"80 percent complete? You've got to be kidding! In its current state, the Zeong can fight at 100 percent!"
"It doesn't have any legs."
"They're just for show, anyway. The brass never understand that."
~The Zeong's mechanic and Char Aznable, during the Battle of A Baoa Qu

The MSN-02 Zeong (ジオング, Jiongu?) is a prototype mobile suit appearing in the anime Mobile Suit Gundam. It was first piloted by the "Red Comet" Char Aznable.

Developed by the Principality of Zeon at the A Baoa Qu space fortress during the One Year War, the Zeong was built exclusively for Newtype pilots. It initially had the model number "MS-16X" and was developed based on the data of multiple experimental units.The Zeong, like its predecessors, was equipped with the Psycommu system, which allowed a Newtype pilot to utilize its wire-guided remote-controlled forearms for all-range attack effectively. Each forearm was built with five mega particle cannons in its fingers.The Zeong also has three more mega particle cannons on its body, two in the waist and one in the head.

The Zeong was expected to be around 35m tall when fully completed, making it much larger than most mobile suits of the time. Its large size was attributed by one source to the difficulties in miniaturizing the Psycommu system. Another account suggested that it was due to the need for larger generators to power its thirteen mega particle cannons. A third account, given by Crossbone Vanguard pilot Umon Samon, claims its large size was due to Zeon engineers mistaking the B Gundam for a large RX-78-2 Gundam. In the end, this mobile suit was only 80% complete when it was deployed, thus its lack of legs and exposed upper arms. Although the legs would aid in the AMBAC System, their omission did not hinder the Zeong from performing at 100% combat capacity, since two rocket thrusters were installed at where the legs were supposed to be.[

Although the Zeong was developed for Newtypes, it could also be operated by normal pilots.In this situation, the mobile suit would be controlled by a pilot in the torso cockpit and a gunner in the head cockpit.The two cockpits were connected by a traversal tube. In contrast, a single Newtype pilot could fully operate the Zeong from either one of the cockpits, though due to the mobile suit's prototype nature, its activation and initialization could only be done in the torso cockpit.[In order to ensure the recovery of its data and pilot, especially if the pilot was a Newtype, the head also doubled as an escape pod and could detach from the main body when necessary.

#Gundam #Mecha #mech