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Introduction

What follows is a short narrative I have done of four main Alpha/Beta Quadrant powers as I have them develop following the Dominion War through the end of the century: The Klingons, the Romulans, the Cardassians, and the Breen. This started with the writing of a short back story for a few Klingon ships I had designed a few years ago and quickly expanded into all that will follow.

A few things that I wanted to say before I started posting my write ups in regards to certain topics in the development of ships. After looking at power output levels for several different ships I came under the conclusion that power generation efficiency and conduit efficiency were a major deficiency in technology among the non UFP powers, and that this would be a major limiting factor in the development of higher power disruptors, and most importantly shield strength, thus you will see mention to this a lot rather than focus on the weapons or shield generators themselves, both of which would be, IMHO much easier to upgrade the power output of than the reworking of power efficiency through the ship. I also take it as a given that smaller ships have higher power efficiencies due to the fact that conduits don’t have to carry the energy as far and therefore have less time over which to leak or loose energy.

I also tried to avoid any fanwanking or implausible feats such as having a 14 mile ship or a Defiant sized ship capable of taking on 10 Sovereigns; however as several days to weeks passed in the writing I may have in a few cases written down time frames that didn’t match up with advances or necessary infrastructure increases. I’ll try to catch these errors if I can.

Lastly, I tried to do a size comparison chart of all the ships I designed; however it failed miserably. If anyone has better software/wants to give it a try I can tell you the scale sizes on the ships, as I don’t think the scale made it into any of the close ups.

I would also like to give credit to a few sources for inspiration in designing several of these ships. Although he hasn’t been around for a while Tyyr’s concept art for Cardassian and Romulan ships gave me ideas, and sometimes rough models which I simply cleaned up for designs for both species. My Breen designs also are based upon the work of another; unfortunately it’s been too long for me to remember the artists name and I was unable to find the URL when I last checked; but none the less there was inspiration for those three designs from an outside source.

I will also add here a few things about the Federation because I didn’t do a write up from the Federation’s point of view – I thought it would be interesting to write four of these that circle around the Federation without ever actually examining it from their perspective.

Following the Dominion War, Starfleet was subdivided into two divisions: Starfleet Command, and Exploration Command. In times of peace the majority of operations would be conducted out of Exploration Command which would have the mandate of designing, crewing, and deploying ships for exploration missions, science missions, medical outbreaks, colonization, and other humanitarian concerns. Starfleet Command would be given a peace time budget to create and maintain a small but stout military presence capable of rapid activation and deployment for the defense of the Federation, and her allies. In war time Starfleet Command would swell to completely overshadow Exploration Command and would have virtually all resources necessary to accomplish their missions and return the Federation to a peaceful state.

To that end Starfleet command will deploy approximately five ship classes at any given time: a small frigate capable of being produced in large numbers with minimal maintenance that can serve as scout and patrol ships along hostile borders and in regions of interest around the Federation, a large patrol cruiser generally designed with several mission specific variants designed to serve as mobile advanced sensor platforms, Electronic Warfare Platforms, and the heavy hitting core of the patrol fleets along the hostile borders and areas of interest around the Federation. Additionally they will deploy a rounded Battle Cruiser design, a torpedo heavy combat cruiser, and a beam heavy destroyer.

Starfleet drafted for its first Generation of ships the Sovereign Class BC, the Prometheus Class CC, the Defiant Class DD, the Akira Class PC/Nebula Class PC, and the Intrepid Class FF.

The Klingon Empire

When the Dominion War ended in 2375 Chancellor Martok faced a daunting challenge. The Klingon fleet had been severely weakened. Like Starfleet, the Empire had thrown every ship it had available into the fray, both new and old. However, their designs fared poorly.

The Bird of Prey, while refit and upgraded, had long past its prime. Even the newer classes such as the Vor’cha and the Negh’var proved weak in comparison to other nation’s newest designs such as the Defiant, Prometheus, and Sovereign.

Martok therefore decided against the approval of many on the high council to end production of these older models and instead to focus all of the Empires efforts onto making it strong once again. The end results of this effort are the commonly known Ships of Martok: the Hos’woQ, the Hos’Hegh, and the Q’chak Classes. With each design Martok sought to create a ship capable and worthy of serving the empire, as well as make a statement to the Klingon People, her allies, and her enemies.

The Hos’woQ was the first of the three to be designed and built, and the ship went back to the basics of Klingon Design lineage. Martok sought to use the design to reinforce the traditions of the Empire into its new strength. The ship draws heavily from the early D5 and D7 cruisers while still preserving a more modern appearance. Final designs placed the ship at 504m in length and 2.5 million metric tons.

The design aesthetic was the end of the similarities to the old Klingon ships. Extensive research was done into boosting power levels for the ship. The Warp Core design was reworked with extensive effort going into the reaction chamber. Additional research went into the power conduit systems and creating new methods to transport the power with less power loss.

In addition to the refinements to the efficiency the Hos’woQ was fitted with a larger warp core than was used on other ships of its size. Martok wanted a faster Klingon fleet, as he felt that the Federation and Romulans were moving too quickly ahead of the empire in this area. Thus the Hos’woQ was designed for Warp 9.90.

