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.
The after-action reports from the Battle of Denobula make one thing painfully clear - the Stingray is out of its depth. This is understandable, certainly: the poor thing was designed to be an in-system patrol boat, or at most an anti-piracy patroller. Nobody at the bureau considered the possibility that it would be serving in a wartime capacity even remotely seriously. War with who? Before the Stingray was phased out? Not likely.
But it's happening, and the reality is that for cost it is still more effective than the NX-class, simply because you need raw numbers to spread hostile fire. But when it takes two Stingrays to be comfortable with taking on a Romulan warbird and you're coming up against force concentrations that equal or exceed your own, something has to give. The order comes down from on high with a simple directive: give Starfleet a replacement for the Stingray, preferably as cheap but definitely more effective.
Easier said than done. The new deflectors are three decks high and even with Vulcan help the first United Earth manufactured shield emitters are several years away. There is no reality where you create a starship that can go toe-to-toe with a Romulan warbird for anything like the cost recommendations you're being given. So you're going to have to make some hard decisions right out the gate.
Main hull first. Arrowhead configuration would give you plenty of space for engines, opening the possibility for a hyper-manoeuvrable vessel with a concentrated armament that is nonetheless capable of staying on target. Problem: with the new deflectors you won't have any forward torpedo tubes unless you can undersling the deflector dish, and even then a single tube will be all you'll get. There might be some way to get a vertical nacelle configuration that alleviates some of the problems, but that would be experimental work.
Possibility two: half saucer. You might be able to get away with the deflector in-line with the hull, but having to mount the nacelles port and starboard instead of from a midline truss would mean occupying substantial internal space with the warp engine and transfer conduits. Optionally a secondary hull would solve the deflector and nacelle problems, but increase mass. Might be worth it for greater tactical output and staying power, but it certainly won't be as cheap or agile with the nacelles and secondary hull restricting engine placements.
[ ] Arrowhead. Aim for a cheap light cruiser. (Industry: 2)
[ ] Half-saucer. Aim for a capable medium cruiser. (Industry: 4)
Two Hour Moratorium, Please.
[X] Arrowhead. Aim for a cheap light cruiser. (Industry: 2)
There was spirited debate among the team, split between the advantages of the light and cheap arrowhead shape and the bulkier but more capable half-saucer. In the end while the half-saucer may have been able to fit a full forward torpedo barrage in the vein of the Bulwark (albeit by seriously skimping on other weapon systems), the expense of that capability attached to a smaller and potentially quite fragile hull raised some eyebrows. But there is a consolation - by compromising and integrating a ventral bulge, it seems like it will be possible after all to fit a couple of tubes in the arrowhead as well, though the forward cannon systems are going to be rather weak as a result.
With the main shape of the hull decided, now you arrive at the main issue of the design: there's nowhere to put the deflector. Any solution is going to involve building out the hull in some way to accommodate it, and were United Earth not under so much pressure to build any competent ships capable of engaging Romulan forces on better terms you think that building a ship of this size would be a thing of the past. But you are fully committed now: cheap and effective, but mostly cheap.
So, the deflector. Option one: a blister beneath the bow. You have just enough space to still provide clearance for the main navigational array, and you might even be able to squeeze in a pair of torpedo tubes in the ventral bulge. The problem is that at best you would only be able to fit one phase cannon in the nose, seriously limiting the more versatile particle beam armament. Putting the deflector in the nose would also deny you a mounting point for the nacelles, forcing you into a port and starboard mount that will further limit internal space in the aft sections.
Option two is a blister behind the navigational array. This would increase the mass of the ship but also provide a mounting point for the nacelles and a ventral phase cannon that would be able to fire forward as well as aft. Or maybe instead of a ventral cannon you could expand the deflector blister towards the rear and fit in an extra forward torpedo launcher? You could have more weapons, but the extra material would require more engine investment to keep the ship manoeuvrable, and all the downsides of added plating and hull material would drive up costs on their own, even disregarding the increased investment required in other areas.
You end up drawing up cost estimates based on the idea that the ship needs to be as agile as possible and accounting for the unavoidable costs: essentially the entire build minus any optional weapon expansions. The aft deflector would essentially provide greater offensive capability at a greater cost, the exact shape of those capabilities still to be determined.
Having decided on a forward deflector, you draw out the primary hull to make space. Fortunately you can downsize the dish a little bit because of the smaller cross section it has to protect against interstellar debris, but it's still a massive piece of machinery. Perversely the space you create between the deflector itself and the ventral hull provides you with some internal space of its own, which you put to work as much as possible. The ship is so cramped, in fact, that you make the decision to cut the turbolift system entirely and rely on internal ladders and a couple of staircases instead. At a full sprint no part of the ship is more than forty seconds away from any other part, after all. You aren't sure a turbolift would actually save any time.
