Raid Over Miri's World
When first discovered over 100 years ago by the USS Enterprise under the command of Captain James T. Kirk, this Earth-like planet was nicknamed "Miri's World". When first discovered, it was suffering from a lethal plague that had killed all the adults on the planet. This included any and all teenagers that eventually grew into adulthood. As a result, the entire globe was filled with nothing but children, just over 2 million in number. By the time the USS Enterprise left orbit, a cure was found for the disease and Miri's World was eventually placed under interdict by Starfleet Command. It was located just over 160 light years from humanity's homeworld in Sector 001.
Oddly enough, Miri's World was also extraordinary in another way: it was a "Mirror Earth", which was a world that was an exact duplicate of Earth, from the oceans to the continents right down to the rivers and forests of each region. The discovery of this unique celestial body shook the Federation scientific community to its core and for years a heated debate raged over the significance of such a "duplicate world". Finally, an eccentric galactic theorist (Dr. A.E. Hodgkin) wrote a compelling paper about the existence of these "Mirror Worlds", including the latest one discovered once again by the Starfleet vessel USS Enterprise, the planet Magna Roma (located a mere 288 light years from Earth).
Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planetary Development became the prevailing answer to these carbon copy planets. During the next 100 years the United Federation of Planets absorbed Miri's World into its polity, colonizing the world with tens of millions of humans from the original Earth. The new inhabitants in turn helped the Miri's World children build their own human society, and Starfleet Command continually kept at least one starship in orbit, protecting the world and its fragile inhabitants. It was most likely that this never ending century-long series of starship deployments was what eventually drew the attention of the Romulan Empire to the planet and they staged a devastating raid into the system in 2372 AD. Located deep within UFP territory, Miri's World was at the time just becoming a modern planet and lacked the defenses that more advanced worlds in the Federation had. When a dozen Romulan warships decloaked the only starship defending the planet was the USS Crazy Horse, an Excelsior-class vessel. In the ensuing fight the Crazy Horse was destroyed but not before it badly damaged 3 enemy warbirds. The Romulan assault against the planet succeeded however, and every orbiting platform was wiped from space and the surface bombarded for nearly an hour. Millions of innocent civilians were killed. The Romulans believed the planet to be a legitimate target; it looked exactly like the human homeworld and was surely their back up capital or critical defense center for the Federation.
After the attack, relief efforts (including ten hospital vessels) were immediately sent to Miri's World when word of the raid reached Starfleet Command. A small task force of eight military-grade starships was also sent (including the Federations' newest Olympus-class dreadnought the USS Hades). Morale within the United Federation of Planets plummeted when it was realized that the Romulans could strike so easily deep within the Federation without warning and that most allied worlds were virtually defenseless against such a massed assault. To counter this new offensive Romulan strategy, two dozen small heavily-armed task forces were dispersed across the central worlds of the Federation to halt any future raids, and that policy worked. Follow-up attacks were stopped short against the important industrial Dubhe System, and later a raid against the vital Federation Kellerman Shipyards. Defenses in Miri's World were also upgraded dramatically, ensuring the safety of the remaining colonists and the original inhabitants.
Over the course of several hundred years, six different "Mirror Earths" were identified within Federation space. Eventually the true source of these modified worlds was found: a giant planetary terraforming machine that was capable of interstellar travel. When first discovered near the giant star Deneb, this immense machine was clearly made by a Precursor Race; possibly the Preservers. It was bigger than a planet, had immense unknown power sources, and was made of impenetrable neutronium. This huge machine-ship was initially inert when first found but Second Federation scientists were eventually able to get it operational and finished work on the nearby Mirror Earth planet known as Uelterra. When eventually absorbed into the UFP, Second Federation leadership passed ownership of the device over to the Federation Council, who continued to use it to terraform additional worlds in and around Deneb. This machine proved, finally, the mistaken validity of the paper of Hodgkin's Parallel Planetary Development.
