With the Klingon Empire stepping up it’s aggressive expansion of territory, the Klingon High Council would demand that it’s Starship Engineers upgrade and refit its current D7 design to completely blow away enemies of the empire.
An impressive design comparatively speaking, that would make it’s mark on the Galaxy, the K’Tinga Class would continue as one of the most honorable Klingon Starship designs ever created…
Hello and welcome to another episode of Truth OR Myth Beta Canon, a Star Trek web series that dives in to a 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 Klingon K’T’Inga Class Battlecruiser, to better understand its place in Star Trek History.
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, lets begin.
The Klingon D7 Battlecruiser had been a huge success for the Empire. Technological advances and the over all design of the D7, had proven the classes worth. But by the mid 2260’s, the D7 was beginning to show it’s age. The United federation of Planets and Starfleet Command had been pumping out starships and new starship designs at an alarming rate. And although the Klingon Empire never cared much about keeping up with it’s neighbors, several encounters during the 2260’s had been devastating for the Klingon Empire, proving that perhaps it was now time for the D7 to get an upgrade.
The Klingon Empire has always been far more reserved with it’s starship designs, preferring to simply upgrade established designs rather then creating whole new ones. And so the Klingon High Council demanded it’s starship engineers to do just that, upgrade the D7 class to bring it to honorable status once again, or all would be executed and replaced with a new team that could achieve that goal. Using stolen information from it’s intelligence officers through out the galaxy, as well as technology gained from the Empires short alliance with the Romulan Star Empire, the engineering design team would accomplish the high councils demand and present the council with the design plans of what was then known as the D7M Class Battlecruiser.
Sitting at a length of approximately 350 meters and a width of approximately 252 meters, the D7M Class would be designed to be crewed by 800 Officers loyal to the Empire. It would be equipped with 6 upgraded WP-8 Disruptor canons as well as 2 upgraded KP3 photon torpedo launches, 1 forward and 1 aft. It would also be the first Klingon Class to contain the completely re-engineered cloaking device developed from the ones gained from the Romulan Star Empire during it’s Alliance. Impressed with design, the High Council would immediately order an entire fleet of D7M Classes to be constructed, and the prototype vessel would be launched in early 2270.
Conducting the standard Defensive and Offensive testing for a new class, the then named IKS Ghaklor would perform adequately, and be recalled to the Klingon Shipyards for final adjustments. On it’s way there however, the Ghaklor, under the command of General Krag, would intercept a distress call from a Klingon Freighter under attack by 2 Romulan Birds of Prey. Immediately setting course for the freighter, and at battle ready condition, General Krag would be successful in destroying both Romulan Starships and saving the freighter, before 1 last Bird of Prey decloaked and severally damaged the Ghaklor. Critically injured from the attack, General Karg, also known as K’T’Inga which translates to Bringer of Destruction, was able to destroy the new Bird of Prey before dying of his injuries. To honor the general heroic and honorable sacrifice, the D7M would officially be renamed the K’T’Inga Class Battlecruiser, and many songs would be song of the Generals Triumphant defeat of the Romulans.
By early 2273, the Klingon Imperial Defense Force had decommissioned almost all the older D7 Battlecruisers in favor of the K”T’Inga model. But when Klingon Listening posts discovered a large cloud like entity traveling at high warp about to enter Klingon Space, the high council would send out a fleet of 50 Klingon starships to confront the cloud. The entire fleet, comprised of mostly K’T’Inga Class Battlecruisers was completely destroyed. And in a last ditch attempt to stop the cloud, the KDF would send 3 more K’T’Inga Class Battlecruisers to intercept it close to the Klingon/ Federation Border. These vessels too would be unsuccessful at stopping the cloud and would also be destroyed.
This tremendous loss of so many top of the line vessels would force the council to recommission the bulk of it’s D7 decommissioned starships and rely heavily on a new small starship design known as the Klingon Bird of Prey, a direct taunting of the Romulan Star Empires designs, while it rebuilt its fleet. It was at this time that Starfleet launched it’s new Constitution Class Refit starship design. As as the Klingon Empire watched, one starship of this new class, the USS Enterprise was able to not only withstand an attack from the Cloud Entity, but seemingly defeating it before it destroyed Earth, making the Klingon High Council concerned at just how powerful this new starship class must be. And as a direct result of this concern, the High Council would institute it’s own policy of technological advancement and incorporation for all future Klingon Starship Designs constructed.
Basically, what this meant, was that the Klingon Empire would continually be on the search for new technologies and have it’s own scientists work tirelessly on developing technologies and once a new technology was discovered, it would automatically be placed in the next constructed starships coming out of it’s shipyards.
Though this might sound like an excellent plan for the Empire to institute, it’s ended up being quite the opposite. This was because many of the technologies developed and instituted during this time had very little development of their own, let alone how these new systems would interact with older systems already incorporated in to their design. This in itself, tending to keep the Klingon Defense Force off balance, as they would order a fleet of new starships that once constructed, would simply not work properly, filled with technical bugs that could take years to work out. And once the bugs were ironed out, more often then not, the Klingon Empires Enemies had already had enough time to develop their own counter measures to the new technology, essentially keeping the Klingon Empire in a stale mate with the galactic powers of the time, no side having a clear advantage should a war break out.
Never the less, the K’T’Inga Class Battlecruiser had proven it’s self to be a reliable solid design for the empire. And due to it’s easily upgradable design, would end up being in service through to the early 25th Century.
Even when the Vor’Cha Class Battlecruiser made it’s debut in 2367, many of the Great Houses of the Empire still preferred the K’T’Inga Class over this new, supposedly much more powerful design. During the short war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire in 2372, the Klingon Defense Force would still have many K’T’Inga Class starships making up the bulk of the Klingon Fleet. And early in that year, while attempting to capture Starbase Deep Space 9 from the Federation, many of these starships would end up being badly damaged or destroyed during the battle. This would lead the Klingon High Council to finally begin to consider decommission the K’T’Inga Class Battlecruiser, though this decommissioning process would take almost 4 decades to complete. But by 2410, the Klingon Defense Force had been purged of all remaining K’T’Inga Class Battlecruisers.
This would not exactly mean the end of the class entirely though, as many unofficial smaller houses with in the Empire would purchase these older starships to bolster their own personal defense forces. While others, would be converted to cargo carriers. And with the federation and Klingon Empires becoming closer and closer allies, the Klingon Empire would also end up donating the IKS Gorkon to the Federation Museum to commemorate and foster amenity with it’s Federation Allies.
Overall, the K’T’Inga Cl;ass would be seen through out the Galaxy as one of the most influential Starship designs ever created by any species with in it. Earning this class it’s honorable place, in Klingon and Galactic History…
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