Topic: ST: Tigermoth - Return Of The Andromedans

[KOTH-KieranXC, Ret.]

Most of my friends are taller than me, the bastards. That's why.

[CaptJosh]

Ok, since you folks are here. Would someone besides the Guv please comment on my most recent chapter. The topic title is "When the Going Gets Tough..." Chapter 6 has been up for a while now and the Guv is the only one who has said so much as "boo" about it.

[James Smith]

MORE FIC!!!!!! Well, sort-of. Just another short section, trying to get back into the rhythm properly 

*************
Chapter 3 -  War (part 1)

*************
USS Tigermoth-A
19th March 2395
2235hrs EST
Bridge


"No response fom the lead Andromedan ship sir." Riggs frowned in concentration, trying to pick useful comm. chatter out of the mess of signals in subspace. "Shall I try the transpace link?"

Smithy nodded. "Go ahead. Elkins, attack pattern Moth Alpha Three. Drelkar, how are we doing on the weapons front?"

"Phasers warm, but operating within spec. We still have plenty of torpedoes left."

"Good. Winchester, fleet status?"

"We have reinforcements coming in now from the Klingons sir." Winchester scanned his screen. "Looks like the Andromedans are falling back off us a bit....in fact they definitely are. They're cloaking."

Lisa made her way over to his console and looked over his shoulder. "Plot their course if you can, see if we can get a general idea of where they'll be hiding."

"Yes ma'am."

Smithy looked up at her. "What d'you think?"

Lisa came back down into the command area. "Time to send in the scout ships? Maybe we'll get lucky. If the scouts find anything then we could have every ship we have now standing by to engage. If they don't find anything, then we take a breather and get more ships ready."

"Sounds like a plan. Riggs, tell all personnel to stand down from Red Alert. Get me the Mortum Hesta."

"Aye sir.....Captain Thulinuk on the screen."

"Good evening Smithy. Your intervention was right on time."

"Always know how to make an entrance." Smithy grinned at his friend. "We're currently working up a plan of action for the next stage of proceedings. I've got my Ops guy plotting various courses that they could have followed so we can send in the scouts."

"We can have several wings of D14s here to co-ordinate with your forces."

"Cheers, I'll let our teams know. You in need of any repairs?"

"No. We do need some time for shield regen and to let our weapons cool down, but we intend to hold position here, just in case something happens."

Smithy nodded. "Alright. Tigermoth out." He turned to the helm. "Elkins, lay in a course for the co-ordinates Maxwell gave us for the SOD meeting station. Engage, Transwarp speed."

*************

SOD Station 641Alpha
2345hrs EST
Command Level


"What time do you call this, Captain?!"

Commodore Ellis stomped out into the command centre, a snarl etched on his features. "I was in bed! I was enjoying being in bed! You better have a damn good reason for getting me up!"

Ghelev patiently waited for him to stop ranting. "The Tigermoth is here. Captain Smith's ship. You know, one of the people who may just be able to save us from complete oblivion. Sir."

Ellis narrowed his eyes. "Alright, what the hell does the good Starfleet officer want?"

"All available ships. Starfleet are sending scouts in to find the Andromedan fleet, they want a taskforce ready to engage as soon as the Andromedans come out of hiding."

"He can't have any. We aren't done testing all the new equipment, we barely have skeleton crews."

"We have several ships we can send out right now, sir. I've checked it with their engineering crews. And my ship stands ready."

Ellis shook his head. "No, Captain. SOD will send out ships when they are good and ready, and I say we aren't readt. Is that clear?"

"Crystal, sir."

*************
USS Tigermoth-A
0005 hrs EST

"Okay Ghelev, thanks. I'll be over in a few minutes."

Smithy waved at Riggs to close the comm link, and turned to Lisa. "You fancy coming along? Watch the master at work?"

Lisa grinned. "No way. If I go along I'll feel obliged to restrain you, and that'd only make you grumpy."

"Fair enough. If I'm not back in twenty minutes, wait longer."

*************

SOD Station 641Alpha
0015hrs EST
Command Level

The transporter effect had barely cleared his eyes before Smithy was stepping off the platform. "Morning Ghelev, hope I'm keeping your boss up."

