Design Approved on Stardate:
Signature on Approval: Engineering Director Owen Townes
"The History of the Future Controls the Future of History" -- George Orwell
Late in 2373, the Romulan Empire contacted the Federation for assistance against a new enemy. This enemy struck quickly, without warning, and in large numbers. This enemy was the Crag, the most dangerous enemy the Federation had faced since the Dominion War. During the course of the Crag War, Starfleet forces drove the Crag from world after world, but suffered heavy losses in the process. Finally, the USS Alliance discovered that the Crag were not acting out of malice, but were being mentally controlled by malevolent Overlords who were using a pulsar-based Dyson Sphere, the Rolchana, to control the entire species. Starfleet was able to destroy the Rolchana, and the newly freed Crag homeworld of Crell, known to Federation astronomers as Zeta Alpha III, petitioned for Federation membership.
Several types of Crag vessel were encountered during the course of the War, most designed by the Overlords for use by the Crag in a massive territorial grab. Some ships included large dreadnaughts, troop transports, and medium cruisers, but by far the most deadly was what many crews began to call the Furry-class destroyer. These ships were very small in comparison to Federation ships, but were incredibly fast and attacked in large numbers. Federation weapons found them easy to distroy individually, but since they usually operated in large packs of 50 to 100 ships this was a daunting task, one which many Starfleet ships did not survive. Little was known of them during the course of the war, except that they, like most Crag ships, were not very sturdily built, and often were held together with what Alliance Chief Science Officer Hriss refered to as "stick staples."
When Crell was applied for admission to the Federation in early 2374, Starfleet R&D was granted several of these ships to examine. What they found surprised them. The Furry-class ships were relatively thin-hulled, using a tripple-layered vaccuum sealed dimond-laced steel hull, not used in the Federation since the orbital vessels of Earth's early 21st century. The interior of the ship was divided not by full fledged bulkheads but by double-layered vaccuum sealed steel of the same variety. This explained why the Furrys were so easy to destroy in small numbers, as well as how the Crag were able to build so many.
Most parts of the ship were inferior to Starfleet designs, but two items did draw the engineers' attention. The first was the weapons system. Furry weapons consisted of a single phaser array on thr front of the ship, slightly less powerful than Federation standard but not by much, and a charged anti-matter magnetic projectile system, also known as anti-matter torpedos. It was this last item that was signifigant. (A more complete discription is given below, in the Offensive section.) Powered by the ship's large anti-matter storage facility, it hurled charged packes of anti-matter at a target. While no where near as effective against shields as photon torpedos, the AMT was deadly against ships' hulls and planetary targets. The second, and more important surprising feature was the head. Most Starfleet vessels came equiped with a single chamber pot, usually located near the photon torpedo lauchers. This proved to be very inconvienent, especiall in ships which were able to seperate their saucer section. The Furry, however, had very well equipped facilities, which the constipated engineers found to be quite useful and relieving.
When Crell was admitted to the Federation, Starfleet realized just what they had in their hands. Crell, as part of its admittance, turned over to Starfleet nearly 5,000 Furry-class destroyers in perfect working order. The Accounting Department refused to allow this twist of fate to go unexploited, and Starfleet immideately began to work to upgrade these ships for Starfleet use. The end result -- a product of cooperation between Starfleet and Crag engineers and private industry -- was the Yub nub Destroyer. The word "yub nub" in Crill, the Crag language, means "freedom," and the designers felt it was only appropriate to name the new prototype in honor of the Crag liberation from the Overlords. The upgrade process took approximately two weeks per ship, and, much to the pleasure of the ever present Accounting Boys, did not require a large amount of capital. Impressed with the performance of the prototype, Starfleet ordered the entire Crag armada convered into useable Yub nub vessels. The Refit Team consisted of:
"To boldy save money by reusing someone else's ships." -- Starfleet Accounting
The official purpose of the Yub nub was to save money, by upgrading existing ships instead of spending the time and effort to design new ones. Eventually, however, the Yub nub Refit Team decided that the Yub nub did have a useful purpose. It's small size and high manuverability, combined with its ability to maintain a high speed for long periods of time, made the Yub nub well suited for several mission profiles:
It's ability to function independently of larger craft for extended periods of time and the fact that there are a lot of them meant that the Yub nub could be easily deployed for long range scouting missions in deep space or as a lone border patrol craft. In case of emergency when Starfleet would have to be notified of an incident, the Yub nub is unique in that it would be able to ourrun most persuing craft and inform Starfleet itself. It could additionally cover a larger portion of space without resupplying than larger Federation vessels, since it could maintain a higher warp speed for longer periods.
