Warlock (Individual Lola III-class WarShip)

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This article is about the WarShip. For the planetary system, see Warlock.


Warlock
Vessel Profile
TypeWarShip
ClassLola III

The Lola III-class destroyer CSA Warlock was serving within the Clan Star Adder touman.

History[edit]

As of 3059, the Warlock was one of four Lola III-class ships to be in service with the Star Adders at this time—the others being the CSA Cameron's Flame, the CSA Hagar, and the CSA Yodan—the Warlock formed a part of a ready reserve star of five WarShips alongside her sister ship, the Yodan.[1] Following the absorption of former Clan Smoke Jaguar holdings the Warlock had been returned to full service by 3067 under the orders of the Star Adder Naval Adjutant, Star Admiral Tobias McKenna.[2]

Wars of Reaving[edit]

Nouveaux Paris[edit]

In early July 3072, the Warlock and the Nightlord-class battleship CSA Absolute Truth arrived in the Nouveaux Paris system, a system which had been a Clan Hell's Horses supply station in the Deep Periphery, but which had subsequently been captured by forces from the Society and the resurgent Clan Burrock. The Hell's Horses had sent two ships, the Lola III-class CHH Black Knight and the Potemkin-class cruiser CHH Blood Horse to investigate the mysterious silence from Nouveaux Paris, the two WarShips transporting the Hell's Horses Eta Galaxy to conduct any ground operations needed. The Hell's Horses forces had encountered a suborned Burrock WarShip, the Cameron-class battlecruiser CBS Tremor; the Tremor had shadowed the Hell's Horses approach to Nouveaux Paris, the Tremor's AeroSpace forces had attacked shortly after the Hell's Horses WarShips had launched their DropShips. Eta Galaxy had been routed on the ground and were retreating back to the Black Knight when the Warlock and the Absolute Truth arrived; commanded personally by Khan Stanislov N'Buta, the two WarShips were escorting the Star Adder Alpha and Beta Galaxies and N'Buta promptly issued a terse message ordering the Hell's Horses to get out of the way or get run over.[3]

The resulting conflict on the ground between the Burrock, Bandit Caste and Society forces saw both sides take losses, with Khan N'Buta suffering a number of serious injuries following an ambush; the Burrocks ultimately forced the Adders to retreat by attacking the Star Adder landing zone and threatening to detonate a nuclear device at the site, leaving the Adders potentially stranded on a world with little ability to support them. N'Buta was forced to withdraw, leaving the Burrocks in possession of DropShips laden with war matériel, but two members of the Star Adder Watch managed to insinuate themselves into the Burrock forces and onto the Burrock ships as they withdrew from Nouveaux Paris to meet up with the Tremor, allowing the Star Adders to potentially track the Burrocks.[3]

One of the positive outcomes of the engagement in the Nouveaux Paris system was an agreement between Khan N'Buta and Galaxy Commander Unther Cooper of Clan Hell's Horses, on behalf of the Horses' Khan, to allow some of their combined forces to track and crush the Burrock forces together, and an agreement that in the event of an invasion of the Inner Sphere, the Star Adders wouldn't attack through the Hell's Horses Occupation Zone.[4]

Ghent[edit]

Following the action at Nouveaux Paris, a few weeks later when the Khans of Clan Steel Viper and the Star Adders resolved to make an opportunistic strike against the last Clan Snow Raven convoy to try and leave the Homeworlds, the Warlock was one of the Star Adder WarShips directly involved. The Star Adders assigned a Star of naval vessels to the strike; the lead ship was the Black Lion-class battlecruiser CSA Admiral William S. Preston, accompanied by the Fredasa-class corvette CSA Arcadian Asp, the York-class destroyer CSA Exodus Crusader and the Warlock and her sister ship the Hagar. Overall command of the Star Adder and Steel Viper forces was given to Star Commodore Terrence Moffat, who 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 CSV Serpentes.[5]

The Snow Raven convoy consisted of the Hellgate Battle Star—a Star of four WarShips captured from Clan Goliath Scorpion by the Snow Ravens: the Potemkin-class CSR Enceladus and CSR Prometheus, the Lola III-class CSR Sagitta, and the Congress-class frigate CRS Garlon—and no less than one hundred and nine JumpShips all traveling slowly away from Hellgate. Anticipating that the Snow Ravens would move via the Snow Raven guidepost at Ghent, the Steel Vipers arranged to seize or destroy the convoy there.[5]

On 29 July 3072, the Steel Viper force jumped into the Ghent system, arriving in the middle of the vast Snow Raven convoy, and Commodore Moffat issued his Trial of Possession bid to Star Admiral Anta McKenna, claiming all of the ships at his disposal as his bid. Admiral McKenna accepted the Viper bid as-was and declared all of her forces in defense. What Admiral McKenna hadn't realized was that Star Adder Star of vessels was waiting to join the Steel Vipers; skirting the boundaries of honor, Moffat neglected to inform McKenna of the additional forces and only communicated their presence less than a minute before the Steel Viper vessels began firing on the Ravens.[5]

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.[5]

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 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.[5]

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 matériel. The Star Adders and Steel Vipers then spaced any Raven civilians considered unnecessary before moving their booty back to their holdings.[5]

The Warlock survived the Wars of Reaving and was one of thirteen WarShips to be serving in the Star Adder touman in 3085.[6]

References[edit]

  1. Field Manual: Crusader Clans, p. 119: "Naval Assets"
  2. Field Manual: Updates, p. 50: "Naval Assets"
  3. 3.0 3.1 Wars of Reaving, pp. 119–122: "Spreading Contagion"
  4. The Wars of Reaving, p. 121: "Trial of Convenience"
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 The Wars of Reaving, pp. 102–104: "Raven's Dirge"
  6. The Wars of Reaving, p. 168: "WarShips"

Bibliography[edit]