Technology & Combat Characteristics
The GN-007/AL Arios Gundam Ascalon was one of the "GNHW" (GN Heavy Weapons) plans developed for the GN-007 Arios Gundam in preparation for Celestial Being's final battle against the Innovators. It featured three new weapons, a GN Sword, a pair of GN Missile Containers, and a GN Beam Cannon, which were developed with reference to the GN-001 Gundam Exia's GN Sword, GN-002 Gundam Dynames's GN Missiles, and GN-005 Gundam Virtue's GN Bazooka respectively. The basic strategy of the Arios Ascalon is to charge into the center of the enemy forces at high-speed and attack with its weapons. The heavy weapons plan used by Arios for the final battle was the GN-007GNHW/M Arios Gundam GNHW/M, which originated from a proposal by Robert Spacey (a friend of Celestial Being's chief mechanic, Ian Vashti) to solve the issues affecting Arios Ascalon. With the primary Ptolemaios Team unable to move freely and their new Gundams still under development, the Fereshte, a support team that was disbanded, was re-established as a second team to conduct some of the armed interventions. Furthermore, Arios Ascalon's performance was slightly degraded compared to Arios, and this was a result of it being built from the remains of the wrecked Arios.
The Arios Ascalon was deployed by Fereshte exclusively for armed interventions on Earth, but this was not because it was the most well-suited for operations on Earth. The reason was that Earth Sphere Federation's strict monitoring and full control of the Orbital Elevators made it difficult for Fereshte to move large objects, such as mobile suits, between Earth and space. As a result, Fereshte had to station its Gundams in different places and operate them only in their respective locations. Fereshte also prohibited in principle the Arios Ascalon from transforming into its MS Form during operations so as to conceal its identity as a Gundam, and this is in line with Celestial Being's shift to small-scale, covert armed interventions. Additionally, optical camouflage was applied by Fereshte to the top section of the Arios Ascalon's Flight Form so that it could avoid detection by man-made satellites.
History
In Celestial Being's Lagrange 3 base, Sherilyn Hyde, Ian Vashti's disciple, is working with Ian's wife, Linda, to develop new equipment to enhance the Gundams for battling the Innovators. Known as "GNHW (GN Heavy Weapons)", they are additional heavy weaponry for the Gundams. However, with the Gundams still fighting on Earth and unable to return to help with the development of these equipment, Linda's team had to rely on computer simulations. Sherilyn is testing the GN-007/AL Arios Gundam Ascalon using the simulation when she is interrupted by Robert Spacey, Ian's friend who have arrived at this secret facility to help with the development work.
Sherilyn regards Robert as a hindrance as he kept asking about various things, and this causes her to suspect that he is a spy for the A-Laws, or even the Innovators. A displeased Sherilyn then purposely complains aloud that the development team is understaffed with the departure of Anew Returner. In respond, Robert offers to help in any way he can, oblivious to the sarcasm in Sherilyn's words. Sherilyn replies that she needs help with the Arios Ascalon, and to her surprise, Robert immediately meddles with the mobile suit's simulation data. On the computer screen, Arios Ascalon is stripped of most of its added weaponry, except for the GN Missile Containers.
Robert explains that this modified design should be more balanced, and suggests the use of a large, handheld firearm to compensate for the reduced firepower. Among the various GNHW equipment that are being developed, Sherilyn is especially fond of the Arios Ascalon as it looks cool. She agrees with Ian that an uncool machine would not win no matter how good its performance is. The most prominent feature of the Arios Ascalon is the GN Sword mounted on its nose unit, but it is among the added weaponry removed by Robert. This also makes the mobile suit's name, "Ascalon", which was derived from the dragon slaying sword used by Saint George, meaningless.
