renegade bastard has been infracted under rule 3: be civil.
No one else has been infracted at this time, but please take this opportunity to be more mindful of how you speak to other users. At the end of the day this is only a quest.
[X] Start work on a dreadnought in the four to five hundred thousand ton range. (8 Industry)
At present Starfleet as a functional light and heavy cruiser in the Stingray and NX classes respectively, however one might consider their effectiveness. It is decided that given the technological disparity that the fleet would benefit from a battleship hull that can endure more punishment and dish it out, a kind of lynchpin that can form the heart of a battle group. With that objective in mind, the team starts work on the primary hull.
There are three designs that seem to have the most potential, with different advantages and drawbacks to consider. The first is a flat arrowhead shape for the primary hull, which would provide aft space for engines and access points like cargo or docking ports. More significantly the overall shape would allow for phase cannon placement which would allow them to concentrate fire in the forward and side arcs. The disadvantage is that the significant reduction in internal space would make forward torpedo systems very difficult to fit, as well as substantially reducing internal space available for utility functions.
The second option is a full saucer with a wider diameter than the NX. It's a proven design element and provides both internal space and plenty of mounting space for torpedo systems. It presents the potential for expansive phase cannon coverage of all surrounding vectors and firing lines as well as a much reduced minimal firepower threshold. Any attacker would inevitably be attacked right back, with no major weak points to exploit.
The third and final option is a middle ground between the two. By trimming off the rear of the saucer it provides space for engines and other access points while also preserving many of the internal space and weapon advantages. However the shape of the cut-away means that this compromise would require an underslung secondary hull rather than any in-line alternatives, as the majority of the useful space is available in the center at the bulkiest part of the saucer.
Foregone Conclusions, or If Full Saucer Ends Up Winning
Henry Oliverson Junior, Lead Design Engineer of the United Earth Starfleet Design Burea's Project BULWARK, was exhausted. It had been a long day, with the various engineers he had to herd around constantly coming to near blows around the debate for the Dreadnought's frame. And while the heated discussions were unsurprising, given the impact the ship would have on the Mankind's first interstellar war, the near-equal split was unprecedented.
Still, he thought, as he patted himself down, trying to find where he had put his apartment key, he had finally made a final decision. While he, like almost every starship enthusiast on the planet, had fallen in love with the NX, whether for the technological marvel it was at the time or the accomplishments the Enterprise had achieved, this was a new era, and a new fight. He only hope that the Full Saucer Advocates would take the news tomorrow with grace. Or at least, keep their grumbling down enough to get started on the actual design work.
Flipping the light-switch by the entrance, he frowned, as his home remained unilluminated. Giving the switch a few more tries, more out of instinct than actual belief it would work, he repressed a sigh. Given that the streetlights and various neighboring apartments had been lit as he walked over, it was probably just the bulb going out. Trusting in his muscle memory, he tried to shuffle his way to the kitchen's switch.
"Mr. Oliverson." The deep voice came somewhere to his right. Spinning around, alarmed, he barely could made out a humanoid figure sitting on his sofa before being blinded by a Ray of Light that hit him directly in the chest. As fell to the floor, a small part of his conscious mind that wasn't drowned out by shock and terror before reaching blissful unconscious, noted how much the beam resembled the new pulsed phase cannons prototype he had recently seen. *Chirp*
"This is Daniels. The root cause of the Temporal Anomaly has been found, I'm resolving it now."
.....
"Source was a project lead at the SDB. The pre-fed United Earth one. Someone said something different than they did orginally, caused a new precedant that changed the design of our ships."
.....
"No, there shouldn't be any more problems. The subliminal hypotherapy has taken hold. He should awaken the next Morning having come to the correct decision. I'll be on hand to make sure things go according to plan, but I don't forsee any issues. Compared to the dealing with Na'kuhl and Nazis, this is a walk though the park."
*Chirp*
I also have an idea for another one based around the half-saucer, but I'll do it later.
YEARS IN THE FUTURE, BUT NOT MANY..... or If Half Saucer Ends Up Winning
The peace talks with the remnants of the Cardassian Union were preceding ahead of schedule.
"How long do you intend to continue with such transparent falsehoods?!"