With an increased power efficiency the shielding systems were amplified to give the ship just over 4.75 million TJ of shield power. Martok matched the increase in shield strength with 25 cm of High Density Armor to create one of the most heavily defended ships in Klingon history.

The remaining power was pumped into the disruptor systems. Much work was put into refining the disruptor cannons and minimizing their volume. In the end 17 cannons made their way onto the design: 3 Mark 20’s, 6 mark 16’s, 4 mark 14’s and 4 mark 12’s, a total of 362,000 TW of disruptor firepower from the new cruiser.

To round off the Hos’woQ’s impressive arsenal Martok began work on the torpedo systems. Martok was aware of how dominant the torpedo systems of the other nations were and how quickly they could mince fleets before ever closing to beam range. Martok personally oversaw the acquisition of pulse-fire torpedo technology in trade with the Federation. A staggering seven of these were placed on the new design.

The Hos’woQ design also became the host of a new advanced series of computer modules that rapidly increased the processing power of the core and improved the targeting and navigation systems of the ship. The increased efficiency in computer and power technology also boosted the maneuverability of the ship far above what traditional Klingon designs of its size were capable of.

The result of a decade of work was a cruiser that easily out did the Federation’s Sovereign Class. However, the Federation too had moved on. By 2385, the year the IKS Hos’woQ was commissioned, the Federation was in the middle of developing their own new line of war ships. The Defiant Replacement the Chin’toka Class Destroyer had been commissioned three years earlier. The Phoenix Class Combat Cruiser was scheduled for commissioning in 2388 and by all accounts would grow on the advances in the Chin’toka Class and would out-match the Hos’woQ.

Martok carried on with his program regardless. He know that catching the Federation after falling as far behind as they did would be difficult, but even still the Hos’woQ would hold her own in any contest, as would the other designs.

The Hos’Hegh was the second ship designed by the Empire. The ship was designed to fill a new strike cruiser design being 250m long and weighing in at 1.15 million metric tons. The ship was designed alongside the Hos’woQ, and thus carries many of the same advances as the heavy cruiser including the power systems, torpedo launchers, and computers.

The ships armament is impressive with 10 disruptors: 4 Mark 16’s and 6 mark 14’s for a total of 163,000 TW of disruptor power. The ship also holds four pulse-fire photon torpedo launchers. The defenses were similarly scaled with 2.25 million TJ of shielding power and 15cm of High Density Hull armor.

The Hos’Hegh matches the warp speed of the Hos’woQ, but is far more maneuverable and overall is considered to be just subpar to the Chin’toka Class of the federation.

Unlike the Hos’woQ however, the Hos’Hegh is a radical move for the Empire away from traditional designs, or even the newer designs of the Vor’cha and Negh’Var. The hull is squatter, but more elegant with curves and graceful lines contrasting the harsh edges of a Klingon Warship. The Nacelles were brought in and tucked behind the craft. Martok sought and achieved a message that strength can also be found in change. That a wise culture will accept change when it is good and not reject it simply for the sake of tradition.

The IKS Hos’Hegh was released just months after the Hos’woQ in 2386. It was after this that work on the last of the Martok classes began. The Q’chak class was designed to be a small destroyer and scout to replace the long used Bird of Prey. The design can be seen to identify and draw from the Bird of Prey it is replacing will also not fearing to innovate and update its appearance.

It was known early on that for this ship to be worth the effort to produce its power systems would have to be increased even beyond that of the Hos’woQ and Hos’Hegh. Its smaller size helped improve efficiency, and yet months were still spent on improvements to hold onto every last drop of power they could squeeze out of the warp core.

As a scout the ship was designed to move ahead of the Fleet and the warp systems were upgraded to a max speed of warp 9.93. The ship was also fitted with several smaller impulse engines instead of a single large one used on most Klingon designs vastly improving the maneuverability of the ship. The same computer core from the other Martok Classes was used to give the ship it’s targeting and maneuverability edge.

After months of work the power systems were as good as they were going to get and work began on the shields and weapons. The ship was fitted with four Mark 12 disrupters and two Mark 14 disruptors for a total of 70,000TW of beam firepower. The ship also carries two pulse-fire photon torpedo tubes.

The defenses were pumped with all the remaining power giving the shields a rating of 750,000TJ, and it was fitted with 20cm of armor to offset the lower shielding level. Overall the ship came out as more than a match for the Vor’cha class of the previous generation. This made it a poor contender when compared to Starfleet’s Destroyer; however, against most other races designs it was on the upper end.

The extended work on the Q’chak pushed its commissioning back to 2388, the same year as the Phoenix Class Cruiser’s commissioning by Starfleet.

A year before in 2387 Romulus was destroyed. While publicly the Romulans had put faith in a plan put forward by Ambassador Spok, they had none the less evacuated the praetor and all but a minimal military presence in the system. Even with these measures in place, the nova hurt the Star Empire. The government was barely functional and the military was busy just to keep order through most of their space.

The weakened Romulan state presented an all too appealing target for many Klingon Houses. The long standing hatred between the Klingons and Romulans had done little to improve even with the cooperation during the war, and it was precisely this that prompted the Federation to attempt to prevent the Supernova, least the Klingon-Romulan relations drag the Quadrant into a horrible affair.

The political pressure on Martok, especially from border systems, to attack the Romulans was enormous. Martok tried to resist the will of the houses, but even still relations with the Federation began to deteriorate over the issue.

