Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Cadmus Escort Carrier

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The Cadmus Escort Carrier is Syndicate escort carrier supplementing the larger Polybius Carrier. This unit is planned to be voiced by

History
"Navigare necesse est. Vivere non est necesse!" - "To sail is necessary. To live is not necessary!"

-Gnaeus Pompey Magnus

The Syndicate, being a conglomerate of various corporations, doesn't really have what one would call a proper navy. A large portion of the loosely organized "Syndicate armada" consists of little more than pirates bribed into service, their only strength being in numbers. The rest of this fleet is a jumbled collection of various ships, from privately owned (and heavily armed) merchant vessels to warships that officially belong to the navies of Syndicate-affiliated countries. These ships vary in shape, size and armament, from small, barely armed pirate boats to the comparatively huge "Cadmus"-class Escort Carriers, is the smaller sister to the capital ship of the Syndicate, the Polybius Carrier.

Even the Cadmus Escort Carriers themselves are not true military vessels; these ships originally started out as civilian ships built for peaceful purposes. However, the exigencies of the GVAW saw the ships converted into escort carriers with minimal handling facilities for aircraft; while far less capable, these merchant aircraft carriers provided a valuable supplement to the Allies' own aircraft carriers, protecting their convoys from attackers and taking some of the strain off the overstretched Allied navies.

After the war, most of the merchant aircraft carriers were converted back to their original role. However, a few ships were not. These ships, rather than being converted back into merchant's vessels, were instead bought up by Legion Security PMC, rich from contracts following the war. Retrofitted and upgraded with Syndicate technology, these ships became the Cadmus-class escort carriers. While paling in contrast to military aircraft carriers, these ships could nevertheless provide air support off their decks.

Since then, the Syndicate's Cadmus fleet has undergone several refits, the most recent of which has resulted in a complete overhaul of the Cadmus's systems. Just as the Aquilans have embraced UCAV technology in the form of the Sky Knight, so has the Syndicate. The Cadmus is fully capable of transporting and launching its complement of five "Spartoi" unmanned combat air vehicles from the "Thebes" launch platform, though the Cadmus must come to a complete stop before it can launch the drones, for various reasons. The "Spartois" are A.I. controlled vehicles armed with long-ranged flechette missile pods, originally designed for the Von Esling-class but rejected for a number of reasons. In addition, the Cadmus has also been fitted to support three "Orion" jet-bikes, which maintain constant patrols around the ship, watching for potential hostiles.

Unlike the Polybius, there is also a unexplained flaw of interference created by multiple controllers, carriers must keep their distance from one another if they want their drones to operate at peak performance.