For offensive strategy, Starfleet learned from the
tactics used during the Crag War. A lone Furry-class Destroyer usually faired
little chance against most of Starfleet's warships. It's only chance in these
situations was to try and avoid being hit and run away. In large numbers, however,
the Furry was almost unstoppable, as while the Starfleet ship was targeting one
attacker a dozen others were attacking the Starfleet ship from all sides. The Yub
nub was more durable than its predecessor, and the Refit Team decided that squadrons
of 12 ships were the most reasonable offensive strategy. For more defensive tactics,
base defense and escort, the Yub nub was grouped into squadrons of three or six
ships.
"Faster! Faster! Faster!" --ED Mantra
Most Starfleet ships had a maximum safety speed and a absolute maximum speed, which could only be maintained for a short period of time before the energy production quotient destroyed the ship. The Yub nub used a warp core that was much more efficent than would hvae been expected considering the hull, and that, combined with its small size and low mass, allowed it to maintain its top speed almost indefinetly. Unfortunatley, many of the ship's systems made use of the ship's anti-matter supply, so fuel consumption became a factor. The Yub nub's Bussard Ram Scoops, located on the nacelles just as on Starfleet vessels, were therefore put into constant operation. When the Yub nub is not drawing anti-matter to power the AMT, it can maintain a speed of warp 9.1 and keep its anti-matter reserves at a relitively constant level. With the enginees pushed to maximum, the Yub nub can maintain a speed of warp 9.3 for 5 days before its anti-matter level forces the ship to reduce speed. (This assumes that the ship begins with a full anti-matter supply.)
"Unable to comply. EWOK is a registered trademark of LucasFilm, Ltd." -- Yub nub computer system, alpha release
The computer system of the Furry-class ships was in all respects quite inferior to Starfleet computers of the same era. The hardware system was based on the old-style monotronic archetecture, and the OS was little more than targeting scanners, life support control, and engine regulators. Some members of the Refit Team felt that the entire system should be completely scrapped and replaced with one of the new AI systems now being employed on several newer starships, but Accounting refused to spend the money to rewire the entire ship. So instead the Team settled for replacing the main computer core's hardware and software. The hardware was replaced with a Positronic Mark-VII computer system from Federation Megatrends. It was not as advanced as the computer on the Soverign-, Intrepid-, or even Galaxy-class ships, but given the Yub nub's smaller size it was adequate for the task. The Operating Software was custom built by the ever friendly people at Nyetscape Communications. Although some members of the Refit Team still wanted Nyetscape to design a ROMANOV-based AI, budget restraints forced them to settle for a component-based, scalable system called Enhansed Waveform Object Kernal. Written in the Cappuccino language, the EWOK system used the Starfleet-standard MAJEL voice interface system, run from on-chip voice samplings. The final product was a stable, dependable, reliable computer system that had no fancy bells and whistles, but more than adequately handled the limited systems of the Yub nub.
In addition to the interface, the Team also
programmed the computer with most standard and non-standard manuvering tactics. As
the ship's primary defensive tactic was to dodge and run, it had to be able to do that
very efficently. The computer was given almost complete control of the basic
manuvering properties, and the Ops console on the bridge was riged so that the Ops officer
could give general commands, such as roll left or yaw right, and the computer would
automatically translate those into appropriate impulse and thruster controls. This
resulted in far more manuverability and a far lower reaction time than could be
accomplished by a human, or by a larger vessel with a larger inirtial mass.
