Araneida

Araneida
Vessel Profile
Type	WarShip
Class	Zechetinu II

History

The FWLS Araneida was the first of the second block of Zechetinu-class corvettes to be launched by the Free Worlds League between 3059 and 3067. More than half the fleet of Zechetinus in service to the League had been secretly infiltrated by personnel loyal to the Word of Blake and promptly defected to the Blakists during the Jihad, and the Araneida was one of the ships that followed the Blakist cause.

In February 3068, the Word of Blake captured the important Draconis Combine world of Dieron and subsumed it into the Word of Blake Protectorate. Despite efforts by the Combine to recapture Dieron - including a task force led by Hohiro Kurita II, son and heir of the then-comatose Coordinator, Theodore Kurita, Dieron remained a Blakist territory for almost a decade.

During Operation SCOUR, a massive allied coalition task force drawn from the DCMS and Clan Ghost Bear led the assault to recapture Dieron. The campaign began on 8 October 3077 and would last for several months before Dieron was free in the face of determined resistance by the significant Blakist forces defending Dieron. In January 3078 the Draconis Combine and Ghost Bear commands deployed the newly-liberated Northwind Highlanders to Dieron to accelerate the mop-up operations against Blakist holdouts.

The Blakist forces on Dieron represented one of the largest commitments by the Word of Blake during the Jihad; in terms of ground support the Blakists had deployed a task force consisting of Protectorate Militia Divisions from Acamar, Asta, Fletcher, Liberty, and Milton, along with the 2nd, 3rd, 14th, 19th, and 23rd Militia Divisions. Backing up the ground forces was a substantial naval force - substantial enough that no less than ten Blakist WarShips were destroyed or captured during the campaign, more capital ship losses for the Word of Blake than any other battle of the Jihad save the battle for Terra in 3078. From their core fleet alone the Word of Blake lost three destroyers, the Baron-class WoBS Light of Glory, the Essex-class WoBS Dawning Horizon and the Lola III-class WoBS End of Wisdom.

In addition to the losses from the core Blakist fleet, seven WarShips from their fleet of vessels suborned from the Free Worlds League navy were also destroyed: the Zechetinu-class corvettes FWLS Karelia, FWLS Tirana and the FWLS Araneida, the Agamemnon-class heavy cruiser FWLS Aineas, the Eagle-class frigates FWLS Mordred and FWLS Tristram and the Thera-class carrier FWLS Sardis - although the latter was captured rather than destroyed, and would be pressed into service by Clan Snow Raven as the renamed SRS Raven's Nest.

The underground news agency known as Drake released what it claimed to be the combat logs for the naval battle in the Dieron system kept by Star Admiral James Lankenau, the Clan Snow Raven Admiral commanding the Conqueror-class carrier CSR Ark Royal. If the logs are accurate—and it is noteworthy that the logs contain no mention of the FWLS Araneida or the WoBS Dawning Horizon—the major naval combat actions took place on the 20th of November, after the Blakist task force jumped in-system on the 19th. The logs record that the Clan forces in the system comprised the Ark Royal and two Clan Ghost Bear WarShips, the Nightlord-class CGB Ursa Major and the massive Leviathan-class CGB Leviathan. The Ark Royal reportedly suffered light damage and the Ursa Major moderate damage, but the Leviathan was evidently scuttled, as the Blakists had concentrated fire from their WarShips and their considerable Pocket WarShip fleet on the Ghost Bear battleship.

Bibliography

• Field Manual: Free Worlds League
• Field Manual: Updates
• Jihad: Final Reckoning
• Jihad Hot Spots: Terra