| Registry # | Ship Name | Information |
|
NCC-????? |
USS Steamrunner |
Class ship |
|
NCC-52136 |
USS Appalachia |
Defended Earth in Second Borg Incursion |
| Registry # | Ship Name | Information |
|
NCC-????? |
USS Steamrunner |
Class ship |
|
NCC-52136 |
USS Appalachia |
Defended Earth in Second Borg Incursion |
The Steamrunner is one of Starfleet's newest classes of ships. After the
massacre at Wolf 359, the Starfleet brass realized that traditional starships,
with their large size, slow maneuverability, and high costs, were extremely
vulnerable to quick attacks. While the capital ships are phenomenal for
bombardment, assault, and transport, they make terrible strike craft.
In
an effort to bolster Starfleet's shortcomings in this area, Project Defiant was commissioned to develop a new series of
fast-attack/strike craft. These vessels were to be small, inexpensive to
construct and maintain, and above all, very heavily armed. After Project Defiant
was cancelled and USS Defiant decommissioned, the Steamrunner class was
rushed into development.
Since much of the state of the art technology to
be incorporated into Steamrunner had already been developed for use on Defiant,
the R&D stages proceeded very quickly. Steamrunner's design is revolutionary
in that the warp nacelles are integrated into the hull. This gives Steamrunner a
smaller cross-section signature, making it more difficult to target in battle,
and allows more efficient energy transfer from the warp core to the nacelles.
Additionally, the compact design and balance contribute to Steamrunner's
impressive maneuverability. Steamrunner's warp core is a modified version of the
core that was used in Defiant. Steamrunner is fitted with the latest weaponry,
including fountain stream phasers and quantum torpedoes. Perhaps the most unique
piece of technology on Steamrunner is a new deflector array which actually
"ghosts" the ship. Unlike a cloaking device which wraps space around the vessel,
Steamrunner's ghosting array actually produces ripples in the space around the
ship. This causes the sensors of enemy ships to misjudge the location of the
ship, making targeting solutions all but impossible. The drawback to this device
is that it consumes vast amounts of energy and emits high levels of tachyon
radiation. For this reason, the array was hung between the nacelles far aft of
the saucer module.
