I've got a new passion, because of course I do. I know that there's a bit of a two-camp view on the Yorktown-Class of the 2150's, one says it is a squashed Connie, the other goes with the popular fan film's and some Trekkie Youtubers' view of it being a different build. I am of the squashed Connie view, with it being a 400 meter-long beast. That's how I'll envision it, but I will envision the Romulans according to the various ships of the Romulan War fan film, I really, really like their ships. That means I'll disregard the Starfleet Museum bulbous style of ships entirely, nothing personally intended by it against Masao Okazaki, but I just cannot envision those ships in my head belonging along with the other ships of the Star Trek Enterprise series.

Another thing I have done is that I've written characters as though I had casted them for a series with IRL actors for my OC's. I'll put their names at the bottom author's notes for reference if you guys want.

Chapter 1

Date: January 10, 2158

Location: Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, Mars

"Captain," the voice of Admiral Black said as he walked up.

"Admiral Black," the tall, experienced, and soft-spoken Captain Francis Shaw, of Bristol, England, replied as he turned and saluted his superior officer.

He was a relatively imposing figure, nearly six feet tall and had a dark red hair, pulled back into a tie just behind his head and a full beard. His face was furrowed in a focused gaze with deep creases in his face from many a stressful time over the past years in the fleet.

"Relax James," the flag officer said as he walked over to where Captain Shaw stood in front of the window of Mars Station, looking out at the immense spacedock frames which held the first three vessels of Starfleet's newest and most potent starships, "How's your ship?"

"Warspite's dock crew are busting their collective ass, they want the prize for first to launch," Shaw reported, "Yorktown's a few days behind them, and Montana slightly behind her. I halfway wonder if the spacedock work crews have been stealing components from the other two ships. I have no idea how they managed to get her warp nacelles done a week ahead of schedule."

"From someone who's been able to push this new class of ship against all odds, that's high praise, James."

"Aye," Shaw grumbled, "Those crews know what's at stake if they faff around."

"Everyone does by now," Admiral Black sighed as he looked out at the mass of spacedocks both near and far and the numerous ships at dock, "And speaking of stakes, the admiralty has a mission for you and Warspite."

Shaw looked behind them, seeing if they were along prior to the Admiral speaking on the matter. Two security personnel were outside the door into this viewing bay, the area was indeed secure. One could never be too careful these days.

"I take it this is a serious matter?"

"Quite," Admiral Black held out a datapad with a map of the systems to the galactic south, "It's being reported that merchant traffic en route from Coridan and Valakis carrying critical cargos of Dilithium crystals and other strategic resources are being targeted by Orion and Nausicaan pirates. The nexus of these attacks is here, at the Agosoria Nebula. Our merchants, the Enolians, Borothans, Coridans, Andorians, Tellarites, and even Vulcans have ships that are being targeted. It needs to stop."

"The Vulcans can't do anything about this?" Captain Shaw inquired suspiciously.

"Their fleet's forming the backbone of our defensive line, any pullback would leave potential weaknesses or sensor gaps."

"So we're sending our first-to-launch battleship to handle a piracy issue?" Shaw asked curiously.

"Your ship is the fastest we have. It's also the one ship we deem capable of defeating Orion transporter locks and opening us up to our crews and officers being sold to the Romulans like slaves, and your ship can simply atomize any Orion ships you come across that won't be negotiated with or see reason."

"Am I being given an open hand to handle these Orion pirates?"

"Just don't start any new wars," Black replied, "But, if you need to flex a little, exercise your own good judgement and handle any threats that need to be handled."

"I've read the reports on these Orions, I think I have a few ideas. One involves nuclear weapons. If I may, I'd like to requisition six warheads and the relevant missiles for my mission," Black responded quickly.

"That may take some doing, but I'll make it happen."

"There's a full file on there on the Orions and Nausicaans, we collated reports from the Vulcan, Andorian, and Tellarite databases. It's not much but it has at least some details, notably on this…Orion Syndicate, which we believe to be what we're dealing with," Admiral Black informed him, "We also included some recommendations on how to counter their…natural abilities."

"Understood, I'll have a plan of action for this, hopefully I'll meet with some other ships en route and get some information on the goings-on from those local to the area."

"Anything you can get, you'll be effectively in the dark out there. But, the admiralty is very interested to see what Warspite can do, we could use some good news so we can start to employ the Yorktown's on the front."