The last major structural element to decide on is the nacelles, because there have been some interesting suggestions. While the initial plan was to mount the nacelles to the wingtips of the delta-body, a proposal has been made that they could instead be installed internally. The outer edges of the ship and its unique geometry means that you can have the bussard collectors on the leading edge and the trailing end of the nacelles sticking out the back.
The idea is that it will offer the nacelles some protection. The disadvantage is that it will also degrade the effectiveness of the warp field and impinge on a pair of internal storage areas that were intended for the outer edges of the ship. You'll have to shift them to the central body above main engineering, which will exclude the possibility of an aft phase cannon. Is the tradeoff worth it?
The internal nacelles break the classical rule that they should each have line of sight to the other set of warp coils, but as a subspace phenomenon it is not strictly required. What the intervening mass does do, however, is degrade the resulting field strength. As a result even with the improved injectors the Selachii is only able to reach a cruise of Warp 3.6 and a maximum of Warp 4.9. The displacement of other auxiliary systems to house the nacelles, however, has had consequences. There is no space for an aft phase cannon, and the internal storage areas have been relocated and sharply curtailed. Bluntly put, the Selachii is unlikely to go very far without resupply from stations or other starships with the available capacity. The price you pay for such a small package.
The impulse engines are fortunately compact enough that you manage to squeeze them in at the edge of the wings, though any crew intending to service them will have to use an access tunnel running under the nacelle housing to reach it. The resulting manoeuvrability promises to be…substantial. It has the same engines as the Stingray, but with half the mass the Selachii can turn very quickly indeed. The larger warbirds will find it essentially impossible to shake the small ship, given the Stingrays can just about stalemate them in an agility fight.
With the overall layout of the ship now complete, you turn your attention to the tactical systems. After running some simulations you come to the conclusion that the addition of another two phase cannons on the dorsal surface is simply too good to pass up. They promise to add additional forward and aft firepower as well as covering their respective sides of the ship, almost doubling the Selachii's damage-on-target for a minimal cost. The aft cannon may have been more controversial, but that is no longer an option thanks to the nacelle configuration.
She's a small thing, no doubt about it. All she needs now is a name.
The Selachii finishes final prototyping in the summer of 2159 after a crash-build that broke several records and with no end to the Earth-Romulan war in sight. The newly named UES Skate is a beauty of a ship on the outside, for all that she's a cramped nightmare inside. But she does what she is designed to do, and she does it very well. Her twin impulse engines move her small mass with frankly frightening accelerations, the sheer agility the ship demonstrates in tests proving it has no difficulty in outmanoeuvring the Stingray it is matched against and cracking open her aft plating with a pair of simulated photonics.
She soon had occasion to use the real thing. The Battle of Denobula had pushed the Romulans back, and forward operating bases set up by Andorian and Vulcan detachments threatened to penetrate Romulan territory itself. The war seemed to be entering a quiet phase as the Coalition conducted scouting missions and attempted to isolate Romulan industrial centers for strikes intended to eliminate their ability to build new ships.
That careful but methodical forward momentum ceased when the IGS Kumari came under attack from a new Romulan vessel in February of 2160. While only slightly larger than the existing warbirds with their squat bodies and winged nacelles, this "bird of prey" was clearly designed as a generational leap in capability from the T'liss warbirds that it replaced. Rather than stocking a pair of atomic launchers, it had a single plasma torpedo tube that used diverted warp plasma to fire balls of superheated gas at its target. Their new delivery system not only disrupted shields on impact but also dealt serious thermal damage to the underlying hull.
As if that weren't enough, a pair of forward mounted disruptors doubled the forward energy weapons and sported substantially higher particle densities. But the real problem was that they were capable of cruising at near Warp 5, a performance expected from Vulcan or Andorian ships rather than the existing Romulan fleet. This was thanks to reverse-engineering of wreckage and stolen Vulcan schematics for the main engine, while the nacelles were based off those from Earth starships. It was an unexpected reversal in the strategic picture that left Coalition leaders reeling.
