Beam Saber

The name Beam Saber is somewhat of a misnomer as, unlike other weapons with the word beam, the beam saber does not use mega-particles. Instead, it emits high-energy Minovsky particles to form a blade-shaped I-field (via manipulation of electromagnetic fields), and then fills this I-field shell with superheated Minovsky particle plasma to produce an effective cutting blade. The Minovsky particles are stored in a E-cap within the hilt of the beam saber, which is recharged from the mobile suit's reactor when the saber is returned to its storage rack or via the mobile suit's hand plugs in later machines. Due to the particles stored within the E-cap, the beam saber can be thrown after activation (as demonstrated in Mobile_Suit_Victory_Gundam) or discarded as decoys (as first demonstrated in Mobile_Suit_Gundam_0083:_Stardust_Memory [ Gundam_0083 ]).

The termination of the I-field along a solid contact surface allows the plasma to eat away at the offending material until the I-field reestablishes itself, allowing the weapon to "cut" through almost any target. Likewise, as the beam saber's I-field enclosure repels plasma, it not only keeps the blade's plasma in but also keeps plasma from another blade out allowing one beam saber to be used to block another. Since the containing fields can be formed into a variety of simple shapes, it is trivial to create exotic variants like the Beam Tomahawk, Beam_Axe, Beam_Naginata, etc. Even a Beam Flag was created to be used as a signaling device.

The power output of the beam sabers used in the OYW (power rated at 0.38 MW) has been called into question due to certain events during the One Year War. When Amuro_Ray, pilot of the RX-78-2 Gundam, was fighting one of Zeon's aces, Ramba_Ral, he used his beam saber to cut into Ral's MS-07B Gouf and expose the pilot. By all accounts, Ral should have been immolated by the sheer heat emitted by the weapon (particularly since his cockpit armor was still malleable immediately thereafter), yet he survived unscathed. Either his normal suit had higher heat resistance and air conditioning than the mobile suit, or the beam saber's I-field prevented the plasma from touching the human. A scene in Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team [ Gundam_08th_MS_Team ]showed Shiro_Amada altering the output of the beam saber to use it as a heating source in snow to create a hot bath.