CUV Seskal
| CUV Seskal | |
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Class: Registry: Owner: Operator: Status: |
Keldon CV-82765 Cardassian Union 5th Order, Cardassian Military Active |
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CUV Seskal is a Cardassian Keldon-class warship operated by the Cardassian Union. She was the 56th ship of her class.
The vessel was formerly commissioned as CUV Gatok, named after a notable Legate who led a particularly brutal campaign against Klingon forces in 2329 during the 18-year-long Cardassian/Klingon War. Following the Dominion War, she was recommissioned with a new name, Seskal, to honour a Cardassian military officer who gave his life to support the rebellion against the Dominion.
History
Construction and early service
Seskal - then commissioned as Gatok - was laid down in 2373 and completed in 2374 as part of a large batch of Keldon-class warships ordered to support the war against the Federation Alliance. As with many Cardassian warships built during that time, a small amount of Dominion technology was incorporated into her design, primarily to augment technologies for which Cardassian equivalents had lagged behind other powers, such as sensors and transporters.
As the Dominion War was already ongoing, Gatok was pressed into service as soon as her shakedown was completed, and she was assigned to the Third Order.
Dominion War
Within weeks of her commissioning, in 2374 Gatok took part in the counterattack intended to repel Starfleet’s Operation: Return - the Federation’s attempt to retake Terok Nor.
While the joint Cardassian/Dominion forces were largely successful in holding off Starfleet’s forces at the beginning of the battle, the unexpected arrival of Klingon warships rapidly turned the tide against them. Once losses mounted and expected Dominion reinforcements from the wormhole didn’t emerge, Gatok was one of many warships to retreat to Cardassian space.
For the remainder of 2374, Gatok lead a ‘wolfpack’ along with two Galor-class cruisers, patrolling the sealed Cardassian borders against Federation or Klingon incursions.
Towards the end of 2374, Gatok was assigned to the Ninth Order and deployed to Monac IV’s defence fleet. While the vessel occasionally joined patrols, she remained near Monac IV until 2375, when a Klingon fleet attempted to destroy the shipyards there. The Klingons were soundly repulsed by the defenders, with Gatok herself registering seven confirmed kills. Up to 30% of the entire Klingon attack fleet was believed to have been destroyed in the battle.
With Monac IV being regarded as secure (despite a lone Klingon Bird of Prey destroying the shipyards not long afterwards), a number of ships from the defence force there were reassigned. Gatok was placed within the Dominion-Breen fleet being assembled with the goal of retaking Chin’toka, and in late 2375 they attacked the system, decimating Federation Alliance forces in the process. Gatok took damage during the battle, however, and was forced to withdraw.
Once repairs were completed, Gatok was assigned back to the Chin’toka system as part of the defence fleet, where she remained for several months.
With concern growing that the Federation Alliance was poised to attack Cardassia Prime, Gatok was recalled to the home world to bolster the defence fleet there. However, like many other Cardassian warships, her crew turned against the Dominion when they heard of the extermination taking place on the surface, and she joined the Federation Alliance fleet’s assault on Dominion forces. She took a direct torpedo hit from a Jem’Hadar battlecruiser on her port wing, crippling her warp capabilities, and withdrew.
Post-Dominion War
Following the Battle for Cardassia, Gatok was placed in drydock for repairs. However, due to the resource and manpower shortages experienced by the newly-independent Cardassian government, even with help from the Alliance the planned repairs didn’t take place for several years. When it became clear that resources weren’t available at the time, she was decommissioned and abandoned, along with a number of other ships, in a location at the outer edge of the system.
In 2385, Gatok was towed back to Cardassia Prime, finally receiving repairs to her wing, and her systems came back online again for the first time in a decade. She was recommissioned as CUV Seskal, in honour of a Cardassian officer who gave his life for the rebellion during the war, and returned to active service to bolster the Cardassian Defence Force’s numbers.
Iconian War
In 2414, the Iconians invaded the galaxy. Seskal, like many other Cardassian warships, was initially tasked with protecting Cardassian territory from the invasion. Two months into the conflict, as part of the Seventh Order she successfully led a flotilla of vessels against a small Iconian taskforce attempting to attack Septimus III. During the battle their squadron was able to disable and board the last remaining Iconian cruiser, seizing control of it. Seskal towed the captured vessel back to Cardassia Prime for study, and she was quickly seconded from the front lines.
CDF engineers were tasked with reverse-engineering key Iconian technologies and attempting to graft them onto a Cardassian warship to boost its combat capabilities, as Cardassian ships were generally hopelessly outmatched by Iconian forces - even moreso than the ships of other Alpha Quadrant powers. Seskal become the testbed for these efforts by proxy. She received upgraded shielding, and her photon torpedo launcher was replaced with a primitive recreation of an Iconian radiant quantum torpedo launcher.
Funding for the project was slashed, however, when the Iconian War abruptly ended. The Iconian cruiser was delivered to the Science Ministry for long-term study, and Seskal - once her new systems proved to be stable and a long-awaited overhaul was completed - was returned to regular duty, under the command of newly-promoted Gul Nalima Rejal.
Service in 38th ‘Argo’ Fleet
In 2422, Cardassian terrorists under the command of disgraced Legate Matan began attacking both Federation and Cardassian ships around the Betreka Nebula. Seskal’s commanding officer, Gul Rejal, took a personal interest in the issue, and lobbied the Cardassian government to work closely with the Federation to identify and eliminate the problem. Subsequently, CUV Seskal and her crew were placed on detached duty to work with the Federation’s 38th Fleet to resolve the issue.
Technical Data
Physical Arrangement
| Specifications | |
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Length: Beam: Draft: Mass: |
372 m 192 m 70 m 2,230,000 mt |
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Decks: Crew: Capacity: |
17 500 7,000 |
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Avg. Cruise: Max Cruise: Maximum Speed: |
Warp 6 Warp 9 Transwarp/slipstream |
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Armaments: |
8x spiral-wave disruptors 1x radiant quantum torpedo tube (150x warheads) |
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Defenses: |
Experimental Resilient Shield Grid |
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Auxiliary Craft: |
6x Hideki-class fighters |
CUV Seskal is outwardly a standard Keldon-class warship. Built during the Dominion occupation of Cardassia, internally she still incorporates a few pieces of Dominion technology, and also has experimental, reverse-engineered Iconian technology incorporated into her systems.
Defensive systems
As a result of experimentation on captured Iconian technology during the Iconian War, Seskal is equipped with an experimental, reverse-engineered Iconian resilient shielding system, affording her considerably higher survivability than most equivalent Cardassian warships.
Her primary ordnance are eight spiral-wave disruptor banks located around the hull, as well as a reverse-engineered Iconian radiant quantum torpedo launcher. The torpedo launcher is considerably more powerful than the standard photon torpedo launcher usually installed on Keldon-class warships, but it has proven to be unstable and prone to misfiring in tests, and replacement torpedoes are difficult to manufacture, so it is rarely used.
She carries a complement of six Hideki-class fighters.
Other systems
Seskal is one of the few Cardassian warships equipped with both a transwarp and quantum slipstream drive, as part of the technology sharing agreement that resulted from the Cardassian Union joining the Alliance.
Crew
Glinn
Senel Ghibak
DALIN
Dogue Orin
DALIN
Nashal Cordel
DALIN
Uala Zok
DALIN
Toran
DALIN
Marayn Bain
Roleplaying Information
CUV Seskal is not part of 38th Argo, but has been placed on indefinite detached duty.
References
- DS9 Technical Manual
OOC This is, obviously, under construction! I have backstory for Seskal, I just need to write it all up.