Mon Calamari Cruiser
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In the Star Wars fictional universe Mon Calamari Star Cruisers are the main cruisers in the Rebel Alliance/New Republic/Federation of Free Alliances fleet for a significant portion of the Galactic Civil War. They were originally built for civilian purposes, but were converted to military starships when the Galactic Empire conquered the Mon Calamari.
While they are exceedingly durable starships, they are also notoriously difficult to repair, in part because of their individualized design. Rebellion-era Mon Calamari ships have very powerful shields for ships of their size, they also have multiple backup generators because their civilian-spec hull structure is somewhat weaker than that of a true military starship. Mon Calamari Cruisers are not the equal of the Imperial-class Star Destroyer, but do present a significant threat in numbers.
Mon Calamari star cruisers come in several general shapes - a wingless shape resembling a large pickle with space drive engines, a winged type known to fanon as the Liberty-class, and a design over twice as long as a standard Imperial-class Star Destroyer, exemplified by NRS Home One, which was Admiral Ackbar's flagship at the Battle of Endor. There were two variants of the "wingless" design at Endor, one some 1200 meters long and another resembling a Liberty but with the wings deleted. All the designs lack angles, and rely on more fluid shapes instead, and their surface is uneven with countless ovoid "bubbles".
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[edit] Evolution
By the time of the New Republic, the Mon Calamari had begun to produce military-optimized designs that were no longer modified civilian designs. The hallmark of the design was typically strong shielding (provided by a unique system of multiple generators) with a battery of turbolasers and ion cannons. Fighters were usually — but not always — carried onboard. The individualization that marked the Rebellion-era designs all but disappeared in an effort to simplify the New Republic's logistics.
While the rebellion-era MC80 was originally a civilian vessel converted to a warship, the MC80a and MC80B were better designed for warfare. The MC80a represented the first step towards standardization, while the MC80B had a significantly reinforced hull. Both classes served in the interim while the final design was still years from completion. Both also retained the many Mon Calamari-specific instruments of past ships, making it difficult for other species to crew the ship.
The MC90 was the culmination of the evolution, now being laid down as a warship. Its standardization made it significantly easier to repair and it featured better accommodation for non-Calamari species. Nonetheless, two ships of that class (NRS Defiance and NRS Galactic Voyager) had wildly differing designs. Proper class names did not appear until the arrival of the Mediator. The Mon Calamari cruisers were one of the most powerful ships after the time of the Galactic Civil War, especially with regard to their multiple backup shield generators.
[edit] Flag Ships
A brief description of some common Mon Calamari warships is listed below. This list is not exhaustive; some cruisers have been described but never named.
[edit] Home One
Home One was the flagship of the Rebel Alliance fleet during the Battle of Endor, commanded by Admiral Ackbar. It is between 1800 and 3800 meters long, just over twice the length of an Imperial-class Star Destroyer. It carries 120 starfighters - 10 full squadrons worth. Her shields are powerful and resilient enough to withstand close combat with an Executor-class Star Destroyer; however, her firepower is somewhat lacking. The hangar layout is also non-optimal with large openings on her port and starboard surfaces. Official Expanded Universe literature places this ship with the paltry armament of 29 turbolaser batteries and 36 ion cannons, but these numbers could be transpositions.
Home One may be a callsign rather than the actual ship name. There has been some speculation as to whether Ackbar's flagship was named Independence, but it was finally confirmed that Independence and Home One were not the same ship. There were at least three star cruisers of Home One's class present at Endor; one of these ships may have been Independence. However, it has been noted that in the novelization of the Return of the Jedi, Home One was referred to by the name "headquarters frigate". The X-Wing computer game features Independence as an MC80 Calamari cruiser, and explicitly states it to be Ackbar's command ship (though much of the ship data in the series has been contradicted by other sources). In the game X-Wing Alliance, Home One and Independence are in fact the same ship, which might hint to the fact that Independence was the original name for Ackbar's flagship. Also in Star Wars Empire at War it is referred to as Home One.
Replacing a ship of such large size would be very difficult, hence the location is kept a secret and Home One rarely engages in non-essential combat, though it often prosecutes essential commands - such as the war on Warlord Zsinj and his Super Star Destroyer Iron Fist.
[edit] Liberty
The Liberty has the dubious distinction of being the first ship destroyed by the Death Star II's axial superlaser. This type was some 1500 meters long and had a sort of delta-winged design for greater surface area. It presumably was more powerful than other Rebellion-era ships such as the MC80 series. Unlike most Rebellion-era designs, her hangars appeared to have been buried near wingroots. While not the best design as far as fighter operations are concerned, this would provide excellent protection. At least one Liberty type ship remained in civilian configuration at least midway through the Rebellion era, the cruise liner Kuari Princess. Many sources contradict this though, causing mass confusion for SW fans.
