Codex Entry: Protoss Carrier

The iconic capital ship of Protoss battlefleets, the Carrier is a stunning mass of psionically shaped metal - but for all its beauty and grace, it is one of the most deadly warships ever built.

Carrying eight wings of Protoss Interceptors, Carriers can demolish lightly armored targets in swift order, and squadrons of multiple carriers can overwhelm entire planets. Partially due to (thankfully rare) encounters with Carriers, terran Battlecruiser designs have progressively become even more heavily armored. Unfortunately (from the perspective of the Council Races, that is) pre-Koprulu Council designs are not very well armored at all, and Interceptor's pulsed photonic beams completely ignore Mass Effect barriers.

Not only are Interceptors tremendously agile and incredibly fast (more than twice the acceleration and top speed of terran heavy fighters such as the Wraith) but also mount active shielding and a durable hull.

While their armament fails to match the damage output of Gemini missiles or Lanzer Torpedoes (currently in development by Ares corporation), this ignores the fact an Interceptor is a third the size of a heavy fighter (not only making them harder targets, but can be carried en-masse far more easily than heavier fighters) and a swarm of Interceptors will rapidly shred opposing fighters in a manner reminiscent of a pack of Zerglings… Shielded, ranged, flying Zerglings.

Although most protoss Carriers carry powerful 'purification systems', they are ineffective in ship-to-ship combat; as utilizing their planet-burning armament requires not only the shutdown of the Carrier's engines & strike craft support facilities, but also requires multiple carriers to stay in tight formation; to permit their on-board Templar to commune and draw upon the Khala. An opposing battlefleet could simply move out of the firing arc when Carriers enter purification-formation and disengage drives.

Despite this, their Interceptor wings have a combined firepower output nearly quadruple that of a Council cruiser (and more than double of a terran Battlecruiser); the difference is that terran laser batteries are fairly optimized for use against armored targets, whereas much of each Interceptor's individual weapon output is mitigated against super-heavily armored targets (such as... a Battlecruiser) and as such, a Battlecruiser can, in theory, destroy an opposing Carrier in a direct duel at close range.

Unfortunately, Carriers are not only 33.2% faster than the terran capital ship (at full drive thrust), but can coordinate (and support) attacking Interceptor wings while at twice the standoff range for Battlecruiser laser batteries; creating a scenario where Carriers can constantly engage Battlecruisers safely outside of the terran warship's range. Even faster Council warships are vulnerable to this tactic!

Luckily, the advent of the Yamato cannon and its extreme range have reversed the situation; a terran armada with charged fusion cores can duel with any protoss fleet attempting such tactics.

Even better, despite the advanced shielding technology and armoring scheme employed in Carriers (analysis indicates Carriers are more hardened than Battlecruisers), fundamentally, a Carrier is an enormous hollow ship that is designed to build, carry, and support wings of smaller craft, and thus has far less structural integrity than most capital ships it's size, roughly 150% that of Council cruiser; thus a pair of Mk III Yamato blasts (or a ramming attack) can destroy a protoss Carrier in short order.

During the First Battle of Braxis, protoss commanders used an innovative new tactic where they released Interceptor wings 'over-the-horizon' of Braxis. Blocked by the planet itself, Battlecruisers could not fire upon the protoss fleet with their Yamato cannons and were being swarmed by waves of Interceptors launched on suicide runs.

In desperation, the terran naval garrison left the gravity well and attempted to perform Warp translations to pin the protoss against the planet.

As their internal fusion cores were partially depleted from Warp Jump, most of the terran task force was unable to fire Yamato cannon against the protoss fleet; which quickly used its superior mobility and range to stay out of the terran fleet's conventional weapon standoff radius.

Getting cut to pieces when attempting to pull back and utterly decimated when attempting to assault, captains with nearly-charged fusion cores volunteered to perform a holding action while the rest of the fleet retreated. Although they fought (and died) bravely as any man could hope to, enabling their comrades escape, this was a humiliating defeat for the Dominion.


A/N: If you have read the most recent chapters of A Sudden Contact, you will know I have been collaborating with AVTM for awhile now. It's been a tumultuous task, but I hope we've created something to be proud of. At the time of this Author's Note, I have 5 codex entries in storage.

A/N #2: Rearranged chapters.