Dai Nihon’s conquest of space gave a new dimension to the tactical balance: space superiority. Today, it is axiomatic that control of a planet’s surface can only be achieved through control of circumambient space.—Armored Combat: A Modern Military OverviewHeisaku Ariyoshi C.E. 2523Donryu meant Storm Dragon, and she was flagship of Kawashima’s Ohka Squadron. Nine hundred meters long, massing nearly two million tons, she was a Dai Nihon dragonship, one of only nine such vessels in the entire Shichiju. Though she was as swift within the K-T plenum as her smaller consorts, in normal space she had a maximum acceleration of less than half a G and a combat maneuverability that led her crew to call her o-yuseisan, “honored planet,” or, in a more bantering tone, Shiri-omo, “Heavy Ass.” Indeed, her core shielding had begun service as a small, nano-shaped planetoid, and her crew of six thousand was larger than the population of some outpost worlds.In combat, however, she was not expected to maneuver.
