| Battleship Embrun | |
 |
|
| Owner | |
| Gallic Royal Navy (former). | |
| Status | |
| Wreck | |
| Location | |
| 5C, Languedoc |
CLASS: Normandie
CREW: N/A
ARMAMENT: N/A
The Normandie battleship design was first deployed around 656 AGS (740 AS) for offensive assault purposes. These ships were produced in large numbers by royal Gallic shipyards until the early 730s (810s), when the battles of the Second Gallic Civil War revealed several critical flaws in the ships’ construction. Existing vessels were retrofitted to correct various defects, but no new Normandies were built - instead the modernized Richelieu class was developed. Normandie battleships formed the bulk of Gallia’s original Sirius invasion forces.
The Embrun was deployed in 710 AGS (794 AS) and saw initial service against The Council, before joining the invasion of Bretonia in 735 AGS (819 AS). Using irregular tactics, it struck military and civilian targets across Newcastle and Manchester, quickly accruing a merciless reputation amid accusations of war crimes. It is believed that the Embrun topped the Bretonian Armed Force's most wanted list for several years, gaining an enormous bounty in the process. Commanded by Gallic Royal Intelligence special forces, the Embrun's squadrons were responsible for devious hit and run strategies that pinned Newcastle's fleets, preventing them from supporting the Allied efforts during the devastating Siege of New London.
Following the war's disastrous end in 742 AGS (826 AS), the Embrun was stranded behind Bretonian lines and unable to retreat to the Gallic Enclave in the Hebrides. Efforts to resupply by extorting Newcastle's Gaians were initially successful, however their compliance was a ruse to buy time for vengeful Gaian reinforcements to converge from across Bretonia. The improvised force struck the Embrun at an agreed supply rendezvous in the Craster Nebula early the next year. Guided by a local freelancer, the damaged battleship fled through a previously uncharted Jump Hole as a desperate means of escape. Little is known about the Embrun's activities until it reappeared later that year to aid Confederal forces during Kusari's Invasion of Gallia.
The battleship famously turned the tide of the Battle of Agde when it used a cloaking device to ambush the Battleship Yamaguchi, destroying its reactor. The Embrun was subject to withering counter-fire from the surrounding Kusari fleet, and broke in half after its hangar fuel tanks exploded. Regardless, the Yamaguchi's loss threw Kusari's forces into disarray, dooming the Languedoc advance. The Embrun's surviving crew members were hailed as heroes and have since been posted to senior positions throughout the Gallic Union fleet. The battleship's remains are now being salvaged at Briancon Station, under strict GNI supervision.