Ship Designation: Adeptus Deorum-class
Ship Class: Flagship
Model Number: Mark 1
Full Designation: Adeptus Deorum-class Flagship
Armament: Four dual High-Output Anti-Fortress Mega Particle Beam Cannons, Two Linked Hangars, One Hundred and Eighty dual 90mm Machine Gun Turrets (Point Defense Variant), One Hundred and Thirty dual Beam Spray Gun Turrets (Point Defense Variant), Ninety ‘Tank Bunkers’, Eighteen Variable Payload Long-Range Missile Silos, Fifty Suicidal Guided Missile Launcher Turrets, Thirteen 180mm ‘Hypervelocity’ Railcannon Turrets.
Description: The role of a Flagship is to act as the icon that all of a nation and its military can rally around. While there are currently only two ships that fit this role, both of them are more than worthy of being called the ‘Biggest Ship in the Fleet’. The Adeptus Deorum-class gets its name from the first ship of its kind, the flagship of Lord Arkhan himself. Originally built off of a modified Origin Dolos, the main ship has seen various refits and modifications over its lifespan. While ponderously slow, it is armed and armored to the teeth and equipped with the best tech that could be fitted on it. Its sensor suite makes it nigh omniscient in regard to the AO that it finds itself in, and it can coordinate the movements of over a hundred smaller ships via a ‘Networked Intelligence' system.
It keeps the main weapon of the original ship it was built off of, the absolutely massive dual Mega Particle Beam Cannons that are mounted in a broadside configuration, but it ramps up their power to obscene levels. These cannons can, if they manage to hit, absolutely demolish several ships at once in a single shot. This is to say nothing of the damage it can do when fired at immobile targets, such as fortresses. In fact, the range and power of these guns were altered specifically to deal with enemy fortifications, even permitting the ship to fire them at ground targets from low orbit. The cannons have poor firing arcs due to being embedded into the sides of the ship, but while they can only move roughly 100 degrees total from one side to the other before being stopped by the rest of the ship, anything those weapons hit will either be erased or, if they are 'lucky' enough, horribly damaged.
The hangars from the Origin Dolos were kept as is, save for them being partially fused together. The hangars themselves can actually fit a small fleet inside of themselves, or it can instead house an absurd number of strikecraft. While the blast doors that protect the hangars take a long time to open, this is generally enough time for any ships within to activate all of their systems and prepare for immediate combat.
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It would seem that the designers of this ship were more than aware of the power that strikecraft have and added a large amount of point defense systems to the ship in order to dissuade any attempts at taking it down. Add in the ‘Tank Bunkers’ and the fact that some Tank-type Mobile Suit Golems are equipped with magnetized treads for use in zero-gravity environments and you have a ship that can not only rebuke any attack with its own point defense but can also quickly be swarming with MSGs. There are specific trails running all over the ship and several large areas where MSGs can congregate to add extra protection, both as extra guns and, if necessary, as ‘living’ shields.
The 180mm Railcannons that are mounted in a ‘v’ formation on the top of the ship are an extra bit of firepower to deal with any ship too intelligent to try and attack the sides of the flagship. They are, like the ones on the Battleships, capable of firing rounds at 50% the speed of light and can fire either solid metal slugs, DEAP shells or flachette shells. Even if a foe was to attack from the sides and avoid the Mega Particle Beam Cannons, they would still have to deal with metal rods seemingly coming in from out of nowhere. Due to being a ‘Hypervelocity’ gun, the rounds that are fired from these guns are, without a doubt, too fast for most sensors to track. Adding in that most engagements happen at brawling distance, and you can see how some ships will simply be eradicated without ever knowing what hit them.
Mounted on the underside of the ship are its missile launch systems, which include the Suicidal Guided Missile Turrets and the Variable Payload Long-Range Missile Silos. The Missiles fired from the Turrets are ones that have been fused with a Virtual Intelligence. These are not as ‘smart’ as true AI, and thus can only follow basic commands. This is, however, more than enough to get it to target enemy ships, both large and small and ram into them before detonating. This is also the case for the larger ICBM-sized guided missiles launched by the silos, but the VI’s inside of those ones are marginally more intelligent and can delay their explosion until enough friendlies are out of its effective range.
As the ship is designated as a ‘Flagship’, it is staffed by only the best and comes with a full internal security team, although everyone inside is fully trained in CQB. The ship is considered large enough to not only be viewed as a Flagship but also as a Mothership. However, seeing as it rarely ever sees active combat and instead generally is used as a mobile monument to the power of the AGC, it is likely that the Adeptus Deorum-class of ships will be used in active combat only when the situation is absolutely needed. After all, it is the very heart and soul of the AGC’s navy; losing one of them would be a blow to morale that could take a decade or more to recover from, especially if Lord Arkhan went down with it.