LIBERATION OF THE TOTHPAL HOMEWORLD
When the United Federation of Planets space forces finally crossed the Neutral Zone at the beginning of the Resolute War, its armed forces were truly unsure of what to expect. Previous conflicts between the Romulans and neighboring interstellar states rarely amounted to much; the Empire's armed forces and natural defense advantage by using cloaking technology negated any serious invasion and eventually forced a halt to these wars, usually through a cease-fire or joint pull-back by all sides.
However, when Starfleet's primary fleets engaged and defeated the defending Romulans in the first dozen systems, it rapidly became clear how the Romulan High Command thought and what their defensive capabilities were. Major worlds were heavily armed with surface to space multi-gigaton missiles and planet and space-based phaser emplacements, while minor worlds and small outposts had virtually no defenses to speak of. In addition, most high-population Romulan planets had an extensive network of transporter inhibitors protecting each world. These planetary fields would disrupt any transporter landings, forcing any attacking ships to invade with smallcraft or be compelled into random planetary bombardment until the power grids failed. The UFP forces employed the former while the Klingon Empire heavily employed the latter, causing billions of casualties against the Romulan civilians.
One of the first serious battles between the Federation and Romulans took place at the Tothpal Homeworld, although Starfleet forces at the time did not realize what a hard fight it would be. The Toth were a tall race that had been enslaved for more than two centuries by the expanding Romulan Empire, and the Federation knew nothing about them. In fact, the entire region that the Alliance armed forces were advancing into were a complete mystery; probes into the Empire from across the border were very limited, and if successful they were shot down by the hyper-aware Romulan military. Once the war began its all-out phase, nearly 300,000 Starfleet drones and probes were sent deep into enemy space, investigating and categorizing any star system and outpost they ran across. The stellar mapping program created a much more detailed map of Romulan space over the next year and enabled the Klingon Empire and the Federation to better co-ordinate their attacks together.
When finally seizing the Tothpal Homeworld, Federation forces were aghast at the horrific living conditions forced upon the natives by their Romulan oppressors, and UFP media ate up the reporting from the front lines about the inhumane treatment of Rom slave races. Toth itself had extensive mineral deposits and the local civilians where forced to work in the mines 24/7, destroying their culture and their freedom of will. After the planet was captured, Federation specialists that arrived to oversee the planet estimated that it would take several generations for the Toth to be truly free and to develop their own society again; it was the very first world in this war to become a trusteeship by the UFP. The system eventually became a staging area and strong point for Starfleet forces, and the Toth moon was built-up into a large repair station in support of Alliance forces operating against the Romulans. The wardship of the Tothpal during the Resolute War was the first of its kind in more than 50 years for the Federation but it wouldn’t be the last for the UFP until well after the war ended.
THE IDIC EPIDEMIC
In the first few months of 2371 AD the war between the Alliance (the UFP and Klingon Empire) and the Romulan Empire took a incredibly dangerous turn for the worse when a virulent plague broke out on the multiracial Federation colony of Nisus near the Neutral Zone. This bioweapon has been deployed secretly by the Romulans and it spread amongst a dozen different races, with only the Klingons and the Orions being immune from its effects. Federation races that had never before had any cross-species contamination issues were suddenly faced with a rapidly spreading life threatening flu-like illness. Vulcans, Humans, Andorians, Lemnorians, none were immune at the colony and very quickly they began to die in their thousands, and then by the tens of thousands in less than two months. By then the plague had spread to adjacent worlds as travelers and merchants moved from one planet to another, infecting eight more Federation colonies along the Neutral Zone. Normally such a virus could only spread among races that had similar blood types, but this new disease easily propagated among nearly all exposed races and was dubbed "The IDIC Epidemic" by the general media.
