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Description

Ported to OBJ from the model created by Taldren Studios for the video game Starfleet Command 2: Orion Pirates (SFC2OP). Preview picture posed in XNALara XPS.

In the Trek multiverse thread of Star Fleet Battles (SFB), X-ships are prototype starships for new classes that are at the cutting edge of a given interstellar power's starship technology capability. Many of their features are new and they tend to look very different from their predecessors because of that, even though they usually still follow familiar starship design patterns preferred by said power. In a few radical cases and at the discretion of the power that develops it, these can sometimes even abandon traditional design preferences for new ones. To put it another way, an SFB X-ship or X-ship class is always your "look ahead" at what might be coming in the next starship design generation. There's never very many of them, but they always rate as among the best and most powerful starships of their time given their cutting-edge nature. I've already given you one of several X-ship types that are part of the SFC series with Don "Cleeve" Woligrowski's Kleev class heavy destroyer (see separate entry), all of which were made part of the series as an added feature of SFC2OP if I've researched this correctly. It's now time to bring you the two Feddie X-ships that Taldren came up with for SFC2OP back in the day, and the post-TMP era X-destroyer USS Araxes (NCC-2002) is the second of those.

USS Araxes (NCC-1001 per SFC2OP - ed., pronounced AIR-ahk-zees', I think) was the lead ship in a group of three prototype X-destroyers built for the Federation Starfleet at the tail end of the TMP era. Araxes was essentially a ramped-up Excelsior generation version of the TOS/TAS era Akula (KA/SFC) but also fitted with the same leading-edge experimental techologies as the X-cruiser USS Excalibur (NCC-2002) had been. Starfleet's intention was that Araxes would replace both the uprated Akula and the later Wilkerson (FASA), and would also become the base dual-engine standard destroyer class for the generation of starships that would follow Excelsior just as Excalibur was intended to be the base cruiser class for same. Class ship Araxes had already been completed and was undergoing her builder's trials when the Praxis Event occurred (STIV), marking among other things the end of that era, while two more (Aras, Akhuran) were nearing completion at the time. Both were finished and joined their sister ship as the Araxes class in Starfleet service during the first decade of the post-TMP era. Araxes never got beyond the initial three-ship order due to the political fallout within the Federation from the signing of the Khitomer Accords, which finally brought peace between the Federation and the Klingon Empire and re-opened the door for renewed calls to bring Starfleet back from its "unbridled militarism." Because of that, not to mention moves to downsize Starfleet by the Federation itself given the new spirit of those times, Starfleet's request to build a second larger production block of Araxes class destroyers kept getting denied again and again by the Federation Council until they finally quit asking, although they did grant enough funds to finish the other two. The "X" designation was dropped once all three were formally commissioned, and from that point on they were classified as regular destroyers. Speaking of which, Araxes performed so much better than Starfleet expected that by the time of their first major refits Araxes was reclassfied as a light cruiser given its firepower and proven capabilities when compared to other similar Starfleet classes in service at that point during the post-TMP era. They remained in service almost to the end of the post-TMP era before all three were finally decommissioned and scrapped within a few years of each other.

This is canon, as it was created for a Franchise licensed video game. What you do with it of course in your own Trek multiverse thread(s) is entirely up to you ... and a lot of you already have (chuckle). More power to you, I say (wink), unless and until the Franchise ever revisits Araxes again in any form.

Live long and prosper.

TRIVIA - All ships in the Araxes class appear to be (or perhaps were to be) named for famous ancient rivers in Terra's northeastern Middle East (Armenia, Turkey, Iran, et al), given that Araxes is the old Armenian historical name for what we know today as the Aras River. That's where I came up with the names for the other two ships in the class in my thread of the Trek multiverse (look them up yourself, wink). You can throw Tigris and Euphrates into the Araxes class mix too, as those also fit the bill and are probably more familiar to the rest of you. I went with all the names starting with the English letter "A" so those of you who wanted could also call these Starfleet's A-class destroyers from this time frame, for some British old style destroyer class naming there. The next class or perhaps improved build group would be the B-class (Baltha, Bampur, etc.), and so on ... (grin-and-wink).

