Science Fiction Spaceships

Linoge over at Walls of the City made a topic near and dear to my heart, a top 10 list of science fiction spaceships. I have some knowledge in the field of science fiction so I figure I might as well join in the fun (read steal his idea). As a ground rule I will not select any ships Linoge has and I will not select two ships from the same series (just to keep it interesting). So here a top 10 list of spaceships from yours truly:

1. Shadow Vessel: Much like Linoge I chose a ship from Babylon 5 for my top one. Why? Because Babylon 5 is the best damned science fiction series that has even been on television. The Shadows are a race billions of years old. Being that old means two things; you’re cranky and you have kick ass technology. The ships used by the Shadows are large, black, spidery looking craft. Part of the thing I like about them most is their unique design. The other things I like about their ships are the fact they are heavily armed, heavily armored, and use a living being as a central processing unit because the Shadow are dicks like that. They also materialize out of nowhere and disappear into nothing making them a bitch to target and shoot.
2. The Alliance battle cruiser Dauntless: I’ve mentioned The Lost Fleet series before. It’s hands down one of my favorite science fiction series. The series does a great job of bringing up the ideas of fighting large navel battles in space along with the tactics and technologies needed to do so. Dauntless is the ship the main character of the story spends a huge majority of his time on. There isn’t anything special or fancy about the ship except for the fact it’s carrying a key piece of cargo that can be used to win the war for the Alliance (the good guys). Dauntless is heavily armed while remaining maneuverable and has all the awesomeness of a futuristic star ship.
3. The Lexx: What’s not to like about a giant living ship that can blow up planets as easily as you can blink your eyes? The Lexx’s sole reason for existing is to destroy planets, that’s it. Of course the ship is also incredibly stupid and takes any given orders in their most literal sense.
4. USS Daedalus: The USS Daedalus was the second star ship built by humans in Stargate SG-1. The ship is a combination of human and Asgard technology. For those you who haven’t seen Stargate the Asgard are the generic “gray” alien but instead of being anal probing bastard they’re actually pretty decent folk. The Daedalus comes equipped with 32 railguns, a good load of missiles, and some naquadria enhanced nuclear warheads making it a virtual death machine. Late in the series the ship also gets equipped with Asgard kill-everything beams. Yes I like high firepower as you can tell and the Daedalus manages to have that and look awesome at the same time.
5. Union Class Dropship: What’s more terrifying than a drop ship armed to the teeth? A drop ship armed to the teeth and transporting 12 BattleMechs. The Union class dropship is one of many dropships in the BattleTech universe, it just happens to be the most memorable for me. The only purpose of a dropship is to get your 50 foot tall heavily armed walking robots from an orbiting spaceship to the ground. The Union class does this while also managing to be a heavily artillery piece to boot. Death from above baby!
6. GTF Hercules Mark II: In Decent Freespace 2 many of the ships from the first game got some upgrades. The Hercules Mark II was one of those and ends up being your primary workhorse throughout the game. Although not the most maneuverability craft in the Glactic Terran Fleet the Hercules was heavily armed and armored. Its heavy shields generally made up for it’s lack of quick movement. It works pretty well for sending those Shivan bastards back to their little part of space.
7. SA-43 Endo/Exo Atmospheric “Hammerhead” Fighter: I too am one of the people on a relatively short list who have seen Space: Above and Beyond. The Hammerhead was the main fighter used by the humans to blast those Chiggers out of our sector of space. Hammerheads are maneuverable on their won as they have thrusters the can propel them in almost any direction but also mount their laser cannons on rotatable turrets. This makes flying one direction and shooting in another very practical. These maneuverable little bastards were great for the one season they graced our television screens.
8. GDI Kodiak: In Command and Conquer Tiberian Sun the Kodiak served as your command and control ship. Although having no demonstrated armaments the Kodiak does have the ability to fly inside and outside of Earth’s atmosphere. The only real advantage it presents is the ability to rapidly get to a battle zone but it looks awesome while doing it. I guess the fact that you can use it to call down orbital ion cannon strikes does mean it has some form of offensive capabilities. It should also be noted that the Kodiak appears in the new Battlestar Galactica series as a refuge ship for a brief scene.
9. VF-1 Valkyrie Veritech Fighter: One of the best ways to get a giant walking robot from one point to another is by putting it on a giant dropship. A more expedient way of getting said walking robot from one point to another is by having it transform into a jet and fly you there. The VF-1 Valkyrie was the first veritech, a class of craft capable of transforming from a walking robot to a fighter jet-like craft. The craft is powered by an internal reactor making it capable of flying both in atmosphere and out in space. The Valkyrie carries a machine gun as well as a bank of good old fashion missiles.
10. Rama: Last but most certainly not least we have Rama. The first space craft designated Rama by the human race was a giant cylindrical craft that did a flyby of Earth. Although apparently dead the Rama craft was a self-contained world. The environment was built on the inside of the cylinder and used rotational gravity to keep creates from flying off into other sections of the ship. Rama was not a hostile craft and contained no weapons but was certainly interesting to read about as astronauts from Earth explored the inside of the massive beast.