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The Pardisdaemrich-class (High Dracid: Heaven's Fire) or Heavenfire-class is a model of titan-type vessel built and operated by the Talon Aetheral Corps of the Draconid Imperium, developed in response to the increasing threat of the Delpha Coalition of Planets and a continuation of the SHining Glory initiative that was the source of the sister Sunwrath-Class Battlecruiser. Like other titan vessels, the Heavenfire-class is fitted with a suite of facilities for long range patrols and long-term sieges as well as serving as a symbol of Imperial power.

History[]

The Heavenfire's conception dates beck to the beginnings of the Shining Glory initiative. Tansong Del-Anom, a Shalmereyan engineer and the model's original draftsman was recorded to have been part of one of the the fleets partaking in the battle against the forces of Regnatus, reportedly in awe of the Ascendant-class vessels that he witnessed during his time as an engineering crewman. His experience with Ascendant-class vessels made him a prime candidate for Shining Glory and he was recruited to be one of the lead draftsmen for the Sunwrath-Class Battlecruiser, later moving on to other projects.

With the success of Project Riftfire and the Sunwrath, Tansong worked alongside Seronus Valcenior - the lead engineer responsible for Riftfire cannon - and both were employed by Utopis Fleet Concern to design a ship class to be manufactured in shipyards acquired by UFC in Mirus during the Scramble for Mirus, with production beginning in ID.219508. Paranoia of the DCP discovering the efforts to construct the first Heavenfire had prompted factory leaders and freight firms delivering materials for it becoming extra-cautious of the size of manifests, slowing the first vessel's construction.

When the chiefs of staff of the military arm of the Xonexi Allies were given a tour of the first Heavenfire under construction, an agreement was reached that the first of its type - dubbed the ACV Xonexi's Resolve - launched shortly after the Battle for the Katar Wormhole. It was adapted as the central command vessel of the Allied war effort. The ACV Xonexi's Resolve became a figurehead vessel for the Allied war effort over the course of the Great Xonexian Schism, serving as a key logistics vessel and as a command center for whenever the Xonexi Board of Eight convened. When the tide of war turned in favour of the Xonexi Allies, such vessels as Xonexi's Resolve acted as flagships for the offensive campaign to reclaim the Milky Way, cementing the Heavenfire-class as one of the innovations that won the Great Xonexian Schism.

After the war, the Heavenfire-class underwent a design rethink. While the Xonxi's Resolved remained as a figurehead for the Board of Six, the Hyperspatial Revolution advent of the Intergalactic Supercarrier had changed the way the Xonexi Allies approached waging war. In response to this, the Heavenfire-Class was redesigned with logistics in mind. The Heavenfire II (as engineers had referred to the new version as) had some of its magazines and weapon batteries removed in favour of extra storage space, the primary principle in mind for the new vessels (the first of which, the EAV Light of Avanti was completed in 2810) was closer in line to logistics supply practiced by French-designed supercarriers.

Layout[]

The Heavenfire class currently stands as the largest vessel model in known Imperial history. Like all space-dedicated ITN vessels, the Heavenfire's decks are arranged so crews walk at an angle perpendicular to the primary direction of thrust with artificial gravity generators strategically located to provide a shaft of 0.8g gravity throughout the ship. Decks are numerically arranged with the "base" decks having the lowest values. Due to its massive size, the ship features a tram system to allow rapid transfer of crew, supplies and equipment across the ship.

The lower decks consist primarily of the utility decks: fuel supplies, engineering, fabrication, the primary maintenance bay and the primary reactor (a type XXV-D Serimos reactor). Alongside secondary reactors, a single Heavenfire-class is reputed to generate the output of a large Type II civilisation. Heavenfire-class vessels contain industrial-scale quantum replicates that use hypermatter energy to fabricate anything from fuel and equipment to ammunition and rations.

Further up are large bays within the vessel's structure that are separated from the vacuum of space by large reinforced doors. Heavenfire-class vessels are capable of fabricating replacement starships when on campaign that are launched from these doors. Depending on crew compliment these fabricated vessels can be manned by a crew of a few hundred thanks to the installation of advanced AI cores. The fabrication berths hold workshops and decks for professional shipbuilders, who are often leased from companies such as Utopis Fleet Concern or Valle Astroengineering.

