[Masanori Ota]

Spoiler:

Yes, there is. The first gets pwned in a battle in Tokyo (near the school, I believe) by Tessa's brother (forgot his name).

At the end of the book where Sagara fights in the Mech Arena and finds out where Kaname might be hidden (forgot the name of that one too, sheesh), someone references (I think someone in Mithril) a cancelled project, saying "you could call it...the Arx-8."

You can find what I'm talking about in some thread on these very forums. I just can't remember which. Anyone care to jog my memory?