400kt single hull fat saucer explorer. Something like 2-3 thruster 3s give it average maneuverability.
It could also have the ship be a classic flying saucer, except it flies 'plate on' when not in atmosphere.
That's going to be the Excelsior. Which I'm coming around to really looking forward to. Like I said, this thread gave me a greater appreciation of the Constitution (and Excalibur) as predecessors to what, in universe, is the actual iconic ship. Not the iconic crew, that's still the TOS crew. But the iconic ship.
Yeah, it's really hard to argue when the cost is slightly better than average, but the performance is excellent. When you get a lot of bang for your buck, budgets tend to like you--they know you're worth every penny and more. That it was a warship that performed extremely well in a time when it was really needed is already a mark of excellence, but that it then performed anti-piracy and patrol duties, THEN performed long-range exploration missions with great success (albeit substantial casualties) proves that the design was versatile and very useful.
Yeah, the Excelsior in this quest would be a dedicated explorer design, with a higher tonnage and more space devoted to science/engineering/medical/etc over sheer tactical capability. A peacetime jack of all trades with a hefty but understandable price tag for a long range, fast, do-it-all ship that doesn't need to be produced in large numbers.
And in doing the exploration mission has given Starfleet a ton of data about what exactly will be required to do said exploration without said casualties. That's not something you can just intuit.
The ship that got eaten by a vast unicellular organism is the equivalent of the Intrepid. Which was crewed entirely by Vulcans in the original timeline. So, not stupid. The Space Ameoba was surrounded by a negative energy field that messed with... basically everything. Among other things making the engines work in reverse despite - in universe mind you - that making no sense. It was a bit of a plot point that the Vulcans didn't think outside the box fast enough to survive while the Enterprise did.
To be fair to that unfortunate captain, there's a lot left out in the retro about the characteristics of those aforementioned large unicellular organisms imo: Just how big are they? How fast are they? Do they absorb or are otherwise not affected by Phasers and/or Photon torps? etc. If those things are just plain faster than the hull even at full Impulse (and boy isn't that thought fricking terrifying to consider...), possibly there wasn't enough time to come about and just GTFO at Warp 8.6. *shrug*
I'm honestly wondering if we're going to see this update fairly soon or only after the next ship that we make.
Very good catch! Dodge the anti-proton beam.
>Be me
I would be fine with a rollbar, but I was imagining just a saucer with vertical nacelles sticking like long dorsal fins out the back.
That's a dreadnought name if i ever saw one
Watch as next generation Birds of Prey become Axes when the Klingons start attempting to replicate the feat of pure warrior badassery. That andorian captain probably earned his own tactical maneuver named after him and a place in Klingon history.
The Thy'lek Maneuver leads the Klingons to invent their own version of the Yeerk Blade Ship.
Federation Ambassador to the Klingon Empire. Though it is a good reminder that Enterprise captains tend to be impressive even if there journeys are not covered on a show.
Worked with Kurzon. Even the ships we don't see are impressive. I'm sure the Intrepid and the others had amazing adventures before their luck ran out.
It looks like we managed to save Tarsus on our second try, that Warp 8.6 Sprint looks to have come in clutch what with it being nearly a whole Warp Factor faster than the Canon Connie's sprint (Warp 7.8 vs Warp 8.6).
