The GSV Lasting Damage was a militarised Culture General Systems Vehicle that served in the Idiran-Culture War. It was partially destroyed in battle, with two successor ships, the Lasting Damage I and Lasting Damage II taking its place. Eventually, both of those ships were also destroyed, with the surviving Mind being emplaced into Masaq' Orbital.
History[]
Construction[]
The Lasting Damage was constructed towards the end of the three decade period where war with the Idiran Empire was slowly becoming a certainty.[1] Although constructed to fulfill the role of a civilian ship, it was heavily militarised with the expectation of war. The Lasting Damage was constructed ready to construct warships, transport personnel and matériel, and directly engage in battle with its own weaponry.[1]
Idiran-Culture War[]
After the Idiran-Culture War broke out, the Lasting Damage served as part of the Culture's war fleet.
During its last engagement, it was tasked to delay the invading Idirans while the Culture moved a group of Orbitals away. Believing this to be a desperate suicide mission, it transmitted its mind-state to another GSV in case it should fall in battle. During its battle, it was much more successful than expected, achieving all of its military goals in disrupting the Idiran supply lines and destroying a number of Idiran ships, possible entire fleets.[1] The Lasting Damage was almost completely destroyed, with the ship ejecting its Mind in a weapons pod to survive. Although the Mind survived, it was in enemy territory and without the full resources of a ship. It took hundreds of days before it was able to make its way to friendly space and call for assistance.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Culture, believing that the Lasting Damage had been destroyed, began construction of a new GSV and emplaced a copy of the backed up mind-state into the new ship. When the original Mind returned to the Culture, a new ship was built for it as well, with the original Mind's ship taking on the name Lasting Damage I and the backed up Mind renaming itself to Lasting Damage II.
The two ships requested to be in the same battle fleet and continued serving for another four decades. They both took part in the Battle of the Twin Novae. Before the battle began, they swapped mind-states. Both ships were destroyed in the battle, with the Lasting Damage II being completely destroyed and the Lasting Damage I again having its ship destroyed but ejecting its Mind in a smaller ship.[1] The surviving Mind merged the two mind-states together and was then emplaced into Masaq' Orbital.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Look to Windward, Chapter 13
| General Systems Vehicles |
|
|---|---|
| Medium Systems Vehicles |
|
| Limited Systems Vehicles |
|
| Ship classes | |