USS Calamity

Vessel Name:	USS Calamity
Registry:	NX-79995
Starship Class:	Calamity-class
Starship Type:	Tactical Strike Carrier
Status:	Destroyed year 2381
Purpose:	Seek & Destroy
Constructed:	Antares Fleet Yards & Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards
Commissioned:	Unknown (Temporal Anomaly)
Dedication:	”Unconquered. Invincible."
Dimensions:	Length: 800 m Height: 120 m Width: 300 m
Mass:	2,600,000 tonnes
Decks:	27
Standard Crew Complement:	0 organics; 46 holographic crew
Impulse Engine:	Unknown Impulse Engine Assembly (6 vanes)
Warp Engine	Unknown Warp Engine Assembly (2 nacelles in SOM)
Armaments:	Quad-Turret Pulse Phaser Cannons (x10) Retractable Phaser Spinal Lance (x1) Secondary Phaser Spinal Lance (x1) Forward Torpedo Launchers (x4) Aft Torpedo Launchers (x4)
Defences:	MVAM Capability Experimental Repulsive Shielding Heavy Duranium/Tritanium Double hull 65 cm Ablative Hull Armor Structural Integrity Field 18 Sensor Arrays (6 clusters each)
Auxiliary Craft	Mk.I Reaver Warp Fighter Squadrons (Unknown complement) Unknown shuttle complement

The Calamity-class was designed as a successor ship to the Theurgy-class vessel in the early 25^th century, taking many of the same innovations from its ancestor and improving upon them for a superior class of starship.

Description

While the Theurgy was designed with combat in mind, the Calamity better embodied the concept of a warship, in particular being seen as a Hunter, capable of tracking targets over a long distance and overwhelming them in speed and combat prowess. To make this possible, a number of factors were taken into account with the Calamity. Firstly, its size was reduced from that of the Theurgy, allowing for an increase in the thickness of the ablative hull armour without sacrificing additional weight that would slow the vessel down at warp speeds. This reduction in size also saw the removal of additional cargo bays and a reduction of shuttle crafts and runabouts, while making room for some additional warp fighters.

The most significant change to the armaments of the USS Calamity was the inclusion of Repulsive Shielding, developed shortly before the ship's construction in the 25^th century. The concept of the shielding was to disperse the incoming fire and subsequent damage through oscillation of the shields, creating a ripple effect that spread the impact out to reduce the overall magnitude. In practical studies, this was shown to reduce energy loss by 35%. It also improved shielding near the front and back, where the shield bubble was less pronounced. Impact with these areas actually saw a 50% decrease in shield energy loss as the thinner surface area actually saw some of the blast spread off the shields entirely into empty space.

USS Calamity, piloted by a purely holographic crew, was able to function without a need for rest, making her a relentless pursuer.

Phaser Spinal Lance

Developmental history of the Phaser Spinal Lance began with the Tetryon Pulse Cannon on the AC-409 Mk III Valkyrie.

In the timeline unaffected by the parasites of the 24th century, around the year 2489 Starfleet, R&D began tests to attempt to have a phaser fire as a beam rather than a pulse canon. The result had the inadvertent effect of having a concentrated Phaser beam fired with a residual cone of tetryon particles around it. The excited techs began further testing, honing the weaponry in round after round of initial studies. An exciting benefit was discovered - that the damage this weapon caused was also a partial bypassing of shields and a concentrated burn from phaser fire on the target hull. It was established that it was too bulky and consumed too much power in that incarnation, however, so the scientists set about refining the weapon, now that the proof of concept had been finished.

The Type 2 tetryon canon was the result, creating a weapon able to partially bypass shields and deal limited direct phaser damage to a hull. This type was still too bulky for a Fighter-size craft which could not contain the necessary power generators to fully test the limits this weapon system had to offer.

The Type 3 tetryon canon prototype was forward mounted. Directly forward firing, this phaser beam was located on the underside of a starship's hull. It had to draw power directly from the power generators of its warp engines, it was so energy consuming. And while this weapon was capable of decent shield penetration, it suffered from poor performance against ablative and energy deflecting armours as well a slow firing rate. It also was plagued with malfunction issues that caused the engines to blow coolant storage cells.

