Norn

The Norn (ノルン), also known as the Trinity Style (トリニティスタイル) (Legitimacy Kingdom codename), is a Faith Organization Second Generation Object, piloted by three different Elites: Skuld, Urd and Verdandi.

Etymology
are female beings who rule the destiny of gods and men in Norse mythology, with the three most important Norns named, and , making up a similar trinity to the three Greek Moirai.

Design
The Norn's colossal form is over fifty meters tall, covered in thick armor that can withstand a nuke, and equipped with one giant main cannon on its right side, the crank-like arm supported by two rotating axes. In order to switch between the many different types of shells of its main cannon, it has a giant magazine on its left side. Like with a Gatling gun, a tunnel-like ammunition belt curves around the back of the Object and attaches to the bottom of the main cannon. More than one hundred secondary cannons are attached all around the top and bottom of the spherical body like a crown of thorns. On the top, the Norn has an omnidirectional microphone made by combining several directional microphones. At the bottom, the Norn has a static electricity propulsion device with a unique shape. Three curved parts, resembling a crescent moon or the grim reaper’s scythe, are aligned like an Island Nation mitsudomoe and each part is supported separately.

The Norn's exit tunnel looks like a slide made from a two-meter tube. Unlike a common exit, that takes the shortest route possible, this tunnel takes a large curve like a highway off-ramp. This is because the tunnel has access to the three cockpits, so the shortest route would mean the tunnels leading to the three cockpits would intersect, forcing the tunnel to spiral around so that it wouldn't happen. There's also a maintenance tunnel that connects the cockpits to a curving maintenance passageway that goes around the Norn's reactor. There the Elites can access the reactor.

Skuld's cockpit is a two-meter wide cylindrical space. The front is covered in large monitors. There's a single chair in the center, but there are far fewer control columns and buttons than in the Baby Magnum’s cockpit. Instead, there is a single cable curled up on the floor. It also contains a mini-fridge, a microwave oven, a travel pillow, a bottle of aromatic oil, a blanket, and other goods for the Elite.

Technology
The Norn is a cutting-edge Second Generation Object, considered strange by the Legitimacy Kingdom due to having "everything but the kitchen sink" built into the Object; with a spec list that goes on for too long. The 37th considered that the Baby Magnum wouldn't be able to win in a direct battle against it, despite the protests of its Elite.

The Norn's main cannon is called a laser container cannon. It's a laser space elevator used to launch spaceships tilted on its side. This cannon has gathered attention for being filled with optical technology yet firing a container as a metal shell. All sorts of things can be placed inside the container, like concentrated sulfuric acid, aqua regia, or liquid nitrogen. Also, if the container shell is removed, it can be used as a pure laser beam cannon. The main cannon is fed by a giant magazine that holds several types of shells like a vending machine which are supplied to the main cannon on demand through a powerful air conveyer.

The Norn can detect people from the noise they make with its omnidirectional microphone. It can locate them not just from their voices and breathing, but from the scraping of their joints and cartilage. Its sensors are accurate enough to pinpoint human noises in the middle of the jungle, isolating them from the noises caused by all other animals.

However, one of the Norn's most unique features is the fact that it's piloted by three Elites at the same time, allowing it to function even if one of them is incapacitated, captured or killed. Due to that, the Object has three cockpits, one for each Elite. Additionally, the Norn isn't a solid mass of metal. It's made up of a lot of small brick-sized robots called Dvergr (ドヴェルグ), equipped with tires with countless suction cups. By moving around, these Dvergr can alter the Norn's structure in several ways like children's building blocks. It can alter its overall silhouette, change its main weapon or means of propulsion, repair its damaged main cannon and even take the evenly-distributed onion armor and focus it on the predicted impact point of a main cannon shot to block even the Baby Magnum's low-stability plasma cannon, with the surface only being melted a little. However, since when doing this the Norn isn't creating more material, just taking onion armor layers from everywhere else in the Object, this defense reduces its armor on the sides that are not being attacked by a main cannon, making them vulnerable.

The Norn can remake its entire structure to match any conditions, environment or enemy, so it can be called the ultimate Second Generation; or since it can fight no matter the weather or environment, maybe in a way it can be said to have gone back to being a premium model First Generation. The Norn has three main configurations, one for each of its Elite pilots.

Urd's Configuration
Urd uses the Norn's default laser container cannon to fight at long range, focusing on taking no damage as she fires a thorough barrage to cut off the enemy's escape. Urd is an expert in chemical warfare, so the container-style shells she fires tend to contain various chemicals, like sulfuric acid, aqua regia, liquid nitrogen, aluminum and iron oxide. Instead of punching through with overwhelming mass or kinetic energy like coilguns/railguns, or burning through with tremendous heat like laser beams or low-stability plasma cannons; Urd uses chemical reactions to cut through an Object's onion armor. Sometimes Urd fires several containers to mix them directly on the battlefield. The Capitalist Corporations named this tactic the "murder cocktail strategy". This strategy is dangerous to nearby infantry even if she's not firing directly at them, as it can produce chemical smoke. Additionally, even without a direct hit, the shells can create toxic swamps that restrict another Object's movement and sometimes damage the armor or sensors with the vaporized gasses.

