Welcome to the first instalment of Ships of the Fleet Sunday. The first vessel to be looked into is the spartan but effective Saber class!
Origins: The Saber was designed by Alex Jaeger at ILM. In an interview during 2009 he went into detail about the design:
Design: Compared to almost all other designs seen throughout Star Trek this ship is unique as it does not have a saucer section or defined Buzzard collectors, Nassels or Sensor Array. According to the design artist According to Rick Sternbach:
"Yes, the notch in the front is a forward launch bay. And yes the name Yeager is after Chuck Yeager as is the NCC # 6-1947... the year he broke the sound barrier. Also, there was another design that was not used in the film that was given the USS Yeager name, so I wanted to make sure that at least the name made it through. The unused design was posted on John's blog, it was the 1st design in that post.
The textures are from the Galaxy-class Enterprise, it was a quick way to show that even though it was a 'new' design, it was of the older era ships compared to the then new Enterprise-E. The # of new ship designs in Star Trek: First Contact was actually only 4, the Sabre, Steamrunner, Norway and of course the Akira. The goal with all of those ships was to make them look completely different from the Enterprise as we were introducing the E in that film and they didn't want people going, 'wait, which one's the Enterprise?'
Therefore the very radical layouts on those 4 ships, but still keeping true to the basics of starship design, such as the deflector dish and Nacelle Bussard collectors must have a clear view to open space in the front view etc... A couple more notes about this ship, as some of you have mentioned it's very compact. I basically approached it from the standpoint of getting rid of all the struts and necks as possible and still maintain the 2 hull look. So there is still the flat horizontal 'saucer' section and the vertical (although more triangular) secondary hull. The only 'struts' are the stubs holding the nacelles off the saucer edges.
I figured I could get away with this compactness since the Defiant had been introduced by the time FC came around. The impulse engines should not be glowing all over, you are correct that they only glow at the opening in the back. And as far as the CG model's life, these were VERY low res models, especially the Norway-class, so it's no surprise to me that they've been remodelled several times.
Although now that I'm a better 3D modeller I'd like to take a crack at a redesign."
Classifications
The ship was considered relatively small as it was only 190.5 meters in length. Though seen being constructed at Utopia Planitia over Mars the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual states that its main production base was the ASDB Integration section on Spacedock 1 over Earth. The ship had a crew of 40 Starfleet officers and an evacuation limit of 200 people. This made the ships crew roster one of the smallest in Starfleet 24th century fleet as it was just smaller than the Defiants 50 personnel.
Type: In the same manual it is classified as a light cruiser but I would personally consider it to be a picket or Corvette.
Decks: 6
Warp: This vessel had an impressive maximum warp of 9.7 which it could hold for twelve hours. This is accompanied with one 1,500 plus Cochrane warp core. This makes the ship extremely maneuverable in battle.
Sublight: 2 large aft-mounted impulse engines.
Armaments:
2 photon torpedo launchers: The photon torpedo used shaped charges of antimatter that, when they came in contact with conventional matter or hard energy barriers, released massive amounts of gamma-ray photons, hence the weapon's name. They were developed in part due to the requirement for a weapon, which unlike phasers, could be used at faster than light speeds which made the Photon torpedo very unique, useful and deadly.
Defences:
Deflector shields: Most starships are fitted with deflector shields, often projected from a deflector dish, to protect them from particle impacts which, particularly at high velocities, could cause huge amounts of damage. While basic deflectors and deflector beams could provide minimal protection from weapons fire and basic mishaps, the majority of advanced starships were also fitted with more powerful shielding which could be activated in tactical situations.
However, these shields were sufficiently powerful that they also blocked out transporter beams. Shields could be configured in two forms; ellipsoid form shielding, common in Federation starships in the 24th century, which projected a shield bubble around a starship; or contour-conforming shielding which was projected much closer to the ship's hull, providing more specifically localized protection.
Some shielding systems also allowed shielding over specific areas of a ship to be activated or deactivated to provide protection for a specific area only and presumably reduce power consumption not protecting the entire hull.
Duranium-Tritanium hull plating.
Microfiber Reinforced Ablative Armor: Was a type of protective hull plating used on starships, which possessed a capability for rapidly dissipating the energy impacts from directed energy weapon fire.
Auxiliary craft: 2 shuttlecraft: Are small craft that could be transported or launched from larger starships. The Federation made use of Shuttlecraft during the Dominion war as fighter craft or strikecraft. The Saber was unique as it launched its shuttles from two hangar bays at the front of the ship, just below the bridge. The ship usually was seen carrying 2 Type-9 shuttlecraft.
Bridge: No official images of the bridge for the Saber exist but we can assume that it would be either identical or somewhat similar to the Defiant.
USS Da Vinci, NCC-81623
Commision: 2370s-2410
Interesting facts: Towed NX-02 Columbia from the Gamma Quadrant back to earth.
USS Graza, NCC-61813
Commision: 2370s-???
USS Montgolfier, NCC-40109/NCC-94943
Commision: 2370s-2376
Interesting facts: Equipped with a quantum slipstream drive, tetryon compositor and heavy graviton beam array.
USS Peterson, NCC-61815
Commission: 2370s-???
