Washington class dreadnought

Space-Faring Capability: Yes
Atmospheric Flight Capability: No
Max. Crew: 80 crewmembers
Min. Crew: 20 crewmembers
Weapons:

• 1 Heavy Pulse Cannon prototype
• 2 Incinerator Beam turrets
  

Shields: Standard Energy Shield
Sub-Light Drive: 1 Warp drive
FTL Drive: 1 Warp drive

Shortly after the Gigerdi Confederation founded its permanent homeworld on Gigerdii 2, the ship designers laid out plans for a powerful weapon system for the state's new flagship, the Manxx class dreadnought, Sanctuary 2. This new weapon system was known as the Heavy Pulse Cannon.

Before this weapon system could be considered for full use, however, a few prototype platforms were needed to be constructed for it. Since the Timocracy War was at full swing at the time, the G-Confed couldn't afford to produce brand new hulls and ship designs purely for just prototype use. Thus the designers were given a small amount of scrap hulls to be molded into a new, permanent prototype platform for the heavy pulse cannon. After a short inquiry, it was discovered, that it would be possible to construct at least five "remodeled" ships out of the salvaged ones. The plan was approved.

The result was the Washington class dreadnought; a rather clumsy vessel purely built around the prototype of the cannon. All of the needed equipment and reactors were situated into a large pyramid-shaped structure in the front of the ship. A standard tower-modelled bridge was then more or less glued on top of the pyramid, and a set of two engines were situated into the back of the ship. The large cannon was situated directly on front of the ship. The living conditions inside the ship were claustrophobic due to the size and amount of the equipment needed to maintain the cannon prototypes. The ship was also very slow to handle and the some of the models were constructed out of materials of lower quality.

The defects in the design did not stop there, however. The biggest flaw in the design had to be the amount of reactors needed to maintain the critical systems aboard the ship and the pulse cannon itself. As one of the vessels was sent out for a test cruise directly against the Timocracy forces, the major defect in the design took shape. The cannon prototype worked just fine, even causing the small Timocracy patrol fleet to be destroyed - but as the cannon was fired, it also drained 99 % of the energy that the reactors produced. This included the life support systems - which immediately went out of commission.

As the Timocracy forces quickly responded by sending in some reinforcements to investigate the disappearance of their small patrol formations, they discovered a floating and dead quiet ship drifting in space. Luckily the captain of the vessel bailed out with her crew, and the ship was later destroyed by friendly forces in order to deny the enemy of capturing the vessel.

Naturally the cannon prototypes did not always work so well. Three out of five of the vessels were destroyed either due to the cannon malfunctioning - or due to complications with the reactor. After the Timocracy War, however, the GA wished to keep the two ships still in active service. The other one was given to some local unit of the GACDF, and the other one even participated in the Third Bacterian War. After the GA Civil War, orders were issued to the last two vessels to be returned to drydock for immediately dismantlement.