It’s time for yet another Galaxy Ascendant lore post! I’m really coming to quite enjoy writing these, and I hope you’re having fun reading them! Once again, no concept art, but as I said last time, that is something I hope to rectify in the near future, and I’ll of course let you know when that happens.
The indiegogo campaign for Galaxy Ascendant 3: A Shifting Alliance is still running; please consider backing if you want to help support the series, and the production of awesome content related to it such as the aforementioned ship concept art!
Now, without any more delays, let’s get to today’s ship, from a faction we’ve yet to discuss here!
Conqueror-class Battlecruiser
Ship Type: Battlecruiser
Manufacturer: Imperial Drive Yards
Operator: Imperial Revittan Navy
First Deployment: 20 BTA (Before Tyrannodon Arrival)
Length: 4km
Width: 700 meters
Height: 500 meters
Crew: 1,500, in addition to fighter and shuttle pilots, as well as up to 8,000 troopers and combat equipment.
Armament: heavy plasma cannons, particle cannons, light plasma cannons, 22 torpedo launchers. Some models, three massive kinetic energy penetrator canons, shield draining weapons in place of most of the heavy cannons.
Complement: 288 starfighters of various types, 16 transport shuttles, 100 troop transports/attack shuttles.
History & Technical/Development Notes
The Conqueror-class is the backbone of the mighty Imperial Revittan Navy, the largest and most advanced ship in wide service in the fleet. The Conqueror was designed to be capable of keeping order essentially on its own, and is heavily armed enough to single-handedly take on numerous opposing craft, between its own firepower and its large starfighter complement.
Designed to replace the aging Dominator-class battlecruisers that had, for over a century, been the core of the Imperial navy, the Conqueror-class was envisioned to be a demonstration of Imperial might, and a means by which to solidify and enforce Imperial control over its space, its launch closely coinciding with a massive Imperial restructuring that saw the Emperor take yet more power, and eliminate groups perceived as threats to Imperial order, such as the Noalii Guardians. It was an improvement on the older design in every respect, from shielding, to weapons, to system placements—thus eliminating several design deficiencies that enemies of the Empire had learned to exploit—and a superior system for launching starfighters, a pair of magnetized launching catapults that allows that ship to launch its entire fighter complement in as little as two minutes.
The Conqueror is bristling with armaments, over its wide but comparatively thin body, arrayed so as to be equally capable of engaging enemy forces head-on, or through broadsides, with equal effectiveness. This was deemed extremely important, as, in part due to its sheer side, and the Imperial emphasis on overwhelming firepower, the Conqueror-class is not particularly maneuverable. Its few blind spots are easily protected by fighters, and when present, support ships.
While a Conqueror is usually accompanied by a handful of escort ships, in several of its earliest action, it proved capable of managing even on its own, thanks to its massive fighter complement, and since then, the Empire has been more willing to deploy a single Conqueror, alone, to pacify smaller threats and hold a planet or even an entire system, in some cases.
To date, no warship known to the Empire, apart from the brand-new Supremacy-class, of which there is only a single one currently in operation, can match the Conqueror-class for sheer firepower, durability, and flexibility. Only the complexity of the construction and the immense cost of these ships has prevented them from being produces in greater numbers by the Empire, and thus, in battle, they are understandably considered assets that cannot be lost without extremely good cause.
More recently, with the development of more practical kinetic energy penetrators and the shield draining technology required to make them truly effective, a select number of Conquerors have been modified to house a trio of massive kinetic energy penetrator cannons that run the length of the ship, and are capable of unspeakable destruction, against unshielded targets. However, this modification is very time consuming and costly, and the weapons require far more maintenance than the more standard Imperial armaments, which the vast majority of the ships of this class maintain.
The Conqueror-class has been, and continues to be a ship that strikes fear in both the Empire’s old and new enemies, and is poised to lead the Imperial war effort as fire engulfs the galaxy once again.
Writing, Ascendant 