the middle of the introduction of 5th Generation VFs, I would be inclined to go with an air/aerospace force composition that would be 15-20% unmanned fighters. Probably about 15-17% QF-4000 Ghosts, while the remaining 3-5% would be the more versatile but limited Neo Glaug. The Ghosts would definitely be the first responders, as you can get three QF-4000s for what you'd pay for one VF-171, and there's much less fuss if one gets shot down since it wouldn't incur any loss of life of a valuable trained pilot. The other 80% would be manned fighters. Mostly the VF-171-II, but with as many units updated to the VF-171-III spec as humanly possible, with particular priority given to the fighter squadrons attached to carriers that serve in the fleet's advance scouting groups. Definitely transitioning to a VF-24A monkey model around that period, since that's a fighter on which almost all the actual development is already done ahead of time, and for which the engineering was done with a much higher level of performance in mind so it's over-engineered, thus making it more robust. Attackers would be a mix of VA-3s and VB-171s, and reconnaissance planes would be a mix of RVF-171s and a recon model VF-24. The one thing I would definitely insist upon would be having fighters permanently stationed aboard most of the frigates. We know that the Northampton-class can carry up to a full platoon of VFs without modification or sacrificing operational endurance. I think the advance reconnaissance Northampton-class ships would greatly benefit from having a platoon-strength unit of Ghosts kept in their hangar on standby and with each taskforce having at least a Gefion-type or Saratoga-type carrier hanging around as support and an Osaka-class hanging about for added punch, while the proper full-size carriers form part of the skirmish screen around the City-class ships and protected by the air defense-configured frigates. There's not really any practical situation in which resources would be unlimited for an emigrant fleet... only the Sol system and the other wealthy core systems could reasonably claim to have nigh-unlimited resources thanks to the incredible material processing and manufacturing capabilities they have thanks to the dozens of factory satellites they possess. 1. It's from a doujinshi, but it's the only name I've ever seen anyone attempt to tack onto the stealth cruiser from Macross Frontier.
  17. Seto Kaiba
    More than that... we need 30 people pledging for each of them. Right now, we have 14 of 30 committed to a Spartas (with one "if" not counted) and 16 of 30 committed for an Auroran (with the same "if" not counted).
  18. Seto Kaiba
    Most VFs have a couple different ejection mechanisms. The VF-1 Valkyrie could eject just the pilot's seat and deploy a parachute in atmosphere, or use verniers built into the chair in space, or it could eject the entire cockpit block as an escape capsule. Considering his size and mass, it isn't that impressive... force equaling mass times acceleration and all. Mind you, the armor plates he was buckling and bending through sheer brute force had an equivalent strength to three meters of rolled homogenous steel armor. It's hard to put this into a usable scale for a miclone, but this would be like something along the lines of bending an inch-thick steel bar by hand. Possible, but you'd need to be VERY strong to do it. Yeah, the VF-0's was comparable to a modern main battle tank while in Battroid mode (with over 90% of the turbine generator output devoted to it). The VF-1 Valkyrie was about three times that. He does note that he's literally built tougher than the average Zentradi, but he's pretty amazingly durable... Very little, I'm afraid... tho didn't I answer this one not too long ago? We know that it's a local development by Surya Aerospace, a joint venture of the Brisingr Alliance branches of Shinsei Industry, LAI, Feifeng, and Bharat. It's tipped to be the next main (5th Generation) fighter of the Brisingr Alliance's New UN Forces and expected to go into mass production and begin replacing the Alliance's aging VF-171-II Nightmare Pluses at some point in 2069 or 2070. At present, a trial production lot of VF-31A Kairos units is being evaluated in the field by the Xaos Corporation's PMC Brisingr Cluster HQ on Ragna. A fair amount of its component parts are off-the-shelf hardware originally developed for the Macross Frontier fleet's VF-25. The only production-intent variants known to exist are the VF-31A and VF-31B, nothing is known about the VF-31B or how it differs from the VF-31A. The basic specs writeup is also available detailing weapons, engine thrust, etc. On the whole, it's a late entry into the 5th Generation by an isolated local government and it doesn't really have a lot to make it stand out in the crowd. Five VF-31A units were modified by Xaos Valkyrie Works to create the VF-31 Siegfried customs used by Delta Flight. They were retrofitted with detuned versions of the YF-30's engines, reduced firepower, and various customizations to make them work well in close air support of Walkure. In what timeframe? That's a question with a LOT of potential answers depending on when we're talking about...
  19. Seto Kaiba
    I'll post the long explanation later today, I'm getting ready to fly out for vacation (including a stop in LA for SDCon this saturday).
