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Description
This is another step in the origins of the Caitian Atrox-class carrier from Star Trek Online, based on the Excelsior-class design.

This took me forever to make, mainly because I couldn't stand my initial version of the hangar deck. I finally remade the whole thing, and I'm finally happy with it.

The backstory:
:
In the fleet overhauls of 2272, the Caitian Defense Force did not refit their Savage-Class carriers, partially due to budget constraints, and partially due to design constraints- as they had been assembled from finished starships, many parts of the Savage-class had to be custom-designed to work with the existing equpment and could not be updated without disassembling the entire ship.

By 2293, however, it was becoming clear to the Caitian Defense Force that the Savage-Class carriers were no longer a sufficient defense against the modern Klingon ships and weapons being purchased by the Ferisians, and designs for a replacement class were begun. Initially, a highly-modified Constitution-refit hull was considered, but the final proposal, in 2295, was based on Starfleet's top-of-the-line Excelsior class.
Rather than modifying an existing hull, as had been done with the earlier Savage-class, the R'eth-class was custom-built as a carrier, vastly decreased the number of problems encountered. Many changes were made, including the use of a specially-developed warp nacelle, which could be installed inboard of the flight pods, decreasing the manufacturing cost exponentially.

Weapons-wise, the R'eth-class was not much of a change from the Excelsior. The under-hull phasers were deleted, as their firing-arcs were masked by the warp nacelles, and three additional emitters were added along the secondary hull, four emitters on the hangar bays, and one on the aft mission pod, which also contained the aft torpedo launchers.

One major difference was the addition to several of these ships of an experimental Energy Signature Masking system- a sort of "imitation cloaking device" that, while not perfect, did grant these massive ships an incredible measure of stealth.

In a notable change from her predecessor , the R'eth-class is almost the same tonnage as the Excelsior-class, instead of thousands of tons more. This allowed it to be exponentially faster- top speed of Warp Eight- and almost as maneuverable as the Excelsior, able to actively support it's fighters in combat.

Unlike the ponderous Savage-class, which never really saw combat, the R'eth-class would see hundreds of minor actions against the Ferisians as the constant border tension increased.

The lead ship of the class, C.D.F. R'eth-B, participated in many of these skirmishes, until it was critically crippled in the so-called Ranger System Disaster, which marked the beginning of loosening ties between the Caitians and the Federation.

Overall, there would eventually be twenty R'eth-class carriers built. By the time they were replaced by the Atrox-class carriers in 2379, the R'eth-class had seen service in every major conflict for the better part of a century.

Note: I would like to give credit to TopperHarley over at BlendSwap, who created the Starship USS Excelsior NCC-2000 mesh I modified into this ship. I would also like to say some truly foul things about him and this mesh, which has a number of errors, and more than its fair share of flaws.

Description
This is another step in the origins of the Caitian Atrox-class carrier from Star Trek Online, based on the Excelsior-class design.

This took me forever to make, mainly because I couldn't stand my initial version of the hangar deck. I finally remade the whole thing, and I'm finally happy with it.

The backstory:
:
In the fleet overhauls of 2272, the Caitian Defense Force did not refit their Savage-Class carriers, partially due to budget constraints, and partially due to design constraints- as they had been assembled from finished starships, many parts of the Savage-class had to be custom-designed to work with the existing equpment and could not be updated without disassembling the entire ship.

By 2293, however, it was becoming clear to the Caitian Defense Force that the Savage-Class carriers were no longer a sufficient defense against the modern Klingon ships and weapons being purchased by the Ferisians, and designs for a replacement class were begun. Initially, a highly-modified Constitution-refit hull was considered, but the final proposal, in 2295, was based on Starfleet's top-of-the-line Excelsior class.
Rather than modifying an existing hull, as had been done with the earlier Savage-class, the R'eth-class was custom-built as a carrier, vastly decreased the number of problems encountered. Many changes were made, including the use of a specially-developed warp nacelle, which could be installed inboard of the flight pods, decreasing the manufacturing cost exponentially.

Weapons-wise, the R'eth-class was not much of a change from the Excelsior. The under-hull phasers were deleted, as their firing-arcs were masked by the warp nacelles, and three additional emitters were added along the secondary hull, four emitters on the hangar bays, and one on the aft mission pod, which also contained the aft torpedo launchers.

One major difference was the addition to several of these ships of an experimental Energy Signature Masking system- a sort of "imitation cloaking device" that, while not perfect, did grant these massive ships an incredible measure of stealth.

In a notable change from her predecessor , the R'eth-class is almost the same tonnage as the Excelsior-class, instead of thousands of tons more. This allowed it to be exponentially faster- top speed of Warp Eight- and almost as maneuverable as the Excelsior, able to actively support it's fighters in combat.

Unlike the ponderous Savage-class, which never really saw combat, the R'eth-class would see hundreds of minor actions against the Ferisians as the constant border tension increased.

The lead ship of the class, C.D.F. R'eth-B, participated in many of these skirmishes, until it was critically crippled in the so-called Ranger System Disaster, which marked the beginning of loosening ties between the Caitians and the Federation.

Overall, there would eventually be twenty R'eth-class carriers built. By the time they were replaced by the Atrox-class carriers in 2379, the R'eth-class had seen service in every major conflict for the better part of a century.

Note: I would like to give credit to TopperHarley over at BlendSwap, who created the Starship USS Excelsior NCC-2000 mesh I modified into this ship. I would also like to say some truly foul things about him and this mesh, which has a number of errors, and more than its fair share of flaws.