OMS-A1 Trident

The OMS-A1 Trident, or the Trident, is the first military-use mobile suit ever produced in the Ascension Era. It is used by almost every major political power, and its variants have been used ever since, no matter what numbers they were in.

Technology and Combat Characteristics
The Trident began as means to impress the EFSF military, which did not want to move away from the standard fighter jets and armored vehicles. In order to make the advantage of using mobile suits clear, the manufacturer and designer, Kounan Manufacturing, emphasized mobility and flexibility above the weapon and armor factors. The unit's demonstration convinced the military to invest in mobile suits and their future potential.

Despite the fact that the main armament of the unit wasn't optimized for mobile suits and instead for a Type 97A MBT, the power is still impressive. The 215mm cannon is mounted on a simple firearm chassis, allowing the cannon to be wielded as a rifle. Compared to the Type 97A, the barrel length is considerably increased. The pressure mechanism inside the cannon has also been overhauled, making the re-purposed tank shells being capable of penetrating any armor of its era. This, however, also indirectly increased the weapon size, limiting the already relatively small suit chassis to a pair of carbon heat blades and a pair of 25mm vulcans for self defense.

The fighting compartment has been chosen to be a linear cockpit designed by Earth Federation scientists and engineers before the start of the era. Before they were adapted for mobile suits, they served as a good alternative to fighter jet cockpits. These cockpits have a security countermeasure to prevent hijacking, however it has been proven to be rather ineffective, as a powerful enough jolt of energy into the verification computer allows the person to bypass the countermeasures.

Despite the impressive mobility granted by a modified fusion reactor and all-region verniers allowing easy movement in all environments, there are some glaring issues in the design. The first issue is the clear lack of power optimization, which means that every unit's reactor has to be calibrated in order to prevent unnecessary power leaks when firing the rifle or using the verniers. The second issue is the poor structural integrity caused by using a poorly designed titanium alloy that, as a result, makes the joints brittle and susceptible to easy damage. The final issue is with the poorly made backpack. If the propulsion or main armament is pushed too far, the backpack starts to overheat and can possibly catch fire. These issues were solved with the OMS-A1II Trident Kai, where the joints have been replaced, the reactor has received an automatic optimization program and the backpack has been replaced with a winged version that, besides not being prone to overheating, also allows the unit to glide or fly at high speeds in atmospheric conditions.

Even though the unit has been slowly phased out by the major factions during the later years for more powerful mobile suits, this and the enhanced version are still being used in areas away from Earth, such as the frontier outposts on Titan. The enhanced unit was also produced in many variants, making this one of the most used mobile suits in the history of the Ascension Era.

Armaments

 * 215mm Smoothbore Linear Cannon
 * An enhanced version of the main gun used by the Type 97A MBT. Features a longer barrel and a revamped pressure mechanism, allowing far higher penetration and power. Once other mobile suits arrived, however, the effective power decreased rather considerably.
 * 25mm Vulcan
 * A derivative of the XMJ255 Vulcan. The barrels are implemented on the cockpit's sides, allowing the unit to defend it against enemy planes, armored vehicles or poorly armored mobile suits. It is not recommended to approach an enemy with the vulcan guns only.
 * Heat Carbon Blade
 * This melee weapon was a stopgap design between solid and plasma and beam weaponry. A carbon alloy blade is heated up using the reactor's energy, allowing for increased armor penetration. The weapon can be used cooled down, which is especially useful in space, but the penetration is considerably decreased.