Inquisitor (Individual Aegis-class WarShip)

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This article is about the WarShip. For other uses, see Inquisitor.
Inquisitor
Vessel Profile
TypeWarShip
ClassAegis
In service untilJanuary 3081

History[edit]

The Aegis-class heavy cruiser Inquisitor was a Star League Defense Force WarShip that survived the Hegemony Campaign to liberate Terra from the forces of Stefan Amaris, and subsequently followed General Aleksandr Kerensky on the Exodus.[1]

Operation KLONDIKE[edit]

When the Pentagon Civil War erupted, the Inquisitor was one of the WarShips which followed Nicholas Kerensky to Strana Mechty. After Nicholas founded the Clans the Inquisitor was deployed on Operation KLONDIKE, Nicholas' plan to conquer the Pentagon worlds.[1]

Star Captain Brucalter Sheridan was placed in command of the Inquisitor under the overall command of saKhan Rafe Kardaan of Clan Cloud Cobra, the officer in charge of the naval contingent responsible with securing the Babylon system. Sheridan's part of the operation began with a strike on the mining colony of Babylon VI in July 2821; he had the Inquisitor fire warning shots towards the colony while his JumpShips used Lithium-Fusion batteries to jump back to the system Lagrange points after disgorging their DropShips.[1]

What Sheridan and the crew of the Inquisitor didn't realize was that two of the warning shots had been placed too close to the mining colony, and had collapsed some of the underground structures; this sent the miners into a frenzy, and every colony DropShip in orbit targeted the Inquisitor with everything they could. In addition to the orbiting ships, every ship that could launch from the colony did so and joined the attack on the Inquisitor, leaving the crew of the Inquisitor overwhelmed with potential targets. Sheridan ordered his gunners to disable the enemy DropShips, but was soon forced to order all weapons free when the gunners found themselves in danger of being swamped.[1]

The Inquisitor's naval autocannon quickly destroyed two enemy DropShips, but while the resulting clouds of debris discouraged some ships from attacking, it provided cover for others determined to press the assault; one such ship managed to get close enough to severely damage the Inquisitor's thrusters before being shot down by the WarShip. A fully loaded ore carrier made an attack run at the Inquisitor almost immediately after the Inquisitor's thrusters had been damaged, and while the Inquisitor was able to disable the ore carrier, it was unable to destroy it. The collision between the Inquisitor, the remains of the disabled DropShip and the ten thousand tons of ore being carried by the DropShip almost broke the Inquisitor's back; Sheridan's gunners continued to engage the miners' DropShips as his damage control teams tried to deal with the fuel, atmosphere and even crew being vented into space.[1]

The combination of the amount of damage taken by the Inquisitor and the inexperience of the damage control teams made it impossible to keep up with the damage. Sheridan called in the naval reserves assigned to the Babylon system and ordered an evacuation of the Inquisitor; the naval reserve was able to secure the Babylon system, and with the various ships of the reserve contributing their damage control teams to the damage control operations aboard the Inquisitor the ship was saved, but it would take decades for the damage to be repaired.[1]

The Inquisitor would remain in service with the Cloud Cobras as the CCS Inquisitor; by 3061, the Inquisitor was the only WarShip assigned to Zeta Galaxy[2] and was still listed as being in service with the Cloud Cobras as of 3067.[3]

Wars of Reaving[edit]

In August 3069 the Inquisitor was operating alongside the CCS The Protector in the Tanis system; when a small merchant fleet from Clan Ice Hellion jumped into the system unannounced on the 28th of August, Cloud Cobra Star Admiral Hollyann Kardaan took no chances, believing that the Ice Hellions may be attempting to capture the Tanis system, as had already been attempted at least once before in recent years. As a result, Kardaan ordered the Inquisitor and The Protector to attack, destroying three JumpShips and their DropShips; the Hellions would subsequently protest that the ships had simply jumped to the nearest inhabited system to effect repairs on a damaged JumpShip.[4]

The Ice Hellion ships, operating under the command of Star Captain Mora Taney, had actually been a deliberate attempt to infiltrate Ice Hellion Watch personnel into the Tanis system, something that the Cloud Cobras discovered when sifting through the debris and which the Cloud Cobras alerted their allies in Clan Star Adder to afterwards.[5]

The Inquisitor was destroyed during the Abjuration of Clan Goliath Scorpion; the Inquisitor was lost alongside the Fredasa-class CCS Hell Fury when the Cloud Cobras secured the world of Roche from the Scorpions in January 3081.[6][7]

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Historical: Operation Klondike, pp. 42–43: "Sheridan's Battle"
  2. Field Manual: Warden Clans, p. 28: "Naval Forces"
  3. Field Manual: Updates, p. 55: "Naval Assets"
  4. The Wars of Reaving, p. 39: "Patience of the Cobra"
  5. The Wars of Reaving, p. 44: "The Hellion Plan"
  6. The Wars of Reaving, p. 160: "WarShips"
  7. The Wars of Reaving, p. 158: "Leaders (3085)"

Bibliography[edit]