Battletech - Endeavour Class Explorer

Endeavour Class Explorer

Length - 610 meters
Displacement 500,000 tons

The Endeavour class started as a design In the period of peace after the Reunification War and was originally designed to be the next generation of SLDF spy ship.  But as budgets tightened after the War and money was poured into rebuilding efforts the funding for the expensive design dried up.

After 15 years in financial limbo the funding was finally authorised for a new class of vessel but the role had changed.  With the Reunification War over and the Star League enjoying a boom time with the money in taxes being raked from the Periphery states money and resources were flowing into the League at a near unheard of rate.

Whilst the Navy was getting new warships and facilities the men and women of Exploration Command dusted off the initial plan for a spy craft and decided they wanted a piece of the funding pie.  Still the wrangling for such a craft took a further three years and was finally approved with the support of the Navy who also had a role for the ship.

What emerged was a 610 meter long vessel massing 500,000 tons, and despite the money spent on her she looked curiously old fashioned.  A massive interlinked rotating section dominated the ships profile, sticking out of the hull much like the Taurian’s Wagon Wheel class except instead of being lots of smaller grav-decks this was one huge rotating mass.  Technically it was four grav-decks as at the main hull level there was also a bulge out of the rotating ring forming a rough cross shape.  The lower grav-deck 96 meters in diameter whilst the primary one was 175 meters.  This massive array of grav-decks was designed to give the maximum amount of room in a gravity positive or micro-gravity environment.  Filled with science and research labs, hydroponic bays, hazmat storage as well as the spacious crew quarters the large grav-deck was also a technicians maintenance nightmare.  If something went wrong you had to access the rotating systems from within the primary hull and work ‘under’ them, whilst the grav-deck was turned off.  The grav-deck’s exposed nature also made it vulnerable to damage but it was felt that the ships research nature would keep it away from any threats.

Still this did not stop it being armed for self-defence with a mixture of Mech scale weapons that were more than enough to drive off any overly bold pirates as well as a pair of lasers in the bow section that were part weapon, part research tool.  The NL-55’s would be used to carve up asteroids and comets for salvage and inspection and the ships dozen shuttles and small craft could pick up chunks of rock to be brought aboard for investigation. 

With other 120,000 tons devoted to cargo space as well as carrying 366 days worth of food and water the Endeavour was built for long range missions and every inch of her hull space was used with nothing going to waste.  The large ‘hammer head’ bow section was packed with a wide range of highly advanced imaging and data retrieval systems ranging from long range thermal and optical telescopes to thermal spectrographs and super-cooled spectrometers as well as advanced laser imaging and measuring systems.  It was also a very ‘happy coincidence’ that these systems could also study objects in near space, such as ship yards, works on a planet as well as being able to pick up radio transmissions across a huge spectrum of frequencies. 

Thus the SLDF got a spy ship as well in the new science vessel.  In the initial twelve months of service each ship would cruise round Hegemony space or the space of various House lords to carry out scientific missions, often looking at a systems primary Star.  This included a two month long survey of the Canopus system, investigating the massive Blue giant that dominated the system.  That the ship during this time also ‘happened’ to listen to secure communications between various members of the Canopian leadership was purely coincidental.

The ships biggest problem though was the sheer expense of fitting them out.  With their advanced labs and research systems being near unique to each ship with them having to be installed and calibrated by dedicated teams of specialists.  Each ship also ‘consumed’ a large number of well trained scientists and data analysists in their crew and many research groups, projects and foundations resented their best and brightest being ‘borrowed’ for exploration duty.
The sheer cost of the Endeavour Class eventually limited the construction to just four vessels from a planned ten.  The SLS Hawking, Einstein, Averroes and C. Sagan.  Whilst they proved successful in their roles the class seemed to suffer from bad luck.  The Hawking on a deep space trip to Rigel ceased reporting in and was presumed lost with all hands to unknown circumstances.  A similar fate befell the C. Sagan who stopped reporting in whilst exploring to the ‘south West’ of Marik space.  The Einstein was caught up in the Amaris Civil War and performed admirably as a spy vessel and communications ship before being strafed and then rammed by a Vulcan aerospace fighter which started a serious internal fire which gutted the ship.
The Averroes like the Einstein was used as a command and control vessel and vanished with General Kerensky’s forces, although there are no records of a ship matching her description in Clan service, it is assumed she was lost or scrapped.

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