Technology of the Star Fleet Universe
- Thread starter Nerroth
- Start date
It has been a while since I last posted here, yes...
I do intend to continue it, though I'm not sure what pace I'll be able to maintain for this thread in the near to mid future.
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This time around, I'm going to take a detour back to the Alpha Octant - albeit in a way that would still have implications for events over in Omega.
As noted earlier in the thread, there are alternate timelines to consider: to include the "dark future" encountered/created by the wayward USS Darwin, or the various "lost empire" timelines in which the Paravians and/or Carnivons continue to exist in the "modern" era of the Alpha Octant.
Perhaps the most dramatically divergent of these timelines is the "Reflection Universe", which is outlined as one of the alternate timelines published in SFB Module R4J: Shadow of the Eagle.
Note that the "Mirror" timeline seen in the on-screen Franchise is not part of the SFU. But in any case, the chief point of divergence in the Reflected timeline is not on Earth: rather, it is on ancient Vulcan.
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In the "standard" timeline, as well as in most "standard-adjacent" realities, the teachings of "Kya-yai", or "Logic", prevailed on Vulcan. This led the most committed cadre of those following the rival philosophy of "Kyai ri-ha-nai", or "Unifying Duty", to go on a decades-long Exodus to Romulus.
In the Reflected version of events, however, Surak died before he was able to gain a critical mass of followers. Instead, a "new normal" formed on Vulcan which retained a more militaristic outlook; even so, there were enough of Surak's followers to go into Exile.
While the "warlike Vulcans" were able to manipulate the pre-warp Terrans, Andorians, and other species in their immediate vicinity towards an outlook more in line with their expansionist aims, this did not lead to a Vulcan-dominated star empire. Instead, after (official) First Contact took place, the Earth humans invited the other worlds to form the Federal Imperium - through which each of the member planets would share in the spoils of galactic conquest. Still, Vulcan retains enough power and prestige within this realm to mostly satisfy its ambitions.
Meanwhile, the exiles made it to Romulus and founded a "Logic-Romulan" republic. Over time, these Romulans built up their population and industrial base, returned to the stars, made peaceful First Contact with the Gorns, and later found themselves at war with the Federal Imperium.
Other changes reverberated across the Alpha Octant - and beyond.
While the Paravians lost their home star system to the Sun Snake, enough of them survived to establish a series of exile colonies. Notably, since the Orions in this timeline joined the Federal Imperium as "normal" members, it was these exile Paravians who became the chief "pirate" faction instead.
While the "western" Alpha timeline played out more or less as normal, things changed during the General War - when the Federal Imperium took advantage of the Lyran and Klingon attacks on the Kzinti Hegemony to invade both the Klingons and the Kzintis! Over time, both the Logic-Romulans and the Gorns were drawn into this conflict; for their part, the ISC sat out the war, only to launch their own Pacification Campaign thereafter.
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As you can imagine, the technology of the Reflection Universe is quite different in some ways to that of the "standard" timeline.
The Federal Imperium maintains a vast and aggressive star fleet, which never developed the "Third Way" (of using F-111 fighters and SWAC shuttles) nor the use of phaser-Gs. Nor did they deploy plasma-armed combat variants, since they never aligned with the Gorns in this timeline. However, they deployed Interceptors and fast patrol ships as soon as these technologies became available.
The Logic-Romulans progressed through the various eras of tactical warp drive, as accounted for in Module R4J.
As for the Gorns: on the one hand, they deploy Romulan-type fighters and bombers - perhaps with "mercenary" Romulans and/or Gerlunians (a reptilian species distantly related to the Gorns who exist on a planet close to the Galactic Rim) flying them? On the other hand, since they are on good terms with these Romulans, these Gorns never developed the plasma carronade, at least not prior to the onset of first-generation X-technology.
In a case of form following function, the "pirate" Paravians use ships that are functionally equivalent to Orion Pirate designs. The main difference being that, regardless of operating area, these "pirates" retain access to phaser-1s and to quantum wave torpedoes as "home" technologies.
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Beyond this, there are a few details which are not formally spelled out in print as of yet, which might be of interest someday.
For one thing, how might the WYN Cluster develop when one accounts fo the "pirate" Paravians?
