After the First Interstellar War, the United Vitam State evaluated the effectiveness of their ships for any possible improvements that could be made to them as they continued their conflict with the newly established Holy Lykan Republic. While the Raptor-Class Destroyer and the Cerberus-Class Cruiser had their weaponry upgraded to include railguns and blasters originally supplied by the Camino Star Empire as well as the introducion of frigates with the Harpy-Class Frigates during the Yintaka Incident, the Golem-Class Battleship never received such upgrades in its design. While the vessel was optimally armed to fight against the former Royal Lykan Kingdom’s Thrasher-Class Battleships, it was becoming increasing clear in the advent of the Holy Lykan Republic’s new larger line of ships that the Golem may not be able to fight on equal terms with larger vessels when it comes to offensive and defensive capabilities. After the new Executive Councilors held a conference call after the Yintaka Incident with the Camino Star Empire, who had similar feelings involving their own Kronos-Class Battleship, both nations decided to redesign their battleships in secret from the Novus Initium Republic, the Holy Lykan Republic, and the Liberigi Mandate.

 

Utilizing the modular design that the Golem, the State’s engineers would have no trouble increasing the size of the vessel, but they needed a reason to do so. When they heard that the Empire’s redesigned Kronos II ships would utilize a heavier railgun, the engineers decided to design a new section that would utilize heavier cruise-type missiles capable of striking at long range well before any opposing craft are capable of bringing the Golem into their targeting range. The missiles would even utilize course correction and small warp drives to achieve this feat. Because the missiles were larger, they required larger launchers and this was the added incentive for the engineers to work on a new section for the Golem. The new section would be sandwiched between the forward launchers and the rear-wing modules, of which the forward wings have been moved to the back as well for a more uniform look. The new module would contain 16 large cruise missile launchers along with the storage for those missiles. However, their size also limits the number the ship can hold, totaling 96 missiles. This makes 6 missiles per launcher. The Golem retains the remainder of its weaponry from the original design: 100 light missile launchers against enemy frigates and destroyers, 32 heavy missile launchers against enemy cruisers and battlecruisers, and lastly 24 quad anti-battleship vertical torpedo launchers and 40 standard vertical cruise missile launchers designed specifically for use against battleships and any other large target. The new module added additional shield generators to increase the strength of both the primary and secondary shields, which are already strengthen by the shield boosters the State had acquired from the Novus Initium Republic. This provides the Golem Mark II, as it would be called, a heavier defensive shield system than the original Golems.

 

While the Executive Council wanted to see the design be as large as battleships from other nations, and the Golem Mark II comes close in length, they cannot argue the fact that the Mark II only increased its mass by 35-40 percent versus how much of an increase the Kronos II had. The Golem II can still enter star gates without any adjustments and it would take less time to convert them by comparison to the Kronos II. They also cannot argue the fact that the new missiles will allow the Golem to effectively engage targets in the same star system without the need for the ship to come within an enemy’s effective weapons range. The only drawback was the number of missiles it can store of that type.

 

Once the Executive Councilors were satisfied that the Mark II would meet their expectations, they ordered all Golems to undergo the modifications. By the time the existence of the Tenebris Dominion and Draco Federation were made public, all Golem Battleships have been converted to Mark II’s.