Unfortunately, this was due to the fact said schedule was based around the estimate of a fully intact, pre-Battle of Cardassia, Union coming to the table, so the relative speed of the talks was more due to the Cardassian skipping the now laughable threats of their mighty fleets and unstoppable armies, and moving straight to insulting accusations towards the other Alpha Quadrant powers.
In this case, it was accusing Starfleet of being a militarist fleet, a more common accusation these days. "How can you continue to sit here, claiming not to have warships, when your fleets crowd the skies of our homeworld?!"
The Federation representative, a young human woman, having been well-trained, did not respond to the blatant provocation. "Our vessels are designed for the peaceful exploration of the galaxy and the service of our worlds. They are not designed for fighting wars, merely to fulfill whatever needs they must, even if that includes self defense."
"Oh. Of course, the USS Century, which destroyed six times its mass in our ships over Bajor was not designed for war. The USS Defiant, a mere escort that terrorized our populace, wasn't designed for war. The Ushaans, which hunt down their targets like predators seeking prey are not warships."
"I admit, the Defiant is borderline, but it is still not a warship."
"Oh, and tell me, what makes it borderline, when a battleship armed with main weapons designed for starbases and enough explosive warheads to destroy a sector doesn't count?"
"Well, it still technically has a full saucer. Just compressed and squashed a bit."
A Pause. For the first time in a full hours, the Cardassian had his mouth open, but had nothing to say. The response was so unexpected, he had to take a moment to consider it, to make sure there was no misunderstand or double meaning. Yet, there was simply no relations between the question and the answer he could tell.
"What does the saucer have to do with it?" "A full saucer is meant to be for general use, a half-saucer is meant for warfare."
Another pause. This time it is broken by a collective groan by the other two representatives, a Romulan and a Klingon, who up until this point had been mostly silent beyond some snide remarks and interjections.
"....Don't. Just...don't." the Klingon, a veteran of a thousand battles, who had laughed in the face of death with a smile, had an uncharacteristic thousand lightyear stare of pure annoyed exasperation that was mirrored on the Romulan's representive.
"Look it's simple. Starfleet makes ships with Saucers to try to maximize the internal size we have in them for extra utilities, which allows for multi-role generalist ships. Hence, if they have a full saucer they aren't a warship!"
Despite the clear warning from the other delgates, the relative newcomer can't help but ask, "But, what does a warship have then?"
"Oh, a half-saucer."
"So you're telling me, if you took a Century and chopped it in half, it would be a warship."
"Well, not literally, but if you removed the the half of the systems and spaces with no direct tactical use, so it would fit all the weapons and tactical systems in half the space, then yes."
"But it literally still has the same military weapons and capabilities, just less utilities." "Yes, exactly!"
The Cardassian turned to the other two representatives hopefully, desperately looking for some way to either disprove or even understand the human's logic, only to be met with a dual look of rare sympathy and understanding, before focusing his attention back at the Federation Representative, "Look, I...fine. Let's take a recess. Just sent me the draft of the current treaty, and I'll look over it."
The Federation representative beamed. "Sure, I'll sent it right over," She said, before reaching into a drawer below the conference table and pulling out a glass bottle. "Oh, sorry, would anyone else like a glass of Root Beer?"
Not happy with ending, but eh. Just wanted to make a joke about how 'the half-saucer for warships, full saucer otherwise' idea would interact with the future federations totally-not-a-warship claims.
The full saucer design eventually carries the day after a close debate. The primary hull will be 180 meters across, almost a third larger than the NX class and containing substantially more internal space and external surface area for mounting tactical systems. Hopefully it will be able to compensate for the lack of dedicated propulsion systems, although the two-deck thick rim provides much more space to fit such things than the one-deck rim of the NX. That extra vertical space will be much appreciated, but right now the main deflector is your main focus.
The old Type-1 and even its cludged-together cousin are incapable of providing the necessary protection against debris for a ship of this mass, which means needing to take a chance on the new and untested Type-2. It is an evolution of the main dish used on the NX, unifying the dual particle emission systems into a single whole - along with some other targeting improvements and additional graviton ray emitters. So far as you can tell you have two main options for where to put it, both with pros and cons to consider.
