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The LDSS Nauvoo (Later known as Behemoth and then Medina Station) was a generational ship constructed at Tycho Station. Cylindrical in shape, it measured just over two kilometers long and half a kilometer wide. Four Donnager-class battleships would fit in her belly and not touch the walls.
It was intended to be populated by thousands of Mormons and travel beyond The Sol System to Tau Ceti. However, before its voyage, the ship was used by members of the Outer Planets Alliance to attempt to avert the course of Eros during the Eros incident. The attempt failed and the ship was salvaged by Drummer, rechristened as the Behemoth. It later underwent refurbishment to transform it from a generational travel ship, into a functional battleship that would be on par with those of the Martian Congressional Republic Navy and United Nations Navy.
Construction
The command and control at the top of the ship and the main engines and the associated parts of engineering at the bottom could almost have belonged to a standard craft connected by a pair of kilometers-long shafts, one for a keel elevator to move people and another that gave access to the skin of the drum. The secondary car, stored on the exterior, could hold a dozen people. Everything else was built to spin. Ten levels of environmental engineering, crew quarters, temples, schools, wastewater treatment, machine shops, and forges, and at the center, the vast interior.
The vessel measures 2,460 meters long, with a width of 950 meters and a depth of 910 meters. While generally crewed by approximately 4,000 people, the vessel routinely carries up to 7,000 along with space for eight medium-sized spaceraft in the docking area as well as 370 Tycho Manufacturing Accelerator Tugs, permanently attached as reaction-control-system units following its recovery after the Eros Incident. The Nauvoo can addtionally carry numerous probes, dozens of scout and passengers skiffs and torpedo-loading drones.
The Nauvoo is propelled by eight Tycho EDT G-4000 Series Epstein Drives, each the size of a frigate-grade warship alone, designed for interstellar travel.
Weaponry
Following its conversion to the OPAS Behemoth, the Nauvoo was outfitted with many various weapon systems to serve in its role as flagship of the Belt. Despite this weapons complement, the vessel was often considered a paper tiger, as firing one of the railguns would have likely ripped the ship apart due to the structure not being designed for military action. During the crisis at the Sol Ring Gate, the act of firing a torpedo caused the ship's power grid to fail, further demonstrating the ineffectiveness of the vessel as a warship. Due to the lack of any internal mechanism to support reloading the torpedo tubes, the vessel employs automated drones to manually load new missiles into each torpedo tube.
- 6x Zakosetara-Series Heavy Railguns mounted on the bow
- 6x External torpedo bays (each loading seven single-fire torpedo tubes)
- 170 Kess-Hashari Point-Defence Cannons
Additionally, the ship's communications laser was designed for communications across interstellar distances. As a result, the laser was easily modified to serve as a Directed Energy Weapon system.
History
Eros Incident
 “Welcome to the future” — Spoilers for Leviathan Wakes follow.
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During the Eros incident, the Nauvoo was being constructed at Tycho Station, Fred Johnson of the OPA used her communications array to contact the crew of Tachi after they escaped from the Donnager when it was attacked by unknown stealth ships. When the Tachi, now renamed Rocinante, arrived at Tycho, the crew were amazed at the sheer scale of the Nauvoo.
When the protomolecule was unleashed on Eros by Protogen; Josephus Miller came up with an audacious plan to destroy the whole asteroid and station by having the OPA commandeer the Nauvoo from the Mormons and crash the massive vessel into Eros, knocking the asteroid and station out of its orbit towards the Sun. The plan ultimately failed however, when the protomolecule at the last possible moment, defied the laws of physics and moved the entire asteroid and station out of the Nauvoo's path.
After the Eros Incident, Tycho Station had to build a high speed vessel capable of catching up with the Nauvoo so they could retrieve it safely as it was speeding out of The Sol System.
The Ring
| “Break on through” — Spoilers for Abaddon's Gate follow.
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After the OPA recovered the Nauvoo, they kept it from the Mormons and it was retrofitted as the solar system's largest weapons platform battleship and christened OPAS Behemoth. The soft curve of its cylinder was studded with six capital-ship class turreted rail guns and the rough extrusions of torpedo tubes. It was manned by a crew of around a thousand people mostly Belters who were well-trained but undisciplined. It was simply classified as a Behemoth-class dreadnought, as it was the only ship of its kind.
