DES Battleaxe

"When they said they had a starship, I didn't think it would be that big, or well armed." Draoga upon first seeing the Battleaxe.
The Drakeian Exploration Ship Battleaxe.
==Technical Specifications==
*Name: D.E.S. Battleaxe
*Captain(s): Draoga Necron
*In Service: 2029 - 2032 (Destroyed)
*Class: Battleaxe
*Crew Complement: 990
*Length: 706m
*Armaments: 
**5x Ancient Dragon Derived Beam Cannons
** 16x Side Mounted Drakeian Heavy Railguns
**18x Turreted Drakeian Heavy Railguns
*Shields: Ancient Dragon derived shields with 8 independent emitters.
*Fighter Complement: 0
*Shuttle Complement: 6 Handaxe Class Shuttles
*Engines:
**5 Drakeian Sublight Engines
**1 Ancient Dragon derived Hyperdrive
*Sensors:
**1 Ancient Dragon derived sensor array
**1 Drakeian sensor array
*Constructor: Drakeians
==Overview==
The D.E.S. Battleaxe was the first true starship built by the Drakeians and was finally launched in late 2029 after many lengthy delays by the nation of Draknia's covert Battleaxe Program. While it was originally designed to be a planetary defence craft called the D.D.S. (Drakeian Defence Ship) Battleaxe, the discovery of Ancient Dragon hyperdrives in 2026 saw it's goal change to become an exploration ship instead. It's one and only captain, Draoga Necron, was selected for the job due to her highly distrustful nature by members of the Battleaxe Program, who saw a Captain who trusted nobody as the best choice for a ship that would potentially make first contact with aliens.
Following it's uneventful shakedown cruise, the Battleaxe's first mission was to closely scan a planet in a nearby solar system (known to the Drakeians as Solar System 178) that had been sighted via telescopes and thought to be inhabitable. This planet happened to be a bust due to an odd orbit which for most of the year was the right distance to comfortably support DragonKin life, but for about a quarter of it's year, roughly when it was hidden behind it's star from the perspective of the Drakeian System, drifted too far away to be reliably habitable, completely freezing over. This survey initially looked set to take several months, but a fortuitous arrival time mere weeks before the crippling winter set in cut it down to just under 3 weeks, much to Captain Necron's delight, as she had found babysitting a planetary survey team to be painfully tedious and only kept herself sane by performing frequent combat drills.
Following Draoga's off-handed mention of the sheer tedium of babysitting a planetary survey team, the Battleaxe Project decided to change their orders so as not to risk losing their one captain, giving the Battleaxe a new mission to chart nearby solar systems and obtain detailed scans of them, a mission that Captain Necron found much more palatable, as the solar system charting took around 1-2 weeks per system depending on the number of large stellar objects and still allowed for frequent combat drills.
It was a few months into 2030 when the Battleaxe made it's first first contact in Solar System 324. This unofficial first contact with what turned out to be the Dragoians was known as 'The Encounter At System 324' to the Drakeians, and while it ended up in a firefight, it led to an otherwise bloodless official first contact with the Dragoian Empire a few weeks later in which the Battleaxe itself served as a primarily ceremonial role, with Captain Necron being kept out of the way. The manner in which the Dragoians made official first contact however became particularly unexplainable to the many nations of Drakeia, and by the middle of the year the numerous UFO sightings had finally been traced back to the nation of Draknia, starting the bloody unification war as every nation declared war on Draknia in attempt to steal it's starship technologies.
The Battleaxe itself was recalled from it's charting duties at the start of the unification war, and was instrumental alongside the rest of Draknia's burgeoning starship navy in leading Draknia to victory over the other nations, with the Battleaxe itself performing the most orbital bombardments of the war. As 2030 was drawing to a close, the unification war was starting to reach it's conclusion, with only a few nations at this point still refusing to become part of Draknia, and those few nations being gradually reduced to nothing but rubble by the Battleaxe and the rest of the Draknia starship navy.
By 2031, the unification war was over and the Battleaxe was back on charting duty, with even Captain Necron glad to be doing surveying again rather than blasting parts of her homeworld into rubble.
The Battleaxe was destroyed in 2032.
