Imperial Halifax Rapid Assault Carrier

by Joel Hubbert

In the assault on Port Halidan in the initial stages of the Gothic sector war the Emperor class battleship Vindicator was destroyed taking an unknown Despoiler class battleship and two Styx class carriers with it. After the battle the only ships that could be spared for patrols were 3 squadrons of Dauntless cruisers, 1 squadron of cobras and 1 squadron of swords. The rest of fleet having been destroyed or were unavailable because of repairs being performed.

The Admiralty realised that the Dauntless squadrons would need fighter support on their patrols. The Admiralty commissioned the Adeptus Mechanicus of Port Halidan to create a carrier that could keep up with Dauntless squadrons and provide fighter support. The Adeptus Mechanicus then cobbled together the remains of 12 hulked Dauntless class cruisers and created four Halifax class cruisers. The class was named after the Lord Admiral Halifax who died commanding the defence of port Halidan from the bridge of the Vindicator. The ships of the class are the Halifax, Halidan, Hiroshima and Helot (the last three being the names of the major cities in the Halidan system).

Most of the bomber squadrons were wiped out in the battle as well, and it was decided by the admiralty to keep the bomber squadrons back for defence of the port instead of equipping the Halifax class ships with them.

Before the battle several assault boat squadrons had arrived in the system as reinforcements for the Vindicator. They were untouched because chaos saboteurs had prevented any of the boats to launch during the battle, despite the valiant efforts of the assault boat crews.

The assault boat squadrons were eager to remove the shame of having not fought in the last battle, but were without a carrier. Having heard about the Halifax class the commanders of the assault boat squadrons convinced the Admiralty to allow them to be based in the Halifax class ships.

Some of the Dauntless class hull integrity was sacrificed to make space for the hangers required to house the assault boats and fighters. Since space was limited the ships were fitted with only enough launchers to release a squadron at a time from each side of the ship. To give a measure of security to the ship shield generators and turrets were attached to the exterior of the hull.

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