Revision 76123447 of "GTVA Colossus" on enwiki

The '''GTVA Colossus''' is a spacefaring Terran-Vasudan warship from the video game [[Descent: FreeSpace|FreeSpace 2]]. It is of the juggernaut specification.

== Background ==
The result of a joint Terran-Vasudan venture, the Colossus was built with the goal of protecting the GTVA from the threat of future invasion of GTVA space, especially a renewed Shivan incursion.

Following the destruction of the [[SD Lucifer]] as it was en-route to destroy the Earth, the Vasudan Emperor Khonsu II proposed Project Colossus to the GTVA General Assembly.  The Project was an effort to build a superior warship with both Terran and Vasudan technologies, a ship that could ably fend off any further invasion of Terran-Vasudan space. Taking over 20 years to complete, and featuring dozens of contractors from both races, the end result was the GTVA Colossus.

The Colossus is over 6 km long - the largest spacefaring warship ever constructed in Terran-Vasudan history - and holds a crew complement in excess of 30,000. It is twelve times larger than an SD Lucifer. Armed with twelve heavy beam cannons, forty-five laser turrets, twelve missile batteries, and fifteen flak cannons, the Colossus also carries up to sixty fighter and bomber wings within its fighterbays (approximately 240 craft).  Estimates place the firepower of the Colossus as greater than five [[GTD Orion|Orion-class]] Destroyers - the most powerful class of Terran warship during the Great War - combined.<ref>{{ cite web | title=FreeSpace 2 cutscene of the GTVA Colossus | url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDa-EWEaM-I}}</ref>

== Initial Deployments ==
{{spoiler}}
During the battle at Enif Station, 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 installation 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. 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. Attacking two NTF cruisers with token forces as bait, Allied forces hoped to draw out the admiral and his flagship, the [[GTD Orion|NTD Repulse]]. The ploy was successful, and when the Repulse came to the aid of the cruiser group, the Colossus jumped in to engage the Repulse. With the escape route to Polaris blockaded, the Colossus called on Admiral Koth to surrender his command. Instead, Koth attempted to ram the Colossus with the Repulse, in an effort to take down the Allied battleship. Sacrificing the 10,000+ crew aboard his [[GTD Orion|Orion-class]] destroyer, Koth's suicidal 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 these strongholds and ordered a massive exodus of all remaining rebel ships to the [[Knossos Subspace 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 Colossus picked off straggling NTF warships and made an attempt to blockade Bosch's flagship, the [[NTF Iceni]], at the Knossos. However, NTF saboteurs (though some speculate that they may have been GTVI operatives) onboard disabled the Colossus' fire control system, shutting down its weapons and giving the Iceni a crucial ten second window of opportunity to escape into the Shivan-infested nebula beyond the portal just before the Colossus could bring her fire control back online. The supership was ordered to hold its position and not pursue the Iceni.

Nevertheless, the NTF fleet has been shattered during this exodus, and Allied Command declared a decisive victory over the NTF insurgency. The Colossus proved invaluable in breaking the stalemate against the NTF, and secured the victory for the Alliance. With the Colossus, the GTVA was confident that they had nothing more to fear. This assessment would prove to be premature.

== Shivan Campaign ==
The Colossus would meet its match in the [[SJ Sathanas|Shivan juggernaut Sathanas]]. The first such juggernaut, designated Sathanas, was first encountered in 2367 in the Shivan-controlled nebula. A Vasudan strike force had just finished eliminating a Shivan gas mining operation when the Sathanas jumped into the system, destroying the GVCv Tatenen, a [[GVCv Sobek|Sobek-class corvette]] in a matter of seconds with its powerful forward beams. A full retreat was issued, and the GTVA declared a [[state of emergency]]. Terran and Vasudan forces detonated newly developed [[TC Meson Bomb|meson bombs]] to destroy the Knossos that linked Gamma Draconis to the nebula in an effort to avert the coming invasion, but destroying the device had no effect on the jump node, which had stabilised. The SJ Sathanas emerged in Gamma Draconis, moving on to shatter Allied forces defending the node leading to the inhabited Capella system. In response, Allied Command deployed the Colossus to engage the Shivan juggernaut in a one-on-one showdown in Capella.

To give the Colossus an advantage in the engagement, Vasudan bombers from the [[GVD Psamtik]] and the Terran destroyer [[GTD Hecate|GTD Phoenicia]] attacked the Sathanas in Gamma Draconis, attempting to neutralize the 4 primary beam cannons of the Shivan vessel. Though the Phoenicia was forced to retreat (sometimes, while playing the mission, it is instead destroyed), the bombing run was successful, leaving the Sathanas without its main weapons, though the Shivan vessel continued its incursion into GTVA space.  

Finally, in Capella, the GTVA Colossus destroyed the SJ Sathanas. The Colossus sustained moderate damage to its hull and to its weapon systems during the engagement from straining its beam cannons; several months would be required to repair its systems.

== Destruction ==
After the Sathanas was neutralized, the GTVA returned to the nebula to continue its exploratory missions, and the Colossus returned to GTVA space for repairs to its hull. However, while pursuing the NTF rebel leader Admiral Bosch and his command ship, the Psamtik encountered a second Knossos Subspace Portal in the nebula and was promptly destroyed by another Sathanas-class juggernaut. Allied Command once again ordered a full retreat from the nebula.

GTVA Special Operations Command encounters a massive buildup of Sathanas-class juggernauts converging on the [[Capella]] sun. Conceding the Gamma Draconis system to the Shivans, the Alliance prepares plans to hold the Shivans in [[Capella]]. With the Colossus barely a match for a single Sathanas, Allied Command devises a plan to seal off all jump nodes in the Capella system that led into GTVA space: the node to Epilson Pegasi, and the other to [[Vega]], trapping the Shivan armada. Two Great War-era destroyers, the [[GTD Orion|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.  Having taken down several Shivan cruisers and a [[SD Ravana|Ravana-class destroyer]], a damaged Colossus was no match for SJ Sathanas 17, which broke off the main juggernaut fleet surrounding [[Capella]] to engage the Colossus. With hull integrity heavily compromised, the Colossus was ordered by Allied Command to engage its jump drives and withdraw to safety. Instead, the captain of the Colossus stood his ground, informing Command that he will attempt to hold back the Shivans for as long as possible, buying the Bastion the time it needed to reach its destination.  

The final transmission from the Colossus ended with the words "Just get the Bastion through", moments before the Shivan juggernaut destroyed the massive ship.

The destruction of the Colossus struck a heavy blow to the GTVA, with the loss of 30,000+ officers and crew and twenty years of Terran-Vasudan engineering. However, the actions of the Colossus gave enough 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 node. The arrival of the Bastion at the node successfully seals off the subspace link between Capella and Epsilon Pegasi, preceding the final Shivan-induced [[supernova]] of the Capella star.

==Notes and references==
<div class="references-small">
<references/>
</div>
[[Category:Descent: FreeSpace spacecraft]]