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Vessel Info
The Lancer-Class frigate is an compromising solution to the problem of starfighter attacks against Imperial assets. Built solely to engage and destroy opposing starfighter forces, the ship class out-shines any other, but this comes at great cost. The ship is easily destroyed by other capital ships that are designed for ship-to-ship combat, so the class must remain within the narrow scope of battle for which they were designed to be successful.
History
A relatively new ship, the Ogmio’s Whip was taken directly from the Emperor’s Hammer shipyards, and given to the Dark Council. The Council itself made sure that the ship was constructed properly, and then immediately awarded it to the Clan in its’ feud against Clan Satal Keto during the reign of Consul Cuchulain and Proconsul Saitou. The ship then served mainly as the Clans’ big stick against enemy fighter attacks as well as for special missions under the command of Proconsul Saitou. In fact, this became so commonplace that the ship was for a time known as “The Right Hand of the Proconsul.”
In battle, the ship has proven herself to be competent, and has a knack for interposing itself against the main axis of attack by enemy fighters. Since it is mainly a specialized support ship, it usually does not have a chance to shine in battle. However, in her short history, she was an outstanding factor in one memorable battle.
During the flight from Emperor’s Hammer space, the Clan fleet was busy escorting the dependents and worldly goods of the Clan from their prior system to the Clan rendezvous point in deep space, where they would make a few random jumps to throw off any pursuit, and then finally make a their last jump to their new home. The order of the jumps had the Modified CR90 Corvette Victory jump in first, secure the local area with help from one squadron of fighters from the Excidium, and give the Go/No-go transmission to the Excidium. It in turn would jump into the Victory’s location, and leave a squadron of fighters behind with the Ogmio’s Whip to ensure that there would be no pursuit. This went well for the first jump, but on the second jump a stray flight of fighters caught them. Even worse, they were from Praetorian Squadron, the elite fighter squadron in service with the Intelligence Division. Captain Voo-Er Lanas, fearful that their covert move was being watched or reported back to Imperial Intelligence, acted on her own. She pretended that the ship had received damage, and hailed the incoming fighters. They fell into a close escort formation, and then the ship started to shoot. Within three seconds, all four enemy fighters were wiped out. In order to keep their location a permanent secret, Captain Lanas had no choice but to fire on the pilots that managed to eject. As she was about to give the order, the rest of Praetorian Squadron jumped in. Later interrogation revealed that at least one of the pilots in the initial flight was a low-ranking Jedi, but managed to send a warning through the Force to one of the other Jedi in the squadron. The squadron came in like demons, launching flight after flight of missiles, but the Whip easily managed to shoot them down or have them impact on shields that were strong. However good they were was immaterial, as the squadron from the Excidium that was with them managed to force the fighters near the 2.5-kilometer kill zone near the Whip. The fight was short and deadly, and at the end of the battle they had destroyed Praetorian Squadron, at the cost of two fighters and negligible damage to the Whip. Captain Lanas then changed her mind, and captured the remaining pilots to interrogate them as to what they knew of their movement. Apparently, the squadron was simply making a patrol run, and the Intelligence Division was still unaware of their current movement. Captain Lanas then ordered the pilots to be placed in an unused container, strapped a life support and nav beacon to the container, and left it in space. They then jumped out, and later on our spies reported that the pilots were rescued shortly thereafter. Captain Lanas later expressed the reason why she had them released, saying that if their situations were reversed, that is what she would have like to have been done, not to mention the fact that the EH and the Clan were not at war with each other, just having a barely-civil separation. The Consul later on affirmed Captain Lanas’ decision, and that was the end of that.
Deployment
To this day, Captain Lanas runs a tight ship, and the ship is still used for special missions. Traditionally the Whip is usually sent out on frequent raiding missions, usually with some sort of cover given by one of the Clans’ strike squadrons, giving the crew plenty of chances to sharpen up on their combat skills. In such operations, the ship covers the strike squadron, which in turn covers the Whip if any capital ships show up.
In Clan fleet operations, the ship usually stays close to the Excidium or the Valkyrie, depending on which ship needs more protection from starfighter attack.