Romulan Bird Of Prey Part One Header

Truth OR Myth? Beta Canon – The Romulan Bird Of Prey (Pt 1)

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 Beta Canon history which lead up to the designing of the Romulan Bird of Prey.

This story however is a little bit different from my normal outings, there isnt a lot of information, canon-wise on this period in Romulan History.  And so, since so many of you love my flights of fancy imaginings within the Star Trek universe, I’ve taken this opportunity to write my headcanon for this unknown period in Romulan history. Also, though this video is titled the Romulan Bird of Prey, it’s really the lead up to how that vessel came to be, rather than about the vessel itself, though rest assured, Part 2 will be all about that amazing design and its own particular history.

Like always because this IS my own little bit of fan fiction, all information relaid should pretty much be taken with a grain of stardust and only be considered a little bit of Star Trek Fun!  And so, with all that out of the way, let us begin.

After the humiliating defeat to humanity at the Battle of Cheron, the Romulan Star Empire would be thrown into chaos until 1 man would come along and unite the empire with the goal of redemption in mind. And after a series of unexpected events, the Romulan Bird of Prey would be launched with a resounding thud.  But what were the events that lead up to this starships invention?  Well today, we find out.

The Earth Romulan War of the late 2150s had been an embarrassing defeat for the Romulan Star Empire.

Romulan Bird-of-Prey (22nd century)
(CBS) An Early Romulan Bird de-cloaks behind an NX Class starship

In hopes of destabilizing developing relationships between what would eventually become the founding members of the United Federation of Planet, Praetor Vargo’s extensive tactical initiatives had had the complete opposite effect on these various species, ultimately bringing them together and eventually contributed to the Romulan Empires surrender.

Lucky for the Empire, the newly born United federation of Planets and Humanity itself did not have the resources or the inclination at the time to occupy Romulus. Instead, after intense negotiations, a buffer zone between Federation and Romulan Space would be created and dubbed the Neutral Zone, an entry into which, by the other side, would be considered an act of war.

Because of the shameful surrender, Praetor Vargo would be arrested and executed, leaving a vacuum of power within the Romulan Government. Eventually a New Praetor, V’sTak would emerge victorious in the power struggle and begin rebuilding the Romulan Empires confidence and prestige.

V’sTak, a brilliant tactician himself, was also a political genius.  In order to gain the Romulan Militaries support outright, he launched several minor campaigns against technologically inferior races just beyond their borders opposite to their Federation Counterpart.

Praetor Neral
(CBS) Praetor Neral One OF The Most Prominent Romulan Praetors

Taking these worlds as slave labour colonies, Praetor V’sTak would distribute the wealth acquired on those worlds to the military, taking none for himself. He would also grant the Romulan Military permission to set up Military Training Facilities on these worlds, with Romulan Generals overseeing the new slave population as Planetary Governors.

History has lost the exact number of civilian deaths on these slave worlds, but Federation Historians believe these numbers to be in the billions.

Next, V’sTak turned his attention to pleasing the Tal Shiar. In acting several new policies designed to give the Romulan Secret Police far more authority to manoeuvre as they saw fit, the Tal Shiar would also fall into line with the new Praetor.

V’sTak would institute several public reforms as well, that would see the Romulan Civilian Population praise his name. With his power base secure, V’sTak then began to pour resources into rebuilding the Romulan Fleet and developing new technologies and starship designs that could set the galaxy ablaze.

One major tactical disadvantage of the Empire was its lack of starships which were able to travel at warp and not harm its Romulan Crews.

Delta Radiation exposure on board warp-capable Romulan Starships was a constant problem, reducing a Romulan life span from 200 plus years, to merely decades.

To solve this issue, specially designed warp sleds had been used to ferry Romulan Starships equipped with advanced Impulse Drives to their destinations, an intolerable disadvantage for the Empire. Espionage had given the Romulan Star Empire detailed blueprints of Vulcan Starship Ring Warp Drive designs, but pride prevented the Romulan Senate from even acknowledging these designs… And Preator V’sTak was no exception to that rule.

Tal Shiar
(CBS) Tal Shiar Logo

He felt that if the Romulan Empire was to recover from its defeat by humanity, it needed to stand on its own, with its own technology, and so set the most brilliant minds of the Empire the task of creating their own version of a completely safe warp drive.

