Aculia Voland
Protecting her children from the shadows.
The 13th Elysium Battlegroup
History
The XIII Battlegroup or the Thirteenth Battlegroup is a new carrier-focused addition to the Elysium Navy under the command of recently promoted Fleet Admiral
Aculia Voland
who has spent considerable time studying under
Grand Shepherd Burtch
and heading her own military design company. It is designed to be flexible, formidable, and fast, able to respond to threats against the Empire quickly and with sufficient force.Its history is quite recent, and its formation was intended to solve three problems within the Elysium Empire. First, the sheer amount of unemployed and shiftless refugees, who needed productive jobs that the civilian economy could not accommodate. Second, the issue of piracy along and within the Empire’s borders, which necessitated a more flexible solution than the traditional heavy-handed ships of the line. Third, the Elysium Navy needed a carrier component to account for its doctrine of synergy. It is also rumored that some lobbying from Aculia and the Dobsons played a role in its formation, as both of their companies desperately needed military contracts to expand their influence and production capabilities, and the creation of the fleet under Elysium credits serves to tie both of them more tightly to Rex and his treasury.
Politically, it is heavily aligned with the refugee bloc of Imperial politics, aligning itself against the traditional Imperialist faction within the Empire and wary of too much influence from the Dobson faction following the
Brodan Dobson
trial, although for now their armament is supplied by a less arrogant wing of the family. They tend to have overlapping interests and good relations with the Elysium Imperials in this regard, although they tend to lean towards the more democratic side within that bloc, and watch closely for any sign that
Loreena Arenais-Valhoun
or
Rex Valhoun
may be leaning too hard towards authoritarianism or giving into corruption. With regards to Elysium foreign policy, they favor establishing a well-protected “imperial core” with a policy of “defensive imperialism” situated around that core-in essence, expansion and conflict are seen as okay, in as much as it furthers the goal of providing a good buffer against what they consider to be the “core” of Empire, where their families reside, as they do not wish to become refugees again.The motto of the XIII Battlegroup is "attero dominatus" in ancient Galactic Basic, translating roughly to "destroy tyranny".
Organization
The Thirteenth Battle Group is presently designed around carrier task forces, each able to conduct independent operations under the command of a commodore with considerable force with a total specialized starfighter complement of between thirty-four to thirty-eight squadrons each, or 408-456 starfighters or bombers for a total production cost of around one larger two-thousand meter Star Destroyer, making each task force extremely cost efficient, flexible and capable of posing outsized threat relative to its size in space combat.Each task force also fields a regiment of Elysium marines for ground combat spread out in companies between its ships, although since they do not have room for vehicles due to the amount of strike craft carried, their role is limited more towards repelling boarding actions or establishing initial beachheads under heavy air support to get a foothold for reinforcements from the Army proper. There is also a small complement of Lion's Guard Knights assigned to each task force, ostensibly to guard its leader, but rumors swirl about other uses kept strictly secret by high command. In total the combined battlegroup including the marines comprises roughly around 140,000 souls in total, and costs the Empire around the equivalent of fifteen standard star destroyers (or roughly around a 30,000m fleet size) to field.
The naval composition of each task force is led by an Aspis pocket carrier equipped with a gravity well generator that serves as the lynchpin of the task force along with seven to eight Aculeo carrier-corvettes. The Aspis and the Aculeos can carry any type of starfighter, although it is recommended to use the customized craft designed specifically for the fleet by Voland Military Enterprises as they are of very high quality and cover the full range of carrier operation roles. These include:
The Flying Falcon Interceptor, designed for intercepting and destroying enemy bombers and fighters that threaten capital ships, or chasing down particularly nimble opponents.
The Strike Eagle Fighter, designed to achieve space and air superiority by slaughtering enemy fighters.
The Screeching Owl Bomber, designed to destroy capital ships both large and small.
The War Hawk Ground Attack Fighter, designed to support ground missions by slaughtering enemy air defenses and then proceeding to bomb enemy infantry, armored units, and even fortifications.
The Argus SAWACs, designed as an excellent scouting vehicle and command and control aircraft to help deal with enemy electronic countermeasures and burn through any jamming they might attempt.
The Howling Harrier Multirole Strikecraft, designed to carry out a variety of battlefield roles, though not as well as the others.
Recently, Voland Class Space Submarines have been added to the roster to serve in a stealth capacity.Note: Below are just some of the named forces, these can be scaled up or down relative to the battle size, each is roughly equivalent to 1,900m or 2,100m worth of forces.
Forces
1st Carrier Strike Group “Agathon”
1x Aspis "HMS Valiant"
8x Aculeo
38 Squadrons
31st Elysium Marines Regiment
1st Lion Knight's Detachment
2nd Carrier Strike Group “Acheron”
1x Aspis "HMS Hope"
8x Aculeo
38 Squadrons
32nd Elysium Marines Regiment
2nd Lion Knight's Detachment
3rd Carrier Strike Group “Columbia”
1x Aspis "HMS Vindicator"
8x Aculeo
38 Squadrons
33rd Elysium Marines Regiment
3rd Lion's Knights Detachment
4th Carrier Strike Group “Osiris”
1x Aspis "HMS Saber"
8x Aculeo
34th Elysium Marines Regiment
4th Lion's Knights Detachment
5th Carrier Strike Group “Pegasus”
1x Aspis "HMS Aurora"
8x Aculeo
38 Squadrons
35th Elysium Marines Regiment
5th Lion's Knights Detachment
6th Carrier Strike Group “Solaria”
1x Aspis "HMS Majestic"
7x Aculeo
34 Squadrons
36th Elysium Marines Regiment
6th Lion's Knights Detachment
7th Carrier Strike Group “Triton”
1x Aspis "HMS Avalon"
7x Aculeo
34 Squadrons
37th Elysium Marines Regiment
7th Lion's Knights Detachment
8th Carrier Strike Group “Valkyrie”
1x Aspis "HMS Bastion"
7x Aculeo
34 Squadrons
38th Elysium Marines Regiment
8th Lion's Knights Detachment
9th Carrier Strike Group “Gladius“
1x Aspis "HMS Griffin"
7x Aculeo
34 Squadrons
39th Elysium Marines Regiment
9th Lion's Knights Detachment
10th Carrier Strike Group “Pila“
1x Aspis "HMS Chronos"
7x Aculeo
34 Squadrons
40th Elysium Marines Regiment
10th Lion's Knights Detachment
11th Carrier Strike Group “Concordia”
1x Aspis "HMS Starfall"
8x Aculeo
38 Squadrons
41st Elysium Marines Regiment
11th Lion's Knights Detachment
12th Carrier Strike Group “Fides”
1x Aspis "HMS Actium"
8x Aculeo
38 Squadrons
42nd Elysium Marines Regiment
12th Lion's Knights Detachment
13th Carrier Strike Group “Ravenna”
1x Aspis "HMS Deimos"
8x Aculeo
38 Squadrons
43rd Elysium Marines Regiment
13th Lion's Knights Detachment
14th Carrier Strike Group “Lionusa“
1x Aspis "HMS Prennia"
7x Aculeo
34 Squadrons
44th Elysium Marines Regiment
14th Lion's Knights Detachment
15th Carrier Strike Group “Castilla“
1x Aspis "HMS Argo"
7x Aculeo
34 Squadrons
45th Elysium Marines Regiment
15th Lion's Knights Detachment
16th Carrier Strike Group "Raven"
Classified at the moment.
Want to get involved?
If you would like to get involved, either by commanding a carrier strike group as an officer, joining as part of the ground forces attached to the fleet, or simply borrowing a strike group for a thread, post in this thread.
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