  20. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah. We see Alto do it in the first Macross Frontier movie while he's fighting that giant Vajra that looks like a preying mantis... the cockpit's located on the back, under the plate with the wing joints on it, so that just lifts up and he is able to drop down and out in EX-Gear. I'd assume it works the same for the VF-27, which has the same transformation. The VF-171 has the same cockpit hatch as the VF-17 in Macross Delta, which is how Hayate is able to get into a downed battroid. Not clear on how the VF-31's would work, but I'd assume the escape capability exists.
  21. Seto Kaiba
    It's actually used relatively often, the F-16XL just did it a bit differently with a collection of tiny ports on the leading edge of the wingtip instead of a larger sub-intake and/or a splitter plate. Yep.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    It's pretty much entirely real-world technology... though some of it is mostly restricted to X-planes and other prototype aircraft. Almost every Valkyrie uses boundary layer control to manipulate laminar airflow over the airframe to manipulate aerodynamic drag on the airframe. The real-world application most commonly uses suction via a sub-intake to reduce drag, decreasing the minimum takeoff distance, improving fuel efficiency, and increasing the available angles of attack during maneuvering. Macross goes a good deal farther, using BLC suction to gain all those benefits at a greater level and also even acheive some limited attitude control purely by asymmetric laminar airflow manipulation. (This is what those little intakes separate from the main intake are for.) Later VFs, like the VF-19, added vortex flow control to that. That approach involves injecting small amounts of gas into the airflow over the aircraft skin, shifting the postions of the vortices and reducing drag on one side of the aircraft, causing it to pull towards the side with greater drag. (Much like the above, but MUCH more effective and versatile, to the extent that it can potentially be a substitute for an aircraft's tail.) This was toyed with on the Grumman X-29, which the YF-19 is based on. What you saw in Macross Plus was a bit more mundane... the YF-21 and AIF-X-9 were both indulging in more brute-force methods to super-high agility, burning their high thrust verniers heavily to achieve that maneuverability. Airflow control methods like BLC or VFC are better suited to lower speeds.
  23. Seto Kaiba
    Hope leads to belief, belief leads to expectation, expectation leads to disappointment. The flipside of platitudes like "pressure makes diamonds" is the less-selective reality that pressure much more commonly just makes garbage more compact. There's a very small outside chance that compacting twenty-six episodes of Macross Delta into a two-hour feature film will induce improvement... but that's all. Better to invest our hopes in the series to follow, which will almost certainly be operating with a substantially different staff and concept.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    Heh, I guess when you're in a dangerous line of work and you're drawing plenty of hazard pay on a regular basis, you can afford the finer things in life. Mind you, both the Ghost in the Shell manga and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex anime imply that Batou didn't exactly pay for his fancy cars.1 Ozma must be getting paid pretty well, to afford a custom car modeled on the Lancia Delta HF Integrale Evoluzione and a house in one of the fleet's most upscale neighborhoods. (The main residential areas are actually the subterranean urban district seen in the movies, living topside is said to be the most exclusive and expensive place to live.) The anime industry seems to have a lot of love for Lancia and other FCA brands... when he's not stealing cars to be inconspicuous or driving that ancient and frequently-destroyed Mercedes-Benz SSK2, Lupin III's usually seen driving a yellow Fiat 500 or an off-white Abarth 595.3 Well, we've got empty masses for all but a few... or did you mean with a combat load? Fuel mass is an amusingly negligible concern on Valkyries, considering that the fuel of choice for the thermonuclear reaction turbine engines is hydrogen slush... which is just shy of 1/10th the mass per unit of fluid volume. The VF-1 Valkyrie's full fuel load (without drop tanks or conformal tanks) has a mass of just under 120kg (264lb). 1. It's implied, with varying degrees of strength, that Batou may have "liberated" some of his cars from asset forfeitures of wealthy criminals and the like. Section 9 apparently does this a lot, so much so that in Stand Alone Complex they get flak for it from a couple sources including in court and from the JMSDF's Umibozu special forces team. 2. Mercedes-Benz made less than 40 SSKs in the entire production run, and at most 5 survived to the modern day. Lupin III's as hard on cars as James Bond, and his poor SSK gets destroyed several times a season. The only explanation I can think of is that Mercedes-Benz made a lot more than 40, and Lupin I or Lupin II made off with most of them. 3. ... and before you say "that's not Macross", Lupin III and his Fiat 500 show up in episode 24 of Super Dimension Fortress Macross, as part of a video game in the arcade where Max first meets Milia.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah, according to Macross Chronicle Ozma's a bit of a car nut... it shows, considering he chose to make a replica Lancia Delta HF Integrale Evoluzione 1 rally car retrofitted for Milky Road service his daily driver. No word on what the powerplant is, but if it's anything like the other cars described in the Macross Chronicle mechanic sheets for DYRL? and Plus, it's almost certainly a hydrogen engine or a series hybrid with a hydrogen-burning generator... a subject quite near and dear to my heart, considering my vocation and employer. It's noted in the relevant Macross Chronicle mechanic sheet that it was remodeled for space use (probably meaning Milky Road use).
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