Wraith-Class Battlecruiser

The Wraith-Class Battlecruiser was the brainchild of Lord-Admiral Sylvain Leblanc of the Silver Armada's Battlefleet Montraux, designed in the closing years of the Compliance Campaigns. It is an unorthodox design making use of rare systems and tactics that are little known outside of the Corusco Cluster, and few are the captains who can bring the full potential of these masterfully crafted ships to bear as a result.

## History

The vision of what would become the Wraith-class Battlecruiser came to be in the final years of the Compliance when Lord-Admiral Sylvain Montraux highlighted that while the Avenger-class Grand Cruisers that made up the tip of the spear of Imperial Battlefleets were very effective, the expense of constructing them and maintaining their sophisticated but temperamental Drives limited the number that could be built. Meanwhile, the Lunar-Class that made up the bulk of the Armada was relatively cheap to make and simple enough that they could be built on almost any industrialized world.

Thus, Leblanc sought to create a new ship that shared the Lunar's streamlined and efficient design, but had firepower that approached a Grand Cruiser's, These would later be recognized as the first Imperial Battlecruiser. In working on this design, Leblanc made it a point to try and make the new hull as close as posslbe to the Lunar's, and to re-use as many components as possible. Though the Wraith would end up 600m longer and 4 megatons heavier, it still bears an uncanny resemblance.

Leblanc also took inspiration from the Novaean Onyx Python Destroyer and replicated its stealth systems on a larger scale. The end result of all of this was a cruiser that outwardly resembled a Lunar-class, but was fitted with enormous broadsides of long-range plasma cannons and could effectively run as quiet as a smuggler ship. This last minute addition and the choice of high-grade plasma broadsides undermined Leblanc's efforts of a cheap, easily mass-produced ship as they were advanced systems, but the final design was nonetheless still far more affordable than a Grand Cruiser in terms of funding and resources.

The Wraiths would have their baptism of fire in the galaxy-shattering event that was the Inter-Legionary Wars. They came as a surprise both figuratively and literally as Leblanc made cunning use of its stealth systems to repeatedly catch his foes flat-footed. In sectors, he sent small taskforces of nothing but Wraiths and Onyx Pythons that were able to ambush enemy fleets and convoys, seemingly appearing out of nowhere and destroying them piecemeal before again vanishing without a trace. Leblanc also liked to sneak a powered down Wraith in the midst of a standard Lunar squadron, baiting the enemy into attacking and only revealing his trump card at the last moment.

Only a small number of Wraiths were ready at the onset of the Inter-Legionary Wars, but few were lost thanks to their style of warfare, and many were built throughout the conflict and in its immediate aftermath, with the Battlecruiser gaining a reputation as the Flying Dutchman of the Imperial Navy; a portent of doom that appeared out of nowhere like a mirage, except all so very real.

In the 41st Millennium, these ships have become somewhat rare, as much of the Imperial Navy's admiralty views such stealth system as 'cowardly' or 'dishonorable' at best and 'Eldar-like' at worst. Moreover, the ever superstitious ratings of the Imperial Navy have managed to spook themselves with the ship's ghostly repute, and many Imperial ratings fear the idea of being assigned to such a 'ghost ship'. This is a tragedy, as Wraiths are only as powerful as they are cost-effective, and in the hand of a cunning captain or admiral, they can be major force multipliers. Some of them have ended up in the hands of Rogue Trader dynasties as well, where their discretion is put to a different kind of use...

## Specifications

* **Hull** - Approximately 5.6 kilometres long, 0.8 kilometres abeam at fins.
* **Mass** - Approximately 32 megatons.
* **Crew** - Approximately 74,000 crew.
* **Acceleration** - 2.4 gravities maximum sustainable acceleration.

## Design

The Coruscoan Wraith-Class Battlecruiser is built around a Saturnine '4A Ultra' standard plasma drive geared for maximum output, while a Miloslav G-616.b Warp drive keeps travel times through the Warp relatively short. The Gellar fields are fitted with automatic emergency activation protocols, and the Void Shields are of the 'Repulsor' pattern, which is optimized towards navigating the many celestial phenomenon that litter the Corusco Cluster easily. Its bridge is optimized for the coordination of entire fleets and feature considerable extra cogitators and vox relays for that purpose.

It makes use of a Novaean Class-C 'Adrenal' life sustainer which allows captains to lace the air inside the ship with a carefully dosed cocktail of combat drugs and stimulants, turning even the most cowardly of press-ganged ratings into a fearless defender, allowing armsmen to stand up to horrific Xeno boarders and damage control teams to leap towards fires without a moment of hesitation. This behavior is reinforced by the use of Clan-Kin quarters, providing a sense of brotherhood and homeliness among the crew.

What makes the Wraith's reputation however is its Empyrean Mantle, an enormous network of baffles and dampers that greatly reduce the energy signature of the ship equipped with it. Its W-240 Passive Detection Array also allows it to scan for enemies while on Silent Run without revealing its position. Finally, the Wraiths are also equipped with relic Teleportarium, which allow hit and run attacks of armsmen - often sufficiently motivated with the aforementioned combat drugs and stimulants - onto enemy ships that may not even realize there is another cruiser nearby yet.

When stealth is no longer the order of the day, the Wraith features no less than four full broadsides of 'Flarestorm' pattern Novaean plasma cannons, allowing them to shred through anything short of a full Battleship in short order. These are augmented by a serie of 'Pyros' melta-cannons along the back, whose turrets add insult to injury, setting on fire anything the main batteries haven't obliterated yet. A set of Mars-pattern torpedo tubes in the prow round out the armement and provide additional extreme range punch, though it is not unusual for a Wraith to carry Melta Torpedoes and launch them at close-range after sneaking up on an unsuspecting target.