Bucephalus

Bucephalus
Historical
Built	Ursa Shipyards by Procyon Industries
Comissioned	2503
Earliest sighting	2504
Physical
Race	Terran
Type	Battlecruiser (Gorgon-class)
Political
Affiliation	Terran Dominion (2503–late 2504) Dominion Fleet (2503–late 2504) Dominion Renegades (late 2504–)
Role	Terran Dominion flagship
Personnel
Commander(s)	Arcturus Mengsk (–2504) Valerian Mengsk Everett Vaughn
Crew	8,239 (2504)

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

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

The Bucephalus is a Gorgon-class battlecruiser 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.

The Bucephalus is larger than the Hyperion, a Behemoth-class battlecruiser. It was developed to be an impressive flagship to replace the stolen Hyperion.

Statistics

Bucephalus equipment

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

History

Construction

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 Emperor Arcturus Mengsk's flagship.

Rebel Rendezvous

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 had retrieved part of a xel'naga artifact 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.

Battle of Char

Raynor, Valerian and 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 informed him of the undertaking. The Bucephalus was then caught in a zerg surprise attack. Warfield told everyone to clear the bridge.

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 the Dominion quickly caught up to them, 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.

Notes

The ship's bridge

Bucephalus was the horse of Alexander the Great. The Delphic oracle claimed the rider of Bucephalus would rule the world.

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. 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.

The Bucephalus was originally described and shown as an older model of battlecruiser. It was later clarified as being a Gorgon. It has been stated to be 560 meters long and 82.4 meters wide, though this has led to size issues.

References

Terran Dominion Flagship
Preceded By	Duration	Succeeded By
Norad III?	?–2504	White Star