Technology & Combat Characteristics
The GNR-101A GN Archer is a transformable mobile suit developed in the Celestial Being's Lagrange 3 factory as a support unit for the GN-007 Arios Gundam. It was developed with the concept of being an enhanced version of the Tail Booster equipped by the GN-003 Gundam Kyrios during the final battle with the UN Forces. When the GN Archer is in its Flight Form, it can attach to the rear of Arios Gundam's Flight Form, creating the GN-007+GNR-101A Archer Arios. In Archer Arios form, the GN Archer enhances the armament, mobility, and thrust of Arios' Flight Form, like what the Tail Booster did for the Kyrios. Unlike the Tail Booster, the GN Archer was designed to be piloted, enabling it to fight independently and to transform into its Mobile Suit Form (MS Form). However, it is not necessary for the GN Archer to be piloted when in the Archer Arios form, as the Arios' pilot can control this form entirely by himself. The transformation mechanism of the GN Archer utilized a simple system because it was added during the modification process, and not part of the original Artemie's design. The GN Archer is powered by a large GN Condenser due to a lack of spare GN Drive, and when it is in the Archer Arios form, it utilizes the GN Particles supplied by Arios instead. As a result of its development history, the GN Archer has a Gundam face hidden behind its MS Form's head visor.
On its own, the GN Archer's Flight Form functions as a highly mobile fighter-bomber that can follow and support Arios, as well as handle missions such as searching for enemies and raids. The docking and undocking of the GN Archer and Arios are almost instantaneous and can be executed in the middle of a battle, enabling the two mobile suits to adapt to battlefield condition. With Soma Peries (Marie Parfacy) as its pilot, the GN Archer fully displayed its ability to support the Arios, and showed that it can fight against the A-Laws' GN Drive Tau-powered mobile suits by itself.
History
The Celestial Being's Ptolemaios Team arrived at the Lagrange 3 factory, which was built into an asteroid, for resupplies and repairs. They were then introduced by Anew Returner to the GNR-101A GN Archer, a support unit for GN-007 Arios Gundam. The GN Archer was later loaded onto the Ptolemaios Team's mothership, the CBS-74 Ptolemaios 2, as the team got ready for an operation to destroy the Earth Sphere Federation's satellite weapon, the Memento Mori. Unfortunately, the A-Laws discovered and attacked the factory before the resupplies for the Ptolemaios 2 could be completed. The pilotless GN Archer was then attached to the Arios, and launched in the GN-007+GNR-101A Archer Arios form. The Archer Arios was tasked with escorting transport ships carrying evacuees to a safe area and completed the mission uneventfully.
Subsequently, the Ptolemaios Team successfully destroyed the Memento Mori, but was ambushed by the Innovators and forced to flee to Earth. While the team was repairing the heavily damaged Ptolemaios 2, they were notified of two enemy mobile suits approaching. The pilotless GN Archer was again launched as part of the Archer Arios, which then engaged the Innovators' GNZ-003 Gadessa in an intense aerial battle. The Gadessa later retreated when its companion, the GNZ-005 Garazzo, was destroyed by the GN-009 Seraphim Gundam.
After receiving supplies from the European branch of the anti-Federation group, Katharon, the Ptolemaios Team headed towards the coast in the partially repaired Ptolemaios 2 and encountered a large A-Laws team. When the Ptolemaios 2 was at risk of being sunk by the enemy mobile suits, Marie Parfacy volunteered to launch in the GN Archer. However, before she could board the mobile suit, the A-Laws team retreated as they were recalled to deal with the occupation of the Orbital Elevator in Africa by the ESF Coup d'état Faction, which consisted of soldiers of the ESF Forces that opposed the A-Laws.
To stop the ESF coup faction, the A-Laws decided to fire the second Memento Mori at the Orbital Elevator. Despite intervention by the GN-0000+GNR-010 00 Raiser, the satellite weapon fired and struck a section of the elevator, triggering the auto-purging of the structure's outer shell sections. On Earth, Arios, GN-006 Cherudim Gundam, and GN-008 Seravee Gundam then tried their best to intercept as much of the falling outer shell fragments as they could. They were soon joined by the GN Archer piloted by Marie. The GN Archer, in its Flight Form, shot down several fragments with its GN Vulcans before transforming into MS Form and using its GN Beam Rifles to destroy more fragments. Afterwards, mobile suits operated by the Katharon, ESF coup faction, ESF Forces, and A-Laws also joined in to intercept the fragments.
