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Seto Kaiba

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  1. Seto Kaiba
    Yes, in Macross Plus, Isamu is definitely a soldier in the UN Forces. We see his bio in both versions of Macross Plus, which marks him out as a First Lieutenant in the UN Forces and a perpetual troublemaker (his record has a LOT of disciplinary actions on it). The Macross Plus OVA opens on Isamu's last battle as a frontline soldier in the UN Spacy, before he's informed that he's going to be transferred to the New Edwards Test Flight Center because of his record of insubordination, reckless flying, etc. Isamu's involvement in Project Super Nova is as a military-supplied test pilot... Guld, on the other hand, is a civilian on the General Galaxy payroll. Per Macross Chronicle's mechanic sheet for Isamu's VF-19ADVANCE [VF-19EF/A], Isamu left the New UN Forces in 2059 because he'd been promoted and he wasn't at all thrilled with the the additional "Desk job" work he'd landed as a result. He wanted to fly, and SMS was apparently willing to accommodate him.
  2. Seto Kaiba
    21 June 1987.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    They're not using inert gas... they're using plasma bled off the thermonuclear reaction as propellant in a MHD plasma ion engine, so if one really wanted to aggressively pick nits, it's actually an impulse engine ala Star Trek in space. 's supposed to be coming out of the high-thrust verniers on the outside of the engine intakes. (There's actually an error in that .gif diagram, the other two high-thrust verniers are on the wingtips... the blister on the nose is the FLIR sensors.) Pulsed output could easily be used for simulating "throttling down" for VTOL landing using the verniers.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    Would it cheer you any if I told you the limited/trial production New UN Forces version of the YF-29 slapped a bayonet on the quantum beam gun pod?
  5. Seto Kaiba
    Not really, no... the progressive knives in Neon Genesis Evangelion weren't energy-shielded, they were just high-frequency blades. If you wanted to draw a parallel (and I don't advise it) it'd probably be to Full Metal Panic!'s monomolecular cutters, which Sousuke and others enhance with the lambda driver, which (in most ways) is kind of a force-field system. There's no official word on it directly associated with the VF-27 or YF-30, AFAIK... though in light of the twin-engine YF-27-5 having an external dedicated energy module with its own reaction power system to power and counterbalance the gun pod*, and knowing that a dimension weapon is a fairly energy-intensive thing, the logical conclusion would be that the heavy quantum beam gun pods on the YF/VF-27, YF-29, and YF-30 (and probably the MDE beam gun on the VF-171EX) are powered externally by the fighter's engines. It would explain why the YF/VF-27 needed four engines. * See Macross the Ride Part 6, YF-27-5 Shaher Femail
  6. Seto Kaiba
    Well, the physical shield is not necessarily a stipulation of the advanced variable fighter generations... but almost all of them have it, and the few that don't have a dedicated armor shield (YF-30, VF-171) tend to use their stabilizer as a shield. The pinpoint barrier IS, on the other hand, a distinguishing feature of the advanced variable fighter generations (so much so it's specifically called out on the VF family tree in Chronicle). The combat knife is only present on a few AVF designs... pretty much exclusively the ones intended to fight the Vajra. Most lack it, and don't seem to actually need it when they can just resort to pinpoint barrier-supported fisticuffs if things get up close and personal. I always thought the knife was kind of silly, since VFs are generally involved in high speed aerial combat, which is not at all conducive to stabbing or slashing with a knife. Giant robots with KaBARs worked much better in Full Metal Panic!, where everyone was confined to footslogging (except that <CENSORED> Leonard Testarossa, the godmodding <CENSORED>) and many fights ended up at arm's length or closer. Of course, the AS's in that series had only the one close combat blade, and the others they threw were actually shaped charges.
  7. Seto Kaiba
    Maybe, then again maybe not... after all, the girls were even asking out Exsedol in Fleet of the Strongest Women, and at that point he was old enough to be their grandfather and looked like broccoli.
