USS Vincennes
| USS Vincennes | |
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Class: Registry: Owner: Operator: Status: |
Galaxy NCC-70916 United Federation of Planets 38th Fleet, Starfleet Active |
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USS Vincennes (NCC-70916) is a Federation Galaxy-class starship operated by Starfleet. She was the 11th ship of her class, and the first to bear the name.
She was named for the ancient American ship USS Vincennes, the first ship from that nation-state to circumnavigate the Earth and a participant in the Wilkes Expedition of 1838. Her motto, âThe journey itself is my homeâ, is derived from the work of an ancient 17th century Japanese poet, Basho. Vincennes has since been nicknamed âQueen Vâ by her crew, owing to both her age and the number of times she has narrowly escaped destruction at the hands of an enemy.
Constructed in 2364 as one of the original 12 Galaxy-class spaceframes, she was one of six Galaxy-class starships commissioned but placed in mothballs until additional vessels of the class were deemed necessary.
History
Construction and early service
Vincennes was one of the original 12 Galaxy-class spaceframes ordered in the 2350s. After construction was completed in 2364, Vincennes was placed in mothballs along with five of her sister ships, until such a time as additional Galaxy-class starships were needed.
With significant losses of Federation starships to the Borg at the Battle of Wolf 359 in 2367, quickly followed by the destruction of her sister ship, USS Odyssey, at the hands of the Dominion in 2370, Starfleet Command decided to bring all six remaining Galaxy-class starships out of mothballs to reinforce the fleet against these major threats.
Vincennes received a minor refit, employing lessons learnt by her earlier siblings, and was recommissioned in 2372. She was initially focused on repelling Klingon incursions into Federation space during the short-lived breakdown of the Khitomer Accords.
Dominion War
Open warfare between the Federation and the Dominion broke out in 237, and Vincennes was assigned to lead a so-called âGalaxy Wingâ attached to the Seventh Fleet. Months into the war, the Seventh Fleet suffered a devastating defeat at the Battle of Tyra. Vincennes was one of few ships to survive the battle, though she suffered extensive damage while shielding the fleetâs retreat.
For the remainder of 2373 and some of early 2374 Vincennes was in drydock undergoing repairs. During this time she received a âVenture-type refitâ, expanding her offensive capabilities with additional phaser arrays and quantum torpedo launchers. Before repairs were complete, the drydock itself was attacked by Dominion forces. Vincennes, only partially-operational by that point, helped to successfully repel the attack, although she once again suffered damage, this time shielding civilian ships from the JemâHadar. This added two additional months to her stay in drydock.
Following the completion of repairs, in late 2374 Vincennes was attached to the Second Fleet, and took part in several failed attempts to liberate Betazed from Dominion control.
In 2375, Vincennes was reassigned to Sector 001 to bolster defensive forces there, following an attack on Earth by the Breen Confederacy.
Later that year, Vincennes was pulled from defensive duties and returned to the front line, as part of the massive Federation Alliance fleet that participated in the Invasion of Cardassia. Taking a direct torpedo hit to her engineering hull, Vincennes was forced to retreat, but miraculously survived.
First five-year mission
Following the conclusion of the Dominion War, Vincennes was repaired and received a refit to bring her scientific and exploratory systems online, a task which had been neglected during the rush to bring her out of mothballs. For the next few years she assisted in humanitarian efforts in Cardassian space, helping to repair infrastructure and supporting relief efforts.
In 2380, Vincennes was placed on a five-year exploratory mission, with a focus on unexplored space in the far-reaches of the Alpha Quadrant. Her most noteworthy discovery during this mission was that of a sentient species that dwelled in the upper atmosphere of a gas giant, though as they were a pre-warp species no contact was made.
She returned to Federation space in 2385 following this mission and received her first scheduled twenty-year refit. This major overhaul saw most of her systems uprated and modernised.
Federation-Klingon War
In 2404, Vincennes was deployed to the Federation-Klingon Border following the outbreak of hostilities between the Klingon Empire and the Gorn Hegemony.
When the Federation-Klingon War began in 2408, Vincennes once again found herself on the front lines of a major conflict, and took part in a number of battles. Most significantly she led a small task force operating near Starbase 24, leading raids against targets of opportunity along the border.
Towards the end of the war, she once again received crippling damage in a skirmish with Klingon forces, though she was once more able to escape destruction.
It was around this time that Vincennes received the nickname âQueen Vâ among her crews - inspired by the reign of Queen Victoria from ancient Earth, who had a lengthy reign but survived numerous assassination attempts.
