Dawn-class heavy cruiser

The *Dawn-class* heavy cruiser is an anti-capital type in service with the Earth Federal Navy (EFN). Manufactured by Diamondback Industries, these cruisers are designated with the hull code CH. The *Dawn-class* are used primarily in fleet anti-capital duties, providing screens for smaller capital ships.

Designed with capital ship brawling in mind, *Dawn* cruisers have proven successful due to their superb balance between fleet support and troop transportation.

## Design details

### Hull and propulsion

The *Dawn-class* heavy cruiser is one of the larger classes of cruisers in service with the EFN, at 217.5 meters in length with a mass of 28.35 million kg. *Dawn-class* heavy cruisers are protected by a 2.5 meter-thick hull of heavy armor. These warships come with an active phased sensor array built into the ship's hull. The bridge of the *Dawn* cruiser is equipped with its own life support that will function even if the rest of the ship is crippled. Extremely mobile, the *Dawn* class is outfitted with Tier 4 Ion drives for exospheric sub light travel and Tier 4 Atmo thrusters for atmospheric flight. The *Dawn* is equipped with two KSH-class interspatial drives featuring six additional field generators.

### Crew and complement

A *Dawn-class* heavy cruiser is crewed by a maximum of 8 sailors. In addition, these cruisers also carry a compliment of 12 marines. However, the cruiser has twelve reloadable escape pod ports which can also double as Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicles. The Marines that are deployed from the cruiser via a SOEIV drop pod are launched from the ship by a series of dedicated gravity generators.

While *Dawn* cruisers lack the larger hangar bays seen on the *Osiris-class* and later on the *Dawn-class mk2*, the class is outfitted with four hangar modules in the flight pods and one in the ventral keel, each are capable of launching or recovering only a single dropship at a time. These cruisers can typically carry five *D50-F Osprey mk2*'s or five *D50-F Osprey mk3*'s as well as their associated support equipment, with some *Dawn*s carrying small fighter craft instead.

### Armaments

Well-armed for a cruiser, the *Dawn-class* heavy cruiser is equipped with a single 1500mm Lance Magnetic Accelerator Canon, serving as the primary armament of the class. The lower boom of the cruiser contains two 400mm Casemates and pulsed power storage for the MAC, which is fitted in the upper boom along with the fire control systems. A rapid-fire variant of the cruisers MAC system is installed on the *Fray-class*.

For secondary armaments, *Dawn cruisers* are armed with eighteen 20mm point defense network mounted along the hull for tertiary armaments, consisting of six 150mm light artillery turrets and sixteen 220mm Missile Batteries mounted along the port and starboard sides of both flight pods.

## Ship Information

### Engines:

* 14x T4 large Ion thrusters
* 98x T4 small Ion thrusters
* 8x T4 large Atmospheric thrusters
* 30x T4 small Atmospheric thrusters

### Hull:

* Heavy Armor
* Shielding - 1.2 million Units

### Armament:

* 2x 1500mm Lance MAC
* 2x 400mm Dual Casemates
* 16x 220mm Missile Batteries
* 6x 150mm Light Artillery Turrets
* 8x 43mm Rotary Autocannon
* 10x 20mm PDC

### Complement:

Captains' preference.* 5x D50-F Osprey mk2
* 5x D50-F Osprey mk3
* 4x Fighters and 1 Osprey (either version)

### Crew:

* 4 Sailors (minimum)
* 56 Sailors (max)
* 100 Marines

## Chronological and Affiliation

### Era:

* 11th Fleet Rebellion
* Mutiny of Eternity's Advent

### Affiliation:

* (EFN) Earth Federal Navy
* (EDF) Earth Defense Fleet

The *Dawn-class* heavy cruiser was one of the newest classes of cruisers in service with the EFN. Beginning construction in 2210 AD at Meridian Shipyards by Diamondback Industries. The first of the *Dawn* cruisers entered service by 2211 AD, *Sword of Dawn (CH-225)*, was assigned to Admiral Spectre's fleet, Task Force Dawn.

By 2213 AD, six of the *Dawn-class* heavy cruisers finished their final assembly at DBI's Meridian Shipyards on Venus, the newest at the time was the *Saif of Midday (CH-230)*. After 4 years of service, three of the *Sword of Dawn*'s sister ships were destroyed fighting various battles during the 11th fleet rebellion, the destruction of the Wolf system Jump Gate, and 11th fleets assault on Earth.

The end of 2215 saw the last of the original Dawn-classes, the *Tachi's Sunrise (CH-232)***,** leave Meridian Shipyards. After all repairs were made to Cinquedea of Dusk (CH-231) and *Tachi's Sunrise (CH-232)*, Diamondback Industries announced that they would cease producing the *Dawn-class* heavy cruisers. Ending the line with eight original Dawn-class vessels produced, citing the builds running overbudget in both finances and resources and over time, along with cost to upkeep and several performance issues being the leading cause for the decision, in DBI's view. A redesigned variant dubbed the "MK2" was proposed but was rejected.