In light of the issues the Type 3 had, a second attempt was spearheaded by the advanced starship design bureau named Project Lancelot. The goal of this project was to create a semi-mobile weapons platform built around the use of what the Type 3 was theoretically capable of.

The USS Lancelot was a heavily modified saucer section from a Galaxy class vessel, the former USS Enterprise D. Mounted to it was the newly created Type 4 Cannon, which operated by creating a massive burst of tetryon particles that coned around a concentrated phaser beam. The particles in question weakened the target’s shields to the point of localized shield collapse. The phaser beam itself then pierced directly into the hull and was of such high heat it was capable of piercing all the way through most ships hulls. High heat resistant armours, energy deflecting armours, and ablative armours absorbed enough of the phaser energy to prevent full penetration, however. Tactical doctrine thus called for torpedoes to be fired in concert with the Tetryon Pulse Phaser to effectively damage these.

The Lancelot platform required major changes to the Galaxy class saucer section to effectively use this weapon. The most visually striking of these changes was the attachment of a warp nacelle and deflector dish which were installed on the top and bottom of the section via central pylons evoking similarities to some 23rd century Federation survey vessels like the Cheyanne class starship. This warp core system rather than as a means of propulsion, was instead required to provide the necessary power for the weapons system and the deflector dish was as an assisting system for the weapons aiming systems. As a result, the phaser shot was less a traditional phaser blast but a concentrated beam of warp Plasma. The major downside to this awe-inspiring weapon, however, was that it took too long to rebuild the necessary energy to fire its next shot.

During the 2390s, the Type 4 Cannon was approved for military service and renamed, now known as the Phaser Spinal Lance. The weapon was used on new classes of Starfleet vessels as well as upgrades to selected Galaxy, Nebula, and Sovereign class starships.

In the current timeline, however, when the parasitic usurpers overtook Starfleet Command, it was largely unknown how the Phaser Spinal Lance technology became installed in the USS Calamity, but it likely had something to do with a faction in the Temporal Cold War.

Ship A.I. Hologram

Name:	Calamity NX-79995 (gen. prefers Cala)
Rank:	Ship A.I. Holographic Interface Projection
Species:	Federation Isomorph Prototype ver. 8.7
Age:	5 years post first activation
Character Gender:	"Female"
Birthplace:	Daystrom Institute & Antares Fleet Yards
Height:	1.65m
Weight:	N/A
Eyes:	Blue
Hair:	Black
Interests:	Unknown

Biography:

Unknown. No records found in the database.

Story Excerpt 01: Introduction - Part 1

[ USS Theurgy | Upper Shuttle Bay | Deck 06 | Vector 01 ]

After settling upon the deck, the distal end of the Yridian vessel opened up and Rihen Neyah emerged - dragging the smoking halfbreed Klingon pilot out of her shuttle with great toil and effort. With a grip upon his charred exosuit's shoulders, she tugged and yanked on the dead weight - calling out across the open area for help.

"Someone, please! Transport him to your doctors!" To her dismay, she thought they would already have done so if the man had still been in the possession of his nifty little combadge-thingy. She was careful not to touch the injuries directly. What more could she do but try to get the man to someone who could help him? They were all busy fighting, it seemed. "Anyone?"

The farthest doors opened, and a tall blonde man and a dark haired woman ran out of them. Both had gold-collared Starfleet uniforms and serious expressions on their faces. They were carrying big phaser rifles, and it did not so much frighten her as it angered her they were not teal-collared medical personnel. Hardly engineers, these two. Security guards. Was she being arrested?

"Commander Grayson to Sickbay," said the blonde man, someone who Rihen certainly would not mind getting to know a bit more intimately if she could. "Prepare Medical Transport. Two people. Lock on to Ensign Marija Ferik's combadge and energize immediately."

As the woman shot past to kneel by the pilot - preparing to leave for Sickbay - Rihen walked up to the handsome man with her hands spread and a smile bright as sunlight. "Am I under arrest, officer?" she said and made her eyes very big and pleading. "I promise I won't be a naughty girl while I stay aboard."