Its commander was Admiral Drayson; however, he was not in command of the vessel during the Battle of Endor. He is considered to be fortunate; in regards to his fate.
[edit] Reef Home
Reef Home is similar to the Liberty but without the large delta wings. It is commonly mistaken for the MC80 series. It may be faster than the Liberty due to the presence of more engines, but it is not as well-armed. This was the second cruiser destroyed by the Death Star main superlaser cannon.
[edit] Classes
Some early source material referred to the ships at Endor as frigates, including the flagship Home One. This is nonsensical; most of the heavy Mon Calamarian ships in the battle were similar in length to Imperial Star Destroyers (if not longer) and often with much greater internal volume. Most orders of battles in Star Wars have frigates as being ships around the size of the diminutive Nebulon-B. One possibility is that the Rebellion called cruisers designed on destroyer hulls "frigates," much like the United States Navy did at one time; the small ships like the Nebulon-B would be called escort frigates to differentiate them.
[edit] MC30c
The MC-30, or Mon Calamari Frigate, is a scaled down, squid-shaped version of the Home One. It is generally used as a shield-penetrating ship, and contains multiple Proton Torpedo launchers and light Laser Cannons. It also contains a set of devastating Cluster Bombs that can damage most capitol ships, such as the Imperal Star Destroyer, and destroy fighters. It was featured in the expansion pack Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption, the sequel to the game Star Wars: Empire at War.
[edit] MC40
Only 600 meters in length, this made appearances in the X-Wing flight simulator series of the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Outside of its smaller size and reduced firepower, it was likely similar to the regular MC80 in all other respects. In Star Wars: TIE Fighter, it was known as the Mon Calamari Light Cruiser, in subsequent games like X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter and X-Wing Alliance, it received the class designation MC40.
[edit] MC80
A design 1200 meters in length and commonly encountered during the time of the Rebellion. These were almost all converted merchant liners and somewhat inferior in performance to equivalent Imperial destroyers. The control systems were optimized towards Mon Calamarian biology which caused some problems with the diverse makeup of the Rebel Alliance. In addition, each ship in this type was subtly different: most Mon Calamarian civilian liners are independently customized. While these vessels were robustly constructed, they were difficult to repair due to their customizations.
[edit] MC80a
The MC80a was a production-streamlined version of the MC80 that was deployed en masse by the nascent New Republic. While it was still optimized for the Mon Calamari, the ship design was standardized.
The MC80a was often mistaken with the Maximus, which was the first MC employed by the Rebellion.
[edit] MC80B
The MC80B was an interim design partially based on the MC80a lineage. It possessed unusually strong shields and a reinforced hull which allowed it to fight on more than even terms with most enemy ships (including ISDs). Three flights were launched, with zero, four or eight fighter squadrons, respectively. General Han Solo flew his flag from one of these cruisers, the Mon Remonda, during his campaign against Warlord Zsinj.
[edit] MC90
The MC90 was the first heavy combatant designed from the ground up for the New Republic. It was an exceptionally powerful design (and also extremely expensive). It was primarily relegated to flagship duties due to its extensive command and control facilities, which were also reconfigurable for other species. This design was capable of close combat with an Executor-class Star Destroyer for some time (albeit not without damage to either ship). At 1255 meters in length and armed with 75 light turbolasers, 35 ion cannons, and 6 proton torpedo tubes, the MC-90 was one of the most powerful cruisers in the New Republic Defense Force up until the advent of the Mediator-class Battlecruiser and Viscount-class Star Defender. The MC-90 also carries 6 full squadrons of starfighters. Admiral Ackbar used the MC90 Defiance and Galactic Voyager as his flagships.
[edit] Mediator-class Star Battlecruiser
A much larger and more powerful cruiser that was introduced into the New Republic Defense Force shortly before the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. Its designation as a battlecruiser implies that she is far stronger than any Mon Calamarian cruiser than has gone before her. The original Mediator was heavily damaged by Nom Anor in the book Vector Prime by R.A. Salvatore. It is implied that these vessels saw large-scale, if not necessarily mass, production to meet the New Republic's (and later the Galactic Alliance's) naval requirements.
[edit] Viscount-class Star Defender
An enormous battleship designed shortly before the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, it is also classified as a dreadnought.[citation needed]. Few operational examples existed and their production run may have been halted or delayed in favor of a greater number of lesser warships. As the Viscount is over twice the size of the Mediator, the Viscount-class ships were the Mon Calamari's first attempt at building a large capital ship that could "compete" with an Executor-class Super Star Destroyer. The classification name for this class of vessel is "Star Defender", perhaps intended as an opposite to the implications of "Star Destroyer".
[edit] External links
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