Star Trek: Renaissance Technical Manual, Appendix B

Written by Chris Edmonds and Dan Carlson

Images by Robert Crosswell and Chris Edmonds

Appendix B: Allied and Threat Force Spacecraft

This section deals with vessels operated by foreign powers in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. In the cases of allied organizations, most information has been obtained through freedom of information protocols and diplomatic channels. For threat spacecraft specifications, data has been compiled from Starfleet Intelligence analyses of sensor readings and captured units, along with other classified sources. Therefore, all such listings should be considered as estimates.

The following list covers the most prominent classes of starship which have been launched since the end of the Dominion War in 2375. Older designs, including the Klingon Negh’var-class dreadnought, the Romulan D’Deridex-class Warbird, or the Cardassian Galor-class strike cruiser have been covered in previous references and are not included here.

B.1: Romulan Star Navy

Relations with the Romulan Empire have undergone drastic change over the past thirty years. From the tense “cold war” attitude that prevailed after the end of Romulan isolation in 2364 to the cautious but profitable cooperation in the face of Dominion aggression, to the final detente spearheaded by Captain William Riker of the USS Titan in 2380, relations have been rocky but gradually improving. Thanks to the more open contacts these days—including the exchange of senior officers from each side’s naval service—the Federation today knows more about the Romulans and their starships than ever before. Indeed, even specifications concerning some of the most classified technologies have been shared, including high-capacity plasma conduits and the quantum slipstream drive.

Valdore-class Warbird

Romulan design philosophy has long relied on visually impressive starships and intimidating size as weapons in the arsenals of their fleet. Although the tradition of incorporating a “Bird of Prey” in the hull (a practice dating back to the 2150’s or earlier), such markings had little effect on the enemies which the Empire faced in the late 24th century—most notably the Jem’Hadar. Although the D’deridex-class Warbird was effective in its occasional encounters with the Federation and the Klingons, it found itself at a severe disadvantage once the Romulans joined the Dominion War in late 2374. Outclassed in terms of weaponry, hindered by its massive, underpowered bulk, the D’deridex proved to be too inflexible for all-out interstellar combat.

The Romulan High Command realized these shortcomings almost immediately after its entrance into the war, and Praetor Neral quickly ordered the construction of a new class of warbird using the most advanced technologies available to the Empire. Despite a rushed design process and a breakneck construction pace, the new Valdore-class launched too late to see any action in the Dominion War; indeed, the first ships were not launched until two years after the end of the war, in 2377.

As the new pride of the Romulan fleet, the Valdores were a key piece in the political turmoil when Reman soldier Shinzon seized control of the government in 2379. When loyalist and reactionary members of the Romulan fleet engaged Shinzon’s flagship, the Scimitar, the Valdore’s reputation was permanently tarred. Fighting alongside Starfleet’s latest in advanced hardware, the Sovereign-class USS Enterprise-E, the two Valdore-class warbirds were both disabled within minutes after entering combat, while the Enterprise was able to maintain in continuous, single combat for nearly 20 minutes, sustaining massive hull damage yet still remaining operational.

In the aftermath of this embarrassment, the High Command went into a panic. With their best warships utterly outperformed, they went back to the drawing board, eventually developing the D’vorx-class warbird. The existing Valdores in service were relegated to low-priority missions and all production halted. Today, only a small handful remain in service, and are a relatively rare sight.

D’vorx-class Warbird

The D’Vorx-class Warbird is the Romulan Star Navy’’s answer to the Starfleet’s Pelagic-class of 2382, having completely replaced the grossly oversized D’Deridex-class Warbirds as the most recognizable symbol of the Star Navy’s power. The Romulan Navy’s design board had designed the D’Vorx with only one purpose in mind: ship-to-ship combat. It is neither a troop nor assault craft carrier like the D’Deridex, making the necessary internal space requirements much smaller.

