Guide:2270-2300 - Troubled Homefront

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2270-2300 - Troubled Homefront

In the aftermath of the intrusion by the V’Ger entity, Star Fleet of the early 2270s lived through an escalation boom, with nearly unlimited resources provided for the prevention of any further invasions of similar kind. The de facto source of these resources, the Organian Peace Treaty, proved but a temporary lull in Klingon-Federation political and military intrigue. Only the stern leadership of Fleet Admiral Robert Conrad and his legendary successor Heiharchio Nogura had kept Star Fleet from overreacting to the Klingon threat in the preceding decades, but when these powerful figures retired from Star Fleet command, other forces began vying for power in the highest echelons. The infamous coup attempt by Vice Admiral Vaughan Rittenhouse, even though doomed to fail from the outset, cast deep shadows over the public image of Star Fleet – shadows the brief return of Fleet Admiral Nogura and the resurrection of the exploration program were hard pressed to disperse.

For the duration of the late 2270s, the militaristic forces inside Star Fleet were again technically outnumbered by the more peaceful factions. But despite its official peaceful doctrine, Star Fleet continued to prepare a huge fleet of modern cruisers with significant military as well as exploration capabilities. Also, the major programs for production of modern dreadnoughts and so-called "space control ships" were finally providing results. Combined with transwarp development, which required high powered testbeds of gigantic dimensions, they would culminate in the Excelsior class, the next "backbone" vessel of Star Fleet and a worthy successor to the famous Constitution heavy cruisers.

The Klingon Empire’s response was to uprate its battle cruiser fleet to the fearsome standard known as the K’t’inga class, and to introduce cloaking capability to most of its naval vessels. But the Klingon economy was slowly descending towards chaos in the aftermath of the mutually disastrous alliance with Romulans. Some visionary leaders foresaw the inevitable and strove for closer diplomatic and ultimately economic ties with the Federation. Others sought for the answer in increased military spending and frantic conquest of new worlds for new resources. No headway could be made in the UFP front, however, not even after it had become painfully evident that the Organian peace treaty no longer was being enforced at all. Yet neither side could back off, not after a series of provocations centered around the Genesis incident that introduced a new potential superweapon of immense power.

To offset the balance of terror, a far-flung conspiracy was engineered by Star Fleet hardliners who, under the leadership of Fleet Admiral Anson Cartwright, aimed for an offensive against the Klingon Empire. Simultaneously and perhaps not coincidentally, relations with the Romulan Star Empire grew warmer. These two troubling developments came to a peak in the Praxis incident, where a key Klingon energy production facility exploded and left the whole Empire badly damaged. The conspirators saw the right moment had come, and seized it. A chain of assassinations was begun to pave way for a declaration of war against the weakened Empire.

However, the plan of the hard-liners required support of Klingon and Romulan factions to succeed. And complex plots often end in a disaster, as was luckily the case with the coup of ‘93. The actions of one man, Captain James T. Kirk, saved the life of president Ra-Ghotarei and the integrity of the Federation. In the aftermath of the aborted coup, relationships between the UFP and the Klingon Empire drastically improved, and a thorough cleansing of Star Fleet resulted in changes in doctrine and also in equipment.

Two main fields of technology underwent rapid changes in this era. Warp propulsion inched closer to galactic standard, as the heritage of spool-coil engines was left behind and solid-state warp coils were rearranged to the linear plasma feed configuration that still persists today. Not only has the concept proven its validity, but the early LN-64 linear warp engine itself is still in widespread use in the 24th century. Also rapidly developed in this era, transporter technology moved towards much more dynamic control of the matter stream, thanks to deepening understanding of this originally so alien and mysterious field of science.

Ships deployed during this period have great commonality in construction as well as in propulsive and tactical systems, and many designs have been perpetuated into the latter half of the 24th century. Only the most warlike designs have been totally abandoned, due both to the more peaceful posture of Star Fleet in the early 2300s and to the fast pace of weapons technology development in the subsequent years.

2270-2300 - The Ships

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Updated to April/May 2016 version

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