I think its only fair that the name given to the most illustrious commands of starfleet, the name given to some of the best warships of the British and United states navies of their day, the name that today graces CVN-65 of the US navy gets a damn cool ship to play with in Ariel. Well...I think a battleship is quite fitting for her.
The Enterprise class, the first Battleship to be commissioned into the Republic fleet as a mass produced line of warships, represents the pinnacle of technology in use by the Republic today. The largest warship in the fleet by about 700 meters, the 4.8 km long Enterprise class ships are designed for one purpose: To utterly obliterate all that get in her way. In that vain, her main armament consists of a quartet of double turrets mounting 315 mm Particle "Hammer" cannons, the heaviest guns ever fitted to a warship by some 35 mm. A total of 8 barrels is rated to be strong enough to tear a Antares class defense post into shreds with a single volley. This ship, quite literally outguns everything that the fleet has to offer so far. Her secondary battery consists of 20 twin barrel 130 mm Pulse Plasma cannon turrets, all mounted in 4-turret blisters around the hull. finally, she carries a staggering 40 quad barrel 20mm gattlibng plasma cannons for anti-fighter defenses. Her shields have a maximum rating of 8,000,000 TeraJoules, a capacity that rivals many space stations defenses.The armour, unfortunately, is more in line with the other battleships of the fleet at 45 cm of high-capacity crystalline lattice armour with a 10 cm layer of energy Absorbing materials underneath to dampen any fire that penetrates the armour. Some of the later ships have been modified to carry 2 long range torpedo tubes instead of 2 secondary batteries. These tubes are designed to fit the incredibly expensive, but immensely powerful "Minerva" missiles, for use against planetary bodies. These missiles individually are capable of decimating a continent the size of Asia leaving it utterly lifeless. As such, they are heavily regulated and every ship carries only 10 of the missiles. Usage of them requires activation from the 3 senior officers, and even then they are a controversial weapon. They have never been used in combat situations, and it is very likely they will never be used because of the ethical grey that surrounds them.
The biggest hinderence to the Enterprise class is her administrators. The fleet is reluctant to use them often, one because of the drain on resources it causes in simply fielding them and two because of the firepower they have. They are the obsidian sword of the republic, but that sword is more of a mantle piece display than a weapon. That said, should the need arise to use them they are always ready. Unfortunately, they are quite likely to sit doing little because of problems at home. Only 4 have been delivered the the fleet, the Enterprise, the Endeavour, the Elysium and the Endurance; but they are already recieving many protests from peacekeepers purely because they are purely weapons of war.
That's quite some punch - getting on for a hundred billion megatons, and more than enough to wipe out all life on a planet, in the longer term.