For another thing, it is noted that a sub-group of Paravian exiles fled to Omega, before the onset of the "pirate" ships in Alpha; perhaps this means the Omega-Paravians in this timeline still emerge more or less as normal in that Galactic octant.
And, indeed, is there a Reflected counterpart of Omega's Federal Republic of Aurora - and, if so, might they use "volatile warp" Interceptors and PFs, in keeping with their counterparts back in the Federal Imperium?
I do intend to continue it, though I'm not sure what pace I'll be able to maintain for this thread in the near to mid future.
-----
This time around, I'm going to take a detour back to the Alpha Octant - albeit in a way that would still have implications for events over in Omega.
As noted earlier in the thread, there are alternate timelines to consider: to include the "dark future" encountered/created by the wayward USS Darwin, or the various "lost empire" timelines in which the Paravians and/or Carnivons continue to exist in the "modern" era of the Alpha Octant.
Perhaps the most dramatically divergent of these timelines is the "Reflection Universe", which is outlined as one of the alternate timelines published in SFB Module R4J: Shadow of the Eagle.
Note that the "Mirror" timeline seen in the on-screen Franchise is not part of the SFU. But in any case, the chief point of divergence in the Reflected timeline is not on Earth: rather, it is on ancient Vulcan.
-----
In the "standard" timeline, as well as in most "standard-adjacent" realities, the teachings of "Kya-yai", or "Logic", prevailed on Vulcan. This led the most committed cadre of those following the rival philosophy of "Kyai ri-ha-nai", or "Unifying Duty", to go on a decades-long Exodus to Romulus.
In the Reflected version of events, however, Surak died before he was able to gain a critical mass of followers. Instead, a "new normal" formed on Vulcan which retained a more militaristic outlook; even so, there were enough of Surak's followers to go into Exile.
While the "warlike Vulcans" were able to manipulate the pre-warp Terrans, Andorians, and other species in their immediate vicinity towards an outlook more in line with their expansionist aims, this did not lead to a Vulcan-dominated star empire. Instead, after (official) First Contact took place, the Earth humans invited the other worlds to form the Federal Imperium - through which each of the member planets would share in the spoils of galactic conquest. Still, Vulcan retains enough power and prestige within this realm to mostly satisfy its ambitions.
Meanwhile, the exiles made it to Romulus and founded a "Logic-Romulan" republic. Over time, these Romulans built up their population and industrial base, returned to the stars, made peaceful First Contact with the Gorns, and later found themselves at war with the Federal Imperium.
Other changes reverberated across the Alpha Octant - and beyond.
While the Paravians lost their home star system to the Sun Snake, enough of them survived to establish a series of exile colonies. Notably, since the Orions in this timeline joined the Federal Imperium as "normal" members, it was these exile Paravians who became the chief "pirate" faction instead.
While the "western" Alpha timeline played out more or less as normal, things changed during the General War - when the Federal Imperium took advantage of the Lyran and Klingon attacks on the Kzinti Hegemony to invade both the Klingons and the Kzintis! Over time, both the Logic-Romulans and the Gorns were drawn into this conflict; for their part, the ISC sat out the war, only to launch their own Pacification Campaign thereafter.
-----
As you can imagine, the technology of the Reflection Universe is quite different in some ways to that of the "standard" timeline.
The Federal Imperium maintains a vast and aggressive star fleet, which never developed the "Third Way" (of using F-111 fighters and SWAC shuttles) nor the use of phaser-Gs. Nor did they deploy plasma-armed combat variants, since they never aligned with the Gorns in this timeline. However, they deployed Interceptors and fast patrol ships as soon as these technologies became available.
The Logic-Romulans progressed through the various eras of tactical warp drive, as accounted for in Module R4J.
As for the Gorns: on the one hand, they deploy Romulan-type fighters and bombers - perhaps with "mercenary" Romulans and/or Gerlunians (a reptilian species distantly related to the Gorns who exist on a planet close to the Galactic Rim) flying them? On the other hand, since they are on good terms with these Romulans, these Gorns never developed the plasma carronade, at least not prior to the onset of first-generation X-technology.
In a case of form following function, the "pirate" Paravians use ships that are functionally equivalent to Orion Pirate designs. The main difference being that, regardless of operating area, these "pirates" retain access to phaser-1s and to quantum wave torpedoes as "home" technologies.
-----
Beyond this, there are a few details which are not formally spelled out in print as of yet, which might be of interest someday.
