Hashmal

The Hashmal (ハシュマル) is an unmanned mobile armor and made its appearance in the second season of Mobile Suit Gundam IRON-BLOODED ORPHANS television series.

Design & Development
The Hashmal is one of the countless Mobile Armors that took the lives of a quarter of the world's population during the Calamity War. Mobile Armors are independent, unmanned weapons controlled by their own Artificial Intelligence (A.I.). Meant for slaughtering humans, they will move towards areas with high human populations for that purpose. Like the Mobile Suits that were developed to counter them, Mobile Armors use Ahab Reactors as their main power source, and are covered with nano-laminate armor which make them difficult to destroy.

The Hashmal is armed with a head-mounted beam cannon, a superhard wire blade attached to the back of its head, and a pair of claw-mounted kinetic energy shot launchers. It is usually accompanied by multiple small, unmanned units known as Pluma. Plumas are actually produced by the Hashmal itself, and they operate based on its orders. Besides serving as attack units, Plumas are also capable of repairing the mobile armor and play various support roles.

Armaments

 * Beam Cannon
 * Mounted in the head, which will open up when the beam weapon is in use. As nano-laminate armor are capable of diffusing beam weapons and minimizing their power, beam weapons are not used in battles against Mobile Suits or other Mobile Armors. Instead, the beam weapons are used by Mobile Armors for attacking humans.


 * Kinetic Energy Shot Launcher
 * Each claw is equipped with a launcher to shoot bullets capable of high thrust.


 * Superhard Wire Blade
 * Mounted at the back of the head, it is made of a special alloy that at room temperature is viscous and can be charged with a trace amount of electrical current. The weapon can move flexibly in any direction, and its structure cannot be reproduced with current Post Disaster-era technology.

Equipment

 * Pluma
 * Although it look similar to a Mobile Worker, the Pluma is an unmanned, small, sub-unit produced by the Hashmal. Besides its pair of bladed arms, it is also armed with a drill on its tail and a concealed cannon underneath its singular red eye.  The Plumas moves by receiving power supply from the Hashmal via microwaves, and operate based on orders from the mobile armor. Aside from serving as attack units, they also function as scavengers, collecting resources such as fuel, propellant, and other materials to resupply and even repair the Hashmal. The Hashmal in turn can manufacture new Plumas with these resources. With enough time and materials, they can multiply infinitely. Data of the surrounding area collected by each Pluma is also transmitted in real time to Hashmal. Although the Plumas have a form distinct from the Hashmal, from a system point of view, they are still considered a part of the mobile armor.


 * Energy Supply system
 * Built into the shoulders, the system supplies power to the Plumas via microwaves.

History
Uncovered by the Tekkadan in PD 325 in a half-metal mine on Mars, the Hashmal was accidentally awakened during a standoff between Tekkadan, McGillis Fareed and a mobile suit team led by Iok Kujan. The Hashmal then set the Plumas out to attack anyone nearby, damaging Iok's Reginlaze and annihilating his guards. It then sends the Plumas out to forage for fuel and materials. Afterwards, it sets its sights on Chryse where Tekkadan is waiting to ambush it, only to have Iok intercept it and draw it towards the Agricultural Center. Ride's attempts to use his Shiden as a shield against the Hashmal's beam cannon, but the Shiden's nano-laminate armor diffuses the beam shot, causing heavy damage to the complex and killing the civilians. Ride is then overwhelmed by the Plumas' sheer numbers but is saved by the timely arrival of Mikazuki and his Barbatos Lupus. After disengaging the safety limiter on the Barbatos Lupus' Alaya-Vijnana system, Mikazuki manages to destroy the Hashmal, but not without incurring significant damage to the Lupus and himself.

Notes & Trivia

 * Hashmal appears to be named after the Hashmallim (or "Glowing Ones"/"Amber Ones"), one of the ten classes of angels in Judaism. As a result, following with the themes set by the Gundam and Valkyrja lines, it is theorized there are ten mobile armor classes (or at least ten mobile armor units) in Iron Blooded Orphans' setting.
 * Hashmal bears a slight resemblance to Metal Gear RAY from Konami's Metal Gear Solid series. Both are bipedal, dinosaur-like mecha with enlarged "shoulder" appendages, long whip-like tails and narrow heads that possess mouth cannons (with one variation of RAY even holding a particle weapon type). As well, while the original RAY prototype was piloted, the various production models were all AI driven.
 * Concept-wise, Hashmal bears several resemblances to the Mobile Armor Sid from Mobile Suit Gundam AGE. Both are huge, dangerous automated weapons from a previous era of devastating war, are avian shaped with wings, and possess dangerous beam weaponry not used by modern mobile weapons.