Mecha Profile: RX-78GP03 Gundam Dendrobium
In the Universal Century Gundam series, mobile suits often shared similar size with different equipment, larger machines would be instead called mobile armor but what if they combine a Gundam with its arsenal as large as a warship or even comparable to some mobile armors? The GP03 Gundam Dendrobium answers the call – a Gundam that acts as a core of a massive arsenal pack.
I. History:
– Gundam “Dendrobium” is a prototype Mobile Space Weapon developed under the Gundam Development Project consisting of two parts, the “core” part – which is the GP03S Gundam Stamen which is also a further development of GP01 Zephyranthes and the massive arsenal pack part – the Orchid which required Stamen to become its core hence their names used in floral plant terms. Because the project was meant to create the most powerful mobile weapon possible for Earth Federation at the time of U.C. 0083, Dendrobium is considered one of the most powerful mobile weapons at the time it was deployed, matching its Zeon counterpart like the Neue Ziel Mobile Armor.
– Gundam Dendrobium was first deployed in the the early of U.C. 0083 during a raid attack by Cima’s Fleet at La vie en Rose facility, piloted by Defrah Kar, he used the Dendrobium to wipe out most of them but unfortunately got killed by a surviving Gelgoog Marine who feared the tremendous power of the Dendrobium. Later it was received by the Albion which eventually became Kou Uraki’s main mobile suit after he lost the GP01 in a battle with its stolen brother – the GP02. As Kou familiarized with its fire controls and other systems, he docked the Stamen with the Orchis from La vie en Rose and went to battle with the Delaz Fleet to stop them from dropping a space colony on Earth. The Dendrobium then encountered the Neue Ziel mobile armor piloted by Anavel Gato himself resulting a draw between the two, Kou then resupplied the Dendrobium and went to combat again to stop the falling colony, he single handedly destroyed most of Cima’s fleet and even killed Cima Garahau in her Gerbera Tetra at point blank range according to the ending of OVA. Although it failed at stopping the colony because of the complexity of the situation and was destroyed by Earth Federation’s Solar Eclipse cannon, the Dendrobium proved itself truly powerful for its time.
– Gundam “Dendrobium” is a prototype Mobile Space Weapon developed under the Gundam Development Project consisting of two parts, the “core” part – which is the GP03S Gundam Stamen which is also a further development of GP01 Zephyranthes and the massive arsenal pack part – the Orchid which required Stamen to become its core hence their names used in floral plant terms. Because the project was meant to create the most powerful mobile weapon possible for Earth Federation at the time of U.C. 0083, Dendrobium is considered one of the most powerful mobile weapons at the time it was deployed, matching its Zeon counterpart like the Neue Ziel Mobile Armor.
– Gundam Dendrobium was first deployed in the the early of U.C. 0083 during a raid attack by Cima’s Fleet at La vie en Rose facility, piloted by Defrah Kar, he used the Dendrobium to wipe out most of them but unfortunately got killed by a surviving Gelgoog Marine who feared the tremendous power of the Dendrobium. Later it was received by the Albion which eventually became Kou Uraki’s main mobile suit after he lost the GP01 in a battle with its stolen brother – the GP02. As Kou familiarized with its fire controls and other systems, he docked the Stamen with the Orchis from La vie en Rose and went to battle with the Delaz Fleet to stop them from dropping a space colony on Earth. The Dendrobium then encountered the Neue Ziel mobile armor piloted by Anavel Gato himself resulting a draw between the two, Kou then resupplied the Dendrobium and went to combat again to stop the falling colony, he single handedly destroyed most of Cima’s fleet and even killed Cima Garahau in her Gerbera Tetra at point blank range according to the ending of OVA. Although it failed at stopping the colony because of the complexity of the situation and was destroyed by Earth Federation’s Solar Eclipse cannon, the Dendrobium proved itself truly powerful for its time.
II. Technical Specs & Armaments:
– To reach the status of Dendrobium, it required two parts: The Gundam Stamen and its massive arsenal pack – the Orchid, combining them into one big machine, the Orchis acts as a large pack of weapons with impressive mobility from large propellant tanks to accommodate with its weight, combining versatility, mobility and lethality from both parts. It is also includes a large I-Field generator on its right side to protect itself from various beam weapon attacks.
– Since it was developed for the space defense role it has quite a large size, able to carry massive loads of weapons inside its pack from close to long range combat. Starting with its two large claw arms underneath its body in case the enemy was able to penetrate through I-Field, these claw arms can easily crush its targets combining with Dendrobium’s momentum or even grabbing them like toys, the claw arms also come equipped with large beam sabers powered by rechargeable capacitors, they can easily slice off even a deck of a large Zeon’s Musai-class cruiser ship.
– For long range engagement, Gundam Dendrobium consists a large Mega Beam Cannon – a battleship-sized mega particle cannon installed on its right side, fired by using a trigger located at Stamen’s right arm providing better adjustment and accuracy, although ineffective against targets with I-Field capability, it is powerful enough to destroy Zeon’s Musai-class or even Zanzibar-class cruisers. The Mega Beam Cannon can also act as an emergency melee weapon, the Dendrobium can charge or impale enemies like a large shot lance.
– Another iconic feature for long range combat is the Gundam Dendrobium’s 108-tube Micro Missiles Pod which is contained inside a large container on the back, consisting of three 36-tube micro missile pods. They can fire either in rapid or salvo causing cluster damage effects on their targets, strong enough to destroy lightly armored mobile suits such as Zakus or Dom. These micro missile pods can also change to a size of 84-tube with the capability to attack enemies from backwards as well. Alongside the micro missiles, the backpack also includes 3-tube large missile pods for extra firepower too, effective destroying a group of mobile suits but not much against large mobile armor like Gato’s Neue Ziel.
– Not only as a weapon but the Orchis part also contains weapons for Stamen as well. The iconic M-82A Beam Rifle with a Jutte blade is one of them which can also be found in the older GP01 Gundam Zephyranthes, a rocket guided 500-meter long Demolition Chain for surrounding targets, capable of destroying a Musai-class cruiser. The Stamen also has a pair of 6-round magazine Folding Bazooka inside the Orchis for heavy firepower and a Folding Shield for self-defense specifically for it. All these are accessible by using Stamen’s folding manipulator arms to retrieve its weapons up from the large arsenal pack.
III. Gallery:
See Also:
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