Architeuthis
Sarna News
| Architeuthis | |
|---|---|
| Vessel Profile | |
| Previous names | Marseilles |
| Type | WarShip |
| Class | Essex |
History
The Essex-class destroyer SLS Marseilles 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.
Following the Exodus, the Marseilles languished in mothballs as part of a small naval cache in the Babylon system for centuries. The naval cache with the Marseilles in would ultimately fall under the control of Clan Diamond Shark, but while many of the ships within the various Diamond Shark naval caches would be restored and added to the Diamond Shark touman before Operation REVIVAL, the Marseilles remained in mothballs until the Wars of Reaving.[1]
Despite the ejection of the Diamond Sharks from the Clan Homeworld systems, the Sharks inserted a Watch team back into homeworlds space in 3075; the Watch contingent consisted of two small JumpShips, a dozen solahma warriors, two salvage teams, technicians and merchants. The mission undertaken was twofold; to infiltrate the remaining Clans still in homeworlds space and to visit the only remaining Diamond Shark naval cache - namely, the cache in the Babylon system containing the Marseilles - and restore any ships they could to operational status. The naval cache contained just two WarShips by this point, of which only one would prove to be in good enough condition that the small party could restore it - the Marseilles.[1]
Having restored the Marseilles and staffed it with a skeleton crew, the bulk of the Watch contingent then travelled to the edge of the Lum system and began searching for the remains of the Potemkin-class CSR Snowflake using information provided by Clan Snow Raven. The party found the Snowflake and confirmed that the K-F jump drive was in working order despite the Snowflake having lost large portions of its hull during the battle in the system. After emergency repairs, the Snowflake managed to execute a successful emergency test jump; this led the Diamond Sharks to rename the Snowflake to Titanic, in honor of the ship destroyed at York. The Sharks also renamed the Marseilles to the Architeuthis and proceeded to make a cautious journey back to the Inner Sphere, with both salvage and work teams continuing to conduct what repairs they could en route.[1]
Both the newly-renamed CDS Titanic and CDS Architeuthis journeyed back to Ramora in the Outworlds Alliance, arriving in 3076 and promptly taking advantage of the Snow Raven repair bays there, which the Diamond Sharks had recently secured rights to use. Each ship underwent repairs at Ramora, although neither stayed any longer than was necessary, and both ships travelled to Twycross in 3080.[1][2]
The Dark Age
In or around 3090 the Raven Alliance found its need for a dedicated transport fleet of WarShips lessening, and Diamond Shark Khan Nagasawa saw an opportunity for a beneficial trade. In 3091 he proposed to Clan Snow Raven that four Diamond Shark WarShips be exchanged for four Snow Raven WarShips. This proved a contentious proposal for the warriors of the Snow Raven touman, but ultimately the trade was agreed. The Diamond Sharks transferred four WarShips to the Snow Ravens - the Nightlord-class battleship Terror of the Deep, the Essex-class Tracy and Architeuthis and the Fredasa-class transport Swift Strike - and in exchange received three Potemkin-class cruisers (the Epimetheus, Treachery and Wild Swan) and the Volga-class transport Scavenger.[3][4][5]
All of the former Diamond Shark WarShips transferred to the Raven Alliance were renamed, with the two Essex-class ships being fielded by the Raven Alliance under the names Marshal Ney and Mulhacén, but it is unclear which ship was which.[3] For further information consult the individual ship articles on each WarShip.