The Rheinland "Bismark" class Battleships, the symbol of Rheinlands might, widely considered to be the most powerful in Sirius, vessels with such might that even the bravest pirate battleship captains sweat at the though of going up against one in combat.
The Bismark class was designed to replace the obsolete Bremen Class One Carrier as Rheinlands primary capital ship and was designed to take advantage of Rheinlands runaway industrial power to its full extent. With an advanced power array, intelligent auto turret setup and massive heavy guns it was, and still largely is, more than a match for any other capital class ship in the sector.
However, to truly know a ship class, one must be familiar with it on an individual level, and a select number of the ships are truly noteworthy.
Battleship Westfalen
The oldest Battleship to remain in active duty in Rheinland and one of the first ships of its type to be built, the Westfallen is one of the most seasoned ships in all of Sirius. The ships status almost always mirrors that of Rheinland as a whole, to see what the condition of Rheinland is one must simply look to see the condition she is in.
Shortly after her commission, the Westfalen was made the flag ship of the Rheinland fleet, and was used as a command centre during the 80 years war.
The war ragged its course, it wasn't until the Battle of the Yanagi Nebula that the Westfalen saw front line action. She sat in stark contrast when compared to the rest of the fleet, the unscathed ship next to the battle weary fleet.
Now this is where things start to get fuzzy, most people believe that the GMG simply ravaged the fleet, but despite there tactics they could not match the superior firepower of the concentrated fleet. The Rheinland commanders were sure of victory when something unexpected happened. A lone and battered GMG fighter had slipped past the lines and flew straight into the reactor core of the battleship that was located at the centre of the formation. The resulting explosion vaporised the ship and wreaked havoc on the entire Rheinland fleet. Half on the Battleships were destroyed or disabled, and the fighters and gunboats that were to close to the explosion were simply vaporised. The GMG saw there opportunity and struck, laying wast to the surviving fleet. The Westfalen survived the initial blast with a minimum of damage, but without support she was taking heavy damage from GMG fighters. Just when all seemed lost another unforseable event happened, a new jump hole formed where the first battleship was destroyed, and on top of that is seemed to lead straight to New Berlin. Battered and defeated, the Westfalen returned home.
In the years following the Westfalen remained, it was no longer the flag ship of Rheinland. The half repaired ship began the task of putting down local riots. She was positions in Hamburg and was largely overlooked by the Nomads during there infestation, not one permanent crew member was infested.
After the Nomad war, the Westfalen continued to wither away, failing reactor cores made large amounts of the ship uninhabitable, the engines could barely keep the ship in orbit, and minor systems began to fail one by one. Many believed that she would die a lonely and quiet death, right up until Kanzler Nikolaus Reinhardt came to power, he began to rebuild the Military to its former glory and had the Westfalen fully repaired and retrofitted with the latest of military hardware.
Today the Westfalen keeps a watchful eye on the Liberty border, long forgotten are her days as a command post, and the days of horrible condition, she now thirsts for battle and is ready to take whatever Liberty might want to through at her.
The Schwerin, one of the newer battleships, has been placed on permanent deep space assignment in the Omega-15 system. Its primary function is to guard the Omega-15 - Dresden jumphole from Corsairs to keep them out of Rheinland and is under constant attack because of it. It also keeps an eye on the nearby debris fields to make sure no one finds anything too important from old military experiments.
Commission on board is almost completely voluntary and its crew receive double the standard pay, however it is also a favourite punishment to send disobedient pilots there. Schwerin pilots are considered to be the craziest in the military and consume more liquor than any other fighter crew. So much so that there motto is: "Just as good in a dog fight as a bar fight."
The ships bar is full of rumores that the ship is going to begin a search for the Corsair home world and bomb it to dust from orbit in the next few month as retaliation for Corsair attacks into Rheinland, but most believe this to be a combination of drunkenness and wishful thinking.
(I just noticed that I misspelled Westfalen, fixed it now. I will add at least one per week.)
The Strausberg was the first battleship to be built in Oder shipyard after the nomad war and is the base for most Military operations inside of New Berlin. It's primary duties consist of keeping pirate activity in check and keep a close eye on Bonn station to make sure that Liberty doesn't try to sneak spies into Rheinland in the form of ICs employees. It also has a very small fighter contingent, as most fighters in the aria have been assigned to Planet New Berlin and The Ring, this is rarely a problem however as it is rarely attacked directly.
Shrouded in secrecy, very little is known about the Moselle, the little bits of leaked information indicate that it is the home of the elite Rheinland Military Guard and that the ship has been visited by every single high ranking officer at least once, even the Chancellor on many occasions.
All further information regarding the Moselle is classified by the highest authority.
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