Many saw this as the opportune time to strike back at the Romulans and declare in blood the new strength of the Klingon Empire. While the Romulan’s Norexan was more powerful than the Hos’Hegh, it wasn’t capable of taking on a Hos’woQ. Neither could the new Romulan Destroyer match up with the Q’chak.

After two years of struggle Martok could resist no more, and the Klingon Empire declared war on the Romulan State in 2389. The Federations objections were ignored and the longstanding alliance was once again in trouble of disintegrating entirely.

The early months of the war were dominated by the Romulans. The Klingons sent in their older ships: Vor’cha’s Negh’Var’s and Birds of Prey. The losses were staggering for the Klingons, but the older ships served their purpose.

As the initial fleet was destroyed the ships were quickly replaced with the Hos’woQ, Hos’Hegh and Q’chak Classes and the war quickly moved in the Klingon favor. Martok had used the older ships as fodder to weaken the already disorganized Romulan force and compel it to run around its own space disintegrating any semblance of order remaining. By the time the new designs entered the war, the Romulans could barely throw together squadrons of ships to face down against Klingon Battle groups.

By the end of 2389 the Klingons were already the victors; it was only a matter of time before they reached the Romulan capital. As they moved through Romulan space they left a wake of destruction, bombarding military and industrial centers from orbit, pillaging and decimating cities and even enslavement of whole worlds. It was at this point that the Federation had decided that the Klingon advance was over.

A few months into 2390, A Federation Battle Group from Starfleet Command’s 3rd Fleet moved into the new border between the Klingon and Romulan forces in opposition to further Klingon advance. The Federation officially ended the Khitomer accords. The Battle Group was in transition from the older Prometheus-Defiant ships to the Phoenix-Chin’toka Classes. While the older ships were formidable they couldn’t stand up to the Hos’woQ, the newer ships however proved to cut through Klingon designs.

The Group wasn’t deployed to fight along the whole front; simply to discourage further Klingon aggression. They partially succeeded, forcing the Klingons to be more selective in their attacks to avoid the Federation Group. The Empire continued to gain ground on the Romulans, but it was slower and harder to take. Eventually the extra time allowed the Romulans to build up a shell of ships that, with the Federation, made it far too costly to continue the advance.

Even without taking the new Romulan capital the Empire occupied much of Romulan Space, and the war would have ended there with the Klingons claiming much of their newly controlled domain; however, the Romulans, feeling the end was near, launched an attack of their own, Breaking through Klingon lines the fleet made it back into Klingon space with minimal opposition and was able to destroy several Starbases and a major shipyard before the Klingons were forced to agree to a cease-fire.

The final treaty granted the Klingons control of only two former Romulan worlds, and created a neutral zone between the two states. Chancellor Martok and Praetor Tominak signed the treaty in 2391.

The aftermath of the war for the Klingons was spent rebuilding their starbases and shipyards and resettling their new worlds. This period was also filled with high numbers of patrols, along both the Romulan and Federation border.

Hos'woQ:



Hos'Hegh:



Q'chaK:

The Romulan Star Empire

The Conclusion of the Dominion War brought uncertainty to the Romulan Empire. Praetor Neral and the rest of the Senate were in new territory, unsure of what would become of the relationships forged during the Dominion War.

Regardless, Neral knew that the Romulan Fleet was again and falling behind the Federation’s advancements. The D’Deridex had been less than equal to the Federation’s Galaxy Class, and now they had the Defiant, Prometheus, and Sovereign. Neral therefore ordered the development of two new classes of ship: the Norexan, and the Vreenak Classes.

Although the pre-war plan to capture the Prometheus’ prototype failed, much of Starfleet’s capability was seen during the war, and this served as a basis upon which the scopes of many of the design advances were based.

Neral didn’t last long enough to see the designs he had implemented, as he was assassinated and replaced by Praetor Hiren mere weeks before construction finished on the Norexan. Hiren quickly ordered a halt on the development of the Vreenak Class and had much of the design reworked and further improved upon given the negative turn of relations between the Empire and their former allies.

Again the praetor failed to survive to see the fruits of his labor. Just weeks into the construction on the Vreenak, Hiren and much of the Senate was assassinated by Shinzon. Shinzon too was killed before the Vreenak completed, this time through open combat with the USS Enterprise.

Following the assassination Senator Tel’Aura attempted to rise to Praetor; however Commander Donatra, also seeking more power in the State, openly sited her as a Shinzon collaborator, compelling Tel’Aura to step down and hide before she became the next target for assassination. Proconsul Kamemor ascended to the position thereafter, and oversaw the release of the Vreenak Class, in honor of the Dominion War hero.

Kamemor saw the instability in the leadership of the Empire as a result of the uncertainty from the post war period, and declared that this weakness was corroding the Empire. Kamemor saw to end this uncertainty. He made it clear that while they had worked together the Empire was no friend of the Klingons. He also took measures to make it clear that the Federation was to remain observant of all of their treaties unless they wished to renegotiate.

Kamemor then saw fit to order Norexan and Vreenak production in such numbers so as to replace the D’Deridex and scouts by 2385.