Post-Klingon War
Following the conclusion of the Federation-Klingon War in 2413, Vincennes received both repairs and a minor refit, and was sent on her second five-year mission, this time into the Beta Quadrant. Towards the end of 2414 she was urgently recalled to fight in the Iconian War, but she was already a considerable distance from Federation space by that point, and hostilities had already ceased by the time she returned.
In 2416, Vincennes was posted to Deferi space as part of a taskforce to guard aganist Tzenkethi attacks, though she only saw action against Breen Privateers.
In late 2417, Vincennes was reassigned to patrol duties in Beta Quadrant, as part of an agreement with the Klingon Empire to jointly defend their space against potential Hurâq attacks. While she encountered no Hurâq, Vincennes was attacked by several ships from a rogue Klingon house and suffered severe damage in the ambush. Her captain was killed in action in the initial attack, but her first officer, Commander Rebecca Meadows, was able to steer the ship into an asteroid belt, using it as a shield while she made repairs and tackled the Klingon ships one-by-one. The Commander repelled them long enough to bring warp drive back online and escape.
Vincennes was laid up for four months for repairs. Commander Meadows was subsequently formally promoted to Captain of the Vincennes, following a year as acting captain. She remains Vincennesâ commanding officer.
In early 2418 Vincennes spent almost a year back in Deferi space on detached duty, with a mandate to improve relations with the Defari and assist them however possible with continuing incursions into their space by the Breen.
In late 2420, Vincennes entered Earth Spacedock for her second 20-year refit, which had been delayed due to the various crises with which Starfleet had been forced to deal during the years prior. Once more, her systems were uprated and replaced to bring her into line with modern technology. This was her most significant refit yet; her conventional warp core was completely replaced with a newer, transwarp-capable model, a quantum slipstream drive was installed, her shield grid was entirely replaced with a modern, high-capacity covariant grid, ablative armour was installed, while her old Type-XII phaser array emitters were entirely removed and replaced with newer Type XV arrays.
This major overhaul was completed in 2421. Following a shakedown cruise, Vincennes was assigned to the 38th Fleet in November of that year.
Service in 38th âArgoâ Fleet
After attachment to the 38th Fleet, while she was spared from much of the conflict, during the latter half of 2421 a significant proportion of Vincennesâ available internal space was rapidly converted by her crew to support refugee operations as part of an effort to relocate individuals who were displaced or injured during the Terran Incursion. As of the start of January 2422, Vincennes has delivered nearly 55,000 civilians to safe areas such as Deep Space 13.
In February 2422, Vincennes was attached to 38th Argo Taskforce Peacecraft, assisting in post-Terran War humanitarian missions in hotspots throughout the affected sectors.
In March 2422, Vincennes joined USS Dragon in the Renovamen Cluster, assisting in freeing civilian vessels that had been trapped there. Later that month, Vincennes moved to the Tau Zeta system, where her considerable engineering facilities and converted refugee centres were used to assist the locals. At the end of the month, Vincennes partnered with USS Dragon again in the Diaderi System in response to distress calls.
In April 2422, Vincennes was posted along with several other starships to the Potters Field Anomaly, where a number of civilian vessels had been trapped. Later that month she transited to New Circini, along with Dragon and USS Argama, to help secure the system and investigate the illegal sale of stolen Federation technology.
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| Vincennes in DS13's drydock, stardate 99426.9 | |
Towards the end of April 2422, Vincennes was part of a large taskforce sent to locate and, if possible, rescue the starship USS Prometheus, which had disappeared in the Betreka Nebula. Vincennes was instrumental in constructing a tachyon detection grid using on-board probes to detect cloaked vessels in the area, which were later identified as rogue Cardassian warships. Unfortunately, at that moment a boronite mine attached to an asteroid was detonated and considerable damage was inflicted upon Vincennes, with her captain suffering serious - but not fatal - injuries. Once more, âQueen Vâ survived, but she remained in Deep Space 13âs drydock undergoing repairs for the entire duration of May and June 2422.
As of late July 2422, Vincennes returned to active service.
In January 2023, Vincennes and USS October arrived in the remnants of the Vesuvi system to assist USS Mariner, USS Dragon, and RRW Tebok, which had been disabled during a scouting mission while protecting a colony following the explosion of that systemâs star.
