SSV Robert Chamberlain
From FABT
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Length: |
1578m |
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Width: |
750m |
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Height/depth: |
873m |
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Max acceleration: |
20 kilometers per second |
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Engine unit(s): |
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Shielding: |
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Hull: |
1200cm of Titanium-A3 Ablative Heavy Armor |
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Crew: |
25,000 |
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Skeleton crew: |
700 |
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Commissioned: |
12 November 2174 CE |
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Destroyed: |
2 June 2186 CE |
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Role(s): |
Carry and deploy fighters, bombers and interceptors/fire support |
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Affiliation: |
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Commander(s): |
Captain April Beech |
SSV Robert Chamberlain CDS-5 (Carry and Deploy/Super-5) was a Charles de Gaulle-class supercarrier in the Alliance Navy. The fifth ship of her class to be built, the Robert Chamberlain was assigned to the Third Fleet under Admiral Nitesh Singh not long after it was commissioned in late 2174 CE. The Robert Chamberlain was the fifth of the initial sixteen Charles de Gaulle-class ships that were ordered and built for the Alliance Navy, completing its shakedown run not long after it was introduced into service and being assigned to the Third Fleet as its first supercarrier, where it would later be joined by its sister ship, the Anita Goyle. The Robert Chamberlain would participate in the Skyllian Blitz, taking part in both battles over Torfan, and with help from the Anita Goyle, it was able to blunt the batarian counteroffensives launched to try and recapture the planet from the Alliance, who firmly held onto Torfan due to its strategic importance to the batarians as a fortress world and major staging base, as well as being home to its primary shipyards: because of this, the actions of the Robert Chamberlain and its sister ship are seen to be the deciding factors in the Third Fleet's victory at Second Torfan, which was the last major action of the Skyllian Blitz. Due to the Third Fleet's lack of participation in the Theshaca Raids and Eden Prime War, largely held in reserve to protect humanity's core colonies from geth attack during the latter, the Robert Chamberlain would see very little action, aside from some minor involvement in Operation Gyrfalcon. The ship would take part in the Counter-piracy campaign of 2184 CE, and even briefly assisted post-war geth mop-up operations, but its involvement in both was still relatively minor.
The Robert Chamberlain accompanied the Third Fleet when it was recalled to Arcturus Station to bolster the First Fleet in defending the station during the opening stages of the Reaper invasion on 2 June 2186 CE. The Robert Chamberlain was deployed along with the Anita Goyle in the Third Fleet's center, part of Singh's tactic to use the two colossal ships as a defensive wall against enemy fire, blocking the enemy from hitting Arcturus Station directly: the armor and shielding of the supercarriers would have been sufficient enough for this task, but the Reapers were not the foe Singh had expected to face, and thus his tactic ended up being useless in the face of the firepower they brought to bear. In the ensuing engagement, Harbinger itself blew through the Third Fleet's line and made straight for the Robert Chamberlain, who steadfastly continued to follow orders, throwing everything it had at the Reaper, but to no avail. When Harbinger finally reached the supercarrier, it used its legs to crush the ship's bow and stern sections, effectively sandwiching the vessel and beginning to crush it. In this time the captain ordered his crew to abandon ship, but most of the escape pod trajectories brought them towards the Reaper, and their forward velocity led them to slam into Harbinger's hull, blasting apart upon impact. Finally, Harbinger finished off the supercarrier with combined blasts from all of its forward facing guns, spearing through the vessel and obliterating it, with the added impact of the beams coming out the other side and hitting Arcturus Station, destroying the space station in the process. The Robert Chamberlain, along with the Charles de Gaulle, became one of two Alliance supercarriers lost during the Battle of Arcturus, a devastating loss.
The ship was named after Robert Chamberlain, a British soldier who fought for Federalist forces during the Australian Civil War and was known for miraculously holding back an entire Republican infantry division with the help of his platoon at the Battle of Newcastle, and survived the battle despite being shot twenty times. Despite the eventual Republican victory at the end of the war, Robert Chamberlain was risen to become a national Australian war hero.