“The Shield and Anvil of the Fleet.”
The Vigilance-class Carrier serves as the backbone of the Arkanis Imperium’s fleets, a floating fortress and bastion of starfighter dominance. Where the Starjack-class battleship embodies brute force and the Angel-class starfighter symbolizes speed and precision, the Vigilance is the unshakable foundation upon which entire campaigns are built.
Forged in the orbital shipyards of Cael Arkanis, the Vigilance was designed to project Imperial air superiority across the galaxy. It does not chase glory in duels with enemy capital ships; instead, it delivers hordes of starfighters and bombers, ensuring the Imperium always controls the skies above a battlefield.
With its massive hangar bays and support facilities, the Vigilance is as much a mobile fortress-city as it is a warship. Its cavernous interior can house:
70 starfighters and bombers, or
50 starfighters and 3 gunships, depending on fleet composition.
The carrier also ferries a full Imperial Legion of troops, allowing for coordinated planetary assaults in tandem with its fighter wings.
Each Vigilance carries a crew of 1,500 officers and personnel, alongside its legion and pilots. Inside, entire decks are dedicated to hangars, repair bays, armories, and training facilities, ensuring its fighter wings are always ready to launch.
The Vigilance-class is known for its remarkable resilience, emphasizing defense over offense. Its systems include:
Reinforced hull plating and layered shield arrays, granting it endurance under prolonged sieges.
60 anti-fighter/bomber plasma batteries, ensuring it can shred enemy strike craft that attempt to breach its perimeter.
However, its lack of heavy weaponry means the Vigilance cannot stand alone against capital ships. Its survival depends on the escort of destroyers, cruisers, and battleships—a reality the Imperium accepts as doctrine.
The Vigilance’s bulk and design come with drawbacks. It lacks gravengines, rendering it incapable of atmospheric flight. It must remain in high orbit during planetary campaigns, where it serves as both a command center and fighter nest. Its construction costs are staggering, limiting the Imperium’s ability to field them in vast numbers. Currently, only 14 Vigilance-class Carriers are known to serve across all Imperial fleets, each a jewel of the navy.
To the Imperium, a Vigilance-class Carrier is not merely a ship—it is a living fortress, a sanctuary of order and discipline in the chaos of war. The sight of its hangar bays unleashing waves of Angel-class fighters has become an iconic image of Imperial dominance.
Enemies know that where a Vigilance lingers in orbit, the Imperium’s grip will tighten, smothering resistance beneath endless waves of starfighters and legions of troops.