Ancestral Home

Ancestral Home
Vessel Profile
TypeWarShip
ClassTexas

The Texas-class battleship CCS Ancestral Home was a part of the Clan Coyote touman.

History[edit]

In the mid-thirtieth century, the Ancestral Home suffered a catastrophic failure of its KF drive, and as a result the Ancestral home was subsequently reallocated, becoming a permanent sentry in the Tamaron system. By 3061, the Ancestral Home was being used as a training ship for new naval crews, with additional weapons and armor having been added to the ship via various upgrades.[1]

In August 3071, investigations by the Clan Goliath Scorpion Watch reported that the Tamaron system was suspiciously short of defending forces, with all of the Coyote ground forces apparently absent and only the Ancestral Home and her associated naval escorts remained to defend the system.[2]

With Clan Coyote complicit in a number of attacks on holdings belonging to Clan Star Adder, the Star Adders responded by sending the Gamma Naval Reserve Star to the Tamaron system with the intent of claiming some Coyote holdings as retribution. The Star Adder forces arrived on 18 October 3072, but found themselves facing far more by way of defenses than they had anticipated. In addition to the Ancestral Home, Tamaron was defended by a newly-constructed Olympus-class defense station, numerous stars of aerospace fighters launched from that station, a number of assault DropShips, and the Lola III-class destroyer CCS Rage, last known to be in the control of Kindraa Mattila-Carrol of Clan Fire Mandrill.[3]

Star Admiral Gavin Turgidson of the Star Adders issued a call for safcon to the surface of Tamaron, only for the Coyotes to immediately rebuff his request. The Ancestral Home quickly closed on the Star Adder forces and drew first blood, destroying the Carrack-class transport CSA Black Adder. Two Star Adder WarShips, the Essex-class CSA Eagle and the Vincent Mk. 42-class CSA Centaur responded by firing on the Ancestral Home, only to have their barrages apparently inflict little if any damage. The Rage took advantage of the confusion resulting from the failed Star Adder broadsides, crossing in front of the Eagle and crushing the nose of the Star Adder WarShip with weapons fire. The damage inflicted by the Rage merely destroyed a number of weapon bays, but the Eagle was then seen to begin tumbling out of control, only for several Stars of Coyote aerospace fighters to close on the vessel and cripple her power plant and maneuvering drives. The Eagle was left tumbling; equally as mysterious as the apparent inability of the Star Adder WarShips to inflict damage on the Ancestral Home was the subsequent discovery from records of the battle that the Rage had beamed some form of localized HPG broadcast to the Eagle immediately before the ship appeared to go haywire.[3]

The Centaur was joined by the Sovetskii Soyuz-class heavy cruiser CSA Divine Conquest in launching another round of broadside fire at the Ancestral Home, which was rapidly approaching the Adder forces; for a second time, the Star Adder weapons appeared to have little effect. As the Star Adders tried to deal with the Ancestral Home, the ship executed a high-g turn and roll which stunned the Star Adder forces and left the Ancestral Home positioned to fire on the Divine Conquest; the resulting full broadside gutted the Star Adder vessel from stem to stern, leaving the Star Adder forces broken. The Centaur gathered what few Star Adder DropShip and fighter forces remained and broadcast a request for hegira, which the Coyotes accepted, allowing the Star Adders to leave the system.[3]

The last battle Ancestral Home would be involved in was the defense of Tamaron from Clan Steel Viper in late 3074. The Steel Viper force attacking Tamaron consisted of most of the Steel Viper touman, spearheaded by the Leviathan Prime-class battleship CSV Perigard Zalman, which arrived with the Steel Viper flotilla in the Tamaron system on 7 December 3074 and immediately began to fight its way towards the planet in what became the largest naval battle in the Pentagon Worlds since Operation KLONDIKE.[4]

With the Perigard Zalman leaving a slew of broken and destroyed Coyote WarShips in its wake, the Ancestral Home launched a counterattack against the larger Steel Viper ship even as Viper DropShips were descending to the surface of Tamaron. Cutting across the front of the Perigard Zalman, the Ancestral Home launched a strike against the Steel Viper battleship and then shrugged off the return fire. Whatever modifications had been performed to the Ancestral Home to allow it to fight so effectively drew the attention of the Perigard Zalman, which turned to focus on the Coyote battleship. Both ships launched devastating broadsides at each other, with the Ancestral Home taking more damage than it inflicted; despite the punishment, the Ancestral Home continued to stay at close quarters to the bigger WarShip.[4]

Within seconds of the Steel Viper personnel aboard the Perigard Zalman recording a massive power spike emanating from the Ancestral Home, the Ancestral Home opened up a hyperspace bubble that engulfed half of the Steel Viper vessel. The failed jump caused massive feedback, and that feedback caused the Ancestral Home to implode, collapsing in on itself. As catastrophic as the damage was to the Coyote battleship, the damage was worse for the Perigard Zalman; half of the Leviathan Prime was ripped free from the rest of the ship and then flattened as the hyperwave collapsed in on itself. With no way of recovering from this mortal wound, the remains of the Perigard Zalman began a tumble towards Tamaron and finally settled into a high, slowly-decaying orbit.[4]

References[edit]

  1. Field Manual: Warden Clans, p. 48: "Naval Assets"
  2. The Wars of Reaving, p. 70: "Vanishing Point"
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 The Wars of Reaving, p. 112: "Stalwart Defense"
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 The Wars of Reaving, pp. 142–143: "Viper's Venom"

Bibliography[edit]