Draconis Rift (Individual Kyushu-class WarShip)

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Draconis Rift
Vessel Profile
TypeWarShip
ClassKyushu

History

The Draconis Rift was one of the four Kyushu-class frigates to be undergoing shakedown trials in late 3058 before entering service with the black water navy of the Draconis Combine as the DCS Draconis Rift. The sister ships to the Draconis Rift undergoing extensive trials at the same time were the DCS Dream of Kessel, the DCS Luthien and DCS Victory at Wolcott, although only the Dreams of Kessel was undergoing trials in the Dieron system alongside the Draconis Rift.[1]

By 3067 a number of Kyushu-class WarShips had been lost in action, but the Draconis Rift continued to serve the Draconis Combine Admiralty;[2] the Draconis Rift was one of a handful of Combine WarShips to survive the Jihad, and by 3079 was deployed to the New Samarkand system.[3]

Second Combine-Dominion War

Early in the conflict, the Draconis Rift was used to transfer the 17th Benjamin Regulars and Ryuken-roku to the Dominion border.[4]

The Draconis Combine had become aware that the planet Rasalhague was only protected by the Nightlord-class battleship Ursa Major; Coordinator Hohiro Kurita acted on this information by dispatching a large part of the Combine WarShip fleet to attempt to kill the Ursa Major. The first ship to enter the Rasalhague system was the Draconis Rift. Arriving near the fifth planet in the system on the 29th of April 3100 before burning towards Rasalhague's moon Sigurd, the Draconis Rift was detected and pursued by the Ursa Major. An hour after the pursuit began the Ursa Major was surprised by by Inazuma-class corvette DCS Winds of Heaven, the Draconis Rift's sister ship DCS Dieron Star and the Tatsumaki-class destroyer DCS Lair of Mighty Wyrms which jumped in directly ahead of the Ursa Major.[5]

The Ursa Major attempted to retreat back towards Rasalhague to join the Sixth Valkyrie Cluster which had launched from the surface of the planet. Intercepted by the Winds of Heaven, the Ursa Major exchanged fire for ten minutes with the much lighter Combine WarShip until the Winds of Heaven retreated having suffered almost catastrophic damage from the Ghost Bear battleship. The Winds of Heaven had succeeded in delaying the Ursa Major long enough for the other three Combine WarShips to engage her. The resulting battle was savage; the Lair of Mighty Wyrms was heavily damaged before the Dieron Star was subjected to a brutal broadside that cracked her structure and detonated the ammunition magazines, causing the crew to begin abandoning ship at 1827 hours. The Ursa Major's killing strike on the Dieron Star left it open to heavy fire from the Draconis Rift, and the Draconis Rift succeeded in crippling the Ursa Major's engines. The Lair of Mighty Wyrms and Draconis Rift continued to battle the Ursa Major as the Ghost Bear battleship span towards Rasalhague, increasingly out of control. At 1843 hours a final strike from the Draconis Rift caused the Ursa Major to explode, the centrifugal forces involved in her death-spin preventing the battleship from launching escape pods and distributing debris from the explosion across the Rasalhague system.[5]

The Dieron Star made a close pass to Rasalhague at 1940 hours before a combination of reactor overloads and outgassing tore her apart; the Ghost Bears surveyed the remains but declared the wreck unsalvageable due to the destruction of her K-F drive and the stress damage caused to her structure. The Lair of Mighty Wyrms would fare little better than the Dieron Star; having managed to retreat from the Rasalhague system, the Lair of Mighty Wyrms suffered a catastrophic jump drive failure two jumps later in an uninhabited system and was scuttled by her crew to prevent the Rasalhague Dominion from recovering her.[5]

References

  1. Field Manual: Draconis Combine, p. 15, "Aerospace Assets"
  2. Field Manual: Updates, p. 105, "Draconis Combine Naval Assets"
  3. Field Report: DCMS, p. 5-6, "Safeguarding the Wounded Heart"
  4. Historical: Wars of the Republic Era, p. 32
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 Historical: Wars of the Republic Era, p. 35, "The Fall"

Bibliography