Terminus-class Dreadnought

The Terminus is a dreadnought class in service in the Union Armada.

Dreadnought Division
Main article: Organization of the Union Armada

The Dreadnought Division (shortened to “Div” in documents) is a new unit of naval organization implemented by the Union’s Armada 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 Armada 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 logistics or 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.

Background
See Also: Special Projects of the Defense Sciences Institute

The Terminus-class 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 nation’s power. While the first few Terminus-class constructed fit the purpose of dedicated line breakers, later on some would undergo significant refits as new campaigns revealed the necessity for more flexible generalist flagships.

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 carrier 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 funded the Special Project were promised a single Terminus-class as compensation for their support. Further Terminus-class dreadnoughts 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; states who originally funded the Special Project may put into service one additional Terminus as further compensation for their initial support. Member states may file petitions for additional orders of Terminus warships. These petitions are reviewed by various committees, the Marshals of the Armada, and other members of the Ministry of Defense before the Council votes on the petition.

In order to prevent any one member state from holding disproportionate power over the construction and commission of further Terminus dreadnoughts, the facilities necessary for their construction are held in a small selection of shipyards under the direct authority of the Ministry of Defense. The bureaucratic red tape involved serves as a soft deterrent against member states that may seek to strongarm their way into outfitting their navy with a new Terminus.

Design and Specifications
Each Terminus-class is designed to serve as the flagship and lead vessel of a Division. To this end, each Terminus is built to serve as command ships alongside their primary purposes as dictated by their contracts. The primary command node, located in the most well protected portion of the dreadnought, allows its officers to oversee the battle under absolute safety. Secondary nodes scattered throughout the ship allow for lesser officers to micromanage portions of the warship, allowing primary command to focus on strategic decisions and providing for a backup chain of control in the event that the primary node is incapacitated.

The Terminus-class is built around a skeletal frame made of the most resilient materials that money, influence, research, and conquest can buy, designed to survive anything and everything that a Terminus could possibly encounter in its service. The frame is then reinforced by further layers of armor and bulkheads. 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. Several layers of redundant backups ensure that a Terminus can continue to move and fight even after losing portions of its exterior and interior.

Certain Terminus dreadnoughts are built around a spinal weapon of incredible devastation. Such weapons are intended 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 effectively rebuilding the ship.

Unlike most warships of the Armada, which are symmetrical about only 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.