Cerberus Navy
From FABT
Active: |
|
Organization: |
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Affiliation: |
Cerberus |
Type: |
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Role: |
Space control |
Size: |
476,000 (at its height) |
Part of: |
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Headquarters: |
Cronos Station, Anadius |
Motto: |
"A shield for the cradle of all mankind." |
Colors: |
Gold and white |
Engagements: |
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Commanders: |
Fleet Admiral Nolan P. Freemont (last) |
Notable: |
Jeff Moreau |
- "A cunabula scutum pro omnibus hominibus."
- — Navy motto.
The Cerberus Navy (CN), also referred to as the Cerberus Naval Forces, was the naval service branch of the Cerberus Armed Forces, and one of the three dedicated branches of Cerberus' military division. Established in July 2158 CE alongside the Cerberus Army, the Cerberus Navy's duty was to handle the naval operations of the organization and project Cerberus' strength throughout the galaxy, and at the time consisted of a small fleet of retrofitted corvettes and freighters armed with makeshift weaponry in order to complete this task. Those manning these ships largely consisted of defecting members of the Systems Alliance Navy who sympathized with Cerberus' ideals, and they trained fresh recruits who had no background in a space-borne navy whatsoever, quickly building up the Navy's numbers to what was needed. Although Cerberus' Navy was not particularly powerful in the organizations early days, it was exactly what was needed at the time to oversee the expanding operations of Cerberus, and the small size of the vessels they had were exactly what was needed in order to perform the clandestine activities the organization used to protect humanity's interests. As such, much of the Cerberus Navy was used for black ops, often in support of Cerberus Commandos or Army operations, rather than on its own, or it was used to escort/protect assets of the science division. While the Navy would begin to acquire larger vessels, such as frigates and even a couple cruisers, and would even begin to build vessels of its own, these ships were largely held in reserve and were rarely ever deployed. It wasn't until 2183 CE and the Eden Prime War that the Illusive Man realized Cerberus needed to militarize to prepare for the Reaper threat, and so expansion of the Armed Forces began, with the Navy being one of Cerberus' key focuses, as the Illusive Man knew any war with the Reapers would be decided in space, not on the ground.
In late 2183 CE, the Illusive Man introduced an ambitious new shipbuilding program and several projects were commissioned and approved for not just building up the Cerberus Navy, but also building their own ships. Cerberus sourced some of the finest shipbuilders and engineers in the galaxy, and through their contacts were able to acquire the plans for the Normandy-class stealth frigate and began building their own, superior version of the vessel in 2184 CE. By 2185 CE, Cerberus had spent billions on modernizing its navy, slowly decommissioning its obsolete vessels as they built newer, better replacements. Despite building hundreds of brand new vessels however, the Illusive Man knew his new fleet would not be ready by the time of the Reaper War, and so plans were shifted, with the Cerberus Navy instead planned to incorporate a majority of their older vessels, with the newer ships in support. Incomplete or pending ships were cancelled and the funds reallocated to buy used ships and rearm them, building up the Navy's numbers. The Navy was also heavily reorganized, incorporating a fleet structure that initially planned for five fleets, but was beefed up to nine. This new navy would see action in the First War for Omega, where the Cerberus First Fleet would support Oleg Petrovsky's forces in taking Omega from Aria T'Loak. By the time the Reaper War erupted, the Cerberus Navy was deemed ready, although construction of several classes of ships was still underway, including more of the proven Normandy II-class ships, although only one would end up being completed and put into active service by the time the war ended.
Much like the Cerberus Army, the Navy enjoyed wide-scale tactical superiority against its opponents, with their older vessels largely used as cannon fodder while the newer Cerberus vessels were able to dominate against their contemporaries, especially in the Terminus Systems where powerful warships were a rare commodity. Despite this however, the Navy suffered substantial losses across the Reaper War, with fleet after fleet being lost. The First Fleet was lost in the Second War for Omega, with the fifth and ninth fleets suffering heavy losses trying to retake Omega. The Fourth Fleet was largely obliterated during Operation Deathstroke, and the Third Fleet was completely wiped out at the Battle of Noveria at the hands of a sizable Reaper force. The Sixth Fleet was tied down in the Aite campaign for virtually the entirety of the Reaper War, losing several carriers, its only dreadnought (and flagship) and most of its advanced cruiser force when revolutionaries on the planet below used the captured Aite defense fleet (then recaptured) as kinetic battering rams, shooting them at FTL into the unprepared Cerberus fleet. The Second Fleet had permanent anchorage at Cronos Station as its personal defense fleet, while the seventh was assigned to protect Titan while it was being built. The most active fleet, the Eighth, conducted galaxy-wide hit-and-run style operations, frustrating UGC activities significantly. One such operation involved attempting to hijack a krogan planetary cannon on Tuchanka, although this operation backfired when krogan forces counterattacked and instead retook control of the cannon, turning it on the Cerberus cruiser in orbit, which was subsequently destroyed. In the end, all remaining Cerberus fleets (with the exception of the Sixth and Seventh, which were still tied up at Aite and Titan respectively) were recalled to defend Cronos Station during the organization's final stand against the UGC. Despite putting up a valiant defense, the Cerberus Navy was completely overwhelmed and all the fleets present at the Battle of Anadius were either completely destroyed, or their ships captured, their crews indoctrinated by the Leviathans, and took part in the Battle of Sol under Leviathan control. Only the Sixth and Seventh fleets would remain, although these too would largely fall apart when the Crucible fired, killing most of their crews due to their implants, and those that survived took their ships and joined the many Cerberus remnant cells that survived the war, the rest of the ships left derelict and abandoned due to their deceased crews.
The Cerberus Navy saw extensive action during the Collector campaign, First and second wars for Omega and the Reaper War. With the dissolution of Cerberus at the end of the Reaper War and only a handful of crews and their ships surviving, the Navy was dissolved and the surviving members joined several remnant cells until finally crushed by the Systems Coalition a few years later. The derelict ships left behind by the Sixth and Seventh fleets were either picked apart by scavengers, their hulks stripped and hulls sold for scrap, the ships seized by the military and used for research and development or pressed into service (as was the case with the majority of captured Normandy II-class ships). Virtually all of the surviving ships of the Seventh fleet were captured by Ocrolya Khabcass and his batarian exiles and used as a temporary fleet in the early days of the Titan Covenant, until eventually phased out and replaced by brand new domestically-made warships.