Ghelev shook his hand. "Follow me, he's stewing in his office."

*************
Commodore's Office

Ellis looked up from his computer. "Ah, the great Captain Smith. I thought Ghelev had made my position clear to you."

"He did." Smithy sat, and grinned at Ellis. "However, I'm not sure that my position was made clear, so I'm here to do it in person."

"Oh? And what is your position, Captain?"

"Well, it's quite simple." He leaned forward. "You have fifteen ships here that can be made battle ready in the next hour. You will get all available engineering teams together for that task, and get them crewed. You will then send them out to the Barrier Zone."

Ellis started to pale under the full force of The Look. "W-what makes you think I'll do that?"

*************
Command Level
0020hrs EST


"That went well."

Smithy strolled towards the transporter. Ghelev eyed him curiously. "You threatened him with a photon grenade!"

"Like I said, that went well. Been ages since I was able to bring one of these props out." He pulled the arming pin out and handed the grenade to Ghelev. "Rubber, with some flashing lights and a power cell imbedded in it. Remarkably effective negotiation tool."

The two men stopped by the transporter pad. Ghelev shook his head. "He'll be calling the President as we speak."

"Let him. I've got bigger things to worry about than Maxwell." Smithy frowned. "Watch your back Ghelev. Something's brewing, and it smells worse than the coffee at DS4. If I were you, I'd leave here right now."

*************
*************

[James Smith]

Little bit more for y'all....

*************
Chapter 3 -  War (part 2)

*************
SOD Station 641Alpha
20th March 2395
0840hrs EST
Commodore's Office


Ellis paced about nervously, waiting for the comm link to establish. I'm done for....there is no way he will let me live.

The computer chimed up. "Link established." He dropped into his chair and activated the screen. "Mr President?"

"What can I do for you Ellis?"

"Sir, I have to inform you....Captain Smith was here several hours ago. He has taken control of a number of ships here, they have headed out to the Barrier Zone."

"I see....this is most disappointing."

"Sir, he threatened me with a photon grenade!"

Maxwell's image wore a thin smile at that. "Ah, the rubber grenade. One of his many negotiating tools."

Ellis' face had begun to redden. "Rubber?!"

"Don't feel too bad Ellis, many people have been caught out by him using that old trick. Did you deal with Ghelev?"

"Captain Ghelev seems to have....disappeared, sir. His ship left here apparently un-noticed, I have my best people running through our sensor logs now....but...."

"Very well Commodore. I shall have to deal with that later. What is the status of the rest of our ships with you?"

Ellis shifted nervously. "We estimate that they require another day of system integration tests, Mr President....the new weapons arrays are taking some getting used to."

"Good. Continue your work, I will be arriving to take charge of those ships in two days." The screen winked off, Maxwell's image replaced by the SOD logo.

Ellis breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe I'll live through this after all....

*************
USS Tigermoth-A
0840hrs EST
Bridge

"You still here Riggs?"

Riggs turned to see Lisa leave the turbolift. "I had some calibration work to do on the transpace communications array ma'am, figured I ought to do it while we were at Condition Green."

"Rare event." Lisa studied the tactical plot on the main viewscreen. "Klingons have nearly finished their search pattern, no joy. Damn."

"We have scouts a little way further out Commander. Maybe one of them will find something."

Lisa frowned. "I'm not holding my breath. Andromedan cloaking devices are much better than anything any of the Alpha and Beta quadrant powers have, aside from the phase cloak of course."

She turned as Riggs' console chirped up. "Message from the Klingon lead scout ship, they have something. A dust cloud, with strange readings coming from inside it. They want a cruiser there to investigate."

Lisa nodded. Always nice to be pleasantly surprised. "Right. Get a full compliment of bridge officers up here." She tapped her comm badge. "Bridge to Captain Smith. You better get up here honey, the Klingons found something for us to take a look at."

"On my way up."

Officers began filling up the bridge, taking their consoles and getting settled back in. Smithy walked in, clutching a couple of coffee cups. "If you're wondering, they're both for me. Meds have knocked me for six."

