Floating Array[1] is a collective term for the array of weapons formerly used by Penny Polendina. They consisted of a number of thin floating sword-guns, that were controlled by wire cables and were stored inside a small backpack.
When Penny was turned into a Human in "Creation", her backpack seemingly dissolved alongside her old robot body.
After gaining the Maiden powers, Penny was able to create elemental versions, which she first used against Cinder in "Amity".
Description[]
Floating Array were multiple gray-colored blades with a luminous green power symbol at the center of the bronze-colored hilt, and a green line running parallel to one side. The blades could fold into a more compact gun-like shape, which could be stored within a mechanical pack.
The blades could be deployed as a single blade from the back and could further separate. Penny was shown to be able to manipulate the blades through thin, string-like cables attached to the blades. Penny could also relocate rapidly using these cables, by embedding the blade(s) into an immovable object and then reeling the connecting cables in to pull herself towards them.
Swords stored in Penny's backpack.
The cables were also shown to be extremely strong, as seen when Penny embedded the blades into a Bullhead's body and pulled the craft down, as well as when they were shown cutting through Penny's body in "PvP". The blades were also shown to be heavy, as when a piece of Penny's clothes fell when she died, one of her swords fell and pierced it through the stadium ground with ease. Ruby Rose borrowed this sword to fight off a Nevermore in "Battle of Beacon".
The exact number of blades Penny could split her weapon into is unknown, but she seemed to have anywhere between eight to twelve blades.
Technology inside the sword.
The blades could be brought together to form a circular ring that was spun to fire a powerful green laser that was capable of splitting into many smaller beams. This attack was powerful enough to slice through metal with ease, and was seen to take down two attacking aircraft by cutting them apart.
The blades could also form several smaller rings that could also shoot several smaller laser beams. Penny also used these smaller ring configurations as thrusters to maneuver herself around the battlefield. She could also form all of them into mini-rifles and shoot individual beams.
Penny conjuring ice copies of her swords with her Maiden powers.
As revealed in "Amity", Penny's swords possessed complex circuits within them that were particularly designed to directly connect Penny to her swords. With Arthur Watts stating that Penny herself constantly "communicated" with each of her blades in order to control and command them in battle. He would later exploit this to remotely reprogram Penny's A.I and overwrite her will in order to force her to the Atlas Vault.
During her battle against Cinder Fall in Amity Communications Tower, Penny used her Maiden powers to conjure ice shaped versions of her Floating Array.
In "Creation", Penny was turned into a Human by Ambrosius. Her robotic body, as well as her backpack and weapons were separated from her and dissolved, destroying the weapons.
Penny creating swords using her Maiden powers.
In "Worthy", Penny fought for the first time with her new body. At first, she instinctively reached for her backpack before realizing she didn’t have it any more. She then used her Maiden powers to create her swords. The new swords were dark green with a green outline and made of earth.
Trivia[]
- As Penny alludes to the character of Pinocchio, the wires of her weapons likely allude to Pinocchio's puppet strings.
- The emblem on the hilts of Floating Array are the international-standard 'stand by' emblem on real-world electronic goods.
- In programming, a floating array is a grouping of numerical data containing floats, numbers with a fractional value; as opposed to an integer array containing only whole numbers.
- An array is a large or imposing number or group. Floating Array references that the weapon consists of a number of flying objects.
- Floating Array was slightly redesigned between Volume 3 and Volume 7, it is unknown if this was an upgrade or just a redesign due to switching to Maya.
- In the Volume 9 Teaser, Ruby is seen holding one of the swords from the Maiden version of the weapons, and it had a reflection of Penny's face.
Image Gallery[]
References[]
| Weapons | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|