Hello and welcome to another episode of Truth OR Myth, a Star Trek web series that normally looks at the Truth, or canon, information to dispel the myths that have surfaced on a given topic. In today’s episode, we’re taking a look at the Mogai Class of Romulan Starships in an effort to better understand their place in Star Trek history.
Sleek and stylish, the Mogai Class Warbird would represent a sudden shift in starship design for Star Empire. But it wasn’t until the destruction of the Romulan Home World that Starfleet Command and the United Federation of Planets would come to know this starship classes true design process and what they found out, would shock them.
There isn’t a lot of information available of this class, so what I’ve done is thoroughly researched the Class through Beta Canon and filled in some of the gaps with my imagination, all to give you good Tri-naries a little bit to chew on about this beautiful class.
As a result, though, most information in the video should pretty much be taken with a grain of stardust, and only considered a little bit of Star Trek Fun! One side note, in the interest of clarity, I’m referring to the class as the Mogai Class, although no canon name for the class has ever been released, the name Mogai comes from Star Trek Online, and as a result, most people are familiar with this class by that name. And so, with all that out of the way, let’s begin.
The attack on the Klingon outpost at Narendra 3 in 2344 had been well planned, with all contingencies prepared for, at least the Romulan Star Empire had thought. In their bid to destabilize the Peace Treaty Negotiations between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, the Star Empire had devised a cunning plan to force the Klingon Empire, who were still recovering from their moon Praxis’s destruction, into turning to the United Federation of Planets for assistance in a war against the Romulan Empire.
Knowing the federation would not go to war, the Klingon Empire would then see this as a dishonourable act and break all ties with Federation, leaving the Klingon Empire open to attack from the Star Empire, allowing the Romulans to gain a bigger foothold in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. What the Romulans didn’t count on, was the federation Starship U.S.S. Enterprise C, under the command of Rachel Garrett being in the area and coming to the outpost’s defence. And the subsequent destruction of the Enterprise C, would lead the Peace Treaty between the 2 previously hostile powers to be finalized, as the Klingon Empire viewed the sacrifice of the Enterprise C, to be an extremely courageous and honourable act.
What has only come to light now, after the Destruction of Romulus, was the true impact that battle with the Enterprise C would have on the development of the Romulan Star Empire? Unbeknownst to Starfleet at the time, the Enterprise C had actually travelled to the future during that battle, and once it had returned to its proper time frame had carried an alternate timeline version of Lieutenant Natasha Yar, who was then captured in the aftermath of the battle.
With Tasha as a prisoner, the Romulan Star Empire would interrogate her repeatedly, gleaming all the knowledge they could from the Security Officer about future events and technologies. As a result, the Star Empire would initiate several plans in order to give them an advantage in the Future. One such plan was the cloning of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who the Romulan Star Empire had intended to replace the original with, if and when Captain Picard had become the Captain of the Enterprise D. This plan though, would eventually be dropped after a change in government would lead the Star Empire to a more passive path in galactic politics.
Another, and perhaps more ambitious plan, was the design and creation of the D’deridex Class Warbird. This large and powerful starship design would be almost double in length to the Galaxy Class which Tasha had described to her captors, and would hold such a formidable arsenal that the Star Empire reasoned that no Government would be able to challenge their supremacy. After first encountering the D’deridex Class while investigating the disappearances of outposts along the Neutral Zone Border, the Enterprise D, and The Federation would come to see the Romulan Star Empire as being a major threat in the Quadrants once again.
This status for the D’deridex Class would be short-lived, however, as, after the attack on Wolf 359 by the Borg Collective, Starfleet would design much smaller, easily constructed starships that would take advantage of an array breakthrough in technology Starfleet had made because of the attack. Thus, less then a decade after their launch, the D’deridex Class was beginning to fall from grace.
Not willing to accept this reversal of fortune, the Star Empire began their own campaigns for technological breakthroughs and immediately ordered all their Starship Designers and Engineers to come up with much smaller, more effective designs which could outdo the federation in combat.
And with these orders, the Mogai Class would come to be.
Originally called the Norexan-class Warbird, later changed to the Valdore Type Warbird before eventually being named the Mogai Class, this Warbird stood at a length of approximately 603 Meters and would hold a crew of approximately 1000 loyal Romulan Crew Members. The starship design itself would be streamlined to appear more as a swooping bird, rather than the bulky design of its D’deridex older sister.
The Mogai Warbird was equipped with several disruptor canons all over the starships hull, as well as several torpedo launchers. And to improve its tactical footprint, this class was designed to allow the easy addition of many more weapons systems should the Star Empire require it. Upgraded shield and cloaking systems, which were actually designed to counter Dominion Cloak Detection Technology, were also included in this design.