==The Encounter At System 324 ==
THIS SECTION IS BEING RE-WRITTEN
The Encounter At System 324 was the Battleaxe's first contact with the Dragoian species and also it's first engagement. The Battleaxe arrived in system 324 to scan a planet that was once thought to be suitable for Drakeian habitation, upon finding this planet had an orbit which caused it to get too hot for around half of every one of it's years, the Battleaxe was preparing to return home to Drakeia when a ship of unknown origin appeared on the Battleaxe's scanners, the vessel hailed the Battleaxe with the audio message 'This is the Dragoian Tri-Dra Class Cruiser Keria, lower your shields and prepare to be boarded for trespassing in Dragoian space, if you do not comply we will destroy your primitive ship'. When the message cut out Draoga mumbled 'Well, we just got a new enemy who thinks we are primitive' before smashing the intercom button on her command chair and yelling, 'All crew to battle stations and prepare to fire every weapon we can bring to bear on that ship, it wants to board us or destroy us, and i'm not letting my ship get boarded on it's first assignment, so we fight back!', she lifted her hand of the intercom and growled 'Helmsman, I want our starboard broadside facing that ship, NOW!' As soon as the Battleaxe has turned to broadside the Keria, the Battleaxe recieved a brief audio message saying 'So you have chosen to die, die a meaningless death' before it cut out. 'Enemy ship seems to be powering weapons captain', said the sensor operator. Draoga replied 'Indeed they are', before smashing the intercom once again and barking the order 'Fire all avaliable railguns and that fancy beam turret at them! But don't destroy them, I want to pass a message on before we wipe them out.' With that the Battleaxe shook as it opened fire while it's inertial dampeners compensated for the weapons fire, it was at the same moment the Keria fired it's medium cannons located on it's neck, Draoga watched the turquoise shots impact the Battleaxe's shields which glowed white while the captain of the Keria watched the yellow flashes railgun fire and white energy beams impacting his own, turquiose, shield. Draoga was distracted when the shield operator yelled 'Shields down to 72%' causing Draoga to express shock as she yelled 'Divert power from port shields and weapons to the starboard shields and weapons, NOW!' 'Yes ma'am' replied the shield operator and weapons operator in unison. To the captain of the Keria, the Battleaxe just seemed to suddenly hit harder, the Keria's shield operator yelled 'Our shield can't take much more of this captain, we'll be down to hull in a minute or so if this keeps up'. A minute later, back on the Battleaxe, Draoga watched the shield of the Keria flicker and die before being distracted by her shield operator yelling 'Shields down to 32%, capta...' but Draoga cut him off mid sentence by yelling 'Cease fire!' into her intercom before yelling 'hail them' to her communications operator. Onboard the Keria, the captain called for a cease fire when he noticed the Battleaxe had stopped firing and as soon as the order was finished he got Draoga's hail which simply said 'We are the Drakeian Exploration Ship Battleaxe, tell your high command that we do not take kindly to your kind in our area of space, you would be wise to tell them, otherwise your death would be for nothing, you have 5 minutes, and if you start firing, less than that. Draoga out'. The captain of the Keria said, almost calmly, 'Use the subspace radio to send the message to the Dralkyrian Power that we have been engaged by a new foe that packs the technology to give a Tri-Dra a run for it's money'. Then, to himself he said 'If only the main cannon was buffered, we could have blown that ship to hell with a single shot.' The Keria's communications operator said 'We have 2 minutes left captain, what should we do?', the captain replied calmly, 'get everyone you can into the shuttles and abandon ship, and I am not coming, I will use the Keria to protect you while you enter hyperspace, now go, thats an order'. On board the Battleaxe, Draoga was watching the clock and said 'time's up' before being interrupted by her sensor operator who said 'Captain, they are trying to flee in shuttles, shouldn't we gun them down?', Draoga replied 'Their time is up anyway, (hitting the intercom), all guns, FIRE ON THOSE SHUTTLES!', with this, the Battleaxe opened fire in the general direction of the shuttles but the Keria had blocked the way using it's hull to absorb the Battleaxes weapons fire, when the Battleaxe's weapons fire breached the Keria's hull half a minute later, such was the intensity of the fire, the shuttles had escaped and the Keria's captain sat in his command chair, oblivious to the sparks, fire and smoke around him said 'Long Live Queen Seldragia' before the Battleaxe's weapons fire hit the main cannon's buffer and the engines' reactors, causing the ship to explode. Onboard the Battleaxe, Draoga was told about how the shuttles had escaped, a look of fury on her face as she was being told, Draoga got up from her chair, said to her first officer, 'You have the bridge First, I have a bloody report to write up'. Then walked out of the room towards her private quarters to write a report on the incident which would be delivered when the Battleaxe returned to Drakeia for ammunition and repairs.
