Data Current as of January 8th, 2000 CE
C.S.S. Phoenix
General
Manufacturer: Korhal Drive Yards
Operating Category: Battlecruiser
Class Designation: "Behemoth II"
Mass: 945,000 metric tonnes
Length: 637.46 meters
Top Acceleration: 200 km/s
Ideal Cruising Rate: 15,000km/s
Fuel Duration AMA: 7 years
Crew Capacity: 10+155
System Specs
Core: Matter/Antimatter Reactor
Fuel: Hydrogen/Antihydrogen
Max Stable Power: 13.7 TW
Propulsion: Ion engines
Primary Defense: Yamato Cannon
Secondary Defense: Heavy Lasers
Outer Hull: Neosteel-fnordium Armor
Field Defense: Point-defense Shields
CPU Speed: 65 THz
CPU Storage: 344 Exabytes
AD/S System: None
Service Data
Launched: November 10, 1998
Last Refit: August 1, 1999
Captain: Fjorxc Daystar
Affiliation: CWAL Hunt Valley
Home Port: IIIS Orbital Station 10
Standing Crew: 45
Systems Installed ODS: 1
Previous Hull Breaches: 1
Previous Core Failures: None
Combat Engagements: 9
Total Dry Repairs: 1
"Domina astrae."

Profile
Project Firebird began as a directive from Emperor Arcturus I shortly after the destruction of the Terran Confederacy and the fall of Aiur. It was a turbulent time, when xenophobia raged through the worlds of the Dominion and the threat of an invasion by the Protoss or Zerg was a common fear. As one of his first official acts as Emperor, Mengsk announced a complete overhaul of the Terran military, replacing the numerous fighters and destroyers that had been "liberated" from Confederate salvage yards. The first major rearmament program was known simply as Project Firebird.

Construction went slowly at first, as the Dominion's best surviving designers labored to come up with the needed upgrades, poring through terabytes of data that had been accumulated on Protoss and Zerg weapons, defenses, units, and tactics. One of the first things to be designed was an extremely advanced program which was nearly an artificial intelligence in and of itself. It was programmed with the largest database on the Protoss and Zerg militaries known to exist, and when encountering a hostile Protoss or Zerg fleet, it would advise the crew onto the best action to take or, at the crew's discretion, simply fight the battle by itself.

It took four months to get the beginnings of the design hammered out, and by then, a vehicle had arrived for them to be installed on. A week before the preliminary designs were complete, a pair of Dominion tenders arrived at the Korhal Prime space station with the incomplete frame of a recently-discovered Confederate battlecruiser at a hidden shipyard. KDY went into full gear at that; the incomplete vessel would be the prototype for the new warship class, which had already been dubbed "Behemoth II."

For the next six months, work on the battlecruiser took on a frenzied pace, with hordes of new weapon systems being installed, both additional heavy lasers for taking down capital ships, and lighter, more concentrated lasers for taking down fighters and other small craft. In addition, several missile launchers and a large stock of nuclear-tipped missiles were installed, and the damage on the already-powerful Yamato Cannon were increased even more. Finally, the old Colossus fusion reactor which had previously been a staple of Behemoth battlecruisers were scrapped forever. The battlecruiser was the first ship under the auspices of the Terran Dominion to be equipped with a matter/antimatter reactor, the last word in power generation in the Koprulu Sector.

After more than a year of herculean efforts, the battlecruiser was almost operational. In a widely publicized ceremony, Arcturus Mengsk officially christened it in drydock at Korhal Prime. It joined the Terran Dominion Navy as the TDS Phoenix, after the mythical firebird of Earth mythology.

Meanwhile, on the distant planet Earth, the Phoenix was becoming known to a small faction there. CWAL Hunt Valley was embroiled in a conflict against the Brotherhood of Sid, and sought a new weapon to fight its battles with. More importantly, CWAL HV members had uncovered evidence that Firaxis was transporting all known copies of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri to Planet in the year 2190. Realizing that less than a dozen commandoes could not overpower an undoubtedly massive Firaxis garrison force on its native soil, they turned to other options. That was where Exile, CWAL HV's resident Dark Templar and member of Alcoholics Anonymous, came in.

Using his Corsair fighter, Exile managed to travel to the Korhal Prime station on the day that Emperor Mengsk would officially unveil the Phoenix, the battlecruiser having been completed a few days before. The Protoss infiltrated the station, and mere moments before the unveiling took place, Exile absconded with the Phoenix. Throwing off a pursuit of Wraith fighters, the Phoenix entered hyperspace and headed for Earth.

The Phoenix performed beautifully in all its (limited) engagements to date. However, while it is nearly unmatched in space, in atmosphere, it is extremely vulnerable, and as such does not carry the fight into the air very often. Its air wing, however, is formidable, composed of some 57 Mk IV CF-105 Arrow fighters, as well as a limited number of CF/A-18G Wraith stealth fighters.