The Norn's chemicals include a sticky liquid made from instant glue that hardens in just a few seconds. Urd was able to use this glue to create a giant upwards slope to use as a ramp to jump across a 100m river. Its liquid nitrogen shells can be used to create blocks of ice during naval battles to restrict the movement of Objects that use naval floats.

Verdandi's Configuration
Verdandi prefers close-range attacks, trying to finish the enemy in one shot because she prefers to finish off her target as quickly as possible to reduce the overall damage. She uses the laser container cannon as a pure laser cannon, simply firing the ultra-high power optical weapon without a container shell. Upon changing modes, the main cannon moves from the side to the front. The magazine splits in two and attaches to the upper left and right of the spherical main body as balancers.

Skuld's Configuration
Upon transforming the main cannon is on the side of the Norn, but it hangs down like an Island Nation katana sheath. Skuld uses the powerful laser main cannon to vaporize the container, creating a powerful plasma current that fires out like a blowtorch or flamethrower. When fired the entire main cannon seems to swing around using a booster, and something like a saber or a bluish white blade of light stretched 5km long bursts out. These giant plasma blades produce so much heat they boil nearby water and cause the Norn's armor to faintly glow orange due to the residual heat. The heat of the blade is powerful enough to melt onion armor without even grazing it. Instead of a single point like a regular main cannon, it covers an entire surface to keep its opponent from getting away like a shotgun or a flamethrower. However, this weapon is so powerful that it even swings around the Norn itself. Without the constant slight adjustments by a genius like Skuld, the 200,000 ton mass can easily flip right over.

Background
The Norn was developed as part of the Norn Program (ノルンプログラム) and deployed in the Faith Organization's territory in the Antsiranana District in Madagascar to protect their valuable plantations of a newly discovered herb with the same chemical components as the expensive synthetized drugs they use to develop Elites.

The Three Sisters who Pull In a God of War
The Legitimacy Kingdom sent the 37th to eliminate the Norn, as it was protecting the valuable plantations of the Faith Organization in Madagascar. Since the Norn was considered too powerful to face in a direct battle, the 37th came up with the idea of sending infantry to provide laser guidance support to the Baby Magnum, who would shoot the enemy Object using a prototype ultra long range ablative coilgun shell from their maintenance base 100km away from the target. Due to the Norn's noise sensors, Quenser Barbotage and Heivia Winchell were forced to use special suits during their infiltration. These suits were designed to mask all the noises created by their bodies that would give them away as humans, being like walking rubber soundproofed rooms. The duo managed to get past the Faith Organization's patrols and one of their small power relay bases through the use of misdirection and their spy tools. Then they reached the herb plantations, where they got their first look at the Norn. Heivia used a bazooka-like laser targeting device to lock onto it, allowing the Baby Magnum to shoot the long range shell. Despite the prototype shell being considered a bit weaker than expected, the Norn's apparent destruction was confirmed and the Faith Organization surrendered and sent out the White Flag signal.

The 37th started to retrieve any data they could from the Norn before Faith Organization's reinforcements could arrive, but after Quenser and Heivia captured the Elite Skuld and brought her outside the Object, the Norn started moving again. Skuld revealed the Norn had another two Elites and could use small brick-like robots called Dvergr to repair the damage it had suffered from the ablative coilgun shell, and it had merely been playing dead, with the two other Elites willing to sacrifice Skuld to win the battle. The Norn proved superior to the Baby Magnum, using its ability to focus its onion armor in one spot to block all of its attacks, but Quenser realized the weakness this created on the other sides of the Object. He led Heivia and the other infantry soldiers to use the welding harpoons the maintenance team had brought to set up a temporary scaffolding on the Norn to peel away the weaker armor on its back. When the Norn's Elites cockpits were shaken by the impact of a shoulder-fired rocket launcher, they realized the danger they were in due to being surrounded by enemies, causing them to send the White Flag signal and retreat taking high-speed evasive actions.

The 37th engaged the Norn a second time as it finished its repairs and attacked them searching for Skuld. The Baby Magnum engaged him in an artillery battle across a river, trusting the body of water to keep the other Object far from itself so that it would only use Urd's long range configuration and thus limit its options. However, the Norn used instant glue to create a ramp and jumped across the river. Shortly afterwards it approached incredibly close to the Baby Magnum and shifted to Verdandi's configuration. The Baby Magnum barely managed to dodge the first shot, and was defeated by the second, who destroyed the right half of its spherical body.

When a group from the 37th infiltrated the Norn's base zone to rescue Quenser, they introduced a modified Dvergr robot to the Object in order to temporarily incapacitate it, preventing Urd from making use of its sensors.

The third fight between the Norn's unit and the 37th happened after they recovered Skuld. Since the battlefield was flooded because of the intense rain, the Norn changed its propulsion method to an air cushion and it used liquid nitrogen to restrict the Baby Magnum's movements. After Verdandi set the stage Skuld took over the Norn, using its giant plasma blade to damage the Baby Magnum. However Skuld ejected her own sisters, as she had introduced a virus into the Object using the modified Dvergr robot that the Legitimacy Kingdom had tried to insert into the Object for the same purpose. She tried to kill her sisters using her secondary cannons, but Quenser and Heivia caused a water vapor explosion under the Norn, disturbing its air cushion, which sealed its movement by slightly sinking it into the river. This gave the Baby Magnum an opening, and its shot pierced the Norn and destroyed the central JPlevelMHD reactor.