DELRANES FIGHTING SHIPS 3061
AND INNER SPHERE WARSHIPS REVISED EDITION
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword04
Kyushu Class Frigate75
Kirishima Class Heavy Cruiser78
Fredasa Class Corvette05
Vincent Mk-42 Class Corvette08
Whirlwind Class Attack Destroyer11
York Class Destroyer / Carrier14
Essex II Class Destroyer17
Lola III Class Destroyer20
Aegis Class Heavy Cruiser23
Volga Class Troop Transport26
Congress Class Frigate29
Black Lion Class Battlecruiser Block II32
Sovetskii Soyuz Class Heavy Cruiser36
Liberator Class Heavy Cruiser39
Cameron Class Battlecruiser42
Nightlord Class Battleship45
Potemkin Class Heavy Assault Ship48
Texas Class Battleship51
McKenna Class Battleship55
Leviathan II Heavy Battleship61
Warships Resurgent: Vessels of the Great Houses
Fox Class Corvette66
Impavido Class Destroyer69
Suffren Class Destroyer72
Non-Canon Warships and Small Craft
Mark VII Landing Craft82
Goalkeeper Mk IV Defence Craft85
Pleiades Space Fighter88
Trader Class Heavy Freight Shuttle91
Blackwatch ‘Observation Vessel’94
Dauntless Class Destroyer Escort97
Endeavour Class Explorer100
Onslaught Class Assault Frigate103
Thresher Class Heavy Cruiser106
Antares Class Fleet Tender109
Fearless Class Assault Ship112
Ark Royal Class Heavy Fleet Carrier115
Liparius Class Mobile Repair Yard119
Arbitration Class Battleship122
Peterson Class Naval Station125
CREDITS
First I’d like to thank you for checking this out and I hope you have as much fun reading it and enjoying the art as I did working to write it and working with the people who did
the art and helped put this together.
This project initially wasn’t planned, I love the Battletech Universe and I felt that one part of it that needed some TLC was the WarShips of the 3057 book. They were poorly
lacking in terms of looks compared to the ships at the back in the 3057 Revised book or the WarShips in TRO 3067. The art for them was great, but for the original SLDF ships..
they needed work. Lots of work. It was a pleasure working with Plog, Shimmering Sword and Colourbrand to make the ideas I had come to life and this would not be at all possible
without their efforts.
I never planned to do a book or product but as more ships were done, an idea grew in my head. I knew I could not do a TRO as I didn’t want to just re-hash TRO 3057 with new
art, so it changed into a fluff book. The kind of book you’d find in the military section of a book store or in the gift shop of a museum.
I hope you have as much fun reading this as I did writing it and watching it come together.
Steve
WRITING
ARTWORK
Written by Steven Cross
Matt Plog
https://mattplog.deviantart.com
PDF CREATION & FORMAT
Chris S aka Colourbrand
https://colourbrand.deviantart.com
Christopher Sanders
PROOFREADING
Andrew Rogers
Lily Kenneally
Al Stellakis
Anthony Scroggings aka Shimmering Sword
https://shimmering-sword.deviantart.com
Kristian Borg
https://punakettu.deviantart.com
Sheda Lane
https://jinsonlygurl.deviantart.com
This is a fan-made book and has no association or approval, implied or otherwise, from Topps, Catalyst Games Labs, InMediaRes, Piranha Games Inc., or Harebrained Schemes LLC.
No part of this work may be altered or sold for profit, nor otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.
FOREWORD
WarShips, massive armed and armoured JumpShips, the largest and most advanced vehicles developed by mankind. Whilst we have built bigger things like
Solar Shields and orbital habitats, none have ever held the mystique and mass appeal of WarShips.
It was a WarShip, the TAS Dreadnought that helped form the Terran Hegemony, it was a WarShips who helped defeat the Scourge of the Amaris Empire and it
was WarShips that also killed untold millions with orbital bombardments during the First and Second Succession Wars. These titanic conflicts also consumed the
fleets of the Great Houses with the survivors being little more than drifting hulks. The industry and expertise needed to build and maintain these behemoths was also
lost, with shipyards, factories and research facilities reduced to rubble or floating wreckage, the ability to build WarShips was all but lost.
Even if the capacity remained to build WarShips, the will did not. With so many worlds devastated and so much lost the House Lords reached an unspoken
accord to not attempt to rebuild their shattered WarShips. Instead they embraced the Ares Convention which made JumpShips sacrosanct to prevent the complete
loss of interstellar travel.
In the Pentagon Worlds and Kerensky Cluster however, the descendants of the exiled SLDF formed the Clans and although they mostly did not use WarShips
outside of the role of armed Transport the appearance of WarShips during Operation REVIVAL and the orbital bombardment of the city of Edo on Turtle Bay
terrorized the Inner Sphere.
Although the Clans withdrew their WarShips from frontline operations following Turtle Bay, the threat of them was enough to galvanize the Inner Sphere into
building their own WarShips to counter the Clan threat.
Despite costs that spiralled into the trillions and the need to rebuild shipyards and factories from the ground up, the vessels of House Davion, Steiner and Kurita
engaged their Clan opponents in open battle and defeated them in Operation BULLDOG and Taskforce SERPENT.
With peace tentatively settling across the Inner Sphere, the Great Houses turned their industry once more to the development of bigger, larger more powerful
vessels in an arms race that has no sign of stopping. Critics of these huge spending programmes point to the ruin of Edo, or worlds rendered uninhabitable during
the fury of the Succession Wars as silent testament to the power and threat that WarShips represent. But the arms race shows no sign of stopping.
Thanks to years of research as well as data from ComStar’s archives we are proud to bring you a comprehensive publication containing the WarShips in use by
the Great Houses and the Clans of Kerensky. The ComStar archives also give us our first looks at many vessels that time had forgotten as well as Small Ships that
have seen service across the Inner Sphere for centuries.
FREDASA CLASS CORVETTE
Length
415 meters
Displacement
175,000 tons
Crew complement
152
Armament
1 x AK-420 Super Heavy Naval
Autocannon
8 x Series 9SR 45cm Naval Lasers
6 x Type 7 SSRM-6 launchers
4 x Longbow Mod 11 LRM-20
Launchers
4 x AK-200 Light Naval Autocannon
16 x Series 7.5DS ER Large Lasers
16 x Series 1.1DS ER Small Lasers
2 x M-7 Gauss Rifles
Aerospace Complement
20 x Aerospace Fighters
2 x Type 5 ‘Mule’ Multi-role shuttle
1 DropShip Collar
Sensors
Type 186 ‘Kerensky’s Vision’
LIDAR/3D Phased array
Type 91 ‘Shark Nose’ 3D long-range
active/passive targeting and tracking
Mod 1009 ‘Jocasta’s Voice’
Multiphasic broadband and cross
spectrum jamming
Type 208 ‘Sirens Song’
communications array
As the newest and fastest WarShip in Clan service, the
Fredasa’s genesis lies in the build up to Operation REVIVAL and
the Invasion of the Inner Sphere. Whilst the Clans had their large
naval caches to call upon, they did not know the state of the Inner
Sphere’s WarShips. Prior to the Dragoon Compromise the Clans
had no hard information about the Inner Sphere. They did not
know about the Succession Wars, the regression of technology and
the destruction of all but a tiny handful of WarShips outside those in
the service of Comstar.
Some within the Clans presumed that the House Lords could
still be producing WarShips that might challenge their Star League
Era ships. Thus the development of new WarShips began, with
Clan Snow Raven leading the charge in an effort to preserve their
vaunted naval supremacy.
This program led to the development of both the Nightlord and
Fredasa class ships, but came to a halt when the first reports from
the Dragoons arrived. They spoke of the complete annihilation of
the Inner Sphere’s WarShip fleet, of the destruction of its shipyards
and the death of any experience in building such large vessels. This
cut the new WarShip program off at the knees. There was no need
to waste resources building vessels for battles they would not face
and only the already completed Nightlord and Fredasa classes went
into production.
The Fredasa is a sleek and predatory vessel whose limited cargo
capacity indicated that it was designed to be a raider and convoy
hunter rather than a patrol vessel (a role so often done by other
corvettes in the past).
To this end the Fredasa is heavily armed and exceptionally fast.
One ship, the CIH Whelp, was seen performing a sustained 4G burn
and the ships reportedly have a very small emergence signature
when performing a jump, making them ideal at ‘behind the lines’
raiding as they are fast enough to avoid pursuit and hard to detect
when arriving.
This main power is provided by a quartet of RBW Type
3DS engines, drawing their power from a pair of reactors fed
by a generous 6000 tons of fuel. These engines show off Clan
engineering. They are compact, powerful and lightweight and
can produce levels of thrust not seen since the Lyran Mako class
corvette. For protection the ship relies on over 131 tons of SR
Compound 3 Ferro-Lamellor amour. This thick shell is equal
to some destroyer designs and makes the Fredasa an even more
formidable foe for DropShips and aerospace fighters.
The ship’s main armament is an AK-420 super-heavy
autocannon; although short ranged it can deliver devastating
damage to a WarShip or crush a DropShip with a single hit.
Supporting the big cannon is a balanced mixture of naval lasers and
smaller caliber autocannons which give this ship a heavier punch
than the considerably larger Vincent class.
Unlike many SLDF era ships in Clan service the Fredasa also
features an extensive array of Mech scale weapons to engage
DropShips and fighters. These weapons would also make the
Fredasa a good screening unit for larger vessels who almost
uniformly lack these lightweight weapons.
5
The Fredasa also has a considerable aerospace complement and
can carry two Stars of Aerospace fighters (20 craft in total) as well
as being able to dock a single DropShip.
The Fredasa is a far more capable vessel than the larger Vincent
but they are built for different roles and are generations apart. The
Vincent is a patrol craft, built for multi-month voyages along the
borders of a powers territory. The Fredasa is much shorter legged
and a far more aggressive vessel. Perhaps because of this the
Fredasa was quickly spread amongst the Clans and produced in
large numbers. These smaller ships displaced the Vincents, which
were simply put back into mothballs in their respective Clan’s
Naval Caches.
FREDASA CLASS CORVETTE
6
NOTABLE SHIP
During the Ice Hellion incursion, the CIH Whelp was part of a strong Hellion strike force under the personal command of saKhan Connor Rood based out the Dark Nebula system. The
Hellions had been preparing for a new attack when a joint strike force of Jade Falcons and Hell’s Horses jumped into system. While they did not have any WarShips, the attackers had a strong
assault DropShip armadareinforced by numerous aerospace fighters, as well as Elemental-carrying assault shuttles.
In the outer reaches of the system was another Ice Hellion WarShip, the Cold Hunter, a Lola III class destroyer that had been almost fatally damaged in earlier battles. Against the
approaching armada, her Captain recognised that his ship had no chance of survival and instead chose to surrender, despite the accusations of being dezgra cowards from other Hellion forces in
system.
This left only the Whelp to engage the incoming invasion fleet and this they did with exemplary bravado. Using their ships excellent acceleration and thrust rating, the Whelp almost
‘danced’ around the enemy DropShips. The Whelp caused tremendous damage, even destroying two Overlord C’s carrying the elite Falcon Guards, but eventually numbers told. With her
engines crippled and hull breached the furious Horse and Falcon aerospace fighters and DropShips did not relent in their attack until the Whelp was utterly destroyed.
The sacrifice of the Whelp was not in vain; the losses the Falcons and Horses had suffered were so massive that the Jade Falcon saKhan Samantha Clees offered the remaining Hellions in
the system (naval and ground forces alike) hegira, which they accepted.
The brave crew of the Whelp was awarded the Remembrance Bar posthumously.
FREDASA CLASS CORVETTE
7
VINCENT MK-42 CLASS CORVETTE
Length
402 meters
Displacement
420,000 tons
Crew complement
185 in SLDF service, 193 in Clan Service
Armament
4 x Luxor-175 Light naval
autocannons
8 x Series 7.5DS ER Large Lasers
2 x SSM-550 ‘Barracuda’ Missile
launch systems
Built in their hundreds, the class fought hard in the Amaris Civil
War and the survivors left with General Kerensky.
Aerospace Complement
6/10 x Aerospace Fighters
2 x Type 5 ‘Mule’ Multi-role shuttle
1 x Type 6 ‘Vesper’ Spaceborn
refueling shuttle
1 x Mark VII Crew/COD shuttle
Sensors
Ulsop Mod 6 ‘Eagle Eye’ long range Type 202 ‘Gauntlet Strike’ phased
imaging
3D Active/Passive tracking
Type 182 ‘Iskandar’ 3D phased
array/LIDAR
The advanced, semi-modular nature of the Vincent meant that
it was also very easy to upgrade and maintain; various sub classes
were planned but these never entered wide scale service. Amongst
the planned ships were a light carrier, a squadron leader, a hospital
and a disaster relief ship to name some. The potent sensor systems
on the Vincent also let it carry out ‘dirty picture’ runs along the
borders of Hegemony space. So common was the class that it was
one of the first WarShips that a visitor to a Hegemony world would
see when entering their space.
Belden Type 405 Mod 3 ‘Sirens
Voice’ communications array
Type 500 Mod 9 ‘Dog howl’
multiphasic broad spectrum ECM/
ECCM
With the SLDF navies ranks filled with aging or obsolete
corvettes, tenders were put out In 2325 for a new class of corvette
to replace the aging Bonaventure and Vigilant classes as well as
the older Tracker class ships. That a relative newcomer to the ship
building scene, Delhi Ships, won the contract was a big surprise,
especially as it was a Capellan firm and the Hegemony and
Capellan’s had recently been enemies.
Some politicians said it was ironic that the design was to
be designed, built, and paid for in part by reparations from the
Capellan’s after the invasion of Terra Firma was repulsed. What
emerged was a vessel larger than any corvette that had come before;
it was a superb, flexible and reliable patrol craft. Whilst poorly
armed as a WarShip, it was enough to outgun Pirate ships and it
could crush any DropShip in service. Its mix of autocannons and
missiles were also reliable and easily maintained and thanks to the
ships expansive cargo capacity the amount of ammunition carried
could keep a ship in action for hours.
The Vincent was also heavily exported to member states of the
Star League, albeit stripped down ‘monkey’ versions that lacked
the advanced Hegemony sensor arrays and computer systems.
Unfortunately, these were all gone by the end of the Second
Succession War.
Loved by their crews and praised for their reliability, the
Vincent was a superb investment for the Hegemony. The armament
of the Vincent is simple but effective and reflects the class’s patrol
boat nature. The main punch comes from a quartet of light naval
autocannons, able to bring two to bear on each broadside arc.
Whilst not much of a threat to a larger vessel they can crack open
a DropShip with a few hits. For longer range engagements a pair
of Barracuda Missiles in the bow were fitted as were eight Mechscale large lasers for point defense. By any standard this is a light
loadout, especially for so large a ship, but it was adequate for the
intended role.
The Vincent was also quite nimble for an SLDF ship. The
Vincent’s pair of huge Howser 2G2 ‘Hotfire’ primary thrusters can
generate a sustained 3G of thrust, whilst the 2,000 tons of fuel give
good range and endurance. The Hotfire engines also proved to be
reliable despite being compact, although at full burn they produce
an exceptionally bright thruster bloom.
The Vincent also boasted a simply gargantuan cargo capacity
for its size; over 97,000 tons of cargo could be carried, allowing
the ship to operate as an armed priority freighter. Other roles saw
Vincent class ships operating as tanker, with her cargo space taken
by massive tanks of liquid hydrogen for WarShips and DropShips.
This fuel could then be transferred to a friendly WarShip or
DropShip by a hose and drogue system although this was a slow
8
process and required both WarShips to be at a complete halt.
The Vincent’s armour is a mere 76 tons of Lamellar FerroCarbidide plate that is barely adequate against fighters and assault
DropShips but woefully vulnerable against WarShips. But again, in
the environment they were to fight in this was deemed acceptable.
A Vincent was never meant to be alone. They would patrol as a
group of 4 – 6 ships and in a squadron like this, they could pose a
threat to a larger vessel and hunt down pirates and raiders. Each
craft also carried 6 Aerospace fighters for point defense and
reconnaissance duties; when combined with the flights from other
Vincents it was a formidable threat.
In Clan service the aerospace complement has been enlarged
and they carry a Star of Aerospace fighters (10 craft) but neither the
SLDF or Clans fitted a DropShip collar. In Clan service the Vincent
was seemingly meant to be replaced by the smaller and more
efficient Fredasa but thanks to the sheer number of Vincents that
survived the Exodus of the SLDF this plan is still seemingly a long
way off from completion.
VINCENT MK-42 CLASS CORVETTE
9
NOTABLE SHIP
The Hertzog’s Staff was one of two Vincent Mk42 corvettes in the Tourman of Clan Cloud Cobra. This ship did not have a particularly distinguished history as patrol ship, spending most
of her time traipsing around Cloud Cobra territory looking for intruders or overly bold Dark Caste looters. However, she did join the exploration ship Toth and together the two the Cobra
vessels discovered the Tanite worlds in 2965.
In the Wars of Reaving, the ship was of great importance for the Clan because it was used as an armed courier after the HPG network in Clan space broke down. Attacks by bandits,
elements of The Society and other Clans made the use of standard JumpShips as couriers far too dangerous and costly. It was felt that the hitting power of the Vincent was more than enough to
defend itself, as well as being fast enough to run if needs be.
The Cloud Cobra Khan also ordered the ship be used as scout, exploring systems that had gone dark due to the failure of the HPG network. So the Hertzog’s Staff was tasked with scouting
the Tanite system in mid-3073. This reconnaissance missions led directly to the ill-advised Cobra attack on the Tanite system in late 3073, leaving a black mark on the ship and crew when she
withdrew from the battle due to heavy damage.
Save this skirmish, the ship’s battle records were not as impressive as its record as a courier. Aside from the orbital bombardment of some Dark Caste/Society enclaves on Albion, it was
only during the last battle in the Circe system during the Steel Viper annihilation that the Hertzog’s Staff made her mark. Here, the ship’s Captain and crew volunteered to be in the vanguard
of the planetary assault. They swore never to retreat, to die rather than let this mission fail and to cleanse themselves of their shame from the Tanite system. And so the ship and crew went
straight into the hell of the Vipers’ highly advanced SDS array. They managed to destroy some of the space and ground-based batteries, but the Vincent class was never intended to be in the
centre of such a murderous fire and the ship succumbed with all hands lost; just one of many ships destroyed in the huge battle over the Viper home world.
VINCENT MK-42 CLASS CORVETTE
10
WHIRLWIND CLASS ATTACK DESTROYER
Length
610 meters
Displacement
520,000 tons
Crew complement
177 in SLDF service, 222 in Clan service
Armament
3 x Type 2 ‘Ballista’ Light Naval
Gauss Rifles
2 x AK-350 Heavy Naval
Autocannons
4 x AK-275 Medium Naval
Autocannons
12 x Series 8 Mod 12 45cm Naval
Lasers
2 x ‘Flare’ Mk9 Light Naval PPC’s
4 x Longbow Mod 3 LRM-20
missile systems
4 x Series 44.2SR Large Pulse
Lasers
12 x Type 7 SSRM-6 missile systems
Aerospace Complement
10 x Aerospace Fighters or a mix of
5 fighters and 5 shuttles/small craft
Sensors
Mk 62 ‘Gods Eye’ Multispectral
LIDAR with 3D phased array
Type 16 ‘Bull Roar’ Mod 8 Multispectrum Broad band ECM/ECCM
Type 18 ‘Mouse Squeak’ Active
Jammer.
Series 109 mod 6 ‘Peacemaker’
Active/Passive tracking with laser
assistance
‘Theta 4’ Long and short range
multi-spectrum communications
The Whirlwind (without a doubt one of the oldest serving
classes of WarShip) was once the grossly unsuccessful Davion
Block I destroyer. In the build-up to the Reunification War the
Hegemony fleet expanded but it still needed hulls. House Davion
leased and then sold 22 of the Davion Block I’s to the Hegemony;
whilst the Davion block I’s were totally unsatisfactory the basic
hull showed promise. After the Reunification War the SLDF
stripped the ships down to their hulls and then rebuilt them as an
‘attack destroyer’ that would charge towards hostile WarShips at
high speed and gun them down before they could respond.
To accomplish this the rebuilt destroyers of the renamed
Whirlwind class had most of their firepower mounted so it could
fire on the forward arc. A trio of the then newly developed Light
Naval Gauss Rifles backed up a heavy battery of autocannons
whilst naval lasers and PPC’s covered her flanks and stern. The
heavy battery of forwards facing weapons was also supported by a
mixture of Mech-scale weapons, mainly LRM and SRM racks and
a quartet of large pulse lasers. These were spaced to provide antifighter protection and if needed an extra punch at short range.
Along with the weapons, the engines and sensors were also
stripped out and replaced with Star League standard equipment.
One major flaw on the Davion I, their temperamental reactor,
was also resolved which improved fuel efficiency for the new
class, especially when combined with the newly installed RollsRoyce Zypher-909 main thrust drives. One of the main structural
changes of the Whirlwind class is that they gave up their fighter
and aerospace complement; this cut down on crew and increased
endurance and also allowed the fitting of an heavier armament
than the Davion’s ever had.
Still, the Whirlwind betrayed its original heritage and they
were plagued by cramped walkways and a poor internal layout
that would require almost complete rebuilding to resolve; as there
were only 22 of the class in service the funding was never put
aside to give them the structural changes they needed.
One positive factor was that with the removal of the fighter
group there was more internal room; this was given over to
enlarging the crew quarters as well as fitting additional generators
and batteries for emergency power should the reactors be
damaged.
The refitted Whirlwinds saw extensive use by the SLDF but
their short range and somewhat specialized role saw them put
in reserve or assigned to training units to act as the ‘OPFOR’
in exercises. The class was fully deployed to the Rim Worlds
Republic during the Amaris Civil War and this spared them the
horror of having to face the M5 Caspar drones of the SDS. It
also helped ensure that a large number of these ships survived
and went into exile alongside the rest of the SLDF, where they
serve the Clans to this day. Unlike many ex-SLDF ships the
Clans significantly altered the Whirlwinds in service by upgrading
their hull armour (almost doubling the protection offered) as well
as fitting a Lithium Fusion battery and the Clans advanced hull
sealant technology.
The other major change was the alteration of the cargo bays
to finally fit launch bays and give the Whirlwind an organic
11
aerospace unit (in this case a single Star of fighters (10 in total)
is carried). The ship’s Mech-scale weapons were also upgraded
to Clan standards, which increased the range and firepower of the
craft and made them capable of at least worrying a hostile fighter
strike.
WHIRLWIND CLASS ATTACK DESTROYER
12
NOTABLE SHIP
The Whirlwind is a destroyer designed to go for the enemy’s throat. The CSV Constrictor, a Steel Viper ship, can be described as the epitome of this.
When the Wars of Reaving began, the Constrictor was put under the command of Star Captain Shario Andrews. Belonging to the Bloodhouse of ilKhan Brett Andrews, the Star Captain
was as aggressive (and bloodthirsty) as the ilKhan, and his first actions proved this legacy. During the Scouring of Katyusha City there were a number of evacuation efforts as civilians tried
to flee the fighting. The Constrictor’s Captain called these efforts cowardly and targeted any DropShip in range. When a DropShip transporting Viper civilians hailed the Constrictor and told
them about their passengers, the DropShip was immediately targeted and destroyed. Ten more DropShips were destroyed in this incident, all of them falling to the Constrictor’s guns.
This bloodthirsty and brutal act lead to the declaration of a Trial of Reaving against Shario Andrews by the Snow Ravens. This took the form of a naval engagement between the
Constrictor and the CSR Vision of Terra, a Lola III class destroyer. Both commanders agreed to a naval sniper trial, where a certain number of shots were to be fired and the ships with the
most hits would be the winner. The Vipers won by 13 hits to 12 out of a total of 15. An honourable engagement according to the Clans’ rules of limited warfare, it would be one of the last
times a battle like it was fought in the Homeworlds.
The ship and her bloody Star Captain met their end in the Viper Annihilation in 3075. In the apocalyptic naval battle in the system of New Kent, the largest ever fought in Clan space, the
Constrictor fought bitterly for the very survival of its Clan. They critically damaged the CSA Yorktown, an old reactivated Samarkand carrier and managed survive long enough to be the last
Viper WarShip still active. When she tried to escape to the jump point, the ship was hunted by the CSA Vicious Fang and Arcadian Asp, two Fredasa class corvettes. In a brutal engagement in
the outer system all three ships were destroyed, with the Constrictor finally falling to internal fires and structural collapse.
WHIRLWIND CLASS ATTACK DESTROYER
13
YORK CLASS DESTROYER / CARRIER
Length
630 meters
Displacement
600,000 tons
Crew complement
365
Armament
2 x AK-420 Super Heavy Naval
Autocannons
4 x AK-320 Heavy Naval
Autocannons
4 x Series 9DS ‘Doombolt’ Medium
Naval PPC’s
12 x Series 9SR 45cm Naval Lasers
6 x Series 7JA ER large lasers
6 x Series J7A ER medium lasers
24 x Series 1DS ER Small lasers
4 x Kolibri Omega Series 9 Medium
pulse lasers
2 x Type 9 Mod3 Ultra AC-10
12 x Series 8SR 35cm Naval Lasers
Aerospace Complement
50 x Aerospace fighters
2 x DropShip Collars
5 x Shuttles/small craft
Sensors
Typhon Series 9 Multi-phased 3D
scanning LIDAR array
Type 91 ‘Shark Nose’ 3D long range
active/passive targeting and tracking.
Typhon Series 7 Aerospace Control
System tied to the Series 9
Type 208 ‘Sirens Song’
communications array with laser
uplink
Type 16b ‘Starscream’ Multispectrum broad and narrow band
ECM/ECCM.
In the dying years of the Star League the McKenna class
battleship often found itself without a suitable escort. Not
because of a lack of ships, but because a vast majority of the
SLDF’s WarShips lacked the Lithium Fusion battery that gave the
McKenna superb strategic mobility. With the Luxor class cruiser
entering service it was felt there was a need for a smaller, cheaper
escort class ship to accompany the larger cruiser and battleship;
this was eventually known as the Riga II class destroyer, a craft
unlike any other in Star League service.
The SLDF’s destroyers were for the most part cheap, easy to
build, fast yet fragile, but the Riga II was more akin to a House
designs WarShip; it was heavily protected, well-armed and
flexible. It boasted 36 fighters as well as the capacity to take two
DropShips to augment its defences. At the outbreak of the Amaris
crisis there were 60 of the Riga II’s in service and they fought
hard during the Civil War as heavy escorts. Twenty-two survived
the War and went into exile with the SLDF. They were popular
ships with the SLDF.
In the build up to Operation REVIVAL Clan Star Adder
started a refit of classes like the Avatar as well as constructing
new classes; one of the classes that received a refit was the
Riga II. Like the Avatar class, the surviving Riga II’s overhaul
was extensive and time consuming and altered the class so
significantly that they were in essence new vessels.
At 600,000 tons the newly designated York class is rather
small for a destroyer but the Clans reworked the interior and
hull to get the most out of the design. With a quartet of NAME
engines capable of pushing a maximum of 3g of thrust the York
is as fast as a Lola class destroyer but is considerably more sturdy
with a structural strength 20% higher than the larger vessel thanks
to the use of endo-steel instead of the older compounds in the
Riga II. Nearly 550 tons of Lamellor Ferro-carbide armour gives
the class protection that most cruisers would be proud of.
Like the Riga II the York’s main offensive punch comes from
its fighters, but the York features a total of 50 fighters which are
launched out of bays along the front left and right sections of the
hull and land at a rear bay which is filled with mag-lev rails which
take the fighters back to their launch cradles to be re-armed or
repaired. It also has two DropShip collars on its upper hull which
allow the ship to help with seizing a world in a pinch.
Unlike many carrier designs, the York is also a capable
combatant in ship to ship battles and features a mix of heavy and
super heavy autocannons backed by particle cannons and lasers,
with lasers providing the classes main long ranged punch. The
class was also fitted with a battery of Mech-scale weapons to
engage hostile fighters; this makes strikes against a York a risky
prospect. But this formidable weapons load can tax the ships
cooling capabilities and because of this it is believed that a York’s
Captain will try to not let his or her ship be surrounded.
Whilst expensive, the refit was seen as a total success.
The new design was quickly copied by other Clans who then
produced their own ships; they built new hulls with the most
14
being in the service of Clan Star Adder whilst others were built
by Clan Cloud Cobra and Clan Nova Cat. To fit this firepower,
its fighter complement and protection the York’s cargo capacity is
somewhat limited, especially by SLDF standard. This gives the
lass somewhat limited endurance, especially as most of the cargo
goes into carrying spare parts, weapons, fuel for their fighter
complement. York’s also carry fighters in a broken down state as
replacements for those that are lost although they must be rebuilt
in the ships hangars. The fighters and their launch crews also
make the ship more crowded and with hull space at a premium
the York’s crew quarters are reported to be spartan even by Clan
standards.
A few of these ships have been seen in the Inner Sphere: One,
the CGB Ursa Minor, was involved in a skirmish with forces
from House Kurita where the Clan WarShip drove off an attacking
force of assault DropShips, forcing them to retreat or be destroyed
on the Bear/Combine border prior to Operation Bulldog.
YORK CLASS DESTROYER / CARRIER
15
NOTABLE SHIP
The CSRS Corvidae was, for a long a time, a part of the Lum Naval Garrison Star. The protection of the Ravens’ capitol world with its huge naval yards was of utmost importance for
the Snow Raven Clan. Besides some minor Trials of Possession, the fighting capabilities of both naval stars were rarely tested. This changed in 3065 when Clan Steel Viper begun a huge
assault on Lum. The sudden assault was a complete surprise for the Raven command and the Vipers managed to force their way onto the world.
In space the naval strength of both Clans battled for supremacy, the Corvidae saw extensive use as a mobile fighter base, deploying aerospace fighters to assist with the ground fighting
and enforcing the blockade of the Lum System put in place by the Ravens to stop any Steel Viper supplies reaching their forces.
Finally, after a month of battle with their logistics on the verge of collapse, the Vipers had to evacuate. This started a series of bitterly fought running battles as the Vipers pulled back
and withdrew into the teeth of the Raven’s waiting WarShips. The Vipers’ DropShips put up a bitter fight though. The Vipers’ leadership had prepared for the invasion; their newest assault
DropShips and reserve aerospace fighters fought against the best the ‘Naval’ Clan had to offer whilst WarShips traded blows.
As the battle raged Corvidae challenged the Snake Leader, a Congress class frigate that was covering the evacuation. With clever maneuvering, the Corvidae positioned herself to bring
her heavy autocannons to bare whilst minimizing return fire from the Snake Leader. The hits devastated the Snake Leader’s bridge, disabling the forward weapon bays, and without the
guiding hand of her bridge the ship began to drift. But as the Corvidae moved into position to deliver the coup de grace, the Viper ship’s crew managed to restore partial control long enough
to jump away to safety.
Due it’s exceptional service over Lum, the crew was honoured and allowed to paint two black Raven wings on the hull of the ships. Being “winged” has ever been a great honor for every
ship in the Raven fleet and a symbol of pride for crew and Captain.
YORK CLASS DESTROYER / CARRIER
16
ESSEX II CLASS DESTROYER
Length
615 meters
Displacement
620,000 tons
Crew complement
240 in SLDF service, 278 in Clan service
Armament
12 x Whirlwind Series A195
Medium Naval Autocannons
8 x Magna Type 11 Mod3 35cm
Naval Lasers
3 x SSM-285 ‘Barracuda’ Missile
Systems
8 x Rand ‘Pulsar’ Mk7DS Medium
Naval PPCs
Aerospace Complement
6/10 x Aerospace Fighters
2 x Mark VII Crew/COD shuttle
5 x Type 5 ‘Mule’ Multi-role
Shuttles
Note that the Essex in SLDF service
had only 6 shuttles/small craft
carried onboard
2 x Type 6 ‘Vesper’ refueling shuttles
1 x Type 12 ‘Gannet’ Scout ship
Sensors
SP-Y 8000 Multiphasic 3D scanner/
LIDAR/DSM tracking array
Diamond XR3 AN/SPG-7000 Fire
Control System
‘Frog Croak’ Active/passive
broadband ECM with Lock On
Jamming
Marcon Mod 400 ‘Starnet’
Communications array
The Hegemony and SLDF designed many destroyer classes
over the centuries; the Carson, Baron, Essex I and Naga class ships
were the main vessels. These all shared a relatively common trait;
they were cheap to build and operate, and were designed to be
easy to maintain. Whilst the flaws with the Baron and Carson have
been discussed at length in other publications, the Essex I was the
standard destroyer of the Hegemony until replaced by the larger
Naga.
