Welcome to another episode of Crossover Battles. In this series, we compare and contrast 2 similar combatants from different universes to see which will kill the other better. In this episode, we’ll pit a Lucrehulk-class battleship from Star Wars against PMSS Sirius from the Honorverse. But before we can do that, we need to take a look at their stats first. Starting with:
Contestant 1: Lucrehulk-Class Battleship
In this corner, we have the Lucrehulk-class battleships of the Trade Federation of the Star Wars universe!
Sirius demonstrated her impressive firepower during the First Battle of Basilisk. Unfortunately, we never get to see the full extent of her weaponry. What we do see are an unknown number of graser (gamma-ray laser) mounts and a total of 6 stern chaser missile launchers. Each missile is basically a tiny 80-ton impeller drive ship with its own wedge, but since it doesn’t have to worry about killing its crew, it can accelerate at 46,000 g for about 180 seconds before burning out its drive. It mounted a laser warhead that worked by focusing a nuclear explosion into a bundle of lasing rods, generating a cluster of extremely powerful grasers. The effective detonation range was 25,000 km. In Star Wars terms: think of it as a proton torpedo that fired ultra-heavy turbolasers at its target when it detonates.
The Battle
Before we can start the fight though, we need a word from a certain announcer:
We need to establish some ground rules for this fight…or rather, space rules. The crews of both the random Lucrehulk and Sirius have to be of the same skill level for it to be a fair fight. As we saw with Captain Johan Coglin and his XO Lieutenant Commander Jamal before their untimely demise at the hands of HMS Fearless, they were exceptionally competent. Arrogant perhaps, but otherwise very skilled.
As for the battlefield, space is the only option. Honorverse starships were never designed for atmospheric flight, so it’d be pointless to try to have Sirius fight the Lucrehulk in the air. Plus, in space, no one can hear you blow up. Both ships will also start off out of each other’s weapon range. Otherwise, this would be a very short fight either way.
Scenario: Space
From the outset, we can see that PMSS Sirius has the advantage in more ways than one. With her greater acceleration compared to a Lucrehulk, Sirius can dictate the range of any engagement. She can always outrun the Trade Federation battleship, keeping out of range of her turbolasers.
Being modeled after a 7.6 million-ton freighter, Sirius has massive missile magazines. Even with just her chase launchers, she can fire salvo after salvo, whittling down the Lucrehulk‘s shields until they give and expose the armor to fire. Star Wars ships have notoriously bad point defense, and this battleship is no exception. At which point, it’s only a matter of time before the Trade Federation’s pride and joy is nothing more than a broken hulk.
The one thing the Lucrehulk has going for her is her 1,500 Vulture-class droid starfighters. We don’t know how fast the droids are, but it’s safe to say that they’re faster than their mothership. It’s entirely possible that those 1,500 droid starfighters could form a mobile point defense network, shooting down incoming missiles from the Sirius to protect their mothership while they close in on Sirius.
Even when taking the droid starfighters into account though, the Sirius still wins. She likely has the magazine space to engage those 1,500 Vultures first; the range on her graser mounts to outrange the Vultures‘ own blaster cannons, and the acceleration to stretch out the time it takes for them to chase her down. Once the Vultures are gone, the Lucrehulk is once more vulnerable. I firmly give this win to PMSS Sirius.
Conclusion
PMSS Sirius emerges victorious from this Crossover Battle with a Lucrehulk. Likely completely unscratched too. I honestly didn’t think it’d be this lopsided. Turns out, having long-ranged and effective missiles and coming from a universe used to effective point defense really tips the balance in favor of the Havenite Q-ship. Maybe the Star Wars universe could stand to learn a thing or two from Honorverse. At the very least, it’d mean fewer Death Stars getting blown up by farm boys in X-wings.
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