Tobia Arronax

Tobia Arronax (トビア・アロナクス) is the main protagonist in the manga series Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam.

Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam
Ten years have past since the armed resistance of the aristocratic fraction, the Crossbone Vanguard, was subdued. Tobia Arronax is a young boy originally from Earth. An exchange student onboard the spaceship Smashion to Jupiter from Earth, he becomes wrapped up in the Jupiter War during a surprise attack by a group of space pirates who call themselves the Crossbone Vanguard, causing him to hijack a Bataras mobile suit before encountering Kincaido Nau in the Crossbone X-1. After then finding poison gas containers on board the ship, he discovers that there were actually hidden agendas among those in the Smashion and in Jupiter itself. He is attacked by Prof. Karas, an agent of the Jupiter Empire who had originally posed as a teacher for Tobia, only to be saved by Kincaido.

After being saved by Kincaido, he was taken aboard the pirate ship, the Mother Vanguard and was convinced by its captain, Berah Ronah, to join them. The pirate group's true identity was revealed to be a guerrilla group resisting the secret faction within Jupiter, the Jupiter Empire, which intends to conquer Earth. Determined to help bring an end to the war, while Kincaido continues to support as a mentor, Tobia becomes a better pilot despite being often short tempered, letting his emotions get the best of him in battle.

The first mobile suit designated as his own is a captured EMS-10 Pez Batara that had been repainted with an eye to identify it as a member of the Crossbone Vanguard. With his awakening Newtype abilities Tobia used the Pez Batara to destroy an EMA-04 Elefante on the moon Io that threatened to destroy the Crossbone Vanguard's fighting force. Tobia and the Pex Batara were later captured while en-route to Earth. After participating in a gladiator style battle with against the XM-X2 Crossbone Gundam X-2, while armed with only a pistol, Tobia managed to escape the Jupitris 9 with Bernadette Briett in the Gundam's core fighter.

He then becomes the pilot of the new XM-X3 Crossbone Gundam X-3 to help the new Crossbone Vanguard in their quest to oppose the Jupiter Empire's plans. With the Crossbone Gundam X-3 Tobia would defeat an EMA-06 Elegolea, the Death Gale Squadron, and Crux Dogatie's EMA-10 Divinidad. The final battle against Crux Dogatie left the the X-3 damaged beyond repair.

With Crux Dogatie defeated, Berah Ronah and Kincaido Nau retired from active fighting, entrusting leadership of the Crossbone Vanguard and the pilot designation of the XM-X1 Crossbone Gundam X-1 Kai to Tobia, where he later upgraded it into the XM-X1 Crossbone Gundam X-1 Kai Kai "Skull Heart" which bared a similar motif to that of Tobia's destroyed XM-X3 Crossbone Gundam X-3.

Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam: Steel 7
Three years after the war against Jupiter, Tobia and the Crossbone Vanguard once again cross swords with the Jovians. He rescued Europa Dogatie from Jupiter Empire Mobile Suits that were persuing her. He was initially met with hostility by the Jovian until she relented after seeing Bernadette Briett alive.

Europa explained that the Jupiter Empire, this time under Callisto's Light and Callisto's Shadow is once again planning to attack Earth. This time, there were plotting to destroy the Earth Federation's capital and other important cities with a Colony Laser from Jupiter. When she informed Tobia that they only have two weeks until the laser is fired, he had to act fast. Minovsky Drive originally used by the Mother Vanguard would be the only way to get to Jupiter on time to stop the attack but the Mother Vanguard was destroyed.

Tobia remembered a project taken by SNRI that experimented with miniaturising the Minovsky Drive. Being the only hope, the Crossbone Vanguard quickly moved to the SNRI facility on the moon that housed the experiment: the F99 Record Breaker.

The officials of SNRI were initially hesitant on lending the Record Breakers but agreed. Suddenly, Jovian forces led by Callisto's Shadow started attacking the facility. The attack destroyed the Record Breakers, their data and spare parts, making it now impossible to use. Tobia attempted to fight Callisto's Shadow but he was nearly killed by the mysterious pilot with the Skullheart badly damaged as a result.

With the Record Breakers unusable, the Crossbone Vanguard was in a huge dilemma on how to reach Jupiter in time. However, SNRI presented them a footage of an Anaheim Electronics experiment that also experimented with the Minovsky Drive, codenamed "Project Icarus". The footage saw the project entering the atmousphere and was thought to have perished. However, Tobia saw that it survived instead, using the "Wings of Light" the drive creates to protect it. Minoru Suzuki warned that the mission to Jupiter will be suicidal so a team of skilled pilots will have to be assembled. Seeing the "Project Icarus" as the only remaining option, Tobia took Europa, Minoru and Mitchell Derek Nar with him to Earth in order to search for the whereabouts of the experiment and recruit skilled pilots that can help fight the Jovians.

After arriving on Earth, Tobia first started his mission by attempting to recruit his former mentor, Kincaid Nau to join the suicide mission. However, after hearing that the former pirate is expecting a second child, he chose not to recruit him due to the slim chance of survival. He then went to recruit Burns Gernsback, one of his former adversaries. He agreed and advised reuniting the Death Gales squadron.

Trivia

 * In SD G Generation DS, Tobia can be obtainable early in the game rather than in the Encore Session if you play the game on Special Mode in either UC or AU routes.