Dossier: Leningrad and Kursk
The spacecraft Leningrad and Kursk (ZS-1 and ZS-2, Russian: Звездное судно, lit. “star ship”) represented the Soviet Union’s largest contribution to the joint Pursuit Fleet constructed following the Antei invasion of early 1983. Following the USS Liberty, Leningrad and Kursk were the second and third human-built manned spacecraft to possess a functioning Tumansky drive. Both vessels served with distinction in the Pursuit Fleet despite multiple teething issues related to their unproven drive and rapid construction. Leningrad was lost with all hands in the Battle of Queensrest on November 16, 1984; her sister ship was also critically damaged in the fighting, but eventually returned to Earth under her own power. Kursk is currently preserved in the Tsiolkovsky Museum Constellation in high Lunar orbit, alongside other relics of the Solar War.
Background Following the successful defense of Earth by American and Soviet spaceborne forces, it became abundantly clear to the united forces that a follow-up attack was necessary to ensure humanity’s security in the galactic environment. The recovery and subsequent reverse-engineering of functional Tumansky drives from captured Antei spacecraft offered a route towards the creation of the Pursuit Fleet, though no spacecraft in the human inventory was capably outfitted for interstellar travel. To counter this, the United States began an extensive refit of their capital ship, the Orion-equipped USS Liberty; having no vessels of similar size, the Soviet Union chose to build new craft for the purpose based on proven designs.
Design In order to rapidly produce vessels of sufficient size and capability for long-term interstellar operation, Soviet designers chose to refit hulls from their successful MK-series of interplanetary patrol vessels. Each spacecraft consisted of two MK-class hulls joined together in tandem, with internal travel between the two hulls facilitated via a permanent tunnel connecting docking port used to dock fighters on the original vessel. Viewed from above, the port-side hull contained fuel, life support systems, storage, and the craft’s Tumansky drive. The starboard-side hull held the crew’s living quarters, docking ports, the ship’s bridge, and the controlling systems for its armament. The vessel contained enough provisions and fuel to support a crew of ten for approximately eighteen months of operation before resupply, ammunition limits notwithstanding. A ZS-class ship carried the nuclear thermal engine mounted on each original craft, though the starboard-side engine was tuned for lower thrust to counter the mass imbalance present in the finalized design.
This unique asymmetrical layout of the ships’ Tumansky drive resulted in the produced warp bubble being much closer to one side of the vessel than the other, creating a distinct lopsided burn pattern which can still be seen on Kursk today. Though rather a dangerous design, this layout allotted a far greater amount of radiation shielding between the drive and the crew than aboard the Liberty, as well as allowing for a very rapid construction time.
Distinctions Being bespoke vessels constructed from extant spacecraft, Leningrad and Kursk by nature had notable differences. Leningrad was built from hulls MK-6113 and MK-6110, veterans of the Saturn campaign and, in the case of 6110, the defense of Earth. The original radar displays on 6113 were kept for the updated Smerch-DM targeting radar installed during the construction of Leningrad, allowing the vessel’s crew to continue using the radar without new training. This lack of parts compatibility with Kursk’s newer radar displays caused Leningrad’s radar to be out of service during the Battle of Queensrest, relying on a wired data link from Kursk to guide her missiles.
Kursk was built as a backup hull in the event that the construction of Leningrad met delays, as it was believed the Soviet Union only had access to a single functioning drive. However, the labs of F. I. Tumansky, having successfully rebuilt the first drive recovered from Mare Orientale, were able to provide a functional drive for Kursk as well. Though this rebuilt Tumansky drive functioned perfectly in itself, the drive’s supporting hardware failed as a result of its age. Kursk’s port-side hull, MK-6089, was one of the oldest MK-class ships still in service, spending the year before the invasion as a Lunar defense station due to engine troubles. Its engine and radiation shielding was replaced during the rebuilding but its wiring, damaged by years of radiation, was not, leading to a short in the hull’s electrical system which disabled the drive. Fortunately, the starboard hull, MK-6120 (a new-build hull which was awaiting launch before the invasion) could support most of the ship’s electrical requirements alone, but the drive was not restored to function until after the engagement at Queensrest. To conduct jumps before the repair, the two vessels docked together and jumped inside Leningrad’s warp bubble, a dangerous task made worse by the novelty of this drive system. Nevertheless, jumps proceeded without issue throughout Leningrad’s service.
Armament Both vessels were stripped of their original weaponry in the name of weight savings and refitted with four RKT-1 two-stage long-range missiles derived from the RSD-10 “Pioner” ballistic missile, though the only commonalities lie in the missiles’ solid motors and structural elements. Semi-active radar homing only in the first hundred kilometers of flight, with active radar homing in its terminal phase, the missiles are capable of engaging at exceptional range with a 1.6-megaton warhead, which proved effective in combat against large Antei vessels.
Fate Serving in the Battle of Queensrest, both Leningrad and Kursk engaged with the remnants of the Antei invasion fleet. Though hampered by its faulty targeting system, Leningrad managed to destroy an Antei cruiser with two of its missiles before a particle-beam strike detonated its fuel reserves, killing all aboard instantly and damaging the communications arrays of Kursk. Kursk continued on through the battle, claiming the sole Antei battleship as well as two troop transports in exchange for a lost engine and a total cabin depressurization, the latter quickly repaired following the battle through the assistance of the USS Liberty. After the defeat of the Antei fleet, Kursk served alongside the Liberty as representatives of humanity during the first contact with the Concordance, before escorting their diplomatic envoy back to Earth.
Upon completing the purpose of the Pursuit Fleet, Kursk had her original drive removed and preserved for posterity (as humanity’s first [captured] faster-than-light drive), and subsequently replaced with an article of the first indigenous production run of human Tumansky drives. Kursk served a brief but storied career as a diplomatic vessel in the human coalition space forces, escorting the Liberty once again to the capitals of several sentient species in the galactic community in the Exploration Tours of 1985.
Following this, the vessel served in Earth’s defense fleet as it was slowly replaced by more capable craft in the human inventory. ZS-2 Kursk was decommissioned on June 8, 1989 and transferred to the Tsiolkovsky Museum Constellation as one of its first exhibits, where it now remains, preserved as it appeared during the Battle of Queensrest.