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| Emperor's Sword
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Vibre-Class Assault Cruiser
(VAC)
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100 Meters
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Classified
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x1 (Backup x15)
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140 SBD
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300 RU
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- 4 Heavy Ion Cannons; Fire Arc: 2 front, 1 left, 1 right; Attack Bonus: +8 (+0 size, +4 crew, +4 fire control); Damage: Special; Range Modifiers: PB +0, S +0, M +0, L -2.
- 4 Light Turbolasers; Fire Arc: Turret; Attack Bonus: +6 (+0 size, +4 crew, +2 fire control); Damage: 4d10x5; Range Modifiers: PB +0, S +0, M -2, L -4.
- 2 Tractor Beam Projectors; Fire Arc: 1 right, 1 left; Attack Bonus: +8 (+0 size, +4 crew, +4 fire control); Damage: Special; Range Modifiers: PB/S +0, M/L n/a.
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- 30 Crew
- 15 Gunners
- 60 Spacetroopers
35
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500 metric tons
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- Sensor Mask; Fire Arc: n/a; Attack Bonus: n/a, Damage: Special (+6 to DC of all Computer Use checks to find ship with sensors); Range Modifiers: n/a.
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Scholae Palatinae Special Operations vessel
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Vessel Info
The Vibre-class Assault Cruiser was designed for practically one purpose, and it fulfills that purpose rather well. After the fall of the Empire, the remaining Imperial factions fractured, and their supply lines broke down with them. No longer able to rely on the mandates of a far-away Coruscant, they had to make due with the supplies that were available to them.
Amongst those "resources" was the freighter traffic of other factions, which were deemed fair game. Thus, the VAC was designed for the purpose of privateering, coming in close to their target, knocking them out of action with their heavy ion cannon, and then deploy their spacetroopers to capture the helpless vessel. All current accounts show that this ship class is extremely effective at its' designed purpose.
History
Clan Scholae Palatinae acquired the Emperor's Sword and it's sister ship, the Emperor's Shield, at the end of the Sixth Great Jedi War as part of its' well-earned spoils of war. The specialized nature of the ship class has lent itself readily towards covert privateering operations, and so it has been acting in that capacity in the outlying systems near the Outer Rim, right past Hutt space, preying off of Hutt convoys, as its' sister ship. In contrast to the Shield, which normally goes after "normal" cargoes of such things as foodstuffs, ferrocrete, droids, etc., the Sword usually tried to take on convoys containing military cargo. Although less successful at this task than the Shield, this was mainly due to the relative scarcity of military cargo conveys in the general area.
Arconan Treachery
The Sword was recalled from a recon raid in Hutt space due to the sudden appearance of a Yuuzhan Vong invasion fleet in the home system. Although not present for the initial battle, the Sword did get there in enough time to assist with mopping up operations. Falling back to patrol the more remote parts of the system, it witnessed the arrival of the heavily damaged Clan flagship and its' escorts into the system. It was completing its' patrol sweep when a sudden launch of torpedoes from a small hidden Arconan strike force hit a weak spot in the ships' shields, destroying the vessel and triggering the Second Battle of Cocytus. The cowardly attack was only partly avenged right there, but the Clan has made it a priority to punish Clan Arcona for the destruction of the Sword.
Tactics
The Emperor's Shield and the Emperor's Sword both usually did not operate with the Clan fleet, as the specialization of the ships did not lend themselves to full-scale capital ship combat. Furthermore, despite the fact that it was called a cruiser, it was actually about 50 meters smaller than the Victory or the Palpatine's Hammer, so the ship was relatively small. With a crew of 45, it had to pick its' battles carefully.
Despite this, the Clan leadership believed in being prepared for any eventuality, and as such the Shield occasionally participated in Clan fleet operations. It, along with the Emperor's Sword and the Palpatine's Hammer were paired with the Dark Predator for either special boarding missions or flanking maneuvers. In such cases, the VAC's depended on the Dark Predator and the Palpatine's Hammer for protection until they did what they do best.
With the extremely high cost of sensor stealthing the Shield, the Clan saw potential in using the VAC's in special operation roles, to take advantage of its' stealthing. Before this could be tested, the outbreak of hostilities in the Seventh Great Jedi War prevented the Clan from pursuing this. Much like the Shield, the crew was virtually just out of training, earning them a "Green" rating. This has been evaluated as a possible cause for the destruction of the ship with just four torpedoes.