Federation Shiplist - Starbase Sixty-Four

Station Statistics as of 1st January 2293, Stardate [19]9528.0

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Regional History

With the Federation’s first contact with Betelgeusian spacecraft in 2260 and the subsequent diplomatic relations with their homeworld, deep exploration of the regions in the Beta Quadrant not blocked off by the territory of other stellar nations began in earnest. After liking what they saw with two years of friendly trade and knowledge exchange programs, the Betelgeusians decided to apply for Federation membership in 2262, and Betelgeuse became a new shore leave port for the few Federation starships frequenting the area. After a straightforward membership application the Betelgeusians became members of the UFP in 2267, and the first Betelgeusian Starfleet officer entered service in 2272 aboard the Federation flagship Enterprise.

Upon receiving permission from the Betelgeusian leadership in 2265 to use their spaceports for re-supply and their star charts to direct likely avenues of exploration, Starfleet began sending scouts and survey cruisers into the region to begin mapping and exploratory duties. In 2270, a small fleet of Oberth-class science survey vessels was attached to the Betelgeusian chapter of Federation interests, and they began extensive studies of the surrounding sectors over the next five years. The studies are, of course, still ongoing, but in the years 2260 to 2275, the Federation finally made diplomatic contact with the Lyran Star Empire (in 2265) and the Hydran Kingdom (in 2267), as well as mapping the near borders of both. The Federation was thus on the scene to receive first-hand information on the Fifth Lyran-Hydran War in 2268, which escalated into the Four Powers War in 2269 when the Klingons started the Fourth Klingo-Mirak War by attacking the Mirak. Citing the Mirak-Hydran Mutual Defence Treaty of early 2267, the Hydrans almost immediately launched an attack against the Klingon border squadrons to tie down important units from leaving to engage the Mirak. The Klingons then joined the Lyrans in fighting the Hydrans—citing the Articles of the Klingon-Lyran Coalition of mid 2267—and the Lyrans joined the Klingons in fighting the Mirak.

The war ended in 2273 as a virtual stalemate with the combatants’ borders remaining fairly static, but while it was ongoing, Starfleet decided that an outpost to keep an eye on the perpetually warring major players of this area would be a very good idea. It would also have the added bonus of supporting Fleet operations at the far edge of the Betelgeusian sphere of influence, and thus an outpost colony was commissioned.

Strategic threat analyses and logistical feasibility studies were performed to narrow down the best location for a new outpost, after which scanner and survey records were examined for the best planetary locations in terms of available resources and support potential for future expansion into the region. It was finally decided in late 2272 that planet Gamma-1087-II in Sector 10934 would be ideally suited to their purposes, and the Starfleet Corps of Engineers was sent in to lay the groundwork.

The area was fairly quiet after this, but old tensions flared and in 2288, with the recent disappearance of the Organians, the Mirak again went to war with the Lyrans. The Klingons supported their Coalition allies by attacking the Mirak, and the Hydrans did likewise for their Mirak allies by attacking the Klingons. This second Four Powers War spiralled out of control to become the General War of 2288-to-Present, and led to the Hydran Kingdom again being conquered and the Mirak Star League being ravaged. The Federation offered what support it could to the Hydrans without being dragged into the war, but with the destruction of the Kingdom in 2290 the outrage of UFP citizens at the fall of one of the few democratic stellar nations forced Starfleet to intervene in the attack on their Mirak allies in 2292. This finally did pull the UFP into the conflict and resulted in Romulan and Klingon attacks on Federation territory close to the Core Sectors, as well as Lyran attacks on Federation-Betelgeusian interests in the area of Starbase 64.

This may all change again, however, as a Federation starship monitored the destruction of the Klingon moon Praxis last month. This has forced the Klingons to the bargaining table, and with the legendary Sarek of Vulcan conducting the talks with Klingon moderate Gorkon, hope is again high that the war will end soon. Time will tell.

Starbase History

The initial layout of outpost Omicron-138 as constructed by the Starfleet Corps of Engineers in 2273.