Technical Data
Physical Arrangement
| Specifications | |
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Length: Beam: Draft: Mass: |
642 m 473 m 133 m 5,200,000 mt |
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Decks: Crew: Capacity: |
42 1,012 15,000 |
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Avg. Cruise: Max Cruise: Maximum Speed: |
Warp 8 Warp 9.95 Transwarp/slipstream |
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Armaments: |
14x Type-XV phaser arrays 2x Quantum torpedo tubes (200x warheads) |
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Defenses: |
Covariant Shield Grid
Ablative armour |
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Auxiliary Craft: |
8x Type 7 shuttlecraft 8x Type 8 shuttlecraft 1x Type 10 shuttlecraft 1x Danube-class runable (USS Thames) |
USS Vincennes is a typical example of a Galaxy-class starship. Her external configuration has changed little since she received the Venture-type refit early on in her service life. Like all Galaxy-class starships, she is 642.5 metres long with 42 decks. Her total mass has increased slightly to 5.2 million metric tons since her original commissioning due to the installation of various new systems and equipment.
The bridge, ready room, and conference room are located on Deck 1, which can be sealed from the rest of the ship and possesses independent life support. Crew quarters are located throughout the saucer section, with senior officersâ quarters on Deck 8.
Vincennes has several large shuttlebays; the main hangar is on Deck 4, and two additional shuttlebays on Deck 13. She carries a varied complement of shuttlecraft, with the facilities aboard to manufacture replacements if necessary.
Unusually, Vincennes does not have access to a captainâs yacht - the original yacht was destroyed by weapons fire during the Dominion War, and due to material shortages at the time the craft was never replaced, instead being patched over by a âmock-upâ piece of hull placing. The space where the yacht is supposed to be has since been filled with sensor equipment and so can no longer accommodate such a craft. As a form of âcompensationâ from Starfleet Command, ever since then a Danube-class runabout (currently USS Thames, NCC-92834) has been permanently attached to Vincennes instead, which serves as a substitute.
Main engineering is located on Deck 36, though it spans several decks.
Defensive systems
Vincennesâ weapons and defensive systems are all new as of her 2421 refit. As a âVenture refitâ type of Galaxy-class, Vincennes possesses 14 phaser arrays rather than the standard 12, all of which are now Type XV. She is armed with forward and aft quantum torpedo launchers, with a total complement of 200 warheads. Each launcher is capable of a burst-fire mode.
Her weapons systems, while now eclipsed by newer, larger starships, remain competitive in the 2420s, particularly her two enormous saucer arrays, which remain among the largest ever deployed on a starship. These arrays are capable of delivering either a single, powerful charged beam, or firing multiple, rapid beams at multiple targets as a point defence system.
Like most Galaxy-class starships, Vincennesâ defensive systems favour survivability over manoeuvrability. Her critical systems feature multiple redundancies. Her shield grid was recently replaced with a modern, high-capacity covariant generator. Her recent overhaul also introduced ablative hull armour, further enhancing her durability.
Vincennes retains the ability to separate her saucer section from her engineering (or âstardriveâ) section. An additional phaser array, located atop the stardrive section and usually inactive, becomes available when the ship is separated.
Other systems
As a multi-role capital ship, Vincennes is equipped with dozens of scientific laboratories, versatile and powerful sensor arrays (her sensor packets were uprated in her 2420 - 2421 overhaul), expansive cargo and passenger capacity, and - as with all Galaxy-class starships - she is capable of prolonged voyages without fleet support. She carries considerable fuel reserves and has the ability to manufacture small amounts of antimatter by herself.
The recent overhaul saw the installation of transwarp and quantum slipstream drives, significantly improving her effective range.
Internal layout and facilities
Despite numerous major overhauls since her construction, Vincennes is one of the few vessels of her class to retain nearly all of her original internal fittings. It has become something of a tradition for her successive captains to resist changes such as replacement bridge modules or updated interior design. As such, much of her internal structure looks indistinguishable from her original 2360s-era design.
Like all Galaxy-class starships, a large amount of Vincennesâ internal capacity was originally left empty, providing space for future upgrades and additional facilities as part of Starfleetâs effort to keep the class in service for at least a century. Most of this space has since been filled, particularly with new engineering systems and science labs, although almost 15% of her spaceframe remains empty, affording her room for future additions.
Her crew facilities include numerous holodecks, arboretums, several bars, restaurants, and mess halls (including the traditional âTen Forwardâ located at the front of the saucer), and dozens of other recreational facilities, all ideal for facilitating long-duration missions. Crew quarters for all but the lowest-ranking officers are generally spacious and well-appointed.
Crew
COMMANDER
Kelly Bastion
LIEUTENANT
L'naan
LT COMMANDER
Bytra Fodd
LT COMMANDER
Molefi Kagiso
LT COMMANDER
T'Lynna
COMMANDER
Kahuk
LIEUTENANT
Samir Ahmed
Roleplaying Information
USS Vincennes joined the 38th Fleet in November 2421.