UECNS Lakhesis

### Artificial Intelligence:

Cerulean Two, or Leah; formerly an adaptive expert system, spontaneously became sapient

### Armament:

1 x Pinaka mass driver (6 rounds)149 x Internal missile tube (54 per broadside, 16 dorsal/ventral, 9 prow mounted)

16 x External missile rack (6 missiles per rack, single-use)

5 x Mine tubes (aft)

Particle beams

Laser cannons (multiple types)

Railguns

### Powerplant:

1 x Breach core2 x Secondary fusion reactors

### Propulsion:

Distortion drivesFTL Shock drive (optimised for in-system jumps)

### Drones and strike craft:

2 Iris FTL couriers36 Hornet-class attack drones

24 Occulus-class sensor drones

12 Magician-class ECM platforms

12 Rajput-class Assault craft

UECNS *Lakhesis* is the second of the three *Fate*-class strike cruisers. Its operating intelligence, Cerulean Two, was originally somewhere between an advanced expert system and a full AI; based on Red One's own neural net, but not a direct copy of her complete intelligence, this system was designed to learn and modify itself to better respond to mission parameters until she eventually became a fully fledged AI.

After refit *Lakhesis* had a relatively small livable area, largely restricted to her armoured central core and a few sections outside it. Most of those regions provided access to ship systems, with little in the way of recreational functions.[1]

### Operational History

Lakhesis and the other two *Fates* would initially be used as part of the system defenses for Shuruppak, but after the return of UECNS *Nemesis* along with her newly acquired crewmembers and UECNS *Hekate**,* followed by the departure of the crew aboard *Pale Liberation*, she would be assigned to follow and protect them if possible.

The strike cruiser would operate inside the Compact for some time using its stealth and concealment systems, tracking the movements of the four crewmembers. It eventually caught up to Marcus de Vries and Lydia Jameson halfway through the Battle of 1893-Yiren, and destroyed the entire remaining elements of the Compact squadron sent to destroy *Hala* and its escorts. Having apparently failed in its mission (with *Hala* a broken wreck and no apparent Red Hand survivors in sight), it returned to Shuruppak. The Compact gave it the code name *Scar*, later extended to all *Fate*-class ships.

Several months after, the Battle of Galhemna would take place. As a modern Confederate asset, *Lakhesis* was present, and was one of the ships escorting *Nemesis* and *Hekate* as they moved deeper in-system. After the Confederate victory and subsequent relocation to Zerzura, it would recieve immediate repairs for redeployment on the entry corridor through the Black Veil. In this role it would form a hunter-killer team with UECNS *IKagge*, chasing down the battlecruiser CSFWV *Ecanok's Blade*.

When a fleet led by *Ecanok's Blade* attempted to map the Black Veil, *Lakhesis* and *IKagge* tracked one of their courier drones to *Ecanok's Blade* and attacked, destroying the Compact courier ship CSFWV *Izabiel.* This left *Ecanok's Blade* with the only copy of the shockspace data for the Veil. They pursued it and attacked again, damaging *IKagge* in the skirmish*. Ecanok's Blade* escaped several more times, with both it and its pursuers suffering damage from shockspace, but *IKagge* finally caught up and engaged, followed shortly by *Lakhesis.* In the ensuing duel, *IKagge* was disabled and its computer core destroyed, along with the neural net within. The shock of this event sparked Cerulean Two's sapience. She destroyed *Ecanok's Blade* and returned to Zerzura to meet with Red One and Echo.

The Naiads observing *Nemesis'* fleet named her *Lichesword*.