Dry Dock
The Dry Dock
Lesseps (Orb Refit)
Landship Lesseps (Orb Refit)
General and Technical Information
Class: Lesseps
Name: Lesseps
Ships of the line: Lesseps, Desmond
Unit type: land battleship
Manufacturer: ZAFT (Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty)
Operator(s): ZAFT, Junk Guild, Orb Union
First deployment: unknown
Dimensions: overall length 250 meters; overall height unknown
Weight: unknown
Propulsion: scale system
Equipment and design features:
Fixed armaments: 2 x “Phoenix Mk 3 ” 55cm Duel Linear Cannon; 1 x “Gottfried mk74” 60cm high-energy beam cannon; 32 x vertical missile launcher; 30 x smoke/chaff/flare dispenser; 12 x "Igelstellung" 75mm automatic multi-barrel CIWS
Mobile Weapons:
Original ZAFT- 6 x TMG/A-802 BuCUE; 1 x TMF/A-803 LaGOWE, 2 x TFA-2 ZuOOT (stored on deck)
Junk Guild- 1 x MBF-P02 Red Frame, 1 x ZGMF-1017 Work GINN, 1 x Kimera
Orb Union (71 C.E)- 4 x MBF-M1 Astray, 2 x AMF-101 DINN, 6 x Heli Combat Helicopters (Astrays where replaced with MBF-M00 Wing Astrays for one mission)
Orb Union (73 C.E)- 3 x MVF-M11 Murasame, 4 x MVF-M01 Wing Astray Kai, 1 x MVF-P00HW-2 Hi-Wing Gundam
Technical and Historical Notes
The ZAFT Landship Lesseps originally was the flagship of the legendary Andrew Waltfield, however it was heavily damaged by the then EA Battleship Archangel. After the battle the Junk Guild group led by Lowe Guele salvaged the ship and used it as their baseship during the stay on Earth. However once the group headed back to space it was given to Orb by Lowe for safekeeping. Once in Orb's possession, the Lesseps became a warship once more. However the new weapons it sported where far more powerful then the ones on the ZAFT version of the Lesseps. She now possessed the firepower of a single ZAFT Laurasia Class Frigate.
Even though the Lesseps was inducted into the Orb Defense Forces Fleets, it is basically off the books, an unknown. Since the primary mission of the Lesseps now was to protect the non-military Giga-float Mass Driver, however since the Mass Driver is not controlled by any government or faction it needs a neutral defense. At first it was the Serpent Tail Mercanearies during the construction phase of the Giga-Float but when their contract was up, the Junk Guild and Reverend Malachio who where key backers behind the construction needed a more permanent defense. Though the Giga-Float can move around at will, it still needs some sort of defense for will the lucky few from either ZAFT or the EA find them. Hence an off the book defense, that was from neither Earth Alliance, or ZAFT and since the ship was not officially part of the Orb Defense Forces it made the perfect guardian for the Mass Driver.
The crew of the Lesseps may be on the pay roll of the Orb Union but are not Orb Military Personal, in fact a good portion of them are retired Orb Naval Personnel and the rest are Junk Guild including their MS Pilots. The Captain herself while not in either of those two categories, used to be in service to the Attha Family as the Captain of the family's private transport. However when she was injured badly she was retired from service but when this came up, Major Brain Carter who was arranging all this knew she would be the perfect fit for the new job, since she was his cousin after all.
While its original mission is to protect the Giga-Float, it did serve Orb for one Mission before if it even left the nation. Major Brain Carter enlisted the ship's help to transport himself and his squadron of Wing Astrays to Alaska where he helped save the defecting Earth Alliance Battleship Archangel which was ironic sense the same ship damaged the Lesseps beforing entering the service of the Junk Guild. The ship then escorted the Archangel all the way back to Orb, where after a small layover in Orb's Docks left for the Giga-Float to take upon its mission.
Miscellaneous Information
Captain(s): Andrew Waltfield (ZAFT), Martin DeCosta (ZAFT), Professor (Junk Guild), Jessica Carter (Orb Union)