V’sTak would rule the Romulan Star Empire for the next 48 years until 2318 when he was diagnosed with Tuvan Syndrome and stepped down as Praetor dying 1 year later. The next 4 decades would see a plethora of Praetors come and go for the empire, 19 in total, as seemingly, no one could live up to the reputation of V’sTak.

In 2256 Vespasian, reigning Praetor at the time was both horrified and pleased by the Battle of the Binary Stars. Vespasian had no love for either the Federation or the Klingon Empire, and hoped publicly that both would annihilate each other… But secretly he and the senate were quite worried.

If the Klingon Empire succeeded in defeating the Federation, the senate believed they would next turn their sites on the Romulan Empire.

Thankfully, the Federation won the war, and all was quiet along the Neutral Zone. It was during this time, that Romulan Scientists finally believed they had made a breakthrough in Warp Design.  An engine system that would not only be safe for its passengers but also far more powerful than the standard matter/ antimatter warp core designs.

A 23rd Century Bird of Prey
(CBS) A 23rd Century Bird of Prey

Vespasian ordered immediate testing of the engine systems, and after 1 year of shake-cruises, the Quantum Singularity Core became a reality.

As a Praetor, Vespasian was not liked by either the Tal Shiar or the Romulan People. Concerned more with his image and personal pleasure, the Praetor would impact several policies that would make him very unpopular.  And although he was on shaky ground with these 2 groups, he DID have the backing of the Romulan military, and so was still secure in his position.

Setting the Empires best Engineers the task of creating a starship design to utilize the new singularity core along with a new Plasma Torpedo Weapons System, Vespasian hoped that within 5 years, he would have a fleet that could conquer the Galaxy, but events would conspire to prevent his ambitions from becoming reality.

By 2261 the Tal Shiar would have enough of Vespasian and would set in motion a plan to see the Praetor dethroned and executed.

Recent scouting missions had discovered a warp-capable star system, rich in minerals. Feeding the Praetor false information about the system, the Tal Shiar lead Vespasian to believe the system was far weaker than they actually were.

Wanting to keep his relationship with the Romulan Military, and hoping that conquering this star system would sway public sentiment in his favour, Vespasian ordered an immediate attack on the star system… It was an utter failure.

Not only was the Romulan Military unable to secure the star system, but the subsequent war with the Balyonites would see several colonies come under the enemies control. Happy with Vespasian failure, the Tal Shiar prepared to arrest and try the disgraced Praetor.  But Vespasian wasn’t quite done yet.

Plasma Torpedo
(CBS) Romulan Plasma Torpedo

Having realized he had been betrayed by the Tal Shiar, Vespasian had sent loyal officers he could trust to make peace with the Bayonites. The Bayonites accepted the terms of peace, even though they had the upper hand, a mistake, they would later regret.

With the war at an end, and knowing what was coming, Vespasian was able to pull one more rabbit out of his Romulan Hat, producing communication between the head of the Tal Shiar and the Bayonites, making it appear as though the loss was due to the Tal Shiars betrayal.

In recent years, the study of the data chip that contained the transmission, by the Joint Federation- Free Romulan Historical Society has confirmed the entire communication to be a hoax.

Never the less in 2262 Vespasian would use this falsified transmission to pin all the blame for the loss of the war on the Tal Shiar and use the entire situation to purge almost two-thirds of the organization with show trials for the public, followed by mass executions.

Vespasian knew however that support from the Romulan Military, Tal Shiar blamed or not, was beginning to wain, and realized he needed a swift victory in order to re-establish the damaged relationship… And so, for the first time in over 100 years, Vespasian would turn his eyes to an old enemy, the United Federation of Planets.

And when we next return to this story, we’ll take a direct look at the Romulan Bird of Prey, the events of 2266, and the mistakes that would lead to the downfall of Praetor Vespasian, hope to see you then.

Watch The Latest Truth Or Myth Below

Thank you for watching today’s episode of Truth or Myth Beta Canon, what do you think of the history of the Romulan Star Empire as I’ve laid it out here?  Do you want me to create 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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Thanks again for watching, JoLan Tru

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