| “ | She's not some rock-hopper. She's the flagship of the MCRN's Jupiter Fleet. Battleship. Quarter-million tons of bad news. | „ |
| — Alex Kamal | ||
The MCRN Donnager was the flagship of the Martian Congressional Republic Navy's (MCRN) Jupiter fleet. The Donnager is the namesake of the Donnager-class Battleship.
Destroyed before the Ganymede incident, she played a highly active role in protecting Martian shipping lanes, shutting down piracy, and protecting Martian interests in the outer Solar system.
Appearance (TV adaptation)
The MCRN Donnager was one of the largest battleships ever commissioned, almost 500 meters long and weighing approximately 250,000 tons. This made her significantly larger than her United Nations Navy (UNN) counterpart, the 376-meter long Truman-class dreadnought. Not only did she dwarf the competition, but her sheer size allowed her to carry a small support fleet within her hull, consisting of Morrigan-class patrol destroyer and Corvette-class light frigates.
Like most MCRN ships, she was sleek and angular, covered in thick armor plating. Shaped like a long broadhead arrow tip, with the four engine nacelles fanning out resembling the fletching of an arrow. Each nacelle housed an RT-10 'Kaminari' Epstein Drive. She was designed for long periods at high-g.
Like most ships, she was built in the "office tower" configuration: each deck being a floor of the building, ladders or elevators running down the axis. Because of this layout, constant thrust takes the place of gravity. At nearly five hundred meters long, she was the size of a 130-story skyscraper.
Halfway down her frame were two enormous doors which led into her expansive internal hangar, housing her small fleet. Positioned far in front of the hangar doors were two enormous VX-12 "Foehammer" ultra-heavy railgun turrets, each almost twice as long as a Corvette-class light frigate. At her nose were 6 large torpedo tubes, with 8 on the aft of the vessel. Supporting these weapons were 59 Nariman Dynamics 40mm PDCs (Point Defense Cannons), usually retracted into the ships hull. Ships of this class are also equipped with a 'Condition Zero' Fail Safe protocol, which will scuttle the ship when breached with boarders. However, the MCRN Donnager was the only Donnager-class battleship to ever use it.
It was coated in the MCRN colorway of black and orange.
Armament (TV adaptation)
- 14X configurable torpedo tubes, 6 fore and 8 aft; fixed missile silos capable of firing torpedoes with a variety of warheads from conventional to plasma to nuclear.
- 2X VX-12 Foehammer turreted ultra-heavy railguns. Although only used in C.Q.B. (close-quarters battle) as they were ineffective at long ranges compared to missiles, they were superior in range and accuracy to almost any other railgun employed by any navy. The Donnager's VX-12 Foehammer railguns are around 80-90 meters long. It is powered by a large, and powerful reactor. There also are turret mounts for two additional railguns, but these go unused for fear of overloading the power core and instigating a critical meltdown. However, the MCRN is researching technologies to avoid these problems, whilst still being able to use all four railgun mounts, and are ready to incorporate them into any Donnager-class battleship, should such an technological advancement become available to the MCRN.
- 59X Nariman Dynamics 40mm point defense cannons (PDCs) positioned throughout the ship's hull for defense against enemy missiles and close range vessels. These weapons are linked to the K-19 "Banisher" High-Accuracy Point Defence Targeting Computer, which can target and destroy even the most advanced torpedos.
- Internal hangar bay for up to eight (12 in TV) support ships such as patrol destroyers and light frigates. At the time of her destruction, only the damaged Knight shuttle and MCRN Tachi were docked inside, however, during Operation Silent Wall, two Corvette-class light frigates and four Morrigan-class patrol destroyers were part of the Donnager's task group.
Armament (Books adaptation)
- 14X Torpedo bays (6 fore, 8 aft)
- 2X Railguns
- Full Point Defence network
- Internal hangar bay for unknown complement of smaller vessels (did have space for at least one Corvette-class light frigate)
History
At one time Bobbie Draper's Martian Marine Corps (MMC) unit was attached to the Donnager.[Citation needed]
Operation Silent Wall
Operation Silent Wall was a three-year MCRN operation to safeguard terraforming materials bound for Mars, led by Captain Theresa Yao and the Donnager. The first operation since the completion of the Martian Fleet Modernization Program, it was a resounding success.
During this time, two of the Donnager's accompanying Corvette-class light frigates, the McCabe and the Valenza, were replaced with four of the new Morrigan-class Patrol Destroyers, the MCRN Damascus, Iceni, Avalanche, and Hamaill-Stewart, allowing the battleship to cast a wider net and discourage pirate activity within a larger area, protecting the Martian convoys much more efficiently.
Eros Incident
 “Welcome to the future” — Spoilers for Leviathan Wakes follow.
|
After losing contact with Phoebe Station, the Donnager was dispatched to find out what had happened to the facility and its inhabitants. When it arrived, it found everyone dead, their bodies incinerated, and all the computer cores destroyed.
Rescue
The Donnager later picked up James Holden, Shed Garvey, Alex Kamal, Naomi Nagata, and Amos Burton from the damaged Knight shuttle, launched from the ice-hauler Canterbury. Mistaken in the idea that the MCRN had just butchered the Canterbury and were now coming to finish the job, Holden sent out a broadcast blaming the Martians for the Canterbury's destruction. Captain Yao had the group detained and interrogated. Holden's message had aggravated the already tense relationship between the UN and MCR, already on the verge of boiling over into all-out war. Yao and Lopez, the ship's intelligence officer, tried to convince Holden to recant his claim, but he refused.