==Destruction==
THIS SECTION IS BEING RE-WRITTEN
The DES Battleaxe's destruction in 2032 was the direct result of a trap set the forces of TwinBragia. The trap consisted of a derelict Tri-Dra Class Cruiser with lots of human life-signs on-board. This weird ship prompted Draoga Necron to bring the Battleaxe in for a closer look, as soon as the Battleaxe was in weapons range (standard Drakeian procedure), the Tri-Dra detonated, blocking the apporach of a Twin-Dra Class Battleship arriving via hyperspace to the Battleaxe's sensors. The Twin-Dra hailed the Battleaxe, shocking the crew since it seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, the hail was 'This is captain Jek of the Battleship Jerai of the Devouring Goddess' forces. Your ship will surrender to ours now and we will board it and take your crew hostage before destroying it, However, if you choose to fire upon us, your ships destruction will be premature and the death of your crew will be certain. If we do not see your shield go down in 2 minutes, the Jerai will fire, you have been warned.' Upon hearing this, Draoga hit her chair's communicator and barked 'All crew, get to battle stations, this one won't be good, sensors, and even visuals, show that that ship has bigger guns and stronger shields than other Dragoian ships we have encountered.' With that said, she lifted her hand off the communicator button and said to the bridge crew 'Send all avliable power to the port side shields and weapons', to this she got a 'Yes Ma'am' as she rose from her seat and said to the communications operator, 'Hail them, and give me visual for once, I want to see their captain face to face'. A few seconds later, the main viewscreen flickered on and Jek pronounced, more to his crew than to his tiny viewscreen, 'I think they've called to tell us they will surrender', this earned many laughs from the crew of the Jerai and many scowls from the crew of the Battleaxe. Draoga replied by saying 'Your species, Jek, is so crude, and the DES Battleaxe and her crew will not go down without a fight', with this, Draoga signalled the video link to be severed and growled 'Fire all weapons that can be targeted at the Jerai, if this ship is going down, I am not making it easy for those savages'. The Battleaxe was the first to fire, Draoga's message shocking Jek, making him hesitate, the Battleaxe shook violently when all it's weapons fired at once, the shaking was nothing compared to when one of the Jerai'sheavy SoulTech cannons hit, the impact rocked the Battleaxe heavily and the shield operator shreiked 'Shields down to 40%, we can't take another hit like that!' As soon as the first heavy cannon shot was fired, the Jerai opened fire with a small selection of forward neck cannons of Medium and Light classifications that weakened the Battleaxe's shields almost to breaking point just before the second Heavy cannon shot hit, causing a major hull breach along the neck of the Battleaxe, much to Draoga's surprise, the shields held, but she growled into the intercom 'Senior officers down to the hanger, NOW, we are evacuating, you have permission to fire upon any ensigns and crewmen in your way!', with this said, Draoga got off her chair, unholstered her Combo Pistol and sprinted towards the stair-well leading down to bottom deck. As she ran towards the hanger along bottom deck (upper decks had been demolished or were lacking life support) towards the hanger, she met up with a few officers carrying GPW's and continued to sprint towards the hanger bay, having to gun down a few ensigns and other low ranking officers that were blocking the corridor. Once she reached the hanger bay, she climbed into the remaining shuttle, one had already departed. and locked the doors behind her, her squad of officers only just making it inside. She clambered into the cockpit, growled at her commander (he fled from the bridge a different route) to get in the co-pilots seat as she fired the thrusters. Draoga's shuttle had barely cleared the hanger when the Jerai fired it's Heavy cannon again, splitting the Battleaxe in two. Without looking at the sensor screen, Draoga activated the shuttle's hyperdrive while saying 'The Battleaxe'is no more...' On the long journey back to Drakeia, Draoga voiced concerns to anyone who would listen that she would probably not get another ship to command.
Category:Drakeians
Category:Technology
Category:Starships
Category:Drakeian Starships
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