ThreeA ~ WWR : African Def Freiheit Heavy Bramble Mk 2.5

Ritterlich im Kriege, wachsam für den Frieden.

A (mis) interpretation:

Category type : Warbot.
Unit type : Mass production heavy support warbot.

Model type : Heavy Bramble MK2.5.

Manufacturer : The Rothchild Corporation.

Affiliation : 9th "Freiheit" Heavy Panzer Division; Afrika Korps; Panzergruppe Afrika; The United Kingdom of Afrika Armeegruppe, Terra Coalition Armed Forces.

Height : 7 feet.

Weight : 3500kg.

Armour type : Super hardened ceramic steel composite alloy.

Armour thickness : 150mm; Plates 130mm.

Powerplant : Quad turbo BRINK supercharger diesel engine.

Std. armaments : Tiger Sauer - AUNTY JACK rocket launcher x 1; Multi-spectrum scanners; Long range sensorium; Target acquisition system; Task Intelligence (T.I.) ver. 2; Heat-dissipating radiator backpack.

The Heavy Bramble Mk 2.5 (occasionally also referred to as a Mk 3), warbots come into prominence during the Seige of Tobruk, 1941, in the Libyan sector, United Kingdom of Afrika by the Ecclesiarchy of Mars forces as part of their North Afrika Campaign two months after the launching of Operation True Faith, securing considerably large sectors of Eurasia and Eastasia in the first year of the Great War or the Great Crusade as the Ecclesiarchy of Mars calls it.

The United Kingdom of Afrika anticipates the Martian forces to concentrate on the battles in Eurasia and protectorate borders of the Republic of Middle East. It is also lulled into a false sense of security by the Amon Line, a line of impenetrable walls which separates both nations, and stretches from Mauritania to North Sudan sectors. It is heavily fortified with a wide range of defensive measures to deter invaders. The Amon Line is built during and after the end of the Ten Years War against the Republic of Middle East. The High Lord of the United Kingdom of Afrika, the Führer Idi Amon, takes great pride in the fortification, equating it to the impenetrable walls of ancient Troy, making the Eastasia's Great Wall and Eurasia's Iron Curtain pale in comparison. It takes a considerable sizable amount of the nation's military budget to complete it, thus holding back the nation from further modernising its military forces.

The Ecclesiarchy of Mars sees the strategic importance in securing Northern Afrika sectors, and if were to be successful, the major bulk of its armies would eventually link up with those fighting on the Western Front. They would have be able to establish a defensive perimeter and the supply line drastically shortened across Eurasia, and move on against Oceania primary industrial sites and hive cities. If Oceania were to fall, the Reds Army would be able to set a defensive perimeter across Eurasia.

As the armies of the Republic of Middle East stubbornly holds on, as well as the Eurasian campaign on-going, Ecclesiarch Boniface impatiently orders immediate attack and invasion upon North Afrika. Idi Amon, comfort in his palace within the capital Eko Lagos City, is confident, and held back any deployments to re-inforce the beleaguered Egypt Sector of the Republic of Middle East. Bulk of the armies would be assigned to manning the Amon Line instead. Many of the Afrika divisions lack necessary equipment and cohesion, although battle hardened veterans from the Ten Year Wars are accounted amongst them. Majority of the warbots employed are out dated siege artillery BOB and the reliability plagued tactical support Harold FS.

The Ecclesiarch of Mars read the situation well, and ensures his armoured divisions are well out of the Amon Line guns and cannons range. At the same time, these ground forces move around the line as the fortress wall is not continuous. Carriers from the captured Site 2 colony, begin to launch drop pods carrying thirty divisions of warbots and infantry forces onto the border of Libyan sub-sectors. Within three days, Idi Amon forces are surrounded and annihilated. The Terra Coalition Armed Forces then mobilises a defence army  to defend what left of the sub-sectors, comprising mostly of Oceania Expeditionary Force, supported by several garrisons from Europa and Republic of Middle East as majority of their forces are being tied down on the Eastern Front.
Faced with a potential total invasion of his nation, Amon put aside any past differences and mobilises a total war across United Kingdom of Afrika. Every one, from a fifteen year old teenager to an eighty year old grandmother, are recruited. Self-appointing himself as the Supreme Commander of the nation Armeegruppe, he re-establishes the Panzergruppe Afrika, which was severely depleted after a series of political blood purges, with the Afrika Korps spearheading the liberation of Tobruk . He also secure a series of warbots from the Rothchild Corporation, under a series of complex bonds and financial loan schemes, and immediately deploy them to the defence and liberation of the northern sector.

An upgraded version of the current Bramble series warbots are deployed to liberate first Benghazi, and then Tobruk, of which the besieged Oceania force has stubbornly held for eight months under the legendary field commander, Morshead with just two armoured and five mechanised infantry divisions from the Aus Republic II Corps , comprising Bertie MK1 and Harold FS. The garrison of Oceania and Middle Eastern infantry armies also fights bitterly to hold the fort. The Martians deride them, calling them "the poor heretic desert rats of Tobruk" through their religious propaganda broadcast. With their typically dry wit, the Australasians reclaimed the name as a badge of pride, even going so far as to strike their own unofficial medal bearing the likeness of a rat.
Their fierce defence, particularly that of the Aus Republic 7th "Battleaxe" Armoured Division, tithers on the brink of collapse when re-enforcement comes from the Afrika Korps. The first to arrive is the 9th Panzer Division comprising entirely of the Heavy Brambles MK2.5. Aptly named the "Freiheit" Division, the warbots give a much needed relieve to the besieged forces.