In 2384 however things changed for the Empire. Observations of the Romulan star indicated that it was going to go supernova within years, and threaten the destruction of Romulus. When Spok offered to help, Praetor Kamemour reluctantly accepted. Secretly he ordered copies of all pertinent files to the operation of the Empire be sent to his vacation home off world. He also ordered all ships away from the system excepting a secure defense force. Lastly, Kamemour planned the evacuation of himself and his family should Spok fail.

In 2387, Spok’s failure to stop the Supernova caused the destruction of Romulus. The planets destruction wounded the Empire militarily, politically, and psychologically. Not realizing that Kamemour had escaped the destruction, several factions began competing for the Praetor-ship. Using the military, Kamemour suppressed several uprisings and managed barely to maintain order. Even after his reemergence, some chose to continue resisting faulting Kamemour and his reliance on the Federation for the destruction of Romulus.

Kamemour could feel the pressure from the Klingon Border growing all the while. He knew that unless order was reestablished, it wouldn’t be long before the Klingons attacked. The new Klingon designs outdid the Romulan advancements from the last decade and it would only be a matter of time before the Empire was conquered.

Kamemour quickly suppressed the resistance and did everything he could to restore order and begin preparing for the Klingon’s. The Federation’s diplomatic pressure and the Chancellor’s own reluctance delayed the attack two years; however, in 2389 the Klingons attacked. Huge numbers flowed across the border in the opening months. These ships were mostly of older Klingon design, and the Romulan Navy scored huge victories in the battles over the weaker ships. However, the early months exposed the weaknesses in the Romulan lines, and the Klingons quickly exploited these weaknesses with their best and most powerful ships.

Kamemour was killed in battle aboard his flagship just after the turn of the war, and Senator Tominak ascended to the position. Tominak moved as quickly as possible to close the holes and prevent further loss of territory, but the Klingon onslaught was overwhelming.

In 2390 Tominak requested assistance from the Federation, and they responded with a single battle group to discourage further attacks. The Battle group was in the process of being reconstructed demonstrating the vast improvements between the old and new Starfleet capabilities. The new ships were impressive with a single Chin’toka Class Destroyer easily matching two Q’chak Class Destroyers, and even being capable of taking on a Hos’Hegh Cruiser. The Hos’woQ remained troublesome, as it was on par with the Phoenix Class and the Dauntless Class Battle Cruiser, the Sovereign replacement, was still in development. However, in fleet engagements, the Federation group ripped through Klingon Hulls.

With the Klingons forced into more cautious attacks the Romulans were able to rally in the defense of their space. As a stalemate began to form Tominak formed a daring plan to put the Klingons onto their back heels and put the Romulans in better negotiation position. The war lasted another year before the Romulan plan was enacted allowing them to destroy massive amounts of Klingon infrastructure and bringing Chancellor Martok to the table for negotiations.

In 2391 Praetor Tominak and Chancellor Martok signed a treaty forfeiting two worlds to the Klingon Empire and establishing a Neutral Zone along their mutual border to prevent further hostilities.

It was only after the war that Tominak was able to officially declare the new Romulan home world: Gaulius. The world was Kamemour’s off world home and had served as the unofficial head of the government since Romulus’ destruction.

Tominak then saw to the recreation of the Romulan Government, and creating a special military council which was headed by Admiral Donatra, the now legendary military hero serving in the Dominion War, Ending the Shinzon Coup, and leading the engagement on the Klingons at the end of the war. In addition to Donatra, Proconsul Tel’Aura became a leading member after securing a seat as the chief of military oversight and becoming a top member of the Tal’Shiar.

The council was charged with a simple project determine how the Romulan Post-war advancements had failed to keep them ahead of their rivals and fix the problem. The council debated for several months before coming to the conclusion that both the Norexan and Vreenak were vastly underpowered. Their beam weapon technology was well behind similar Federation and Klingon designs, and shields which had long been a weak point in Romulan designs were now pathetic in comparison.

To remedy the situation the council oversaw the conceptualization of the Tel’eur Warbird and Donatra Scout to replace the Norexan and Vreenak.

The Tel’eur was designed at 620m long and slightly less massive than the Norexan. The Romulans spent three years devoted entirely to their power dissipation problems and when complete their power efficiency had increased by nearly 300%.

Additional projects during the time included the development of the S4 photon torpedo launcher, reaching a 4/s average launch rate. Seven of these tubes were fit onto the Tel’eur. The initial design also placed nearly four times the armor of the Norexan on the Tel’eur to increase its defensive capabilities even if the increased shield project proved to be a failure. Later designs kept the armor for even more defensive capability.

The Tel’eur’s propulsive technology was also increased with the ship maxing out at Warp 9.97 and being very maneuverable for its size. The ship was covered in dozens of disruptor cannons giving it a total output of 520,000TW, completing the daunting arsenal for the ship.

The most noticeable mark of improvement is the shield system which is far superior to everything before it. The final system is rated for nine million TJ of power. Overall the ship was a considerable step forward for the Romulan state. It was over three times as powerful as the Norexan and nearly twice that of the Hos’woQ.

The Donatra was based heavily upon the Vreenak, being only 3m longer. The ship was outfitted heavily with disruptors giving it 117,500TJ in disruptor firepower. The ship also holds three S4 photon torpedo tubes rounding out its offensive systems. It can match the Tel’Eur’s speeds, but is much more maneuverable.

