Raven (Individual Essex-class WarShip)

Revision as of 11:16, 27 August 2015 by Frabby (talk | contribs) (Frabby moved page Raven (Essex) to Raven (Individual Essex-class WarShip): New spacecraft article naming scheme)
This article is about the Essex-class destroyer. For other uses, see Raven (disambiguation).
Raven
Vessel Profile
Previous namesOslo
TypeWarShip
ClassEssex

History

The Oslo was an Essex-class destroyer that served in the Star League Defense Force as the SLS Oslo during the Star League era. Abandoned or scuttled during or after the Amaris Civil War, the Oslo was subsequently located in a debris system at the edge of the Elgin system by ComStar but was left where it had been found due to the amount of work that was required to return it to active service.[1] The Free Worlds League became aware of the location of the Oslo thanks to information provided by the Word of Blake, who had relocated to the League after the schism within ComStar and who had decided to assist the League in its WarShip rearmament programme. The Blakists helped the League locate twenty-two assorted derelict WarShips, of which the Oslo was one;[2] this led to a daring operation in 3055 in which a League salvage crew took their JumpShip into the Elgin system and spent several months working on the Oslo while avoiding the attention of the Federated Commonwealth's Fifth Republican, who were stationed in the system at the time.[1]

The salvage team was able to conduct enough repairs to the Oslo to enable her to jump into League space; from there the Oslo travelled to one of the League's clandestine shipyards capable of conducting repair and renovation work on WarShips and after several months of work the Oslo was considered ready for line service again. The existence of the Oslo was kept a secret; the ship was redesignated the FWLS Raven, and under the command of Commodore Thomas Mazure the Raven went on to provide security for the LCCC command centre located on Marik.[1]

The Raven was one of three Essex-class vessels to be located, retrieved and repaired by the League's rearmament programme during the late 3050s; when her sister ship the FWLS Schrack entered service and was also assigned to providing security to the LCCC command centre in the Marik system Commodore Mazure was given authority over both vessels.[1][3] The third Essex-class ship to be restored to line service was gifted to the Word of Blake as thanks for their contributions to the programme, and would enter service as the WoBS Deliverance.[2]

By early 3059 the Raven was one of six vessels within the League's "secret" fleet, serving alongside the Schrack, the Vincent-class corvette FWLS Liberty, the Zechetinu-class corvettes FWLS Attica and FWLS Karelia and an Aegis-class heavy cruiser, the FWLS Olympic.[4]

By 3067 the Raven had been in service for almost a decade and was a part of what was publicly considered to be the largest black water navy in the Inner Sphere.[5] The Raven was involved in a pitched naval battle in the Atreus system on the 25th of October 3068, where loyalist and Blakist elements of the Free Worlds League navy turned on each other. The Blakists had suborned a significant number of WarShips within the Free Worlds League navy, and those Blakist-affiliated ships in the Atreus system at the time - the Aegis-class FWLS Nueva Badajoz, the Thera-class carrier FWLS Corinth and one of her escorts, the Eagle-class frigate FWLS Mordred, the Black Lion-class battlecruiser FWLS Xanthos, the Agamemnon-class heavy cruiser FWLS Aeneas and the Impavido-class FWLS Impavido - attacked the League loyalist WarShips present in the system at the time.[6]

The loyalist WarShips in the system were mainly lighter destroyers and corvettes, and which consisted of the Raven, the Eagle-class FWLS Gawain, the Impavido-class FWLS Janos Marik, the Zechetinu-class corvette FWLS Sparta and the Zechetinu II-class corvettes FWLS Acari and FWLS Zechetinu. The naval battle was a victory for the Blakist forces; none of the Blakist WarShips were destroyed, although all of them had suffered damage, but of the loyalist forces, only the FWLS Acari and FWLS Raven escaped to seek refuge in the Duchy of Oriente.[6]

The Raven and another Free Worlds League destroyer, the Impavido-class FWLS Phrygia, were destroyed in the Atreus system in 3077 by the Word of Blake.[7]

Notes

The destruction of the Raven and seven other Free Worlds League WarShips unaccounted for specifically by name in sourcebooks was confirmed by the BattleTech Developer Øystein Tvedten via the Catalyst Game Labs Ask The Writers Forum:

Delphi (Thera-Class) - Destroyed by Word of Blake, 3068

Thessaly (Thera-Class) - never completed, scuttled in dock by loyalists to keep it out of blakists hands in 3068
Kay (Eagle-Class) - Destroyed by Word of Blake, 3068
Leodegrance (Eagle-Class) - Destroyed by Word of Blake at Regulus, 3072
Phrygia (Impavido-Class) - Destroyed at Atreus, 3077
Raven (Essex-Class) - Destroyed at Atreus, 3077
Attica (Zechetinu-Class) - Destroyed by Word of Blake, 3068
Liberty (Vincent-Class) - Destroyed by Word of Blake, 3068

With regards,
Øystein

  — Øystein Tvedten, 07 December 2013

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Field Manual: Free Worlds League, p. 118, "FWLS Raven"
  2. 2.0 2.1 Field Manual: Free Worlds League, p. 116, "Aid From The Word of Blake"
  3. Field Manual: Free Worlds League, p. 118, "FWLS Schrack"
  4. Field Manual: Free Worlds League, p. 117, "WarShips of the FWL Fleet"
  5. Field Manual: Updates, p. 144, "Ships Of The FWL"
  6. 6.0 6.1 Jihad Turning Points: Atreus BattleCorps Exclusive Track, p. 2, "True Colors Revealed"
  7. BattleTech Devloper confirms the destruction of the Phrygia and Raven.

Bibliography