UNSC Thunderer

The UNSC Thunderer (hull number BB-40) was a Vanguard-class battleship built for the United Nations Space Command during the . Part of the Richelieu-subclass, she was built at the Martian Metals Shipyard above Mars, whereupon on commissioning she would be sent to Reach to join the . Fighting in the fierce space battle at Psi Serpentis in 2543, the Thunderer would have a rather unremarkable service life, as it was destroyed in 2544 at the Battle of Bougainville. The Thunderer's ignominious end displayed the brutality of the Human-Covenant War, and how even the largest vessels could meet an inglorious end at the hands of the Covenant war machine. 
==Construction==
As the 2530s neared its end, the UNSC was not faring well in its numerous battles against the Covenant. For any battle they won, there would be ten which they didn't, and each victory came with a huge number of losses. As such, the UNSC determined that a new wave of capital ships would need to be commissioned, specifically designed to defeat Covenant capital ships, which were equipped with advanced shielding technology and plasma weapons. The UNSC's would subsequently authorise the development of two types of capital ships: a cruiser and a battleship.
The cruiser, originally planned to replace all remaining UNSC cruisers in service as the frontline fighters capable of tanking Covenant salvoes, would become the Artemis-class battlecruiser, a ship that was capable of destroying any Covenant capital ship it could encounter, although its lack of a comprehensive armour scheme would hinder it in its operations. The other design would become the failed Lelantos-class battleship, which was considered an abject failure. Yet the UNSC still needed a battleship, to lead defensive fleets and ensure comprehensive, total victories over the Covenant.
This was when they turned to the prewar Vanguard-class. They had acquitted themselves well in the defence of the UNSC's Outer Colonies, however had suffered grievous losses. By 2535, only a valiant few remained, and as such the UNSC wanted and needed more. As such a total overhaul of avionics, navigation systems, countermeasures and weaponry was conducted, giving them more firepower and better ship systems. The new class would receive from the cancelled Lelantos-class design its signature Super MAC installation, the 38G1S2 design that was far more powerful than the older SMACs fitted onto the first wave of Vanguards. The upgrading of point defence systems, overall weaponry guidance systems and a complete overhaul of the targeting interface gave the second flight of Vanguards an edge that only the most heavily-refitted Block I Vanguards could match. A number of structural changes on the inside of the ship were also made, giving the armour and the overall hull a sturdier construction, even if the overall amount of hull plating was not increased. Finally, the addition of several countermeasure systems added to the Artemis-class gave it some form of active protection against plasma torpedoes. If that failed, the new heat-refractive armour coating added another layer of anti-plasma protection, even if it was only a small measure. 
The new changes to the Vanguard's hull led to what was originally Block II be designated as an entirely new subclass, named Richelieu after the first ship. Beginning construction in 2535, the first pair would be commissioned in 2539, with subsequent pairs of vessels being brought into the fleet each year. The Thunderer would be laid down above Mars in 2537, alongside another Vanguard-class battleship. These two would undergo a reasonably fast construction for a ship of over 460 million tonnes, with the two undergoing ship trials in mid-2541, joining the fleet in August of that same year.
__TOC__
==Operational History==
===First Wartime Patrols, 2541-2543===
The Thunderer would see no action for the first two years of its service life. Assigned to the Epsilon Eridani Fleet with the UNSC Montana, the two battleships would participate in exercises and fleet movements until January 2543, when they would be assigned to Vice Admiral Preston Cole's . Engaging in several small-scale skirmishes over the next two months, the battlegroup as a whole would be rallied near the Viperidae System, some 162 ships in all. There, they would wait for several weeks, until Admiral Cole gave the order to jump in-system to engage the substantial Covenant force in the system. The Thunderer, serving as the flagship for the battlegroup's Task Force 34, would subsequently engage in a long-range gunnery duel between itself and the Covenant CAS-class assault carrier Divine Providence, which would last for twenty minutes - it would end when the Thunderer, mauled by the Divine Providence's incessant plasma barrage, would fire its entire complement of eight SHIVA nuclear missiles at the carrier, annihilating both it and a nearby CCS-class battlecruiser.
The Thunderer did not get away from her duel unscathed, however. Whilst her forced withdrawal after her duel with the Divine Providence ended most likely saved the ship from destruction, she would sit in drydock over Reach for ten months repairing the damage she had taken. The ship had been in service for over three years, and had only engaged Covenant forces once, scoring two kills at the cost of half her crew and much of the ship's systems, weaponry and armour - not a glorious entrance into service for one of the UNSC's most powerful assets.
She would return to service in January of 2544, having been fully repaired, and was immediately dispatched to the colony of Bougainville, under threat of Covenant invasion due to its strategic location along the Perseus-Tirana Slipspace Spine. No less than a week after her arrival, the planet would come under attack from the Covenant's Fleet of Gallant Victory.
===The Thunderer's Last Stand, 2544===
The Thunderer was clearly outmatched above Bougainville from the very beginning. With just eight escorting vessels, none above destroyer size, against forty-nine Covenant warships, the battle's outcome was all but assured. Nevertheless, Captain Haruko Martin was determined to buy as much time for the civilians on the surface of the doomed world. She would order all nine ships of the Bougainville Defence Squadron to charge towards the Covenant fleet, to draw fire and allow transports to flee the system.
Almost immediately, two UNSC frigates, the Albermarle and Broken Arrow would be destroyed at extreme range by a Covenant warship, whose shape and design did not match any other known alien vessel. Soon after followed the destroyer Kagero, whilst the Thunderer suffered a glancing blow that stripped her of part of her armour on the port side, and took out two of her secondary engines. Wounded, but not out of the fight, the Thunderer fought back, destroying a Covenant heavy destroyer with her Super MACs. Despite this confirmed kill, any sense of jubilation on the Thunderer quickly vanished as another three UNSC ships were killed by the fleet's assault carrier, and two more were heavily damaged by plasma torpedoes. 
The fight was lost, and the Thunderer's crew knew it. Transferring all power to her engines, the warship made a desperate attempt to charge at the assault carrier, intending to overload its reactors and take the carrier with her. With two secondary engines taken out, however, and one of her primary drives failing thanks to plasma lances, the sluggish manoeuverability of the battleship meant she was easy pickings for the Covenant fleet. Plasma torpedoes stripped the Thunderer of armour plating and entire decks, her magnetic coils melted and collapsed, whilst her reactor shut down and the ship stopped responding to controls. Haruko gave the order to abandon ship, however no active effort was made to make it to the escape pods - the auxiliary system had failed, along with the ship's intercom.
The Thunderer, beaten and battered, would slowly but surely begin to break apart, the process accelerated by the Covenant sniper ship - one long plasma lance cut straight through the ship, splitting her in two. Her SHIVA warheads, armed due to the suicidal charge, would then detonate in a fiery, huge explosion that destroyed any remnant of the ship. The Thunderer ended her career ignominiously, destroyed over an unimportant colony world with just 250,000 inhabitants, only 800 of which would escape the doomed planet. The remaining UNSC ships were wiped away, leaving the surface unguarded as the Covenant began glassing operations. No one would survive the death of the Thunderer.
==Awards & Battle Honours==
===Awards===
*Royal Navy Society's Excellence Award (Awarded 2543)
===Battle Honours=== 
*Psi Serpentis (2543)
*Bougainville (2544)
===Campaign Honours===
*Tirana Campaign (2544-2551)
*Defence of the Inner Colonies (2543-2552)
*Human-Covenant War (2525-2553)
Category:Battleships
Category:Individual Ships