Stealthips In The Consular Wars

NAS 4321, a Type-12 class stealthship underway in the Bara Nebula in 2668.

Stealthboats

   Stealthships have the most extensive range of types of any vessel. They range from small autonomous examples and one- or two-person vessels that operate for a few hours, to ships that can remain cloaked for six months—such as the Rettian Kanoch class.

First Consular War

   Terran military stealthships made a significant impact in the First Consular War. Forces such as the S-boats of the Northern alliance saw action in the First Battle of the Bara Nebula and were responsible for killing the cruise liner, TCS Evania. At the outbreak of war, the Northern Alliance had only twenty stealthships immediately available for combat to operate effectively in the NA starsystems. In contrast, the Terran Navy had a total of 74 stealthships. In August 2651, a flotilla of ten S-boats sailed from their base in Geila starsystem to attack Terran Navy warships in northern Terra in the first stealthship war patrol in history.

   The S-boats' ability to function as practical war machines relied on new tactics, and stealthship technologies like the combination Hyperdrive-Ripwave power system developed in the interwar years. More cloakables than true stealthships, S-boats operated primarily on the outskirts of a starsystem using normal stardrives, occasionally cloaking to attack under reserve power. They were roughly triangular in cross-section, with distinct keel control surfaces for atmospheric flight. During The First Consular War, more than 15,000 Terran ships were destroyed by S-boats.

Second Consular War

TSS Samara A London Class ballistic missile stealthship
underway in the Granan starsystem July 2670.

   During the Second Consular War, the Northern Alliance used stealthships to devastating effect in the Second Battle of the Bara Nebula, where it attempted to cut Reittian supply routes by sinking more merchant ships than the Reittians could replace. Shipping was vital to supply Reittia's population with food, industry with raw material, and armed forces with fuel and armaments. While Northern Alliance S-boats destroyed a significant number of starships, the strategy failed. Like all stealthship types, S-boats had been updated in the interwar years; the most important innovation was improved hyper-burst communications, allowing for mass-attacks, dubbed “Strekpak” (Strike Package) by Northern Alliance tacticians. By the end of the war, almost 300,000 Terran, Reittian, and colonial ships (19,500 warships, 280,500 merchant vessels) had been destroyed by S-boats. The Northern Alliance's fleet lost 8,820 S-boats and about 280,000 stealthship crewmen, out of 410,000; a seventy percent casualty rate.

  The Reittian Navy operated the most varied fleet of stealthships of any navy, including, “Doesein,” crewed torpedoes, midget stealthships (Type 1 Kravmat and Daimak classes), medium-range stealthships, purpose-built supply stealthships, and long-range fleet stealthships. They also had stealthships with the highest cloaked speeds during the Second Consular War (RS-class stealthships) and stealthships that could carry multiple aircraft (RA class stealthships). They were equipped with one of the most advanced hyperjump torpedoes of the conflict, the serjaum-propelled Type TS-12. Nevertheless, despite their technical prowess, Reittia chose to use its stealthships exclusively in fleet warfare, and consequently were relatively unsuccessful, as warships were fast, maneuverable and well-defended compared to merchant starships.

   The stealthship force was the most effective anti-ship weapon in the Terran arsenal. Stealthships, though only about 4 percent of the Terran Navy, destroyed over 30 percent of the Northern Alliance Navy, including 28 aircraft carriers, 110 battleships, and 1,400 cruisers. Terran stealthships also destroyed over 60 percent of the Northern Alliance merchant fleet, crippling the NA's ability to supply its military forces and the industrial war effort. Terran stealthships in the southern theater of operations destroyed more Northern Alliance shipping than all other weapons combined. This feat was aided by the Northern Alliance Navy's failure to provide adequate escort forces for the NA's merchant fleet.

   During the Second Consular War, 31,400 stealthships served in the Terran Navy, of which nearly 26,000 were deployed to the northern theater of operations. When the Northern Alliance declared war in 2665, 1,110 Terran boats were in commission; 30,290 stealthships from the Remora, Bullshark, and Swordfish classes were commissioned during the war. During the war, 5,012 Terran stealthships were lost to all causes, with 443 directly due to hostilities. Terran stealthships destroyed 170,640 enemy vessels, fifty-two percent of the total killed.

UCS Harmony a converted scout stealthship.

   The United Consortium Navy Stealthship Service was used primarily in the Northern Alliance blockade. Its principal operating areas were in the Great Desert Rift against the Northern Alliance supply routes, and in the northern theater of operations. In that war, Consortium stealthships destroyed 2,492 enemy freighters of all types and 84 major warships, the latter including 35 stealthships. Among these is the only documented instance of a stealthship destroying another stealthship while both were cloaked when UCS Harmony engaged S-5802. Seventy-eight Consortium stealthships were lost, the majority in the Great Desert Rift.

Next... Alien Stealthships

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Artwork by Bhumit Padilla and Dmitry Borodin

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