Snow Raven (Individual Nightlord-class WarShip)

This article is about the WarShip. For other uses, see Snow Raven.

Snow Raven
Vessel Profile
Type	WarShip
Class	Nightlord
In service until	3071

History

In 3061, the Nightlord-class battleship CSR Snow Raven was a WarShip in service with the Clan Snow Raven touman. The Snow Raven was one of five WarShips that made up the Snow Raven Fleet Command Star at this point in time. The Snow Raven continued to serve in the Fleet Command Star until at least 3067, operating alongside the Volga-class transport CSR Scavenger, the Potemkin-class cruiser CSR Wild Swan, and the Aegis-class heavy cruisers CSR Blue Quest and CSR Lord Death.

Negotiations were ongoing between the Snow Ravens and the Outworlds Alliance in early 3071 when the Snow Ravens decided to hold a Clan Council in the Dante system. The Snow Raven was already present in the Dante system at this point in time, and during the early stages of the Clan Council—before much had been discussed, and before many of the Bloodnamed had managed to arrive on Dante—the Snow Raven was attacked. A JumpShip jumped into the Dante system, arriving directly above the Snow Raven and so close to the battleship that the two ships interpenetrated, inflicting catastrophic damage on both. Initial reports obtained by the Outworlds Alliance media indicated that the Aegis-class heavy cruiser CSR Morning Violence had also been badly damaged in the same manner, although the Morning Violence had actually been destroyed several years before during the opening of the Wars of Reaving (see notes section below).

Even as the other Snow Raven ships nearby were trying to react to this attack, another JumpShip disgorged three Pocket WarShips—including at least one Union—which immediately began attacking Snow Raven ships; the Snow Ravens counterattacked, but not before those Pocket WarShips had destroyed two Carrier-class DropShips, the CSR Ebony Claw and the CSR Night Wing. The Snow Ravens reacted with extreme prejudice to the opening stages of the attack, firing on numerous ships nearby and destroying more than twenty DropShips and a total of fourteen merchant JumpShips after the Lola III-class destroyer CSR Bloody Talon took command of the Raven forces and ordered them to fire at will. A transcript was recovered from one of those ships, a civilian agro-freighter named the Omniss Seed, detailing some of the attack and the desperate plea from the Omniss Seed, and which formed the basis of the media reporting of the incident. The Bloody Talon had actually already been destroyed in 3068 during a trial for the Lum Shipyards, rendering the provenance of the transcript dubious. The initial reports claimed that a Galaxy of Snow Raven forces had been destroyed during the attack, along with speculation that saKhan Broderick Sukhanov had been killed.

A few survivors were recovered from the Snow Raven, including a heavily wounded saKhan Broderick Sukhanov, but the destruction of so many vessels by the Snow Ravens resulted in vocal protests from the Outworlds Alliance Senate, who were enraged by the Clan's actions. With calls for the Snow Ravens to be expelled completely from Alliance space, it was more than a year before President Mitchell Avellar was able to calm tensions enough to bring both parties back to the negotiating table, and the Snow Ravens were forced to make many concessions in the process.

Notes

The destruction of the Avalanche and four other Snow Raven WarShips unaccounted for specifically by name in sourcebooks was confirmed by the BattleTech Developer Øystein Tvedten via the Catalyst Game Labs Ask The Writers Forum:

“	*Opens Ye Olde Tome of Warshippe* Avalanche - Lum 3068 Morning Violence - Lum 3068 Eternity - Lum 3070 Blue Lancer - Lum 3070 Tenacity - Lum 3070 With regards, Øystein	”
	— Øystein Tvedten, 01 November 2013

Bibliography

• Field Manual: Updates
• Field Manual: Warden Clans
• Jihad: Final Reckoning
• Jihad Hot Spots: 3072
• The Wars of Reaving