Starbase 64 was officially commissioned into active Starfleet service on the 7th of January 2289, but the base itself began life much earlier. The initial structures in place—as constructed by the Starfleet Corps of Engineers—was commissioned into active Starfleet service on the 18th of June 2273 as Outpost Colony Gamma-1087-II, designation Omicron-138, and consisted solely of a Stage One Colony Hub and a Processed Materiel Silo. Omicron-138 was one of the first outpost colonies to be constructed with the new-look Colonial buildings, themselves an outgrowth of the Engineering and Materials breakthrough of 2270, collectively referred to as "New Technology", that Starfleet was then refitting to its existing frontline starships and implementing on new construction.

The final layout of outpost Omicron-138 after development to full Stage One colony standards in 2277.

The new outpost started off merely as a resupply depot, providing spare parts and processed materials for the few ships that called, and as a safe shore leave planet due to its location on a heavily forrested Class-M world with all the comforts thereof. With a crew of 40 under Lieutenant Commander Thil`shan of Andor, Thil`shan oversaw the construction of a full Stage One outpost colony over the next four years, with his limited staff of mainly engineers building a Construction Yard, Resource Processor, Mining Station, Auxiliary Power Reactor, Vehicle Yard, Medical Bay, Science Block and a second Auxiliary Reactor. As each building was completed, more specialists were assigned to the outpost and by 2277 Thil`shan was in command of almost three hundred personnel.

Omicron-138 in 2279. The upgrade to the Hub denotes the beginning of Stage Two colony development, and note the addition of a third reactor.

Colony development continued at a steady—if slow—rate, and over another two years the infrastructure was upgraded to Stage Two standards, made possible by the construction of a second Mining Tower and the self-sufficiency in materials that this brought, as well as having a third Auxiliary Power Reactor built to handle energy needs. By 2279, the arrival and departure of exploratory and survey ships were a fixture of life at Omicron-138 and the base population had expanded to over three hundred people, which meant that the barracks in the Colony Hub were completely full, and a section of the Medical Bay was being used as temporary sleeping quarters.

Omicron-138 in 2281. The addition of the Federation's now-distinctive mushroom-style operations centre to the Hub denotes a Stage Three colony.

Despite having just upgraded to Stage Two, colony development didn't stop there and by 2281 the outpost had been upgraded to Stage Three, in which all the original buildings had been upgraded to their fullest extent. The addition of the final two science labs, three medical wings, two resource refining plants and special vehicle hanger brought in additional specialists and made the outpost population rise to nearly 450. Starfleet was sufficiently impressed with the steadly improvement of Thil`shan's command by his own initiative and the resources available to him that he was promoted to Commander and reassigned to another fledgling colony that needed his type of leadership.

He was replaced by Commander Gnarr of Tellar, who brought with him the decision to begin construction of proper outpost amenities. A Transporter Platform for the rapid redeployment of personnel was constructed in mid-2281, and in late-2281 an Accommodation Block was also begun. Again, due to the limited number of construction engineers, the Accommodation Block was only completed in late-2282, after which a Hydroponics Bay was built to reduce power consumption and give the colonists some fresh vegetables from their homeworlds to have with their rearranged-molecule meals. With this, the initial Stage Three Expansion was complete and the Colony Hub and Medical Bay were emptied of personnel, who gratefully took up residence in their new arcology-style living quarters. Base population now stood at 457 personnel.

The outpost layout remained almost unchanged after this initial expansion, with only the construction in 2285 of a third Mining Tower and concurrently-built Main Power Reactor to ease the load on the three Auxiliary Reactors making a change to the base's skyline. This abruptly changed in November 2287, when a bold and risky attack by Orion Pirates caused heavy damage to the base. After expanding their operations into Sector 10934, the cartel leadership apparently decided, as Starfleet had, that planet Gamma-1087-II was the best location to have a base. After managing to construct their own base in complete secrecy some 300km from Omicron-138, the Orions began to build an army of tanks to wipe out the Federation base, thus severely hampering Starfleet operations in this and surrounding sectors. After having achieved complete surprise until reaching Starfleet sensor coverage around the base, the twenty Orion tanks managed to destroy the Transporter Pad, Resource Processor and an Auxiliary Power Reactor, as well as heavily damaging the Materiel Silo, Vehicle Yard and Colony Hub.