  8. Seto Kaiba
    Huh. So it does... though the way it's presented makes it sound like they're talking about gravity control and inertia capacitor tech like they're the same thing. I'm going to check that against the source it claims to be from (Macross Chronicle Tech sheet 01P). I shall return, armed with a definitive answer. From other Macross Chronicle sheets, the IVCS and ISC are the same basic technology but at two different levels of advancement (or capability). The Q-Rhea spec has it mentioned the improved IVCS is good for about 18G maximum, while the fold quartz-based ISC is good for 27.5G. Yeah... if you've still got your 1E Chronicle copy, check the old Macross Zero UN Mechanic sheet 04A against 2E's. The old one was QF-2001 Ghost / QF-2200D Ghost, while the new one is QF-2200D-A Ghost / QF-2200D-B Ghost. The D-A is the fighter variant that we saw as a stand-alone aircraft, the D-B is the recon variant that was modified into a booster for the VF-0.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    I'm pretty sure there's a good diagram of the VF-22's engine vents in the VF-22 Master File... I'll see about posting it a pic tonight. As far as VTOL goes... don't underestimate the power of those little rockets. The big ones in the VF-1's backpack are good for at least 8,000kgf apiece, so I'd imagine the verniers have a fair amount of grunt to them as well. Particularly since they're designed specifically to confer high maneuverability in space. That's what the old Sky Angels book says... 20kg warhead equiv. to 200kg TNT on the AMM-1A, and it's not a reaction warhead. (The exact nature of the OTM thermonuclear reaction is a wee bit vague, but the only time I've seen any mention of anything like annihilation mentioned in connection with them is in the old VF Aero Report in This is Animation Special: Macross Plus. Reaction weapons are described in Macross Chronicle as being essentially a gravitationally-triggered pure fusion warhead, so they don't produce residual radiation.) It's from the Sky Angels book, bottom half of page 41.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    Apparently I have failed you... but the official answer as to how the VF-22 does VTOL in GERWALK mode is that there are two banks of pivoting under-fuselage slits that act as the main nozzles for hovering, which would appear to refer to that expansion joint sketchley was talking about earlier.
  11. Seto Kaiba
    The first VF equipped with an inertia capacitor system was the YF-21, which used the same model (inertia vector control system) on the Queadluun-Rau. The Inertia Store Converter technology used on the Macross Frontier VFs was first developed for the YF-24, and completed for the YF-24 Evolution prototype. If the New UN Forces adopted the VF-24 the way Master File seems to suggest, that would probably be the first fighter with ISC. Otherwise, chronologically speaking, it would probably be the VF-27, which was ahead of the VF-25 in its production schedule. Great Mechanics.DX 9 mentions that the ISC technology IS compatible with certain first-gen AVFs like the VF-19 though, but things moved forward with a new AVF generation for a variety of reasons. Yeah, it appears that Macross Chronicle has overturned that particular designation, and now it's QF-2200D-A, while the old QF-2200D is now QF-2200D-B. Theoretically, I suppose any QF-4000/AIF-7S could be upgraded with the same autonomous AI combat package that was present in Luca's three Ghosts (Simon, John, and Peter). As far as Macross Chronicle has indicated*, the modification was an "informal" off-the-books arrangement, doubtless because that technology was prohibited by the New UN Forces, and only present on Luca's three Ghosts. * See Macross Frontier mechanic sheet SMS 05A "RVF-25 Messiah" and Glossary 09A "Kim Saintlaurent" to "Queadluun-Rau". ... the Compendium says nothing of the sort. The Queadluun-Rau with its inertia vector control system were introduced near the end of the Stellar Republic's dissolution conflict, it's the only pre-human airframe mentioned to possess the technology. Nor does it say anything like this... the inertia vector control system in the YF-21 and VF-22 is explicitly said to be an improved and revised version of the Queadluun-Rau's. 'bout that... that designation was correct as of Chronicle's first edition, but changed in the second to both being QF-2200.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    I think Max might find common cause with Ciaphas Cain, who once said "I've only got room for one lethally dangerous woman in my life". Does a man really want to take his chances with angering a woman who was/is one of the few ace pilots able to make him sweat? Y'know, I don't know if we've ever been told the exact reason they split up temporarily. Max's Macross 7 character sheet in Macross Chronicle has a "Related Matter" report that indicates their relationship deteriorated after Milia became mayor. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say they were at odds a lot over matters of military vs. civilian administration.