Having many spies infiltrate the Federation and Starfleet, the internal layout of this ship would end up having more of a Federation starship feel, rather than the common feel for Romulan Starships of the time. No better proof of this change in Romulan Design Aesthetics can be seen than in the design of this classes bridge, which has a clearly Starfleet Feel to it, even though it retains the traditional Romulan design palette colours of Greens, Pinks, Purples and blues. While designing this class, the Star Empire attempted to One Up Starfleet in every way, but unfortunately, they were running into difficulties.
Although certain technologies were known to them in great detail, these technologies simply couldn’t work with the Singularity Core that Romulan Starship traditionally held. And so to get a better grasp of Starfleet technology, the Praetor of the Star Empire approved a plan to steal a Federation Starship under construction at a classified Starfleet Construction Facility known as the Beta Antares Shipyards.
This starship, the U.S.S. Prometheus, was one of Starfleet’s Newest Designs, and had, unbelieving to the Star Empire, been designed to achieve and maintain speeds far greater then any starship had in the past. It apparently also had the ability to separate itself into multiple vessels that could easily be controlled from the main bridge.
On Stardate 51462, the elite team sent by Romulan Intelligence was successful in hijacking the Prometheus. However, after a subspace transmission, containing its holographic doctor, was sent by the starship U.S.S. Voyager trapped in the Delta Quadrant, their plans were quickly foiled. Teaming up with his Prometheus Counterpart, the 2 Doctors were able to outwit the elite Romulan Team and retake the starship, turning it back over to Starfleet Command. This attempt to steal one of their starships would begin a chain reaction within Starfleet and The United Federation of Planets that would have long-lasting effects.
Though the Star Empire refused to acknowledge they had any part of the plan, it was clear that they in fact did, and this would prevent meaningful peace talks from ever really getting off the ground, though several attempts were made in the following years. As a result of this inability to capture the Prometheus, planned technology for the class was put on hold, instead, the design would include more standardized technology that had already been developed by the Romulans.
This, however, would end up making the Mogai Class far less powerful than originally intended, not even coming close to the power of the Sovereign Class which the Star Empire was desperate to match. No greater example of this less powerful class can be seen then in that of the Battle of the Basin Rift. Here 2 Mogai Class Warbirds teamed up with the Enterprise E to stop Captain Picard’s Clone, now named Shinzon, from destroying Earth. Though the battle itself was long, both Mogai Class Starship was taken out of the battle fairly early on and fairly easily. This in itself would send the Star Empire’s Government into a panic, even requesting real peace talks with the Federation while at the same time frantically attempting to upgrade their starship designs to be more of a match to those of the federation.
The Klingon Empire, meanwhile at this time, began to see the Star Empire as far weaker then they had envisioned, and began to raid planets along the Romulan/ Klingon Border, claiming these raids as retaliation for centuries of Interference and attacks by Star Empire itself. Sadly, however, the Mogai Class would never live up to the expectations of the Star Empire, and as a result, the Star Empire would head back to the drawing board, abandoning all plans for this class.
In the 2380s when it was discovered that the Romulan sun would soon go supernova, which is itself threatened to destroy the Romulan system and several adjacent systems, the Romulan Star Empire would turn to the federation for assistance. Remembering how the UFP had helped the Klingon Empire after it’s moon Praxis had been destroyed, the Star Empire was sure of the Federation’s help. And indeed at first, they had it.
With the then Admiral Jean-Luc Picard convincing Starfleet to build a fleet of 10000 Starships to aid in the evacuation of the Romulan Star Systems. This collaboration was tenuous to begin with however, as many member worlds did not want to help a Government that had caused so much duplicitous destruction through out the quadrants. And when a Synth attack destroyed the Utopia Planitia Ship Yards and set Mars a blaze, many of those member worlds were convinced that factions with in the Romulan Star Empire had initiated those attacks. Though at present there has never been any proof uncovered to substantiate these claims. never the less, the federation pulled their help the Star Empire, and left the Romulans to their own fate.
Thankfully Ambassador Spock was able to steal a starship equipped with red matter and was able to stop the SuperNova, though not before Romulus itself was destroyed.
As a result of this chaos with the Star Empire many of the surviving Mogai Class Starships, whether from decommissioned shipyards or from outlying colony defence forces, are still in service today, though many have been upgraded or retrofitted with vastly different technologies.
This continued service by the class, however, has cemented the Mogai Class Warbird as one of the most versatile and interesting designs ever created . Earning this class it’s place in both Starfleet and Romulan History…
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