Thanatos-class heavy battleship

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"We have exhausted all other options - we must stand and fight."

- CPTN Malcolm Marriott, while aboard the UNSC Thanatos

The Thanatos-class heavy battleship (: BB) is the last model of super-heavy developed by the  during the. It is designed to defeat almost any one capital ship, and with limited support is capable of matching most. It combines the very best elements of any combat ship that came before, with an advancement on honeycomb bracing, a diverse armament, and one of the most sophisticated fleet management system yet conceived, to allow it to efficiently thrive within heavy combat. Although a potent spatial combatant, it was hampered by a number of weaknesses, not least its speed and costly construction, and so failed to push off the Covenant's advance towards the core worlds.

The Thanatos-class battleship was one of two ships that resulted from, the other being the famed. While the latter was intended to ferry a privileged population away from Human Space, the Thanatos-class was envisioned to be its mighty defender - a vessel that could destroy any Covenant task force that intended to follow them. They first saw action at the Siege of Paris IV, where it performed well at stalling the invasion forces. The few battleships would participate in nearly two dozen engagements during the war, with most of these being in defensive stands above the UEG's most precious worlds. Unfortunately, most of these formidable ships would extremely-short but distinguished service lives, with only a single battleship surviving the war. Although the UNSC has authorised a new batch, as of they are still undergoing fabrication.

Trivia

 * The Thanatos-class heavy battleship is inspired by the same ship seen in Sins of the Prophets, although additional images were also taken from their original version of the.