To convince an unimpressed Sherilyn that the modified design is better, Robert points at the simulation results. The computer screen shows that this modified design has better capabilities than the Arios Ascalon, especially when in coordination with the GNR-101A GN Archer. Furthermore, its fighting patterns took into consideration the personality settings of the GN-007 Arios Gundam's pilot, Allelujah Haptism. With this, even Sherilyn has to admit that the design is good. Additionally, she also finds it quite cool looking. After further revisions, this design becomes the GN-007GNHW/M Arios Gundam GNHW/M and is deployed in combat.
On the surface, Celestial Being stopped its armed interventions after the final battle with the Innovators, but it continues to conduct them covertly. If the Gundams are deployed incorrectly, it could trigger unwanted military expansion. Celestial Being's current policy is to conduct armed intervention only when Veda determined that the government is unable to handle the matter. Although Celestial Being is recovering, its primary Ptolemaios Team still could not operate freely as their Gundams were all wrecked during the final battle, and the new models are still in development. To fill this gap, the disbanded support team "Fereshte" was re-established as a second team. Fereshte stationed the Arios Gundam Ascalon on Earth, the GN-006/SA Cherudim Gundam SAGA in space, and has a third machine hidden elsewhere that it has no intention of deploying for now. This division is because the Earth Sphere Federation had achieved complete control of the Orbital Elevators, making it difficult to transport large objects, such as mobile suits.
Fereshte was alerted by Veda to a military facility in the African continent. Disguised as a civilian broadcasting facility, it is capable of receiving microwaves. The organization behind this facility is using it to expand its military capabilities. The Earth Sphere Federation had failed to detect this, but even if it did, the government's current conciliatory policy makes it hard to take actions that intrude on the autonomy of another party. Negotiation is possible, but it would be too time consuming and matters could be too late by then. Thus, Fereshte's commander, Chall Acustica, ordered the launch of Arios Ascalon. Its Gundam Meister, Leo Sieg, would have to use the mobile suit to severely damage the facility without revealing the machine's true identity. With the facility aiming its radars and optical cameras at the sky to detect intruders, Leo is forced to fly the Arios Ascalon at extremely low altitude. It is flying so low that it scrapes the ground, and Leo's right hand, which is holding the control stick, sweats profusely.
However, even with low altitude flight, the machine could still be detected by man-made satellites, so optical camouflage was applied to the Arios Ascalon's top section. The Arios Ascalon approaches the target facility at high-speed, but even as the facility comes into view, Leo maintains the mobile suit's speed and did not slow down. With the nose-mounted GN Sword deployed, Leo charges into the facility and slices apart a large antenna tower. The impact from the attack reverberates throughout the entire mobile suit, but it is lighter than expected. The Arios Ascalon then flies into the sky above the facility. Through the rear-view camera, Leo watches as the antenna tower falls down. With such a major incident occurring at the facility, the government would have an excuse to conduct a rescue and inspection operation, and if the facility's owner refuses, it would be akin to admitting that there is suspicious activity there. With his mission accomplished, Leo retreats and the Arios Ascalon flies away quietly with no one aware of what it did.
After completing his mission (implied to be the one featured in 00V: Battlefield Record Mission 011) using the Arios Ascalon, Leo is immediately given a new mission by Chall. The Earth Sphere Federation Forces (ESF Forces) had recently destroyed the Europa, a Jupiter exploration vessel that was approaching Earth, but some of the ship's debris fell onto the planet. Chall wants Leo to investigate these debris as both Veda and the ESF Forces are looking into them, and gives him the location of the nearest debris crash site. During the investigation, Leo hears a scream and runs towards the source. There, he sees a mysterious figure kneeling next to an unconscious Amia Lee. Before Leo could take any action, he is warned by Lars Grise to move away from the mysterious figure. Lars wants to shoot the figure, but is stopped by Leo. While the two fights, the figure goes back into Amia's house, which then transforms into an airplane and flies away. Leo pursues the plane with the Arios Ascalon's Flight Form.
