Geiersburg Fortress

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Geiersburg Fortress (797 UC (488 IC / 3597 CE))

The Geiersburg Fortress (Japanese: ガイエスブルク要塞) was an Imperial fortress located in the Freya Starzone. At 45 kilometres in diameter, it was of the same order of magnitude as Iserlohn, albeit smaller, and was the second most powerful Imperial fortress. The fortress had a mass of roughly 40 trillion tonnes and could maintain a fleet of up to 16,000 war ships within. Its primary armament, a massive X-ray beam cannon called the Vulture's Claw, had a wavelength of 100 ångströms and an energy output of 740 million megawatts. Like Iserlohn, Geiersburg was encased within a heavy sphere of liquid metal armour, which was thick enough to absorb explosives, and could even reflect laser attacks — making the fortress nearly impregnable. (LOGH: 'Bloodshed in Space')

History

With the loss Iserlohn Fortress to the Free Planets Alliance in 796 UC (487 IC / 3596 CE), Geiersburg Fortress was left as the most powerful fortress within the Galactic Empire. When the high nobles formed the Lippstadt Alliance, Geiersburg Fortress became their main base of operations in the Imperial Civil War. (LOGH: 'The Lippstadt Conspiracy')

The fortress was attacked by Reinhard von Lohengramm's forces during the civil war. During a feint by Admiral Wolfgang Mittermeyer, the fortress was bombarded by long range missiles, causing little damage to the fortress itself but provoking some of the hot-headed nobles to make a rash sortie from the fortress. In the final stages of the civil war, the fortress, though powerfully armed and extensively provisioned, swiftly fell to Reinhard von Lohengramm's forces after its garrison revolted in reaction to the Westerland Massacre. As a result, Reinhard's forces landed with little resistance and the fortress main gun did not fire upon them. (LOGH: 'Courage and Loyalty', 'The Fall of Goldenbaum')

In 798 UC (489 IC / 3598 CE), Anton Hilmer von Schaft, Inspector General of the Science and Technology Division, proposed to turn Geiersburg into a mobile fortress by attaching warp engines and thrusters so that it could be moved to the Iserlohn Corridor to attack Iserlohn Fortress. The proposal was approved by Duke Lohengramm who appointed Karl Gustav Kempff to lead the operation against Iserlohn Fortress, with Neidhart Müller as second-in-command. The actual modifications to the fortress did not involve any new technology and was just up-scaling of existing technology. Large thruster units were installed evenly around the exterior of Geiersburg and synchronised to fire together. Testing of both the thruster units and the warp engines was successful. On 10 April 798 UC (489 IC / 3598 CE), Geiersburg Fortress warped into the Iserlohn Corridor where it was detected by an Alliance patrol led by the battleship Ulysses. The Imperial force comprised the fortress itself, a docked fleet of 16,000 ships and 2 million soldiers in total. (LOGH: 'Portraits', 'Lost Things', 'The Inquiry Committee')

The Eighth Battle of Iserlohn saw Iserlohn Fortress and Geiersburg Fortress trade fire with their main weapons, both of which were sufficiently powerful to penetrate the external liquid metal armour layers of the fortresses. The risk of mutual destruction limited the firing of their weapons. After multiple failed attempts at taking Iserlohn, and having the Kempff Fleet take heavy losses upon the return of Yang Wen-li, Admiral Kempff attempted to ram Geiersburg into Iserlohn, hoping to destroy both fortresses and thereby achieve his objective of neutralizing Iserlohn. This plan failed when Yang focused the fire of all Alliance ships upon one of Geiersburg's thruster units, destroying it. As the movement of Geiersburg relied on the even firing of all its thrusters, the sudden loss of one thruster on one side resulted in the fortress turning away from its collision course with Iserlohn. The out of control fortress careened through the Müller Fleet, inflicting casualties, and exposed itself to a shot from Iserlohn's Thor Hammer. The shot penetrated deep into the fortress, causing loss of power to its remaining thrusters. Runaway internal explosions ultimately led to the entire fortress breaking apart. The fortress's final death throes destroyed the docked Kempff Fleet, killed Admiral Kempff, and inflicted heavy losses upon the Müller Fleet. Only 700 ships returned to Odina nd total casulaties, including wounded, were 1.8 million. (LOGH: 'Fortress vs Fortress', 'The Return')

Appendices

Appearances

Background information

The name Geiersburg is likely derived from Geiersberg, the tallest mountain in the Spessart range of Bavaria, Germany. (The literal meaning is vulture's mountain.) Schattenburg Fortress was also named after a mountain in Bavaria.