Created by Captain Michael Turlogh Kane on Aug 16, 2016 @ 3:00pm

USS PATRIOT (NCC-5781-A)

The USS PATRIOT, NCC-5781-A, was a Nova II-class destroyer in service between 2416-2420. The second starship to bear the name, the USS Patriot was launched under the command of the experienced Captain Steve Carling, who led the ship and crew through its first three formative years. The Nova II-class destroyers were a new design at the time, and were designed to be rapid-response, multi-role vessels.

2416 was a busy shakedown year for the Patriot, during which she launched a secret mission into Cardassian space to recover a Federation spy, and later found herself making First Contact with the malevolent extra-dimensional entities known as the A and the Z.

In 2417, Captain Carling was court-martialed as news of their mission inside Cardassian space became public, but he was exonerated of all charges. The Patriot also investigated the disappearance of the USS Hornet, and assisted the Klingons in studying a number of subspace rifts that had appeared in their space.

2418 saw the high-point of the Patriot's career. After recovering the prototype starship USS Furious from Barradan space, the Patriot became home to an infant of the notorious Species 8472 for several weeks. Later in the year, she recovered the precious Omega Particle from the planet Terrana, but the Patriot was heavily damaged by the Particle's nascent power. Her systems were overloaded, and the ship crash-landed onto the surface of Terrana, breaking up into several parts.

In 2419, Captain Carling retired from Starfleet. The centre seat was filled by his Executive Officer, Commander Susanna van Deuken-Warwick. Under her supervision, Starfleet mounted a large-scale salvage operation to recover the Patriot's wreckage from the surface of Terrana, and after several months of work, she was restored to her former operational capacity. At the end of the year, Commander van Deuken-Warwick was reassigned.

In 2420, Captain Selyara took over command of the Patriot. After investigating the mysterious destruction of the USS Bodhisattva, the Patriot became mixed up in an Orion plot. Driven to desperation by Orion blackmail threats against her family, Captain Selyara evacuated the crew of the Patriot and turned the intact ship over to the Orions in an act of treason that compromised the entire Nova II-class design. Although Selyara was arrested and subsequently court-martialed (being sentenced to ten years' imprisonment in the Jaros II Starfleet stockade), the loss of the fully intact and operational USS Patriot was a major blow to Starfleet, who immediately mothballed the design and pulled other Nova II-class destroyers from front-line service.

The ultimate fate of the USS Patriot is a mystery. It is assumed she has been broken up for study or sale by the Orions, her systems stripped down and sold to the highest intergalactic bidders in the quadrant. Starfleet Intelligence has been unable to conclusively locate her, bringing an unfortunate end to the career of both the USS Patriot-A and the entire Nova II-class design.