When the Naga needed replacement the builders of the Essex
offered a newer version of their old ship. But only the name
was similar; the newer Essex II was larger, heavier and far better
armed than its predecessor. Despite this it was still very much a
Hegemony destroyer design, compared to House WarShips they
were not overly armoured and lacked DropShip collars. They were
designed to operate as part of a larger squadron or screen for a
cruiser or battleship; they were very much a general purpose craft.
Despite this the class performed well; its grav-decks made
them comfortable to serve on and extensive cargo bays gave
them a huge endurance, which made the Essex II an ideal patrol
vessel. In exercises and wartime, they were massed together into
four to six strong flotillas and tasked with destroying hostile small
ships and DropShips; this was a role they were very capable of
doing thanks to their heavy and varied mix of lasers, PPCs and
autocannons. Even alone they were capable of taking down larger
vessels, as was proven when the SLS Gettysburg engaged and
destroyed an ancient Dart class light cruiser. The Gettysburg’s
commander used his ships speed to keep behind his more sluggish
foe whilst engaging with his autocannons; eventually the Dart’s
engines were destroyed and a fuel-fire-induced explosion ripped
the larger vessel apart.
In Star League service the general purpose nature of the Essex
saw it serve as a common fleet unit as well as convoy escort. In
fleet exercises the Essex would work in groups of four to six
vessels which massed their small 6 strong fighter complement
and considerable firepower to engage other vessels. Working in a
group like this the Essex could even engage battleships and large
cruisers. Even still, their greatest drawback was their thin armour
and general vulnerability to fighter strikes. The weak armour
was especially noticeable round the magazines for the missile
launchers. During the initial deployment to Taurian space the SLS
Turbulent was caught alone by TFA aerospace assets. Although
the fighters were old they were still capable craft and four of
them were armed with some Reunification-War-era AMS-2000
‘Shrike’ anti-shipping missiles; of the three that hit, all penetrated
the hull and sparked of a serious fire that was only brought under
control when damage parties from the newly arrived SLS Curonne
(a squadron mate of the Turbulent) shuttled over and joined the
fire-fighting efforts. Nonetheless, after burning for six hours the
destroyer’s hull was so badly warped and distorted (with some of
the port aft quarters structural membranes suffering from heatinduced sagging) that the ship was declared a total constructive
loss and scuttled by the Curonne once her crew had been taken off.
Against the M5 Drones the Essex class was completely
outclassed and had to rely on swarming the Caspar drones to
overwhelm them through numbers and firepower. Unfortunately,
this didn’t save the Essex class from suffering horrific casualties.
Whilst over 300 were built, barely more than 30 survived the
Amaris Civil War and these exhausted survivors all left with
17
General Kerensky’s forces when the SLDF went into exile. The
older Essex 1 class, in service with the Houses and being built enmass by the House Liao were all gone by the Second Succession
Wars; even by SLDF standards they were weak and vulnerable
ships and their weaknesses were horribly exposed when faced with
modern weapons and aerospace fighters.
In Clan service the Essex class serves in its original role as
a patrol vessel and gunboat; it was an Essex Class destroyer that
earned Sphere wide infamy when the CSJ Saber Cat leveled
the city of Edo on Turtle Bay with her guns. This act itself had
repercussions for the Inner Sphere and the Clans. The Saber Cat’s
commander was killed in a Trial of Refusal and it lead to the Clans
withdrawing all WarShips from front line service in the Invasion.
This relegated the massive ships to little more than cargo and
troop hauling duties (or, to be undiplomatic, glorified JumpShips).
Perhaps it also highlights how lucky the Inner Sphere is that the
Clans generally did not use their WarShips in a role beyond that
of command ship or invasion craft. If they had brought their ships
when Operation REVIVAL started and used them offensively the
Inner Sphere would probably be under the yoke of the Clans.
As is normal in Clan service, the ships have a lithium fusion
battery and have a considerably enlarged small craft complement
of ten fighters and ten shuttles. But otherwise the ships have
changed little since the days of the Star League.
ESSEX II CLASS DESTROYER
18
NOTABLE SHIP
“Seeking the truth, seeking honour and the light of knowledge” - this was the motto that was written on the hull of the Orpheus, an Essex II destroyer belonging to Clan Goliath Scorpion.
When the Wars of Reaving began, the ship was in the Circe system when Clan Steel Viper challenged the ship to a Trial of Possession. Against a swarm of DropShips and fighters, the
Orpheus suffered heavy damage but managed to cause enough of it’s own to force a draw and both Clan forces withdrew from the battle.
The Orpheus was repaired and returned to patrol duty round the holdings of Clan Goliath Scorpion. In June 3072, the Scorpions and Cobras launched a large joint operation in the Huntress
system; the former Smoke Jaguar home world. Both Clans wanted to expand their enclaves and to Reave some dormant Jaguar legacies stored in Mount Szabo. Not expecting trouble, they
instead found that Mount Szabo had been turned into a fortress by The Society and Bandit caste. Attacking on both the ground and from space, the Society’s fastness at Mount Szabo was
eventually cleansed by internal scuttling charges and orbital fire from the Orpheus.
As the joint taskforce was withdrawing, a Clan Coyote strike force jumped in system and attacked immediately. The Coyotes signaled their intent when the Victoria Ward, a Liberator-class
cruiser, destroyed the CGS Andromeda, a Volga-class transport, with devastating broadside. The Orpheus was too far away to save its companion, but attacked with a vengeance. The Coyotes’
WarShip was supported by swarms of aerospace fighters and unknown types of winged ProtoMechs. While both WarShips sparred against each other, the ProtoMechs closed the distance and
landed on the Orpheus’ hull. With no Mech scale weaponry to engage the ProtoMechs now swarming her and unable to take her guns off their engagement against the larger Liberator, the
Orpheus was in dire trouble.
The combination of the devastating fire of the Victoria Ward and the rampaging ProtoMechs on the hull were eventually simply too much. The ProtoMechs picked and destroyed the gun
turrets one after another whilst others attacked the engines and crippled them. With their ship out of control the Scorpions were forced to abandon her, even as the Orpheus started burning up
in Huntress’ atmosphere. Only a few life pods escaped and these were all captured; the crew were never seen again.
ESSEX II CLASS DESTROYER
19
LOLA III CLASS DESTROYER
Length
653 meters
Displacement
680,000 tons
Crew complement
250 in SLDF service, 288 in Clan service
Armament
12 x Hellion ‘Magnetar’ Series 18
55cm Naval Lasers
5 x SSM-550 Mod 3 ‘Barracuda’
Missile Launch Systems
16 x Luxor AK-175 Light naval
autocannons
4 x Maxell ‘Nova’ Series 14 45cm
Naval Lasers
2 x SSM-900 ‘White Shark’ Missile
Launch Systems
Aerospace Complement
6/10 x Aerospace Fighters
1 x Type 12 ‘Gannet’ Scout ship
5 x Type 5 ‘Mule’ Multi-role Shuttles 2 x Mark VII Crew/COD shuttle
2 x Type 6 ‘Vesper’ refuelling
shuttles
Like the Essex class the Lola III in
SLDF service only carried 4 shuttles
Sensors
Delta Trac ‘Zemchug’ Mod 600
3D multi-phase scanner array with
Hi-lo frequency LIDAR and SMTI
tracking
Type 101 ‘Mosquito Buzz’
Broadband active jamming system
with integrated ECCM
Mk 200 mod 3 ‘Bombard’ target and
tracking with HoJ sensors
ViaComm Type 248 ‘Ballroom’
Long/short range multi-channel
communications system
Whilst the Lola II was quite the disaster, the builders at
Boeing Interstellar continued to work on the design and eventually
produced what they labelled the ‘ultimate destroyer’ for the SLDF
in 2662. Whilst structurally similar to the preceding Lola II, the
Lola III featured a completely reworked fuel and storage system;
this eliminated the Lola II’s biggest (and most dangerous) flaw. The
ship also featured an enlarged array of weapons that could threaten
a cruiser.
The Lola III was large for a destroyer; at 680,000 tons she outmassed other destroyers, and whilst rather lightly protected the ship
was fast thanks to its huge Rolls Royce engines. These engines,
however, were built for cruiser-scale ships; fitting them and their
associated systems onto a destroyer-scale hull did cut down on
interior space, which made the ships cramped and uncomfortable
to serve on. This fact was made worse by Lola III’s lack of a gravdeck, so the class relied purely on thrust to generate any gravity for
the crew. Despite the Lola’s greater mass, she was both faster and
more agile than the smaller and lighter Essex and was one of the
quickest large vessels in service with the SLDF.
Like other SLDF and Hegemony destroyers the Lola III had a
small fighter complement and no DropShip capacity, mainly in an
effort to save money. The fighters would be used purely for selfdefense but in wartime, when massed together with other ships of
her type the fighters could be used more offensively. Nonetheless,
the vast majority of Lola’s carried medium fighters that would
operate in an interceptor and point defense role.
What the ship had in abundance was weaponry; the Lola III
could engage distant targets with its frontal batteries of lasers and
then pound them with the naval autocannons on her flank. The craft
was also dotted with missile launchers but these were primarily
used in an anti-fighter and anti-DropShip role. Like the smaller
Essex, the Lola III operated in squadrons four-to-six strong when
part of a larger fleet. For more distant stations these squadrons
would often be built round a cruiser that would act as the command
ship for the flotilla and provide a heavier punch when needed.
The Lola III served both as an attack ship and screening unit
for larger vessels. The battery of naval autocannons could cripple
any DropShip in known space with a single hit, whilst the lasers
could obliterate fighters; thanks to their fire control systems being
constantly updated the Lola’s received the advanced targeting
systems that let them turn their naval weapons on small craft
with a considerable degree of accuracy. Against WarShips the
combination of autocannons and lasers could defeat ships of equal
tonnage and a group of Lola’s was a serious threat to larger vessels.
Most famously the Lola III hull was used as the base hull of the
M5 CASPAR drone WarShip; the CASPAR was a lethal automated
WarShip and the crown jewel of the SDS system. Stripping out
anything that was related to crew whilst retaining the Lola’s
advanced double hull buffer design meant that the M5 featured
greater firepower and enhanced defenses which made the drone
truly lethal.
In the Civil war the Lola III and M5 clashed again and again;
the Lola’s suffered horrific losses which saw roughly 80% of the
20
class destroyed. Still the Lola was the third most numerous class to
survive the Civil War and they formed a major part of the SLDF’s
exodus into unknown space.
When they returned under the colours of the Clans it seems
that little has changed. Whilst the hull plating has been replaced
with more advanced compounds, it has not gotten any thicker, and
save the enlarging of the Aerospace fighter group and the fitting of
a Lithium Fusion battery these ships are as identifiable now as they
were centuries ago.
LOLA III CLASS DESTROYER
21
NOTABLE SHIP
The CCS Honour of Ages was a Lola III class destroyer, part of a massive Coyote strike force that struck at the last Homeworlds possession of the Clan Diamond Shark; the world of
Vinton in August 3073.
As they achieved orbit, the Shark defenders activated their hidden and previously unknown SDS and opened fire. Batteries of ground-based energy weapons, as well as ground-to-space
missiles, roared forth to lash at the Coyote formation. Both the lead ships of the formation, the Courage, another Lola III and the Broken Sea, a York class carrier, were caught by surprise by
the initial volley and suffered catastrophic damage; the Broken Sea vanishing in a magazine explosion whilst the Courage fell into the atmosphere, completely out of control.
Reacting quickly, the Honour of Ages returned fire and destroyed one of the SDS batteries. Star Captain Rastan McTighe then moved the ship along to shield the DropShip flotilla from
the SDS’s fire, taking heavy damage whilst doing so.
The situation worsened when a Shark WarShip, the Deal Breaker, an old Samarkand class carrier, joined the fray. Launching their fighters to attack the DropShips, dogfights between
Shark and Coyote’s aerospace fighters raged between the WarShips whilst the Deal Breaker decimated the 12th Battle Cluster’s DropShips with her main guns.
The Honour of Ages moved to confront the larger Shark WarShip; once more the ship moved to shield the vulnerable DropShips whilst returning fire. Swarmed by fighters and pounded
by the guns of the Deal Breaker, the Honour of Ages succumbed to the Shark WarShip’s guns as well as the damage caused by the SDS.
But the sacrifice of the Honour of Ages bought much needed time for the Great Coyote Spirit to finally enter firing range. The Nightlord class Battleship destroyed the Deal Breaker and
turned her guns on the SDS batteries on Vinton before withdrawing.
For their valiant and brave sacrifice all of the Honour of Ages crew were awarded the Coyote’s Claw posthumously.
LOLA III CLASS DESTROYER
22
AEGIS CLASS HEAVY CRUISER
Length
725 meters
Displacement
750,000 tons
Crew complement
426 in SLDF service, 430 in Clan service
Armament
18 x Armstrong II Series-325 Heavy 8 x SSM-900 ‘White Shark’ Missile
Naval Autocannons
Launch Systems
24 x Imperator Series-195 Medium
Naval Autocannons
4 x SSM-500 Mod 2 ‘Barracuda’
Missile Launch Systems
12 x Randall ‘Hellburner’ Mod 42
55cm Naval Lasers
4 x Magna ‘Nova’ Series 14 45cm
Naval Lasers
Aerospace Complement
18/20 x Aerospace Fighters
4 x DropShip Collars
10 x Small craft/shuttles
Sensors
KTI Mod 389 ‘Typhon’ Long range
active and passive multi-phased 3D
tracking sensor array
Series 42 ‘Tuba Pulse’ Broadband
active ECM with Active/passive
ECCM
Type 99 Mod 3 ‘Long Tom’ 3D
active fire control/LIDAR array
OPM Stratacaster ‘Dragons Call’
multichannel communications with
laser uplink
Series 32 ‘Clarion Call’ Passive ECM
As one of the longest lived ships in service, The Aegis first
entered service in 2372 and over a hundred of the class were
produced. These naval-autocannon-heavy gunboats would serve
in the Hegemony navy until the foundation of the Star League,
where 36 of the class were turned over to various House navies.
Their replacement, the Avatar class, was larger and better armed
but as the Reunification War loomed on the horizon the ancient
Aegis was hauled out of mothballs to serve once more.
Less those in House service, the class entered the yards
for a huge and expensive series of overhauls. Newer, heavier
weaponry was fitted, which replaced the massed NAC-10’s that
covered the Aegis and in their place went a mixed battery of
NAC-35 and 20’s. The ancient hull plating was also replaced
and the interior re-worked. Whilst termed a refit you could easily
call the end result a new class that joined the SLDF’s fleets as the
Reunification War began.
Built for bruising, close range battles the Aegis has a thick
hide and her heavy firepower was instrumental in many of the
battles against the Periphery nations, including the titanic Battle
of Robsart. It was a common sight in the war to see a Monsoon
or Farragut class with an Aegis lurking within a few hundred
kilometers acting as a bodyguard for the big ship. That the
Monsoon was also just as cumbersome as the Aegis made them a
good pairing.
Unfortunately, the improvements to the design did little to
improve the classes sluggish speed and turn rates. The Aegis was
a superb escort because of her firepower and large complements
of fighters and DropShips but they were of little use in a
pursuit situation. In spite of that, the refitted Aegis gave superb
service; the inclusion of a Lithium Fusion battery gave the ship
considerable strategic mobility as well, which somewhat made up
for her slow tactical speed. Other design flaws showed up after
the refits were completed. Whilst the larger cannons added to
the punch of the cruiser the magazines were not expanded; this
limited the number of shells that could be fired without bringing
more up from storage.
The ammunition hoists were also initially rated for the older
and smaller canons, which meant that the added weight slowed
them considerably and greatly extended the firing cycle for the
main guns.
One bonus of the modernization was that there was a large
amount of room freed up due to the reduction in crew. This was
in turn used to give the crew quarters that were, by any standards,
palatial. Two and three man bunks were the norm with each bunk
having plenty of storage for belongings and uniforms along with
their own bathing facilities instead of the old cleaning blocks
of other ships of the era. The refit even saw the instillation of
a zero-g swimming pool which was viewed an extravagance
onboard a liner, let alone a WarShip class.
Somewhat surprisingly the Amaris Civil war was kind to the
Aegis and a large number of the class survived the heavy fighting
to free the Hegemony from the Usurper’s grasp. Even with their
23
slow speed, the heavy guns of an Aegis class ship could crush a
Caspar M5 in a few salvos whilst the drone had to contend with
the cruiser’s thick armoured hide. With their large DropShip
capacity, the Aegis was a useful transport for the SLDF’s exodus
from known space.
The cruisers in House service fought and died in the fires
of the First and Second Succession Wars. Because of their
capabilities in an orbital bombardment role the Aegis was a
deadly threat in orbit and became a priority target. The last of
the ships in House service, the FSS Stalwart, was destroyed by
a ramming attack from the DCS Yokozuna (a Kuritan Overlord
DropShip). Whilst the impact wasn’t fatal by itself, the two 1
megaton charges aboard the DropShip were and the last Aegis
vanished in a thermonuclear fireball.
In Clan service the Aegis serves as a command ship; with
its large DropShip capacity the cruiser can carry a full invasion
force without needing to rely on slower and more vulnerable
JumpShips.
The Aegis class ships in Clan service have changed little apart
from alterations to enlarge the fighter complement to suit Clan
standards and fitting of their hull sealant technology. The class
seems to be favoured by Clan Jade Falcon as several Aegis class
ships have been sighted in their initial attacks and in the Clan’s
Occupation Zone.
AEGIS CLASS HEAVY CRUISER
24
NOTABLE SHIP
The NCS Chronicle was the first Clan Nova Cat vessel to engage the then new York Class destroyer carrier, Star Fire, during the Trial of Possession for the Cats’ Mech factory on the
world of Brim. Unaware of her opponent’s capabilities the Chronicle suffered heavy damage when she was swarmed with fighters. With his ship in danger, the Nova Cat Star Commodore
had to request Hegira and withdrew from battle. The Chronicle and Star Fire would meet again under less civil circumstances in May 3060.
With the Nova Cats choosing to join the Second Star League and then being Abjured by the Clans’ Grand Council, the Clan and its holdings became the centre of a feeding frenzy of
attacks from other Clans.
As part of Kappa Galaxy and overseeing the evacuation, the Chronicle was overseeing the evacuation of Hoard when Kappa Galaxy came under attack from elements from three other
Clans. Whilst Kappa held on, the ground the evacuation proceeded at a frantic pace, despite attacks from hostile DropShips and aerospace fighters.
The CSA Star Fire once again met the Chronicle in battle but this time with the lives of thousands of lower caste civilians at stake, as well as over a million tons of equipment and factory
parts. The Nova Cat Commander, Star Commodore Sel Bravos, accepted the Star Fire’s challenge and moved to engage. Although the Star Fire was quickly destroyed she caused heavy
damage before she went down.
Without their mothership, the Adder fighters attacked in a fury, swarming the larger Cat vessel and her fighters, causing heavy damage before finally being forced to withdraw due to them
running low on fuel and ammunition, as well as suffering heavy casualties. This brave holding action helped save the lives of over 100,000 civilians, all be it at the cost of terrible damage to
the Chronicle and the complete destruction of Kappa Galaxy, whose warriors fought and died to the last man and woman.
AEGIS CLASS HEAVY CRUISER
25
VOLGA CLASS TROOP TRANSPORT
Length
715 meters
Displacement
780,000 tons
Crew complement
304 in SLDF service, 320 in Clan service
Armament
2 x ‘Thunderlord’ Mk62 Heavy
Naval Gauss Rifles
6 x AK-320 Heavy Naval
Autocannons
4 x AK-195 Medium Naval
Autocannons
16 x Series 7.5DS ER Large Lasers
8 x Kolbrik Mod 3DS Large Pulse
Lasers
16 x Kolbrik Mod 9DS Medium
Pulse Lasers
4 x Theta Type 5 35cm Naval Lasers
7 x Theta Type 6 45cm Naval Lasers
16 x Type 22SR Mod 2 ER PPCs
Aerospace Complement
12/20 x Aerospace Fighters/Small
craft
4 x DropShip Collars
Sensors
Series 42 Herakles 3D active search
array
Series 21 Mod 98 ‘Ganymede’ Long
range communications suite
Series 39 ‘Jervis Bay’ broadband
active Jammer with narrow band
backup and ECCM
Series 66 ‘Rawalpindi’ Multi-phased
active tracking and LIDAR fire
control
In 2703 the SLDF acknowledged that it lacked sufficient
armed transports for its massive ground forces. Whilst the huge
Potemkin could carry a huge number of DropShips, the craft
themselves were expensive to crew and build and also required
specialist shipyards for their construction (which of course affected
their construction rate). Cost-conscious Senators and Admiralty
officials were always worried about how much the class cost per
ship. What was needed was a light, cheap transport that would be
able to carry sufficient troops and defend itself if required.
Various ship building firms put forward tenders; the contract
was won by Eaton Aerospace, which caused some alarm in the
halls of the Admiralty as Eaton had been responsible for the
Quixote-class frigate mess. Still, Eaton promised the ship would
come in on budget and on time; perhaps to great surprise, they
succeeded.
The Volga class transport was built to Merchant standards
and whilst its hull was based on the old Quixote class frigates, it
lacked that design’s thick armour and internal bracing; this made
the Volga quicker, easier and cheaper to produce. The merchant
hull design was also surprisingly tough; one vessel, the SLS
Fort Victoria, was rammed by an out of control DropShip that
suffered a thruster failure as it came to dock. The Union-class
ship slammed into the upper port hull with the thrusters at full
burn before the engines gave out. With a Union-class DropShip
embedded eighteen meters into her hull, the Fort Victoria’s crew
were able to rapidly seal off the damaged sections and prevent a
fire with the loss of only three people. When the wrecked Union
was removed, it took four days to repair the hole in the Victoria’s
hull before she resumed her original course.
With a respectable 212,517 tons of cargo space as well as
collars for a quartet of DropShips, the Volga also featured space
for a dozen fighters for self-defense in addition to an anti-shipping
armament that was mainly built with an anti-DropShip role in
mind. The design also featured Mech-scale weapons to deter
hostile fighters (something quite rare in Star League designs). This
heavy anti-fighter armament was tested during the Amaris Civil
War but it proved its worth; the Volga class were targets because of
the troops they carried and Rim World forces would often ignore
their escorts if they had a chance of getting at a troop transport like
the Volga. Thanks to their surprising bite, the Volga was capable
of warding off most DropShip attacks as well as being a threat to a
destroyer or corvette that broke through the escort cordon.
Of course to cut costs there were drawbacks; the biggest was
the cooling system of the transport. This system would allow
the ship to fire a total of 45% of her armament and then it would
start being overwhelmed. As part of Transport Command’s ‘main
movers,’ it was felt that Volga’s would not come under direct
assault as they would always be escorted by friendly destroyers
and later cruisers. The design also retained the old engines from
the Quixote class; the Volga was by no stretch of the imagination
a fast vessel. Built in large numbers, the Volga’s lost over 200 of
26
their number, with them being favored targets for the SDS in the
Amaris Civil War.
Those few survivors in Clan service have changed little over
the intervening centuries; changes have been made to their antifighter weapons in order to bring them up to Clan standards, there
has been a mild expansion of their fighter bays to support the
Clan’s base 5-unit size, and a lithium fusion battery has been fitted
for the added strategic mobility which the Clans so highly prize.
VOLGA CLASS TROOP TRANSPORT
27
NOTABLE SHIP
The CHH Mount Olympus was the only ship of her class within the Clan Hell’s Horses naval Tourman and had been under the command of Star Commodore Lucilla Johnston from 3059.
During Clan Ice Hellions’ Operation ICE STORM, the Horses finally turned on their ‘allies’ and joined the Falcons in attacking the Hellions’ forces. Eventually these counter attacks
forced Ice Hellion back to three primary locations - the Dark Nebula, Evciler and Vantaa. The Mount Olympus joined the Hell’s Horses’ Iota Galaxy in a combined action with the Jade
Falcon Alpha and Gamma Galaxies and two Jade Falcon WarShips, the Black Lion CJF Jade Aerie and the Sovetskii Soyuz CJF Hawker, in their attack on Vantaa.
Defending the Vantaa system was the Ice Hellion Alpha Naval Star, consisting of the Ice Hellion flagship, the McKenna class battleship CIH Cage’s Pride, the York class destroyer CIH
Pack Leader and the Aegis-class heavy cruiser CIH Chaos Sailor. The Chaos Sailor and the Pack Leader squared off against the Hawker, Jade Aerie and Mount Olympus whilst the Cage’s
Pride attempted to intercept the Hell’s Horses and Jade Falcon ground forces as they dropped onto the planet.
The Mount Olympus was engaged by the Pack Leader, but was at a considerable disadvantage being both outgunned and slower than her smaller opponent. With their faster vessel the
Hellions managed to cross the bow of the lumbering Mount Olympus, engaging her with their broadside batteries whilst the Olympus could only respond with her bow guns. The Mount
Olympus took massive damage and began to drift, listing and bleeding air from her mauled forequarters. The Hellion commander, thinking that his opponent was out of the battle, moved
to support their sister ship and ignored the listing Olympus. This gave the Horses the opening they needed. With a final salvo they managed to disable the Pack Leader, wrecking her drive
section and making her an easy target.
Despite all this, after the battle for Vantaa the Mount Olympus had to be scuttled. With her jump drive wrecked and with entire sections open to space, the ship’s damage was too great.
Not wanting her to be salvaged, the ship was destroyed by scuttling charges.
VOLGA CLASS TROOP TRANSPORT
28
CONGRESS CLASS FRIGATE
Length
703 meters
Displacement
760,000 tons
Crew complement
288 in SLDF service, 301 in Clan service
Armament
12 x Armstrong Mk99 Light Naval
Autocannons
1 x SSM-1200 Killer Whale Missile
launch system
4 x Oriente Mk-73 Heavy Naval
Autocannons
8 x Type 9sr ER Large Lasers
2 x SSM-900 White Shark Missile
launch systems
Aerospace Complement
6/10 x Aerospace fighters
2 x DropShip collars
4 x Small craft and personnel
shuttles
Sensors
Pheaton-Ellings Model 72
Multiphasic 3D scanning array
Griffin-Webb enhanced long range
optical viewing systems
Pheaton-Ellings ‘Gossamer’ long
range communications laser array
Type 47 comms intercept. – There
is sadly little detail on the Type 47
but apparently it was based on the
hyper-advanced spy systems of the
Bug-Eye spy ship
Pheaton-Ellings Type 0 ‘Discord’
Broad and narrow band ECM with
automatic frequency hopping and
adaptive ECCM
In Star League service the Frigate occupied a curious position;
whereas Corvettes would normally patrol in groups or be based in
systems a Frigate would carry out ‘deep range’ patrols often alone
for months at a time.
Crews on these vessels were amongst the most highly trained
and often commanded by Captains noted for independence.
Whilst the SLDF’s history with Frigates had not been too stellar
considering the Quixote fiasco (which would then be converted
into a very capable missile cruiser), the Riga class of frigate was
getting long in the tooth and the expense of keeping the class in the
field with repeated refits and upgrades was seen as unsustainable.
When the contract for the NFD (New Frigate Design) was won by
Dekirk Aerospace, a 3 year long legal battle commenced between
Dekirk and Challenge Systems of the Federated Suns (who
claimed that Dekirk had either stolen or heavily based their design
on a proposal from Challenge Systems).
Eventually the lawsuit was settled with an agreement to build
some ships for the Federated Suns. The new Congress class of
frigate was the Star League’s last ‘true’ frigate design and without
a doubt its biggest; at 760,000 tons the Congress out massed all
preceding frigates and more than a few cruiser designs.
Whilst launched post-Reunification-War the design of the
Congress was a call-back to ships of the era; small groupings of
naval autocannons provided its main punch. Some critics argued
the class was under-armed, but its supporters pointed out that as
a patrol ship it was perfectly armed to deal with anything short
of a full hostile force. This was ably demonstrated by the brave
sacrifice of the SLS Star Devil in her battle against four Taurian
Lola II class destroyers; this action silenced the critics of the class.
In service the Congress proved to be exceptionally reliable;
it was fast enough to keep up with capital fleet units and also
capable of undertaking multi-month patrols. Her six fighters and
two attached DropShips (usually the formidable Pentagon class)
added to the ship’s firepower and anti-fighter defenses. They were
also popular with their crews, as roomy walkways and comfortable
quarters made long patrols far more bearable and cut down on
incidents of stress. In combat the simple-to-maintain autocannons
were reliable and hard hitting; they were more than enough to deal
with typical Pirate craft. The frigate’s trio of missile launchers
also let it engage targets at extreme range whilst some Mechscale large lasers provided a very limited defense against strafing
fighters.
The Congress was also an extremely sturdy vessel; its thick
armour and reinforced hull were more akin to those found on
cruisers. The electronics outfit was also a modern marvel with
sensors more akin to a spy ship; this gave the Congress nearunprecedented EW capabilities (only the hyper-advanced Bug
Eye would boast better performance with their electronics outfit).
The Congress was also mated with the Pentagon class assault
DropShip, which was viewed as one of the finest craft of its type.
The Pentagon was designed to engage fighters and DropShips,
was fast and packed a formidable punch whilst having heavy
protection. Along with the frigate’s six fighters, the Pentagon
29
served as its main anti-fighter defense. It was also common to
see a AR-N Shuttle carried aboard as a mine hunter and sweeper.
Competition for berths on a Pentagon and Congress was fierce
as the hard working frigates tended to see more action than the
battleships and cruisers of the fleet; additionally, a Congress
Captain could make a name for him or herself and command of
such a ship was seen as a good way to get promoted.
During the Amaris crisis the Congress class was widely spread
across the Inner Sphere and Periphery; it took months to recall all
the ships for the push on the Hegemony. To secure their supply
lines as well as look for raiding forces, the Congress class ships
were often used as convoy escorts or scouts that surveyed worlds
to be attacked. The class’s somewhat limited firepower did not
give it much of a chance against any patrolling M5 drone, however
a few bold Captains were able to turn the tables on the far more
powerful drones through innovative tactics that were as impressive
as they were dangerous to the ship and crew.
The surviving ships all joined General Kerensky in Operation
EXODUS and would later enter service with the Clans (where
their huge cargo capacity initially saw them used as armed
transports). The Clans did not reproduce the extinct Pentagon
design; typically, they teamed the ship with Union C’s. One
vessel, the CJF Fire Rose, was engaged by a FedCom escort
group consisting of two Avenger and one Achilles along with a
dozen fighters, but the Clan WarShip saw off her attackers despite
moderate damage to her bow and engine. The Clans have changed
the class little; so far they have increased the fighter complement
to 10, installed a Lithium Fusion battery and also their advanced
hull sealant technology.
CONGRESS CLASS FRIGATE
30
NOTABLE SHIP
The NCS True Vision was the long serving flagship for Clan Nova Cat. And despite her being out-massed by larger and more powerful ships, the ship would always be the command
vessel of the Nova Cat’s Keshik as the personal vessel of the Clans Khan. The True Vision served dutifully in this role, engaging in several trials in Clan space until Operation REVIVAL,
where the ship travelled to the Inner Sphere. The True Vision and her embarked troops then took part in the battle of Drask’s Den under the auspices of Clan Wolf.
It was the True Vision that carried the Precentor Marshal of ComStar to meet the ilKhan aboard the Dire Wolf prior to the ilKhan’s death aboard the Wolf cruiser. When the Nova Cats
joined the Second Star League, the newly renamed SLS True Vision was displaced as flagship by the larger Black Lion class battlecruiser, the NCS Severen Leroux, ending over a century of
being the Clan’s flagship.
During the massive Second Battle of Alshain the True Vision joined other Nova Cat WarShips as they tried to claim the Leviathan II class Battleship, CGB Rasalhague, in a Trial of
Possession that devolved into a huge freewheeling brawl between the Bear and Cat forces. Trading fire with several Bear WarShips and subject to repeated fighter strikes, the True Vision
was horrifically damaged and fell out of the battle with her hull broken and whole sections consumed by fire.
So bad was her damage that the Bear’s claimed her as a kill but the expert Nova Cat crew managed to get the ship and fires under control long enough to withdraw. Under repair for over a
year, the True Vision did not see action again until the end of the Jihad, where she joined the fleet clearing the defences round Terra. Here though, finally, the True Vision met her second death,
swarmed by Tiamat and Dragu drones. Although she destroyed two Tiamat class vessels the others attacking her kept hammering her hull until a lucky round breached her battered armour and
detonated in one of her secondary magazines.
