U.S.S. Argama
| USS Argama | |
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Class: Registry: Owner: Operator: Status: |
Exeter Class NCC-91289 United Federation of Planets Starfleet In Service |
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USS Argama (NCC 91289 formerly 1289) is an 24th Century Federation Exeter class Star ship, assigned to the 38th fleet. She is the third federation ship to bare the name and is named in honour of the legendary Andorian ice breaker responsible for first navigating their world’s north pole.
The Exeter class project was born of a dire need to replace star ships lost during the Federation/Klingon War, the project was originally intended to completely update and redesign the remaining Constitution Mk2 Class ships that still remained in mothballs in hopes to buy time for newer more modern ships to make it to front lines, however the refit would prove extremely successful in it’s role as a light cruiser that the decision to build completely new ships of the class soon followed, leading to larger but still limited production run before giving way to newly built light cruiser designs late into the war.
Andorian Imperial Starship Kumari Class Na’hel Argama
The Na'Hel Argama in her final configuration after the founding of the Federation
The Na’hel Argama AIS 421 (Later NCC 45) was a Andorian Imperial Starship in service to the Imperial Guard a decade before the outbreak of the Romulan War, there she served on the front lines along side her allies with honour and distinction in multiple battles, she was later critically damaged during the Battle of Cheron and had to be evacuated when her power grid suffered complete failure due to damage sustained.
She was however salvaged and restored to operational status less than a year later before returning to duty and patrolling sectors thought to be at risk to potential Romulan incursion, after the founding of the federation she was officially donated to the newly created star fleet as the USS Argama (NCC 45) although she only served in this role for five years before she was retired from Starfleet service due to the standardization of Starfleet’s ship design where she was eventually succeeded by the Daedalus Class USS Argama NCC 105. She would be returned to the Andorian’s local defense fleet under her original name until she was finally decommissioned and placed in the Andorian Navel museum in orbit of Andoria two decades later were she remains to this day.
Daedalus Class Cruiser USS Argama
USS Argama NCC 105, the 7th of the first block of Daedalus Class exploratory cruisers.
The second starship to bare the name, she was constructed under the Block 1 (or original batch) of the at the time state of the art Daedalus class exploratory cruisers, as a block 1 Daedalus she had somewhat more limited offensive capability but had more internal space for labs and crew amenities that the more combat capable Block 2 Cruisers would lack due the vessel’s smaller size.
Her service history would involve several two year deep space exploratory missions, although her main claim to fame was the rescue of a Vulcan transport from an Orion Raiding group, the first real combat test of the class where the advanced weapons, shields and manoeuvrability allowed the Argama to destroy or disable all six of the Raiders while suffer comparatively little damage in return.
She would later return federation space to undergo an emergency refit, due to the staggering loss of four other Block 1 Dedalus Class ships in the span of less than a year, As subspace radio capable of communication at such extreme distances was still in it’s infancy the ultimate fates of these ships would not be discovered until nearly a century later and the staggering attrition rate of the class in such a short time led to the general theory at that the M/AM reactors originally used in the earth Comet class ship (that served as the basis for the Daedalus Hull) was dangerously ill suited for long distance missions that took the class far from federation space and support.
While it would be later discovered that ships such as the USS Essex suffered destruction for other reasons the starfleet corps of engineering found that all their reactors were showing dangerous signs of degradation and had clearly been pushed far beyond their original shorter range war time use that was intended
The Argama along side her sisters would under go an extensive refit, her older M/AM reactor would be replaced by a smaller more durable model better suited for long missions away from starfleet support and two of her science labs would be replaced by new tactical systems this greatly increased the survavabilty of the class but had the unintended effect of making the already cramped starship considerably more so much to chagrin of their crews.
After a long service life the Argama was slated for decommissioning as newer more advanced ships had rendered the class obsolete, however the sudden outbreak of the four years war saw her pushed back into service as a patrol ship, this would ultimately prove to be her undoing as she would be ambushed and destroyed with all hands when she was attacked by a klingon D7 and her escorts.
Constituion Class Heavy Cruiser USS Argama
USS Argama NCC 1789 in her original Mark 1 configuration.
The oldest and most storied of the starships to bare the name, the Argama would be notable at launch for being the last of the Mark 1 Constitution Class starships to roll out before the mass refit of the class, because of this she would also hold the distinction of being the last Mark 1 Constitution class to undergo the Mark 2 Refit.
Her service as a Mark 1 saw two successful if not uneventful five year missions, as the refit of the fleet largely rendered many of her systems obsolete she was pushed into exploratory duty within the relative safety of the core federation systems and outside a run in with “lost” Lyran cruiser her service under her first captain would be mostly uneventful.