Idi Amon does not waste time to fuel the political propaganda, hailing the failure of the Martians' Siege of Tobruk as a sign that the Afrika Korps would not give up and gives all the credit to his Panzergruppe Afrika, calling them liberators. The truth is, without Morshead and his forces resiliency to hold on to Tobruk at all cost, the entire sub-sector would have had lost to the Martians. The Northern Africa Campaign would continue however, until the defeat of the Martian forces at the pivotal Battle of Moskva-Petrograd in Eurasia a year later. 

Designated as the Heavy Bramble MK2.5, but occasionally also referred to as MK3, the Heavy Bramble is very much the same as the standard Bramble MK2 with several upgrades. The MK2.5 have thicker armour, greater mobility due to an improved twin BRINK turbocharged engine as well as upgraded T.I. system and sensoriums. Their arms and fists are desinged larger in order to carry the massive AUNTY JACK four barrelled rocket launcher. They are programmed to specialise in the area of siege warfare but eventually proves to be one of the most versatile warbot deployed for its time. The Martian Bertie MK1 proves no match for the new Heavy Bramble series warbot.

The Heavy Bramble MK2.5 is standard issued with the formidable AUNTY JACK four barrelled shoulder held rocket launcher. Heavy Bramble warbot is also known to resort to hand to hand combat if no weaponry available or exhausted, using its massive hands to punch, crush or tear its targets apart. In the battle field, they are usually supported by a platoon of Square field intel and surveillence mobile platforms. The Afrika Defense model is also equiped with heat-dissipating radiator backpack to adapt to the desert climate of the battle theatre. The Heavy Bramble foregoes the Bramble MK2 standard issued GUSTAV 50mm assault-cannon but is known to use it or any other forms of weaponries lying about in the battle fields.

The AUNTY JACK carries incendiary rockets. Each rocket is equipped with the melta warhead, a heat-based weapons which work by sub-atomic agitation of the air. Targets on the receiving end are heated to the point of being vaporised. Upon impact, the melta warhead would release highly pressurised pyrum-petrol gases with a two part injection system which forces the gases into a molecular state, which will vaporise just about anything in seconds. An armoured enemy target would be reduced to molten slag. The incendiary rockets can also be replaced with high explosive anti-armour warhead.

The weapon is meant to be fired from the right shoulder, and can be fired from either a standing, crouching, or prone position. It has a trigger mode to facilitate firing all four rockets at once, not just one at a time. After firing, it can be reloaded with a clip housing four rockets. It can be used against both air or ground targets. Many Martian drop pods re-inforcement are shot down enroute to the space harbour of Tobruk.

The rockets itself are unique in that they are guided weapons with an on-board artificial intelligence, known as a "logis-engine."  Sensors in the missile's nose transmits information on the target and surrounding environment to the logis-engine, which guides the missile in flight by manipulating its stabilising fins, allowing the missile to match the target's movements and avoid obstacles.  The missile's warhead is an impact fused shaped charge, designed for maximum armour penetration. Other instruments include an internal gyroscope for stable flight and a small battery to power the sensor and logis-engine. These "hunter-killer" rockets technology would eventually be developed further, serving as precursor and basic template for the development of the evolutionary SMRTGUN assault rifle issued to the Caesar series warbots.

The successful contributing factor by the Heavy Bramble MK2.5 in the siege and liberation of Tobruk leads to its widespread popularity, and months later, all Seven Nations would adopt it into their various army groups to battle against the Martian forces. It should also be noted that rogue and terrorist factions have also secured and converted their own groups of Heavy Brambles. The Ecclesiarchy of Mars twin rings of defence around Phobos and Deimos are largely protected by legions of the Frateris Militia's own Heavy Brambles.

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I would have love to get the NW N.O.M. version colourway instead or a J.E.A. but opportunity to actually see the size of the box changes my mind. Local custom would have bled me to death as well as the asking price and availability of those colourways in the secondary market. So I bite the bullet and got meself this version instead locally from a nearby toy shop calls Robotica Toys for a reasonable, within budget price, thus also saving shipping costs. The Heavy Bramble stands at about 14 inches tall, but the shortfall in height, say, compare to a Caesar, Zaku, Arnstrong or even the elusive Large Martin or Bertie Mk3, it makes up for it in its sheer mass. Just like Mongrol. It gives you a perception of BIG. It is wide with huge arms. But here lies the problem of the design - the skinny legs and top heavy body. It comes with a biggest weaponry I have ever got as a casual toy collector, a massive four tubes rocket launcher made of pure, solid vinyl. And its heavy. It took me nearly an hour just to ensure the bot doesn't topple over, which it did several times, to the point where its right skinny leg popped off, but luckily being made of vinyl, can easily put back on. But over time, the more I pose it, the joints got more floppy and floppy. Finally I got it right. Also, watch out for the flaps at the back of the launcher. All it takes is one mistake and a fall, and off it comes out, as per warned in little note which comes with the set. I managed to glue it back nicely though. This colourway, a retailer exclusive, must have been not so popular amongst the fans as it must have been in the box for a while since most of the weathering has started to fade abit and I notice some of the weatherings are still abit wet amongst the crevices. I air it for a while, but lacking real estate to display it, I placed it back into the box once more. Time to get space for these warbots. Not to mention there's the Tumbler and Batpod on it's way...