Victory class battleship

Concept of a battlehip for Fading Suns universe.

Lo and behold, here come the big guns!
Utilizing a layout much older than steam engine, not to mention the spaceflight, House Hawkwood Victory class battleships were still a formidable foe.
The class was designed in 4910, when House Hawkwood authorities came to an agreement that a barrage laid by dozens of plasma and laser guns would be a match for more precise and more powerful, yet outnumbered heavy meson cannons. Also, projected costs were initially more favorable.

The first of the five ships, the Victory, was commisioned in 4921. She was the only of the class to carry no meson guns. The design seemed to abhor more advanced - and costly - weapons, but already the second ship, the Monarch, received two light meson guns for her chase battery.

In fact, their design resembled a 1st rate ship of the line from 18th century, yet scaled up, turned upside down and equipped with photon engines. They were quite large, measuring 453 meters in length. Their most distinctive feature were the three gun decks, housing the broadside battery. It mostly consisited of fifty heavy plasma guns and two dozen heavy grasers, except for the last ship, the Temeraire, which traded two dozen heavy plasmas on the lowermost deck for eight light meson guns. The chase battery was also a mix of light mesons and heavy grasers, except for the Vixtory, which carried a dozen of heavy grasers in this position. Also, each ship had eight torpedo tubes and thirty-six light lasers broadside.

Along with the Warspite class, the Victory class battleships formed a backbone of House Hawkwood fleet. They had the opportunity to meet the enemy in standard line-to-line battle several times: in 4979, when the Hawkwood thwarted Flavius Li Halan's attempt to claim the imperial throne, same year when the Hazat took the opportunity and attacked the B2, and then thirteen years later in 4992 when the House Hawkwood fleet regained control over B2 jumpgate.
In first of these battles, the Sovereign was lost with only 170 survivors, when she was pounded by salvos from Li Halan Nisshin and Shukyou battleships. After that, they often clashed with their Hazat and Decados counterparts, and they often were forced to dry-docks for repairs.
In the 4992 battle, the class suffered a second loss, when the Temeraire was engaged one-on-one by House Decados battleship Cadiz, crippled and then finished by Cadiz's cruiser escorts. In turn, less than hour later the Ark Royal and the Victory took their revenge, destroying the Decados battleship Sem Apostolov.

After the Emperor Wars ended, the ships were often fielded against the Vuldrok and Symbiot raiders. Currently, the Victory and Ark Royal are stationed on Ravenna, while the Monarch is the flagship of the Stigmata fleet.

Drawn with pencil, scanned & then edited in MS Paint.