The MCRN Donnager was the flagship of the Martian Congressional Republic Navy's Jupiter fleet. The Donnager is the namesake of the Donnager-class.
Appearance
MCRN Donnager was a large battleship, almost 500 meters long and weighing approximately 250 000 tons.
Square and blocky, with small bulbous projections in seemingly random places, and designed for long periods at high-g, it was built in the "office tower" configuration: each deck one floor of the building, ladders or elevators running down the axis. Constant thrust took the place of gravity. At nearly five hundred meters long, it was the size of a 130-story building.
She was driven by four main engines and was painted in the MCRN colors of black and orange.
Armament
- Six Torpedo Launchers: Fixed missile silos capable of firing torpedoes with plasma warheads. It is unknown if Donnager was carrying any nuclear warheads.
- PDC Network: An array of Point Defense Cannons positioned all along the ship's hull for defense against torpedoes and close range attackers.
- Two Railguns: Powerful mass driver cannons firing 2-pound metal slugs at high speeds. These cannons were only used in CQB given that their unguided rounds made them too easily dodged at long range. This fact is mentioned in the book Leviathan Wakes.
- Marines: Donnager carries an unknown number of elite soldiers from the Martian Marine Corps equipped with MCRN Power Armor, capable of absorbing small arms fire.
- Support Craft: Donnager's hangar bay can hold a number of support craft, such as Corvettes, to aid in her combat abilities. At the time of her destruction, only the damaged Knight shuttle and MCRN Tachi were docked here.
Crew
The Donnager had a crew of 2,086. Among them were:
History
At one time Bobbie Draper's MMC Unit was attached to the Donnager. Prior to the Eros Incident, the Donnager was tasked to protect shipments of materials bound for Mars from pirates and smugglers. At that point, most of Donnager's crew had received no real combat experience.
Eros Incident
 “Welcome to the future” — Spoilers for Leviathan Wakes follow.
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After losing contact with Phoebe Station, Donnager was dispatched to find out what had happened to the facility and its inhabitants. When it arrived, it found everyone dead, their bodies having been incinerated, and that all the computer cores were destroyed.
Rescue
The Donnager later picked up James Holden, Shed Garvey, Alex Kamal, Naomi Nagata, and Amos Burton from aboard the damaged Knight shuttle. Captain Yao had the group detained and interrogated. Since Holden had set out a broadcast blaming the Martians for the Canterbury, the already tense relationship between the UN and Mars was 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
Book
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 hanger to reach the Tachi. Whilst Marine Gomez provided cover fire.
Although Kelly is wounded however managed to board the Tachi; ordering Alex Kamal a former Martian Congressional Republic Navy pilot to fly the ship out of the Donnager. The Tachi escapes in a high-G burn however Lieutenant Kelly wounded is crushed to death inside of his armor.
TV
Suddenly, an incoming ship was detected heading towards Donnager at full burn. The ship could not be identified, but Captain Yao assumed it was just another OPA belter ship. However, upon arrival, it was revealed to be not one, but six mysterious craft linked together. Breaking apart, they jammed the Donnager's communications and moved in to attack, firing eleven plasma torpedoes. The call to battle was sounded, and the Donnager fired back with twenty torpedoes, destroying one ship. While her PDCs shot down most of the enemy's torpedoes, one missile got through, damaging the Donnager's reactor and melting a huge hole in the ship's rear.
The five remaining attackers entered the minimum range for missiles, and Donnager powered up her two Railgun turrets, taking out two attackers. Concentrated fire from the PDCs destroyed one more. Much to the surprise of the command crew, the "bandits" fired back with their own Railguns, pounding the Donnager until she was forced to shut down her damaged drive. Her pummeled defenses now offline and venting atmosphere, the remaining attackers launched boarding pods and unknown combatants swarmed into the ship.
Holden, having realized that the attacking ships are identical to the Canterbury's killer and that these unknowns were trying to set the Martians up, is sent to be evacuated by Lopez and some Martian Marines along with data on the attacking ships. The other Canterbury survivors are rescued, at which point Lopez receives word that Yao has set "condition zero"; Donnager is going to self-destruct.
The Marines and Canterbury crew make their way to the hangar where MCRN Tachi, a Martian missile corvette, is docked, but the hangar is swarmed with enemy boarders. The Martian Marines are killed, Lopez is fatally wounded, and Amos is shot in the leg, but Alex takes control of the Tachi and, using the corvette's PDCs, blast their way free of the ship and escape.
Destruction
Back on the Donnager, enemy boarders attempt to breach Donnager's CIC, but Yao activates the self-destruct mechanism, vaporizing the Donnager and everyone left on it. MCRN Donnager, the pride of the Martian Navy, was no more.
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").