Two years ago the Romulans started the war, and Earth and its allies were losing. The offensive was immense, and the Romulans' preparations were total. There wasn't a weakness in the Coalition which the Romulans didn't exploit. Computer systems were hacked and ships vented and captured with their crew suffocated and those ships not captured were blown apart by long-range fusion missile strikes. Civilian and military ships alike were attacked on sight. Berengaria VII, Alpha Centauri, Threllvia IV, Capory, Draken IV, Deneva, Altair VI, and Tau Ceti IV showed the savagery of their foe but had triggered, a ferocity the galaxy had not yet seen from Humanity. At Andoria, Starfleet and Imperial Guard ships went toe to toe with a large Romulan attack force, destroying the attacking Romulan fleet. But this victory had come at great cost to the Andorians and to Starfleet, notably one of Starfleet's few NX-Class ships, the Challenger and her crew. Later, knowing that the Romulans would seek retribution for the failure to exact their butchery against Andoria, Starfleet managed to ambush the Romulans alongside allied Vulcan and Tellarite ships, achieving a costly victory that kept the shipping lanes open to and from Tellar Prime. The losses to both sides saw hostilities fizzle as command elements in both camps realized what had been unleashed, a full-scale slugging match was at hand.

A tense standoff now existed for the past few weeks as Starfleet was recouping its losses, the Andorians mobilized into a full war footing, the Vulcans recalled their far-flung cruisers, and the Tellarites called up their reserves. Without doubt Earth's forces had taken the harshest blow during the first two years, half of Starfleet's ships were lost, over three hundred commercial and privately-owned Earth ships were likewise gone, seven Earth colonies had been attacked and four conquered, dozens of outposts raided or conquered, and hundreds of thousands of lives snuffed out and many humans now being hunted like animals on conquered worlds. But, on all but the smallest Earth colonies or outposts, resistance continued. MACO troops, local militias, and regular citizens still fought guerilla wars across their planets to avoid extermination. Not even the Romulan Empire was able to dispatch hundreds of thousands of troops to secure these planets in their entirety, particularly when they had an active battlefront in need of resupply. The overall impression among Starfleet was that the Romulans were in dire need of setting up a logistics system in their conquered territories which they had not planned to need. This was what was giving Starfleet desperately-needed breathing room.

With said breathing room, all the combat they'd experienced was able to be collated and carefully analyzed. Starfleet Academy and other training programs taught lessons on these experiences, and massive new waves of officers and crewmen were finally surging from training to take their place in the line. Prior to the war, Starfleet had very little idea as to the Romulans' capabilities nor the capabilities of their ships. They had a pretty good idea now. Starfleet's principal lesson was that they were not going to be winning any fights with single ships operating on their own unless they are NX-Class. But even the NX-Class, as competent as they were, were vulnerable to being baited into traps. Against a single Romulan Bird-of-Prey or Raptor-Class or the most common Warhawk-Class ships they could fight one on one. And the refitted NX's could just barely outrun the Stormbird or mammoth Dragon-Class ships that well outclassed them in a fight. But if an NX were caught by two or three Romulan ships of about any class except the Warhawk then they were in fatal danger and often were outnumbered in such a way. This realization came fast and Starfleet knew it needed an answer and fast. This was where the Yorktown Program came into its own, although it wasn't always this way. Four years ago, it was an open question if the Yorktown-Class would even see the light of day.

- Flashback -

- Four Years Ago -

Location: Starfleet Headquarters, Earth

The Admiralty had a lot on its plate and even more on its mind. While the NX Program was seeming like it was bearing fruit, Earth's ships were out there and the complaints were piling in. Enterprise, Earth's newest and most formidable ship, had gotten jumped on more than one occasion and came pretty close to losing on more than one occasion, most recently, in the Sol System itself. A Klingon Bird-of-Prey had managed to render Enterprise helpless, only the intervention of a patrol group led by Intrepid managed to save her. Worst of all, the Xindi Crisis had occurred, and deeply wounded Starfleet's very core when the government had begun to openly question the capacity of the fleet to defend Earth. This event resonated badly within the confines of Starfleet.

While, officially, United Earth Starfleet was not a military organization it still held the responsibility of being Earth's first line of defense from aggression. Earth had no purpose-built combat vessels for the task and the only truly formidable deterrent in the quadrant, the Vulcan D'kyr-Class, apparently was not going to be of any aid because of the lack of action from Vulcan High Command even during the Xindi Crisis. But that very topic was being discussed here today. Admirals Black, Gardner, and Forrest were all seated in the conference room with multiple senior captains seated in front of them. Notable among these officers was Captain Jonathan Archer of Enterprise, Captain Erika Hernandes, slated to be commander of the Columbia, Enterprise's sister currently on the stocks as planned and as scheduled adding in additions and changes to her design based on Enterprise's experiences. Also present were some other officers, notably, Captain Francis Shaw, who was part of a different Starfleet research program, a recent transfer over from the Ganges-Class Destroyer Adege which was going through an extensive refit.

"Alright, captains, thank you for joining us, I know you've had a lot on your plates in recent days, but we're all well aware of recent events," Admiral Gardner began the meeting, "As our senior-most captains we felt that your experiences would be able to help us to come up with a firm answer to the current questions being asked of Starfleet, namely, what to do about Starfleet's glaring inadequacies regarding its capacity to defend Earth," he then nodded to Admiral Black to take the lead, "Admiral."