It was rushed into service when the OPA, U.N. and Mars agreed to a joint expedition convoy to the Ring which was now just beyond Uranus' orbit after leaving Venus. When the Rocinante was framed for destroying the U.N. destroyer Seung-Un by Clarissa Mao, the Behemoth had no choice but to fire at the Rocinante to show that the OPA was not involved.
When the Rocinante escaped destruction by entering the Ring, the Behemoth was one of several ships that followed her into the Ring and entered the Slow Zone. When Martian Marines attacked James Holden and damaged the Ring Station, the station retaliated by lowering the speed limit in the Slow Zone which severely damaged and captured all the ships in the Slow Zone including the Behemoth.
After this event, Captain Ashford was relieved of duty by his Executive Officer (X.O.) Pa and Chief of Security "Bull" Baca due to the captain being mentally unstable and unable to handle the desperate situation. The Behemoth then offered to take on all the crews of the crippled convoy and start spinning her habitat drum to provide gravity and safe haven as they were unsure of how long they would be trapped.
The situation came to a head when former Captain Ashford who was growing increasingly unstable and desperate, used support from powerful individuals in the convoy including Clarissa Mao and Hector Cortez and loyal members of the crew to take back control of the Behemoth and enact an insane plan of destroying the Sol Ring using a super-charged laser from the Behemoth's Comm Array to protect humanity. This plan was thwarted by an alliance of James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante, Chief "Bull" C de Baca, Sam Rosenberg, Anna Volovodov, Monica Stuart and some stranded Martian Marines.
Medina Station
| “Enter a new frontier” — Spoilers for Cibola Burn follow.
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After James Holden and the Investigator gained access to the Ring Station, shut down its defenses and reactivated the ring system in the slow zone, the OPA retrofitted the Behemoth again and kept it permanently in the Slow Zone as a station instead of a ship. The Behemoth was transformed into Medina Station.
The Mormon church, who had originally commissioned the vessel, have continually sued the OPA over their commandeering of the vessel, and as such claim ownership of Medina Station. Because of the delicate political situation, no court has been willing to make a ruling on the case.
In the meantime, Medina Station becomes the frontier station for all Human activity through the Ring network. When the first charted planet outside of Sol, called Ilus by the OPA or New Terra by Earth becomes a contested region due to a ship of refugee Belters illegally colonizing the planet.
When James Holden and the Rocinante are sent to Ilus/New Terra to mediate the escalating conflict between the Belter colonists and a corporate survey expedition, the Rocinante after a several month long journey to the Ring arrives at Medina Station to resupply for the next leg of the journey to Ilus/New Terra and be briefed on the situation by Fred Johnson who was based at the station.
| “Fires in the dark” — Spoilers for Babylon's Ashes follow.
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Battle of Medina Station
After the attack on Earth by the Belter group known as the Free Navy, Medina Station fell under Free Navy control. To protect it and the Laconia gate from incursions by Earth and Mars naval forces, an array of massive rail guns was installed around Ring Station.
Captain Samuels, cousin of Rosenfeld Guoliang, takes command as administrator. Jon Amash became security and Shoshana Rindai became systems.[3]
| “An old enemy returns” — Spoilers for Persepolis Rising follow.
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Media
- † The patch makes a reference to the Mormon Scriptures, specifically the Book of Ether, Chapter 12, verse 33: And again, I remember that thou hast said that thou hast aloved the world, even unto the laying down of thy life for the world, that thou mightest take it again to prepare a place for the children of men.
Trivia
- "Nauvoo" is an allusion to Nauvoo, Illinois, one of the earlier settlements of those of the Mormon faith, after fleeing persecution from the nearby state of Missouri.
References
- ↑ The Expanse Novel: Cibola Burn, Chapter 4, Holden
- ↑ The Expanse Novel: Persepolis Rising, Chapter 8 - Singh
- ↑ The Expanse Novel: Babylon's Ashes, Chapter 21