The ships were designed to be almost entirely offensive in nature, and to save weight it was largely unarmored and equipped with only point-defense weapons. As a result, it would always require an escort.

The overall design was aesthetically ugly, but functional, and the ‘warhead’ (the forward section containing the offensive armament) was designed to be jettisoned in extremis. It had a relatively small crew, with few amenities for their recreation or comfort. Because of this, and the knowledge that the ships would be literally coming into range of ground-based planetary defense networks and saying basically “Shoot me, I dare you!” made many crews look upon serving aboard one as a punishment detail, if not a suicide attack.

The final design was for a ship measuring 350 meters in length, with a height of fifty meters and a beam of seventy-five to present a minimal silhouette to defenders. Due to the size of the weapons platform and its power demands, its final weight was 450 thousand metric tons. The rail guns required a dedicated fusion generator, which was housed aft with the matter-antimatter reactor for the engines.

The primary weapons consisted of two (increased from one for redundancy) Mokele Electromagnetics Type Ten mass drivers, with a bore of fifteen meters and a rotary loading system. The ships were also equipped with between forty and eighty nuclear-armed missiles with variable-yield warheads. Defensive weapons were ten point-defense projectors and a Type VII shield network. It had a crew of 160, ten officers and 150 crewmembers.

With the Emperor demanding action, the time from initial design to the launch of the first ship of the class, Mars Ultor, was eleven months.



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Original crappy sketch by  Walt46

Excellent render art by  NezumiYuki at the request of  Major Matt Mason as a Christmas present. Thanks! :D