Beowulf (Individual Congress-class WarShip)
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- This article is about the WarShip. For other uses, see Beowulf.
| Beowulf | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Vessel Profile | |
| Type | WarShip |
| Class | Congress |
History[edit]
The Congress-class frigate later known as the Beowulf was a Star League Defense Force WarShip which survived the Amaris Civil War and followed General Aleksandr Kerensky on the Operation EXODUS. The Beowulf also survived the Pentagon Civil War, becoming a part of the touman of Clan Widowmaker. Following the Absorption of Clan Widowmaker by Clan Wolf the Beowulf and a number of other WarShips were placed in mothballs.[1]
The Beowulf remained in mothballs until Clan politicking led to the formation of Wolf's Dragoons, raised to perform a detailed reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering mission in the Inner Sphere in advance of a planned invasion. Clan Wolf equipped Wolf's Dragoons with the Beowulf and a number of other WarShips in the belief that large mercenary units operating in the Inner sphere were likely to be equipped with WarShips, deploying the Beowulf as the WDWS Beowulf; the Beowulf kept her original Widowmaker color scheme, which fortuitously matched the Wolf's Dragoons regimental color scheme.[1]
Wolf's Dragoons swiftly learned that WarShips were effectively extinct in the Inner Sphere, at least in the armed forces of the Great Houses, and left the Beowulf in mothballs in the Periphery until after Operation Revival, the Clan Invasion of the Inner Sphere. In 3053 the decision was made to retrieve the Beowulf and the other WarShips from the Bristol Cache in the Periphery, and a small task force under the command of Colonel Mackenzie Wolf, son of Jaime Wolf, was assigned to the recovery mission.[2] The task force discovered when they arrived at the cache that brigands or looters had discovered the Beowulf and the other vessels and were attempting to loot the ships, and responded to the Dragoon claim to the cache by firing on the task force. Several boarding parties were deployed to reclaim the vessels,[3] but Mackenzie Wolf was killed during the operation to clear the Aegis-class heavy cruiser WDWS Alexander.[4]
The Dragoons subsequently reactivated the Beowulf and redeployed her to their holding on Outreach, where she formed a part of the Dragoon Naval Command, serving alongside the WDWS Alexander, the Sovetskii Soyuz-class heavy cruiser WDWS Athena, the Vincent Mk. 42-class corvette WDWS Mars and the Lola III-class destroyers WDWS Darius and WDWS Nelson.[5]
In the spring of 3067 the Beowulf and the Athena were deployed in support of Gamma Regiment, operating under contract to the Capellan Confederation to break the blockade at Tikonov, assisting in driving the Federated Suns troops off-world before returning to Outreach in September 3067.[6]
Following the attack on the Dragoons on Outreach perpetrated by mercenaries backed by the Word of Blake the Athena and the Beowulf were deployed to escort Task Force Vengeance, a retaliatory strike against the Blakists aimed at Mars in the Sol system. The Beowulf, which had been on picket duty, jumped from a Pirate Jump Point outbound, carrying Zeta Battalion.[7]
The attack was a disaster, with the bulk of the Allied Mercenary Command force being destroyed before making planetfall and the remainder hunted to death on the surface. The Beowulf reported the apparent destruction of the Athena shortly before being destroyed herself, likely by being rammed by the Bonaventure-class Sheridan[8][9][10]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 AeroTech 2 Revised Edition, Color Plate 3
- ↑ Wolf Pack, pp. 95–96
- ↑ Wolf Pack, pp. 116–118
- ↑ Wolf Pack, pp. 125–127
- ↑ Field Manual: Mercenaries, Revised, p. 113: "Dragoons Naval Command"
- ↑ Field Manual: Mercenaries, Revised, p. 116: "Gamma Regiment: Shadow Wolves"
- ↑ Shadows of Faith, part 7, p. 5
- ↑ Dawn of the Jihad, p. 34: "Debacle Over Mars"
- ↑ Dawn of the Jihad, p. 34: "Mars: What Happened?"
- ↑ The Last Full Measure