Ship details

Beowulf is the culmination of two decade's worth of intense labor and research on the part of Robert Everett Hawkins. A propulsion theory specialist and John Hawkin's father, Robert was one of the lead designers employed by Lakon Spaceways during the initial production run of the craft that would eventually become known as the Alliance Chieftain.

One of the original 7 prototypes privately leased out for limited trial by Lakon under the project codename Tacit Heart, Beowulf was constructed almost entirely by hand by Robert Hawkins and the original Lakon engineers. During this early test, Tacit Heart was completely riddled with problems ranging from a poor flight profile caused by improperly balanced avionics to a misplaced digit in the shielding calibration intelligence, which gave it wafer-thin shielding. In spite of these issues, John Hawkins and his father didn't give up on the project, spending long hours testing out the craft and diligently reporting the issues that they encountered.

While the test data did eventually result in substantive upgrades for the Chieftain, it was not due to any thanks of the Alliance, contrary to media reports. Edmund Mahon himself nearly saw the project scrapped when it became clear that costs of development for project Tacit Heart were far exceeding the original budget. It was the return of the Thargoids in late 3303 that resulted in the Alliance putting Tacit Heart on the fast track, renegotiating and reclassifying Lakon's development contract. The project was reoriented as a mobile anti-xeno weapons platform and given effective carte blanche to complete rushed launch goals as fast as possible. In particular, the agility of Tacit Heart was core to the reformed design philosophy, a philosophy built firmly upon Robert's ideas.

Beowulf herself was completely disassembled and refit from thrusters to canopy to fit the new design specifications from Lakon. Robert Hawkins along with a select group of high profile engineers including Professor Ishmael Palin carefully reassembled and reengineered Beowulf days prior to the public launch of Tacit Heart - now dubbed the Alliance Chieftain. Sales of the Chieftain were a historic milestone for Lakon, far exceeding projections and initial launch numbers of any other craft in the company's history.

In celebration of his father's success, John Hawkins purchased Beowulf from Lakon's test lab directly and went about ensuring only the top-of-the-line modules and enhancements for the craft. To date, Beowulf remains one of the most heavily modified examples of the Alliance Chieftain seen in the bubble.

Since her formal launch refit, Beowulf has since seen significant combat. She has survived dozens of combat sorties on behalf of the Wolves of Jonai, three blind assaults from rogue CMDR Harry Potter in his infamous Corvette. She participated in the battle of Ross 310 and was awarded a medal of contribution. She has claimed a sum of 143,231,113 credits in bounties on behalf of the Wolves of Jonai in HR 7047, a system in which she can be routinely spotted prowling common pirate hideouts.