CONGRESS CLASS FRIGATE
31
BLACK LION CLASS BATTLECRUISER BLOCK II
Length
772 meters
Displacement
810,000 tons
Crew complement
358 in SLDF service, 362 in Clan service
Armament
32 x Boeing-Winchester Mk4
381mm Naval Autocannons
8 x Mod 3 VLS launchers for SSM1200 Killer Whale Missiles
18 x Boeing-Winchester Mk7
461mm Naval Autocannons
6 x Series 1 VLS launchers for SSM550 Barracuda Missiles
Aerospace Complement
18/(20) x Aerospace fighters
4 x DropShip collars
10 x Shuttles/Small craft
Sensors
Needham Series 42 ‘Oracle’ Multiphase 3D integrated passive and
active scanning array
Needham Aerostar Type 81
‘Horsefly’ Long range multiband communications with laser
communication uplink and HPG
Feed
Needham Series 200 ‘Bull Roar’
Mod 3 Multi-band active and passive
ECM and ECCM
Needham Series 382 ‘Hawk Screech’
LIDAR assisted fire control
The original Black Lion was designed by James McKenna,
in part to serve as a faster version of the Dreadnought class of
WarShip; the class did not age well however, and whilst the
remaining vessels were sold off to the Houses the new Black Lion
(named after the famous design) was a far more capable vessel.
Designed by the renowned Boeing Interstellar, the Black Lion
was built from the keel up to be a WarShip. Somewhat curiously
the accepted design was a modified version of a design that Boeing
put forwards when the Cameron class was being initially tendered
for. When the first ship finished her trials and entered service the
SLDF found itself with a capable WarShip; one that would outclass
all House WarShips of equal mass save the Lyran’s potent Tharkad
class.
The ship’s huge Rolls-Patterson ‘Maelstrom’ engines provided
the 810,000-ton craft with a large volume of thrust; the Black
Lion was able to pace the Essex class destroyer and they could
run circles round the older Cameron class ships they replaced.
Curiously the Black Lion featured no energy weapons and relied
on massed autocannons (often mounted in dual or triple-mounted
turrets) for it’s main punch, alongside a considerable missile
battery to engage distant targets or smaller vessels.
The heavy triple turrets for the NAC-20’s were initially very
troublesome; it took eight years to finally get them working
correctly. The turrets’ main flaw was the intricate loading and antifire protection systems; these could sometimes jam and disable a
gun until said gun was cleared. Unfortunately, this flaw resulted
in an explosion in a turret aboard the SLS Moonraker; the tragedy
was caused by a failure in the loading system which saw one of
the guns get loaded twice. When fired, both shells detonated in the
barrel and the flash of the explosion wrecked the whole mounting
and killed all the gun crew.
Another flaw was that the Black Lion had somewhat limited
endurance. With only 70,000 tons of cargo onboard, and with an
armament that could consume over ten tons of ammunition with
a full broadside, the Black Lion was less suited for independent
action or long patrols. The Maelstrom engines were also
renowned for being fuel-hungry. It was not uncommon to see a
Vincent corvette serving as a supply ship as part of a Black Lion’s
retinue; whilst the Black Lion almost habitually carried one cargo
DropShip to help keep her in the field longer.
The missile systems, however, performed flawlessly whilst
the broad upper hull provided plenty of room for the ship’s four
DropShips. Eighteen aerospace fighters alongside ten shuttles
and small craft also extended the ship’s reach and provided a CAP
against hostile fighters.
With more tonnage devoted to protection, as well as an
enlarged fighter and DropShip complement over the Cameron,
the Black Lion was a superior vessel but due to its large and
complicated engines it was also slow to produce; only sixty-two of
the ships would be completed.
The Black Lion’s speed, firepower and expansive
communications suite would make the vessel a popular command
ship for assault groups. The battlecruisers had a reputation backed
up by performance in the Hidden Wars and eventually the Amaris
Civil War, but the class remained vulnerable to fighter attacks;
32
most of the Black Lions lost were due to fighter attacks, especially
when they encountered the drone fighters of the SDS. Still, at least
sixteen ships of the class survived and all of these joined the SLDF
in exile. In Clan service the Battlecruisers serve as command ships
or flagships; only three Black Lions have been seen in the Inner
Sphere. Alterations remain limited to the usual expansion of the
fighter complement (the ship now carries 20 aerospace fighters)
and the instillation of a Lithium Fusion battery. Additional
tonnage is also lost due to the mobile HPG being installed on most
ships (whereas in SLDF service the Black Lions all featured the
top secret ‘Hyper-Faxes,’ or as they are more commonly known as
‘Black boxes,’ for long range communications; an HPG is much
quicker and possesses greater range).
BLACK LION CLASS BATTLECRUISER BLOCK II
33
NOTABLE SHIP
The CBS Rocinante was one of only six WarShips that Clan Blood Spirit could muster, and because of her size she was often used as a flagship. For decades the ship did a sterling job
of fighting off Clan Burrock raids at convoys to and from the only remaining enclave the Spirits still had in the Foster system. In one engagement, the Rocinante fought the Ico McMillan, a
Vincent Mk 42, and destroyed her in short order, going so far as to kill all survivors in their lifeboats and escape pods. When the Spirits had to abandon their Foster enclave in 2866, the ship
was moved to the York system, strengthening the naval defences here and keeping the Clan in its self-imposed isolation.
This force was even more depleted in the Burrock Absorption War when the Aegis Carmine Justice was destroyed by Adder and Burrock forces; that same engagement saw the Rocinante
also suffer heavy damage that simply could not be repaired due to the Blood Spirits’ lack of suitable shipyards.
Despite this, help arrived from an unexpected quarter. In 3065 Clan Snow Raven offered to repair the Blood Spirit WarShips in exchange for the Spirits’ knowledge on ProtoMech
operation and construction. With their fleet crippled the Spirits agreed and the Rocinante, along with the Spirits other surviving ships, were quickly repaired. The Rocinante immediately
made her presence felt when, in 3066, she managed to isolate the CSA Vritra, a Vincent Mk 42 corvette, and destroy her. The Rocinante and Iota Galaxy then proceeded to attack the Adder
enclave on Tathis and defeated the Adder forces there before withdrawing to York.
In the Wars of Reaving the Rocinante was part of every battle the Spirits took part in. The Blood Spirits’ Khan, Karianna Schmitt, personally lead the successful attack on Arcadia in
3069. But in 3071 the ship would meet her end in a battle against Clan Ghost Bear. The Bears were evacuating their last civilians from their last enclave on Arcadia and moving them
into the Inner Sphere. The Spirits intended to make a deal with the Bears, but failed. To try and ‘force’ the issue, the Spirits destroyed a civilian JumpShip, killing all on-board to make a
point. The reaction of the Bears was one of unbridled anger as all their military ships in vicinity attacked the Rocinante. While no WarShip was among the attackers, their fire savaged the
Rocinante in moments. When the bridge exploded, Khan Karianna Schmitt was badly wounded. Whilst she would be rescued, Schmitt would lose Khanship due to her grievous wounds and
her disastrous decision to provoke Clan Ghost Bear.
BLACK LION CLASS BATTLECRUISER BLOCK II
34
BLACK LION CLASS BATTLECRUISER BLOCK I
35
SOVETSKII SOYUZ CLASS HEAVY CRUISER
Length
803 meters
Displacement
830,000 tons
Crew complement
319 in SLDF service, 323 in Clan service
Armament
6 x Sorenstein Series 2 ‘Oni’ 45cm
Naval Lasers
2 x SSM-1200 Killer Whale Missile
launch systems
12 x Imperator Mk 245 Medium
Naval Autocannons
4 x SSM-724 Mod 3 VLS Barracuda
Missile launch systems
8 x Ceres-N Mod 101 ‘Flare‘
Medium Naval Particle Cannons
Aerospace Complement
18/20 x Aerospace fighters
4/5 x DropShip collars
8 x Shuttles/small craft
Sensors
ASTROC 4-b Mod 12 Long range
KAT-701 Long Range multi-channel
broadband 3D phased scanning array
communications array with Laser
communications pickup
NCC Mod 44 Adaptive multispectrum ECM/ECCM
NCC Series 9000 ‘HAL’ Fire control
system with predictive targeting and
threat analysis
Although called a heavy cruiser, the cheap and very common
Sovetskii Soyuz (more commonly called the Sov Soy by their crew
and by anyone outside of an official document) was more closely
related to the SLDF’s line of Frigates. The class may well represent
the final evolution of the Frigate-as-WarShip.
The new cruiser was designed by Blue Nose Clipper Ships
during Commanding General Rebecca Fredasas’s New Arms Order.
This was mostly a press-hyped campaign which highlighted the
weaknesses of the SLDF compared to the House fleets. Some
canny observers compared it to the ancient ‘We want eight and we
won’t wait!’ political campaign in the British Empire in the early
19th Century. NAO was politically successful and drew most of its
funding from a slowed SDS program; it saw a marked increase in
new ships being completed as well as new Battlemech and vehicles
coming into service for the SLDF. One of the key components
was a new cruiser that would have greater endurance than previous
classes whilst also having heavy firepower.
The Sovetskii Soyuz was called a heavy cruiser, some even
called it a battlecruiser, but in truth the ship was an oversized
frigate. Designed from the keel up for mass production, the ship
was as heavy as the previous Avatar class but had less armour,
was slower and considerably less well armed. But it had one
huge advantage in its favour; it was cheap to build, and once in
service was exceptionally reliable. The dual Gosport-Ellison
Phantom-6000 main drive was a model of reliability and by all
accounts was a pleasure to work on. The massive cargo space of
over 220,000 tons gave the ship a huge cruising range, as well as
the capacity to ‘top up’ squadron mates whilst out on patrol.
The cruiser was also flexible; its four DropShip collars and
eighteen fighters meant it could be self-escorting (and most cruisers
on patrol carried at least one Titan class DropShip for a total of
36 fighters). Eight shuttles or boarding craft also allowed the ship
to perform customs inspections and deep space rescue missions
usually carried out by destroyers.
Roomy crew quarters were also greatly appreciated as were the
ships dual grav-decks; the cruisers were also popular with the men
and women who commanded them. Their well laid out interior was
designed to increase crew efficiency. A well-drilled crew could get
from their bunks to action stations rapidly; the fleet record was 2
minutes 47.9 seconds on the SLS Koning der Nederlanden, with her
sister ship the SLS Tre Konnor at 2 minutes 48 seconds.
Whilst under-gunned compared to the older Avatar and
Aegis class the Sovetskii Soyuz itself was not poorly armed, and
compared to other Frigates it was a well-armed ship. A mixture
of lasers, autocannons and particle cannons supported by missiles
provided a potent long ranged punch, and this would often be
joined by squadron mates to quickly overwhelm a target. One flaw
was the cruisers aft, which was completely lacking in weapons; this
presented a dangerous blind spot in combat. It was not uncommon
to see a destroyer following behind a ‘Soy’ to act as a tail guard.
Whilst initially built over Mars, the Sovetskii Soyuz went into
rapid production at a dozen factories across the Hegemony, with
each factory producing a part of the cruiser. These individual
parts would then be mated together in a naval yard. This modular
construction made the ships very easy to build, which resulted in a
36
production run of 10 per year, with over 400 completed before the
fall of the Star League. It also made the ships easy to repair as you
could remove an entire section if it was badly damaged and replace
it with a new one. Of course this took many months and required a
dockyard or Yardship to accomplish but it was possible.
In the Amaris Civil War the Sovetskii Soyuz class was one of
the most common heavy combat units and suffered accordingly
in combat with the SDS. In spite of this, the under gunned but
tough cruisers gave a good account of themselves and fought hard.
Casualties, however, were very high and roughly forty of the class
survived the war and left with the SLDF on Operation EXODUS.
In Clan service the most famous Sovetskii Soyuz is the CWS
Dire Wolf. It was on her bridge that ilKhan Leo Showers was killed
by a suicide run by Rasalhague pilot Tyra Miraborg. The Dire Wolf
was damaged but survived and continues to serve as the Wolves’
flagship.
In Clan service the Sovetskii Soyuz had little in the way of
changes. Her fighter complement was increased to 20, whilst a
lithium-fusion battery was added along with an extra DropShip
collar as well as the advanced hull sealant technology that is a
feature of all Clan vessels.
SOVETSKII SOYUZ CLASS HEAVY CRUISER
37
NOTABLE SHIP
A veteran of the Amaris Civil War, the CWS Dire Wolf, formerly the SLS Kharkov, was often used as the flagship for Clan Wolf from the Clans inception. She was the first Sovetskii
Soyuz to be refitted to the typical Clan standard, gaining a fifth DropShip collar, hull sealant technology to protect against hull breeches and the installation of a Lithium Fusion battery.
Despite her favoured status, the Dire Wolf saw little action until Operation REVIVAL, being one of only two Clan Wolf WarShips that joined the invasion forces in the attack on the Inner
Sphere. In this she acted as a large transport, carrying a modified Command Overlord DropShip as well as a group of assault DropShips as escorts. The Dire Wolf carried Precentor Marshal
Anastasius Focht to meet with ilKhan Leo Showers and was carrying the ilKhan at the Battle of Radstadt.
The Dire Wolf and her escorts were pursuing the fleeing vessels carrying Prince Haakon Magnusson in what should have been an easy victory, but the Clan war machine was stopped dead
in its tracks when a fighter flown by Tyra Miraborg rammed the Dire Wolf in a kamikaze attack. Whilst the attack did little damage to the ship, the ilKhan was in the section where the fighter
hit and he was killed when the hull was breached. This act stopped the Clans assault as they withdrew their leadership to the Homeworlds to vote for a new ilKhan.
Quickly repaired, the Dire Wolf did not take part in Refusal War but remained in Clan Wolf hands following the Crusader/Warden split; becoming the flagship of the Crusader Wolves. In
the brutal fighting during the Jihad, the Dire Wolf claimed several Blakist DropShips and was part of the fleet that liberated Terra, all be it in a badly damaged state.
With few repair facilities at hand, the Wolf Empire has kept the Dire Wolf in service, where her guns have destroyed yet more hostile craft as well as engaging vessels belonging to Clan
Wolf-in-Exile with great gusto. Because of her past, with the ship witnessing the fall of Terra and being there when it was liberated from oppressors twice, the Dire Wolf is held in high regard
by the Clan and her crew are rightly proud of her heritage and strength.
SOVETSKII SOYUZ CLASS HEAVY CRUISER
38
LIBERATOR CLASS HEAVY CRUISER
Length
855 meters
Displacement
830,000 tons
Crew complement
539 including 50 Elementals + room for 75
more troops/passengers
Armament
6 x Series 7SJ ‘Fang’ 45cm Naval
Lasers
4 x Theta 106DS ‘Whitworth’
Medium Naval Gauss Rifles
12 x Series 3SJ ‘Claw’ 35cm Naval
Lasers
4 x AK-320 Heavy Naval
Autocannons
10 x Series 10SJ ‘Sabertooth’ 55cm
Naval Lasers
24 x Series 7.5DS ER Large Lasers
8 x Alfa Series 3DS Heavy Naval
Particle Cannons
24 x Series 1.1DS ER Small Lasers
10 x Kappa-3SJ 105mm Ultra
autocannons
4 x Theta 109DS ‘Armstrong’ Heavy
8 x Type Mu Mod 3 LB-20X
Naval Gauss Rifles
Autocannons
Aerospace Complement
30 x Aerospace fighters/Small craft
in total, normally a 20 fighter/10
Small craft mix
6 x DropShip collars
Sensors
Omega-13 Long range broad-band
3D phased scanning array
Series Theta ‘Osis Roar’ Primary
multi-spectrum ECM/ECCM
Series Gamma-7 ‘Thunderchild’
laser assisted Fire Control System
with Home on Jam tracking
Kappa-32 ‘Pheaton’ Long range
communications array
In 2531 the Avatar class of heavy cruiser entered service as a
replacement for the dated Aegis class. On paper the Avatar was
a success; she was larger, faster, better armed and carried more
DropShips and fighters, which made her self-escorting and capable
of taking on most hostile WarShips. But the class was riddled with
electrical gremlins that were never fully resolved; these could cause
major and minor problems, and resulted in such infamous instances
as when the main cargo bay door on the port side of the SLS
Nebuchadnezzar opened, which vented the cargo hold to space and
killed nineteen crew in the process. Repeated system overhauls,
refits and checks never quite solved these electrical issues, and
as a consequence granted the class a bad reputation. Instead of
39
replacing the Aegis, the Avatar served alongside the older ship and
was eventually rotated into the war reserves in mothballs or used as
a training ship for new crews.
the MechWarrior’s and Elementals having their own training areas,
perhaps to keep the chance of a fight breaking out between the often
hot-blooded young warriors.
With the outbreak of the Amaris crisis those Avatars still in
SLDF hands were quickly reactivated and called back into service;
the Rim World forces also captured a substantial number of the
class and drafted them into service of the Amaris Empire. Avatars
on both sides would trade fire throughout the crisis. Although old,
the Avatar’s heavy firepower and protection saw it in good stead but
it suffered horrific losses when engaged by the CASPAR drones.
As usual the class also received a Lithium Fusion battery and
the Clans’ advanced hull sealant technology. These large, flexible
cruisers would act as flagships or lead assaults against heavily
fortified worlds, but when the Clans found that the WarShip fleet of
the Inner Sphere was nothing more than a memory the Liberators
were without a role; thus they were relegated to acting as glorified
transports, where their size and firepower were more than enough
an intimidation factor to ward off any potential Inner Sphere
attacker.
Initial records state that only six of the class survived the
Amaris Civil war, but it is possible that more were taken by General
Kerensky into exodus as their large DropShip capacity stood them
in good stead.
This was not the end of the Avatar class; put into mothballs
after Operation EXODUS, the surviving Avatars were pulled out of
storage in the build-up towards Operation REVIVAL and taken to
various yards to be overhauled and reactivated. Yet the Clans didn’t
just reactivate the ships; they also reworked them, and in doing
so finally solved the classes electrical and computer problems.
The hull plating was heavily re-worked and replaced with Ferrocarbide plating which greatly increased protection. The cruiser,
now designated the Liberator class (in anticipation of Operation
REVIVAL’s success), also received an armament change with the
addition of Mech-scale lasers and missiles as well as naval gauss
rifles on the broadside, but at the cost of the Avatar’s missile battery
and changes to other weapons.
The Clans chose to retain the Avatar’s DropShip complement
and enlarged the Aerospace complement to a full Trinary of
aerospace fighters (30 craft), although it was not uncommon for
some fighters to be replaced by shuttles.
Curiously, the Liberator class also has barracks for a Cluster’s
worth of conventional troops; this is perhaps a hangover from
the original design or from when the Clans used normal infantry
instead of just Elementals. As the Clans do not use traditional
infantry forces, this space is often just filled with more cargo.
The Liberator also features a single 145-meter diameter gravdeck which greatly simplifies the internal layout of the cruiser and
makes life more comfortable for the ship’s crew and any embarked
MechWarrior’s or Elementals. The crew quarters are divided with
The NCS Korat gave the Inner Sphere a taste of what the
Liberator class was capable of when she engaged naval elements
of Task Force Serpent. In battle the cruiser heavily damaged the
Cameron class battlecruiser Invisible Truth and came close to
defeating the flagship of ComStar, however the Cameron was saved
by the Fire Fang and the Korat was destroyed, but not before nearly
crippling the Invisible Truth and badly mauling the Fire Fang. Her
escorting fighters and DropShips also caused havoc; they badly
damaged the Ranger and Antrim before landing on Huntress. This
short, sharp battle showed how potent the Liberator class was in
combat, thus proving the value of their refits that finally laid the
ghosts of the Avatar to peaceful rest.
LIBERATOR CLASS HEAVY CRUISER
40
NOTABLE SHIP
The CJF Gauntlet was one of the Avatar class cruisers reactivated and converted into the Liberator class before being won in a Trial by Clan Jade Falcon once the conversion was
complete. Slated to be one of ships involved in Operation REVIVAL, the Gauntlet was reduced to being a transport for troops and materials being shipped to and from the Homeworlds
after the Clans pulled their WarShips out of the Inner Sphere. When the Wars of Reaving consumed the Homeworld, it was Clan Jade Falcon that was one of the first targets by other Clans
seeking to prove themselves as ‘pure’ and free of any of the Spheroid taint that had ‘infected’ the Falcons.
The Falcons holdings were subject to all out assaults from Clan Steel Viper and the Gauntlet was one of the Falcon WarShips tasked with defending the Clan’s capitol of Ironhold.
Alongside the Black Lions Blue Aerie and White Aerie, and the Carrack Ironhold Provider, the Gauntlet engaged the Adder attackers for several hours. But faced with over 100 Adder
aerospace fighters, dozens of assault DropShips and the Nightlord Dark Asp, as well as the Cameron Zalman’s Endeavour, an Aegis, a Lola III and a Whirlwind, the Falcon forces took
horrific casualties, with most of their fighters and DropShips lost. Forced back from Ironhold they could do nothing as the Adders began landing en-mass whilst supported by orbital fire
from the Dark Asp.
Battered and weary the Falcon WarShips withdrew to the Raven world of Lum and the Falcons last holding there in the Homeworlds. But the Star Adder forces were relentless and pursued
the retreating Falcons. In a three-hour long battle over Lum, the Gauntlet traded fire with the Dark Asp and caused the Aegis Steel Python to withdraw, but they were fearsomely outnumbered.
With ammunition running low and no chance to repair, the crippled Falcon WarShips were lost one by one. The Gauntlet herself fell to the guns of the Dark Asp and of the Falcon forces, only
the crippled White Aerie managed to flee the system.
LIBERATOR CLASS HEAVY CRUISER
41
CAMERON CLASS BATTLECRUISER
Length
839 meters
Displacement
860,000 tons
Crew complement
329 in SLDF service, 337 in Clan service
Armament
16 x Pontiac Series Mk-42 Series
Medium Naval Autocannons
8 x Rand Mk209 ‘Super’ Heavy
Naval Particle Cannons
8 x Vospers-Armstrong ‘Maelstrom’
AR-10 Multi-type Missile launch
VLS mounts
10 x Tronel Zeta-99 Type 55cm
Naval Lasers
Aerospace Complement
16/20 x Aerospace fighters
2 x DropShip Collars
2 x Small Craft
Sensors
JDM-6000 Primary and secondary
phased 3D array
DSE-108 Broad and narrow band
active ECM/ECCM
ViaComm-1011 Long range
communications with laser and
satellite uplink
JDM-6008 Mod 2 ‘Thunders Call’
laser assisted fire control and
tracking
Perhaps one of the Star Leagues more famous and costly
boondoggles, the Cameron, is a prime example of what happens
when you have too many chefs and not enough cooks. As the
Monsoon class was being retired, scrapped or mothballed, the
SLDF wanted a new ship to fill the gap left by the loss of the
battleship. The initial design called for an 810,000-ton WarShip
that would fill the gap between cruiser and battleship, yet also be
fast enough to outrun battleships whilst having sufficient firepower
to defeat any cruiser. The design was also to be reliable and easy
to maintain. Whilst many firms put in tenders for the design, it was
a big surprise when the contract was won by newcomers DassaultShimmon Enterprises. Boeing Interstellar, who had been widely
pipped to win the contract, cried foul publically and privately but
this changed nothing and construction was funded and authorized.
Then began eleven years of bureaucratic meddling, with the
design being revised again and again as various arms firms offered
weapons and mounts whilst the ships role changed from cruiserhunter to cruiser-flotilla-flagship then back again. Barracks were to
be carried for troops, but these were then deleted to increase cargo
capacity; the main armament changed four times and the computer
systems were continually updated and changed.
Costs swelled as did the design, which grew into an 860,000-ton
vessel before the Admiralty realized they had a pig on their hands.
So much money had been sunk into the design, however, that to
cancel it now would cost even more; fearing a public backlash and
budget cuts they had little choice but to press on with the design.
Thus the Admiralty ordered 40 of the class to be constructed.
What emerged from the yards over New Earth was far below the
SLDF’s expectations; the added 50,000 tons of mass had not been
compensated for with uprated engines and the ‘fast’ battlecruiser
was as slow and plodding as the Aegis class cruisers. To quote one
Admiral, the Cameron ‘couldn’t catch a cold’.
42
taken money from the construction of the ship for personal gain.
Dassault-Shimmon’s assets were seized by House Cameron whilst
those caught up in the scandal were discharged in disgrace and then
imprisoned.
The other Camerons were then brought in to be overhauled, at
considerable cost, to fix their electrical flaws before being quietly
consigned to Transport Command as little more than glorified
transports.
It was this that saved the Cameron class when the Amaris crisis
erupted. The thirty-nine ships were spread across the Hegemony
and Star League; recalling them took time. This kept them from
facing the SDS until the final battles closing in on Terra; many
of the class survived to leave with General Kerensky. In combat
against Rim World forces and the SDS the Cameron performed
surprisingly well for so poorly-regarded a ship; despite their low
status the Cameron proved itself a potent WarShip when needed.
But whilst it was slow, the Cameron class battlecruiser was
well armed and heavily protected; whilst it could not run down any
cruiser save the Aegis or Dart its firepower could crush a hostile
ship in short order and even gave it a punch to engage an unwary
battleship.
Although the Cameron all but vanished from the Inner Sphere
with Operation EXODUS, two were given over to Comstar and
renamed Invisible Truth and StarSword. Whilst the StarSword was
hulked to keep her sister in service the Invisible Truth became the
Order’s flagship and helped lead the attack on Clan Smoke Jaguar.
When entering service, the Cameron class seemed to perform
well and the class was publically touted as a success despite
grumblings from those not in the halls of power. As it was
equipped with 16 fighters, two DropShips and a heavy armament
the ship was potent, if ponderous. The balloon was burst when
the SLS Saint Joan suffered a series of catastrophic electrical
and reactor failures whilst escorting a convoy in the Periphery;
recovered data showed that when the ship powered its weapons, the
power grid shorted out and both reactors carried out an emergency
shut down. The ship’s batteries then activated but these could not
power the life support and weapons at the same time, which led to
the Saint Joan and her convoy being destroyed or captured by the
pirates.
The large number of Camerons in Clan service have changed
little as with many ex-SLDF vessels. As usual they have had their
fighter complement enlarged to suit the Clans base 10 for fighter
groups, which has increased their complement to 20 aerospace
fighters in total. A lithium fusion battery was installed whilst the
armour was augmented by the Clan’s hull sealant technology. In
Clan service the Camerons serve as command ships for Clusters,
although it is still as slow as it was in Star League service (it does
seem that the Clan’s technology does have some limits to what it
can do).
During the very public investigation into the disaster it came to
light that executives at Dassault-Shimmon knew of the flaws with
the ships power grid, but didn’t bring it up out of fear of losing
the contract. This revelation led to investigations into the overlong construction of the Cameron; it was discovered that several
Admirals and other high-ranking personnel had been bribed or
CAMERON CLASS BATTLECRUISER
43
NOTABLE SHIP
The SLS Troutbridge was a source of frustration for the 22nd Naval Flotilla when she was attached to it following the Saint Joan debacle. For some reason, the Troutbridge had amongst
the largest percentage of trainee personnel onboard, as well as those who had been under disciplinary action, in the entire SLDF. The result was a ship that seemed to barely keep station on
exercises, was always the last to acknowledge orders and slower still to carry them out, as well as being the center of a suspected gang of light fingered personnel who sold items on the black
and grey market.
The Troutbridge’s commander, Captain Povey, was seen as a professional who was let down by his crew, especially his ‘Number One’, a Lieutenant Price who owed his continued position
to the patronage of his father.
At the outbreak of the Amaris Crisis, the 22nd was recalled to join the main body of the SLDF as it moved from the ruins of the Rim Worlds Republic. The Troutbridge and her two
attached DropShips departed a day late owing to a leaking hydrogen seal and were integrated into the fleet once they rejoined them. Here the ships dismal record continued with her nearly
ramming the SLS Leander when the Helmsman, a Sub-Lieutenan Phillips, gave the horribly vague helm command of ‘left hand down a bit’. Collision was missed by a dozen meters but the
crew were saved from a reprimand due to the ship being scheduled to take part in the Liberation of Altair.
The SLS Troutbrige was one of the first ships to jump in to the system, but she was several million kilometres out of position at the jump point. Unable to catch up with the main body of
the Flotilla, the ship was ordered to cover the rear of the invasion force and its vulnerable JumpShips as the fleet moved in to the system.
It was whilst carrying out this rearguard action that the Troutbridge’s sensors detected a squadron of eight Rim World Pinto class corvettes that had managed to evade the main body and
were closing in on the exposed JumpShips. With support hours away, the Troutbridge turned to engage whilst launching fighters and her escorting DropShips.
Surprisingly, the expected disaster did not happen. For once in her career the SLS Troutbridge and her crew performed superbly, destroying four of the Pinto’s and disabling another two
along with many of their fighters in a two hour running battle before fighters and DropShips from the fleet arrived. Unfortunately, the Troutbridge had taken severe damage and had to be
abandoned. Captain Povey had been injured in the attack and never commanded a WarShip again, instead choosing to remain on Terra after the liberation to try and help in the rebuilding
efforts, refusing to leave when Operation EXODUS was launched and instead retired to the city of Portsmouth in England.
CAMERON CLASS BATTLECRUISER
44
NIGHTLORD CLASS BATTLESHIP
Length
1,100 meters
Displacement
1,200,000 tons
Crew complement
1573 including 500 Elementals,
100 Mechwarriors and support staff
Armament
7 x AK-254 Medium Naval
Autocannons
4 x AK-425 Super Heavy Naval
Autocannons
6 x Series 10SR ‘Shrike’ 55cm Naval 6 x Series 3.2SR ‘Kestrel’ 35cm
Lasers
Naval Lasers
4 x Beta Series 7SR Medium Naval
Particle Cannons
6 x Series 7SR ‘Skua’ 45cm Naval
Lasers
8 x Theta 106DS ‘Whitworth’
Medium Naval Gauss Rifles
14 x Series 7.5DS ER Large lasers
6 x AK-185 Light Naval
Autocannons
8 x ER PPC
Aerospace Complement
20 x Aerospace fighters/Small craft
100 Mech’s in drop cocoons
4 x DropShips Collars
Sensors
Pattern 09 Epsilon ‘Odin’s Eye’
Multi-channel 3D phased LIDAR
array
Type 4 Mod 2 ‘Blucher’ Multi-mode
ranging and fire control system
Series 32 Delta Channel hopping
Type 801 Multi-channel broad and
long and short range communication
narrowband active and passive ECM/ with HPG uplink
ECCM
Although information about the genesis of the Nightlord class
is limited it is believed that Clan Snow Raven commissioned the
design prior to the ‘Dragoon Compromise,’ when the invasion of
the Inner Sphere started looming large in the minds of the Clans of
Kerensky. Due to a perceived need for a new Battleship that could
also carry a large number of ground forces safely into orbit when
facing hostile opposition, the first Nightlord emerged from the huge
yards of Lum in the early 2930’s.
When the Wolf’s Dragoons reported back on the sorry state of
the Inner Sphere and its non-existent naval strength, however, the
need for the Nightlord was greatly lessened and production rates
were slowed. Although the design was disseminated amongst the
Clans by Trial or trade it was still expensive to produce so large a
vessel and only a few Clans adopted the class.
As the ship was designed to show the strength of Clan Snow
Raven, the Nightlord featured all the advances made by the
Clans and applied them to WarShip construction. As it possessed
powerful and advanced fire control systems, as well as a heavily
reinforced hull with the latest armour compounds, the Nightlord
had superior protection to the vaunted McKenna class and rivals
that of the notoriously tough Texas class. Most curiously, the
Ravens seem to have been influenced by the ancient House Davion
Robinson class destroyer transport. In addition to four DropShips,
the Nightlord had a huge ventral bay system for launching
Battlemech’s from low orbit, with the capacity for 100 Battlemech’s
to be carried in drop cocoons. There was also a grand total of 500
sets of Elemental battle armour carried on-board, which made the
Nightlord a self-contained invasion platform. The Nightlord was
also as fast as other SLDF-era battleships and her trio of Mk-2
Thunderchild thrusters could deliver a total of 2.5g of thrust.
It seems that Clan Snow Raven thought the battles against the
Inner Sphere would be akin to the Pentagon Campaign or Amaris
Civil war, where WarShips would have to force their way into
orbit against sustained opposition in space, and the huge carrying
capacity of the Nightlords could then be used to deploy troops and
thus rapidly overwhelm a defender. Whilst such tactics were not
needed in Operation REVIVAL and the Nightlord was kept from
the front lines it does represent a potent-if-unused way of attacking
a world.
The Nightlord’s armament, whilst based on weapons built
during the Star League, are all Clan produced and are extremely
reliable and potent. The Naval Gauss rifles, unlike those used on
SLDF ships, do not use a small reactor to charge the capacitors;
instead the rifles draw directly from the reactor. This saves space
and weight whilst allowing for a quicker charge. The Naval
autocannons use a rotary ‘carousel’ loading arrangement. With
older weapons the shell is brought up and rammed into the breech
before the propellant charge is then brought up and loaded before
the breech is closed (this is still a fast firing cycle with even the
gargantuan super-heavy naval autocannons being able to load and
fire within six seconds); the Clan’s rotary system, however, loads
the shell and the propellant charge in one movement, thus cutting
loading time down and reducing wear and tear on the machines
involved in loading the multi-ton shells into the breech.