Defensively the Donatra boasts nearly two million TJ in shield power and 20cm of High Density Armor. Overall the Donatra itself could take on a Norexan Warbird successfully. Both ships completed just after the turn of the century with plans for heavy production in their future.

Vreenak Class:



Side Profile:



Donatra Class:



Side Profile:



Tel'Eur Class:

The Cardassian Union

The final months of the Dominion War were brutal for the Union. The war left their fleet in shambles, their infrastructure gutted, and their people in misery. The provisional government lead by Taket signed a treaty with the allied powers authorizing a joint occupation and bringing in the needed support and resources for the rebuilding of their state. The treaty also required the Cardassians to abandon their quantum torpedo technology, remove it from their current ships, and scrap the majority of their remaining navy for material in repairing their State.

The next two years were spent on the rebuilding of the Union and repairing the devastation from the war. Memorials were erected, and remembrances held over this time. The Union also slowly began to make a governmental transition away from the weak leadership of the prewar period and reorganized themselves into an Imperial Senate, similar to the structure of the Romulan Star Empire. In 2378 Taket became the first Duk of the Cardassian Union.

In 2377 however, the Breen finally caved to allied pressure that had been berating them since the treaty with the Dominion was signed two years prior. A treaty was signed and limitations on the Breen were put in place to prevent them from troubling the Union or Federation while they rebuilt from the war. Following this both the Klingons and Romulans withdrew from the occupation and rebuilding effort choosing to focus on their own rebuilding instead.

Duk Taket therefore created the Adek project as her first official act in office. The Adek project was designed to create a new light cruiser, more technologically advanced than the Galor’s for the purposes of patrolling and policing their own space. Research into the class began from the ground up, but did benefit from plans left over from the alliance with the Dominion. A new pulse phase disruptor was designed based off Dominion technology the Cardassians had studied, as were advanced torpedo launchers and shield technology.

The driving force behind the Adek class was the improvement of the power systems. The ship was designed to incorporate a more efficient power matrix that the older generation of Cardassian vessels.

The ultimate design created a ship reminiscent of the Galor-Keldon form. The ship was fitted with ten of the pulse-phase disruptors and had a total output of 12,800TW. The ship also carried a single Model 4 Photon torpedo launcher rated at one torpedo every two seconds.

Defensively the Adek class supported 6 cm of High Density armor and shields rated at 1,000,000TJ. The ship’s modest defensive improvements were added to by a large improvement in maneuverability for the ship over the Galor.

The advanced power grid also supplied an improved warp engine capable of sustaining Warp 9.5. Overall the ship was on par with a Galor, but managed to do it in as little as half the mass. The ship was an ideal step for the Union. It worked as a test bed for many of the Dominion advances they had yet to try out, stepped forward their technology, and yet remained an overall non-threatening vessel for them to deploy.

The design took roughly three years to complete, and began production in late 2381. Duk Taket commanded the first Adek Class out of the shipyards. She called the moment the first step forward toward a new and improved Union.

Meetings then began between the Federation and Taket’s administration in order to decide on a soft withdraw date. After a few meetings it was decided that the Federation would withdraw in 2390 just before the expiration of the limitations on the Breen Navy.

The earlier than anticipated withdraw date put stress on Taket to begin the development of a new line of ships capable of defending the Union. Taket immediately began improvements on the Unions new weapons technology, needing to bring them up to date before she could begin ship designs.

The Mark 2, 3, 4, and 5 Pulse-phase disruptors were developed as a response, as was the Model 5 torpedo tube capable of pulse-fire rates. Although the Union had thrown out all old research into quantum torpedoes, many of the original scientists were still alive, and thus Taket secretly began the research again, hoping to improve upon the first model of quantum torpedo they had developed.

After four years of work on these projects results began to show up, and Taket authorized the creation of a new Cruiser and Destroyer for the Cardassian fleet. The first ship to begin work was the new Heavy Cruiser.

The Denar class was larger than the Keldon at 434m and over two million metric tons. The Denar was fitted with 13 Pulse-Phase disruptors of various models giving her a total output of 64,000TJ. The Denar’s primary arsenal lies in its torpedo technology. It supports a total of five tubes: three Model 5 Photon Torpedo Launchers and 2 Model 5Q Quantum Torpedo Launchers.

The Denar’s defenses were scaled up dramatically with the new ship and have shields rated for 4 million TJ. The ship is also covered in 35cm of High Density armor. The Denar is over five times as maneuverable as the old GCS and has a max warp speed of 9.75. Overall the ship is just superior to the Federation’s old Defiant Class Destroyers.

The Hutar Class Destroyer was in development at the same time as the Denar and thus shares many of the same technologies. The Hutar was designed primarily to accompany the Denar or work in groups of five to six. To this end the Hutar can match the Denar’s warp speed of 9.75 but is almost twice as maneuverable.

The Hutar’s total beam output is 23,500TW between seven pulse-phase disruptors. The class is also equipped with two Model 5 and a Model 5Q torpedo launcher. The ship carries minimal defenses with a shield grid rated for just over 352,000TJ and 12cm High Density Armor. While far weaker than the Denar or many other nations’ destroyers, the Hutar is still twice as powerful as the Galor’s used during the Dominion War.

