Dreadnought Division

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From the Office of Informational Preservation.

See also: Dreadnought Group

 

The Dreadnought Division (shortened to DrDiv in documents) is a new unit of naval organization implemented shortly after the end of the 2nd Solar Crusade. Each Dreadnought Division is composed of three to five super-capital warships and their escorts, as well as any other units and formations required to create a battle-ready force capable of acting as separate units in sector-sized theaters or as one overwhelming force in a single battle. The Division is one step above the Dreadnought Group, the previously largest unit of naval organization representing one super-capital warship and its escorts.

A small number of Dreadnought Divisions, intended to serve as elite units to be deployed when normal Divisions prove to be insufficient, are composed of the most decorated warships in the Combined Defense Force and led by a Terminus-class as their flagship. Over time, each of these special Divisions have acquired a special purpose and a sobriquet matching their legacy.

Dreadnought Divisions that are expected to see heavy losses or are under-strength due to losses may be reinforced with additional warships or merged with other under-strength Divisions. These over-strength Divisions may have up to ten super-capital warships, however this is the absolute upper limit on a single Division’s strength; two full strength Divisions can deliver similar amounts of force without bloating the chain of command. Divisions reinforced to this upper limit have only been deployed in times when a powerful force against the enemy is required or reinforcements are unavailable, such as during the Core Worlds Blockade and the 2nd Siege of the Ringworld.

Terminus-class

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From the Office of Informational Preservation.

See also: Super-Capital

 

The Terminus-class is a line of dreadnoughts in service in the Combined Defense Force. Designed between the 2nd and 3rd Solar Crusades, they were initially intended to spearhead organized attacks on fortified positions and serve as super-heavy line-breakers and siege ships. Later developments led to a shift in naval doctrine and the vessels of the Terminus-class became multipurpose flagships that could be refitted to serve different roles in battle.

The Terminus-class represents the upper limit of the super-capital category, which defines warships that would fall under the traditional role of battleship or dreadnought. Larger than any other super-capital warship fielded by either the Combined Defense Force or a member state and eclipsed only by attack moons and space stations, each Terminus-class represents a great investment of resources and effort. 

Background

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Main articles: 1st Siege of the Ringworld, Special Project: Terminus

 

Special Project: Terminus, authorized by the Ruling Council shortly after the conclusion of the 2nd Solar Crusade, is a naval research and development project intended to produce a dreadnought tonnage flagship that can serve as a breakthrough force in large offensive campaigns. The Special Project was initiated in response to the humiliating rout that was the 1st Siege of the Ringworld, where the Unity’s lineup of battleships and dreadnoughts failed to break through the blockade present and was forced to retreat with heavy losses. Special Project: Terminus seeks to create a super-capital that would be able to crack the defenses for if or when the Ruling Council chooses to have their revenge.

The Terminus-class Star Dreadnought, designed over the course of decades of continuous work and initially constructed in secrecy, would be the result of the Special Project. Equipped with every manner of weaponry, protection, and utility that the Ministry of Defense can acquire, each Terminus is both a keystone of large-scale naval operations and a physical manifestation of the Council’s will. While the first few Terminus-class warships constructed fit the purpose of dedicated line breakers, later on they would undergo significant refits as new campaigns forced these flagships to serve in positions they were not initially designed to fulfill.

Each Terminus is built according to the needs and desires of its contractors, and thus no two Terminus are identical. Some encase themselves in shields and armor, employ heavy weapon batteries to break enemies from afar, and rely on escorts to screen against strike craft. Others are all-purpose vessels, forgoing specialization in favor of flexibility. Still others replace much of its offensive weaponry with close-in defense systems and hangar bays, remaining at the rear of a large naval formation and sending forth swarms of strike craft while more frontline equipped vessels take the brunt of enemy fire.

Upon completion of the designs, each of the various member states that originally agreed to fund the Special Project were promised a single Terminus-class as compensation for their support. Further Terminus-class warships are constructed at the discretion of the Ministry of Defense or through contracts from individual member states. Each member state may normally only maintain one Terminus-class warship; the states who originally funded the Special Project may put into service one additional Terminus-class as further compensation for their initial support. Furthermore, member states may file petitions for additional orders of Terminus-class warships. These petitions are reviewed by various committees and then transferred to the Ministry of Defense, who will eventually approve or deny the petition.

In order to prevent any one member state from holding disproportionate power over the construction and commission of further Terminus-class dreadnoughts, the facilities and technology necessary for their construction are held in a small selection of mega-shipyards under the direct authority of the Ministry of Defense.

Design and Specifications

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Designed at the same time as the Dreadnought Division, each Terminus-class is designed to serve as the flagship and lead vessel of a Division. To this end, each Terminus-class warship is built to serve as command ships alongside their primary purposes as dictated by their contracts. The primary command bridge, buried beneath as much of the ship’s mass as possible, allows naval officers to oversee the battle with absolute safety. Secondary nodes scattered throughout the ship allow for lower enlisted officers to micromanage portions of the warship, allowing primary command to focus on larger scale decisions and providing for a backup chain of control in the event that the primary bridge is incapacitated.