Important strategic targets had just gone from over a year away at warp to a few months. There was serious concern that the willingness of the Romulans to engage scouting starships meant that a reserve of these new ships had already been assembled behind enemy lines and was ready for deployment. This fear was confirmed at the Second Battle of Sol in April of 2160, when the Thunderchild-class Warspite and a half-dozen Skate-class frigates were forced to launch without their torpedo payloads from the San Francisco fleetyards to assist a pair of Tellarite cruisers with engaging a trio of the new Romulan Birds of Prey, during which the under-construction NX Burya was torpedoed in dock and many of the orbital manufacturing facilities likewise destroyed. While one of the Romulan attackers was disabled and subsequently self-destructed, the other two disengaged at Warp 6 and fled the system. Nowhere was safe.
With the strategic momentum now transitioning to the Romulans and the potential for new ships with high warp factors that carried strategic weapons producing an atmosphere of fear in high command, a major thrust into Romulan space was accelerated from the planning and preparation stages. The Battle of the Galorndon Core saw Romulan dilithium mining operations destroyed, to which the Romulans responded by detonating antimatter bombs that sent the previously habitable planet deep into a volcanic winter and subsequent ice age. This simultaneously destroyed much of the dilithium deposits that made it so valuable and made turning its wealth against the Empire impossible.
The Battle of Cheron in November 2160 was a strike at the heart of the Empire's forward staging grounds for its Warp 3 fleet. More advanced elements of the Romulan fleet were drawn away by a dozen Vulcan and Andorian ships detaching from the fleet at the edge of the system on a direct course for Romulus, all of them at high warp. This left United Earth against three dozen Romulan warbirds.
In the United Earth battle line were three Thunderchild-class dreadnoughts: the Thunderchild, Polyphemus, and Warspite; the NX-class cruisers Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger, Endeavour, Atlantis, and Buran; twelve Stingray-class light cruisers, and nine Skate-class frigates. While lesser in numbers, the substantial firepower of the Thunderchild and NX-class starships went a long way to offsetting the lackluster performance of the Stingray, while the Skate-class on paper was on parity with the standard warbird in armament despite the disadvantage of its own fragility.
The battle began with the Romulans moving to engage the United Earth forces, correctly surmising that the intention of the Vulcan and Andorian detachment was to draw the defenders away and then use their superior Warp 7 engines to double back and join the attack. This potential window in which the powerful cruisers would be able to tip the scales in favor of Starfleet would have likely proven devastating and allowed a defeat in detail of the Romulan forces.
Instead the Battle of Cheron was a bloodbath. The first exchange of fire was to the advantage of United Earth, which had anchored its formation around the three equally-spaced Thunderchild dreadnoughts. These received the body blow of the first enemy contact, the Romulans launching a massive salvo of atomic torpedoes. This was blunted somewhat by the defensive fire of the NX-class starships, which used their phase cannons to eliminate nearly twenty of the incoming warheads. The Stingrays had likewise been instructed to set their first torpedoes to manual detonation, and when the fleet returned fire with their own salvo their warheads underwent fusion along the forward wave of the Romulan barrage and simultaneously destroyed the leading torpedoes by both thermal ablation and by disrupting guidance systems.
By contrast the photonic torpedoes fired by the dreadnoughts and the Skate-class frigates survived the nuclear conflagration unscathed, protected by their unstable graviton fields. While the Romulan opening attack disabled the Polyphemus and left the dreadnought dead in space, the rest of the fleet remained combat capable after the first exchange. By contrast the Romulans lost five warbirds to the photonics, while a number of other ships were left with shields fluctuating on the edge of coherence. These were rapidly penetrated by phase cannon fire, leaving three more warbirds dead in space.
Subsequent to the first moments of the engagement, however, the battle degenerated into dozens of duels between the Romulan warbirds and the more agile United Earth ships. The Battle of Cheron represented the highest losses of the war for Earth's 'heavyweight' starships thanks to United Earth's application of the linchpin doctrine, which dictated that the NX-class cruisers and the Thunderchild-class dreadnoughts should remain at low thrust to preserve their relative positioning to the rest of the fleet, refusing to allow the Romulans to harry them away from fire support. This hypothetically would allow them to use their capable all-axis weapons to assist nearby ships that were being singled out by Romulan wolfpack tactics, responding to keep the more vulnerable members of the fleet intact over a longer time.
This was certainly the case, as during the battle the Enterprise forced no less than four disengagements by Romulan forces from the aft quarter of Earth's smaller starships, and the other NX-class ships likewise disrupted the warbird commanders from engaging in their usual chase-and-fire tactics. There were losses to this tactic despite the best efforts of the larger vessels, though the Skate-class in particular proved itself able to juke and evade Romulans attempting to insert themselves behind its flightpath. In one case the Thornback not only evaded the effort of a Romulan warbird to do so but when the enemy disengaged to pick another target managed to come about and destroy the ship with a pair of photonic torpedoes fired directly into its dorsal hull.