The Romulan Navy took some lessons learned from the Federation Starfleet’s preferred weapons configurations, providing much better arc coverage with energy weapons than the mostly frontal-placed weapons on the D’Deridex and Valdore. Four disruptors are emplaced on the dorsal and ventral aft regions, effectively rendering the tried-and-true tactic of getting behind Romulan ships a futile gesture. Aside from learning lessons from Starfleet, they also garnered some design ideas from observing the Klingon ships. Klingons prefer to place sometimes absurdly large disruptor weapons into the bows of their ships, using them for orbital bombardment and attacks on other stationary targets. The D’Vorx carries two Class-VIII disruptors, which are housed in large cavities attached to the habitat core behind the distinctive Romulan bird head. The D’Vorx also sports ablative armor, which was inspired by observing it in use on Starfleet’s Defiant-class (and others), and also through sheer guesswork, as they did not know the metallurgical formulas on how to make the alloys in the armor. The D’Vorx’s armor isn’t quite as refined as Starfleet’s ablative armor, but still provides better protection than the traditional armor plating.

D’Vorx-class vessels comprise approximately 60% of the Romulan fleet, slowly usurping the aging Valdore and D’Deridex classes. Valdores are all but obsolete, but D’Deridex-class Warbirds still are useful for mass troop transporting, due to their immense size. D’Deridexes and D’Vorxes are often seen paired together, one providing immense volumes of troops, the other providing heavy capital firepower. The current flagship of the Romulan fleet, the IRW Yerevis, is of the D’Vorxclass.

However, the recent launch of Starfleet’s Phoenix-class starship has presented a major problem for the Romulan fleet. Recently, the Star Navy has begun construction of an even greater Warbird, the Lukan-class. Though vastly superior in terms of combat prowess, the Lukan still has a long way to go to reach the numbers of the D’Vorx, ensuring that the D’Vorx class will be around well into the 25th century.

Lukan-class Warbird

Although the Romulan Empire and the Federation have become allies in the past three decades, tensions between the two superpowers remain, and the two military services continue to engage in a heated technological race. Starfleet’s recent launch of the Phoenix-class heavy cruiser has given it unprecedented combat and mobility capabilities with its advanced quantum slipstream drive which allows them to travel more than 15 times faster than the fastest conventional warp ship in any local power’s forces.

The Romulans acquired slipstream technology through a special technology-sharing agreement with the Federation in 2397 (see Section 3.0). Since then, they have been busy developing a home-grown version of the propulsion system. Following the successful test of a prototype hull in 2400, design and construction of the new Lukan class began early in 2401. After learning from the mistakes of the Valdore class 20 years earlier, construction of this new warbird has not been rushed, and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2403.

Specifications of the IRW Lukan are highly classified and unavailable to Federation officials at this time.

B.2: Klingon Imperial Defense Force

While the Federation’s relations with the Romulans have generally improved over the past 25 years, the relationship with the Klingon Empire has seriously declined, in large part due to the protracted civil war, ongoing since 2387. Matters were not helped by the enormous losses the Klingon fleet suffered during the Dominion War, ended over 10 years previously and from which the Empire had still not fully recovered.

In the years since the Dominion War, the Klingons have sought to use brute force over technological advances, even more so than in the past. Rather than innovating new designs and new technologies, the High Council has continued the production of outdated designs including the B’rel-class Bird-of-Prey, the Vor’cha-class attack cruiser, and the Negh’var-class dreadnought. Although these ships are seriously out of date, the Klingons continue to keep these ships in service as long as possible, wringing out every last possible use out of the design.

At the beginning of the 25th century, the Klingon Defense Forces are in serious danger of becoming obsolete on the interstellar stage. Although the Empire has received a steady stream of support from the Federation—often in the form of technology transfers such as quantum torpedo warhead technology and rapid nadion cascade emitters. (The Klingons have been provided with the quantum slipstream drive as stipulated in the technology-sharing agreement of the Third Khitomer Accords of 2380, but they have no resources to build such complex ships in great numbers. It is extremely unlikely that any ships equipped with that technology exist, or are even on the drawing board.)

Still embroiled in their fight to the death with the Reformist faction, the Empire is only barely holding its own, struggling to maintain the integrity of its borders while futilely chasing down various splinter groups of the Reformist militias. Although the Empire maintains a formidable fleet in terms of numbers, it is expected that the Klingon fleet will continue to fall behind in the technological race. Only time will tell what that technical inferiority will bring.