The Terminus-class is built around a skeletal frame made of the most resilient materials that money, influence, and conquest can buy, designed to survive anything and everything that a Terminus-class could possibly encounter in its service. The frame is then reinforced by further layers of armor and bulkheads. Modular ship sections such as gun batteries, shield matrix nodes, reactor cores, and engine clusters are then fitted onto or within this skeleton. A final shell of exterior hull plating encases the mass of modules and structures. The result is a dreadnought that can hold its own against anything short of an armada of lesser warships or another one of its kind.

Depending on specifications, the Terminus-class may possess a spinal mount intended for a Titan size weapon. Such weapons are usually designed to be deployed at the start of a battle to immediately inflict extreme losses to the enemy, further increasing the danger that they pose against enemy task forces. Due to the nature of spinal mounts, each Terminus-class that possesses such a mount cannot be refitted to use a different spinal weapon without major overhauls.

Unlike most warships of the Combined Defense Force, which are symmetrical about the left/right axis, the Terminus-class is symmetrical about both the left/right and up/down axes. Though this does cause logistics issues with shipyards that are not designed with two-axis symmetrical warships in mind, the gun coverage in the form of additional dorsal weapons is considered a sufficient improvement to justify the downsides.

Ships in service

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See also: Jump technology, Atmosphere incineration, Molecular disintegration

Warships of the Terminus line:

• Terminus: Flagship of Dreadnought Division 1 “First Victory”. Armaments include a balanced combination of weapons of various range types. As DrDiv 1 is the lead Division of the Combined Defense Force, the Terminus has been outfitted with increased command infrastructure and sensor packages to fit this role.

• Empire’s Shadow: Flagship of Dreadnought Division 2 “Wrath of Man”. Armaments consist of large weapon batteries and a spinal Blazar Lance capable of atomizing opposing super-capital warships in a single hit or causing a mass extinction event on any planet with a biosphere unfortunate enough to find itself in the way of the Blazar Lance.

• Retributor: Flagship of Dreadnought Division 3 “Solar Typhoon”. Armaments consist of large direct energy batteries and a spinal Supernova Accelerator capable of launching a fission-fusion warhead of absurd yields or an uncontrolled fusion reaction to incredible velocities. Currently undergoing refits in drydock over Mars in order to modernize its aging weapon loadout.

• Red Harvest: Flagship of Dreadnought Division 4 “Steel Rain”. Armaments consist of long range missiles, point defense clusters, and hangar space for an entire Division’s worth of strike craft. The Red Harvest serves the role of a supercarrier and DrDiv 4 is effectively an upsized carrier group.

• Imperial Dream: Flagship of Dreadnought Division 5 “Torchbearers”. Its generalist armament of weapon batteries covering all ranges makes it acceptable in all scenarios but excellent in none. DrDiv 5 serves as the flagship of the Ruling Council during diplomatic ventures; to that end, the Imperial Dream has been modified to accommodate the Council’s presence as well as that of any foreign heads of state.

• End of the Line: Flagship of Dreadnought Division 6 “Invincible Bastion”. The End of the Line was intended to draw and withstand fire from attacking task forces and other super-capitals, and its loadout of reinforced frame, overcharged shield matrices, overclocked hull repair system, and frontal shield array reflects this. DrDiv 6 is intended to reinforce wavering defenses against invading forces, and the other main warships of DrDiv 6 are designed in the same vein as the End of the Line.

• Hammer of Olympus: Flagship of Dreadnought Division 7 “Siegebreaker”. Armaments consist of large batteries of short ranged weapons, heavy armor, an armored prow, a modified superluminal system to allow for short in-system jumps, and boosted engines to counteract the increased mass. DrDiv 7 is intended to jump into enemy formations at close range and dish out extreme damage while drawing incoming fire, allowing other warships to close in without fear of retaliation.

• Angel of the Apocalypse: Flagship of Dreadnought Division 8 “World Devastator”. As one of several First Strike contingencies, the Angel of the Apocalypse contains a backup version of the Ascendancy automated defense system, a large stock of superluminal capable Exfoliator Torpedoes, and a Jump Drive system that allows it to travel between realities at record time. DrDiv 8 serves as a mobile First Strike source and the Division’s main warships are designed to launch rapid decapitation attacks against a hostile state upon declaration of First Strike.

• Death of Hope: Flagship of Dreadnought Division 9 “The Council’s Judgement”. Armaments consist of large weapon batteries and a spinal Molecular Disintegration Array, a device capable of converting matter to energy in a positive feedback field and the only such weapon in service. DrDiv 9 is under the direct command of the Council and is used as a tool of last resort when all other measures fail.