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By Kaleon
08/11/2017 - 23:21:06

Type: Spaceship
Rating: 0.14 (Not rated)
Tags: centurion, kaleon

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Description

The Centurion class is an older Kamorran capital ship that serves as a frontline breacher. At 6.5 km in length it is by no means the largest of the Kamorran capitals, but it is by far the most durable. Looking at it from the side, you can tell that it's basically just a large slab of armor with some ship guts shoved inside and some guns fastened to the outside. It is so heavily armored that ramming enemy ships is actually in the tactical manual.

Kamorran military directors at first didn't realize how strong the Centurion class actually is, but they found out when a design flaw reared its ugly head. During development the Centurion's armor was upgraded three separate times, adding significantly more mass, but the engines were left alone. As a result the Centurion was about 30% slower to accelerate and turn than expected, and crews who were trained based on the original figures were in for a surprise. Reports of Centurions accidentally crashing into things were unusually high. After a wave of complaints from embarrassed captains who insisted that their calculations were correct and that they weren't at fault, the brass briefly considered recalling the ships. However, they realized that the Centurions were totally undamaged by the impacts. They gave blanket forgiveness for all of the accidents, obtained updated figures for the Centurion's interia characteristics, and encouraged the captains to use the Centurion in a "physically aggressive" fashion. Soon it became clear that the Centurion excelled at being a battering ram.

Nowadays it is not uncommon to see a Centurion at the front of a formation instead of in the middle like a normal capital ship. If the distance between the friendly and enemy fleets closes enough, the Centurion will charge towards the juiciest target and try to ram it. Ships smaller than itself are obliterated outright. Ships larger than itself may survive the initial hit, but they will not survive the ensuing "death hug" as the Centurion fires all of its guns continuously at point blank range into the crippled target. Nothing throws an enemy line into disarray like seeing their largest ship get physically impaled by another. In one famous instance, a Centurion crashed into a hostile moon base, destroying it. The ship received a two degree bend in the middle, but sustained no other damage.