Athena (Individual Athena-class WarShip)

This article is about the first Athena-class cruiser. For other uses, see Athena.
Athena
Vessel Profile
TypeWarShip
ClassAthena

History[edit]

The MCS Athena was the first Athena-class cruiser, and it entered into service with the Magistracy of Canopus in 2569.[1][2] The Athena was constructed by the Athena Corporation as the culmination of "Project Athena," the clandestine project to create the first domestically-produced Canopian WarShip.[3] The Athena Corporation based the design of the Athena on early Terran Alliance designs for a WarShip of the same name, designs which the Alliance had created before the Terran government had any experience of deep space warfare. Those designs would later lead to the development of the Aegis-class of heavy cruisers by the Terran Hegemony before lying fallow until they were revisited by the Magistracy.[1]

The Athena's design was that of a vessel from a much earlier era, and as a consequence the MCS Athena lacked a K-F boom or docking collars; the designers had stuck closely to the original Terran Alliance design, and as a result the Athena was a ship intended to support ground assaults via orbital bombardment and to engage in nuclear space-to-space engagements.[1] A sister ship to the Athena, the MCS Kossandra Centrella, entered service after the Athena and both ships served in the Canopian navy during the Reunification War, but the Athena and the Kossandra Centrella would be the only two ships of the Athena class to be built until the closing decades of the Star League era, two centuries later.[3][4]

Neither the Athena nor her sister ship survived the Reunification War, having either been destroyed or damaged beyond repair.[4][5] Most of the Canopian WarShip fleet was destroyed during the failed raid on the Star League Defense Force supply facilities in the Thurrock system in July 2683,[6] although a pair of Canopian corvettes had been destroyed during the invasion of Tetski in late 2682.[7] It is likely that the Athena was one of the ships lost at Thurrock; however, although the battle at Thurrock accounted for the majority of the small Canopian WarShip fleet, the last two remaining Canopian WarShips to remain combat-worthy were known to have been active in the Canopus IV system when the SLDF invaded in March 2684, and the Athena may have been one of those two ships.[8]

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Field Report 2765: Periphery, pp. 31–32: "Athena (Cruiser)"
  2. Strategic Operations, p. 14: "Naval Factor"
  3. 3.0 3.1 Field Report 2765: Periphery, p. 10: "Infrastructural Integrity"
  4. 4.0 4.1 Field Report 2765: Periphery, p. 5: "Strategic Update"
  5. Field Report 2765: Periphery, p. 4: "WarShips of the Territorial States"
  6. Historical: Reunification War, pp. 102–103: "Thurrock (July 2683)"
  7. Historical: Reunification War, pp. 101–102: "Tetski (September-November 2682)"
  8. Historical: Reunification War, p. 103: "Canopus (March-April 2684)"

Bibliography[edit]