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'''GTVA Colossus''' is a spacecraft from the video game [[Freespace 2]]. 

== Background ==⏎
The result of a joint Terran-Vasudan venture, with the goal of protecting the GTVA from a renewed [[Shivan]] threat.

Following the destruction of the SD [[Lucifer]] as it was en-route to destroy the Earth, the Vasudan Emperor Khonsu II proposed to the GTVA General Assembly the construction of the Colossus. Taking over 20 years to construct, the Colossus is over 6km long and holds a crew complement in excess of 30,000. It is the largest spacefaring vessel ever to be constructed. The vessel is destroyed in during the course of the game - though the player is able to affect how and when it is destroyed.

The Colossus is armed with twelve (12) Heavy Beam Cannons, forty-five (45) Laser Turrets, twelve (12) Missile Towers, and fifteen (15) Flak Cannons.  It can carry up to sixty (60) fighter and bomber wings within its docking bays, and this translates to (approximately) 240 craft.  Estimates place the firepower of the Colossus as greater than five (5) Orion-class Destroyers - the most powerful class of Terran warship during the Great War - combined.

The Colossus was the pride of the GTVA alliance. With its completion, the GTVA was confident they could handle any future threat to its security.  This assessment proved premature.

The Sathanas-class juggernaut would be the downfall of the Colossus.  The first such juggernaut, designated SJ Sathanas, was first discovered in 2367 in a Shivan-controlled nebula. A Vasudan fleet had just finished eliminating a Shivan mining operation when the Sathanas came into play. A full retreat was issued and the GTVA was in a [[state of emergency]].  Terran and Vasudan forces detonated meson bombs in the Knossos subspace device that linked the Gamma Draconis system to the mysterious nebula, but to no avail.  The SJ Sathanas emerged in Gamma Draconis via a newly stabilized subspace jump node, prompting Allied command to deploy the Colossus to engage the Shivan battleship.

Depending on how the game is played, a successful Vasudan bombing campaign eliminates the 4 primary beam cannons of the Sathanas, allowing the Colossus to eliminate the juggernaught while taking little damage. The Colossus will also be able to destroy the Sathanas if only 2 of the juggernaut's beam cannons were destroyed.  

After the SJ Sathanas was neutralized, the GTVA returned to the nebula to continue its exploratory missions.  While tracking the NTF rebel leader Admiral Bosch and his command ship, the GVD Psamtik encountered a second Knossos subspace portal in the nebula and was promptly destroyed by a new Sathanas-class juggernaut.  The GTVA once again ordered a full retreat from the nebula.

Operating with Special Operations Command (SOC), the player encounters a massive buildup of Sathanas-class ships, readying an invasion of the GTVA.  Conceding the Gamma Draconis system to the Shivans, the GTVA prepares its plans to hold the Shivans in the Capella system.  With the Colossus barely a match for a single Sathanas, Allied Command prepares to seal off the jump nodes leading out of Capella and into other GTVA systems: one to Epilson Pegasi, and the other to Vega.  Two Great War-era destroyers, the GTD Bastion and the GTD Nereid, were to be loaded with meson bombs and detonated in the jump nodes, sealing off the jump points much in the same way as the destruction of the SD Lucifer in the Great War had sealed off the node between Sol and Delta Serpentis.

To cover the demolition operations, the GTVA Colossus and its battle group launched a feint toward the Capella-Gamma Draconis jump node, drawing Shivan ships away from the Vega and Epilson Pegasi nodes{{spoiler}}
== Initial Deployments ==
During the battle at Enif Station (The Sixth Wonder), a GTI Arcadia-class installation in the [[Epsilon Pegasi]] system, the GTVA Colossus saw its first combat deployment, destroying NTF fighters and warships that were besieging the GTVA station with ease.  With a fresh resupply of fuel from the newly discovered nebula beyond [[Gamma Draconis]], the Colossus and its battle group then went on the offensive, engaging NTF forces remaining in the Epsilon Pegasi system.  The NTF, for its part, avoided direct engagements with the GTVA battleship, preferring to strike at supply convoys delivering fuel and parts to the Colossus (Into the Maelstrom).  Despite this strategy, NTF forces were unable to regain the initiative they once enjoyed in Epsilon Pegasi, before the Colossus's deployment.

In an engagement near the Polaris node, GTVA forces laid a trap for Rear Admiral Koth, commander of the NTF invasion fleet in Epsilon Pegasi (Feint! Parry! Riposte!).  Attacking two NTF cruisers with token forces, Allied forces hoped to draw out the admiral and his flagship, the NTD Repulse.  The ploy was successful, and when the Repulse came to the rescue of the cruiser group, the Colossus jumped in to engage the Repulse.  With his escape route to Polaris blockaded, Admiral Koth attempted to ram the Colossus with his own flagship, the NTD Repulse, in an effort to take down the Allied battleship.  Sacrificing the 10,000+ crew aboard his Orion-class destroyer, Koth's gambit inflicted only minor damage against the Colossus, whose multiple beam cannons made short work of the NTF vessel before it could close in.