After the Genesis Incident the Argama would be finally recalled to undergo her Mark 2 Refit, this would take considerably longer than intended as the appearance of the whale probe caused general chaos around earth’s fleet yards and components intended for the Argama were used to repair other ships left damaged from the incident.
Starfleet would in the meantime reassign her crew to another command leaving the Argama in a state of half construction that lasted nearly a year leading some engineers to believe the poor half deconstructed hull would remain in that dry dock forever. Thankfully the Argama would catch the attention of several teams who pushed to use the Argama as a test bed for a new modernization of the Mark 2 Constitution, incorporating several of the advances from the newer Excelsior project and extending their hull lives despite production of the Constitution Class winding down at this point.
Constituion Class Heavy Cruiser Refit USS Argama
USS Argama NCC 1789 In her Mark II configuration.
The refit would prove successful and the Argama would be stationed to patrol the Klingon/Federation border as the fallout of Gorkon’s assassination made renewed Klingon hostility a real possibility. After the Khitomer peace talks the Argama would be assigned to a new five year mission that would prove mostly uneventful for her crew.
By 2315 the Constitution Class had become an increasingly rare sight, with only roughly seven hulls still in active service, however with the Excelsior having all but replaced them and the Miranda and Constellation classes easily able to fill any role the aging Constitution Class could still fill the decision to retire the remaining hulls was ultimately decided and the Argama after completing her recent exploratory mission was called for decommissioning but it would ultimately be decided to move the Argama to training duty for what was believed would be the final years of her life.
As the Argama’s life as a training ship winded down her hull was inspected to determine if she would be scrapped or put into mothballs, to their surprise it was discovered her super structure was in incredibly good shape for her age, owing largely to the experimental nature of her refit. Saved from the scrap yards the Argama would remind in mothballs kept in relative good repair in the case the hull would be required in a possible emergency.
A second lease on life would be granted to the old girl when the federation’s disastrous first conflict with the borg led to the destruction of a whole fleet, she would be pulled out of mothballs and given a basic refit to make her somewhat technologically competitive with the rest of the fleet and would be rapidly assigned to low risk patrol and survey duty where it was originally assumed she would only remain in service until Starfleet would recoup it’s losses where she would finally be decomissioned and scraped.
This too would not be her fate as the outbreak of the Dominion War would send starfleet into a panic as early losses proved staggering even compared to the battle of Wolf 359, while production of new modern ships was in full effect the need to have as many ships on the front line as possible led starfleet to seriously reconsider their decision to scrap their older hulls leading to refit to modernize the Argama completely to war time standards. Thankfully avoiding the fate of her predecessor starfleet wisely opted to keep the Argama behind the front lines patrolling or watching enemy fleet movements and such likely saving her from destruction as the attrition rate of older hulls during the war was disturbingly high.
At the end of the Dominion war the Argama rather than being fully retired as expected was assigned to duty as training ship as she was still considered to be in excellent shape despite her age, she would quickly become a favourite of the academy classes as her retro design and storied history lent her the endearing nick name " Old Lady".
Exeter Class Light Cruiser USS Argama
USS Argama NCC 91289 In her Exeter Mark I configuration.
The Argama would to everyone’s surprise gain a third lease on life when she was selected to be one of the five Mark II hulls to undergo the Exeter refit during the worst year of the Federation/Klingon War, the refit would see her entire super structure torn down leaving only the bare minimum of her original super structure. Some engineers would begin to question if she was even the same ship anymore. She would also be rechristened under her original name but a new registry, NCC 91289 to better fit with the other Exeter Classes under construction.
During the war she served in a light cruiser role preforming patrol and escort duties and supporting the other front line vessels, the Argama would despite not being on the front line directly managed to secure multiple kills against smaller Klingon ships attempting to breach into federation space earning her the nickname “Bird of Prey Killer”
The Argama would suffer sever damage during the assault on the Undine planet killer at the end of the war requiring her towing back to federation space and undergoing a six week long refit. Due to shortages of readily made Exeter class parts at the Andorian Fleet Yards the Argama was instead retrofitted to unitize the recently updated Excalibur class nacelles getting her back into service quickly and as an added bonus making her visually unique among the class.
Exeter Class Light Cruiser USS Argama
USS Argama NCC 91289 In her Exeter Mark I configuration with her new Excalibur class Nacelles.
The Argama served a similar role during the Iconian war, mostly supporting the fleet and attempting to defend colonies and convoys; after the disastrous attack on the Dyson Sphere the Argama found herself pushed into front line duty leading to a number of missions to simply buy time and hold off the Iconians as the alliance prepared for the attack on Sol. During the final battle of the conflict the Argama was part of the task force stationed around Luna Colony and while she would again sustained heavy damage she would remain in the fight until the ceasefire was called.
