BUILD YOUR OWN WORLD Like what you see? Become the Master of your own Universe!

L-666 "Lucifer"

Leviathan Class Fleetship L-666, code named "Lucifer" would, in its short career, become one of the most feared starships in the fleet of the Terran Imperium.  It would be lost in the Terran asteroid belt in 883, only to be rediscovered just prior to the beginning of the First Enmalex War.  Following refit, Lucifer would become the most powerful ship in the Republic fleet, and serve as the flagship of Fleet Admiral Sebastien von Ryland.      

Origins

The history of Lucifer actually begins with an Admiralty meeting in 850 MY, when plans were being discussed for an improved, heavy assault version of the Leviathan class that would eventually become known as the Super Leviathan's. It was decided to swap fifty of the planned Leviathan class for the uprated Super's, in hopes this revised design would prove more successful.   As the first of the Super Leviathan's began emerging from the shipyards, the "Best of the Worst" planning group, in charge of creating modified, experimental Leviathan's began work on what they called Super II. The concept behind the Super II project was the need for a superheavy capital ship capable of dealing with orbital fortifications and heavily fortified planetary defense centers. This would require incredibly dense and extensive armor protection, as well as the most powerful weapons that could be manufactured. The proposed ship would also have to include the most extensive point defense systems possible, as no destroyer escort could possibly survive in the environments the ship was expected to operate in. Since the ship would likely have to operate alone, it would have to be able to engage targets effectively at any range.      

Super II turrets

The planning of the conversion called in the best designers in every field to work in secret on different aspects of the design. Among those to work on the project was Xavier Thomason, tasked with developing a superheavy, turret mounted system that was intended to be the backbone of the offensive weaponry. The Super II turret that emerged from this was essentially a starship in itself. Each turret was self contained, with power coming from an independent fusion reactor, separate life support systems, and independent targetting.   The primary armament of the turret included two Thomason Pattern railcannon, each powered by a separate fusion reactor and capacitor bank, enclosed in independently armored compartments, so that if one was disabled, the other could continue firing without interruption. However, these railcannon were scaled up to immense size. Where the largest railcannon made at the time fired a solid shot of 30 cm in diameter, the Super II railcannon could fire solid projectiles up to 10 meters in diameter. A projectile of that mass hitting a target at 1,000 km/s could all but guarantee total destruction. In addition, thanks to the helical arrangement of the coils in the Thomason Pattern railcannon, the shot would be spin stabilized, increasing accuracy at long ranges, even when fired through an atmosphere. This would allow the pinpoint targetting of ground fortifications. However, the incredible power needed to fire projectiles of this size would totally deplete the power reserves of the capacitor bank, and fully recharging them could take up to thirty minutes.   One of the innovations added to the railcannon was the ability to adjust to projectiles of different sizes, allowing the standard 30 cm projectiles to be used, but with far greater accelleration than any other railcannon could produce.    Unlike the Imperial Pattern railcannon, the Thomason Pattern did not require the barrel to be depressed to change weapons types, allowing the use of particle beams of truly immense size and power with little to no time lost. As with all railcannon, it could fire plasma cannon charges, and would be refitted to fire antimatter after the First Antoskan War. Switching to energy weapons would delay the recharging of the capacitor bank, further reducing the rate of fire.   Where other ships of the time, especially the Titan Class Dreadnaught used robust, mechanically driven turrets, the Super II turrets would use frictionless magnetic bearings. When combined with an electromagnetic mechanism to provide rotation, the turrets could turn with surprising speed and agility, allowing the targetting of starships at medium to long ranges.   As if the offensive weaponry were insufficient, each turret also included its own point defense batteries for close in defense, as well as independent shield generators. In short, each turret was its own fortress, capable of continuing to fight even if the rest of the ship was disabled or destroyed.    

Construction

In January of 854, the keel of Leviathan-666 was laid out at the Leviathan yards of Bablos, and construction would take three years, rather than the originally slated six months. Part of this was due to a delay when Emperor Claudius II was deposed and executed, casting doubt onto the future of the entire program. Work resumed when Emperor Theodosius IV agreed to allow those Leviathan's currently under construction to be completed.  Constructed under much stricter oversight as part of the Super program, L-666 was accepted by the fleet in March, 857 and immediately moved to the purpose built conversion yards in the uninhabited GRM-88432 System of the Vaga Pacum sector.      