The Hutar’s prototype finished development first in 2388, secretly slipping out of the shipyards. The Denar prototype finished two years later in 2390; just in time for the official withdraw of Federation forces from Cardassian Space. The CUS Denar was used in the ceremonial withdraw.

A few months later the Union became aware of the Asympt Class Cruiser which had been developed by the Confederacy and was now entering construction. Intelligence gathered on the ship was great news for the Union as all indications were that the Asympt was less advanced and less powerful than the Denar Class.

Confident in their security and international relations Taket began a series of internal development programs aimed at boosting the Union’s socioeconomic structure into a much more stable state. The programs went on for seven years with mild results, and allowing the Union to surpass their pre-war industrial and economic might.

In 2397, the Union’s attitude changed when the obsidian order learned of the Drex Class just months before the prototype was completed. The ship was massive and had taken years to construct, but it was an enormous advance over the Asympt or Denar Classes, and poised a serious problem for the Union. The ship was beyond the Union’s current capability, and the research to catch up would require time and money the Union couldn’t spare, not while the Confederacy was building up their own armada of these ships.

As if sensing the Cardassian fears, Drex Class ships began to be produced in every ship card that could hold one, and the ones that couldn’t were expanded. The Cardassians were forced to increase Denar and Hutar production to maximum sustainable levels in response.

In 2398 Taket lost the general elections to Legate Adess who promised to walk a harder line with the Breen, and once in office he did. It took just four weeks of Adess before the Confederacy declared war on the Union. The Breen had the Drex Class; however there were very few of them and the Denar was available in numbers.

The Breen launched an invasion fleet composed almost entirely of old Gaceon and Asympt ships. The fleet failed to take any border system, but it did inflict massive losses on the Union. However, Adess’s experience in the Dominion war helped him to quickly reorganize and strike back with a counter attack into the Confederacy.

The Cardassians dominated as the war progressed. The relatively few numbers of ships remaining in the Confederacy, especially Drex, forced Thot Gor to pull back his forces in the face of a direct confrontation with the Union. However as 2398 waned, so too did the Cardassian advantage. They had plunged deep into Breen space and were spread out, meanwhile the Drex was beginning to become available in numbers and the Denar’s production simply couldn’t match the Drex’s power forever. By June 2399 the war was at a stalemate.

The overall success at pushing back the Confederacy put the general public in a fanfare, and they wished to continue on, pushing for total victory over the Breen; however Adess knew that the longer the war raged the more the momentum would swing away from the Union and toward the Confederacy, and there was no way to be sure the war would be won before the Drex began to overpower the Cardassian Fleet.

Thus after only a few more weeks Thot Gor and Duk Adess met to discuss a peace treaty. The final treaty ended the hostilities without any punitive action for either side or loss of worlds for either party. Instead a simple demilitarized zone was established between the two states. Negotiations ended on the eve of 2399 and went into effect just before the end of the century.

The war’s ending proved to be unpopular with the people who believed the war was theirs to lose and instead the Breen escaped intact. Adess’s decision may have saved the Union; however it cost him the next election.

However with the treaty signed, the Union made no rush to break it and return to war and elected in a reformer who aimed to move beyond the potential for cold war with the Breen and return to Taket’s internal programs to improve the Union.

Adek Class:



Side Profile:



Hutar Class:



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Denar Class:



Side Profile:

The Breen Confederacy

The Breen were left isolated against the allies in 2375 when the Cardassians turned and the Dominion soon signed a cease-fire. Regardless, the Breen had no intention of capitulating to the allies so easily. They continued resisting well after the invasion of their own space. They continued to fall back until the sheer density of Breen forces made continued advance too costly for the allies in 2376.

The two sides eventually negotiated along this line for a cease-fire that was on the whole very generous to the Breen. The terms of the treaty gave them back control of their space and had only minor punitive measures. The major factor was a limitation on the mass of ships that the Breen were able to construct and deploy until 2390. The limit was set to just below their Frigate mass forcing the Breen to reserve their entire war fleet.

To comply with the treaty the Breen immediately began the development of a modified version of the Gaceon Class. The ship was designed during the war as an upgraded Frigate. The ship was redesigned to reduce its mass, and abandon the unsupportable weapons and advancements before construction began in 2377.

While the Gaceon is a smaller, weaker version of itself it still managed to become a powerful ship, more so than the Frigate it replaced. Wartime research increased the Breen’s torpedo systems to pulse-fire rates, and the Gaceon was to serve as the test bed for the design. While the ship originally had five of the tubes, two were removed in the reduction and it was left with three.

Shields were barely reduces from 600,000TJ to just over 590,000TJ. The Gaceon was planned to have a faster warp engine; however hurried production forced the Breen to install the Frigates engines giving the Gaceon a max speed of Warp 9.88; however it’s smaller size makes it slightly more maneuverable than the Frigate. Overall the ship is slightly smaller than the Frigate but still more than twice as powerful, and easily a match for the Galor’s used by the Union.

The prototype finished in just a year and production began in numbers to allow an adequate policing of domestic space.

With the immediate problem out of the way Thot Gor turned his attention to regaining his lost strength. While the Federation would ensure compliance with the treaty with occasional inspections and sensor sweeps of their space, Gor knew that the design and initial development of the next generation of ships would easily go unnoticed if kept secret. Gor had twelve years before the treaty expired and planned to use it wisely.

