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Leviathan Class

The Djed - a Leviathan Class Ship
Image from Steve Bowers
The Djed in Combat Mode; a broad, low density ovoid with multiple weapons systems deployed, capable of withstanding numerous impacts without significant damage

These MPA capital ships were the largest warships of the Version War until the construction of the Juggernaut class. 180 km long in compact mode, 250 km in diameter in extended (ovoid) mode.

As would be expected, the MPA military hyperturings were quite enamoured with their giant dreadnoughts, which replaced the earlier Gigantor Class. The first Leviathan Class vessel was constructed during the middle of the Version War, to provide fire support for the MPA autowars. Learning from the mistakes of the earlier Goliath Dreadnoughts, which, without their protective screen of autowars were easily disabled by the much smaller but more manoeuvrable and adaptable Negentropist and Dominion vessels, the new vessels were provided with enhanced toposophic intelligence, more adaptable transapientech morphing, and a more powerful set of displacement drive engines.

Even so, problems remained. The Djed (the Leviathans, like the Goliaths before them, were all named after MPA Sectors, the Djed was the third vessel of that name) was a slender cylinder some 180 kilometres in length but only three and a half kilometres in diameter when in optimal relativistic mode. The ship required two hours to morph into a broad ovoid and to deploy all its weapon systems. For this reason, the Leviathans were used as mobile fortresses, for defensive fire support, or to attack besieged forces.

Although condemned by critics as unnecessarily wasteful on resources (the fact that so many resources were put into the Gigantors, Leviathans and Brobdingnags, rather than on the much more adaptable and resource efficient autowars, has often been cited by military historians as the reason why the MPA lost so much territory to the Revisionists during the war). The later MPA dreadnoughts, especially the upgraded Leviathan III and Gigantor VIII and IX and the even larger Juggernaut Class, proved so devastating in combat that they were never beaten. After the war, some of these noble vessels were honourably discharged, and given large tracts of space to settle along the MPA periphery. Others remained in the service of the empire, and they became the MPA's equivalent of the Empire Ship.

 
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Appears in Topics
Classic ShipsDrytech/HylotechHigh Tech / Hitech
Sophont ShipsSpace-Based Weapons
 
Development Notes
Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Initially published on 03 December 2001.

 
 
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