Hello and welcome to another episode of Truth OR Myth Beta Canon, a Star Trek web series that dives into the history of any given topic using Beta Canon sources and my own imagination to fill in the gaps. In today’s episode, we’re taking a look at the Detroyat Class of Starfleet Starships, as first seen in FASA Role Playing Games, to better understand its place in Star Trek History.
This video, however, is a bit different, as much of the history on this class within the Beta canon sources, such as the Four Years War, has been rendered false by Alpha Canon itself. And so here I have an excellently rendered starship, with well thought out stats, but no valid history.
So what I’ve done is take all the valid information I could find and create an entire backstory for this unique class of Starship… Lastly, this class was named after the 19th Century French Naval Officer Pierre Léonce Détroyat. But for fandom’s sake, and because of translations to the English Language, I will be referring to this Class as the Detroyat Class for the rest of this video.
And as always, Because this IS a Beta Canon video, all information relaid should pretty much be taken with a grain of stardust, and only considered a little bit of Star Trek Fun! And so, with all that out of the way, let us begin.
Starfleet’s newest answer to a fighter carrier, the Detroyat Class would go through many changes before finding its place within the Federation. The Constitution, Saladin and Hermes Classes were proving to be a great success for Starfleet Command.
Starfleet’s intention was to replace all its ageing starship classes with new Classes based solely on the Constitution Class design. And to that end, had its design engineers working on many classes to replace the various mission profiles, currently held by other starship classes.
One particular area where Starfleet Command wanted to expand its fleet into, was that of a carrier style starship. Starfleet had been developing fighter craft for many years, and including these various shuttles on all their current in-service starships, and they wanted a newly designed Starship Class to carry and defend these little scrappers.
So with this directive in mind, Starfleet’s Engineers would come up with a very different design that they hoped would fit the bill, and the Detroyat Class would be born.
Sitting at a length of 258 meters and a width of 174 meters, the Detroyat Class would be designed to be operated by 316 Officers and Crew Members. This class was heavily armed, to allow it to protect and give cover fire to all the fighters it housed.
It contained 6 Phaser Banks with 2 Emitters each, 2 Torpedo launchers, 1 forward and 1 aft as well as a new experimental system known as an Accelerated Phase Canon. This new weapons system would unleash bolts of concentrated Phaser Energy, much more powerful than the standard emitters could provide. Though due to the necessity of having a cool-down period between each Canon Shot, this weapon could only be used once every 2 minutes.
The Detroyat Class had a maximum safe cruising speed of Warp Factor 6 and an Emergency Maximum Speed of Warp Factor 7. Deflector Shields in this class were standard for classes of the time.
A Primary and Secondary Hull Configuration like the Constitution Class, the Detroyat Class would take a somewhat radical approach to its secondary hull. Where most secondary hulls since Starfleet had begun using them, were cylindrical in nature, the Detroyat’s secondary Hull was a boxy design. This was done to accommodate the new storage and launch system for fighters that Starfleet’s Engineer’s had designed.
Its primary hull was that of a standardized saucer section. The main engineering for this class was located in the aft bottom section of the Saucer Section, continuing down into the first few decks of the Secondary Hull.
When presented with the design in early 2248, Starfleet Command was unimpressed, they had envisioned a Starship Design with grace and poise, similar to that of the Constitution Class, and were quite hesitant to even give the approval for this new design. But with the assurances of their best Starship Design Engineers, Starfleet eventually relented and the USS Detroyat began its construction.
Completed in 2250, Starfleet Command would order an unusually extensive shakedown cruise for the starship, having new specially designed war game manoeuvres added to ensure the class performed at the level they had been assured that it would, and the Detroyat Class did not disappoint, having one of the best Shakedown cruises ever recorded in Starfleet history.
It’s new fighter launch system, which utilized transporters to quickly place an officer in the fighter cockpit had alone proven this vessel class worth to Starfleet, and after approval from the Federation Council, Starfleet ordered 12 more of the class to be constructed.
Construction on the Detroyat Class was slow going, however, as the federation was constantly diverting resources elsewhere through out the Federation. Growing at a rapid rate, the United Federation of Planets would continually divert construction resources to other sectors, where new colonies and Starbases were being built.
So by 2256, only 8 additional vessels of the class had been built, and by the end of the 1-year war with the Klingon Empire from 2256-2257, Starfleet only had 4 of the Detroyat Class Vessels left within its fleet.
After the Federation/ Klingon War, Starfleet was left with the daunting task of rebuilding its fleet, and would immediately review all starship designs deciding whether to keep those vessel classes in production or cancel them in favour of others, much easier to construct designs, as a result, the Detroyat Class design would be cancelled.
Starfleet Command, however, was not exactly done with the Detroyat Class, as they saw potential in the 4 remaining vessels to be repurposed with a new mission profile, one of colonization and mobile construction facilities.
The Federation/ Klingon War had also devastated many member worlds and Federation Colonies, another daunting rebuilding process, and Starfleet felt, if the existing fighter launching system with in the secondary hull was removed, that the Detroyat Class could have several Industrial Fabricators installed within it along with numerous cargo bays that could hold the materials needed for the various rebuilding efforts.
Nevertheless, all the remaining Detroyat Class Vessels were recalled to Utopia Planitia and given a 4-month overhaul to conform to Starfleet’s new role for the vessel class, again the Detroyat Class, once relaunched, would perform above and beyond expectations. Its fabrication and storage facilities were unmatched through out the Federation, and the Class itself would become responsible for restoring many of the federations Colonies back to their former glories.
After the rebuilding efforts were complete in 2266, the Detroyat Class would begin to be utilized to construct new Starbases and Outpost through the Federation, however, with the breakthrough of technology seen in the Constitution Class Refit, many of the older Classes of the 2240s and 2250s had become obsolete almost overnight. So Starfleet Command, once again, began to reconstruct its entire fleet, Introducing Classes like the Miranda and Oberth and slowly replacing the out of date starships.
The last of the Detroyat Class would be decommissioned in 2286, one of the last older style Vessels to have remained in service within the fleet.
This was Starfleet Command’s first experiment in a Carrier Style Starship turned mobile Construction Facility that would come to end with barely an acknowledgement of the classes existence.
When looking back at Starfleet and the federation’s progression to one of the dominant galactic powers, one doesn’t often think of the Detroyat Class, nevertheless, though small in number, this Class would come to symbolize hope and recovery for many member worlds and colonies along the Klingon Federation border.
The sheer number of Starbases and Outposts the vessels of this class helped construct is unmatched in any other future vessel classes. Earning the Detroyat Class its place, in both Starfleet and the Federations History…
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Thank you for watching today’s episode of Truth or Myth Beta Canon, what do you think of the Detroyat Class, and the historical narrative that I’ve created here. Would you like to see more videos like this one? Well leave your comments in the section below and don’t forget to like the video and subscribe to the channel.
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