A Change in Command - Terran Conflict
With most of the shipyards backed up with repairs or construction of new ships in the wake of the Iconian war The Argama’s restoration was not considered a priority this led to her current crew to be reassigned to a newer command, while the Argama would eventually be brought back to operational status a lack of a readily available experienced crews prevented the Argama from returning to active duty right away.
However the recent destruction of the Gagarin Class USS Artemis NCC 97934 left Capain Serah Grant and her crew without a readily available command and so the Argama was rapidly activated and sent to the front lines of the Terran Conflict to support the 38th, The Argama would assist in the mop up of Terran Ships unable to return to their own universe.
Shinari Diplomatic Mission
The Argama’s next major assignment would be to take part in a diplomatic overture to the Shinari home world as it was believed a smaller vessel would be less likely to intimidate the recently Terran besieged world, after meeting with the star ship Segrasambo the Argama was escorted to the Shinari home world were the Argama would report of efforts to salvage Terran Imperial ship wrecks, including a semi intact Lexington class warship.
Upon entering standard orbit around the planet Captains Serah Grant, Drake Tungsten, Doctor zh’Lindresko and Cadet Ban would beam aboard the Shinari vessel and meet with the council were they would learn that the meeting had not been permitted by the ruling council but by other elements in the government who wished to push the Shinari’s relations with other species; despite the superficial resemblance to the Terran Empire the diplomatic party managed to plant the seeds of positive future relations with the Shinari and shortly after returned to federation space where she resumed her standard duties.
Operation Parry and Riposte
The Argama would while on patrol respond to a distress call from a federation convoy led by the USS Rapier, a sabre class escort that had come under fire from an overwhelming raiding group revealed to consist of a powerful heavy cruiser and two escorts, while the Rapier survived it had suffered major casualties and all three freighters had been captured and their crews taken. Attempts to track the Pirates proved fruitless and the Argama tractored the USS Rapier back to the nearest starbase for repairs.
Following the incident the Argama would engage in anti-piracy duties alongside the USS Dragon under the command of Captain Drake Tungsten. In the wake of the Terran incursion piracy had increased to worrying levels across all affected systems, and the attack on the USS Rapier and her convoy has been a wake up call for Starfleet. The raiding group appeared to consist of two medium class escorts and a large vessel of roughly Galaxy Class strength, such a dangerous force could in Serah’s opinion not be permitted to remain if the fleet had any real chance in quelling unrest in the sector going forward and would go along way to earning the trust of local systems in the wake of the Terran invasion.
Captain Serah would quickly push forward a plan to catch these more aggressive Orions by luring them into a pre determined system through false communications and subtly manipulated com traffic to lure the Orion ships into an engagement against the USS Dragon and her support craft along side the USS Argama. Through data gathered from the previous attacks Serah had come to the conclusion that the standard tactic of these pirates was to send in the two escorts to engage enemy craft before crippling the freighters only bringing in their heavier command ship if needed, as such creating a believable target was key if they were to catch the Orions in a net they couldn’t escape from.
The plan primarily followed the USS Argama posing as a light escort for two cargo freighters and a single deuterium tanker using an off the road route to their destination through a system well suited for an ambush by the Pirates in truth the USS Dragon-A would several days prior enter the system and hide within an asteroid belt while the majority of her fighter craft would be placed inside the cargo containers of the two freighters while the tanker would contain a recently fielded gravametric device that when detonated would create a large field of unstable space for a short time preventing the forming of safe warp bubbles thus trapping their targets and forcing them to engage the USS Dragon-A in a straight up fight. The key however would be for the Argama to hold off the two smaller vessels long enough to present enough of a threat to draw the command ship into range of the device before launching the Dragon’s fighters, this battle later known as Operation Parry and Riposte would prove successful as the Pirates would take the bait and the detonation of the gravametric device would trap the pirates within the system long enough to spring the trap and for the USS Dragon (and a ECM based virus developed by Doctor Sindari Te’elis and Lieutenant Niraj) to end the battle decisively. Allied forces would suffer no causalities beyond the loss of the automated tanker, while the Argama herself would only sustain minor damage thanks to the cover from the Dragon’s fighter wings. The Argama would later return to friendly space for a brief repair before returning to her previous duties.
Romulan Conflict
The Argama was assigned to the to the Federation task force ordered to assist in the defence of Romulan Republic space, having took part in several battles such as the attack on the Romulan Imperial Starbase 7734 in the Fvillhaih System were she alongside the USS Dragon, Albion, Hibernia, and USS Shenlong successfully defeated the stations defenders and captured the instillation without major incident.