When the Federation Council eventually discovered that the Romulans had deliberately released a wide-spectrum bioweapon against them, they went absolutely ballistic. The UFP openly accused the Romulan Empire of war crimes against civilians by deploying the weapon against the Federation, an accusation that the Romulan Senate hotly denied. Within a week, infighting on Romulus brought the government down, the old Praetor was violently slain, and unfortunately a new much more hard line leadership came into power.
Whatever the cause of the epidemic, it was clear among Federation authorities that a cure had to be found, especially when the death toll reached over 100,000 people in just 4 months. Travel to and from the infected sector was cut off to try and halt the spread of the virus and finally after months of research the scientists at the Nisus Colony found a cure: amazingly in a local Klingon family and a half-Orion/Romulan girl.
NIMITZ-CLASS CARRIER
First constructed during the Resolute War by Starfleet, this medium-class carrier was a hasty design, with 75% of the vessel already existing as Excelsior-class parts, including the saucer section, the drive section, and the warp nacelles. During active combat the United Federation of Planets had very little time to actually design and build new warships from scratch, so existing designs were heavily modified to survive on the battlefield, and thus the Nimitz-class was born. Initial assembly took place in the Terran System (at Utopia Planitia) with the first starship USS Liscome Bay being finished on Stardate 47947. Seven more vessels in the same class were finished that same year and all units were deployed with to the 12th Fleet under Admiral Carlos Rota. The Nimitz-class starships were designed as carrier-based units, carrying over 100 small craft and fighters onto the battlefield. With a robust defensive suite of armor and shields, as well as updated phaser pods, these vessels could endure heavy combat conditions alongside the cruisers and destroyers of the Starfleet battlefleet. While deployed in the Federation Annex region only one Nimitz-class starship was destroyed in combat (the USS Kalinin Bay) defending a second Romulan attack against the planet Kostolain. The Kalinin Bay lost over 200 personnel in the attack, but survivors landed on the planet and were recovered quickly. At the end of the Resolute War, these medium carriers were evaluated by military analysts and were confirmed as solid combat zone units; they were later deployed in the Dominion War as well, where they performed admirably.
MAL'KOTH-CLASS ARMORED CRUISER
Although this Klingon warship design had been on the drawing boards for nearly 20 years, construction had never begun since it was considered poorly built but the war pushed nearly every shipyard in the Klingon Empire to produce something, and thus the Mal'koth-class armored cruisers were manufactured. The first prototype came off the line in 2369 and the vessel had over 300 crew. It also had a massive armored hull and a unique rotating disruptor system, as well as a single forward facing energy torpedo launcher. Unfortunately the entire class was flawed from the start; the old-style cloaking device used on these vessels wasn't stable, nor could it maintain pace with the rest of the Klingon fleet: its warp and impulse engines were under-powered and overbuilt. Eventually these warships were used as devastating battering rams against impregnable Romulan positions; nothing could withstand the impact of a ship this massive. In the end the entire class (30 vessels) was scrapped in the latter part of the Romulan War and the shipyards that produced them (the Karnak family yards) was blackballed from ever producing another warship for the Klingon Navy.
MEM'REPT-CLASS SCOUT SHIP
This class of scout was a significant upgrade for the Imperial Klingon Defense forces. With an enhanced warp drive and new 5th generation cloaking device, it could rapidly scout the battlefield while being completely undetectable. The Mem'repts were also used heavily in the forward observation role, pointing out targets of opportunity to Alliance forces throughout the war. By the end of the conflict, the Klingons had built over 300 of these swift warships, even though they couldn't stand for long in an outright fight.
LIBERATION OF THE AZULI HOMEWORLD
Centered around six MacPherson starships with Nimitz carrier pods, the 9th Tactical Wing was assembled at Gallipoli Station and sent forward in support of Klingon attacks in the Iconia Sector. The Wing also operated three MacPherson-class starships with the Esta phaser pod and guarding fleet elements and when Romulan warships came into range of this deadly fleet, they died in spectacular fashion as over 1,000 advanced fighter craft and enhanced ship-based phaser mounts blasted them from the sky.