As the Arios Ascalon closes in, the plane turns around, and tries to ram the Gundam, shocking Leo. Leo managed to evade the attack, but the plane persisted and charged at the Gundam a few more times. Leo then slices the plane in half with the GN Sword before leaving the scene. However, he is unaware that a piece of the plane has attached itself to the GN Sword. The debris of the Europa is subsequently discovered to be an alien lifeform known as "Extraterrestrial Living-metal Shape-shifter" (ELS), and the mysterious figure Leo encountered was a humanoid form of the ELS trying to assimilate with Amia. Later, Leo and his Arios Ascalon are ordered to destroy a facility where a cluster of ELS had gathered. To avoid being assimilated upon contact with the ELS, Leo switches the Arios Ascalon's GN Missiles to proximity fuse and launches them at the facility. Leo then tries to attack with the GN Beam Cannon, but the weapon fails to fire.
The piece of ELS that had attached to the Arios Ascalon's GN Sword earlier is reactivated by the presence of the ELS cluster, and begins to assimilate the Gundam, causing the GN Beam Cannon to malfunction. Realizing too late what is happening, Leo is forced to eject from his Gundam. He lands safely on the ground as the Arios Ascalon crashes nearby. However, to Leo's horror, the assimilated Arios Ascalon survives the crash. Lars then arrives in a jeep and attacks the assimilated Gundam with a grenade launcher, temporarily disabling it. Upon Lars's urging, Leo gets onto his jeep and the pair quickly escapes. Later that night, Leo and Lars discuss what to do next, with Lars noting they have to act fast as the ELS-Arios Ascalon might combine with the remnants of the destroyed ELS cluster and resumes its activity. Leo considers using the GNZ-001 GRM Gundam hidden by Fereshte in the Orbital Elevator, but that mobile suit lacks a power source. Dell Erda, Leo's fellow Fereshte member, then approaches the two and says there is another mobile suit they could use against the ELS-Arios Ascalon.
The next day, Leo and Dell confronts the ELS-Arios Ascalon with the MSJ-06YIII-B Tieren Kyitwo, which was recovered from an abandoned HRL base by another Fereshte member, Hayana. This is the mobile suit Leo and Dell piloted when they were members of the HRL military. Despite being an old machine, Leo and Dell judged that its 500mm Multistep Acceleration Gun should be able to damage and break the ELS-Arios Ascalon into tiny pieces, which according to Lars, would cause the ELS to be deactivated. The ELS-Arios Ascalon quickly detects the approaching Tieren Kyitwo and launches a barrage of missiles, but the Tieren Kyitwo easily dodges them and counterattacks with its 500mm Multistep Acceleration Gun. The Tieren Kyitwo's shot hits and destroys the ELS-Arios Ascalon's left arm, and a second shot blows away its entire upper body. However, a sudden missile attack by another ELS-Arios Ascalon causes the Tieren Kyitwo to miss its third shot, which would have destroyed the damaged ELS-Arios Ascalon.
Leo quickly realizes this second ELS-Arios Ascalon was formed by the remnants of the destroyed ELS cluster, and concludes that ELS can share among themselves knowledge of the objects they had assimilated. With the Tieren Kyitwo's 500mm Multistep Acceleration Gun down to its last two bullets, Leo decides to make use of the ELS' characteristics against it. With the second ELS-Arios Ascalon behind them, Leo charges the Tieren Kyitwo at the damaged ELS-Arios Ascalon. As the Tieren Kyitwo is about to crash into the damaged ELS-Arios Ascalon, Leo swerves the mobile suit away, causing the second ELS-Arios Ascalon at the back to slam into and merged with the damaged ELS-Arios Ascalon. The damaged ELS-Arios Ascalon tries to use this fusion to repair itself, but this is what Leo is waiting for. He tells Dell to fire the 500mm Multistep Acceleration Gun at the fused ELS-Arios Ascalon, and they successfully defeated the two ELS-Arios Ascalons with a single shot.