Avalanche (Individual Sovetskii Soyuz-class WarShip)

This article is about the Sovetskii Soyuz-class heavy cruiser. For the BattleMech, see Avalanche.
Avalanche
Vessel Profile
TypeWarShip
ClassSovetskii Soyuz

The CSR Avalanche was a Sovetskii Soyuz-class heavy cruiser in initial service the Star League Defense Force and, later, Clan Snow Raven.

History[edit]

Clan Wolverine Annihilation[edit]

After agents of Clan Widowmaker stole a nuclear device from Clan Wolverine stockpiles and detonated it in the middle of Great Hope, the largest Wolverine city on Circe, the Clan Snow Raven Sovetskii Soyuz-class heavy cruiser CSR Avalanche in orbit around Circe and over the city of Dehra Dun was given authorization by Nicholas Kerensky to use nuclear weapons against the largest concentration of Wolverine forces on the planet on the 22nd of October 2823. As a pair of nuclear-armed ships, designated Angel One and Angel Two, were launched from the Avalanche with an escorting aerospace fighter contingent, the SLS Bismark emerged from a nearby pirate point and moved to engage. Quickly identified as being under the control of the Wolverines, while the Bismark did exchange fire with the Avalanche, the primary objectives of the Bismark were the destruction of Angels One and Two; the Bismark succeeded in destroying both ships, but not before one of the nuclear weapons was launched. The nuclear weapon detonated off-target, airbursting above the Snow Raven capital city of Dehra Dun. With the Avalanche taking increasing amounts of damage from the Bismark, the Snow Raven WarShip withdrew from combat.[1]

The Avalanche was involved in the combat in the Deep Periphery system known as Barbados that saw ilKhan Kerensky's Grand Fleet destroy the bulk of the Clan Wolverine touman and kill or capture the majority of the Wolverine civilian castes. Initially kept out of the battle in accordance with the Clan honor system, the Avalanche became directly involved in the fight when the crippled Vincent-class corvette SLS Badger deliberately blew her own engines up while in close proximity to the Avalanche, with debris from the explosion inflicting heavy damage on the Snow Raven heavy cruiser.[2]

Thirty-First Century[edit]

As of 3061 the Avalanche was one of many WarShips serving within the Clan Snow Raven touman, and was one of ten WarShips that made up the Lum Garrison Fleet. Paired with another heavy cruiser, the Aegis-class CSR Morning Violence, the Avalanche was responsible for patrolling the shipping lanes stretching out from Lum to the zenith jump point and the accompanying Tivoli station located there.[3]

In 3065 the Avalanche was involved in the extended conflict on and above Lum, as Clan Steel Viper fought to establish an enclave on the planet and then expanded it via various Trials of Possession. When the Steel Vipers began withdrawing on the 12th of October to avoid Clan Jade Falcon simply taking former Raven holdings from the Steel Vipers, the Avalanche was one of the vessels that attacked the retreating Steel Viper DropShips and their escorts. One of the DropShips destroyed by the Avalanche was transporting Khan Perigard Zalman of the Steel Vipers.[4]

The Avalanche continued to serve in the Lum Garrison Fleet until at least 3067, operating alongside the Morning Violence and her sister ship CSR Scabbard, the Potemkin-class cruisers CSR Bonaventure and CSR Eden Rose, three destroyers - the Lola III-class CSR Bloody Talon, the York-class CSR Corvidae and the Whirlwind-class CSR Drake - and the Vincent-class CSR Huninn.[5]

The Wars of Reaving[edit]

In December 3068, three Snow Raven WarShips were involved in a large Trial of Possession in the Lum system called by Clan Star Adder's Delta Naval Star for control of the planet's orbital space. The resulting battle saw almost six Stars of WarShips and DropShips, and almost seven Stars of aerospace fighters, battle each other in one of the largest naval engagements to be fought in the Clan Homeworlds up to that point. The only Snow Raven WarShip to survive the engagement was the Bloody Talon; the other two Snow Raven WarShips present[6] - subsequently confirmed as being the Avalanche and the Morning Violence[7] - were crippled and on fire, and the CSA Cho Polu, a Volga-class transport, was destroyed, burning in Lum's atmosphere before carving large craters in the surface of the planet with its remains.[6]

Notes[edit]

  • The destruction of the Avalanche and four other Snow Raven WarShips unaccounted for specifically by name in sourcebooks was confirmed by the BattleTech Developer Øystein Tvedten via the Catalyst Game Labs' "Ask The Writers" forum:
*Opens Ye Olde Tome of Warshippe*

Avalanche - Lum 3068
Morning Violence - Lum 3068
Eternity - Lum 3070
Blue Lancer - Lum 3070
Tenacity - Lum 3070

With regards,
Øystein

  — Øystein Tvedten, 01 November 2013

References[edit]

  1. Betrayal of Ideals, part 3, pp. 56–61
  2. Betrayal of Ideals, part 4, pp. 37–40
  3. Field Manual: Warden Clans, p. 131: "Lum Garrison Fleet"
  4. The Wars of Reaving, p. 108: "Force of Power"
  5. Field Manual: Updates, pp. 64–65: "Naval Assets"
  6. 6.0 6.1 The Wars of Reaving, p. 40: "Lamentations and the Raven"
  7. BattleTech Developer confirms the destruction of the Avalanche and Morning Violence at Lum

Bibliography[edit]