== NTF Insurgency ==
Subsequently, the Colossus was sent on the offensive in the NTF-held systems of Polaris, Sirius, and Regulus, smashing through rebel defense fleets and destroying multiple NTF capital ships.  Admiral Aken Bosch, leader of the NTF, abandoned his strongholds and ordered a massive exodus of all remaining rebel ships to the Knossos Portal in Gamma Draconis and into the nebula beyond.  Evading the Colossus and its battle group in Regulus, NTF warships made a daring escape through several GTVA-held systems and jump nodes, though losing more ships along the way (The King's Gambit, The Sicilian Defense)

The Colossus picked off straggling NTF warships and made an attempt to blockade Bosch's flagship, the NTF Iceni, at the Knossos portal in Gamma Draconis.  However, NTF saboteurs onboard disabled the Colossus's forward beam weapons, allowing the Iceni to escape into the Shivan-infested nebula beyond the portal (Endgame)  Nevertheless, the NTF fleet has been shattered during this exodus, and Allied Command declared victory over the NTF insurgency.

The Colossus proved invaluable in breaking the stalemate against the NTF, and secured final victory for the Alliance.  With the Colossus, the GTVA was confident they could handle any future threat to its security.  This assessment proved premature.

== Shivan Campaign ==

The Sathanas-class juggernaut would be the downfall of the Colossus.  The first such juggernaut, designated [[SJ Sathanas]], was first discovered in 2367 in the Shivan-controlled nebula. A Vasudan strike force had just finished eliminating a Shivan mining operation when the Sathanas jumps into the system, destroying the GVCv Tatenen in a matter of seconds with its powerful forward beams (The Fog of War).  A full retreat was issued and the GTVA was in a [[state of emergency]].  Terran and Vasudan forces detonated meson bombs in the Knossos subspace device that linked the Gamma Draconis system to the mysterious nebula, but to no avail.  The SJ Sathanas emerged in Gamma Draconis via a newly stabilized subspace jump node, prompting Allied command to deploy the Colossus to engage the Shivan battleship.

Depending on how the game is played, a successful Vasudan bombing campaign neutralized the 4 primary beam cannons of the Sathanas (Bearbaiting), allowing the Colossus to destroy the juggernaught while taking little damage (High Noon). The Colossus will also be able to destroy the Sathanas if only 2 of the juggernaut's beam cannons were destroyed.  

== Destruction ==

After the Sathanas was neutralized, the GTVA returned to the nebula to continue its exploratory missions.  While tracking the NTF rebel leader Admiral Bosch and his command ship, the GVD Psamtik encountered a second Knossos subspace portal in the nebula and was promptly destroyed by a new Sathanas-class juggernaut.  The GTVA once again ordered a full retreat from the nebula.

Working with Special Operations Command (SOC), the player encounters a massive buildup of Sathanas-class ships, readying an invasion of the GTVA.  Conceding the Gamma Draconis system to the Shivans, the GTVA prepares its plans to hold the Shivans in the [[Capella]] system.  With the Colossus barely a match for a single Sathanas, Allied Command prepares to seal off the jump nodes leading out of Capella and into other GTVA systems: one to Epilson Pegasi, and the other to [[Vega]].  Two Great War-era destroyers, the [[GTD Bastion]] and the GTD Nereid, were to be loaded with meson bombs and detonated in the jump nodes, sealing off the jump points much in the same way as the destruction of the SD Lucifer in the Great War had sealed off the node between Sol and Delta Serpentis.

To cover the demolition operations, the GTVA Colossus and its battle group launched a feint toward the Capella-Gamma Draconis jump node, drawing Shivan ships away from the Vega and Epilson Pegasi nodes (Their Finest Hour).  Having taken down several Shivan cruisers and a Ravana-class destroyer, the damaged Colossus was no match for the juggernaut designated Sathanas 17, which arrived from the Gamma Draconis node.  With its hull integrity heavily compromised, the Colossus was ordered by Allied Command to engage its jump drives and withdraw.  Instead, the commander of the Colossus stood his ground, informing Command that they will attempt to hold the Shivans for as long as possible.  The last transmission ended with the words "Just get the Bastion through", moments before the Shivan juggernaut destroyed the GTVA Colossus.

The destruction of the Colossus struck a heavy blow, with the loss of 30,000+ officers and crew and twenty years of construction.  but the actions of the Colossus and its battle group bought time for the Bastion to close in on the Epilson Pegasi node.  The player is scrambled to defend the Bastion and reinforce its fighter escort on the last leg of its run toward the jump node.  The arrival of the Bastion at the jump node successfully seals off the jump node, ultimately ending with the Shivan-induced supernova of the Capella star.

[[Category:Descent: Freespace]]