Chimeran Fleet

From the Resistance Wiki

The Chimeran Fleet consisted of many large airborne ships, supported by hundreds of smaller fighters, dropships, and medium-sized ships of an unknown class; it was led by Daedalus's flagship. The Fleet was constructed in massive construction yards across Europe, in places like Gerolstein, Germany. For some time, the Fleet took part in recon missions to scout out the American coast, and launched Spire attacks on areas such as Orick, California and the American Southeast states. The Fleet later took part in the Invasion of America. During the invasion, the Fleet devastated the Liberty Defense Perimeter and later was completely destroyed at Chicxulub Crater, Mexico by the detonation of a fission bomb in Daedalus's flagship during Operation Black Eden.

[edit] Organization

The Fleet operated like a modern day naval fleet. There were multiple battleships, a command ship, and many smaller cruisers and destroyers. The Fleet is heavily armed and is equipped to carry a large invasion force, supported by heavy vehicles. It is not clear, though, whether any of the ships were big enough to carry the Leviathan.

The large battleships of the Fleet appear to also act as energy conduits in Daedalus's plan for the Chimeran towers.

The numerous vessels of the Chimeran Fleet are:

Fighter

These were the small ships seen during the San Francisco invasion and the Battle for the Holar Tower darting all over the sky. They were compact, teardrop shaped craft with similar cockpit designs to Chimeran dropships (no apparent windows, single camera on front between spikes). They appear to have been able to equip air-to-ground weaponry as well as air-to-air weaponry, as they performed a bombing run on the artillery gun in San Francisco. The rounds of the weapon also appear to have a residual flash, temporarily blinding Hale as they strike the gun.

Dropship

The dropship is the most common vehicle in terms of campaign involvement, with the Sentinels commandeering two during the campaign. In Resistance 2, these vehicles are box-shaped, controlled via pilot-operated computers (the numerous blue screens with Chimeran controls underneath). As the battleships also have computerized controls and no surrounding windows, this feature can be attributed to a tactical choice; trading a cockpit, and the numerous visibility advantages that come with it, for computers, allowing the cockpit to be reinforced. This is an oddly defensive building strategy for the normally highly offensive Chimera. Like the rest of the Fleet, the dropship has no obvious propulsion mechanism, seemingly aesthetic attachments, and several lights. They also have a segmented door and extending ramp. In Resistance: Retribution they are armed with rockets. They also appear to be able to survive close proximity to a high energy atomic blast, with the escape dropship being near intact at the end of Resistance 2.

Hornet

A one-man vehicle seen in Louisiana acquired by Joseph Capelli, the Hornet appears to be a low-altitude supply craft, carrying the fission bomb to the landing pad in the second-to-last level of Resistance 2. It is a lot simpler in design than other Chimeran craft, meaning that it was created early on in the invasion (when the Chimera were confined to Russia and hard-pressed for building material), or is rarely used. Apart from being unarmed, little else is known about it.

Cylindrical Ship

This vehicle is one of the unknown craft that surrounded the battleships. During the attempted invasion of the Liberty Defense Perimeter, one was struck and hit a battleship with enough force to push it into another battleship, implying that it had a lot of fuel. This could mean that it was either a "tanker", supplying fuel to other ships, or was equipped with enough fuel to go on long-range reconnaissance missions. Due to the skeletal appearance of the hull, either role is probable as it had no apparent bays, weapons, or capacity for any other purpose.

UFO

This is another unnamed craft of medium proportion. Nothing is known about it save for it's circular design and the presence of spheres on it's prow similar to those on the battleships, but they have not been seen firing.

Destroyer

This is the craft that bares resemblance to a Bullseye. Its sleek, menacing appearance implies that it was an offensive craft, and, if viewed from the front, appeared to have several thin, pointed weapons. However, it also had an angular separation from the main body and tail, which could have been a hangar. It also had four big spikes on the underside, although if they are aesthetic or were needed for propulsion is not known. Why such a ship was necessary is unknown, as there was no human equivalent that could match it.

Battleship

These ships were huge constructs, dwarfing everything around them, and are as big as Towers. They had big, empty, spherical holes with a glow emanating from inside, probably the reactor. When immobile, the ships were seen to have rings turning inside the empty hull that were blocked from view by the light from the reactor, possibly the anti-gravity system. The interior of the ships were combinations of large, open air spaces, claustrophobic corridors, and cathedral-esque rooms. The underside of the ships had a green, metallic look about them. They also had numerous spikes on the front around the reactor hole, used for directing the mysterious energy that encircled the planet to the flagship. Their only known weapons were big spheres on either side of the prow, which were seen to fire enormous blasts of energy down into San Francisco. They were used to shuttle millions of Chimera across the oceans to invade America, and to act as conduits for the energy web that encircled the world. They had built-in Conversion Centers and can hold hundreds of smaller craft in their many hangars. Basically, they were mobile Towers. The exact numbers are unknown, but there are at least over 22 of them.

Flagship

This ship was basically the Hub Tower equivalent of the Chimeran Fleet. It was bigger and had a taller "mast" than other battleships. It also had a spike on the underside that could have been used to communicate with the Tower at the center of the Chicxulub Crater. It acted as a Tower beacon in this location, collecting the directed energy from the other ships and firing it into the sky. It was also Daedalus's base of operations. It was completely destroyed by the combined nuclear explosion of its reactor and the atomic bomb shuttled aboard by SRPA's Sentinels.

[edit] Appearances

The Fleet is seen in Resistance 2 in various locations and briefly in Resistance: Retribution in a construction yard in Gerolstein, Germany.

[edit] Spaceflight

There is some debate as to whether the vessels are airships or space ships. As of now, the ships themselves have never been seen entering or appearing from space, so it's unlikely that they classify as space-faring ships. In addition to this, the landing bays for the Chimeran shuttles and drop ships are open air, that is they are open to the outside and not enclosed. If the ship were to venture into space, then these bays would be inaccessible, as the Chimera would simply not be able to withstand the lack of oxygen, and their blood would likely boil just as if a Human was exposed.

However, Daedalus's flagship has gravity stabilizers, which would indicate that at least that ship can go into space, as such a system would not be needed if the ship was intended only for atmospheric travel, for the gravity difference at ground level and several miles in the atmosphere is negligible. In addition, with the ending of Resistance 2, it is revealed that the Chimera are capable of space travel. If the battleships were capable of space travel then the propulsion could not involve rapid acceleration (ala Warp Drive), as there is no sign of inertial dampeners that would be needed in order to stop all of the equipment flying around. A ‘jump drive’ system would be the more likely candidate, as this would allow for space travel that did not wreck the ship in the process, and would also enable the ship to ‘jump’ between planets and their atmospheres. This means that the ship would never actually be in space proper, foregoing the need for a closed ship and allowing the landing bays to remain open.

This idea does beg the question, if the Chimera do have space travel capability, why they did not originally invade Earth in such a manner instead of using the Chimera virus, presumably carried to Earth on the Tunguska meteor. But the Chimera do have the ability to transport objects through space; we can see this from the relocation of the planet Earth at the end of Resistance 2.

The ships could have been designed like a space submarine-carrier: the passengers retreating to airtight locations as the ships entered space, with the craft in the hangars safely secured. But as humanity had no space fleet and only a token air-force, there was no need to go into space. Also, the parts of the ship could have been stored in or near the Towers. The most likely explanation for the gap between the initial invasion and construction of the ships was for the Chimera to establish a foothold, create a large army and assess whether to construct water or air-based craft to reach outlying landmasses. As humanity had a large naval fleet, the best solution was to create an air fleet. This explains the apparent lack of Chimeran water vehicles.