"Thank you, sir," the younger flag officer stood up, and moved to the screen to the side of the table, and tapped it, revealing the current assortment of ships that Starfleet had in service, "Take a look, captains. What you see here is each ship in Starfleet service as of this moment," the man then tapped the screen again, and showed the image of a Klingon D5-Class Battlecruiser, a Vulcan D'kyr-Class and Sh'raan-Class Cruiser, a Xindi Aquatic capital ship, and an Andorian Kumari-Class Battlecruiser, "And these are the most formidable ships which have thus far been encountered by Starfleet up to this point. Not a single one of our ships can engage these ships and stand against them in an even fight, much less defeat them."

"With respect, Admiral," Archer immediately spoke up, "Only one of those ships belongs to a race which has shown hostility towards Earth."

"Captain Archer," Admiral Forrest immediately replied, raising his voice and getting Archer's attention before he held a hand up, "Please…let him finish."

"It's alright, Captain Archer, the point I'm trying to make is not that the Vulcans or Andorians are our enemies, but that Starfleet is on paper, hilariously outgunned."

"The NX-Class is closing the gap, sir," Captain Hernandes responded at this point, "With the upgrades to the design within the next six ships the fleet will have something able to stand on an even ground with most of the threats we can face."

"But even still, Enterprise was disabled by a few well-placed shots by a Klingon ship, a ship which is at the very least, a common combatant within the Klingon fleet," Admiral Gardner now replied, "Is that not true, Captain Archer?"

"They got lucky," Archer growled and nodded, acceding the point, "But we shouldn't be going around trying to outmatch everyone we meet, it's a good way to start an arms race."

"I disagree, Captain," Captain Shaw finally broke his silence, "The arms race is already underway. We're the ones just noticing it, and we have to catch up or we may not be so lucky as we were with you and Enterprise during the Xindi incident. I know you've had your hands full, John, out in the Delphic Expanse, but Starfleet didn't just sit by and wait for word from you. We've had our own missions, and we've been seeing things from a much more dangerous perspective. Our ships are nowhere near as formidable as Enterprise, we've lost four ships in the time you've been gone, each one lost because they lacked the defenses and firepower to get out alive and the ones who fired on us knew it."

"I read the reports," Archer nodded, remembering those sad reports.

"Then you know that half of the bad guys in the quadrant don't respect us unless Enterprise is nearby, and the other half don't respect us when it is. We need something that can instill that respect once and for all," Captain Shaw replied, angry at this, because it came from experience.

He had been on the receiving end of a pirate encounter that had only ended because his ship had gone for the jugular right off the bat with a volley of spatial torpedoes right to the warp reactor of a pair of Nausicaan ships that were distracted by an attack on one of the Adege's sister ships, the Amazon. They'd managed to mostly disable the two pirates, but had to blast away for another few minutes against the smaller vessels to finish them off. He knew that this imbalance amongst Earth's ships had to be answered, or they were in trouble. Shaw was also there to save Enterprise from the Klingons within the Sol System, noting how it took two Ganges-Class and an Intrepid to drive off the marauding Bird-of-Prey.

"What would you suggest, Captain?" Archer then calmly asked, "We already have Columbia nearing completion, and Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour are all right behind her within a couple years or so. That half of the quadrant that respects our best will have plenty of them to respect soon enough."

"We're not worried about the half that the NX-Class can handle, Captain Archer," Admiral Gardner replied and sighed, "We're concerned about the half that the NX can't handle."

"Which is why we're here, you are our best captains, the ships you all have commanded have seen more combat actions than half of the other ships in the fleet combined," Admiral Black informed them, "Your experience is something we need to tap to move forward with our next major development project."

"New project?" Captain Hernandes asked, causing her and Archer to share look between them, "But the development of the Warp 6 Program was approved wasn't it? Starfleet's looking to start another major project?"

"Starfleet's put the Warp 6 Program on hold. The government wants a much more powerful ship in terms of both defensive and offensive capabilities than what the NX currently brings to bear," Black informed the captains.

"You can't be serious about this? Stopping development for Warp 6 now?! We're finally out there now, getting real results, real data that the scientists and engineers here on Earth can put towards making some real strides without the Vulcans interfering!" Archer spouted off angrily, his personal attachment to the NX Program evident for all to see.

"John, warp engine development is not being stopped," Forrest quickly interjected, getting Archer and Hernandes's attention, "Starfleet managed to negotiate a compromise," Forrest offered, having seen this outburst coming a mile away, "NX never got the resources or impetus from the government that it needed, we all knew that the moment your father started out. But the recent experiences of Enterprise and the rest of the fleet have been gaining have finally got the politicians to throw some real weight behind a new Starfleet program. So…" the admiral looked to the other two admirals in the room, "We decided to take advantage of it."

