Database and Lore

Widado Class Heavy Guided Missile Battleship *Spoilers if you haven't read past Gabatrix: The First Peace arc* “It served as an example of Batrice engineering, but ultimately contributes little. Its only goal now is to defend Fort Batrice,” Fleet Admiral Baxton, 2348.  The first battleship design introduced by the Batrice colony, the Widado class, was supposed to be the forerunner for all future UHN warships. However, an unknown issue persists in why the Batrice colony does not celebrate its creation.     Design With the introduction of the Chakri Nerubet class Strike Carrier, the Batrice and Gillan colonies wished to introduce a brand new design of battleships designed to rival that of the more recent Nelson class Battleships. At the time, the UHN suffered greatly from the constant prevalent issues that struck the Nelsons. While the issues were slowly resolved in time, the colony of Batrice wanted to offer a replacement that would be suitable for UHN needs. The Widado class battleship was among the largest heavy combat warships introduced at the time of its introduction. The drone carriers, while large, were designed more as support command vessels rather than true battleships. Short of calling them dreadnoughts, the colony of Batrice wanted to experiment in creating a new, more powerful warship, one that was still cost-effective but a sign of the UWA’s vastly growing economy. Many of the colony of Batrice saw the Widado as innovative as the Magellan class Battleships. The Widado’s frame is larger and more massive than the Magellan class Battleship, designed to carry more missiles while accompanying the powerful Tenix SX Railgun turrets, gun batteries that are typically used as planetary defense weapons. Its frontal dorsal section carries eight launchers, while the top and bottom utilize quad launchers for additional missiles. This, in conjunction with the advanced Mk 11 Genisen AIO turrets, allows the ship to easily eliminate swaths of incoming munitions while delivering a constant and deadly volley of munitions onto targets. Its much larger frame also allowed the ship to carry more shuttle craft in conjunction with escape pods for emergencies. At the time, Batrice made a promise to the UHN that the ships were “flaw-proof,” meaning that no corner was cut in making the ships what they were. While generally more expensive than the Nelson class, many of the UHN were interested in this brand new design, seeing that the Widado class could easily replace the aging Magellan class Battleships. Much to the dreams of the Trappist 1 colonies, the UHN actually accepted the offer to began building this class warship. History When the initial order was placed, Batrice and Gillan began production almost immediately. Two battleships, the UHN Widado and the UHN Rama, would be produced at Batrice Shipyards, while Gillan would produce the UHN Barton at their own shipyards. Construction would take most of the year to accomplish. By the end of the year, all three warships were built to analyze their true effectiveness in combat before construction would continue for future ships. However, near the beginning of 2348, Batrice and, ultimately, Gillan, mysteriously discontinued all production of the Widado class. Gillan had argued that the production cease request was made by Batrice. Multiple reasons and proposals were provided to the UHN and UWA committees, that the Widado class production was to cease immediately. Even a full refund was offered on all the uncompleted hulls. Any additional ships were to be scrapped. While Gillan seemed just as surprised as the other colonies with this decision, Batrice had laid an underlying predicament that they felt that they could offer an even better design than the Widado, the Emerald Class Dreadnought. Much to the dismay of everyone, the trial runs of the three Widado class proved to be viable in simulated combat. Its combat capability was twice the effectiveness of the Magellan class Battleship. However, Batrice wanted to offer a contract for the new Emerald class. The powerful dreadnoughts were not only better but also offered additional improvements in interior design, including more significant hull design and armor layout. With the advent of the Itreans in the JJ-78 incident, much of the prior arguments for the Widado had fallen silent, and the production of the significant Emerald class Dreadnoughts was to begin immediately. With the war with the Itreans in full swing, Batrice made a request to both Gillan and the rest of the UHN to keep the three Widado Battleships in orbit and protect Fort Batrice’s final construction from invasion. In turn, much of the Batrice and Gillan fleets would be used to reinforce Cebravis, Mars, Palora, and the other UWA colonies. UHN command agreed that the Widado, Rama, and Barton would remain as the sole protectors of Fort Batrice. To this day, many see the three ships as the unneeded vanguard for Fort Batrice, being used to help protect Batrice or Gillan or serve as interdiction and frontal defense in case the space station or the planet were to be attacked.  *Spoilers if you haven’t read past Gabatrix: The Batrice Crisis arc* With the deep escalation of the Batrice Revolution, or as it’s now been stated as “The UWA Civil War of 2351,” Batrice had openly declared its right to secede from the UWA. The opening shots of the conflict involved the UHN Barton, the ship that was mostly crewed by fellow Gillan UHN servicemen. At the time, Fleet Admiral Baxton, the man in charge of Fort Batrice, wished to see that the UHN Barton be interned and surrendered to Batrice Fleet custody. However, most of the Gillan personnel and planet Gillan itself recognized that the Barton was of Gillan and UHN property. While in an attempt to retreat, Baxton ordered Fort Batrice to open fire on the Barton, effectively crippling and destroying the battleship, killing all crew in the process. The act of war would ultimately create the civil war that forced Mars and the other UWA colonies to respond to Batrice’s aggression. Debates raged whether Baxton was in the right to open fire on the Barton. However, there was another issue that arose, brought about by Captain Shira on the condition of the Widado class Battleships. Under her suspicions, she believed that Baxton wasn’t intentionally trying to destroy the Barton, but secure it for capture, but something went terribly wrong in the process. Under her evaluation, she was able to conclude as to why the Widado class Battleship program was discontinued by Batrice due to an undisclosed inherent flaw in the ship design. When Batrice had discovered the flaw, they quickly ended the program, refunded the UWA/UHN, and presented the Emerald class Dreadnought program to resolve the unknown issues presented in the Widado class. With the advent of the war with the Itreans, the UHN quickly focused its efforts on the Czar and Emerald warship designs to replace the depleted UHN fleets without further thought. The UWA Civil War was a major issue regarding fleet assets. While Batrice had a sizeable fleet that was weaker than the UWA, the UHN couldn’t send all of its assets to Batrice either. The ships were needed to help defend Mars and the other colonies from Itrean attacks, especially after a recent invasion attempt by the Shal’rein over Palora. Under Shira’s recommendations, she believed in launching a stealth attack that could exploit the Widado and the Rama’s design flaw. In the wake of Baxton’s attack on the Barton, it was revealed that one of the missiles from Fort Batrice had struck an area beneath the main power module. This would cause a catastrophic power failure that would render the battleship completely useless. The damage would further leave the ship completely disabled, requiring it to be brought to the shipyards for repairs. Utilizing this flaw, the stealth mission had proven a success, effectively disabling the Widado and the Rama, knocking out two major warships that Batrice needed not only in safeguarding Fort Batrice but also serving as potential command ships in Batrice’s plan to conquer Gillan. While a small strategic victory during the UWA Civil War, the loss of the Widado and the Rama would weaken Baxton and Batrice’s resolve in wanting to repel the UWA from taking Batrice itself. After the end of the Civil War and Batrice's liberation from the Neo-Khmer Rouge movement, the UHN Widado and the UHN Rama were given full repairs, including fixing the design flaws that had led to their initial disablement. While only two of Widado battleships remain, there has been discussion of placing the warships in more active roles, including Batrice fleet patrols. In the meantime, their purpose remains as it was before: to serve as defenders of Fort Batrice, forever reinforcing Batrice and Gillan against future Itrean attacks.