CARRIER POD EQUIPPED
USS Einstein (NCC-27314)
USS Hampton Roads (NCC-27320)
USS Indyk (NCC-37330)
USS Tongdao (NCC-27321)
USS Xia (NCC-37322)
USS Yazov Sea (NCC-37333)
PHASER POD EQUIPPED
USS Zaj'put (NCC-37325)
USS Zarana (NCC-37327)
USS Serrano (NCC-37329)
Commanded by Commodore Taka Sato (a Centaurian), the 9th Tactical Wing was able to sneak behind enemy lines and liberate the Azuli Homeworld. Strongly entrenched in the foes' rear in B'Tran Sector, the Wing destroyed many damaged Romulan vessels as they fled the front lines against the Klingons. Commodore Sato then claimed Azul as a UFP protectorate shortly thereafter.
The USS Beverly Shelly (NCC-36353) joined the Wing at the Azuli Homeworld; it was the first of the Shelly-class carriers built in the Federation Annex to join the war and it began extensive field testing on the battlefield. Armed with over 100 advanced warp fighters, this carrier starship is able to project power many times father than a standard starships due to its various attack wings being able to move autonomously from its carrier base, up to a dozen light years away. As the Klingons began to run amok in the sector, the 9th Tactical Wing was able to claim the Chlorzhi Homeworld for the Federation as a protectorate as well, leaving the rest of the worlds in B'Tran to brutal Klingon occupation.
OPERATION REVENGE
How the Federation joined with the Klingons to kill one of the Romulans most notorious military commanders
In early 2371, Commander Sela was a senior leader in the Romulan Navy, and she was one of the most hated women in the known universe. She was seen as a sneaky devil in naval dress, the fiend who treacherously struck peaceful, sleeping Vulcan just a few years before, and had helped instigate the most recent Klingon Civil War. And when the United Federation of Planets saw a chance for payback in April 2371 AD, there was no hesitation. Hence a code name unmistakable in its intent: Operation Revenge.
As with modern day warfare, the operation began with an intercepted message. Except it wasn’t a call from a cell phone, but rather a routine military interstellar signal. In the spring of 2371, the Romulan Empire was in trouble: the Federation and the Klingon Empire had finally invaded after recent provocations sparked an all-out war with Romulus.
Hearing of poor performance in the initial stages of the war, Sela resolved to visit the front in Narendra Sector to ascertain the situation, checking in on the massive Romulan frontier fleet base at Dordellis.
As was customary, a coded signal was sent to the various Romulan commands in the area, listing the commanders' itinerary as well as the number of military escorts in her party. But Federation codebreakers had been reading Romulan diplomatic and military messages for nearly two months, including those in the high command military code, used in various forms by the Imperial Navy at the beginning of the war. The Sela signal was sent in the new a new military variant, but that didn’t stop Federation cryptanalysts from deciphering it in less than a day.
Admiral Sortal, the overall Federation commander in the Annex, authorized the operation to shoot down Selas' starship. With typical spleen, fleet commander Commodore Declan Keogh issued his own unambiguous message: “HELL YES, LETS GET THE B*TCH.” Yet getting Sela was easier said than done. She would be travelling deep in Romulan space and any Federation ship sent on the mission would be pure suicide. However, the Klingons used cloaking technology just like their enemies and would most likely be able to hit the commanders' convoy no matter where in the Empire she was voyaging. The Federation Military Planning Council handed off all relevant material to the Klingons on Stardate 56446, letting them decide whether to take out the much-hated Romulan commander or not.