"Take advantage how?" Captain Shaw quickly asked.

"Starfleet's goal was always to get to Warp 7, as a long-term objective, you and the entirety of Earth already know this," Forrest explained, "The plan was always to get it done in three phases, the Warp 5 Program got us from Warp 2 to Warp 5, and with the experiences gained from that we'd be able to get to Warp 6 and then to Warp 7 in cheaper incremental jumps that would be easier to swing with the politicians. But…with a much higher degree of investment in Starfleet in the books, we're able to try for another big leap, this time, straight to Warp 7."

"Warp 7, I'll admit, I kinda like the sound of that," Archer nodded in amazement, Shaw and Hernandes likewise agreeing with the sentiment.

"This new Warp 7 program objective is intended to help give us a degree of deniability for what this ship is really intended to act as, a battleship," Admiral Black tapped the screen to show a whole new slide, with the heading of 'Yorktown Project', "While the NX truly is intended to be a fast exploration ship able to fight, this new class is designed to be a warship that can go fast."

"What is this project aiming to achieve, exactly?" Archer carefully asked.

"At this time, there are three separate approaches being explored," Admiral Black was the first to speak again, "Our first approach is to simply take the NX-Class hull and optimize it for combat and ease of manufacture, additional phasers, additional torpedo tubes, and a larger crew compliment with more in the way of redundant systems. But, that may not be very workable in the short term, a lot of the ship's systems and interior would have to be redesigned to match the requirements of not just the weapons but chiefly of the development of a totally new Warp 7 engine. But, a sub-project for designing a Warp 5 variant combat cruiser based on that is on the books as well, what we're dubbing 'Project Poseidon' which already has a number of ships on order. The second approach is more in line with what the politicians want but it will require delays because certain aspects of design, development, and production ramp-up. This approach is to base the ship on proven technology and simply make it large enough to accomplish the intended specifications."

"So, you're considering supersizing the NX-Class?" Captain Shaw noted, looking over to Archer who shrugged.

"In a way, but the new design concept is planned to be a more of a blank canvas, drawing upon the experiences of Starfleet over the past few years to take advantage of the increased hull dimensions intended for it," Admiral Black stated.

"And what sort of dimensions are we talking about here?" Archer asked.

Admiral Black tapped the screen, and showed a basic outline of the ship, one which had a circular dish, two warp nacelles, and a separate tubular engineering deck. It was nearly twice the length and width of the outline of an NX which was superimposed next to it.

"Up to four hundred meters in length, it's the biggest our spacedocks can be reliably expanded to accommodate," Admiral Black declared, eagerly so. He had clearly wanted to see this project go ahead just going by the fact he was the one presenting it and doing so with some degree of enthusiasm.

"You're wanting to build a battleship, seems like a helluva lot of resources for a one-trick pony?" Hernandes responded.

"The politicians disagree, as do many other captains. Captain Archer? What's your opinion on the matter?" Forrest asked.

"I think…that either way, we need something," Archer admitted.

"It's exactly what we need," Captain Shaw spoke up, "We've lost too many people to not respond," a cold expression emanating from his eyes, "We need monsters, the kind of monsters that the mere mention of will bring an enemy to their knees with the mere mention of them being unleashed."

"And instill fear into any government who would provoke a war," Admiral Black declared quickly.

"Admiral, Starfleet's mission is not to go out and look for fights. We're supposed to be the face of Earth to give a positive first contact image. Having a dreadnought rolling around may not serve that purpose," Admiral Forrest responded.

"Starfleet's mission is also to protect Earth's interests, Admiral, and not having our ships be seen as easy prey is in Earth's interest," Admiral Gardner reminded the gathered officers.

"Besides, because of the expense of this potential class of vessel, it would hopefully not be the ship we would prefer to dispatch on such first contact missions. This is the ship that protects our first contact vessels," Admiral Black further explained.

"What is it you need from us, Admiral?" Archer sighed, knowing that this was not something that could be argued against, nor did he feel that he should. Earth had a clear need for more and more powerful starships.

"Your recommendations for what this new ship needs to accomplish in its intended role as Starfleet's go-to protector for Earth, and for the rest of the fleet. Any and every recommendation can go towards making this the kind of ship that we can count on when we can't count on anyone else."

