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ZGMF-1017 GINN
Model number: ZGMF-1017
After the chaos of the Corporate Wars and the Interregnum, two political powers emerged among the former colony clusters at the Earth's Lagrange points: Cloud Nine, the last of the original colonial states hidden beyond the moon, and PLANT, a totally new government where liberal genetic practices and an advanced base in science and medicine had given rise to the existence of Coordinators. When Cloud Nine began to arm itself with mobile suits after the formation of the Earth Sphere Alliance, discussions at PLANT were brought up of forming their own military body. PLANT's military, the Zodiac Alliance for Freedom Treaty, or ZAFT, quickly began developing its own mobile suits so as not to be left behind in the burgeoning arms race between the new states. The GINN is the first successful mobile suit fielded by ZAFT for combat operations, and formed the majority of its armed forces for many years due to its versatility and ease of use. A powerful set of thrusters make it rather nimble in space and capable of great jumps and boots in atmosphere, and its armor protection is nearly on par with the much bulkier mobile suits fielded by the Space Revolutionary Army in spite of its thinner fame. As with most succeeding ZAFT designs, the GINN was powered by a high-density power cell rather than a reactor unit throughout its service to ZAFT - after the war, the improved relations between the Cloud Republic and PLANT allowed for producion of mobile suit-scale fusion reactors, and some GINNs were retrofitted with with these longer-lived power sources. Aside from serving admirably as a combat unit, the GINN was also used as a base for a variety of other mobile suit designs fielded by ZAFT until the end of the Space War. The GINN's standard armament is a compact 76mm machine carbine, intended primarily to be fired with one hand and at relatively short range, while a simple thick-bladed sword is provided for hand-to-hand combat. Both of these weapons can be stored on the GINN's body when not in use, allowing it to equip other armaments as well depending on the combat situation. This would primarily consist of either a large-bore recoilless rifle, firing heavy explosive shells to destroy well-armored enemies, or a giant beam cannon, meant to hole enemy ships or even the walls of a space colony. ZAFT had not developed especially sophisticated power systems by that point, so the beam cannon drew power from the mobile suit's battery - a practical rate of fire was established to prevent a GINN from expending its energy reserves too quickly. A pair of missile pods may be attached to the mobile suit's legs to offer additional firepower without impeding its arms. Finally, the unusual "multiple missile system" may be used where the need for exceptionally powerful explosives exists without allowing for additional encumberance - after expending their missiles, the launchers are usually discarded.
500mm recoilless rifle |