Interesting facts: Attacked by an installation on one of the moons of Nibia along with its sister-ships USS Graza, USS Sanders and USS Sentry.
USS Sanders, NCC-61822
Commision: 2370s-???
Interesting facts: Attacked by an installation on one of the moons of Nibia along with its sister-ships USS Graza, USS Sanders and USS Peterson.
USS Sentry, NCC-61890
Commision: 2370s-73??.6
USS Saber, NX-???
Commision: ???
Interesting facts: First prototype of its class.
Role: The ship was generally used by Starfleet in the 24th century much in the same manner it used the Miranda class during the late 2300's. The Saber was an escort vessel with one specification in mind...combat, specifically designed to defend against the Borg Collective. It was mostly seen in escort positions when in large fleets but was known to be in a small fast attacking with two others of the same class. This ships soul purpose was combat, thus why the ships hull was compact and very spartan. This produced a smaller silhouette for hostile vessels to target. The vessel is fast, extremely maneuverable and very well armed. Something of uniqueness was the ship being designed to complement the Steamrunner class light cruiser. It was hoped that the two vessels would cover for each other shortcomings when working in tandem and provide a powerful attack or patrol force without the need to commit any larger ships or squadrons.
During the Dominion War, the Saber was renowned for its effectiveness as a counter to the Dominion Jem'Hadar Scarab class attack ship and the Cardassians Hideki Class raiders. Its impressive armour and armoured allowed it to draw fire away from larger vessels like the Galaxy. It was commonly known that Dominion Vorta captains not considering the Saber a threat until it was far too late.
While patrolling the Klingon border the USS Sentry, a Saber class, detects three Klingon vessels with shields raised and weapons readied moving to intercept it at high warp. The Klingon battlegroup consists of two B'rel class BoP's and K'tinga class cruiser. The captain, quick on his feet immediately orders the ship to retreat at high warp while simultaneously emitting a distress signal. Due to its impressive warp capabilities, the Sentry can outrun the attack force. The Klingon squad still chases after however.
After ten minutes of high warp travel, the Sentry runs into a problem. The warp-core has been used extensively at high warp over the past few days and can't hold a stable warp field at such speeds. The captain faces a dilemma. His first officer points out that there is an expansive asteroid field only two minutes away at high warp. If they arrive there before the Klingons they can hide in the field and lay a trap but it may render the warp-core inoperative. The captain nods and orders the helm officer toward the asteroid field.
The Sentry arrives at the asteroid field with reinforcements 30 minutes away. Using its fast speed and maneuverability the Sentry makes its way towards the centre of the field and swings around a particularly large asteroid.
"The asteroids are making havoc with sensor readings meaning good and bad news," the first officer states, "the good news is that the Klingons can't pinpoint us... the bad news is we can't pinpoint them either."
At that point in time, a nearby Asteroid is blown to pieces by several torpedoes. The Sentry maneuvers its hull towards the origin of the projectile and slowly maneuvers under the Asteroid.
The captain orders the ship to full speed and attack pattern Saber X-04 as the Klingon fleet comes into view only three kilometres above them. The cruiser is at the centre as the two BoP's act as escorts. The captain, preparing for battle then receives word that the Klingons want to establish communications. The captain, shocked, agrees.
A hairy and fat captain with several skulls of small animals tied to his belt appears on the main screen.
"Your death will bring GLORY to this dishonoured house!" the Klingon bellows before closing communications. Simultaneously the two B'rel escorts broke formation and charged full speed at the oncoming Saber. Using short, quick and rapid maneuvers to weave through Asteroids the Sentry was to sustain only two direct hits from the Klingon BoP's. The BoP's overshot their target and quickly swung around to get into weapons range. The USS Sentry wouldn't let this happen however as it maneuvered through the Asteroids to be right behind one of the escorts. The Saber was designed to have the majority of weapon systems facing forward for maximum combat effectiveness. The Sentry ripped through the first escorts shields with all four of its Phaser banks. The captain ordered the photon torpedoes to target the bridge and warp-core. As the Sentry veered away in an upward direction two red photonic torpedoes stormed out of its torpedo tube. The B'rels bridge exploded, sending debris in all directions. The other torpedo smashing into the heart of the old vessel, tearing it in two.
The K'tinga was now moving on an intercept course, firing a barrage of disruptor fire. The Sentry was able to avoid a majority of the shots fired as it twisted and twirled through the dense asteroid field. Though it was dodging most of the incoming fire, the Klingon disruptors where to powerful and before long the Sentries shields would be down. The Sentry was running out of maneuvers and had a minimal aft facing weapons, even worse was the fact that the asteroids were starting to clear, they were nearing the edge of the field.
The K'tingas disruptors fired through the gap between two large asteroids and the remaining B'rel fired its photon torpedoes. The Sentry looked to be all but lost when something/s come out of warp right behind the Sentry and...
Well, that's up to you, what happens next? Leave your ideas on the ending of this scenario in the comments! As well as to what you think the next ship should be, and your thoughts on the Saber class.
Thank you so much for reading this 'extensive' breakdown of the Saber class, I hope it was entertaining! Now it's up to you to decide what happens in the next issue!
WRITTEN BY Kirk142
EDITED BY Three of Seven - rena.hobden@ufplanets.com