The Orions were engaged in battle by the colony's own force of phaser tanks and APCs under Gnarr's security officer, Lt. Cdr. M`Trrah of Cait. The four tanks and eight APCs—seldom used but well maintained—managed to escape the Vehicle Yard hangers and take the Orions by surprise. Concentrated fire from M`Trrah's mobile command took out several of the separated squads of Orion tanks before they could regroup, managing to destroy all four tanks assigned to the Vehicle Yard and three of the four targeting the Colony Hub, for the loss of two of her APCs. This respite in the assault allowed Gnarr the power to broadcast an emergency distress call to the nearest Starfleet ships, of which the Constitution (refit)-class heavy cruiser USS First Air Cavalry was the first to ride to the rescue, though they'd arrive long after the battle was over.

A running battle between opposing armour then took place, which weakened the Orion assault enough to cost them six more tanks and prevented the destruction of the Hub and Materiel Silo, though the Orions did manage to finally destroy the Vehicle Yard, two tanks and four more APCs.

Had the Orions pressed their advantage it is probable that they would have emerged victorious and wiped out the outpost, but at that point, with the loss of two-thirds of their forces and in the face of ferocious Starfleet resistance, the Orions broke and ran. This gave them the more beneficial result of not being caught by Starfleet forces—namely the Cavalry—and allowed them to wrap up their operation and escape before our ships arrived.

The resulting 63 dead and 15 injured personnel convinced Starfleet of the importance of their base and mission, and the folly of no defences even on an supposedly unoccupied planet. With a sudden influx of high-level attention and priority treatment, and the help of the Cavalry's 250 engineers and support staff, the ravaged outpost had its rubble cleared and the destroyed and damaged structures rebuilt and repaired before the end of that year.

All through 2288, construction was begun—and completed—on a Security Centre, three Shield Generators, six Phaser Turrets and one more Main Power Reactor to supply them all. A Starfleet escort group under newly-promoted Captain Andrew Brown on the cruiser Kingfisher was assigned to protect the base and its supply convoys while other starships continued their missions in the area. Also, at the end of 2287, the Daedalus-class Starfleet Corps of Engineering vessel USS Thomas Telford saw to the construction of a Gron'dar-class orbital dry-dock, which was finally completed in late December 2288 and brought fully online to mark the official re-commissioning of Omicron-138 as Starbase 64 on the 7th of January 2289.

In the four years since, many more mining towers have been constructed all over Gamma-1087-II and five more dry-docks have been brought online, as well as a Centroplex-class administration station to manage traffic and refit/repair work in late 2292. The area has been sown with sensor and defence platforms, and an orbital cargo transfer station was added in 2291 to allow for more efficient cargo movement off-planet.

Starbase 64 is the main Starfleet base in the area and linchpin of the Federation's exploratory push rimward into the Beta Quadrant, ably supported by Betelgeuseian ports in the region. Constitution-, Constellation- and Excelsior-class ships usually call at this base, situated on its lush Class-M world, as a last port of call for shore leave and provisions before departing into the unknown, unmapped region rowards Rigel. The base also keeps a close eye on the ongoing situation with the Four Powers, ready to provide humanitarian aid to ships and planets in distress. Starbase 64 is now under the command of Captain Shivek of Vulcan, and boasts a defensive fleet of three Okinawa-class frigates, two Akula-class destroyers, two Saladin-class escort destroyers, a Darter-class escort cruiser, and a Miranda-class light cruiser, as well as frequent visits from patrolling Constitution- and Constellation-class heavy cruisers.

This starbase and some of its history was inspired by Adrian Jones' website Star Trek: The Interim Years/USS Sheffield NCC-1976. It was here that I first saw an in-game screen shot of the colony bases as built in the game 'Star Trek: New Worlds', which I really love even though it can get damned irritating at times. It still looks great (as can be seen from my painstakingly gathered—emphasis on the pain—"Print Screen" captures), and I'd always wanted to do something like this but never knew how to. Sometimes all it takes for greatness to succeed is the belief—or in my case, the knowledge—that it can be done.
Anyway, cheers! Adrian, for pointing the way. Our universes or certain aspects thereof are divergent, but congrats on a great site too.

The USS First Air Cavalry was created by J.M. Dillard in her 'The Lost Years' saga book, 'Recovery'. It is a really cool name for a starship.

The Four Powers regional history is from the Star Fleet Battles source material, modified to fit into the Troika's Timeline.