Database and Lore

The Clemenceau Class Fleet Command Drone

Carrier

“These great carriers will be the pride of the UHN. They are the technological achievement of humanity and will be its greatest defense,” Admiral Simmons, 2348 AD. Of the many warships of the UHN, the Clemenceau class would become the inevitable replacement for the Shinano class Carriers. The required resources to build them were enormous, but many consider them to be a significant achievement in military engineering. However, with all that said, there was a lingering gap that these vessels left. One was being able to serve initial support, and the other was the fact there were too few to make any valid difference. Great stride had been placed on the ships, but the question remains if the vessels were worth their cost. Design The Clemenceau was undoubtedly designed as an evolutionary development of the aging Shinano Class Fleet Drone Carriers. Before the Human Itrean War outbreak, the great warships were never genuinely tested in combat. Indeed, the combat capabilities of the carriers were severely limited. While a single carrier could barely fight against a UHN battleship, the numerous drone networks would be the ship’s only true saving grace. The Shinano class was a pinnacle of achievement when it was first introduced. The powerful computer cores and network link emitters would allow a proper sphere formation of tactical combat drones. It wasn’t easy, but the designers and engineers had gotten their worth from them. The UHN was supposedly pleased with the vessels having them serve as command ships for fleets as they engaged in battle.  However, in numerous simulations, it had proven that the Shinano class was vulnerable to specific scenarios. If the vessels ran out of drones, they were mostly useless. The ship’s limited armament wouldn’t be sufficient enough to adequately serve in defending and supporting the fleets in all-out engagements. Plus, they had proven to be somewhat fragile in their states. It was the goal of the UHN to remedy this vessel and come up with something better. The UHN practically got their wish from the Chakri Naruebet class Strike Drone Carriers. Batrice’s promise of a better drone carrier had placed the colony into a status as a true competitor when they first came out with it. The Chakri Naruebet would try to solve the poor armament issue by adding more weapons. The Batrice carriers still suffered from issues. Its drone capacity was less than the Shinano’s. This further limited its ability to support a fleet properly and could lead to quicker depletion of its own drones. In addition, the carrier’s command capabilities weren’t improved. While the Chakri Naruebet was good, the UHN placed a request to further return to having a viable Fleet Drone Carrier. The Clemenceau class was in all vestiges, a copy of the Shinano class. However, there would be numerous adjustments and updates to the design. For one, the ship was enlarged. This would allow the vessels to carry more drones. New computer cores could also better handle the countless drones that would be deployed and operated. The three launcher boxes were reduced to two larger ones which eased up in construction. Its armament was also given a slight update. Internal construction facilities were further added so that vessel could more quickly replenish its supply of lost drones. Newer AIO turrets, a reinforced centripetal ring, and heavy missile launcher CIWS drones were all incorporated. The vessel’s own combat capability, while not on par with the Chakri Naruebet, was still an improvement over the original Shinano class. By 2341, the UHN placed an order for four carriers with almost no objections from the UWA politicians. History The first carrier, the Ark Royal, was commissioned in 2343 AD. It would be followed by all four of the orders being completed almost a year before humanity would encounter the Itreans. Their arrival was not a second too late. With the discovery of the Itreans, the UWA placed their sectors on high alert. The Ark Royal, Clemenceau, Shandong, and the Enterprise would all be placed in respected fleets to cover and protect Mars and Cebravis. All four of the ships were appropriately named after their reputable aircraft carriers of former Earth’s past. The carriers would ultimately see minimal action during the very early months. Mars and Cebravis were not on the priority list of Itrean attacks. Most likely, it was believed that the Itreans had little knowledge as to where the UWA worlds were located. It was also thought that the UWA worlds were outside of the known territories of Itrean control. Both proved to be correct assumptions in time. Regardless, the UHN placed an immediate order to have more carriers constructed, but the same issue persisted as the Shinano class had. At Deimos, two docks had to be allocated in order to build both pieces of the carrier frame. With little information on their attackers, the UHN had to prepare for anything. Within the first month of the war, the UHN made the cautious approach to placing an order for three more carriers. *Spoilers if you haven’t read Gabatrix: Minerva* As the battles over Cipra had started to take their toll, the shipyards at Deimos were being overstressed. In a mad rush, all three of the future planned carriers had to be stripped down and canceled in their construction. This was to help ensure that the battleships could be adequately serviced and repaired. At the same time, new battleships had to be completed. The UHN was trapped with having its four Clemenceau carriers. At the same time, there was another prevalent issue. The UHN was afraid to send its carriers to Cipra. If these vessels got damaged, they couldn’t be properly serviced on the docks of Deimos. Batrice made a promise to help service them, but even their shipyards were being overtaxed in having to build new