  13. Seto Kaiba
    The Battle-7's bridge bunnies started and spread a lot of rumors... remember when they started gossiping because they thought Mylene was Max's date? I doubt Max was interested... if he was, they wouldn't spend so much time obsessing over him for being so distant and alone and so on (which finally reached its climax in the Macross 7 PLUS episode "Macross 7 Bridge"). The man raised eight daughters, after all, I doubt he's interested in younger women.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    Nah... that episode of Macross 7 PLUS makes it pretty clear that they're just doing it for a bait-and-switch laugh. Throughout the Macross 7 series (lampshaded heavily in that PLUS episode) Milia basically treats Michael as a self-propelled massage machine that occasionally runs errands. I doubt he's her type. As far as the Max cheating rumors, are you referring to that underlying plot thread in Macross 7 Trash where the main character is rumored to be (but isn't) his illegitimate son?
  15. Seto Kaiba
    "Illegal" would be a more accurate word... the technology was banned back then, and is still pretty much verboten. You mean the QF-2200D-A Ghost, which was only ever cited as being a capable dogfighter against Anti-Unification Alliance MiGs, not against the SV-51. There are allusions to stability issues with AI even on later models like the QF-3000E, and the only way that the UN Forces were able to achieve a Ghost that didn't need a human holding its hand was with illegal (and dangerous) technology that promptly blew up in their faces. In Macross, semi-autonomous drones seem to be rather less capable than a flesh-and-blood pilot in a VF, though they get used because they have the great virtue of being a LOT cheaper and easier to replace. They can be dangerous, yeah, but Macross is also conveniently a setting where most enemies against which drones would be used are not the kind of foes that could easily be confused for friendlies (and the ethical problems are pretty minimal). Especially since pre-ISC Advanced Variable Fighters have an acknowledged problem with pushing the limits of human g-force tolerances... resulting in loss of control, smash-ups, etc. Macross isn't shy about hiding it easier... doesn't Jan Neumann mention in Plus that the control issues on the YF-19 earned two test pilots posthumous promotions and sent two more to "take the health plan for a spin"? (To say nothing of the times Isamu is shown crashing the simulator.)
  16. Seto Kaiba
    They don't name medals after pilots who suck, after all...
  17. Seto Kaiba
    In reality, you need a lot more power than most fighters have to go supersonic... in Macross, most VFs can get supersonic at the drop of a hat thanks to rather excessive amounts of engine power. Pilots do sometimes go supersonic during dogfights, but it's usually shown to be a move to evade a missile attack, lose a pursuer, or gain some much-needed breathing room. As we saw with Guld in Plus, you do NOT want to try aggressive sustained dogfighting at supersonic speeds... Ah, that's also incorrect. The Ghost "X-9" had fully autonomous, fluid operation thanks to (illegal) bio-neural processing technology, but that technology was left out of the production model (QF-4000/AIF-7S) used by the New UN Forces because of the fallout of the Sharon Apple incident surrounding the prototype. Macross Galaxy's AIF-9V and Luca Angeloni's three Ghosts did have the autonomous operation capability, but that was an "off-the-books" modification for the reason above... Also, there are no inertia canceling systems in Macross... the inertia store converter (ISC) is an inertia capacitor, which displaces g-forces and returns them to the airframe in a controlled fashion, essentially "smoothing the peaks" of the g-forces on the airframe. They were pushed ahead in development because the Vajra became a threat, the Ghost isn't described as being that much of a factor.
  18. Seto Kaiba
    Strictly speaking, the UN Government didn't bank on only one model... the VF-0 Phoenix was not a production aircraft, it was a developmental/proof-of-concept aircraft to prove that the variable system was viable and test technologies that would be incorporated into production programs. Adapting OTM for combat use with aircraft was done first with conventional fighters (the F-14A++ and F203), then the VF-0, then the VF-X-1 and -2 prototypes. Circa Macross Zero, the VF-1 was headed into mass production and the VF-0 was being used for training purposes. Ultimately, the requirements for energy conversion armor mean that a single-engine VF is probably impractical at best, because defensive systems consume a large portion of the VF's energy output. (Something like 90%, IIRC.)