EFN disagreed with the program cost overhaul and increased ship cost and instead felt a flight two is needed. Ganymede Fleetyards states it can meet the targeted production quota (allegedly) and ask to receive the contract and layed out plans for a *Dawn-class Block 2* variant. EFN agrees and gives the full technical data plans (TDP) of the Dawn to GFY as well as having specialized equipment developed by DBI. Immediately Diamondback Industries attempted to sue and fight the EFN over this claim both politically and legally, however very little was ever gained from this. Within the year, Ganymede Fleetyards had already resumed production of the new *Block 2* variant of the *Dawn-class*, the first being the *Khopesh of Providence (CH-233)*.

By 2218 AD, Ganymede Fleetyards were running into similar issues with the *Dawn-class Block 2*. Citing that the *Dawn-class* cruisers are functionally a super capital vessel in a cruisers body and thus would require program overruns. At this point *Dawn-class* production was terminated for the *Defiance-class*, as these were both cheaper, and had lower attrition rates compared to the *Dawn-class*. Rumor has it though that GFY actually had no issues producing the newer *Dawn-class* *Block 2*, and that they simply preferred producing their own *Defiance-class* design... or were looking to sabotage the EDF...

By 2220 AD, eight (8) original *Dawn-class* with two (2) remaining operational and twenty (20) *Dawn-class Block 2* of standard configurations have been produced.

## Ships of the line

###### Diamondback Industries original eight - (Original naming convention consisted of a type of sword followed by a time of day.)

* **(CH-225) Sword of Dawn**
	+ Destroyed in the 3rd year of the 11th Fleet Rebelion
* **(CH-226) Dagger of Twilight**
	+ Destroyed in the 4th year of the 11th Fleet Rebelion
* **(CH-227) Jian of Sunset**
	+ Crippled in the 4th year of the 11th Fleet Rebelion, subsequently decommissioned.
* **(CH-228) Scimitar of Daylight**
	+ Destroyed in the 5th year of the 11th Fleet Rebelion.
* **(CH-229) Dadao of Midnight**
	+ Crippled in the 5th year of the 11th Fleet Rebelion, subsequently decommissioned.
* **(CH-230) Saif of Midday**
	+ Destroyed in the 4th year of the 11th Fleet Rebelion
* **(CH-231) Cinquedea of Dusk**
	+ Severely damaged in the final months of the 11th Fleet Rebelion, subsequently repaired and returned to service
	+ Still Operational, patrolling Sol
* **(CH-232) Tachi's Sunrise**
	+ Damaged in the final months of the 11th Fleet Rebelion, subsequently repaired and returned to service
	+ Still Operational, patrolling Sol

###### Block 2 variants -

* **(CH-233) Khopesh of Providence**
	+ Destroyed by "Rapier's Ascendant's" reactor overload during the Mutiny of the Eternity's Advent.
* **(CH-234) Sabre of Pluto**
	+ Crippled while fighting the "Eternity's Advent" during the "Mutiny of the Eternity's Advent", subsequently decommissioned. Eventually repaired and added to a squadron with only two *Dawn's*.
	+ Destroyed during an engagement with the EFN/KU scouting force from the pioneer system in 2221.
* **(CH-235) Rapier's Ascendant**
	+ Destroyed while overloading reactor to kill "Khopesh of Providence" during the Mutiny of the Eternity's Advent.
* **(CH-236) Spear of Artemis**
	+ Heavily damaged during an engagement with the EFN/KU scouting force, was able to retreat due to the loss of "Sabre of Pluto".
* **(CH-237) Greatsword of Apollo**
	+ Blockaded the Earth->Pioneer gate during the incursion by Eternity's Advent and KU forces, currently active after minor repairs.
* **(CH-238) Foil of Fortitude**
	+ Destroyed in a mutual action with the still under construction BB-08 "Sonder's Ripple".
* **(CH-239) Falcata's Whisper**
* **(CH-240)**
* **(CH-241)**
* **(CH-242)**
* **(CH-243)**
* **(CH-244)**
* **(CH-245)**

## Gallery

CH-225 Sword of Dawn seen from the forward, port side.
## List of appearances

"Sword of Dawn" First appearance:

* S6, "Season 6 Trailer"

Other appearances:

* S6, Ep.56
* S6, Ep.58-59
* S6, "Sigmarius Workshop BP"
* S7, "Season 7 Trailer"
* S7, Ep. 63 "Reconstitution"
* S7, Ep. 71 "The Battle of Farside Station"
* S8, "Season 8 Trailer"
* S8, Ep.72-73
* S8, Ep.75 "Changing Perspectives"
* S8, Ep.77 "What we fight for"
* S8, "Finale Trailer"
* S8, Ep.80-82
* S8, "Finale Trailer (and stream time)"
* S8, Ep.85 "At the Break of Dawn"

"Khopesh of Providence" First appearance:

* Outlands S1, Ep.1 "Pilot"

"Sabre of Pluto" First appearance:

* Outlands S1, Ep.1 "Pilot"
* Outlands S3, Ep.1 "The Birthplace of Humanity"

"Rapiers Ascendant" First appearance:

* Outlands S1, Ep.1 "Pilot"

"Spear of Artemis" First appearance:

* Outlands S1, "Space Engineers: Outland Teaser
* Outlands S3, Ep.1 "The Birthplace of Humanity"

"Greatsword of Apollo" First appearance:

* Outlands S1, "Space Engineers: Outland Teaser"
* Outlands S3, Ep.1 "The Birthplace of Humanity"