Lisa's face wore a look of concern. "Look, if you want to take some time out to try and get recharged then I'll be okay up here."

"No, no....I want to see what this is all about." Smithy drained one cup of coffee and threw the empty into a storage bin next to the turbolift. "Helm, you have the co-ordinates?"

"Yes sir."

"Then get out there. Riggs, get me Thulinuk."

"Onscreen sir."

"Good morning Smithy. We are heading out to the location of our scouts now."

"Okay Thulinuk. We'll meet you there." He turned to Ops. "Sensor status?"

Winchester turned to face him. "Main and secondary sensor arrays are up and ready to begin scanning this cloud, high resoution mode. Tertiary sensor systems will be left for proximity detectors, just in case something decloaks nearby while I'm focussing on other things."

"Good." Smithy sat back and sipped at his coffee. Something was nagging at him.

"Do you feel it?"

He turned to Lisa. "What did you say hon?"

Lisa stared at him. "Something....I can feel something is about to happen."

Smithy stared back at his wife. That's pretty odd, even by this Universe's standards. "You're getting the same feelings I do? Flashes of insight, some kind of pre-cognitive vision?"

"I....I don't know....I mean...." She frowned. "Guess this is how you felt the first time it happened."

"Pretty much, yeah." Smithy held her hands in his. "Winchester, when we get to the cloud I want you to-"

"-direct a focussed sensor sweep on the lower right quadrant." Lisa finished. "That was right, wasn't it?"

"Yeah. That was right. Winchester?"

Winchester nodded back. "Affirmative."

"Approaching cloud." Elkins half-turned. "Bringing us to full-stop."

"Winchester, initiate sweep." Lisa stood, staring at the tactical plot up on the screen. "Right there...."

*************
*************

[Scottish Andy]

Hi Smithy! Another great installment. I really love your dialogue:

"Fair enough. If I'm not back in twenty minutes, wait longer."

This kinda stuff keeps me coming back. That and the fact of your good characters--if not exactly in the wholesome TNG style we all know and sigh about. *grin*

[James Smith]

Hi Smithy! Another great installment. I really love your dialogue:

"Fair enough. If I'm not back in twenty minutes, wait longer."

This kinda stuff keeps me coming back. That and the fact of your good characters--if not exactly in the wholesome TNG style we all know and sigh about. *grin*

Yeah, never really got the "wholesome" thing. TNG and beyond, characters were prortrayed in a way that I didn't find all that real, aside from the odd exception. In the case of this fic, we have people here who are fighting for their lives (and the lives of everyone in the damn galaxy right now.....) and being screwed by a bureaucracy that really only cares about itself. There comes a point where, instead of getting angry about it (which they do as well, but let us leave that one aside for a second), they start to behave the same way that Hawkeye Pierce did in M*A*S*H - they make fun of it, they joke about it, and for the most part they don't talk seriously about it. Despite all the crap, all the adversity, all the battles that he has seen, Smithy (the character) does hold on to that very Human sense of humour regarding his situation. Ironic, considering that he isn't entirely Human....

Anyway, Smithy (the real person) will be posting more soon hopefully. Starting to get back into the swing of things now. Hope y'all are enjoying it 

[Grim Reaper]

you bet!

[Governor Ronjar]

Darn right I'm enjoying! I was slow to get in on it for a while, but am growing ever more fond.

Never saw TNG's crew as wholesome. More like creepy and sureal. All those pastels on the bridge and the space-hooker at Picard's left... or...right too, come to think about it. And the Klingon who loved everything about being Klingon but was raised by humans... After seeing the Elian Gonzalez thing, I figure Janet Reno or whoever would have Worf foceibly removed from Earth and sent back to Qo'noS.

So far as crew's I liked, 2 of the series had it going for me. TOS and ENT. Not a character I didn't like outta either.

But I don't mean to turn your story page into a thread, here. Lemme just say again, bravo and please bring more on!

--the guv!

[James Smith]

Been far too long again hasn't it? Got to stop doing that 

Just a veeeeery short bit to finish off Chapter 3. Really am going to try and get back to doing this for a while, as I could use the diversion from a few things that are going on in my life right now.