"You can't kill what you can't catch." -- The Roadrunner
The Furry's shielding system used an eliptical shield, based on energy dissapation. The system was essentially the same as older Starfleet systems, and served the small ship adequately. The Refit Team decided to leave the system essentially intact, however, they did boost its power slightly and reduce its recharge time.
The Furry's hull was originally cast steel and diamond aranged in a tripple-layer vaccuum-sealed shell, and the internal dividers were the same material only double-layered. Though not as strong as the Titanium hulls used on Starfleet ships, it was enough to maintian pressure and environment for the ship and did not buckle under the stress of rapid vector changes. Unfortunately, it didn't stand up to Starfleet safety tests, and was not stable when under direct assault by directed energy or matter/anti-matter weapons. To compensate for this, the Refit Team coated the entire hull of the ship including the nacelles and pylons with sixty centimeters of ablative armor, twice the amount used on the Defiant-class ships. The effect on the ship's manuverability and speed was found to be negligible.
The Yub nub's primary defensive strategy is
simple: don't get hit. To accomplish this basic but necessary function, the Furry-class's
high sub-light speed and manuverability were enhansed even further. The ship steers
by two methods -- unequal power distribution to the impulse array and thruster arrays
located at the front of the ship. This allowed the Yub nub to change its
heading, pitch, yaw, and roll with far more precision than other ships of its size.
In testing, it even managed to out manuver several Danube-class runabouts and
Federation D-7 fighters.
"He who shoots last laughs best." -- Ulysses S. Grant
The Furry's weapons systems were one of the two places where Starfleet was met with something new. The phaser system consisted of a single emitter array wrapped around the front of the ship, resulting in a firing radius of approximately 240 degrees. The emitters were linked in parallel instead of in series, as in most Starfleet designs, so that a single discharge from the generators could be channeled out of a single beam or multiple beams simultaneously, with each beam containing only a portion of the charge. The targeting systems were originally limited to general vectors, however, the upgraded EWOK system was equipped with a much finer locking system. In controlled simulations, the computer was able, on command from the tactical console on the bridge, to lock onto and destroy two seperate photon torpedos, both traveling in parabolic arcs. It failed, however, to sucessfully target three such warheads, and results varied from test to test, with the system sometimes managing to destroy all three and other times bearly managing to damage one, due to the overloaded processors. It was able to sucessfully target four runabouts simultaneously, due to their larger size. The power of the phaser systems was roughly equivalent to Starfleet Mark IX starship systems.
The more surprising system was the charged anti-matter magnetic projectile system, more commonly known as the anti-matter torpedo (AMT). The AMT worked by ciphening off anti-matter from the anti-matter storage compartment on decks two and three and channeling it to the dorsal weapons/sensor array located above deck one. There, the anti-matter, anti-deuterium actually, was stripped of its orbiting positrons and locked into a magnetic field generated by a magnetic contstricter. The magnetic contstricter is a small device, only ten centimeters in diameter, which serves only to create and maintain a magnetic field capable of holding the charged anti-matter for a short period of time. The constricter was then propelled by the force of the stripped positrons, which were projected against a magnetic dish on the constricter, out of one of the two forward- or one aft-facing AMT tubes at a target. There was only limited targeting for these projectiles, and they had a firing radius of only 45 degrees. Upon contact with a target, the constricter is destroyed by the impact and the anit-matter, now highly charged, is released against the target without having been diluted by deep space particles, the main drawback of an anit-matter spread as used by the Enterprise-D during the First Borg Incursion. The charged anit-matter reacts with the target, causing a matter/anti-matter reaction which "eats up" the target in the reaction and releases huge amounts of energy in the process, causing further distruction.
