GAT-02L Dagger L

"The new GAT-02L1 Dagger L, is the true Mass Produced Mobile Suit of the Earth Alliance and its valiant forces. They shall be the shining guardians of our great Alliance and its people. It shall live up to its name, and stab the Coordinators in the back when they least expect it..."

- Doctor Adam McKay, NIA Head of Mobile Suit Development, after the unveiling of the Dagger L "Those new Dagger Ls are far superior, and scarier then those rush-job Strike Daggers we fought at Panama..."

- Unknown ZAFT Pilot

The GAT-02L1 Dagger L, is the real First Mass Production Full Mobile Suit of the Earth Alliance and is developed soon after the older Strike Daggers where deemed to be defective and buggy. While they are Strike Pack Capable they would rarely use Strike Packs during the final months of the Bloody Valentine War.

General Overview
After the general failure of the GAT-01 Strike Dagger during both the Battle of Panama and the Battle of Orb the Earth Alliance and the National Industrial Alliance would look to replace the rushed Strike Dagger with a superior unit. The NIA would soon come back with the GAT-02L Dagger L an overall far-superior successor to the older Strike Dagger. They would then full-on mass produce the new mobile suit around late June just after the Battle of Orb.

While the new Dagger L was vastly superior over the slapped together Strike Dagger it would still possessed some bugs and quirks due to the rushed production of the design even then these are very minor and don’t take away from the design. It also included the ability to equip Strike packs however thanks to a small production run of strike packs mainly for the superior GAT-01A1 105 Dagger the Dagger L was very rarely was equipped with packs during the final months of the war. It was only after the end of the war that the production lines for strike packs would be fully online and ready. That said the basic Dagger L on paper was slightly superior over the Orb M1 Astray but just under ZAFT’s new GuAIZ and Republic of Altair’s new Sentinel.

All in all the Dagger L quickly has become the mobile suit of choice for the Earth Alliance and its member nations. It would be built in large numbers in the last months of the war and would be the most seen mobile suit in the Earth Alliance inventory. It was just as good in its basic form as with a strike pack which made it superior over its G-Weapon counterpart the Strike which had trouble fighting in its basic form. It would also sport a handful of dedicated variants for a variety of different roles. The Dagger L would remain in service for just over four years and would fight in two full-on wars as well as several minor skirmishes. It would finally be replaced by the superior GAT-04 Windam and its own variants.

M702 57mm High-Energy Beam Rifle
The main rifle for the new Dagger L and is basically a mass produced version of the M701 rifle used by the Strike G-Weapon. Unlike the lighter M703 carbine used by the older Strike Daggers, the M702 is quite superior and has the stopping power to take on low-level anti-beam coating like what ZAFT mobile suits have started to be equipped with.

M704 50mm High-Energy Beam Rifle
A secondary main weapon for the Dagger L which is basically a produced counterpart to the M700 rifle used by both the Rubicon and Duel G-Weapons. Therefore it comes equipped with a single-shot grenade launcher slung underneath the barrel. However the beam rifle itself is a bit smaller then the regular M702 but more energy efficient allowing more shots to be fired, as well as faster firing, then the regular M702. Thanks to this it is used by several ace pilots instead of the M702.

GAT-02L2 Dagger L
An improved variant of the older GAT-02L which does include new improvements taken from the lessons learned from the battles during the last months of the Bloody Valentine War. It also improves the weapons, replacing the somewhat buggy "Igelstellung II" CIWS Guns with newer, lighter "Todesschrecken" CIWS Guns. The small anti-armor knifes where replaced with a superior Mk.315 Stiletto which possesses a small explosive charge which allows the mobile suit to use it as an explosive throwing weapon. Other changes include several improvements in the operating system, and various electronics. All in all a superior variant over the older Dagger L.

GAT-02L3 Dark Dagger
A variant originally foreseen as yet another update on the venerable Dagger L but with the development of the newer and vastly superior GAT-04 Windam over the horizon this variant is instead produced in small numbers for a handful of elite units including the 81st Independent Mobile Battalion “Phantom Pain”. It is quite better then the older, regular Dagger L including some high-end improvements making it need an elite, highly trained pilot to use it to its full potential. Even then it like its regular Dagger L sibling would be removed from service and replaced with a newer unit. For the Dark Dagger this would be the GAT-03A2R Slaughter Dagger based on the older, yet still somewhat superior GAT-01A1 105 Dagger.

GAT/A-01E3 Buster Dagger II
After the end of the war would see improvements made to a few other mobile suits of the Earth Alliance including the heavily-armed Buster Dagger. Like its pervious variants the new Buster Dagger is heavily based on a Dagger variant, in this case the Dagger L. It would be include many of the improvements made to the GAT-02L2 Variant of the Dagger L including some just for the Buster Dagger itself. One major improvement to the new Buster Dagger is the ability to use shoulder mounted strike packs like the Doppelhorn Pack when removing the unit’s missile launchers. This improves on the earlier Buster Dagger’s own ability to remove its missile launchers and mount shoulder mounted cannons originally designed as an optional weapons on the original Buster G-Weapon. All in all an improved Buster Dagger that becomes the new favorite of the assault mobile suit formations of the Earth Alliance.

GAT-399/Q Wild Dagger
A later developed variant based on the captured ZGMF-X88S Gaia G-Weapon which took a basic Dagger-frame and made it into a transformable machine capable of a four-legged alternative form that allow the new unit to be quite maneuverable on the ground. However other than that it is basically a Dagger that is able to transform into a BuCUE-like form, nothing else really added. Even then it is produced in small numbers and handed over to special operations groups.