MSN-04II Nightingale

The MSN-04II Nightingale is an alternate interpretation of the MSN-04 Sazabi featured in Mobile Suit Gundam: Beltorchika's Children. The unit is piloted by Char Aznable.

Technology & Combat Characteristics
In many ways the MSN-04II Nightingale can be considered the "big brother" of the MSN-04 Sazabi. Aside from being much larger (mainly wider, due to the very large shoulder armor and tail binder), the Nightingale also featured more weapons, including 10 funnels, a mega beam rifle(with the same power as the Sazabi's mega particle cannon), a beam saber and a pair of hidden arms underneath the front skirt armor, and a beam tomahawk from the shield. To compensate for the larger mass, it was equipped with more boosters, as well as two extra large propellant tanks underneath the rear skirt armor. This monstrous masterpiece of Mobile Suit technology represented the pinnacle of Char's personal combat style, and was a perfect match for the also extremely powerful RX-93-ν-2 Hi-ν Gundam.

Armaments

 * Beam Saber
 * The MSN-04II Nightingale is equipped with a pair of beam sabers, one stored in a recharge rack in each forearm. Because of their position the beam sabers can be quickly deployed in combat. The beam sabers serve as the primary close range combat weapon of the Nightingale, using a beam of plasma contained by an I-field that can cut through any metal alloy.


 * Beam Tomahawk
 * The MSN-04II Nightingale can be equipped with an optional hand-held beam tomahawk, stored in a recharge rack in the mobile suits shield. The beam tomahawk is the Nightingale's most powerful melee weapon and mounts two beam emitters. Taking advantage of the flexibility of the I-field, and its ability to shape plasma, the beam tomahawk can either emit a pair of beam axe blades, or combine its output to from a single large beam saber.


 * Funnel
 * One of the most powerful features of any psycommu-equipped mobile suit is the use of remote weapons, funnels in the case of the Nightingale. Because the psycoframe amplifies the psycowave of Newtypes, the funnels can be remote controlled from the mobile suit without guide wires and without the threat of being jammed by Minovsky particles or other electronic counter measures. Because of their small size funnels are difficult to see and detect, making them extremely difficult to avoid for even skilled pilots. Funnels are typically powered by a small energy capacitor which holds a limited charge, once the charge runs out the funnel must return to a recharge rack or else it becomes useless. Similarly the funnel holds its own propellant, which once it runs out renders a funnel as a useless piece of drifting debris. Of course because of the funnel's low mass its propellant use is relatively efficient. The MSN-04II Nightingale is equipped with ten funnels, with five stored in the top of each of its large shoulders.


 * Mega Beam Rifle
 * One of the MSN-04II Nightingale's standard optional hand armaments is a large mega beam rifle. The powerful rifle is exceptionally large, being at least as long as the Nightingale is tall (22.5 meters) if not longer. The mega beam rifle has a power rating of 8.8 MW.


 * Shield
 * As with most mobile suits the MSN-04II Nightingale can mount a shield on its left forearm. The Nightingale's shield is a custom piece of equipment unique to the Nightingale. The shield serves partially as an offensive weapon as it mounts three small missiles that can heavily damage a mobile suit but not a battleship. The shield also holds the recharge rack for the Nightingale's beam tomahawk.


 * Vulcan Cannon
 * The vulcan cannon is a shell firing mid to close range defensive weapon. Though possessing a high-rate of fire the weapon is not suited for dealing with heavily armored targets. Instead it is better suited for targeting and shooting down small, lightly armored targets such as missiles. Still when properly used a vulcan can be used to hold off an enemy mobile suit to keep it from getting too close.

Special Equipment & Features

 * External propellant tank (Non-ejectable)
 * Hidden within the Nightingale's tail binder are a pair of large external propellant tanks. These tanks hold a large amount of propellant used to fuel the Nightingales powerful thrusters for an extended period of time. These tanks can not be ejected once emptied.


 * External propellant tank (Ejectable)
 * The MSN-04II Nightingale can mount three propellant tanks between its primary backpack thrusters in order to extend the Nightingale's operational flight time. Each one of these external propellant tanks are not even half of the size of the tanks hidden in the tail binder, however once emptied they can be ejected so as not to weigh the mobile suit down.


 * Psyco-frame Cockpit
 * The Psycoframe is a technology that builds the brainwave-to-machine code translator known as Psycommu into the atom-level of the metal frame of a Mobile Suit. This allows a Newtype pilot to control the mobile suit as if it were his/her own body.


 * Sub-Arms
 * The concept of sub-arms is to add additional fully functional arms, hidden within the mobile suit's armor when not in use, that allows the mobile suit to use additional hand-held weapon up to the number of sub-arms its possesses. As mobile suits are complicated machines to operate, therefore adding sub-arms only adds to that complexity, and thus far sub-arms have only been seen on Newtype use mobile suits that have some sort of system similar to a psycommu. The MSN-04II Nightingale has two sub-arms hidden behind its front skirt armor.

History
After Char Aznable, the legendary Zeon ace, reappears in the early UC 0090s and establishes the second Neo Zeon movement, Char commissioned Anaheim Electronics to produce a custom-designed mobile suit specifically for his Newtype abilities and superb piloting skills. Painted in his trademark red color scheme and insignia. (In the novel Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack - Beltorchika's Children) This mobile suit produced was the MSN-004II Nightingale.

As is Char's fighting style, he lead's his forces from the front with his personal mobile suit, as opposed to the rear. Char's strategy for the Second Neo Zeon War was to force humanity into space by dropping asteroids onto the Earth to create a nuclear winter. The Earth Federation's Londo Bell task force would lead the fight against Neo Zeon, deploying mobile suits and nuclear missiles to destroy the asteroids. However Char used his Nightingale and force of AMS-119 Geara Doga mobile suits to guard the asteroids until they reach the point where nothing can stop them.

During the war, Char in his MSN-04II Nightingale would duel Londo Bell Captain Amuro Ray in his RX-93-ν-2 Hi-ν Gundam. The battle would be fierce, but the outcome is the same as in Char's Counterattack. The psycho-frame of the Hi-Nu resonated with high emotions, pushing Amuro's already amazing Newtype powers to new heights, and manages to actually push Axis away from the Earth. The resonance creates a light that could be seen from Earth. The fate of both pilots is unknown, and remains a big mystery even to this day.

Notes & Trivia

 * While the novel text simply swaps out the name "Sazabi" with "Nightingale," mechanical designer Yutaka Izubuchi created new illustrations to differentiate it from the Sazabi design used in the Char's Counterattack movie. The Nightingale's model number (MSN-04II) is nearly identical to the Sazabi's (MSN-04) and so can be seen as simply an alternate interpretation of Char's final mobile suit as opposed to a technological evolution.
 * The Nightingale also appears in the Super Robot Wars series.
 * However, it has only been available as a playable unit one time - in Super Robot Wars D, which depicted Char and the Neo Zeon movement in a more positive light. Every other time it has been seen (for example, Super Robot Wars Alpha 2) it has been exclusively as an enemy unit.
 * Both Sazabi's and Nightingale's design were submitted for the movie, however the Nightingale was ultimately rejected.
 * The Nightingale has a marking on its pelvis area with "NZ99" written on it.