Anta McKenna
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Anta McKenna | |
|---|---|
| Personal | |
| Affiliation | Clan Snow Raven |
| Profile | |
| Rank | Star Admiral |
Anta McKenna was a member of the Clan Snow Raven touman in the late thirty-first century.
History[edit]
By 3069 Anta was a Star Admiral, and the commanding officer of a Star of WarShips, the Brim Naval Assault Star.[1]
In 3068, Clan Goliath Scorpion forces had won a Trial of Possession for the shipyards in the Lum system, with a battle that left much of the shipyards damaged or destroyed.[2] It was Anta who prosecuted the Snow Raven revenge for the Lum Trial, by taking the Brim Naval Assault Star to Roche and launching a Trial for the entire WarShip squadron there. The initial batchalls were bargained down until the bidding resulted in a single WarShip, plus aerospace fighters from each side, fighting the Trial. The Snow Ravens fought using the Aegis-class heavy cruiser CSR Black Justice, squaring off against the Lola III-class destroyer CGS Sagitta and her accompanying fighters under the overall command of Star Admiral Rebecca Suvorov. The Black Justice won the Trial, capturing the Sagitta as well as the Congress-class frigate CGS Garlon and the Potemkin-class cruisers CGS Enceladus and CGS Prometheus. The Sagitta was left powerless as a result of damage taken during the Trial, and Admiral McKenna moved all four captured vessels to Brim for repair. The four were then pressed into service as the new Hellgate Battle Star.[1]
In 3072, Anta was responsible for escorting the last major convoy of Snow Raven vessels out of the Clan Homeworlds to the Inner Sphere. Anta's military forces consisted of the Hellgate Battle Star plus attached ships, escorting a hundred and nine JumpShips plus attached DropShips. The convoy was relatively slow-moving, and a combined task force from Clan Steel Viper and Clan Star Adder had predicted that the convoy would likely travel via the Ghent system, a known Star Raven guidepost. On 29 July 3072, a Steel Viper force commanded by Star Commodore Terrence Moffat jumped into the Ghen system, intercepting the Snow Raven forces. Moffat had brought three Steel Viper WarShips with him; the Steel Viper flagship, the Leviathan Prime-class battleship CSV Perigard Zalman, and two escort vessels, the Essex-class destroyer CSV Martial Legacy and the Potemkin-class cruiser CSV Serpentes, and initiated a Trial for the Snow Raven convoy.[3]
Moffat's batchall for the trial claimed "all of the ships at his disposal" as his bid, and Anta accepted the bid, declaring all of her forces in defense. What Anta didn't realize was that a Star Adder WarShip Star consisting of the Sovetskii Soyuz-class heavy cruiser Admiral William S. Preston leading the Fredasa-class corvette CSA Arcadian Asp, the York-class destroyer CSA Exodus Crusader and the Lola III-class destroyers CSA Hagar and CSA Warlock was lurking nearby, under Moffat's command as leader of the joint task force, and skirting the boundaries of honor, Moffat neglected to inform McKenna of the additional forces until he communicated their presence less than a minute before the Steel Viper vessels began firing on the Ravens.[3]
Moffat didn't limit his targets to the four Raven WarShips defending the convoy and their attached escorts; instead, he had the Perigard Zalman open fire on whatever targets were in range, with the first Raven ships destroyed being fifteen JumpShips. The Martial Legacy proceeded to work in tandem with the Serpentes against the Ravens, first targeting and destroying the Sagitta, which had still been carrying the damage inflicted on it from the Trial of Possession in which the Ravens had acquired the Hellgate Battle Star from the Scorpions. In response, the Enceladus managed to inflict some damage on the Serpentes before the Perigard Zalman blocked both the Serpentes and the Martial Legacy from fire from the heavier Raven ships.[3]
Despite the best efforts of the Ravens, the battle was effectively a foregone conclusion once the Star Adder forces jumped in. The Ravens still managed to cripple the Serpentes when the Garlon intercepted the Serpentes as it attempted to close on a group of JumpShips. The Prometheus was destroyed quickly by the Star Adders, the Warlock and the Admiral William S. Preston destroying the Prometheus on their first pass; her sister vessel Enceladus then worked with several Raven DropShips to gut the Admiral William S. Preston before being destroyed in turn by the Arcadian Asp, and the Perigard Zalman accounted for the Garlon. None of the Raven AeroSpace or combat DropShip forces answered Moffat's single call to surrender, instead fighting until they had all been destroyed.[3]
Moffat's actions secured the Steel Vipers and the Star Adders a total of fifty Raven JumpShips and almost eighty full DropShips of cargo as isorla; at least sixteen Raven JumpShips managed to escape, although only thirteen were eventually reclaimed by the Ravens. The Serpentes was scuttled, although the Vipers claimed the Garlon as salvage; the Star Adders tagged the various other Raven hulks and marked their courses with a view to later stripping the hulks for materiél. The Star Adders and Steel Vipers then spaced any Raven civilians considered unnecessary before moving their booty back to their holdings.[3]
It is presumed that Anta McKenna was killed during the battle at Ghent.