- Modern Day -

Location: Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, Mars

The years proved full of lessons which this new capital ship began to incorporate from its first design drafts, with features rooted in specifications drawn from the experiences of the rest of Starfleet. What took shape would become a true titan amongst the stars, the ship that would protect Earth. The first three of eight planned vessels were laid down in 2154, the Yorktown, Warspite, and Montana and now were closing in on completion, with Warspite being the first to go through her static trials while Yorktown was in the midst of hers. Meanwhile, more vessels were also being laid down, their names being Dreadnought, La Gloire, Texas, North Carolina, and Warrior. The first two were a year into their construction, their hulls' frames filling up and nearing seventy percent structural completion, the last three were mere skeletal outlines of the main frames still being pieced together. Other ships and improvements of this initiative had likewise been put into production, notably the Poseidon-Class, a derivative of the NX-Class with a slightly reduced phaser battery but an enlarged torpedo battery, improved armor, better damage control, simplified engineering space, and a slightly more cramped interior optimized for combat. Twelve ships of this class were approved, six that were started pre-war were nearing launch status within the next three months. Meanwhile the NX's had received a series of refits and upgrades, notably the inclusion of an engineering hull and deflector shields, which had been learned from lessons derived from their much bigger Yorktown-Class cousins' design process.

As intended, they were enormous for an Earth design. While Yorktown and her sisters didn't count the mass of the likes of the big Vulcan cruisers, they were still bigger than anything the Romulans or Klingons were known to have aside from the Romulan Dragon-Class, measuring in at a length of four hundred meters from tip to tip. A forward saucer section, built along the same design style of being a circle as the NX-Class, measured in at two hundred and thirty meters on its own and had fourteen decks. Like its NX predecessor, a hangar bay was present which held the usual four OTV Type K42 Shuttlepods so common throughout Starfleet. But a new vessel was aboard inhabiting a had a fifth and much larger bay in the hangar. It was an OTV Type K45 Runabout, a new fifteen meter long, Warp 2.5 capable shuttle which could hold fifteen passengers with four crew with the ability to sustain them for quite a period. This vessel looked like the classic Starfleet Shuttlepods but elongated and with two fixed warp nacelles on the rear side with modular capability to be turned into a diplomatic transport or a simple long-distance hauler. It made the Yorktown-Class the first Starfleet vessel expressly designed for housing such an auxiliary craft. Normally the K45 was typically used for transportation of distinguished guests and high-ranking officials and officer to and from orbital infrastructure. This saucer section did retain the same shape and form of the NX-Class, but it did have a much thicker armored shell on the outer hull, with more internal bracing giving a twenty percent increase in structural rigidity compared to the NX with new impact dampeners around critical systems likewise increasing the vessel's ability to take hits. With four times the mass within the saucer a lot more in the way facilities and crew space was present on the Yorktown-Class and was well-perforated by vertical access tubes and turbolifts.

A separate engineering hull was likewise present, attached below the saucer and this housed eight more decks, a Henry Archer-style Warp 7 Engine which clocked in at four times the length and three times the width of the Warp 5 original. The engineering hull also sported a deflector dish on the front facing forward with a backup capacitor, and a large shuttle bay on the back holding eight of the ubiquitous OTV Type K42 Shuttlepod and four heavier and beefier OTV Type K50 Heavy Shuttle. The K50 was a box-like shuttlecraft visually-similar to its smaller contemporary, not warp-capable, but it was fifteen meters long, had a fixed wing structure, had the capacity for thirty people or several tons of cargo, and heavier armor. The last and smallest of the compliments of support crafts were four simple cone-shaped Inspection Pods which had manipulating arms able to held conduct heavy lifting during major repairs or for salvage of destroyed or damaged ships. The hangar also had additional storage bays, repair bays, and fuel tanks. Then, on large pylons were the two warp nacelles, each one of them twice as long as the nacelles of the NX's and twice the diameter and housed inside a sheath of polarized armor plating. On the tips, the Bussard Collectors were larger and much more efficient compared to previous Starfleet versions.

These ships were just as heavily armed as they were large, fourteen pulse phase cannons with redundant generators and auxiliary capacitors for not only elongated blasts more powerful ones from the enlarged cannons which outsized the NX and Poseidon-Class weapons by double. These phase cannons had the added power of the new and powerful fusion impulse reactors giving them some added output, with the Yorktown-Class able to output a particle burst eighty percent more powerful than that of the next most powerful weapons of the rest of Starfleet. Eight photon torpedo tubes with Mk. II Variable Yield Torpedoes with more than five hundred torpedoes carried in armored magazines holding large racks and powered rammers for more rapid firing, and an Andorian-supplied sensor package and targeting systems to go with them.

These new ships had crews of five hundred, four hundred enlisted and a hundred officers, plus space for a standard compliment of a hundred and fifty MACO's and spare room to take on another hundred and fifty such troops. The ships were massive, and after the main necessities and the redundancies were installed some room was left over in the ship for other items. For the first time in Starfleet's design history, they had ships with some genuine luxuries like built-in rec centers for officers and enlisted, a ship's library, a fully-equipped gymnasium, several conference rooms, multiple mess halls for both officers and enlisted, a ship's bar. The bar actually had to be kept classified for a time, with the simulator in Scotland said to have included a copy of the bar and its synthesizers with the command codes granting the access necessary to the first-time presence of Synthehol beverages. It had to be tested if a 'wet ship' would experience lowered crew efficiency or lapses in discipline and if there was a relevant increase in crew morale. The findings were pretty succinct. The presence of the bar, with the correct enforcement of no drinks allowed outside its premises with the exception of a few other locations, showed an immense improvement in the willingness of crew to endure long periods of exposure to high-stress environments and fostered a sense of comradery and teambuilding to said crew and sudden emergency situations showcased that Synthehol's apparent intoxicating effects were quite easily quickly neutralized by the natural adrenaline rush of a tactical alert. So, the ship now had this feature and the findings were being pushed up the chain to try to include this to other ships and installations.