*************
Chapter 3 - War (part 3)

*************
USS Tigermoth-A
20th March 2395
0854hrs EST
Bridge

"Anything?"

Winchester scanned through the reams of data coming in. "Definitely, ma'am. But what it is....I can't tell you." He glanced up from his console. "The dust cloud is playing havok with our equipment, even if we went into the cloud we'd never get the scanner resolution required to tell us what's going on in there."

Smithy frowned at the tactical plot, then turned to Lisa. "I've got nothing. Judging by the look on your face, neither have you."

Lisa nodded. "Just that brief flash." She shook her head. "Something is still nagging at me though."

"That would be common-or-garden paranoia. Trust me, I've been in this situation for a long time." Smithy stood, and turned to Winchester. "New plan. You have a rough idea where those readings are coming from in there right?"

"Yes, sir. To within approximately fourteen kilometers."

"Right. Tractor beam. Use it like a....like a cocktail stick. See if you can stab anything with it."

Winchester started quizzically at his CO. "That one in the manual sir?"

"Page 84. Look it up sometime, comes under the heading of 'Daft Stuff That David Harriman Came Up With'. We used to use a similar trick during the Dominion War."

Winchester turned back to his console. "Engaging tractor, I'm going to move across the area in hundred metre increments horizontally along the Galactic plane, then move up fifty metres and do the same."

"Sounds good." Smithy sat back down, rubbing absently at his knee. He caught the eyes of his wife and several crewmembers looking at him in concern, tossing them a 'don't say a word' glance.

Lisa wasn't deterred. "Look, if you want to go stomp around the ship for a while to get some circulation back, I'll hold the fort up here."

"I'll be alright. Think my system's caught up to all those meds, starting to have less of an effect." Smithy glanced over to Ops. "Winchester?"

"Nothing yet sir."

A tense silence descended over the bridge, save for the soft hum of the ship's systems and the odd blip from Winchester's console. Everyone looked nervous, except for Smithy who simply scowled at the main screen with his arms folded. He was used to this kind of tension.

"Sir, got something! Energy readings are increasing!"

Smithy snapped into action, jumping to his feet. "Red alert. Shields to maximum, weapons charged. Elkins, back us away from the cloud."

Everyone stared at the screen as Andromedan vessels slowly emerged. Lisa glanced up at Smithy. "That's a lot of ships."

"Winchester?"

Winchester turned from his Ops console. "Reading over a hundred signatures. Fourty of those are dreadnought sized."

Smithy shot a glance back to Riggs. "Send out the call. I want every ship we have in the area out here to engage this lot."

Riggs set to work. "Aye sir.....receiving acknowledgments from Klingon taskforce and our ships."

"Still leaves us outnumbered." Lisa turned to Riggs. "Send a message back to Antares on the transpace link. We're going to need those ships soon."

"Yes ma'am."

Drelkar turned from his console. "Klingon taskforce is forming up. Starfleet and SOD ships taking up positions."

"Standby on weapons. Elkins, head straight at them on my mark, full impulse. Riggs, tie me into the fleet channel."

"You're on audio."

Smithy sat back down, and stabbed at the comm panel on his chair. "This is Captain Smith. All Klingon ships, follow us in close. Starfleet and SOD forces, hand back in a fire support role, lay down a torpedo barrage. Make sure that those Andromedan ships stay pegged back, don't let them get around us."

"All ships acknowledging, sir."

"Elkins, mark!" The Andromedan ships swelled on the screen. "Drelkar, fire!"

*************

[Commander Maxillius]

Very good!  Now, can we not wait 4 months between installments? 

[James Smith]

Very good!  Now, can we not wait 4 months between installments? 

Given my past track record.....I make no promises

[Commander Maxillius]

don't worry, it was worth the wait

[James Smith]

I changed my mind a couple of days ago about how I wanted the refitted Tigermoth-A to look. WickedZombie built this new version of his refit Connie, the Valiant. I downloaded a BC version of it earlier this week....and I reckon it's gorgeous. It also makes sense - as a war design, the original Constitution and the refit Constitution both have a few problems, chief among them the width of the neck section. It would just be far, far too easy to slice or blow straight through it. Hell, if Khan's phasers had been a couple of meters higher in TWOK he might have sliced the saucer from the engineering hull. There's also no obvious torpedo coverage to the aft, something that the Klingon competition (the K'Tinga) does have. WZ's refit builds up the neck somewhat, and includes a photon torpedo launcher mounted at the rear of the engineering hull. The engineering hull is built up a touch, the primary hull has also been pretty heavily altered - much as you'd expect with a refit as extensive as the one the Tigermoth-A went through.






