Badanov-class battleship

> *"The Baikonur was the tip of the old regime's spear. This shall be the tip of ours."*
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> ~ Grand Curatrix Elena Trotskaya.
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## Introduction

The **Badanov-class battleship**, nicknamed the 'Death Eagle' or 'Deagle' (because of the heavily-armoured engine modules close to the stern of the ship, which resemble an eagle's wings when viewed from the front) is a frontline heavy assault spaceship. It serves with the Mecharussian Armed Forces' battlefleets and later those of the Mechanocracy of Mankind, entering service in 2163 AC.

The direct descendant of the *Vladimir Lenin*-class dreadnought, the Badanov is one of the most iconic vessels used by both Mechanocracies, precisely for its highly-discernable shape. It is also one of the most feared vessels prowling the stars, capable of punching well above its already-formidable weight thanks to the ventrally-mounted fusion lance, a smaller and less powerful variation of the fearsome World Breaker gun found on Sidh superdreadnoughts. Such a powerful weapon is considered essential, given that the Badanov is purposed around tackling Imperial ships of equivalent size.

## Development

The necessity of a replacement vessel for the *Vladimir Lenin* became very apparent when the dreadnought's specifications were proven to be woefully inadequate when dealing with the emergent extrasolar threats of the Imperium of Sidhae and the Imperium Omnitatum Sacrum. The main obstacle to the development of a new dreadnought, however, was resource procurement: although the Mecharussians were able to construct two *Vladimir Lenin* dreadnoughts by 2153, they were a huge investment that came close to ruining the Mecharussian economy.

Three factors made the development of a next-generation dreadnought viable to the Mecharussian government. The first was the birth of the Trotskaya Regime in 2153, Trotskaya being one of the most fervent advocates of a fleet of massive battleships to achieve space supremacy. The second was the sudden appearance, in 2153, of the *Actium*-class dreadnought, the presence of which greatly worried Aerofleet officials. The third, and most important, was the advent of the Five-Year Plans, mandated by the MAF's Directive *Gotika* - one of the Trotskaya Reforms - to push the Mechanocracy to match the Imperium territorially, economically and militarily within 30 years.

Upgrades to the surviving *Lenin* dreadnought, MSS *Joseph Stalin*, in addition to the Baikonur-class battlecruisers were deemed adequate to supplement the current Aerofleet until the Starfleet Initiative could commence. When it did, in 2155, the engineer Gennady Ermakov presented to Trotskaya a working design for a new-generation dreadnought, dubbed Project 36000D *Taraksipp*. Ermakov's design fitted a number of important innovations; among them were multi-terawatt plasma artillery pioneered on the upgraded *Joseph Stalin* and prototype quantum entanglement communications equipment.

The other key development factor that went into the *Taraksipp* was lessons learned from two skirmishes with the Imperial Navy in the first half of the 2150s. Though in both the Mecharussians were roundly defeated by the technologically superior Sidh vessels, tacticians were able to identify several serious flaws in Imperial naval combat methodology. The first, and by far the most glaring, of these was their preference for line-of-sight engagements with the Mecharussian ships, apparently lacking longer-range weaponry. This led to the development of the faster-than-light missile, concepts and several working models of which already existed well before the Trotskaya Regime came to power. As a result, the *Taraksipp* was armed with the new P-1100 *Spiral* FTLASM, a missile fitted with its own short-range, single-use resonant ender drive and designed to engage enemy starships from the outskirts of a solar system far out of gun range.

With most of the framework for the new dreadnought already in place, Ermakov promised Trotskaya that the warship would be ready to enter service in 2158 - two years before the projected start date of World War IV. Five vessels were designated to be constructed at the Frakiyagrad shipyards by this date, just as the *Lenin* dreadnoughts were, with the resources brought in from extradimensional worlds conquered and mined by the Mecharussians. Trotskaya gave Ermakov her assent to construct the new ships, the first of which was christened MSS *Tsezar Badanov* (after a Soviet admiral who fought in Great World War Three).

Actual production of the new dreadnoughts, however, was delayed by World War IV beginning four years earlier than what Mecharussian strategists had assessed, and the subsequent necessity to dedicate the Frakiyagrad shipyards towards constructing additional Baikonur-II, Marsianingrad and Kobra warships. As a result, the *Tsezar Badanov* only left the production line in 2160; by this time, the war was clearly turning in MechIntern's favour, mooting the selling-point of the *Taraksipp* dreadnought being a war-winning superweapon. The ship fought in the last naval battles of the war alongside the *Joseph Stalin*, its first engagement being against the *Salamis* ORBACT Group over Mars.

In the post-war era, the *Taraksipp* dreadnought class was renamed the *Badanov* class and, in line with Directive *Gotika*, reclassified as a battleship; the next ship in the Starfleet to receive the classification of 'dreadnought' would be the MSS *Apokalypsis*, a superbattleship commissioned in 2165. Mass production of vessels based upon the successful *Tsezar Badanov* prototype would begin in 2163, following finalisations of the accepted design and the incorporation of more powerful weaponry (notably a tachyon bolt driver). The new Badanovs, along with the rest of the nascent Starfleet, would be trialled by fire in 2166, the year that the First Helleon Campaign commenced.

## Notable appearances

* The Badanov has so far appeared only once - in the non-canonical Festival of Carnage. (The ship issued to that RP was nerfed considerably so as to fit the tech requirements.)

## Trivia

* The Badanov is nearly identical to a ship used by the Vaktovian Empire (a group on the online videogame ROBLOX that the Mecharussian author was a part of for a long time), which in turn borrows from the Helghast cruiser in the *Killzone* video game series. The Vaktovian Badanov is considerably smaller than the Mecharussian Badanov, however, and classified as a cruiser rather than a battleship.