ARX-7 Arbalest

The ARX-7 Arbalest is a third generation Arm Slave operated by Mithril. It is based on the M9E Gernsback and is equipped with the Lambda Driver. It is piloted by Sousuke Sagara.

Development
The Arbalest is a customized M9 Gernsback designed to house an experimental Lambda Driver. It has a sophisticated A.I. system which only allows Sergeant Sousuke Sagara to be its pilot. The Arbalest is highly agile, but its top speed cannot be determined due to the volatility of the Lambda Driver. The most notable feature of the Arbalest is the head design with the horizontal mouthpiece that functions to hold a Anti-Tank Dagger.

The designer/developer of the Arbalest is deceased Whispered Bani Morauta.

Al
"Al" (spelled with a lower case "L") is the name of this A.I. on the Arbalest. Al coexists with the Lambda Driver and is capable of understanding basic human emotions such as happiness and sadness.

The relationship between Sousuke Sagara and Al has been a source of trouble for the pilot, as the AI continues to defy the behaviour of conventional AI systems in use within the Full Metal Panic! world. Since Al is connected to the Lambda Driver, one of Sousuke's biggest problems in mastering the use of the Lambda Driver is his inability to get along with the Arbalest's A.I. The relationship between the two has been likened to the relationship between Sousuke and Kaname Chidori, where Sousuke is easily angered by Al's cluelessness.

Operational History
Heavily Damaged by Leonard Testarossa's Belial AS forcing Sousuke to discharge AL and abandon the Arm Slave. The unit's Lambda Driver and AL were later salvaged and installed on the ARX-8 Laevatein.

The ARX-7's wreckage was later repaired, and given a modified M9E 006 Gernsback head that had the head crest and cooling fiber emitter of the Laevatein. This unit was used as decoy to fool Amalgam into thinking that the unit was Mithril's next generation Lambda Driver AS. It was captured by Amalgam who believed it to be the real, and was presumably destroyed afterwards.