Argama having suffered no major damage was assigned to escort supply convoys transporting essential fuel and components to the front line, she would have several encounters with T’liss class escorts attempting to destabilize Federation supply chains but these attacks would ultimately be all unsuccessful and no ships were lost under the Argama’s protection.
Argama would also be called to patrol along contested systems along side a dedicated task force of science ships equipped to pick up radiation from cloaked ships acting as escort of these vessels, the task force would successfully uncover Romulan Imperial fleet movements on two separate occasions but would otherwise go unchallenged.
The Argama would be next be paired up with a Romulan Republic T’liss class light Warbird the RRW Jouret, the two would harass any target of opportunity and would continue until she was called to take part in Operation Edelweiss as part of the reserve fleet but was not called to the front line.
With the ceasefire being signed not long after the Argama would escort Starfleet assets back to federation space and was set to return to her peace time duty shortly after until she received orders to return to Argo to under go a major refit.
Exeter Class Mark II refit
USS Argama NCC 91289 In her Exeter Mark II configuration with her Excalibur nacelles left installed by request of the captain "I love it when a ship goes all sovereign." -Serah Grant
After returning to peacetime duties the Argama was called back to star base Argo to undergo a major class refit that would see ship wide system upgrades, the replacement of their now aging warp and computer cores; a new streamlined plasma conduit system and alterations to her super structures adding new facilities and compatibility for future technologies as well as replacing older scientific and combat related systems with smaller more advanced variants and using the extra internal space to extend the crew and diplomatic amenities.
The refit would see significant changes to her primary hull requiring the partial deconstruction of the section, the central command structure would also see a full rebuild adding a new bridge module, and extended diplomatic quarters, function rooms and a private transporter room for diplomats or other guests. The rear of the command section would also integrate a new smaller secondary shuttle bay capable of carrying two standard sized craft and four new worker bees allowing the primary shuttle bay to carry a delta flyer class shuttle and the original number of secondary craft such as worker bees. This new secondary shuttle bay was also equipped with a small maintenance bay for these shuttles.
The bow and aft torpedo tubes would be completely replaced with newer rapid firing models capable of nearly double the original firing speeds and more advanced automated reloading systems nearly doubling the firing rate of the original Exeter Class, these tubes could also easily switch from photon or quantum torpedoes to probes of various types with a simple change of firing mode.
Ship wide Phaser banks were like wise replaced by current Mark XV models giving the light cruiser a significant bite for her size, their batteries and recharge rates had likewise been improved. A new targeting system was also installed to allow the vessel faster and more complex lock on functionality than it’s prior configuration.
Shield systems were like wise refit to modern standard and had their recharge rates and increased hardness, new sturdier hull plating based on the Odyssey Class’ and light ablative armour was also added for further durability.
Sensor suites have been replaced with smaller more efficient modules and allow for greater more accurate readings at faster speeds, in preparation for a return to their original intended survey duty.
Changes to the secondary hull are comparatively minor in comparison however the connection points of the Exeter’s pylons have been replaced with sturdier more modular units that help stabilize the pylons and improve warp field integrity during warp travel allowing for longer periods of max warp speed.
This extensive refit would take four months to complete and would extend the whole classes’ life span by a further twenty years.
Technical Data
Physical Arrangement & Crew Support
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Length: Beam: Draft: Mass: |
305 m 141 m 71 m 600,000 mt |
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Decks: Crew: Capacity.: |
22 350 1000 |
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Avg. Cruise: Max Cruise: Maximum Speed: |
Warp 6 Warp 9.6 Warp 9.8 (for 12 hours) |
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Armaments: |
8x Type-XV Phaser Arrays 3x Photon/Quantum Torpedo Tubes |
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Defenses: |
Deflector Shields Light Ablative Armour |
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Auxiliary Craft: |
2x Shuttlecraft 8x CMU Workbees 1x Delta Flyer |
The Exeter-class was a type of Federation starship design, a light cruiser class that was first built by Starfleet in the late 24th century. Designed and built as a new variant of the famed Constitution-class starships, the Exeter-class honoured the 400 crew members of the USS Exeter who were killed by a biological agent in 2268.
Exeter Class Master Systems Display
Personnel
CAPTAIN
Serah Grant
COMMANDER
Lesh
LT COMMANDER
T'Pella
LT COMMANDER
Kev
LIEUTENANT
Robby Maser
COMMANDER
Alyss Alfain
LT COMMANDER
Pera Juli
Gallery
Argama post Romulan War Mark II Exeter Refit leaves earth to resume duties
Argama preforms a plantary survey
Argama mapping a red dwarf star
Argama about to launch after her Mark II refit
Argama sets out on what is likely the last stage of her service life
Argama's current bridge layout