The first option is placing it in the forward bow. Unfortunately its greater size is an issue, as well as its circular dish rather than the classical stretched oval. Mounting the new deflector there would require building out the front of the primary hull, creating a partially underslung protrusion to house the internal assembly. It should be minimally invasive in terms of material, but it would reduce the ability of the ventral bow phase cannons to cross-fire, effectively limiting them to covering either port or starboard, but not both. More significantly it occupies the same space as you would put some of the torpedo launchers, which would mean reducing the number of torpedo tubes you can mount forward from a maximum of six to a maximum of four.
The second option is to install a more classical secondary hull, building it down from the aft hull so the deflector has a clear sightline past the ventral bulge of the saucer. In this case it would be impinging on the sightlines of the aft ventral cannons, and the addition of that much material will no doubt drive up costs for the hull plating and polarisation relays required to protect that extra surface area. It will increase the vertical profile of the ship quite significantly, which will require shifting the nacelles up above the primary hull to compensate. The ship may have more space for auxiliary capabilities as a result, but will add additional expenses and mass for the engines to deal with.
The new central deflector is a deceptively tiny thing, barely any larger than the cludged together dual Type-1 that powered the NX-class. But behind the main dish it couldn't be any different. Aside from not simply being two Type-1s bolted together and made to work, the entire assembly has been rebuilt. It has quadruple the mass of even that engineering abomination to start with, surrounded by a disk of targeting sensors which precisely isolate incoming interstellar debris and can send enormously powerful graviton rays lancing out to nudge them out of the way of the oncoming ship. There are whole new components that synergize to make it that much more effective, from new accelerator coils to focusing arrays that give it far more punch for its size class.
Unfortunately it doesn't fit in the forward saucer, so a cylinder had to be drawn out of the main hull to fit all the components and monitoring equipment. Fortunately this was a relatively small cross-section of the actual saucer, so the increase in mass and the associated costs has been minimal. With that done, attention now turns to the secondary hull proper. But here at least the engineering spaces are going to be defined by the nacelles attached to them, because the options for a ship of this size present some interesting challenges which will take to some hull shapes better than others.
The first option is the classic two nacelle setup, using the Type-1B warp coils at a large scale. In this case the Stingray-style sprint formation is actually the only configuration that would allow the warp field to safely envelop the forward hull given the distances involved. This has some understandable disadvantages in that the cruise speed will be a standard Warp 3.6, even with the new injector improvements. It isn't an enormous difference, only 10% slower than the NX, but it is there.
The second option is to double up on the nacelles, using a pair on each pylon to reinforce the subspace fields and eliminate any discrepancies. That would bring everything up to specification for the new Warp 5 engine, including a comfortable cruise of Warp 4. But the prospect of quite literally doubling the budget for the nacelles has prompted some understandable winces from the design team. For a ship of this size they are already expensive, let alone twice as many.
Then there's the unconventional option. Theoretically, a third nacelle mounted higher than the normal pair could be used as a kind of artificial pusher to imbalance the warp field, allowing higher sprint speeds. It would also be useful for reinforcing the existing field, albeit at a reduced efficiency. The simulations say it would cruise at Warp 3.8, which would match speed with the NX at a lower cost. But the computational complexity of an asymmetric warp field would certainly be a challenge, and for all you know it could blow up in your face.
The two nacelles should be able to just barely do the job, with the Bulwark managing Warp 3.6 cruise and a decent 4.9 maximum. You don't expect it to be flying alone during wartime in any case. To mount the nacelles you draw out a secondary hull from the aft, all in-line with the main saucer. Again, efforts are made to keep mass down and reduce complexity, although the nacelle struts end up so long that they use more material than the actual engineering section. Good thing the ship is never intended to go in atmosphere, because they absolutely wouldn't hold against that kind of physical stress. Disruptor blasts? Yes. Air? No.
Structural shortcomings aside, the job of making sure the ship can go to where it needs isn't quite over. The full saucer configuration means that mounting multiple engines in a vertical stack isn't possible, and the positioning of the nacelles and secondary hull limit the available mounting points. While there exists a world where your design could have accommodated eight engines and turned port or starboard in five seconds, it isn't this one. Here you have two options: the first is two engines, the second four.
