Welcome to Gaia! ::

Dressed in his usual jeans and tee shirt with leather work boots, Gray Noitome sat in a rolling chair in front of a computer terminal. Situated in a massive hangar bay the terminal was set to one side of the, roughly, sixty foot mobile suit. The Gundam Savage.
Gray was running a diagnostic of the suits systems based on the last test run. Gray was the designated pilot of the suit, and also one of it's primary mechanics. The Triple Impact Piston System had even been of his own design, though improved on by the suits actual engineers.
The computer finished compiling the data and it began scrolling up the screen. The suit was in almost perfect working order, according what they intended for it anyways, though it still had a few minor bugs. Nothing that couldn't be fine tuned over the course of a few more runs.
Gray leaned back in the chair and stared up at his suit with crystal blue eyes. He ran a hand through his long white hair, which was currently hanging freely about his shoulders. He couldn't get enough of the suit. He spent all of his working time piloting and analyzing the suit. Then, when his shift ended he returned and did more of the same.
The suit itself was built with a humanoid frame, though with slightly heavy shoulders and arms, like a boxer. The arms, legs, and head were white in color. The torso, shoulders, forearms, knees, feet, and a little of the head were colored red. There was a golden "V" shaped receptor fin over the eyes, which were blue lens covered optical receptors. The forearms each had three pistons spaced equidistantly around them. There was a beam cannon mounted on the waist armor on either side of the body. A large stylized triangle shaped shield covered the back. This shield could split into two and move from back to sides to front on articulated arms. Lastly, there was a large anti-ship beam sword stored diagonally across the back, under the shields.
"Soon, buddy." Gray said longingly to the Savage. "Soon."
He returned to his work, recording the compiled data for future reference. He wanted everything to be in perfect order when the time came that he would finally sortie in the Savage. When he and two other pilots like him would head out in their experimental suits to change the world.

Gray spun his chair around and glanced at the source of the feminine voice behind him. One look at the source was more than enough to tell him why that voice rang so sweet. He stood up out of his chair and took her hand in a firm grip, he wanted to make a good impression after all.
"Gray Niotome." He said with a smile. "Pleasure to meet you. And yeah, that's the Caliber. Damn fast suit, too, judging by it's data. Makes a nice counterpart to my suit, Savage. The Caliber's the high speed melee suit, and it's got great maneuverability to match. Savage has got all the power, he's mostly designed for melee too, though. Both ends of the spectrum with us, I guess." He gestured further down the line of experimental mobile suits. "And that down there's the Barrage."
The indicated suit was a good deal bulkier than either of the other suits. It bore a large backpack on it's back that housed a set of positionable beam cannons. It had a set of concealed solid blade long daggers in it's forearms. There was a short rifle housed on either thigh. And if you looked closely you could see where the faceplate was split, concealing another beam cannon. The suits torso and armored plates were colored orange, with most of the remainder being white.
"That's our long range firepower. Haven't met the pilot yet, but he should be in later. You should check out the suit, get acquainted with the cockpit and the systems, maybe do a few simulations. We're scheduled to officially begin operations tomorrow." Gray said. "Or if you want, I could show you around the ship." He said with a smile.

Gray continued smiling, and even allowed himself a small laugh. This girl was all business. Just as well, his superiors probably wouldn't approve if they knew he was flirting with another member of The Kerberos' crew.
"Just stick close to me, miss." Gray said, still smiling, mostly to himself.
He led Ariel around the ship, showing her the bridge, engineering, medical bay, cafeteria, pilots lounge, and everything in between. He finished up the tour by leading her to the crew quarters.
"Well, here you are. I think this one's empty, so you could claim it for yourself." He gestured at a sliding door set into the wall of the hallway. "And I'm right across the hall, here, if you need me." He said, this time gesturing to the door opposite the first one he had motioned to.

Gray laughed a little when he saw the mechanical dog. He had seen similar things before. He had once even repaired one for a local kid when he was still in school. The mechanics were fairly simple, though he had no idea how to program something like that. Nuts, bolts, motors, hydraulics; he understood all of that. Data being stored and transferred, sending signals, and all of it using little chips and disks; that was something he couldn't begin to wrap his head around.
"Actually, I already know about you." Gray said when Dr. Dascombe introduced himself. "I've been doing my homework, reading up on personnel. And as for the Gundams, I don't know too much about the Caliber or the Barrage, but I'm already pretty well acquainted with the Savage. I've been designated as it's pilot, so I've been running system checks and diagnostics for a little while already. Just trying to get used to the system. I was about to start simulations when Miss Porter asked for the tour."