45
The Nightlord features a battery of ER PPC’s and ER Large
lasers for anti-fighter defense, but her organic aerospace assets
(two Stars, totalling 20 fighters) are her primary means of defence
against hostile aerospace fighters. It is also common to see a Titan
class carrier amongst the ship’s DropShip complement, which gives
the Nightlord a total of 50 fighters. The Nightlord’s armament is
a somewhat hodgepodge mixture of lasers, particle cannons and
gauss rifles, with no firepower overly concentrated in one direction.
This lends credence to the theory that the Nightlord was meant to
fight its way into orbit and engage multiple foes at the same time
whilst deploying and defending her Mechs.
Encounters with a Nightlord have, to date, been few and far
between. One, the CJF Emerald Talon, was seen in Operation
REVIVAL where her on-board Mechs helped capture the world
of Zoetermeer. Three more were seen during the Great Refusal;
two Raven vessels and one belonging to Clan Goliath Scorpion
remained in orbit over Strana Mechty, during which time they
observed the Star League and House forces.
NIGHTLORD CLASS BATTLESHIP
46
NOTABLE SHIP
The CSA Absolute Truth has one of the most remarkable and maybe the bloodiest battle records for a ship of the Nightlord class. The fifth of her type built, the Adders acquired her in a
trade deal, offering a years-worth output of raw material from their vast Germanium mines in the Paxon system. The Adders assigned the ship to Alpha Galaxy. With its large Mech deploying
capacity it was the perfect choice for making Alpha Galaxy the Adders primary rapid strike force.
The first true test of the ship’s potential was the Burrock Absorption. The Absolute Truth jumped to a pirate point near the Burrocks’ capitol world of Albion, destroying the planetary
SDS command centre in a devastating and accurate broadside. The ship then deployed its Mechs to engage defenders on the ground and both Alpha Galaxy’s 5th Assault cluster and the 11th
Armoured Cavalry Squadron quickly established a beachhead. After this, the ship continued to attack SDS installations; quickly silencing them. When Clan Blood Spirit attacked, the Absolute
Truth could not stop the invading Spirit DropShips, but when the Spirits were forced to retreat after being pummelled on Albion, the Nightlord took a heavy toll on the fleeing DropShips.
However, she suffered immense damage in a ramming attack by a Spirit Carrier class DropShip.
In the Wars of Reaving the Absolute Truth fought in many major engagements, destroying at least two WarShips and numerous DropShips. Its primary role as a self-contained invasion
force was immensely useful in the assault on the Tanite worlds in 3074, as well as the bitter naval battle in the New Kent system during the Viper Annihilation.
The ships most notorious actions were the planetary bombardment of York in 3072 and the final killing stroke of the last Blood Spirit possession on Haven, killing millions of people and
levelling entire cities.
NIGHTLORD CLASS BATTLESHIP
47
POTEMKIN CLASS HEAVY ASSAULT SHIP
Length
1,508 meters
Displacement
1,510,000 tons
Crew complement
445 in both SLDF and Clan service with
bunks for thousands
Armament
24 x Fusigon 2a Series ‘Quasar’
Heavy Naval Particle Cannons
8 x Mark 901 VLS launchers for
Barracuda missiles
16 x Maxell Series 7 ‘Starburst’
45cm Naval Lasers
Aerospace Complement
10 x Small craft/Shuttles
25 x DropShip collars
Sensors
KTI-600I Mod 4 3D phased LIDAR Pheaton 301 ‘Water Seeker’ Series
array
Primary fire control
KTI-80 ‘Wolf Howl’ Mod 3 Active
and passive ECM/ECCM with
automated channel hopping
TelStar HN 008 Long and short
range communications with HPG
uplink
The Potemkin is one of the largest and certainly most
expensive classes of WarShip built. The craft’s genesis lies back
in the Reunification War; during the brutal fighting in the Taurian
Concordat the SLDF and House fleets lost JumpShips and their
carried troops to fighter and WarShip attack as well as ‘dirty tricks’
like minefields or CAPTOR missiles. Whilst WarShips carried
DropShips, these were most often assault and carrier vessels to
enhance their fighting power. Using WarShips as troop carriers
was seen as inefficient, and this put the strain of carrying troops
and Mechs on the vulnerable JumpShips. When faced with such
heavy losses it became obvious that a ship able to defend itself
and carry large numbers of DropShips for planetary assaults was
needed. The initial prototype of this was the Fearless class, based
on the Monsoon battleship, which was a largely successful design
yet plagued with electronic issues that were never resolved. The
Fearless did, however, prove that the concept was sound and a
‘proper’ design should be constructed instead of a rush job like the
Fearless.
What started off as a ‘transport cruiser’ of 750,000 tons grew
into a 1.5-million-ton leviathan over 1,500 meters long that was
capable of carrying a full division on its 25 docking collars. This
was due to the design being constantly altered and changed, not
by bureaucrats but by the Star League Admiralty who wanted the
best possible ship for their money. After nearly a dozen redesigns
and 8 years of inter-service wrangling the first new Potemkin class
assault transport was laid down to launch in 2611. The statistics
of the Potemkin boggled the mind when they entered service; they
were longer than the Farragut class battleship and heavier than the
planned Texas class ships and were also equipped with protection
and firepower that would be considered battleship-level. A single
massive 95 meter grav-deck filled the interior and made life more
comfortable for the Potemkin’s crew as well as the crews of her
docked DropShips (who could also be barracked in the ship’s
massive cargo decks). All of the ships were fitted with quick-install
bedding to turn whole areas into sleeping quarters for any troops on
board.
The main firepower came from a battery of heavy naval PPCs
(the ship was able to bring 12 to bear on a broadside) whilst lasers
and missiles could be turned on targets as the range dropped. These
weapons were fitted with advanced fire control systems that would
allow for pin-point firing during orbital bombardment, which
allowed the Potemkin to support its troops on the ground. The
massive ships, however, had to be built at a series of specialized
shipyards and most yards were not built to take a ship of the
Potemkin’s bulk; non-compliant shipyards needed to be altered so
Potemkins could be docked for repairs. This, combined with the
huge cost of the massive transports, did slow production but 106 of
the class were constructed in spite of these challenges.
Whilst expensive to operate, the Potemkin class proved itself
in exercises and deployments; there was simply no way to counter
their massive transport capacity. During Operation Golden Dragon
(a large scale training exercise on the Kurita borders during
heightened tensions with House Kurita) three Potemkin class ships
(the Manassas, Aboukir and Oscarsborg) deployed three divisions
against ‘hostile’ forces in the space of two hours once they had
achieved orbit; the combined forces captured their objectives and
overwhelmed the Red Force defenders (who were using DCMS
tactics). It was unsubtle but the message was received; the
Combine pulled its forces back from the border.
The real test came during the Amaris Civil War where they,
along with the Volga class and the few surviving Fearless class
48
ships, bore the burden of carrying the SLDF’s troops during the
liberation of the Hegemony from the grip of the Usurper. Because
of their immense strategic value, the Potemkins became priority
targets for the SDS and its associated Casper drones and thus had to
be heavily escorted. During the attack on the Sol system a pair of
Potemkins accompanied Task Force Leonidas, with the forlorn hope
that they could destroy the M5 drones defending Terra. Both ships,
the Bull Run and the Borodino, were loaded with 25 Pentagon
assault DropShips; these vessels and the Potemkin’s guns helped
with the destruction of 106 drones before Task Force Leonidas
was eventually overwhelmed. The Bull Run was destroyed by a
ramming attack whilst the Borodino was ripped open by gunfire
from four drones in the final hour of the engagement.
Despite heavy casualties during the Amaris Civil War, over 30
Potemkins survived to join General Kerensky in his self-imposed
exodus. During the long months of the Exodus the Potemkins
became mobile cities and the first children of the Exodus were born
on these craft. One was later involved in the Prinz Eugen Revolt;
the SLS Hermes was one of the craft that wanted to return to the
Inner Sphere. and her Captain and Officers were amongst those
executed when the revolt was put down.
In Clan service the class serves more as a simple transport,
due to the Clans being averse to the huge multi-unit deployments
the Potemkin is designed for. They also were used as an ersatzbattleship; in this role the Potemkin serves well as a potent gun
platform although it is a waste of their huge transport capacity.
Clan Diamond Shark reportedly have the most ships of this class
in their Tourman and three of these ships in Shark colours were
amongst those escorting the troops of the Second Star League to
Strana Mechty for the Great Refusal. Like other Star-League-era
ships in Clan service, the Potemkin is fitted with a Lithium-Fusion
battery and the advanced hull sealant technology developed by the
Clans.
POTEMKIN CLASS HEAVY ASSAULT SHIP
49
NOTABLE SHIP
The first of two Potemkin class WarShips to bear the name of Titanic was in service to Clan Diamond Shark, and attached to the Sharks’ Spectral Diamond Naval Star.
The ship was kept busy transporting goods from the Clan Homeworlds to the Inner Sphere and vice versa. With tensions in the Homeworlds rising, the Sharks used the Titanic to transport
more and more war materials produced in their Inner Sphere factories to the sparring factions.
In 3073, the Titanic and the Fredasa-class corvette, CDS Swift Strike, were used to transport several DropShips full of supplies and materials for Clan Blood Spirit from the Diamond Shark
holding of Nyserta in the Inner Sphere to the Blood Spirit enclaves on York.
Galaxy Commander Stephan Faulk was the proponent of this trade deal. He had been warned by the Khans and high-ranking members of the Merchant caste that fighting in the
Homeworlds had been escalating to such an extent, that this enterprise was considered as being too risky (some said it would be crazy). Faulk ignored the warnings; honour demanded that the
Sharks had to fulfil their part of the deal.
When the Swift Strike and the Titanic arrived at York in August 3073, they found the system under a blockade imposed by Clan Star Adder. The Adders were bombarding the world, slowly
levelling the Spirit holdings and units on York whilst hoping to catch and destroy any other Spirit forces that might still be in system.
Moving into the system, the Sharks contacted the Adders to ask for Safcon. Galaxy Commander Faulk spoke with the Adders, citing the arrangements which had been bargained out
between Diamond Sharks and Blood Spirits. The Adders commanding officer, Star Admiral Fortunato Gena, laughed at this and refused to allow the two Shark vessel to pass. He threatened to
meet them with deadly force if any attempt was made to break the Adder blockade.
Stephan Faulk did not believe that the Adders would follow through on their threat and gave the order to head in system. The Star Adders responded immediately as the Nightlord class
battleship, CSA Absolute Truth, and the Sovetskii Soyuz, CSA Nygaard, moved to engage the Swift Strike and the Titanic. The heavier Star Adder vessels first manoeuvred to block the path of
the Shark vessels to the planet, with both ships flanking the Titanic as she headed towards York. They once again called for the ship to deviate from its course but when the Titanic refused to,
they both fired full broadsides into her. The attack was so devastating that after a mere two broadsides the Titanic was destroyed, launching her DropShips as she was torn apart.
POTEMKIN CLASS HEAVY ASSAULT SHIP
50
TEXAS CLASS BATTLESHIP
Length
1,209 meters
Displacement
1,560,000 tons
Crew complement
862 in both SLDF and Clan service
Armament
48 x Omicron 92 Series 45cm Naval 8 x Armstrong-Hawker AR-10 Mod
Lasers
1 flexible missile launch systems
16 x Sunspot-3L Heavy Naval
Particle Cannons
4 x SSM-1200 Killer Whale Missile
launch systems
2 x Winchester-Boeing Mk 50
485mm Super Heavy Naval
Autocannons
Aerospace Complement
40 x Aerospace fighters
6 x DropShip collars
16 x Small craft/Shuttles
Sensors
MORSAT 901-Theta Multi-channel
long and short range active and
passive 3D phased array
MORSAT 2000-Iota laser assisted
tracking and fire control
Pathfinder 43-CD Multi-channel long
IDC Type 76 ‘Clarinet Screech’ Hi
and short range communications
and low frequency ECM/ECCM with with HPG Interface
active channel hopping
In 2611 the Monsoon class was close to being retired and
the potent-but-maintenance- intensive Farragut class still proved
problematic even after a hundred and sixty years of service; it was
obvious that a new battleship was needed. The new design would
take the changing doctrine and tactics of the SLDF to heart, and also
feature the latest fire control systems to accurately engage targets
at a ranges the Monsoon or Farragut could only dream of. The
contract was won by Krester Ship Works and construction started in
2616; the SLDF asked for a heavily armed, fast and well protected
vessel equal to or surpassing any preceding class of Battleship.
The new design that emerged delivered on all counts; although
critics did complain that the new WarShip was less well armed than
the preceding Farragut class, they did not take into account the
changing doctrine and tactics of the SLDF, nor did they know about
the advanced and top secret fire control computers that allowed the
ship to accurately engage targets at extreme ranges.
The ship’s Rolls Royce Kraken engines, powered by a trio of
General Electric fusion reactors, could generate a maximum of
2.5g of thrust; this was faster than the Monsoon and matched the
standard fleet speed of most other vessels in service like the Avatar
class cruiser. The most distinguishing factor of the new ship was
its heavy armour, which took full advantage of the newly developed
Lamellor Ferro-carbide hull plating. The designers at Krester
sheathed the new battleship in 1782 tons of the new plate, and thus
provided the equivalent of 4500 tons of standard hull plating. This
made the battleship the most well protected WarShip ever produced;
even the larger McKenna could not compare.
The new battleship’s armament was built around a large array
of NL-45s in huge 12-gun batteries. Four sets of heavy naval PPC’s
on each bow quarter provided additional firepower out to long
range whilst a single ultra-heavy naval autocannon could also be
brought to bear. The heavy autocannon was quickly nicknamed the
‘carronade’ or ‘smasher’ in honour of ancient age-of-sail cannons
which delivered heavy damage at short range. A hit from this
autocannon could smash almost any DropShip in service; it served
as a brutal deterrent against close assaults. Twelve missile launchers
also provided additional firepower and acted as the main anti-fighter
armament. Each Texas class ship also had a locker for ‘special
weapons’; polite political language for nuclear warheads which
could be mated to the missiles if authorized.
With docking ports for six DropShips and an integral aerospace
complement of 40 fighters, the Texas was also self-escorting and its
fighters could provide a fearsome strike against a hostile WarShip.
Curiously, the designers at Krester kept the bow and stern clear
of weapons (the rationale being that the ship was built to fight at
extreme ranges using her broadside, so bow and stern weapons
would be of little use in such an engagement). This design decision
also helped give the Texas a simply massive amount of cargo space;
over 300,000 tons of cargo could be carried which allowed the ship
and her crew to remain on station and patrol for many months whilst
also operating as a mobile depot for squadron mates. This sparked
the biggest criticism of the class; other ship builders complained
that too much cargo was used and that the ship’s ready to use
ammunition was too limited, especially for the missile launchers.
One naval review even said that “Krester has designed a beautiful
ship, but it is a shame they forgot to put guns on it.”
Despite the misgivings of Armchair Admirals, the first of the
52 Texas class ships to enter service performed very well on their
51
trials and first cruises. In gunnery trials the SLS Texas competed
against the Farragut class battleship SLS Jellico; The Jellico had a
reputation as one of the finest gunnery ships in the fleet whilst the
Texas had a fresh crew on board who were still getting accustomed
to their new vessel. Their target, a decommissioned Monsoon class
vessel (the SLS Sissoi Veliky), was to be engaged at long range by
both ships, and both ships were to take turns to engage. Whilst
the Farragut class had heavier firepower, her guns and fire control
system had problems engaging at long range against the slowly
moving Sissoi Veliky. With her large banks of lasers, more advanced
predictive fire controls as well as rapid cycling chain firing guns
the Texas scored far more hits than the three scored by the Jellico.
When the Sissoi Veliky went down it was due to the guns of the
Texas and not the vastly more experienced crew of the Jellico.
This, alongside other gunnery tests and trials, proved the value
of the Texas class as a whole; they quickly became sought after
commands and were popular ships to serve upon. The biggest
improvement over the Farragut class was their reliability; whereas
the older Battleship was a dockyard queen and maintenance
intensive, the Texas was far more reliable whilst also having larger
crew quarters (with most crew sharing 3 man bunks). The hull of
the Texas was heavily reinforced and crisscrossed by hull bracing as
well as multiple redundant blast doors and quick-closing bulkheads;
this design would let damage control teams seal off breached areas
of a hull or, if needed, open them to space to fight a fire. Crews
became proud of their tough, if rather ugly ships and the Texas class
led an active life in service of the SLDF.
Unfortunately, tightening budgets curtailed the building program
of the class when it was seen as a smarter political move to spend
money on larger scale civic and infrastructure programs within the
Hegemony; this limited the Texas’ production run to 52 vessels.
During the Amaris crisis the Texas was at the forefront of the
effort to liberate the Hegemony; the class suffered brutal losses as
they were singled out for being command ships and major weapons
platforms with known nuclear lockers. The M5 Drones targeted the
class without fail and when Terra was free, only 7 survived to leave
with General Kerensky.
In Clan service these WarShips are the flagship of the Clan and
act as a command ship for a Galaxy; only one was seen in the Inner
Sphere during Operation REVIVAL, but like every other WarShip it
was withdrawn following the bombardment of Edo on Turtle Bay.
TEXAS CLASS BATTLESHIP
52
NOTABLE SHIP
Formerly the SLS Indiana, the CWS Nicholas Kerensky was one of the largest vessels in Clan Wolf and often served as flagship for their Tourman. In the Amaris Civil War, the Indiana
earned distinction for her gunnery and the bravery of her crew. Over Terra the Indiana exchanged fire with the SDS installations in the Cascades and on Cuba, and is credited with silencing
the Cuba battery. Repaired after the Liberation, the Indiana joined General Kerensky’s forces in Operation EXODUS, her cargo bays full of Royal Division units as well as carrying many
soldiers’ families on her attached DropShips.
During Operation REVIVAL the WarShip, like many others, was used as an escort for forces going to and from the Inner Sphere, but was withdrawn from combat roles after the destruction
of Edo.
Now used as a glorified transport, the Battleship would form part of the Wolves supply chain, carrying cargo DropShips and with her hold full of Mechs, tanks and other war materials
going back and forth between the Homeworlds and the growing Wolf Occupation Zone.
During the Refusal War, the big Wolf battleship sparred with Falcon naval forces but there was no serious clash of naval strength between the two Clans, despite the ferocity of the conflict
between the two rivals. With the Crusader/Warden split dividing Clan Wolf, the Nicholas Kerensky became part of the Crusader Wolves Tourman, and was used to defend their holdings whilst
Khan Ward rebuilt his battered Tourman.
The Nicholas Kerensky was on active service during the Jihad and was part of the Clan Wolf forces that attacked the Blake Protectorate. Like many of her sister ships lost in the Amaris
Civil War, the Nicholas Kerensky was destroyed by massed aerospace fighters, as well as a nuclear strike that caused terrible damage to the Texas class ship despite her thick armour. Badly
damaged and with her sensors scrambled by the EMP, the Nicholas Kerensky was swarmed by Blakist fighters and assault DropShips. Fighting to the last, the Nicholas Kerensky even claimed
a DropShip as a kill as she broke up, her death blast crippling a Blakist Mule Q-Ship, starting fires that would detonate the Blakist ships ammunition stores.
TEXAS CLASS BATTLESHIP
53
TEXAS CLASS BATTLESHIP - INITIAL DRAFT
54
MCKENNA CLASS BATTLESHIP
Length
1,405 meters
Displacement
1,930,000 tons
Crew complement
759 on standard McKennas, 925 on the
Command variant
Armament
48 x Kreuss XX Type 9 Heavy Naval 12 x Thunderbolt Series 9 55cm
Particle Cannons
Naval Lasers
12 x Zeus-Krupps Mark 200 ‘Bertha’ 6 x Armstrong-Hawker AR-10 Mod
Super Heavy Naval Autocannons
18 flexible missile launch systems
Aerospace Complement
50 x Aerospace fighters
6 x DropShip collars
16/24 x Small Craft, 24 were fitted
on the Command McKenna variant
Sensors
NCC-2100 3D Phased search
LIDAR with ‘Ghost’ Infra and
submillimeter thermal receiver
Krupps-Ellingon ‘Omega’ Type
0 Multi-tracking fire control with
predictive targeting software
NCC-103-Beta ‘Zeus’ Active and
passive ECM/ECCM
Type 901 ‘Churchill’ Pattern 3 Long
range communications and HPG
relay
The McKenna class of Battleship perhaps exemplifies
the sheer industrial strength and military might of the Terran
Hegemony and the SLDF. The phrase ‘a post-scarcity society’
was often used in the early 21st Century to describe a point where
a society had moved to such a point that resources were no longer
a concern, where people would not worry about food, shelter,
power or heat. With the McKenna class the Hegemony showed
that it truly was a post-scarcity society.
Resources and money were flowing into the Hegemony like
never before in the mid 2600’s; as such, the Star League Defence
force lobbied for a new WarShip to be built that would serve
as crown jewel of the SLDF and ensure its supremacy into the
future. This meant a new battleship and with public and political
good will to call upon, as well as seemingly limitless resources,
tenders were put out for a new Battleship to be constructed in the
Hegemony in 2645. After intense public lobbying and several
redesigns, the contract for the new ship was won by Blue Nose
Clipperships in 2648; with the resources of Sol and the Hegemony
at their beck and call the famous Martian shipbuilding firm laid
down a behemoth.
The new WarShip was bigger than any preceding class in
terms of sheer mass, and measured 1,930,000 tons and 1,405
meters in length. It was built using the most advanced materials
known to the Hegemony at the time. The hugely reinforced
hull was based on the systems used in the Texas and Farragut
classes, and the extensive use of endo-composites made the hull
stronger yet lighter which allowed for the ship to be covered in
1,603.5 tons of Ferro-carbide armour. Whilst not as thick as the
famously rugged Texas, this protection was greater than any other
Battleship in service since the last Farragut went into mothballs.
Habitability was also focused on, and the interior of the class
was noted for possessing a well laid out deck plan including
transit routes. The three grav-decks made life comfortable for the
WarShip’s crew complement and she was fitted with extensive
facilities for off duty personnel, including a zero-g swimming
pool and even a garden section for crew to escape the grey and
metal of the WarShips interior. But BNCS did not design her as a
pleasure cruiser; the new class was a WarShip after all.
Designed with the engagement ranges of the Texas in mind,
the McKenna class battleship was built to engage targets at the
longest of ranges and destroy them before they became a threat.
To this end the ship’s flanks were layered with turrets for heavy
naval PPCs; each turret bore a quartet of canons. In a broadside
engagement the McKenna could bring twenty-four Heavy Naval
PPC’s to bare on a target, and thanks to the latest fire control
systems these were accurate out to the weapon’s maximum range
and therefore could be turned on smaller craft if needed.
The main battery was supported by an array of lasers, missile
launchers and super-heavy autocannons. The lasers were used
more to ward of DropShips whilst the autocannons could cripple
smaller vessels in one or two hits, or fire flak shells to disrupt
fighter attacks or ward off smaller and faster ships that might try
to swarm a McKenna. This array of weapons generated a huge
amount of heat and led to the design’s most distinctive feature;
huge dorsal and ventral radiator fins helped vent the excess heat
away from the hull. Whilst inactive out of combat these cooling
surfaces also helped reduce the ship’s IR signature, but when a
55
McKenna fired they would light up like a star on any thermal
display.
A trio of huge Goliath LV-9 engines, each powered by a
dedicated pair of reactors provided a maximum of 2.5 g of thrust;
this allowed the McKenna to keep up with the standard fleet speed
of the time. These engines received high marks for reliability
and ease of maintenance, although they did also get a reputation
as being rather fuel hungry. This inefficiency was countered by
the McKenna’s 255,000 tons of cargo space, which allowed her
to be on station for long periods of time. This cargo space was
also used to help fuel the WarShip’s 6 DropShips as well as her 50
fighters and 16 shuttles. Replacement fighters were also carried in
a crated state in the cargo along with fuel, food and ammunition.
As the ship lacked any form of anti-fighter weapons, the
McKenna relied on her aerospace wing to protect her from hostile
fighters; most McKennas often had a carrier DropShip with them
to increase this even further. The other five DropShips were
often assault DropShips which added another layer of defenses
to the McKenna class in combat. The DropShip complement
and her on-board fighter wing were commanded by a CAG (or
Commander Air Group) which would direct the ship’s fighters and
DropShips with oversight from the battleship’s Commander or
2IC.
The McKenna also featured a Lithium Fusion battery which
greatly increased her strategic mobility by allowing her to make
two jumps in quick succession. This expensive system was fitted
on the smaller Luxor and Riga II class ships that would form the
primary escorts for the McKenna in time of war, and would also
allow the McKenna and her squadron mates to quickly react to a
threat up to 60 light years away.
Once initial trials were completed the McKenna was rapidly
approved for production; four yards in the Hegemony started
producing the ships at a staggering rate. Thanks to the latest
advances in automation as well as the effectively-limitless
resources of the Hegemony, the McKenna was built in numbers
unseen by any battleship, or even many cruiser classes. Despite
the fact each ship cost over 21 billion c-bills (inflation-adjusted to
present dollars) the Hegemony went on to produce 280 of these
massive craft in a period from 2652 until 2765 with more on the
slips at the outbreak of the Amaris Civil War.
MCKENNA CLASS BATTLESHIP
By the outbreak of the Civil War there were more WarShips of
this single class in service than some House fleets in their entirety.
This rapid construction did allow for three distinct sub-classes
to be produced. The Block I McKennas, built over Mars and
Titan, were eighty strong before a slightly modified Block II was
developed. Whilst identical in terms of performance, protection
and armament, the Block II McKenna was visually different with
a slightly more cubic design. This hull form was cheaper, easier
and quicker to produce and the remaining McKennas were all
built to this Block II standard. Some SLDF Admirals complained
that the Block II was a more severe looking ship; this in turn saw
the Block I’s being used more often as flagships whilst the later
Block II’s were standard line units.
Six McKenna class ships were also taken whilst barely a
shell to be converted into dedicated command vessels. Each
of these dedicated McKennas boasted advanced and powerful
communications equipment, as well as tactical displays which
allowed ground and space commanders to direct their forces
from the battleships heavily protected CiC, these new Command
ships would serve not as fleet command ships but were capable
of controlling the entirety of the SLDF. They were fitted with
an HPG and the ‘Black Box’ hyper-fax as well as a massively
enhanced and enlarged CiC that could accept data from any ship,
unit or system; as such it was from these vessels that a war would
be fought and directed. These six Command McKennas were
physically very different from the standard class but retained the
same weapons, armour protection, DropShip capacity and fighter
wing. Their enlarged hull had more crew on-board as well as a
large number of suites and quarters for any command staff. The
HPG and four hyper-faxes also had their own specialised staff
whilst the larger CiC and communications systems took up more
interior space. These changes were added at a slight cost in the
McKenna’s cargo capacity. A large reinforced bunker was also
installed that could in dire emergency act as a life pod for the
ship’s senior officers. Each one was also fitted to be a vessel for
the First Lord to call home in the case of a crisis or when he was
touring the Star League. To this end there was also room for up
to a Company’s worth of infantry and all their equipment and the
Royal Black Watch always deployed at least 90 – 150 Nighthawk
PA(L) equipped infantry when on a vessel with the First Lord.
During the Amaris Crisis the McKenna was the most powerful
ship in service and was at the forefront to overthrow the Usurper
and free the Hegemony with one of the Command McKenna’s;
this particular ship was the SLS McKenna’s Pride, which was the
flagship of Commanding General Aleksandr Kerensky. Despite
their firepower and protection, the McKennas suffered heavy
casualties in the liberation of the Hegemony as they were one
of the few classes of ships that could engage the ground-based
SDS batteries with any chance of surviving and the M5 drones
designated them as priority targets.
Only eighteen survived to go into exile, including the
McKenna’s Pride, and none were left in the Inner Sphere once the
SLDF departed. The surviving ships in Clan service were refitted
with the Clans hull sealant technology but otherwise remained
unchanged. The McKenna’s Pride herself serves as the tomb of
General Kerensky and is in permanent geostationary orbit over
Strana Mechty. Warriors often take a form of pilgrimage to visit
the General’s tomb aboard his flagship and the McKenna’s Pride
is kept in a fully operational status, as if waiting for General
Kerensky to resume command.
56
MCKENNA CLASS BATTLESHIP
57
NOTABLE SHIP
The SLS McKenna’s Pride was one of six Command McKenna class battleships and served as the flagship for Commanding General Aleksandr Kerensky when she entered service. As the
flagship of the Commander of the SLDF, the General’s Lee class DropShip, the Borodino, was permanently part of her DropShip compliment and she carried a greatly enlarged command staff
detachment aboard, as well as two hundred Marines whose sole job was the protection of the General.
When the Taurian Crisis erupted, the McKenna’s Pride was targeted by Taurian Freedom Army forces but the WarShip and her escorts obliterated the attackers before they could come in
range of their own weapons. Due to her role the McKenna’s Pride was kept out of the line of battle and always had a full escort group protecting her, making her near immune to attack by any
conventional method. It was from the McKenna’s Pride that General Kerensky planned and directed the liberation of the Terran Hegemony, her briefing rooms always full of Officers of all
ranks.
During the Battle for Terra, the McKenna’s Pride turned her guns on the many Castle Brians defending Earth and was damaged in an exchange of gunfire by the SDS defending Alaska. As
the Star League collapsed, the McKenna’s Pride visited the capitals of the House Lords as the General attempted to stop the coming avalanche, but he failed. Stripped of his rank, it was aboard
the McKenna’s Pride that General Kerensky planned Operation EXODUS.
With the General’s death in 2801 the ship became the General’s tomb and she carried out this duty ever since. Only at the end of the Wars of Reaving was the McKenna’s Pride called
to action once more, and the WarShip lead the assault on the last holdings of Clan Steel Viper. She turned her guns ground-ward once more, obliterating the city of New Kent in a torrent of
particle cannon fire as well as engaging Viper forces in orbit. The strike by the McKenna’s Pride was the nail in the coffin for Clan Steel Viper and signalled the doomed Clan’s Annihilation.
MCKENNA CLASS BATTLESHIP FLIGHT II
58
MCKENNA FLEET COMMAND BATTLESHIP
59
MCKENNA CLASS BATTLESHIP FLIGHT I
60
LEVIATHAN II HEAVY BATTLESHIP
Length
1,700 meters
Displacement
2,400,000 tons
Crew complement
1995
Armament
2 x ‘Thunderlord’ Mk62 Mod-3
Heavy Naval Gauss rifles
4 x Theta 10GB ‘Whitworth’
Medium Naval Gauss rifles
10 x AK-320 Heavy Naval
Autocannons
40 x Series 3SR ER Medium Lasers
20 x Kolbrik Mod 4DS Large pulse
lasers
40 x Kolbrik Mod 9DS Medium
pulse lasers
16 x Type 6GB Gauss rifles
28 x Beta Series 7GB Medium Naval
80 x Remer Series Alpha Deuce
Particle Cannons
ATM-12 missile launchers
108 x Series 14GB ‘Maul’ 55cm
18 x Type VI Mod 4 Streak Missile
Naval Lasers
launchers
6 x Alfa pattern AR-10 flexible
12 x Ursa Mod 3GB LRM-20 missile
missile launchers
launchers
10 x Type 22a DS ER PPCs
30 x Type 9 Den Guard Anti-missile
50 x Series 7.5DS ER Large Lasers
batteries
Aerospace Complement
300 x Aerospace fighters
8 x DropShip docking collars
Sensors
Pattern 12 Gamma ‘Nanook’ Long
and short range 3D multi-phased
LIDAR array
Type 5 Mod 8 ‘Wojtek’ Multi mode
ranging and fire control system
Series 41 Alfa Long and short range
Type 991 Multi-channel broad and
multi-channel communications array
narrowband active and passive ECM/ with HPG and HPG uplink
ECCM
As the possibility of a return to the Inner Sphere began to
crystallize from idea into reality, Clan Ghost Bear’s Khans, in the
grandest tradition of their Clan decreed that they would have the
largest and most powerful WarShip ever built to lead the Clan’s
way back to the Inner Sphere. Longer and far more massive than
the lauded McKenna, the Scientists of Clan Ghost Bear designed a
space going monster that was called the Leviathan class.
But construction of the huge vessel taxed even the Bear’s
industrial strength and despite their best efforts the Bear Scientists
realised they could not complete the two vessels alone due to a
lack of experience in such massive space borne projects, if not
will. Fortunately the Bear’s long term allies in Clan Snow Raven
were all too willing to offer their expertise in this area, in return
for mining rights and trade agreements between the two Clans that
would benefit them the most.
