König des Himmels-class hyperdreadnought

> ***"[*** ***It ] shall not only be the most powerful of all vessels to grace the numbing void; it shall be the executor of the will of Humanity unto the Milky Way. Our beacon in the darkness of space shall shine with a brilliance so awe-inspiring that all navies shall crown it the King of the Heavens."*** — *Oberbefehlshaber der Operationssektor* Rüdiger Teschner
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## König des Himmels-class hyperdreadnought

The ***König des Himmels* class** is a type of "hyperdreadnought" currently in construction between two major orbital shipyards of the Menschlicher Sternenstaat; namely the *Weltraummarinewerft Vilten* and *Vera* shipyards around the planets of Vilten and Vera, respectively. Currently including only one ship within the class, the titular SWM *König des Himmels*, it is a vessel that has been commissioned by the Staatswehr for functionality as a mobile command for the armed forces of the Sternenstaat.

With plans for the vessel being drafted in 788 by the combined minds of the Tannen & Keppler, Blocher, and Rechner ship design corporations in addition to the state naval corporation known as the *Staatliches Raumschiffdesignbüro*, construction officially began on the 2nd of January, 791 SA after direct approval from *Staatskanzler* Michael Widmann. Chief of Operations and *Oberbefehlshaber der Operationssektor* Rüdiger Teschner of the *Weltraummarine* currently oversees the construction, and it has been estimated that normal operations will ensure a completion by 801 SA at the earliest.

## Characteristics and design

### Design history

The impetus for the planning of the *König des Himmels* arose from the postulations of *Weltraummarine* commander Rüdiger Teschner in the early 780s for "new conventions of spatial warfare". This involved the synthesis of the *quantitative* strategy of employing a superior amount of nimble vessels such as cutters, corvettes, and destroyers alongside the *qualitative* strategy of employing small amounts of vastly superior battleships, carriers, and other forms of large warship. This strategy, nicknamed in *Weltraummarine* strategic circles as *Minimal-Maximal*, was never truly pursued in full due to financial cost and hypothetical massive reformations to shipbuilding infrastructure and practices. However, the idea of a flagship for the entirety of the *nation* (being the apotheosis of the qualitative stratagem) was seen as ideal for patriotic purposes by several key naval officers, such as Deputy Chief of Operations and *Oberbefehlshaber der Operationssektor* Tom Bäumler.

In 787 SA, a panel of naval officers and ship designers from several potential drafting companies met in the *Weltraummarinestrategischer Komplex* on Vera to discern the appropriate project costs and objectives that they wished to pursue for the formulation of a hyperdreadnought design. Initial projected costs ranged from 300 trillion Staatsmarks to upwards of 500 trillion, which would have been enough to deplete the entirety of the Staatswehr's assigned budget for that year and cause several internal stresses in the military. However, with *Staatskanzler* Michael Widmann gaining interest in the idea on the grounds of the vessel being a flex of might and economic power of the Menschlicher Sternenstaat, approval was given for the military to propose a bill in the *Staatskongress*to increase their budget by an appropriate margin. *Staatspräsident*Heinrich Schuhbeck and *Vorsitzender des Staatskonvents* Rupprecht Kronenberg pioneered the approval of the bill under the public guise of a "security preparation for peripheral territories and *Staatsherrschaften*",and the *Staatswehr* subsequently received a budget boost of 630 trillion Staatsmarks after vetting from the *Staatsgerichtshof der Nationen* bill approval panels.

With a surplus of projected funds, the *Weltraummarine* pursued legitimate means of planning and preparation for the construction of the hypothetical flagship. Several private companies and firms that survived vetting processes while working on the preliminary plans for the ship were invited as permanent members; this mainly included the designer giants of Tannen & Keppler, Blocher, and Rechner. With assistance and direction from the *Staatliches Raumschiffdesignbüro* state design bureau, the rest of 787 was enveloped by several technological breakthroughs and design concepts being formed by the mass of companies and firms working on the vessel's schematics.

The project itself was kept under several layers of secrecy ensured by military intelligence agencies and *Staatssicherheitsdienst* as a result of astropolitical tensions between the Sternenstaat and other polities in the Milky Way. Until the official formulation of the *Interstellar Compact of Collective Human Harmony* alliance, the project was even hidden from friendly star states such as Sinica.

*Work in progress*.