"Well, we'll get you used to these pretty quick. They supposedly picked us for these suits because their designs matched our personal combat preferences. So, apparently you're a hit and run kinda fighter? Me, I'm a get in close and pound away kind." Gray said, taking a few practice swings at the air while they walked back to the hangar. "The simulations'll be run through the suits onboard computers. We'll make a connection between our suits and run the simulation together. The suits'll stay stationary, but we'll be able to use their actual controls, and the simulation data'll be displayed on our monitors and readouts." As he finished they entered the hangar.
Gray headed towards the Savage and grabbed hold of the boarding cord. He pulled the trigger and the cord lifted up, withdrawing into an interior compartment in the cockpit hatch. The cord lifted him up to the cockpit and he stepped in, sat down, and activated the suits internal systems. He began opening up the simulation programs and then opened a channel to the Caliber.
"You all ready in there, Miss Porter?" He asked. "If you're not comfortable with the systems yet I can talk you through it."

Gray pressed a few buttons and the cockpit closed and sealed. He started up the simulation program which, through their linked channels, would activate it in the Caliber as well. The monitors and displays all suddenly read as though the two mobile suits were operating in space.
Gray checked his displays and could clearly see that Caliber floating in the black to his right. On his readouts he could see that a mixed flight of ZGMF-1000 ZAKU Warriors and GAT-02L2 Dagger Ls were approaching from directly ahead. There were ten of them, five of each model.
"This should be a good start." Gray said over the hailing channel to Ariel. "We'll start small and work our way up."
Gray brought all systems online. He checked his waist mounted beam cannons, the backpack mounted Geschmeidig Panzer system, the forearm mounted triple piston system, and the anti-ship beam saber. He also checked the suits hydraulics systems, verniers, and CIWS. All green.
"All right, let's get this started." He said as he began manipulating the controls.
The Savage reached up and back and grasped the handle of it's oversized and overpowered beam saber. It brought it up and around, drawing it out from underneath the shielding plates on it's back. Savage held the saber one handed and activated the beam, which arced into life between two emitter/receivers at the ends of the solid blade.
By that point the enemy flight had closed the distance. They split off into two groups, 3 Daggers and two ZAKUs coming at the Savage, the remainder arcing off towards the Caliber. The oncoming suits opened up with their beam rifles, to which the Savage responded by shifting its energy deflection shields into their forward position. They rotated around the body on their backpack mounted arms and slammed back together, forming a solid shield before the suit. When the enemy beams came close to the Savage they suddenly bent and arced around the suit.
Savage activated it's verniers and flew forward in a spiraling charge through the enemy flight. As it passed through their formation it swung it's saber through a Dagger, severing it's top and bottom at a point along the waist. The suit burst into a bright explosion as Savage left it behind. Spinning about to face the flight again Gray saw that the remaining Daggers had drawn out their beam sabers.
"Excellent." Gray said with a smile, truly enjoying himself.

((I went with the two really different suits to show the variability of Archangels MS forces.))

"Got it." Gray said. "Just keep in mind that I'm nowhere near as fast as you."
The Savage shot forward, again spiraling to keep his opponents off balance. As he was about to slice into a Dagger a ZAKU appeared and countered his beam sword with a shield. The Dagger darted around the ZAKU and swung with it's own beam saber. Savage twisted its body and the two waist mounted beam cannons rotated up and fired one shot each. The two shots took the Dagger right in the shoulders, blowing it's arms off of it's body.
Savage kicked out with one foot and at the same time punched out with it's left fist. The foot connected with the torso of the disabled Dagger, sending it spinning away. As Savage threw the punch the pistons on it's forearms drew out. When the fist made impact the pistons surged forwards, back into the forearm, transferring their power forward, through the fist, into the ZAKUs shield. The impact of the strike against the shield slammed it back into the ZAKU, throwing it off balance. Shards of the ZAKUs armor floated away, where they had broken off under the weight of the impact. Savage darted forwards and swung its saber through the machine, then rapidly spun around and darted forwards again, finishing off the Dagger as he passed by it.
He came to a halt in the center of what had been the enemy formation. He reoriented again and brought his shields around to deflect fire since he was a stationary target now. He waited for Caliber to join him there, and then he would open fire with his beam cannons again and, hopefully, finish off the enemy formation.