Gorgon-class battlecruiser

The Gorgon-class battlecruiser was a class of terran capital ship and the most powerful warship ever fielded by the terrans of the Koprulu sector. Larger than the long-serving Behemoth-class, it stood at the top of the lineage of battlecruisers that reached back to the early days of the Terran Confederacy, and its name followed the convention by which battlecruiser classes drew their designations from mythology. Its best-known example was the Bucephalus, outfitted as the flagship of the Terran Dominion.

Design and capabilities#

The Gorgon-class was described as the most powerful warship ever fielded by the terrans of the Koprulu sector, and was larger than the Behemoth-class that had borne the bulk of terran fleet service through the Great War. Its interior included a bridge and extensive crew facilities, among them cantinas and rec rooms, in keeping with the practice by which the largest battlecruisers functioned as self-contained cities for their crews. The class was fitted with thousands of optic sensors and multiple laser batteries, and could field a crew complement of between six thousand and eight thousand terrans.

In terms of survivability, the Gorgon-class was set apart from earlier types by its ability to withstand multiple hits from a Yamato cannon, the heavy energy weapon that could cripple a Behemoth with a single strike. The class shared in the general battlecruiser lineage of neosteel armor, energy shielding, and warp-capable propulsion, but was distinguished by its scale and its resilience at the upper limit of terran shipbuilding.

The Bucephalus#

The leading known ship of the class was the Bucephalus, a Gorgon outfitted as a flagship in 2503 and crewed by approximately 8,239 personnel. Built at the Ursa Shipyards to replace the stolen Behemoth-class Hyperion, the Bucephalus was developed as an emblem of Terran Dominion power and was, as of 2504, the largest battlecruiser ever built. It served Emperor Arcturus Mengsk and his son Valerian Mengsk through the Second Great War, including the campaign against Sarah Kerrigan on Char and the rogue flight that followed her rescue.

The Bucephalus measured some 560 meters long and 82.4 meters wide, and was reckoned both larger than the Behemoth-class Hyperion and the biggest battlecruiser the terrans had ever built.

Place among the battlecruiser classes#

The Gorgon-class belonged to a long progression of terran battlecruiser types. The Leviathan-class had been largely supplanted by the Behemoth-class by the start of the 26th century, and the Behemoth in turn was succeeded by improved designs including the Hercules-class, the Minotaur-class, and, in Dominion Special Forces service under Valerian Mengsk, the Moirai-class. Against this lineage the Gorgon stood as the most powerful warship the terrans had ever produced. Its mythological name followed the established pattern by which battlecruiser classes were designated after figures from Greek and biblical tradition, the Gorgon and the Minotaur from Greek myth and the Behemoth and Leviathan from the Bible.