ships and repair the ones that got damaged. However, the desperate demands to protect Cipra from being conquered eventually pressured the UHN to start dispatching its drone carriers into battle. The UHN Shinano was sent in first as it was considered to be a more expendable carrier. However, within the first several days, the Shinano would take damage and lose all of its drones. Reluctantly, the UHN Clemenceau would be dispatched to take over the role that the Shinano had left behind. The Clemenceau would fare slightly better than the Shinano. Admiral Grethor had put up a valiant defense using his defense net. When the Aksren began to nuke his network, he would pull back to initiate repairs when needed. However, he made it his goal never to make a consistent pattern in how he did it. This would prevent the clan from adapting and pushing to overwhelm his defenses. While the drone carriers had proven to be effective in shooting down waves of enemy missiles, there were too few to make a difference. Further arguments in the UHN were constant in dispatching more carriers to give more aid to Cipra, but most agreed that Mars and Cebravis couldn’t be left defenseless. However, within a couple of weeks, Admiral Grethor had had enough. The UHN Clemenceau simply couldn’t maintain the fight. Its resources had been fully expended, and Grethor had been mentally fatigued from the constant fighting. In his argument, “I would get two hours of sleep when I would receive the next call. Another attack formation would show up. This was just after the fact that I hadn’t slept for 53 hours after repelling two grueling attacks. The Clemenceau fought valiantly, but all of us knew that fighting forever was unachievable.” The UHN refused to send any additional carriers to Cipra. The Shinano would be sent back to replace the Clemenceau’s role in defending the colony even though its repairs were incomplete. It proved to be disastrous and led to the carrier’s destruction. After the loss of the Shinano, the UHN would never send another carrier to help Cipra, arguing to keep its forces close to home. After the defeat of Cipra, the carriers would remain to defend Mars, Cebravis, and Batrice, the most important worlds that belonged to the UWA. *Spoilers if you haven’t read Gabatrix: The Cipra Campaign* The alliance with the T’rintar clan would ultimately save humanity from inevitable destruction from the other Itrean clans. By 2350, efforts were made to completely replenish the UHN fleets with newer and better warships to combat the Itreans. While Batrice had finished up building two new Chakri Naruebet carriers, Deimos was still left with a queue line to mass- produce the newer Czar Class Battleships. The three new Clemenceau class carriers planned to be completed (but ultimately scrapped in 2349) were again reconsidered. Batrice would be set to build the UHN Akagi, and Deimos would be responsible for creating another carrier. Both the Akagi and the UHN Cavour are slated to be commissioned in 2351. With the relief that new vessels were underway, Admiral Rex requested that he would have the UHN Ark Royal to facilitate his command to the UHN fleet that would participate in Operation Desert Shrike. While humanity would bear the responsibility of putting ground troops onto Cipra, the UHN would still have a secondary role in helping out T’rintar clan forces in the space battle for Cipra. The UHN quickly agreed, even if the Aksren clan forces would number in the hundreds to possibly thousands of warships. However, there were some disagreements. Despite how effective it was, some still thought that the Ark Royal would succumb to enemy fire. Ultimately, the objections were overruled. According to Rex, at the time, “The Ark Royal is the best command ship that the UHN has to offer. No longer can we sit hiding behind Mars and Cebravis’s orbits when there is a war to win. Let’s bring her fury to bear.” Fleet Admiral Annika concurred with the argument. However, in the early hours of the Siege over Cipra, the Ark Royal’s drones were being targeted. The apparent weaknesses in the network were becoming steadily aware of the Aksren resistance. While the heavy drones of the carrier were performing adequately in defending and protecting the UHN fleet, enemy warheads were still proving to be overwhelming. Thousands of missiles deployed by the resisting fleet were slowly eroding the network within the day. This even included timed nuclear explosions that could render the drones inoperable within the edge of the blast radius. Even if the nuclear warheads weren’t hitting the UHN fleets, they were slowly destroying the Ark Royal's effectiveness. A call had been made to Rex that the Ark Royal should retreat with the possibility that the marine forces on Cipra had been supposedly decimated. Rex adamantly refused, believing that ground troops had reached the surface and needed proper support by UHN forces. Tragically, within the later part of the siege, the fleet adjunct of the Aksren forces would unleash an all-out salvo barrage against the Ark Royal and the T’rintar clan flagship. By then, the drone network had been annihilated, and its ability to provide proper support was muted. Rex, knowing that the scene was hopeless, gave command to his XO, that was stationed on a separate warship. The admiral had placed the order that all assets be made to protect the T’rintar flagship as he ordered the Ark Royal to break off and charge directly at the thousands of Aksren warships. The scene was utterly hopeless, but it proved to be a defining moment in Operation Desert Shrike. The T’rintar flagship was saved at the cost of the Ark Royal. A memorial has been placed on Cipra and Mars for the sacrifice of the Ark Royal. In addition, it commemorates the efforts made by Rex and the crew in never giving up in the attempt to retake the desert planet from Aksren control.