History of the USS EXCALIBUR

The Excalibur, NCC 9001, is the second of the new Heavy Cruiser Pegasus Class, the first ship being the Pegasus. Twenty-five percent larger than a Galaxy Class Cruiser, these ships are the state of the art, incorporating many of Starfleet's latest developments in weapons, warp drive, and shielding technology. They are primarily warships designed more for combat than exploration, however they are capable of the dual role.

The Excalibur was launched March 2394 at the shipyards at Gor Vosh Station in the Delta Quadrant. Captain Victor Helm being the first commanding officer. After initial shakedown, the ship has been given high risk missions requiring stealth and power. The Excalibur has a priority on crew assignments and is considered to be a choice assignment.

In February 2399, the Excalibure was reassigned to Sector Two of the Delta Quadrant. Captain Helm was promoted to Commodore in charge of the sector and the Excalibur became the Flagship of Sector Two.

A team of Starfleet's finest, with the help of a Romulan defector, designed the ship. The ship is a hybrid of an advanced Starfleet design and the Romulan Warbird. The ship has the new Warp Field Effect Reduction System. This system allows the ship to travel deeper into sub-space, by creating stronger, multiple sub-space fields in a tight pattern around the ship's surface. Because the ship travels deeper into sub-space during warp, it has less of an effect on real space. The system was designed to lessen the dangers of warp travel on the fabric of space, and it has been proven to be about 95% less destructive. It also comes with an added bonus. Because it is traveling deeper into sub-space, the ship is able to travel faster.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION:

WARP DRIVE SYSTEM:

SUB WARP DRIVE SYSTEM:

TACTICAL:

CREW AND AUXILIARY SYSTEMS:

AUXILIARY CRAFT:

*Phaser's are normal weapons with the exception that they have a higher rate of recharge due to the new engine design so they can be fired faster than normal.

**The experimental Plasma weapon is workable, however it produces a severe power drain on the ship. Maximum shielding power when firing is only 25%.

***The cloaking device is similar to the Romulan's device (which is the standard cloaking device used on Federation starships). The ship must be de-cloaked in order to fire weapons at full power, however weapons at 20% power can be fired from cloak. The Excalibur has also been upgraded to carry Quantum Torpedoes which are more powerful than the old Photon Torpedoes.

TECHNICAL SECTION

Slick Shield System

This augmentation of a vessel's shields utilizes the space distortion effects from the ship's warp drive. In this method of operation, the warp drives, instead of propelling the ship, create a dense "barrier" of space folds close to the hull of the ship. These warp lines increase the amount of energy, or particles, that will impact with the ship in a damaging manner. Much like a cloaking field curves sensor sweeps around a vessel, the slick skin will "deflect" portions of the beam.

The ability of this system is improved when dealing with only a small number of ships. Shaping of the slick skin is adjusted to provide greater deflection from the likely angle of attacks, such as the direct path of phaser fire. This will weaken the benefit of the slick skin shield from other directions. Most ship battles are engagements between single ships where the slick skin is most useful.

The slick skin has less affect against energy attacks, such as phasers and lasers, while it has a significant affect on "physical attacks" such as particle cannons or shock waves (such as those from a torpedo). Energy attacks lose up to 25% of their effectiveness and the latter slower moving attack forms suffer up to 75% loss in effectiveness. These values are based on the single ship dueling scenarios. Reductions for protecting multipl directions are two directions deflect at 15/45%, three at 10/30%, and an all aspect minimal 5% for energy and 15% for physical attacks.

Attack forms projecting their own warp fields will negate the benefits of the slick shield. These include direct hits (rather than proximity detonations) from photon torpedoes, warp capable missiles, and warp augmented particle cannons.

Since the warp engines themselves are generating the slick shield, a powerful attack penetrating the slick shield may cause a break down in the warp engines. Also, since the warp fields must be shaped for entirely different uses, the ship cannot operate at warp speeds while the slick shield is in operation. However, most ship engagements actually take place at sublight speeds.

Warp Field Reduction System:

The ship has the new Warp Field Reduction System. This system allows the ship to travel deeper into sub-space, by creating stronger, multiple sub-space fields in a tight pattern around the ship's surface. Because the ship travels deeper into sub-space during warp, it has less of an effect on real space. The added bonus of faster travel has led to a redefining of the Warp Speed Equivalency Charts.

Due to the development of the WFE-reduction system, the WSEC has been recalculated. In essence, speeds between Warp 9 and 10 have been divided into 10 smaller Warp levels. These are directly related to the additional small tight warp/sub-space fields produced by the WFE-reduction system. Basically, Warp 9.0 is still Warp 9. However, Warp 9.1 is now Warp 11. Warp 9.2= Warp 12. And so on until you reach what was Warp 10. This is now Warp 20, and is theoretically unattainable.

OTHER MODIFICATION:

Ejectable labs

Due to the massive size of the Pegasus Class starship and its possibe role in peacetime of exploration, the Pegasus Class Heavy Cruiser does have new ejectable labs. These are located aft of the ship and on the upper decks of the saucer. So far there are only 6 available. Two are for engineering experiments, 2 for medical, and 2 for science. With the long history of accidents onboard starships, these allow the examination or testing of unknown, unproven, and dangerous items that could infect, damage, or even destroy the ship. Each lab has its own self contained power, life support, airlock, and other such equipment and is completely sealed off from the rest of the ship. If an experiment goes wrong and endangers the ship, the lab can be ejected and destroyed at a safe distance, saving lives.


Motto and Mission Statement

"Once More Unto the Breach" is the motto of the USS Excalibur. It demonstrates the spirit and determination of her crew to reach out into the cold depths of space to uphold the rights and beliefs of the citizens of the United Federation of Planets.

The ship's mission is to serve Starfleet and the UFPI to the best of its ability and provide defense for the citizens of the UFPI as well as any community that requests protection from invading forces.


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