Juno

Juno are a myriad of different types of technology originating from Earth. They play a key role in both Solatorobo & the Fuga: Melodies of Steel trilogy and have also been used in a few of Little Tail Bronx's side stories.

This article goes over the information provided in the original Solatorobo series of art books. An officially translated version of most of the lore can be found in the Jeanne Archives which were featured in Fuga.

Info. About Juno

Juno are unidentifiable objects filled with various information/technological data. Aside from the original bodies, referred to as Aces, there exist copies known as Arts and Numbers.

Juno are purely machines, not organisms. Their physique is formed by large number of cord-like objects composed of unknown materials form a shape by twisting together and are shaped like a stem (the main column) that stands perpendicular to the ground, two pairs of branches (the sub-column) protruding upward from the stem, a pair of temporary roots (the rhizoid) protruding downward from the stem, and a ridge (the bump) protruding from the center of the stem.

The ridge is a knob-shaped protruding organ resembling the form of a human being and is responsible for outside contact. It manages this via its built-in personality OS. The personality OS simulates & imitates a youthful human woman who can carry out sophisticated conversation and learning. This OS is still a machine in every way, however, as they cannot comprehend the inner workings and minds of real humans.

There are a grand total of 53 Juno throughout the whole world. They are classified into 13 grades and 5 suits based on their amounts of energy containment, generation lines and power relationship. Since their composition closely resembled playing cards and the fact that their discovery was linked to the "Aboriginal Cards", the different characteristics of Juno were classified accordingly to playing cards over time.

Each category & quantity of Juno grade goes as such:

Ace - 5
- Aces
  - Can produce Juno grades K/Q/J/10
  - Can produce 1 Titano-Machina per Ace, bringing the absolute best mobility, fire power and protective shields
- Jokers
  - Incapable of creating Arts and Numbers due to possessing the "reset command".
Arts - 16
- K
  - Can produce grades 9 and 2
- Q
  - Can produce grades 8 and 3
- J
  - Can produce grades 7 and 4
- 10
  - Can produce grades 6 and 5
Numbers 2-9 - 32
- Cannot produce Juno, however they can produce as many Titano-Machina as their grade. Since their mobility, fire power and protection shields are nowhere near as strong as Aces and Arts they can be brought down by higher grade aircraft.

Types of Juno

Aces

Aces are the original Juno that were excavated from various places and correspond to the Ace & Joker cards. They were discovered in the Brazilian Iguazu Falls, the American Rocky Mountains, near Australia's Ayers Rock, Lake Baikal in Russia and at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. These Aces were respectively excavated & possessed by Brazil, America, Australia, Russia and Germany. When referring to specific Aces, it should be kept in mind to refer them according to one's country ("Brazilian Ace", "Tanzanian Ace", etc.).

Only one Titano-Machina can be created from an Ace. In exchange for such an expensive creation the Titano-Machina are granted an extraordinary amount of power. The only exception to this is the Australian Ace which is only capable of crystal formation technology & containing smaller technological knowledge. This is due to the Australian Ace being the only Juno with the ability to perform the "reset command".

Arts

Arts are second generation Juno replicated from Aces. They correspond to the K, Q, J, and 10 cards. Their documented information is reduced by un-analyzable laws that occur during replication.

There were 16 Arts in the whole world. They are owned by Brazil, Mexico, America, Japan, Great Britain, Tanzania, Russia, India, and other countries. Since this second generation of Juno is referred to as "Arts", the Arts owned by specific countries are referred to as "Japanese Art", "Brazilian Art", and so on.

Each Art can create up to 2 Numbers. The grades and suits of Numbers are determined by the grades and suits of the Arts used to create them, and this was initially impossible to modify with the technology Earth had at the time of discovery. A single Art can also create 2 Titano-Machina. While these Titano-Machina were inferior to those created with Aces, they still possessed enough power to be used as personal weapons.

Tartaros was a grade J Art excavated from France. As such, it was referred to as the "French Juno".

Numbers

Numbers are third generation Juno replicated from the Arts. They correspond with cards 2 through 9. As with the Arts, their information is also reduced by un-analyzable laws that occur during replication.

There existed 32 Numbers throughout the world. They were owned by Portugal, Colombia, Cuba, China, South Korea, North Korea, Israel, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Iran, Iraq, Belgium, Greece, etc.. Numbers owned by a specific country, as with other grades, would be referred as "Portuguese Number", "Chinese Number", and so on.

Replication of Numbers is impossible due to a copy-guard being set. Research was conducted for the sake of lifting the replication prohibition command, however nothing seemed to have come out of this effort.

The number of Titano-Machina that can be produced from Numbers corresponds with the grade utilized (grade 9 can produce 9 Titano-Machina, grade 3 can produce 3 Titano-Machina, etc. etc.). While the Numbers produce the weakest Titano-Machina they can still be used as capable personal weapons.

Titano-Machina

Titano-Machina are unmanned, armored and walking weapons based off of information inside Juno. They are the most destructive weapon of the Little Tail Bronx universe.