Construction was still slow however and when Operation
REVIVAL was launched, the huge ships were still incomplete and
construction had come to a halt as the Clans as a whole turned
their attention to REVIVAL and the assault on the Inner Sphere.
Both vessels languished with only maintenance crews aboard
their air tight but mostly toothless hulls, but after the Great
Refusal and the complete discrediting and defeat of the Crusader
ideology, Khan Bjorn Jorgensson and his SaKhan agreed to
move the entire populace of Clan Ghost Bear from the Clan
Homeworlds to their far larger Occupation Zone in the Inner
Sphere.
Unfortunately, the Clan lacked the shipping strength to move
so many millions of people and megatons of industrial equipment
until it was pointed out that the Leviathans could. Whilst airtight
and active, they were almost disarmed and mostly empty and
could be fitted in a short time to carry huge numbers of passengers
and massive amounts of cargo. Once suitably refitted the two
Leviathans, the CGB Leviathan and CGB Great Bear would each
carry a quarter of a million people and over four hundred thousand
tonnes of cargo, and this was not including the capacity of any
DropShips they would be carrying.
Once safe in their Occupation Zone the Bear’s
decommissioned the Leviathans once again, using them as
orbital supply points and bases whilst rapidly building up the
infrastructure on their worlds. But by 3068 this task was no
longer needed, the first shipyards were complete and awaiting
their first ‘customers’, the Leviathans.
Using the industrial muscle of the new Ghost Bear Dominion,
the Bears now worked to complete both ships and their newly
ordered sister ship the CGB Rasalhague as they were originally
intended, as massively armed and armoured battleships. As the
Word of Blake’s Jihad spread across the Inner Sphere the work to
finish this was accelerated and then accelerated again as it became
61
clear that the Blakists were a major threat to the Dominion.
When Clan Ghost Bear launched its attacks against the
forces of the Word, at the head of the spear was the three fully
operational Leviathans and all three immediately proved their
worth, destroying the sole Blakist McKenna as well as many other
WarShips, whilst taking punishment that would have destroyed
a lesser craft. Now capable of carrying a full Galaxy’s worth of
aerospace fighters as well as eight DropShips the Leviathan was
built to engage enemies at extreme range with massed banks of
lasers, particle cannons, missiles and gauss rifles. Any foes that
survived would then run the gauntlet of the ships autocannons
and a staggering amount of point defences that could smash an
entire wing of attacking fighters, if any managed to break through
the three hundred fighters carried on-board. Over two hundred
Elementals could also be used to defend the ship against boarding
actions or overwhelm any vessel in the Inner Sphere. At the
height of the Jihad the Leviathan class carried a full group of
eight Vanir class Assault DropShips to act as its heavy escorts as
they can extend the ship’s anti-fighter barrier and engage hostile
DropShips with their sub-capital weapons.
LEVIATHAN II HEAVY BATTLESHIP
62
NOTABLE SHIP
The CGB Rasalhague was laid down in 3067 and as she neared completion, Clan Nova Cat, old enemies of the Bears launched a Trial of Possession for her that saw the naval strength of
both Clans suffer heavy losses, but the Bear’s retained their prized warship for her to be accepted into service in 3069.
During the Dominion’s assault on the Word of Blake the battle for the Dyev system would be the Rasalhague’s first test and a true trial by fire. Alongside the smaller Nightlord Ursa Major
and the CSR Scabbard the Clan forces dropped their troops onto Dyev before engaging a Word flotilla centred around the Aegis Righteous Fury and her escorts the Whirlwind Firefang and
Congress Hollings York. Outgunned and outnumbered by the fighters pouring from Rasalhague the Word ships were all destroyed but not before the Hollings York launched a nuclear tipped
missile at the huge Clan battleship. Once the blast had subsided the Rasalhague signalled that she was fully operational and moving to engage in the bombardment of Word forces on the planet
below.
Repairs to the Rasalhague’s hull took several months but she was soon in action, helping liberate more worlds from Blakist oppression before finally joining the fleet that would help
liberate Terra and finally cut the head off the Blakist serpent. With twenty-six other WarShips from across the Inner Sphere and the Clans, the battle for the Sol system was still hard and the
Rasalhague suffered severe damage engaging orbital defences as well as Pocket WarShips and repeated fighter attacks.
Repaired and put back into service, the Rasalhague is the last Leviathan in active service, although rumours abound of a new vessel currently under construction that somehow improves on
the Leviathans already formidable performance.
LEVIATHAN II HEAVY BATTLESHIP
63
WARSHIPS RESURGENT
THE VESSELS OF THE GREAT HOUSES
WARSHIPS RESURGENT
THE VESSELS OF THE GREAT HOUSES
With their WarShip fleets annihilated and their supporting infrastructure destroyed in the fires of the First and Second Succession Wars, the capacity to build
WarShips became LosTech thanks to the growing collapse of the Inner Sphere’s manufacturing base and the death of those with the knowledge to build and maintain
the complex systems and platforms which built WarShips. Many worlds also bore the scars of orbital bombardment, of cities reduced to ruin by fire from above and
worlds in the grip of a nuclear winter. The fear of letting such a genie out of the bottle again also meant that even if there was the capacity to build new WarShips,
there wasn’t the will.
This attitude slowly changed in the Fourth Succession War, whilst the Ares Convention held JumpShips as being sacrosanct, as well as prohibiting the use of
WMDs or indiscriminate orbital bombardment, the economic and financial powerhouse that was the Federated Commonwealth started looking at the possibility of
building WarShips once more.
With the discovery of the Helm Memory Core and the huge boost to the once declining state of the Inner Sphere’s technology base, the Federated Commonwealth
slowly pressed ahead with the first WarShip to be built in centuries, but they ran into a huge stumbling block.
There was no technical data on how to build the main thruster assemblies and engines for a WarShip type vessel, nor was there any facility to build them other than
in the Sol System, where the Rolls Royce Interstellar factory could still manufacture such huge thrusters.
The slow burn project received a huge shot in the arm with the arrival of the Clans in 3050 and their massed WarShip fleets and the aftershocks of the destruction
of the city of Edo on Turtle Bay reverberated round the Inner Sphere, amplifying how vulnerable the House Lords were, should the Clans order their many WarShips
guns pointed groundward.
It wasn’t until 3056 when the loss of HPG’s to the Word of Blake made ComStar realise it needed an injection of credits to continue operating and with the House
Lords desperate, they offered to sell the engine and drive units for WarShips to all of the Houses.
This then started a WarShip building frenzy. Whilst the Federated Commonwealth pressed ahead with their newly named Fox class corvette, Houses Kurita, Marik
and Liao all pressed ahead with their own WarShip development plans to counter the Clan threat.
Fortunately though the Clans withdrew their WarShips from combat after the destruction of Edo and the feared threat of annihilation from space never came. This
brought more time for the Inner Sphere to press ahead and built up the industry to support their slowly growing fleets.
Detailed in this book are the first five WarShip classes built within the Inner Sphere for nearly two hundred years, showing the determination, or some would say
foolishness, of the House Lords to not fall behind in any arena of War.
FOX CLASS CORVETTE
Length
440 meters
Displacement
240,000 tons
Crew complement
158
Armament
10 x Armstrong LN-10 Mark 9
Heavy repeating Naval autocannons
8 x FB-200 Barracuda Missile
launch systems
4 x FB Series 210 ‘Medusa’ 55cm
lasers
14 x SPL 2000 Large Pulse Lasers
6 x Kicker Type 30 ‘Void-shredder’
Machine guns
6 x McArthur Phalanx 9000 AntiMissile systems
4 x FB Series 109 ‘Cyclops’ 45cm
lasers
Aerospace Complement
12 x Aerospace fighters
2 x Multi-purpose shuttles
5 x Docking collars for DropShips
Sensors
FB Type 101 ‘Grand Banks’ 3D
phased LIDAR array
TharHes Ares-200 ‘Star Centurion’
Multi-range omnidirectional FCS
with independent LIDAR feed
Achernar Electronics HICS-99 Long
range communication array with
laser coms interface and HPG uplink
capability
TharHes Aspis-99 ‘Thunderstorm’
broadband multi-channel active and
passive ECM
Designed to use the industrial and financial power of the
Federated Commonwealth to bootstrap the hugely expensive
production of new technology and advances, the Project RX78 WarShip was a massive project. Creating a space frame 440
meters long was not a challenge, after all the Monolith and Star
Lord class JumpShips were both longer than the planned hull, but
the difficulties in creating a space frame of a large size that could
withstand the rigours of combat were formidable.
Every aspect of the design was challenging, the reactor, one
of Lyran design was built to operate planet-side as a major cities
power plant and millions of C-Bills and years of man-hours were
spent ruggedizing the reactor so it could withstand being on a
combat vessel.
Several weapons factories had to be built from scratch, again
at great cost whilst scientists and researchers from the NAIS were
sent out to teach the factory workers how to manufacture the huge
lasers and autocannons that would be the RX-78’s armament. The
only ‘easy’ weapon was the warships missiles but there were huge
challenges in overcoming guidance issues when the initial test
model proved very easy to spoof and jam.
These challenges were overcome, albeit at huge cost whilst
the old shipyards at Galax were brought online. However, the
Federated Commonwealth still lacked the main thruster assembly
for the ship. Without a main drive, the still incomplete vessel
wouldn’t even be a monitor, it would be a large, well-armed but
utterly immobile satellite.
But fortunately help arrived from a most unexpected quarter
when ComStar allowed the sale of engine assemblies from their
facilities and yards in the Sol system. This would make everyone
dependent on ComStar for the vital engines and their parts. It
also meant that, eventually, Federated Commonwealth tech’s and
scientists would get a look at the thruster assemblies and then be
able to complete such huge drives themselves.
Construction proceeded well from 3052 to 3057 until a terrorist
bomb, later believed to be a Capellan Agent, caused significant
damage to the yards at Galax. The Federated Commonwealth also
suffered an embargo by ComStar on vital parts for the engines,
causing further delays, but in 3058 the first Fox class corvette left
the slip.
Named after the famous, beloved, respected or hated
(depending on your State), Hanse Davion whose political and
strategic skill earned him the nickname ‘The Fox’, the corvette was
unlike any SLDF design and very much cut from whole cloth.
Unlike SLDF era vessels, the Fox class was designed to
be durable and act both as a WarShip but also as a planetary
assault craft. To this end, she can carry five DropShips on her
docking collars, as well as a dozen Aerospace fighters. The five
DropShips can also provide a heavy escort if she is carrying assault
DropShips. The armament was also different from SLDF corvettes,
which the Fox would significantly outgun. Armed with a mixture
of missiles, lasers and naval autocannons as well as a defensive
battery of large pulse lasers, machine guns and anti-missile
batteries, the Fox covers firepower at all ranges.
66
Thanks to the Steiner designers influence on the design, the
protection or structural strength wasn’t scrimped on either, with the
Fox having enough internal bracing to rival the hull strength of a
Star League battleship, whilst nearly 395 tons of Improved FerroAluminium give her an armoured hide that would be considered
equal to a Cruiser.
Unfortunately, the cost of this protection and firepower does
mean that the Fox is rather slow for a vessel of its size and she can
carry little more than 15,000 tons of cargo, which greatly limits her
deployment capability and range.
And whilst the Fox carries a large mix of weapons, she lacks a
focus of firepower, and being comparatively slow, she can be run
down by swifter Clan vessels that would outgun her in battle. This
then turns a potential battle into one of endurance versus firepower.
The comparatively simple, if cramped and uncomfortable hull
design fortunately lent itself towards series production, and as more
vessels were completed, the production lines, their workers, and
the yard staff became more adept at building the Fox class. This
ease of construction helped make the Fox the most numerous of
the Greater Houses WarShips, with over 20 vessels of the class
constructed.
FOX CLASS CORVETTE
67
NOTABLE VESSEL
FCS Rostock
The FCS Rostock, named after one of the founding First Princes of the Federated Suns was one of the earliest Fox class corvettes completed and was on patrol from the moment of her
launch along the borders with Clan occupied space.
In 3059 the corvette and her dropship group formed part of Taskforce Serpent along with her sister ship the FCS Antrim. It was with the Antrim that she took part in the Battle of Trafalgar
when Taskforce Serpent encountered a Clan Ghost Bear civilian convoy under escort. It was not known at the time that this convoy was shepherding civilians to the Bear’s new home in the
Inner Sphere. Whilst the Rostock was ordered to guard the Assault forces dropships and sat out the battle, it was fully operational when Serpent launched its assault on the Smoke Jaguar’s
homeworld of Huntress.
The Jaguars had a single Sovetskii Soyuz class cruiser escorted by a pair of Vincent class corvettes guarding their capital. The battle lines were quickly drawn whilst aerospace fighters
duelled for supremacy.
The Rostock moved to support Serpents flagship Cameron class battlecruiser the Invisible Truth as she went to engage the Clan Cruiser. In the initial clash, the larger and better armed
Invisible Truth was gaining ascendancy over her Clan opponent, but fearing the flagship would be too heavily damaged, the Rostock’s commander brought his ship into the battle. Some
officers believe this rash course of action was taken out of the Captain’s fear of missing out on the ‘glory’ of a battle after having sat out the Battle of Trafalgar.
Whatever the reason, the Rostock’s Captain ordered an intercept course laid in and the guns to engage. Unfortunately, the Rostock’s firepower was not enough to significantly damage the
much larger Clan cruiser. Her Jaguar Captain, enraged at the smaller ships interference in what she perceived as a duel between her vessel and the Invisible Truth brought her ship around and
caught the Rostock with her as yet unengaged broadside batteries. Unable to withdraw, the Rostock’s heavy armour was smashed apart by two full broadsides at short range. The first ripped
open the corvettes hull and disabled over fifty percent of her weapons, the second triggered a magazine explosion of the corvette’s autocannons and the blast consumed the ship. There were
only five survivors, the Captain was not amongst them.
FOX CLASS CORVETTE
68
IMPAVIDO CLASS DESTROYER
Length
450 meters
Displacement
490,000 tons
Crew complement
284 (Including 54 Marines)
Armament
12 x Oriente Model 75/20 Naval
Autocannons
8 x Diverse Optics Sunbeam Mod 2
ER Large lasers
6 x Oriente Model 64/10 Light Naval 8 x Tronel PPL-800 Series Large
Autocannons
lasers
3 x Fusigon Model XXIV Light
Naval PPCs
10 x Diverse Optics Solar Flare-109
Series 45cm lasers
16 x Holly Mod 4 LRM-20 launchers
4 x Burrow Space Blizzard AMS
mountings
2 x Grizzard Model 201 Mod 3
Gauss rifles
Aerospace Complement
Irian 899 ‘Eagles Wing’ Mod 6
LIDAR and 3D phased search array
Masters Voice Beta 3 Long ranged
communications array with HPG and
laser coms uplinks
Irian Series 9 multi-phased FCS with
Home on Jamming and independent CommuTech 119 Long and short
LIDAR array
ranged broadband/narrowband ECM
Sensors
18 x Aerospace Fighters (usually a
mix of 16 fighters and 2 shuttles)
2 x Docking Collars for DropShip
The Impavido class (meaning fearless in Italian) was the
product of the Free Worlds League and Capellan Confederation
working together to produce their own WarShip class. With
considerable technical support from the Word of Blake personnel
in Marik space, there was still a fair amount of confusion regarding
how the ship was built.
Most of the confusion stemmed from the ship’s trio of
KDY-2000 Magna Primary thrusters. At the time of the ship’s
construction, the only known factory for engines for WarShips
within the Inner Sphere was on Terra, and ComStar had certainly
not licensed the engines to either House Marik or Liao and
certainly not the Word of Blake.
Speculation ranged from the designs being stolen and then
built at some secret and hidden facility deep within Marik space,
to them being salvaged from a derelict ship, either of SLDF origin
or from a ship wrecked in the fighting in the First and Second
Succession Wars.
Regardless of the origin of the engines, when the FWLS
Impavido left the slips in late 3058 her successful launch and trials
were a considerable milestone for the burgeoning economy and
industrial strength of the Free Worlds League. Untroubled by the
Clan wars, and able to learn from the fighting boiling over the
borders of the Combine, Rasalhague Republic and Federated Suns,
the launch of the Impavido was the starting whistle that would lead
to the League having the largest fleet outside of the Clans by the
end of 3067.
Unlike the ‘cheap’ and somewhat disposable destroyers
of the SLDF, the Impavido class was a multi-role design,
capable of acting as a raider or as part of a larger squadron of
WarShips. Designed to be self-escorting, the Impavido class
was built to carry eighteen fighters as well as having a pair of
DropShip docking ports. Unfortunately, due to space limitations,
no shuttles were carried so most of the class replaced four fighters
with shuttles to aid in personnel transportation and stores delivery
without having to use a DropShip.
The destroyers also featured a somewhat mix-bag armament
of lasers, particle cannons and autocannons, supported by a large
number of Mech scale weaponry for anti-fighter and close in work
against DropShips. The choice of this mixed battery of weapons
was partially due to industrial limitations. It had been centuries
since the League or Capellans had constructed WarShip scale
armaments and there weren’t the factories to produce them in large
numbers.
So, to prevent bottlenecks with weapon delivery the ship was
to be armed with a mixed armament with triple gun mounts for
autocannons being the primary armament, whilst naval lasers
and light particle cannons provided additional firepower against
WarShips and a heavy punch against hostile Assault DropShips.
The heavy anti-fighter battery as well as the addition of AMS
defences in the bow and stern were a sign of the times. Unable to
produce WarShips in large numbers where they could be mutually
69
self-supporting, a vessel had to be able to defend itself against
fighters and assault DropShips without having to rely on other
craft.
Unfortunately, this mix of new weapons proved to be a
maintenance nightmare for the crews and despite aid from the
word of Blake the Impavido class became known as dockyard
queens. But despite this, the class was seen as a success. Faster
than any ex SLDF vessel in service and capable of hitting 4G
of acceleration the Impavido is able to control the range of an
engagement with her high speed. Her polygot armament makes
her equally capable of engaging WarShips with her autocannons
and her lasers and particle cannons can crack open hostile Assault
DropShips. This allows the ship to serve both as a raider and
heavy escort, a role the class performed as more ships joined the
Free Worlds League Fleet.
The class also featured a generous cargo capacity, allowing
her to undertake long cruises, also allowing the ship to be used as
a patrol vessel and it was in this role that the Capellan admiralty
used their three ships of the class.
Although largely displaced by the later Eagle class Frigate and
Zechetinu class Corvette, the Impavido served House Marik and
House Liao well in action and gave both Houses vital experience
in WarShip construction and maintenance.
IMPAVIDO CLASS DESTROYER
70
NOTABLE SHIP
FWS Janos Marik
Second of the class to be launched, the Janos Marik served partially as a training vessel for new crews and Starsmen who would go on to serve in the expanding fleet of the Free Worlds
League. She was also used to train Aerospace fighters in anti-shipping tactics as well as fighter handling doctrine after being attached to the Lloyd Marik-Stanley Aerospace School.
This peaceful period came to an end after nearly a decade of service when the Word of Blake turned on the Free Worlds League.
In orbit over the Capital of Atreus, the six ships of the Free World League fleet were ambushed by WarShips under the control of the Word of Blake on the 25th of October 3068. Caught
flat footed and by total surprise, the defending vessels were heavily outmassed. The largest of them being the FWLS Gwain, an Eagle class frigate, whilst the smaller Sparta, Acari
and Scorpion were Zechetinu class corvettes. The old Essex II class destroyer Raven and, of course, the Janos Marik faced off against far larger opponents that meant to conquer the
Capital. Centred on the Thera class super-carrier Corinth there was also the Aegis Nueva Badajoz, the Black Lion Xanthos, the Agamemnon class cruiser Aenas, the Eagle Mordred, and the
Impavido herself.
With their backs to the Capital the now loyalist WarShips were unable to flee and outgunned. They had to run for a Pirate Point the suborned Blakist ships had arrived at.
Heavily outgunned, the Loyalist ships and their escorts suffered heavily on the approach. The battle devolved into a free-wheeling brawl, there was little command, they had just been told
to run and fight another day and each ship was trying to reach the jump point with its escorting fighters.
The Janos Marik managed to inflict significant damage to the lightly built Aenas, damaging her port weapons and starting several fires but her flight to the Jump point came to an end when
the Black Lion class battlecruiser Xanthos interposed herself between the fleeing destroyer and her destination. Although the gunners of the Janos Marik managed to cause moderate damage,
including destroying one gun turret, the far heavier firepower of the Xanthos pounded the Janos Marik into blazing ruin. The wreckage of the Janos Marik would not be found until years after
the Jihad, and what remained was simply too badly damaged to repair, the hulk was broken up for scrap in 3082.
IMPAVIDO CLASS DESTROYER
71
SUFFREN CLASS DESTROYER
Length
590 meters
Displacement
540,000 tons
Crew complement
290 (with room for up to 252 Marines)
Armament
4 x KAW Große Kanone Series 440
Super Heavy Naval Autocannons
32 x Blakenberg Mod 9 ER large
lasers
3 x Titan Naval Works ‘Blakes
Light’ Mark 3 Heavy Naval Particle
Cannons
8 x Holly Starbloom Type 48 LRM
20 launch racks
12 x KAW ‘Sonnesturm’ Series 200
45cm Naval Lasers
4 x KAW Große Kanone Series 220
Light Naval Autocannons
4 x M7 Mod 3 Gauss Rifles
12 x Blakenberg Spitfire Series
Small Pulse Lasers
Aerospace Complement
StarCorps/TNW ‘Blake’s Vision’
Series 4 LIDAR and 3D phased
search array
StarCorps Type 9 ‘Toyama’s Heart’
multi-phased FCS with Home on
Jamming and independent LIDAR
array
‘Blake’s Voice’ Pattern-2 Long
ranged communications phased
secure array with HPG and laser
coms uplinks
‘York’s Aegis’ Theta 400 Multiphased ECM with active and passive
deception interface
Sensors
8 x Shuttles/Fighter bays
4 x Docking collars for DropShip
Although ComStar’s ‘Hidden Fleet’ was a large, if unused asset,
the vast majority of the WarShips in mothballs or inactive reserve
were from the SLDF era, with classes like the Vincent, Lola III and
Essex being the most common. These ships were getting harder to
maintain and the most ‘modern’ vessels in the fleet were the three
Dante class Frigates, but even these ships were over 110 years old.
With the high crew requirements of SLDF era ships making
it near unsustainable to crew the fleet fully without revealing the
strength of their fleet or spending huge amounts of C-Bills refitting
the older ships and then training the thousands of personnel needed
to crew such an armada, ComStar looked instead to building a new
design that would incorporate the latest advancements in WarShip
design as well as extensive automation to try and cut down crew
numbers.
Authorised by Primus Hollings York, the new ships design phase
featured extensive use of computer simulations, up to and including
VR setup’s for planned bridge and engine room layouts. These VR
simulations helped the designers and future crewmen and women
spot potential issues with the ship’s internal layout and correct them
before a single hull plate had even been laid down.
The first ship the CSV Narbonne joined ComStar’s fleet in 3062
despite attempts to rush her completion for Taskforce Serpent and
Operation BULLDOG. The over-long design period did pay off
though, as the interior of the ship was well laid out and allowed for
the movement of Battle armoured marines throughout the length of
the ship, making the class easier to defend in the event of a boarding
action.
Crew quarters for the 290 crew are by all accounts spacious
with 4 man bunks being the norm with shared toilets and washing
facilities. The Suffren class also has barracks for up to a full
Battalion of Marines and all their equipment, up to and including
power armour, but this full capacity is rarely carried outside of
deployments where the ship is expected to board and capture hostile
craft or an orbital platform.
Like the larger Dante class, the Suffren class is armed with a
wide range of weapons from the largest of naval autocannons down
to small pulse lasers and unlike the older SLDF ships in ComStar
service is well protected against hostile fighter strikes.
For a destroyer, the Suffren class Is heavily armed with a quartet
of NAC-40’s providing punishing fire ahead and astern whilst three
heavy naval particle cannons provide long range firepower. The
‘eyes’ of the ships, in the fore and aft quarters, contain a 3 45cm
Naval lasers whilst the broadside arcs are covered by a pair of
NAC-20’s. These weapons are near identical to those that would
be featured on SLDF era ships thanks to them being constructed
at factories on Terra. A large battery of ER large lasers and LRMs
provide anti-fighter and DropShip firepower, whilst clusters of small
pulse lasers can be used against hostile fighters at short range or as
an anti-missile defence.
The design’s layered improved ferro-aluminium armour also
provides considerable protection with the armour being closer to
that of the much larger Congress class in terms of raw thickness and
protection.
Unfortunately to carry this firepower and level of protection, the
72
Suffren class is slow by destroyer standards. At full burn, her two
Rolls Royce BL2000 thrusters can produce a total of 2.5gs sustained
thrust, which is what a vessel as large as a McKenna class battleship
was capable of producing.
The ship’s aerospace complement is also limited, and although
equipped to handle four DropShips, there are no dedicated fighter
bays, but rather bays for eight small craft. These can be altered to
carry fighters and the usual mix is 6 fighters and 2 shuttles. But,
when carrying Marines, no fighters are carried, as the full
complement of small craft is needed to shuttle the Marines to their
targets.
This lack of fighter support lays extra onus on the defensive
weapons as well as any escorting DropShips carried by the Suffren
into an engagement. Typical ComStar doctrine is to pair at least one
Titan class carrier or a pair of Leopard CV’s as part of the WarShips
DropShip compliment.
Despite these flaws, the Suffren class has proven successful in
service and it is assumed that more of the Class will be laid down to
replace the older vessels in the Order’s fleet.
SUFFREN CLASS DESTROYER
73
NOTABLE SHIP
CSV Anasasius Focht
The Anasasius Focht was the lead ship in the Suffren class, and despite frantic efforts to complete her in time for Operation Bulldog, the destroyer was 90% complete owing to bottlenecks
in weapons production as well as several technical issues with the factories at the Titan Yards delaying construction.
The Anasasius Focht would go on to be part of ComStar’s public fleet and not part of its hidden and mostly mothballed armada still in storage at Luyten 68-28 and Ross 248 as well as the
ultra-secret Gabriel facility.
Assigned to patrol the joint borders of the Draconis Combine, Rasalhauge and Clan Ghost Bear Occupation Zone the Anasasius Focht led a charmed and uneventful life until the outbreak
of the Jihad. Massed together with most of ComStar’s fleet for an assault on the Sol System the Anasasius Focht lead the jump into the Sol system and into the teeth of the Blakist defences in
Operation CASE WHITE.
The Anasasius Focht, fortunately free of Blakist agents, found herself confronted by the WoBS Herald of Wisdom a much larger and more heavily armed Aegis class cruiser. With fighters
from both sides unable to intervene, the engagement quickly became a slugging match, with the faster Focht trying to bring her bow guns to bare whilst the Herald tried to present her
broadside. In the slowly spiralling fight the heavier firepower of the Herald started to tell with her scoring several heavy hits before the Focht could slip out of her gun’s arcs of fire. Still the
Focht caused significant damage to her larger opponent before her superior speed allowed her to turn inside the larger vessel and bring her heavy bow guns to bare. In a furious exchange of
fire, the Focht’s heavy cannons tore open the port side of the Herald but received several missile strikes from the cruiser, one of which struck well aft, badly damaging her fuel transfer systems.
With the Herald of Wisdom crippled and out of action, the Anasasius Focht moved to engage another Blakist WarShip, but the damage to her fuel systems caused several hundred tons of
hydrogen slush to ‘wash back’ into the tanks after being partially energized prior to being used in the ship’s reactors. Unstable hydrogen met stable hydrogen and reacted violently, the blast
ripping the stern of the Focht into a blazing ruin before a sympathetic detonation in the NAC-20 magazine obliterated what was left of the vessel.
SUFFREN CLASS DESTROYER
74
KYUSHU CLASS FRIGATE
Length
640 meters
Displacement
630,000 tons
Crew complement
587 (including 108 MechWarriors)
Armament
2 x LAW/DO Type 268 ‘Lords
Wrath’ Heavy Naval PPCs
16 x Victory Nickel Alloy Series 2
ER large lasers
6 x Imperator Arms ‘Godslayer’
Series 994 Ultra-heavy autocannons
16 x Victory Heartbeat Series 2
Medium pulse lasers
4 x Imperator Arms ‘Titanslayer’
16 x Shigunga ‘Star Blossom’ Beta 1
Series 885 Super-heavy autocannons
LRM-20 racks
8 x Imperator Arms ‘Heroslayer’
Series 701 Medium autocannons
32 x Victory Polished Bronze Series
2 Small pulse lasers
12 x Victory Type 35 ‘Clarion’ 35cm 16 x Yori Starswatter Anti-missile
Naval Lasers
systems
2 x LAW/DO Type 134 ‘Lords
Might’ Medium Naval PPCs
Aerospace Complement
Nakajima/LAW G8N ‘Renzan’
LIDAR and 3D phased search array
StarCorps Type 9 ‘Toyama’s Heart’
multi-phased FCS with Home on
Jamming and independent LIDAR
array
LAW ‘Dragon’s Voice’ Type 6 Long
ranged communications phased
secure array with HPG and laser
coms uplinks
StarCorps Type 400 ‘Kabuto’ Active
and passive multi-channel ECM/
ECCM
Sensors
18/12 x Fighter and Shuttle bays
4 x Docking collars for DropShips
The genesis of what would become the Kyushu class can
actually be traced back to House Davion’s Robinson class
Transport. The Robinson Class was designed as a one ship
assault force, capable of carrying Mech’s, aerospace fighters and
Dropships and being able to escort itself to deploy these forces
onto a hostile world.
House Kurita actually captured two Robinson class vessels
during the First Succession War and it was these ships and the
tactical as well as strategic choices they offered that shaped the
DCA as it designed what would become the Kyushu class.
Large enough to be classified as a Frigate, the Kyushu would
feature a mixed armament mainly built around naval autocannons,
whilst lasers and particle cannons provide additional punch,
especially during orbital bombardment roles. Unfortunately, the
Kyushu’s designers did not install a powerful cooling system and
the heat load of just the broadside naval weapons firing can strain
the heatsinks to their limit and the shorter ranged weapons that
dot the ship’s hull will overheat it.
The classes heavy armament though would still allow it to
bulldoze through heavy opposition, and indeed the firepower
of a Kyushu class frigate exceeds larger and heavier SLDF era
Sovietskii Soyuz class cruiser.
The Kyushu class also has heavier hull plating than many
SLDF cruisers, with nearly 880 tons of thick Improved Ferro
Aluminium armour plating the ship’s hull, whilst the internal
bracing of the hull and its strength members was also equal to that
on cruiser scale vessels.
Of considerable note is the ship’s autocannon batteries which
pairs a super-heavy autocannon with a far lighter weapon, and at
shorter ranges both weapons can bring a devastating weight of fire
to bare against any target.
The designers also paid attention to the threat of aerospace
fighters and the Kyushu class features a heavy and extensive array
of anti-fighter and assault craft weapons, built around clusters of
ER large lasers and LRMs which can reach out to several hundred
kilometres, whilst batteries of small pulse lasers can be used at
shorter ranges and as a terminal defence against anti-ship missiles.
75
Capable of carrying a full Regiment of 108 Mechs, the
Kyushu can deploy these Mechs three ways. The first involves a
complex and at times temperamental loading system that brings
the Mech’s up to the docking collars for the four DropShips that
the ship can carry. The Mech’s are loaded onboard as this saves
the attached DropShip having to carry any forces onboard as they
would all be on the ship.
Unfortunately, this method is slow and requires the ship to
be at a complete stop with the DropShips attached. There are
also a dozen Type 901 ‘Fugaku’ Heavy Shuttles. Each of these
highly specialist craft can load and carry two Mech’s on its two
deck loading bay. Each Mech must lay on its back and this is not
intended for quick deployment as, on average, it takes up to five
minutes to unload a Mech and for it to be powered up and ready
to move out.
In combat operations however, the Mechs can be hot dropped
from low orbit with each one being encased in a disposable
drop-cocoon. This is similar to a combat drop from a DropShip
but done at a much higher altitude, hence the need for the
cocoon. Whilst risky, it is also the quickest way to deploy the
Regiment and is the preferred method during combat.
The frigate also carries eighteen fighters, although these are
mostly for self-defence and most Kyushu’s are accompanied by at
least one Okinawa class DropShip to provide fighter support for
the Mechs carried onboard.
The two Rolls-Royce ‘Thunders Call’ engines were
unfortunately somewhat under powered and whilst fuel efficient,
they could not produce a great level of sustained thrust without
causing extensive damage. This hindered the thrust produced
by the engines, limiting the Kyushu’s thrust to that of more
traditional cruiser and battleship speed, with a maximum of 2.5g
of thrust being the most the Thunders Call could produce.
