AF-004 Gabull


General and Technical Data

Model number: AF-004
Code name: Gabull
Unit type: heavyweight close-combat mobile suit
Manufacturer(s): Atlantic Federation
Operator(s): numerous
First deployment: UC 217
Accommodation: pilot only, in standard cockpit in torso
Dimensions: head height 28.4 meters
Armor materials: neo-titanium alloy
Powerplant:ultracompact fusion reactor, power output rated at 7540 kW
Equipment and design features: sensors, range unknown; 2 x beam deflection field generator, mounted in shoulders
Fixed armaments: 2 x recoilless impact knuckle, mounted in hands

Technical and Historical Notes

The Atlantic Federation's primary source of military technology is the excavation of Old Earth Federation hardware, as well as modern reproductions built in factories in Africa. Though mobile suits such as the Daughtress series remain excellent combatants in spite of the age of their design, their relative antiquity shows in combat with contemporary designs fielded by other militaries. The Atlantic Federation set out to produce its own domestic mobile suits to correct this perceived inequity in its armed forces. One of these designs was the highly unorthodox AF-004 Gabull.

The behemoth Gabull is unlike any other mobile suit produced by the Atlantic Federation, or essentially any other government of the post-Interregnum period. The mobile suit was essentially designed from the ground up around a pair of rather unstable beam deflection field generators. Derived from an anti-beam barrier taken from a captured Space Revolutionary Army Grandine mobile armor, the generators provide a 360-degree charged particle field around the Gabull's body, which can typically repel any beam weapon carried by an enemy mobile suit. Such technology is typically only seen on larger and better-protected mobile armors, and for good reason: miniaturizing the generator technology so they could fit in a mobile suit, even one as large as the Gabull, produced a very tempermental system. While effective at repelling beam rifles, the generators tended to explode catastrophically if the Gabull sustained heavy damage, which made it unpopular with many pilots.

Due to the barrier's enormous power requirements, as well as the cooling systems necessary to keep them from overheating, the Gabull could not be armed with any energy weapons, while the shock and vibration of ballistic guns and launchers threw the generators' emitters out of alignment, causing the field to collapse. As a result, the production model was not equipped with any ranged weapons whatsoever. Instead, the Gabull was intended to use its own massive strength and bulk as a weapon in and of itself, with its barrier and incredibly thick armor plating allowing it to wade directly into enemy ranks and physically crush other mobile suits. Each of the Gabull's hands are fitted with a recoilles impact knuckle, a magnetically-accelerated piledriver-like weapon that greatly increases the mobile suit's already enormous punching power. The Gabull's ponderous speed meant that it could really only be employed in an assault role, and was usually stored onboard a landship until just before the attack was to commence.

The Gabull never proved to be an exceptionally successful mobile weapon for the Atlantic Federation, as its offensively-oriented design came at a time when Federation forces were generally being pushed into defense across the world. Perhaps ironically, the Gabull's greatest exploits came well after the fall of the Atlantic Federation: acting as a "damage sponge" for rogue forces staging a sneak attack. Use of the mobile weapon in this fashion was particularly effective by forces of the Al-Ghazi Brigade, who buried their Gabulls in loose soil at a pre-determined ambush location - when the attack began, the Gabull erupting from the ground quite close to the unlucky victims could act as a great force multiplier, and even Earth Union pilots are instructed to essentially ignore - and stay well out of reach - of such mobile suits if encountered in the field.

Lineart

Cockpit hatch
Head detail
Side view
Rear view