Sa-Matra

The Sa-Matra is the name given to the awesome Precursor Battleship discovered by the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za thousands of years ago. It is the very symbol of Ur-Quan dominance; a virtually invincible war machine that guarantees that the Ur-Quan species will never need know fear of anything.

History

During the era of the Dnyarri Slave Empire, among the numerous articles of Precursor technology gathered by the Ur-Quan scouts was one enormous Precursor battleship. When the Ur-Quan Slave Revolt began, one of the Ur-Quan's greatest victories was the successful seizure of this battleship by free Ur-Quan, who used it to devastating effect against remaining Dnyarri-controlled forces.

Afterwards, the psychologically traumatized Ur-Quan interpreted their possession of such a weapon as not only the key to their liberation but a sign of their destiny to never again be enslaved, by giving them ultimate power over the fate of other species. Thus, when the Ur-Quan divided into the factions of Kohr-Ah and Kzer-Za, each side claimed this weapon as their own. Naming it "Sa-Matra" (meaning "Great Prize") in the Ur-Quan language, the two factions entered ritualized combat, the winning side being promised possession of the ultimate weapon and therefore a decisive advantage in implementing their doctrine of control. In this initial battle the Kzer-Za proved victorious and were therefore free to use the Sa-Matra to enforce their Path of Now and Forever, which as a result received greater and longer propagation than the Kohr-Ah's Eternal Doctrine. However, their racial pride making them unwilling to totally override the beliefs and desires of their Ur-Quan brothers, the Kzer-Za agreed that, after the two races traveled their separate ways, when they met again this ritual war -- now known as the Doctrinal Conflict -- would be refought, and the Sa-Matra would go to the next winner.

Most recently, it was employed against the Alliance of Free Stars at the end of their war with the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za and their Hierarchy of Battle Thralls. Although up to that point the Alliance had been capable of holding Hierarchy forces at bay, the Sa-Matra proved to be a unanswerable weapon. It quickly broke the Chenjesu/Mmrnmhrm lines, incinerating conventional vessels at far beyond their own weapon's ranges; with the fall of those two races, the Alliance quickly surrendered.

Chenjesu strategists of the time wondered why the Kzer-Za did not use the Sa-Matra sooner. Given that it holds such symbolic, ritual significance for the Kzer-Za, they probably sought to minimize its use as a matter of respect and honor. They therefore only brought it into play to break the Alliance's most powerful defenses, the technologically precocious Broodhome ships, while refusing to dirty their hands with lower-level fighting, leaving that to their Thralls.

The Battle of the Sa-Matra

The second Doctrinal Conflict took place during the time of the Second War of the Alliance; in order to prevent further devastation and end Ur-Quan hegemony for all of history, the New Alliance of Free Stars undertook a desparate gambit to destroy the Sa-Matra and forever shatter the myth of destined Ur-Quan dominance. After several bold and clever missions gave them the intelligence they needed to locate the Sa-Matra, the Alliance was able to revive the power of the Dnyarri in the form of an augmented Talking Pet to penetrate the Ur-Quan defenses around the Sa-Matra. However, even the most powerful Alliance ships, the new [Chmmr]] Avatar vessels, were unable to do more than defeat the Sa-Matra's escorts; luckily, the unmatched piloting skills of Pkunk and Yehat reinforcements, arriving at the last minute after the successful Yehat Revolution, proved effective at disabling the Sa-Matra's surface defenses.

This allowed the Alliance to deploy their own ultimate weapon: using the Precursor technology in their possession, they coupled the Vindicator's Precursor energy generation systems to the Utwig bomb, creating an antimatter bomb capable of destroying even the Sa-Matra's hardened superstructure. Ironically once the Sa-Matra's shields were down the Vindicator was able to penetrate it, making use of a docking bay that had specifically been designed for service vehicles like the Vindicator by the Precursors. The resulting blast not only destroyed much of the combined Ur-Quan fleet but also shattered their cultural understanding of themselves as a master species, sending them fleeing and demoralized to the Magellanic Clouds.

Description

Physically the vessel is huge and blue, with claws, spikes and similar sticking out of it. It has a large core-like sphere in the middle. It is surrounded by an impenetrable ring of fused asteroids. The only opening in its armor is a small access gate, protected by a powerful force field. Its weapon systems are the dreaded Repulsion Sphere, intellingent homing weapons that send ships flying away from it, and the lethal Plasma Destruction Totoid, fireballs that surround and destroy any ship in seconds.

To attack it means almost certain destruction. Its ability to keep enemies at bay combined with the an unfathomable weapon range make it unassailable. Its impermeable defenses allow it to face a hundred ships and continue fighting.