As the sun sets following the catastrophe, Marie in the GN Archer witnessed her father figure Sergei Smirnov's MSJ-06III-A Tieren All Region Type battling an A-Laws' GNX-609T GN-XIII piloted by his son, Andrei Smirnov. Marie tried to intervene, but her GN Archer was stopped by the GNX-704T/SP Ahead Smultron. With help from the 00 Raiser, Marie's GN Archer got away from the Ahead Smultron, but it was too late, Andrei's GN-XIII had dealt a critical blow to the Tieren All Region Type, and Sergei was killed when his machine exploded.
Four months later, the Ptolemaios Team launched an operation to destroy the second Memento Mori. While Cherudim and Seravee attacked from below, the Archer Arios approached the satellite weapon from above with the 00 Raiser, and fired a salvo of GN Missiles from its GN Archer section. After that, Soma Peries (Marie's alternate personality who was reawakened due to Sergei's death) detached the GN Archer and charged at the defending A-Laws forces. Worried about Soma/Marie, the Arios piloted by Allelujah Haptism quickly followed behind. The second Memento Mori was then destroyed by the 00 Raiser.
The Ptolemaios Team decided to capture an Innovator to learn the location of Veda, a powerful quantum processing system previously used by the Celestial Being and now in the Innovators' possession. Not long after, the Ptolemaios 2 was attacked by an A-Laws team, which included two Innovators. The GN Archer launched in Archer Arios form to intercept the enemy with the other Gundams. Later in the battle, the Archer Arios and Cherudim were recalled to protect the Ptolemaios 2 from enemy attacks. After firing a barrage of GN Missiles, Soma detached the GN Archer and transformed it into MS Form to hunt for Andrei among the enemy forces, shooting down several enemy mobile suits with the GN Beam Rifles in the process.
Soma eventually found Andrei, now piloting an GNX-704T Ahead, and attacked with the GN Archer's GN Beam Saber. Andrei blocked the strike with the Ahead's own GN Beam Saber and pushed the GN Archer back, but Soma did not give up and managed to reverse the situation. Andrei's Ahead then retreated when Allelujah's Arios arrived to assist Soma. Soma wanted to pursue Andrei, but Allelujah had Arios grabbed onto the GN Archer's shoulder to stop her. The 00 Raiser also arrived, and heartfelt words from its co-pilot, Saji Crossroad, on the futility of revenge caused Soma to give up her chase. The battle ended soon after with the Seraphim capturing the Innovator pilot of the Gadessa, Revive Revival.
The Ptolemaios Team later discovered Revive had allowed himself to be captured so that he could infiltrate the Ptolemaios 2. With help from Anew, who was actually an Innovator sleeper agent, Revive freed himself, but his plan to steal the GN-0000 00 Gundam was thwarted by the Ptolemaios Team. Anew and Revive then escaped, but not before disabling the Ptolemaios 2's systems and wrecking the GNR-010 0 Raiser's cockpit system, rendering the 00 Raiser inoperable. As the Ptolemaios Team worked to repair the ship's system and the 0 Raiser, the Innovators took the opportunity to attack the ship. In response, the Archer Arios, Cherudim, and Seravee were deployed to intercept them.
During the ensuing battle, Soma separated the GN Archer from the Arios so that the two mobile suits could evade the bending beam fired by the mobile armor GNMA-0001V Regnant. Soma then transformed the GN Archer into its MS Form to engage the enemies. The Innovators' Gadessa and Garazzo later broke through the Gundams' defense line and headed straight for the Ptolemaios 2. The GN Archer, Arios, and Seravee tried to stop them, but were caught and immobilized by the Regnant's Egner Whips. Fortunately, the 0 Raiser was repaired in time, and the 00 Raiser quickly dealt with the Gadessa and Garazzo. The GN Archer, Arios and Seravee were then freed by the 00 Raiser, which proceeded to defeat the Regnant as well as the GNZ-007 Gaddess that was dueling with Cherudim.