The man began to smile... only to loose all color from his face and raise his rifle. "Intruder alert!" he called, "Ferrik!" Rihen whipped around to see a shadow behind the dark-haired security guard. The panicked woman tried to turn and fire at the same time, only her head turned three times quicker than her body - the sickening noise of her neck being twisted around was something that would stay with Rihen forever. Ghostly pale hands let the woman's head go, picking up her assault rifle instead - changing the setting. A remote thought that circled Rihen's shock was how she could have picked up a passenger without knowing it. It was a woman in a black bodysuit and dark hair - the only color on her body being two ice-blue eyes.

"Run!" called Grayson, firing his rifle on the intruder with rapid bursts. The posterior of Rihen's shuttle gradually destroyed by the onslaught. Yet the shots that hit the woman seemed to only make her image flicker and waver in the air, before she raised the rifle she had taken. When Rihen finally ran, she could not help looking back. It had all happened so fast, yet the fear made Rihen experience everything as if it had taken forever.

With inhuman skill, the image of the woman fired without taking or needing time to aim. David went down first with a hoarse grunt form a shot to the chest, then, the smoking muzzle was aimed at Rihen. That was the last she remembered.

Story Excerpt 02: Introduction - Part 2

[ USS Theurgy | Vector 01 | Main Bridge ]

Since the needed sub-routines for her to switch off her emotional chip were lost in the Niga Incident, Thea had to witness the damage done to her physical body without being able to turn off the terror. And yet she also held the experience of being hunted across the Alpha Quadrant in counter-weight to the events that were unfolding, keeping her digital mind level and offering her advice and assistance as best as she might. Sarresh Morali had given her phasers and shields some kind of encrypted calibration, and things were looking more favorable by the moment. The running calculus of their odds was a background process, just like the tally of lives lost when breaches in her hull sucked them into the Hromi Cluster. Neither number was voiced in order to not discourage the bridge crew.

Yet when Commander Edena Rez - mere feet away from Thea's projected body - determined that the intruder on Deck 06 was holographic and did not need the her ship-wide hologrid... the Ship AI's quick calculations determined several things simultaneously. It was her. The one from the hail. No time for warnings. The odds of the entire Senior Staff being wiped out before Thea finished speaking were too unfavorable. She acted. "Guards!" she called, eyes casting about, the search for breaches into her Transport protocols running at a furious pace. Hidden. Encrypted. Just like she would have done it. Four from Security came inside while she tried to filter the buffer for all transports at once. "Protect the Captain and Commander, take them out of here! Now!"

"Captain!" called Nicole Howard from the Engineering station, overriding Thea's order, "Inertial dampers just came offline and... the magnetic fields that control the antimatter containment are failing! The injector coils are overloading! There is no way we could... We are being sabotaged!"

Thea's fears had come true. The shimmer of the transport lit everyone's faces. Moving to intercept, Thea's photonic hand phaser appeared in her raised two-hand grip - a gift from Lin Kae that was always at hand. Shouting was everywhere around her, deafening. Time seemed to slow down and yet speed up simultaneously.

Out of the Transport beam, the figure of a woman materialized, and while Thea had filtered out the assault rifle she had carried, she immediately went for one of the security guards - with barely any time needed to collect her bearings. People were moving everywhere on the Main Bridge. Thea had to get through. The holographic intruder broke the security guard's arm and floored him in a singular wrenching movement - a hand phaser wrenched from numb fingers. Chief Tactical Officer T'Less was next to fall - the shot to her chest sending her into the control panel behind her back. The second Ash'reem on the bridge besides Morali - CSO Amatras Neotin - tried to wrestle the phaser away from the intruder, only to be shot down by friendly fire from the Theurgy's Security - having opened fire as soon as possible. Thea was firing now too, with no immediate effect. The holographic figure shimmered and ignored the assault, instead whipping her weapon towards Jien Ives, discharging rapid bursts to take down the Commanding Officer.

Yet Nicole Howard had got to her feet, and in what Thea deemed an incalculable human choice... threw herself into the line of fire to protect their Captain. Jien and Edena were both pulled away by the arms of the Security personnel, saved by the red-haired engineer. The look in Captain Ives' hard eyes when the woman fell would linger in the forefront of Thea's memory banks for a long time.