The AMT system was left essentially untouched by the Refit Team. Each of the three firing tubes is capable of launching 1 projectile every 1.8 seconds. The two forward tubes can work in tandem, firing alternately with each other to release a projectile every .9 seconds. Two tubes can not fire simultaneously, however, as soon as a projectile is launched another projectile can be readied for a different tube. The AMT is not an effective weapon against energy-based shielding systems, as there is no matter with which to react. It is, however, quite effective against any material defense, including ships hulls, starbase hulls, planetary installations, and even celestial bodies themselves. This last target, that of a natural celestial body, was, to the best of Starfleet's knowledge, only used twice during the War, once against the Borg colony on [Anyone remember what this was called?], during the USS Montgomery's first contact with the Crag, and again to destroy the primary satelite of Sith. Sith is a world approximately 40 light-years from Crell, and is home to the Seetha, a reptilian race with pseudo-shapshifting abilities. Sith's primary satelite, Xizor, was a major colony and production center, and the Crag, under Overlord control, destroyed it as a demonstration of what would happen to Sith if they did not surrender. (A source of animosity between the two races ever since.) In both instances, over 2000 ships were involved in a sustained, concerted attack. While such an attack is still possible with the Yub nub, it would again require thousands of ships working in tandem for a sustained period of time, as well as a reason to do so.
The Yub nub is equipped with 500 magnetic
constricters, and the ship's replicators can produce more if necessary. Each
projectile can be independently armed with anywhere from 1 gram to 100 kg equivalent mass
of anti-matter.
"Wow! Is that what I think it is?" -- Starfleet Engineer who first notieced the head on the Furry-class ships
The second, and perhaps more important discovery made by the Refit Team was the head. Unlike Starfleet ships, the Overlords had built the Furry-class with full facilities, located in the aft section of deck one. It is suspected that the Overlords had not originally intended to provide this luxury for their Crag slaves, but as an Overlord was often present on a ship to maintain loyalty, they soon discovered that Crag, when not kept clean, begin to emit microscopic particulate matter into the air which produces a distinctive effulvia, as well as larger particles which settled on objects and trapped this effulvia to the surroundings. To avoid the drawbacks to efficency produced by this delema, the Overlords provided a section of the ship for the Crag to rid themselves of this particulate matter in a non-offensive manner. The discovery of several dozen vessels left in permanent dry-dock at Starbase 202 which lacked this feature tends to confirm this hypothesis.
The Furry- and Yub nub-class head is located at the aft section of deck one, with a single entrance from the main corridor. The rear wall of the chamber is curved to match the curvature of the ship itself, with a 1.5 meter gap between the outer wall and the inner wall. This space is occupied by two quarter-circle corridors, with entrances at the fore-sides of the room, which have liquid-hydrogen monoxide emitters in the ceiling and walls and waste collection slots at the sides of the floor, which is slanted inward. A subject enters one of these corridors at the fore-end and passes through the dihydrogen monoxide emitters, which remove 98% of the particulate matter given off by the Crag, as well as most other species. The subject then passes through another door at the back of the chamber into a smaller room two meters square. This room is equipped with high velocity gasseous projectors on all six walls, which enables the subject to remove the excess dihydrogen monoxide left over from the quarter-circle chambers in a minimum amount of time. This room then opens into the main chamber. Arranged around the back wall of the chamber are four triangular regions divided off from the rest of the chamber by thin steel plating, which extends approximately 3/4 of the way from the floor to the ceiling. These partitioned sections each contain a standard waste collection bin, with a hydrogen monoxide rinse. In the center of the chamber is a large pipe, one meter in diameter, which carries the anti-matter from the storage area below to the dorsal weapons array. Although some officers were concerned that this close proximity to the anti-matter would result in undue exposure to anti-proton radiation, the radiation levels in this chamber were found to be only .0002% higher than the average level throught the ship. Around the anti-matter carrier pipe is a circular hygenic dihydrogen monoxide fount, which is activated by infrared sensors implanted in the carrier pipe.
