Editing Golden Lion

{{InfoBoxIndividualSpacecraft
| image      = 
| vesselname = Golden Lion
| prevname   =
| type       = [[WarShip]]
| class      = [[Defender (WarShip class)|Defender]]
| prevclass  = 
}}

==Description==
Famed for its destruction during the [[Battle of Cholame (2788)|Battle of Cholame]], the FSS '''''Golden Lion''''' was a [[Defender (WarShip class)|''Defender''-class]] [[WarShip]] in service with the [[Federated Suns]].

==History==
===Early Years of Service===
The ''Golden Lion'' was one of the six ''Defender''-class WarShips constructed by the Federated Suns in the two decades between [[2360]] and the 2380s, the Suns very first indigenous WarShip design. While outclassed by many newer [[Terran Hegemony]] designs by this point, the ''Golden Lion'' and her sister ships would continue to serve the [[Armed Forces of the Federated Suns]] with distinction for many centuries, periodically mothballed and reactivated during their service lives. By the final decades of the [[Star League]] era, the ''Golden Lion'' was only one of the two surviving ''Defender''-class ships still active and served as the flagship of the entire FedSuns Navy.<ref name=FR2765AFS-26>''Field Report 2765: AFFS'', p. 26: "Defender-Class Battlecruiser"</ref> As of [[2765]] the ''Golden Lion'' was under the command of [[Fleet Admiral]] [[Alexi Viscoff]] and was the flagship of the [[Federated Suns Navy]] Crucis Fleet, serving alongside a number of other WarShips including a sister ''Defender''-class WarShip.<ref name="FR2765:FSp6">''Field Report 2765: AFFS'', p. 6: "Naval Defense Doctrine"</ref>

===Service in the First Succession War and Battle of Cholame===
The ''Golden Lion'' would be immortalized for its valiant efforts during the [[First Succession War]] to blunt the [[Draconis Combine]] advance from [[2787]] until its destruction in [[2790]]. Then under the command of [[Admiral]] [[Kenneth Jones]], the ''Golden Lion'' met its end while serving as the head of as naval task-force tasked by [[First Prince]] [[John Davion]] with conducting strikes behind the front-lines in a desperate attempt to stall the pace of the [[Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery]]'s ceaseless drive into Davion space.<ref name=FR2765AFS-26/><ref name=HDTFS-62>''House Davion (The Federated Suns)'', p. 62: "History - First Succession War - Retreat"</ref><ref name=HHD-51>''Handbook: House Davion'', p. 51: "History of the Federated Suns - First and Second Succession Wars - First Succession War - Strategic Withdrawal"</ref>

Initially the task-force was highly successful as it struck eleven Kurita-occupied systems from [[Imbrial III]] to [[New Valencia]] in quick succession, destroying or capturing every Kurita vessel they encountered, attacking what ground forces they could find and even resupplying embattled AFFS forces and resistance groups along the way. Pleased with the results, Admiral Jones signaled his fleet to rendezvous in the [[Cholame]] system before heading back to [[Rosamond]] in Davion controlled space. Abandoned by the FedSuns early during the war and reportedly one of the many minor worlds bypassed by Kuritan forces, the one-system world seemed ideal as a rest and rendezvous point.<ref name=HDTFS-62/><ref name=HHD-51/>

However in one of the most disastrous intelligence blunders of the war, the [[DMI]] had failed to discover that the Combine's invasion armada had chosen Cholame as its own redoubt. As soon as Admiral Jones' fleet entered the system, Kurita [[aerospace fighter]]s immediately attacked the shocked Davion forces, with a group of WarShips close behind. The largest naval campaign either nation had ever fought, the battle would last a full six weeks as Admiral Jones darted between the system's jump points, desperately trying to buy enough time for at least some of his ships to escape. Ultimately the ''Golden Lion'' would be among the numerous Davion WarShips lost, less than a quarter of Jones' fleet able to flee. The only small comfort to the Davion forces was the fact that they had taken an equal number of Kurita WarShips with them.<ref name=FR2765AFS-26/><ref name=HDTFS-62/><ref name=HHD-51/><ref name=FR2765AFS-26/>

==References==
<references />

==Bibliography==
* ''[[Field Report 2765: AFFS]]''
* ''[[Handbook: House Davion]]''
* ''[[House Davion (The Federated Suns)]]''


[[Category: Individual WarShips]]
[[Category: Individual Battlecruisers]]
[[Category: Individual Defender-class WarShips]]