THE ADVENT OF ARTIFICIAL NEWTYPE: CYBER-NEWTYPE

Psycommu Overview: 02
Cyber-Newtype Serve as the Core “Components” of the Nascent System.

Psycommu weaponry relies on a system that facilitates mobile suit control, weaponry management, and remote attack terminal guidance through psycho-waves emitted by Newtype potentials. Although this system is specialized and costly, it’s still producible on a mass scale given certain conditions. Yet, when it comes to the core Newtype potentials, aligning the “numbers” optimized for combat proves challenging. Depending on its definition, waiting for “naturally occurring” human resources that have “evolved to adapt to space” would indefinitely delay assembling combat units. Therefore, if “human resources” (Newtype potentials) could be technically developed to harness the psycommu weaponry’s capabilities at their full potential, then tactical and strategic “force numbers” could be strategically deployed. This concept materialized into what’s colloquially known as “Cyber-Newtype.”

◎ Cyber-Newtype: Combat Personnel Enhanced and Strengthened through “Human Experimentation”

Post-war, the Earth Federation Forces were tormented by a nightmare. The impending “next war” hinted at a confrontation where “new humans” clashed with “nomic humans” in a struggle for survival, “the survival of the fittest,” and “natural selection.” Biological history suggests a high likelihood of nomic humans being the ones phased out. However, what sets “humans” apart from other species is their advantage of continually transforming themselves and adjusting their environment through technology. Hence, the plan was to equip traditional humans with the advantageous traits of “new humans = Newtype potentials” through “technology.” This marked the beginning of a series of inhumane “human experiments.”

The Newtype Labs, established post-war in places like North America’s Oakland, Augusta, and Japan’s Murasame Labs, competed and achieved certain successes during the Gryps War.

The pursuit of possibilities was boundless, ranging from drug administration via gene therapy for physiological modification and bio-enhancement to transplant surgeries and neuroscientific treatments optimized for psycommu operation. While these enhanced individuals acquired formidable physical resilience, capable of working in thin atmospheric conditions without succumbing to decompression sickness, many exhibited unstable mental states, necessitating delicate handling even during combat.

◎ Cyber-Newtype: Genetically “Designed” from Birth

Following the Flanagan Institute’s legacy, Neo Zeon’s post-war Newtype Labs, now secluded in Axis, delved into genetic traits of Newtype potentials at a genome editing level, advancing into a sequence of cultivating artificial Newtypes. Integrated into this were optimizations for high-mobility combat that normal humans couldn’t withstand, such as enhanced cardiopulmonary and circulatory organs, muscles, and neural tissues, alongside an ingrained obedience to commands, truly creating combatants born for battle. However, the “Ple Series,” as they were called, were juvenile specimens sprouted post-war. At the time of the First Neo Zeon War, they were all in what would be considered childhood in normal human terms. Therefore, despite displaying operational proficiency, they had an undeniable immaturity due to their youth, with only a few surviving the internal conflicts within Axis.

◎ Cyber-Newtype: “Swallowed up by the System”

A common observation among both types—those enhanced and strengthened through experimentation and those genetically designed—was the psycommu system’s imposition on the operators to emit and supply psycho-waves optimized for combat. In this aspect, it wasn’t always the case that the operators controlled the system. Given the priorities in combat situations, there was no contradiction in the military’s philosophy as long as the psycommu system functioned properly and achieved results. Though these Cyber-Newtype were technically recreated Newtype potentials, the military leadership’s goal was to develop “indivduals with superhuman combat abilities,” mere human-shaped weapons, “humanoid weaponry.” The stark reality was that these Cyber-Newtype, although central to the psycommu weaponry system, were merely components to draw out its performance.