RMS-117 Galbaldy β

The Galbaldy β (Galbaldy Beta) was a mobile suit from the anime series Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. The Galbaldy β is based upon the earlier MS-17 Galbaldy Alpha.

Technology & Combat Characteristics
The RMS-117 Galbaldy β is an Earth Federation upgrade of the MS-17 Galbaldy α. The upgrades were fairly simple, the most noticeable of which is the modification done to the armor of the mobile suits head, shoulders, legs and waist. The more significant upgrades include an increase to the mobile suits performance specifications such as thruster acceleration and power output. For weapons the Galbaldy β is equipped with a standard beam rifle, a pair of beam sabers stored in the shoulders, a pair of signal launchers in the hands, and a new Federation designed shield with a pair of single-use missile launchers to replace the Zulu-style shield of the original Galbaldy α.

Overall the performance of the Galbaldy β was slightly better than that of the old MS-14A Gelgoog, the mobile suit that the Principality of Zeon chose over the Galbaldy α. It is also comparable to the RMS-106 Hizack and RMS-179/RGM-79R GM II that were also in use by the Earth Federation Forces in the days of the Galbaldy β, though its arguable that its performance was superior to the RMS-106 Hizack which was typically outfitted with old machine guns as opposed to beam rifles.

Though a fairly good mobile suit, one of the Galbaldy Beta's weaknesses is that it had a thin armor composed of a titanium alloy, again similar to the Hizack and GM II but inadequate compared to newer mobile suits fielded by both the Earth Federation and the Anti Earth Union Group that had armor made of new types of Gundarium alloy

Armaments

 * Beam Saber
 * The standard armament of most MS, Beam Sabers emits high-energy Minovsky particles to form a blade-shaped I-field (via manipulation of electromagnetic fields), and then fills this I-field shell with superheated Minovsky particle plasma to produce an effective cutting blade. The termination of the I-field along a solid contact surface allows the plasma to eat away at the offending material until the I-field reestablishes itself, allowing the weapon to "cut" through almost any target. Likewise, as the beam saber's I-field enclosure repels plasma, it not only keeps the blade's plasma in but also keeps plasma from another blade out allowing one beam saber to be used to block another. The RMS-117 Galbaldy β is equipped with two beam sabers that when not in use, are stored one in each shoulder recharge racks.


 * Shield
 * Shields are simple in their design, being essentially thick slabs of metal that the equipped mobile suit can use to absorb the impact from attacks that, for whatever reason, cannot be dodged. However shields can only withstand so much pressure before becoming damaged themselves. As technology progressed it became necessary for shields to be treated with an anti-beam coating as a measure of defense against beam weapons which can normally penetrate any physical barrier, however the coating gets gradually burned away each time a beam strikes it until it is rendered useless.


 * Missile Launcher
 * The Galbaldy β's shield, unlike the original Galbaldy α's shield, possesses minor offensive capabilities as it is built with a pair of missile launchers on the underside. Each missile launcher is loaded with a single small missile that can typically do significant damage to a mobile suit or other similarly armored target, but it less effective against the heavy armor of a battleship.


 * Beam Rifle
 * A standard hand carried ranged beam weapon is the beam rifle. Capable of firing concentrated mega particles, attacks from a beam rifle are can damage any ordinary armor that has not be specially treated to resist it. When the technology became available it became standard for beam rifles to be powered by rechargeable energy caps that can be replaced mid-battle if they run out of power.

Special Equipment & Features

 * Signal Flare Launcher
 * The RMS-117 Galbaldy β mounts a pair of signal flare launchers in its hands. These flare launchers can launch flares of several different colors, allowing the Galbaldy β to send easily identifiable messages even when there is a high Minovsky particle density.


 * Ballute Pack
 * The ballute pack is a backpack styled piece of equipment, with additional packs with maneuvering thrusters mounted on the legs and chest, that releases an inflatable shield designed to protect the mobile suit from friction heat during atmospheric reentry. The equipment was designed and mass produced between the years UC 0083 and 0087 and is designed to be used by a multitude of different mobile suit models.

History
As the One Year War ended, the Earth Federation captured Zeon research facilities, such as the Pezun asteroid, giving them access to the many mobile suit designs and newly developed technology that Zeon did not have time to manufacture. The Earth Federation began producing several of these designs, such as the MS-11 Action Zaku, for use in their own military. Others were studied and refined before being put into production as new mobile suits. Amongst those studied were the designs for the MS-17 Galbaldy α which were used to develop the RMS-117 Galbaldy β.

Before the Gryps Conflict in the year UC 0087, the RMS-117 Galbaldy β was one of the more heavily produced mobile suit employed by the Earth Federation Forces, coming in third to the RMS-179/RGM-79R GM II and RMS-106 Hizack. The majority of the Gabaldy βs produced were stationed at Luna II or aboard ships that operated out of Luna II.

Several of these units would be aboard the Salamis-class cruiser Bosnia, a ship that would be assigned to reinforce a Titans patrol force led by Bask Om in search of the Argama and the three stolen RX-178 Gundam Mk-II units. One of these units would be piloted by squadron leader and Federation veteran pilot Leila Milla Rira. Among the mobile suit pilots Leila technically had the highest rank, however she was a regular soldier while most of the others were Titans and thus had authority equal to a regular soldier two ranks above them. She was killed by Kamille Bidan's RX-178 Gundam Mk-II in combat, when he shot with his beam rifle at point blank range into the cockpit of the Galbaldy β.

After Leila's death Jerid Messa, a Titans officer that looked up to and admired Leila, began piloting a Galbaldy β in her honor and would battle her killer Kamille Bidan and his RX-178 Gundam Mk-II on the moon. However Kamille's skills were improving, making the technologically superior Gundam Mk-II a deadly opponent, so Jerid Messa had little choice but to switch over to the RMS-108 Marasai.

Kamille Bidan would destroy another Gabaldy β shortly before the AEUG's mobile suits began an atmospheric reentry operation to attack the Titans' headquarters at Jaburo.

After the end of the Gryps Conflict, the Axis Neo Zeon forces under the command of Haman Karn began making their move for dominance of the Earth Sphere (UC). At this time several RMS-117 Gabaldy β mobile suits would be captured. These machines would be studied and used to produce newer more powerful mobile suit, just as the Earth Federation had done with the designs for the MS-17 Galbaldy α. The new mobile suits produced would be the AMX-117L Gazu-L and the AMX-117R Gazu-R mobile suits. These almost identical mobile suits would be used as body guards for the mobile suits of important members of Neo-Zeon.

Variants

 * RMS-117 Galbaldy β High Mobility Type
 * AMX-117L Gazu-L
 * AMX-117R Gazu-R