Great Bear
Sarna News
| Great Bear | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Vessel Profile | |
| Type | WarShip |
| Class | Leviathan (Battleship) |
| Previous classes | Leviathan (Heavy Transport) |
One of the first pair of Leviathan vessels built for Clan Ghost Bear, the Great Bear and its sister ship Leviathan were initially conceived as Leviathan-class battleships. However, midway through their construction the design was changed into a heavily armed transport vessel. In fact, no ship was ever built to match the original Leviathan battleship plans.
Contents
History
Career as a Heavy Transport
As a heavy transport, the Great Bear played an important role in Clan Ghost Bear's relocation of their assets into the Ghost Bear Dominion. The ship along with it's sister ship would be over course of years to transport the Clan's civilian and military assets to the Inner Sphere holdings. Once this task was complete, the Great Bear (and the Leviathan) underwent modifications that turned them into battleships. These upgraded transporters, however, were different from the original Leviathan design specs and became known as Leviathan II-class vessels.
Career as a Heavy Battleship
In 3061, the Leviathan-class battleship Great Bear was serving as the CGB Great Bear within the Clan Ghost Bear touman and was a part of the substantial flotilla of transport WarShips available to the Ghost Bears during this era.[1] The Great Bear remained an active part of the Ghost Bear touman for the next decade[2] and into the chaos of the Jihad.
Campaign Against the Word of Blake and Its Destruction
Active throughout the Ghost Bear Dominion campaign against the Word of Blake, the iconic Great Bear's final battle was fought as a part of Task Force CRONUS, the allied coalition WarShip flotilla assigned to capture the Titan Yards near Terra. Task Force CRONUS was a flotilla of predominantly Clan WarShips drawn from all weight classes, consisting of two battleships - the Great Bear and the Nightlord-class CGB Ursus Major - three Black Lion-class battlecruisers, the CJF Jade Aerie, CJF White Aerie and CW Stealthy Kill, two Aegis-class heavy cruisers, the CSR Blue Quest and CJF Blue Talon, the Sovetskii Soyuz-class heavy cruiser CJF Hawker, the Congress-class frigate CJF Green Lantern, a trio of destroyers - the Tatsumaki-class DCS The Lair of Mighty Wyrms, York-class CSR Corvidae and Whirlwind-class CSR Drake - the Fox-class corvette LAS Robert Marsden and the Conqueror-class carrier CSR Ark Royal.[3]
Operating under the overall command of Admiral Alex Douglas, Task Force CRONUS was charged with what was viewed by many as a relatively easy precursor for the heavy fighting to come, the seat of the Word's WarShip and aerospace production and maintenance facility in the Terran system was discovered to be equipped with a fully functional Caspar II Drone network and a number of the deadly "Dragon's Breath" Multiple Capital Missile Launch Systems.[4]
Task Force CRONUS jumped to a Pirate Point near the yards, with the Lyran and Combine vessels serving as reserve command ships and the Clan forces split into two naval "Stars", one consisting of the Ghost Bears and Ravens, the other the Jade Falcons and Wolves. The Coalition forces came under attack almost immediately; initially facing waves of manned and drone AeroSpace Fighters and long range missile attacks, the Coalition ships soon came under fire from a horde of manned and drone Pocket WarShips, as well as the Essex-class destroyer WoBS Deathblow, the Dante-class frigate WoBS Narbonne and the Suffren-class destroyer WoBS Manchester - three Com Guard WarShips salvaged from the disastrous Case WHITE operation.[4]
While losing the Blue Quest and Green Lantern during the height of the initial Caspar drones assault, the Coalition forces were able to steadily advance on the shipyard's facilities with the Combine's Lair of Mighty Wyrms and the Great Bear able to get their fighters within striking distance of the main Aerospace docks. Unfortunately, what appeared to be the crippled remains of an ore processing facility was in fact a Dragon's Breath Multiple Capital Missile Launch System - the Blakists' attempt to take their Q-Ship concept to the next level; the station was equipped with a "Dragon's Breath" multi-missile launcher and unleashed several waves of nuclear-tipped and ECM-equipped Peacemaker missiles at virtually point-blank range. The Great Bear was struck numerous times, overwhelmed and then destroyed within moments of the station revealing its true nature. With the Coalition continuing its assault, the Hawker fell prey to another hidden station, while the Corvidae and Stealthy Kill went down in the face of continued Caspar drone attack groups.[4]
While ultimately successful and providing valuable experience for the assault around Terra, Task Force CRONUS paid a heavy price. Lasting a little over four hours; in addition to the Great Bear, the Blue Quest, Corvidae, Green Lantern, Hawker and Stealthy Kill were all lost and the surviving WarShips had all suffered heavy damage. Hopes were totally dashed that ships of the CRONUS task force would be able to assist those of Task Force EARTHBOUND in the assault on Terra.[4]