The Asympt Project was created to begin the technological research and upgrades the Breen would need for their next major warship. Gor outlined his project goals based off his experience in the War. Quantum Torpedoes were utilized both by the Federation and Cardassians with spectacular results, and Gor wanted them for his own fleet. The Federations torpedo launchers too were far ahead of even the most recent Breen developments and research into this field also began. The warp project originally slated for the Gaceon was absorbed by the Asympt Project to improve the Breen’s speed. Gor also invested a research operation into the Energy Dampening weapon to find a way to give it new life against the allied immunity. Gor also saw how well the beam weapon technology used by many other races served them during the war, and put emphasis on developing a prototype weapon for use by the Confederacy, and key to that was the improvement of the Breen power efficiency to draw enough power for the new beam weapons.

After a year the Energy Dampening Weapon was abandoned as a dead end as the project showed no progress in overcoming the allied defense. However, the Breen managed to get their hands on the preliminary research conducted by the Union on Quantum torpedoes and so by 2383 they had a model that was taken far beyond the Union and well outside of Federation sensors for a test detonation. The successful detonation of the torpedo was an enormous step for the Breen.

This success laid the foundation for the initial design productions for the Asympt Class. The ship was going to be larger than the Gaceon or Frigate, more akin to a small cruiser. The Breen infrastructure began to be modified for the ability to construct ships much larger than the Gaceon, and even a fair bit larger than the Asympt.

As the design came together, so too did the research projects. The Asympt would be capable of reaching warp 9.95, and being five times as maneuverable as a GCS. The ship was fitted with six advanced torpedo launchers: five photon torpedo tubes rated for two torpedoes every second and a single quantum torpedo launcher with a pulse fire rate. The ship also was designed to hold the first fully functional Breen disruptor. While the disruptors were projected to have an output of 6000TW their effectiveness was still to be seen.

The Breen invested in the application of armor to sensitive areas of the ship and have several centimeters of armor covering most of these areas, the thickest region being 10 cm over areas surrounding the Bridge and Engineering. The Breen Shields were also improved to just less than three million TJ of power.

Overall the ship was projected to be just weaker than the Federation’s Defiant Class Destroyer. Much more powerful than anything fielded by the Breen before the war. As the treaties expiration drew near the Breen worked closer and closer to finishing the development of the ship and preparing for the beginning of prototype construction.

Within a week of the Denar’s release the Asympt was being constructed. The Asympt demonstrated an impressive advance for the Breen; however examination of the Cardassians Denar Class left them feeling inadequate. The Breen citizens still held a hatred of the Cardassian people and found it pathetic to be bested by a Cardassian design.

Thot Gor sought to remedy this problem and even as the Asympt was being commissioned, authorized the creation of a newer larger ship capable of far outdoing the Cardassians.

The Drex Class Heavy Cruiser was the result of this project that sucked millions of credits from the Confederacy, both for the research on the ship and to improve the infrastructure to eventually be able to build it. Thot Gor was forced to raise taxes several times and halt several social programs to pay for the advancements in the Drex, but pursued the project regardless.

The advancements to the Drex did not include its warp engines, which matched the Asympt at Warp 9.95. Instead the advancements went into the vast improvement of the ships weapons and defenses. The ship was enormous, being over 600m in length and well over 800m wide, and has a displacement of 4.2 million metric tons.

The ship is dotted with eight second generation disruptors as well as ten original designs for a total output of 26,000TW. The ship also holds five pulse fire quantum tubes and eight two-per-second photon torpedo tubes. Defensively the ship was covered entirely in armor, 25cm thick. The shield grid was powered by a power matrix with unmatched efficiency in previous Breen designs and was rated for six million TJ of power.

Overall the ship is more than twice as powerful as the Asympt and far superior to the Denar Class Cruiser of the Union. The massive economic drain on the Confederacy sped up the production to just over eight years, as the prototype was released in 2398.

Within months of the Drex’s commissioning the Union’s attitude had changed and the long time Duk Taket had been replaced with a Dominion War veteran who was looking for a fight. He quickly enacted policies that put a lot of pressure on the Breen and Thot Gor was only happy to respond.

Within a month of Adess’s take over Gor launched an invasion into Cardassian space. He knew that the massive presence of Cardassian ships that had been built up on the border would cause the initial battles to be hard fought on both sides, and therefore composed his invasion fleet of every remaining Frigate, and Gaceau Class ship as well as a large number of Asympt to cause as much damage and destruction as they could, and to hold a border system if possible.

The results were as Gor had expected. He lost virtually every ship and failed to hold any system, but he was successful in leaving a devastating pile of wreckage where Cardassian Fleets once were. However, Gor did not expect the rapid transition the Cardassians made to counter attack. He had sent the vast majority of his fleet on that attack and was forced to withdraw from direct confrontation forcing him to abandon the border regions of the Confederacy.

As the Cardassians pushed forward and spread themselves out, their advance slowed, allowing Gor to continue the production of Drex class ships in numbers to destroy the Cardassian attack fleets. By 2399 the two forces were stalemated deep within Breen space, but Gor knew his forces were gaining momentum. The real question that remained was how much of a push did the Union forces have left in them, and how much would it take to reach Breen and end the war.