Despite all appearances, the lower engine count isn't necessarily a bad choice. Rapid manoeuvres aren't expected in a fleet action, especially for the largest ships, and the planned weapon layouts means the ship should be able to engage any targets in range regardless of their relative position in the battlespace. There comes a point, even, where targets will inevitably stray into the torpedo alleys of the Bulwark just in the course of normal engagements with her accompanying vessels.
On the other hand, the extra expense of another pair of engines could be justified on the budget. In this case it's more a case of looking past the war, when the Bulwark will be obligated to do more of its own tactical manoeuvring to engage hostile targets. But given the Warp 7 engine is expected in half a decade and there are memorandums of understanding for technological exchange between members of the Coalition at an unspecified future date, is the cost now worth it when the Bulwark might not even have much of a future after the war? On the other hand, the extra lethality from being able to put her tubes on target a little more often could be worth the cost, too.
[ ] Two Engines (Low Maneuverability, 23 -> 27 Industry)
[ ] Four Engines (Medium Maneuverability, 23 -> 31 Industry)
[X] Four Engines (Medium Maneuverability, 23 -> 31 Industry)
The four new Type-1 thrusters are substantial, and promise to be able to move the Bulwark with the same manoeuvrability as the smaller NX, despite the larger mass. The increase in tactical firepower thanks to the responsiveness provided by the quadruple engines will no doubt be appreciated by the command crew. Now you have the task of making sure they have something worth using that agility to put on target, whether that be phase cannons or warheads. For the latter especially you have some options worth weighing up.
The new photonic torpedoes are an impressive step forward, completely changing the launch system. The warheads now use antimatter instead of standard nuclear charges, and after the launch sequence a graviton emitter uses the antimatter as a power source to create a short-lived shield around the weapon as it tracks its target. It isn't very sophisticated, but the disruptive effect of even a crude graviton field means that a beam weapon will spread most of its energy over the shell of the torpedo rather than in a concentrated blast, during which time the warhead can reach its target.
But regardless of whether you use photonics or atomics, the infrastructure to fire them is what you are concerned with. The Bulwark has space for four torpedo launchers in the forward hull along the ventral saucer, and two along the aft dorsal surface above the secondary hull. But there's nothing saying you have to use every available space for weapons when you can't be sure the ship will be able to put its torpedoes on target often enough to make the full loadout worth the expense. Launchers of any stripe are difficult to produce and costly in time and resources.
The pulsed phase cannons, on the other hand, merely use a different manufacturing method but largely consist of the same materials and time investments. As a result there is no reason why not to use them when even a shortfall in their promised improvements would still represent a step forward in particle yields. That said there is a world of difference between tests and real-world use, and they may have unforeseen drawbacks that the crew will have to deal with. If you want to keep the budget down and decide to use a torpedo-heavy loadout, maybe a few standard cannons would be a good idea instead.
The minimal layout uses an identical cannon layout over both the top and bottom of the saucer section. All the cannons are mounted along the crossline of the saucer, presenting them generous firing lines forward and aft. For the more generous loadout another two pairs are added forward and aft to further reinforce those weapon arcs, albeit with a slight reduction in efficiency due to less optimal cannon placements. Either way, it promises a decent offensive armament.
In the end there was no doubt that the ship would be heavily armed, but precisely how armed was in question. The answer, it turns out, is as much as you can make it. With four photonic torpedo launchers and able to train eight phase cannons on anything in front of it, the Bulwark represents a serious threat to anything on the battlefield that it can lay eyes on. But the final configuration and the turreted phase cannons don't leave much in the way of safety for other approaches, either. Simulations suggest that no matter what arc the ship is approached from it can unload as much firepower as an NX-class starship at its target. Admittedly for twice the cost, so it won't be replacing the NX any time soon for general duty, but as a ship purely designed for fighting in a fleet action? Just what is needed. With the final systems fitted the design enters the testing phase.
Powering up the main deflector takes several minutes, each stage of the process being checked and double checked. But the new accelerator and targeting modules work as expected, allowing the Bulwark to deploy its deflection beams out several seconds ahead of the ship at warp and move more massive objects away from its path compared with its predecessor.
The main deflector conforms with specifications.
The photonic torpedoes perform surprisingly well, with their antimatter warheads creating a radiation spray that disrupts shields and degrades the stability of the graviton field. It's a happy side effect to the actual blast, but one that will significantly increase its value as a replacement for the atomic torpedo.