The features of the Titano-Machina's forms are determined by the grade and suit of Juno used to create them. For example, the American Ace created many four legged types while the two legged types were commonly created with grades lower than 9. Each Titano-Machina's appearance depends on the culture & ways of thinking of its origin country. Some types will resemble beetles while others more closely resemble male & female humans.

In order to make the Juno a generator (which is stored inside their bodies), the Juno's grade and suit will limit their abilities and the number that can run at once. While research was conducted to find a way to cancel this limitation, no human being could understand the driving principles this superior technology.

Yurlungur

Yurlungur is the personality OS mounted in the Australian Ace's ridge. Since the built-in imitation personality on the ridge was only a means to smoothly exchanging information with intelligent life, it had exceedingly rational thought. However, while in contact with researchers seeking human-like thought, Yulungur came to understand irrational human thought and even began to possess it itself.

The understanding of irrational humans by this more rational machine is what caused the creation of Caninu & Felineko and is the reason why they take human-like physiques. It is also the cause to why it partially restored the world, though nobody knew whether or not that was the correct outcome.

While Yulungur takes its appearance after a young human woman, albeit an emotionless one, it does not have a gender. This is because the machine is simply taking on a form it judged necessary to communicate with humans.

History

Aboriginal Cards

Strange pieces of leather are found in Australia. This triggers the discovery of the miraculous Juno's existence.

In the year 1971, American folklorist Thomas Hendricks received 53 leather pieces from a descendant of a certain Aborigine tribe. The leather pieces had a rectangular shape with rounded corners, with pictures of various living things systematically drawn on the surface and a geometric pattern consisting of straight lines and curves drawn on the back. The Aborigine descendant pointed out the pictures drawn on it, and explained that they were of 5 king's spirits and their families. Thomas paid attention to the fact that the composition of the pictures drawn on the leather pieces closely resembled playing cards, and named them the "Aboriginal Cards (Cards of Aborigine)".

At first Thomas had thought that the Aboriginal Cards were just a form of Aborigine culture, however he would one day open his eyes as he watched this son play with them. The Cards were turned over and arranged like a puzzle, making something similar to a symbol stand out. Thomas lined up the remaining cards in a rush. 52 pieces were set closely together to become a single map. However, one of the pieces did not fit anywhere on the map. There were a picture drawn on the front showing what appeared to be the sun's design, and pictures on the back showing a life-form similar to a human with a 2 pairs of arms and 1 pair of legs.

The Discovery of the Juno

Thomas speculated that the map drawn on the back of the 52 leather pieces was done to show a location, this location being a flatland about 2 kilometers away from Ayers Rock. Thomas formed a survey team and started the investigation focusing on the points that seemed to be shown on the map.

About half a year had passed since the start of the investigation, when it became established that something was buried underground. Thomas' survey team dug that place for about a year, before finally discovering a shinning, mysterious object.

A trunk-like body that supported 2 pairs of arms and 1 pair of legs. It was completely made up of white sparkling fibers, however its substances were unknown. This object, named "Juno" by Thomas, and the others became noticed as an OOPArt (Out-of-place artifact) and made a great amount of noise in the media.

In contrast to the excitement of Thomas' team and the world, the scientific community showed a cold attitude. A fabrication theory gradually became mainstream in the media, and before long, their discovery was forgotten. However Thomas and the others continued their research and analysis. And then, it was discovered that Juno had a large amount of "information" engraved into it, and they determined that it was an evidently useful super-technology for humanity.

But there was something they came in contact with. It was the Australian government. The Australian Government intervened their studies, launching a new research team under the pretext of more accurate analyses as an excuse to keep Thomas and the others away from "Juno". And through further research, it was learned that there existed 4 more Juno.

Juno Struggle

The locations of the 4 other Juno were established in succession, but the information leaked out of the country due to the work of the CIA and FSB. Each nation demanded the new technology hidden in Juno and set out searching for the remaining Juno.

The Juno hidden in Iguazu Falls in Brazil, the foot of the Rocky Mountains in the USA, and Lake Baikal in Russia were secured by their respective governments. The remaining Juno, hidden at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, was discovered in collaboration between Tanzania and Germany, but it was Germany that eventually brought itself to claiming domestic ownership.

Other nations found this unagreeable, and criticized the five countries in unison. As a result of a conference held in Geneva, Switzerland, they decided to distribute the potential replications of the Juno to each nation as a property of humanity, limiting the number of "Juno to 2 per country." The US, who had already owned several copies of Juno refused to accept the protocol (later to be referred to as the Geneva Protocol), but after the criticism of each nation, they agreed to provide the Juno.

Copies called "Arts" were created from the 5 Juno, later called "Aces", and it was provided mainly to the allies of the countries possessing Aces. The countries possessing Arts further made copies called "Numbers" and distributed it to other nations. However, there was one country that did not do this - Australia. The Australian government stated that Australian Ace had no way of replication, but each nation showered criticism on them , believing that to be a lie.