Battlehulks

The capital ships of choice in any planetary fleet. Battlehulk as a classification applies to any military vessel of above a million metric tons that isn't designed to carry cargo (a similarly sized vessel with more than 50% of its internal volume dedicated to carriage is technically a carrier, regardless of armament). While this is a broad mass-based term, the fact is that most battlehulks follow the same basic style of construction using plans owned by the Galactic Council. An evolution of the DCI frigate conceived during the Alien War, it is highly automated and despite its immense size can operate with less than a hundred crew. It is primarily used for transport of troops (std compliment 1,000,000) the evacuation of refuges (up to 5,000,000, because refugees apparently need 1/5th the space of soldiers) and as a weapons platform for planetary bombardment and spacial battles (Source: Mark VII battlehulk commission).

There are seven general periods in the historical development of battlehulks. Mark I battlehulks immediately followed the DCI frigates and used the Hawking Drive as their source of propulsion. They were the largest capital ships to use the Hawking Drive, as anything more massive was beyond the scope of the Drive’s capabilities to shield from space-time. They reached a maximum size of roughly three times that of the DCI frigates (~1.5 million metric tons), upgrading them from a frigate or cruiser classification and just barely out-massing the battleships of the Alien War as the capital ships of the Terran Alliance’s fleet.

Mark II battlehulks were used in planetary defense only, and were only used in the systems where they could be built. During the Interplanetary War that broke up the Terran Alliance, they were used as local defense to outclass the Mark I. They were too massive (several powers of ten larger than the Mark I, over ten million metric tons) to use the Hawking Drive, however, so interstellar travel was impractical.

The Mark III battlehulk was developed around the emerging technology behind the Galactic Wormhole Drive in the Terran Empire. It was first used against the Mark II battlehulks at Galphus Prime as a part of the Empire’s attempts to retake galactic control. The Mark III, though better armed than the Mark II, was slightly smaller and less well armored, since the outside limits of the Wormhole Drive weren’t known at the time. The Mark II battlehulks were able to outlast the Mark III, resulting in a failed campaign for the Terran Empire that ended in the collapse of their government.

As the Galactic Council formed on Earth and the disparate warring factions started to come to diplomatic terms, the Mark IV battlehulk was developed by the council to support their claims as the governing body of the galaxy. The Mark IV was the first Battlehulk to be powered by a contained singularity rather than expensive matter/anti-matter annihilation. It was much (2-3 hundred million metric tons) larger, better armed and better armored than the Mark III and Mark II battlehulks, and could travel faster over interstellar distances due to the increased power available to manipulate a wormhole into existence. It did not see use until the Corporation War, though it did lead directly to the construction of the first fleet carriers.

The Mark V battlehulk was developed by a consortium of corporations called PRIM (Private Resources In Management) as a precursor to the Corporation War. It used the same technologies as the Mark IV, but was powered by a significantly larger singularity, and as such was larger, better armed, and less easily breached. The Mark V easily outclassed the Mark IV, but PRIM lost the war and was subsequently disbanded at the hands of the recently completed fleet carriers deployed by the Galactic Council. When PRIM was disbanded, the Mark V continued to serve in the private navies maintained by several of the corporations that had been members.

The Mark VI battlehulks were developed by the Galactic Council in response to a captured Mark V battlehulk from the Corporation War. It is basically the same ship with the living quarters improved and the weapons systems slightly upgraded.

The Mark VII battlehulk was developed fifty years following the release of the Mark VI against the rising number of planetary governments that were able to maintain their own navy of Mark VI and Mark V battlehulks. Massing just north of 1.3 billion metric tons, it is much larger and more powerful than either previous ship due to the use of VacTech Corporation quantum vacuum cells for power. Only a few dozen of these ships were ever built by the Galactic Council due to pressure from environmental group representatives on the council against the use of VacTech products, but they remain an immense source of trepidation to anyone intent on challenging the Council. Rumors exist, however, that suggest VacTech Corp was never paid in exchange for the QVac cells they provided for the battlehulks, and were instead compensated with open access to the plans for the Mark VII. If this is true, they may be building their own Mark VII battlehulks on one of their private manufacturing moons.