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J.G. Phoenix

Favorites In Fiction

MS-14Jg Gelgoog Jäger

A variant of the MS-14A Gelgoog, the Gelgoog Jäger, or simply Gelgoog J is a limited production mobile suit first fielded in U.C. 0079 at the tail end of the One Year War. The Jäger is a general purpose machine with a well-rounded suite of weapons focusing on ranged combat.
The Gelgoog J variant is one of several enhanced mobile suits to emerge from The Principality of Zeon’s United Maintenance Plan. Not only was it the best Gelgoog available for its time, but its performance far surpassed Zeon’s other machines, boasting phenomenal speed and weaponry. With waning resources and limited numbers produced, the Gelgoog J, despite its unprecedented capabilities, had a vanishingly small impact on the One Year War.

FEATURES

Zeon mobile suits manufactured under the United Maintenance Plan had many similar internal systems and parts, prominent examples including the nuclear reactors powering the suits and the general layout of their cockpits. For most pilots, being able to pilot the Zaku II Kai or the Rick Dom II meant a relatively easy transition over to the Gelgoog J.

Beam Machinegun

The Gelgoog J’s beam machinegun is a hard-hitting, rapid-firing beam rifle that uses e-caps and has its own mounted scope for target acquisition and range finding. The beam machinegun is capable of destroying other mobile suits with a single well placed shot, though burst fire, even while lacking penetrative power, is preferred in skirmishes.

Although the Gelgoog J is a general purpose unit, the suit’s all around enhancements allow for precision shooting at long range, allowing the Gelgoog J to adopt a sniping role without any additional equipment or calibration. The beam machinegun’s ‘one shot kill’ potential eliminates the need for larger beam weapons.

Beam Spot Guns

The Gelgoog J’s integrated beam guns, also known as beam spot guns, are powerful close range weapons meant for defense. One is mounted in each arm beside the wrist. It can fire more precise shots, or be discharged in volleys depending on the pilot’s needs.
The beam spot guns allow the Gelgoog J to stave off aggressive enemies when the beam machinegun isn’t ideal or the head-mounted Vulcans aren’t up to the task. Despite their defensive purpose, the beam spot guns are just as powerful as a beam spray gun, and a precise hit on an enemy mobile suit is capable of destroying it, making the spot guns too dangerous to ignore in combat.

Beam Saber

Standard equipment on most mobile suits, the beam saber is a melee weapon utilizing Minovsky Field Particles to encase and shape a blade of superheated plasma for devastating strikes. The saber is only used when the Gelgoog J is unable to keep an opponent at range or has been successfully flanked. Like with most of the Gelgoog J’s weapons, the beam saber is capable of destroying a mobile suit with a single direct hit.

Head-mounted Vulcans

The Gelgoog J’s integrated Vulcans are its only non-beam weapons. They fire solid rounds at an extremely high rate. What they lack in firepower they make up for in utility, acting as an effective Close-In Weapons System or CIWS against missiles and smaller, lightly armored targets. They can also be used to damage enemy sensors by skilled pilots.

External Propellant Tanks

Featuring a dual-layer construction containing both propellant and coolant, the external tanks greatly extend the operation range of the Gelgoog J. They also help offset the increased fuel consumption at the cost of significantly increasing its overall weight. Once expended, the propellant tanks can be jettisoned from the unit.

Shield

While not normally carried on most missions, the Gelgoog J is capable of equipping a large shield for more dangerous missions. The specific model is the same as the MS-14Fs Gelgoog Marine Commander Type. Due to the introduction and mass dissemination of beam weaponry, many shields are treated with an anti-beam coating. This allows the shield to take up to several direct hits from beam weapons before being damaged directly.

Electro-Optical Sensor Suite (Mono-eye)

The Gelgoog J features a modernized version of the mono-eye sensor suite common to Zeon mobile suits. The mono-eye allows for excellent targeting at longer ranges even with heavy Minovsky particle interference.

2nd Generation Mobile Suit Cockpit

 

As a part of Zeon’s United Maintenance Plan, the Gelgoog J features a 2nd Generation Cockpit, complete with standardized controls, communications systems, monitors, and an ejection system with a survival kit.

