MBF-M1 Astray

"My little Astray Army is one step closer to becoming fully operational!"

- Chief Engineer Erica Simmons, upon receiving data from the MBF-P02 Red Frame Prototype

The MBF-M1 Astray is a mass production mobile suit developed to defend the United Emirate of Orb including its terrority not only on Earth but in space as well. It is developed partly thanks to the data from the Earth Alliance's G-Project and the Prototypes constructed as an off-shot of the G-Project by Morgenroete, the Astray Frames.

Technical and Historical Notes
The MBF-M1 Astray is the primary mobile suit of the United Emirate of Orb after some elements of both Morgenroete and the Orb Government teamed up with the Earth Alliance for their G-Project. These elements would introduce the Astray Project alongside the Alliance’s G-Project in an effort to use the advances made in the G-Project to develop a mobile suit for the defense of Orb. This would succeed with the Astray Frame Prototypes and the MBF-M0 Astray Zero Pre-Production Mobile Suits. However when Heliopolis was attacked and destroyed by ZAFT the Frame Prototypes would be lost while the Pre-Production Astray Zeros which had been developed on the mainland would become the main choice for further development which would become the MBF-M1 Astray.

As a Second Generation Combat Mobile Suit the new M1 Astray is quite a powerful machine making it superior over the Earth Alliance’s GAT-01 Strike Dagger and on par with ZAFT’s ZGMF-600 GuAIZ. The Astray would be equipped similar to the Strike Dagger with a pair of Type 70 Beam Sabers and a Type 71 Beam Rifle along with the same "Igelstellung" head guns. This is thanks to the related development between the Strike Dagger and the Astray. However the Astray sports something unique in its Foam-Light Armor which gives the mobile suit a light frame which combined with its fixed EF-20 Flight Pack gives it unheard of agility. The Astray also sports the option of equipping other weapons including Type 36 Anti-Ship Swords, Type 65 Machine Gun, and Type 68 Bazooka.

All combined made the Astray one of the best of the Second Generation Mobile Suits only the GuAIZ and the Wyvern Elites would be better. However the GuAIZ would sport high-end controls and only handful of Wyvern Elites made the Astray the top of the lot by its easy to use, mass produced nature. The Astray would prove itself at the Battle of Orb against the Alliance GAT-01 Strike Dagger and the handful of more advanced Alliance Mobile Suits. As the war continued to rage on the Astray would fight against enemy GINNs, Wyverns, Guardians, and Daggers coming out on top every time. Only the GuAIZ would give the Astrays a hard time and when piloted by aces the GuAIZ was superior over the Astray.

All in all the MBF-M1 Astray would be a great machine which proved itself against many enemies during the course of the last months of the Bloody Valentine War. Fighting on the ground, in the ocean, and in space it would prove itself one of kind machine that while not the best mobile suit still was one of the best.

MBF-M0 Astray Zero
The pre-production Coordinator-Use version of the regular Astray model. It is developed on the Orb Mainlands while the Frame Prototypes were further tested and developed on Heliopolis. Thanks to them being developed using early data on the Frame Prototypes they sport a similar look to Prototypes.

MBF-M1A Space Astray
The Space Astray is a special variant that is produced for operations in space. While the main M1 Astray was multi-environment the Space Astray was made for space combat therefore is equipped with a special space flight backpack and a long-range beam rifle. Many of the mobile suits assigned to the Ame-No-Mirishara Space Station Mobile Suit Garrison would be of this type thanks mainly to the Station being the main production center of the type.

MBF-M1C Astray Cannon
A variant that possess a Type-75 Anti-Ship Beam Cannon mounted onto the shoulder of the mobile suit which combined with the agility of the Astray makes this variant a powerful mobile suit. These mobile suits often assigned to anti-ship missions due to its beam cannon.

MBF-M1U Astray Marine
A variant developed for underwater combat and is equipped with an integrated scale system which makes it very agile in the water against enemy marine type mobile suits. Even then the Astray Marine is not really a real underwater combat type like ZAFT Marine Mobile Suits but still it is the next best thing against the enemy.

MBF-M1S Astray Commander
A variant produced for ace pilots and commanders. It possesses both good communication equipment and superior thrusters over the regular model. While not as good as the superior Astray Vanguards thanks partly to their Lightwave based thrusters they are still a good machine when in the right hands. Only a handful ever produced by Morgenroete.

MBF-M1F Astray Flight Type
A variant of the Astray that sports the new EF-20 “Gear” Flight Pack that gives the mobile suit flight capabilities and becomes the mobile suit of choice for the small Orb Air Force replacing the aging Type-15 Bolt Fighter. However thanks to some bugs in the flight pack it isn’t fully mass produced and would be replaced by the easier to produce Astray Shrike though it should be noted that the Flight Type would remain in service with the Air Force till the introduction of the MBF-M11C Murasame.

MBF-M1E Astray Scout Type
A limited produced variant of the Astray that sports dedicated recon equipment and a Type 71-45 Beam Sniper Rifle. Only a handful ever produced by Morgenroete with the majority in service of the Orb Space Defense Forces.

MBF-M1K Astray Close Combat Type
Yet another of the limited produced variants of the Astray that is only produced in small numbers. This particular Astray Variant is for those pilots who are close combat experts and are equipped many different close combat weapons. This includes six Type 60 Anti-Armor Knives which are primarily used for throwing attacks, two beam sabers, and a pair of Type 65 Anti-Mobile Suit Swords. Becomes famous as the mobile suit of choice for Orb's elite White Wolf Mobile Suit Squadron.

MBF-M1H Astray Shrike
An after-war variant that is introduced to replace the buggy Astray Flight Type and is equipped with the EF-25 Shrike Flight Pack that allows the mobile suit to be far easier to control while in flight unlike the original Flight Type. However this is at the expense of maneuverability and speed.