Thursday, January 28, 2010

The Sword of Ares

The Sword of Ares was the codename for what could have been the largest warship in the Colonial Fleet.  Designed as a command vessel it was supposed to be twice as long as the Titan class and nearly ten times the mass.  It would have had four massive flight pods and two docking bays each capable of handling a Battlestar the size of a Mercury class.  The armament was to be composed of eight 5080 mm forward batteries and nearly 100 heavy quad turrets.  Fighter complement would have been a hundred squadrons, easily as much as the then entire Colonial Fleet transport capacity combined.

Design work started during the Cylon War and the Sword of Ares went through several upgrades to incorporate the latest technological developments.  Over the years it became a running joke that when the Sword of Ares was finally completed it would become a single-ship fleet since the Colonies could only afford one anyway.

When the Titans were built it seemed that the way was clear for the Sword of Ares, but rising costs and the end of the War meant that the project was dead in the water and further development was halted.

The only part of the Sword of Ares to be completed was the kilometer long 5080mm forward gun which was secretly tested in a classified system, bombarding a small moon with shells the size of a Colonial Heavy Liner.

Plans to convert the gun into a defense station were dropped and the weapon was scrapped, save for a single barrel ring which is now on display at the Picon East Peak Military Academy.

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