The questions appeared to weigh heavily on Adess’s mind as well as Gor found himself unhappily negotiation terms for a ceasefire with him before many more weeks passed. Both parties knew that while the Cardassians had the upper hand, unless they could end the war soon the Breen would eventually grow to dominate and that was a powerful aid to Gor. Eventually the treaty returned all of Breen space to Gor and established a demilitarized zone along the border to prevent any further hostilities.

The signing of the treaty just before the end of the year quickly cost Adess his position. Gor didn’t last much longer either. While the clans had generally been pleased with Gor’s handling of the war while it was ongoing the fact remained that after spending tens of millions on the Drex and starving the Breen people for eight years, he was unable to make anything come of it in the war and the Clans took advantage of the unpopularity to try and take power.

Thot Chak eventually rose to power over the other chiefs, and quickly moved to turn away from continued engagement with the Union, as they too had done. There was little point in resuming the war until the Drex could be build up, and instead Chak chose to return the Confederacy in this new century to their pre-war isolation from international affairs.

Gaceon Class:



Asympt Class:



Drex Class:

I like you explanation of the Breen and I think it is the most realistic of the lot as well.

The Cardassians... I think you give them to much credit. It would be decades before they got on their feet again. Also I doubt the Klingons/Romulans would let them build any form of fleet.

The Klingons were interesting but I feel you over played how much power Martok has. In Klingon culture the families seem to have more say and even build their own ships.

Also the Martok we see in DS9 would never send his old ships in against the Romulans just to be slaughtered and weaken them. A far better use of them would have them be boarder patrol on the safer boarders and inside the empire while the new ships break the line. You only send old designs in when you are desperate, ie the Polish send Cavalry against German Panzers.

The Romulans were very believeale, but I would focus slightly less on power and slightly more on cloak ect. The Romulans never come out and punch someone in the face, they sneak around and stab them in the kidneys.

Have to agree with Teaos on the KE/RSE issue. Along with that Martok while being a warrior isn't really given to just stupidly attacking in mass waves. Or for that matter being put off by a single UFP battlegroup. If the UFP sent a single battlegroup and not even a full fleet for measure, all it would do is add itself to the death toll. 20yrs after the Dominion War, at least by the views of TNG and some of the novels, the standard warship for the KDF is the Negh'var. Not something that any ship in the UFP would want to have to face in numbers.

If anything, even if the UFP did just suicide a battlegroup, it would serve more a use by getting in the way of the KE rather then openly engaging it. Setting up sensor nets between the KE and RSE so that anything passing through in any kind of numbers would get picked up. Making it hard for the KE to out position the RSE and thus dragging out the war enough for Martok to strike a deal. Klingons don't give up taken grounds without a fight, so there wouldn't be a "We win a dozen and keep two" settlement. Klingons have to save face after all as their honor demands it.

However I'm going to disagree with Teaos on the CU. They have shown an insane ability to recover themselves. They kept pace during the Dominion War after all which is something that no one expected them to do. They also managed to halt the KE advance after a time. While they would have failed in the long run without doubt, the ability to halt such a force isn't to be taken lightly.

Hmm good points, I feel they could recover especially if they got aid from the Federation. However I'm sure the KE/RSE would have imposed serious sanctions against them after the war like the US and allies did to Japan after WWII. Maybe we would see something like what happened to Germany after WWI, build up a good industrial base adn then slowly push the limits of what they are allowed to do. No one wants another war so they get away with a gradual increase in their fleet.

Japan became a much more peaceful society after World War II. Could Cardassia undergo a similar transformation? Would be interesting to see that explored in a new series / movie.

Well apparently they always used to be a peaceful artistic society until the depleted their own resources and became more militant to obtain more.

Teaos wrote:Hmm good points, I feel they could recover especially if they got aid from the Federation. However I'm sure the KE/RSE would have imposed serious sanctions against them after the war like the US and allies did to Japan after WWII. Maybe we would see something like what happened to Germany after WWI, build up a good industrial base adn then slowly push the limits of what they are allowed to do. No one wants another war so they get away with a gradual increase in their fleet.

The issue with Germany post WWI was the desire of France to stomp out the German population over their hatred of getting their asses constantly beaten by them. This more then anything else is what drove the Germans to later accept the NAZI ideal on rebuilding. I don't honestly see the UFP doing that with them, in fact I'd be more expecting the UFP to be diving in trying to help the CU rebuild and lean it towards joining the UFP.

Yeah I can see the Federation going all Marshall plan on Cardassia after the war but the KE/RSE being much more into sanctions causing quite a lot of animosity.

The KE isn't in a position to really push anything, at least not for another ten years. And the RSE couldn't do anything without the permission of the UFP since they are the only ones who seem able to convince the KE not to steamroll the RSE.

Deepcrush wrote:And the RSE couldn't do anything without the permission of the UFP since they are the only ones who seem able to convince the KE not to steamroll the RSE.

The Klingon's problem is that they're now in no position to steamroll anyone, and I wouldn't be too surprised to see the Romulans try and make that state of affairs permanent.

Pre Super Nova you might be right, post Super Nova I doubt the Romulans are in any position to pull off manipulations on that scale.