Leonidas II

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The flagship Leonidas II (797 UC (488 IC / 3597 CE))
Affiliation:	Free Planets Alliance
Flag officer:	Vice Admiral Legrange
Type:	Ajax class flagship
Purpose:	Flagship (11th Fleet)
Pennant number:	11
Length:	1159 metres(FFC7)
Width:	72 metres(FFC7)
Height:	358 metres(FFC7)
Armament:	40 forward cannons 65 port cannons 65 starboard cannons
Crew:	1,226(FFC7)
Status:	Destroyed in combat
Destroyed:	797 UC (488 IC / 3597 CE)

The Leonidas II (Japanese: レオニダス II) was the Alliance flagship of the 11th Fleet under Vice Admiral Legrange.

Contents 1 Service history 2 Design 3 Gallery 4 Appendices 4.1 Appearances 4.2 Name variations 4.3 Background information 4.3.1 Licensed Sources 4.4 Apocrypha 4.4.1 Fleet File Collection

Service history

The Leonidas II succeeded the Epimetheus as the flagship of the 11th Fleet after it was destroyed at the Third Battle of Tiamat. (TBT: 'Part Two')

Vice Admiral Legrange and the rest of the 11th Fleet sided with the National Salvation Military Council in the Alliance Civil War, and sortied from Heinessen to intercept and destroy the Yang Fleet. When the Yang Fleet engaged the 11th Fleet at the Battle of Doria Starzone, the 11th Fleet was annihilated, and the Leonidas II was reduced to a twisted wreck. (LOGH: 'The Battle of Doria Starzone, And...')

Design

In accordance with its name, the Leonidas II is very similar to the Leonidas.

Gallery

Starboard (797 UC (488 IC / 3597 CE))

Damaged (797 UC (488 IC / 3597 CE))

Bridge (797 UC (488 IC / 3597 CE))

Appendices

Appearances

Name variations

• Leonidas II (LD/DVD subtitles)
• レオニダス II (LD/DVD subtitles — Japanese)

Background information

The name Leonidas II is probably a reference to the destroyed Leonidas, which was in turn named after Leonidas, a king of Sparta and the leader of the 300 Spartans at the famous Battle of Thermopylae. There was also a king of Sparta known as Leonidas II, but it seems unlikely a flagship would be named after such a comparatively minor historical figure.

Licensed Sources

The modular construction of the Ajax class flagships achieved cost savings and allowed for flexibility in tailoring each flagship to the desired needs of each fleet commander and testing out new design paradigms. However as fleet commanders began to request the development of new original modules, a debate began within the Free Planets Star Fleet. One side argued for the complete standardisation and mass production of flagships for the entire Star Fleet in order to achieve even lower construction costs, while the other side opposed this.

In April 791 UC (482 IC / 3591 CE) it was decided to conduct an experiment to test the flagship standardisation theory. Two completely identical flagships were designed and simultaneously built in the Heinessen 14th and 15th shipyards. The ship built in the 14th was the Leonidas and the other was the Leonidas II. Though there were significant cost savings, the time savings were less than expected as any design or construction flaws had to be corrected for both ships. Correction of flaws actually took more time than correcting for a single ship. Critics of this approach also pointed out the potential risk of the entire Star Fleet's flagships being vulnerable if the enemy should discover and exploit a weakness in a single design. In the end, no further completely identical flagships were constructed after the Leonidas II.

The most distinctive feature of these two ships was the additional sensor module in the lower hull. Aside from serving as a back-up suite if the primary sensors were damaged, this improved sensor capability in long range gun battles.

After the death of Vice Admiral Legrange, the Leonidas II surrendered, however by then the ship had sustained heavy damage and was unsalvageable. (Fleet File Collection Vol.7)

Service History:

• June 796 UC (487 IC / 3596 CE) Completed at the Heinessen Number 2 Shipyard. According to Fleet File Collection Vol.7 it was completed at the 15th shipyard
• 15 June 796 UC (487 IC / 3596 CE) Inducted into the 11th Fleet as flagship
• 19 May 797 UC (488 IC / 3597 CE) Destroyed at the Battle of Doria Starzone
• 1 October 797 UC (488 IC / 3597 CE) Name struck from the register (Data Book: Mechanic & Seiyū Encyclopaedia, p. 128)

Apocrypha

Fleet File Collection

The Leonidas II is included as a model in Fleet File Collection Vol.7.

v•d•e Alliance/EFRG/IR flagships

Abai Geser • Achilleus • Airget lamh • Ajax • Bang-goo • Belenus • Brigitte • Cu Chulainn • Diomedes • Epimetheus • Gora-Daileng • Grand Canal • Gumeiya • Hard Luck • Hyperion • Krishna • Leonidas • Leonidas II • Lugeilan • Marduk • Masasoite • Maurya • Muffuese • Palamedes • Patoroklos • Pergamonn • Perun • Quetzalcoatl • Rio Grande • RK-387 • Rustam • Santa Isabel • Shiva • Tlahuixcalpantecuhtli • Triglav • Ulysses • Vivasvat