SPECIFICATIONS

General Characteristics

  • Crew: 1 Pilot (in 2nd Generation MS Cockpit in the torso)
  • Dimensions: Height of 19.2 meters; Width (estimated) 6.7 meters
  • Weight: Base of 40.5 metric tons; Max of 80.3 metric tons
  • Armor: Titanium Ceramic Composite

Performance

  • Powerplant: Minovsky Type Ultracompact Fusion Reactor (Output of 1,490 kiloWatts)
  • Propulsion: Rocket Thrusters: 178,500 kilograms total (3 x 24,500 kg, 5 x 21,000 kg); Vernier Thrusters/Apogee Motors: 24
  • 180 Maneuver Time: 1.4 seconds

Equipment and Armament

  • Internals: Laser and Infra-red Sensor Suite (Mono-eye), Unspecified Radar System, multiple sub cameras
  • Sensor Range: 6,300 meters
  • Fixed Equipment: Blade Antenna, Backpack Antenna, Laser Communication System
  • Optional Equipment: 2 x External Propellant Tanks
  • Fixed Armaments: 2 x Beam Spot Gun, 2 x Vulcan Machineguns
  • Optional Armaments: 1 x Beam Machine gun, 1 x Beam Saber, 1 x Anti-Beam Treated Ballistic Shield

My Favorite In Fiction

The Gelgoog series of mobile suits has always been interesting to me. Interesting and a bit frustrating. When I tried to put myself in the Gundam Universe (UC), I always found myself leaning more toward the high mobility type Zakus of that same era, instead. The Kampfer, despite having some of the same issues as the Gelgoog from a design standpoint, also comes out well ahead of them for me.

When it comes to their overall design, their shape, relative size, and their proportions, everything just feels slightly off with the original Gelgoog models. That’s far from saying they’re bad designs. They’re really not. The Gelgoog was one of the first mass produced Zeon machines to be able to handle beam weapons, and they carried both ranged and melee just to make sure people knew beam weapons were more than just a helpful gimmick.

The problem is the target profile.

The Gelgoog is a decent design with a larger sihlouette than it can be justified having. Comparable Federation mobile suits always had armor shaped just to fit the parts they were protecting, giving them a much smaller profile than Zeon machines. Zeon’s design philosophy leans more toward smooth and tapered armor plating without too many sharp angles. This is especially noticeable with the legs of Zeon’s mobile suits. The leg units always tend to balloon out into hilariously thick thruster or fuel housings for the calves and end in size “40” shoes. In all seriousness, the larger feet, while looking silly, are probably for the best. Having that kind of weight near the bottom lowers the unit’s center of mass, helps with AMBAC maneuvering in space, and gives the unit better weight distribution on the ground. Those are all good things, but on the Gelgoog, it all just looks ‘off.’

Then along comes the Gelgoog Jäger, or the Gelgoog J for short. I love this Gelgoog model because its proportions are vastly improved, and the design captures Zeon’s cyclopian ogre aesthetic without getting too far away from its robot panzer origins. It’s a Gelgoog that’s all business, with the rush of wartime production working for it rather than against it. As part of the United Maintenance Plan, it gets a lot of the same parts as other Zeon machines, but performs even better. The Gelgoog J was the definitive Gelgoog of its time, even despite its small numbers and negligible impact on the One Year War.

This is my choice of machine. If I was a Zeon pilot, this is the one I’d be aiming to get my hands on and hold onto through the next few wars in the UC timeline. For crying out loud, this space hunter even has my initials in its model number: MS-14Jg. We could call mine the MS-14Jg Phoenix Custom or something. Not that I would make that many changes besides the color. In fact, barring any newtype shenanigans, I probably wouldn’t do that much customization on a suit like this until it began to become outdated. It started off slightly ahead of its time, so the unit’s well poised to stay relevant until at least the late 0090s.

Information in this article and its media are sourced from the following sites: Gundam Fandom, Mahq, and Anaheim Journal.