Robert Kelswa (Individual Fox-class WarShip)

This article is about the WarShip. For other uses, see Robert Kelswa.


Robert Kelswa
Vessel Profile
TypeWarShip
ClassFox

The Robert Kelswa was the fourth Fox-class corvette to be constructed by the Port Sydney Naval Shipyards in the Alarion system, originally expected to enter service in 3064.[1]

History[edit]

The Robert Kelswa was nearly complete in late 3063 when the Loyalist forces on Alarion were ordered to abandon the world by Maria Esteban, in the face of the impending arrival of two elite Allied RCTs, the Sixth Crucis Lancers and the Thirty-ninth Avalon Hussars. Maria Esteban ordered the Robert Kelswa to be launched in her nearly-operational state, rather than allow her to fall into Allied hands.[2] The Robert Kelswa was subsequently responsible for forcing the 244th Division—also known as "the Prince's Men"—to withdraw from Furillo on 17 July 3064.[3] Operating alongside her sister ship the LAS Robert Marsden in March 3064 in the York system, the Robert Kelswa was part of a cunning ambush staged by Leutnant-General Maria Esteban that saw Victor Steiner-Davion defeated and nearly killed or captured. Facing off against the Avalon-class cruiser FCS Melissa Davion, the Robert Kelswa and Robert Marsden were able to force Victor's outnumbered forces to retreat under fire or face the very real threat of orbital bombardment, although the two Foxes were unable to interdict the Fifth Crucis Lancers RCT DropShips as they evacuated the planet.[4]

The Robert Kelswa subsequently fought in the Battle of Tharkad[5] on 18 August 3066; when a task force composed of the Kell Hounds, Clan Wolf-in-Exile, the Blue Star Irregulars, and the Twentieth Arcturan Guards arrived in the system with a WarShip escort, the Robert Kelswa was one of the Loyalist WarShips that moved to engage. Fighting in deep space alongside at least one other Loyalist ship, the Mjolnir-class battlecruiser LAS Yggdrasil, the Robert Kelswa engaged the task force's WarShip escort. The Allied WarShips, led by the McKenna-class battleship CWS Werewolf, defeated the Loyalist WarShips, but not before the Fredasa-class corvette Kerensky's Blues operated by the Blue Star Irregulars took heavy damage. The Yggdrasil was crippled in the battle, taken as isorla, refitted and renamed the CWS Winter Wolf;[6] the Robert Kelswa was also damaged and taken as isorla, but both ships were subsequently returned to the Lyran Alliance under the Arc-Royal protocols. The damage taken during the Battle of Tharkad was extensive enough that the Robert Kelswa wasn't expected to be fit for service again until 3070.[5]

The FedCom Civil War took a toll on the Lyran navy; by the end of the war, the only active Foxes left to the LAAF were the LAS Katrina Steiner, LAS Melissa Steiner, LAS Robert Marsden, and the Robert Kelswa.[5]

The Robert Kelswa and another Fox, the Federated Suns WarShip FSS Robinson, were captured in the opening stages of the Jihad by the Word of Blake, who operated the ships as a part of their fleet; the Robinson was serving alongside the Robert Kelswa in the Benjamin system in 3072 when both were destroyed in action.[7][8]

Notes[edit]

Field Manual: Updates lists the LAS Katherine Steiner as being in service with the Lyran Alliance Armed Forces in 3067, and the LAS Katrina Steiner as still being under construction. This contradicts Field Manual: Lyran Alliance and FedCom Civil War which list the Katrina Steiner as the first Fox to be manufactured at the Port Sydney Naval Shipyards and as having fought during the Civil War. For this article, it has been assumed that Field Manual: Updates is in error.

References[edit]

  1. Field Manual: Lyran Alliance, p. 25: "WarShips"
  2. Storms of Fate, p. 42: the Robert Kelswa is pulled from the shipyards
  3. FedCom Civil War, p. 126: "Tikonov"
  4. FedCom Civil War, pp. 102–103: "York"
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 Field Manual: Updates, p. 165: "Ships of the Alliance"
  6. FedCom Civil War, p. 175: "Tharkad"
  7. Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 128: "Captured Ships"
  8. Field Report: LAAF, p. 6: "Off The Edge Of The Map"

Bibliography[edit]