Description

Ported to OBJ from the model created by Taldren Studios for the video game Starfleet Command 2: Orion Pirates (SFC2OP). Preview picture posed in XNALara XPS.

In the Trek multiverse thread of Star Fleet Battles (SFB), X-ships are prototype starships for new classes that are at the cutting edge of a given interstellar power's starship technology capability. Many of their features are new and they tend to look very different from their predecessors because of that, even though they usually still follow familiar starship design patterns preferred by said power. In a few radical cases and at the discretion of the power that develops it, these can sometimes even abandon traditional design preferences for new ones. To put it another way, an SFB X-ship or X-ship class is always your "look ahead" at what might be coming in the next starship design generation. There's never very many of them, but they always rate as among the best and most powerful starships of their time given their cutting-edge nature. I've already given you one of several X-ship types that are part of the SFC series with Don "Cleeve" Woligrowski's Kleev class heavy destroyer (see separate entry), all of which were made part of the series as an added feature of SFC2OP if I've researched this correctly. It's now time to bring you the two Feddie X-ships that Taldren came up with for SFC2OP back in the day, and the post-TMP era X-destroyer USS Araxes (NCC-2002) is the second of those.

USS Araxes (NCC-1001 per SFC2OP - ed., pronounced AIR-ahk-zees', I think) was the lead ship in a group of three prototype X-destroyers built for the Federation Starfleet at the tail end of the TMP era. Araxes was essentially a ramped-up Excelsior generation version of the TOS/TAS era Akula (KA/SFC) but also fitted with the same leading-edge experimental techologies as the X-cruiser USS Excalibur (NCC-2002) had been. Starfleet's intention was that Araxes would replace both the uprated Akula and the later Wilkerson (FASA), and would also become the base dual-engine standard destroyer class for the generation of starships that would follow Excelsior just as Excalibur was intended to be the base cruiser class for same. Class ship Araxes had already been completed and was undergoing her builder's trials when the Praxis Event occurred (STIV), marking among other things the end of that era, while two more (Aras, Akhuran) were nearing completion at the time. Both were finished and joined their sister ship as the Araxes class in Starfleet service during the first decade of the post-TMP era. Araxes never got beyond the initial three-ship order due to the political fallout within the Federation from the signing of the Khitomer Accords, which finally brought peace between the Federation and the Klingon Empire and re-opened the door for renewed calls to bring Starfleet back from its "unbridled militarism." Because of that, not to mention moves to downsize Starfleet by the Federation itself given the new spirit of those times, Starfleet's request to build a second larger production block of Araxes class destroyers kept getting denied again and again by the Federation Council until they finally quit asking, although they did grant enough funds to finish the other two. The "X" designation was dropped once all three were formally commissioned, and from that point on they were classified as regular destroyers. Speaking of which, Araxes performed so much better than Starfleet expected that by the time of their first major refits Araxes was reclassfied as a light cruiser given its firepower and proven capabilities when compared to other similar Starfleet classes in service at that point during the post-TMP era. They remained in service almost to the end of the post-TMP era before all three were finally decommissioned and scrapped within a few years of each other.

This is canon, as it was created for a Franchise licensed video game. What you do with it of course in your own Trek multiverse thread(s) is entirely up to you ... and a lot of you already have (chuckle). More power to you, I say (wink), unless and until the Franchise ever revisits Araxes again in any form.

Live long and prosper.

TRIVIA - All ships in the Araxes class appear to be (or perhaps were to be) named for famous ancient rivers in Terra's northeastern Middle East (Armenia, Turkey, Iran, et al), given that Araxes is the old Armenian historical name for what we know today as the Aras River. That's where I came up with the names for the other two ships in the class in my thread of the Trek multiverse (look them up yourself, wink). You can throw Tigris and Euphrates into the Araxes class mix too, as those also fit the bill and are probably more familiar to the rest of you. I went with all the names starting with the English letter "A" so those of you who wanted could also call these Starfleet's A-class destroyers from this time frame, for some British old style destroyer class naming there. The next class or perhaps improved build group would be the B-class (Baltha, Bampur, etc.), and so on ... (grin-and-wink).