Lyceum Command Battleship Skimmer
By Spartan Mike

The latest exciting model to be unveiled from our Kickstarter Campaign is a devastating and huge skimming Battleship devised by the genius of The League of Crimson. In this second article Spartan Mike looks at a variant commanded by the deadly Countess Ophelia Blackbriar, or the She Devil as most of her enemies know her.

While the devious mercenary group known as The League Crimson largely favours coordinated strikes with gracefully moving light vessels to destroy its prey, there are times in which their tactical evasion is met with enough resistance that forces the use of a much stronger, less subtle hand. The Lyceum Command Battleship epitomises exactly what a Crimson slap to the face feels like!

This giant vessel skims ominously above the surface of a battlefield, its mysterious anti-grav engines giving it a degree of manoeuvrability even more incredible than its lesser kin. The thick shadowy fog that heralds an attack by the League Crimson, billows heavily from the ornate, contoured hull of a Lyceum. Should speed and unnatural fog fail to guard the vessel from enemy retaliation, the banks of Shield Generators built into the chassis provide another element of frustration to its would-be destroyers.

Racked under the manta-like wings of the ship, are lined row upon row of experimental Energy Broadsides of unknown design. Although lacking the traditional ranges of the Energy weapons found in the Covenant’s Fleet, the copious overlay of projectors, combined with a dangerously caustic payload, ensure that any target blazed with its unearthly green payload, smoulder to horrible ruin.

Though its powerful countermeasures and extraordinary Energy Broadsides are enough to humble even the most seasoned Admiral, the real power of the Lyceum lies within its adaptability… and the commanders that make her their Flagship. Ingeniously, the Lyceum can be built to the specifications of anyone wealthy enough to afford one. Usually, this golden ring falls into the hands of the upper Elite members of the Inner Circle of the League Crimson. The most powerful and malevolent members spend funds unheard of in the modern era, to outfit a Lyceum to become their personal War-Palanquin.

By virtue of hull design, a pair of turrets are fit into drop-decks under the wings of the ship and allow the personal flair of the Captain to grace the field of battle. Likewise, a massive fore drop-deck can house a variety of strange and experimental armaments, often a personal project or design of the ships sinister owner.

But perhaps the most audacious design of the Lyceum, is the arrogance that crowns the top of the hull… A completely customisable command deck, in which a multitude of designs have been sighted across the global conflict. This raises the furore of enemy commanders, knowing that atop this bloated and pompous vessel, a sinister den of villainy houses the laughter of a heartless mercenary commander and their henchmen…

THE SHE DEVIL

Of all the members of the Inner Circle of the League Crimson, none are as audacious or as arrogant as Countess Ophelia Blackbriar of Britannia. As a young girl, the Lady Ophelia was always an adventurous and impudent child. Her wealthy Father, Lord Edmond Blackbriar III, tried incessantly to quell her lust for “less than lady-like behavior”, ushering her away to numerous finishing schools and various spiritual institutions. Yet each time was met with complete failure, as she would be caught weeks after, having escaped to the thrills of back alley gambling halls, hunting under guise with rural common folk, or worse still, fighting amongst the bars and opium dens in the countries underbelly.

Lord Blackbriar eventually reached his limit. The crest of his anger came when he had to liberate Ophelia from the constable’s office; she had murdered her fencing instructor during a practice duel gone wrong. Incandescent with rage and shamed from having to cover up such an embarrassment, the Lord cast out his only offspring, bellowing to her that his vast mining fortunes would be turned over to the Crown instead of his wayward daughter. It was in that night of dismal anger that Ophelia’s life was forever changed.

The next morning, as the family stewards set up to pack the young Lady’s affects for her leave of Blackbriar Manor, it was then that Lord Blackbriar was found dead in his chamber. His lifeless face twisted in agony, surely the guilt in his heart overcame the aged Lord and his spirit left him as he agonised over the lot of his only child. Ophelia, faced with such tragedy, remained oddly stoic. She immediately set to establish herself as Countess Blackbriar and rightful Heiress to the Blackbriar fortune. To finally become the civilised and noble woman her father had always wanted…

Years later, the secret life of the Countess Blackbriar is a truth known to only one group, The League of Crimson. Using her prodigious mineral wealth, she easily bullied herself into the organisation and set about becoming a standing member of the Inner Circle. A known and feared femme fatale, Countess Blackbriar enjoys nothing more than manipulating and dominating men, not only in courtly matters as a noble Lady, but on the field of battle as a mercenary commander without equal.

The Countess arrogantly commands from the front lines of a conflict, sitting comfortably in her battlefield manse, built into her Lyceum Battleship in spitting image of her family’s ancestral Manor. An opulent lair bedecked with the trappings of her birth right and guarded by an elite team of murderous duellists. These masked honour guard train tirelessly in a specially designed combat arena in the depths of her Command Mansion, under the expert tutelage of Lady Blackbriar herself.

A pair of modified heavy-bore turrets loaded with specialized magnesium laden shells ensure that the lady’s Lyceum critically damages and set ablaze any targets that loom too close. To further sow chaos and discord amongst her enemies prior to an assault by her honour guard, the Countess had a specially built Plasma Torch built into the Fore of her glorious ship. This terrifying heavy flamethrower, easily slices through the hull of enemy ships with a noxious concentration of unknown chemicals, rumoured to have been discovered in a secret family mine. Once the hull of an enemy ship is liquefied and a breach formed, peerless swordsmen wade into the chaos and deliver a coup-de-grace to the crippled vessel. Should the spoils of war yield high amounts of captive enemy soldiers, the good Lady will often entertain her guests onboard her ship with a lavish mid-battle dinner party and perhaps even treat them to a fencing lesson…