Whilst capable of carrying over 61,000 tons of cargo, the
Kyushu’s designers also placed considerable emphasis on crew
comfort, a must during long voyages or deployments. The crew
all have double occupancy rooms and each of the six main crew
decks has their own messing facilities as well as recreation areas.
Whilst well designed, the class has not been without its problems.
The engines continue to give considerable trouble and are
maintenance intensive, and each ship carries a larger than average
complement of technical specialists and engineers to work on the
engines.
Like the ancient Robinson class, the Kyushu can deploy Mech
forces from special cocoons and launch bays, but her carrying
capacity dwarfs that of the Federated Suns vessels.
These engine problems have also resulted in larger than
expected fuel burn rates and the ‘Thunder’s Call’ engine has a
reputation for being thirsty.
KYUSHU CLASS FRIGATE
76
NOTABLE SHIP
The DCS Luthien was one of the first four Kyushu class ships to be completed and was viewed as a prestige vessel after being named after the ‘Black Pearl’ of the Combine, its
Capital planet. Until the launch of the first Kirishima class cruiser the Luthien was the fleet flagship of the Draconis Combine’s navy and had larger facilities onboard for command and
communications personnel as well as an enhanced communications suite which would later be augmented by a mobile HPG.
Unlike her three sister ships, the Luthien was unable to join Task Force Serpent when it departed the Inner Sphere for its strike on Clan Smoke Jaguar. Once her trials and shakedown were
complete, the DCS Luthien was instead assigned to patrol the Combine/Ghost Bear borders as well as show the flag around the Combine by visiting various Prefecture Capitals and taking part
in naval exercises which also included hunting down and destroying several pirate bands.
The DCS Luthien replaced the destroyed DCS Dream of Kessel in the 2nd Naval Squadron following the latter vessels destruction during Operation Bulldog and became the Squadron
Flagship with her escorting corvettes the DCS Night of Agony and Swiping Claw.
She was still leading this squadron as the Jihad swept over the Inner Sphere and fought several engagements against Blakist vessels, claiming four assault dropships and badly damaging the
WoBS Deliverance, forcing the Blakist ship to disengage and then spend months in drydock being repaired.
In 3072 the 2nd Naval Squadron was called upon to assault Benjamin and break the Word’s blockade of the system and land forces to support the DCMS on the ground or drive off the
Word invaders. Carrying elements of the 15th Benjamin Regulars, the small Combine fleet and its escorting DropShips were engaged within minutes of jumping in system. Challenged by
the WoBS Blade of Holiness and Faith’s End and supported by the WoBS Hollings York, the three Combine ships moved to engage. However, they had not accounted for the large number of
Blakist ‘Q-Ships’ that were also part of the force that encountered them and nuclear tipped missiles destroyed the Swiping Claw and scrambled the sensors of the surviving vessels. The Night
of Agony rammed the Faith’s End but the Luthien was still left facing two vessels as well as a swarm of DropShips.
Her heavy guns were able to first badly damage the Blade of Holiness and then destroy the now blazing Blakist vessel with a hit to her reactors but the weak cooling system of the Kyushu
class was her downfall as the Holling’s York was able to approach from port whilst the Luthien engaged her targets with her starboard guns. Repeated salvos of autocannon fire caused heavy
damage before a missile struck her still full MechBay. Sympathetic detonations of fuel and ammunition ripped through the belly of the DCS Luthien and the ship blew itself apart as her
structural integrity failed. After the Jihad, the bow section of the Luthien was located but instead of being salvaged, she was designated a war grave and the battered hulk was allowed instead
to drift into the Benjamin system Oort cloud.
KYUSHU CLASS FRIGATE
77
KIRISHIMA CLASS HEAVY CRUISER
Length
748 meters
Displacement
790,000 tons
Crew complement
309
Armament
2 x Imperator Arms ‘Mastodon’ NY- 2 x LAW/DO Type 99 ‘Lords
106 Heavy Naval Gauss Rifles
Strength’ Light Naval PPCs
4 x Imperator Arms ‘Titanslayer’
16 x Victory Nickel Alloy Series 2
Series 885 Super-heavy autocannons
ER large lasers
2 x Imperator Arms ‘Giantslayer’
Series 789 Heavy autocannons
16 x LAW Type 105 Lords Light ER
PPCs
8 x Imperator Arms ‘Heroslayer’
Series 701 Medium autocannons
32 x Victory Drumbeat Series 8
Large Pulse Lasers
12 x Victory Type 45 ‘Banshee’
45cm Naval Lasers
32 x Victory Heartbeat Series 2
Medium pulse lasers
16 x LAW/DO Type 134 ‘Lords
Might’ Medium Naval PPCs
16 x Victory Polished Bronze Series
2 Small pulse lasers
Aerospace Complement
Nakajima/LAW G8N Mod 3
‘Renzan’ LIDAR and 3D phased
search array
Type Delta/47 ‘Smaug’ Long range
secure communications with HPG
uplink
Nakajima/LAW BZ-49 ‘Soryu’
multi-phased FCS with Home on
Jamming and independent LIDAR
array
Nakajima/LAW RN-03 ‘Hosho’
Active and passive ECM with HOJ
direct ECM
Sensors
12 x Aerospace fighters
3 x Docking collars for DropShips
2 x Small craft
Black Lion class of Battlecruiser. But with little over 4,200 tons
of cargo the Kirishima’s endurance is greatly limited, although the
addition of a Lithium-Fusion Battery does give the ship a useful
degree of strategic mobility, allowing her to cover large areas of
space thanks to the battery system. Still the ship is very dependent
on fuel and supply stops and they must carry a cargo DropShip for
any mission.
One of the most noticeable features of the Kirishima class is
her speed, at full burn the ships three LASW GE-9000 engines can
sustain a 4g burn, making the Kirishima one of the fastest ships
of any size. Only the old Kimagure class cruiser could match this
speed and it is unknown if any of those survived in Clan service.
Layered with nearly 1,100 tons of ferro-carbide armour, the
Kirishima’s protection exceeds the standard cruiser of the SLDF
and thus the Clans; the Sovietskii Soyuz by a considerable margin.
Heavy hull bracing and multiple system redundancies are designed
to keep the ship operating despite taking significant damage and
the interior walkways and doors are designed to allow for the
movement of friendly Battle Armoured troops.
Unlike the Kyushu class though, the Kirishima did not place
as much importance on crew comfort, partially due to the limited
space available with so much armour and weapons on board, as
well as the large engines, all of which consumed a great deal of hull
space. Despite the designs dual grav decks, the crew are quartered
in six man bunks, whilst Officers and Department heads must share
rooms, only the Captain and XO have individual quarters and for
Officers of their position, they are small and cramped by other
nations standards.
Even though the Kyushu class had yet to be launched, the
DCMS officially announced plans for a larger cruiser scale vessel,
the first to be built within the Inner Sphere in Centuries. The
dedicated shipyards in the Togura system were constructed with aid
from across the Combine and it became a matter of pride for the
Draconis Combine and its people that they had all come together to
have a part in the rebuilding of the Dragon’s naval arm once more.
Recreation facilities are limited and all eating is done in mess
halls. The limited internal space also means that the Kirishima
class carries only a dozen fighters and a pair of small craft. This
small fighter complement is more for self-defence and although
the ship can carry up to three DropShips, one of these is often a
craft with a large cargo capacity to extend the endurance of the
Kirishima during long patrols. Initial tests with a Vengeance class
carrier put too great a strain on the ship consumables and now most
carry an Okinawa class to provide additional fighter support.
Unlike Star League designs, the Kirishima was built from the
keel up to be an attack ship, sacrificing endurance for firepower and
protection that make her nearly as potent as larger vessels like the
The Kirishima classes armament is a balanced mix of energy
and ballistic weapons as well as a large battery of anti-fighter
weapons for point and anti-missile defence. Pride of place are
78
the Imperator Arms NY-106 ‘Mastodon’ Heavy naval gauss rifles
which can reach out to huge distances and cripple a DropShip
with a single hit or even threaten a more lightly armoured
WarShip. Clusters of autocannons as well as a dozen Naval lasers
can engage at long to mid ranges whilst eighteen Naval PPC’s add
to the ships punch at longer ranges.
To counter hostile strike craft and assault dropships, the
Kirishima has a withering array of energy weapons. Sixteen ER
large lasers and sixteen ER PPC’s form the primary long range antifighter battery whilst a staggering thirty-two large pulse lasers cover
the mid to short ranges. Finally, thirty-two medium pulse lasers
and sixteen small pulse lasers can thin out any survivors as well as
intercept missiles on terminal approach.
One curiosity to note about the Kirishima is its complete lack
of missile weapons, most WarShips mount at least some missiles,
be they long range anti-shipping ones, or point short ranged
anti-fighter weapons, but the Kirishima is completely lacking in
missiles.
The heavy anti-ship and anti-fighter weapons do make the
Kirishima class more a battlecruiser than a heavy cruiser and make
them a truly formidable threat against all but the largest WarShips
in service today. Their limited endurance and crew discomfort are
considered small drawbacks in what has otherwise proved to be a
reliable and potent vessel and a constant symbol of the might of the
Draconis Combine.
KIRISHIMA CLASS HEAVY CRUISER
79
NOTABLE SHIP
The DCS Shiro was the second Kirishima class vessel to be constructed and was rushed to take part in Operation BULLDOG and was the second largest WarShip in the Inner Sphere fleet,
second only to the CSV Invisible Truth the flagship of ComStar. So frantic was the pace of construction that the Shiro departed with over sixty civilian workers still hurriedly fitting out the
WarShip as she joined the taskforce.
Eighteen were still on-board when the Shiro reached her jump point for the wave three assault on Schuyler, having been delayed from taking parts in the Wave One and Two assaults due to
ongoing issues with her power systems. With the Achilles Longest Night and Okinawa Taiho providing escort as well as six other Assault DropShips the Shiro was charged with escorting an
allied assault force to the surface of Schuyler.
Not detecting any space borne opposition the Shiro settled into a low orbit to give support to the troops now entering the atmosphere when the LIDAR displays lit up with warnings of
inbound Clan aerospace fighters that only now were curling over the north pole, having launched on the night side from hidden airbases.
With most of the assault force and its escorting fighters entering the atmosphere and unable to effectively manoeuvre, the Shiro and her escort group moved to engage. Several of the Clan
fighters were not identified until after the battle and it was the Inner Sphere’s first encounter with the Xerxes and Hydaspes classes of heavy and assault fighters whilst a number of Avar’s
ran as top cover and interceptors. The Clan fighters massed together and charged the Shiro who, now in the planet’s gravity well could not manoeuvre at full speed. Her escorts and fighters
interposed themselves whilst the cruiser fired into the oncoming mass and the Clan fighters suffered heavy casualties, but enough broke through to close on the sluggish WarShip.
To the horror of the Shiro’s Captain, even his cruisers heavy defences were not that effective against the new Clan assault fighter and their return fire was savaging his vessels
armour. Trying to break for high orbit the Shiro was struck aft by a crippled Xerxes, the impact severing fuel lines and causing a larger secondary explosion. To prevent the risk to the ship’s
fuel tanks the primary thruster was immediately shut down but attempts to re-start it failed as the last Clan fighters fell to the Shiro’s escorts and point defence weapons. With her primary
engine disabled the Shiro could not generate enough thrust to pull out of Schuyler’s gravity well.
Too heavily damaged to be recovered, the Shiro was abandoned before she finally fell into Schuyler’s gravity well and burned up in the upper atmosphere, with chunks of her hull landing in
the primary ocean of the world.
KIRISHIMA CLASS HEAVY CRUISER
80
NON-CANON WARSHIPS
AND SMALL CRAFT
I always felt that the naval history of the Battletech universe needed expanding. Whilst thinking in naval terms I saw the SLDF as lacking in things like supply
ships, tenders, escorts or craft that would lead to later developments. I guessed there simply had to be a progenitor to the Newgrange Class, unless the SLDF risked a
huge amount of resources on a 2.5 million-ton ship with no prior experience in such vessels. Carriers were also very rare.
This can be attributed to Carrier DropShips. But, these small ships would probably impose a severe logistics burden on their mothership. They would also
carry little in the way of spares and weapons for their fighters, making them more akin to the US Navies ‘Jeep Carriers’ the famous CVE (Combustible Vulnerable
Expendable) or Escort Aircraft Carrier to give them their proper name. A larger carrier would offer a lot more, at a higher cost of course.
New Clan ships are also present as well as a nod to one of my favourite ships seen in a movie in the film 2010.
This section also hosts a trio of Small Craft commissioned by Maingunnery and Daryk from the Battletech Forums and we included those vessels in this book,
giving details on their history, design and of course, their looks.
MARK VII LANDING CRAFT
Length
21 meters
Displacement
150 tons
Crew complement
4 (can and often does vary)
The “Mark VII Landing Craft” designation has been applied
to numerous designs over the centuries since the SLDF produced
the original in the mid-28th century. While the capabilities of the
various designs varied widely, the outward appearance of the craft
changed little, making it relatively easy to hide long range variants
among shorter ranged orbit to surface versions.
The most common variant houses an open cargo bay,
approximately 14 meters long and 8 meters wide, with a clearance
of 5 meters. In all versions, the entire floor of the bay is an elevator
capable of lifting 80 tons. When the elevator lowers to the ground,
cargo can be easily loaded or unloaded.
The walls of the bay are covered with many fuel and cooling
circulation pipes, heat ducts, electrical conduits, and access panels
leading to the various drive components and weapons bays. At the
front of the end of the bay is a door leading into the craft’s airlock,
which contains a smaller external door, as well as a narrow staircase
leading up to the crew compartment and cockpit. The airlock is
large enough to accommodate an exoskeleton, but few craft do,
preferring to use the space as extra storage. At the back of the
cargo bay is a recessed ladder that leads to a tiny engineering space
perched above the main thruster used only for maintenance.
Long range variants typically carry a crew of four: A Pilot, Copilot, Engineer, and Load Master/Gunner. The cramped bunk room
holds two double bunks across from a tiny head and even smaller
kitchen. The most radical variant, called the “Egret” by ComStar,
cuts the cargo bay in half vertically, dramatically reducing the
clearance of the vehicle bay, but providing short term living space
for over 30 troops. The upper part of the bay can only be accessed
from the airlock, and is sealed from the vehicle bay.
In their service life hundreds of variants of this craft were made,
usually locally produced variants which add, change or remove
armament as needed.
Most variants of the Mark VII are lightly armed with a variety
of missile and laser weapons, but a Liao version gives the cargo bay
over to a larger engine and much heavier weapon load, including
an Autocannon, large missile array, and two large lasers, making it
a small and cheap gunboat. A Steiner version improves the engine,
but retains sufficient cargo space to carry a light vehicle.
Notable variants include the Mk VI ‘Sentry’ SPAWACS,
built for the SLDF and actually a stretched hull variant that
weight 200 tons. The SPAWACS (SPace Aerospace Warning
And Control System), or ‘Sentry’ as it was known, was loaded
with communication equipment and a small yet powerful LIDAR
array. This served to extend a WarShip’s LIDAR bubble and was
often part of a large battlegroup’s small craft complement. Ships
like the Ark Royal class Fleet Carrier each carried four Mark VI
Sentry’s with their very highly trained crews and FIDOs (Fighter
Intercept Direction Officers). The Sentry would aid with targeting
and communications, and each FIDO would help coordinate the
large aerospace group after launch, as coordinating the actions
of over 200 fighters in combat was a daunting task. By breaking
the task down amongst the FIDOs and CAG, the air battle could
be coordinated with far greater ease and allowed for multiple
redundancy.
Unfortunately, these highly specialized craft were exclusive
property of the SLDF and the few that served in the House fleets
were lost in the First and Second Succession Wars.
Another version of the Mark VII was the SLDF’s Mk VIIB,
commonly known as the Mule, featuring enhanced electronics and
superior flight controls and was used as a shuttle for personnel and
supplies from ground and orbital facilities to a WarShip in orbit.
Most SLDF WarShips had at least one Mark VIIB in their shuttle
complement.
While all variants of the Mark VII are theoretically capable of
vertical lift off and landing, the engine systems of some versions
are particularly ill-suited to the task, and require extremely well
qualified pilots. This also depended on the cargo. After several
notable crashes whilst carrying liquid cargo, and in one case a
rather large number of cattle, various builders suggested that the
Mark VII family perform a rolling take-off when carrying full cargo
loads or cargo that can shift and move around.
The Mark VII and older Mark VI and V craft exist in huge
numbers, and some cargo firms employ them by the dozens on
worlds to transport cargo between star ports or facilities where the
82
use of a DropShip would not be economically feasible.
The older and more bulky Mark V is often seen aboard
JumpShips and served as the inspiration for the SLDF’s Mark
V-MH mine hunter, a product of necessity brought to light by the
loss of several Star League WarShips in the Reunification War to
mines around the Taurus system.
MARK VII LANDING CRAFT
83
NOTABLE VESSELS
With so many thousands of the Mark VII family in production and service, it’s hard to pick out one such craft. The Mark VII also features heavily in tales heard in space port pubs, making
it even harder to discern truth from harmless white lies. One craft name that appears regularly is the ‘Millennium Eagle’, purportedly a craft in service to House Marik that changed hands
several times and was heavily modified to act as a smuggling vessel. The story goes that during the Amaris Civil War, the Millennium Eagle not only evaded several Amaris Empire patrols
after being dropped off in system but helped save the lives of hundreds of Hegemony civilians. Further, the craft allegedly claimed a score of Empire fighters with her guns before outrunning a
pursuing Rim World Navy cruiser and luring it into an asteroid field where it was heavily damaged, or destroyed, depending on who tells the story.
If the Millennium Eagle existed or not, it is a story that has not gone away despite the passage of time.
MARK VII LANDING CRAFT
84
GOALKEEPER MK IV DEFENCE CRAFT
Length
21 meters
Displacement
150 tons
Crew complement
6
a hostile missile, sacrificing their lives to save the lives of their
shipmates.
Armament
20 x Maxwell Starfire Small lasers
(Mark IV)
12 x McArthur Mark 87 AMS
gatling guns (Mark V)
4 x Maxwell Starblaze Medium
Lasers (Mark V)
Many students in contemporary naval academy’s often wonder
why old WarShips had very little to no point defences. The short
answer to this is fleet doctrine. In the old days ships travelled in
groups and these were screened by combat DropShips and Fighters.
Between the main group and the screening force there would be a
point defence squadron, which usually consisted out of either Small
Craft or Light aerospace fighters. The main job of this squadron
was to defend the main group from Capital Missiles.
Before the extinction of WarShips during the Succession Wars,
the most common defence craft was the Goalkeeper, which also had
the longest and widest service record. Compared to light fighters the
Goalkeeper series had several advantages and disadvantages. They
weren’t as fast as interceptors but they were fast enough to keep up
with the groups that they had to defend. Their greater endurance
would allow them to keep station with a squadron as it moved on
its patrol routes, whilst the amenities onboard allowed for the crew
to prepare hot food and drinks as well as take lavatory breaks,
making them positively luxurious compared to a fighter. However,
Goalkeeper duty was quite unpopular with crews assigned to the
dumpy spheroid vessel. In short, life for Goalkeeper crews tended
to be boring. Once a ship jumped in system it would deploy its
Goalkeepers and they would patrol for hours on end with the only
‘excitement’ being refuelling from a shuttle. Such was the tedium
of these long, and often uneventful missions that some Captains
who had troublesome Aerospace pilots would assign them to a
Goalkeeper for a few weeks as a punishment duty.
Still, during battle the Goalkeeper system performed well, and
both crew and craft did not let their larger charges down. Indeed,
during the Reunification War, there were a considerable number
of cases where Goalkeeper crews interposed their craft between
Thankfully for many Goalkeeper crews, it turned out that the
usage of nuclear armed missiles was way lower than predicted
during the time of when the Goalkeeper was originally designed.
However, during engagements in where nuclear warheads were
used, Goalkeepers Defence Craft were a priority target for Fighters
and Naval Lasers.
The initial versions of the Goalkeeper Defence Craft were
deployed as part of the WODEN defence network around Terra,
these relied on primitive small chemical lasers. These lasers
were hard to maintain, toxic and explosive. When standard lasers
became available the design was quickly updated and brought into
production. In many cases the older Mk 2 and 3 Goalkeepers were
simply thrown overboard upon receiving the new models.
The design would receive some minor updates until it was
completely standardized in the Mark IV with its dozen small lasers
mounted on three gimbal mounts. This version quickly spread to all
known corners of space and became the default version of a defence
craft, with WarShip squadrons of every faction having at least a
dozen escorting them.
The SLDF, of course wanted to have their own variant and
came up with the Mark V which was never shared with the Houses
of the Star League. The Mark V refit was a comprehensive overhaul
of the hull, with increased cooling capabilities. Whilst the small
lasers were replaced with an equal number of AMS mounts. This
made the Mark V far more capable in its role and allowed for a
greater depth of defensive fire with multiple Goalkeeper’s being
able to mass fire against an inbound missile strike. The Mark V
craft also had the rather curious problem shared by its predecessors.
Although the AMS turrets were fully automated, the bow and stern
turrets were manned, and for the gunner to get out of them, the
mounting had to be locked into its ‘forwards’ position, otherwise
the gunner would not be able to get out of the back of the turret.
No known SLDF Goalkeeper survived the campaign to liberate
Terra, as SDS fighter drones designated Goalkeeper Defence Craft
as priority targets. Because of this, no examples were taken along
with the Exodus. The Goalkeeper also wasn’t brought back to
production by the Clans as they reject the use of nuclear weaponry,
thus making the design nearly unnecessary among the Clans.
85
As the Star League crumbled, the various Houses produced
more Goalkeeper’s for their respective fleets as construction of
Mechs, aerospace fighters and small craft surged to new heights.
This lasted as long as the peace did and during the First and
Second Succession Wars the Goalkeepers flying escort for House
WarShips suffered terrible losses and like the WarShip fleets of the
Inner Sphere were all but extinct save those in Belter and ComStar
service. Those that did remain with the Houses were taken by the
Military and acted as escorts for vital strategic targets like Recharge
stations or Monolith class JumpShips.
With the technical renaissance that swept the Inner Sphere after
the discovery of the Helm Memory Core, the Goalkeeper started
entering limited production once again. This spiked during the
Clan Invasion as the Houses built up WarShip fleets once again,
but changing doctrine saw many of these new WarShips built
with their own self defence batteries and thus limited the need for
Goalkeepers.
This changed during the Jihad where the use of atomics in naval
engagements became worryingly common and the threat of Blakist
Q-Ships seemed omnipresent. Produced in a panic, the Mark IV
and Mark V Goalkeeper would see service until the end of the Jihad
and remain in service to this day.
After the Jihad, Goalkeeper Defence Craft were relegated to
civilian authorities to serve as orbital debris sweepers. The accurate
lasers were very capable in this task of vaporizing small debris
that could cause problems for civilian traffic and infrastructure. In
cases of large pieces, the Goalkeeper could simple spend more time
vaporizing it away or the crew would attach cables to slowly tow it
away.
GOALKEEPER MK IV DEFENCE CRAFT
86
NOTABLE SHIPS - RADETZKY GROUP
More commonly known as R-Group, this squadron of six Goalkeeper Mark V’s was part of the expanded small ship complement aboard the SLS McKenna’s Pride the flagship of the
Commanding General’s Squadron and the ship that General Aleksandr Kerensky would call home for the duration of the Amaris Coup. Because of the importance of the McKenna’s Pride
the Goalkeepers of R-Group would not see much action but they were utterly dedicated and more than willing to lay their lives on the line for the Commanding General and the Star League.
R-Group saw action during the Battle for Terra during Operation CENTURION. As the McKenna’s Pride helped reduce the gun batteries of the Ozarks SDS position a battery of ground
mobile Killer Whale missile launchers which had evaded detection opened fire, launching two dozen missiles at the largest radar return they had.
Although the Goalkeepers performed superbly, one missile did break through the wall of shot thrown up by the AMS mounts on the craft. RG-3 fired its thrusters and rammed the damaged
missile before it could reach a detonation point and although the impact destroyed the Goalkeeper and the missile, the warhead did not trigger. For this brave act, the crew of RG-3 were all
posthumously promoted and the Medal of Valour.
GOALKEEPER MK IV DEFENCE CRAFT
87
PLEIADES SPACE FIGHTER
Length
29 meters
Displacement
175 tons
Crew complement
4
Armament
This varied over the years, but the common Mark XI was armed with the
following:
2 x Armstrong Mk 1109 ‘Buster’
rapid fire heavy autocannons
1 x Holly Series 81 ‘Rapier’ heavy
short range missile six shot rack.
During the days of the Terran Alliance there were no
Aerospace Fighters, the Fighters of that time were either designed
for use in space or for use in the atmosphere. The heaviest Space
Fighter ever build was the Pleiades Space-Fighter. Versions of
it continue to serve among various nations as a heavy combatant
for over a millennium. It was first introduced in 2102, where
massive numbers of these fighters were needed to provide full
coverage to all space assets in the Terran Solar System. During
their development, special attention was given to make them
easy to maintain and pilot in space, but this came at the cost of
atmospheric flight instability.
The Pleiades is easy to recognize, as it has a very particular
blocky look, with most of the main systems having clear sections.
Another exterior feature are the four wing-like booms, which
can be deployed in an X-configuration. Each of these booms
have a large number of directional thrusters to make dog fighting
in space easy. By modern standards the Pleiades is a ‘Smallcraft’ like the Lyonesse and Aquarius classes, but at their time of
introduction these large, formidable craft were ‘fighters’ as true
Aerospace fighters did not reach service until the late 2200’s.
Due to their unique layout, the Pleiades must take off and
land vertically and according to many pilots needed a turning
circle of roughly most of Siberia to do a 180 degree turn. The
Pleiades was one of the first examples of the school of thought
that anything will fly if enough thrust was applied, and whilst they
handled like a house in an atmosphere, the Pleiades was a potent
craft in the void of space.
The weapons package of the Pleiades has been reasonability
consistent for nearly a millennia. The main weapons are always
two large direct fire weapons, which are supported by either
missile launchers and/or a bomb bay. The earliest version of
the Pleiades Space-Fighter used primitive chemical lasers and
primitive missile systems. However as jamming technology
began to outpace missile guidance systems, these launchers were
quickly scrapped in the mark 2 for a larger bomb bay. The most
standard version of the craft and one that remained in service
until its replacement by Aerospace Fighters was armed with a
pair of hard hitting autocannons supported by a six-shot missile
rack for close in battles. This heavy armament combined with
the Pleiades’s heavy protection made it a prickly opponent. But
it was also woefully vulnerable to tailing with no rear firing
weapons, and Pleiades crew quickly learned to ‘snap turn’ their
fighter to remove any hostile fighter on their 6.
These fighters were also instrumental during the McKenna
coup. During this event, the Pleiades Space-Fighters loyal to
McKenna disabled or destroyed all the defence satellites what
were able to cross a specific orbit. This left the way clear for the
TAS Dreadnought to destroy two uninhabited islands. It was only
recently discovered by archaeologists that the site contained an
actual command complex for the orbital defence network. This
has also seemed to explain the disappearance of several of James
McKenna’s rivals.
The arrival of the far more efficient and flexible Aerospace
Fighters quickly relegated the Pleiades Space-Fighter to training
units. In this role it fared quite well, earning the respect of many
pilots. To this day most surviving Pleiades Space-Fighters are
used by military and civilian pilot training institutes.
Much later during the last days of the SLDF. The Royal
units of the Star League successfully lobbied for a Royal version
of the Pleiades Space-Fighter. This version uses Gauss Rifles,
an Artemis-enhanced LRM launcher, Ferro-aluminium armour
and double heat sinks. Most officers dismissed this variant as
wasteful, but it demonstrated its effectiveness during the Amaris
coup. In which Royal unit instructors used many this advanced
variant to escort the fleeing Royal Aerospace Cadre out of the Sol
system. The experienced instructors were able to destroy many
drones or lure them away until the Drones ran out of fuel.
Nowadays the standard Pleiades Space-Fighter is still being
88
produced by the various Belter groups, but it is rumoured that
some of them are producing the Royal variant for themselves.
Some states are known to still use Pleiades Space-Fighters
in combat, such as the Marian Hegemony and the Taurian
Concordat. Some also survive in Mercenary units where their
ease of repair and commonality of parts makes the craft a joy to
work on and maintain.
And there is also some intelligence to suggest that Clan
Goliath Scorpion might have refitted a large number of Pleiades
Space-Fighters with Clan technology, vastly increasing their
capabilities. This would allow the Scorpions to use the Pleiades
as a form of gunship in Trials but none have been seen by the Star
League representatives in Clan space since The Great Refusal.
PLEIADES SPACE FIGHTER
89
NOTABLE SQUADRON
VF-3 - Assigned to the TAS Dreadnought VF-3 was a 12-strong group of Pleiades that acted as fighter cover for the flagship of the Terran Alliance Navy. To serve as a crewman (or
woman) of VF-3 you had to be recommended by a units Commanding Officer as well as having an unimpeachable service record. All members of VF-3 were combat veterans and you had to
be an Ace and have scored a minimum of 5 kills in combat. This made VF-3 the elite of the elite and even when Aerospace fighters were introduced and the Dreadnought was refitted to carry
them, VF-3 retained their Pleiades out of a sense of tradition.
Like the Dreadnought herself, VF-3 was never retired and although it eventually became the final post for a select few veterans prior to retirement as a thank you from a grateful SLDF, the
unit was still combat ready and on December 27th, 2766 with Rim Worlds forces attacking the Sol system, the veterans of VF-3 launched to cover the Dreadnought as she withdrew to rearm.
With the Dreadnought now escorting dozens of civilian JumpShips out of the combat zone, she and her escorts from VF-3 fought a series of running battles against Rim World forces.
At Wyatt, the Dreadnought and her battered but still fully formed escorts found their nemesis, a Rim World fleet centred around a Monsoon class battleship. Outgunned and outnumbered
the Dreadnought and VF-3 fought to the last. Lt Colonel K. Thrace destroyed a Rim World Essex class destroyer in a ramming attack whilst the other Pleiades of VF-3 fought an
overwhelming number of RWN Drone fighters.
The gallant actions of VF-3 and the Dreadnought though allowed over 30 JumpShips and 60 DropShips to escape to Lyran space with thousands of civilians and military dependents
onboard.
PLEIADES SPACE FIGHTER
90
TRADER CLASS HEAVY FREIGHT SHUTTLE
Length
30 meters
Displacement
200 tons
Crew complement
3 enlisted/non-rated
Armament
Nil
Sensors
Commonly available civilian navigation and communications systems, often
a hodgepodge of different systems from different manufacturers and time
periods
The Trader Freight Shuttle is one of the oldest and most
common series of cargo carriers in the history of human space
travel. The Mk-1 debuted in the early 22nd century and the latest
version, being the Mk-10, came out during the Jihad. Throughout
its existence, the Trader has amassed a superb safety and reliability
record. With parts commonly available and powered by a rugged
GM-104B reactor the Trader can be repaired with duct tape, a
hammer and strong language. Unfortunately, the crew quarters are
on the simple side but as most cargo runs are fairly short in system
hops most crew don’t mind the fact that the quarters are little more
than simple bunks with little in the way of privacy or comfort.
The reason why this series of cargo hauler lasted this long is
that it specializes in the ability to carry massive amount of cargo
and because it is often completely ignored by the military. This
is because, with a few minor exceptions, it carries no weapons.
The lack of weapons means that is almost never used by military
forces, which often mandate a minimum amount of firepower for
their Small Craft. On rare occasions, it has been used for inserting
combat forces, but the required time for securing and unloading
units as cargo, and the lack of weapons for self-defence, make this a
very risky option.
The primitive Mk-1 to Mk-3 were the primary cargo transports
of their day, whenever technology improved, the design would be
improved to keep at the forefront of cargo capacity. The Trader
would only begin to be gradually displaced by Cargo DropShuttles
after these reached their maximum bay transportable size of 5000
tons. The Mk-4 was deemed a major milestone as it was the first in
its series with the ability to transport over 100 tons of cargo, this
became the norm for all following variants. The Mk-5 and Mk-6
mostly invested any freed tonnage into the fuel.
The first version to not use primitive technology was the Mk-7.
The use of standard technology freed up a large amount of weight,
which was then mostly invested into armour. With century’s worth
of engineering refinement in the design, it had reach a point of
extreme reliability and even to this day the Mk-7 is widely in use.
Both as a cargo distributor in the civilian sector and as a primary
transport in regions that aren’t deemed worthwhile enough for
DropShips.
In the more lawless regions of known space it often travels in
convoys, with either combat craft or with Q-variants of the Trader.