For one thing, how might the WYN Cluster develop when one accounts fo the "pirate" Paravians?
For another thing, it is noted that a sub-group of Paravian exiles fled to Omega, before the onset of the "pirate" ships in Alpha; perhaps this means the Omega-Paravians in this timeline still emerge more or less as normal in that Galactic octant.
And, indeed, is there a Reflected counterpart of Omega's Federal Republic of Aurora - and, if so, might they use "volatile warp" Interceptors and PFs, in keeping with their counterparts back in the Federal Imperium?
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From a purely visual standpoint, SFB Orion minis make more sense as Paravians—FASA’s Orion Wanderer I might use as Feddie Fast Patrol Ship in the situation you describe.
The third way works best for the Wyn—here they have more bases, less ships.
Klingon patrol boats look too federationy—FASA’s dagger like gunboats a better fit.
The third way works best for the Wyn—here they have more bases, less ships.
Klingon patrol boats look too federationy—FASA’s dagger like gunboats a better fit.
The Y170s were a time of major changes for the Aurorans - not least of which being the adding of the word "Federal" to "Federal Republic of Aurora".
Part of this change was due to the Cosmic Nexus, as it activated on several occasions during this time period. While other changes stemmed from the Republic's increasing degree of integration with the Mæsron "New Alliance".
Yet perhaps the most dramatic of these changes took place in Y171, with the arrival of the Klingon colony system of Kraknora.
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The tale of tragedy and of renewal at Kraknora is told in greater detail in the FRA "update" file in Captain's Log #53. But to tell a long story short, Kraknora - which, prior to its transfer, was located close to the Klingon-Lyran border - was a reasonably successful colony world until events led to a major series of planet-wide disturbances. This outbreak was in the midst of being brutally suppressed at the time of transfer, when the arriving Auroran ships were surprised to detect five Klingon warships bombarding the surface of the world from orbit.
Refusing to accept their sudden change in circumstances, the Klingon ships left the system, only to find out over the course of the next year that they were, indeed, far from home. After fighting a fierce battle with a group of Vulpa insurgents during which one of the Klingon frigates was lost, the surviving ships turned back towards the Aurorans - though they wisely avoided heading back to the now-free Kraknora system.
In their absence, the Aurorans had launched a major recovery effort at Kraknora, which they admitted into the Republic as a new member system. It was this admission which saw the formal re-brand to the Federal Republic of Aurora. When the Klingon ships returned, they were refitted with Auroran weapons, while their disruptors were removed and reverse-engineered. (Their drone racks had been emptied by this point, though the Aurorans weren't in a hurry to adopt drone technology in any case.) A group of Klingon malcontents would later hijack one of these ships and try to head back to the Alpha Octant with it; their fate has never been determined.
Other arrivals showed up later in the decade. In Y173, a Lyran light cruiser arrived via the Cosmic Nexus; their integration went much more smoothly, and later led to a limited production run of ESGs for use on FRA escort variants. While in Y178, the ISC colony system PX 123 emerged, adding five new species to the Federal Republic's populace.
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While all of this was happening, the Auroran Navy was tasked with sending ships into Mæsron space, as part of the treaty obligations signed between the two powers. The Aurorans soon found that their frigates were too small for this assignment, while their cruisers were too valuable.
Conveniently, their new-found access to Klingon disruptor technology, as well as the dismantling of a Klingon frigate leader, enabled the Auroran engineers to design a "hybrid" destroyer design. This ship is armed with five phaser-1s, two phaser-3s, a prow-mounted disruptor, two light photons, and a short-range cannon. It soon proved to be the ideal ship to send into Mæsron space, as well as to bolster the defences of the Republic itself.
Meanwhile, the Mæsrons provided technical improvements which enabled the Aurorans to exxpand their shipyard. This, for the first time, enabled them to build larger and more powerful warships than the armoured cruiser. Rather than resurrectiong the old heavy cruiser deisgn as seen in the Alpha Octant, however, the Aurorans instead created entirely new deisgns: the battlecruiser and dreadnought. Indeed, the DN is armed with two heavy photons and four standard photons, though its Turn Mode of E makes it more of a challenge to point all six of these heavy weapons in the same direction.