Conversion

Industrie Spatiale would decline the offer to oversee the conversion, as they were already occupied with work on a number of other Leviathan class ships, so the contract was awarded to Thomason Shipbuilding.  During their inspection, the Inspector of Ships of Thomason Shipbuilding noted a large number of defects in the construction that would have to be corrected, and that the conversion would therefore take longer than anticipated.  The Admiralty agreed to waive the late delivery penalties that would have normally occurred in return for Thomason Shipbuilding correcting any defects at no charge.    The work undertaken by Thomason Shipbuilding would essentially rebuild the entire ship from the frame up, and suffered numerous delays and setbacks, particularly in obtaining the vast quantities of ablative armor required for the project that met the standards set by the yard's Inspector of Ships.  Engines were also proving to be a problem, as the revised Treb IV plasma drive intended for the project consistently failed the rigorous testing Thomason Shipbuilding demanded.  At the time, due to the nature of the Treb design engines for the Leviathan class, the Design Board had limited the drives to 50% power, and required them to be certified at 70% power.  Thomason Shipbuilding insisted that all systems installed aboard the ship meet their standards, including a requirement that all plasma drive systems be tested and certified at 150% their rated thrust.     Frustrated by the repeated failure of the Treb drives, Thomason Shipbuilding would turn to their own propulsion division and develop the turbinic plasma drive.  As this drive was an entirely new concept, the Design Board required extensive testing befure authorizing their use in the fleet.  Thomason Shipbuilding had already begun constructing the drive, so they hastily moved and installed the first of these on the new star liner United States, which was then under construction.  In the meantime, they were instructed to make do with the Treb IV engines and accept the fleet certification on the engines.  Thomason Shipbuilding was not satisfied with this, and so they quietly modified the Treb IV engines that were delivered with additional monitoring equipment and automatic cut off switches that would deactivate the drive and vent the plasma safely in the event of a malfunction.  They would also redesign the armor layout of the ship to create a blast shield to direct the expected drive failure away from the rest of the ship.       

Monsos War

L-666, now given the working code name "Lucifer" was incomplete at the opening of the Monsos War.  None of the Super II turrets had yet been installed, and the armor protection was only 80% complete due to the redirection of much of the available armor to defend the ship against its own engines.  Monsos was well aware of the work going on due to the amount of traffic to and from the uninhabited system, and struck the facility in their first wave.  Thomason Shipbuilding, suspicious of the sudden jamming of all communications, had already evacuated their entire staff to the ship, and immediately made an escape jump on the barely functional ship.  They would catch up with the retreating Fleet Admiral Adex at Centauria and continue on to Terra.  The still incomplete Lucifer would serve in the Battle of Terra as one of the ships flanking Imperator to provide close in defensive fire support.         

Postwar Refit

Among the lessons learned in the Monsos War was that the extreme lack of maneuverability of the Leviathan class in general made them especially ill suited to any kind of fleet action.  Thomason Shipbuilding had noted this in their construction, proposing the addition of considerably larger maneuvering thrusters than the Design Board had mandated in the original design.  Lucifer would be fitted with this new system, while the unconverted Leviathan's would receive software updates for their counter rotating gravitic power generators to allow those to vary speed to aid maneuvering.  It would also be equipped with the new Fire Control and Point Defense Datalink master control systems.  The armor would be upgraded to include a layer of Mykentian energy refracting armor, the first Imperial ship to include this technology.      

Service

Lucifer would be accepted by the Admiralty on June 19, 862, but would largely be kept near Terra for several years as the Imperial Fleet rebuilt.  At the outbreak of the Terran Civil War, Lucifer would be dispatched to the front, but would immediately defect to the Remian Republic.  The ship was taken in for an emergency retrofit and upgrade to the newer Remus Fire Control System and pushed back into service defending the far frontier from a possible move by Monsos.  Following independence, Lucifer would receive a more extensive refit to add gravitic drive, update weapons systems, and upgrade the power systems.  The Treb IV drive was finally replaced with a new, high output ion drive.    In the First Antoskan War, Lucifer would be transferred to the Terran Imperium following a Monsos strike in August, 870.  Lucifer would be credited with single handedly stabilizing the front, and even Monsos would recognize that they had nothing that could match it.  It would serve as the Imperial command ship for the joint Imperial/Remian task force that attacked Monsos, the Super II turrets proving instrumental in eliminating planetary defense centers with direct fire from orbit.       

Second Refit

Lucifer would enter Thomason Yard One in orbit of Terra for an extensive refit in 873, not returning to service until 875.  Again stripped down to the frame, Lucifer would receive the latest power, command and control, and weapons systems.  New Super III turrets were constructed to replace the originals, with the railcannon now limited to a maximum of one meter projectiles.  However, the new superconducting coils could now fire at speeds up to 15,000 km/s.  Articulation speed was also increased to improve targetting of ships at closer ranges. The primary mass drivers were upgraded to a variable system, allowing them to fire a variety of projectiles at far greater speeds.       