While it doesn't have the beauty of the TOS or movie Enterprises, it does look damned good IMO

[Commander Maxillius]

It makes much more sense that way.  It looks like a mini Ambassador, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

[James Smith]

*************
Chapter 4 - Stage Left (part 1)

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USS Tigermoth-A
20th March 2395
0902hrs EST
Bridge

The ship rumbled as the first few shots from the Andomredan forces impacted the shields. Smithy watched the main screen as phaser beams lashed out from his vessel to strike several targets. Disruptor pulses from the Klingon taskforce pummeled various Andromedan ships, while photon torpedoes from the Federation fleet exploded and forced those ships to stay in tight.

"Elkins, evasive pattern of your choice. Drelkar, continue firing."

Winchester turned to face the captain. "Sir, I've got more contacts coming out of that dust cloud."

"How many?"

"Unable to get a good reading because of the weapons discharge, but we're looking at at least another fifty....make that another hundred small ships."

Smithy made his way over to Winchester's station. "How can that be? We've picked up no evidence of any wormholes, transwarp networks or anything...." His voice tailed off as a thought occurred. "The dust cloud?"

"It's conceivable that the cloud was formed by the gravitational attraction of a wormhole. It's rare though, and the cloud formed is never as extensive as this."

The ship pitched to starboard suddenly as Elkins threw her into a tight turn. Everyone fought to stay upright. "Sorry sir, needed to find some room."

"Don't worry about it." Smithy willed his knee to keep him standing. Don't fall down, don't fall down, don't fall down. "If that wormhole has been there long enough, it could have formed this cloud. That means we have the Andromedans knocking on our back door."

"There's still no way to confirm that there is a wormhole in there sir."

Explosions on the main screen pulled Smithy's attention away from the Ops console. A couple of Klingon ships crumbled under fire from Andromedan vessels. "Drelkar, target that group of ships, fire at will." He made his way back to his chair. "Reckon we need to withdraw yet?"

Lisa shook her head. "The Klingons would be upset if we did. Besides, we've hopefully got re-inforcements on the way from Antares."

"Alright. Riggs, signal the Federation fleet. I want all the destroyers, escorts and frigates to come in tight with us, the cruisers can stay out wide to provide fire support."

"Fleet is acknowledging sir."

*************
Antares Command Post
20th March 2395
0915hrs EST
Command Centre


"Admiral, all available ships have now left to join up with the fleet. We have a transwarp capable ship running ahead of them to lay a conduit down, all ships are currently running at stable transwarp speeds."

Harriman finished reading the PADD in his hands. "What percentage of full transwarp speed are they getting?"

"Approximately 55%, it was the only way to stay within acceptable safety margins sir."

"Very well. Is the Tempest ready?"

"Skeleton crew is aboard, just waiting on you and Commander Harrison."

"Very well." He tapped his comm badge. "Commander Harrison, report to the Tempest immediately."

"On my way Admiral."

Harriman turned to Lieutenant Eva. "You're in command until I return. I want engineering crews to continue working on the ships here, Utopia Planitia are also working on more. Try and scare up some more crews as well, I don't want to have to start automating these ships as we need them to be combat effective."

"Aye sir."


*************
USS Tempest
20th March 2395
0920hrs EST
Bridge

"Admiral on the bridge!"

Harriman stepped out of the turbolift and down towards his chair. "As you were. Helm, you have the co-ordinates?"

Ensign Loval glanced back. "Course laid in Admiral. Engine room reports ready for transwarp speed at your discretion."

"Thank you." Harriman glanced at Harrison. "You look nervous Commander."

Harrison's face coloured. "I've never been aboard a transwarp capable vessel before, sir."