The linchpin strategy did however expose the larger ships to more concentrated fire. The Buran was destroyed in the opening minutes of the battle, followed by Challenger and then Endeavour. The Thunderchild found herself missing a nacelle after a nuclear contact detonation against her starboard strut, and spent the remainder of the engagement at all stop and firing her cannons. The drifting Polyphemus was further damaged in the crossfire and then destroyed in the final stages of the battle as the melee turned against the Romulans and the warbirds began taking opportunistic shots against disabled ships.
Six minutes after the battle began, it ended with the Romulans executing a complete withdrawal from the system. In total, the Empire lost twenty two warbirds with just over a dozen successfully disengaging. Of these survivors, a further four were destroyed by the Vulcan and Andorian detachment on their way out of the system before the new Birds of Prey likewise managed to return and join up with the beleaguered retreat. The Romulan repair yards and supply depots over Cheron were subsequently destroyed in a number of smaller engagements with static defenses resulting in no losses for the Coalition.
But the victory had come at a cost. Thunderchild was scuttled after the battle, the enormous starship unable to form a stable warp field with only one of her nacelles left. Half of the participating NX-class cruisers had been destroyed, and the remainder were all nursing wounds of one type or another. Two thirds of the fleet's Stingray-class light cruisers were destroyed, while half of the new Skate-class frigates were likewise unsalvageable. Recovering from those losses would take years for United Earth, and the prospect of further attacks by Romulan birds of prey made the future of the war a murky proposition.
United Earth had mixed feelings about negotiations to end the war, but recognised the reality that Earth alone did not have the capability to prosecute a decisive end to the conflict without assistance. The Vulcans feared that nothing short of an occupation of Romulus' orbit would end the threat permanently, and were rightly sceptical of the feasibility of such a plan. The Andorians were of the opinion that it could be done, but that success might leave the Coalition so weakened by the effort that it would be rendered vulnerable to intervention by outside powers like the Klingon, Kzin, or Tholian Empires. The Tellarites were just as leery at the idea of pushing on, considering that the Coalition would make an eternal enemy by attempting an attack on Romulus itself where the bloody nose of Cheron might convince the Empire to back off entirely.
Negotiations with the Romulans by subspace concluded the month after Cheron and ended the war in a crushing defeat for the Empire. The Romulans not only agreed to formally cede influence over a number of systems they previously controlled, including Galorndon Core, but also provided information on their cloaking technology which made them detectable over long distances by tachyon-based sensor arrays. They also agreed to the creation of a ten light-year neutral zone that no signatories to the Treaty of Cheron would be permitted to enter, which implicitly ended Romulan control over several inhabited planets.
This generational humiliation resulted in the Empire withdrawing into itself and a chaotic political period that stymied any immediate attempts at recovery. Their surprise attack had united the Coalition rather than fractured it, the new cloaking technology was so temperamental that it was irrelevant to the larger strategic concerns of the Empire, and it had suffered real and substantial infrastructural and economic losses. The formation of the United Federation of Planets from the Coalition the year after in 2161 simultaneously justified their initial efforts to stop the interspecies alliance and highlighted their contribution to accelerating just that. The accession of Denobula as the first non-founding member of the Federation in 2164 was salt in the wound.
Earth would not hear from the Romulan Star Empire for the next hundred years.
While there is talk about how the future will involve a united Starfleet with crew from all member species, for the moment the cooperation is limited to the free exchange of ideas and information while member species recover from the expenditures of the Earth-Romulan War. Not to mention plenty of political discussion over what the united Starfleet would look like - goodness knows there are plenty of ship types and design philosophies from the member races. But everybody is talking to each other now, and this has resulted in a massive leap forward in Earth's technological capabilities when it comes to starship design. But experience in applying new insights and technology will have to come the old fashioned way, as it ever does. You certainly have some experience to gain, too, given all the new advancements that are becoming available. There's quite a list of options for integration with new designs, starting with propulsion.
The Warp 7 Engine is the result of building off the same philosophy as the Warp 5 Engine with an antimatter-fed reaction chamber. The project was massively accelerated by assistance from the Vulcans, who provided insights on the design of a superior injector system and a number of additional control systems to finetune the operating tolerances.
Type 2 Warp Coils are the result of using the same materials as the Andorian Imperial Guard, although the different design philosophy of United Earth starships has necessitated experimentation with the arrangement and shape of the overall assembly. They will also allow a certain amount of cladding to be added to the nacelles themselves, protecting the coils from external damage.
