USS Kusanagi

The USS Kusanagi.
^{Image © Paramount}

The USS Kusanagi was a 24^th century Federation Akira-class starship operated by Starfleet. It was commissioned in 2377 and was still in service as of 2381.

In 2377, Miles Renard served on the maiden voyage of the Kusanagi as an ensign in the Tactical CONN department for a year after officially becoming a Starfleet officer. He was the pilot of a Mark II Valkyrie before transferring to the Mark III Valkyrie Project in 2378 as a test pilot upon his promotion to Lieutenant (junior grade). Before he left, however, a new pilot joined his squadron on the Kusanagi, namely Alessia Garcia, and Miles became her initial mentor in flying the Mk II Valkyrie and getting to know everyone in the Kusanagi´s Fighter Assault Bay.

Thomas Ravon's second assignment was aboard the USS Kusanagi, starting in 2378. Thomas flew together with Miles Renard on the Kusanagi. Indirectly, however, since the two pilots served under the same Wing Commander yet in different squadrons. Miles Renard vanished from the Kusanagi the same year Ravon arrived, however, when the Vulpinian transferred to the Mark III Valkyrie Project.

It took Thomas Ravon a few months to rank up from Element leader to Flight leader. In this new role, Ravon got used to taking command. With the Red Vipers squadron, Ravon accomplished a great many operations, yet also shared his part of losses and accidents. While no longer as seclusive as he used to be, he learned to cope by spending his time with the deck hands whenever he could, seeing fighter maintenance as a kind of therapy when needed. Thomas' actions in the Red Vipers Squadron' did not go unnoticed. His own SCO aboard the Kusanagi selected him for the Valkyrie Project aboard the USS Theurgy. The fact that Ravon was appointed as Assistant SCO during his last year on Kusanagi also aided in that decision.

Upon graduating from Tactical CONN Academy in 2379, Minjae Soh, callsign "Shinigami" was assigned to the USS Kusanagi. Minjae met quite a few new faces that he could begin to view as comrades, possibly even friends in the future. The first individual that stood out to Minjae was Thomas Ravon, callsign "Razor". Though he never pried for details of Thomas' personal life, Minjae couldn't help but feel a kindred spirit within him. A few times, Minjae was assigned to officially work with Thomas. More often than not, however, he watched and observed the older pilot from afar, mentally taking notes on how to better himself as an aerialist. Minjae only briefly met and knew Alessia Garcia on the Kusanagi, where the both of them served.

In the early part of 2380, Thomas Ravon was gone, and the Kusanagi received a distress call from a Federation freighter that was under attack. It was not, however, clear as to whom was really attacking the vessel in question. With no time to lose, the vessel set an intercept course. Upon arrival, the Valkyrie fighters and the Kusanagi were ambushed by a group of Cardassian warships.

During the fighting, Alessia Garcia came up with an idea to break through the Cardassian line and make a break for the freighter and was probably in one of her random moments of thinking out of the box. At the last moment, Garcia initiated her manoeuvre and prayed it would work or watch as the freighter would be destroyed. A moment later and for surprising many on both sides, she confused the sensors of practically everyone for a moment as she performed the 'Picard maneuver' in her warp fighter and to even her surprise, it worked.

In the confusion, Garcia broke through and was the only fighter to do so, and she did not wait before going after the warship that was pounding the freighter. During a daring effort to get the warship's attention, which didn't seem too hard as her cockpit was already lighting up from the weapons fire, Garcia worked her ass off to get within the shields of the vessel and targeted the weapons array of the vessel. It felt like it took forever playing cat and mouse with the larger ship before her efforts paid off, forcing the ship to break off its attack and retreat. Saving the freighter in the process, it appeared the other ships started to retreat and limp away as another Federation ship arrived during the combat; the Defiant-class vessel USS Chester.

The true reasons behind the Cardassian assault remains unknown, since Starfleet Intelligence took over the investigation immediately. The entire crew on the Kusanagi had to sign confidentiality agreements about the events, under the threat of being demoted or discharged from Starfleet entirely. What was evident to the crew was that the Cardassian Union's leaders were contacted on-site, and rumour had it that Cardassia First, the conservative opposition to the now democratic Cardassia, were involved in the assault.

Due to her efforts, Garcia was commended for her actions and promoted to Lieutenant, Junior Grade. During the latter part of 2380, Garcia was assigned to Luna Shipyards to partake in the Valravn Project. Minjae Soh and Karma ein Yueh were also hand-picked for the Valravn-project, and the trio transferred to Luna Base together.

After the USS Theurgy discovered the conspiracy that compromised Starfleet and fled Federation space, the Kusanagi was selected to be part of Task Force Archeron and ordered to hunt down and destroy the errant multivector dreadnought.

In March of 2381 the Kusanagi was disabled by Lieutenant Commander Carrigan Trent's "Soup Sandwich" virus, but a week later had recovered sufficiently to participate in the Battle of Starbase 84.

Later in March of 2381, it was searching for the Theurgy in the Azure Nebula when it - along with ten other ships in Task Force Archeron - encountered the Borg. They fought valiantly in protection of the Federation, meaning to halt the invasion, until the ship was destroyed. The crew of the USS Allegiant NX-80978 found parts of its wreckage on their sensors, scanning the debris field left behind after the battle.

(The USS Kusanagi was named for the eighth planet in the Inari system, the home system of the Vulpinians.)