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"Sir! Dominion ships warping in! Mengsk's flagship is leading them!"
"Sweet mother of mercy."

- Captain Matt Horner and Tychus Findlay upon seeing the Bucephalus and its battlecruiser escort(src)

The Bucephalus is a Gorgon-class battlecruiser[2] serving as the Terran Dominion flagship during the Second Great War.

The ship's bridge is lavishly furnished, featuring paintings, a phonograph and a starmap. It serves as an observatory of sorts for Valerian Mengsk.[3]

The Bucephalus is larger than the Hyperion, a Behemoth-class battlecruiser, and as of 2504 was the largest battlecruiser ever built.[2] It was developed to be an impressive flagship to replace the stolen Hyperion.[1] The ship was outfitted with the ability to deploy a defensive matrix.[2]

Statistics[]

Bucephalus equipment[1]
Power Class 10 Fusion
Armament
  • 16 J23Ship-to-Ship Missile Launchers
  • 25 Crew-Served Batteries
  • 145 Point Defense Systems
Air Wing Variable
Ground Ordnance Variable
Shield Active for Warp and Orbital Insertion
Range Variable; Standard Equip: Koprulu Sector
In-System Speed 1 AU per Cycle[1]

History[]

Construction[]

Bucephalus SC2-WoL CineHeirApparent2

Tactical information

The Bucephalus was constructed at the Ursa Shipyards, and commissioned in 2503. A year later, it had a crew complement of 8,239 and was the flagship of Emperor Arcturus Mengsk.[4]

Rebel Rendezvous[]

BattleBucephalus SC2-WoL CineHeirApparent1

Commander Jim Raynor battles his way through the ship's corridors

Crown Prince Valerian Mengsk took the Bucephalus to the Moebius Foundation rendezvous point after Raynor's Raiders retrieved a Keystone fragment from Typhon XI. With its shields down, Commander Jim Raynor and Tychus Findlay came aboard and battled Dominion marines. Raynor found Valerian, who offered him a chance to rescue Sarah Kerrigan.[4]

Battle of Char[]

Council SC2 CineDangerGames1

Raynor, Crown Prince Valerian Mengsk and General Horace Warfield meet on the bridge

After the last piece of the artifact was recovered, the Bucephalus led half the Dominion Fleet to Char. Once the Bucephalus was in high orbit, Raynor and Valerian met with General Horace Warfield on the bridge. Valerian contacted his father from there to inform him of the undertaking. The Bucephalus was then caught in a zerg surprise attack. Warfield told everyone to clear the bridge.[5]

Flashpoint Conflict[]

After the deinfestation of Sarah Kerrigan, Raynor's Raiders and Valerian's Dominion forces pulled back into orbit. However, with the arrival of Arcturus Mengsk and his demand to surrender Raynor and Kerrigan, Valerian and his crew went rogue, attacking the Dominion fleet. The Bucephalus engaged the fleet, but slowly its supporting ships were being destroyed. Desperate, the Bucephalus, Hyperion and a handful of ships warped out of orbit of Char. However, they were quickly followed, and discovered that the ships were bugged. The crew of the Herakles was evacuated to the Bucephalus, and was sent on a suicide run into the Dominion fleet to buy them time.

The ships reached Dead Man's Rock, but by then only the Hyperion and Bucephalus remained. The ships hid among the port's rubble thanks to the kindness of Mira Han, but a group of Mira's mercenaries turned on them to try to earn a reward from the Dominion, forcing the ships to escape once again, this time to the Moebius Foundation Space Station Prometheus. However, the Foundation personnel were working for the Dominion, and engineers sent to repair the Bucephalus sabotaged its power cells, disabling coms and weapons. The crew of the ship worked to reactivate weapons, and with coordination with the Hyperion, they were able to evacuate the base of allied personnel and escape through a cloud of asteroid dust. The ship escaped to the Umojan Protectorate Research Station EB-103.[2]

Insurgency[]

NovaReigelValerianHorner SC2-NCO Cine1

Valerian revealing his plan aboard the Bucephalus

During the Defenders of Man Insurgency, Valerian met with Agent Nova Terra aboard the Bucephalus, asking her to get to the bottom of the conspiracy surrounding the Defenders of Man. When she agreed to be loyal to him, Valerian gave her the Griffin, as well as his covert ops crew.[6] After protests regarding his rule escalated due to false flag operations by the Defenders of Man, Valerian evacuated from Korhal onto the Bucephalus. He contacted Carolina Davis from the ship's bridge, claiming he was stepping down as emperor.[7]

On the Bucephalus, Valerian, Admiral Matt Horner, Nova and Reigel discussed plans to capture Davis while Valerian made his resignation speech on Vardona. They agreed that while the Defenders were focused on Valerian's escort, Nova would sneak through the sewers of the city and infiltrate Davis's compound, capturing her.[8]

ValerianHorner SC2-NCO CineResolutions1

Discussing the issue about Nova aboard the Bucephalus

After Davis's assassination by Nova, Horner and Valerian watched UNN from the Bucephalus, hearing how stability had begun to return to the Dominion, and that popular opinion had turned back to Valerian's rule. Horner used the ship to track Nova and the Griffin, which had gone renegade after assassinating Davis, but Valerian said that they would let her go, for now.[9]

Notes[]

Bucephalus SC2 DevRend1

The ship's bridge

  • The bridge of the Bucephalus appears in Wings of Liberty cinematics. Its starmap model was repurposed from its counterpart on the Hyperion. The paintings featured in the cutscenes however, were done by Blizzard's art department rather than its cinematic one.[3] The bridge was originally going to feature in the story mode space of the game in a similar vein to the Hyperion sets. The player could interact with a window, a phonograph, and a painting of Angus Mengsk.[12]
  • The Bucephalus was originally described and shown as an older model of battlecruiser.[4] It was later clarified as being a Gorgon.[1][2] It has been stated to be 560 meters long and 82.4 meters wide,[1][4] though this has led to size issues.

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Blizzard Entertainment. 2013-01-22. StarCraft II Creative Development Q&A - Part 13. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2013-01-22.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Golden, Christie (November 6, 2012). StarCraft II: Flashpoint. Simon & Schuster (Gallery Books). ISBN 978-1451-65962-7.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Valerian's Observatory, accessed on 2012-07-19
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Cinematic: Heir Apparent. (in English). 2010.
  5. Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Cinematic: Dangerous Game. (in English). 2010.
  6. Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Nova Covert Ops. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Cinematic: Loyalty and Service (in English). 2016-03-29.
  7. Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Nova Covert Ops. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Cinematic: Liars. (in English). 2016.
  8. Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Nova Covert Ops. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Cinematic: Between Past and Future (in English). 2016-11-22.
  9. Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Nova Covert Ops. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Cinematic: Resolutions (in English). 2016-11-22.
  10. StarCraft: Ghost Xbox 2020 Youtube.com, Accessed on 1-10-2020
  11. Kenyon, Nate. (September 27, 2011). StarCraft: Ghost: Spectres. Simon & Schuster (Pocket Star). ISBN 978-1439-10938-0.
  12. 2014-08-30, Unused HoTS Story Elements. StarCraft Legacy, accessed on 2014-09-01
  13. Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Mission: Legacy of the Void, Brothers in Arms (in English). 2015-11-10.
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