Type-1 deflector shields are based on Tellarite graviton emitters. While not capable of as much particle density as Vulcan designs they have the most commonality with existing human sensibilities in regards to ease of maintenance and durability. The hope is that with multiple species providing advice and basic cooperation that an elegant solution will present itself for the next generation of defences that maintain those vital qualities while equalling the capability of the more fiddly designs.
Last but certainly not least is the Type-1 phaser. While Andorian designs use a liquid helium loop for a cold-cycle particle emitter, human designers agree that there are still advancements to be made to the basic principles of the weapon. The cooling loop also introduces mechanical complexity and bulk which require eternal mounting points which are not compatible with current practice, so while the Type-1 isn't quite as powerful as the Andorian variant it is less picky about where you put it.
It is something of a comfort that in some areas good old human ingenuity has not been overtly surpassed. The current deflector dish designs are admittedly an element not present on the vessels of other Federation species, but there are also no obvious improvements to be made with the application of superior scientific experience.
All these components (minus the phasers) are now gearing up for mass production by companies which have passed United Earth's strict security and safety audits, though it's fair to say that final regulatory approval is still pending until the prototypes undergo full testing on a shakedown. But that's where you come in. With the war over and the wartime economy dialling back to more sedate industrial levels, your blank cheques have sadly started having numbers added to them again. But you do have a certain degree of latitude in what projects to take on.
The first request is for a utility cruiser - a ship capable of responding to the needs of Earth and her colonies (and those of other Federation members, now!) in times of distress. That will most likely consist of hauling emergency materials, but includes tactical interventions. When not diverted from usual duties it should be able to conduct basic patrols and cargo transfers.
The second request is for a survey ship. With the addition of Denobula the borders of the Federation have expanded beyond those mapped by the Vulcan explorator ships of old, and plenty of examination and investigation remains to be done in areas of space that are now firmly within the Federation sphere of influence. It should be a (relatively) safe assignment, primarily focused on scientific discovery.
The third request is for a new explorer ship. The NX-class was a project decades in the making for all that the actual ship design was a matter of only a few years, the remainder taken up in component development. Now you have a more solid foundation to work from you can create an explorer capable of the three main tasks: self-defense, scientific research, and emergency response. More expensive than multiple ships for the same tasks? Probably. Nonetheless an important instrument in United Earth and the Federation's interest in furthering their knowledge of the universe and other species? Most definitely.
[ ] Begin work on a utility cruiser for workhorse duties.
[ ] Begin work on a survey ship for scientific survey and investigation.
[ ] Begin work on an explorer to expand the final frontier.
[X] Begin work on a survey ship for scientific survey and investigation.
The order is for a survey ship capable of undertaking scientific investigations in relatively safe space. Because it doesn't need to have plenty of cargo space, you can also build a relatively small design compared to the other possibilities, though feature creep can sometimes exceed your estimates. The first decision you have to make is how to build the primary hull.
The first option is a full saucer section. This will provide you with the greatest flexibility in terms of internal space and secondary hull geometries, but also add the greatest mass to the ship. The second choice is a half-saucer, using the aft section for the impulse engines and access points. The disadvantage is that you will have substantially less space to play with, though it will cost you less overall. The final option is a sphere, which will provide you with around the same internal space as a half saucer but at a lower cost, though the awkward geometry means you will only have an option of forward weapon arrays in the primary hull and the secondary hull will have to be immediately behind it.
After a close debate, the full saucer design wins out for its potential scientific capabilities. The overall shape of the ship quickly develops, with a saucer diameter of around eighty percent that of the NX but a deeper profile. The midsection has been expanded to provide ready space for the deflector if needed but also to maximise interior availability away from the skin of the outer hull. It's a more stocky design than you are accustomed to creating, but the hope is that advancements in technology will allow you the leeway for a less streamlined warp bubble so you can make more effective use of the internals.
The deflector itself is the next step, and unlike the Skate there's no way you'll manage to install a smaller variant. The question here is where to put it. The first option is to put it in the front of the saucer section, allowing you to install an inline secondary hull - or even no secondary hull at all, depending on how experimental you feel with the nacelle layout. The second option is to use an underslung deflector in the same vein as the NX class, with a visually distinct engineering section. Alternatively a lower blister of the kind that was used in the Skate would preserve the existing internal space at the cost of higher mass, something of a compromise option between the inline deflector and the dedicated engineering section.