Forward of the drydock bays are the command levels. In the very centre of the ship is the command module; a two-tier chamber with a bridge staff of eighty. The command module is fitted with systems to allow for admirals to manage their forces across entire galactic fronts as well as war room facilities underneath the primary command deck that feature a direct link to the resident Void-pattern artificial intelligence and a quantum-entanglement communication relay hub. Surrounding the command module are officers' quarters, marine barracks and drill halls, which are tailored aesthetically to be some of the most luxurious apartments in Imperial space.

Forward of the command section are secondary cargoholds, fabrication units and a second Type XXIII-D Serimos reactor used to supply power to shielding and more energy-intensive weaponry.

Computation[]

Heavenfire-class vessels rely on a Void-pattern AI mainframe developed specifically for Project Clarity that is designed to use the infalling and outgoing information transfer of a black hole as a computational medium. The AI design also includes cutting-edge "dimension-hopper" computronium tissue that relies on the higher-energy-state qualities of higher dimensions to compress and enhance processing power. As a result, these Void-pattern AI cores are capable of computational feats far beyond the brains of most sentient beings. On Heavenfire-class vessels, he AI cores are used for strategic coordination, hyperspatial calculation and has been benchmarked to analyse and process the movements of two-hundred allied and enemy fleets simoultaniously alongside their more more typical functions.

Armament[]

The centrepiece of each Heavenfire-class is a Terys-pattern relativistic cannon capably of firing a relativistic shot or payload. At over six hundred metres in aperture and ten kilometres in length, the payloads from the Terys-pattern are primarily used against very large targets such as super-dreadnoughts, stations, planets or for causing damage within fleet formations. As the name indicates, the barrel is designed to propel projectiles at close to the speed of light. Built into the primary fins are hypermatter particle cannons that are capable of firing continent-destroying particle beams.

Lining the broadsides of the vessel model are hundreds of rail batteries and turbolaser arrays. Batteries are grouped into firing groups, the quantity and firepower of these batteries coupled with the shielding allows a single Heavenfire-class to take on entire fleets at a time. Heavenfire-class vessels carry thousands of kilograms in ammunition and warheads with the facilities to fabricate more ammunition if they are operating away from friendly supply depots.

In addition to warheads and ammunition, the vessels hold the facilities to accommodate wings of drone fighters, armoured battalions and legions of marines.

One of the most dangerous weapons is a starkiller payload that is capable of causing a target star to undergo a solar death, triggering a red giant or supergiant phase before (depending on the size and energy of the target star) triggering a massive coronal mass ejection or even a supernova. Allied high command has gone on record stating that use of such a weapon would be as a last resort.

Defences[]

Heavenfire-class vessels are built sheathed behind forty differing layers of non-phasic shielding, enveloping the ship in forty layers of a non-phasic plasma membrane that can protect the vessel against an immense amount of punishment. These shield layers are powered primarily by the forward singularity reactor with a portion of power provided by the primary singularity reactor close to the engine bay. Shielding projectors also extend to the shallower levels of hyperspace.

Protecting the hull is a four hundred metre series of layered ablative-reactive ceramic armour bolstered by nanite forges linked to the vessel's quantum applicators that repair the ceramic layers when damaged.

Propulsion[]

The vessel relies on a Type-19 warp drive for sublight travel and manouvering due to its large size and mass with sets of 50-terawatt ion engines for turning and precision manouvering. The Type-19 doubles as one method for faster-than-light travel, the other being a Type-V interuniversal drive adapted from vessels designed by the Andromedan Galactic Commonwealth. While defined as an interuniversal drive, the Type-V is more often used for intrauniversal travel though the creation of wormholes, allowing it to appear on any front in the First Gigaquadrant almost instantly regardless of distance required to travel.

Noteable Vessels[]

  • ACV Xonexi's Resolve - 1st fleet, ID.219509-present

Quotes[]

Depending on how it is used in the battles to come, this model of vessel will become either an aegis without peer... Or a herald of dread that few can match. I would prefer the former.

- Uriel Ultanos

The warlord-class was a fine vessel for millennia, serving as the Imperium's shield and sword. But times can change. And sometimes, something slightly different is required to maintain stability.

- Lord-Admiral Larnus Vontarion

I want...

- Kavaat

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