CMS Roanoke
Flagship of the Tau Volantis expedition
The CMS Roanoke was a Sovereign Colonies orbital command platform that served as the flagship of the Galactic Expedition to Tau Volantis. Left adrift in a mine-saturated flotilla after Scenario Five, it was the first wreck Isaac Clarke and John Carver boarded on reaching the frozen world.
The CMS Roanoke was a Sovereign Colonies orbital command platform, the flagship of the Galactic Expedition sent to Tau Volantis in 2311. Less a ship than a headquarters in orbit, it survived the disaster that destroyed the rest of its flotilla and lay derelict for two centuries before Isaac Clarke and John Carver boarded it, the first of the dead vessels they would enter above the frozen world. (Dead Space 3)
A command platform in orbit#
The CMS Roanoke, codenamed "Overlord," was the flagship of the Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces flotilla assigned to investigate Tau Volantis in 2311. It was not a conventional spacecraft but a UD-24 class orbital command platform, built to be the headquarters of the entire expedition. With only limited propulsion and no planetary capability, it was designed for space alone, serving as the operational hub for the ships in orbit. (Dead Space 3)
The platform was built around a large central spindle with two roughly equal modules to either side, one a vast docking and repair bay, the other of less certain function. It held a command center, shuttle maintenance and refueling bays, and quarters for the command staff and visiting researchers, with a saucer-shaped tactical bridge at its center from which the mission was planned and overseen. External carriages let shuttles dock, and it was from the Roanoke that planetside researchers arrived and departed. The opulent officers' quarters, finished in wood and luxury fittings, included the suite of Admiral Marjorie Graves, who commanded the expedition's fleet component. (Dead Space 3)
Scenario Five and the mines#
When the Necromorph outbreak overtook the expedition, the flotilla turned on itself. A battleship built for mine warfare, traveling with the fleet, released its payload of automated mines among the assembled ships. Most were destroyed or heavily damaged, but the Roanoke came through largely intact. The mines did not disperse with time. Two hundred years later the space around the flotilla was still saturated with them, and any approach to the wreck was extraordinarily dangerous. (Dead Space 3)
Arrival of Isaac Clarke#
In 2514, after escaping the destruction of the USM Eudora, Isaac Clarke, Captain Robert Norton, John Carver, and the surviving crewmen Mark Rosen and Locke took refuge aboard the derelict Roanoke. Isaac boarded first and opened the shuttle bay doors to bring the others inside. Norton told him that Ellie Langford's distress signal was coming from somewhere deep within the ship and gave him coordinates to follow. (Dead Space 3)
Searching the interior, Isaac found two-hundred-year-old Necromorphs in deep hibernation, sealed behind a quarantined bulkhead the SCAF troops had covered in memorial graffiti for their dead. In the ship's atomic fusion reactor he briefly encountered a massive Necromorph of an unknown kind. Despite the platform's great size, only a small portion of it could be reached; the vast installations visible across the structure stayed sealed off. After Isaac acquired and launched the CMS Crozier, the Roanoke was left behind as he and his team made their descent to the surface of Tau Volantis. (Dead Space 3)
Frequently asked questions
- What was the CMS Roanoke?
- The CMS Roanoke was a Sovereign Colonies orbital command platform that served as the flagship of the Galactic Expedition sent to Tau Volantis in 2311. Rather than a conventional ship, it was a headquarters in orbit, hosting the command staff and serving as the hub from which researchers traveled to and from the surface.
- How did the Roanoke survive the outbreak?
- When the Necromorph outbreak doomed the expedition, an accompanying mine-warfare battleship released its automated mines among the flotilla. Most ships were destroyed or crippled, but the Roanoke came through largely intact. Two centuries later the surrounding space was still saturated with those mines, making any approach extremely dangerous.
Sources
- GameDead Space 3, Visceral Games, 2013
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Followed from this entry
CMS Crozier
The CMS Crozier was a battered Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces transport shuttle abandoned in the flotilla over Tau Volantis. Repaired by Ellie Langford's team two centuries later, it carried Isaac Clarke down to the planet before breaking apart in the descent.
USM Eudora
The USM Eudora was an Earth Defense Force Special Ops vessel captained by Robert Norton. It pulled Isaac Clarke off the New Horizons Lunar Colony during the Unitologist uprising and carried him to Tau Volantis, where it was torn apart by automated mines in the planet's debris field.
Ellie Langford
Ellie Langford was a CEC heavy equipment pilot who survived the Necromorph outbreak on Titan Station, fought her way to Tau Volantis to find the source of the Marker signal, and became one of Isaac Clarke's closest companions.
Isaac Clarke
Isaac Clarke was a ship systems engineer for the Concordance Extraction Corporation who survived the Necromorph outbreak aboard the USG Ishimura, became a host for the Markers' replication blueprints, and spent years hunted by EarthGov and the Church of Unitology as he fought to destroy the Markers.
John Carver
John Carver was an Earth Defense Force sergeant who lost his wife and son to a Necromorph outbreak on Uxor and joined Isaac Clarke on the expedition to Tau Volantis to destroy the apparent source of the Marker signal.
Locke
Locke was an Earth Defense Force pilot aboard the USM Eudora who helped recover Isaac Clarke from the New Horizons Lunar Colony. She died during the ship's violent descent to Tau Volantis when her console ruptured the hull and pulled her into the planet's atmosphere.
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CMS Crozier
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CMS Terra Nova
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Ellie Langford
Ellie Langford was a CEC heavy equipment pilot who survived the Necromorph outbreak on Titan Station, fought her way to Tau Volantis to find the source of the Marker signal, and became one of Isaac Clarke's closest companions.
Jennifer Santos
Jennifer Santos was an EarthGov technician at Keyhole Station who joined Ellie Langford's expedition to Tau Volantis. She led the effort to locate the alien Machine using the frozen Nexus before she was killed in the fall of a cargo cage on the mountain.
John Carver
John Carver was an Earth Defense Force sergeant who lost his wife and son to a Necromorph outbreak on Uxor and joined Isaac Clarke on the expedition to Tau Volantis to destroy the apparent source of the Marker signal.
Keyhole Station: EarthGov Marker Research Station
Keyhole Station was an EarthGov research space station in the Carina Nebula, a major Marker research facility housing over four hundred military and technical personnel. Overrun by a Necromorph outbreak, it became the final waypoint of Ellie Langford's expedition to Tau Volantis and was destroyed.
Locke
Locke was an Earth Defense Force pilot aboard the USM Eudora who helped recover Isaac Clarke from the New Horizons Lunar Colony. She died during the ship's violent descent to Tau Volantis when her console ruptured the hull and pulled her into the planet's atmosphere.
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