Now Commander Sela was well-known within the Klingon Empire too and was immensely detested for interfering within the Klingon Empire and sparking that just completed civil war. She had sided with the despised Duras' family during the conflict and had provided substantial material aid to them until the United Federation of Planets exposed the support, forcing her to abandon the abhorred Dusas sisters (Lursa and B'Etor), as well as any plots within the Klingon Empire. At the end of the fighting, the Klingon Supreme Leader Gowron placed a huge bounty on her head for her collusion in the civil war. Luckily, she had avoided assassination for several years, until the Klingon Navy finally caught up with her in the Dordellis System on May 16th, 2371 AD.
To hit the Romulan convoy would be tricky; cloaked vessels were almost impossible to detect but the brand new starships coming off the quays of the Klingon Empire were able to briefly overcome this weakness (although the technique was not ever shared with their "allies" the Federation). The new task force, consisting of just 12 vessels, faced a difficult task. To avoid detection, the ships were equipped with the latest 5th generation cloaking device, developed by the Klingon Navy but never before built because of its extreme cost.
Task Force 44.2 was commanded by the Klingon Civil War veteran Commander Tosk, flying his flag on a cutting edge Salth-class heavy cruiser, an untested design. Tosks' second in command (a captain Kreegmar) was aboard the state of the art warship IKS Kang'ma, a Da'goth-class medium cruiser. Both classes of warship had just finished their initial trials with flying colors and were rushed onto the battlefield in mid-2371 AD. By the end of the Resolute War, over 400 of both classes were built. With a very experienced crew from the recent intercine fighting within the Empire and using the latest weaponry, the mission to kill Romulan Commander Sela went forward with exhilaration on the part of the Klingons.
Navigating to the Doredellis System, the task force would essentially have to intercept Sela where and when she was scheduled to be. However, by calculating the speed of the Romulan D'deridex II-class battleship that would carry Sela, probable warp speed, the enemy’s probable flight path, and assuming that Sela would be as punctual as she was reputed to be, Klingon planners estimated the intercept would occur at 1800 hours.
The Klingons assigned eight Salth-class heavy cruisers and four Da'goth-class medium cruisers for the mission, of which a half squadron of six would pounce on Sela's vessel, while the remainder would cover against the escorting Romulan warships. Two Salths' aborted on the way to Dordellis, leaving just ten starships to perform the mission.
That the Klingons arrived just a few hours early was remarkable. Even more remarkable was that the Romulans appeared a short time later. Flying in tandem feet were two D'deridex II-class battleships, one carrying Sela and the other her chief of staff, Vice Admiral Ajex Soreel. They were escorted by six additional Romulan warships keeping watch from nearby. The Klingons were able to bring down the enemy cloaking devices, to the shock of the Romulans.
Still undetected, all six Salth-class cruisers moved to point blank range. The remaining four Klingon warships attacked the Romulan escorts, with the first pair, commanded by Commander Tosk and Captain K'tagain, closing in for the kill. As the two D'deridex moved to evade the interceptors, the Klingon commanders couldn’t even be sure which one carried Sela. Captain Kreegmar engaged the escorts while Tosk pursued the two battleships. Tosks' first disruptor shots and torpedo strikes slammed into the first D'deridex, an starship notorious for its immense size and firepower. With its left engine damaged, it quickly lost reactor containment and exploded. Then the second D'deridex, attacked by three of the Salths', tried to hide in a nearby asteroid belt but was destroyed just short of it. The Klingons had lucked out again: the D'deridex II that was vaporized, killing its crew and passengers, had carried Sela. From the D'deridex that tried to flee, Vice Admiral Ajex Soreel survived (after recovering at a nearby Romulan starbase, and was never heard from again).
Did Sela's death affect the war? Her initial success in sparking the most recent Klingon Civil War was audacious and brilliant, but her poor strategy a few months later destroyed the Duras' family's' chance for leadership and their entire holdings within the Empire. To be clear, there is no doubt that assassinating Sela was legal according to the laws of war. She was an enemy soldier in uniform, flying in an enemy military starship that was attacked by uniformed Klingon military personnel in marked military spaceships. This is nothing new. In 1942, British commandos unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate Rommel, and modern militaries devote great efforts to locating enemy headquarters to kill commanders and staffs. The Klingon military treated it as a purely military matter that didn’t need civilian approval. Admiral Komarr authorized the interception, and the orders were passed down the military chain of command.