"Relax. The days of nacelle implosions are long gone. Helm, engage. Best possible speed."

*************
USS Tigermoth-A
20th March 2395
1140hrs EST
Bridge

"Shields down to 47%!"

Smithy made his way over to the Engineering console. "Auxilliary power currently being used by....phasers, damn it. Alright....tie in power fom the storage batteries to the shield grid, that should firm them up for a little while." He glanced over at Lisa. "Not going to be enough is it?"

"You're the engineer." Lisa shot a glance over at Winchester. "Are they still coming?"

"Yes ma'am. We've destroyed 83 of them, they've added around 150 more to their numbers. The Klingons have lost 14 ships, 35 have arrived to join the party. We've lost 4 ships, SOD has lost nearly all of theirs."

"Any sign of our re-inforcements?"

"Not yet."

The bridge tilted suddenly under weapons fire, before righting itself almost as violently. Lisa glanced around. "James?"

"Down here."

"Oh no." Lisa rushed to the back of the bridge. "Don't try and get up, just straighten that leg out."

Smithy looked up at her. "Yes ma'am." He winced as he pulled his leg out from underneath himself. "That'll teach me to stand up during a battle."

"Shields firming up now sir!" Drelkar called back. "I'm switching them back over to standard combat power mode."

"Good." Smithy dragged himself upright with a little help from the console next to him. "Reckon I'll go and sit down for a bit."

Despite her worry, Lisa couldn't help but smile. "Probably for the best. Riggs, any word from Antares yet?"

"Just that ships were being sent ma'am."

The ship shuddered under another big hit, one of the science stations erupting in a shower of sparks. Smithy ducked as a bit of debris flew across the bridge. "Someone make sure that station isn't on fire please."

Winchester grabbed an extinguisher off the wall rack near him and directed a stream at the blackened console. "No fire here." His attention returned to his own console as it began beeping. "Sir, new contacts!"

"Andromedans?"

"No, Starfleet!" He stared at his screen closely. "Uh sir, I think you ought to see the lead ship."

Smithy threw him a puzzled look. "On-screen."

Smithy and Lisa stared at it. Lisa spoke first. "I think it's quite pretty."

"Yeah, nice lines. Those nacelles are a little different, I quite like that."

The Tigermoth class USS Tempest flew by the ship she had been built to emulate, phaser beams lancing out from her. Neatly diving to avoid the return fire, she swung around to take up a flanking position with the Tigermoth.

Riggs turned. "Admiral Harriman is hailing, sir."

"On-screen."

Harriman's image sprang into focus on the viewscreen. "What d'you think?"

Smithy grinned. "I like the nacelles, why didn't we get them at the refit?"

"They're still fairly experimental. We're not even sure if they're a huge improvement yet, we haven't done any speed trials. Hell, haven't done any trials full stop."

"No time like the present I guess. How many ships did you bring with you?"

"50. All we could get ready this quick."

"Hey, better than nothing. Beers are on me when this is over. Turning over command of the fleet to you."

"Very well. Continue as you were doing, while we thrash out a plan we've been considering over here. Tempest out."

Smithy closed out the link. "Drelkar, Elkins, you heard the man - continue as we were. Weapons status Drelkar?"

"Phasers heating up, but still within tolerance. Running low on photon torpedo casings, but we have plenty of quantum torpedoes."

"Use a few more then, let's keep the phaser useage back a bit to let them cool. Fire at will."

*************
*************

Not that happy with it, but it'll do for now 

[Scottish Andy]

Good enough, James. However, are you saying that Starfleet is building a new class of Constitutions to the Wicked Zombie specs you displayed above?

I'm not averse to the idea itself, but I can't really see it happening. I suppose it could be justified that they are now small ships easily built, and with a proven track record, but it would be like building a WWII destroyer hull today out of modern metals, and fitting her with modern electronics, engines and weapons.

It could be done. Actually, would that be cheaper than designing a new hull from scratch? That would be an interesting feasibility study... 

As always, your character interation is first rate. I enjoy reading these characters.

[KOTH-KieranXC, Ret.]

I would imagine it would be a conversion of any mothballed Constitutions still around this long... but that's just my guess. Smithy?

