Second Stage Series

The Second Stage Series is a series of Mobile Suit created in the Cosmic Era timeline.

Mobile Suits

 * ZGMF-X23S Saviour
 * ZGMF-X24S Chaos
 * ZGMF-X31S Abyss
 * ZGMF-X56S Impulse
 * ZGMF-X88S Gaia

Ships and Vehicles

 * Minerva-class battleship
 * YFX-M56S Core Splendor

Technology
As part of the project, several new technologies were developed to adapt to the restrictions of the Treaty of Junius. One such technology was the Variable Phase Shift armor, a new version of the older Phase Shift armor. This armor system was first used on the ZGMF-X12A Testament of the First Stage series and eventually incorporated in every suit of the new series. This armor is less energy intensive than the old variant and can also change the strength and thus the energy need of the armor. To cope with the fact that nuclear engines on mobile suits were now forbidden, the Deuterion Beam Energy Transfer System was developed, which allows a suit of the Second Stage series to immediately recharge its battery by recieving energy through a deuterion beam from a ship equipped with this system. Another system created specifically for the Impulse were the Silhouette Packs, which are exchangeable backpacks similar to the Earth Alliance' Striker Packs. The other suits of the series on the other hand all have the ability to transform into a secondary mobile armor mode to adapt to certain environments.

History
After the end of the first Bloody Valentine War and the restrictions on technology and mobile suits put up by the Treaty of Junius, ZAFT created a new series of prototype mobile suits to cope with this situations and also to replace the five original ZAFT-produced Gundams, which were all lost to them. The new Second Stage series introduced several new technologies and also resulted in the creation of the Minerva, the first warships of ZAFT built after the war. This ship not only was capable of using the new Deuterion beam transfer technology but was also specifically built to support the Impulse. Two suits of the series also had prototype units which were used to test several features of these suits. These prototype were the XMF-P192P Proto-Chaos and the ZGMF-YX21R Proto-Saviour.

Eventually in CE 73, the five completed suits and the ship were rolled out at the ZAFT space colony Armory One. On October 2nd of the same year however, three of the suits were stoled by the Earth Alliance Phantom Pain special forces unit. This also caused an early start of both the Minerva and the Impulse. Shortly thereafter, the Second Bloody Valentine War started, which eventually saw the destruction of every suit created as part of the Project, save for the Impulse.