Alliance carrier Retribution

## *Retribution*

***Retribution*** (**CV-1066**) was a *Venus*-class battlecarrier conversion to full carrier capacity that served in the Terran Alliance Navy. One of the warships that launched the pivotal carrierborne fighter strike at Djangor, her name was immortalized, along with so many others in the three outnumbered Alliance fleets that fought there, as being the only fleet since the days of the Singularity Wars to decisively defeat the Razorbird Empire.

## Design

The *Vesper*-class carriers were, in essence, a hurriedly modified *Venus*: greater need for carriers and the lack of capacity to quickly mass-produce the special focusing lenses and collimation chambers for large-calibre artillery led to a number of full carrier conversions for the *Venus* class, which were desperately needed on the front lines by the routinely outgunned Alliance fleets. Accordingly, the *Vesper* class was only an unofficial designation: officially, all ships were termed "modified *Venus*" and grouped under that class, even though they came to outnumber their predecessors during the war - postwar many would be re-built as full *Venus*-class battlecarriers, though *Retribution* and some others would retain their dedicated carrier capacity.

### Armament

Compared to the *Venus* class, the *Vesper*s traded away their heavy anti-ship armament (28-cm and 15-cm) for increased hangar capacity: as hangars are easier to construct than heavily-protected gun turrets, this was to push their construction forward. In exchange, the increased freed up power went to point defense: the *Venus II* type carried extra 20-mm "snapper balls" as a result of war lessons, making them a painful target for even nimble Razorbird starfighters.

The *Vesper*s did, hjowever, retain the *Venus* class's "trump card": two Ragnarök armoured torpedoes buried in the bow, capable of blowing apart an equal-sized ship if point defenses didn't shoot it down first.

#### Capacity

The *Vesper* class carried an enhanced number of fighters compared to the original *Venus* design: second only to the *Alpha Centauri* and *Saturn*-class star carriers for fighter capacity, their long-range striking arm was provided by eighty-four *Broadsword* torpedo bombers, capable of delivering three torpedoes or heavy bomb ordnance depending on anti-ship or atmospheric ground targets. These bombers could be escorted to the target by up to a hundred and sixteen *Rapier* multirole fighters: the standard Alliance starfighter, it too could carry a torpedo of its own or two bombs depending on targets, and could rapidly transfer from atmosphere to orbit under its own power (something Razorbird fighters were not capable of).

The 'ace in the hole' of the *Vesper*s, however, was the capacity to carry a full squadron (24) of Poniard interceptors: the Alliance's fastest starfighter and its most heavily armed, a skilled pilot could play on the controls like an organist and shift directions and targets with dazzling speed. Veterans of the craft could challenge Razorbird starfighters on equal if not superior terms, often gathering several 'scores' to their names - the Poniard's sole weakness was that it required an experienced hand at its temperamental controls, something sorely lacking in the Razorbird Crusade.

## History

### Commission

*Retribution* (CV-1066) commissioned into the Terran Alliance Navy on October 1st, 2485, during the height of the Razorbird Crusades. Captain Stella de Clare took command of the vessel immediately upon launch from the Luna shipyards- she was immediately sent, without trials or workups (or even her full complement of fighters) to the Song starzone for duty, where the 4th Mobile Fleet under Admiral Asher Perry was marshalling for action against a Razorbird incursion; en-route she picked up the soon-to-be-famous 203rd Pursuit Squadron, flying Poniard interceptors.