In Y177, the Orion raider cruiser Throne of Ozymondas provided samples of type-B tachyon missile technology, without disclosing where these samples had been sourced from. A few years later, a series of refits enabled some, but not all, Auroran ships to swap out their SRCs for TM-B racks, as well as for a limited number of missile fighters to be deployed.
One other major advancmeent of note was the joint FRA and Mæsron development of "speed-30" warp engines in Y173. Since the Aurorans already had frigates, destroyers, and light cruisers which could fight at Warp 3.14 (or SFB Speed 31), this was mainly a bonus for their larger cruisers - though the exact details of how this is accounted for in SSD terms has yet to be formally committed to print.
Part of this change was due to the Cosmic Nexus, as it activated on several occasions during this time period. While other changes stemmed from the Republic's increasing degree of integration with the Mæsron "New Alliance".
Yet perhaps the most dramatic of these changes took place in Y171, with the arrival of the Klingon colony system of Kraknora.
-----
The tale of tragedy and of renewal at Kraknora is told in greater detail in the FRA "update" file in Captain's Log #53. But to tell a long story short, Kraknora - which, prior to its transfer, was located close to the Klingon-Lyran border - was a reasonably successful colony world until events led to a major series of planet-wide disturbances. This outbreak was in the midst of being brutally suppressed at the time of transfer, when the arriving Auroran ships were surprised to detect five Klingon warships bombarding the surface of the world from orbit.
Refusing to accept their sudden change in circumstances, the Klingon ships left the system, only to find out over the course of the next year that they were, indeed, far from home. After fighting a fierce battle with a group of Vulpa insurgents during which one of the Klingon frigates was lost, the surviving ships turned back towards the Aurorans - though they wisely avoided heading back to the now-free Kraknora system.
In their absence, the Aurorans had launched a major recovery effort at Kraknora, which they admitted into the Republic as a new member system. It was this admission which saw the formal re-brand to the Federal Republic of Aurora. When the Klingon ships returned, they were refitted with Auroran weapons, while their disruptors were removed and reverse-engineered. (Their drone racks had been emptied by this point, though the Aurorans weren't in a hurry to adopt drone technology in any case.) A group of Klingon malcontents would later hijack one of these ships and try to head back to the Alpha Octant with it; their fate has never been determined.
Other arrivals showed up later in the decade. In Y173, a Lyran light cruiser arrived via the Cosmic Nexus; their integration went much more smoothly, and later led to a limited production run of ESGs for use on FRA escort variants. While in Y178, the ISC colony system PX 123 emerged, adding five new species to the Federal Republic's populace.
-----
While all of this was happening, the Auroran Navy was tasked with sending ships into Mæsron space, as part of the treaty obligations signed between the two powers. The Aurorans soon found that their frigates were too small for this assignment, while their cruisers were too valuable.
Conveniently, their new-found access to Klingon disruptor technology, as well as the dismantling of a Klingon frigate leader, enabled the Auroran engineers to design a "hybrid" destroyer design. This ship is armed with five phaser-1s, two phaser-3s, a prow-mounted disruptor, two light photons, and a short-range cannon. It soon proved to be the ideal ship to send into Mæsron space, as well as to bolster the defences of the Republic itself.
Meanwhile, the Mæsrons provided technical improvements which enabled the Aurorans to exxpand their shipyard. This, for the first time, enabled them to build larger and more powerful warships than the armoured cruiser. Rather than resurrectiong the old heavy cruiser deisgn as seen in the Alpha Octant, however, the Aurorans instead created entirely new deisgns: the battlecruiser and dreadnought. Indeed, the DN is armed with two heavy photons and four standard photons, though its Turn Mode of E makes it more of a challenge to point all six of these heavy weapons in the same direction.
In Y177, the Orion raider cruiser Throne of Ozymondas provided samples of type-B tachyon missile technology, without disclosing where these samples had been sourced from. A few years later, a series of refits enabled some, but not all, Auroran ships to swap out their SRCs for TM-B racks, as well as for a limited number of missile fighters to be deployed.
One other major advancmeent of note was the joint FRA and Mæsron development of "speed-30" warp engines in Y173. Since the Aurorans already had frigates, destroyers, and light cruisers which could fight at Warp 3.14 (or SFB Speed 31), this was mainly a bonus for their larger cruisers - though the exact details of how this is accounted for in SSD terms has yet to be formally committed to print.
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