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During the disastrous Lourm Campaign, Federation fleet commanders begrudging learned (sometimes moments before their flagships exploded from under them) that, despite the EF Space Force's overwhelming battleship superiority compared to the Zeon Duchy's would not be enough to win the war. Federation engineers threw existing designs out the window and set out to create an entirely new class of ship designed to carry mobile suits. The Pegasus-class was the final culmination of those efforts. Federal engineers created two catamaran-style hulls and attached them together with a central fuselage containing the reactor, command deck, and Minovski-craft system (more on this later). Each of the outboard hulls contained its own mobile suit hangar, each with its own launch catapult and space for four mobile suits. A central corridor connects the two, and also stores a mobile suit of its own, for a total of nine. Due to its ablative hull plating (painted in red), it can re-enter Earth's atmosphere by itself, and also acheive escape velocity on its own power (again with the Minovski-craft system). The Pegasus is armed with two large mega particle cannons, mounted behind the large yellow firing domes on either side of the ship's hull. The domes slide open and the cannons extend from within when preparing to fire. Two large missile launchers are also mounted on each side with a third rear-facing pair mounted further back on the hull for the purpose of discouraging close pursuit. Twelve laser antiaircraft turrets, modified versions of the same ones in use on the newer Magellan-class battleships, are mounted concealed firing ports that also slide open when preparing to fire. The Pegasus' most racially inventive feature is its Minovski-craft system. Essentially the Federation's version of Zeon's Minovski-craft compressor in play on some of their mobile armors, it allows the Pegasus to fly in atmosphere for virtually unlimited amounts of time. |
