RX-0-3 Ghost Gundam

History
After the contents of Laplace's Box was unveiled to the world, total chaos erupted. Zeon now had a new and undeniable reason to justify their war and with renewed fury launched a string of several successful attacks on Earth, eliminating several critical mobile suit manufactoring facilities and dealing a major blow to the Earth forces. In response, the ESFS imprisoned Banagher Links and began launching their own counterassault.

The origin of the Ghost Gundam began with the capture of the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam. The ESFS had stripped most of it down, leaving only a hollow shell of it's former self, removing it's ability to participate in combat. Despite this, a small group called Astral Spirit was able to reverse engineer the design and construct an entirely new mobile suit that surpassed the key to laplace's box with help from Anaheim Electronics.

First sortie
The first sortie of the Ghost Gundam was marked by tragedy. The Space Colony Astral had been overwhelmed by a battle between Neo Zeon and the ESFS. During this time it developed a bond with Newtype Pilot Marcus Reval, a former resident of the colony who hijacked the Gundam in an attempt to protect the soon to be refugees of the colony.

After seeing his home destroyed before him, Marcus lost control of his emotions and activated the Ghost Gundam's NT-D. The ensuing battle left both forces nearly devastated as both groups were swiftly overwhelmed by Ghost Gundam's sheer raw power and the raw emotion being poured out from it by it's pyschoframe. The resulting mental backlash sent most pilots into a state of complete and absolute terror, completely shattering any chance of establishing an effective counter attack. Those that managed to keep a hold of themselves quickly fled the battle, knowing that at this rate it would be hopeless to try to defeat either side while trying to hold off the Ghost Gundam.

After the battle Astral Spirit attempted to recover the Ghost Gundam. They found it it drifting in space, completely inert. Their first attempt sparked a brief lashing out of the Gundam with it's psycommmu, instinctively seeking to protect the unconscious Marcus from further harm. A part of Marcus's subconscious eventually subdued the raging mobile suit, deactivating the Ghost and allowing Astral Spirit to reclaim their mobile suit. In it's last moments of activation, Ghost Gundam locked out access to everyone except Marcus alone. Marking him as it's chosen pilot.

Design
The Ghost Gundam was designed with two possibilities in mind, it could either unlock the spirit and heart of humanity, bringing peace to both Zeon and Earth, or open Pandora's Box and unleash total chaos. This potential was locked within a special program called the Spirit+. The final result of the Spirit+ depends entirely on the pilot, who's own spirit and conscious will choose the deciding factor.

Most of the original design from the Unicorn Gundam was preserved and improved upon in the Ghost. Weapons such as the beam magnum, vulcan guns, and beam sabers were all present in the Ghost. Features like the NT-D, Psycoframe, I-Field, and Psyco Monitor were also carried over and improved.

Psycoframe
The Psycoframe was largely unchanged from it's original design. It served to connect man with machine and turn brainwaves into commands for the mobile suit. This greatly increased it's reaction rate making it deadly in close combat.

A new feature to the Psycoframe was it's glow. When used by a user with good intentions, one trying to protect others, the psycoframe would glow with a blue light. When used by a corrupted person, someone seeking to cause harm, it would glow a deep crimson.

Curiously, after it's first sortie, Ghost Gundam has somehow managed to generate a low level psyco field through it's psycoframe despite the lack of a 2nd psycommu to resonate with. This psyco field extends only to the mobile suit itself, which is believed to be the cause of some of Ghost's more unusual traits.

Newtype Destroyer
The Newtype Destroyer System (NT-D) could now be activated at will, regardless if facing a Newtype, Cyber Newtype, or simply a average soldier. Improvements in the system allowed the pilot to bypass the preset time limit and allowed virtually unlimited use as long as the pilot retained consciousness.

The NT-D retained it's ability to take over Psycommu based weapons such as funnels and received further improvements to allow longer periods of control and increased range of manipulation. If facing a Newtype or Cyber Newtype, the NT-D would still automatically engage. The NT-D was tied directly into the Spirit+ and Transphase Generator.

