Originally commissioned by the Church of Latter Day Saints as an interstellar generation ship,
and constructed at Tycho Station, the vessel that would become the flagship of the Outer
Planets Alliance was originally known as the LDSS Nauvoo, and intended to carry multiple
generations of Mormons through a 12 Light-year journey to the Tau Ceti System.
The Nauvoo’s spiritual voyage would never come to pass however, as the ship was commandeered
by the Outer Planets Alliance for use as an improvised missile, in the hopes of averting
the course of the protomolecule-infected asteroid, Eros.
When this plan proved unsuccessful, the ship was left adrift, until it was recovered by
OPA Salvage teams, and refitted into the OPAS Behemoth, flagship of the Belt.
At a length of 2460 Meters, the Behemoth is easily the largest spacecraft ever constructed,
built around a centrifuge drum so massive, that four Donnager Class Battleships could
fit inside it without touching the walls.
The ship is propelled by 8 massive Tycho-EDT G-4000 Series Epstein Drives, each of which
is the size of a frigate-grade warship in its own right, and able to accelerate the
enormous mass of the Behemoth through long interplanetary flights.
Following its refit, the Behemoth carries a huge arsenal of weapons, including 6 bow-mounted
Zakosetara-Series Heavy Railguns, 6 external torpedo modules, each carrying 7 single-fire
launch tubes, and 170 Point Defence Cannons, spread across the ship’s hull on a number
of improvised gun towers.
Given that the Nauvoo was originally designed for a direct voyage to Tau Ceti and nothing
else, the ship’s manoeuvrability was far from suitable for combat.
To resolve this issue, 370 of Tycho Station’s automated tugs were permanently mounted to
the Behemoth’s hull to serve as reaction control thrusters.
The primary role of the Behemoth under OPA Control is to serve an imposing symbol of
the united Belt, and to represent the Outer Planets Alliance in dealings with other powers.
When placed into actual combat however, the limitations of the Behemoth as an unwitting
warship become abundantly clear.
The ship’s torpedo launchers are simply mounted onto the hull, meaning that no internal
loading bays exist for the warheads, as a result the ship is forced to use remote drones
to manually insert new torpedoes into each launch tube when reloading and serious power
failures have been known to occur when using any of the Behemoth’s weapons.
The ship’s scale also becomes a critical weakness in space combat, presenting a massive
target that even the most poorly calibrated weapons could easily strike, and any projectiles
that did score a hit on the Behemoth would likely perforate the complex mechanical structures
of the ship’s centrifuge drum, causing widespread causalities and catastrophic damage.
During its refit the Behemoth was also equipped with a number of docking bays fixed above
the ship’s engine cluster, with the surrounding area being converted into a sizeable concourse
and loading area, similar to those seen on the docks of an asteroid station like Pallas
or Ceres.
The Behemoth’s docks are able to house up to 8 medium-sized spacecraft, allowing the
vessel to serve as a mobile staging ground for a small fleet, or to carry out salvage
and logistics operations using groups of support craft.
The modification and relaunch of the Behemoth marked a crucial moment of transition for
the Outer Planets Alliance, further cementing the organization as a legitimate power in
the wake of the Io Campaign, and laying the foundations for a truly organized Belter military.
In many ways the Behemoth is more powerful as a symbol than a spacecraft, serving as
a reminder to the system that the tribes of the Belt are now unified, and leading them
into the future beneath the flag of the Outer Planets Alliance.