Battleship Frédéric Bartholdi

[Montluc Advanced Engineering]

Battleship Frédéric Bartholdi

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STATUS: IN PROGRESS

Introduction

On 17th December, 742 AGS, Montluc Advanced Engineering sent a research expedition to the recently discovered uncharted system. Apart from the rich deposits of so-called "Narcrahtite" ore, the team found a 30-years old derelict Liberty battleship. It had been drifting for decades before getting stuck in a dense asteroid field.

The derelict caught the eye of the MAE Board of Directors as an opportunity to provide the corporation with a ship that could be useful in their goals: to establish the Barony of Languedoc and to push the Minarchy of Provence - Union Corse's puppet state - out of the system. MAE were not the only ones interested in the battleship - the Enclave forces had reached the system before them. But thanks to the diplomatic skills of Baron Montluc, the corporation and the remaining loyalists of the Kingdom reached an agreement. Together, they moved the ship out of the system for further research and repairs.

The ship itself was outdated and its data banks contained no valuable information. That's why the command of the Enclave Defence Authority represented by Colonel Saint-Just allowed MAE to keep the ship for themselves and even repair it.

Despite being outdated, however, armoured with the highest-quality alloys and materials a Libertonian Dreadnought can prove extremely durable against hostile warships, as it was demonstrated during the Gallic War when Liberty fleet used all available units from different generations of the "Overlord" series. The ship could take a shot from "Warwolf" forward gun of a Valor-class Battleship, and still hold the line. But it was not the armour that made the ship excel in combat; its slim profile made evasive maneuvers highly-effective, despite being classified as a dreadnought. A skilled Liberty captain could outmaneuver the heavily-armoured Valor and find the blind spots of the Gallic vessel if he was smart enough.

Its firepower is also on the lighter end of the spectrum. The shipwrights of Montluc Advanced Engineering decided to emphasize and strengthen the long-range capabilities of the Dreadnought. They intend to achieve that by installing a pair of "Trebuchet" Gallic cryonic projectors and a Mons Meg heavy repeater cannon on the remaining compatible mount.

To strengthen the long-range capabilities of the vessel even further, a pair of pulse cannons have been installed. While the dreadnought's known original armament was quite adequate, Montluc Advanced Engineering decided to replace all of the standard-issue Liberty turrets and mounts with the Enclave-produced mounts and turrets. This decision was made due to concerns for long-term servicing and the availability of replacements. As a result, the Dreadnought is to be equipped with a full suite of Enclave primary and secondary batteries and a flak defence grid as well.

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