Transphase Generator
The Transphase Generator opened a world of possibilities for the Ghost. The Transphase gave the Ghost the ability to teleport short distances, phase through solid objects, and allowed complete invisibility. Features such as the phase mode required large amounts and power and would drain the Transphase after four minutes of use. During this time the Gundam would be forced to recharge through the Solar Charge Drive. The Transphase would unlock these abilities over time depending on the input and judgment of the Spirit+. The only feature automatically unlocked is the invisibility.

The Ghost Gundam receives additional power from a new Solar Charge Drive. The SCD collects solar energy and charges it with minovsky particles to refine it's ability to be converted into electricity. The drive then supplies additional power to various features such as the weapons and NT-D. This seemingly insignificant device grants unlimited ammo to both the beam vulcans and the beam magnum, completely eliminating the need for E-Cap batteries.

Soul
During it's first sortie, Ghost Gundam reached into it's pilot, Marcus, and collected a small piece of his soul. After studying it with the Spirit+, it accepted the piece and absorbed it, fully incorperating it into itself. This forged such a powerful bond between the two that Ghost Gundam would respond to Marcus even if seperated by large distances.

At times the mobile suit's psychoframe seems to glow on it's own for seemingly no reason, but it is in truth communicating subconsciously with Marcus through his Newtype abilities. The extent of the bond was such that the Ghost Gundam would operate itself in order to protect Marcus.

It is believed that the portion of Marcus's soul that was absorbed by Ghost Gundam is the reason why the mobile suit has been able to generate a low level psyco field around it, though how it has done this is as of yet unknown.

Equipment

 * Beam Magnum: The Ghost Gundam was equipped with two beam magnum rifles. These were the same model used by the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam, but instead of relying on E-Cap batteries, the rifles used the solar charge drive to store collected energy in special capacitors built into the rifle itself. While this allowed unlimited ammo, if used to fast the weapon can't replace the energy fast enough and will lock the weapon until power is brought to an appropriate level.
 * Beam Vulcans: Head mounted beam vulcans used to intercept missiles and deal low level damage to mobile suits.
 * Beam Vulcan Guns: Four vulcan guns were installed into the wrists of the Ghost Gundam. Two for each wrist, these were stronger than the head mounted vulcans and were placed strategically to surprise the enemy.
 * Beam Saber: The Ghost Gundam had four beam sabers to use at any given time. Two of these were stored on the back in a manner reminiscent to the RX-78-2 Gundam. The other two were stored on the wrists in the same way as the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam and could be used either as wrist sabers or detached to be used as regular sabers.
 * Compact Concussion Missiles: Minaturized concussion missiles that were stored in the skirt of the Ghost Gundam. While smaller, they were faster than most missiles and could home in on the target. The mobile suit was equipped with six of these.
 * Wrist Mounted Beam Whip: Like the wrist sabers, the beam whip was mounted on the right wrist of the mobile suit. The whip operated the same function wise as the wrist sabers but as a whip. The intensity of the beam could be altered to either melt through metal, or simply wrap around the limb of an unsuspecting mobile suit. When used in the latter way, the whip could deliver a powerful electric shock to the mobile suit.
 * Vibro Dagger: Two small physical daggers that used ultra high sonic vibrations to counteract beam sabers and deal extensive damage to anything they come in contact with. These were stored in the skirt.
 * Beam Gatling: Two beam gatling guns derived from the beam gatling used by the RX-0. These were stored underneath the RX Shields and could collapse to save space.
 * RX Shield: Enhanced versions of the physical shield used by the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam. Appearance wise they are exactly the same, but are enhanced by a low yield electromagnetic field which serves to boost it's durability against beam weapons. This field also naturally served to enhance the I-Field Generators stored in each shield. The Ghost Gundam used two RX Shields when sortied.

Trivia

 * The Ghost Gundam exists in an alternate "What if" timeline in which the RX-0 failed it's purpose and Laplaces Box was used improperly.