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The Spiegel, a mothballed Salamis recently called back to service, launched from the underground docks at Jaburo, the boosters attached to the rear of the ship pushing the craft up and out of the Earth's gravity well in the same violent fashion used since the mid-20th century. While even the Salamis' used at Loum had been upgraded with beam weaponry, this particular model was still equipped with antiquated projectile weaponry. While there were advantages that could be found, they didn't outweight the disadvantages enough to justify a reversion of most currently fielded Salamis. But the Federation needed ships to man the lines, and any ship would do at this point. In Earth's Orbit, both Zeon patrol groups had been alerted to the launch of the Federal craft, and met the ascending craft just outside of Earth's pull. The three Rick Doms and six Zaku IIs easily evaded the ship's anti-aircraft fire, the Spiegel's captain knowing better than to engage mobile suits without support and attempting to leave as quickly as possible. However, the damage continued to mount as shell after shell impacted from the practically unopposed Zeon forces. The antiquated craft began losing propulsion as the damage continued to mount, and with the reactor threatening to go critical, the ship's engines stopped dead in space, the momentum continuing to carry the disabled ship foward. The Zeon pilots, unwilling to risk losing any mobile suits against a disabled ship, returned to their own tender ships to refuel and rearm and resume their patrol pattern. Spiegel: Disabled |