Dreadnought \dred' not\ n. 1. A British battleship, completed in 1906 -- 1907, having an armament consisting of ten 12-inch guns, and of twenty-four 12-pound quick-fire guns for protection against torpedo boats. This was the first battleship of the type characterized by a main armament of big guns all of the same caliber. She has a displacement of 17,900 tons at load draft, and a speed of 21 knots per hour.

Dreadnoughts are known for being large and having big guns...

Operation:Dreadnought Bill Passes by Narrow Majority

---Morgaine's World, Prenglar
f.y. 5/33/70

The Council of Worlds finally approved the bill that allows for larger than Class:20 military craft. Following the second Sathar War, the Star Fighter Corps was quickly enacted to advance the small scale assaults into worthy fighting units. High ranking Spacefleet officials followed suit by pushing for something to be done on the other end of the spectrum to get OD rolling.

The bill wasn't being taken too seriously at first, that is until the recent appearance of what the UPF dubbed as the "Juggernaut", a massive Sathar vessel that dwarfed small space stations in sheer mass. This opened the eyes of many UPF strategists and they realized that the possibility of more (or worse yet, larger) craft of such magnitude would spell certain doom for the Frontier.

Immediately following the passage of this bill, military contracters drafted blueprints for such craft as a class:24 craft dubbed "Strike Cruiser", a class:30 hull dubbed as a "Stike Carrier" that can carry up to 24 fighter craft or 6 assault scouts in its massive bay, all the way up to one enormous class:50 craft that will simply be known as a "Frontier Cruiser".

News of passage brought smiles to Pan Galactic executives, following a recently awarded extension of their Battleship contract which now translates to even more of their craft that will be called on as support to such larger craft, hinting that the construction of as many as five more battleships may be contracted within the next year or two. And little doubt exists that their Gran Quivera shipyard will host some of the initial dreadnought constructions as well. Needless to say, shares of PGC stock should be enjoying more healthy gains in the near future.

But Streel executives aren't frowning. Their new shipyard in Cassidine is scheduled to pump out an all new and updated Heavy Cruiser design with modern features that will blow away the original leftovers from the first Sathar War. CEO Hilo Headow (ym) was quoted as saying "We're confident that once all this gets underway, our new cruisers will become the mainstay capital ship of UPF fleets. Add to that, they cost less and we can produce them quicker than our competition's battleships. There's a certain advantage to being number two: it lets the competition know that there's something uncomfortable up their asses, and when it's all said and done they still have to look behind them to see what it is." Spacefleet is considering the purchase of no fewer than three of the new craft, assuming the prototype lives up to Streel's marketing promises.

Many rallies staged by the Frontier Peace Organization expressing their outrage cropped up during the time this bill was up for consideration, and most of them continue to rage today. Some of them turned violent as supporters from the Anti-Satharian League gathered nearby for retaliating demonstrations. ASL leader J. Harrington Farnsworth (hm) was quoted saying "We're all very happy about the passage of Operation: Dreadnought. It's about time the UPF stepped up their efforts." With regards to the FPO, he simply said "When those fools are done hugging their trees, I hope for their sake a strangler chute drops down on them before a worm blasts them in the back. It's always nicer to die thinking that you were right."

FPO leaders were unavailable for comment. An ammendment for the possibility of larger civilian freight haulers and liners is now up for consideration.

(source - House Rules Wiki)