  19. Seto Kaiba
    Um... that's not accurate. In Macross Zero, Nora makes a remark that the UN "stole" the Variable system from them (whatever her home nation is), and D.D. corrects her on it, reminding her that the UN Gov't policy is for new technological advances to be shared. Also, per official backstory, it was the Anti-UN forces who stole the variable fighter research data from the UN... specifically, it was D.D. Ivanov who stole it, when he defected while head of the VF-0 test program. 'fraid not, at least not officially... the VF-0 was the first variable fighter developed, and the SV-51 was built based on the development data that D.D. Ivanov gave to the Anti-UN when he defected. (Great Mechanics.DX 9's VF Evolutionary Theory piece makes its point about the VF-0 being the first/original VF by referring to it as the archaeopteryx of VFs.) Variable Fighter Master File: VF-0 Phoenix also shows the VF-0 as the first transformable fighter... indicating that its immediate design ancestor was a family of modified F-14s.
  20. Seto Kaiba
    There's always the other interpretation... that he knew his wounds were mortal and beyond medical help, and decided to spend his final hours with the love of his life in the privacy of his home.
  21. Seto Kaiba

    The future is an inherently good thing. And we move into it one winter at a time. Things get better one winter at a time. If you're going to celebrate anything, then have a drink on this: The world is, generally and on balance, a better place to live this year than it was last year.

  22. Seto Kaiba
    At that distance, with a muzzle velocity of 2,000m/s (in Master File, anyway), an enemy would have about half a second to react to the GU-11 being fired before the bullets connected... that's not a lot of time to dodge, and the GU-11's got one of the lower muzzle velocities in Macross.
  23. Seto Kaiba
    Or on space fighters in general, to increase their maneuverability, endurance, and armament... because space is where the UN Spacy's most likely to run into an enemy where you'll NEED the extra armament, firepower, and range. (Zentradi sort of take the stance that quantity has a quality all its own...) Well, yeah... but in atmospheric flight, a VF doesn't really need FAST packs. Their thermonuclear reaction turbine engines are at their most efficient flying in a planetary atmosphere, and with an effectively unlimited sortie range using just internal fuel tanks they don't need to be dragging around big fuel tanks. There's also less need for lots and lots of ordinance in atmosphere, because tactical doctrine generally says that you're going to stop a potential alien enemy in space whenever possible, and a force that's already planetside (read: "terrorists, secessionists, etc.") won't be nearly as numerous as the Zentradi, so it's odds-on a Valkyrie operating planetside won't need quite so much dakka to get its job done. Also, since they're in atmosphere, they don't need extra verniers to maintain maneuverability, since they can leverage their control surfaces instead. That's the endurance of the rocket engines in the VF-1's FAST packs at their (stonking huge) maximum output of 1,177kN each... obviously the fuel's going to last a lot longer if they're just flying normally and not going for balls-out there-is-a-mosquito-shaped-hole-in-my-teeth acceleration.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    You're being no harder on the Valkyrie than many sources that comment on its wartime performance are... it did an adequate job, but fell short in a lot of areas because (in part) of the assumptions made during its design that constrained its size to roughly that of a Zentradi, making size a limiting factor on performance. That's why VFs got bigger as time went on... particularly in the AVF generations. They needed to make room for the additional fuel, internal weapons, and new technologies.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    The most detailed version of the explanation that leaps immediately to mind is from the DYRLverse/Macross II sources... which put forward a history in which the Armored and FAST packs were designed, and the first few sets built, on Earth. The packs and some engineers from the various manufacturers were aboard the SDF-1 Macross for her shakedown cruise to carry out testing on VF-1's and their optional hardware in real operating conditions... and, after the war started, supervised production and developed the few new pieces of equipment the Macross didn't leave home with. (Their most noted innovation is identified as the VE-1, supposedly a kitbash Valkyrie made from a VT-1 with custom-fab and borrowed ELINT hardware.) IIRC, Macross the First presents a vaguely similar version in which the Macross's chief engineer is toying with a number of designs for FAST packs on the flight back to Earth. Great Mechanics.DX 9's VF Evolutionary Theory article pretty much confirms this... the various flavors of FAST pack, as well as the Armored Pack, are stated to have been there to compensate for insufficient aspects of the VF-1's design, several of which were the result of compromises made to meet the size constraints.
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