Final Battle
Whilst Holden and his crew are in their quarters the Donnager, comes under attack from the 6 presumed Belter ships that had been trailing the Knight shuttle.
Lieutenant Kelly along with his marines then released the surviving Canterbury crew and escorted them to the hangar to reach the Tachi. Whilst Marine Gomez provided cover fire.
Although Lieutenant Kelly is wounded, he managed to board the Tachi; ordering Alex Kamal a former MCRN pilot to fly the ship out of the Donnager. The Tachi escapes in a high-g burn; however, the wounded Lieutenant Kelly is crushed to death inside of his armor.
An incoming unknown ship is detected heading towards Donnager at full burn. The ship has no transponder and is not recognized by the computers. Captain Yao assumes it was just another OPA Belter ship, until it split apart, revealing itself to be six mysterious stealth ships in close formation to fool long range identification. To maintain their cover, they jammed the Donnager's communications and began burning towards the battleship, firing eleven torpedoes. Captain Theresa Yao sounded [[Attack on the Donnager |general quarters}}, and the Donnager returned fire with some twenty torpedoes of its own, destroying one ship. While the CIC crew was confident in victory at first, they soon noticed that the enemy torpedoes were very advanced, visibly making evasive maneuvers to try and slip through PDC defense. This initial salvo successfully landed two impacts, one against an engine nacelle, but the other impacted the reactor housing.
Five remaining ships successfully weathered the torpedo salvos, and entered the Donnager's minimum torpedo range. At this point, despite the advanced capabilities of their attackers, Captain Yao presented a strong front, ordering her crew to bring up the railguns so they could finish this and go home. Diverting power to her two Railgun turrets and firing her PDCs against the enemy, the Donnager immediately destroyed another unknown.
It was then that the attacking force revealed their surprise. To the shock of the CIC crew, the "bandits" fired back with their own railguns, unheard of from ships of their size. Undaunted, Captain ordered analysis of the enemy warships when initial scanning failed to match known UNN or MCRN hulls. Holden, upon seeing an optical scan of one of the ships, exclaims that he's seen one of them before. The Donnager successfully kills two more of its attackers, leaving two left in combat. It is here however that the consequences of the reactor housing strike come into play. With repeated railgun penetrations of the hull on top of the earlier battle damage, the main drive begins to overload, and the CIC is forced to shut it down, removing thrust gravity from the ship as well as leaving it on the drift.
As the battleship drifts, their first railgun turret is put out of action, and something penetrates the CIC. The projectile generates shrapnel that wounds a tactical officer and one of the Marines. It also deactivates the locked buckle holding Holden in his seat, and sends the Marine's sidearm skidding across the deck. Spotting this, Lieutenant Lopez moves to intercept Holden before he can go for the gun, but he instead attempts to render aid to the downed Marine. Joining him, Lieutenant Lopez asks the Earther what he knows about the ships, discovering that one such ship killed the Canterbury.
With the Donnager without power for its PDCs and on the drift, the remaining attackers launch breaching pods to assault the ship. Now out of options, Captain Yao orders Lieutenant Logan to evacuate Holden to the custody of the MCRN as a witness, alongside some tactical telemetry gathered during the battle as evidence.
Fighting through boarders and navigating battle damage, Holden pushes Logan to go and retrieve his crew. As they do so however, the Lieutenant discovers via wrist computer that Captain Yao has set "condition zero", signalling her intent to scuttle the Donnager. With limited time, the Marines and the Canterbury crew make their way to the hangar where the MCRN Tachi, a Martian light frigate, was docked, but also encounter more boarders. With no other option, the marines assault through.
The Martian Marines are killed, Lopez fatally wounded, and Amos Burton shot in the leg. In one final effort, Alex Kamal took control of the Tachi and, using the frigate's PDCs, blasted their way free of the ship and to escape.Destruction
"I didn't think we could lose."
Theresa Yao, moments before the Donnager's destruction
Back on the Donnager, enemy borders attempted to breach Donnager's CIC, but Yao activated the Condition-Zero fail safe protocol, vaporizing the Donnager and the 2 remaining Amun-ra's it in a nuclear fireball. The MCRN Donnager, the pride of the Martian Navy, was no more, along with the 2086 Martians aboard.
The Donnager proved the might of Martian vessels in combat. Despite having a relatively inexperienced crew, isolated from fleet support, outnumbered, and assailed by six advanced and well-armed vessels no one had ever faced in battle before, the battleship managed to kill four of the enemy ships in direct combat and denied the enemy the intel they came to retrieve, making the battle a costly loss for the Protogen Corporation.
Since Lt. Lopez died of his wounds aboard the Tachi, his body was the only one of the Donnager's crew that could ever be recovered.
Media
Trivia
- Donnager virtually means "Thunderer". The cognate deity in wider Germanic mythology and paganism was known in Old English as Þunor and in Old High German as Donar (runic þonar , stemming from a Common Germanic *Þunraz (meaning "thunder"), and in old Norse, as Thor. The modern German word for thunder is "Donner".
- NOTE: All images used on this page are from the TV adaptation of the vessel. For more information on the books version, see Donnager-class.