All waste material extracted by the facilities is
channeled to the matter storage and replication generator on deck three for recycling.
"But then I have no one to kill!" -- GM Colin Wyers upon discovering that the Yub nub has no Nameless Bobs.
The Furry-class Destroyer was designed for a command crew of one Overlord and five Crag officers, with space to carry up to 48 Crag "stormtroopers" for boarding other ships. Since Starfleet had no need for such a large number of soldiers during peacetime, the baracks on deck 2 were replaced with the Mess Hall/Replicator center, Sickbay, Science Lab, and Holosuite. The Command Quarters on Deck 1 were maintained, and the Yub nub-class now sports a standard crew complement of six: CO, XO, CE, CTO, CSO, and CMO. Several officers initially objected since that meant no Nameless Ensigns or Nameless Bobs, but the limited volume of the ship required it, and it did not reduce the ship's effectiveness. If necessary, the ship can still hold up to 30 people, however, space would be extremely cramped and the extra people would have to bunk in the Sickbay and Mess Hall.
All Yub nub-class ships have crews mixed
between Starfleet regulars and Crag Defense Force. This is due to the fact that the
ship was designed with the Crag in mind, and as such was best suited for their
physiology. After Crell was admitted to the Federation, Crag began to trickle into
Starfleet, and eventually many Crag Starfleet officers served on board these ships.
Any species is generally capable of fulfiling any of the postions on the ship, provided
that the quarters and chairs appropriate to the position are modified to accomodate the
Crag's smaller size. The CE of a Yub nub is almost always a Crag,
however. While not an absolute requirement, it is a reasonable system, as the
Engineering Deck (Deck 3) is quite cramped for most humanoids since it was designed for
the Crag to conduct repairs themselves. All other positions have been filled, at
different times, with members of almost any humanoid species.
"Oops! Silly me. I had the map upside down." -- Thesus
Fortuantely for Humanoid officers everywhere, the Overlords designed the Furry-class Destroyer so that they could use it as well as the Crag. Each deck, therefore, is tall enough for persons up to 2 meters (6' 4") to use safely. However, deck three is crouded by engineering equipement, and for this reason it is suggested that the Engineer on the Yub nub be Crag, as it was designed for their use.
Weapons/Sensor Array (See Diagram)
On top of the ship is a combined Weapons/Sensor Array. This
array streaches from the rear of the ship over the top to the front, where it ends in the
foreward AMT emitter tubes. The single rear AMT tube is at the rear. Along the
entire length of the array are various pieces of sensor and communication equipment.
These include the subspace antenna as well as targeting sensors and short range
sensors. Long range sensors are built into the main deflector dish on deck three,
just as on most Starfleet designed ships.
Deck One (See Diagram)
The fore section of deck one contains the bridge. There are
seats for all six members of the crew, with the CSO functioning as the Ops officer.
Moving aft is the access stairway which is the only access to the other decks and the
weapons locker, which contains standard phasers for each member of the crew as well as
type III phaser rifles, photon grenades, and other field sundries. Aft of these are
quarters for the six crewmembers, each preassigned to a position. The quarters were
preassigned for the Crag command crew of five and the Overlord representitive, who acted
as Captain. The same system was used for the refitted Yub nub, with the CO
and XO recieveing the quarters closest to the head, which is located at the rear of deck
one, as described above.
Deck Two (See Diagram)
The original Furry-class had eight chambers on deck two.
The fore-most was the computer control center, where the main computer core was
located. Immideatley aft was the access stairway and the transporter room.