[James Smith]

However, are you saying that Starfleet is building a new class of Constitutions to the Wicked Zombie specs you displayed above?

I would imagine it would be a conversion of any mothballed Constitutions still around this long... but that's just my guess. Smithy?

K-Fo has it correct.

In this universe I write in, there were the 12 Constitution class starships mentioned in TOS. There was also at the time of TOS a 'shadow' fleet which operated a further six Constitution class ships in actions against the Klingons and Romulans. These went through various upgrades over the years, up until the end of TOS. After V'Ger, the remaining Constitutions in Starfleet were upgraded to Enterprise specs along with the surviving ones from the shadow fleet. More new-build Constitutions were made to Enterprise specs up until 2288 when the Excelsior project finally got off the ground properly.

Tigermoth-A was built on the bones of the USS Tricolore, one of the shadow fleet ships that was hauled out of the mothball yards. The refit design had been first tested on USS Valiant by the Omega Sector Fleetyards, and the designs then passed on to Starfleet. It seemed silly to have the 'Moth be unique considering how effective she's been. I did originally plan to have Tigermoth class ships as being quite widespread by this point (all the Constitution class ships remaining in mothballs would have been upgraded), I'm not sure what happened to that draft. One of those things I guess

USS Tempest (a cookie for whoever has spotted the naming convention, it'll become even clearer after you see the names of the next couple of ships in line) is a refit based on both the OSF design and the years of experience gained with the Tigermoth - what works, what doesn't. As Smithy and Lisa have noted - new nacelles, there will be other differences. I've refined the Tigermoth specs to something believable a) considering the size of the ship, b) considering the technology available by 2395, c) considering that most of the labs the original Constitution design carried wouldn't be present on a TacFleet ship and d) considering that I didn't want a God ship. I wanted a ship that was damned tough but that could still be hurt.

9 Type 12A phaser arrays - more compact than arrays seen up to now, with a slight tendency to overheat due to all the hardware being in a fairly confined area.
A quantum torpedo turret on the underside of the saucer.
Two photon torpedo launchers in the neck, one at the aft of the engineering hull.
High capacity SIF setup, reasonably strong shields.

I'm not averse to the idea itself, but I can't really see it happening. I suppose it could be justified that they are now small ships easily built, and with a proven track record, but it would be like building a WWII destroyer hull today out of modern metals, and fitting her with modern electronics, engines and weapons.

It would, which is why I favor refitting of old ships.

It could be done. Actually, would that be cheaper than designing a new hull from scratch? That would be an interesting feasibility study... 

Not being a starship engineer, I'm not sure of the problems involved But I'd imagine that building new frames from an old design would be workable in this case - after all, the refitted ships do still have the original frame inside them. Yes, the refits are extensive but they are still built on the original ships rather than keeping, say, one structural beam from the saucer section in order to justify calling it a refit rather than a new build.

Interesting point actually - what was left of the original Enterprise when she went through the refit prior to the V'Ger encounter? Aside from all new warp drive, all new weapons fit, new shields, new bridge etc she was also quite a lot different in shape. There can only have been the bare frame left over really.

[Governor Ronjar]

I find your above to be quite within reason. Going by some of the CGI ships seen in DS9 (The Centaur) and a few other smashed together CGI craft glimpsed in the background during the Dominion war, we know that Starfleet played around with a lot of old hulls and wrecked salvage to keep their fleet at levels to fight with. I thought it was one of the few novel ideas Trek had ever used, but I also noticed they never really centered on it either.

That is a wicked nasty, mean looking Conny you got pictured, too, btw. I like her.

If any charitable soul out there would feel like putting USS Endeavour NCC-2007 on a standard Excelsior and post it for me, I'd be greatly obliged!

Anywho, I'm still digging your story! Love fleet actions. Just got through with a small scale one for my own story #9. Keep up the stellar work. BTW, REALLY loved the fake grenade thing! Keep stuff like that coming!

-thu guv!

[Wicked Zombie]

Knew I'd forgotten something: Tigermoth regs, since JS' been writing about his TNG Connie as long as I've been building mine. For those interested, the summary of the Valiant's back story is posted here.