The photonic torpedoes deal more damage than expected.
The pulsed phase cannons on the other hand perform poorly. The idea was that pulsing the particle stream would allow higher concentrations, which is true, but what wasn't expected was that the interaction between the EPS system and the particle generators would cause the saturation level to drop. With fewer particles in each pulse, the damage inflicted has dropped compared to projections. Still better than the standard cannons for the same cost, at least.
The increase in phase cannon damage is less than expected.
With the ship confirmed operational, she only needs a name before she gets her final checks.
The first year of the war was characterised by essentially no contact between United Earth and Romulan forces. While the members of the Coalition of Planets honored their defensive pact by likewise declaring war on the Romulan Star Empire, local political concerns stopped short of a total mobilisation. The Vulcan High Command was still dysfunctional as a result of the societal upheavals caused by the rediscovery of the Kir'shara, and was unwilling to support offensive actions. While Earth was the recipient of protection from Vulcan starships, there was no major shift towards Romulan space.
Likewise, the Andorians were unwilling to completely invest in the war. While they recognized the danger that Romulan incursions represented, especially given the genocidal intent of the attack on Earth, the Andorians and Vulcans had been on the verge of war a mere three years prior and the good-faith diplomacy of Earth was relied upon as the mediator for that distrust. With United Earth now politically distracted with the Romulan conflict and without the Vulcans reducing their defenses, Andoria was unwilling to take the first step and leave themselves exposed. This caution was compounded by the distraction of a major outbreak of Rigillian Fever occupying government resources on Andoria. They did however detach parts of the Imperial Guard to proactively search for Romulan forward operating bases and refuelling depots, successfully destroying a station near Denobula in late 2157.
The Tellarites were likewise willing to contribute to the war effort, but as yet did not consider themselves to be completely involved in the Earth-Romulan War. While happy to contribute industrial materials and intelligence, the Tellarite defense forces only stepped up patrols of their own space. This state of support rather than cooperation ended with the Romulan invasion of Denobula in March of 2158. After clearing the orbital spaces of military installations and bombarding the central government bunker, they coerced a surrender that gave them complete control of the planet's orbital infrastructure. The Tellarites then began to proactively position their ships towards the Romulan border.
By this point Earth was producing over five Stingray-class light cruisers and an NX-class starship every year in preparation for a push towards known Romulan territory. This advance was prepared for by a scouting mission by the UES Enterprise, which had spent practically the entirety of 2157 investigating the antispinward border of the Coalition. In addition to identifying several star systems with known Romulan activity, the Enterprise also confirmed that the feared Romulan cloaking device was incompatible with the antimatter-based warp engines used during the attack on Earth. In fact the majority of the Romulan fleet was still using Warp 3 as its maximum cruise, while the cloaked ships were using an experimental new power system. This explained the necessity of a refuelling stop, as the majority of the Romulan fleet had an operational range that excluded Earth and Vulcan.
The United Earth fleet set out from Sol in July 2158, intending to strike at Denobula and deny the Romulans a supply route towards Earth. The fleet consisted of fourteen Stingray-class cruisers; the NX-class starships Columbia, Challenger, and Endeavour; and the dreadnought Thunderchild. They were still en route when in August a Romulan strike force destroyed the Proxima Centauri colony, killing six million civilians and destroying the VCS Surak in orbit. This convinced the Vulcans to more proactively take a role in the war, and a fast-response fleet from Vulcan intercepted the Romulans a month later en route to Denobula and destroyed them.
The Andorians responded to the increased involvement of the Vulcans by likewise strengthening their patrols, but only mobilised to total war conditions when it was discovered that the Rigelian Fever epidemic was linked to a deliberate aerosolisation event in early 2156 by presumed Romulan agents. With the Imperial Guard fully committed to war, the Tellarites and Vulcans likewise began advanced deployments towards the Romulan border.