Mak’tan-class Attack Cruiser

As the Romulans and the Federation expanded their technological capabilities by leaps and bounds in the late 2370’s and early 2380’s, the Klingon High Command finally woke up to the reality that their forces were losing ground, both on the physical and the scientific battlefield. Having restored most of the numbers that were lost in the self-destructive offensive waged by Chancellor Gowron during the last months of the Dominion War, the High Command set about developing more powerful, more capable ships that could face the finest the other powers had to offer.

That goal, however, was more easily set than reached. Despite continuing technological support from the Federation in terms of weaponry and propulsion, the Empire’s increasing internal troubles meant that research and development was severely hampered. Rather than a new medium-sized cruiser mounting firepower equivalent to the massive Negh’var-class dreadnought, the Klingons ended up with an improved descendant of the Vor’cha attack cruiser.

The Mak’tan is certainly not a failure, considering its capabilities, but it never reached the high levels of performance which the High Command had set. Although the Mak’tan has gradually supplemented some of the older Vor’cha-class cruisers in service, the Empire continues to prefer fielding larger numbers of smaller ships which it can use to try to overwhelm its enemies—especially the tenacious Reformist factions. Even today, the Mak’tan is present only in small numbers. Critics remain divided as to whether this lack of progress can be attributed to a flawed strategic building plan, or to a serious lack of resources and technical expertise at the Empire’s shipyard facilities.

K’tari-class Bird-of-Prey

The B’rel-class Bird-of-Prey is the single most definitive starship design of the Klingon Defense Forces. Originally entering service in 2282, the B’rel design went through many upgrades over the years, becoming one of the most flexible destroyer-type vessels in the known galaxy, and remained in continuous production until 2378. Unfortunately, by the time of the Dominion War, the B’rel’s age started to show through its massive losses to the Jem’Hadar, Cardassian, and Breen forces. Klingon High Command realized that it was time for a replacement class that took advantage of the latest technologies and could effectively stand against the likes of Starfleet’s Defiant-class destroyer or the Jem’Hadar attack fighter.

The result was the K’tari Bird-of-Prey: a warship with a clear relation to its venerable predecessor, but also exhibiting a quantum leap in capability. Among its enhancements are an advanced warp drive based on specifications shared by Starfleet, improved pulse disruptor cannons, and quantum torpedoes, also technology obtained from the Federation.

Once the design was finalized, the Klingons launched into production with characteristic zeal; within five years, nearly 300 new ships emerged from the construction yards. Since then, the K’tari has played a crucial role in the affairs of the Empire, most especially in the long-running Civil War. Several Reformist factions have been known to operate hijacked K’tari’s, but most often they have been encountered using older B’rel-class vessels. Although the design of the K’tari has fallen behind the cutting edge of technology as the Empire has been slowly consumed by its internal conflicts, it remains a formidable opponent.

B.3: Klingon Reformist Faction

The Klingon Reformist movement has fought at a serious disadvantage from the very beginning of its uprising against the authority of the High Council. Although diminished, the Imperial Fleet still had considerable advantages, and made good use of those advantages, particularly in the early years of the rebellion.

Little information is known about the inner workings of the Reformist militias. However, based on observation and many documented attacks, it seems that the Reformists have never been picky about the ships they use. Relying on anything they can get their hands on—from old B’rel-class Birds-of-Prey, retired K’t’inga-class cruisers, and hijacked Vor’cha-class heavy cruisers. Some groups have even been known to field ancient D7-class cruisers, nearly 160 years old, on occasion.

Although the Reformist faction has gained some concessions through the Federation-brokered peace agreement signed in early 2402, the central issues remain far from settled. It will yet be seen whether the long-running Klingon Civil War is truly ended.

Napoch-class Heavy Cruiser

The Napoch-class heavy cruiser is one very large unknown to Starfleet Intelligence. They have been largely unable to get any statistics other than what has been exhibited during the few encounters over the past few years. What they do know is that it is solely a Reformist starship with an advanced cloaking device.

During the 2380’s, the Klingon Defense Force desired a new warship to equal the strength of the Federation’s Pelagic-class and the Romulans’ D’Vorx-class. Two major designs were developed in parallel, but only one was chosen. The Reformists acquired the design information of the one not chosen, and one of the better-off Reformist factions built an undetermined number of these ships. The Reformists named the class “Napoch” after their beloved (and at that time still living) leader. They have a form reminiscent of the K’t’inga class launched in the late 23rd century.