It was the ship's food that was among the most improved aspects of the vessel compared to the rest of Starfleet. Several dedicated hydroponics and aeroponics bays were linked with a pair of aquaculture bays for fresh produce. The bays grew potatoes, rice, wheat, leafy greens, beans, peas, spicy and sweet peppers, a few kinds of berries, tomatoes, herbs, and even grapes and melons. The most involved of the food-production apparatus aboard were the two aquaponic bays raising genetically engineered catfish, tilapia, trout, crayfish, and even noisy American Bullfrogs that grew at twice their natural rate that were raised amongst recreations of pygmy rice paddies on rotating racks that yielded four high-yield crops a year. These creatures fed on a variety of creatures, all of them bred and raised aboard the ship. The basic part of this food web was zooplankton, kept thriving in multiple tanks with nutrients supplied by the ship's filtered wastewater from the biomatter resequencers and a sunlight-replicating series of light panels in each bay. Freshwater shrimp were the next most common feed creature that also helped handle fish waste from water lines cycling their tanks' water and were likewise kept thriving from nutrient pellets derived from the same biomatter resequencers. But the ship also had four labs where the science division was tasked with raising even more feed animals for their stocks like earthworms that also helped with nutrient production for the aeroponics and hydroponics and dealing with solid waste from the mess hall and kitchens, superworms which were super easy to raise as additional variety, minnows that fed the more predatory of their aquaculture species and helped clean the waters of the larger tanks, and grasshoppers raised for that were also the same species as those raised for the Mexican dish Chapulin, a product of the ship's head chef being a native of that nation. His chef also begged and pleaded to have a lab that also grew mushrooms and another that raised snails, the classic Roman Snail and Giant Tiger Land Snails. The mushroom idea was an easy sell, as the food synthesizers had a lot of trouble getting the consistency of the primitive fungus correct, but the intriguing addition of snails to the food supply of the Warspite Captain Shaw was hesitant to approve but the process was going alright so far and soon escargot and snail caviar would be on the menu.

The thing that had made all of this relative luxury possible was these were merely supplemental. The Yorktown-Class were likewise equipped with Vulcan-supplied food synthesizers capable of synthesizing just about any non-poisonous dish or drink within their truly massive databanks. Starfleet had been hesitant to include them as the machines did have trouble from time to time with complex dishes and there was a hesitance to do away with redundancy on a ship going into battle, even if it came at the cost of several thousand tons of the ship's weight and deck space. These synthesizers were however very good for sourcing more basic foods and ingredients and a very robust set of them were put onto a conveyor to keep a daily quota of stored food handy for the kitchens to turn into finished dishes. New technology, never-before trialed on the scale seen aboard Warspite and her sisters, did mean that the ships were to include the ability to supply themselves reliably-enough to counter a breakdown of these devices until such time as resupply or repair could be conducted. But with both the redundant old-school food and the synthesizer-sourced food present, a team of cooks was needed for more involved and tastier meals. Captain Shaw's head chef he'd personally recruited. He was a Michelin Star chef, hailing from Mexico City, a rather humorous and light-hearted man of hefty build who also hosted in the ship's bar a karaoke night and a comedy night. But despite these morale-boosting shenanigans he bore an inspiring reason for his being there. He and his family were on Alpha Centauri III while on vacation when the Romulans attacked, hundreds of thousands died. Chef Salamanca and his family survived, they were among the lucky ones but had witnessed something truly terrible. Shaw had been there with the Adege to rescue him and his family, Chef Salamanca signed up immediately, feeling indebted to Shaw and Starfleet for refusing to abandon his family and so many others. It didn't take long for Shaw to push forward some paperwork and throw his weight around to assign the well-regarded luxury chef to his crew when Salamanca emerged from Starfleet basic training, meaning that he was probably the only ship in the fleet with a Michelin Star kitchen.