The Battle of Denobula began on October 14th, 2158. The Romulans had erected a trio of defended outposts in high orbit of several of the system's main bodies, one of which was Denobula itself. The Romulans had also accumulated a substantial force of twenty Warp 3 warbirds at this forward operating base. Wary of the potential for cloaked minefields or ships, Admiral Black refrained from immediately engaging while the the dispositions of the Romulan fleet were analysed. Judging that the Romulan access to shield technology favored the enemy in a large and prolonged fleet engagement, the United Earth fleet split into two forces. The first was a squadron of the three NX starships led by Columbia and accompanied by a half-dozen Stingrays, while the other consisted of the Thunderchild and eight Stingrays.
Attacking two of the three Romulan outposts simultaneously, the defenders were unwilling to leave the unmolested outpost over the Denobulan homeworld completely undefended, leaving a flight of three warbirds to protect it against any surprise attacks or disengagements by the faster Earth starships. Of the remaining Romulan vessels, twelve engaged the Thunderchild and her escorts while five fought a delaying action to protect against Columbia's fleet element.
The Thunderchild immediately came under heavy fire in the initial exchange, appearing the preferential target for the Romulan force and the outpost itself. No less than nine disruptor beams impacted her forward hull in under three seconds, overwhelming the polarised hull plating and causing multiple hull breaches on C, D, and E deck. The dreadnought responded with her beam weapons, a rapid salvo from a dozen phase cannons over the span of five seconds burning through the shields of one of the lead warbirds and causing a catastrophic hull breach.
The fleet then cleared the first clash, passing through the Romulan formation. The Thunderchild's escorts broke apart and came about to re-engage the Romulan fleet in detail, while the dreadnought closed on the station and fired a full volley of photonic torpedoes. The four antimatter warheads and a barrage of phase cannon fire broke through the shield and inflicted serious damage on the station. The Thunderchild then banked to starboard while continuing fire from her cannons, turning back towards the fleet battle and firing a pair of photonic torpedoes into the outpost from her aft launchers. This caused massive secondary explosions as volatile storage and antimatter supplies were breached, resulting in the station's destruction.
The dreadnought then rejoined the battle proper, but her compromised forward plating meant the ship was unable to bring her forward torpedoes to bear on any of the warbirds. Instead the Thunderchild made a pass on the edge of the battle, using her starboard and aft cannons to concentrate fire on targets of opportunity. As a result two more warbirds were destroyed in cooperation with the Stingrays, although the Whiptail and Fanray were lost to Romulan atomic torpedoes.
The battle then turned against the Earth starships however, Romulan disruptor beams disabling the Butterfly and Softnose. The Thunderchild was again left as the main target of the Romulan force, with her remaining four escorts harried away from her by a squadron of warbirds. While her aft coverage and photonics allowed her to destroy another enemy ship, the concentrated fire quickly penetrated her aft plating and damaged her nacelles and main saucer section. Now beginning to lose her cannons, Thunderchild began a spiralling turn to port to bring her forward weapons to bear, but the more agile warbirds were able to evade this effort and continue to fire.
Now leaking drive plasma and with only one functional aft torpedo tube, the dreadnought managed to disable another attacker before the remaining five warbirds chasing her scored a hit on her starboard engine assembly and nearly brought the ship to a standstill. On the brink of losing power entirely, the Thunderchild returned fire with her few remaining operational cannons to no effect. However the arrival of the Columbia and Endeavour at high warp into the battlespace forced the attacking warbirds to disengage under the force of the NX's forward armament, saving the ship from certain destruction.
Approximately ten seconds later the surviving four Stingrays and the damaged Challenger from Columbia's attack group also dropped out of warp and joined the battle, prompting a Romulan withdrawal from the area and to the final station, which resulted in a consolidated defending force of a dozen warbirds. The battle would conclude a week later when a partially-repaired Thunderchild and a quartet of newly arrived Andorian Kumari-class battlecruisers spearheaded an attack by the fleet on the remaining outpost. Without the threat of Romulan ships in orbit, the Denobulans quickly overran the minor Romulan garrison in the capital and liberated the planet.
The Battle of Denobula was the first major offensive victory for the Coalition of Planets, though the bloody and destructive battle nonetheless demonstrated that victory would come at a high cost. But the destruction of the Denobulan refuelling and supply outposts forced the withdrawal of now overstretched Romulan squadrons which had been preying on Coalition shipping and attempting to engage isolated starships away from populated systems, redefining the front line of the war to the unclaimed space between Romulan and Coalition territory.
