Airship Pirates Winds Of War AU Lore:
Background:
In early 756 AED, the Kingdom of Lanier’s royal navy found itself in a stalemate with the forces of the Silver Empire in the War of Aquisition. The plan of the Royal Navy to turn the tide of the war hinged on patience, and their ability to produce new ships capable of dominating existing Imperial units on all fronts by simply being technologically superior, both in their design and equipment. The liberation of pirate captain Robert Bellamy from the hold of Capal Crassus that same year allowed him to once again collaborate with Royal Navy shipwrights and develop a series of new warship designs for the Royal Navy and the SHSF. Among the designs emerged, for instance, the Valiant-class Mk3 Destroyer, the Rebirth-class Mk3 Corvette and the pirate Typhoon-class submersible cruisers. In order to dominate the fleets of light ships of the Empire however, it was felt a strong fleet of capital ships was required, with ships able to take on multiple opponents at once and withstand a beating from imperial forces thanks to heavy armor plating.

The first design to be pushed through was the Renown-class Battlecruiser. This large warship was the first modern design the royal navy had built aside from the HMA Goliath that matched the size of the old Victory-class Battleships of the pre-war era. The first batch of battlecruisers wielded three quadruple turrets with impressive range, firepower, and armor piercing characteristics. Issues with the design had emerged on multiple occasions however, and the design was revised for the next ships to include a fourth quadruple turret on the aft end, replacing the flight deck. Armor was likewise reinforced with new iron plating along the sides replacing the older composite armor, as this new type of armor had proven highly effective on SHSF ships.

With the loss of South Haven in 756 AED, the Royal Navy found itself forced to beat the Silver Empire alone. Weary of the superior industrial power of the Empire, the admiralty decided to push forward the construction of new capital ships to wear down imperial cruiser forces, theoretically faster than they could build them. This led to the order for the construction of three additional revised Goliath-class Battleships, a pair of Dreadnoughts (Heracles and Vanguard) as well as five new battlecruisers to supplement the existing five Renown-class units. However, the admiralty decided to revise the Renown-class again to have it optimized for heavy combat. This new design, B-06, was far too different from its forebears to be considered a similar class; it was thus named after the first ship of the class that was to be produced, *Relentless*.

The design had a similar hull to the previous Renown-class, albeit elongated and with some minor differences. The aft ‘armored hangar’ was removed in favor of a simpler trapeze style hangar allowing the ship to carry an air wing of three aircraft, mostly intended as scouts and as escorts. New engine units were likewise added to provide the ship with a high speed and greater stability when in flight at maximum speeds; this included two large thrusters aft and two lighter thrusters forward, based on the design of the upcoming Mk4 Destroyers. The bridge tower was modified to a revised design to accomodate new fire control equipment. The main guns, while initially intended to be the same as those on the Renown-class, were changed to triple turrets. These weapons had greater firepower overall whilst keeping satisfactory muzzle velocity and range; this change was deemed necessary to counter new imperial heavy ships such as the Gladiator-class Heavy Cruisers. Additionally, making use of the additional length, the ship carried a single torpedo turret. Much like the one on the Mk3 Destroyers, it was placed just between the bridge tower and X turret. This turret carried three heavy 7m torpedoes with high armor piercing characteristics.

The ships began to enter service in early 757 AED, bearing the names *Relentless, Unrelenting, Unflinching, Undefeatable* and *Unyielding*. During the war, they were excellent cruiser hunters.
In 757 AED, *Undefeatable* and the lead ship of the Repulse-class *Repulse* herself were deployed to intercept a Silver Empire ‘capital ship’ wreaking havoc around the Dragon Reaches. This was the converted battleship *Assertor*. Upon finding *Assertor*, *Undefeatable*’s small group was annihilated by the guns of the imperial superweapon, leaving *Undefeatable* nearly crippled and *Repulse* sunk in just three minutes. The escorts were likewise destroyed. *Undefeatable* was, however, able escape after grounding herself.

The ships were mostly deployed in cruiser hunting raids, which proved to be successful; by the time of the Battle of the Ventis Gulf, no Relentless-class ship had been lost. *Unflinching* was particularly popular among the ships of the class due to her battle wounds. The entire class was present for the Battle of the Ventis Gulf, where *Unyielding* and *Unrelenting*, at the lead of Admiral Evans’ Force ‘A’, were lost in the early stages of the battle to imperial artillery. *Undefeatable* was crippled yet again by imperial cruisers but was able to make a run for it, whilst *Relentless* and *Unflinching* survived with moderate amounts of damage. The class would see no further significant involvement in the war after this engagement.
In the post-war fleet, *Relentless* and *Unflinching* continued their duty, with *Undefeatable* slated for carrier conversion in 761 AED. *Unflinching*, due to her rich combat history and popularity in the eyes of the civilian population, was retained as a museum ship after she was decommissioned.

Stats:
4 heavy turrets with 2 scattershot cannons each.
Hangar Bay with capacity for 3 Banshee hulled airskiffs (Banshees, Falcons, etc)

The ship which the Relentless is built off of features in the YouTube series “Minecraft Airship Pirates”