Of course, luxury was not the main selling point of the Warspite. Their base systems were the real star attraction of the ship, with Vulcan-assisted life support systems and an increased redundancy threshold of backup systems present aboard. The ship had an extensive water storage and distribution system and a modern magnetic heating system for showers and sinks alike while a powerful wastewater treatment plant and multiple powerful biomatter resequencers removed all semblance of contamination and turned that matter into whatever items the quartermaster deemed were needed, anything from storage containers to boots and everything in between. Meanwhile backup tanks of water were held in reserve with the gallons-to-crew ratio being double that of the NX-Class and the availability of 'facilities' being more convenient across the ship compared to Starfleet's previous classes. The ships also possessed a pair of new dedicated damage control centers, one in the saucer and one in the engineering hull, a trauma surgical bay alongside an enlarged medical bay plus an auxiliary medical bay optimized for handling injuries sustained around the warp core placed in the engineering hull. The ship also followed Starfleet experience by having more than enough EV suits to equip the entire crew with them stashed both inside of both personal equipment lockers and some uni-size versions at airlocks and in the hangar bays with self-rescue propulsion packs able to be equipped for untethered spacewalks and the more potent and larger maneuvering unit that was more like a large backpack with joysticks for controls. And of course, a longer-ranged ten-man transporter unit was installed aboard each Yorktown. Communications were likewise improved, learning from Romulan electronic warfare success these comms systems were hardened against interference and had ten times the power routed to them and a dedicated server room for handling antivirus firewalls. Meanwhile, to break the trend of hostiles jamming their comms the sheer strength of their systems were capable of brute forcing the signal they broadcasted straight through jamming attempts while a secondary and more finessed method of using a dedicated computer system to rapidly scramble frequencies and encode transmissions was also standard. Impulse drives were likewise improved in comparison to what previous Starfleet ships had to compensate for the massive Yorktown-Class hull, with the Yorktown-Class able to, at least in simulations, maneuver right alongside NX-Class ships with enlarged and added maneuvering thrusters and a larger impulse drive system that had better protection around it. And it could certainly see and hear anything out there with its new sensor packages, with eyes and ears able to detect ships, energy readings, and even transmissions while being capable of exercising a powerful jamming role at the same token. And protecting all of it was the old reliable of Starfleet, polarized armor plating, in this case, eight inch-thick newly-designed heavy Tritanium-Durallium-Duranium alloy plating with double the number of hull plating relays, each of which was more accessible than on the NX-Class for ease of repair.

Captain Shaw knew his new ship, Warspite, the middle child of the Yorktown-Class, like the back of his hand. He had of course been instrumental in the drawing up of her specifications and the development of her design. In fact, it had become something of a pet project of Shaw's the moment he had been first made aware of the project's initiation. While it had remained a Human-exclusive project initially this changed soon afterwards. The Vulcan-Andorian Incident and the dissolution of Vulcan High Command and the inclusion of Andoria as a much more trusted ally had actually seen the project increase in its pace of development as Vulcan engineers now freely shared their technical expertise as a logical diplomatic overture of Vulcan trying to turn a new page on relations with Earth. The Vulcans finally opened the tap of advice, and Starfleet's new ship finally had deflector shields. They weren't exactly as complex or as efficient as those of Vulcan ships, but with the sheer power of a Warp 7 engine powering it, the deflector shield of Warspite was certainly considered a formidable match for the likes of Romulan weapons. Andoria likewise had felt an honor-bound obligation to offer Earth a hand as a trusted ally, likewise tried to match Vulcan contributions with Andorian-provided impulse engines and impulse reactors placed at the rear of the saucer section and sensor packages both to the Yorktown project and to Starfleet on the whole.

Then the Romulans attacked and war erupted. The ships had seen immense increases in the scale of their material contributions through emergency war building programs. Production facilities were expanded and new ones added to the supply chain and new shifts hired so work went on around the clock. Automated building and production methods effectively skipped trials and went straight to en masse utilization while material priorities changed and availability increased as more extraction and production capacity was brought online, and personnel were incentivized like never before. Their efforts were now finally yielding results, the first of the three ships were ready to launch, the Warspite. The ship even had its new coat of creamy grey colored paint, Armory Grey, as it was known with red pinstriping on the hull and the nacelles.

This was a day which would normally be quite celebrated was being kept as secret as possible. No speeches, no admirals present who were usually not at the shipyards, and no flight plans were approved by orbital traffic control. Earth's allies weren't even to be informed of Warspite's launch until after the fact due to lingering trust issues with the Vulcans in particular. Mars' military shipyards were kept far from public eyes. No alien ships aside from Andorian, Vulcan, or Tellarite were allowed anywhere near the drydock clusters and fabrication stations and even they were kept within well-monitored lanes. This crucial bit of war industry, like other Sol System orbital bodies, was surrounded by makeshift defense satellites armed with pulled-from-storage plasma cannons in mixtures of both lighter and heavier varieties, principally to defend against Romulan missile volleys, fighters, and saboteurs. The Verteron Array was likewise updated with more advanced targeting sensors and each weapon in the installation was provided an armored housing and a deflector shield as it was the most powerful of Earth's weapons systems, capable of vaporizing even the largest of Romulan warships with a single devastating blow from just one turret. Luckily these installations were yet to be tested in combat.