One rather enigmatic feature of the Napoch is its cloaking device. It is unusually advanced for a Klingon cloaking device, possessing an nearly-perfect cloaking field. It is speculated that the Reformists must have acquired an advanced Romulan cloaking device (the only ones that have such refinements) somehow and reverse-engineered it so they could produce their own.

However, the Reformist movement effectively collapsed after the death of Napoch, and the remaining Napoch-class cruisers were claimed by various splinter factions which continued a guerilla-style war in the outlying Klingon territories. Numerous unconfirmed sightings took place along the Klingon-Federation border during this period (from 2390 to 2400). Recently, Starfleet has come into direct contact with several of these ships during its direct involvement in the Klingon Civil War. The USS Leviathan destroyed two cruisers during the campaign; it is believed that no more than two or three others remain, and these are likely in extremely poor condition due to the Reformists’ lack of resources and adequate support facilities.

** All specifications are estimates.

B.4: Q’tami Vessels

Practically nothing at all is known about the origin, society, purpose, or technology of the Q’tami Hegemony or their renegade Faction. Although the Hegemony is officially engaged in a “cultural exchange program” with the Federation, having assigned Ambassador Y’lan as an observer aboard the USS Enterprise-G, the flow of information has been noticeably one-sided—much to the frustration of Starfleet Intelligence. All information available has been gleaned from the few direct encounters Starfleet has made with Q’tami spacecraft—and practically all of that information still has a wide margin of error.

Worldship (Designation 2402/513: AX-0)

This starship—so large as to stretch the very definition of “ship”—was encountered when several crew members from the USS Enterprise travelled to the Q’tami Hegemony in late 2402. Aside from visual observations, no other data was obtained by the away team. It remains unknown whether this vessel is unique in the Hegemony.

Heavy Cruiser (Designation 2384/38: A-1)

This vessel was sighted several times at numerous locations across the Federation before official contact was made with the Hegemony in 2401. Nicknamed “The Bucket,” they are exponentially more powerful than a Federation Phoenix-class starship.

Light Cruiser (Designation 2402/85: A-2)

This smaller Q’tami ship has only been sighted once, under the control of the Faction during their attack on the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards in early 2402. Little information could be gleaned from this one encounter.

B.5: Other Organizations

Cardassian Haklon-class Transport

Although the Cardassian Haklon-class transport had a wide variety of uses as a general-purpose tug, they will beforever remembered as the “cattle ships” that transported hundreds of thousands of Bajorans to other worlds in the Cardassian Empire during the Occupation. Commissioned in 2312, the Haklon was frequently adapted to carry up to 10,000 people at a time, under brutal conditions that frequently killed up to half of those trapped within their hulls. The ships were decommissioned before the end of the Occupation in 2369.

Trill Liberty-II-class Privateer

During the Sheliak War, the Trill government took it upon themselves to create their own militia to defend themselves, since Starfleet was mostly preoccupied with combatting the Sheliak. However, they possessed no bonafide warships anywhere in their fleet, nor were they able to purchase any during wartime. However, in their commercial fleet were several Dyson Corporation-made Liberty-class merchant ships, named after the cargo fleet made famous during World War II in ancient Earth history, and designed to be a competing starship class to the Ferengi Ship Yards’ D’Kora-class vessel. The Liberty class was very modular and easy to modify, making them prime candidates for the Trill government to retrofit into privateer vessels. There are several variations of the Liberty-II-class, but most of them carry some core modifications that make the class distinct. Two eminent members of this class are the Odan and the Curzon.

Whagosh Squattbork-class Cruiser

On the Whagosh home planet, tobacco was one the most common material on the surface. It was a natural choice to power Whagosh vechiles in their industrial age, and for later space age travelling. The method was essentially to invent a matter-energy converter, but since this had been researched down the road of specifically utilising tobacco, the gain ratio for matter-energy was strongest in this area. Later, due to increasing demand and requirement for tobacco, most of Whagosh’s fields of tobacco were exhausted. The Whagosh invented warp drive by combining tobacco with anti-tobacco in an engine. When they created a matter-to-antimatter converter, of course.