These variants add a gunner to the crew and sacrificed most of
their cargo space to mount either four LRM-20s or a gathering of
improvised weapons. These weapons would be hidden behind
the cargo doors until the enemy comes close enough for a reliable
salvo. Because of this most pirates will wait for the Trader to land
before trying to rob one.
At the end of the 27th century, the SLDF ordered a special
variant to be made for their own use. This Mk-8 uses a more
powerful engine at the expense of fuel and armour tonnage,
although the armour reduction was offset by the use of Ferro
armour. During the Succession Wars, the Mk-8s that had been
left behind were stripped of their Ferro armour and downgraded
to using standard armour. The Jihad era introduced a widespread
refit of these Mk-9s into Mk-10s. The Mk-10 upgrades the armour
to Heavy Ferro and the heatsinks to double strength type. It also
sacrifices some cargo space for advanced sensors systems and eight
concealed AMS systems.
The Trader Small Craft is in use by all space capable worlds
and the design has been part of the public commons for over half a
millennia. As such every aerospace company is allowed to produce
them and will do so upon request. In fact, the construction of a
Trader is often done as a training project for technicians.
Currently the most common version is the Mk-7. These are
especially popular for in-system trading, fleet-logistics and with
Behemoth DropShips. In combination with Behemoth DropShips
they are very effective in transferring large amount of cargo over a
large distance to multiple destinations. Because they are also very
affordable and reliable, they are also often used by solo operators
91
that hitchhike on commercial JumpShips.
The new Mk-10 is relatively rare and has so far only seen use
by the Great Houses and various Mega Corporations. These will
often transport valuable cargo or strike teams.
TRADER CLASS HEAVY FREIGHT SHUTTLE
92
NOTABLE SHIP: “LUCKY SEVEN”
In the distant past and for a short period, the Trader Small Craft was used as an improvised ‘Mech Transport for those that didn’t have access to proper ‘Mech carriers. A good example
would be the first known solo mercenary Mechwarrior “Lucky” Stingray. He piloted a salvaged Hegemony Mackie and was well known during his time. His Trader was the seventh Mk-7
ever build and it transported him for decades to many of the most dangerous battles of his day. During this time the Small Craft earned the nickname “Lucky Seven” as it always managed to
transport him safely to the battlefield and to safety during retreats. After he retired he sold his Trader to a museum.
Centuries later the “Lucky Seven” would be stolen from the museum and end up returning to the battlefield. In 2954 it became part of a massive pirate raid in where the pirates used a
Behemoth to mount an surprise raid. They moved their DropShip in orbit and then launched 20 Traders, each transporting a pirate BattleMech and some basic supplies. This surprise attack
didn’t work as, unfortunately for them, the local militia was tipped off and managed to hit the landing sites before the Pirates could fully disembark. The following battle killed nearly all the
pirates. The only Trader that was undamaged was “Lucky Seven” as it managed to escape the system. The surviving pirate later sold the “Lucky Seven” and went into hiding. Currently that
Trader is back in the museum but with tighter security.
TRADER CLASS HEAVY FREIGHT SHUTTLE
93
BLACKWATCH ‘OBSERVATION VESSEL’
Length
125 meters estimated
Displacement
6,200 tons estimated
Crew complement
Unknown
Armament
Unknown
Aerospace Complement
Unknown
Sensors
Unknown
A ship that officially never existed, the first official
acknowledgement of the class’s existence came in 3057 when
a pair of pictures of a previously unknown ship were found in
the ComStar archives. Although one, even with modern digital
enhancements was of poor quality, the other was a profile shot
and it gave the Inner Sphere the first look at one of House
Cameron’s most ‘Black’ projects.
What little data that was found in the ComStar archives
indicate that the so called Blackwatch class spy ship was an
evolution of the already hyper advanced and specialised BugEye class spy ship and indeed the Blackwatch does seem to be
based on the same hull as the Bug-Eye. But unlike the BugEye which relied on looking like other ships, the Blackwatch
apparently relied on the first true attempts at stealth systems for
a WarShip.
With its very unusual hull shape that is shaped and curved
to reduce radar and LIDAR bounces, the Blackwatch appears to
be covered in an unknown hull plating that we can only assume
was part of the ships dedicated stealth systems.
Even the engine design is unique and very different by even
modern standards. Instead of a large thruster, the drive nozzle
is broken down into lots of smaller vents surrounded by super
coolers and ion emitters. We can only assume that this was
to reduce the ship’s thermal signature, whilst the ship’s hull
form and outer layers were designed to deflect or absorb radar
emissions it could be that the Hegemony did develop an actual
working stealth vessel.
A partial record found in the archives also gave hints about
a form of powerful radar/LIDAR sensor that could possibly fool
both systems by measuring the frequencies and broadcasting
down them, that might, in theory make a radar or LIDAR
system not register a ‘hit’ with a sweep. It was not known if this
project was successful but it could have been integrated into the
Blackwatch class.
The single clear image of the Blackwatch also shows it
having its sensors and receivers capable of being made flush
with the hull or hidden behind retracting panels. Its small
size means that it could not have a grav-deck and we can only
extrapolate how it might deploy and carry out its missions.
Like a Bug-Eye class vessel, a Blackwatch would probably
jump in system with another larger vessel, using its jump flare
to mask its own. It could then drift in system to its target
before deploying an advanced array of sensors to obtain the
information it needed.
It can also be assumed that this could be carried out with
the aid of the infamous Blackhearts, the SLDF’s elite covert
intelligence gathering force.
94
BLACKWATCH ‘OBSERVATION VESSEL’
95
NOTABLE INCIDENT
The so-called Jupiter Incident in 2764 has remained a mystery to this day. Although with the discovery of the Blackwatch class, it might come closer to being solved. In March of 2764 a
notable Diplomat belonging to the Rim Worlds Republic was found ‘lost’ inside ‘The Citadel’, a primary SDS control centre on Terra. Arrested and imprisoned, the young First Lord ordered
his immediate release from his cell on Mars.
The RWS Gods Gauntlet, a Pinto class corvette, was ordered to carry the diplomat to Terra and she was in turn escorted by the SLS Star of Hope a Lola III class destroyer. During the trip
from Mars to Terra, the Star’s data logs showed a very faint sensor echo ahead of the Gods Gauntlet before the Pinto class vessel erupted in a thermonuclear fireball, the blast being at least two
megatons in scale.
The blast seemed to have come from the engine compartment of the Pinto, but there was no warning or indication of any engine distress before the ship exploded.
The unexplained explosion and the destruction of the Gods Gauntlet along with her entire crew deep in the Sol system, did cause a stir and was the subject of several inquiries but they
found no evidence and put it down to a terrible accident and a fault with the Pinto’s magnetic containment fields.
BLACKWATCH ‘OBSERVATION VESSEL’
96
DAUNTLESS CLASS DESTROYER ESCORT
Length
537 meters
Displacement
400,000 tons
Crew complement
248
Armament
2 x Lockheed-Vospers Series 8
‘Flamberge’ Light Naval Gauss
28 x KAW Series 9 Large Pulse
Laser
4 x SSM-1200 Mod 6a ‘Killer
Whale’ Missile launch systems
14 x KAW ‘Fur burner’ mod 2 Large
lasers
16 x SSM-550 Mod 7d ‘Barracuda’
Missile VLS silos
10 x KAW Series 3 Medium Lasers
21 x McArthur II Anti-missile
32 x Omicron Series 77 35cm Naval
systems
Lasers
Aerospace Complement
4 x Small craft
Sensors
SN/SP-Y7801D SPAEGIS 3D
phased active and passive scanning
array
MST-2K Long and short ranged
secure communications with HPG
uplink
SN/SP-Y101 ‘Millennium’ Fire
control with SPAEGIS slave link
JY-2010 ‘Bullhorn’ active multifrequency adaptive broad and
narrowband ECM
The NEP, or New Escort Programme, was originally meant to
produce a completed hull by 2760 but bureaucratic delays and then a
strike by shipyard workers delayed construction until 2765 when the
first of the class was laid down at the Titan Yards in the Sol system.
With the House militaries bolstering their fleets the SLDF viewed
swarms of fighters and assault DropShips as the primary threat
to their massed WarShip fleets. Hard won experience from the
Reunification War showed that fighters were a serious threat to
WarShips and were cheap to produce and replace, and large numbers
of fighters with nuclear missiles could threaten even the largest
battleship.
The NEP programme put forwards tenders to produce a small
destroyer sized vessel that would be capable of engaging swarms
of fighters and DropShips with capital scale weapons. It was to be
small, fast and heavily armed, a pure gunboat which were quite rare
in SLDF service. Of the six tenders put forwards, the SLDF selected
the Krester Ship Construction design for their NDE/01 design.
Blisteringly fast, thanks to their quartet of Churchill 9000 series
engines, the new ship would be the fastest vessel in the fleet outside
the few Lyran designed Mako’s in service, it could pull up to 4g’s
of sustained thrust. This large amount of thrust allowed the ship
to interpose itself between an incoming fighter strike or give it the
capability to move round a convoy quickly to bring its guns to bare
on any threat.
Armed with thirty-two 35cm Naval lasers in quadruple turret
mounts with the latest fire control allowed them to engage targets as
small as fighters out to many hundreds of kilometres. Another layer
of anti-fighter weapons is sixteen Barracuda missiles launch systems
in VLS silos. One feature of the NDE/01 was a large magazine
that was purely developed for ‘special weapons’, SLDF parlance
for nuclear warheads that could be fitted to the Barracudas. When
authorized for deployment, a single warhead would be able to take
out an entire squadron or damage multiple groups of fighters, or
obliterate a DropShip. But each missile as standard was fitted with
an explosive ‘starburst’ warhead. This would detonate the missile a
few kilometres from a fighter group, showering the area with a cloud
of explosive charges and tungsten projectiles that would be lethal to
a fighter. There were also the more traditional kinetic kill warheads
for use against heavy fighters.
At the shortest of ranges a mixture of large pulse lasers and
medium lasers were backed up by an extensive AMS battery. The
clusters of AMS mountings could screen friendly ships from
inbound missile strikes which was the NDE/01’s second role.
Finally, for anti-shipping work the ship had a pair of light naval
gauss rifles as well as a quartet of heavy White Shark missile launch
systems which could also be used in the anti-fighter role.
The key to the ship’s performance was the very advanced
SPAEGIS (SPace Advanced Electronic Guidance and Information
System) computer system and its associated programme developed
by Nirasaki Computers Collective and Vospers-Electric the
SPAEGIS system could receive data from friendly vessels and even
suitably upgraded fighters or shuttles. It could then coordinate fire
to ensure that there weren’t multiple weapons engaging the same
target. It could also direct missiles at all aspects of their approach
and direct them to an unengaged target. When combined with the
quick reacting turret mounts of the destroyers’ lasers, the Dauntless
class could easily engage fighters well beyond their engagement
envelope.
Unfortunately, this firepower came at a cost. With just over
97
17,000 tons of cargo, the ship was not capable of long voyages
and her crew quarters were cramped and uncomfortable. Only
the Captain and XO had single occupancy rooms, whilst the other
Officers and senior personnel shared 2 man bunks. The crew and
the small detachment of Marines were ‘treated’ to 6 man bunks. The
ship also lacked a grav-deck, making her only capable of creating
gravity through thrust. But crew comforts aside, the biggest
drawback was the ship’s cooling system. The cooling system
for the weapons could barely withstand the heat generated by a
broadside, and if attacked from multiple angles, the NDE/01 could
be vulnerable. Their small size and limited cargo bay also meant
they could not be fitted with a Lithium-Fusion battery, which in turn
limited their strategic mobility.
These flaws aside, the class was ordered and the initial batch of
24, with four outfitted as Squadron leaders, were in service when
the Amaris Coup took place on Terra. Unaware of the small ships
capabilities, the Rim World forces and the SDS system under their
control suffered heavily, but, by the time of the assault on the Sol
System, only eight of the ships were still intact. And all but one died
in the Battle for the Sol system with the last, the SLS Good Hope
being scuttled after being abandoned and picked clean for parts.
DAUNTLESS CLASS DESTROYER ESCORT
98
NOTABLE SHIP
The SLS Destiny’s Road was assigned to the 4th Fleet as the close escort of the SLS Texas the fleet flagship. During the Liberation of Caver V, the 4th Fleet was forced to move in system
whilst facing heavy attacks from CASPAR Drones as well as a squadron of Rim World WarShips. The Texas and her escort group came under heavy attack from Black Wasp and Voidseeker
drone fighters and with her own fighters already engaged the Texas was exposed to the strike until the Destiny’s Road moved to engage. The established doctrine called for the Dauntless
class to engage at extreme range but the Road’s Captain instead took her ship on a course to engage the inbound Drones in a head-on pass. As the range dropped, the first volley of Barracuda
missiles was armed with nuclear warheads. When the sensors cleared, dozens of Drones had been destroyed but they now made the small escort ship a priority target.
Between her normal weapons and nuclear tipped missiles the Destiny’s Road’s destroyed over sixty fighters before they started their attack runs. The Voidseeker and BlackWasp series of
Drones were programmed to sacrifice themselves if needed and eight slammed into the Destiny’s Road’s flanks, wrecking two turrets and disabling one engine. By the time fighters from the
142nd Air Group arrived, the destroyer was badly damaged but she had destroyed a total of eighty-six fighters and saved the Texas from attack.
The heavily damaged Destiny’s Road’s was partially repaired and would travel to Terra in Operation CENTURION and acted as escort for the DropShips heading in system.
Unfortunately, the ship had stressed her cooling systems so badly during the Assault on Carver V that she suffered system failures and had to be abandoned. The hulk was later recovered
by Belter surveyors and slowly stripped for parts and material over the next ten years. One of her quad turrets still exists as a defensive emplacement on a Belter colony asteroid.
DAUNTLESS CLASS DESTROYER ESCORT
99
ENDEAVOUR CLASS EXPLORER
Length
610 meters
Displacement
500,000 tons
Crew complement
423
Armament
2 x Hellion ‘Magnetar’ Series 18
55cm Naval Lasers
2 x SSM-900 White Shark Missile
Launch Systems
16 X Donnal Mod 8 PPC’s
16 x Martell Mod 4 Medium Lasers
16 x Armstrong series 3 light
autocannons
Aerospace Complement
12 x Small craft/shuttles
2 x DropShip Collars
Sensors
Series 189 ‘Daedalus’ Long range
multi-phased sensors with Hubble
Series 7 Long range optical sensor
interlink
Series 201 ‘Kepler’ ultra-cool long
range thermal imaging system
Series 700 ‘Galileo’ Multi-frequency
radio telescope and communications
array
Type 1 ‘Newton’ Gravitation and
mass sensor
The Endeavour class started as a design in the period of peace
after the Reunification War and was originally designed to be the
next generation of SLDF spy ship. But as budgets tightened after
the War and money was poured into rebuilding efforts, the funding
for the expensive design dried up.
After 15 years in financial limbo, the funding was finally
authorised for a new class of vessel but the role had changed. With
the Reunification War over, and the Star League enjoying a boom
time with the money in taxes being raked from the Periphery
states money and resources were flowing into the League at a near
unheard of rate.
Whilst the Navy was getting new warships and facilities, the
men and women of Exploration Command dusted off the initial
plan for a spy craft and decided they wanted a piece of the funding
pie. Still, the wrangling for such a craft took a further three years
and was finally approved with the support of the Navy who also had
a role for the ship.
What emerged was a 610-meter-long vessel massing 500,000
tons, and despite the money spent on her she looked curiously
old fashioned. A massive interlinked rotating section dominated
the ship’s profile, sticking out of the hull much like the Taurian’s
Wagon Wheel class except instead of being lots of smaller gravdecks this was one huge rotating mass. Technically it was four
grav-decks as at the main hull level there was also a bulge out of
the rotating ring forming a rough cross shape. The lower gravdeck 96 meters in diameter whilst the primary one was 175
meters. This massive array of grav-decks was designed to give the
maximum amount of room in a gravity positive or micro-gravity
environment. Filled with science and research labs, hydroponic
bays, hazmat storage as well as the spacious crew quarters the
large grav-deck was also a technicians’ maintenance nightmare. If
something went wrong you had to access the rotating systems from
within the primary hull and work ‘under’ them, whilst the gravdeck was turned off. The grav-deck’s exposed nature also made it
vulnerable to damage but it was felt that the ships research nature
would keep it away from any threats.
Still this did not stop it being armed for self-defence with a
mixture of Mech scale weapons that were more than enough to
drive off any overly bold pirates as well as a pair of lasers in the
bow section that were part weapon, part research tool. The NL-55’s
would be used to carve up asteroids and comets for salvage and
inspection and the ships dozen shuttles and small craft could pick
up chunks of rock to be brought aboard for investigation.
Another interesting system was the pair of White Shark missile
launchers. But instead of firing a missile, they could launch multiton probes that would allow them to study dangerous objects at a
distance.
With over 120,000 tons devoted to cargo space as well as
carrying 366 days’ worth of food and water, the Endeavour was
built for long range missions and every inch of her hull space
was used with nothing going to waste. The large ‘hammerhead’
bow section was packed with a wide range of highly advanced
imaging and data retrieval systems ranging from long range thermal
and optical telescopes to thermal spectrographs and supercooled
spectrometers as well as advanced laser imaging and measuring
systems. It was also a very ‘happy coincidence’ that these systems
could also study objects in near space, such as shipyards, works on
a planet as well as being able to pick up radio transmissions across
a huge spectrum of frequencies.
100
Thus, the SLDF got a spy ship as well in the new science
vessel. In the initial twelve months of service each ship would
cruise round Hegemony space or the space of various House lords
to carry out scientific missions, often looking at a systems primary
Star. This included a two-month long survey of the Canopus
system, investigating the massive Blue giant that dominated the
system. That the ship during this time also ‘happened’ to listen to
secure communications between various members of the Canopian
leadership was purely coincidental.
The ship’s biggest problem though was the sheer expense of
fitting them out. With their advanced labs and research systems
being near unique to each ship with them having to be installed
and calibrated by dedicated teams of specialists. Each ship also
‘consumed’ many well-trained scientists and data analysts in their
crew and many research groups, projects and foundations resented
their best and brightest being ‘borrowed’ for exploration duty.
The sheer cost of the Endeavour Class eventually limited
the construction to just four vessels from a planned ten. The
SLS Hawking, Einstein, Averroes and C. Sagan. Whilst they
proved successful in their roles the class seemed to suffer from
bad luck. The Hawking on a deep space trip to Rigel ceased
reporting in and was presumed lost with all hands to unknown
circumstances. A similar fate befell the C. Sagan who stopped
reporting in whilst exploring to the ‘south West’ of Marik
space. The Einstein was caught up in the Amaris Civil War and
performed admirably as a spy vessel and communications ship
before being strafed and then rammed by a Vulcan aerospace fighter
which started a serious internal fire which gutted the ship.
The Averroes like the Einstein was used as a command and
control vessel and vanished with General Kerensky’s forces,
although there are no records of a ship matching her description in
Clan service, it is assumed she was lost or scrapped.
ENDEAVOUR CLASS EXPLORER
101
NOTABLE SHIP
Due to their somewhat sedentary nature, the Endeavour’s never accumulated much acclaim outside of scientific circles, and of course Military Intelligence. Still, their findings did improve
things like HPG reliability and clarity when very dense objects like White Dwarfs and Neutron Stars were found to not only warp space-time but also hyperspace. Several major experiments
into Dark Matter and Dark Energy also helped with man’s understanding of Hyperspace although many theories brought up by this research were eventually sequestered by ComStar and are
still secured to this day.
ENDEAVOUR CLASS EXPLORER
102
ONSLAUGHT CLASS ASSAULT FRIGATE
Length
767 meters
Displacement
760,000 tons
Crew complement
555
Armament
2 x Iota 99SR Light Repeating Naval 54 x Nu 7HH 20cm Sub-Capital
Gauss
Lasers
6 x Series 12SR ‘Winchester’ 55cm
Naval Pulse Lasers
8 x Beta Series 2DS Medium NPPC
40 x Series 7.5DS ER Large laser
24 x Chi Pattern 3 Mod 2 HAG-40’s
32 x Beamsplitter LAMS
Aerospace Complement
20 x Aerospace fighters and 10 Small 2 DropShip Collars
Craft
Sensors
Omega-18 Long range broad-band
3D phased scanning array
Series Lambda ‘Osis Roar’ Primary
Multi-spectrum ECM/ECCM
Series Gamma-9 ‘Sans Pareil’ laser
assisted Fire Control with active
jamming tracking and homing
When the True Clan’s NWP (New Warship Program) started to
crystallize from ideas, thought exercises and debates into a more
solid series of vessels the need was seen for a smaller ship to be
put into service. Whilst the Arbitration class battleship was truly
formidable and the still to be named battlecruiser was promising,
not every Clan had the resources or yard facilities to produce such
large vessels. By the decree of the Council of the Khans the Arbiter
class would only be built in the yards over Tukkayid to prevent a
run-away arm race the option to build a smaller vessel was called
for by the Council.
Many of the Clans had a gamut of older Star League era vessels
and without significant refits they were simply sliding more and
more into obsolescence with their lightly built hulls no longer being
suitable for combat against the growing navies of the Successor
States. Whilst the Dominion rolled out their Bergen class escort
and then promptly refused to share the design (much like the
Leviathan series) the Scientists opted for a ship of roughly the
same size. It was a Nova Cat Scientist voicing her admiration for
a vessel as large as the Congress class that made the design grow,
whilst a former Hellion now in Horses service pressed for the ship
to be better armed and faster than the old Congress.
Two weeks of discussion, debate, argument and counter
argument eventually gave rise to a sleek ship that was quite unlike
any preceding frigate type ship. In the past, the frigate served as a
patrol ship and convoy escort, the new design was built to engage
WarShips and DropShips at high speed and disable or destroy them
before they could respond.
And unlike other SLDF era vessels the new design was built
to engage targets from the front and that’s where the majority of
its firepower would be mounted. The core of the ship’s firepower
would be a pair of Repeating Naval Gauss Rifles or ‘reapers’ as
they were sometimes known. Supporting this would be two clusters
of three naval pulse lasers 55’s from Clan Snow Raven. Whilst
mounted in the front left and right quarters of the ship the hull was
shaped in such a way to allow all six lasers to fire over the bow, but
only on limited arcs, the ship’s Captain would have to ‘centerline’ a
target to allow all the lasers to engage.
Two turrets mounting medium naval PPC’s would be mounted
on each broadside but the ships other weapons would be clusters of
newly developed Sub Capital lasers. Whilst they had been in use
by the House Lords for decades, the Clans had avoided the weapons
but faced with the reality of large, tough and well-armed assault
DropShips that could threaten a WarShip, the sub capital weapons
were seen as a viable alternative vs heavy capital ship weapons and
their potency against DropShips could not be denied.
Anti-fighter defences were stressed by a Dominion
representative and a mixture of HAG and laser’s would cover the
ships firing arcs whilst a strong AMS would protect the vessel
against missiles.
Like the Congress the craft carried a pair of DropShip collars
as well as having berths for 20 aerospace fighters and ten small
craft. The ship also had room for a large complement of Marines
or Elementals for boarding actions and self defence. Whilst cargo
space was a bit light, the ship was built as an attack ship, not a
patrol craft and this was not seen as a drawback. The trio of huge
GRB-2000 thrusters gave the considerable speed for a craft its size,
being able to sustain a 4g burn that matched the ancient Kimagure
class. Although such bursts were brutal on the crew they gave the
ship the speed and agility it needed to control the engagement and
bring its guns to bear.
103
ONSLAUGHT CLASS ASSAULT FRIGATE
104
NOTABLE SHIPS
Unfortunately as the first ship has only just entered service with the Hells Horses Tourman, the single ship CHH Thunder on the Mountain has yet to prove herself beyond her initial trials
and tests of her guns.
ONSLAUGHT CLASS ASSAULT FRIGATE
105
THRESHER CLASS HEAVY CRUISER
Length
610 meters
Displacement
500,000 tons
Crew complement
423
Armament
24 x Republic Type 42 ‘Thunder’
Medium Naval autocannons
6 x Krupp’s Weapon Works Pattern
311 45cm Naval Lasers
12 x Republic Type 34 ‘Tremor’
Medium Naval Autocannons
32 x RAW ‘Starstreak’ Type 4a
LRM-20 missile launch systems
16 x RAW-411 ‘Blue Streak’ Killer
Whale heavy naval missile launch
systems
16 x Stolz Harbinger 4a Particle
Cannons
8 x RAW-250 ‘Swingfire’ Barracuda
interceptor naval missile launch
systems
32 x Firefly Type 1a Small lasers
Aerospace Complement
18 x Fighters
Long range firepower was provided by sixteen Killer Whale
missiles, eight on each broadside and these missiles were often
armed with nuclear warheads, making a barrage from a Thresher a
threat to any vessel or station.
The Olympus MG-2000 engines were bulky but powerful
units, and could propel the Thresher in short sprints of up to
2.5g making them faster than the Aegis the ship was meant to
equal. Unfortunately, these engines were also exceptionally
maintenance intensive and consumed fuel at a far higher rate than
was expected. The fuel tanks for the Thresher were also poorly
placed making refuelling them a slow and drawn out process.
ostensibly designed to patrol and protect the Rim Worlds Republic
and there was no need for a large cargo capacity for long range
missions. With the growing friendship between Stefan Amaris and
First Lord Richard Cameron expanded and the ‘country bumpkin’
from the Periphery got more power and influence within the
Terran Hegemony, Amaris used this to allow for a subclass of the
Thresher to be constructed.
With access to the vast industrial strength of the Hegemony
and Corporate and Political leaders despairing of the
mismanagement by Lord Richard, Amaris called in favours with
Krupp’s to allow the purchase, at cost, of enough lasers to arm
six Thresher class ships under construction with enough lasers to
complete the class as was originally designed. Labelled the Tiger
Shark class Battlecruiser they were seen as command ships and
until the completion of the first Stefan Amaris class battleships,
these ships were the pride and joy of the Rim Worlds Navy, acting
as flagships despite the addition of several old Monsoon class ships
from the Hegemony reserves, courtesy of the First Lord.
4 x DropShip docking collars
6 x Small Craft
Sensors
Roe Systems MG-29-A Long range
active and passive Radar/LIDAR
array
the Rim Worlds Republic now lacked the capacity to build the
large number of focusing arrays and lenses needed for the original
planned armament of large numbers of naval lasers. Instead
these were replaced with a greater number of hard hitting naval
autocannons. Cheaper to produce and easier to maintain, the
autocannons were a natural fit.
106
Roe Systems Tangerine-004A Long
and short range communications
array
Roe Systems HX671 Primary fire
TW-801a ‘Bull Roar’ Active multicontrol systems with TW-100e ‘Bull
frequency ECM
Snort’ ECCM
Like the Aegis class the Thresher had four dropship collars and
berths for eighteen fighters as well as half a dozen small craft.
The hangers were placed well towards the stern of the ship,
adjoining the engine section but this also made the Threshers
exceptionally difficult to land fighters on. Standard procedure was
to bring the cruiser to a complete stop and let craft coming in to
land come in backwards onto their waiting launch racks.
Designed during the reign of Gregory Amaris, albeit in secret,
the design was meant to equal any Hegemony cruiser in existence
and during that period, it meant the Aegis class cruiser as well as
the common and popular Dart class light cruiser. But to appear
compliant with the Star League’s wishes and not wanting to
provoke them during the aftermath of the Reunification War the
cruiser was never laid down and instead the design languished
until Stefan Amaris came to power.
This was far from ideal and could not be done in combat and
incidences of aerospace fighters crashing or suffering damage
on landing were uncommonly high on the Thresher class. The
Threshers usually carried a full group of Vulcan fighters and this
had its own problems. The large amount of ammunition needed to
‘bomb up’ the Vulcan’s was stored in an armoured magazine near
the hangar decks, which in turn was adjacent to one of the poorly
placed fuel tanks for the thirsty engines and the area around the
hangar magazines became a primary target and weak-point for the
class.
Laid down in the yards that had once produced the Pinto
class corvette the Thresher design was altered quite radically. In
addition to Mech scale weapons being added for anti-fighter
defences, the Cruisers armament was completely revised. Unlike
the Republic during the period leading up to the Reunification War,
Over a thousand tons of Ferro-Carbide armour gave the
Threshers a sturdy hide equal to many SLDF Battlecruiser designs
whilst heavy structural bracing made the hull capable of taking
heavy damage, but also limited the grav-decks size and cargo
capacity. But this was not seen as a negative. The Thresher was
Twenty Threshers and four Tiger Sharks were complete by the
start of the coup, the two part finished Tiger Shark’s formed part
of the orbital defences around Apollo whilst the Threshers helped
secure the Hegemony during the coup. The battles for the Sol
System were hard on the class, and four Threshers and one Tiger
Shark were destroyed in the space battles for the Hegemony.
One ship the RWS Perdition’s Flame was captured by the
SLDF during the drive on Terra and the ship was repaired and took
part in the final battles for the Hegemony, being lost to a nuclear
missile over New Earth. The last ship of the class the Tiger Shark
RWS Stefan’s Audacity was in orbit over Terra herself and was
thought to be a possible evacuation craft for ‘Emperor’ Amaris,
her engines crippled the ship fell into the atmosphere and partially
burned up, the ruined hulk splashing down in the Indian Ocean.
THRESHER CLASS HEAVY CRUISER
107
NOTABLE SHIP
The RWS Vendetta was one of the last Thresher’s to be complete and enter service with the Rim Worlds Navy before the coup, but her short career was one marked by terrible
violence. Tasked with subduing Caph the Vendetta’s Captain ordered nuclear strikes against several civilian and non-military targets to ‘ensure compliance with His Majesty’s wishes’. The
Vendetta also destroyed a civilian DropShip full of refugees, and it was this act which made her a prime target for the forces at Freedom Station.
The forces under Admiral Rummolo learned the Vendetta would be refuelling at a hastily set up orbital station near Caph II and planned an assault. An all-out attack was not feasible due
to the number of Rim World forces in system, so instead a more subtle but no less effective plan was hatched. A stolen Rim World shuttle was to be used to smuggle a nuclear device onto the
station and destroy both it and any docked ships. Captain W.J. Blazkowicz volunteered to lead the mission with two other volunteers.
Through an incredible mix of bluff and good luck the Shuttle was able to dock and refuel before unloading her cargo for the crew and departing.
At 1745 local time the RWS Vendetta moved to dock with the refuelling station and at 1800, the nuke went off, destroying the station, the Vendetta as well as half a dozen DropShips.
THRESHER CLASS HEAVY CRUISER
108
ANTARES CLASS FLEET TENDER
Length
808 meters
Displacement
830,000 tons
Crew complement
550 with room for 1000 passengers
Armament
18 x SSM-550 ‘Barracuda’ Missile
launch systems
30 x Holly Series 4 LRM-20s with
Artemis
30 x Blankenburg Mod 4 Large pulse 30 x McArthur II Mod 3 AMS
lasers
Aerospace Complement
6 x DropShip Collars
Mech’s, rifles, ammunition, food, water, fuel and spare parts for
anything from portable toilets to warships autocannon barrels.
Of course to carry this, the ship had to be large and the
cruiser sized Antares would easily rival the Avatar class in terms
of length and displacement with the Antares being 60 meters
longer.
On the port and starboard hull a large array of arms and
linkages could allow the ship to hard dock with another vessel
to transfer supplies over as well as allowing her to operate like
a tug to tow a disabled vessel if needs be. There was also an
extensive housing system to allow the transfer of fuel or water
from huge liquid storage tanks.
48 x Small craft
Sensors
Series 42 Herakles 3D active search
array
Series 21 Mod 77 ‘Hyperion’ long
range communications suite
Series 33 ‘Cap Trafalgar’ Broadband
active jammer
Series 49 ‘Carmania’ Active tracking
and LIDAR Fire control
The Reunification War showed that the SLDF was
not prepared for long distance campaigns and long term
deployments. With repair facilities and stockpiles of material
far away in Hegemony space, the SLDF was forced to either
build facilities to support offensives or rely on inferior House
yards with an increased risk of espionage and sabotage.
Whilst fixed facilities like orbital docks were the most
effective means of repairing a ship, they were also the most
vulnerable, and building one took months, which meant that
damaged vessels were without proper facilities until it was
completed.
To cure this, the SLDF developed the first YardShips with
the Liparius class but whilst these ships were capable something
more was needed. Instead of a dedicated mobile repair yard,
a new design emerged that would act as a support vessel with
a large grav-deck for crews to be able to relax in, as well as
carrying a huge amount of supplies from crated fighters to
The ship enjoyed a single large grav-deck much like that of
the later Potemkin class and this was also used as a hospital with
multiple surgery theatres with beds for hundreds of injured. In
times of peace the ship could also act as a disaster relief
ship, replacing Mechs and fighters with rescue vehicles and
construction equipment.