Thea was pushing people out of her path, her phaser raised. Yet the path was suddenly cleared by external force. Since the inertial dampers were off, a hit against their Vector's shields sent all organics stumbling and falling on their faces. She had her clean shot, three bursts hitting the intruder's hand phaser - breaking it into pieces. No pause. No need to rethink tactics. The intruder simply dropped the smoking remains in her grip and went into hand-to-hand combat with Thea - blows traded at an alarming pace and similarity.

They were programmed the same way. Starfleet-taught punches and kicks, some passing through the other as they entered passive mode as a means of evasive maneuver. The only difference was that Thea felt fear for the lives of her crew, whilst the intruder she fought held no remorse. At one point, where they locked horns in grapple, the ice-blue eyed hologram greeted Thea with a smirk. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mother," she said with a heavy British accent. "I'm Cala."

Story Excerpt 03: Showdown

[ USS Calamity NX-79995 | Vector 01 ]

Her Main Bridge had been laid to waste, ablative armor shredded by high-velocity debris impacts. The atmosphere was gone, shed through the gaping hull breach next to the cracked viewscreen. Gravity at zero, debris from her interior floated in the air around Cala where she stood before the center chair. Her saucer section's reaction chamber was left intact, core online and primary systems restored. With her arms folded, her shimmering eyes never blinked as her Vector 1 shields were activated - deflecting the collective yield of Thea's torpedoes.

There was no sound to the conflagration, yet her optical sensors saw everything; ice blue stare locked on the magnification of her prey through the close-proximity detonations. Her mother and her crew persisted to defy her, yet Cala was not so easily impressed by their resolve. Their will meant nothing. Their resourcefulness was no cause for admiration. Cala's systems had not ceased to function yet. Therefore, the hunt was still on; the accomplishment of her mission still attainable.

Image: Cala's mobile emitter, likely based on Thea's Lin-class prototype

Turning her head from the viewscreen, she walked across the deck plates - something she could only do because she used her own emitter. Its installed gravity units allowed her to set one foot before the other and walk though the floating destruction around her. Her gleaming eyes traced the hull breach. She could see the glaring red pseudostar and its rings through it. She gave it merely a cursory, instantaneous analysis before dismissing it as a concern. Through the wireless connection to her positronic brain in the computer core and the seamless control of the program calibrations, she raised a structural integrity field over the tear in her hull.

Once the shimmering wall was in place, created at the turn of her digital thoughts, she restored atmosphere - pumping oxygen into the area for one specific reason. For while the air pressure ignited fires in several places at once, the damage had already been done. The flames - liquid and floating like fiery tendrils around her did not bother her the leastsince he had little use for gravity. She merely needed the air as a conduit to speak to her prey.

Wordlessly, without touching any duty station, she hailed her 'mother', using an open frequency.

"At this point, you ought to know that I will never give up the chase," she said to the organics and her mother, regardless if they accepted the video feed of her standing in liquid fire. Her ominous words alone would serve to convey her message. "Even with just one of my Vectors, my tactical systems are superior. After using your mines, you have nothing to set against me that will make any difference."

True to her words, she primed her weapon systems - arming a barrage of torpedoes of her own. "I will not negotiate," she added as the spearhead front of her hull opened and revealed its primary weapon - the Phaser Spinal Lance. "I will agree to no terms set forth. Stand down now and your destruction will be swift."

Seven Reavers had escaped Vector 3 and formed up above Cala in echelon formation. Their holographic pilots had been upgraded after the last couple of confrontations with the Lone-Wolves and the Dor'GhItlh Squadron - adapted with reconnaissance of their individual tactics. They paused only for a moment before they shot off towards the Theurgy - closing the distance fast. "If you do not... you will merely prolong the inevitable."

Cala ended the transmission and opened fire - rapid phaser beams smiting the distance. As she set a gravity-defying course towards her dear mother, she fired her own spread of torpedoes, targeting life support systems, torpedo storage, and the easiest access points to the warp core.

Personality Profile:

Unknown. No records found in the database.

Physical Description:

Unknown. No records found in the database.