Selas' death was significant on the symbolic level. But in military terms, she was just another casualty during the Resolute War.
Da'Goth-class Medium Cruiser
This warship design was begun over a decade ago by House R'Goth but it never got off the drawing boards until the start of the Resolute War. Once it reached the battlefield, it proved itself to be a very capable platform. Its large top-mounted hanger bay could hold up to four dozen small craft and its offensive ordinance allowed it to go toe-to-toe with the much larger Romulan D'Deridex-class warships. Its primary weapon, a new spinal mount disruptor, had a slow firing time but its four torpedo launchers helped make up for the delay. It was a successful design and over 300 were built during the war, with a loss ratio of just 37%, mostly due to the advanced phased cloaking device: this allowed the ship to pass through solid objects and ignore most weapons fire from the enemy.
Cheyenne-class starship
The USS Ahwahee (NCC-71620) was built for Starfleet by the United Federation of Planets, a Cheyenne-class light cruiser first built in 2350 AD. The name originated from a Native American word for the Yosemite Valley on Earth. The Ahwahnee, along with 39 other starships, fought the Borg at the Battle of Wolf 359 on stardate 44002 (2367 AD). The heavily damaged ship was discovered by the USS Enterprise-D after the battle. After being salvaged (by early 2368), the Ahwahnee joined Captain Picard's fleet blockading the Klingon-Romulan border during the Klingon Civil War. The ship was one of twenty-three assembled by Starfleet and was one of the seventeen chosen for the tachyon network. Identified by its name and registry number, the ship's position in the network was monitored from the Enterprise-D. When the network was disrupted by a high-energy burst released by the Romulans, the net was no longer effective in a radius of ten million kilometers around the USS Sutherland. Subsequently, Picard ordered the fleet to proceed to Gamma Eridon at maximum warp, where the fleet would attempt to reestablish the net before the Romulans got there. The task force was successful in repelling Romulan reinforcements, helping to end the Klingon Civil War. In addition, the Ahwahnee saw action in conflicts with the Klingon Empire, Cardassian Union, and Breen Confederacy.
The History of the Ahwahnee
First constructed in 2344 AD, the Cheyenne-class light cruisers were designed by Starfleet Command to replace the aging Constellation-class starships, vessels designed mainly for exploration and border guard duty. The Cheyenne project was approved in 2338 AD and more than 130 have been constructed; it was also the first Federation starship to have a built-in ability to saucer separate on demand. The first in the class was the USS Cheyenne (NCC-56184) but this article will be focusing on another ship in this class, the USS Ahwahnee (NCC-71620). Built at Utopia Planitia in Mars orbit, the Ahwahnee was piloted out of the dockyard by her first captain, Hurl Ro-tan (an Efrosian). He commanded the ship for ten years, having many successful achievements including introducing the Denali to the Federation. Eventually Starfleet personnel rotations saw Margaret Chen (a human from the planet New Kong) take over as captain, a position she held for five years. The Ahwahnee saw its first refit during this time, upgrading the warp drive to a higher standard. Eventually command passed to Captain Stalok (a Vulcan) just two years before the fated Battle of Wolf 395.
During that infamous battle, the starship was heavily damaged and most of the senior officers killed. Survivors from the Ahwahnee were recovered by the USS Essex (NCC-4598) and the ship itself was later salvaged. Damage to the saucer section of the ship was extensive, as well as to one warp nacelle but the vessel was put back into service in just six months, mainly by swapping out the saucer section. Command of the vessel then rotated to a half dozen captains and commanders until the outbreak of the Resolute War.
