Andromeda (Individual Volga-class WarShip)

Revision as of 05:55, 21 September 2016 by Dmon (talk | contribs) (Dmon moved page Andromeda to Andromeda (Individual Volga-class WarShip): Found another Andromeda)
Andromeda
Vessel Profile
TypeWarShip
ClassVolga

History

As at 3061 the Volga-class transport Andromeda was a WarShip within the Clan Goliath Scorpion touman. The Andromeda was serving in the five-ship naval star known as the Wild Hunt Battlegroup and providing commercial support to Gamma Galaxy.[1]

In June 3072 the Andromeda was involved in the conflict over various enclaves on the former Clan Smoke Jaguar world of Huntress. Both the Goliath Scorpions and Clan Cloud Cobra were working together with the agreement of their respective Khans to Reave a number of Smoke Jaguar genetic legacies stored in Mount Szabo, the majority of which had remained unused since the Annihilation of the Smoke Jaguars.[2]

The combined Cloud Cobra and Scorpion forces took the Mount Szabo facility easily, despite resistance from a small Dark Caste force nearby - something that would be identified in future years to be a result of Mount Szabo having become a Society facility during the years in which the Clans believed the site to be unused. The two forces took only enough isorla to repair the damage taken during the brief battle, confirmed the presence of the various legacies, and then withdrew so that the facility could be destroyed by orbital bombardment on the 30th of June.[2]

The advanced machines used by the Dark Caste forces convinced the Cobras and Scorpions to investigate Huntress further, looking for more evidence of such advanced technology; as they were working through various abandoned Smoke Jaguar enclaves a force from Clan Coyote appeared near Huntress via a pirate point and quickly dropped ground forces onto the planet, seizing a number of resource complexes and the Warhawk factory on Abysmal from the Scorpions. The Coyotes quickly stripped the captured facilities before the Scorpions could react, leaving pursuing Scorpion forces to engage the Coyote rearguard as they were leaving the planet.[2]

The Coyote DropShips were engaged by the Andromeda and the Essex-class destroyer CGS Orpheus, which Star Admiral Patel Suvorov had the foresight to have placed in position in advance of the Coyote's retreat. The two Scorpion WarShips caught and destroyed half of them, only to be attacked in turn by the CCS Relentless Pursuit, a Coyote Vincent Mk. 42-class corvette. The Relentless Pursuit quickly gutted the Andromeda while a combination of Coyote AeroSpace Fighters and previously-unseen Assault ProtoMechs with wings held the Orpheus off; with the Andromeda out of action, the Coyotes then used repeated strikes to hammer at the Orpheus until it broke up against the atmosphere of Huntress.[2]

The Andromeda was subsequently recovered and partially repaired before being deployed to the area formerly occupied by the Rim Worlds Republic along with the Third Seeker Cluster. It was in the company of the Third Seeker Cluster that the Andromeda uncovered the presence of Bandit Caste forces at Waypoint 531 in the Deep Periphery near Nueva Castile.[3]

The Bandits had been operating from Waypoint 531 since June 3073, having captured the space station constructed and operated in the system by the Word of Blake. While the Blakist personnel had been traded on Tanis for supplies, the Blakist materiel had been used by the Bandit Caste leader known as Jaguar to equip his forces, and a contingent of his forces was in the system at the time, along with the Mako-class corvette Fuchida. Having detected the apparently derelict Fuchida the Scorpion forces believed that they had found a Star League cache and approached the station accordingly, up until the Fuchida launched DropShips and AeroSpace Fighters and began moving to intercept the Andromeda.[3]

Star Colonel Enrique Yeh engaged the bandits with the available Scorpion forces, and the Andromeda quickly defeated the Fuchida while the remaining forces dispatched the few bandits still in the system. Star Colonel Yeh left a Binary of fighters behind to guard the station and the other salvage while the Andromeda and the remaining forces returned to Clan space; the discovery of Waypoint 531 and the facilities there would subsequently play an important part in the Goliath Scorpion evacuation of the Clan Homeworlds following the Abjuration of the Clan.[3]

The Andromeda was subsequently destroyed during the battle at New Kent fought as a part of the Annihilation of Clan Steel Viper in December 3075.

Notes

According to Wars of Reaving the Liberator-class cruiser Victoria Ward was operating as a Clan Coyote WarShip in June 3072 and was responsible for the destruction or crippling of the Orpheus and the Andromeda above Huntress.[2] It has subsequently been confirmed that Wars of Reaving is in error, and that the vessel responsible was the Vincent Mk. 42-class corvette CCS Relentless Pursuit.[4]

The correct ship should be the Relentless Pursuit, per Ben.
  — Catalyst Game Labs Errata Forum, 15 Aug 2011

Details of the Andromeda's repair and subsequent destruction was confirmed by the author, reconciling a possible inconsistency within the Wars of Reaving:

Nope, she was repaired to partial functionality and then unleashed at 531. She's one of the unnamed vessels destroyed in the New Kent assault.
  — GhostBear, BattleTech Assistant Line Developer, 09 Aug 2011

References

  1. Field Manual: Warden Clans, p. 108, "Naval Assets"
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Wars of Reaving, p. 100-101, "Fall of Szabo"
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Wars of Reaving, p. 128, "Stellar System Waypoint 531"
  4. Catalyst Game Labs Errata Forum, 15 Aug 2011

Bibliography