EMS-12 Arana

The EMS-12 Arana is a mobile suit that appeared in the manga Crossbone Gundam: Skullheart and Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam: Steel 7.

Technology and Combat Characteristics
The EMS-12 Arana is a mass production mobile suit. Like the majority of the Jupiter Empire's mobile suits the Arana's design is descended from the EMS-06 Batara, though it is more of a scaled down version of the EMS-06-P Arana Batara.

The EMS-12 Arana is the smallest mass production mobile suit employed by the Jupiter Empire, standing at a mere 10 meters, the same height as the older EMS-VSX2 Abijo, and one of the smallest sizes of any known full-scale mobile suit. Like the Abijo one of the Arana's primary characteristics is its speed and mobility. Its agility is further increased by fin-nozzles mounted on the back, the flexible thruster being able to move in all directions to increase mobility.

For offense the Arana is only lightly armed with a beam rifle mounted on the right shoulder, a beam saber mounted on the left shoulder, and it can be equipped with a 7-bladed beam saber.

For defense the Arana has the weakest capabilities of any known Jupiter Empire mobile suit, with the possible exception of the Abijo. Because of its small size the Arana has a smaller nuclear reactor. To conserve power for the weapons the typically standard beam shield equipment was removed. With its naturally (relatively) thin armor the Arana must rely on its speed and mobility to dodge attacks and thus avoid damage.

Armaments

 * Beam Rifle
 * The EMS-12 Arana mounts a single beam rifle on its right shoulder.


 * Beam Saber
 * The Arana is equipped with a single beam saber mounted on its left shoulder.


 * 7-Bladed Beam Saber
 * As an optional armament to increase melee combat ability the Arana can be equipped with a 7-bladed beam saber that appears to be a scaled-down version of the Muramasa Blaster used by the XM-X3 Crossbone Gundam X-3 to great effect during the Jupiter Empire's invasion of Earth. The Arana's possesses 7 of the 14 beam saber emitters, all located on one side of the sword, and lacks the beam rifle function.

History
The EMS-12 Arana is a mass production type mobile suit developed by the Jupiter Empire in UC 0136 using data from their EMS-06-P Arana Batara mobile suit. For unknown reasons the Jupiter Empire appears to have decided to use the Arana to replace the older EMS-06 Batara model mobile suit as their primary front-line combat unit even though the older model is arguable more powerful and a superior overall combatant. Among the possible reasons is because the Arana uses less resources in its construction and maintenance, allowing the naturally resource strapped Jupiter Empire to allocate more resources to other projects and more powerful special units such as their mass production Amakusa mobile suit, or their colony laser.

EMS-12 Arana mobile suits were first encountered outside the Jupiter Empire during a three-way battle between the Jupiter Empire, Crossbone Vanguard, and the Earth Federation Forces concerning a mail-carrier ship that possessed damaging documents about a bribe made to the Earth Federation that allowed the Jupiter Empire to bring their forces close to Earth.

Arana mobile suits were next seen attacking a ship and an escaping Diona mobile suit belonging to the late Dogatie's second wife Europa, who was bringing vital information concerning a planned colony laser attack to the Earth Federation.

Arana mobile suits also made up the bulk of the Jupiter forces that attacked a moon-based SNRI research and testing facility.