The USS Ahwahnee saw extensive combat with the 3rd Fleet in Federation space but the ship was later taken out of service in 2370 AD for a major system upgrade. New weapons and defensive capabilities were added to the starship, including beefing up its shield grid to 4th generation specs and adding new high-speed warp torpedoes, and a dozen antimatter spread pods to the saucer section. This uprated the Ahwahnee to a medium cruiser configuration but Starfleet Command wasn't done yet; a new top secret device was added to the warp core of the ship, one which could significantly change the course of the war.
Since the end of the first Federation-Romulan War, the armed forces of the United Federation of Planets was bound by treaty to not develop cloaking technology. However a rebel faction within Starfleet Command did just that in the run up to the all-out war with the Romulan Empire. Built in secret, this device was successfully tested but mothballed until the war broke out, where it was then installed first aboard a Defiant-class warship (the USS Ajax). Additional units were built and one was emplaced within the USS Ahwahnee. This radical new cloaking device could not only hide a starship from enemy sensors but it could also "phase" the ship, making it impervious to attack. In addition, this phasing technology let any ship mounting it pass through solid matter. This feat enabled the Federation to utilize ships that were previously impossible in the past, and the USS Ahwahnee was one of the first to field test this device on the battlefield.
First used in the Battle of Two Suns, the design proved successful when numerous Romulan warbirds fired on the Ahwahnee without effect. The Starfleet vessel then passed through the enemy fleet and destroyed a vital arms depot that the Romulans had been protecting. Additional battles saw easy victories on the part of the Ahwahnee, reinforcing the usefulness of Starfleets' new phased cloaking device. Towards the end of the Resolute War the Federation had equipped almost 25% of its battlefleet with this new technology, with the latest built warships obtaining the cloaks first.
Later, during the Dominion War, the USS Ahwahnee (under Captain Mora Yaeger) engaged in two additional battles, both being wildly successful. At the Battle of Byzall III (a important ketracel white facility) the vessel engaged several Dominion warships, defeating them using unconventional cloaking tactics. Eventually the Ahwahnee took part in the Second Battle of Betazed, leading the Federation fleet to a enormous victory over the entrenched Dominion forces in that vital system.
Eventually the aging process caught up with the Ahwahnee and the vessel was set to retire into the Reserve at Gemini Superior in 2380 as its replacement (the Ahwahnee II) was led out of the Fleet Yards at L5 (Terra) the same year. Overall, personnel losses among the crew over its brief lifetime were well below Starfleet norms, and once the phased cloaking device had been added the ship was considered a "lucky ship", able to accomplish all of its missions without any serious losses.
Cheyenne II-class starship
Midway through the Resolute War, Starfleet Command realized it needed more starships in the heavy cruiser range but build times for those sized vessels often took more than a year to construct. In the spring of 2370 AD Commodore Whitlock of BuShips submitted a updated (and much larger) version of the Cheyenne-class for possible evaluation and production. Based around a Galaxy-class saucer, this vessel was more sizable than the previous design but was still based on a bigger but more rapidly produced Cheyenne-class stardrive section. Since it could made in a fraction of the time of a typical cruiser, this class of starship was put into production in 2370 AD and twenty-four were built before the war ended. The Cheyenne II-class had many advances in military equipment, including a new 5th generation shield bubble, a deadly converging antimatter beam, and an invasive subspace minedropper. It was in effect a "heavy cruiser" instead of the light cruiser designation of its predecessor; the defense upgrades that were incorporated into it facilitated the uprating. Constructed primarily at the Esta Yards (located in the Dubhe System) and the Fleet Yards at L5 (Terra), these ships proved to be invaluable to the Federations' combat efforts during the Resolute War. They could easily swap out a saucer section with the more powerful Galaxy-class starships if they were damaged in combat, which occurred at least a dozen times during the war. In the end, the Cheyenne II-class design proved extremely effective on the battlefield and continued in service during the Dominion War, with over 80 being built for long-range reconnaissance and close-in combat roles.