These were followed by four barracks rooms, each of which housed a dozen Crag boarding
troops in poor conditions. These were followed by two storage chambers for
consumables and weapons for the boarding troops. The Starfleet Refit Team decided
that there was no need to house 48 boarding troops, and decided to convert those rooms
into other facilities. The first room to be convered became a standard level
Sickbay, with mostly portable equipment and self-sustaining equipment. It is not
equipped with an EMH system. The second chamber became a communal Mess Hall, with
two replicators on the fore-wall. These repllicators are capable of producing edible
foodstuffs for comsumption, as well as non-edible objects for entertainment, energy levels
permitting, and small devices, such as the magnetic constricters for the AMT. A
rudimentary Science Lab was also included in place of the third chamber. At this
point, the Team was contacted by the Committee of Officers to Maintain Managable
Interactive Entertainment. COMMIE insisted that the crew of the Yub nub would
have to have adequate recreational facilities or else they would call a subcommittee to
consider the idea of striking on the Refit Line. Due to the shortage of space on the
ship, the Refit Team replaced the fourth barracks with a generic Holosuite. Not as
elaborate as a Holodeck, it did meet COMMIE's demands. The two weapons storage areas
were converted into generic cargo facilities.
At the rear of deck two is the upper section of the anti-matter storage chamber and the impulse engines.
Deck Three (See Diagram)
Deck three contains mostly engineering equipement and Main
Engineering. The main deflector dish is located at the front of the ship, immideatly
aft of which is the Deuterium Storage Chamber. The Matter/Anti-Matter Reaction
Assembly runs horizontally back from this chamber to where it conects with the lower
section of the Anti-Matter Storage Chamber. Then plasma conduits extend out from the
Dilithium chamber upwards towards the sides of the ceiling, where they enter deck two in
the Mess Hall and Science Lab. From there they slanted out and then down the nacelle
pylons, which attach on deck two. The nacelles hang between decks two and
three. Four landing struts are located in a rectangular pattern, allowing the ship
to land safely on a planetary surface and return to space. Also on this deck are the
life support systems, the matter storage chamber for the replicators, the gravity
generation equipment, and the pattern buffer for the transporter. On the aft
starboard side of the ship is a combined gangway/airlock, which can serve either purpose
equally, as necessary. The primary Engineering controls, including a standard
"pool table" control table, are located on the starboard side as well, and serve
as the equivalent of Main Engineering.
"OK, how many of you get the jokes here?" -- Larry Garfield, Designer
As Starbase 202, in Crell orbit, was not equipped to handle the refit of the Furry ships, the refit process was performed at the Arbuckle Ship Yards at Zeta III. The operation was overseen by Arbuckle Ship Yards Chief Oscar D. I. Edwards.
The first six ships of the Yub nub-class were officially cristened at the same time at a large ceremony at Starbase 202. They were all named for concepts central to the Crag religion, and also key concepts in the Crell Planetary Anthem: [Note: These ships are reserved for active RPG status.]
The rest of the Yub nub-class was comissioned over the next few months, as the modification process was completed. They were all named for characters from Crag mythology, and included: [Note: These ships are reserved for NPC status, and may be recycled.]
Though originally a ship of war, the upgraded Furry-class
ships proved to be capable of peacetime operation as well. It served as both an
offensive ship, a defensive ship to protect stationary installations, escort vessel,
patrol, scout, and distance exploration. Although some medical personnel were
concerned that a crew of only six would lead to psychological difficulties, none of the
crews of the first six Yub nub vessels complained about the close quarters.
The first Yub nub in service was the USS Glowah in the Fourth Fleet, although
others were later added to both the Fourth Fleet and the rest of Starfleet. Standing
in stark contrast to the larger, better powered, up-to-date Starfleet ships-of-the-line
such as the Soverign-class, the Nimitz-class, and the Trafalgar-class,
the Yub nub proved that it wasn't the size of the ship that mattered, it was how
fast it could move.
Submitted to the Engineering Department and the General Membership of STF for approval,
EA Captain Larry Garifeld, CO, USS Alliance
Stardate 98022.8
Design Approved on Stardate:
Signature on Approval: Engineering
Director Owen Townes