The Vengeance

The Vengeance is a Dreadnought built by the Colonist Survivors. Designed by Captain Jack Roberts during the Colony War as the most heavily armed and armored vessel in the Colonists’ ragtag fleet, the Vengeance served the Colonists well in battle, being able to take on several smaller warships singlehandedly.

History
Shortly after the Colonists jettisoned their landing ship, the Pioneer, from their base on the desert planet P3-X2, Captain Jack began designing a dedicated battleship for the Colony’s growing fleet. The bow and midsection took shape quickly during the first weeks of construction. Fixed weapons such as the powerful Telion dual heavy cannons and turreted cannons such as the imposing X-3 Heavy Cannon were the main features of the Vengeance’s bow armaments. Other armor segments soon flourished as Jack built and the rest of the crew welded the vessel together.

At some point, a DRF (Drone Reactionary Force) team launched four cruise missiles at the Colonists’ base, Watchtower Station. The missiles heavily damaged the Vengeance, blowing holes in the heavy armor hull and knocking out several turrets. Fortunately, the overall damage was minimal and soon repaired.

Over the following weeks, thrusters, automatic repair systems, and other internal features were implemented. Jack also designed a large bridge tower to act as a decoy target; the Vengeance’s main control center was encased in several layers of heavy armor and was virtually impenetrable. The engine room, auxiliary control room, medical bay, and airlocks were also added. By the time the Vengeance was completed, it was the largest and most heavily armed ship in the Colonists’ flotilla.

First Battle
After a successful test run of the Vengeance’s maneuverability and fuel capacity, Jack took the dreadnought and a few supporting ships to investigate a mysterious signal near a large asteroid. However, the DRF also sent several ships to investigate it at the same time, and the two sides engaged in battle.

Initially, the Vengeance was not targeted and quickly destroyed one DRF ship and drove off another. However, it soon began receiving potshots from a DRF siege platform hidden near the asteroid. Fortunately, it’s main X-3 cannon was able to take out the satellite before the Vengeance suffered too much more damage. Another DRF cruiser, the Luna Wolf, which had been battling with the other Colonist ships, made a desperate last run at the flagship, ravaging its hull before also being destroyed. The area was clear, but the Colonists retreated back to Watchtower for repairs. The Vengeance had suffered much damage to its dorsal hull and port side thrusters, but for the most part, the dreadnought had fared well.

The Battle of the Colonies
Shortly before the Battle of the Colonies, the Vengeance was still docked at Watchtower, undergoing repairs. Out of nowhere, three destroyers belonging to the shadowy, yet mighty Green Drone Armada bombarded the station with their Atlas Superlasers. Jack ordered the evacuation and the Colonists’ fleet began jumping away into FTL traveling to a nearby rally point. Before Jack, Dr. Craz, and Mr. Castle boarded the Dawnbreaker to escape, Jack gave Finn temporary command of the Vengeance. Finn fired the X-3 Cannon at one of the Destroyers, shattering its bow and crippling it, before jumping away as well.

Jack then took command back and, from the Vengeance’s CIC, led the Colonists into their final battle against the DRF. Despite being outnumbered, the Vengeance held its own as the fleet took more and more collective damage from the DRF flagship, the Exturtle. By the end of the battle, the Vengeance and an escort corvette, the Avalon, were the only Colonist ships left.

As the Vengeance and Avalon prepared to face off one last time against the Exturtle, the GDA appeared again. They quickly left the Vengeance as the only ship standing, and its weaponry was too diminished to do any good damage. Fortunately, Dr. Craz activated the remaining jump drives, sending the Vengeance into the unknown.

Last Resting Place
The Vengeance, still carrying Jack, Finn, Castle, and a few other survivors, soon crash-landed on an unidentified planet, where the GDA was ambushing and destroying ships from various factions all over the galaxy. The Vengeance’s remaining guns were offline and its midsection had been split in half during the crash. Jack, upon seeing the chaos and learning that Craz had been kidnapped by the Green Drones, collected what survivors he could find around the battlefield and escaped the scene, leaving the destroyed hull of the Vengeance behind.

About a month after the end of the Green Drone War, Finn and Castle returned to that planet and began salvaging the Vengeance for their new salvaging company.

Armament
The Vengeance was armed to the teeth with nearly every type of weapon available to the Colonists. It’s main frontal bombardment cannons, dorsal and ventral X-3 Heavy Cannons, ventral magnetic coil cannons, and numerous Mk3 Battleship Cannons were the most powerful and prominent weapons. Aside from heavy cannons, it also featured many Telion Flak and Anti-fighter turrets and M-61 Vulcan Turrets to counter any missiles or small ships that came its way.

Movement
The dreadnought, being constructed entirely out of heavy armor, needed powerful thrust to propel its weight. As such, it was mainly propelled by large hydrogen thrusters, with a few ion thrusters mixed in in case of a fuel shortage. Additional forward boost thrusters were installed during the later construction phases to allow the Vengeance to accelerate much faster; however, deceleration was slower as there were only ion thrusters acting as stopping thrust, and not hydrogen. Numerous gyroscopes also allowed the ship to rotate and spin around to target other vessels with its frontal guns. As well as its thrusters, the Vengeance also was outfitted with at least eight FTL jump drives to allow it to quickly get from one place to another.

Command Decks
The Vengeance boasted a large bridge tower in the middle of the rear half of the ship. It had a few consoles on one deck and also had a hatch leading to the rear docking bay, which was never used. However, aside from aesthetics, the bridge tower’s only purpose was to pose as a false target to draw enemy fire. The main command location was buried beneath the thick armor of the bridge tower in the CIC (Combat Information Center). It contained a captain’s chair, a hologram projector table, and several consoles and screens for crew members to perform various tasks and monitor the ship’s functions.

Other Subsystems
Since the Vengeance was so large and crew members could only carry so many resources, not to mention the danger of going outside during a battle, the dreadnought was equipped with an automatic welding system throughout the ship. It would use the ship’s onboard supplies to repair or rebuild certain critical systems when activated, namely the main turrets and thrusters.

The Vengeance was also unshielded, as the Colonists did not have that technology available to them at the time. It also had no atmospheric thrust, meaning it could not enter a planet’s gravity well.

Trivia

 * The Vengeance was supposed to have a small hangar but due to time constraints it was never added