And when Warspite launched, hopefully it would preclude that possibility from occurring. Captain Shaw knew this as he looked at his ship closely, and with a good deal of pride. After Admiral Black departed he was left to read over his new mission file and the intel reports on the Orions and the Orion Syndicate.

"She's a fine ship," Shaw heard a new voice from behind him, and turned to look at the familiar voice and was a bit surprised to see Captain Archer of the Enterprise walking up to the window to stand with him.

"Captain Archer," Shaw gave a courteous nod and slight smile as he looked back at his ship, "She is indeed, she'll be the eighth ship to bear the name Warspite. Although, it will be a first for her to not have the prefix His or Her Majesty's Ship. She'll serve just as well as her forebearers however, I'm confident in that."

"Starfleet knows how to build them when it has the support it needs," Archer nodded back, "One thing's for sure, we build 'em tough."

"Just look at the beating Enterprise has taken over the years, she's always brought you home, old chap," Shaw smirked, giving a wistful look.

"Almost like the souls of the eight ships before her are with her now," Archer noted proudly.

"Twenty-three," Shaw corrected him.

"I'm sorry?" Archer turned curiously.

"The American navy had eight ships to bear the name Enterprise, but the Royal Navy had fifteen to bear the name. Granted…few had as interesting a career as the later American carriers did. But still, there's more than just eight ships lending your ship their luck."

"That would go towards explaining some things," Archer shook his head as he turned back to the shipyards, "So, have your command crew coming along alright?"

"We've been at it for quite some time now actually, six months. Although my science officer only just arrived a few days ago and my chief engineer's technically not assigned but they've been along for the ride anyway for the past year. Both will be up to speed soon enough. Thankfully, my surviving crew from the Adege and I built the Yorktown-Class simulator at the training facility south of Inverness to train the new recruits we were saddled with," Shaw reminded him, "So we'll be fine."

"I read about what happened to the Adege, I'm sorry," Archer sighed, "She was a fine ship, I'll never forget that you saved our bacon with that old destroyer."

"She went out like a warrior," Shaw proudly declared, "But she'll be avenged soon enough. We're set to launch soon, hopefully we'll be underway with holographic emitters and magnetic generators keeping up the ruse we hadn't launched yet."

"Giving you time to go about your mission, I imagine," Archer quietly replied knowingly, getting a sideway glare from Shaw, "I know you want to get at the Romulans, James, but we need the Dilithium shipments from Coridan to stay steady if we want to build up to go on the offensive."

"And the Orion need to be dealt with, I know."

"Maybe, 'dealt with' is a little strong, try talking first, tends to work wonders if you can get their attention," Archer hesitantly replied, "You've got the only ship fast enough to get out there before things get too rough. And Starfleet can't afford new enemies."

"Don't worry John, we'll be back before you know it, with some trophies."

"Be careful, the Orion are a clever bunch, make sure you take countermeasures against their females' control pheromones."

"I read your report, and we're prepping some measures but I don't plan to be face to face with them," Captain Shaw growled.

Archer simply sighed and looked back at the shipyards.

"That's what I'm afraid of," Archer smirked, "It's no secret that there are many in Starfleet who did oppose your assignment to Warspite. And others who oppose your assignment to this mission."

"Is that so?" Shaw murmured, not exactly surprised by this declaration from Captain Archer.

"Some have said your aggressive command style can sometimes be interpreted as brutality, shoot first and don't ask questions, but others have always been quick to reply that this is war, saying that taking the kid gloves off is maybe what we need."

"And what do you think, Captain?" Shaw turned to Archer, voice low and even. To this, Archer looked back out the window.

"I think I'll refer to what I said when the Yorktown Project was conceived. We need something. If Starfleet's going to have a battleship, then it needs a captain who won't hesitate to use it, or else all of this would be a waste of resources. There's no point in having a sword if you treat it like a shield."

"Hmm…So, how long before Enterprise is done with her refit?" Shaw replied, knowing that the topic of his style of command was a moot point to debate, the decision of him commanding Warspite was made, and knew that Archer was many things, but he was at least a realist, an experienced realist.

"Should be within the next couple weeks. Hopefully we'll be out there by the time you get back," Archer said with more optimism, "I'll be sure to leave some enemy for you."

"We'll be back soon enough, that I can guarantee."

Author's Mental OC Cast:

- Captain James Shaw: Toby Stephens

- Commander Dominic Rowley: Michael B. Jordan

- Sub-Commander T'Pmin: Aubrey Plaza

- Doctor Sydney Watson: Jude Law

- Major Gus Odell: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

- Lieutenant Commander Bella Frost: Indiana Evans

- Lieutenant Nadia Povaliy: Emma Myers

- Ensign Eddie Castello: Chase Stokes

- Ensign Monica Simms: Madelyn Cline