The ship was rather lightly armed in terms of capital
weaponry but it was heavily protected against fighter attacks as
well as having a layered anti-missile system to protect against
ship and fighter launched missiles.
Whilst extremely specialised the design was approved
alongside the Liparius class and both would be seen as welcome
additions to the fleet. But the sheer specialised nature of the
Antares class limited its usefulness in the eyes of those who
controlled the budget. The ship was expensive to build and
maintain and was not a WarShip in most bureaucrats’ eyes but
an over large transport whose role outside of wartime did not
justify their cost. With other wrangling over the budget this
cut short the Antares programme after only 21 ships had been
completed out of a planned 50.
Deployed when large scale exercises were carried out, the
Antares class spent most of their time in and out of orbit round
Hegemony worlds or in orbit over developing worlds acting as a
mobile command centre until ground facilities were completed.
The ‘tag-team’ of the Antares and Liparius class with each
109
ship performing a specific role was at its core, inefficient. But, it
did highlight the usefulness of such craft that could repair ships
and maintain their crews and assist other ships. This lead to
studies into making a single hull that could do both, that would
eventually result in the huge Newgrange class.
Because of their rear echelon role many of the class were
spared having to fight the CASPAR drones but those that were
caught were classed as priority targets due to their strategic
nature, despite this 11 survived the War to help with the
reconstruction efforts but when it was obvious that the House
Lords would not listen to the SLDF and Operation EXODUS
was ordered the class, bar the SLS Aquitania who remained in
the Sol system, deactivated as part of the Titan yards, left with
General Kerensky.
The Aquitania served as a maintenance vessel and helped
with cleaning up the Sol system of wreckage and debris and
the ship was still active when Jerome Blake seized the Sol
system. She would continue to service ComStar’s hidden fleet
but was finally retired to an undisclosed location when the first
Faslane class entered service.
ANTARES CLASS FLEET TENDER
110
NOTABLE SHIP
The SLS Gran Grifón was part of the 7th Fleet and was the first ship to arrive at the stricken world of Ko which had suffered a super-volcanic eruption. Unloading her cargo, the Gran
Grifón was used as an evacuation ship taking on the citizens from several towns and at one point had a massive 6000 people crammed on board until more vessels arrived to ease the burden.
The Gran Grifón’s crew were also the first down on Ko to help fight fires and rescue those who could not initially evacuate. Working 18 hour days the Gran Grifón’s crew is credited with
saving another 2000 lives.
The SLS Gran Grifón departed the Inner Sphere with General Kerensky’s forces, carrying many dependents and family members but her final fate is unknown.
ANTARES CLASS FLEET TENDER
111
FEARLESS CLASS ASSAULT SHIP
Length
1,100 meters
Displacement
1,310,000 tons
Crew complement
553
Armament
2 x Whirlwind Series A195 Medium 4 x Luxor-175 Light Naval
Naval Autocannons
Autocannons
20 x Ceres-N Mod 87 ‘Flare’
Medium Naval Particle Cannons
16 x SSM-285 ‘Barracuda’ Missile
Systems
32 x Magna ‘Nova’ Series 11 45cm
Naval Lasers
Aerospace Complement
12 x Aerospace fighters
14 x DropShip docking collars
12 x Small craft
Sensors
LSI Type 42 Long and short range
multi-band LIDAR array
KAT-661 Long range multi-channel
communications array
LSI Type 9 auto-tracking long range
gunnery systems
NCC Mod 33 ‘Bull Roar’ active and
passive ECM
During the Reunification War, the nascent SLDF found to its
cost that JumpShips were vulnerable and little more than barely
mobile targets and the loss of a large JumpShip and its DropShip
cargo could adversely affect a whole campaign.
Whilst Warships did carry dropships, these were mostly assault
DropShips for their own defence and space superiority, leaving the
job of hauling troops to JumpShips which in turn required heavy
escorting, taking units away from the fleet and front lines.
The Admiralty put forwards tenders for a large ‘troop carrier
warship’ that would be able to carry a large number of DropShips as
well as be able to defend itself from hostile ships that usually went
JumpShip hunting, normally destroyers, frigates and corvettes.
Blue Nosed Clipperships put forwards a design for what they
called an ASDC (Assault Ship Docking Collar) design. Based
on the Monsoon class battleship’s hull the design featured 14
DropShips collars in two groups of seven, running in a row along
the ship’s spine and belly.
The interior was also heavily reconfigured to replace the
Monsoon’s trio of grav-decks with a pair of 85 meter grav-decks
filling out most the interior. The aerospace compliment was also
altered, reduced to 12 fighters but also capable of carrying 12 small
craft or shuttles. The weapons fit was also radically altered with
most the autocannon based weapons being removed save the bow
and fore/aft quarter autocannons albeit with the weapons being
reduced in calibre.
The missile launchers were also altered and replaced with
Barracuda launchers to deal with smaller and more agile targets
with eight launchers being carried (two on each fore and aft
quarter). The broadside autocannon turrets and associated
ammunition were replaced with four turrets, each mounting a
quartet of mid-sized naval lasers. The bow and stern quarter
Medium Naval PPC’s were also retained. The lasers increased the
ship’s heat load significantly and extensive improvements were
made to the weapons cooling systems allowing for the ship to fire
roughly 75% of its armament without heat issues.
It had been planned to fit the ships with a Lithium-Fusion
battery but the expense of this very new piece of equipment and
tightening budgets meant that it could not be fitted, although space
was set aside for it to be added.
Completed after the Reunification War, the first Fearless class
ASD left her slip at Titan to begin trials with the fleet. The odd
number of docking collars was initially seen as strange but instead
the ship was permanently assigned two DropShips for self-defence
purposes whilst the other twelve would be used to carry troop and
Mech carrying vessels. Although slow and ponderous to answer the
helm the class was not meant to take part in the battle line unless
something had gone very wrong, and war-games found that the
ship could handily defend itself against destroyer’s or other smaller
faster craft attacking it.
Unfortunately, the computer systems required repeated
overhauls to fix targeting issues with the new programmes that
would allow the mountings to engage small craft. Electrical
gremlins also were common with the class having to run their
reactors at 105% which meant more common trips to the yards for
overhauls. Because the ships were yard queens, they were also not
112
often deployed but often spent long times laid up in reserve.
Despite these faults, twenty of the class were built and were
eventually displaced by the larger, more modern Potemkin
class. Relegated to second line squadrons the surviving Fearless
class ships would see service in the Amaris crisis when they were
pulled from mothballs. Two were salvaged by Rim World Forces
and were destroyed in battle, the four survivors joined General
Kerensky on Operation EXODUS and have not been seen since.
FEARLESS CLASS ASSAULT SHIP
113
NOTABLE VESSEL
The SLS Blue Ridge was the third Fearless to be completed and launched. Although too late to take part in the Reunification War, the Blue Ridge and her sisters were part of the so called
‘Magic Carpet’ convoys which brought SLDF and House military personnel home from the Taurian front. Quite by accident the Blue Ridge ended out carrying a polygot mix of SLDF and
House forces and because of this she became the most well-travelled member of the class, visiting all the Capitals of the various Houses during her ‘Magic Carpet’ trip. In several major
exercises the Fearless Class proved their worth and the Blue Ridge was the Command ship of General D. Johnson during BLUE STEEL, a series of exercises along the Capellan border during
a time of tension with House Liao. The Blue Ridge was then decommissioned and in mothballs for six years before being reactivated for another round of fleet exercises.
Unfortunately, by 2733 the Blue Ridge was showing her age and had developed several fuel system faults, one of which lead to a fire which claimed the lives of a dozen crew.
Deactivated for the last time the SLS Blue Ridge was expended as a gunnery target for elements of the 8th Cruiser Squadron of the Sol Home Fleet in May 2735.
In recognition of her service though, the next Potemkin class vessel to enter service was called Blue Ridge.
FEARLESS CLASS ASSAULT SHIP
114
ARK ROYAL CLASS HEAVY FLEET CARRIER
Length
1,200 meters
Displacement
1,400,000 tons
Crew complement
1,193 with facilities for 750 passengers
Armament
12 x Sorenstein Series 2 ‘Oni’ 45cm
Naval Lasers
40 x Mydron Excel ‘Starshooter’
LB-10X autocannons
12 x Sunspot-3L Heavy Naval
Particle Cannons
40 x Holy LRM-20 Series 4 missile
systems
12 x SSM-550 ‘Barracuda’ Mod 3
VLS Silo’s
32 x McArthur Mod 4 Anti-missile
guns
12 x SSM-900 ‘White Shark’ Mod 8
VLS Silo’s
Aerospace Complement
216 x Aerospace fighters
6 x DropShip docking collars
32 x Small Craft
Following the Reunification War, the Admiralty sought to
redress what was seen as a serious potential flaw and weakness that
could be exploited. The obvious solution was to resurrect the old
blue water aircraft carrier concept and adopt it for the black water
of space and this was then put out to tender.
The contract was won by Krester Ship Construction and they
in turn produced two designs one larger ‘heavy fleet carrier’ design
and the smaller but visually identical ‘battle carrier’ that was
smaller and cheaper to produce.
The Admiralty naturally went for the heavy carrier design.
Sensors
ASA-1198 ‘Ceres’ Long and short
range phased 3D active and passive
LIDAR array
strain on them. Trials with the Monsoon class Battleship Imperio,
giving her a full complement of 6 of the newly developed Titan
class DropShips (these 6 were the initial prototypes) proved to be
a huge drain on her logistics as well as imposing a considerable
hardship on the crew who now had to find bunks for the 552 crew
of the DropShips. Converting cargo holds into barracks was not
ideal and this decrease in habitability as well as serviceability of the
carriers and their crew made the experiment a short-lived failure.
Pathfinder 43CD Long range
communications array with HPG
Uplink and transmitter
MORSAT Series 7 Fire control with
home on jam and ECCM
NIKE ‘Home Crowd’ active and
passive multi-channel ECM
The Reunification war showed that fighters in large numbers
could be a serious threat to warships of all sizes and large enough
strikes could overwhelm any defending fighters. And all it took
was one strike craft with a nuclear missile to spell the doom for a
multi-thousand-ton ship and all its crew.
In the Reunification war, even with their technological
advantages, this happened far too many times to the House and
SLDF forces, especially those engaged on the Taurian front. It was
felt that something had to be done.
The ‘quick fix’ was to deploy as many carrier DropShips
as possible, but these came with their own logistics needs and
were cramped and uncomfortable to serve on for any period of
time. Attaching such vessels to a Warship also imposed a logistics
To carry a suitable number of fighters as well as their ordnance,
fuel, stores, spare fighters and crew, as well as being able to defend
itself the ship would need to be large and Krester didn’t disappoint
on that regard. What emerged was a design capable of carrying an
unprecedented 216 fighters, or four full regiments worth. There
were also facilities for 20 support craft and six DropShip collars
that would carry assault DropShips to provide additional protection.
115
asked about this Krester replied that the ship was a strategic asset
and needed a high level of protection.
To house the ships, large crew the carrier was well appointed
with large grav-decks whilst fuel and ammunition storage was
plentiful allowing the ship to remain in the field for extended
periods of time. Krester even spent time talking with ship CAG’s
and fighter pilots to try and figure out the best possible launching
and landing arrangements. The arrangement that was accepted
would see the fighters land on the lower rear flanks of the ships,
away from any drive plume. A series of electromagnetic rails
would then bring the fighters along the lower interior hull to be
repaired and refuelled in the huge hangar bay area forwards of
the main grav-deck before having the fighters launched out of the
bow section with launch bays being under the ships ‘chin’. There
was also an emergency ‘flight deck’ on the upper hull next to the
DropShip collars. This ‘deck’ was layered with electro-magnets
and a damaged fighter could use this if they were worried they
could not land safely. The flight decks magnets would slow and
stop a damaged fighter. It could then be moved to an elevator to be
recovered.
The first ship the SLS Ark Royal entered service and her first
tour of duty with the 2nd Fleet was a 12-month long deployment
through the Periphery hunting pirates with elements of the 222nd
Battlegroup with the Carrier acting as flagship.
With such a huge mass of aerospace fighters, the carrier was
seen as a command ship and was fitted as a flagship with large
quarters for any visiting Admiral and his or her staff. A large and
powerful communications suite allowed the ship to guide and
control other fleet elements whilst batteries of missiles, autocannons
and lasers provided protection against fighter strikes.
During this period the 222nd engaged several pirate bands as
well as engaging in convoy escort and two major exercises. The
Ark Royal performed well but concerns were raised about the
vulnerability of the internal rail system as well as the ship being
rather unpleasant to land on whilst underway. It was feared that
damage to the ships dorsal area could adversely affect the internal
rail system bringing fighters up from their landing bays. Whilst
heavily protected concerns about shock damage were taken to heart
and alterations were made to all subsequent ships.
Anti-shipping firepower was limited though, with lasers
and missiles being the order of the day, again mainly as an antifighter focused defence. Finally, four large turrets mounting a
trio of heavy naval PPCs provided the main anti-ship punch if
needed. But the carrier was envisioned to operate at the heart of a
battlegroup, surrounded by destroyers, cruisers and battleships so
heavy anti-ship firepower was not needed. Protection was not weak
and was roughly equal to the Monsoon class battleships. When
Unfortunately, the biggest problem with the class was their
sheer cost. They were expensive to crew, man and keep supplied
and despite large internal stores they still required supply ships
and tankers to keep them in the field and this logistics tail was in
turn vulnerable. Faced with tightening budgets and competing
requirements, the carrier program was severely curtailed with
eighteen entering service before production was halted. This was
out of a planned 36 to be constructed.
ARK ROYAL CLASS HEAVY FLEET CARRIER
The smaller ‘battle carrier’ and its 108 fighters was looked
at but even this was felt to be simply too expensive. Funding
was very tight following the Cameron class fiasco, with the navy
eventually choosing to purchase the cheaper Black Lion class of
battlecruiser. The disastrous mismanagement of the SLS Enterprise
Supercarrier also cooled the bureaucracy’s respect for the Carrier as
an operational concept despite protests from the Admiralty.
Because of their huge value, all 18 ships were kept in service
and were generally popular ships although there was a friendly
rivalry between the carrier commanders and their ‘black shoe’
counterparts on the fleets battleships. The Amaris Civil War was
hard on the class with only three surviving to see the liberation of
Terra, and one of those the SLS Ranger had to be scuttled following
the liberation when her battle damage proved uneconomical to
repair. The two known survivors the SLS Formidable and SLS
Yorktown both vanished with the SLDF when it went into exile,
their fate since is unknown.
116
ARK ROYAL CLASS HEAVY FLEET CARRIER
117
NOTABLE SHIP
The SLS Viraat (Sanskrit for Giant) was the 8th Ark Royal to commission into service and was immediately assigned to the escort fleet built around the SLS McKenna’s Pride and the two
ships would become near inseparable during the build up to the Periphery Uprisings with the Viraat often acting as a second fleet command vessel. This ended as the violence in the Periphery
got worse and the Viraat and her escort group was instead dispatched to the Outworld Alliance to support SLDF troops there.
The SLS Viraat was in orbit over Lushann when she and her escort group came under attack two days after arriving in system. With SLDF units down on the ground the fleet stood its
ground as four unmarked Mule class DropShips launched a huge number of fighters from within their hulls. Scrambling her air wing, the Viraat’s pilots along with those of her escort, caused
huge casualties but the determined attackers broke through and launched a volley of nuclear tipped missiles before finally being destroyed. The SLS Roanoke and SLS Visakhapatnam were
both hit and destroyed whilst the Viraat managed to destroy the missile aimed at her a few hundred meters short of impact. The warhead still partially detonated and the Carrier suffered severe
damage, the worst of which was to her Jump drive which was cracked and knocked out.
Unable to jump, the Viraat became a command ship for the region and was instrumental in bringing the Outworld Alliance back under control. By the end of the Civil War, the Viraat’s
drive was repaired and she would rendezvous with General Kerensky’s forces in Operation EXODUS.
Records of her service within the Clans are sketchy but Clan Snow Raven claimed the ship as their own, making her part of the Lum Shipyards and a fighter production plant.
ARK ROYAL CLASS HEAVY FLEET CARRIER
118
LIPARIUS CLASS MOBILE REPAIR YARD
Length
1,955 meters
Displacement
1,680,000 tons
Crew complement
569 permanent crew up to 2000 workers
Armament
4 x Maxell ‘Nova’ Series 14 45cm
Naval Lasers
32 x Blankenburg Mod 3 Medium
Pulse Lasers
8 Barracuda x SSM-550 Mod 2
‘Barracuda’ VLS Silos
32 x McArthur Type 1 Anti-missile
systems
32 x Tiegart Maximum Beta 4 ER
PPCs
32 x Blankenburg Mod 4 Large
Pulse Lasers
Aerospace Complement
14 x Small Craft
4 x DropShip docking collars
Sensors
KTI 391 Long and short range
LIDAR array
Diamond XXM Active and passive
ECM and ECCM
KTI 375 ‘Ivanhoe’ Primary fire
control Mod 3
Marcon DIY-9B Long range
communications array with HPG
uplink
With a massive number of repair yards within Hegemony space,
if a warship or JumpShip needed to have repairs carried out then they
could easily move a jump or two and would usually find themselves
in a system with a fully established repair facility. This wealth of
facilities made the nascent SLDF seem to forget that not everywhere
else had the same level of resources and when the Reunification War
came along the SLDF was in for a huge shock to the system.
If a ship was damaged in battle ‘in the wilds’ then it meant one
of two things. Carrying out ad-hoc repairs with the crew doing most
of the work, or risking a jump back to an established facility. The
problem was that there were no major facilities, at least none
captured intact. This could mean a journey of weeks or even months
back to a yard for a ship, which came with its own dangers depending
on how bad the damage was.
The other option was to simply wait whilst Logistics Command
built a temporary yard. Even with their muscle and resources, this
could take months to build and bring on line, thus taking the damaged
ships out of the line for anywhere from 2 – 6 months before repairs
could even begin.
Recognising that this was simply unacceptable, the SLDF put
out an emergency tender for a mobile repair yard that could service,
repair and maintain ships in the field without having to bring them
home to a fixed (and thus vulnerable) position.
The designers of the Farragut class battleship the mainstay of the
SLDF’s battle line accepted the challenge and began working with a
design based on the Farragut’s hull.
Removing all but a few weapons for self-defence whilst also
reducing the power to the four massive Hispano-Rawlings engines
reduced the ship’s thrust somewhat but this was not needed for a
support unit. Some of the weight saved was applied to the hull and
the ship’s beam was increased whilst armour was also thinned out
somewhat. This freed up a considerable amount of tonnage but more
was needed. The forwards hull was extended by 550 meters (a total
length of 1955 meters), this was then combined with the forwards
hull to create a 650-meter-long pressurised repair bay accessed by
a pair of huge doors in the bow. Whilst not long enough to fully
accommodate a cruiser it was enough to allow work crews to work in
an assisted environment even if it did look like a ship being serviced
would have its bow or stern ‘hanging out’ of the front of the ship
through the huge open doors of the repair bay.
To assist in repairs of larger vessels that could not fit in the
forwards repair bay, a massive extending gantry system was fitted to
the starboard side. Capable of deploying in 45 minutes with a full
array of cranes, jibs and retracting servo arms and cutting devices
with access to the massive cargo holds inventory to allow the ship to
help repair external hull plating as well as carrying out other major
structural repairs.
The Farragut’s fearsome fighter compliment was eliminated
whilst another two DropShip collars were added bringing the total to
4, these would be dedicated tugs and maintenance vessels. The small
craft compliment was also increased to 14 up from 10.
The large central 150 meter grav-deck was retained whilst the
smaller 45 meter one was enlarged to a 75-meter deck. Additional
berths were fitted for other ships crews and the marine complement
119
was reduced a 50-man security detachment. With next to no
weaponry save AMS systems fitted and a pair of NL-45’s in the front
and stern quarters and with no aerospace fighters aboard the crew
compliment went down, but these were replaced with engineers and
yard personnel. The cargo bays carried anything from hull armour
plating to miles of wiring, spare NAC barrels and laser focusing
arrays, deck plating, banks of computers and tonnes of food and other
supplies for when a ship just needed to replenish its stocks. The final
piece of the puzzle was a very new, very expensive (and somewhat
temperamental) Lithium Fusion battery that gave the huge ships
considerable strategic mobility, letting them move to ships in need of
repair quickly.
The first ship the SLS Liparius was rushed into completion and
managed to take part in the closing 9 months of the Reunification War
where she could provide support for the fleets advancing on Taurus,
dramatically shortening the supply chain.
By no means a combat vessel the Liparius was always
accompanied by at least two destroyers, often a full group of four
would guard her and due to her important strategic nature, she
would often lurk in a system’s Oort cloud, well off the beaten
path. Despite her sluggishness in manoeuvring and the ship being
all but defenceless, she performed well enough in her role under
the command of Commodore Karl Stromberg. This performance
was enough to have the SLDF press for more orders for the class
with another 9 being ordered. The ’10 Greeks,’ as the class were
known due to their naming convention being that of Greek/Classical
deities and figures, were assigned to major fleet elements and kept in
constant service.
One ship, the SLS Prometheus, was lost due to an asteroid impact
from a rogue rock which impacted on her bow, causing significant
structural damage and starting several on-board fires that quickly got
out of control. Abandoned and aflame the ship was scuttled by her
escorting destroyers.
The SLS Hecate was crippled over the Titan Yards in the Sol
System by forces loyal to Stefan Amaris but the ship’s captain refused
to surrender and overloaded the main reactor, destroying the vessel
and two Rim World Pinto class vessels in the blast.
The surviving vessels (four in total) departed at the end of the
Amaris Civil War with General Kerensky. It is believed that along
with a Newgrange class vessel that they helped form a major part of
the Lum shipyards.
LIPARIUS CLASS MOBILE REPAIR YARD
120
NOTABLE SHIP
The SLS Tantalus was assigned to the 22nd Fleet under the Command of Commodore James Goodenough. The Tantalus helped salvage the hull of the SLS Barham a Monsoon class
battleship that had been lost during the Reunification War and helped prove the Yardship concept to a skeptical Admiralty when over the space of eight months the Barham was repaired enough
to return to be classed as combat ready on her return to the Hegemony. The Tantalus also helped tow several asteroids out of position from what could have been a potentially devastating
impact in the Delphine system. Unfortunately, the Tantalus was overrun by Amaris personnel during the capture of the Sol system, the Yardship in system for a refit.
Now under Rim World control the ship helped salvage several ships in the aftermath of the fall of the Hegemony but was destroyed in a raid by the Kimagure class SLS Kronprinz, the raid
also claiming the RWS Mutilator and Malevolent, a pair of Essex I class destroyers undergoing refits within the Tantalus’ docking bays.
LIPARIUS CLASS MOBILE REPAIR YARD
121
ARBITRATION CLASS BATTLESHIP
Length
1,368 meters
Displacement
1,900,000 tons
Crew complement
825
Armament
8 x Iota 99SR Light Repeating Naval 8 x ‘Frenzy’ Mod 1DS AR-15 Sub
Gauss Rifles
Capital Missile Launcher
16 x Alfa Series 3DS Heavy Naval
Particle Cannons
20 x Kolbrik Series Delta 3DS Large
Pulse Lasers
24 x AK-350 Heavy Naval
Autocannons
36 x Beamsplitter Mod 3 Laser AntiMissile systems
40 x Series 10SR ‘Shrike’ 55cm
Naval Lasers
4 x Alfa 1GB ‘Den Guard’ Screen
Launchers
Aerospace Complement
60 x Aerospace Fighters
5 x DropShip collars
20 x Small craft
Sensors
TY-9001 ‘Circe’ Long and short
ranged Phased 3D scanning and
tracking LIDAR array
TY-994 ‘Eden’ Fire control system
with ECCM and multi-track data
sharing uplink
TY-200 ‘Babylon’ Multi-channel
adaptive ECM
TY-671 ‘Arcadia’ Long range
communications array with HPG
uplink and transmitter
The Arbitration-class Battleship was born over Tukayyid by
Clan scientist’s intention on improving all WarShips in use by the
Clans. The deployment first Arbitration class vessel was added to
the Tukayyid defence force and tasked with escorting Clan units
throughout Clan space and to Solaris VII as the Clans attempted to
build the world.
Almost two million gross tonnes the Arbitration is among the
largest of WarShips but not large enough to challenge the Ghost
Bears Leviathan-class. Capable of a maximum thrust of three G
of acceleration and carrying a Mk II Lithium Fusion Battery the
Arbitration is as mobile as most large WarShips.
The designers of Tukayyid decided that the Arbitration should
be able to move and fight as well as any other WarShip so it is
armed with an array of Heavy Naval Particle Cannons, Heavy naval
autocannons, class-55 Naval Lasers and eight Repeating Naval
Gauss Rifles (known as Reapers). Supporting these naval weapons
are an array of AR-15 Sub-capital Missile Launchers and twenty
large pulse lasers to be used against aerospace fighters.
To defend the WarShip there are 2,500 tons of Lamellor Ferrocarbide, four Screen launchers and thirty-six Laser based AntiMissile Systems.
Supporting the Arbitrations capabilities are sixty aerospace
fighters, twenty small craft and seventy-five power armoured
Elementals for onboard defence and assaults on other WarShips.
Whilst the Clan Council knew the ship was being designed,
they were not aware of the completion of the CS Arbitration until
she was debuted at a Council meeting by the Tukkayid Black
Guard and the Loremaster of the Clans who claimed the vessel as
their own and as part of the defences of the new home of the Clan
Council.
Despite the objections of various Khans, the Arbitration was
added to the naval forces of Tukayyid under the direction of the
Loremaster of the Clans. Future versions of the Arbitration will be
put up for Trials of Possession between the other Clans. Clan Snow
Raven also started production of two of the Class having claimed
that as the design was for all Clans then all Clans should have
access to it. There was also an implied threat that they would take
the Arbitration by force, and not wishing to provoke fighting in the
Tukkayid system the Loremaster agreed to the Raven’s point and
freely distributed the design to the Clans.
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ARBITRATION CLASS BATTLESHIP
123
NOTABLE SHIPS
Like the Onslaught class, the Arbitration class has yet to see service, with only one vessel complete and three more being built at Tukkayid and at Quatre Belle. Analysts believe the class’s
heavy short ranged firepower and long ranged punch make them more formidable than all but the Leviathan Class that is only in service with the Rasalhague Dominion.
ARBITRATION CLASS BATTLESHIP
124
PETERSON CLASS NAVAL STATION
Length
2,739 meters tall and wide along X, Y and
Z axis
Displacement
830,000 tons
Crew complement
9,154 with room for 2800 permanent
passengers
Combined Armament
144 x Thunderbolt Series 9 55cm
Naval Lasers
72 x Armstrong-Hawker AR-10 Mod
18 Flexible Missile Launch systems
144 x Kreuss XX Type 9 Heavy
Naval Particle Cannons
54 x AMS
Aerospace Complement
324 x Aerospace fighters/small craft
54 x DropShip Collars
Sensors
NCC-2099 3D Phased search
LIDAR Array with multi-frequency
thermal/optical detectors
NCC-103-Beta ‘Zeus’ Active and
passive ECM/ECCM
Krupps-Ellington ‘Omega’ Type 0
Multi-track fire control
Communal V-1a Long and short
range communications with HPG
uplink and connection
One of the largest free standing structures made in the Inner
Sphere, the Peterson class Naval Station is technically three
stations docked together to form a single orbital complex. The
vertically aligned Y axis section was the command section
and housed the primary grav-deck, one of the largest made at
1500 meters in diameter. This section was also home to the
primary reactors for the station that were stationed at the bottom
on their own section which could be jettisoned in case of an
emergency. The Y Section also featured a HPG as well as all the
systems necessary to coordinate a fleet of SDS drones, with up
to 324 M5’s being able to be controlled at once. The Y axis also
serves as the primary dock for up to 54 DropShips which dock
near the primary grav-deck.
The X axis section is the primary industrial hub and boasts
two Pressurized repair bays that can each take a ship of up
to 2,000,000 tons. It can also house up to a dozen Dropships
internally for repairs as well as a quartet of KF battery
recharging stations, able to help ships recharge quickly before
departing. Finally, a massive hydroponics bay is fitted to allow
the crew to relax in an open space as well as provide the station
with food supplies.
The Z axis of the station is heavily industrialized with a focus
on technical aspects and vessel repair. Six unpressurized repair
bays, two of which are capable of accommodating battleships
form much of the working area. Six more internal bays can take
DropShips for repairs and another 10 energy recharge stations
allow the Peterson to help re-deploy fleets.
The huge station is linked together by a massive network of
trams that move along the outside of the station to transfer cargo
or personnel from one section or axis to another. Each tram has
5 trains and these can haul anything from people to liquid cargos
and are the most efficient way of moving round the station. Each
section can hold over 1 million tons of cargo and when complete
they formed a vital part of the Hegemony’s trade network as
DropShips could dock and unload cargo without having to burn
fuel landing and taking off.
The Peterson is massively armed and during a time of war
would act as a command and system defence post. Over their
lives the Petersons armament was continuously updated and
the most modern iterations would ape the McKenna class of
Battleship with their mixture of lasers and PPCs, supported by
batteries of missiles to engage approaching threats and destroy
them at hugely long ranges.
Each individual axis of the station boasted 48 55cm lasers and
48 heavy naval particle cannons, whilst two dozen AR10 Multimissile launchers provided additional long range firepower. For
point defence against missiles each section also featured 18 AMS
mountings. Able to mass its firepower against multiple targets
the Peterson can cripple hostile WarShips at extreme range whilst
over 8,000 tons of the latest armour compounds gave the station
a huge degree of protection, making them a veritable orbital
fortress. This degree of firepower and protection lets the Peterson
challenge a fleet and endure anything short of massed nuclear
saturation attack.
Smaller versions of the Peterson also existed, using only one
or two axis dependent on what was needed but each of these
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was still a major base in its own right whilst the full three axis
complex would be a lynchpin of a world’s orbital defences and a
major trade hub.
Unfortunately, the massive cost of building and manning such
facilities limited their numbers and a full three axis station was
quite rare although the Sol system boasted two complete facilities
in geostationary orbit over Terra and Province Capitals each had
their own complete Paterson complex.
There were rumors of hidden facilities in out of the way
systems that were given over to research and development or the
Intelligence branch of the SLDF. The huge cloud of debris found
in the LV-426 system, a worthless and dead system did lend credit
to this theory but there has never been any solid proof. There was
also rumor of a huge ‘giga-complex,’ a group of six Petersons
docked together. The hunt for this facility became the goal of
many treasure hunters and officially funded expeditions during the
Second and Third Succession Wars, as well as the time leading up
to the Fourth War.
Again, no such facility has ever been located, and if it
existed it has probably been destroyed by now, taking whatever
technological marvels were housed there with it.
PETERSON CLASS NAVAL STATION
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NOTABLE FACILITIES
Fort Metz was one of three stations in orbit over Terra and was part of the final line of defence for the capital of the Hegemony and the birthplace of Mankind should disaster befall the Star
League and thus the Hegemony itself.
Unfortunately, when disaster did strike it was not from known enemies outside, but by betrayal and treachery within. With the First Lord assassinated by Stefan Amaris, the usurpers Rim
World forces in the Hegemony and Sol system went on the offensive against a surprised and off balance SLDF. The massive station was undamaged in the initial wave of nuclear attacks
which damaged and crippled Fort Sumter and Port Messina. The frantic efforts by the Metz’ crew to regain control over the SDS were foiled as the system was receiving contradictory orders
from two legitimate command sources. The Rim World vessels attacking the SLDF ships in the Sol System were showing as friendly and so the system simply shut down and awaited clear
instructions, leaving the huge number of M5 Caspar drones in the Sol system sitting idle as the Capital of the Star League was slowly overrun.
Initially the Rim World forces avoided the guns of Metz and this allowed the SLS Enterprise and SLS Logan to dock with the station and urgently take on supplies and personnel before
rejoining the fight.
Under fire from occupied SDS batteries, the Metz turned her firepower groundward and silenced several SDS emplacements but was hit repeatedly by ground based fire as well as a single
multi-megaton warhead which caused significant damage. Fort Metz continued to give friendly ground forces fire support until it was destroyed by a massed fighter and DropShip assault
on the 29th of December 2172, although only eight Rim World fighters survived to return to their base out of over two hundred in the assault on the damaged station. These losses would be
keenly felt as the Rim World Troops struggled to fully pacify the Sol system.
PETERSON CLASS NAVAL STATION
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DELRANES FIGHTING SHIPS 3061
AND INNER SPHERE WARSHIPS REVISED EDITION