The Lucifer Run

Following the Excelsior hearings, on October 15, 883 all fleetships in the Terran Imperium were ordered to return to port for immediate decomissioning and disposal.  A number of Leviathan class ships refused the order, with Bismarck fleeing to the Remian Republic, and Leviathan 1 reaching Mykentia.  Admiral Stewart Hawkins, in command of Lucifer, refused to run and instead set course for Terra.  He would arrive in the outskirts of the Terran System on October 28 and issue an open challenge for the Imperial fleet to come and face him.  To prove he was going to stand and fight, he would jettison Lucifer's jump system.    Advancing entirely at sublight and not changing course, Lucifer would engage multiple squadrons of cruisers, taking little damage until reaching the orbit of Saturn.  Here, Lucifer was attacked at close range by three hastily assembled squadrons of Titan Dreadnaughts.  Sticking close where the Super III turrets could not engage, the Titans were able to inflict heavy damage to the secondary weapons.  Attempting to target the ship from behind, the Titans were taken by surprise by the primary mass driver.  The Design Board had not taken into account that the externally loaded mass driver could also be fired in reverse, or that the Remian escort pods the ship still carried would allow targetting of ships within the blind spot.    Still advancing, Lucifer passed the orbit of Jupiter, where the Admiralty attempted a new tactic.  Using obsolete, unmodernized Ark Royal Class Carriers, the Admiralty ordered ramming attacks on the stern of Lucifer, intending to disable it.  Admiral Hawkins would jettison the primary drive systems after they took severe damage in the attacks, relying entirely on gravity drive.  With the main drive eliminated, the carriers switched to ramming the primary turrets.     Now heavily damaged, Hawkins would order the crew to abandon ship as they apprached the asteroid belt.  They would disable all power systems as they left, with the helm set to park the ship in the shadow of a large asteroid.       

Ghost Ship

The lack of active power systems and the composite armor made the ship almost impossible to detect.  Numerous sightings would be made by a variety of mining companies over the following years, but could never be confirmed.  It would later be discovered that Hawkins had programmed the helm to periodically bring the gravity drive online and relocate the ship to a different asteroid, but only if no other ships were in range of the passive sensors.  Lucifer managed to keep itself hidden this way for nearly eighty years, until it was detected powering up by Akagi-1093, which was conducting routine stealth exercises in the asteroid belt.       

First Enmalex War

Following its rediscovery, a massive salvage operation was launched.  Using archived authorization codes, a boarding team was able to disable the programming left behind by Admiral Hawkins.  It was quickly discovered that the gravity drive was barely functional, requiring several ships to take Lucifer in tow.  The original intention was to bring the ship to Terra, placing it in orbit alongside the decommissioned Imperator as part of the Imperial Fleet Museum.  The sudden appearance of the Enmalex and their rapid advance altered these plans.  Fleet Admiral Hastings ordered several Titan class dreadnaughts to dock directly to Lucifer to provide propulsion, with one transferring all power to their jump system to expand their jump field.  He, and Rear Admiral Sebastien von Ryland were well aware of the capabilities of Lucifer, and that a ship of that firepower would be desperately needed.    Lucifer would be placed in Thomason Yard Seven in the Mykentian system for a full emergency overhaul and refit under the direct supervision of Xavier Thomason.  He requested a mere six weeks for this overhaul, while the Design Board was still debating what to do with the ship and had not even fully surveyed it yet.  The process of the upgrade would be vastly accelerated by the use of nanotechnology, the first time it would be adapted for ship construction.    The Lucifer that emerged was several orders of magnitude more powerful than any other ship constructed since the dissapearance of the Omnos, with the possible exception of Galatian World Destroyers.  During a premiminary weapons test, the new main gun was able to vaporize an Enmalex heavy attack ship with one shot.  The secondary turrets would later prove capable of destroying Enmalex fast attack ships with a single shot, and could cause massive damage to even Main Fleet ships when used at full power.    In addition to the latest experimental power and weapons system, Lucifer would also be equipped with an Omnos computer core, capable of storing and processing vast amounts of data faster and more accurately than even the Prime System on Mykentia.  To coordinate all ships systems and reduce crew size, Thomason installed a Galatian organic control unit which had originally been intended for a World Destroyer.  The indoctrination of these units was different than those used in other ships, and concern for enemy casualties was heavily de-emphasized due to their planned use in ships intended to render occupied planets uninhabitable.  Use of this control unit would allow Lucifer to use its weapons at full power without suffering the emotional instability other control units would in inflicting heavy casualties.   Knowing that Lucifer would be used as a fleet command and control ship, the computer databases included full technical data on every weapons system ever used or in current development, as well as every ship class.  In addition, the databases included summaries of every battle and war in recorded history, all available to the organic control unit.  This would allow Lucifer itself to work with a fleet commander as a tactical and strategic advisor, however the indoctrination would not allow it to take independent action.    Following the destruction of Freyja during the rescue of Omega, Thomason ordered Lucifer to fire on all Enmalex ships at full power.  This order would result in the "Bloodbath of Arahova," where Lucifer targeted and destroyed every Enmalex ship in the system, even ships which were disabled and no threat.  This would be repeated at Niskos the following day.  Thomason would later disable the program, allowing the crew to maintain control over the ship.    Lucifer would remain the flagship of Fleet Admiral von Ryland for the rest of the First Enmalex War, and with his promotion to Grand Admiral was placed in reserve status in orbit of Terra.
First Enmalex War period Lucifer.

Statistics:

    Length: 4.15 km
Power system:
Propulsion:
  Defensive Characteristics:
  Weaponry:

Comments

Please Login in order to comment!