Using the coordinates provided by Celestial Being agent Wang Liu Mei, the Ptolemaios Team found that Veda was hidden somewhere in the dark side of the moon in Lagrange 2. They later detected the A-Laws gathering its fleet there, meaning they had to break through the A-Laws forces to reach Veda. In preparation for this final battle, the Gundams were upgraded with new weaponry, but the GN Archer remained unchanged. Upon reaching Lagrange 2, GN Archer launched with the upgraded GN-007GNHW/M Arios Gundam GNHW/M in Archer Arios form. The Archer Arios then raced ahead of the other Gundams and fired the GN Archer's GN Missiles to divert the A-Laws' advance force. After this, the GN Archer and Arios Gundam GNHW/M separated, transformed into their MS Form, and worked together to destroy the enemies.
However, the GN Archer and the Gundams were soon caught in the anti-field created by the A-Laws, which was filled with special particles that diminished the effects of particle beams, rendering most of their beam weaponry useless. The A-Laws then deployed their main force, consisting of GN-XIIIs and Aheads carrying missile launchers and NGN Bazookas that fire physical projectiles. Despite being at a disadvantage, Soma and the Gundam Meisters continued fighting, with Soma firing the GN Archer's GN Missiles at the enemy mobile suits. The Ptolemaios Team later escaped the anti-field with help from the Katharaon. Additionally, the ESF coup forces also arrived and attacked the ships of A-Laws' main force from behind. The 00 Raiser then rushed towards the A-Laws' flagship and vaporized it with a Raiser Sword attack.
With the A-Laws on the losing end, the Innovators made their move and fired a large and powerful particle beam from their cloaked mothership. The attack destroyed multiple ships and mobile suits regardless of their affiliation, but the GN Archer, the Gundams and the Ptolemaios 2 managed to evade it. Following this surprise attack, the A-Laws retreated, and the Innovators de-cloaked their mothership, the Celestial Being. The Ptolemaios Team rushed towards the large ship, with GN Archer docking once more with the Arios Gundam GNHW/M to form the Archer Arios. The Innovators responded by firing numerous gun turrets on their ship's surface to intercept them. The Archer Arios and the other Gundams retaliated by attacking and destroying the gun turrets.
With the gun turrets proving ineffective, the Innovators deployed a massive number of their new mobile suit, the GNZ-004 Gaga, from their mothership. The Gagas then activated their Trans-Am System and launched a suicide charge at the Ptolemaios 2. The Gundams, including the Archer Arios, and the Ptolemaios 2 tried to intercept the Gagas, but there were too many of them. The Gagas that broke through the defensive fire forced their way through Ptolemaios 2's GN Field and crashed into the ship. The Katharon and ESF coup forces eventually caught up and assisted in repelling the Gagas, enabling the Ptolemaios 2 to escaped from the hordes of Gagas. The ship then charged and landed in one of the Innovators mothership's docking bays. While the other Gundams invaded the mothership, the Archer Arios stayed with the Ptolemaios 2 to protect it from the Gagas.
The GN Archer and Arios Gundam GNHW/M later separated and transformed into their MS Forms to keep the Gagas away from the Ptolemaios 2. Unfortunately, the GN Archer's particle reserve soon dropped to a critical level. Allelujah then suggested Soma docked her GN Archer with his Gundam to recharge, but a Gaga suddenly charged in. Allelujah shot it down with his Gundam, but another Gaga quickly sneaked through and crashed into the GN Archer, damaging the mobile suit and destroying most of its left arm. Despite Allelujah's best effort to intercept the Gagas, another unit slipped through and smashed into the damaged GN Archer, further wrecking the support unit. Determined to protect Soma/Marie, Allelujah eventually activated the Arios' Trans-Am and shot down numerous Gagas in an instant.
The terror of the Gagas was put to an end when Seraphim's Trial System was activated, shutting down all the Innovators' mobile suits in the battlefield that were linked to Veda. After that, Allelujah opened GN Archer's cockpit to check on Soma/Marie. By this time, Marie was once again in control of her body and she thanked Allelujah for his concern. The battle later ended with the Innovators' defeat. The fate of the GN Archer after the battle is unknown, but its data was combined with those of the Arios to develop the GN-011 Gundam Harute.