Cage's Pride

Cage's Pride
Vessel Profile
TypeWarShip
ClassMcKenna

History

As at 3059 the McKenna-class battleship Cage's Pride was a WarShip within the Clan Ice Hellion touman and was serving as the CIH Cage's Pride. The Cage's Pride was the flagship of Alpha Galaxy at this point in time.[1]

When the Ice Hellions launched their invasion of the Clan Jade Falcon Occupation Zone in the Inner Sphere in mid-3071 the Cage's Pride was one of the WarShips deployed. One of the first actions conducted by all thirteen Ice Helion WarShips including the Cage's Pride was to secure the Dark Nebula, destroying the small Jade Falcon naval force there and securing the largely-abandoned facility. As a part of the Ice Hellions Alpha Galaxy Naval Star the Cage's Fury was then involved in the fleet action at Derf that saw the vast orbital supply station there destroyed thanks to a ferocious but ultimately unsuccessful defense by forces from Clan Jade Falcon's Mu Galaxy.[2]

The Cage's Pride played an increasingly important part as both the Jade Falcons and Clan Hell's Horses began to work together against the Ice Hellions in 3072; with the Ice Hellion forces driven back to three primary locations - the Dark Nebula, Evciler and Vantaa - the Cage's Pride found it and the other ships within the Alpha Galaxy Naval Star at Vantaa, facing off forces from both the Jade Falcon Alpha and Gamma Galaxies - accompanied by the Black Lion-class battlecruiser CJF Jade Aerie and the Sovetskii Soyuz-class heavy cruiser CJF Hawker - soon joined by the Hell's Horses Iota Galaxy, which added the Volga-class transport CHH Mount Olympus to the Falcon's naval strength.[3]

As the combined Hell's Horses and Jade Falcon forces moved to land on the planet the York-class destroyer CIH Pack Leader and the Aegis-class heavy cruiser CIH Chaos Sailor engaged the opposing naval forces while the Cage's Pride attempted to intercept the descending DropShips. The Cage's Pride was largely unsuccessful in her efforts, destroying two DropShips but being beaten back by enemy assault craft and AeroSpace Fighters.[3]

The ground battle didn't go according to the plans of Ice Hellion Khan Montose, with the Hell's Horses and Jade Falcons suspecting a trap and failing to follow her forces into the toxic Biwick Industrial Zone, where she hoped to use speed and stealth to reduce their numbers. The two opposing Clans worked together to restrict the avenues by which the Ice Hellions could operate, limiting their movements; the Hell's Horses Khan Cobb offered Montose and her forces hegira, but Montose not only refused the offer but also ordered the Cage's Pride to strike at Iota Galaxy and the Falcon forces from orbit. The first blow from the Cage's Pride succeeded in breaking Iota Galaxy's line, but also damaged or destroyed a number of lines and pipes transporting toxic chemicals, starting fires as the volatile planetary atmosphere came into contact with a number of the poisonous substances. The second shot from the Cage's Pride missed the Jade Falcon forces by a quarter of a kilometer, instead scoring a direct hit on a major dam responsible for holding back a nearby river.[3]

The Jade Aerie and the Hawker moved to engage the Cage's Pride and the Chaos Sailor in response; the Chaos Sailor had already been badly damaged by this point and was quickly subdued by a marine boarding assault, while the Cage's Pride was left wilting under the assault of the Jade Falcon WarShips, leaving the ground forces without orbital support. The Hell's Horses and Jade Falcon's proceeded to destroy the Ice Hellion ground forces with less than a Cluster of Hellion troops surviving the combination of enemy forces and an increasingly toxic atmosphere.[3]

The Cage's Pride's actions had a lasting effect on Vantaa, however; the damaged industries leaked large quantities of poisonous materials into the nearby river, and when the dam damaged by the Pride's second orbital strike collapsed, billions of liters of contaminated water were dumped straight into the most heavily-settled sea on the planet. This, combined with the failing atmospheric regulation equipment left Vantaa in a collapsing downward spiral of ecological damage that led the Jade Falcons to abandon the world, leaving behind those members of the population they considered unsalvageable.[4]

References

  1. Field Manual: Crusader Clans, p. 81, "Naval Assets"
  2. Wars of Reaving, p. 69-71, "The Hellion Strikes"
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Wars of Reaving, p. 84-85, "Icy Fire"
  4. Wars of Reaving, p. 86, "Abandoning Vantaa"

Bibliography